We did the tasting menu, and my wife came up with the perfect description:…read more "This is like Christmas morning, and each present is better than the last one." That pretty much says it all. What a terrific experience. Oysters. Radish salad. Wild boar kebabs. Lamb ravioli. Quail. Cabbage. One course after another had us looking at each other and saying, "I want to lick the plate." Our serving team was led by Rachel, who was outstanding. Everyone who brought a dish to the table was knowledgeable, friendly, and genuinely excited about the food. Even in a packed restaurant, they made us feel like we were the most important guests in the room. The décor is fascinating--eclectic, quirky, and full of personality. Nothing seems to match, yet somehow everything works perfectly together. The drinks were spectacular. They even had my favorite beer, Miller Genuine Draft (yes, I'm old school). And the bartender is a Knicks fan, which certainly didn't hurt. One final tip: visit the website and watch the video about the history of Mabel Gray before you go. It's a wonderful story and makes the experience even more meaningful. We'll be talking about this meal for a long time. Highly recommended.

This was a fantastic meal. I got the tasting menu which seems to be the right move considering they…read morerotate their menu every 3 weeks. The place is small and you can see the open kitchen pretty well. If i went back id ask for a table in the back so i could watch the kitchen the best. The food overall was spectacular, this must be the best restaurant in detroit. The radish carpaccio and the goat cheese bread were insane, so much flavor in every bite. All of the savory food was spectacular and the quality of the meats and the freshness of the veggies really shined through in every item. The service was top notch, every dish was well explained and my eating area was cleaned and silverware replaced whenever dirty. The speed of service was amazing, i eat quick and they brought my courses quickly while the group next to me was slower and they weren't rushed, clearly adjusted service for both our groups. I have two criticisms: 1. The chocolate cake dessert was lack luster and boring compared the rest of the menu. 2. I left hungry, the tasting menu was one entree or two smaller items short of the right amount of food. These criticisms are small and overall I had a spectacular experience. 4.7

Great service sitting at the bar for an early afternoon brunch on a Saturday! Drinks were…read morewell-made and the food was delicious. Good portion of shrimp in the appetizer spicy Shrimp and the dressing on the mixed greens served under the shrimp is to-die-for! I wanted a bowl to take home. Lol Great spot in downtown ferndale. Will be back!

While I Absolutely loved the food. Our fresh squeezed orange juice and mimosas were not tasty. Very…read morebland. But the French Toast was the best!!

Big fan of this place. Had several dishes here always above average and every server I've had here…read morehas been wondeful.

This place astonishes & pleases us every single time we go--it really is a top notch restaurant…read more Friendly staff, great cocktails, very delicious food. They had several spritz cocktails available, and they are so good & refreshing in hot weather! Mine was great. We shared the arancini, which was quite large & very good--the red sauce it was on was a little spicy & really suited the arancini. Loved it! I had Ravioli stuffed with shrimp & scallop with clam & white wine sauce , which I'd had several weeks prior, & really hoped was still on the menu, as they do seasonally change it up. It was so delicious! I ate & savored EVERY bite. My husband had the short rib ragu, Paccheri, they generally have some variation on this dish & he just loves it. The meat was fall apart tender & the sauce was a little spicier than it is sometimes, but he loves it that way. We also shared a desert that was wonderful--cream puff type pastry (choux) strawberries & cream. Beppe is a local favorite for us--always a stand out great meal & great service!

My wife and I were in Ferndale for a meeting and decided to have an impromptu dinner date. Since…read moreneither of us had been to Barrel House before, we thought we'd give it a try--and we're so glad we did. We entered through the back entrance and were immediately greeted with a warm welcome. We quickly found a table for two, and our server was attentive from the start, bringing water right away, answering our questions, and walking us through the wine and beer selections. My wife ordered the Beet & Salmon Salad, while I chose the Crispy Chicken Club with white cheddar and house-smoked bacon. The sandwich was absolutely incredible--hands down the best crispy chicken club I've ever had. The chicken was perfectly crispy, and the combination of flavors was outstanding. I also stole a few bites of my wife's salad and was pleasantly surprised by the yellow beets. I'd only ever had red beets before, and both varieties were prepared beautifully. The salmon was cooked to perfection and paired wonderfully with the fresh ingredients. Between the excellent food, welcoming atmosphere, and friendly service, this turned out to be one of the best impromptu dinner dates we've had in quite some time. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and are already looking forward to returning to explore more of the menu. Highly Recommend!

Recently went to attend a meetup here. Had to wait around 30 minutes as a huge party was clearing…read moreout. The inside is no frills but service was excellent with our waitress handling multiple checks. My jerk chicken dish over rice was a bit dry and too mildly spiced for my liking. The sesame wings were delicious. Beer selection was superb. Very casual vibe with ok food. Recommend $$

Went to the Farewell Summer Fest today. Had a great time shopping the small businesses and having a…read morefew drinks and appetizers on the patio. The mai tai was delicious and the mozzarella sticks were hot and yummy! The patio runs on a QR code ordering service through the Toast app. I have never had a hard time with it, but just be prepared if you plan to stop in!

This place has really fallen off. Although the menu on the website is the same we arrived to find…read moreout that kitchen is closed on Weds and Thurs and they took some of my fave dishes off the menu. There is one pita truck on Wed and a pizza truck on Thurs. The drinks taste premade and don't give a buzz. It makes me sad to see what it has become. Think twice before coming.

Soo it is a little cramped. the owners son Kevin was behind the bar and seems bored even though…read morethat is his job.. plus his wife dana looks like a man.

Sadly Boodles missed the mark on almost every level. We made reservations for Saturday night in mid…read moreJanuary. Since this was our first visit we didn't know what to expect but the reviews looked good. We arrived to a packed house and I was surprised how small and crammed it was inside. Dumpy is tree he word is use to describe the inside. Peeling paint and stained ceilings. Ventilation system look like it was straight out of the 70s and never maintained since then. I never thought I'd have to worry about Legionnaires disease but this is the place that stuff like that starts in. Tired, old and dingy inside. I'm not opposed to dive bars and restaurants, in fact I love them but Boodles paints themselves as upscale dining with prices to support that. It's anything but. The tables are crammed very close together and you can't help but bump into the people dining next to you to get to your table. I've been in small, intimate restaurants before with the same type of tight configurations but this was almost ridiculous. We ordered a round of drinks. A Cosmopolitan for me and an Old Fashioned for the boyfriend. The people next to us had a group of 6 and they mentioned they have been waiting for almost 2 1/2 hours for their main course. That was another bad sign. Our drinks arrived and were very lackluster. All you could taste was booze which isn't a bad thing if you were ordering it straight or just on the rocks but a steakhouse like Boodles should know how to make a quality Cosmo and Old Fashioned. We ordered the bread service which doesn't come with dinner and was an additional $6. Nothing to write home about even though they claim it's their homemade sourdough. Personally I didn't feel it was worth six dollars. We each got a Caesar salad and while the salad was a nice portion it was lacking in flavor and very little dressing. We waited for our waitress to come and check on us to ask for a side of additional dressing but she never came around. We ate the salad and finished our round of drinks. I was already skeptical on ordering a main course because everything up until this point had been a miss. Against my better judgment I ordered their signature item: Steak Diane prepared table side. My boyfriend ordered the 16 ounce ribeye. Both entrées come with a side of their lyonnaise potatoes. While we waited for our entrées we each ordered a glass of the house Cabernet. They do give a generous pour so that was a plus. After waiting almost an hour they started to prepare the Steak Diane. It was cool to watch them prepare it table side and after waiting almost an hour I was happily hungry with anticipation. I wish I could say it was halfway decent but it was overcooked. I ordered my steak medium rare in hopes that if it does come out a little more than medium rare it's still pink and flavorful. It was grey inside with no pink at all. Even the sauce it was cooked and was devoid of flavor. How is it possible with all the butter and the garlic they were using it was still lackluster? My boyfriend did say his steak was cooked perfectly medium rare and was excellent. The lyonnaise potatoes were also tasty. This was the best part of the entire dining experience other than leaving. After our waitress came back to check on us I told her I was not happy with my main course and that I would like to send it back. She asked if I wanted something else and I said no thank you I'll just take the check. They did take my steak off the bill since I had only tried one bite. My boyfriend had his steak packaged up to go. We just wanted to get out of there at that point. What was surprising is nobody seemed to care or even inquire what they could do better to improve the situation. Every staff member we encountered was very nonplus which makes me think this is not an isolated incident. After paying our bill we walked by a group of people coming in for dinner. They asked us how everything was and I said well we are leaving and if you leave now you can save yourself three hours of your time only to be disappointed.

Love this place. Great to meet up with a group as everyone orders their own food whenever they…read morewant. Little difficulty with folks who aren't as tech savvy as there are not servers or menus but if you don't want a typical restaurant experience where you have to wait for everyone to arrive (you know you have those friends that are always late for everything!) to order this is your jam. Food has always been good and their drink selection is as diverse as you're going to find in the craft beer scene today. Yes, 1/3-1/2 of their taps are IPA's but that's what you people have done to this world.

It's been about a year since I've been here and the concept of this place still just blows my mind…read more It runs very well, and pretty much no staff. The business model is genius. A hostess who takes your money and gives you a bracelet, automated beer, and you use your phone to order from the kitchen, they text you and you go get your food. I wondered many times how they could serve alcohol and not monitor how much people were drinking? So I asked. The host is in the front said at the end of 32 oz is your bracelet will not work and you need to come up and see me to reset it. I guess that's how they would monitor whether or not someone could get another 32 oz? I'm surprised not more places have copied their business layout. With the new generation, this would be the place to go, you barely have to speak to anyone except for the people you're with.

5/16/25 I came here…read morewith the in-laws, Zach and his brother and wife for a 5PM reservation. They were just opening up, but they let us sit at the bar while they got the restaurant ready for dinner. We all got drinks at the bar. I got The Final Rose drink. its's very pretty and not too strong. After sipping on the drinks, the host brought us to our table. Chris was our server that day. He was super friendly and answered all of our questions regarding the menu. Here's what we got: - Michigan lamb ragu (his) - Lobster and shrimp pad thai (mine) - Crab and shrimp cakes (share) - clam chowder (share) His family got some of the same items, but I can't remember the different items they got. The overall consensus though was that everything tasted fantastic. Coming from the Bay Area, I have high expectations when it comes to Asian food, so I was pleasantly surprised by how great the pad thai tasted. The clam chowder was creamy and delightful. The crab cakes were the perfect size and not teeny tiny. The lamb ragu was very well done also and my husband is a big fan of lamb so he really enjoyed his meal. Since we were there early, it was quiet which was nice. Would definitely return in the future the next time I am in Michigan.

---the ambience is 10/10 --music is not too loud & blends into the background as it should ---and…read morenot insultingly used as distraction from whatever mess a low IQ owner who'd employ such a beastly tactic by sensory overloading you into hallucinating an edible meal -- --It's a good sign whenever the order takes time b4 landing on ur table-- even when there's table availability---it signals to me that the food is being made with care & attention---