Midnight Rambler — Restaurant in Dallas

For being a cocktail lounge in the basement of the Joule with vintage deco style woodwork, you'd expect an atmosphere that reflects that of the establishment it is in and that of the era it is trying to pay homage to.

Not so with this place AT ALL. For paying nearly $40+ for two drinks for two people, you'd expect to be in an atmosphere where you can at least have a conversation without shouting. Alas, Midnight Rambler thinks that "cocktail lounge" means blast music as loud as possible to feel like a club. Which complete goes against what they advertise in their website as being this classic cocktail lounge. For context, I registered 90db at one point because it was so loud which is as loud as lawnmower or train which makes conversation impossible. If you are blasting music this loud you need to offer earplugs as a courtesy to your patrons, it's the bare minimum you can do if you insist on trying to be a club without being a club.

I ordered the BBQ manhattan and after ordering I realized it was somehow made with brisket? When our drinks came I asked "is this drink made with meat?" And the server said no and I asked further and got out of him that it is made from some rendered beef fat and such. I'm a vegetarian. You're serving a drink on the menu made with meat and you have almost 0 indication that is made with beef fat/renderings/etc. supremely disappointed that a drink menu needs to call out vegan/vegetarian friendly or not.

To top off our night, we attempted to validate our valet parking at the bar and were told to go check with the guy at the top of the stairs. We get to the top of the stairs and he tells us to go back downstairs and ask a bartender to do it. How poorly do you train your staff that they don't know how to validate parking?

What is super unfortunate is that had this place had music played at a normal volume that my partner and I could have a conversation, we would have stayed for a few rounds of drinks.

You're a vintage style cocktail lounge in the Joule hotel. You don't need a DJ blasting music like crazy to have an impression. at minimum play some tunes at a chill volume. At best get a trio of jazz musicians or something and let them create atmosphere. You're not a club. You're a cocktail lounge. If you want to act like a club please advertise yourself accordingly and get rid of the lounge tables and seating and just install a...

On a few hour layover visiting my sister we decided to grab a few drinks. It was a little ways from where we were crawling around, so we ubered there. Not realizing it was in the basement of the hotel we circled.

I had been travelling so I wasn’t sure if I was dressed well enough to get in, but it wasn’t really a dress code sort of place despite the hostess. There was live music playing and a dance floor, booths, tables, bar seating. The crowd was a mix of locals, business men, people looking to party, and a lot of people on dates.

Décor was great, a radiant copper glow from the ceiling. The backbar could use some better color/lighting contrast. There was staff running orders, people supervising and bar backs, but I found the bartenders themselves a little in the weeds for no reason. I think they would be better off with a service well and 2 bar wells. The soda water/ginger beer tap was leaking. While some drinks were super quick others were slower than need be. It might have been the way they took the orders, but getting 3 drinks I didn’t get much in the way of customer service/hospitality. No hello, no thank you when I settled, had to ask for menus.

I was surprised at how well priced their beer & shot boilermaker pairings were, I had one while I read through the menu and decided. The rest of their menu was about in line with a few outliers. I found the Wassail to be not as complex as I’d expected for a signature drink. Beer selection was only ok compared to the booming scene. The menu itself probably has more limitations than most since it’s in a hotel and pricing has dictations, but I found the flavors to be a little immature. A lot of old world ingredients with new world styles and techniques, but just unfocused as a whole menu. An identity crisis if you will.

The set up had the bathrooms down the hall and it lacked continuity of design/concept.

A Saturday night probably wasn’t the best time to come in and visit and then review, but friends of friends told me about the place and raved, so my expectations were high. I hadn’t been to Dallas in years, but my visits to San Antonio Cocktail week, Austin and other big Texas cities had be...

Short version: half of our group was denied entrance to this smelly, overpriced, and mostly empty bar, so our entire group left and found somewhere else that respected and accommodated us gladly.

I am in town with my cast and crew for a show we just opened. We found this establishment in a search and thought it looked nice and decided to go here and celebrate a successful first show. Half of our group was already there and seated when my half arrived. They wouldn’t let us in, though, and we were told there would be a wait of no more than 9 or 10 minutes. We figured it was a capacity issue so we went along with it. A large group left as we sat waiting but we still were not let in. We continued to sit and wait past the 10 minutes and still weren’t accommodated. We resolved to find somewhere else so I asked if I could be let in to inform our friends downstairs. The man at the door did oblige at least that. As I descended the stairs I was accosted by a strong sewer-like stench that permeated the entire bar. To add insult to injury there was an entire section unoccupied that could’ve accommodated the half of us that had been waiting. And our friends who were actually let in said the drinks were expensive and not worth the charge. Once they settled their tabs we all promptly went somewhere else. I’m sure they couldn’t care less, but I will never set foot in this place again. Glad I didn’t have the opportunity to give them any...