Avondale Common House — Restaurant in Birmingham

BRUNCH IS NOT WORTH IT.

Waited for cold food, charged for items not ordered, and manager lied to my face. Make sure you read your check carefully or you will pay for things you never ordered.

Decided to come for brunch to celebrate two birthdays and won't be able to convince one of the birthday girls to come back. Arrived before open to make sure we got a table for four inside. Ordered three bottles of mimosas and some brunch fries as soon as the server appeared. Fries came fast before drinks, but off to a good start. Three bottles arrive with two carafes of juice. No biggie, this is a boozie brunch anyway.

Order meals and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait. The table next to us gets their food. The table outside that was sat same time as us gets their food. Both tables finish and leave, and still no food. I have to leave for work so when the server comes back, I ask for my food to go. All of a sudden, ALL the food comes out to the table. Suspect.

Every plate that's supposed to be hot, is cold. Cold burrito in a takeout container. Cold undercooked steak. Cold french toast. Salad was fine though. I had to leave, so I took my burrito and asked to speak to the manager. She told me the food came out right after it was done and was very adamant about it. If the entrees came out of the kitchen cold in the middle of the brunch rush when the app came out hot and fast in the beginning of service, there are bigger problems. I call malarkey. She said she wanted to make things right so I told her, it's their birthday. Just give them another bottle for free and they will be happy. I saw her give it to the table before I left.

When I asked them how the rest of the brunch was, they told me they were each charged for extra juice despite us only getting two juices for the three bottles. And one of the birthday girls was charged for the bottle the manager brought over. They aren't ones to say anything so they paid and left.

Taking advantage of folks is unacceptable. We thought it would be nice to celebrate their birthdays here and have a boozy brunch and chill. Not overpay for under-cooked cold food, sub-par service, and get lied to. If you're busy, cool. But don't lie about a mistake. Don't serve cold food. Remake it before it goes to the table and apologize for the delay.

Side note: the new table next to us also sent their food back. It was nice to know it wasn't just us, but sad to know they hadn't...

TL;DR:

Pros:

1. EXCELLENT service
2. Seemingly high quality ingredients
3. Extremely reasonable order-to-table time

Cons:

1. Slightly higher pricing (~10% too high in my opinion for the area).
2. Burnt sausage (likely a one-time thing based on other reviews and a friend's word).

So I feel like this was a pretty difficult review for me because I've been waffling between 4 and 5 stars for a few days now, and this is why I eventually settled on 4...

To start off, the service here was excellent. Both bartenders were excellent, but I felt like the prices were 10%-15% higher than they should be (or they need to do stiffer pours). The prices weren't insane or anything though, so it wasn't enough to actually pull a full star due to overpricing.

Once we were seated, our server was also excellent. She was attentive without being intrusive, very personable, and everything we ordered came out correct and in a reasonable time.

So at this point, I think I should mention that I'm from Charleston, SC, which is a city KNOWN for our shrimp and grits. This means you should probably take my opinion here with a grain of salt. However, after hearing people rave about the shrimp and grits here, I needed to try it and see if it was as good as those from home. They used a lot of the right ingredients and the grits were PERFECT. The shrimp was prepared well (though I would have preferred deveined and butterflied) and most of the flavors were there. HOWEVER, they burnt the sausage to the point that I have no idea what kind it was. In SC, we typically use Andouille sausage along with the shrimp, but the ones in the shrimp and grits here were so overdone that they could have been slices of hotdog and I wouldn't have been able to tell. This really soured the dish because I would occasionally get a bite that almost tasted of charcoal. The woman I was with said that that was not normal for this place, so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt and not knock it down to a 3-star, but as it stands, I can't in good conscience rate them a 5-star at this time. That being said, the rest of the experience was good enough that I WILL be back and I'll give the shrimp and grits another go. If the sausage is better, then I'll give them a 5-star rating. If not, then I'll...

Working in Birmingham, AL for the week and it's dinnertime! So I did some Yelp'ing with my co-worker and he was craving a burger. I found this place, we came and here's how it went!

Atmosphere/Appearance: Set a little outside of downtown in a more urban, industrial-like area in this gem. The neighborhood was pretty quiet and we were able to find some street parking nearby. The Avondale Common House was smooth, welcoming and chill. I remember seeing the lights hanging on the roof and thinking, "yeah, I'm gonna like it here". Once inside it felt like an upscale neighborhood bar if that makes any sense. Lol. There were tons of stickers on the host stand and random license plates above it which gave it a more personal touch, like customers have come and left their mark. However, the bar looked modern, the tables are all wood with one-piece metal chairs and the ceiling had this super-cool wavy look to it! I had never seen anything like it before.

Service: Riley took excellent care of us and I had no complaints.

Food: I started off with the Berns Blackberry beer and it was delicious. It hardly tasted anything like beer. It had a fruity-sweetness to it and was moderately heavy. For dinner I went with their Common Burger. It contains 2 well-done smashburger patties topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, garlic aioli and a American cheese on a brioche bun. I added bacon and at the time, was able to substitute chihuahua cheese instead of the American. This was such a clutch sub because the Chihuahua cheese is creamy, with some great hints of acid flavor and it was super melty. The burger as a whole was delightful and quite flavorful.

Value: Back then this burger was $13.00 and $1.50 to add bacon. That same burger now goes for $16.00 and it's still $1.50 for the bacon. Damn that inflation. SMH. But anyway, this place won't break the bank. It's a chill spot where it can be date night, gathering with friends or whatever.

In conclusion, I really liked this place and I would totally pay them another visit if I'm in the area. You should check...