Brooklyn's Down South — Restaurant in Buda

I wanted this place to be knock my socks off good!!!

From the moment I walked in I was impressed with the music they were playing and the ambiance. I think if they turned the lights down just a little bit it could set a mood but I loved the music!

We were greeted right away asked to wait a moment. It was not too busy we arrived around 8:30 and they closed at 10.

Service started out a little slow. We ordered fried green tomatoes for an appetizer. These fried green tomatoes tasted more like fried pickles to me and the batter they used was very thick and they seemed to be slightly over cooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside. I was literally playing tug of war with each bite. Sadly it was husbands first time trying fried green tomatoes and he kept asking are they supposed to be this spicy, are they supposed to be this heavy. It almost seemed like they used the same batter as the hush puppies.

The hush puppies had a good flavor on the inside but the outside tasted like they had been fried in old oil. They had a bit of an aftertaste too.

My husbands food was very good. He had the grilled catfish, cheesy grits and sautéed spinach. I tasted everything on his plate and kind of regretted it because I liked his food way more than mine.

I had the blackened snapper (Med spice), Mac and cheese and hush puppies. The snapper was pretty thick and it was dry. It had a lot of spices but it was bland. The Mac and cheese was edible. It reminded me of when my 8 year old daughter makes me max and cheese from the Velveeta box with the liquid cheese.

The jalapeño corn bread was bland. I didn't like it. My husband said it was missing something. I think growing up in the south I was expecting Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi flavors.

I had the improved old fashioned as it was recommended in one of the Yelp reviews I read. I think I'm going to stick to what I know because the old fashion seemed very sweet and almost syrupy. It had a very nice presentation. I drank as much as I could but I don't blame the bar tender I just think I'm not a fan brown liquor (bourbon).

The bread pudding was good. I like mine to have a little more sauce but it was tasty.

Like I said service started a little slow but as we started to order it got better. Our server Jaedan was absolutely wonderful!! She encouraged us to try the brunch and she really peaked my interest with the flight of mimosas.

Overall I like the place and I'll go again and try something different on the menu. I will definitely check out the brunch.

I really, really wanted to love this place and while it was not love at first bite, I'm hoping the next visit will be a...

Based on the reviews, we thought why not? Probably because we didn’t want waste $95 and leave hungry! When we sat down, we quickly had a friendly waitress that answered all our questions so we were optimistic at that point! However, we saw her 4 times after that 1) to take our order, 2) we got her attention to ask for butter, 3) we asked for tea, and 4) she brought the check. Oh five! She returned quickly after we put cash down to ask if we needed change and when we said no thank you, she said thank you and left. Not my definition of service, but she was friendly and professional so that’s almost 2 stars, right? The food was a disappointment. The fried green tomatoes I couldn’t even eat a a half of one. The waitress had explained they were pickled which we like but the ranch and the remoulade were not good at all to pair with when cold. Hush puppies - so dry I asked for butter which still didn’t make them edible. I could not even eat half of one. We were glad they offered smaller portion dinner entrees - a smaller protein and two side dishes. My chicken was good, dry but not bad, and my husband’s chicken fried steak was not good but ok. When you go out, you want flavorful and delicious though… not “ok.” The sides were bad though - grits, and I love grits, had the consistency of sand and even butter, couldn’t help make them creamy. Slaw was not vinegary or sweet but like watery cabbage. Spinach- another of my all time faves, had so much garlic I couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites. Plus it was sweet!?!? Mashed potatoes - bland and lukewarm. The red beans and rice, in their defense, were flavorful! But the hard rice made it not enjoyable so we took that home to try to reheat and soften rice. The red beans were pretty good actually once we finished cooking them which brings up food to 2 stars :) Finally, with 2 “small” plates of smaller chicken breast and smaller chicken fried steak each with 2 sides, 4 hush puppies, half order (6) fried green tomatoes, 2 extra side dishes of spinach and slaw, and 2 iced teas, totaled $82 and we left a $13 tip… right at $95 and some change and we left hungry. Unfortunately, not tasty and needing to bring food home to cook it after paying $95 for 2 people is really not enjoyable. Plus we...

My partner and I decided to try something new for dinner and found Brooklyn's. We were excited to come here because the menu sounded delicious online. When we arrived we were speaking to another couple and they were enjoying their meal which was the special for the evening. The special was a strip loin on top of a fried mushroom risotto cake and broccolini. We began with the alligator bites and the boudin balls. Both of which were good. We then ordered the special because it looked really good. When we got the meal, the steak was cooked nicely. However the middle of the risotto was ice cold. We spoke to our server and they took the two meals back. When the manager brought the meals back to our table we had lost our apetite and were not content with receiving the same plates of food with not much changed. She took the meals back and recommended the achiote pork chop. We ordered this with the spicy brussel sprouts, mac and cheese, and the cornbread. The pork chop was absolutely dry and just overcooked. You could tell the sauce was there to try and make the pork chop juicy, but this is not the right type of sauce to do that. The sauce was too thick and grainy for this purpose. The sauce could have easily been strained one more time and then blended again to create a good consistency for this type of meat. The mac and cheese sauce was too thick and not really creamy at all. My partner enjoyed the mac and cheese,  however I did not. The brussel sprouts were nicely cooked. But the chunks of jalepeno threw off the overall quality and flavor balance of the side dish. The cornbread was overly dry and needed salt. We also ordered two drinks: the pineapple jalepeno margarita and the buda bowl. The jalepeno seeds & slices in the margarita caused the drink to be extremely spicy and not well balanced. The Buda bowl was not balanced either, it was too acidic. We finished our meal with the bread pudding, which my partner and I did really enjoy. Overall this establishment has potential,  but it is just not there yet. There are several things that could be tweaked that would cause the food to be marvelous. The customer service from the manager was well. She did constantly check on us...