Firebirds Wood Fired Grill — Restaurant in Wichita

Unfortunately I was underwhelmed by Firebirds Wood Fired Grille. After hearing a lot of good things about the place my husband and I decided to go for our anniversary. I glanced ahead online at the menu, both the dinner and happy hour menus sounded delicious.

We arrived; we were offered a seat in the bar for happy hour; a server appeared after a few minutes and took our drink order. She returned about 5 mins later to take our "shareable" order. Everything seemed fine. Ten minutes later we were still waiting for our drinks (draft beers) and my husband flagged down our server asking about the drinks. Rachel M., unapologetically, told us the bar was running behind and they were working on it. Only problem with her explanation was that we could clearly see and hear the bar from our seats and they were not frantically filling orders or rushing around. They were more like horsing around, laughing, telling jokes, and barely making drinks at a snails pace. If this is how a bar of this type of restaurant wants to serve their customers, then that's too bad because there are too many other establishments where we could spend our money. And, I might question their ideas on making money. The point behind happy hour (beyond making customers happy with lower drink and food prices) is to keep the drinks flowing and sell, sell, sell. It appeared the wait staff of Firebirds was not informed of their duties.

Fast forward a little to our shareables arriving just shortly after our drinks. The meatballs were microwaved; the beef sliders were mediocre at best; the parmesan fries (which were a late add on as we saw a full plate go by smelling amazing) were frozen steak fries topped with a pinch of parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil. I liked them the best but I can easily make the same thing at home. I am no chef by any means.

My husband wanted another draft and had to ask the server who brought the sliders to our table. We ate the shareables and questioned each other over our poor service, nothing grandiose food, and the entire ambiance of the place. We'd planned on taking a table and trying a steak after sampling the happy hour, but... The experience so far was far from par.

The next moment a couple walked into the restaurant and we made up our mind. I'm in no way judging people for what they wear; I've definitely enjoyed my pajamas too far into the morning, yoga pants when I should probably be wearing something a little more presentable, but... This was a restaurant that advertised "Smart Casual" as the dress code. Dress casual is defined as: Smart casual includes items like blazers, sports jackets, dresses, sweaters, trousers, khakis, skirts, blouses, button-down shirts, polos, dress shoes, boots, heels, flats, scarves and jewelry. The man entering the restaurant was wearing Michael Jordan basketball shorts, a cutoff tee shirt, & sneakers. The woman wore a tank, running shorts, & sneakers as well. They were asked how many in their party and promptly taken to a table.

I'm sorry. If an establishment is not going to follow their own protocols for attire, not care about serving their customers timely, and serve food that has been frozen at the prices they're asking? My husband, me, and our money walked down the sidewalk to Bonefish. Ate fresh fish (barramundi), the most amazing key lime cake, and bang bang shrimp. We had great service and conversations with our servers.

Morale of the story: Save your money and eat what you know...

Please Read Entire Review as there is an update... First time here. ☆☆☆☆☆ The atmosphere is beautiful. Prices are on the moderate to slightly higher side, business casual attire. We went during happy hour, which allows you to get selected appetizers at a discount if your sitting in the lounge, patio or at the bar. I also ordered my meal off the dinner menu. I ordered a dirty martini, iced tea, roasted red pepper hummus appetizer (discounted), and the Ahi Tuna appetizer, for dinner I ordered the steak salad (med rare, vinaigrette on the side). My friend Colleen ordered a blackberry drink, a cup of soup, side salad and the shrimp appetizer (discounted) sat at the bar, Britney was the bartender and our server. She was pleasant, personable and very attentive. We placed our order and the appetizers arrived quickly. The hummus was slightly spicy and delicious. The Shrimp were excellent, enough for two or three people. The Ahi Tuna was delicious but extremely overly salted, we only ate half of it. I brought this to the attention of Britney and she tasted it and agreed. Then informed the appropriate people. When my salad arrived, it was soaked with dressing and the steak was med well. I informed the server that brought it out to us before he even sat it on the table. He apologized and took it back to the kitchen. He returned quickly with a new salad that was perfect. The two minor issues we had, were resolved quickly, professionally and above expectation (we were comped the Ahi Tuna app). We will definitely dine here again. Definitely recommend giving this place a try! :)

Update 04/05/22: ☆☆ Went for my bday with family. We had reservations so we were seated promptly. Took forever to get our appetizers (lobster queso, and onion rings) not complicated. Supposedly the "kitchen, lost the ticket" so the waiter brought the queso (30 min after we ordered, then the onion rings about 10 min after that)...we ordered...took forever to get our meals. Chicken pasta (so spicy my grandmother just picked out the chicken and leftthe rest. I ordered the sirloin, med rare, with a baked potato (guess you don't get a stinkin salad unless you pay a $6.95 upcharge! Not paying that for something that should come with my meal...Ridiculous). Mine was cooked ok, but was a little tough potato was dry.. My sister had the sirloin, med rare with broccoli and hers was massively over cooked, closer to med well. My mom got the filet, med rare and scalloped potatoes. Her potatoes were burnt, her steak was really rare, and it was tough, and the bacon around it still looked limp and undercooked.. A filet should not be tough. Ever..so after waiting over an hour for our meal, they had to send it back...wait another 20 minutes for new food. Then they didn't even give my mom a new filet. Just threw hers back on the grill...they did remove my sister and mothers from the bill but, the evening was pretty much ruined. And they asked on the reservation of it was an occasion. We said yes, a birthday (mine), but they didn't do anything. Sadly I don't think I'll be going back for a while, if ever...they already said they aren't going back....another one...

7May2023 Update: Google please accept my proposal of an update reviews for restaurants! 2nd time visit, I brought my family to share the experience we had 2 months ago. I won't take the original down because I like being thorough with my reviews, but omg, was this catastrophic. I didn't even took pictures because I knew right away we are never coming back. I don't know what happened, such a pretty place! but the food was so terrible! I ordered a red snapper, I grew up in the Caribbean I've known and tasted all kinds of ways to prepare a snapper, I don't know what I ate but it was definitely NOT a red snapper it was so tough and poorly cooked, I don't know what kind of hard fish was that but it was so disappointing! The asparagus were over cooked the risotto was dry and tasted old, my mother's pasta was cold and poorly seasoned, and my brother's hamburger was just dried and simple. I don't know what happened in the last 2 months but please dismiss my first impression. The prices are not worthy of the quality meal we were expecting, this was terrible and utterly disappointing. I can't recommend this restaurant anymore 1/10 only because the bisque was decent. Go back to 2 months ago, be better... This was a great experience. We usually judge places by ordering one basic dish, and to the ones following us you know we'll start usually with a simple one, and let's face it, getting a well done steak that is still juicy inside is not an easy task, and this cook made it happen, at lunch! when is usually not so many people, so food quality tends to be worse than dinner time if compared, but this place doesn't disappoint. Friends, this was exceptional. Every dish had a particular exclusive seasoning, the salads were super fresh and the seasoning was on point, not overwhelming not underseasoned just on point, you actually get to use salt & pepper if desired to give it an extra touch, everything felt done at spot like if the chef just cooked for us in the next table, gotta love fresh food!. Negatives are barely a few, the Burratta cheese was lacking the juicy center it was a tad dry, and the drinks are superb but you better order in advance because they take a bit in the bar to prepare them, the bread is fresh but something is missing, maybe some seasoning in the butter, but the food is so good you won't even notice. Nice little place, will be definitely coming back for dinner to compare....