Backyard Barbeque — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

I visited this restaurant on Easter with my family, hoping for a pleasant experience—and unfortunately, it missed the mark in more ways than one.

Let’s start with the food. I ordered the “maple bacon” expecting, well… actual maple bacon. What I received was plain bacon in a bowl with syrup poured over it. No glaze, no caramelization—just syrupy, overcooked strips swimming like they needed a lifeguard. Needless to say, I sent it back. I also returned the pancakes, which were dry, room temperature, and lacked flavor. Sadly, I’ve had better pancakes at the deli.

On top of that, we waited two full hours for our food. And even then, our drinks didn’t arrive until an hour into the wait. By that point, the vibe was already off—and unfortunately, it only got worse.

When my family expressed that I didn’t enjoy the food (they didn’t either, but I’ll allow them to leave their own reviews), they handed the bacon back to the server—who also happened to be the bartender, host, front-of-house manager, and co-owner (Michael Toney)—and let him know it wasn’t to my liking. Instead of handling it with grace, he caught an immediate attitude and said, “It’s just bacon,” while screwing up his face.

My family then chimed in and mentioned that I’m a chef, and his energy instantly shifted. A few moments later, he returned to the table and attempted to size me up by asking, “Do you know how to make bacon from scratch?” I calmly said no. He responded, “Well, my chef cures the bacon himself.” I said, “Okay.” That’s when the passive-aggressiveness started.

When I called out his energy directly (because yes, I noticed), he seemed shocked. Claimed he just “wanted feedback”—yet never actually asked what I didn’t like until after I called him out. If he had, I would’ve gladly explained that syrup poured over bacon doesn’t make it maple bacon. Instead, I had to remind him of that while navigating an awkward, defensive interaction that completely disrupted our experience. At one point I even said, “Your energy is hot,” because frankly, it was. I would’ve preferred my pancakes to be hot instead of his attitude. After I said that, he replied, “No, I’m not upset. It’s Easter—why would I be upset?” I responded calmly, “I don’t know, maybe you’re having a bad day.”

He never once asked why I returned the pancakes, which said a lot. I didn’t expect a flawless brunch, but I did expect basic courtesy. What I got instead was subpar food and an ego trip—for simply having standards.

I truly hope this was just an off day. But a word of advice: hospitality begins and ends with the guest experience. Instead of handling honest feedback with grace, Michael Toney made it a challenge—as if I had something to prove. I didn’t. I’m a paying customer. That alone is reason enough to treat people with basic respect.

With some customer service training, more staff and maybe a bit of anger management—the front of house could improve. As for the back of house? That might...

DO NOT COME HERE...unless you have 3 hours to waste.

Today is Father's Day, and I decided to bring my family here for a late lunch/early dinner. Earlier in the week, I asked my father what he wanted and he chose barbecue. I did my research and chose this place.

I was going to make reservations but when I called, no one answered the phone. Red flag #1.

We came down anyway, and were met with a line out of the door. It was quite obvious that this place is a bit on the smaller side, but it wouldn't have been a problem. The wait was reasonable- maybe 15 minutes. My mom remarked that the music played loudly when she went to put our name on the waitlist.

As we sat at our table, I noticed that the other tables were large seatings, so I figured that food may come out slowly. Now, keep in mind we arrived at 4:10 and were seated around 4:30. It took 10 minutes for the server to come greet the table and take drink orders. We noticed that Sunday brunch is not mentioned on their site. Again, we were expecting to eat barbecue, not breakfast foods. Red flag #2.

Our server then came back to take our food and drink orders. She misheard the order and forgot one drink. Unfortunately, we didn't see her for another 20 minutes or so. Again, this venue is small and packed, so I figured she was busy doing other things related to packing to go orders.

The trouble started then - I looked at my phone, and realized that it was 5:20 and we had not received our food order yet. our server did come back once before to ask about drinks and subsequently correct her mistake.

We called over to a gentleman who seemed to be expediting/running the food. I asked how long it would be until we were going to be served. He said while motioning towards the table of 6 across from us, "we just brought out this table's food. Yours is up next." That seemed to be a reasonable response.

Maybe 10 minutes go by and still no food coming out. Another couple of minutes or so pass and then the food came out for a totally different table, which I thought had already been served. That was the tipping point. This table of 2 + a newborn had been seated for about 15 minutes prior to us being seated. My family stood up and promptly left.

An hour plus wait for brunch? Not my vibe. Maybe during other days the service is...

Took the family here for dinner on a Saturday based on a recommendation. We had high hopes and were open to a new BBQ experience. The dinning area was clean, decor was urban styled with great music.

The food was served on classic metal trays with butcher paper, but some aspects of the atmosphere like the bar and drink menu seemed to try and scream brunch elegance in stark contrast. The experience was confusing and seemed to be reflected in the decor and cuisine. The service staff was attentive, knowledgeable and pleasant attitude to begin, but our primary service person became noticeably short as the dinner went on. This was very understandable as they were understaffed with only two awesome service persons to handle the entire dining area and bar.

Despite the nice decor our dinning table top had two big tears in the formica. This place has tremendous potential and they could benefit from choosing to either go with a rustic urban bbq butcher bar look, complete with simple wood block tables, metal serving trays with paper, chairs, full bar with a few strong “signature Backyard drinks”, and etc OR go with a slightly more elegant city brunch look all the way around.

The food had few hits and many misses. The yams, greens, Mac and cheese, we all slamming! The shrimp, chicken and wings were sadly just ok. The brisket was completely unacceptable and so bad that I couldn’t eat it and wouldn’t even consider taking it home in the “to go” container! Drinks attempted to look fancy like a chic NYC eatery but were weak, devoid of buzz and lacked any kick despite their pricey nature!

The 18% MANDATORY tip is less than the 20% standard, yet it still screamed “we don’t trust our customers to tip” fairly which say something about the service or type of clientele that frequents the place! Overall the experience was not without some positives, but way too few for the price ($140+)! Despite this visit, we wish BB growth and the best for...