Porch Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Louisville

Not the best experience! Although the location inside of the Marriot hotel is ideal, and it’s got great décor, its clear to me this restaurant is not properly staffed or managed. Visiting Louisville for the first time, we had great service from a variety of other restaurants, but for some reason the service at Porch Kitchen & Bar left a lot to be desired. A few friends and I visiting during brunch on a Sunday (at about 1230pm). Initially we were told there was a 20-minute wait, even though the restaurant was about 50% occupied. I’m aware of staff shortages nationwide, so that wasn’t much of an issue. We decided to wait and sat for about 15 minutes before we were called. One friend did order a drink at the bar while we waited and said the bartender was a little slow...a sign of things to come.

We were finally sat at a high top by the bar. However, for some reason even though the restaurant was not very busy, the service was extremely slow. I will say that maybe one out I can provide is our server appeared to be new to serving, or possibly new to the restaurant. The young lady was not aware of some items on the menu and mentioned the full menu hadn’t rolled out yet. Not sure why we weren’t told this when we sat down and browsed the menu, but she did inform us of what was unavailable when we started ordering lol…leaving a few of us to change our orders based on what was available. The young lady our server Sonia was nice, but there may have been a slight language barrier, but she just did not appear to be very knowledgeable about the menu. She also was unfamiliar with restaurants offering bottomless mimosas, and she wasn’t aware that was a thing and maybe that is not a thing in Louisville. Needless to say, we stuck it out and ordered both drinks and entrees together. Our drinks took about 25 minutes to reach us, and they for the most part were not complicated drinks (old fashion, Irish coffee, mimosa, beer). I checked at the bar a few times, and it appeared the bartender was actively engaged with those sitting at the bar, but it didn’t seem like our drinks were a priority. The Irish coffee my friend ordered was made incorrectly, and the server told us the bartender did not know how to make it, so he had to look up a recipe. The Irish coffee came out looking like a milky iced coffee, which was not correct and was not tasty. I ordered the Sirloin & Eggs dish and requested my steak be cooked medium along with scrambled eggs with cheese. What I received was a Sirloin steak cooked medium well with fries, soooo close but not exactly what I ordered. My dish was supposed to come with eggs and hash browns, so the fries were a surprise. Taste was OK, but not great. Needless to say, at this point I was starving so I just ate it. I had to request my eggs, which the server forgot. Also, there was some mix up on which sausage was pork and which one was chicken as two of the guests ordered the same entrée with different proteins, and the server had a hard time figuring out the difference. Those dishes also either were missing their bread selection, or bread was not provided for some reason. At this point, we were ready to finish our food, as much as we could stomach and then get out of dodge. Once the bill came, I noticed my bill was $20 more then it should have been lol, oh boy! Turns out the server charged me the Sirloin dinner option, and did not enter my requested steak and eggs dish. She was nice enough to get that price corrected with the help of a manager, but it also took about 15 minutes to get our checks closed. The server had to go in the back with the manager for some reason because some our split checks paid with cash. Would not recommend this place on Sunday…maybe they are better during the week or earlier in the weekend, but the staff gave the vibe of this is our “JV team.” I hope management can train their staff and kitchen better, this could be an awesome spot with...

The building looks glamorous and inviting on the outside. Great job! As I entered I easily located the hostess desk where three individuals standing and intently focused on the senior individual standing in front of me. Apparently, it takes three people to solve a restaurant-related issue. No one looked my way and I sat down the Betty bench to peruse the menu on my cell.

I called my best friend in Houston to let him know I was at this glamorous restaurant and put him on Facetime so I could give him a live view of this place. He loves restaurant vibes and decor. I told him that I wasn't going to stay because the chicken entree was $18 not including tea, tax or a tip. "I'm on a budget," I said. he rebutted, "You're paying for the experience! Treat yourself for me!" he said. I took his advice and stood in line to be seated.

After five entire minutes of waiting to be acknowledged by someone, the senior patron finally left. As I approached, NONE of the individuals acknowledged me until I said, "Hello, table for one." No one greeted me or smiled or said a word. I felt like I was interrupting their nap. Finally, a twenty-something gestured toward the bar and said "you can sit at the bar" and then turned away from me to resume a vital conversation with her two other co-workers.

I found my place at the bar where I was silently greeted by a female bartendress with hair highlights in a pony tail. She placed the menu in front of me and left. When she returned minutes later, in a robot-like disposition, she asked my drink order. I ordered iced tea and she started to leave. "I'm ready to order," I said. She remained silent, listened to my order, and left.

She returned a few minutes later to bring me a water and silverware. She was absent from my presence for the rest of my meal.

My fried chicken arrived. The fried chicken was the reason I chose this place. The chicken crust was barely warm and NOT crispy. As I explored my entree I remembered that I ordered mashed potatoes but she brought coleslaw instead. My disappointment was growing into a review and I started taking notes. I already felt unwelcome in this place and now I felt like I made a bad food decision.

As I reached for my water, I realized that my tea never arrived. I summoned the robot and reminded her that I ordered tea. She walked away silently and returned finally with my tea. That was the last I ever heard from her.

As I neared the end of my meal, the other bartendress (who looked like Holly Marie Combs from Charmed) with long brown hair approached and asked if I'd like more tea. I emanated gratitude for her hospitality and requested the check. Throughout my entire visit at the bar, it seemed that my servers were more interested in making drinks than attending to the needs of their bar patrons. As I sat at the bar, I noticed a very good looking well-dressed man standing in the center of the three rooms. He appeared to be the manager and seemed to be more interested in cutting up with his staff than anything else.

I signed my check and left the bar. I passed by the hostess stand. No one said a word as I headed toward the door.

Porch food is not worth the inflated prices. However, the attitude you receive is completely...

I will first say that I can’t comment on the food since I didn’t get a chance to eat here but the staff was very dismissive and not interested in serving me as I attempted to do Sunday brunch.

First off, as I attempted to enter the restaurant, the doors were locked even though there were clearly people inside eating. After having to walk all the way around and entering from the hotel, I walked up to the host station with three people standing there including what looked like the manager and not a single one looked up before I had to say hello before they acknowledged my presence. The gentleman who looked like a manager asked me first “how many people to be seated” and I asked for a table for one. He then asked if I had a reservation and he said that they were booked and only were seating reservations although only half of the restaurant looked to be occupied. Why would you ask me how many to be seated if you weren’t going to seat me to begin with? I mentioned to him just in passing that the doors from outside were locked and he said “no, the doors are open” even as there was a lady sitting on the stairs outside the door having a smoke. So add gaslighting to the list of things this restaurant will do to you. I then stated I would be fine ordering my food to go and he responded “we don’t really do to go food.” I didn’t push it but thought to myself are you saying no one ever has leftovers after eating at your restaurant? A restaurant attached to a hotel? This was yet another statement that made no sense to me. He then said if there’s a seat at the bar you can grab one of those but otherwise we don’t have anything. Of course there were no seats at the bar so needless to say at this point it was a lost cause. I’m going to assume they just didn’t have enough staff like several of the restaurants in the area this weekend even though there was a music festival but that’s a management problem for not having the needed staff and being so dismissive of a patron. It was my first time in Louisville and while I could come back to the city, I would never willingly give this restaurant my time or money going forward if this is how they treat out of...