The Blind Mule — Restaurant in Mobile

I am not a Mobile resident but had heard of the Blind Mule -- had never been there. I was in Mobile for the ArtWalk/EmptyBowl on Friday night a week back. After we had made the art rounds, we went there to eat. First impressions were good: lots of folks, kinda funky atmosphere. We were able to seat immediately, and the waitress asked what we wanted to drink - which was brought quickly - then things went as far South as Mobile is to Cincinnati. 20 minutes later, no waitress had passed back around our way, but she had seated a couple at the table beside ours who came in 15 minutes after us - their order was taken within about 5 minutes. I was ready to depart, but others in the group wanted to stay. At about the half hour point, waitress reappeared and took our order ( by now the table that came in after us had their food ). I decided to order a shrimp poboy on the strength that it was reportedly on French bread and not a hoagie. We also each ordered sweet potato fries. Eventually, the food arrived: the poboy WAS on French bread - it was also the smallest poboy in the World - it was served open-face style - and was exactly the length of my index finger ( which I later measured and discovered is exactly 3 1/4 inches long ) and contained 5 medium sized shrimp ( which ranked as edible if not actually good ) - and for the price of ONLY $12 - which also happens to be the price of a shrimp poboy from the Front Porch cafe in Pass Christian, Ms - but the one in the Pass is 4 times as long and half again as wide with medium size very good shrimp piled on and spilling over - also on French bread ( which means that on the Blind Mule pricing scale the Porch version would sell at around $60 to $72 - but no fries included ) . Did I mention that when the food came, no utensils were brought ( even though some at the table ordered a pasta dish ) and that when a fork appeared, napkins had to be requested ( we got one paper napkin each ) ? No ? -- well I have now. Oh, the sweet potato fries - overcooked ( crispy hard ) yet stone cold. So, now I'm a Blind Mule Raven -...

Okay... This was our first time visiting the Blind Mule. We understood that it was Downton Mobile on a Friday night so we would hv some wait time. We were okay with this. HOWEVER this was a horrible experience. We sat outside and the server, never got her name but she was the petite lady with reddish-brown hair, gave us cups of water, took our drink and appetizer order, then DISAPPEARED for 30-45 minutes. We practiced patience by waiting, talking with neighboring tables, and just enjoying the night. She returned with the drinks and fried pickles, took our meal order, and disappeared again. This time the wait was longer. This wld not have been an issue except- the couple at the table behind us had a different server, guessing she was their "friend" b/c she came out took their order only, had their drinks, apps, and meal to them before we even received our dinner. Not sure of her name, but she was the thicker lady with blonde hair and shaved sides. We finally get our order but it's cold and not correct. Fast forward to the ticket. I had to go inside and track a server down to get our ticket and I NVR got my to-go box! I expected the inside to still be crowded as it was when we arrived and to my surprise, only 5 tables had patrons and there were only 3 servers! On your busiest night you only have 3 servers! Very poor scheduling and planning! The 3 servers were working bar and tending to those 5 tables only. Okay just give me my ticket so we can leave. I asked the blonde with shaved sides if the ticket could be divided by seats and she looked me in my eyes and lied and said, "We don't split tickets". First, I know that's a lie, but okay. My friends came in with me and Becca, the head lady last night, splits the ticket so we can pay and leave. The blonde waitress was rude as hell! No nice way to put it. There was no order to who served what tables, not enough coverage and just all around a horrible waste of time last night. I usually do not post long reviews, but this...

Keeping in mind I came here during a weekday when they were open for about a couple hours and they seem to be more music-festival-night-life-oriented... I didn't stay here long. The atmosphere is pretty cool, with the outdoor area being very nice to sit in, and they make an effort to bring character to the place which is always cool. The staff was friendly, but they were also very slow. We were literally the only people in the place when we walked in and sat down, yet it took them quite a long time to get over to us to even give us menus to look at. This might have been fine if we couldn't see that they were watching TV right in front of us, but since we knew there wasn't any real reason for it it sort of made it awkward and annoying. When it came to taking our order, they didn't even tell us ahead of time the things they were out of (although it seemed more like they hadn't made it at all since it was the beginning of the day and we were probably one of the first customers in) and so when we tried to order 2-3 different things they kept saying they were out of everything we wanted to order! Rather than settling for something we really didn't want, we ended up leaving the place empty handed. I'm sure it's a really awesome place to hang out at in the evenings and weekends, but for a traveler passing through that just saw the place as highly rated on google? Highly disappointed in the daytime service and the kitchen's lack of...