Address: | 1510 41st St, Everett, WA 98201, USA |
Phone: | +1 425-259-0525 |
Site: | afktavern.com |
Rating: | 4.1 |
Working: | 3PM–3AM 3PM–3AM 3PM–3AM 3PM–3AM 11AM–3AM 11AM–3AM 11AM–3AM |
DA
Dan Tebbs
This was perhaps my poorest experience ever at a bar. I expected that since the place is purportedly for gamers, that my friends and I would be welcomed with open arms and appreciated for showing up. Such was NOT the case. First of all the "Maitre D" wouldnt seat us at a gaming table, only a smallish half-booth table, which only seats 4 if the plates are small and... (thats right) they arent GAMING. They insisted that there had to be 5 people to get a gaming table. Well now, since its somewhere between unlikely and impossible that ones whole group will show up at the same time, you are pretty much guaranteed to have to cram into a table which does NOT accommodate even minimal gaming, (much less with plates and drinks) while you wait for more of your group to show. Now mind you, while the 4 of us were crammed into this small booth, trying to play a card game, there were two large tables free. One was completely empty, the other had only 2 people at it (they appeared to be vestigial from an earlier group). I should think that if they are going to be all rules-nazi about "5 to use the big table", then they should have asked the 2 to relocate to a booth once their number dropped to 4. But wait, theres more. When our 5th showed up, instead of moving our group to the big table as promised, the waiter went to a group at the door and gave our table to them. We had to practically jump out of our seats and attack the fellow, calling him out on his own "rules" so we could get the table space we needed. So clearly these folks have serious "table issues" that they have not yet resolved despite years(?) at that location. It really wouldnt be that hard to fix. They could charge for time at the tables, they could charge for reservations, they could explore any number of models which would work much better than the clearly customer-annoying system they are using now. This is not rocket science. Yes, big tables are expensive to operate, I get that. But most restaurants and hotels have dealt with these issues very well... and yet still have happy customers who return often. As if that werent enough, then... I ordered a rum-n-coke. It turns out that the table-nazi waiter is also an ID-card-nazi. Yes, I could have showed him my papers. However, I find the premise offensive and I chose not to. Im 46, and didnt start drinking until age 40, so it turns out Ive never been carded. Im really not interested in starting. This hasnt ever been a problem before. Every other grocery store, liquor store and restaurant in the state (or at least the ones Ive been to and bought alcohol), have wisely instituted a 30-and-under carding policy. This is a perfectly reasonable trade-off between the requirements of law and the costs of enforcing that law. I asked to speak to the manager on duty to see if he might be able and willing to make an exception to their policy in a case where there was clearly no risk in doing so (yes, I have gray in my hair). Well, to my surprise and disappointment, the fellow made a clear case that he was much more under the thrall of the liquor board and their enforcement squad threats then he was interested in serving the over-30 gaming crowd. Well, I stayed because I wanted to play games with my friends, but I did not order food or drink. Despite the fun of the games, I was relieved to go. No, I wont be back. The real disappointment here is that AFK Tavern is a beautiful idea with perhaps the most awful implementation imaginable. If anyone takes this sweet idea and actually understands and caters to the crowd they purport to serve, I want to hear about it and make the place one of my after hours hang-outs! -Dan
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A Private User
so i went here with a couple of my buddies tonight thinking that i was gonna have a blast of a time... "not so much." we get here at about 7:10 pm and we seat ourselves just as the welcoming sign says to do. the place seems moderatly busy.. my two friends up and escort themselves to the bar and order themselves a drink calmly and quietly and come back to the table.. Note: at this point i think the place is awesome!! we didnt like our seats that much so we got up and decided to sit next to a more central table in which we think we can get better service. We finnaly get service at 7:35 and they guy is is rude as he possibly could be.. telling us that we smell like pot and to of the lady staff members are ironically "deathly allergic to marijuana" he tells us if next time we could just air ourselves out the next time we come in.Then he goes on talking about how he has 3 jobs and he is an off duty police officer of the law and that he cant do anything about the smell, BUT if he sees us doing anything he will have to contain us! At this point im like whoa! Is this guy serious? why would he assume that we are gonna start using substances in the lobby. After the dude walks away from his lil macho power trip we get our food at about 7:35..i had some nachos and it looked like someone didnt even prepare them right example: veggies were tossed on nachos and cheese looked like it was melted with a hair dryer for 2 minutes.. We eat our food and then i start to realize all the rude looks by all of the employees like we were dogs, by this time my friends drinks are empty and they would like more. my friend kindly ask the water if he had his prefered beverage available. she says i think we are out of stock but let me go check comes back 2 minutes later, checks our IDs and kindly tells us we are cut off like its just a minor inconvenience and to enjoy our stay. i was shocked i mean i didnt think a glass of gin would throw my friend into the "cutoff zone" apparently his money isnt good enough at the AFK TAVERN and will talk our future service elsewhere I have no problem with the rude attitude and sly gestures given to me by the staff! what i do have a problem with is discrimination! just because one person in a crowd of 5 people smell like pot doesnt mean u have to "punish" so to speak the whole crowd
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A Private User
My boyfriend and I were looking for somewhere to have lunch and a beer, this place looked interesting so we stopped. Open signs were lit up, cars in the parking lot at around 3:30pm. We walked in, it wasnt apparent whether we should seat ourselves or wait, so after a few minutes of standing awkwardly we sat down at a booth near the kitchen. Five minutes later we were still sitting there, having had NO service at all. No one even looked at us, and the only staff I could identify had her back to us chatting to a customer the whole time. Boyfriend noticed there was a bar on the other side of the room, so we went and sat at the bar thinking that would get us some service. Almost another ten minutes passed before we finally walked out. No bartender came by, the only waitress I could see in the place looked right through us as she walked by. I should mention the place was dead, the only tables were a lone man and a group of three or four who clearly knew the owner or worked there or something, they were obviously not the regular public. (Thats another thing, THEY clearly saw us, why not alert a server to our presence?) So its not like they were busy or anything. Some advice to that waitress from another one- chatting with customers during down time is fine, but stand facing TOWARDS the door while you do so you dont miss the entrance of other customers. Some may say we should have spoken up and drawn attention to ourselves, but I really think we shouldnt have to flag someone down in a practically empty bar just to get some service. No ill will or anything, but it looks like managers or owners are reading these reviews, and I really think they should know what happened and why we wont be back. Which is sad, because it seemed like a pretty cool place. It may be a good place for geeks to hang out and drink at night, but THESE geeks were quite annoyed. Ended up having awesome burgers and drinks (and great service!) at The Irishman.