Barney's Beanery — Restaurant in Burbank

Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY. Yard House is literally next door - FAR nicer, far better food, FAR BETTER SERVICE and atmosphere.

Came here with a friend to have a nice 'catch up since Covid' dinner. We knew there'd be a TV at our table (on mute) and we figured at 7 PM on a Wednesday, it would be at least reasonably balanced in terms of noise and distractions. The food of course like every other restaurant shows signs of Recession and Covid damage - under-trained staff, higher prices for less food and somewhat lower standards in everything (presentation, quality, taste).

What we got was: indifferent, absentminded server (a young gal, 5'2, long brown hair, had no name tag and never introduced herself) who forgot items we'd ordered, disappeared after serving our food (so we had to track her down TWICE - she was just HANGING OUT at the front flirting with a male server) and INSANE NOISE. Apparently to help draw dwindling crowds Wednesday night is TRIVIA NIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that's how the WAY TOO LOUD, LOVES THE SOUND OF HIS OWN VOICE "HOST' said it) - the karaoke mic he was SHOUTING into was cranked to 89, and he talked NON STOP from 9 PM on...

It was intolerable. AND - genius management decided then the MUSIC needed to be dialed up to compete with the screaming Trivia Night host - so yea... conversation became IMPOSSIBLE. We were seated at the far side by the front door - farthest away from the Trivia dude - and STILL we had to SHOUT to just try to be heard.

The scary thing is I HAD CALLED TO MAKE A RESERVATION (which the nice host, Catherine, did for us) - AND I'D MENTIONED WE'D LIKE A NICE QUIET BOOTH so we could talk and discuss and enjoy... 7:45 PM. That would have been HER CUE to say, "Oh, well just so you know, it is TRIVIA NIGHT and by 8:50 there'll be a whole EVENT going on super loud that will drown out any attempt to have a nice conversation....'

We tried to pay for 10 minutes (3 ways: tried to find / flag down our server.... then I got up and asked the HOST for our server... still nothing, SO I CALLED THE RESTAURANT and informed the Host we STILL had no server!! :) and left with our head throbbing and ears ringing and for the mediocre food (65$ PLUS TIP - no alcohol!!) ... NO THANK YOU. YARD HOUSE - you'll thank me.

If management cares to make up for this awful experience, message and I'll be happy to discuss/update review for at least caring about loyal customers who were not treated with a great...

2022.01-23_1000: Yup, early AF but our team was playing and we couldn't get it on ESPN+. Then I remember years ago, we visited this spot to watch a football game and I remembered they were open early. It was Sunday and sure enough, they were open! It's very different during the day. In fact, I thought it was better. We stopped in at the right time because it was right before the LA Rams/Buccaneers game and it was packed. The great thing was, there's so many TVs there, we were able to watch our Pittsburgh Penguins game. Not many hockey fans there but who cares! We can watch our game and that's all that matters!

The service there was actually great. They must've expected a butt load of people because they had plenty of servers available. We sat facing the bar and the guy who greeted us was the bartender, too. Well hell, once everyone started coming in, all the servers turned into bartenders-it was pretty awesome to watch the hustle for as busy as they were. I remember those days and those days were awesome! There was never a lag in service and no matter who passed by our table, they would ask if we were okay! Primo, if you ask me.

Our food was delicious. I just thought it would be more cafe style and it wasn't. We started with two Irish Coffees. I had the Eggs Florentine and they presented it perfectly and it tasted so good! Their Hollandaise was creamy and the poached eggs were also perfect. When I cracked the yolk, it ran down the mound of spinach, sausage (I added that) and sourdough English muffin. Wow, a new favorite if we visit again! The hash browns were light and crispy, just like I like them and what's even better- they served it with a side of strawberries! Heck yeah!

He had a California Burger so I guess that means it had bacon and avocado in it. That looked gourmet, too. The brioche bun looked incredible, in fact, the burger looked so good, it looked fake. The size of the bigger looked about a quarter of a pound. That burger was delicious, too (I had a bite but it was huge). The portioning of food to pricing was excellent. It was reasonably priced.

What made our experience even better was the service though. Like I said, from not being busy to being slammed, they always kept tabs on us no matter who it was. That was awesome. That makes us want to return and try some other tasty dishes!! Their menu was extensive and they had a lot of good stuff to choose from. I would definitely stop in for dinner good...

Used to come here more frequently. Came here to watch a USWNT game in their stadium seating area back in July. Love the stadium seating because it contributes to a really fun atmosphere for big events. However, this most recent time put me off the place probably for good. Despite it being a not very busy day on a Tuesday midday, service was slow, the benches and tables smelled like they hadn't been cleaned properly after a possible food and alcohol spill. The floor was sticky. Furthermore, the wait staff was friendly enough, but the food was mediocre and they seemed to keep messing up orders. They brought out some decadent dish we never ordered (there were only two of us, one of whom was a kid so it was obvious to everyone that we didn't order 3 entrees). At first I thought they were simply mixed up and trying to give us another table's order, but it turns out it was just a complete error. No one had ordered the dish at all. The waitress apologized because she knew it had been an error on the restaurant's end and she promised the dish would be removed from our tab. In the excitement of the victory after the game, I trusted the wait staff and forgot to triple check the bill and ended up leaving a nice tip on a bill that still included an overpriced dish we never ordered or even ate, despite the fact that the waitress was the one who brought it to our attention in the first place and told us it would be handled. It's my own fault for not checking more carefully and I only realized the next day when I looked over the receipt and did the math. Needless to say, I found it incredibly disappointing and won't be going back for a while. I'll miss the stadium seating, but I can get mediocre bar food and more honest...