Brookside Cafe — Restaurant in Hurst

Little place BIG portions...this building has had SEVERAL different businesses come and go and well none of them seem to have the staying power that Brookside may have found. Brought my wife in for lunch, know the saying 1st impressions make the difference well this one does. From the time we entered the door with the "good afternoon welcome to Brookside's" smiling waitress to the daily specials written on blackboard. Everything from good old chicken fried steak, meatloaf, pot roast and simple items as grilled cheese & tomato basil soup. I wanted to go back today (Friday) it's BLT day and sometimes you just grave those good old meals momma maid. I ordered the Patty melt on rye but substituted for sourdough not a rye bread kind of guy. But the patty is NOT some little where is the beef" thing it is full 1/2 lb patty after cooking between 2 pieces of the most delicious buttery bread you have ever tasted. If you going for healthy this is not the sandwich for you but if you want to wipe the butter from you arm after running down from your fingers then by all means go at!! I will say the patty could do with a little more seasoning and onions cooked just a little bit longer for that really good carmelization but all in all I enjoyed it. My wife had the meatloaf lunch special that comes with side salad and 2 sides topped with brown gravy. Oh..MY that brown gravy on the meatloaf and mashed taters you take a single bite with both of them mixed and as my daughter will say "now that is a heaven bite" it is so good the richness of the brown gravy and the thickness and not overcooked meatloaf is fabulous. It literally will make you keep eating cause its so dang good. My wife was trying to be good and only eat 1/2 of the portion and was going to take remainder home for lunch next day, sorry that did not happen. What she left I scarfed down along with my patty melt needless to say when I got home I wanted nothing more than my recliner and blanket. This place is so awesome so convenient and just oozes home cooking...

We were craving a good breakfast, and this place had amazing reviews. Walking in, it is seat yourself, so we picked a table by the wall. It took approximately five minutes for a waitress to recognize we sat down and came to ask us what we wanted to drink. We both said coffee, and when it was finally delivered after a couple minutes after being told they are shorthanded, it was phenomenal. We waited another few minutes for our waitress, Serenity, to come back and ask what we wanted to eat. Boyfriend opted for the Big Big Breakfast (scrambled) and I selected the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs (over medium), subbing my pancakes for grits.

Food came out piping hot, and was absolutely delicious. Only thing missing was my grits, which I ended up requesting being taken off the check. Our coffee finished, and it was not until I held my cup in the air and gave Serenity eye contact, that I got a fill up.

I am discouraged, as the food is outstanding, but the service is extremely lacking. It appears there is complete chaos, and the only one who is on top of their duties is the hostess. There was another waitress wearing a Cowboys shirt with dark hair who, within our first 15 minutes of being there, took two separate smoke breaks.

Dining area was busy and bustling, and while I know the perils of waitressing a full dining room, there is no excuse for piss poor service.

To top it off, there is a sign saying "We work hard for our tips, it's how we pay our bills." I found this tacky, and incorrect based on our experience. To the owner/manager -- you may want to invest in a ticket system that does not require your servers to spend countless minutes typing things in, which takes away from your diner's experience.

I likely will not return because of the seevice, but the food and coffee may change my mind. Three stars is ONLY for the food. Service gets a...

Today was the third time i’ve been here. The first 2 times the food was amazing and we were impressed. Today we decided to share the place with our family (we were a party of 6) and we were so embarrassed. I feel like we shouldn’t have even paid for the food we received. After we waited over 30 minutes, close to 45, just for our food to come out. I really wanted to walk out at that point but figured, hey we already waited this long. The restaurant had completely emptied by the time we got our food. Unacceptable. Then the food was cold. My fries were so salty they were inedible. My husband’s sunny side up eggs were burnt around the edges & cold. Pancakes weren’t thoroughly cooked. It was overall just a terrible experience from the long wait from ordering to food on the table, cold or inedible food, and the server didn’t check on us at all. My stepdad had to waive her over just to ask what was going on with the food. We paid at the end and left with regret. What a terrible way to spend your hard earned money. I wish the manager had come over to check on us, seeing we were one of the last tables left in the place without food. and then didn’t even ask if the food was okay once brought out.

0/10. None of us will be back again. Yes this happened. No it’s not made up. And yes they USUALLY are good. But embarrassingly...