Bâton Rouge Grillhouse & Bar — Restaurant in Halifax

The first time I can say anything negative about a visit here but oh boy… For context, we live outside the city and only make plans here a few times a year for a treat! Before ordering we were informed they were out of some items, unfortunate, but it happens. Started with ordering a go to, their delicious strawberry daiquiri… they were out of the mix so we struck out there, we weren’t there to drink random drinks, just to enjoy a couple daiquiris. The next go to, chicken tenders…. the ribs and chicken is a great combo, easy ordering.. unfortunately out of chicken tenders! At that, we were told there were no chips either, so spinach dip, cheddar dip, nachos , all that stuff was out. Ended up ordering the Monday rib special to share with some appetizers! The soup was delicious, a ginger beef, Mac and cheese dish wasn’t my thing but my spouse enjoyed that, as always the lobster stuffed mushrooms were on point, at 4.50 per mushroom it’s an expensive treat but worth it! In a nearly empty restaurant, and after requesting no wait time between apps and meal as we were up against it on time and heading to a show, after trying to figure out what was available to order so long, we sat for uncomfortably long periods at a time. We requested a container for the ribs and just go ahead and pack up the cheesecake that came with the rib special, as we were walking down the sidewalk we realized the cheesecake never came out with the bill, although that was paid for with the meal, at the same time I realized they never even brought the shrimp and scallop skillet out with our meal, though that wasn’t on the bill.. in all , this was the first bad experience here, but it was a train wreck from the beginning, exaggerated mostly by the fact that this is a stop that we plan for a night out and look forward to for a few months ahead at times. The food always tastes great, though the portions are getting smaller all the time, selection obviously was poor and service, given the errors, scored a 1

To update: I see that someone left a response here to which I did reply to the email they left but had no...

Overall I would give this place a 2/10, main reason for this is due to the staffs reaction of me telling them about mice, showing them photos of mice on the floor and up on the bar.

Atmosphere (ignoring mice): 7/10, pretty chill spot with a definite feeling of being cozy. We went on a Friday night and there wasn’t many people there, so it gave you a good space to talk with your company.

Food: 7/10, the food was delicious however like I mentioned we went on a Friday night and wasn’t busy but still waited a long time for food to come out to us and it was just barely warm enough to not send back to the kitchen. Also I ordered a filet mignon, and it was unevenly cooked which was disappointing (ordered medium-rare and one side was well done another side was medium). My partner had the salmon and she said the skin wasn’t crispy, so she ended up scraping the meat off the skin.

Service/Other: 0/10, like I mentioned we seen a bunch of mice at the restaurant (we counted 5 all coming from different directions), when we told the staff that there were mice running around and up on the bar as well. The staff just responded with “oh it’s a 18th century building and it’s winter time, so what can you expect”… well I would expect for mice not to be up near the bar where there’s glasses and drinks being made (which we had some). I understand that being in an old building you get that a lot and a bunch of people probably hunting for a free meal, but I told you this after I paid. So I literally had nothing to gain from this, just tried to be helpful and honestly they couldn’t care less. I’ve mentioned mice to other restaurants in this area before and they’ve at least said thank you for telling them.

Me and my partner said we were saying that this restaurant would be a place we’d revisit again… up until the reaction to the mice and then we both decided that if they don’t care about mice being up near the bar that what else do they not care about. Overall that final interaction turned us from being a potentially regular customer, into never wanting to go...

I don’t usually write reviews but I need to write this one. I’m from Maine and I was absolutely dumbfounded by how much I paid for this meal. I am a foodie by every sense of the word and I dine at Michelin star restaurants as well as little hole in the wall, hidden gems... point being, I trust my palate. I ordered the ribeye and side vegetable which came out as a thin, tough steak (though they did cook it medium rare as I asked) the vegetables were a teeny ramekin of a cauliflower, broccoli, carrot and peppers mix which tasted like it came from a frozen veg mix. (The peppers made the mix quite bitter) I also ordered a side Caesar which came out in a tiny bowl (bad idea because it’s hard to eat without it falling out of the sides) and the croutons were stale. I actually had to remove them because they were so stale. They forgot my salad which I asked to be served prior to the meal and we were one of only 3 small top tables being served. My boyfriend ordered his steak with a baked potato which was literally just a piece of meat and a potato on a plate. We did not drink alcohol, in fact, we each had only one juice and the bill was a little mind blowing for what we got. I mean, I will pay for good food but seriously, if I can do miles better in my own kitchen and you charge me that much for some meat and a couple of ramekins with veg and stale croutons, we have a problem. I want to point out that I don’t write negative reviews... it’s just not my style. This was so disappointing that I crawled out from beneath my policy of not writing negatives just so I could let the owner know this. I own businesses myself (not restaurants) and would 1000% want to know if this stuff was happening at my establishments. I see good reviews so I feel this might be a case of the mice playing while the boss is away? I don’t honestly know... but I would be displeased as a...