Lil' Charlie's Restaurant & Brewery — Restaurant in Batesville

No handicap accessible restrooms. Somethings on the menu are priced, some aren't, had no idea what dinner was going to cost until we got the bill. Waitress did well. Ordered ribs on special. They had good flavor, but were cold and had to be sent back. While I waited my wife shared some of her steak. Decent sized steak, looked like a good cut, cooked perfectly. No seasoning what so ever. Very disappointing. It's one thing if the meat is flavorful in the first place, this was not. My wife had eaten there before and raved about the garlic button mushrooms. We both ordered some. They weren't bad for sauteed mushrooms but were not garlic seasoned. My ribs finally returned, obviously microwaved, which would be fine, but should never have taken so long. They did put a fresh baked potato on the plate, which was nice. The baked potatoes were the smallest I've seen in a while. With dinners around $20 a plate, you'd think they would give you a decent sized baked potato (potatoes are cheap). Most places give ones about twice that size. After staring at a beautiful picture of layer cake while waiting for my ribs to return, we had to try some for dessert. It arrived, minus one layer. Not made one layer short, the crumbs of the bottom layer were there. More like it fell off somewhere along the way and no one bothered to cut the bottom edge cleanly with a knife in a half hearted attempt to make it. Almost looked like someone had already talked a few bites. Really wanted to like this place. So many things were up and down. It either really has potential or has reached it's peak and has started...

I want to like Lil' Charlie's more than I actually do. The idea of having an honest-to-god brewpub with some urbane culinary pretensions is highly seductive. Lil' Charlie's is trying to do that, and somehow not totally succeeding. But not totally failing either.

The beer quality is really uneven -- moreso than many other brewpubs that produce small batch beers. I've had excellent beers there, followed by terrible beers on the very next visit. The ribeye is pretty decent, one of the best options for a steak in this rural area dominated by hamburgers and mom-and-pop pizza joints. It's definitely not a terrible place to eat.

I'm dinging them hard on service -- and I'm usually pretty forgiving about this. But the service borders on abysmal. And it's not about the usual complaints -- waiting, or a missed order, or whatever petty things most people get up in arms about and then storm off to right a florid online review. It's more that the hostess and wait staff just seem annoyed and harried from the moment I walk in the door. I don't think it's personal, I'm sure they don't know me from Adam. They just seem annoyed to have to deal with customers in general.

It's interesting how much attitude can change the way you feel about a restaurant. I can't help but think that the feeling of unwelcomeness communicated by the staff colors my entire experience of eating there.

I'll probably be back, again because I like steak and beer. But I do wish they could be a little...

----- 11/24/2019 ----- After several years and having moved to the Batesville area we decided to try Lil' Charlie's again, and I'm really glad we did. The food is really good. My wife did the Cobb salad, I did the fried chicken dinner and we split the portobello mushroom fries.

We did this order as to-go, so we can't speak much to service, but the food was very good and packaged well for the short ride home.

The fried chicken dinner was excellent. Cooked through, crispy and juicy... everything you want in good fried chicken. The Caesar side salad and fries were also quiet good.

Is it pricier than fast-food options (say KFC)... yes, but the food is better in EVERY WAY.

----- 06/17/2013 ----- Had dinner there tonight (06/17) and the service was lacking at best. My fiancee ordered the "Cobb salad', but what came to the table wasn't a Cobb salad (some lettuce, a quartered egg, some bacon, some chicken and four grape tomatoes. No avocado, no cheese, etc. When we asked where the ingredients for a true Cobb salad were... she was told that's just the way it is here. To make matters worse they charged us $9.50 for this joke of a salad. I got the award winning pork tenderloin sandwich, but it was tough and chewy, plus the onion rings were burnt. In short, we will not be going back. The food costs too much for what you get. In short, we will not be going back to...