Briny Swine Smokehouse & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Maybe it's just new restaurant "growing pains?"

We made a reservation for Saturday night (last night). We might not have needed the reservation because at 8pm there were several open tables. Nevertheless, our party of three was promptly seated. The space is huge and it was warm enough that they had all the Clark St. facing window facade open. It's a little loud inside between the TVs (and college football fans), music and multiple dinner conversations but that's to be expected on a Saturday night.

We ordered two high fallutin' dirty martinis but it was a bit of a mission to order them because our waitress didn't seem to be so familiar with the cocktails listed on the menu. She kept thinking we wanted gin martinis (the menu item clearly states these are made with Ketel One). The martini was nicely "dirty" and the blue cheese stuffed smoked olives were a nice touch, for a smokehouse. My only complaint: they were not served in proper martini glasses. As the restaurant settles into the space, maybe train the wait staff on the menu so they can learn all the offerings. We ordered a dozen oysters, a 1/2 rack of St. Louis ribs, collard greens, cole slaw, tater tots, she-crab soup, hush puppies and the kiddo had a burger from the kids' menu with a side salad and his own side order of tater tots. Personally, I thought the pork sammy would likely be the best (and most appropriate) kids' menu entrée since it's a smoke house. The sides portions are quite huge. Other than the collard greens which were absolutely delicious, we had leftovers of all the sides. The cole slaw was also quite good (I like it not overly creamy and with some vinegar) and it had bits of bacon mixed in (a nice touch). The ribs were tasty but extremely salty. I would still rate Twin Anchors' ribs as superior to these. Briny Swine's ribs are covered in BBQ sauce but not overly slathered which is nice because it allows you to add more: the table has bottles of red BBQ, spicy BBQ, Carolina yellow and vinegar. The chunky red BBQ actually served well as a dipping sauce for the tater tots! The spicy BBQ sauce is well balanced and not overly spiced so it was my choice for slathering the ribs. The oysters were quite good (variety of east coast, west coast and Canadian) but the horse radish had no "bite" at all and the cocktail sauce tasted somewhat bland (I make my own very sharp cocktail sauce at home so it could be a biased comparison). We did not try the mignonette sauce but it's a standard part of the oyster order. The she-crab soup was tasty though quite thick and creamy. The hush puppies were also quite good but on the salty side and the sauce was not very complimentary to the flavor of the hush puppies. With the ribs, I attempted to order a Bell's Oberon (draft) which was listed on the menu. Unfortunately, the waitress informed me that they were all out. She mentioned that the bartender suggested Old Style as a similar alternative; This baffled me for two reasons: 1.) Old Style is a "lager" while Oberon is a craft wheat ale 2.) The waitress needs to study the menu a bit more (as previously noted) but the bartender should have known that Heileman's Old Style is nothing like Oberon!

Overall, it was a decent experience, though a bit steep for the quality on offer. Once the restaurant sorts out their growing pains, I expect the quality can work its way up to be worthy of the...

Ordered a variety of things tonight. the sauces on the table, all were delicious.

fries were great, no complaints. oysters were butchered when opened and not detached from the shell. shell fragments more than a third of the oysters. flavour was fine. standard pricing.

the ahi tuna oysters come with some really dried out / old wasabi which will really give you that nasal rush.

salad with blue cheese - fine

Service was very strange. Server seemed flustered and she had no warmth. Kept prefacing that certain things would take a while but with a sigh. Seemed defensive more than communicative, not sure if she had a rough day, but they had just opened (i came in around 5:30pm). younger bus boys asked if they could clear some of the plates when they had just been dropped off and were full of food.

My issue was with the thursday special. The prime rib. Server warned us that they could not take temp which makes sense. She warned that it was very rare, and that if it was an issue she could see if it could be warmed further. Rare / medium rare is my preference. no issue. It arrives and somehow it's well done. It's grey with perhaps some sligh pink from the smoke (photo attached). It's served with a butter knife which I think is a mistake but it couldn't be cut. Worst prime rib I've ever had. due to the texture. I think the rub was actually quite nice. Seasoned fine but well done prime rib is something I would never order.

Server never came by until the end. I had probably 4/5 of the prime rib left. She asked if I wanted a box, I said no and she looked confused (noticing the leftover meat). She proceeded not to ask for any feedback and dropped off the bill. She inquired again if I was sure, I said yes. I won't ever give unsolicited feedback so I didn't feel it was my place to tell her that it was no where close to rare. Finally she said "oh they gave you a butter knife, did it cut ok?". I told her I struggled a bit and asked her if the prime rib always comes out like this as it seemed closer to well done? She said she had no idea and that this was their first night doing this. Nothing else was said. I feel as though I took enough initiative here and left many openings (which she aknowledged with her awkward pauses) where good hospitality would've asked "was everything ok?".

Maybe my mistake was not ordering their bbq. I would not come back for anything that I had tonight. Their sauces convinced me that their bbq game is probably pretty strong. Everything else though, i'd pass on.

Some growing pains probably. I wish them the best but after missing on both service and food, I don't think I'll...

We made a reservation for 6 on a Saturday night but unfortunately were last minute not able to make it and were charged a $20 per person fee so total $120. I understand this was listed on open table that there would be a fee for cancellation within the 24 hour window, but I thought i’d call and ask very nicely if we could get this reduced in any way since the $120 total was a pretty hefty amount. The first time I called, I was told to email management which we did with no response. I called a few days later, kindly explained the situation and asked if there was any way they could remove or reduce the fee as we were unexpectedly unable to make the reservation. The manager was rude and impolite, immediately brushing me off and saying no. He said he’s “from Chicago” and the $20 per person rate was standard for Chicago restaurants. I told him I actually had a reservation for Gilt Bar the night before which was $2.50 per person, and Lux Bar the weekend before which is $10 per person, so the $20 fee per person/ $120 total seemed excessive. He went on and on to explain how because we had booked a table but didn’t show, that they missed out on revenue because of us. 1) most restaurants have a 15 minute grace period. If you don’t show up after that, the table is given away. So it’s pretty tough to argue that because we did not show up there was lost revenue. 2) I walk past this restaurant every day and there are ALWAYS open tables. I find it very difficult to believe people were turned away. This managers rudeness and unwillingness to even budge seemed scammy and like a cash grab. Wasn’t even willing to reduce the fee or discuss other options. Doesn’t seem like a very neighborhood friendly or customer first atmosphere. After reading some reviews, it seems like many others had not so great experiences even AT the restaurant with the management (let alone the food, which given the reviews also seems horrible and “inedible”). If you look at a review from 4 days ago, someone says “Owners are crooks and cheats, while opening this location they abandoned employees and other restaurants in a small South Carolina community primarily supported by tourism known as Edisto Island” so given this review, I’m not surprised by the rudeness and lack of customer service this manager gave us. Does this place think it’s Gibsons or Bavette’s? Get real. Don’t even need to eat here to know to never recommend it to anyone or steer people...