Quick Review- Brothers Restaurant in Broad Ripple

Like many Broad Ripplians (is that a word?) I was anxiously awaiting the opening of Brothers here in Broad Ripple at the corner of Broad Ripple Avenue and Guilford where the trophy shop used to be. So on the very first or maybe second day it was open I had lunch there with a client.

The space is really nice and you can appreciate the bar is meant for packed weekend nights with it's wide open space layout. When we walked in the waitress directed us to a table with bar stools. I thought this was a weird way to have a business lunch and insisted on a booth and the hostess was happy to seat us at one of the wood booths in the back.

It was clear they were still working out the kinks throughout the meal and I was ok with that. It takes a little while for service staff to get in a groove. What really surprised me was how mediocre the food was. I would say it was sub-par bar food and that isn't saying much. I had a chicken sandwich that was obviously re-heated or microwaved, dry and not very tasty. My business companion had a salmon salad that she said was equally unimpressive.

Not a home run to be sure. So I thought, let's give them another try. This past Monday, for our Small Box company lunch, we headed over to Brothers (a stones throw from our offices so you can imagine how much we want to like this place!).

Somehow they managed to botch just about everything! We order chicken wings and I have never seen such small, over cooked and plain nasty looking wings. I was honestly a little shocked and joked that they had sorted out all the runts for these wings. Some of the pieces looked like the chicken had lost half its appendix in a chicken fight of some sort.

Our main dishes started to slowly arrive. I had a hamburger, swiss and mushroom, with fries. I have to say the hamburger was good but really small. About half the size of a normal restaurant burger but just as pricey. The fries were kinda cold. After I had about finished my meal a couple other meals started showing up. Eventually, after bringing out the wrong meals a few times, everyone got their food.

The overall sentiment of our crew was not positive. Brothers need to get their act together if they want us to return. They knew they had messed up (confessing "it's chaos back in the kitchen" when we were practically the only people there!) and we walked out with some hand written coupons for free appetizers.

Honestly, I'm not sure I will ever use them! I think my next visit will be to drink not eat.

Have you had a similar or better experience at Brothers? I would love to love this place!