Food:
11/18/2015 11:41 pm
If my experience at Barra today (Wednesday, Nov 18, 2015 at 12 noon for lunch) is any guide, then this restaurant is a complete waste of time and money; to put it a little differently, even with a Groupon that provided $20.00 of food for $8.80, the place wasn't worth it; or to put it another way, if a crack in the earth opened up right below Barra, which was then sucked into an abyss and never heard from or seen again, it would not be missed by the restaurant community of Philadelphia.
Here is why I am so negative about this place (which is, by the way, at night a bar and hookah club that perhaps is okay, but in this review I am merely addressing the quality of the food and the management's ethics):
I had ordered an entree that was supposed to be a half-chicken, plus side of roast potatoes, and some broccoli. Even though there was no queue (I was the only person at a table), the kitchen took 30 minutes to prepare my dish, which, when it came out, consisted not of a half-chicken, but rather two minuscule pieces of chicken (a leg and a portion of a breast, perhaps of a capon or some other kind of miniature bird or baby bird), plus the potato and vegetable.
When I protested to the server (Tianna, a very nice person who, I hope, can manage to get another job--elsewhere), she in turn sent over the owner, a Mr. Ahmad (sp?), who agreed with me that a half-chicken should consist of a leg, a thigh, a breast and a wing. He apologized for the confusion caused by the fact that his cook was only working there one month (what an explanation!), and promised that in 15 minutes a new dish would come out of the kitchen with a real half-chicken on it! We also agreed that the potato and vegetable would NOT be warmed over, but rather prepared anew.
The promises were not kept.
Rather, what came out, 28 Minutes Later (not 15 minutes) was the following:
1. the same two pieces of miniature chicken (the leg and breast, now quite thoroughly dried out);
2. a third piece of miniature chicken, perhaps a portion of a breast, not a dried out as the other two;
3. but there certainly was no wing (maybe it was so small or lightweight that it just flew away before the plate arrived at my table);
4. moreover, the broccoli was NOT (as promised) newly prepared, but the same old stuff, now soggy from overcooking, albeit enhanced by some green pepper which, having been cooked only once, not only was fine; however, this disparity also made it painfully clear, by way of comparison, that the broccoli had been (excessively) warmed over;
5. and finally, the roast potato side was NOT (as promised) prepared over from scratch, but rather was the same old potatoes, now enhanced (?) by their having been sauteed in oil with onion; and as with the broccoli, because the added element (earlier green pepper, now onions) tasted fine, it merely underscored the fact that the principal item (earlier broccoli, now potato) had been overcooked via re-warming.
Good grief!
So, I left a 20% tip for Tianna (after all, it really wasn't her fault that the owner and/or cook are abysmally unprofessional), and then I went home and called a couple friends, urging them to cancel Groupons that they themselves had purchased for this pathetic joke of a dining establishment.
Most “new” restaurants are out of business within two years; very few survive for a lifetime, like Bistro Romano, which is just a few blocks away. Barra's food operation (again, I don't know about the bar or hookah club) deserves to go out of business IMMEDIATELY.
So, dear readers--don't waste your time or your money at Barra!
