Barrel 21 Distillery and Dining

The brunch was fabulous as always! The service, however areas not. We ordered Bloody Mary’s, which are featured, and did not receive them until we were COMPLETELY done eating-45 minutes after ordering. Also, we had to constantly find our waitress to get refills on our coffee. There was absolutely no sense of urgency by any of the staff.

The wait staff was good, atmosphere OK food was marginal for the price! Sadly the lobster and crab pasta had minuscule amounts of lobster or crab! The short ribs had 3 bites of meat and the rest was fat and bone! Very disappointed with meal.

We went there before a Penn State sporting event and our server was friendly and the food was mostly good except for the deviled eggs(every deviled egg we'd ever eaten was better than what they serve). 3 of us had burgers, 1 had the prime rib sandwich and I had the Pork Banh. The service was slow, but thankfully we had time. Prior to dinner we went into the tasting room to try some of the spirits that they distill themselves. There were 2 guys in the room having a conversation with the lady behind the counter. She never said hello or even really looked at us. I like Bourbon and Rye whiskey and we were all hoping to try some and possibly buy a couple bottles(I have pretty large budget for whiskey :). After standing there for about 7-8 minutes, one of my friends asked me which one I would like to try and I said I was hoping to try the Rye whiskey. The lady who was still telling a pretty long story, unrelated to whiskey, to the other 2 guys said to us without really looking at us that we needed to wait and she will get to us when she finishes. Pretty lame attitude for someone who is supposed to be a friendly face introducing people to your brand and products. It isn't too hard to say hello and be polite to more than 1 customer at a time. So we left the room without trying or buying anything. We come up to State College a lot, but we are not likely ever coming back to this establishment. I gave 3 stars for the dining, I'd give 1 star to the tasting room.

Food was great, service outstanding

Our server...I don’t recall his name...a younger man with glasses. He was so friendly and super attentive. This was our first visit and we will definitely be back!

Great restaurant.....food,service, ambiance!! The Evergreens from Johnstown , PA were the entertainment. We ended up staying after a great dinner to finish the night off with some great music and a night cap .

Menu looked quite appetizing. Food presentations were nice. But the taste—not so much. Everything was VERY salty. Prep of meat and seafood was off. Odd sauce on ribeye ruined it.
Our server left half eaten plates on our table for over 30 minutes before clearing table.
We were so excited to try this place-and all 4 of us were disappointed .

Service could of been better. We were sat at a booth, which for a buffet doesn't really work - the greeter seemed bothered by our request to move to a table. Our waitress was slow to refill coffee and she left the drink menu but failed to come back to take drink menu orders.... On the buffet there is a carving station - Instead of having someone man the station - they cut really thin cuts of roast beef and left them under the warming light, which essentially turned them into beef jerky.

Was so excited to go after our last visit, but was underwhelmed by the weird tasting bagels (too much baking soda in them made them impossible to choke down), my husband’s runny omelette, dried out carving station meat, and other strange brunch items (fruity pebbles French toast??). The Bloody Mary’s were good and peppery, server was very awkwardly enthusiastic about Eagles football, and the coffee and bacon were great.

Not sure we’ll go back for brunch again, sadly.

I made this reservation 9 months ago to celebrate our daughter’s graduation from Penn State. We arrived on time and were seated promptly. Our waitress took our order and brought drinks promptly and then we waited almost 50 minutes for the food to arrive. I ordered the portobello sandwich with fries. The fries were perfect but the sandwich was just a grilled mushroom cap on a toasted bun with some tomato paste on one side of the bun. I retrieved the menu and a different server asked if anything was wrong. I said the sandwich was not as described and she brought me lettuce, tomatoes, and onion to add to the sandwich. We then ordered dessert. My daughter was dressed in her graduation robes. I’d hoped they would write “Congratulations” in chocolate on her plate or comp her a dessert, but no. No one in the restaurant acknowledged her achievement in any way.

We’ve eaten dinner her several times and it’s been very good, but I can’t recommend Barrel 21 for a celebration. Really disappointing.

It was a nice place to chat, eat and drink!

Excellent food, great vibe, comfortable. One of our favorites.

The food and service was incredible.
The staff was extremely friendly and very courteous and constantly waiting on you. Totally enjoyed the brunch!

Best brunch in State College! We will be eating here whenever we are in the area from now on!

Eclectic taste advertised but all the unusual choices were gone. Ended up with a burger {my son}, a very less than ordinary steak sandwich{for myself}, and a chicken Roulade that my wife enjoyed. People in charge..... IT WAS A GAME DAY... !!!!! We had a 7:00 PM reservation and your menu was down to bare basics. Again GAME DAY on a Saturday night. If you want to be taken seriously as a high end restaurant to the Penn State parents who come in for their kids and the football program GET IT TOGETHER!!! No problems with the wait staff who had to APOLOGIZE to almost every diner. They were extremely polite and worked hard to wait for us to figure alternative dinner choices. Not a great evening

I have had good experiences here, but it was extremely slow this time. We arrived at 6:15, ordered drinks and an appetizer (fromage cheese tray) so it started well. We ordered our entrees around 6:40, but did not get our food until 8 pm. They offered us nothing for the wait other than a few vague apologies and comments about a backup in the kitchen (even though it was about half empty). Not only did they not give us anything during the wait, but we were charged a dollar for a few extra crackers for the cheese tray that started with fewer than ten crackers. My medium rare coulette (sliced sirloin steak) was overcooked, and there was one spring of broccoli. The ribeye that others had was bigger and more filling. We were all disappointed, and given the price and indifferent service it will be a while before we return.

Very disappointing experience. The food was fair at best and Miguel took forever.

One of our favorites, but we hadn’t been in a while, and the menu has changed quite a bit. No seafood, only one chicken dish, no specials, and they were out of the only entree that appealed to me. We will wait until the menu changes again before returning.

We enjoyed a cheese board that had several delicious slices of cheese and jam with our wine. We then turned to our entrees, and most of enjoyed the Ahi Tuna daily special that had purple potatoes, delicata squash and a pumpkin puree with it. It was very seasonal and very delicious. Our fourth person had some kind of healthy vegetarian bowl with quinoa and seasonal veggies or something like that. She was happy with it. They have a lively bar scene so it can be a bit noisy at times, but if you get a table on the far wall it is not bad. If you get there during happy hour, the beers from their partner brewery Otto's are half price!

We went for brunch- loved the selection and the service!

Unexpected find in State College - more upscale than usual spots, excellent local-inspired seasonal choices, great cocktails, friendly staff. Food was delicious...we'd definitely return!

When visiting our son at PSU, we make it a point to do the Sunday brunch at Barrel 21. Great ambiance, food and service. The customized omelets brought to your table are a plus. The food selection is great. I highly recommend it!

Great place for a crowded parent weekend at Penn State. Sarah was awesome, we had a lot of questions, she had the answers!!!
She was on top of everything during the meal from start to finish!

Absolutely amazing food and drinks. Will definitely return

Service was slow - dinner took an hour to arrive after ordering- but food was good. Fun vibe

Service was poor and it took WAY too long to get our dinner. When we did get it it was barely room temperature

I enjoyed my meal here. Food was creative, and the drink options were impressive.

Cocktails were fine. Meals took a while to arrive despite only a few tables. Partner’s meal fine. My burger was more than well done and tasteless despite being ordered as medium. Ate half due to hunger and movie time. I was comped for the burger but didn’t solve the problem I left hungry and disappointed.

Food was excellent. Service was very good as well.

Limited entree menu with no seafood. Meal not bad but not great either. Mediocre at best. Probably would have been better if server had remembered to bring first course. Offered to bring it halfway thru main entree when we told her we never received it. No apologies offered.

Nice environment, good drinks. Food was good, short ribs not my favorite but all the rest was good. I would definitely return.

It was awesome.

Loved everything about this place however I wouldn’t call the music energetic, I’d call it too loud. Had a hard time hearing. Don’t get me wrong, the musician was very good, just too loud

Meals were good service by Carly was excellent. The menu is very complicated and we all ended up just ordering off the bar menu which had a basic meat and potato meal flatiron steak

Food is fabulous!!!

We had been there a few times before and had a good experience. But last night was awful. Long wait to be greeted after we sat. Long wait for food (over and hour) after we ordered. Then it was cold and my steak was raw. Sent it back. Not sure we will give it another try

No one came over to refill our water not once. Our food took an hour to come out. Waitress told us” it was a full house” that was the reason it was taking so long. We could not get our waitresses attention.

Excellent food,cocktails, and service. We will be back and hope to have our son’s graduation dinner here.

Very disappointed. Cocktails were good and menu was original and fun but entrees were extremely disappointing and service was unbelievably slow.

First visit and very disappointed. I based my reservation on reviews from Open Table and they are way off. First, they forgot our appetizers and brought out our dinner. As for dinner, duck confit was very salty and only about 4 small pieces of duck. Short rib was mostly fat and unevenly braised (not sure how that happens). Staff was nowhere to be found. Someone came up to apologize for the apps but didn’t even comp my drink. Will not go back.