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Went to Red Beard Burgers for the first time on Saturday evening and felt compelled to share a couple of things.
First of all the food was awesome. I had the Van Dyke and it tasted fantastic. Also had the Fat Elvis fries and couldn’t finish them – Elvis for sure will get fat.
Secondly the service I’m afraid was really slow and the air was pretty smoky. The service issue was partly due to an apparent lack of ground beef and perhaps by the sudden appearance of 15 or so customers all at once. The ground beef issue was explained to us, but nonetheless it took about an hour for the first burgers to arrive after ordering… I would have raised it with the owner/manager but sadly one of the ladies in my company chose to take it up directly with the waitress as we were leaving so that did not go very well.
Hopefully the guys who own and run it may read this and comment? Anyone else been recently? I will go back for sure as I really enjoyed the food, but maybe the turn round time will be better on a Monday or Tuesday?
By the way my group was 5 people – I think there was two other groups of similar size.
I ate there once over the summer with a date. The burgers were pretty good. I had the one with chili, and she had the sichuan style burger. You can tell that the quality of the beef is very good. Apparently it’s all imported Angus beef. The onion rings were great, and the bloody mary was also pretty good. I also enjoyed their special ketchups. The staff was friendly and courteous.
With that said, the service was a bit slow considering there was only one other customer. It’s also expensive even for western food.
Hey there Graham and Chris! This is Jessi- one of the owners at RBB. Thanks for your comments – so sorry again for the weirdness on Saturday – it was a perfect storm in the kitchen Saturday night, and things were taking a long time in the kitchen. Since business was far busier than we expected it to be both on Friday and Saturday (likely due to Halloween), we ran out of ground beef just as your group came in. Nick had to grind more beef, but it was frozen and then the grinder became clogged and had to be dismantled and cleaned before we could continue. This is certainly not the usual state of affairs and again, we are sorry that you had such a long wait. We hope you’ll give us a chance to make it up to you next time 🙂 we are a new place and have only been open a few months, so there are a few kinks still to be worked out, but we look forward to getting better and better.
Cool to see a response from one of the owners here. I haven’t been to this place yet, but look forward to visiting. For anyone interested in visiting, info is here: Red Beard Burgers
I went to red beard today with my wife to meet with an old friend to discuss some business. I walked in with a cigarette, and asked the owners wife if it was okay to smoke. She politely said that its not really allowed in the restaurant, so I headed out to finish my cigarette. The owner came out as I was walking to the door, and shouted at me “Are you fu*%ing kidding me!?!?” I walked outside and my wife soon followed with an embarrassed look on her face, and told me that mr red beard said to her and my friend that I am “a fu*%ing asshole” and I am not welcome there. There was no “no smoking” sign and I was more than willing to finish my smoke outside. I would avoid this place, and am sure that this was not the first or last outburst by this guy. I have read several other negative reviews about this place.
@Ragga
Out of respect for different places with different rules, you may want to adopt a general lifestyle rule in that you don’t go in with a lit cig, just as you typically may not walk into a bar with a half mickey of vodka casually sipping and ask “Can I bring my own vodka?” upon entering..with the main difference being that bringing outside drinks in doesn’t influence the environment/everyone else. If I was expecting a non-smoking environment, as a patron, and someone walked in with a lit cig and the smoke bothered my (expensive there, no?) enjoyment of a meal, I may be pissed also..
From the sound of it, the owners response may have been way over the top – and it doesn’t sound like anything more than a misunderstanding/mistake on your part, but perhaps something to be aware of as a smoker, some common sense yeh?
Common sense told me as I walked in, noticing no cigarette smell and no ashtrays, to ask permission at the door, which I did. As I am sure you know, most restaurants in China allow smoking, and if I had no common sense or if I wasn’t a gentleman, I would have just walked in and sat down and killed my cigarette on the floor. But I didn’t out of respect for the restaurant, and even though it is not true for most places in China, I firmly believe that right of admission is reserved. Please can you tell me how I misunderstood “Are you fucking kidding me?” and telling my friend I am not allowed cause I’m a fucking asshole? He made that pretty clear. I am really not one to complain, and I was really looking forward to spending time with my friend and wife there, but I think that behavior, especially for a foreign owned place in Chengdu is uncalled for.
I’ve only been there twice but that seems out of character for the owners…they have been super cool with us both times.
That’s the thing, apart from the small number of reviews that weren’t so good (cant please everyone), I have heard great things about the place. Guess he was just having a bad day. I tell people to piss off all the time when I am having a bad day. Maybe I shouldn’t be so sensitive, but it did make us leave the restaurant.
@Ragga
You misunderstood me 😀 I was saying that going in with a lit cigarette is perhaps a misunderstanding/mistake on your part, not related to what the owner apparently said in response. What I mean by that is: while yes, in most every typical Chinese restaurant or bar you can smoke freely…but in most upscale or more modern places, there are either specific sections you can smoke in or no smoking, and most importantly: in many (especially smaller) foreign restaurants you can’t smoke. The safest route for you, as a smoker, is that if you don’t know the place and it seems like it might satisfy one of the “maybe no smoking” criteria, is to go in without a lit cigarette, observe the surroundings and see if there are ashtrays/others smoking, then light one, and you’d avoid any hassles as a result yeh? You don’t walk into someone’s house with muddy shoes, and then say “should I take my shoes off?”. If you’re unaware of what you’re walking into, it’s best to stand outside – finish your cig, then go in.
Although I wouldn’t compare walking into someones house with muddy shoes and walking into a restaurant in China with a cigarette and then walking out, I do see your point. Would you respond the same way if a stranger walked into your house with a cigarette? I would just tell them politely (like the lovely lady did) to please not smoke. Its not that big of a deal to be polite.
@Ragga
Right. If those were the words the owner used – that seems way over the top.. just pointing out that the whole situation could have been avoided with a small modification in behaviour on your end, also.. it seems like the situation was already well handled, nothing else had to be said.
Hello all,
Just popped on here to clarify a couple of things. This is Jessi, btw, or Ms. Redbeard for the uninitiated. I am usually a very easygoing person and not prone to internet flame wars, but when people start flat-out lying about my restaurant and my husband, that is when I take exception.
@Raggabox, we actually expected to see something on the internet today following this morning’s incident. Given the exchange, we had a betting pool going as to how many hours it would take. Apparently, three. I imagine you began spewing slanderous lies the moment you had wifi.Firstly, the woman you spoke to this morning was our front-of-house staff member named Marie. She helped fill me in on what happened. I was actually walking towards the restaurant down the street this morning, and saw you and your friends standing outside. One man (I assume, you) was staring into the window in an aggressive manner and smoking. I believe the term is ‘mad-dogging’.
Let us revisit this morning’s incident. You walked in, smoking, and asked Marie if you could smoke indoors. She politely told you to please smoke outside. Instead of leaving, you remained standing in the restaurant, smoking very quickly (puffing, I suppose, in order to defy her polite request with passive aggression), until my husband said, “Are you kidding me?” At that point you went outside and continued to make aggressive eye contact with him although he had not moved from his place inside the kitchen service bar. As to his supposed profanity, you are lying, plain and simple. Shame on you and your bad manners. At that point, he told your friend that you would not be served. So, in fact, you did not decide to leave, you were ASKED to leave. You are one type of customer we can certainly do without. Your friends are fine, and are regulars here. They know how to behave when they are out in public.
Oh, and the language in which you were asked to leave? “I don’t think you can eat here today.”
Doesn’t sound anything like what you said, does it?
It’s awfully embarrassing to be called out for bald-faced lying on the internet, but there it is.
Your entitled bad behavior would not be tolerated in your home country, so you need to reexamine the way you behave in China.
As you noted, we have a clearly posted ‘no smoking’ sign. That is because we are a family friendly restaurant that welcomes children and other people who don’t want to eat in a cloud of smoke. I am a smoker myself, and I would never dream of being as rude as you were today.
Truth hurts, doesn’t it? Get some damn manners.
Firstly, congratulations on the pool, I hope the winner got allot of money. If you have a running competition like that it only shows that this is not the first time. Please can you tell me how one stares aggressively? I’d love to learn that trick. The friend I was with actually apologized on behalf of mr red beard because he too is American and felt embarrassed. Would he do that if I was in the wrong? I am not some spoilt child that runs around and complains about everything, but what happened, happened and I am not lying about it. First he used profanity in front of my wife after I willingly went outside to finish my cigarette, then when I was outside he continued. I did not hear what he said inside, after I went to finish my cigarette, but when I was inside the shop, he said twice “Are you fucking kidding me” and my wife and friend later confirmed that he called me an asshole. Please don’t tell me to get some manners, I wasn’t the one who started swearing for no reason, I believe I have much better manners than the person who cussed at us for no good reason. “Hurts doesn’t it?” I really don’t get this statement, why would going to a burger joint and being verbally abused phase me, or anything you say? You speak in a passive aggressive way, and that’s childish. This kind of thing would not happen in my country, because business owners treat the people who pay their salaries allot better. Anyway, I have spent enough time on this nonsense. Good luck to your business, and I hope you do well.
Addition:
Hi this is Nick, I would like to add that while the “Smoking Man” was outside looking at me through the window, I asked Josh, “Is this guy going to be a fucking asshole? I mean, look at his face.” Then I said to Josh, “Man I really like you, I really do, but I don’t think he can eat here today. I’m sorry, Josh. I’m sorry, man.” So that’s that. I love you Chengdu. I love you world. I even love you too, “Smoking man”. Sometimes these things happen. No hard feelings.
Great burger.. Been there more than a few times.. I LOVE IT!!! Sux it’s too far from where i live or ill spend all my money between this place and the pug. Also.. Onion rings? Whoa, be steady by clogged arteries. Give this place 11/10!
This kinda reminds me of the situation with the “interview”. I’m not familiar with this place but I can’t wait to go and try a burger!! ha…Hell, I might even bring some smokes… 🙂
re: Drama, yep, but seems like now that the other side of the story has come out – as expected, well vindicated. This was 1 of 3 places I had wanted to try recently (based on chengdu places), others being arthouse and vin, both are great….suppose this is next to hit on the list. Glad there’s no smoking and it’s enforced.
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