Union Burger Bar
40 Bowden Square, Southampton, NY 11968
Our first at the restaurant dining experience in 4 months! During this COVID-19 Phased Reopening, how much do we forgive when writing a review? Wait service in the Hamptons in the summer already is working with modified expectations.
Social distancing on the lawn: no problem.
Notes
We were the first clients of the morning, so it is not like the kitchen or staff was overwhelmed yet.
Everything was prepared excellently. The burgers were cooked to perfection.
The first French fries in 4 months were tasty.
The fried pickles were hot from the fryer and the perfect balance of vegetable/vinegar/breading.
The shake was definitely photo-worthy.
Then there were the problems. One of the draft beers was not available - has happened a hundred times. The specified brioche bun came out as a pretzel bun. The 'appetizer' order of fried pickles arriving 10 minutes after the burgers - cold burgers - hot pickles. The shake arriving another 10 minutes after that - did they think it was dessert?
Not understanding basic if/then/else logic - unforgivable. "IF you can make the ($14) Cookie Monster shake with chocolate ice cream, then I want that. Otherwise, I want the plain ($8) chocolate shake." Need I tell you what came to the table? The $14 vanilla version; when asked about it the server just answered "yes."
Union Burger Bar might be in the process of rebranding as well. Was it not “Union Cantina”
before “Union Burger Bar”
and the new logos are “Union @Bowden Square - Steak and Sushi”
that cannot help.
As I started by saying, service is never expected to be professional during the summer. During this Phased Reopening, restaurants are hit hard from all sides - lack of labor, lack of usable capacity, and lack of customers lead the list, but the service that does exist needs to be moderately competent if they expect to keep the few customers they have.
