OvenBird — Restaurant in Birmingham

We went for dinner last night and the food was really good. Portion size varies, but we got deviled eggs, roasted veggies, cheese & charcuterie, potatoes, and the hanger steak.

The service at the table was adequate. One of my drink tickets got lost so I didn’t receive my second drink until I was almost done with dinner and when the Tres Leches was brought out, we had to wait several minutes for dessert spoons and plates. That being said, the server was working very hard and clearly trying their best and since this isn’t a fine dining establishment, I won’t hold them to that same standard.

If the food was good and the service was adequate, you might wonder why I’m only leaving four stars. We arrived about ten minutes early for our reservation and our table wasn’t ready (understandably). We were told it would be just a little bit as several tables were wrapping up and that’s all totally fine. Where I take issue, is that while I was standing there visibility leaning on a crutch, I asked the hostess if there was anywhere I could sit while I wait. (I have a permanent disability and walking and standing for long periods of time is difficult.) The hostess quickly said no and moved on to the next group to walk in the door. After getting this response, I did the best I could and sat on the ground outside the door in the main pathway. It was honestly pretty degrading having to constantly move out of the way while sitting in the gravel as other patrons and waiters walked by, especially considering that I was staring at about four empty tables with chairs. I didn’t want to sit in them as they appeared prepped for a reservation and I figured if the hostess said there wasn’t anywhere to sit, then they must be planning to seat those outside tables asap. (Nobody sat at any of those tables before we were seated at ours inside). Now imagine my surprise, when we were seated at our inside table, it was directly in front of the back second bar that wasn’t active and had four empty seats where I could have been placed out of the way until our table was ready. Further imagine my shock seeing that around the corner from the restaurant near the soap store, there was clearly a ledge made for seating. This was our first time here, so we didn’t know any of this existed, but any one of these options would have provided a comfortable out of the way place to wait to be seated, if the hostess had only taken a couple extra second to try to find a solution for someone actively asking for a reasonable accommodation. At first I was frustrated as there is space out front for a couple of chairs or benches to make waiting more comfortable for the elderly and disabled, but that turned to anger when I realized there were already several out of the way options available and that the staff just didn’t care enough to try to help.

That being said, the food and service ounce seated was fine, but I would have enjoyed it more if an once of consideration was shown prior to our...

Great restaurant with wonderful food! The menu has a little something for everyone - though I don't recall anything vegan (but vegans are used to that...) - however everything I had was fantastic and I had a lot! I was here for a business meeting of about 12 people and they had no trouble accommodating us. More impressive was the way they served us - they brought a little bit of everything in waves. So they brought us 6 appetizers of different kinds, about 9 entrees and so on. These were served family style so you just took a little and put it on your plate. The big thing here is the grill (I know it has Oven in the name but...) a lot of really good grilled items - including veggies. The grill smell was a little overwhelming but mostly it just smelled good. The environment was extremely warm and inviting - we were off in a room to the side - the "normal" part of the restaurant was very cozy however. It is an open floor plan meaning you can see from the entry doorway all the way to the back of the kitchen when you walk in. This also makes it a little bit loud - not overly so but when packed with people having a good time and music you notice it. I imagine hitting it during the week or later in the evening would make it a very romantic spot though. The service was also great and we had multiple folks check in on us and make sure all was well - it was. Our situation was special but I could see the wait staff hustling around and felt like it was a good team. Lastly, the overall bill was fair and reasonable for what we were getting - well crafted, imaginative (highly so in some cases), professionally served and original dishes. It's not a chain or fast food so expect the pay a little...

I came here on the recommendation of a friend and left with mixed feelings. I will say they have some of the most unique dishes I've ever seen at a restaurant as would be expected due to their commitment to using only an oven to make all of them. Some are truly inspired - the beef fat candle is one of the few menu items that you can describe as legitimately fun. The paella is really good. Their desserts are also phenomenal - the s'more was delicious and their take on creme brulee makes for an amazing show with the hot iron to caramelize the top.

So why the low review? Well two things 1) sharing and 2) timing. They recommend getting a number of plates to share which isn't a bad idea but not all of them lend themselves to it. I don't know how you're supposed to share the egg in the mushroom conserva. As for timing we were told the dishes would come out as they are ready and it appears they are all ready at the same time. We got the duck, octopus, paella and conserva all the same time. We couldn't eat them fast enough and once some of them got cold they were a lot less delicious. The duck in particular had some cartilaginous nubs that stood out. It was also hard to appreciate the individual flavors of the dishes when they were presented together like that. I think a smarter kitchen would send out one or two dishes at a time.

That being said I'd probably come back here. The atmosphere is nice, the staff is friendly, the drinks are good - just for the price you want an excellent meal and I don't think I got that. If you want to visit for your next special event I'd go and juts have each person order...