Bar-Bill East — Restaurant in Town of Penfield

I had such a bizarre lunch experience at Bar-Bill. We arrived and were told to wait until our entire party arrived. No big deal and I absolutely understand why that policy exists. The hostess told us that there was no wait but to give her my name and number just in case. We went to a high-top and had a drink while we waited.

The rest of our party arrived ten minutes later and I was told there is a wait but we were the next table. Again, no problem at all. This is a new restaurant/bar and you have to expect things to get busy. We ended up waiting an hour. At this point, still no big deal at all. Restaurants have growing pains when they first open. You also have to assume that no workers actively don't want to seat you. Hosts and hostesses want to seat guests as badly as guests wanted to be seat. The wait time was understandable. If we wanted to be seated quickly, we could have chosen a place less new.

As you can imagine, some of the other guests started to get upset over the wait time. You know the drill. People started looking into the kitchen, crowding the host stand and peering at the iPad at the hostess stand. Guests were pointing at empty tables and intimidating the hostesses. I believe at one point a guest actually entered the kitchen. Behavior we have all seen in restaurants unfortunately.

Inevitably, the hostess seats the irate guests before us. At this point, I still understand. Aggressive guests are intimidating and difficult to have in the restaurants.

The time has finally come to be seated and I am very gracious with the hostess. I would have hated to have worked her shift. Here is where the bizarre interaction occurred:

The hostess actually mentioned to me that if I were less patient and less kind, I could have been seated earlier. Not in a joking and playful banter way. As if to punish and scold me for treating the staff with patience and kindness. I guess if I would have complained and disrespected the staff and explored the back of the house I could have been seated quicker?

We all know the saying about the squeaky wheel getting the grease. Do we really want that? Do we really want to reward guests that intimidate young staff and never learned patience is a virtue in kindergarten?

I was a host for many years. Guests who were patient and treated me with respect were an absolute gift. I'm taken back that a hostess would say something like that.

If grabbing a table at Bar-Bill requires a guest to complain and be aggressive with staff, I think...

Went with friends who have taken me to many Western NY Wings joints when I visit. Coincidentally, Bar-Bill had been a recent recommendation from different friends who had grown up @ East Aurora. They said Bar-Bill had their favorite wings. But this time we were closer to East Rochester. So we checked out BB East. Really glad we went. Great location and cool older spacious building that has been renovated to be a multi-room/multi-level collection of bars and tables/booths in a multi- TV sports bar environment. Saturday evening was fun, busy and great to enjoy a few beers and some wings. Wait time was really no problem at all considering the high volume of dining and bar traffic. Our server, Danielle, was great and gave good advice on heat of their wings. I like very hot spicy food, and often find that restaurants tend to claim their food is very hot…only to find that it’s hot but not really that spicy. In this case Danielle warned that Bar-Bill wings are “hotter” than the wings in other restaurants. So I was excited/split an order (extra hot and suicide styles)… and was delighted to find the sauces were to my taste. Overall the food/drink we ordered was very good. I split a Beef on Weck with a buddy, and it was top notch. Fries were julienned and perfectly fried. Top notch again. Local K2 brewery makes them a house lager and house IPA. We tried both (twice) and found them not only good as stand alone beers, but particularly tasty/good as accompaniment to our food. We all enjoyed our wings. The wings were big and meaty with a nice fried crunch under the sauce. Nice job! While I was very impressed/happy with the wings and the heat…I thought the flavor of mine was a bit bitter, and the sauce was a bit sticky/thick (?corn starch) …compared to the more silky buttery hot traditional Buffalo sauces I usually find. My buddy said his Medium wings were not as I described, and perhaps it was just the way BBE makes their hotter sauces. Anyway I look fwd to going back and trying other styles. This is a great place and Danielle made it particularly fun as well as assuring we got all our food and beers served perfectly. Very good-Excellent. Highly...

Had pizza and 4 different wings here. The pizza was very good, but more like a smaller medium in my books, which is great for 2 people. With 3 people sharing wings with it, it was a perfect size.

I liked the wings, but they weren't great. I live in Charlotte where we have the top wing spots in all of Rochester so I'm certainly biased, but here's my quick review on them: I like them just a tad under crispy, so the texture was good for me, but if you like them fully crispy, ask for that. the medium sauce was too barbecue for my taste and not an inkling of any heat. My very Irish friend thought they had some kick to them tho, so take that how you will. The Sicilian sauce was a Garlic Parm version with some other ingredients. I'd prefer the actual garlic Parm and for them to be saucier. They weren't dry, but they weren't dripping by any means. Had the honey butter and honey Dijon. They were the better of the 4 versions for sure, but nothing to write home about.

All in all I would probably go here again and would definitely have the pizza, but would likely try the lemon pepper and Cajun wings, just to see how their dry rubs are in comparison.

Price wise... I gotta say they were pretty pricey for what we got. $130 for 4 orders of five piece wings, a medium pep and mushroom pizza, and 2 drinks each, seems a tad high in my books. I wouldn't say that part was worth it, but it had a good vibe and we did split multiple sauces up to try them all out. Plus it's in Penfield/Webster so I get that you're not just paying...