The Fig & Barrel Pub — Restaurant in York

I personally have been wanting to have dinner here, but I had to comment regarding my roommates who had dinner with a 4:30 reservation on this past Valentines day (2024). They were seated at the 2-Top in front of the fireplace. THEY COULDN'T STOP PRAISING THEIR EVENING and let me include this as well.... I was surprised (especially with so much hate, hypocrisy and delusion coming from certain segments of America as of late, It was refreshing that they chose to seat my two male friends in the romantic 2-top table in front of the fireplace, even taking a photo of them. But that's not my reason for commenting. My friend who paid is somewhat younger than myself and when they returned from dining that evening, knowing I am considered a "Foodie", well traveled and had my own restaurant at 21, they were ecstatic with their experience, from the duck to dessert, which was just a fraction they told of their evening, finally including the total, which was $104, "plus $15 for tip".....! I hated to flip the mood, but when I told them that wasn't enough they made it worse for some reason to tell me apps were half price! SO THIS IS WHAT I TOLD THEM!.... First, severs make a fraction of minimum wage, not to mention at the end of the night they usually have to "Tip-Out" the bartender(s), bussers, Maitre'D, etc... Second, they have an actual percentage taken out of that minute minimum wage ($3+ for servers usually) so if you stiff the server, they actually PAY for you to sit and fill your a*. Also, if your bill includes discounted items such as their half price appetizers or perhaps a BoGo coupon, or even worse case scenerio an entree or item was taken off by staff, none of these should be reason to discount the gratuity, since the server still brought the same items, regardless what the "House" charged you or didn't charge you, If you checked into a hotel and used your AAA discount, should the hotel dock the persons check for the fifteen or twenty minutes they worked checking you in as well? So why should you dock the servers gratuity. Next, instead of using your fingers or pulling your phone out and using a stupid app that calculates 18% gratuity, JUST LEAVE 20%! It's simple, take a zero off the end of the total or ten percent and double it. If you have a great meal, tell a manager or owner, if you have a bad meal, tell a manager or owner, they can't fix it if they aren't aware, and if you can't afford the proper gratuity, stay home and eat. Look at it this way, I have flown into Los Angeles or Burbank in private jets where my agent paid upwards of $30K for the charter one way and if at LAX, whilst in line in the tarmac with the likes of Jet Blue and other discount carriers that I have also taken costing me a mere $200, meaning if someone is in coach paying a couple hundred or on a Gulfstream costing someone's yearly mortgage utilize the same air traffic controller, the same pilots, the same ground crew... None of them see a deduction on their salaries based on the cost of each ticket, why should you play Ebenezer, so please give at least 20% based on what your total would be PRE-DISCOUNT and never punish a server for the fault of the "House". If the server is in fact simply horrible, and in fact DOES serve you something that is CLEARLY off putting, ignores you, is rude, etc then very well, but please inform the management or owner AS WELL. Don't play Armchair Judge & Jury and I think it's disgusting to trash a business on social media for a bad experience, yet never voiced your complaints in person. How would you feel if you were hired for your dream job but they did a social media background check & read an entry where an ex and all of his/her friends did the same, but was not true or perhaps out of context and didn't get the job, yet spent $20K relocating & $50k down-payment on a new mortgage, their entry could bankrupt you, just as a review can close a business or stiffing a server may be the difference of $30 causing overdrafts or worse. I told my friend to stop by soon and drop a little more off. Apologies...

After dining here this evening I went back to read the Google reviews to try and reconcile the rave reviews with our dining experience, I now realize that if you peruse the negative reviews, you'll find a distinct pattern of complaints focusing on the service (or lack thereof). We stopped in for dinner early on a Tuesday evening. When we arrived there were 10 patrons or fewer including those at the bar. Things started off fine but after receiving our drinks, no one stopped by our table ever again. It took close to 45 minutes for very basic dishes to arrive (a grilled cheese and fried chicken), delivered by someone who seemed to be tasked with expediting food from the kitchen. At one point I popped up to the bar to ask for another drink. The bartender was polite, but the drink, like the meal, was also very much delayed-- so much so that the food had not only arrived, but we had finished our meals before the drink arrived. I won't bother to comment on the food because we were not in the right frame of mind to judge it fairly.

I understand that many restaurants are understaffed and that delays are inevitable. The poor review is not the product of the delays but the complete absence of any effort to acknowledge us. No matter how busy you are, it takes 10 seconds to stop by a table to say sorry for the delay...we're short staffed this evening... the kitchen is backed up...something. That's all it would take to show that you want or care about our patronage.

Well,...

I've visited the Fig & Barrel Pub twice.

First was for lunch and I had an overall great experience. I ordered their bacon and apple grilled cheese, which came out great and the tater tot sides were fried perfectly. The owner has created a great modern atmosphere in the restaurant and the staff was very attentive.

Because of my positive lunch experience I visited again for brunch on a Saturday. This time I ordered the Orange French Toast with a side of bacon and OJ. Unfortunately the fresh-squeezed juice was the best part of the meal. The food took at least 15 minutes to come out and I was one of maybe 3 tables total in the restaurant. I could taste the orange in the batter of the french toast, but it was extremely soggy, which appeared to be a combination of over-soaking the bread, under grilling, and too much liquid in the berry compote that goes on top. My side of bacon was originally 7-8 strips of very low quality bacon that were overcooked in a microwave. For the price, I expected something higher quality that was a little thicker and more flavorful with some chew. I had the bacon redone, which was better but still not great quality, and declined on the french toast because I was in a bit of a hurry.

I'm happy to see some new dining options in York and hope that Fig and Barrel considers making some tweaks to their kitchen to match the...