The Pickle & Pig — Restaurant in Oxford Township

I have been here a few times with varying service and quality, some days it has been bad and sometimes very good, but the most recent time will probably be last, as it may have very well been the worst dining experience of my life.

I want to add, before I get into this, we came here to celebrate our courthouse wedding and my wife's birthday - which was stated in the notes

firstly - we were sat in, what I would say, is the worst seat in the house, totally separated from everyone else where we could stare at all the empty, and better, seats while being stuck between the speak-easy door and kitchen entrance having strangers and waiters walk around us every five seconds. essentially we had a secluded spot with none of the benefits of a secluded spot.

Then as the waiter took our drinks order he inadvertently insulted us when he asked for our ids and then said "we should feel complimented because they ask everyone who looks under 40 for their IDs" - Mind you we are 22 and 24 and it was literally her birthday. After that we waited 18 minutes for just the drink, not even having our order taken. Mind you we justify eating here with repeated bad service because we love the cocktails, but the drinks we got were not as advertised and did not contain the accoutrement that we have come to expect and enjoy - no fruit at the bottom like usual, not the advertised garnishes. We also ordered the duck frites, another reason we come here, and it took them 36 minutes (we kept track) to bring us a cold plate of undercooked fries that was about half the serving size as the last time we were here, I am talking McDonalds Medium serving for a $12 order of fries.

As for the entrees she got the pot roast, which was not bad, but the carrots and potatoes that came with were not just undercooked but straight up raw, "like cannot cut quartered potato with butterknife level raw" and also cold. As for my order, the kitchen was out of everything I wanted to order and I was stuck getting "The Duke" which I ordered rare. Not only was the steak not rare, but I am confident a skilled veterinarian could have revived it, If I had to guess it could have been considered blue rare and the meat still had that gel-like and tough consistency.

Did I bring up any of this to the waiter? No. I have worked food service and I know that this is a top down issue and those can only be solved by leaving reviews, and I did not want to spend the rest of my already ruined evening trying to convince a college student to comp my order. Instead I just spent Michelin star prices for Bob Evans level quality and I will never ever go there again... actually the last Michelin restaurant I went to cost half...

The Pickle & Pig seems more focused on clever flourishes (a bowl of pickles when we first sat down, pouring milk over our bread pudding right before we ate it) but needs to put more of that effort into improving bar speed and food quality.

Two of us went for dinner at around 6:30pm on a Friday. When we arrived, we were welcomed by three hostesses. Well, two. The third hostess just kind of leaned on her arms staring off into the distance. I’m not even sure she could tell that there were two humans who just walked in and were standing 3 feet from her. But despite it being rather busy, the other two were helpful in getting us one of the last open tables.

Out came their signature pickles: mostly just very salty. I could only eat a couple. We ordered cocktails, and our server warned us that they are pretty backed up at the bar and that there would be a little delay in our drinks. How long was the delay? We ordered our entrees, they brought us our entrees, we ate our entrees. And THEN the drinks finally came. To the server’s credit, she apologized multiple times throughout the evening, and said they gave us an extra half-ounce of alcohol in our drinks as an apology. The drinks were just mediocre. And no garnishes: no orange peel or cherry in the old-fashioned, and no lime in the gin and tonic.

As for the food: one of their specialties are their burgers. We were both happy with our choices. The burgers were quite tasty (one was turkey and one was beef). The sides were disappointing: the standard “frites” were warm but overly soft, as if they’d been sitting under a heat lamp for quite some time. By contrast, their onion rings were way overcooked. You could actually hear me crunching into each ring.

We debated on whether we wanted to stick around for dessert, but since we were still drinking the drinks we ordered an hour earlier, we decided to order the bread pudding. It was quite good, topped with a dollop of whipped cream, with the clever addition of milk at the last moment.

I’ve eaten at The Pickle & Pig twice now. The first time was not on a weekend, and so the drink service was much better, but the steaks that were ordered were way undercooked. The owner or manager was very responsive, got the steaks cooked longer, and replaced the sides with fresh ones.

I think P&P has the desire to be known as the place to go in Oxford for higher quality food. But there are many parts of that process that need some serious attention. Based on this last experience, I hesitate to go again...

We went here for our anniversary, because I wanted a new, fun place to celebrate. I was quite looking forward to it. First, let me say the food and drinks were very good, and the staff efficient and friendly. But, i had read an article that stated this was to be a speakeasy-type place, pickles on the tables for starters, with private room one would be taken to if mentioning "blind pig". The owner had stated that "Pickle and Pig's name originated from the homemade pickles that will be a table starter (I was under the impression these would be a free starter on each table; I may have missed it, but I don't even recall seeing them on the menu at all; I also did not notice any dessert on the menu, but did not ask) and the “blind pig” aspect of the Prohibition, which is what speakeasies were secretly known as.". No one knew anything about that. Also, the retaurant was sorely lacking in 1920s/prohibition-style decor. The dining area was simply a small room for dining off the bar area, with tables but nothing in the way of prohibition-style ambiance. Not even a white tablecloth. Truthfully, all of this is what I was looking for, but did not get. There were also to be rooms dedicated to and named after the Clue board game: study, library, and so forth. Again, nothing of the kind. While we had a good meal and well-made drinks and an enjoyable time with our adult children, we could have had that anywhere. I would go back again IF the atmosphere was truly upped a notch, and as advertised. I gave 4 stars because the experience was good enough for 3 1/2, but not poor...