Baumhower's Victory Grille — Restaurant in Tuscaloosa

A group of us decided this past Wednesday evening that we wanted to grab some wings and beer, so we opted to try out the newly renovated Baumhower’s Victory Grille on Harper Lee Drive, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Our experience started off bad, and continued to be bad, and actually turning terrible. When we walked in as a party of eleven, we were immediately greeted with an attitude by the hostess that made us feel like they did not want us to stay there and eat seeing the size of our group (which I don’t think a group of eleven people is too much to handle on a Wednesday evening), so she proceeded to inform us it could be quite a wait before we could be seated. We had our hearts set on wings and beer, so we said that is fine, we will wait. We then took a look around the restaurant and noticed that there were not many people dining at the time (if I had to guess, I would say there were maybe 5 tables total being served) so it was surprising to hear that it would take quite a while. But we opted to stay and dine, at this point it was around 7:45. We were then seated about 15 minutes later I would guess, which was not a long time really, but still seemed odd by the amount of people there. But we were fine with it and still looking forward to our meal. Once we were seated, it took about another 10 minutes before our waitress decided to great us. She then started taking our drink orders. We told her would probably want waters all around, and that we would be ordering some beers. She then left us to go get the waters first, and told us she would be back to take our beers orders. I would estimate it took another 15 minutes before she returned with our waters and by this time we were ready to order both our beers and our food as we have had plenty of time to look over the menu. She insisted on taking just beer orders and coming back for food orders, so we reluctantly agreed. By this point we could tell this would be a long evening. About 20 minutes later, we received our beers (only 8 of us actually ordered a beer might I add) and again, she told us she would be right back to take our food orders. At this point we have almost been there an hour and still no food has been ordered. She finally returned and we were able to order our food. We are pretty hungry at this point, but seeing how we all ordered wings, it surely wouldn’t take too long to cook our food and have it out to us. Boy were we wrong, it was about another 45 minutes before we received our food, even still, somewhere in the process one of our orders did not get cooked, so they had to then put in the food order AGAIN (that one took another 20 minutes before it was delivered, the rest of us were long done eating). During this whole process, not a single time did our waitress return to refill drinks, or even check on us. Once our final food order came out we went ahead and asked for our checks. My biggest issue with this whole exchange was with the Manager and how he handled the situation. If I was the owner of this establishment, I would have fired the man on the spot after discovering how he handled it. Naturally, after everything we had experienced we asked to speak to the manager. He never came, so finally one of us spotted what seemed to be the manager at the entrance to the kitchen, and went and asked to speak to him. He admitted he was the manager. He had a mouth full of beignets with white powder all over his face. He swallowed his food and agreed to speak to us. We explained the situation, and he continued to make excuse after excuse, at one point saying that we should have never been seated as quickly as we were seated. (May I remind you, it took 15-20 minutes to get seated, and the restaurant was barely 10% full) He blamed the kitchen, the hostess, and the waitress, never taking ownership. He did finally agree to give us an employee discount for the encounter and at this point was the least of our worries. We just wanted to get home. 4 attempts at correctly splitting our checks, and 25 minutes later we were finally walking out the door...

The only reason I am leaving 3 stars is because of our wonderful server Catherine! We had dinner at the restaurant this evening and they were busy when we got there. We had a party of 4 and waited about 30 minutes for a table which was more than reasonable considering it was a Saturday night and it is move in weekend. We were seated at a table in a back corner. We ordered our sodas and when we got them they had no syrup in them and were strictly carbonated water. Catherine immediately took care of the problem and got us new drinks. We ordered our food. My husband got wings, my sons got a burger and a wrap. I ordered the FAMOUS hot brown. We then sat and sat and sat! After an hour we FINALLY got our food. The entire time we waited for our food Catherine made sure we had fresh drinks and was very attentive. When we got our food everyone but me was happy. My so called famous dish was terrible! The bacon was burnt and I had a small piece of toast underneath everything. It didn’t seem like anything I had to eat before I died like the menu advertised. But at this point I was starving so I ate what I could and didn’t really complain. As I was sitting and eating I felt something crawling up my leg. I pushed it off and then a few seconds later a HUGE cockroach crawled up the wall next to me from under the table. Catherine went and got the manager who grabbed a broom and smashed it while telling us that the restaurant was close to the woods. After she killed it she walked away. I completely understand that this is something that can’t be controlled. But that was RIDICULOUS! I myself am a server and have been for quite sometime and I know that if management handled a situation like this the way it was handled here we wouldn’t have any customers!! I might try this establishment again but it would only be because Catherine was...

I think my review would be 1 star higher if I ordered beer and fried food. They do that well.

My son and I met the wife and daughter for dinner. Annoyingly, they would not seat until the whole party was present despite being less than half full.

Son's salad looked fresh and we'll prepared, special request for no cheese was handled

Daughters chicken fingers and fries came warm, which is good for kids and fried food...blazing hot makes them frustrated. Food quality was good on the fingers, not overly processed looking.

Wife's grilled chicken salad was reasonable.

For whatever reason, I ordered grilled chicken with 'fresh broccoli' and wild rice at a bar food place. Hey, it's on the menu, so come strong or don't come at all.

Chicken was fine, not dried out and a little oily. The wild rice was white rice with a sprinkling of wild grains and a liberal infusion of some green colored oil that pooled on the plate. Not uncommon for places that don't really do rice and don't want it to dry out. The 'fresh broccoli' was a crime against broccoli specifically with negative socioeconomic impact on vegetables generally. Boiled or steamed to oblivion, this poor vegetable was disintegrating on the fork with a gag-inducing texture (because I gave it a chance anyway) and undescribable flavor. I guess it serves me right, but again, it is on the menu. And no, I never send back a recook. You only get one chance to spit in my dinner. I vote with my feet.

When last in this location, these guys had a fantastic jerk chicken on the menu that has disappeared. Wish you were here,...