Flavor - - - - -
Uniqueness * - - - -
Price $$$$ ($40-50 per person or more for appetizers and drinks)
Comfort/Convenience * - - - -
This place has been on my best friend's radar for months now. So when it opened and we both had time off, we gathered family in town for the weekend and went.
Well.
Let's start off by saying that you will not find parking if there's a game going on at the Power Park, because the 20 spaces they have are already taken (questionably by diners) and all surrounding parking is taken by people going to the game. So you're taking a hike in an area that most Charlestonians would acknowledge is really not the best late at night to get here.
Then you step into a (very) dimly lit interior of hardwood floors, black walls and ceilings, and a few sparse pendant lights. Thank heaven the menu print was large because I was having problems reading it well and I'm nowhere near bifocal age yet.
The beer and wine lists are fairly extensive, but also fairly expensive. You could pay much less at half a dozen places downtown (Pies and Pints, Blacksheep, Celsius) for similar selection. No specialty cocktails here yet, though the waitress said they're going to make up a few soon. After seeing the prices on the wine and beer menus, I wasn't interested in trying for liquor.
But I really came to this location to try out the food: menu descriptions were intriguing, although I was again thrown by the prices (appetizers were already approaching the $20 threshold and several of the entrees were $40+). Entrees do not include anything extra, and by "anything" I mean a bread basket, a salad, or a side. You ordered a steak? Here's your steak. By itself.
Not to be deterred (after all, we knew it might be expensive and we'd even dressed up for it), we got drinks and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
About half an hour to forty five minutes after we'd gotten our drinks, the waitress came back to take our orders for food and one of our table mates had to remind her to get the frosted glass for her shandy (which she said she'd bring when she dropped off the drinks, but it never came). No refills on water for anyone. When she came back with the glass, she refilled waters, but didn't ask my husband if he'd like a new beer.
Thankfully, we were having a good time and in good company because it was another long wait for the food with only one quick flyby from the waitress (who got another beer this time, but didn't refill waters or tell us anything about the status of our food) before the final "It's plating now" right before they brought the food out.
And the food we paid so much for? Utterly unimpressive.
With five of us ordering different things each, I think I can give a fairly good representation of what they have to offer: the Mediterranean chicken was the only thing that got an unreserved thumbs up and the only thing that kind of came with a side (served on a bed of couscous), then there was a grilled portobello and tofu that was flavorless and watery, a very undercooked and flavorless tuna steak that was unfortunately a little gamey as well, a ceaser salad with what appeared to be Italian dressing (what on earth?), a "steak on steak" (beefsteak tomatoes on filet with mozzarella and a drizzle of balsamic) ordered medium rare and arriving on the more done side of medium well, and an altered Cobb salad that arrived incorrect but they fixed.
To top off the insult of bland food, as the girl who ordered the tofu and I were getting down to the last bits of ours (or, in my case, the last bit I could choke down), we saw a waitress going around with a pepper grinder that ours had never offered. No salt or pepper on the table and no offer of the pepper grinder.
Now irritated, we had to wait for her to come back to flag for our checks and wait another several minutes for her to come back and (we had our cards ready so we could just leave by now) take the cards. Wish we'd looked a little more carefully at the bills before we paid because we were overcharged $6 for a bottle of wine.
Long story short? Bland food, bad service, outrageous prices, and terrible location. Go elsewhere.
Bricks and Barrels
1214 Smith Street
Charleston, WV
I will preface this that I have no connection to this establishment. I would guess that taking a large party to a restaurant on a Saturday night of the first week they are open will result in a less than perfect experience. It takes a while for service to the kinks worked out and the kitchen to adjust to the pace for things to work. I suggest you pick a week night and 2 of you go and see if the experience changes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that first weeks aren't the best, but there are "kinks" and there are fundamental flaws. One dish not tasting right is a kink, four is a flaw. Not having food out quickly is a kink, not even stopping by to refill drinks is a flaw.
ReplyDeleteI must've gone on the same night as the reviewer. I got no further than the front door, before the snooty little so-and-so host said that my friend and I would not be seated with an hour and a half still left before closing. We told the kid that we were perfectly fine with sitting at the bar, but he said that he would not see anyone more that evening. This was a Saturday night. They had been open for maybe a day. We were told that we would not be given a table until maybe Tuesday at the earliest. This was totally unacceptable!
ReplyDeleteI'd say! That's just ridiculous.
DeleteWe were overcharged as well and got the, "we'll make it up to you" and "we're working hard to get better all the time" routine. I have yet to receive reimbursement for their error.
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