Letter to Greg Koch at Stone Brewing Co. re Stone World Bistro

Dear Mr. Koch:

I have been a Stone consumer for several years. I always try to support local businesses and I greatly appreciate what breweries like Stone, Ballast Point, Coronado Brewing Co. and Firehouse are doing to keep the tradition of fine craft beers alive in San Diego. Because of my love for Stone beers, I chose to have my thirtieth birthday dinner at the Stone World Bistro, which was my first dining experience there. I thought the beers I had were amazing, particularly the Levitation Ale. However, my experience with the food and service was very disappointing.

I had dinner with three other people and tried the food everyone ordered, including the duck taco entrée, the buffalo burger, the macaroni and cheese entrée and the mushroom pillows. Everything I tasted, including the burger, was mediocre at best.

I ordered my burger medium. It was served within five minutes, which makes me assume it was pre-cooked and heated to order, and charred to the point of inedibility. When I told my server that my burger was significantly overcooked, he made no apology, questioned how I ordered it and scowled at me before begrudgingly returning it to the kitchen. The second burger came out only after everyone else at my table had finished their meal. The second burger also had different accoutrements from the first. I ordered chilies with my burger, which were served completely raw. No conscientious chef would allow large chunks of raw jalapeno to be put on a burger. The cheese (smoked Gouda) was gelatinous, not melted, sweaty and room temperature. The mashed potatoes were unseasoned and bland.

The duck tacos were doused with so much sauce that I could not even tell that they contained duck. The rice and beans were extremely bland, completely unseasoned and lukewarm. The pillows were burnt and the mushrooms in the middle of them were raw. They also had a very unremarkable flavor. The macaroni and cheese was the best dish although indistinguishable from a side dish at Applebee’s.

I think that Stone has built a beautiful facility and I will definitely be back to sit at the bar. However, I think that the food at your restaurant does a complete disservice to the beer that I have grown to love. I was sorely disappointed with my thirtieth birthday experience, considering I traveled over 40 minutes and had available to me many good restaurants within a much closer distance.

The service was extremely unfriendly and by far the worst restaurant service that any of the four of us had ever had. It dominated our conversation. We were rushed throughout the entire meal and made to feel as though we were an inconvenience to our server and the restaurant. At one point, a dining companion asked to see the dinner menu again because she wanted to order additional food. Our server did not tell her that the kitchen was closed and instead he brought back a menu which she started to read before he finally told her the kitchen was closed. She should have been advised of the fact that the kitchen was closed at the time she asked for the menu and not made to feel foolish for staring at a menu she could no longer order from.

I regret to say that my fiancée spent a considerable amount of money for our dinner and I was sad that she had done so. It is absolutely ridiculous for the tacos we ate to cost $21. I have had better tacos at literally dozens of taco shops in San Diego County. None of them cost more than $3 each. I have no problem with paying for good food, but the quality of the food we were served could not even justify half the cost of our meal. I hope that some day the food at the Stone World Bistro will match the excellence of Stone beers. Until then, I will stick with the beer.

Thank you for your attention to this letter and for Stone’s continued excellence in beer making.


http://www.stoneworldbistro.com/