The Brown Barrel Eatery — Restaurant in Hamilton

It depends completely on the time and day you go there ! Our very first meal at this Brown Barrel was over a year ago, on a Saturday afternoon, accompanied by my brother and sister in-law (4 of us in total) . We had just moved to the area, and thought we'd give it a try. Their prices are extremely reasonable, the young server was highly motivated to please and the food was absolutely delicious. ! The chef even came out to meet us, asking if we'd like to try the prime rib she'd made for the golf tournament attendees that would be returning that afternoon. The entire experience made us feel so welcome, and that our patronage was very appreciated. Fast forward to the fall, we bring a friend with us on a Saturday night, and again the food was terrific, but the service was sub-par for what should have been a great tip night for her. The level of service left a bad taste in my mouth, so we didn't make any effort to return again until this past Sunday. We got the same server, and again, her service is mediocre. It's like she's counting down to when she can get the hell out of there, because her afternoon is spent with the regular crew that most likely just takes up space at the bar, and doesn't fatten her wallet. Even after leaving a sizable tip on a $54 bill, she was pretty ungrateful.

Bottom line, go for the very fair priced food and the quality of it, but don't expect top notch service. Unless you are fortunate enough to get one of the younger girls whose aspirations have not yet been dashed, you'll have to settle for the seasoned servers that have not gotten...

I was really disappointed with the service here. Ten of us walked in on a Wednesday night around 8pm hoping to get some drinks and apps. The server walked up to us didnt say hi, threw the menus on the table and just told us that we should have booked a reservation and that the service would be very slow tonight. As she began taking our drinks orders she was very short with all of us. Telling us rudely that we needed to have our drink order ready (mind you she had just handed us the menus). One of our friends ordered a water and stated his name - she then said: you don't need to say your name if you are ordering water and ripped the paper out of her notebook. We were all feeling unsure and definitely didn't want to stay as we felt we were being a huge bother to her. We then went up to her and said we would cancel our drink order and go somewhere else. Her response to this was "Thank God. You really should have made a reservation." I have worked in the service industry previously and never would feel the need to speak to customers in this way no matter what the situation was or how busy/understaffed we were. Her tone was extremely unfriendly and an unacceptable way to deal with the situation. If it was too busy to serve us we should have been told that when we first arrived. It was my first time coming to the Brown Barrel and I definitely would...

Visited The Brown Barrel on a few occasions and it was always a hit & miss. Decided to give it another try in July, 2019, after a long time not visiting there. Went for Dinner around 7pm and ordered the Pizza & Wings special. First of all, we were told that there were no more non-breaded chicken wings available and we would have to order only the breaded Wings. After some hesitation we reluctantly decided to order the breaded Wings. Well all 2 pounds of the Wings arrived as breaded drumsticks only, i.e., there were no Wings included in our order. The Wings (Drumsticks) were very Dried out and tasteless. After I mentioned it to the Server, she indicated that it was very unusual to be served with only Drumsticks for an order of 2 lbs. of Wings and she would check with the Kitchen. The Server came back and said that she had checked with the kitchen and they had indicated to her that only Drumsticks were delivered to the Brown Barrel, and as such, that was the reason we were only served with Drumsticks. That was the lamest excuse I had ever heard. On a positive note, the Pizza was very good. Needless to say, this will be the very last time we will ever visit the Brown Barrel again. I will not recommend this establishment to my Friends and Family. Beware, stay away...