Bristol Bar & Grille

Waited for over 10 minutes at the hostess stand without being seated or even acknowledged by anyone. The restaurant was not busy.

After two mediocre Sunday Brunches, we are throwing in the towel. Great desserts but the main courses were lukewarm and not very tasty.

I called the Bristol about a week ahead of time to make my reservation for last Thursday. I was able to make a reservation for two at 5:30.no problem. I called on the day of my reservation to confirm. On my way there I got stuck in traffic… so I called the Bristol and a nice lady told me that it would be okay for us to come at 5:45 instead. We made it there right at 5:45 and they seated us a booth in the bar that was reserved just for us! We let our waiter know that we were headed to Kentucky Center for a show at 7:30. It was very convenient since it’s practically across the street. The waiter made sure that we got our entrees quickly… and we even had time for dessert! I ordered the shrimp and grits which were very good. They were unlike any I had had before but were very good. I especially liked the addition of mushrooms… and the portion was very large! My husband got the pork dijonaise. He liked it very much as well. The potatoes that came with it were a good side dish as well. Both of our entrees came with a salad too! I had the house salad with blue cheese dressing… a great starter… and my husband got the black bean soup… which he said was great! Like I said our waiter was quick that we were able to order dessert… oreo cheesecake! It did not look like oreo… but it tasted just like an oreo. It looked like it was going to be very chocolaty… but it wasn’t! We were able to finish our meal and walk back to the Kentucky Center in plenty of time. I had had a terrible day… but this experience was a great one! I would recommend the Bristol downtown to anyone… especially before or after a show at Kentucky Center.

I enjoyed the hot brown very much and the restaurant is also very close to the Kentucky center. I also tried the panned fried potato side and it was very good as well.

I’ve had better. Burger on cold English muffin. Half a potato for the fries (which cost extra) and poor service. 3 is pushing it.

A Louisville brunch landmark with a buffet option. A good casual family sit down restaurant that has the family owned and operated feel was a friendly option for a Sunday brunch. The buffet had some great options from grits, sweet potato soufflé, fried chicken, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, Mac and cheese, French toast, sausage, bacon and steamed veggies and more. The fresh waffles served with bourbon caramel sauce, fresh sweetened strawberries, blueberries, toasted almonds and fresh whipped cream was heaven. Overall worth the visit and would definitely recommend it.

Another stop for lunch week, but unfortunately not as good as the last! This was my first time at Bristol Bar and Grill and I was seriously disappointed. Both the service and food were subpar.
We all ordered a salad and a hot brown. After quickly placing our orders, it took 20 minutes for our food to arrive. That’s not very long, but the disappointment was that the hot browns came out before our salads. And it was only 3 out of the 4. Not too hungry, I told my friends to start without me. While I waited for my hot brown (and salad!), I noticed that other tables had bread baskets, however they failed to give one to our table. I requested one and it came out with our salads. The salad was extremely bland and the greens weak. However, still waiting for my hot brown, I devoured it. I then sat waiting as my friends ate theirs. Finally after they had made it almost halfway through their meal, my hotbrown arrived. It was pretty tasty, but I was a little to annoyed to thoroughly enjoy it. Probably will not return.

Had a waiter that I don’t think knew anything that well. We went with a group that had two tables and the other table had an amazing waiter that I kind of was envious of because he seemed amazing. Our waiter was young and seemed completely disinterested. Let me put it this way, if I’m paying over $ 20 per plate for a meal, that better be damn fine food and it really wasn’t. The best part was the Derby pie that the waiter even admitted to me that he had shipped in. So I mean, not the worst, but definitely not the best either.

After a trip to the slugger factory we were hungry and checked to see what was around so we could grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately we ended up here. We walked in and were met at the front by a very angry looking hostess. She didn’t say hello or greet us at all, and didn’t even say a word to us as we were seated. She might have been having a really bad day, I’m not sure, but it put us off right away.
The over all feel of this place is early 90s hotel with the weird wavy glass barrier and strange glass lights.
Our waiter came over shortly after we sat down and he promptly asked us what we wanted. We needed more time to browse the menu so he said he’d be back. We didn’t have to wait too long before he came back (the wait time was a positive) and we placed our orders. I ordered the Hot brown mac and cheese which turned out to be bland and super underwhelming. It was something I could have made better at home. My fiancé ordered the salmon salad which had a nice vinaigrette but had a small sad looking piece of salmon and wasn’t anything special either. We were both eating our disappointing meals when we heard our server going over the «specials of the day» with the table that was seated behind us. There were specials of the day? I’m not sure why we didn’t get the special of the day run down, but that might have made a difference. I give them 2 stars because the food didn’t make either one of us sick and we didn’t have to wait around forever for our food or check. Food was very overpriced for what we got. We discovered while visiting Louisville that there are so many wonderful restaurants around the city and this was not one of them.

The Bristol has indoor and outdoor seating. The service is fast and friendly. The server constantly kept my drink full to the rim. The won ton appetizers are amazing with sauce! I ordered the mac n cheese sauce dish. I think the dish lacked some flavor in the cheese sauce, but the pasta was cooked to perfection. I didn’t expect a penne pasta to be served but would have preferred a spiral pasta shell or pasta more traditional with mac n cheese. Overall great service will keep me coming back soon.

I wondered in on my day off of work while touring the down town area. I had the chili pasta — it was the perfect blend of spicy and sweet. The wait staff was friendly and the food came out pretty fast. I would recommend this place.

Surprised that this place is so near the top of downtown Lousiville’s Unilocal ranking. The 3 stars I’m giving here are a simple math average. 5 stars for service and bourbon selection. The waiter was good, knew his bourbon, helped me make a great selection, and there was a great menu of local bourbon options available. 1 star for food quality. The BBQ sauce is worse than Hawaiian BBQ sauce, which tastes like watered down ketchup mixed with maple syrup. The BBQ pork chop was covered in it, and even if it wasn’t, the cut was awful and its preparation wasn’t great either. I’m no great chef, but I do know how easy and cheap it is to make a great pork chop. And this place misses the mark by a lot.

Taking a friend out before they go home requires a lot of thought about location and price. Spending time in downtown Louisville is a great way to send someone off– the problem I found was that the price was listed as less expensive than I thought. It’s an awkward situation when going out and having to spend more than your party is really prepared to.
The food itself got decent reviews from our party, but didn’t seem quite up to par with the price. What little the food left wanting, the service made up for. We never had an empty glass and we were well checked up on.

This is a pleasant place for lunch and dinner in the heart of Louisville’s tourist district. There are extensive bourbons and other adult beverages at the handsome bar. Service is friendly. Note that Sunday brunch buffet is all that’s available until 2pm, so if you don’t want that a late lunch is a better plan.

Crab cake appetizer ate like a Florida original.
Med Pasta was beyond amazing. Right amount of sun dried toms to olives.
My wife had the salmon and is as demanding as they come for fresh, flavorful salmon. Wham! Another home run.
Bristol is a Lville must.

My boyfriend raves about this place for their wine selection and as a self declared wino I have to agree!!! But that isn’t the only reason I’m going to convince him to take me back. Our server Eric (I am so sorry if I got your name wrong) was AMAZING and treated my boyfriend and I like we were old friends, even joked with us about the Prince concert going on that night and our mutual disappointment that we couldn’t go. The vegetable soup was beyond perfect and the salmon salad was the best salad I’ve had in Louisville. You MUST try the Green Chili Wantons, they are little cheesy bites of deliciousness with guacamole.
I cannot praise Eric enough though. He took time to talk to us even though we were there a little later than socially acceptable (about 9pm). As a server I felt bad going so late but he seemed to just enjoy having a table that wanted more than their food thrown down on the table. I was worried a place that looked so nice might be pricey but you really get what you pay for! Definitely going back to try the Linguine!
My ONLY complaint is that I’m a little short and couldn’t sit in the booth comfortably without straining to reach the table. Eric shifted the booths around for me though and I was good. Great food, amazing service, not short people booth friendly (haha).

While waiting for the next available tour at the Evan Williams Experience, my family and I popped in for a quick lunch. Quick, it was — «lunch» it was not.
Our entire party ended up ordering the same dish, so it’s possible that if we had sampled a variety of things we would have felt differently about the quality we received, but unlikely. We ordered the BBQ Smoked Chicken Sandwich. It came out suspiciously quickly — like the chicken had been microwaved. It was not evenly heated. I was disappointed to see that they didn’t even bother to toast the bun. It was just thick, plain white bread, the kind that sticks to the roof of your mouth. There was far too much of it, and it just wasn’t good. The BBQ sauce was sweet and tangy, and while I do love my sauce there was too much of it on the chicken. I ended up eating it a bit like an open-​faced sandwich, and left most of the bread on the plate. The only side was stale kettle chips, which I’m sure someone grabbed out of a Lays bag.
It was a disappointing lunch, and not worth anything close to $ 9 a plate. With so many other great places to eat downtown, I don’t think I would give them another shot.

Bristol has been around for years and for good reason — it’s consistently yummy. I have been to Bristol numerous times but I am basing this review on my most recent visit. My mother, grandmother, and I came to Bristol after seeing A Christmas Carol at Actor’s. Our waiter was a bit spacy but very nice! We started with the green chili wontons (of course! If you go to the Bristol and you don’t get the wontons you are doing it wrong!) and the bruschetta. I only ate the wontons but man, those things are amazing! I had the crab cakes and Caesar salad as my entrée. The crab cakes were awesome; they were really creamy, crispy, and full of crab. I highly recommend! All three of us enjoyed our experience there very much (as we always do!) and I’ll be back soon!

Had the red snapper with a cream sauce and it was really good. It came with Brussel sprouts that were hard as a rock and really undercooked. The waiter told us the bread was hard and he would bring us fresh when it was ready, but we never got fresh bread. What we had was as hard as croutons without the good flavor. You couldn’t even bite into it. 3 stars is generous when 2 meals cost what ours did and had all this wrong with it.

The waiter was really friendly, but a little hard to find a few times.
I actually retrieved straws for our table so some of us could drink our bloody marys.
The food was alright. The Mideast Grilled Cheese wasn’t quite as expected.
I don’t have many chances to eat at this location, but I wouldn’t be against going back.