Tarrant's Cafe Downtown — Restaurant in Richmond

Delicious! Perfect, enjoyable mid afternoon lunch. Great food, excellent service, immaculate restaurant. My colleague and I were visiting Richmond, staying at a nearby hotel. She and I were enjoying a beautiful afternoon walk down historic Broad Street when we discovered Tarrant's. It looked like a fun place and the menu posted outside was intriguing, so we decided to have lunch. Luckily, it was an excellent decision! Tarrant's is located directly on beautiful, tree lined Broad Street in a beautiful Richmond neighborhood. The restaurant space itself is the old Tarrant's Drug Company. Immediately upon entering the dining area you can see some really cool historic signs and fixtures from the drug store/pharmacy days. My colleague and I were Immediately seated and received prompt, friendly service from our excellent server. The menu includes a huge, diverse selection of possibilities and libations. Burgers, wraps, salads, desserts and entrée meals, plus much more is available. If you're in the mood for an adult libation, Tarrant's has a full service bar. There are so many interesting items on the menu, my colleague and I had a really difficult time making a decision on what to order. After much debate, I ordered the Cheeseburger and fries( yummy burger!!) My colleague had the Buffalo chicken wrap (my second choice) and she loved it! Fortunately, she allowed me to try her wrap and, I totally agree, it was excellent! Most certainly, on my next visit, I will order the wrap!! My third choice was the fried green tomato sandwich, which was very intriguing. At some point, on a future visit, I plan on trying the fried green tomatoes sandwich, too. If you happen to find yourself near Tarrant's, you should really stop in and treat yourself. With the large menu, there is most certainly something for everyone to enjoy. Tarrant's provides a very pleasant, relaxing, low-key atmosphere with...

Food is subpar. Quality has gone down overtime for how much the food costs. I think it's the large menu. Having a simple menu will illustrate quality and care in the food, ensuring that it is fresh. The service, however, is horrendous. Probably the worst I've ever experienced. It took 10 minutes for the waitress to come to our table when we were seated. Then another 15 minutes for her to take our order. Then our food took 40 minutes to come, even with only a few other tables that were occupied at the restaurant. I ordered the Rachel, and the bread was soggy and falling apart, while the meat was lukewarm, it wasn't pleasant. My wife ordered the Po' Boy oyster sandwich, and it was bland and falling apart, it was off-putting especially for being almost $16 and her being from Louisiana. Our son got the Chicken Herb Sandwich with Texas toast and it made him nauseous. The chicken was cartlidgey and the cheese was raw. While our daughter got the fish and chips which tasted like it was bought frozen from some cheap supermarket. And all our fries were drowned with salt. Our calamari was good and came on time as a starter. However, we didn't even have cutleries to begin with. When we tried to call our waitress to tell her, she was too busy chatting and laughing with the other staff members at the bar. She only came to our table to give us the food, and didn't even come to check on us. Even asking for the bill took long. That is extremely rude, especially since we are giving our time and money to this establishment for a pleasant experience. And for dessert, our canoli was stale and the coffee lukewarm. I hope there will be improvement because this place has so much potential with fantastic drinks from the bar and a beautiful ambiance. We'll be coming back to give it another chance but not...

Let me just say that I never write reviews about restaurants, let alone one of Richmond's staples, or about one of my favorite restaurants in the city. However, what I received from them tonight (September 10) was absolutely atrocious. I ordered the the shrimp and grits dinner and the seafood combination dinner for takeout. The food was hot but incredibly underwhelming. The seafood combination dinner which they charge $29.95 for had a thin unseasoned tilapia filet, three small shrimp, and an under cooked crab cake - an absurd rip off. It say's served with "daily veg" on the menu but it was served on a single leaf of lettuce! Also listed a side of brown rice that was nowhere to be found. Pick-up is a tough game for places that depend on plating like Tarrant's but I never expected a highly regarded top dish on their dinner menu would be presented so poorly. As for the shrimp and grits, they were doused in sauce with what looked like barely a half cup of grits in the middle with a single slice of cheddar melted with around 7-8 decently sized shrimp. The shrimp on the grits might have been the only highlight of an otherwise two dinners that cost me $60. Pick-up dinners aren't always the best way to enjoy sit-down places like Tarrant's but I would hope that for the price tag the portion sizes would actually match or be seasoned to taste. I have had better seafood combination dinners from Long John Silvers. To be honest the bread pudding dessert I ordered was spot on like every other time that I have had it and that's the only reason why I am...