The Local — Restaurant in Town of Babylon

I wish I could give this place zero stars. I am literally appalled at the experience I had here! Let’s start from the top- we came here after googling local restaurants, saw the pictures of the food online which looked awesome coupled with generally good reviews. So we decided to give it a try. We walk in and are greeted and seated immediately. However the table was visibly dirty and very sticky. So we asked our waitress to please wipe the table. She told us the table was only sticky because of the open windows. (Huh?) anyway she sends someone over with one single wet wipe who quickly wipes (more like glosses over) the table. As she’s about to walk away I ask her for the wet wipe (as all of the gunk was still there) and proceed to scrub it and wipe it down myself. After looking over the food menu and the seasonal drink menu (about 5 or so cocktails) we place an order for quite a few appetizers and bloody Mary’s. We ordered the bloody Mary’s because the pictures online showed this awesome looking Bloody Mary with shrimp, bacon and the works! The apps we ordered were the taquitos, the cauliflower dip, fried pickles and hot honey chicken biscuits. We were very excited to try all. So our drinks game and they were nothing like the picture and were just basic bloody Mary’s with lime lemon and celery. However, we took a sip and they were delicious! Next our food comes and everything looks great and is more or less good. However - we collectively felt the only thing we would order again was the cauliflower dip and chips. Everything else we were happy we tried it but def would not come back for. Now we are onto our second order of bloody Mary’s. The second batch was awful and tasted nothing like the first batch and wasn’t even the same color. So we bring them back to the bar- let the bartender know how much we enjoyed the first batch but we’re not happy with the second. She was visibly annoyed (I wish I got her name but she as a blond lady) and proceeded to remake our drinks. Well unfortunately the third batch was worse than the second. She didn’t mix the ingredients, slammed the glasses down in front of us and walked away. We took a sip and got mouths full of hot sauce that weren’t mixed into the drink. We pulled up the straw and clumps of thick hot sauce was dripping out of them. So at this point we decide we are done with the bloody Mary’s and are not going to bother ordering more. We asked the waitress for a drink menu- she informed us they only had the seasonal menu but “could make our own cocktail.” At this point wings that we ordered earlier come to the table. We all ordered the OG Dry Rub wings. So they sit them down on the table and already we are worried because they do not look appetizing. But of course give them a try because maybe they are awesome like our first Bloody Mary which was visually unexciting. Well those were literally the worst wings we ever tasted. We have named them the “Cinnamon toast crunch wings” we took a bite and to our surprise they were sweet! Like a brown sugar spice rub - that was tossed onto the wings. They had absolutely no flavor as if they fried plain wings in oil and then just tossed them into this sugary mixture/ it was absolutely insane. So after the first bite we’re like “no way” and send them back. At this point we are done with this place and just ask for the check. We have most of the appetizers left over and ask for boxes. They bring us two boxes which want enough to put all of the food in. So I asked one of the bar backs for an extra box- he looks at me rolls his eyes and walks away. Now we’re all completely flabbergasted and knew it was time to go. We really wanted to love that place but safely will...

First we needed to pull on the door at 12:00pm when it says it was open at 11am and we continued to wait in the car since it was raining assuming maybe they were just running behind with opening… then we finally were let in after other people decided to line up outside. We get inside and noticed there was no brunch menu so when we asked for one they said oh we need to find one, okay, then we were handed 1 tiny piece of paper that looked like it has had several drinks spilt on it and it was dried over and over again. Whatever fine. We felt like it would be safer to order lunch since brunch didn’t seem like something they did often. It took 35 minutes for nachos to come out fine we were enjoying our drinks..then the burgers came out most were good except for one that was clearly more rare than medium so they said no problem we will throw it back on … 25 minutes later we’re all finished with our food and we said don’t worry about the burger that hasn’t come back out. They disregarded that request brought it out anyway so out of hunger she took a bite. Never expecting to still not only be charged for it but not accommodating us in any way for the time wasted and disregarding our request of not wanting it. I thought this was strange so when I nicely asked the waitress if she would accommodate in someway thinking anyone that’s worked in this field or who has been out to eat knows what’s right and what’s wrong not expecting it to be combated against which caught me off guard …. Well turns out the reason the kitchen was clearly slow and confused was because they were hosting an entire 40th birthday party and clearly there was priority there. I suggest they close for private parties instead of trying to entertain both private and public customers. Very disappointing. I wouldn’t go on a Sunday atleast that’s for sure let alone anytime it’s busy. There’s so many places in Babylon that are quality and do the right thing. The brixton have us a 50 dollar gift card just because they accidentally gave us a reservation before realizing they were closed for a private event and that was extremely appreciated. Overall 3/10. You can spend that kind of money somewhere else and get...

I’ve been a loyal customer of The Local for years, but after my visit tonight, I’m truly disappointed with how far this place has slipped.

We came for Monday night bingo, which was advertised from 7–9. It started late, and then abruptly ended around 8:15 when the staff suddenly switched over to blasting the football game. It felt disorganized and dismissive of the patrons who came specifically for bingo.

Service was another major letdown. Our waitress had a frown the entire time, was not attentive, and coughed every time we had to ask for something—basic items she should have anticipated, like extra plates when we shared an appetizer (there were four of us, she only brought two). The beers we ordered came overly foamy and only half-poured, requiring extra napkins, which she seemed annoyed to bring.

Then things went from bad to worse. The table next to us started yelling that they saw a mouse. They left immediately, and within moments, we saw the mouse too. Shockingly, no waitress or manager came over to address the situation or even acknowledge it. Instead, the bouncer was the only one to say something, apologizing with a shake of his head and admitting, “That’s not really something you’d want to see in a restaurant.”

What was supposed to be a fun night ended abruptly, leaving us disappointed and unsettled. Having frequented The Local many times in the past, it’s disheartening to see such a decline in both service and cleanliness. Unfortunately, tonight’s experience may have been...