Batson River Brewing & Distilling

We love Batson’s River and have been several times but our last experience here was not good. The food took at least an hour to come out. We got and finished our appetizer before our drinks came. Would not recommend the duck poutine; the duck was fine but something tasted off with the gravy. I ordered fra diovolo for an entree, which was not great. I ate a few bites ans returned it to the server. My partner ordered a burger, which he liked, but said the meat was dry. The total was $120 BEFORE tip.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 3

Their Christmas decoration is just phenomenal! The food always good and very nice staff!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Was there for a corporate event, the food was awesome, the beers just as good and the atmosphere was great. Def on my list of go to places going forward.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Visited Portland and the place looks AMAZING all decorated for Christmas. We were told there would be an hour wait, no problem so we went next door to grab a drink and nine minutes later we get the text to come back…great. They seated us and we waited for about twenty minutes and no wait staff. Finally we asked and were told we had to go to the bar and make our order as there were no wait staff for the area we were sat. Off to the bar we go and wait there for twenty minutes to get our drink order put in. Then we had to put our food order in and eventually someone dropped off the food for us at least.
It is so disappointing to have an atmosphere so amazing only to have it ruined because of a total lack of communication. I would have much rather waited the hour and sat down with a traditional waiter or at least been told that we had to go order all of our food at the bar.
Batson River was so close to being absolutely amazing but failed miserably on the decision to sit people and not tell them the difference.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 1

Atmosphere was AMAZING! Server was polite and sweet. Food was disappointing, especially for the price. Poutine had barely any cheese and WAY too much pepper to be able to enjoy it, while the corn chowder could have used that pepper and some salt. Caesar salad was droning in dressing and parm cheese. All would have been better if just more care was put into marking the food..

Bar tender gets 5 stars! Drinks were out of this world! Would come r back for drinks and maybe to try another appetizer. Wouldn’t spend the money on food again. If Lu ch is going to cost $150 plus tip food should be outstanding.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Duck Fat Cornbread

Place is a joke. Visited in the spring fit some lunch and cocktails, when the place was rather slow, and we were told by the bartender to come back in the winter to see the decked out Christmas decor. We did just that this December, and drove 3 hours to Portland for the weekend. Went to get some eats and drinks, and to check out the decorations. Asked for any seating,... bar, table, whatever was open. Pretty much instantly turned away. Told that there was no seating and we needed reservations, despite there being plenty of visible seating available be behind the black curtain of the host. Instead, he put us on a waitlist and told we'd get a call when seating opened up. Received a call about 20 minutes later from a girl and told that "unfortunately the dishwasher broke" and they can no longer seat us. Seriously, the dishwasher broke was your excuse?...complete bs! Simply put, we were age discriminated as they clearly didn't appear to want any 50+ in their obviously younger crowd to ruin their vibe. Your loss, plenty of way better places in Portland for both food and drinks.

I'm actually astonished at how bad my experience here was.

I arrived at the bar sometime between 3:30 and 4pm. It wasn't terribly busy; I looked around and noticed a lot of empty chairs and tables in the restaurant.

Nonetheless, it took about 10-15 minutes to even be acknowledged at the bar by either of the two bartenders. When I was finally greeted, I told the bartender I'm a photographer who was there to take photos for a social media marketing collaboration, and that I was wondering what the most visually appealing cocktail was. The bartender thought for a moment, then said "give me a second," and proceeded to walk away. I thought maybe she was about to just make the cocktail since I saw her making some, but about 5-10 minutes later she came back up to me and told me she wouldn't be able to get to me for another 20 minutes...for just one drink.

I'm unsure whether she was under the impression that I didn't expect to pay for it and was thus not a priority, but I had my wallet out and was fully expecting to pay. I suppose this was my opportunity to reply with, "Could I just get one of your signature cocktails instead?" rather than agreeing to wait for 20 additional minutes, but instead I began looking up other local businesses. I even noticed she began serving other customers shortly thereafter who had arrived well after me.

I thought maybe I came at a bad time, or maybe they were short-staffed, so I wanted to be understanding. But seeing as how the place was really only half-full with patrons, I didn't think the former was the case, but maybe the latter was.

Regardless, frustrated, I approached the other bartender directly. I asked him if I could just order a drink through him. He said yes, but I'll have to wait. I told him I'd already waited about 20 minutes. He essentially responded with "Too bad" without saying it, by telling me, "Ok, well we're getting busy," as if I wasn't a paying customer expecting standard customer service who had already been waiting an inordinate amount of time for a single drink. He was incredibly cold, dismissive, and rude, and emitted a terribly pretentious attitude as if I was beneath him.

At this point I surrendered and decided to grab my stuff and leave. I let who I believe was the manager know what my experience was like. She was actually understanding and apologetic, thankfully, and she even acknowledged that it wasn't busy when I first arrived. I appreciated her.

I contacted a friend about the experience after I walked out, and she told me she had the exact same experience there a year prior. When I attended a networking event later that night and shared the story with some people there, one person asked me, "Wait, so *did* you end up getting a drink there?" I said no! He couldn't believe it. Neither could I.

This is by far one of the worst experiences I've ever had at any establishment. If you look through my reviews, they are overwhelmingly positive. I generally receive very good service and encounter very affable people who are eager to serve. In fact, I took my business to a different bar nearby after, where I was greeted and quickly served with enthusiasm and friendliness that was not to be found behind the Batson River bar.

Perhaps this experience isn't emblematic of what is generally experienced here - after all, there are many positive reviews - but nonetheless, I felt compelled to share my story.

I gave two stars here because the atmosphere and holiday decor here really are truly spectacular, which is why I chose Batson River as the place to take photos. It's too bad - they not only lost my business, but they lost an opportunity for additional exposure on multiple social media channels with many thousands of followers, even if they don't necessarily need or

Atmosphere: 5

Service: 1

Great night!!

Holiday Camp at Batson has been one of my favorite holiday traditions for the last 4+ years or so, and I am always excited to share my experience with others. I had lunch this past Saturday. Drinks were great and decor was spectacular, but the poor service warrants mentioning here to warn others. In the past there was a feeling of camaraderie among the bartenders that contributed to the festive atmosphere. This time the bartenders acted like they were put out to take an order. I will think twice before continuing this tradition and will no longer be recommending the experience to others

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 1

Made reservations for lunch and waited over an hour and a half for our entrees to arrive even though we watched larger groups who came in after us get served (we figured out that they were prioritizing the larger tables and we noticed that the two-tops like ours were all waiting forever for service). Our server told us we could continue to wait or cancel our order. We had no time, so we cancelled. On our way out the door we spoke to the host/front manager and she made an excuse about having larger groups to attend to and being short-staffed. Customer Service 101: Don't make excuses. Try to fix the issue. The decor was festive, and the drinks were pretty good, but needless to say we won't be back.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 2

Bad experience! Low quality food!

The Manager is rude and didn’t really care when we told them the chicken was too thick for the sandwich and it wasn’t cooked on the inside, the bartender threw the chicken in trash. They should really change the roasted potatoes on the menu to steamed potatoes because they gave whole potatoes that was just steamed (no flavor and literally nothing in it). We waited almost an hour to get seated and they serve low quality food and don’t care when there is a problem. Worst experience.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Fries, Chicken Sandwich

We asked for service for 2, bar or table didn’t matter to us. They were very busy so we understood the wait. Hostess told us first come first serve for bar, so we waited in the seating area within eye sight of the hostess table. 5 minutes later a couple walked in and asked for bar service to which she promptly responded, “I can do you better, a table for 2 is opening right now”. We were the only 2 in the waiting area. We asked her about why we’re were looked over and she said she didn’t see us waiting there. Poor service, worst in Portland.

Service: 1

I live in New York and I always come here when I’m in Maine. But tonight I felt very sad, bad and dismissed. Almost discriminated. I was with 3 more people waiting for some sits at the bar to open. I talked with the hostess several times and she knew I was waiting. Oh surprise! Three more people got sitting in front of us. She just ignored me, ignore us. It was because my skin color? It was because I didn’t speak English like a native? It was because I wasn’t demanding enough to just get in and grab some sits?

That lady made me feel really bad and I just hope that a next time she values and respect someone who was very courteous and polite.

Also. Lesson learned. Next time if I want sits. I’ll go for them!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 1

The atmosphere is great. The service is terrible and they seem to not be on the same page on what to do or how to do it. Would definitely not recommend.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 1

Very slow service, understaffed for a holiday weekend. The food was good, but nothing was exceptionally great. Will try again, but my expectations will be very low. The beer, on the other hand, was great. I usually add photos, not today.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 3