Jackson Bar & Bistro

A terrible experience.... Some friends suggested that we try Jackson's Bar and Bistro tonight, so my wife and I hopped in the car with them and headed to Homewood. The restaurant itself looks pretty nice from the outside and as you first step in, that's about the best I can say about it.

Starting off everything is far too crowded. We ended up sitting upstairs in the middle of August and there seems to be very little to no air conditioning, it was probably in the mid-80's upstairs.

We waited a while and finally our waitress appeared, took our drink orders, and left. Five minutes later, a second girl appeared...to take our drink orders. Finally we got our drinks and ordered.

And then we waited...and waited.

My wife got a caesar salad to start off with, it was awful. The only upside were the croutons, but the dressing was nearly non-existant and what was there wasn't very good. She finally set it aside.

After another 15-20 minutes our food appeared...with yet another caesar salad for my wife. Needless to say she didn't touch it. My wife ordered a Rio Panini which is chicken, avocado, and provolone cheese. At first they brought it to her as a salad wrap, but quickly fixed it and brought her a panini. It was horrible, it was simply the above ingredients thrown together with no seasoning, spices, etc. She didn't want to finish it but felt compelled to as she was so hungry.

I ordered a BLT, it arrived with 2 tiny pieces of bacon on giant slices of bread full of lettuce and tomato. At first I didn't think there was any bacon at all. The manager came by (as he also messed up our friend's order) and I asked him where the bacon was. I thought I paid for a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, the most important ingredient of the three was sorely missing. He agreed that there was a distinct lack of porky goodness and had the cooks make some more bacon for me.

In the end I got a reasonable amount of bacon, but again the sandwich was not very good. They just threw everything together with no seasoning, mayo, etc.

Our friends thought their food was alright.

My Coke was flat, our drinks glasses sat empty for 10-20 minutes at a time, overall it was just a horrible experience. Just the time between our waitress picking up our bills and returning with our change was 10-15 minutes.

There are two single user restrooms, there was a line to get into the women's room. The men's restroom was reasonably clean but the toilet did not flush.

In the end I cannot recommend Jackson's. While the atmosphere is pretty neat, the execution is awful.

I think a part of the service problem is that our waitress was serving us upstairs inside AND people outside the restaurant.

On a side note, my wife has been to the restaurant before and had drinks and the cookie dough eggrolls and says they are very good, but I don't think I'll be back to try them.…

LOVE this place. This place is a great place to go and sit on the patio and have dinner and/or drinks. I live out of state and every time I am in Birmingham visiting family I eat at Jackson's. The ooey-gooey butter cake is TO DIE FOR and my husband says the bbq meatloaf is his favorite dish of all time. The atmosphere is great and so is the food! Love it.…

Very cool place-decent prices. If you are older (35-40+) or wanting to take your family out to a nice quiet dinner, dont go here. More of a singles 20-somethings place. But if you're looking to go have some drinks and apps with some friends in a cool, outdoor, urban setting then this place is tough to beat. In terms of quality, the food is great, however some items are definitely better than others. As far as people on here saying their food isn't any good, they obviously haven't ever tried the Pasta Alfredeaux (not your normal alfredo), Tacos del Mar, Pizzas, Gumbo, or Buffalo Feathers Ceaser Salad. Good Brunch menu too on Sundays.…