The YARD Birmingham — Restaurant in Birmingham

Mediocrity is everywhere and this restaurant is no exception. My criticism is not directed towards the atmosphere or the service but towards the food. In another life, I was involved in the food industry on both the front and backsides of the house. The menu is one of a restaurant's greatest presentation points prior to ordering. Despite the fact there's nothing I saw on the dinner menu that was representative of Southern Cuisine, whomever is responsible for writing The Yard's menu is aware of the importance of a well-written/presented offering that gives you the impression you're going to receive something delicious, pleasing to the palate and special. I started my meal last Friday evening with what I thought was going to be a delicate tomato vodka soup. I had no idea I was actually ordering a nice thick jar of pasta sauce with an extra strong dose of vodka thrown in as a little lagniappe. Would have made an excellent at home pasta sauce and I was tempted to ask the server if the kitchen would mind preparing a small portion of whatever pasts they had on hand. I ended my meal with the Yard Burger and a small Caesar side salad, The burger is good but nothing that special...and don't expect to be asked how you'd like it cooked ...at least I wasn't. Its' going to be cooked to the doneness deemed proper by the kitchen and not your preference, perhaps because its' so small. As far as the Caesar salad goes...its' unlike the preparations I've had over the course of my lifetime. If you like your Caesars on the overkill side of aged parmesan...then this is the salad for you. Now, on to the NY Strip my husband ordered. At $46, we were duped into thinking that there was a nice cut of meat involved. We were wrong again. Not only was the steak 30% gristle, it was the thinnest strip we've ever seen at an upper scale restaurant. I understand trying to save on food costs but I've seen/tasted/consumed better steaks at the old Quincy's/Western Sizzling "steakhouses" which were definitely on the lower end of the scale. I also have no idea what the seasoning rub consisted of other than the granulated charcoal rubs you can find at the grocery store to simulate a grilled flavor. This steak was certainly not grilled or even pan seared...it was way too thin. It was cooked on a griddle. Needless to say....after all of this...we weren't interest in seeing anything on the desert menu. On our side, the dinner menu is posted on their website. My husband should have picked up on the fact that the offerings at The Yard are definitely not what most would consider Southern Cuisine (our criteria for upscale Southern Cuisine will always be the old Standard Bistro in Mt Laurel which featured an abundance of fresh, locally sourced produce, meat and seafood elegantly prepared. Unfortunately, it was years ahead of its' time and the population out in that area of Shelby County was not enough 15 years ago to support it as it was way off of the Hwy 280 main thoroughfare). Also on our side, we had an event to attend so it wasn't worth the time/effort to complain to the server and start sending food back to the kitchen. She saw the amount of uneaten food left on the plates and she knew........Long story short, the husband has had his restaurant picking privileges temporarily suspended. My summary of our experience would be if you enjoy paying above average prices for the lower end of mediocrity then this is your kind of restaurant. If you haven't gathered......its' a no...never...

Considering this place expects to compete with upscale BHM restaurants it should be held to those standards. Last Saturday we were between Cafe Dupont and the Yard and opted for the latter because we’d not yet been. We made reservations for 7:30PM. When we arrived there was no host/hostess, though there were plenty of seats at the bar. We opted to grab bar seats, and when the host/hostess returned we let them know we’d just dine there. No one ever returned. Once we sat at the bar it took roughly 10 minutes to have waters dropped off (not by the bartender who was behind the bar) and at least another 5 for the bartender to take our drink order. We noticed the liquor selection was oddly sparse, but they only had four cocktails on the menu...so okay. When I ordered one of the four options the bartender curtly said, “we don’t have that”. I quickly asked what they had in place of it, and she proceeded to describe one of the other three drinks already on the menu. I chose something different which ended up being a $16 margarita. Honestly don’t mind paying $16/drink for a speciality cocktail but my husband and I got the feeling this was not going to be that. We then waited another 10 minutes with no indication the bartender was making our drinks. She had a chaotic and somewhat uncomfortable conversation with another staff member who asked if she’d started on a handful of tickets he picked up. From across the bar she rolled her eyes, shrugged, said “uhh, I don’t know!” and walked off. We took that as our cue that this wasn’t going to be a suitable place for us to have a nice evening, and promptly left...walking by the still vacant hostess area. The restaurant was no where near full. We dine out frequently and understand that short staffed evenings happen. All anyone needed to do was be kind and acknowledge that they were behind and would get to us as soon as possible. Giving 2 stars because we can’t comment on the quality of food/drink and because the decor was up to par. Being left without dinner reservations on a Saturday night wasn’t ideal. We ended up enjoying drinks at Mayawell and a late dinner at Blueprint on 3rd, both of which regularly exceed expectations. There are so many fabulous restaurants with top notch service in Birmingham, so I highly doubt we will ever give the Yard...

I took my wife to this restaurant for our 20th anniversary on November 13th biggest disappointment. I rate The Yard “the Most… “ The Most Disappointing restaurant in Birmingham AL. . I would never recommend this restaurant for a friend who is looking for fine dining. A good joke on a friend of my enemy? Perhaps!!! My wife ALWAYS pick the best restaurant/ hot new spots. And I was praying this spot would give ME a WIN, NOPE! We ordered and a small plate app, The Caesar salad, Bourbon tomato soup, butternut squash risotto and some sort of chicken dinner, and an international bottle of wine. Let me start with the atmosphere- PERFECT! Great for cute date night photos to post to Instagram or just trying to impress the wife. The wine cellar was a perfect background for my wife and I 20 year anniversary photos. The STAFF- The bar and wait staff is manage by a husband and wife duo two ginger head people- who personality resemble that of a dead battery teddy rubskin’ stuffed bear. Or Better worse a see-n-say who makes “the cow says moo” for every animal but the COW. The husband was NOT familiar with the wine list making food pairing a guessing game- And the wife who apparently knew was too occupied with other non-existing guess to help. they ignore all Non-white patrons often passing by several times before recognizing you, The food experience was rushed, we received our appetizers and salads in the same sitting, red wine glasses was given for water glasses, Then linen was more of a polyester blend, and THE SILVERWARE!!!! let’s talk about THE FOOD! Shall WE! It was less than below average, the best part of the meal was the fire grill Caesar salad, the appetizer was SO subpar- I do not remember what we order- I do know it was over cooked. The TOMATO SOUP-was SO THICK!!! How thick was it? It needed meatballs and pasta! the butternut squash risotto! The risotto was so over cooked- it would make for a great plaster agent in a paper mache and the mushroom sauce was more like a paste of brown cream. I will save the next few characters to say! Crack is wack...