Perennial on Lockwood — Restaurant in Webster Groves

First I want to say, I saw this place advertised on KMOV with Corey and Samantha. The reviews were great. We eat out quite a bit and I mentioned to my husband that we should try this place. Went on a Friday night. Here's a tip, make a reservation. It was an 1.5 hour wait. They have seating at bar counters why you wait and you can order drinks and food if you would like. My husband ordered a beer and he stated it was pretty good. We ordered the fried chicken skins and they were really good, just like the reviews said. Now here is where it went down hill. I ordered the crispy chicken fried sandwich with onion rings. The sandwich came out warm almost cold. The onion rings were okay, the batter on some were a little undercooked. I then asked for a new sandwich. When I received the new sandwich, I cut it in half and it was the same as the first one. I gave up. When I took a bite of both sandwiches, I ordered it spicy and there was no spice. My husband ordered the grill cheese with ham and fries, again reviews raved about the grilled cheese, but he thought it was ok. The fries are the same as steak n' shake fries. I only gave it a 2 star because the chicken skins were the best thing that I had. Not sure if I will return. Very disappointing considering the reviews rated this place...

This review makes me sad to write....

First of all, we love Perennial's original location and are obsessed with Olive + Oak which houses the new location.

We were seated directly next to the bathrooms, I'm not sure why any restaurant would chose to place a table near the bathroom door, gross. Our server took over 10 minutes to greet the table, not sure if the hostess stand failed to inform her, if she was too busy, or what the breakdown in communication was. You can only order drinks on their specific menu....no off menu items available. This is very disappointing because clearly they have the ingredients to make different cocktails based on their available cocktail menu. We started with the whipped feta and then split the patty melt and fish/chips. The whipped feta was great, highly recommend. The other 2 items were sub par and honestly would could have ordered them at any other local bar/restaurant. For the price they charge for these items, I would have expected much more.

Sorry! If you're looking for a good meal, opt for Olive + Oak next door.

UPDATE: I emailed Mark from Olive + Oak, who commented on my original post asking me to contact him directly. I emailed him on 3/3 and as of 4/6 have not heard back from him. Very...

My wife and I went here early on a Monday evening, and unfortunately everything we ordered was pretty terrible. The chicken sandwich was sour to the point of being inedible (it didn't taste like chicken, it tasted overwhelmingly of pickling juice), the pot pie had a underdone or stale crust and bland filling, and the harissa cauliflower was somehow both excessively hot AND under seasoned. The only saving grace were some excellent shoestring fries that were crispy, well seasoned, and just delectable.

Service was passable, though kind of haphazard with 2 servers asking the table what we needed one right after another, followed by 10-20 minutes of complete lack of attention.

But really the food was what stopped us short. I really hope we hit on an off night, but honestly someone needs to be monitoring what comes out of the kitchen since we literally could not finish our food it was so poor. We'll not be going back, but I really hope this makes it to the kitchen so that things can be fixed. Maybe we got the wrong dishes, but honestly if you're not going to put forth a palatable dish, please just remove it...