Black Oak Kitchen & Drinks — Restaurant in Coventry

Went to this place for the first time to just check it out and watch the game. It seemed alright very dead inside though for a new restaurant. First off the food was just eh, mediocre bar food which it’s fine just don’t charge the prices you do for them. Seriously high for price for terrible food. Next the drinks really were bad! I had this Moscow mule that tasted like brown mustard and sharing my dissatisfaction with the waitress she could of cared less as her response was “oh that doesn’t sound good” and then continued to walk away. After that we tried desert since it was an allies bread pudding desert and it turned into burnt donut pieces that were harder then your first exam in high school.

Now the second time I went was the icing on the cake I wanted to really give this place a chance. Maybe it wasn’t a good night the night I went. First I go and we wanted to sit at the bar. Place was dead again, the lady said follow me and brought us to a mini table about 3x3 in size next to the only groups of people there, nearly touching elbows with the two groups I could help but think why is this side table in the middle of two huge booths made 0 sense. I put my hands on the table and the table begins to fall over so I hold it up and decide I’m going to the bar I’m not sitting at a table that’s falling over. Failure to know what’s wrong with equipment is ridiculous shows me that this place probably doesn’t get a good cleaning cause bumping the table you’d see it will fall over. So I sit at the bar and had again a terrible drink that I spent 12 bucks on I believe and watching the bartender make it, she put maybe a 1/3 of a shot of alcohol and the rest was soda. So being charged $12 for a Pepsi sucked. Meanwhile me and my girlfriend sat next to a obnoxious drunk guy and his girlfriend who should of been cut off but wasn’t. Seeing as the place is dead all the time they must really try to make you spend money to stay afloat. I have another comment to make but it’s so horrible I won’t even bother saying it but literally this place needs new staff and I’ll leave it at that, I liked this place when it was Hollywood video. This joint is terrible and i don’t understand how anyone could put more then 2 stars on the reviews here. Shows the type of standards Rhode Island has for food. Next time I come back to this place is when a new restaurant or store opens...

So typically I don't like writing bad reviews, but my dinner tonight we pretty bad. I called ahead on the way there (I was about 25 minutes out) about a table for four, the host said "Don't worry about it. You will not have a problem getting a table.” I even jokely I said " Okay awesome, I know it's Saturday at 6 o'clock and I'm starving." I showed up and the host asked if I called ahead, I told her about the convo we legit just had and she nervously had another women come up to me and tell me it's a half hour wait. So I brought up again that I called and was told pretty much I didn't have to leave my name with them, there was no wait. Both of them just looked at me like I was insane. Then gave me my wait time. We waited it was fine whatever but sadly, the whole experience was just bad. The server was way swamped they needed more people on. The kitchen and wait staff were overwhelmed and very slow which is understandable considering they clearly got busy so quickly but the food quality was bad too. The food took right about an hour to get to us.The whole time waiting you could hear the kitchen bell ringing for people to run food and when it did come everything was cold. My sandwich legit was giant slab of fat, and it's experiences like this that make me want to stay home and cook. Your server was very sweet and she did take the meal off. I don't know if it was an off night but I will...

Stopped in for lunch as the google reviews weren't bad, however after being seated we realized that we made the wrong decision (too late to go elsewhere and eat at a decent time at this point). There were 3 menus, a small drink menu which had 3 desserts listed and then 3 or so pages of drinks, then another drink menu placed on top of the food menu, and last but not least opened the food menu and half of it was also drinks. With a name that states Kitchen and drinks one would have thought it would be either equal items or maybe slightly less food, but 3/4 of menu items was either beer, spirits or some form of a mixed drink. As far as a bar, this probably is top notch, but food it was completely subpar and underwhelming. The chicken on my sandwich was tough, and the fries well, they were okay.

Now, the service and the employees were very nice and attentive. Our service was quick and we were checked in on a number of times. Yes she did ask how the food was, we did tell her it was good and ate, however "good" is where I would leave it. It was good for a one time stop, but I wouldn't eat here again.

So in short if your looking for a good bar with exceptional service, this place seems like it would fit the bill, if you're looking to be blown away from the food I would...