Small Batch — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

I cannot for the life of me figure out why people like this place. We came for father’s day with my disabled FIL and 2 young kids. Small Batch didn’t have any chairs (only benches-difficult for my fil) so they sent us over to Burger Batch. We couldn’t figure out who our server was. As soon as one left, another would come over to ask for our order (this happened for our drink order and our dinner order-super strange-“we just placed our order with your colleague”). My food came out 5 minutes after everyone else’s with no acknowledgment. I asked if the order was put in, the server said “yes.” And walked away. The food: we started with a giant pretzel that was good but I would pass on next time, my kids ate all of the Mac n cheese, but they would not touch the cheeseburger, my husband’s super food salad was anything but super. It was a joke, quite frankly (he is vegetarian so the options were limited), my fish and chips were overdone and dry. By far the worse fish and chips I have ever tasted. The batter is not light and fluffy-but is more of a chicken fingers batter. My sangria tasted like it was boxed red wine with some ice thrown in-there was no fruity taste. The Rueben was delicious (but my fil will eat anything, including my cooking, so I really don’t know....) We ordered 1 milkshake, and it came with 3 spoons and 3 straws and 2 napkins. There were 5 of us. As soon as we were done, the kids started going bonkers and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. 3 employees were chatting at a table folding napkins (one of our original servers being one of them). There were 4 tables, all near completion, and nobody giving checks. Just 3 employees sitting down chatting. I finally glimpsed our other server and waited to catch his eyes. After several minutes I succumbed to asking from across the restaurant. Super awkward, especially because there was no music softening the blow....but we would have last 27 more seconds with my sugar loaded kids. I will never go to this place again.

The Good The milkshakes were pretty

The Cons -The service -The food -The drinks (the pepsi products tasted fine! Ha) -There was no music playing-have you ever been to a restaurant with no music? It is beyond uncomfortable.

$105 for 5, (includes a 18.5% tip because my husband is a...

This could have been a perfect dining experience, and probably will be next time I go, seeing as the bad experience was probably a one off. I really want to leave a 5 star and probably will within a month when I come back.

Burger was amazing. I don't remember what it was. But it had grilled cheeses for buns. Like two whole sandwiches. There was bacon, cheddar, tangy sauce and fried Mac and cheese topping the burger! Phenomenal.

Sweet potato fries- fantastic Server I had- super friendly, super outgoing, great personality, super kind, would seek him out next visit. Pricing?- 20 bucks for the described burger, two sodas, an up charged side? Great pricing with great portions.

The bad part? How uncomfortable the environment got, and was allowed to be.

TLDR: servers treated a hostile and angry customer with his unfriendly large dog having a beer, much better than a couple with a small well behaved dog, who responded polite even when the other customer yelled at them to eat on the other half of the restaurant.

Walked in to a decently filled place. Sat down, ordered, the couple that was behind me on the sidewalk, with their relatively well behaved dachshund, entered directly after. They began walking towards the back tables and were IMMEDIATELY and rudely confronted by another dog owner who all three of us had passed outside earlier, who was sitting on the corner of the bar. The man chewed out the couple asking "where the hell do you think you're going towards? I have a dog with me under my seat and he doesn't get along with animals."

They replied softly and kindly with "we met you earlier outside, we just came in to eat" he continues berating them, so they try sitting away, at the barstools. Server tells them they can't have their dog sitting on their lap, too close to the countertop. Meanwhile the rude guys dogs head reaches the countertop while it's SITTING.

Eventually the couple decided it was better to leave. It was super uncomfortable for me and a few other customers I could see in my line of vision, watching the place allow this man to chew out a random couple for bringing a friendly dog into a restaurant allowing pets when he himself said his was not a...

We loved this place. The last few times we’ve been downtown my group of friends and I have frequented Small Batch for its chill vibes and good food. After tonight, it is unlikly we will return. We stopped in for 1 drink after dinner and an unfamiliar woman was working the bar. My boyfriend asked if they had a drink menu, which she responded with “it’s in the wall” and when he clarified he wanted a mixed drink menu she then replied with “it’s a bar so you should know what you want.”… okay rude. We looked past it and ordered a vodka cran.

My main problem was when we went to leave. There was a slight miscommunication with my boyfriend and I, and the other thought we paid the bill because she passed us the check. Any other bar I’ve been to asked for the card payment upfront, she apparently didn’t. Well my boyfriend circled our tip amount and we left the bar with our group of friends. While we’re outside the bar conversing about where to go next, we are rudely confronted by this bartender who says we just walked out on our bill. I can understand the frustration but it was a very clear miscommunication that could’ve been handled better. Instead of apologizing, she just said she would she would have to pay if we walked out. Well I’m sorry, I don’t think a $6 vodka cran bill calls for me to be called out for stealing… maybe you should have a process where you take a card upfront to avoid confusion and avoid this interaction. I could also understand if our bill was more expensive.

She then made us wait 5 minutes to ring us up. Overall, great place and I’ve never had problems before but someone needs to have a talk with this seemingly new person. Sad because we really liked this place but probably won’t return again after this interaction.

UPDATE: one of my friends also checked their card today and this place doubled their bill! So also not being truthful with tip amounts. Changed...