Brick & Spoon - Orange Beach — Restaurant in Orange Beach

TL;DR version - I've eaten at Brick and Spoon several times, while tasty it's slightly overrated. I was borderline between three and four stars for this review. I think you'll enjoy a meal there but it's not amazing - especially when considering the price. $60 for two adults including tip is more than market for the quality of food. If you're a discerning eater you'll leave full and not upset but also not wowed. If you're used to waffle house it probably seems amazing but super expensive. Not the best spot to occupy in my opinion.

The Good: Service 4-4.5*s - The service has always been quick and friendly. Our server today (Devin) was very friendly, accommodating, and helpful.

Entrees 3-3.5*s - The entrees are good but not great. I would say they're slightly overpriced for the quality but they do have generous serving sizes.

The Bad:

Atmosphere 2.5- 3* - While it seems lots of people like the atmosphere, I personally have never thought much of it. Most of the finishes and artwork seem cheap and don't have a coherent theme. From the outside you think youre going to come in to a cozy southern atmosphere. The inside of the restaurant is instead painted in a unpleasant black and white theme and has cheap looking tables. Today on a quiet weekday morning near Christmas an odd mix of 80s and 90s hits played too loudly.

Biscuits 2* - Maybe it was a one time accident but our biscuits we're quite undercooked.

Lattes 2.5*- I've had a latte here no fewer than 3 times. Everytime it has been underwhelming. Bitter, lukewarm, not good. I don't know if they don't have someone that knows how to pull a shot, bad coffee, or a cheap espresso maker but their coffee drinks are a full step below the food.

Coffee 3* - It's not necessarily bad but it ain't good for a restaurant with the look and price of B&S. It tastes like something generic definitely not local/craft. Probably good to many people's palates but if you're a coffee lover you'll be disappointed.

Environmental 2.5* - They use real glasses and mugs. Straws are given automatically and plastic stirrers in coffee. Styrofoam to go boxes are the standard as usual. Nothing on the menu describes any environmental ethic - no local sourcing of ingredients, no sustainable initiatives. It's likely your bacon here is causing pollution of North Carolina rivers (Google "hog waste"), and other ingredients have lots of food miles.

Other Notes:

Allergy info - Gluten - They have 9 gluten free dishes. They're all egg dishes or veggie dishes and are not specially made gluten free they just don't have flour in them normally. None of their pancakes, French toast etc are explicitly offered gluten free

Dairy - They don't specifically indicate dairy free on their menu and there is lots of butter so good luck. They also don't have non-dairy creamer.

Seafood - Lots of shellfish on the menu as is the (delicious) norm in coastal Al. If you have an acute sensitivity to shellfish this may not be...

The food isn't terrible, but it's not really good. I ordered an omelet with chicken, French toast, and cheese grits. Nothing was seasoned. I was so grateful for butter, powder sugar, and syrup for the French toast. Without those three ingredients, it would just be bread from a griddle. They used the same spatula on the French toast as they did for chopping onion. I know this because my French toast tasted like it. A piece of the onion was stuck on one of the pieces of French toast.

Couldn't taste the cheese in the grits, I added butter salt, pepper, and almost half the omelet to the grits and still didn't eat it. The chicken was not seasoned at all. No flavor, just chunks of chicken. I didn't finish my meal and didn't take any of it to go. The onion flavored toast was probably the best part of the meal because of the sugar, butter, and syrup. The piece of onion was on the 3rd piece. When that happened, I had to stop because biting into an onion vs. a hint of onion flavor...it became too much, and I couldn't continue eating.

My husband had the American breakfast, and he used his bacon to season his grits and eggs. We literally threw $50 away.

The manager asked how our food was. I told him about the onion bread, French toast, and very bland food. He did nothing. He clearly didn't know how to handle my honesty. Our table host was very nice, so the 2 stars for service is 100% related to the manager. I know this is gross...but I showed him the onion that I spit out in a napkin as evidence. If you are going to charge 8 for French toast, please hold the onions!

I was so excited when the food came out and completely disappointed when I tasted it. I am confused about the rating. Maybe there is something else on the menu that is this restaurant's all-star dish...guess who is not about to spend another $50 there to figure...

It was our first time visiting. We decide on this place because of the reviews and stars. Definitely IT’s NOT EVEN A ONE STAR PLACE. First : we ask for a cappuccino, they said their machine was not functioning, an almost 5 ⭐️ restaurant shouldn’t had this happening. Ask for coffee, the coffee was served cold. The sweet tea that was ask for, it was so sweet that it was like drinking syrup. And I’m not joking. Second: the food! This food should NOT BE SERVED at all! Our child ask for pancakes, and this were hard, dry, and flavorless. He didn’t eat it. My husband ask for American breakfast: the ham was dry and chew, the fruit was not fresh fruit, it was old and smooshed!, nasty! He didn’t even touch it. I ask for an omelette, what I received it was anything but an omelette! First wasn’t real eggs, it was made with those boxed liquid eggs, tasteless, with runny water on it, and it didn’t even look like an omelette! I try to eat it but I couldn’t. I didn’t complain, I didn’t return it, I just didn’t eat it, non of us did eat. My fruit was old, looked very old, pineapple had brown spots all over, cantaloupe was soft and smooshed, grapes were old. Nasty! The service was fast, but bland. The server seemed in a rush and like he didn’t want to serve much. We pay $60, for something we didn’t enjoy it. But this is a first and only time that this restaurant gets our money. I’m writing this review, so you don’t get fooled like we did. To be a good restaurant you need to serve good food, and have what you list on your menu, especially when we are on the beach, vacationing and trying to enjoy it. It was a disgusting...