Hot and Hot Fish Club — Restaurant in Birmingham

Hastings has outdone himself, this time.

So, my girlfriend and I decided to go back to Hot and Hot (our third visit) for our 3 year anniversary on Saturday night- June 22nd. The bar in this city when it comes to fine dining has been set so high, meeting and then exceeding one’s expectations is the arms race- who can do it the best? With Hot and Hot, and with Ovenbird, we’ve learned having a high expectation is both valid and warranted, but we never expected the entirety of the meal to be THIS IMPRESSIVE. Allow me to elaborate and share our experience: As a wine blender, step one for me before ordering anything is the wine choice. We were pleasantly surprised to see extremely good choices by the glass- and with Murder point raw oysters being available, the choice was clear- a glass of Picpoul de pinet each. A perfect pair for oysters and obviously placed on the menu for this reason. And the oysters were PERFECT. Of course how can you go wrong with murder point, Alabama raws… but there’s good, and then there’s these. Imagine an oyster so delicious, nothing else is needed. Ordering our second course and the entrees is where everything went from incredible to extraordinary. A chance for our server, Kevin, to go above and beyond. And he went beyond and then the clouds… and then space. As I was making my selections, I initially thought to pair the duck with blueberry with the tempernillo. It is my favorite varietal of red and I expected it would work well with the duck. However, our incredible server KEVIN quickly acted and instead suggested a different option- an off menu Cab blend. Seeing my skepticism, instead of explaining the cab further, he quickly went and grabbed a splash instead. He didn’t ask. He didn’t hesitate. He just did it. And that’s the single best way to do it- a wine I’ve never had? I’ll need to see for myself. One SMELL of this blend was all I needed to know the perfect pairing he had concocted. The cab- A post and Beam from Napa- had smooth, blueberry notes, shockingly perfect for a duck with a blueberry Gastrique. We chose the Crudo for our second course- again pairing with the picpoul perfectly. Fresh, delicious, and a perfect Segway into our main courses. The duck was quite literally divinity on a plate and the accompanying Pave was cooked so perfectly, I was questioning my sanity. My girlfriend went with the amberjack and we were blown away by the flavor and the texture of the fish. Once again- cooked so perfectly! I wouldn’t usually include an empty plate in the post, but I want to emphasize the notion that if I felt it appropriate to do so, I would have licked the plate. The amberjack was simply stunning and the duck was the best I’ve had in my life.

All the while, we received the absolute best service we’ve had in birmingham, and that is saying A TON. Never camping, but extremely attentive, Kevin (and his accompanying S.A) made our anniversary perfect down to the smallest of details. The steps of service were so perfect and spot on, it was even part of the discussion with my girlfriend during the meal.

Lastly, dessert. You can see I went with the incredible blueberry Leche- completing the theme built by our server, Kevin. It was so delicious and so perfectly sized, I’m thrilled we chose to order two desserts instead of sharing 1 as we tend to do. But THAT in itself was also due to the meal. The portions are perfectly sized, allowing this to be possible. Instead of being so full and miserable that we couldn’t enjoy dessert and the rest of our night, the amount of food per course was perfectly balanced and portioned.

The reality is this: “Hot and Hot” would have a Michelin Star in its name if the damn trail respected Birmingham enough to come here. I can’t stress enough how important it is to try this restaurant and see for yourself how impressive an experience you will have. If you’re a foodie, respect wine and food, and want your mind blown, this...

TLDR: This was the WORST food and service I've ever experienced in my life. BHM has great restaurants (Bottega, Chez Fon Fon, etc.). Go to them instead.

Food -----

Bone Marrow: Bone marrow was undercooked. Risotto was undercooked but had good flavor. Short Rib was flavorless and overcooked (10x worse than buying $3 Short Rib from Trader Joes).

Grouper Crudo: Nothing special. Flavorless. Dish didn't leave me wanting more.

Swordfish: Worst fish I've had. Very undercooked; 2nd waiter saw it and took it back immediately. You couldn't even cut through the fish. It was cold in the middle. I didn't think you could screw up sweet potato, but they somehow managed to do that too. The wild mushrooms were good though and added some much needed salt to the dish.

Steak: We got the steak because we couldn't eat the swordfish (and thought to ourselves no way they can screw up steak). We asked for medium rare. It came back rare, no flavor, you couldn't cut through the steak. He said it was Wagyu, but that was not Wagyu. It tasted worse than $5 steak from Walmart. Everything else on the dish was messed up too. Egg was overcooked. Potatoes again undercooked. Broccoli Rabe was bitter because they hadn't done much to it other than steam it (come on do better if you're going to charge $45).

Drink: I don't even want to get into it. Just mid.

Dessert: We asked them not to bring it out because everything else we'd had was poorly cooked. We didn't want an undercooked souffle.

Service ----

Waiter: I'll caveat this review on service with saying the 2nd waiter who took back our food was nice. But I was surprised by the attitude 1st waiter and head chef. The 1st waiter rarely checked on us. She didn't pace the meal well, and she'd forgotten about the crudo until we reminded her about it (even though she said it tastes better with the bone marrow). When we asked her to return the steak, she argued with us that we should eat it and it looks good. She brought back the check and charged us for the 2 dishes we returned and didn't eat. So, I asked to speak to the chef.

Chef: The chef came in with an aggressive attitude, arguing the dishes were cooked well and that we couldn't get food poisoning from them (lol). Most restaurants I go to will happily take back and void a returned dish (if not the meal), but having us pay for dishes that were poorly cooked and returned is surprising. Anyways, we ended up paying and left. Sometimes, you go out to eat and feel robbed. This was one of those times.

Btw, the other table next to us also didn't enjoy their experience. They said they would've preferred even going to North Italia (chain restaurant) over this place.

I have a lot of pride for how good the food is in my city, and I'm disappointed with this restaurant which is lauded as one of our top options.

Anyways, here are some other places you can go to: Bottega (cafe) Chez Fon Fon Niki's West . . . Cheesecake Factory . . . McDonalds . . . Hot and...

Our group of 4 dined in on Saturday December 17th for our annual holiday dinner. I’m from bham born and raised but currently live in Georgia. Our reservation was made by our friend who currently resides is bham. We have known each other over 30 yrs. I was excited and this was a new restaurant experience for us all. We had a 515pm reservation. I arrived first and was seated at a table for 6 although we had 4 guests. I asked the hostess if she was aware that there was only 4 of us since there was a table for 4 in the corner. She stated no problem as they would just remove the 2 additional place settings. My 2 friends arrived about 15 minutes late waiting for 1 from out of town and the 3rd one arrived 30 min after. 3 of us ordered cocktails in the interim. We were in contact with our 4 th friend to order for her as well. After we chatted for a bit the manager came over to ask us to go ahead and place our order as they were expecting a large party.we were not aware of any time limits for dinner as some restaurants do have those in place. We were the only people of color in the entire place. There was a party of 8 people next to us who were there when I arrived and still there when we were asked to “ hurry along”. Our server for both parties was very pleasant and came by after to take our order but had not asked if we were ready to order prior to the manager visit. It made for an awkward dinner as we focused on ordering expeditiously and were also given instructions for ordering dessert “to go”. This was all pleasantly done. The food was awesome and the service was great and the restaurant was beautiful and festive. My experience was tainted by the service received from the manager. Although I could recommend this restaurant for all the good reasons I would rate it as less than pleasant based upon my experience. I was considering relocating back to bham excited about new places to dine in the city. I told my mom this would not be a good place to try for people of color although the food was very good. I thought to myself some things change and some things will never change. Thanks for a bittersweet experience at the hot and hot...