Copper Mule Table & Tap-Bryant — Restaurant in Bryant

A festive literal copper mule “greets” patrons by the front door. The restaurant felt kind of empty and quiet, but we know that was due to COVID restrictions/later lunch - we could imagine the bar busy and the nice patio outside filled with customers. They had proper spacing between tables and had a limited amount of customers. The restaurant looks new and is decorated in an industrial style making patrons feel like they are not in a strip-mall restaurant. Although the restaurant had noticeably followed proper COVID guidelines, some of the patrons were being obstinate, and the young staff were understandably having a hard time dealing with them-trying to balance how to please a customer with virus-forced restrictions. Two men at the table on the left and two women at the bar on the right did not have masks when they entered, exited, or visited the restrooms. One of the women was stopped by the hostess upon entering and told that she had to wear a mask, the hostess even offered to find her a mask, but the patron insisted that she would just pull her shirt up over her face and ignored the hostess. Since 4 patrons did not have masks when we were dining, I think this problem could be solved by offering disposable masks at the door. My mom and I did feel slightly uncomfortable with the 2 unmasked women a few feet away from us at the bar walking past our table to sit at the bar and use the restrooms repeatedly. My mom and I had the “Crawfish Cheese Dip” appetizer; the dip was beautiful to look at, and the bright red crawfish heaped atop of it was stunning, but it did not arrive at our table warm which was a shame, because there were not very many people in the restaurant to serve. I also wish that I had chips instead of toast points. The dip itself was tasty-cheddar or American cheese, and crawfish was not only laid on top of it but also mixed generously throughout the queso and not overly spicy but spiced noticeably with creole spices - allowing the spice to just tickle the back of your tongue. The crawfish was cooked perfectly; it was actually cooked so well that it fooled my mom into thinking it was shrimp. I added the “Mac & cheese” as my side; it was more of a stove top version, versus a casserole, with mixed in creole seasoning. Unfortunately, this felt like a cafeteria mac & cheese to me both in taste and served appearance. As for the Po’Boy. the fried shrimp was cooked to perfection with a crunchy, light, and non-greasy breading; the shrimp was so good that I just wanted to pick the shrimp out of the sandwich and not eat the rest. The rest of the sandwich was simply comprised of standard Po’Boy ingredients and was a little uninspired, making me wish that the sandwich was open-faced with a handful of coleslaw or hosting a spicy aioli, but the cook on the shrimp made the bland toppings on the sandwhich forgivable. My mom said that her mushroom Swiss burger was enjoyable-the cook was correct and the mushrooms were fresh; however, the Swiss cheese was completely left off. She only ordered it without a bun, not the cheese, and she felt that the meat was a bit compressed or slightly over-mixed. This restaurant reminded me a lot of Boudreaux’s in Maumelle. The mule cocktails looked intriguing, and I was sad that my mom and I don’t day drink. While we enjoyed our experience, it wasn’t such that would cause us to rush back.The temperature of the crawfish queso, the swiss cheese being left off of my mother’s mushroom and Swiss burger, and the patrons refusing to wear masks all combined to reduce our full enjoyment. We were very impressed by the cook on all of our seafood - the crawfish and the shrimp were superbly cooked. I do think that this bar is settling into “its bones” and will feel more like the bustling bar that it is supposed to be when the COVID restrictions are lifted. For now, in our opinion, visit for dinner and order anything with seafood to ensure a...

Today was my first (and probably last) time visiting, I've heard and read great reviews and since I live in the area, I decided to give it a try. There are some positives: nice atmosphere, many options on the menu and great location... Negatives: I will only discuss the food. I ordered the fried green tomatoes and shrimp and grits. The tomatoes were battered well but there was no seasoning whatsoever. I literally had to add a large amount of salt and pepper in attemps to make it work. There is a remoulade on the side, but the lack of seasoning in the actual batter still left much to be desired. The shrimp and grits was oily, soupy and completely unappealing and unappetizing. I asked the waitress if the entree was supposed to have so much "oil" in it and she assured me that it was butter. I highly doubt this. It was very dark and specifically located around the diameter of the food itself.( in a bowl) I personally believe that it was grease/oil from the bacon and mushrooms that are also a part of the entree. I tried my best to stir the ingredients to see if that would help but that greasy layer never disappeared. I informed the waitress that I was not satisfied with either of my choices and there was no offer to order something else or to have the same dish prepared again. I simply received a generic " I'm sorry you didn't like your food" AFTER I paid. I wasn't expecting my meal to be comped, but they could have at LEAST done something to try to make the experience more positive, especially being a new business and having new patrons coming in. I recommended this place to others after reading some reviews last week but after my experience today, I will have to go back and retract...

A friend of mine has heard of Copper Mule for a while, so when we had a chance to go, we jumped.

To drink, I had a Lavender Mule, while my friend had a honeysuckle strawberry lemonade. Both drinks were spot-on, and though a little sweet for some, they were perfect for us, blended so that the alcohol does not separate and the flavor was evenly distributed throughout.

For our entrees, my friend chose the Shrimp and Grits, the most popular dish here, but was able to make a substitution for blackened chicken to accommodate their shellfish allergy. The grits were buttery and flavorful, just sweet enough to be called True Southern without overwhelming, and topped with fresh scallions.

As for me, the choice was the VooDoo Pasta. A bed of spaghetti noodles topped with a "spicy red gravy" and sausage, andouille, and chunks of chicken, all cooked to preserve their unique flavors while still contributing to the delicious whole.

Finally, we ended the meal with the white chocolate bread pudding. It comes with a dollop each of pecan praline ice cream and whipped cream, and let me tell you... This was dessert bliss. Every bite melted perfectly together, and though the ice cream made it a little sweeter than I'm accustomed to, it was the ending the meal as a whole deserved.

Better than the meal itself was our server. Ashten was an incredible young woman with great insights. All of our questions about the menu and trending meals were answered immediately, and she never skipped a beat when we asked her opinion. Ashten, thank you for your knowledge and your wonderful, upbeat personality! I was not in the best mood when I arrived, but I was definitely happy by the...