I've been going to Angels since the first week it opened this past summer, and I have yet to be impressed with anything other than their ability to keep getting people through the door. This place is the perfect example of a great restaurant concept ,put into the hands of people who have no idea what they are doing, but have alot of money to continue doing it.
The beer chalkboard menu is a bad idea. It cannot be easily read from all points of the venue, nor is the staff patient and/or knowledgeable enough to help customers order de-cypher the beer menu which only lists "styles" of beer, not actually what they have on tap. Which becomes a nightmarish situation when your server just started drinking beer yesterday.
Step One for opening a craft beer house should be getting a bunch of beer geeks and experienced bartenders to work for you, not a bunch of kids who freak out when it gets busy. I was there once with an hour and a half to kill before a movie and could only get served two beers.As a person who will pay good money to get properly drunk, I found this pace to be unacceptable. The vibe is kinda cold and medicinal, and there isn't anything on tap that I couldn't get at The Yard House or any other beer house in town. I suggest finding some really cool jams for the menu that no one else is pouring. The prices were reasonable, although I feel like I can't get drunk here because it can get pretty expensive, a few two dollars drafts would bring in more of the downtown crowd I am used to seeing at other watering holes. Most people I know won't drink here because it feels too bougie, too bright, too loud, and too expensive.
I liked the wines I have had on tap and think that it is a great idea, I work in the wine industry and am happy to see people running with this idea, but once again, my server had no idea what the wines were or how to describe them. We have a red and a white was the response I was given when I made an inquiry to order.
I have been here well over 20 times now,and I have given up on the food. The menu looks as if it was written by a culinary student struck with autism in the midst of creating the "concept" of the menu. Its bar food, its not hard. It shouldn't be "fusions" and overcomplicated with flavor, texture, and cooking techniques that have no place in a ale house.I do not enjoy chef's experimenting on me and charging me for it. When I see a cook over doing elements on a plate and putting things on a menu "kitchen sink" style I kinda feel like they just jerked off all over my plate with their ego's and mis-placed ideas of what good food is. Plus when I see a packed house with orders trickling out of the kitchen, I prefer to know that the head chef is back there holding it down, not out front stroking his derby and peeping all the "talent". As a former chef that pisses me off the most. The pizza is really greasy, with barely cooked crust everytime I've ordered it.If there was a show called "The worst things I ever ate" I would submit prosciutto and melon pizza. Spam sliders, BORING, the salt on the table is free and I feel like I paid for the same experience when I ordered this item. Dry Dry Dry wings, not even cared for enough to even dress them with sauce before serving them, Pizza Hut at least has enough sense to know how to serve a chicken wing. If they get dressed before serving them it might aid in the dryness of the wing by adding some sort of flavor and moisture to it, inexcusable. Oh and the fries, the mutha-fing fry's. They looked undercooked limp,and greasy , much like my rod after a nasty break up and three weeks of hard palm loving. I felt like Ramsey in my own version of Kitchen Nightmares, in which I just wish I could see one speck of food come to my table that I would be happy to eat and pay for.
And I dont care what anyone says, or writes about how the pop tart is the saving grace, its still sucks. Its more like a toaster strussel, not a pop tart for one. If your going to name a menu item after an endearing part of my childhood, do it justice! I've had them twice and they are very underwhelming, they do not have enough filling or acidity to properly balanced the toothache the overly sweet frosting provides, but it did help me find a tender tooth I didn't know existed prior to eating this sugar bomb.
I know this review was a sock to the nuts, but that's how I felt every time I have been to this place. I want to love it so bad, Papago used to be my spot, but I am downtown now and this is the only place in the area that has a good beer selection and food. The arcadia ice house has a proper beer list but no food, sportsmans on camelback has the best food and beer selection in town, but is small and not open past 10. So if anyone at Angels reads this..PLEASE FIX YOUR RESTAURANT...I want to go there all the time and feed you money, while you feed me food and beer and good times. But I feel until you fire every person in your kitchen, head chef first and foremost,they are losing you customers and I assume alot of what would be your profit is going straight into the garbage bins.
My name is Deacon and my email address is deaconbluebatchelor@gmail . Please inform me when you fix the kitchen, because I would really like to come down, spend my hard earned money, and enjoy myself.
Good luck!