Barrique Kitchen & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Town of Babylon

I don't often leave reviews of places but people need to know what they're getting: this is a wine bar that knows nothing about being a wine bar. I feel like a crazy person seeing (most of) the other reviews because we must have been at a different place. I won't even blame the staff because it's evident they haven't been trained in anything: from wine knowledge, to food knowledge, to appropriate steps of service.

How do you, as a wine bar, bring out the bottle of wine I ordered (a chilled red that was clearly not chilled) when we're already halfway through our food? I can almost guarantee there isn't even a bucket for them to put a bottle in and leave at the table. I even asked for it again, after I had already initially ordered it and asked for it to be chilled when we put the food order in, when the waitress came to check on us as they brought the food out... and it showed up 10 to 15 minutes later.

This is after we had cocktails and had already been there for about 45 minutes to an hour, so it's not like there wasn't time. But when I declined the bottle she seemed very confused, and that's because she didn't know she was doing anything wrong. A problem that exists with the entire wait staff, which was evident by everything I saw when I looked around and conversations I overheard. We then asked for just glasses of wine since we'd already been there for so long and were halfway through our food so we didn't need a whole bottle... those eventually came to us as we were almost done eating.

The wine list for a "wine bar" is also a joke. There's been no research or attempts at finding actual good wine from good producers, it's just stuff that's picked from the list of whatever distributor they're using: it's mostly sugar laden big market wines that you could buy from any liquor store for half the price of what they're selling them for. The wait staff knows nothing about the wines, when I ordered it the waitress asked me for the number listed next to the bottle, after I told her what I wanted, because she had no idea what it was that they even carry. Again, not her fault, there's clearly been zero effort made to educate the folks that work there.

Lastly, while sitting I started to see what the problem was. There was some guy walking around in a blue shirt and I could just tell he's the GM or owner. How could I tell? He was dressed differently from the staff and mostly just wandered around being useless. Our waitress, and the bar stuff, were cleary in the weeds, multiple times, and this guy just walked around pouring water into people's glasses occasionally when he wasn't chatting with the young ladies at the host stand. Taking a wild stab here, but this staff probably isn't trained because that dude hasn't taken the initiative to do it. The wine list is boring and bad because that dude hasn't taken the initiative to make it anything else. Any of the issues I witnessed were all top down stuff that somebody needs to take control of. Rather than just haunting the dining area during service the guy managing the place should be an active participant in it. The people who work there deserve better, because they are nice and accomodating. Which is why I paid the full bill and tipped the waitress accordingly. She's got a hard enough time working for someone/a place like that, no point in making her life difficult for things that aren't her fault.

Other than all of that, the food was fine but wildly expensive, and the folks who work there are genuinely kind, cost three of us...

This used to be one our favorite spots in Babylon for years; the waitresses would reconize us and say hello and were really down to earth/friendly; however, it seems to have gone downhill progressively and that's really upsetting.

They slowly started replacing some great dishes on their menu, which I understand so maybe the menu doesnt get outdtaed/stale, but the replacements just weren't up to par so it's been a little while since we've been here.

Finally went back tonight and unfortunately will probally never go back. It used to be always PACKED everytime we went and atleast a 40 min wait, even on a weeknight (in the summer for outsoor seating). When we went there tonight there were several tables outside free and that should have been the first hint. We were sat immediately. He asked which table we would like, so we picked our favorite that we've sat at before with no problems. It was covered in small ants. He apologized and wiped them off. I'm sure if we asked, he would have sat us somewhere else, but we stayed hoping it would clear up (and it mostly did, but there was the occassional ant throughout our evening.)

2nd bad part - our waitress. She came over initially to give us the menu. After she left, it took forever for her to come back. We were starving and wanted some wine. We waited so long we were just about to get up and go somewhere else. She finally came over and apologized and took our order.

3rd bad part - our food. Our meats/cheese dish came out and it was solid, as usual. However, regarding the mini tuna tacos app which is made with raw tuna - 2 of the tacos tasted fishy....raw tuna should not taste fishy.... We both got steak for our entree (one flatiron that was their special and one reg flat iron) - ordered both medium rare, but they came out welldone and comepletely bland. She never asked how our steaks came out - I was planning on letter her know they were overcoooked, but I felt unconfortable telling her unsolicited. Not to mention, my wine was empty before I recieved my steak entree and I wasn't even offered a refil until I was halfway done with my steak.

Let me start off with saying we've NEVER done this, but we only left a 10% tip and struggled to even leave that much. We always leave anywhere from a 20-25% tip wherever we go, and sadly she proably just thinks we were being cheap. In fact, we passed her as we were leaving before she got to our table to take the signed check and she didnt even acknowledge us or tell us to have a good night.

Maybe it was just an off night or we didnt get the best waitress.

So to sum it up: the best part is the outdoor seating during summer months; romantic for couples and fun for girls night. So if you're looking to grab a glass of wine and some meats & cheeses, I say go for it! (great wine selection btw). But other than that, no bueno.

So...

Came here on a Friday night for a date night dinner for two, wait was only about 30 minutes. The place is just a little tucked away, but it has plenty of character once you step through the main door on the side of the building. The place offers both indoor and outdoor seating, we wound up with outdoor. Loved the look of all the brick and hardwood around, and the lights kept relatively dim. Sound level was good, had no problem having conversation at all.

Wait and bar staff were attentive and very friendly, even on a night that seemed to be on the busier side.

Starting with drinks, we had the red sangria and I also tried the butterfly martini, a gin based special of the week. Both were delightful, the sangria a little lighter than I personally prefer, but was just the way my date likes it. The martini however, was delightful, I pray that they make it a staple on their cocktail list! But maybe that's just because I'm a sucker for anything with pomegranate.

Food was delicious! Most things are tapas style, making it a great way to try a few things and split with friends. We started with the gorgonzola dip and truffle fries. Don't be foolish like us and almost give away your leftover dip if you run out of bread, they gave us more to finish it off! It's basically the best fondue I've ever had, and I'm usually not one for funkier cheeses. Truffle is hit or miss with most people, and these go pretty hard on the truffle, so if you're on the fence about it, these might be a little more pungent than you'd like, although they are crispy and delicious. On to the main even we split the roast chicken and lamb chops. Both came with delectable sauces, the best green beans I may have ever tried (and I am typically a green bean hater), and perfectly fluffy mashed potatoes. The chicken was my favorite of the two, perfectly cooked, nice crispy skin, you couldn't do it much better. The tapas style also really lends to not feeling so grossly stuffed either, portions just feel more in control. We capped off the night with one of their dessert shooters, they have a ton of options but we went for the Nutella option, and splitting the little jar between the two of us was just the little bit of a sweet taste we wanted to end the night on. The rest of the menu had so many good items all across the board, with a ton of people around us especially ordering pizzas, I'm definitely eager to come back and try more.

Parking can be a bit hectic, there is street parking and a parking lot in the rear, but read your signs carefully, as there are a lot of tow away zones and some places where it's metered and some...