The Brickhouse Oven — Restaurant in Kerala

My recent visit to The Brickhouse Oven left me utterly disappointed and frustrated. From start to finish, the restaurant managed to showcase an impressive level of incompetence and a complete disregard for customer satisfaction. I regret to say that this review will be far from positive.

Upon arriving at the restaurant at 8pm, my party and I were handed menus and provided with a pen and paper. Naturally, we assumed this was for taking down our orders. Little did we know that this would be the beginning of a series of baffling mistakes and mishaps.

To our surprise, when the waiter brought our first item, cold coffee, there were three servings instead of the one we had indicated on our order list. It was evident that no effort was made to confirm the quantity with us, and rather than rectifying the mistake, we reluctantly accepted it, assuming it to be an honest oversight.

In an attempt to avoid further confusion, we decided to verbally clarify our subsequent orders. We clearly stated that we wanted one plate each of chicken nuggets, onion rings, and garlic bread, along with a chicken sandwich a chicken burger and a veg burger. The waiter then informed us that there was only one cook, implying that the preparation time would be longer. Strangely, this explanation seemed unwarranted, as the restaurant only had a total of two parties present at that time.

The arrival of our food was agonisingly slow, with items trickling in one by one. By 9:30pm, we had received the chicken nuggets, onion rings, and the chicken sandwich—almost an hour and a half after placing our order. When we inquired about the contents of the chicken sandwich, the waiter bafflingly parroted the same question back at us. It became apparent that we were dealing with a severely incompetent staff member.

To add insult to injury, the garlic bread arrived at 9:45pm, and the waiter had the audacity to ask if that would be all, completely oblivious to the fact that we were still missing our chicken burger and veg burger. Upon reminding him of our complete order, he acted surprised and claimed that the burgers were not part of our order. We insisted on seeing the order paper, which unsurprisingly revealed that the burgers were indeed listed as the first items. The waiter's attempt to shift blame onto another party's order was feeble and further highlighted the lack of attention to detail.

Frustrated with the string of errors, we decided to cancel the order altogether. At the payment counter, we were provided with the total amount, which we paid promptly. However, when we requested a printed bill to verify the charges, we were informed that their system was down. We settled for a handwritten bill to distribute the expenses among ourselves, only to discover that they had overcharged us by 35 rupees. This error, though seemingly unintentional, only emphasised the overall incompetence of the cashier.

My experience at The Brickhouse Oven was nothing short of a disaster. The staff displayed a complete lack of organisation, attention to detail, and basic customer service skills. From the mishandling of orders to the inability to provide a printed bill, it was a cascade of disappointment. I strongly advise potential customers to steer clear of this establishment until they rectify their glaring shortcomings and improve their overall...

To summarize the experience was pathetic and slack while also serving poorly made foods and blatantly expensive.

We reached there by 20:00 and the initial impression of the whole restaurant setup is pretty decent and I liked the interior design. An attender came and just handed over a slip and pen to write the order ourselves. This was confusing and disturbing at first and I thought the person might be deaf and can't speak. We wrote the items and when I was about to hand over the slip I accidently called him which he heard and responded back which made me even confusing. Hmmm, maybe that's how these over designed blatantly expensive restaurants takes order nowadays and I am too much of a millennial to comprehend these modern norms. First they served us cold coffee which doesn't make sense because beverages are usually considered after the dinner and only one of us wanted it and they bring it for all three of us. This could have easily been avoided if the attender took care of the order himself. Suddenly the initial impression I had started to diminish a bit. Then it took around like 45 minutes for them to just bring one set of Chicken nuggets. We were expecting the entire 3 starters we ordered by now and at this point the whole experience started to pester us. Then it took an another extra 30 minutes for them to bring the next starter and a Chicken sandwich from main course and it wasn't even tasty. Then the attender just casually said we have only one chef today and that's why its taking long. He should have informed that earlier and we will have already scooted from this annoyance. At this moment its clear that all these eye catchy designs and expensive western foods and stupid standards were just a glossy thin cardboard facade that just facepalmed and fell right on the feet as soon as we gone through the experience they provide. Then after a long 45 minutes they serve the last starter while mentioning the same "we have only one chef today" card. We decided to cancel the rest of the main course we ordered and asked the bill for the soulless items we painfully consumed. Even generating the bill took around 10 minutes and they messed it up and needed us to make the correction and during the arduous wait the attender came and try to get the sympathy by saying our main course were also ordered by some other people who came after us and they accidently served those to them. This felt so cheap and unprofessional because there were only two groups other than us. Their whole attitude was just unprofessional, careless and lax and we felt like being poorly treated and thus I am not recommending...

It was only a few days ago that I noticed this new place on the NH Bypass called “The Brickhouse Oven” as I was passing by and it did surprise me because these days, I get to know about any new restaurants that open in Trivandrum thanks to my membership to the various Trivandrum based foodie groups on Facebook… But not a word was seen on this one… Yet out of curiosity, decided to check it out and so, finally went there yesterday…

First of all, I wasn’t sure if the place was yet open but turns out it was and has been open for a couple of weeks as one of the owners mentioned… As I walked in, I was very impressed at the decor and I could say that its easily one of the best looking restaurant that I have seen in quite a while… This unison with nature approach is something I like seeing and it kind of gave me this feel of being in a garden… I also found that they put in a spring of mint inside the water bottles, which is something I don’t think I have ever seen in Trivandrum… The owner also mentioned that they are in a bit of a struggle phase after a chef whom they hired had bailed on them immediately after inauguration and so the owners themselves are managing everything over there including the kitchen… Hence the temporary reduced menu based on their current capabilities… This had me worried there for a bit, but I must appreciate the honesty from him… So, the menu has a limited selection consisting of Sandwiches, Burgers and Pizzas along with a few starters and beverages… Hopefully once they get the issues sorted out, we’ll see more like salads and maybe options of fish other than Basa and also some dessert...