Whiskey Barrel — Restaurant in Stratford

Last night, I ordered a chicken parm sandwich. Their menu stated the sandwich is on garlic bread which would be delicious and I know that's how I make my own sandwiches. However, that wasn't the case. The bread was placed on a grill with no garlic to be found, the chicken was way too salty, and the fries were barely luke warm, and soggy.

I've been going to this place for under a year and the signature burger is delicious which would good great with jalapeno. But I've had that plenty of times and wanted to venture to other menu items. I've tried their Thai chili wings which are way to sweet, their fish and chips which aren't bad, but not out of this world, and the kickin' chicken which again sounds better described in the menu than when eaten. Lastly, the barrel and tots are truly delicious. The red wine reduction is banging. I've tried some of their desserts: the signature Whiskey cake, and the flourless chocolate cake. Both fell awfully flat. The Whiskey cake is really the bread pudding. And the flourless chocolate cake is really a fudge. Not at all as described in the menu.

Now, I understand that stuff happens and as a former food service worker, I tend to be more sympathetic to other food service workers. What I'm not sympathetic to is food that fails to deliver big time. If this were a meal that was gifted to me, then I wouldn't complain. But it wasn't. I paid for it with the expectation that it would taste as good or better than described. It didn't. I threw out half the sandwich due to how salty it was. It was like a novice made it. That's not fair to me. With all the people who've lost their jobs, and all the restaurants that have closed permanently, be happy that the lucky few among us (I included) who didn't find themselves unexpectedly unemployed are able to spare $$ to support your establishment. The least you can do is serve food that is both worthy and...

Don’t judge this restaurant from the outside at all. The outside looks like nothing to speak of, but when you leave you will have a lot of good things to say that may include: efficient staff; uncluttered seating; clean comfortable bathrooms, outdoor dining available; family dining, date worthy, large group hang out, after-work-crowd, don’t feel like-cooking; surprise-guests dropped in to spend the day-type of place to go eat. Huge bar space and hung TV’s make Singles feel at ease also. This hot chicken sandwich is a delicious full meal. I took half of it home after having some spicy sweet chili calamari and sharing the A-mazing arugula salad with goat cheese, candied walnuts and cranberries pre-tossed with a very light balsamic vinaigrette. Honestly I could have had a trough of that salad alone and been just fine. The teriyaki chicken Bowl with quinoa was good and could have been better if it was less salty. The Southwestern salad with chicken was really good according to a member of our group. There is an impressive number of beers on tap, either 30 or 50 was the number stated by our cheerful server. Was let down about the cocktails, though. Seriously did not enjoy either that I tried. I sent back the first, “Jameson Cold Brew” (what the heck was that 🤨) and did not have the heart to do the same with the grapefruit margarita, jalapeño-cilantro infused simple syrup thing that I ordered after. The cocktail menu overall seems quite over-ambitious with mixtures of ingredients that don’t quite go together. It might be worth the extra two stars to invest in a mixologist to put together a new cocktail menu for this fun place the locals enjoy. Or maybe skip them altogether and let...

It's nice to see this place rise from the dead that was the Frog Pond. The place really is too overcrowded on Friday night and Saturday nights; if the fire marshal ever walked in there it would be a heavy fine. That said it's a real nice atmosphere but it's smaller do to increase size of the kitchen which probably adds to the Crush of customers. We ordered the calamari and the cheese covered tots. Calamari was cooked to Perfection but my wife thought it had no flavor. The tots were great but the cheese on top has got to go! It was like a big rubber covering of cheese. Disgusting! They have huge beers here and the prices are reasonable. And I feel the staff Works their tail off; they really do try their best to accommodate as I had my name in for a table and was told it would be a two-hour wait but the hostess kept checking back with me at certain periods to give me an update. There was one girl in particular who was being a hostess help paying waitresses and bar backs and at the end after the kitchen closed even bartending. And a couple of the waitresses and the aforementioned hostess well let's just say I wanted to thank God for the great job he does sometimes. The parking is not very good either as the lot is still the same small Frog Pond one and people have to park across the street in the closed company and walk across a very busy road to get to the restaurant. I will give it another try add another time when maybe it's not so busy but if it's crowded like that I really can't recommend it 2 people who don't like standing all night. But I guess being popular and overcrowded is a good...