Hickory Tavern - Birmingham

I had the Merica's burger, and I absolutely loved it! The staff were nice, and they even had Cahaba Irish Stout (better than Guinness, in my opinion)! The only reason foi don't give a 5-star reading is because the amount of shrimp provided in the shrimp and grits was not worth the price of the dish. My wife even said the dish was bland and the grits were overcooked.

Immediately upon walking in on a weekend night, it was dead empty. Now it was like a little less than 90 min until closing, but it looked like a ghost town compared to other restaurants at that time of night on a weekend. No hostess, but understandably staffing has been short since the pandemic at a lot of places. We were eventually shown to an area of seats and it was DISGUSTING. Food all over the floor and multiple tables uncleaned. Server came and was nice enough. We ordered BBQ nachos which I forgot to take a picture of but they were OK. Tasted like cheap cheese and cheap BBQ sauce but had decent amount of cubed chicken and taste was alright. We ordered tater tots, shrimp and grits, smothered chicken, crispy Brussels sprouts, Mac and cheese and then brownie for dessert. Took about 30-40 min after we received the nachos, and by that time I was just ready to go although again I figured this had something to do with staffing. Our food came out but mine was cold and husband?s was piping hot bc the cooking was timed incorrectly. Tater tots eventually came out 10 min later and the brownie never came out. Shrimp and grits tasted good and tater tots were crispy. My chicken tasted good but basically just cheese and mushrooms, didn?t really seem to be any white wine sauce. Macaroni was cold, watery and flavorless and the Brussels sprouts were cold, BURNT and tasted like some aunt jemima?s syrup was drizzled on top vs balsamic vinegar. I ask server to take the Brussels sprouts off bc they were BURNT and she said they?re supposed to be crispy and I told her again they were BURNT. Eventually they were taken off the ticket, but she came back and stated that even the manager didn?t want to take them off the ticket until the server tasted it herself and told the manager the Brussels sprouts were burnt. IF THE CUSTOMER SAYS SOMETHING IS BURNT, then that should be the end of it. Crispy and burnt are not the same thing. This place was average before the pandemic and is garbage now

Food was good, service was ok. Would definitely go back. Prices were a little steep.

I'll give it four stars not five. The food was okay. Service was excellent. The restaurant wasn't crowded. It was clean.

A great place for a burger and fries. I went to a business networking event and experienced Hickory Tavern for the first time. It was during lunch in the middle of the week and the place was not that busy but the food was fantastic and the surroundings were great for our meeting. I would definitely recommend for your next business lunch or group meeting/lunch.