The Brown Barrel — Restaurant in Frankfort

I arrived in Kentucky on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 from Las Vegas, Nevada to attend a funeral for my cousin on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. He was a long time resident of Frankfurt, Kentucky. After I arrived in town on Tuesday, I was starving and there aren’t many places to eat. I drove around looking for a restaurant and saw that this parking lot was full so it clearly was the place to be. In addition, it looked like one of the only restaurants open that I could find. The hostess greeted me warmly and was very nice with excellent service. I love live music and there was a live band playing in one of the rooms so I wanted to sit there. The room was packed and the only table available was a large table that sits about 6 people in the back of the room by the window. I sat at the corner of the table to leave space just in case other people might want to sit at the table since the room was packed. There were one or two white, female servers who refused to acknowledge me or serve me. I know the place was busy, but one white, female waitress went to the table right next to mine to take their order and didn’t say she would be right back, or greet me, or anything. I was completely ignored. After sitting for a few minutes and being ignored by the waitress(es), the hostess eventually came back and asked me if a server had taken my order yet. When I said, ‘no’, she took my order. Later, a group of three female customers came in and asked me if they could join my table and of course I said they could. The white, female waitress warmly greeted them and told them after she cleaned another table off, they could switch tables. The women wanted to stay at the table with me as I overheard one mention it was a little quieter in the back (so they could talk to each other) and it was by the large window. I took a picture of my food with I guess the drink menu so I could get a photo with the name of the restaurant to remember it by. One of the women at the table asked the waitress if there was a drink menu. Instead of asking if I was finished with the menu or addressing me, she grabbed the menu that was on the table in front of me (the menu was closed so I wasn’t using it), again ignored me, and handed it to the women. The treatment by the white, female waitress(es) really set a negative tone. I was probably the only Asian female in the place, from what I could tell. I felt I was being discriminated against for either not being a local and/or for being Asian. I definitely was not welcomed there, I was ignored, and I felt the racism. One customer at the table in front of me even glared at me like I had 3 heads. The food was fabulous (I had the blackened catfish and a side of mashed potatoes) and the hostess (black, female) was warm and friendly and had great customer service, but the treatment from the waitress Karen(s) ruined it for me. If you’re from out of town and/or Asian, the Karen(s) don’t want you there. I was so upset because the way I was treated, I paid at the cash register, thanked the hostess, and let her know the waitress(es) wouldn’t even serve me. I wrote a tip on my credit card for over 20% that I hope went to the hostess because she...

UPDATE 12/23/2024 Frankfort Location ONLY,we both got sick last night, This is why you should not have so many choices on the MENU too many options for a place to do a great job cooking every item, this place should stick to burgers and fries , It says they got a 100 inspection score, The inspector must not have seen the MOUSE::::::our first time eating here, we ordered the Beer Battered Fish and Chips , the fish had a bad taste im not talking about a fishy taste and so did the batter Batter was NOT cooked all the way in some areas, the tarter sauce is awful and yellow or green tint to it,I thought this place with these PRICES it would be all homemade in house food from scratch ,I have never tasted fish this bad or tarter sauce, the mashed potatoes had a very strong overpowering taste of sour cream, 12/22/2024 Sunday 7:20pm Dine in #91,PLEASE CHECK CAMERA, if i had it to do over i would have asked for something else but i kept eating it trying to figure out what was i tasting , The place was not busy and had plenty of open seats, our server did great however another server close to us kept complaining and talking about seeing a MOUSE on the floor by the serving window and fountain drink machine, she even jumped onto the counter because she was afraid of the MOUSE, $16.00 for 1 piece of fish and order i fries i expected better fish, I would not recommend the beer battered fish or the tarter sauce, My first visit was not good but i will try this place 1 more time, I most likely will order a burger next time, I should have asked more questions when ordering the fish, this is all my fault because i did not bring this to the servers attention till the end, The Menu has too much on it , it is better to have less on the menu and do a great job then offer so many items with less quality Total bill $33.95 plus $8.00 tip, price did not equal the quality of the food so far. If you are the owner please check your cameras and you will see what i am talking...

Let me start by saying that i have almost 20 years in the restaurant industry. I took my wife here for Mother's day, and what a disappointment. Let's start with the drinks. I ordered the Kentucky margarita and my wife ordered the strawberry Bellini. Taking a drink of my margarita was like drinking saltwater. It's supposed to have salt around the rim but this was not that. My wife's "strawberry" Bellini had never seen a strawberry from which to get its flavor as it had no strawberry flavor. We ordered Harry's nachos for our appetizers, the only redeeming part of the meal I might add. However, they were out of the pulled pork that comes on them. The substitute of chicken was acceptable. For our entrée, we both ordered the surf and turf. Our salads had the pineapple vinaigrette on them, which I didn't care for. My wife enjoyed it. The croutons had no crunch and tasted of cooking oil. It took our entrée forever to be brought to our table. Both my wife and I ordered the steak medallions medium rare. They were raw. We sent them back and had our side dishes and shrimp to tied us over until our steak was done. The beer battered shrimp were overcooked and the batter tasted like old cooking oil. The white truffle mashed potatoes were as dry as mashed potatoes can be. The vegetable of the day, which we were told was a medley, was some oversteamed overseasoned broccoli. Once the steak medallions were brought back, they were still not cooked properly. I didn't complain again, because I didn't want to be there all night waiting on someone to learn how to properly cook a steak. $81.62 later and I know I will never darken the door of this...