Ferah Smokehouse & Cantina — Restaurant in Wylie

Eh, it’s not worth the hype. Grant it my husband and I came in on Valentine’s Day so our expectations we were understanding that service might have been a bit slower.

Strange the reservations were still waiting long in the front entrance area, walk ins were told either bar or patio.

We were a walk in, so we gladly took the patio seating, wait was supposed to be 25 minutes - 30 minutes which we waited patiently it was about 32 minutes as my husband I were waiting, we made a comment that servers were using the front door to bring out food to the patio, while guests were trying to enter or were sitting in the inner waiting area…. Seemed odd since they have the two side doors to use and it created for some interesting close calls.

The patio when we arrived was busy but manageable, several guests left and I noticed that only one server was actually clearing their tables timely.

This was about 10 minutes or so after we were seated. I noticed the pile up of dishes from guests that had ate prior to our arrival and wait had been left sitting there.

I ordered a beer and my SO ordered a frozen marg, at first service seemed to be going ok. They brought out the cornbread and then water, drinks were on their way… and that’s when things went a little south, we got our drinks, I also noticed the wait time on drinks so I ordered an appetizer, corn elote (which honestly was a little bland, could have used roasted corn for more depth)

But over 27 minutes later, my beer was near empty, server came out asked about entrees we ordered: fajitas and braised short rib, I asked for a second beer at that time, 8-10 minutes later, a lady came out and eyed the tables that weren’t bused, and mind you the patio is the first entrance to the building, so many guests were noticing the dishes piling up. The buser came out to bus the tables that our server had missed or had no time to get to. The buser noticed my empty beer glass and asked if I’d like another, and I said yes I’ve already ordered it with my waiter who was again not out on the patio, my guess is he was inside also waiting on tables? Anyways, 2 minutes later he comes out to say my beer is on its way… and then another 2 minutes later my 2nd beer arrives (total of 15 minutes have gone by, our food still hasn’t arrived.

Waiter finally comes out to let us know the food is on its way, this already 40 minutes into our sit down time… finally food arrives from another buser, and the food was good, I’ll state that. But as soon as we were done approx 15 minutes later, we were ready to go…. Our server is no where to be found. I waited at least 10 minutes more and then finally went up to the front service desk to ask can I pay here or can you get the server to provide our bill, I gave her the name of the server and he came out shortly after. I gave my card and was ready to leave. It was far too long of a wait at that point to offer a dessert or something else.

Total time spent at the restaurant was about 90 minutes… honestly, while atmosphere is nice, the layout is odd, or at least not conducive to the servers on staff that night and it just wasn’t worth a second try.

The patio is well heated though which is a positive, but overall, I wouldn’t come back unless the service picks up its pace or just better management of tables.

It’s nice to have new places in Wylie but first time there and probably will...

I found myself alone for the evening and decided to treat myself to the newest restaurant in town! I arrived right around 5p on Wednesday this week, while there were several open tables I opted for bar seating as I was dining alone. There were so many delicious sounding options that I had a hard time making a decision, so I just ordered what sounded good and figured I could take home what I didn’t finish. I ordered a sweet tea, but changed my mind to a pina colada on the rocks after I saw the bartender make one for someone else. It wasn’t sweet, but was topped with fresh coconut and a cinnamon sprinkled pineapple slice, very tasty! I ordered the chefs sampler platter ($22) as an appetizer, a wedge salad ($9), and a fried chicken taco ($6). Everything came out at once lol but it was fine, I just picked a starting point and dug in!

I ate the salad first, figuring I’d rather eat all of the vegetables lol than leave any on the plate. It was good, and the flavors that were there were delicious. I love wedge salads, but this one was even more appealing as it was described as having candied bacon, queso fresco, pico de gallo, grilled corn and blue cheese dressing. All of these flavors were there, unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of any of them. I always cut up a wedge salad at the beginning to make sure there’s dressing and toppings for the entire salad, it backfire in this case. I would eat it again for sure, but would ask for extra dressing :) And candied bacon and corn.

When I finished the salad, I just took bites of everything to see what I should prioritize in terms of finishing while it was hot lol The chefs sampler came with 2 mac and cheese balls, 2 BBQ meatballs, 2 bacon wrapped shrimp, and a smaller portion of the queso blanco fondue with tortilla chips. The fondue was delicious! It was cheesy and cream and thick so it stayed on the tortilla chips, which were also fresh and well seasoned. There was some fresh pico on top which made those couple of bites even tastier. Will definitely order this again! I was a bit disappointed in the mac and cheese bites. The are deep fried with brisket in them. I felt like they should be described and brisket and pasta bites or something as I didn’t see or taste any cheese. They were ok, but not the stand out I had hoped for. The bacon wrapped shrimp were covered in the same sauce as the meatballs, and the bacon was undercooked. I’m very particular about bacon being cooked through, so this might have been a personal thing, but would’ve liked it crispier. Shrimp were cooked well though. The BBQ meatballs were my favorite part of this dish. They were large, good balance between sauce and meat, and just generally well seasoned. My favorite part of the dish, though, was the fried chicken taco. With the hot honey and citrus slaw, it was the perfect balance of sweet with light, crunchy, and fresh, and was also a good size. At $6 this was a hit for me!

Overall, the food was good, the service was great, they have an indoor main dining area and large patio. By the time I left, there was a wait, which I hope continues. For everyone who complains we only get chicken, car washes, and nail salons in Wylie, Ferah is the treat you’ve been...

Newer place so we wanted to give it a shot. I’ll add details below but let’s just call it above average prices for below average food. I ordered the Texan Platter for $32 thinking if it was more for than I could eat I would get the rest to go…wrong as the “platter” is just a regular dinner plate that included one very dry slice of fatty brisket that in addition to the dryness was cut wrong so it was basically stringy pot roast with a smoky flavor. I ate what I could and left more than half that was fat and connective tissue…definitely not Pecan Lodge. Next on the plate were two small bacon wrapped shrimp that were also dry as if they were prepared the day before and just reheated. At this point I was desperate for nutrition so I ate the both. After the two shrimp were three bite sized pieces of sausage that were course ground and mealy - I personally don’t like to be able to tell what was in my sausage before I eat it so after one piece I was done. A scoop of premade cafeteria style coleslaw and a scoop of mash potatoes with the skins still on the rounded out this platter of not goodness. One bite of the slaw told me all I needed to know about it. The highlight of the plate - those mashed potatoes - best part of the meal - there is the one gold star in the rating. My wife had some kind of smoked tortilla bisque that she said was a solid 7.5 out of 10 so things are looking up. But the disappointment struck again as the $7 shrimp taco she ordered arrived seemingly devoid of shrimp - actually it had three small shrimp in the bottom with some cilantro slaw on top and still the tortilla was half empty - she was really disappointed as shrimp tacos are her go to when offered - she gave them a 6 out of 10 mainly due to the lack of product inside the tortilla. One other positive in addition to the mashed potatoes was the skillet cornbread - it was very tasty and being served first gave us a false sense of security that the meal would be good. Overall we were very disappointed with the quality of the food and the...