The J Bar Davenport — Restaurant in Davenport

With such beautiful decor and a good location, I thought my first (which is now my last) experience at The J Bar would be fantastic. Well, it wasn't.

First, let me say. I messaged this restaurant on social media asking prices and food options on Facebook, hoping to get an idea on what to expect. They read my message and ignored me until I sent a second message. Then I got a brushed off response. Here’s an idea J Bar, GET A NEW SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM MEMBER. With that being said, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and went in to the restaurant with a positive attitude.

I always feel I should point out the good in any place (except Solar Vision) before stating the bad. The chairs, the chairs at our table were so comfortable, I could have sat there all day. They were on point with bottomless mimosas!

Now to the reasons why I won't get back. We went there for my birthday brunch. Our drink order was taken rather quickly as well as our food order. However, when we received our food order, everything was messed up. One of our party mates got their brunch Chicken Sausage and Hash, guess what the kitchen forgot? The chicken sausage. The kitchen remade the entire order but it took them a good 15-20 minutes to get it to our friend. The servers gave my son a child's burger when he ordered the 50/50 being a teenager. Oh it gets better, two of us order their breakfast flatbread, which featured smoke Gouda cheese (the only reason I ordered it in the first place). Our meals did have that item on it at all. We brought this up to our server and we were only discounted one of them items. Then they forgot to place an order for the 1-1/2 year old at our table. Can you imagine what's it like to be 1-1/2 and be waiting for food because you're hungry and you have no way to say "where's my food? I'm so hungry!" Then see everyone get food but you? Yeah. Luckily this little girl has a great mom and asked the server "where's hers?" Of course we had to wait another 15/20 for a baby's burger. Then my friend was charged for a side of RANCH which she never received and we had to find a bartender to get us a bottle of hot sauce. Oh and the cheesy hash browns? Skip those. Seriously, no flavor at all same for the pork tenderloin. This is IOWA, how can you mess up a pork tenderloin?!?

Here's a tip, if you want service that is subpar, food that is missing ingredients, and you like to hunt down for simple items you ask for when ordering, go to The J Bar! You'll spend a small fortune for a dining experience that leaves you wanting to hit up the Taco Bell down the road.

Also, parking is...

I saw some of the food pictures from J Bar on google maps and thought they looked good. That's literally the only reason I decided to come here. I had no idea they were attached to a Holiday Inn, not that it would have put me off of coming.

Speaking of being located directly adjacent to a Holiday Inn, I was very surprised at the size of this restaurant. There's not only a sizeable outdoor patio, but the interior dining space is pretty massive and varied. There's some seating at the bar, high top table immediately adjacent to it, then about two fairly large rooms of normal table seating beyond that before the restaurant transitions to the hotel. Greyish tan ceramic tile lines the entire floor of the space, while lighting is supplied from a combination of recessed and suspended fixtures, as well as a multi-color changing thing in the ceiling above the bar. All the furnishings seem new and modern with the overall ambiance of what would be expected from a relatively new hotel bar.

For my food, I opted for the herbed fries and the tavern burger. I thoroughly enjoyed both. The burger was just a solid burger, one you might enjoy in many other bar settings. The herbed fries, however, I'd come back for many times. One of the things I liked about them the most was the truffle ketchup. Many times I order truffle fries when I'm out, only to regret getting them immediately after due to too much truffle seasoning being used. With the truffle portion of things in the ketchup, however, it was far easier to control the amount of truffle funk applied to each fry. The added pesto oil and other accoutrement on my fried potatoes were delightful additions that were subsequently also not overpowered by truffle.

The service and overall atmosphere was fantastic throughout the meal. My bartender checked in numerous times and was always quick to refill my drink. Between the three TVs present in the space and the relatively quiet music, I enjoyed the relatively low sound level throughout my visit.

I'd definitely consider coming here again, perhaps to try other things on the menu. It feels a little strange to visit a restaurant attached to a hotel, but it's good enough to overcome that small discomfort....

We visited on a Sunday afternoon to try something new and the menu looked reasonably priced to us, assuming the portions were on par with the price. What we found was that the portions were small and certain items seem misrepresented.

My wife ordered the duck confit. We’ve had duck confit several times before at many restaurants both here and in Europe, and this is not it. What was served was two (apparently) deep fried balls of gouda mac and cheese with some practically microscopic bits of duck. Not only did this seem more like an appetizer (a $12 appetizer, at that, and something that certainly would not fill a person up on its own if it’s considered a dinner plate), but there was nothing on the menu that stated exactly what this is, as it was simply called “Duck Confit”. It might be wise to explain on the menu somehow exactly what this dish is so people who are expecting duck confit are not misled.

The assistant manager came to our table when we politely explained the issue and offered to replace the meal on the house, so my wife ordered the shrimp and grits, which was the other dish she was eyeing on the menu. This dish was much better and was flavorful, but there was WAY too much “sauce” for the amount of grits and no spoon was provided, so half the dish went uneaten.

My pork medallions tasted excellent and were cooked well, and there was a little more to the plate than the two balls of mac and cheese my wife ended up with. However, it still felt like I was a bit lacking after the “dinner”, and it didn’t seem like enough for $14. Perhaps adding in some sides or something to that effect in the price would make these “dinners” feel more substantial.

My wife did have a pour of scotch, which she said was a good pour for the price. Their wine menu looks excellent. The scotch and the wine are the two things that might get us back in there, but the dinners were underwhelming and their craft beer selection has a couple gems but is...