Casa Pernoi — Restaurant in Birmingham

Yesterday me and my girl friend decided to try out a new restaurant in Birmingham. We saw that it was one of the only restaurants open with outdoor seating and what looked like a plenty of heating, which it did, but not next to our table. I'm sure not during a pandemic this restaurant is great, but our experience yesterday was not worth ever returning too. Our night started off with us parking right next to the building they have a beautiful back alley entrance way that leads to their outdoor seating area. When you enter you can see that they have plenty of small heaters near the foot of the tables as well as massive pillar heaters that run along the side of the seating area. The small foot heaters and pillar heaters there's a fire place and heater that hang from the ceiling. (They only point outward at the tables, which are for four or more. So we step into the the host table area and are greeted by a nice and pleasant lady that says she'll be right with us. (We did have a reservation) About 5 mins later she comes back to us and says that she'll take us to our table. She walks us right outside the door and puts us at the table right by the entrance. Which has no heaters pointing directly at it and honestly no heaters anywhere close to it. On another not because they have the outdoor seating only they've created a door that opens into the outdoor seating area. Our table was right next to that door. So every time someone walked in a gust of cold air hit us and people that walked in were practically a foot away from us. On top of that the waiting area outside is right behind our table. It was fine at first until a table of four showed up and were practically bumping into my girlfriends chair. (Which I believe breaks the rule of 6 feet from other guests. On top of that they weren't wearing their masks because they had ordered a bottle of sparkling rose wine, which was brought out to them before our bottle was, which we ordered about 10 mins ahead of theirs. On top of the people behind us the table next to us was a larger table with 4 guests sitting there. We had asked to move to a table a little closer into the main area so that we could be closer to the heaters, but the host said that the table was actually reserved for the people next to us because they had 2 more people coming even though they had already sat down and were being served. (The two men that joined them later showed up about 20 mins later.) It took about 20 mins for us to receive a bottle of wine that we had ordered.

Now onto the food we ordered a small app. first, which was the marinated baby artichokes. Which I would not get again I understand that the app. isn't suppose to be anything fancy, but it should have had better flavor. My girlfriend and I then ordered the bolognese, which is said to be made with hand-made pasta, which it probably is, but the food came out in about 10 mins which was faster than the bottle of wine we received kinda crazy. We started to eat it and just from first looks it looked bad. The noodles looked thin and soggy, while the meat had no taste to it and the sauce was more water then sauce. It was tasteless and was nothing special. After about two bites each we sent it back to the kitchen and asked for our check.

I will say the servers and host were great. They were nice and explained that because of covid they were booked solid and had a short staff, but that doesn't mean you can slouch on your guests. You are a 4.5 star restaurant for a reason and if you want to charge these prices for your food, which is perfectly fine to do so, but it has to be worth the money and in this...

A bit pricy for every day or even every week, but a lovely and convenient venue for an occasional treat. Most appetizers run $10-$20 and are big enough to share. Most salads are around $16 if you want something small or healthy or less costly. Pasta dishes are mostly $29-$40, while entrees are mostly in the $40-$60 range. The portion sizes are reasonable, but not so huge as to discourage ordering several courses. The bread/butter baskets are affordable, but very tender and flavorful.

For a gourmet experience, you might order everyone a salad and their own entree, and getting an appetizer to share per 2-3 guests. If you're doing this, I would plan on budgeting at least $60-$90 per guest on food, before accounting for drinks and tips. The full experience could run you over $100 per head, but this is a great place to spend that kind of money if you're doing it.

If you have a larger party who you want to feed without breaking the bank, the trick would be to order fewer courses. If everybody orders pasta/water and skips appetizers other than bread, it's possible to keep the budget to around $50/person including tips. For most people, coming here would be a treat for a few times a year max, when they are willing to drop a few hundred dollars having a special evening.

Beers are affordable at $6, while cocktails cost at least twice as much and the wine menu is diverse, in price and in vintage. The dessert menu is small, but everything is very finely made.

Service is fast and friendly, and the kitchen keeps food moving at a good pace. Servers will proactively keep your water filled and rotate out empty plates, and are extremely friendly and accommodating.

The downtown location is beautiful, but can make onsite parking difficult. Nearby parking lots offer abundant parking spaces, but if anybody is disabled and needs a shorter walk, then you might want to drop them off before parking your car...

We went for the first time to celebrate Valentine's Day early, and it was mostly great!

I wasn't the biggest fan of the size of our small table nor the location since my husband had to deal with people bumping into him while walking around in the restaurant but he didn't mind that part at all.

I got ginger ale, and my husband got the ginger beer since we aren't drinking much this year. Both were yummy! I actually took a picture of my ginger ale since it was so yummy 😋

We got the sausage and peppers for our appetitizer, and I didn't realize the peppers would actually be spicy (my fault for being a Korean American who can't eat spicy food ahaha). My husband loveeddddddd that part. Honestly, he ordered that for himself. Let's be honest here, lol.

We got the mushroom pasta and the short ribs. Both were really good! Our experience was guided by our waiter, John. He was attentive to my lactose sensitivity, and I looked up that butter was ok, so we got the mushroom pasta and the short ribs, and both were amazing.

The polenta that's served with the super tender short ribs was buttery and cheezy, and my husband said it's the best polenta he's ever had since they actually cooked it right.

All in all, my husband said John made sure our visit was perfect, and we really appreciate how much...