Barnaby’s Cafe

Barbaby’s is typically a great experience for me. This time was not the case. I usually go to the Shepherd location near W Gray. I always have excellent service there. The location on White Oak was not the same experience.
First, let’s start with the flies. Barbaby’s you have got to do better! Please get one of those air blowers at the front door to keep the flies out. If you won’t do that, get one of those bug zapper deals that kills them before they get in the restaurant. It’s not good having to swat flies while I eat.
Secondly, my waiter sucked! He didn’t tell me his name, he had no attention to detail, or any attention at all for that matter and very lacking in personality. I could barely hear him speak. I asked for coffee and water to drink and he brought them and just left them on the table and walked off. I didn’t have a spoon to stir the coffee. I had to ask him for one. Once he brought the spoon and I finally tried the coffee it was not hot so I had to send it back. He takes the coffee urn and the coffee cup. He brings back another coffee urn and drops that on the table and walks off again. This time I have a spoon but no coffee cup! I had to ask him to bring me another one since he took my first one. Obviously this guy is not altogether in a work mindset.
My food comes and everything is great. But again, no attention to detail. The waiter didn’t ask me if I needed any other condiments or if I needed anything else. It just wasn’t a good Barbabys experience. I guess the Shepherd location raised the bar. The White Oak location was an epic fail for me. I’ll still support Barbabys but I won’t be going back to that location

Went with a friend to grab Sunday dinner and really enjoyed the place. Liked my Torta de Tinga — yaay Mexican fusion — though just a warning: ask first if your order have a side of fries, I ended up ordering another side of sweet potato fries, which I guess they could have switched lol. Really nice place.

Terrible service, food takes more than the average time to serve. Never fails waiters and waitress forgets to place and pull orders, ha. This place is a joke. when this establishment was introduced to the heights it was great, I’m guessing poor management has driven the customer service to the ground.

Friendliest staff ever. The food is great but the service is even better :) thanks for really taking care of people!

Hands down one of the best restaurant experiences in my life.
I have always loved Barnaby’s. Everything I have ever had on the menu has been great. And there is a fantastic variety of choices. This location is in an awesome spot in the heights and the patio is excellent.
I want to compliment the staff at this location. Everyone is so friendly and the service is top notch. After an extremely stressful day of trying to help a stray dog, we came here for dinner. We happened to strike up a conversation with our waiter about what had happened and before we knew it he brought out an appetizer that we had been debating ordering. Then multiple employees came out and chatted with us. To top it off, they comped some of our meal.
THANK YOU BARNABYS CAFE! I have never left a restaurant feeling so grateful and amazed by the kindness of the waitstaff. You truly made our day and have gained extremely loyal customers. We will definitely be back!

One of our goto restaurants! Great service and great food. Very consistent and lots of flavor. Highly recommend!

Excellent food and lots of it! The portions are huge and so tasty. Be sure to get their homemade potato chips. Their burgers taste homemade. And the service was excellent!

Great plc to eat for breakfast. hubby and I brought our mothers here for Mothers Day… and they really enjoyed the food and service… we’ll be bck 4 lunch jus 4 2… I like visiting the Heights area for eatery spots like this.
#siriusfoodie

Food is okay, sometimes the kid’s chicken tenders are overdone/​burnt. Not all I’m sure, but I’ve been here quite often and most waiters/​waitress attitudes in this location tend to be either hostile or non-​caring/​off putting. I stopped coming to this location, after didn’t see a change in the attitudes. E.g., when we were last there we were looking for a free table, when I see a customer come in from outside (their first time there) to ask if it was okay for her to sit in an empty table outside and how she could get a menu. The waitress standing by the «hostess» section rushed her out telling her to just to go sit outside, and about the menu that it was her job to give her a menu (almost like. I’ll get to you when I get to you tone of voice/​attitude). As the lady walked out, the hostess goes on to say «oooh I’ve never dined out before. oohh I don’t know what to do. «to another waiter to make fun of the lady. I almost left the restaurant at this time, but with two kids I decided to risk it. Sadly, we chose a table inside where she ended up being our waitress. Having kids, I know exactly what I want and like to place the order before the drinks. and this waitress wouldn’t have it when I asked if we could order our food. She just said. what do you want for drinks? and didn’t allow us to order food at this time. It was really weird. and she took a long time to get our food order and bring our drinks for the initial drink order. This waitress looks to be in her late 30s, white, and curvy body type. I didn’t catch her name.
And looks like I’m not the only one who shares this experience, when reading the low ratings for this location. Thank goodness for the other locations.

The food is always solid– both in quality and portion size. I usually get some type chicken, whether as a salad or as a meal with sides. I’ve never left barnabys hungry. Even the small salad is nearly too much to eat.
The staff is always friendly and the strawberry lemonade is bomb.

We have dined here many times and enjoy Barnaby’s for its consistent experience, though that was certainly not the case when we came on 4÷13÷16. Somehow, during all of those previous visits, we neglected to get Jerry as our waiter. Let me tell you, the world of waitstaff needs more Jerrys. He was very cordial with a touch of self-​depreciating humor and almost had us sold on getting an appetizer (we now how big the meals our which was the only thing stopping us).
The food was amazing as always, and one of my coworkers let it slip that it was my birthday. Jerry surprised with me a Barnaby’s birthday card that the whole staff had signed. He also tried to sell dessert, which we declined. He wasn’t having it though and brought my a plate with chocolate cake on it… he didn’t stop at the table though, he just casually walked past us. Shortly thereafter, he came by with a different dessert, and then another and after that, we finally caved and split a few desserts.
A consistent experience food-​wise, but the real highlight was Jerry. Not to undermine the rest of the staff at this location, who are always great as well, but Jerry really had a knack carrying on conversation without being annoying or staying too long.
If you visit this location, make sure you ask for Jerry to be your server!

I made it here for the #DiningOutForLife charity event. I came from an event at Marq*E Center before its closing time.
My friend Jeffery introduced Barnaby’s Café to me few weeks ago. He had a grilled chicken salad at the one on Montrose. After watching him enjoying that salad, I want one.
I wasn’t familiar with the salad choices, but I just want the grilled chicken on top. The waiter explained how the salad works; smaller one is $ 2 cheaper. I’ve seen the regular sized one. So, give me a Lebanese Chicken Fattoush. He read the ingredients and they all sound good to my tummy.
I was so amazed with the warm pita chips with flavorful dressing. Oh, it was a Caesar based salad on steroid. I finished the whole plate and I wanted more. Yeah, I regret I should had a regular sized one. The difference of 2 sizes is an inch below the rim and overfilled the bowl.
The wait staff was so friendly, young and energetic. They kept coming to check on me. Parking was okay. I found a weird spot, next to 2 double parked cars. Traffic coming here was light at night. I was warned a few times on my GPS as flash flood watch in the area but the weather was perfect.

Barnaby’s is an American food café located all over Houston. I’ve been to a couple of their locations, and this one may be my favorite (though I could foresee parking problems on a very busy day), They serve some delicious food, and I’ve not had anything I don’t enjoy. Great burgers, huge delicious salads, great meatloaf and burritos, and some other good dishes. Their fries are awful… in that I could shamelessly eat a massive bowl by myself.
The food quality here is as good as any of the other Barnaby’s. The restaurant itself is very trendy and nifty. It had a massive patio and seemed open and airy, but also slightly hipster-​esque, giving it a trendier feel than some of their other locations.
The staff were very friendly and nice. They even gave us a refill on our chips and queso, which was awesome to help clear up a hangover.
Barnaby’s is one of my favorite eateries in town, and this might be my new go-​to location.

I’ve been to a few different Barnaby’s around town and just love their food. It was the first time I’ve been to this location and everything seems pretty consistent across the board. This location’s parking is a bit more troublesome as it is shared between a gastropub next door. There was even a fender bender between two cars when I was there.
The place is a pretty casual atmosphere where you just walk in and sit wherever you want. We were greeted with kinda service who were more than willing to explain a lot of the menu items and what it consisted of.
I elected to get the falafel salad and it pretty much was exactly that. I actually picked out the 5 falafel individually and enjoyed them that way. I felt the falafel could have been bigger and a they could have given me more, but over all the falafel was tasty. The salad itself wasn’t too impressive, although it did maintain the meditteranean taste with its olives, cheese and other common flavors. I do have to say that while the falafel wasn’t much, the salad itself was quite large and it came with a large pita bread on the bottom. Overall it was a decent meal, and I ended up eating a little over half of it. .
Barnaby’s is one of my favorite go-​to places for a casual dinner or lunch. Will have to try other things on their diverse menus

This is a perfect restaurant for the whole family, from the health nut to the fries monster! I love going here when I’m not really sure what I want to eat at the moment.
Barnaby’s has everything from sandwiches and salads, to chicken, steak, fish, tex-​mex, and burgers! There really is a bit of everything for all palates. The variety is really appealing and all of it is for a pretty decent price. Everything is around $ 15 or less and portion sizes are pretty big so really, it’s sort of like paying for 2 meals if you portion it out. What gets better than that?
Food:
Lebanese Chicken Fattoush (⁴⁄₅): This would have been a 5 if the chicken wasn’t so dry, but this won’t deter me from giving the place a 5 star overall because the flavors were definitely there. This was a huge salad with a Mediterranean that was really light and refreshing. The pita chips inside gives it a nice crunch, and the olives give it a good bit of acid to the dish.
Falafel Salad (³⁄₅); This was good, but not as good as the Lebanese Chicken Fattoush. There was still that Mediterranean flavor profile to it, and it was definitely very healthy tasting with the light vinaigrette, but I was a bit disappointed by the falafel. I was expecting something fresher and to be more of the star of the dish, but the falafel was just sort of placed on top of the salad.
Atmosphere: I love how open and colorful the place is. It’s just so welcoming and a fun place to be. The music was also totally on point with remixes of top 40 songs. Barnaby’s is also dog friendly so it’s great to see some of our furry friends hanging around outside! (they have dog treats you can buy for the dogs too!)
Parking: For a place in the heights, the parking lot is pretty big. It does get crowded and you might have some trouble finding parking, but if you’re lucky you’ll get some rock star parking. It’s also nice that people come in and out often enough that it shouldn’t be too big of an issue.
Service: You can sit anywhere you want, so don’t wait on someone to bring you to a table. The service was pretty normal. The waiters were nice and willing to share more info about the menu items. The food came out at a relatively decent amount of time, it was a bit on the slower side, but maybe I was just hungry and couldn’t wait.
Last tip: I didn’t get any dessert this time, but typically their dessert is totally on point. The red velvet cake is delicious!

I’ve lived in Houston for a good while and this was my first and definitely NOT my last trip to Barnaby’s. Love love love the fun interior of this place and the service here wasn’t bad either :).
Parking in the general vicinity kind of sucks but if you go later on in the night there is ample parking in the parking lot next door and across the street.
Friends and I were in the area after doing yoga so we Unilocaled and decided on Barnaby’s. Walked in to a mostly empty restaurant and we were told to sit anywhere. We grabbed a large booth in the back. Waiter appeared quickly and brought out waters and gave us a few minutes to order.
We ordered the queso blanco which was delicious and completely negated our work out. oh well! Well worth it in my opinion. I ordered the flat iron steak since I wanted to fuel my body with protein and finish it off with fries. because carbs. Steak was cooked well. Wasn’t the most fantastic cut of meat I’ve ever had, but it was tasty and not overly seasoned. For that I am grateful. Fries were plentiful and crispy. They also put in a very small but appreciate arugala salad.
Portions here are very generous for the price and their patio is dog friendly! Too bad my dogs aren’t people friendly :(

This Barnaby’s was disappointing, from service to food.
The front hostess wasn’t friendly. She took her time to get to us and then when we asked for a table for four, she pointed us to a table to go sit at. Just kind of off putting.
Experience — we barely saw our waitress. We came with two kids and their food came out — overcooked Mac n cheese and chicken nuggets and fries. Not good. The kids wouldn’t even eat it. We ordered two salads for the adults, and they were fine, but it took about 30 minutes for them.
Waitress refilled our drinks once. They were empty for the majority of the meal, or majority of the time we spent waiting on the meal. In between eating salads and leaving, we ordered two ice creams for the kids. 20 min later I had to ask another waitress to bring them, and then a 4^th waitress brought us two bowls of ice cream with no spoons. I asked for two spoons and she rudely said she couldn’t because she was taking care of her table.
My friend got up to go get spoons and to ask for the check.
On the way out, I asked for the manager. He was polite, listened, and asked if he could credit our card. It was a little too late for that, but nice gesture.
The other Barnaby’s are a better experience in every aspect. I left this one annoyed and with a bad dining experience.

Very disappointed in this location. I had two friends meet me here for lunch today because I had enjoyed my meal so much at the Fairview location. They were on their way to Baton Rouge, so I picked a place off of I-​10 for lunch so they could get off and back on and be on their way.
I ordered the same thing I had had at the Fairview location – two chicken tostadas with corn salsa. The first thing I noticed was a HUGE scoop of guacamole. Maybe this was to take my attention away from what was lacking – that being chicken and corn salsa. I would be surprised if there was two ounces of chicken on my tostadas – maybe one ounce on each tostada. And there was absolutely NO corn salsa. The corn salsa at Baby Barnaby’s was what I loved! (I didn’t bother asking the waiter because he had already forgotten our appetizer and didn’t bring the mixed fries my friend had asked for – only sweet potato fries.) There was an abundance of iceburg shredded lettuce on top of the STORE BOUGHT corn tortillas – fresh (maybe?) out of the box. BTW, this was $ 10.50 – for lettuce and store bought tortillas.
Now at the Fairview location there was so much chicken on my tostada that I took one home. And, as I mentioned lots of corn salsa which is what made the dish.
This place is also very kid friendly, as in small kids – the kind who make lots of noise. I am not a fan of kid noise.
As I said, very disappointed and to think I raved about the food to two DC out-​of-​towners on a road trip. Won’t go back to this location and won’t recommend, but will definitely go back to the Fairview location.

Meh food here is pretty ok and prices are good. But there’s nothing super special here. Parking kind of sucks for this location unless you get lucky. Worst part is the wait for food, every time we’ve come here it feels like we wait an extraordinary amount of time for food… =(
I definitely prefer breakfast here, just make sure you get here before 11am! Or else you get real sad.
Oh their house chips are really good though!

Well despite how many people love this place I just don’t fall for it. Why? Soup, salad and sandwich are all this is about (except for the homemade potato chips I guess). I personally detest the triple s theme. Just not my thing.
I have tried many things on the menu (because my husband wanted to go and I was trying to be nice by going with him so I ended up going many times already). Besides the home made potato chips there isn’t anything I seriously like. I am ok with the burger but I also like burgers in a lot of places. It’s not too hard to please me with burgers when I feel like eating one. The salmon is ok. Nothing special about it. The ham and cheese sandwich is good but since I just don’t like sandwiches that much it’s hard for me to say that it’s really good. Not its fault. We just don’t click.
I probably will still go quite often for my husband (must be true love) but honestly I can’t say I like it a lot. I know I am biased. Everyone is different and no cooks can please everyone.