Blue Star Brewing Company

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

It doesnt look like much from the outside, but I was pleasantly surprised when we walked in. Outside there is a small wooden patio area that had been beaten up by the sun, wind and rain. It was quite charming, although I cant imagine sitting out there this time of year for lunch...the ice in your drink would melt too quickly, and your food would NEVER cool down! But there were a couple of brave souls trying it out. (They gave me a funny look as I squated down to take a picture of the sign...) We went in the front door and were greeted by giant shiny tanks of beer, and a sign that instructed us to seat our selves. So we grabbed two paper menus that were sitting on a table, and out own silverware that was neatly wrapped in a napkin, and stacked high in a galvanized tub. The "Blue Plate Special" that was advertised on the menu board looked to tempting to pass up, so we each ordered that, with a nice tall glass of ice tea. The food was brought out to us one plate at a time. It was a very high class feeling. I very rarely go to places where you get a three course meal...especially not one where American Chopper is playing on a flat screen TV in the background.... Course #1 was a side salad. Just your basic salad, nothing fancy, but it was very fresh. Course #2 was a colorful dish of BBQ pork ribs (which I have never ordered from a restaurant because my Mom makes the best ribs on the planet), potato salad, and some sort of warm cabbage/carrot dish that at first I was a bit afraid to try. The entire plate was delicious! If ribs taste like this all the time, I might have to start ordering them more often! Juicy, tender, fall off the bone, smothered in a thick, rich, tomato BBQ sauce...mmmmm.... The Potato salad didnt taste like the stuff that most places get in a giant bucket. The potatoes were cooked properly, and it wasnt fake tasting like some. And while it was a tad scary to look at, the cabbage dish was actually really good! So good, that I now have to figure out exactly what it was, and how to make it! Course #3 was bread pudding with a lovely maple sauce. Now, Ill let you know that I LOVE bread pudding! Even if its bad, its still pretty good....like pizza. For some I think it may have been a little mushy, but I still loved it. There were blueberries in it, although there was some debate about that because they didnt have a lot of flavor. We ended up asking our server, who said they were raisins. He then went back and asked the chef, and walked back out to correct himself because they were, in fact, blueberries. After two giant glasses of iced tea, three plates of amazing food (which I ate every single bit of, despite the fact that my shorts were growing too tight for me and I knew wed be spending the next two hours walking around), we decided it was time to move on. The entire experience was great. Our server was right on top of things, and was excellent...very friendly, and chipper, and he got a big fat tip because of it. And did I mention that all that food only cost $6.95! I will definitely be going back.

AJ

AJ GM

First and last visit happened this weekend. We were there as a party of 5. First of all, it was not extremely busy for a Friday evening, which should have equaled at least decently waiting times. It did not. Beers took about 15 minutes. The wait for my appetizer was agony. It took them almost 30 minutes for the Brie appetizer. I must agree with other reviewers. The waiting times are simply RIDICULOUS. When my appetizer arrived, I was appalled at the size (as someone else already noted). It was barely enough to feed me, and at $8 a piece, I considered that quite high on the price. The food took about 45 minutes to arrive. I was over the moon to read about the grass fed burger, but very disappointed, (if not infuriated) when after such long wait, my burger proved to be medium rare. Never was I asked how I wanted my burger cooked, so I imagined they were well done. The waitress took the burger back and offered to re-do it. "And wait for another 45 minutes??" I thought to myself. "I think not". That was not the worst part, though. As stated before, we were a party of 5. Five people, cinco personas. Yet when our bills arrived, this dark haired waitress had input in our bills table of "6", and proceeded to add what seemed to be way more than the 20% she was claiming to be including in our tickets. I proceeded to tell her that we were not a party of 6, and asked if gratuity was included in a table for 5. She said she would "take care of it" and brought, much later, I must add, the corrected bills. Now, here is truly the worse part of this experience. My bill for my drink and Brie appetizer totaled $13.40, so HOW IN THE WORLD DID THE VOIDED TICKET STATED AN AMOUNT OF $18.15 DUE?? I think we all can do a little math here, and obviously we were being overcharged and taken advantage of. I truly would have had no problem at including a 20, or even 30%, had the service met and exceeded expectations, but she barely came by and dirty dishes remained at our table until she saw fit to remove them. Not only will we not come back to this overpriced, poorly run and not very customer service oriented place. But also will not recommend to anyone we know, or those of you who we do not, but are looking for new places to try. My advice is this: For the amount of money you will be spending at the Blue Star Brewery, you can get much better food, service and definitely much better portions and service somewhere else. Dont waste your time here.

SE

Sean Patrick Akins

Im from Portland, Oregon so maybe San Antonio food and beer is sub-par in general and people dont know any better. The beer was mediocre, and at $6 - 7 a short pint, with a piss poor pour with a two inch head, is not worth it. After ordering food or beer, it took 40 mins for the beer order to be placed, then another 40 mins for the food order to be placed. Luckily, I had something that I could work on, or else I would have walked out. I made the mistake of ordering a second beer hoping that it was better and 20 minutes later I found out that it wasnt. I actually thought that the waitress sitting at the bar and the bar tender chatting with his one customer had forgotten about the handful of the other people at the tables. The food was ok, but just that. Dont order anything that is fish based because itll come out with a cardboard consistency. The tortillas for the fish tacos had already fallen apart before I got the opportunity to unwrap them to make the tacos. I didnt try any of the other menu items even though I was still hungry, and I am kind of glad that I didnt.

JO

John Mark Wildenthal

I was there a week ago. We found them on a list of dog friendly places where a review said they had a covered patio. Since the forecast and radar suggested rain, and not being one to commit based on a web review, I called and asked "Could I bring my dog and eat without getting wet or rained on?" The employee on the other end replied "yes". After the rain came and we got wet - the only patio cover is sun umbrellas that drip on you when theres rain, we packed up and I asked for the manager. He claimed he couldnt understand me when called because of a bad phone. If that was the case, why did he answer "yes" rather than try for clarification? He said he was not the real manager and asked me for my name and number for the real manager to call me back. I gave him both and havent heard a thing. I dont who has dropped the ball. Id rather go somewhere they take phone call questions from customers seriously. The food was fine till it got rained on. Our waitress was very helpful, including trying to get the sun umbrella set up. Its just management that is deficient.