Went out for Friday night dinner here, and what I thought might be a great place to eat turned out…read moreto be mediocre. I imagine it'll be worth a second look, but who knows.
When we first stepped inside it felt like we had travelled back in time a few decades. Not that this is always a bad thing. It wasn't what you'd call run down. But it just looked somewhat dated, and the initial smell was that of a smoke soaked bar from the 80's. Whatever the case though; we took our seats and gave it a shot.
I should also mention that what prompted us to try Big Daddy's out was a Groupon. And it seemed like an amazing deal. A regular order of wings, two entrees (there was a choice of about 10; something for everyone), and two beers, for $30. By menu prices (which were about average), the lot would have cost a touch over $60.
Anyway: to the food. The wings were a 100% fail in almost every way. They were tiny, the sauce was difficult to even taste, and this was most likely the case because they were well over cooked. They seemed oven baked, and so they could have been out of the oven quite a few minutes before they were. The only saving grace was the fries - although they were just frozen fries that I can assume anyone can deep fry.
Next was the chicken Parmesan. After the disappointing wings, I was surprised to learn that this dish was very good. The pasta was cooked well, the chicken was tender and juicy, and even the garlic bread was perfect. This I would go back for.
Then there was the Greek Chicken Souvlaki dinner. And we're back to a miss again. The salad was okay (better once the forgotten salad dressing was delivered), and again the potato offering was well cooked (again, seemed like another type of frozen wedges deep fried), the rice was a mix of overcooked mush mixed with crunchy bits, and the chicken; yup, you guessed it, quite overcooked, just like the wings. I would have been embarrassed to serve this if I were them.
The beer was good and okay. Good that there were many selections on tap, okay that although I got a beer i really liked, it wasn't as cold as I would expect to get a beer in a bar.
Service was competent. The name of the only one waiting tables that time of day was Alex, and she certainly kept herself busy with the few tables she was taking care of. We did wait for about 10 minutes after finishing our meals to get the bill, and we were a little taken aback with the reminder that we were supposed to tip on what the bill would have been, not just on what we had accrued outside the Groupon. I'm sure she'd been burned before to have it come to this, but either way it felt uncomfortable, especially combined with her complaints of past poor treatment and a poor review of her waitressing skills from a recent customer.
The place does seem interesting though: a bit of a throwback, but in a good way. Live music was setting up as we ate, there were pool tables off to the side, and they advertised a number of shows and other activities coming up. I think it'll be worth a second look; but next time we'll be very careful what we order
