Cottle Village — Restaurant in Cottleville

I’d like to give more stars as this place seems like it will be great, however, there were a few things that were more than lackluster for our first visit.

Let’s start with the obvious: the parking…we had dinner reservations and quickly realized that we would not only be late but we would have no place to park. The lot is tiny, and will never be able to accommodate all of their customers. While the shuttle is appreciated, they should reserve the small gravel lot for people with dining reservations and use as a loading and unloading area only for entertainment, and then shuttle them to the venue. Same with the staff, they have reserved parking that could easily be used by patrons with the staff being shuttled to a lot. After circling for almost 30 minutes and watching car after car get spots after just pulling in, my husband was ready to leave and go somewhere else, it’s bad when your spouse wants to just throw in the towel over parking!! Next were the entitled parkers who not only held up the shuttle but also contributed to the horrible parking experience. I think after Saturday some signage will be bought and put up as they should have been towed (not that a tow truck could fit either) and to make matters worse one of the culprits had the audacity to complain to me that they had to move their car because someone else parked illegally across from them and that’s why it was blocked! Umm what!?

Cars were finally moved and we followed the school bus to the lot down the road (a couple miles) to be shuttled back for our dinner reservation. At least it had AC…

Let’s continue here: The food… My husband ordered the filet and I ordered the steak frites. We both ordered med rare and had basically raw meat!! But it wasn’t too bad and since the ambience is not quiet and romantic we choose to eat and get out because it was SOOOOO LOUD!! Please look into acoustic panels or fabric as it is not conducive to date night in that setting. Tables are close as well, like breakfast joint close…but we did enjoy who we were sitting next to and ended up getting drinks with them after dinner and getting a ride back to our car from our awesome new friends!! I digress…the food…WAY TOO MUCH SALT!! Do I need to say that again?? What in the world is happening in the kitchen that you would think food needs to be so overwhelming with salt that it’s almost inedible. We get it, every kitchen worker has burned their taste buds off by being heavy smokers, but this was ridiculous. Please just stop with over salting as it ruined my meal and the wait staff can’t keep up with refills on water! Our server was nice but with the acoustics being so bad we only heard every other word.

Finally: Pricing is very reasonable, but I’d rather spend a little more and know that my food was edible and not based off of someone who pours salt over everything.

Having a shuttle is nice but it’s a false security for people who continue to drink and forget that after the shuttle they still need to drive.

There are signs in every neighborhood nearby that you CANNOT park there or you’ll be towed, so obviously the neighbors aren’t too pleased.

Happy this place is now open but there are a lot of kinks to work out before it will be a frequent spot for me and my husband as it all is very chaotic...

Have been here a few times and the layout is beautiful. The choice to only seem to have country music is interesting and not my preference personally. I think they'd do much better to have some variety but that's just my opinion. Regardless the choice of pebbles for the area in front of the stage is odd. On previous visits, kids were throwing these rocks at each other, lol until one girl took one in the eye. I'll blame the parents mostly that didn't initially do anything on that though. I will say I'm very happy to have another option for food/drink/entertainment close to home, however, none of these are 5 star experiences as yet. My wife and I had dinner there yesterday, assuming it wouldn't be too busy on a Wednesday. It wasn't overly busy and we chose to sit at bar which is usually out preference. Their cocktails aren't too bad but the fig old fashioned is almost nauseatingly sweet so I didn't finish it and switched to wine. Good fig flavor, but way too heavy on simple syrup. A proper one should just have a sugar cube but for simplicity here it's understandable. We ordered the crab cake for an appetizer. The flavor was good and appears to be real crab but for $18 for 2 nearly flat crabcakes it was disappointing and wouldnt them recommended at that price point. The sauce it comes with is flavorful but overpowering so use sparingly. Additionally, we weren't given any silverware or napkins and when I finally got her attention, she said they were brought to the wrong location and she was expecting some "soon". Literally 6 minutes later some arrived, which seems like something she or another runner in the bar area could have grabbed easily/sooner. The real issue was that we had also ordered Mac and cheese and steak frites which took nearly an hour to arrive. The bartender never gave us updates and when I asked her if there was an issue (after 45 minutes), she agreed it had taken a long time and went to check with the kitchen. Upon returning, she advised that the kitchen had some issues that was causing our delay and apologized. Another 10 minutes later our food finally appeared. The steak was cooked perfectly and the fries were seasoned well. The Mac and cheese looks great but unfortunately lacks flavor and the texture is fairly mealy/dry. I have a feeling the food was just thrown together after the 45 min check in but regardless, there was no attempt to comp anything from our bill which leaves a bad taste. Will try again and hope they work out some kinks with quality and service and will update...

I have already been twice in the short period Cottle Village has been open and I’m already planning my next visit! My first experience was with the Distillery, and I was immediately impressed by the atmosphere and drink selection. On my second visit, my husband, friends and I had dinner at the Tavern. We had a difficult time choosing what to eat because it all sounded so good, so we ended up ordering a little bit of everything! For starters, we got the hummus tray and crab cakes. There were 3 kinds of hummus—all delicious—with plenty for the four of us to share. The crab cakes were outstanding as well—pretty much all crab, not weighed down by breading like you get some places. The drinks were clearly very carefully selected and designed. We each tried different options and were thrilled. Two of us ordered steaks and the other two ordered the short ribs as a main course with sides of fried cauliflower, mashed potatoes, spinach, and mac n cheese. Again, insanely delicious. Everything was perfectly cooked. Finally, we had the cookie skillet and I almost don’t want to share how good it was in this review because I’m afraid they’ll run out next time I’m there! Heavenly. After dinner, we found some chairs outside and enjoyed listening to the band and watching families and friends spend time together—kids playing bags, dancing, and more. The entire venue has been so thoughtfully created (my friend and I were even discussing how stylish the Tavern restrooms are!). I can’t wait to spend more time there creating lifelong memories with...