Baumhower’s Victory Grille — Restaurant in Huntsville

We had a bad experience at the Baumhowers Victory Grill in Huntsville, Al tonight (Friday 8/16/24). We have patroned this location many times (and each time, our ticket is $100 at least - sometimes as often as 1 or 2 times a week) and have had good experiences so we decided to come tonight for my nephews 32 birthday! Yes, we had a large group - 16 people - and yes, we understand that the restaurant is not set up for such a large group but anything can be worked out. We had one of our party arrived at 4:15 p.m. to get a table prior to the rest of our party that was arriving between 5 pm. and 5:30 p.m. At that time, there were plenty of large tables as the restaurant was fairly empty before the dinner rush. She was not seated at a table and was made to wait in the hot waiting area. At 5 p.m. she was told that they were waiting on a table to become available. Our family began arriving and was made to wait for 2.5 hours for table. (This was not acceptable as we have 2 family members currently battling cancer and we had two young children -4 years old and 1.5 years old) We continued to patiently wait but many other parties were seated prior to our group. Each time we checked on the our wait time / table availability, we were told "they were waiting on a table to come available." We were never offered multiple tables in proximity to each other or any solution. After waiting 2.5 hours - my son, Ryan Carr, spoke to Garrett Sayre (tall white male) about why other people were continuing to be sat ahead of our group and that we had been waiting for two hours. Garrett could not give us a time frame for a table and offered to seat our group but he would have to "spread us out around the restaurant (not close together)." Garrett also said that he could not make patrons leave. My son stated he understood that but that didn't make it right that he was sitting other parties ahead of our group and making us wait...Garrett was discriminating against us for having a large group. I guess he didn't realized that our group would be spending AT LEAST $400 - $500 before tip. He made no attempt to accommodate our group. During our 2.5 hour wait we saw two other large groups that were also put off and not seated or accommodated in anyway. Garrett was making the smaller groups the priority and was not attempting to prepare a table for our group or the other two large groups . He even went as far as to say that he could not hold tables close together so our group could sit together or near each other. At this point, we were ready to take our business elsewhere. Garrett was not willing to help or make any attempt to seat our group - apparently another large group with special needs persons was also having the same issue with seating. Before leaving the restaurant since we had already been waiting so long, my mother found the manager, Xavier Crawley, and told him of our experience and situation. He was very kind and quickly apologized and asked for us to please let him see what he could do to get us served. Xavier had us a table all together and sat with in about 10 minutes. He explained he did not know what was going on and that he was extremely sorry for the issue. He checked on our group multiple times and made sure the rest of our night was great! We also had a super star server named - Charlotte. She was fantastic and very attentive to anything we needed, making sure our orders were correct, drinks filled / refilled all with a smile on her face! Thanks to Charlotte and Xavier a bad start turned around. I am still extremely dissatisfied with the wait how we were pushed to the back burner and deemed as unimportant as the smaller groups by Garrett Sayre and the other hosts / hostesses (which I am sure was not their fault but directed by Garrett).

Our experience with the kitchen, server and general manager were great! 5 STARS but our experience with wait time and simply being seated was a negative 5 stars! The discrimination against us for having a large group was uncalled for and...

Edit (8/9/25 Visit) So, after speaking with Gail, one of the partners, we decided to give it another chance. We were served by Caroline, who did an amazing job, give her whatever she wants, a raise, more hours, a promotion, time off, whatever, she deserves it. She did great. You really couldn't ask for a better server.

Overall, everything was good. It really was. The fried mozzarella app was really good, if a little oily, but that's kind of to be expected, not complaining. But it was definitely good. My dinner was good. Overall, I'm more impressed with the ownership and staff in their willingness to make even the smallest of unhappiness right. That was impressive. Good work on that.

This is going to be a very mixed review. It was a very mixed experience with my pick-up order and I will just be as organized as possible about it. I'll go down the order, I guess.

This was mine and my wife's 14th anniversary dinner.

I had the naan shrimp po'boy. The po'boy itself was actually really good. The shrimp was cooked just right, seasoned well, the remoulade sauce was delicious (it could have stood to have a little more on it), the lettuce was...lettucing or something. I would have loved the option to leave off the tomatoes, but there's no substitutions or omissions allowed, which is a bit ridiculous. The fries were terrible. They tasted like they were just pulled out of the bag, unthawed, brought to a little above room temperature and then left. Granted, I expected cold fries with a carry-out order, but these were just... underwhelming. Also, I think they had salt substituted on them by the back of house for air because they were completely bland, as well.

Up next, my wife had the Gooey Wingfinger Bowl. She said she really enjoyed the chicken, the sauce on it was great, and it was cooked beautifully. Again, the fries were inedible.

Last of the meal plates was our 12 year old. They said it was good, liked everything, but kids aren't always very nitpicky, especially when it either involves fries.

Finally, the dessert. This was by far the most disappointing thing. Beignets Ala'bama. I'm from Louisiana, grew up around po'boys, etoufee, jambalaya, gumbo, crawfish boils, and of course, beignets. This was not even close to that. I've no idea what this was, how the dough managed to be both hard and stale at the same time, or poofed up but totally empty inside, either. They should be soft, pillowy, full of that yeasty goodness and a little bit crunchy at the edges. The only thing this had going for it was copious amounts of powdered sugar. Absolutely no one ate them.

I was genuinely happy with the main course dishes, seriously. But aside from that -pun intended-...

2nd COMPLAINT GRIEVANCE OF MISTREATMENT, KIND OFF PUSHING US AWAY. My recent experiences at Baumhower have been deeply concerning. The inconsistency in information about the availability of inflation bites specials, coupled with the possibility of fraudulent pricing practices, have left me feeling misled and mistreated. Additionally, the excessive spiciness of my meal, when the meal is not supposed to be spicy as I have ordered it numerous times, following my inquiry about the specials suggests intentional retaliation on the part of the restaurant staff after I mentioned I had talked to a Manager (James), I am alarmed by the potential hiding of the special menu, as this may lead to customers paying full price for items that should be available at a discounted rate. I urge the restaurant management to address these issues and ensure transparency in their pricing and service. If these problems persist, I may be forced to escalate my concerns to relevant authorities and consumer protection agencies. Furthermore, the excessive rudeness of the wait staff, particularly the individual responsible for seating us(" shorty"), has been a persistent issue during my recent visits. Over the past several weeks, I have frequented Baumhower multiple times, only to be met with increasingly hostile behavior when this particular person seats me and my son. It appears that my inquiries about the specials have resulted in being seated at undesirable tables and receiving poor service.

Yesterday's(04/15/25) experience was particularly distressing, as my young son was present and subjected to this unacceptable treatment. Intentionally serving us the entries is excessively spicy as retaliation for my inquiries is not only deeply unprofessional but also constitutes a form of abuse towards my child, you could tell the waiter was in on it with her rude demeanor and behavior. This is a matter of grave concern and should be addressed immediately to prevent further harm to...