Byrd & Barrel — Restaurant in St. Louis

Byrd and Barrel has the best fried chicken in the city. The space is really cool with some great artwork and their beer list is as good as any restaurant in St. Louis. All of the fried chicken dishes are fantastic and the wings are out of this world! If you don't want a Half Byrd, the 5-piece Nugz are a sneaky-good deal because they're HUGE. Don't skimp on the dipping sauces either as they are all phenomenal. The Mother Clucker sandwich is also gigantic and messy and hot and delicious. You won't find a better chicken sandwich anywhere. The sides are all really well-executed and always taste fresh. I would also recommend the Bloody Mary if you want a mixed drink.

If I had to come up with one complaint it's that the Starters, while very tasty, are served in seriously small portions for the price. The poutine is phenomenal, but it's barely enough for two people to share. I would try each of the Starters at least once and then just load up on sides with your meal or get an extra beer the next time you come instead of an appetizer.

Lastly, a message to all the morons who rated this place 1 or 2 stars: It's GOURMET chicken. If you want to fill a soggy box with as much disgusting food as $3 will buy you, then go to Church's Chicken or KFC. There are plenty of them around St. Louis. To eat the meticulously prepared, fine-dining level food at Byrd and Barrel and then moan that it cost you $9 is absolutely ridiculous. If this place opened in the Central West End or Clayton, they could serve this same exact food you're turning your nose up at over the price for $20/entree all day long. The fact that they chose to reside deep in south city is a favor to your palate. You don't know how good...

The waitstaff were wonderful, the atmosphere nice, the cauliflower appetizer was to die-for, the cinnamon & sugar beignet was good, but the Clucker sandwich was not satisfying at all, because the piece of chicken was so overly deep fried that it was dark brown and just tasted burnt and the chicken was dry and without flavor, the tater tots were the exact same way, and both items were so hard to bite into that I was afraid that it might break a tooth, and the ruffles potatoes chips were tasteless as well and the texture that they added was diminished by soggyness. The macaroni and cheese was extremely creamy, and exceptionally mild in flavor and comforting. Cilantro seems to be the "go-to", the sparse garnish on the cauliflower was nice, but the strawberry Cuban whatever cocktail was overpowered with it and there was no real taste of strawberry discernable making it initially different and finally disappointing. Giving you three stars was pushing it a great deal, but the cauliflower appetizer won you two stars, and the third star was for CONCEPT! Your ideas are GREAT, but your cook was too heavy handed with the frying time, for a basically chicken restaurant the chicken was dry, tasteless, and overcooked, and the portion of chicken to batter ratio was mostly batter very little chicken. I really want to like your restaurant, but fried foods are to be golden brown, not the color of a mahogany dresser, and tender not dry and tasteless. Your prices scream excellent fair, but most of your product is sorely lacking. I know this critique is blunt, but it is truthful, and a couple of tweaks is all it would take for resounding accolades....

A friend told me about this restaurant, stating that it was the best chicken sandwich he had ever had. Hearing this, I had to go check this place out. When I actually got there, the restaurant seemed like a bit of a hole in the wall when I walked in. It was weird to see since when I imagine a place that has such a great chicken sandwich it would be pretty big to accommodate all of its business it gets. Byrd and Barrel probably has enough seating for 20-30 customers at a time. Despite this, I did not lower my expectations which made this sandwich even more impressive in my eyes. The Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich (what my friend had that recommended the restaurant to me and my server recommended as the best thing on the menu) at Byrd and Barrel was the best chicken sandwich I've had in my life. I don't think I could've asked for a better sandwich. The meat was extremely tender, the sauce had great flavor, and the garnishes were fantastic! I don't like coleslaw, but whatever was in this slaw was the real deal. I cant remember what other garnishes came on it standard because I completely devoured this sandwich, but they served as the perfect compliment to the entire piece. There's been very few times where I eat something at a restaurant and think to myself, "That was so good I want to order another one right now". This experience at Byrd and Barrel was one of those few times. I definitely plan on re-visiting Byrd and Barrel and grabbing another Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich, and I would recommend anyone else that likes chicken sandwiches to...