Brood and Barley — Restaurant in North Little Rock

Tried this restaurant for the first time because it was a friends bday and we were already downtown. They don’t do anything here for celebrations- birthday or otherwise, as they said, “we don’t get paid enough to sing.” Oh, okay. Arrived about 7:10 pm: After being told it was a 30-45 minute wait, we were told it would be another 30-45 minutes. Having already waited 30 minutes we were committed and waited. They stated the kitchen was backed up. When we sat and ordered food, we were told it was another 30-45 minute wait for food, because the kitchen was still backed up. It’s 8:25. We are sat, ordered, and beginning our wait for food. After pressure, we ordered an appetizer as we are all very hungry. Cheese fondue. I will note when received. I forgot to mark the time. It’s almost gone. Can’t lie- the fondue is damn good. 8:42. My Mom asked to talk to the manager. He came over and provided a LIST of excuses. That there is a new menu. The owner is out of town. Honestly we got about 19 minutes of this and we answered with a sort of.. not to be rude by why is this our fault? I’m here for a nice dinner and paying top prices and getting crapped on. 9:09 food received. And they’re all like, refrigerated temperature cold. Sent back. Never coming back. Paid for our bottle of wine. Tipped the server 30 for her trouble. She deserves better than the excuses this management gives this place. There was NO attempt to save our business. I’m disgusted and annoyed. Here’s a photo of the adorable couple that gave my friend dessert, and a guy doing nothing while we waited two hours to not eat.

Update: My review has been removed from a local Facebook group. My review is honest and was written minute to minute. Had they brought good, hot food, we would have 3 stars with great food but service issues. Instead, we have an issue where even after a poor experience my voice is being silenced and...

I had really high hopes for Brood and Barley based off of their Instagram pictures and positive feedback from The Mighty Rib, but unfortunately after last night, I've now had two bad experiences and am very hesitant to go back for a third time.

My first experience was last summer, it was hot and the flies were bad. We sat on the patio that had little to no fans and the flies were everywhere. I was already turned off by this point but decided to stick it out because it's the south and flies happen. But what made us call it quits was when the charcuterie board we ordered was brought to the table and we were served old meat. One of the meats was blatantly gray and was much more enjoyed by the swarm of flies. We let our server know, paid, and left.

Last night was my second experience. We were there with a group of friends and I had higher hopes that this experience would redeem the first one. I ordered The Rib, which is braised beef rib, gouda polenta, shaved brussels, arugula cashews and a red pepper goulis.

It sounded delicious and when it was brought out to the table, the presentation set me up with high expectations. I started cutting into the beef rib and noticed there was a bit of fat so I cut that off and moved it to a side plate. I kept cutting and removing fat to the point where it was getting a bit ridiculous. I flipped the entire beef rib over only to realize it was probably 75% fat and literally jiggled when the plate moved.

I was super nauseous at this point and asked the server to take it back.

Maybe I'm ordering the wrong things, or maybe I ended up with two unfortunate experiences, but sadly, I probably won't be back.

I wish the restaurant the best of luck and hope that others are ending up with more enjoyable food than I have for my...

Good Service, No Flavor

Girlfriend and I stopped by a few hours before the Elton John concert and sat at the bar for an early dinner. A few commenters on reddit said this place was bland, but the menu looked really good, so we wanted to try it out. Turns out it’s really bland.

We started with cheesesteak sliders and fried olives. The sliders meat had no seasoning or real flavor, but the sauce and bread were both good. I remarked to my date that I was glad we got the sliders because now I know not to get the cheesesteak for the meal. The fried olives were a disappointment. A little less than half of the ones we ate were missing the pimento filling, but it really didn’t matter. The breading was completely bland so think hot olives some with a kiss of pimento flavor inside.

I had ‘The RIB’ as my entrée, the best part about it was the Gouda polenta. It was a lot of meat, so the portion was good, but very standard mom’s pot roast flavor. Nothing bad, but nothing special either. Girlfriend had Scallop Risotto which ended up being the star of the afternoon. As boring as scallops could be, they were cooked well, and the plate actually had flavor! She also got the mac & cheese as an additional side. It came with some bread crumb on top which was nice, but the cheese was an incredibly thin white cheese without much going on. I think the best side choice is the smoked Gouda polenta.

Service at the bar was great, absolutely no service or cleanliness complaints. Good beer.

Edit: I forgot to add I ended up wishing I went with the cheesesteak after all. At least the sauce had good flavor and helped cover up...