Sometimes I wish facial expressions could equate to how good the food tastes. If so, there would be no poker face at all with me. Just the right amount of seasoning to feel a little kick in your mouth but smooth and delectable going down. It's too good to stuff myself with meal. A dish like this is made to be enjoyed for one more day. Just imagine, once it sits overnight the seasonings will mesh together even more and...hummm some good eating. Whoever was the chef today; kudos to you for a job well done. This was worth the hard work I put in today at work along with bearing the hot temperatures today. I know there are unbelievers who won't believe that I didn't eat it all in one sitting. Here is another shot of what I'm saving for tomorrow. Okay, I did finish off the fried okra; too good to let stay. Listen up, please, come a little closer, just a little more. I'm going to whisper to select individuals even though I know you will share; lol. I went to this restaurant "BackDraft," and ordered something I "would not" order because I'm not one of those people who has an affinity for them. If they are at a family cookout and my nephew, who is the family chef, cooks them on the grill, I might eat one or two. Okay, wait for it, chargrilled oysters. I know some are "clutching their pearls," repeating "say it's not so". Yes, I'm one of those people. However, when I went into the restaurant, I wasn't really hungry but knew that after a long day I had to put something substantial in my stomach for the evening. So, I had a taste for some soup. I ordered the "Gumbo," and the chef "Shawn" (with his innocent demeanor) happened to be walking towards the front counter, and the front desk staff asked him to describe the Gumbo and how he made it. I was intrigued after hearing how he cooked it, thinking it was just going to be some type of tomato-based soup. So, I ordered a cup. Then I kept looking at the "Jacked-Up Oysters," which Shawn guaranteed that I would love. So, I ordered a half-dozen, thinking that I was wasting my money. I took it to go because again I was tired and wanted to get back to the hotel. Let me tell you, the Gumbo was absolutely tantalizing with just the right amount of spice to let you know you are tasting something special. It was nothing as I had anticipated. Also, for the person who is not a real "oyster person," I ate those oysters like there was no tomorrow; like they were the last oysters on earth or like I stole something. Okay, I would NEVER steal anything; not my thing. Life is worth living to the fullest and experiencing it. Chef Shawn, you did your thing, "sir". I can't wait to come back to try other dishes there while I'm traveling. So, walk, skip, hop, run, jog, drive, bike, take the bus, or if you are in the area, please stop by here and have your taste buds awakened. The staff is super friendly and informative about the menu, and the atmosphere is welcoming, with reasonable prices. read more

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Great customer service and delicious for are to be had here if you come. I didn't know it, but they sometimes have daily specials around lunch time. That is what I got yesterday. The special I was after was baked chicken, cabbage and purple hull peas. However, once I arrived, the hostess was walking up to me telling me that they were already out of their special. So, instead, I got their spaghetti with meat sauce and I really enjoyed it. It actually tasted close to how my mama cooks hers. My waitress kept checking on me too while I was here to see if I needed anything. This restaurant is down town Cleveland. So, you might have to park down the street for the restaurant. Therefore, you might have to walk like I did. read more

Backdraft Restaurant & Bar - Spaghetti with meat sauce - Bars Near Me - Cleveland, Mississippi

Very interesting place, firehouse theme, enjoyed some good music and the layout of the place was very accommodating to different dining choices. That said, the food was VERY heavy on oily preparation and WAY overpriced across the board. A $7 plate fee if you wanted to share a $45 steak or fish entree. Our server literally did not know that French fries were potatoes. I swear. If you wanted more water, you got a second glass so that before the end of the meal there was zero room on the table. The food was an acid-reflux festival. $17 for a six inch cast iron pan of individual Sysco mushrooms covered in greasey cheese, bacon bits and a few sad jalapeño bits. Aside from the music anyplace would have been better. read more

While visiting my home state, Mississippi, I enjoyed a tasteful lunch with two classmates at the Backdraft. The service was excellent. The ambiance was quiet and pictured the decor of a firehouse. read more

Backdraft Restaurant & Bar - Meal - Bars Near Me - Cleveland, Mississippi

Great food: both the seafood and the steak dishes were delicious. The boudin balls were very tasty. No wait, friendly courteous staff. Antique firehouse decor throughout. Relatively new owners in the last year, and they've done a very nice job. Will look to return here to eat when we are in Cleveland next year. read more

First time for a meal here for our family and it was a wonderful experience. The staff were very attentive and friendly. The food was delicious. We had the crawfish tails and mushrooms as appetizers with the grouper, salmon, and stuffed shrimp entrees. The fresh rolls were very good. The steamed broccoli is a great choice. Very convenient to the Cotton House hotel. Highly recommended read more

I took my office staff to lunch at Backdraft yesterday. The wait time and service was horrendous. When I told the waitress that we only had an hour for lunch and asked her why we are waiting so long for food, she told us that the kitchen is backed up because they have a lot of DoorDash orders. So I asked the waitress why the DoorDash orders are filled first before the customers that are waiting in the restaurant. I told the waitress that if the DoorDash customers are more important than those that are sitting in the restaurant waiting for their food then they should close the restaurant and just do DoorDash to get rid of all the overhead of running a restaurant. I will never go back there again. The service was so poor. Waitress had time to stand at the bar gabbing with her coworkers rather than taking our order. read more

Great service. The backdraft bacon cheeses bake followed by the Catfish Vieux Carre is a can't miss. It's what I get every time I go. It has a cool firehouse theme. Not over the top. Just the right amount. read more

Good food and the live music was great. Dine on the fried crawfish tail and the main course was Ribeye Steak, broccoli, and house salad. Enjoyed everything for my birthday meal! Had a great service as well. read more

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Service. Very good. Food below. Average. Verry expensive. I had. Crab claws and a steak. 100. Bucks. Prime rib was cold Cauliflower was great. Ive had way way better steak at. Texas Roadhouse. Had fish there yesterday. Was good. Highly disappointed. If the steak was tender and good. I would not complain. But. I feel robbed. Realy i do. I realy feel. Robbed read more

Rolled in at 8:25 because the bourse say "open till 9" and after waiting several minutes at the hostess stand I flagged someone down and they said the kitchen closed at 8:30. read more

Great meal, great service, and awesome atmosphere. Monica, the owner, ate with us, and she is delightful. read more

Backdraft Restaurant & Bar - Bars Near Me - Cleveland, Mississippi

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Under new management and it is so good! Their lunch specials, Saturday brunch, and specialty cocktails are all fabulous! It is within walking distance of the Cotton House, the Cleveland downtown and green strip. They also have a large private dining room for parties. read more

It was pretty good. Husband and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't get the Children's Marconi and Cheese though, it was expensive to end up almost definitely being Kraft, and not cooked well or not fresh one or the other. However the service was good and friendly. We will most likely return sometime when we are back in town. read more

Shady, watch your bill carefully. I've eaten here twice on work trips. Service is slow, really slow, food is mediocre at best, prices are high! There are not a lot of places to eat in Cleveland, and they seem to take advantage of this. They add an 18% gratuity to your bill even for a group of 2 or 3. The server will not mention this however, even when they see you have added a 20% tip. They will also add a 3% surcharge to your bill between the bill they present to you and the one you sign for. Shady, watch your bill carefully. read more

Great little place in Cleveland. Shopping all around in walkable downtown. Firehouse theme. Clean with good restrooms.

My goodness this was a nice place in the middle of no where. We had a party of 22 people and one waitress for the whole party and she was phenomenal! Very patient. We were sat upstairs and the waitress had to run stairs all night. Only down side was the upstairs was very warm for the summer and a group that large. Food was great!!! Everything I had was top notice. Good job chef! I had the backdraft black cat and steamed broccoli. I also had the Caesar salad side. Salad wasn't good so get the house and try the house dressing maybe. But man all the other food was good and I would write home about it! read more

Backdraft Restaurant & Bar - Bars Near Me - Cleveland, Mississippi

Great food and the service was exceptional. Will definitely eat here again Thanks for everything

Food was very good but it took so long to get our meal. The staff was friendly and apologized.

I had the salmon & my fiancé had the firehouse pasta. Mine was great and i had no complaints, but the pasta was extremely over-peppered. Maybe it just wasn't our taste, but overall, we enjoyed this establishment and it was great to hear live music on a Monday night. read more

Backdraft is amazing! Dinner has always been fantastic, but the lunch specials and Saturday brunch are my absolute favorite! Monica and her staff are always helpful and nice. If you're in Cleveland, you should definitely give them a try! Then while you're downtown, check out all the lovely boutiques and the Train Museum, or pop into the Grammy Museum. read more

Great atmosphere, wonderful staff,food made with love, location peaceful, reasonable pricing.

The fried green beans were to die for and the pecan grouper was great! Great location and atmosphere and the musician was a bonus!

Terrific service. Hartley, the bartender, provided exceptional service. Great food. Might be the best food in this town. Wish this place was open on Monday nights. read more

Steak is really good! But, service is really bad! The waitresses had a really bad attitude! They wouldnt come for 1 hour! Will not be returning to this dump ever again in my life! read more

First time to eat here. The New Orleans shrimp were fantastic! Our server Jenny was fantastic! Her recommendations were spot on and she was so entertaining! Ask to sit in her section when you go. Thanks for an A+experience! read more

New owners, food is really good. The lunch is good and prices are reasonable. The spinach salad is a 10 for real. Service is good with and short wait time. read more

Food: great! Prices: REALLY inflated. Servers: good... I've been here several times when I come into town to visit, and this is a completely honest review: The food is good, the cook on the appetizers, steaks, and sides really knows what they're doing. I recommend the stuffed mushrooms, shrimp linguine, and twice baked potatoes. The servers are hit or miss. Alley is really good, but some of the others seem lost or new (seems like a high employee turnover rate.) I'm not of age yet so I can't vouch for the bar, but it looks like a fun time! With that said, the food is extremely overpriced for the quality. The steak is good but not above anything I've had at outback and tend to be 20 dollars more expensive. The appetizers are yummy but small for the price, and the brownie dessert is 7 dollars for what appears to be a box mix brownie I could make at home for a dollar. Overall I do recommend Backdraft (one of the best/only steak places in Cleveland), I only wish I could go there a little more often. But college town means college wallets, and it's a tad bit expensive for my income read more

I never give a 2 star but because this restaurant presents itself as one of the better places in Cleveland (with prices to match) I'll make an exception. In short, it took almost 2 hours to get food. When it did come out (after chasing down our waiter) 3 of our 4 orders were only warm. (Pasta with chicken-was so so) The other order was the grouper, which fortunately was hot and was very good. They did comp about 10% on the check which was over 140 but given the abysmal attention to detail it was a the cap on an overall bad experience. read more

One of my favorite restaurants in the area. Very good service and consistent. Owner very involved / bar is perfect size and stocked with some top shelf bourbons. Crawfish Filet is highly recommended!!! Located downtown read more

I guess it is one of the best options in Cleveland, which means someone needs to open a restaurant! The taste of my grouper was ok, but it was tough to cut with a fork, never a good sign for fish. Service was worse than the fish, waiting 15 minutes for a bottle of wine that arrived at the table already open and no tasting opportunity. Two stars at best to be honest, but giving three simply because there may not be a better option for a tough grilled fish. read more

Food was great once it finally arrived. Our waitress was wonderful, super sweet and very apologetic. We waited over hour and half for food. When I asked to speak to the manager I was told she was not available. Then I was told since she was cooking in the kitchen. I understand delays and short staffing but we were not even informed of the delays but told out food would be right out. (Hour and half later ) read more

Second visit and this one happened to be my birthday. Walk in & up to the hostess, who looks at me and says,"What can I do for you?" Um... Greet us? Get us a table? Anything but stand there and ask that question? Unfortunately, dining options are EXTREMELY limited in Cleveland these days because one must choose between starving due to lack of service or vomiting due to lack of food preparation standards. Backdraft was no exception. It appears that servers have no set "section" here. So, our server was not only waiting on us, but another table at the back of the restaurant, which meant if you needed something you had to ask the hostess who would get the waitress... Etc... This is when they weren't all standing at the hostess station talking about one another. Didn't order an app because it was obvious right from the start that we wouldnt see our server again for 30 min if we ordered one. Salad bar was ok, entree was mediocre & took entirely too long to arrive, could be because I saw 2 different cooks come to the hostess station to fuss about something while we were waiting on dinner. Food looked disgusting and the sides weren't enough to satisfy a child, much less an adult. (See photo) I had the pineapple salmon & hubby had the shrimp special. Neither were good enough to waste anymore time reviewing them. Smoke does get into the non-smoking section, just FYI. I personally don't care, but the couple next to us that had a newborn with them appeared to. Another fail for Cleveland dining. Surprise. Surprise. read more

Backdraft Restaurant & Bar - Salmon with twice baked potato. Presentation obviously needs some work. Both cooked correctly, but only 3 bites in the potato. - Bars Near Me - Cleveland, Mississippi

Great service! Great food! The food will never disappoint! I've been coming here for 8 years and the food is alway phenomenal! Highly recommend reservations, especially on the weekends, it's always busy! read more

Pit of the business world. . . My mother-in-law frequents the place for the salmon. On Friday, June 3, 2022, she went there. When she sat down and was adjusting the chair, the cheap thing twisted and pinched her finger. It literally pinched a pea size chunk out of her finger and it would not stop bleeding. Why she did not then simply go home is beyond me. The staff gave some superficial first aid and an apology. . . did not even offer for her meal to be complimentary. . .!! Boy, talk about a chintzy crew!! She bled all night, ruining her bed linen. Finally going to an urgent care the next day and, after three cauterization's, and hundreds of dollars, they were able to stop the bleeding. . . I hope she'll find a good attorney. Maybe she will. She has three years, Backdraft! read more

Came here for a meeting with a group of 15. The service was excellent and considerate of the meeting. Food delivery was timely which was impressive considering there was another group present as well as regulars. Food was of good quality and didn't hear anyone in the group having any issues. Great decor paying homage to firefighters read more

Backdraft Restaurant & Bar - Bars Near Me - Cleveland, Mississippi

This is the best restaurant in Cleveland by far. I've been here a few times, but this is the first that I got some pictures and am writing a review. Very cool atmosphere, both as a bar if you want a drink and an appetizer; and also as a restaurant for a nice sit-down meal. It has a very cool nostalgic firehouse theme. Right in the heart of downtown Cleveland on Cotton Row. My girlfriend and I went last Saturday for a nice dinner. I had been wanting to try the pork loin for a while now, and finally got my wish. It was absolutely amazing. Stuffed with andouille sausage and grilled. I had a twice baked potato on the side which paired perfectly. We got the crab au gratin as an appetizer, which is a go-to app here for me. It is delicious, and addictive. She got the shrimp and corn bisque, which is usually get and am absolutely in love with. Once again, this restaurant is the nicest in Cleveland in my opinion. Go here. read more

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I had an excellent experience. Great ambiance and really good service. I had two appetizers for my meal and really enjoyed them. Cajun shrimp and stuffed mushrooms. Particularly like the decor as I was in the fire service for 32 years. It was nice to see the recognition in the restaurant. Kourtney was my server and was friendly, hospitable and prompt. Bottom line: Next time to Cleveland I will return. Actually think it is worth a trip to check it out. read more

Was in town and met a friend for dinner. I'd seen the restaurant before and always wanted to try it but never had the opportunity. The place was packed but our waitress handled it well and was polite and attentive. The Crab dip appetizer was to die for and the Backdraft Black Cat was out of this world good. I'll definitely be back!!! read more

Ate here for my birthday. The staff was great and the food was really good! I would come back again!