The Barrel Steak & Seafood House — Restaurant in Washington

THE BEST Prime Rib we've had in the Spokane area, by far!! Fantastic service by everyone there, and... The Rib-Eye is die for! A melt in your mouth, slice of heaven. NOTE: Amendment #3: Came in to Barrel with my girlfriend in July 2018, for Ribeye & Dungenous Crab combo ($45)... OMG!!!!!! FANTASTIC! The steak as usual, was delicious and tender, the crab was at least a half of a large Dungenous, probably 3/4 lb (they state a min 1/2 lb). It was fresh and steamed perfectly. Can't emphasize enough how important that is with crab. Just amazing how old school great this place is!!

5 BIG STARS!!! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

They remodeled the SS Beryl on Wall St, and we got a chance to sample it for the first time on Friday night as The Barrel. It was amazing, the whole experience. Old school charm, great vibes, nice ambient dinner setting... reminiscent of some of the best steak places I have been. And very family friendly as well.

Started with drinks at the bar, the bartender was very cheery; then we took a table in the seating area... Our waitress was Laura, and she was FANTASTIC!! Right there anytime we needed anything, without being obtrusive. She knew the menu well, and gave us great recommendations. We started with their clam chowder, creamy and full of flavor, finished it with their hot buttered bread (great touch that no one does anymore). We sampled the Coconut Crusted Shrimp, which literally were the size of small lobster tails! Amazing!

However, we came for the meat... So we ordered the med-size Prime Rib cut, it was brought out by the either the manager or head chef/expeditor directly to us. it was perfect med-rare THICK slice of fresh Prime Rib... perfectly seasoned and not too fatty. Best Prime Rib I've had in years. I swear it was way bigger than advertised... Two of us couldn't finish it!

All around, we were so impressed with the whole experience. All I can say is, I wish we had a steak house like this in the Spokane Valley (we live in Liberty Lake), we would go every week. As it stands, we will be returning anytime we crave steaks, because now I want to sample the Ribeye and the Filet. Can't wait.

Amended Review: Returned for mid-week steak. Ordered the Rib-Eye... It was EXCEPTIONAL. Best I've ever had! Succulent, juicy, not too much fat. It was like a Prime Rib... Eye! FANTASTIC steak. Served with two outstanding sides. I can't rave enough about it. I wish we had a Barrel Steak House in the valley.

Again... 5 BIG STARS!!! HIGHLY...

Probably one of the worst meals/experiences I've had a a restaurant in a long while. First, the fact that they don't take reservations confounds me. We went for a friend's birthday and she insisted she wanted to try this place. We waited an hour, which sucked but it is what it is. The booth was cramped and uncomfortable to boot.

Service:

When we were finally seated we weren't greeted by our waitress, Kailey, for about ten minutes. We got our drinks quick enough but that was probably the only bit of good service we received. We rarely saw her throughout the meal and when we did she would pick and choose whose drinks were refilled. When we got to ordering our meal she basically screamed at my pregnant wife for trying to make pregnancy safe alterations to the meal (nothing crazy - no bacon on the burger, make sure the burger is cooked, X dressing instead of blue cheese) you know, things that shouldn't enrage waitstaff. For that alone we will absolutely never come back.

Food:

For appetizers we got the steamed clams and the coconut prawns. The clams were super fishy and lacked flavor overall. The coconut prawns had literally zero coconut flavor but I will say the prawns themself had a good prawn taste and were very large. Consider them fried prawns and you're good.

Dinners included the mushroom ravioli, 2 ribeyes and the burger mentioned previously. The 2 ribeyes were both different sizes (same thickness) so I overpaid and the other person underpaid. The steaks were cooked perfectly and were very tasty. I had the 3 cheese mashed potatoes as my side. The portion was insulting - maybe the size of an ice cream scoop and it was so incredibly dry it almost crumbled when I went to fork it. The other steak ordered got asparagus and she said that was great. The burger was cooked well and was tasty, according to my wife, and the fries were very good. The mushroom ravioli, I'm told, was also good.

For desert we had the creme brulee and the citrus olive oil cake. The creme brulee topping was cooked perfectly but the cream was overcooked, very thick and overall tasteless. The citrus cake was so incredibly dense and dry we took a few bites each and abandoned the rest.

This place really does try to be something it's not - a classy joint with good food. It's basically a bar with cranky staff and mediocre to terrible food. As I mentioned before we will never be back and we will ensure everyone we know steers clear...

First place we visited for restaurant week. I will start with the good. We had a early dinner 4pm so service was great and our server made for an enjoyable evening. I ordered Steak bites for an appetizer, they were pretty good a little overcooked but had good taste, for $13.00 would have liked to have enough for 2 people though. I ordered the brussel sprouts, seared cod and creme puffs, my date ordered shrimp cocktail, ribeye and creme puffs. I was served 5 whole brussel sprouts, the sprouts themselves were a little bitter and the outside was slightly burnt but once I removed the burnt leaves it was OK. The seared cod was really good but I was only given a tiny piece of fish. I am not a huge eater at a single meal and I rarely if ever finish all the food on my plate so when I make a comment on how small the portion is there is something extremely wrong. I would say that the portion I recieved was enough for a 5 year old child and not even the smallest of adults and for $31.00 I should be full. My date was served 2 shrimp, the ribeye and creme puffs. Her shrimp cocktail was good, the shrimp was cooked perfectly and the sauce was really good. The ribeye was cooked perfectly but was not a very good piece of meat and she had to leave about 30 percent on the plate because of the excess grizzle. The creme puffs were absolutely yummy. I would liked to have a little bourbon mixed in the custard and have the center warm and maybe some Himalayan salt sprinkled on top but as is it was yummy. The bottom line for $120.00 for two people I expect a fantastic meal that fills me up not a good meal that 1 hour later I wanted more food. For the $120.00 I got 2 drinks(bourbon neat) and my date had 1 glass of house wine, the steak bites, 2 of the restaurant week specials($31.00 each) and tip. Again I do not eat very much at a single meal and I rarely order an appetizer as I normally can not eat all the food at one sitting(I normally eat 6 to 8 times a day) not only did I order an appetizer but I also finished all the food and was still hungry after. Bottom line this place had great service but portion size was not worth the money we spent had the portion been enough to actually fill me up I would have given...