Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine — Restaurant in Fort Worth

This was a place near us that we passed constantly, and each time, I always admired their wonderful lush garden. We kept saying we needed to go there w/o realizing what restaurant it was. However, my husband found it was Bonnell's and took me there for our recent wedding anniversary. The food was spectacular probably because it's100% LOCALLY SOURCED TX FOOD. The chef apparently grew up hunting and believes in using local sourced 👍👍. We had the mixed grill with Buffalo and the Elk backstrap. Wow, the ELK BACKSTRAP is amazing at medium cook! Fave! I loved the stuffed quail, fried quail legs appetizer, and the Brushetta with goat cheese was divine. The selection of wines was outstanding, and the digital presentation for selection made it quite easy for pairing. OMG, the mashed marscapone "yams"/ sweet potatoes are absolute DIVINE HEAVEN. Forget the Thanksgiving marshmallow style, I can't eat them any other way now. The deserts for me I can't speak to because there was only one dairy-free alternative of sorbet in a flavor I didn't care for. They need another alternative (almond, cashew, goat, etc.) for those of us with digestive dairy issues. My husband seemed to really enjoy the cheesecake, though, and they brought a few truffles for a wedding celebration gift.

Staff were very attentive. Our server, Brenda was very sweet, kind, and attentive. Kudos to host, bartender for ensuring I had a comfortable wheelchair space for seating in the bar area of the restaurant when we came in. Very accommodating..

The only real negatives would be: ▪︎ Only 1 handicap ♿️ parking is available, and I need van access always, so we had to park in an adjacent lot since the only spot avail. was taken. ▪︎ need more dairy-free desert options other than 1 sorbet ▪︎SHARPEN YOUR STEAK KNIVES!!! DULL! 😂 ▪︎ the lighting seems to be a constant complaint. Ambiance is great, but when it's too dark to see the menu, you need to hand out flashlights or turn the lights up a bit more 😆

Overall, WE LOVE this place and will be back to try more of the menu & eat more...

This is the 5th time I have been to Bonnell's, and the third bad meal I have had here. We came in for restaurant week and I wish I had followed my instincts and gone elsewhere. The first issue was the quality of the food, three of the people at our table started with the Tomato Jalapeno soup, the best way I can describe it, is a luke warm bowl of spicy V8, because it had zero flavor and a ton of salt. Then I had the Quail pasta, two of us had it and both got it at room temp, it was not hot at all. It had very little flavor and was drowned out by a super rich sauce. The most insulting part of the meal though, was we ordered a bottle of Montague Pinot Noir 2017 from the Bacigalupi vineyard. This is one of my favorite vineyards, and an incredible producer of quality RRV fruit. We were served an alternative vintage 2020 Montague from the Seaview vineyard. I specifically ordered the bottle for the vintage, AVA and vineyard. When I realized it after they had opened it, I addressed it with the Manager. I pointed out they had not served what was on the menu, he simply said we have that option and it says so in the wine list. This to me was egregious knowing the difference between the two. Why not tell me before opening the bottle? The vintage was written so small on the bottom of the label you couldn't barely read it, we drank the wine it was still good, but nowhere near a RRV Bacigalupi. The last insult of the night was they added 20% tip to our check for a table of 5 and didn't tell us. So I gave a large tip for poor service, luke warm tasteless food, and the wrong wine. My wife and I couldn't remember a more poor, fine dining experience, Bonnells has run out of chances with me. They should be embarrassed of their unapologetic service, anybody expecting a good bottle of wine should be told if they don't have it and given the option to take it or deny it, not served their...

My mother had been wanting to try this place for forever so we went, but we should’ve went somewhere else.

I ordered the “Texas Shrimp & Grits” as an appetizer. Either the cook had an off day or they hired a new one because the reviews just don’t seem to match up with our experience, but it had absolutely no flavor. The “shrimp” was just that... a shrimp! Since this IS fine dining I was thinking the shrimp would be larger, and fresh, but instead it looked like the shrimp you get from Walmart out of the freezer, in other words: they were very small. Normally grits have a smooth texture and do not clump. Either the grits were not cooked thoroughly or that’s just how they make them, idk but I did not like it. The grit granules were very large, and again, not my fancy. The cheese also had this artificial taste to it. So grits: no flavor, clumpy, Kraft Mac and Cheese cheese powder was used in the making of this dish, (lol I’m not 100% sure of this accusation but the cheese did not taste like cheese!), I just don’t understand how it’s called ‘Fine Dining’ when the shrimp looks like the shrimp straight out of Cup Noodles. They were that small. I didn’t even finish nor did I order anything else bc of how disappointing and dissatisfying the grits were. I lost my whole appetite.

Mother order the Pecan- Crusted Redfish. Her only complaint was the jasmine rice, to which she said should’ve been cooked longer. There’s clearly a grain- cooking epidemic going on here.

Dessert: Small, tiny, almost non existent, one bite and you’re done. I hope that puts it into perspective for y’all.

Atmosphere: Nearly pitch freaking black. Had to use our phones’ flashlight to see the menu. Our waiter was completely inattentive. Came by 2 or 3 times, so guess who didn’t receive a fat tip? Yeah, I’m that person.

In all, I expected wayyyyy more from this “fine dining” restaurant, and will...