26 Twenty Six

Great food. I do think they need better bar staff, I’m not 15 I don’t drink to get drunk. I want it to be strong and tasty. The food is on point and worth the bad drinks.

Birmingham sure likes to name their restaurants with numbers. Visiting family in BHam is always fun and we get introduced to a new place every time we come. The only reason I am not giving this a fifth star is because our waiter argued with our pregnant cousin. She asked him if there were any sushi rolls that were cooked and he said anything with tempura was cooked. Liar! The Bön bons we’re delectable though.
This was an experience. I ordered the Cumin coriander crusted salmon with the horseradish crème fraîche with tomato hash and roasted Brussel sprouts. I was concerned the horseradish would be overpowering but it wasn’t.
We shared a bite of the smoked Gouda Mac n cheese. A lot of places claim their Mac n cheese as their signature dish and disappoint. But Twenty Six can tout that with pride!
And we resisted and resisted dessert but our weaknesses took over and tiramisu cheesecake won the battle.
Birmingham is full of options for dinner, this has some great seafood options and the portions aren’t too overwhelming which is probably why we could do dessert!

I went to 26 for the first time for lunch about a year ago. I had a salmon salad. It was very good, but I dont remember much about it. I just remember it was good. I went last night for dinner. We didn’t have to wait to be seated. The atmosphere was relaxing. Very different deel at night than during lunch.
It’s pretty dressy. No hats allowes just fyi. I ordered the borough — on of their whiskey drinks. It was really strong with a hint of orange. The sushi we ordered tastes fresh and was nicely prepared. We got the smoked salmon role. For dinner I ordered the cheeseburger. I could eat it every day. It was phenomenal and was only $ 12!!! For dessert we got the bread pudding. It was good but small.
Finally our server was very nice and prompt.

Unimpressive is an understatement. I came for lunch once and had a dry and flavorless cuban sandwich, some pretty good fries (but how can you mess up fries), and some sort of pomegranate martini thing which was okay. The lunch prices are fine but I don’t think I’d come back. I’m flipping through pictures and questioning why they would sell sushi. and why would they sell sushi that’s only 4 pieces/​serving. What a joke :(

No, no aaaand no. To quote a previous Unilocal reviewer, «…the food items looked great on paper, but really disappointed.» Arrived just in time for happy hour. Found it weird that in order to «qualify» for the happy hour drink and food specials you had to sit at the bar vs a table. Is this a bham thing or just this restaurant? So I sat at the bar.
My hummus appetizer was graciously removed from my ticket as I barely took 3 bites. Holy-​hypertension, that hummus and bread was loaded with salt. Their take on the pita bread was a failure mainly because it felt like I chipped a tooth biting into that rock hard bread.
For my main dish I ordered the Cumin Coriander Crusted Scottish Salmon. Was a little baffled why my dish took forever to come out. The two people sitting next to me had arrived and ordered after me. My dish came out as the two people next to me had finished eating their dinner!!! And how bland was it you say? Lets just say I left there so disappointed that I walked into Chick Fil A down the block to make up for that weak dinner at 26.
Well done… Chick Fil A.

We had spring rolls and beef Rangoon appetizers. Excellent. Entrée was cheeseburgers very good!

I had high hopes for this place due to the excellent reviews. This place wasn’t bad but wasn’t great. I had 2 sushi rolls and spring roll and it was not the freshest I have had.

Great place! Cool décor inside, and the service was phenomenal, some of the best I’ve gotten in Birmingham. The food was all really great too, and it’s all locally sources as much as possible. I’m vegetarian and they easily modified a dish for me, and it was great!
Two things really pushed it to five for me:
1) they recycle. There’s no pickup recycling in Birmingham, so they have to pay their employees to drop off their recycling. Recycling in Birmingham is a commitment to green living!
2) they had a free beer tasting with a local brewery! I know this was a special night, but it was great.

Pretty disappointed. Came here based on Unilocal recommendations, which usually steer me right. First off, the inside looked like a 90s strip club or Night at the Roxbury. Round circular couch with stains all over is the centerpiece of the room. Two sets of bead curtains to get to the bathroom. CNN is on at the bar. Weird.
I ordered the seared tuna– the tuna was not fresh and at the same time, very bland. My coworker ordered a steak, no steak knife was brought out, so he used his butterknife. The «housemade ketchup» was mayo-​based. The food items looked great on paper, but really disappointed, and we ordered a few apps too. It was a Tuesday night; maybe things are better on the weekend.

Stopped in after a long day at UAB with the wife. Greeted by Dave at the bar who offered to come up with a «sweet» drink for my bride. Dave if you read this … That drink was SO damn good! Ordered the burger with fries and it honestly was amazing. Yes, a cheeseburger was amazing! The wife ordered the shrimp spring rolls. The sauce’s for those are absolutely DEVINE. Unfortunately we arrived between lunch and dinner so the menu was limited but still good. I know from now on when we travel to UAB, this will be OUR place.

Little gem of the five points area!
Sublime food.
Everything is made with greta care and attention. Very few ingredient combinations don’t turn exactly perfect, otherwise you can try any dish and you’ll be very satisfied with it.
The service is just exceptional, one of the best in town.
The place looks… ok. Kind of small, and not so greatly set up.
Don’t walk out with having their desserts! They Really do a great job in the desserts.
Their Crème brûlée… one of the best worldwide, no kidding!!!
One of my favorites restaurants in town!

I was trying to go to there other restaurant next door called Ocean but they were closed to a private party. The parking attendant sent me next door to 26. I was looking for fish for dinner and they had plenty of choices on the menu.
They initially brought me a fresh bread basket, with a nice compound butter. Which was all very good. I ordered snapper, over gouda grits. I thought the snapper was fresh but the cut of fish I got had a lot of blood line in it. Which made the piece of fish I got very brown and not white like I like it. The dish overall was well seasoned and tasted good.
The atmosphere is very nice. It’s not too loud, and wasn’t overly busy. I travel for work and use Unilocal often to research restaurants and try to write reviews as often as possible. I would definitely head back.

I popped in here for happy hour one evening after work. I love the interior of the place– it’s pretty hip and a bit more upscale, but still relaxing and casual at the same time. We sat at the bar, so we didn’t order off of the main menu– we stuck to the smaller happy hour specials. We tried the smoked gouda mac n cheese, spicy tuna bon bons, & the ocean roll. Everything tasted really good, but we weren’t expecting the sushi roll to only have 4 pieces. It just seemed so tiny. That said, it’s still worth ordering, since it isn’t pricey during happy hour anyways. I would without a doubt like to go back for dinner & try out some of their other menu items.

We sat next to a local on the flight to BHM and chatted him up for some suggestions. His favorite restaurant was Ocean, which we promptly tried to make a reservation for (Yeay for inflight wifi), but none was available. In looking at Ocean’s website, we found 26. It looked good and the reviews read well so I called them as soon as we landed to make sure we’d be able to make it in before they closed. We walked in a little after 9pm and were seated promptly. The space is great, a little industrial with the cement looking table tops and I love how the front was all roll up garage doors. It must be great when the weather is nice to have them open. Anyways, I digress.
We shared the chopped salad of which I loved the components. The bleu cheese dressing was the real deal. I need to start adding apples to my salads. So yum. The bread was so good! It came out hot. The crust was crunchy/​crisp and not hard, and the inside was soft and chewy. Oh, and the chive butter… yum!!! (I had to ask if they made their bread in-​house but they don’t. Who cares! At least they get great bread! They do make their own chive butter tho.)
I would deduct a star for being out of the shortribs but our fault for arriving so late. Because if all the reviews, I really wanted to try that but got the pork chop instead. It was brined and souvided perfectly with some nice grill marks to finish. It was super flavorful and tender, cooked thru but not totally hot, understandable but it would’ve been nice. The sauce was yum but the kale was a tad salty. My husband got the pasta dish. Wow, that was tasty. The poached egg was ingenious, like making your own carbonara sauce. They’re generous with the bacon which is great, but kinda skimpy on the mushrooms. That could’ve been balanced a little better. We ordered the Mac and cheese because everyone said it was great. It was just ok. I should deduct a star for that too but truly, our experience was great and our server was so nice. She gave us some homerun recs that set our trip in the right direction. And best of all, she had the best line of the day. When she found out we were from CA, she was like, «what are you doing here?! You should go back as soon as you can!!» Too funny!

Cool looking restaurant.
We had an awesome server (I wish I remembered her name), but she was very knowledgeable about the menu, and kept our glasses full. She even gave us a great recommendation for brunch (Veranda, see my review on this).
They had some interesting Asian fusion type of rolls, but we opted not to try those.
Bread was hot and pretty good (although they don’t make the bread there, we asked), but what makes the bread so good is the chive butter they served it with (amazing).
Started with the 26 chopped salad. It was really good. It had bacon, corn, apple, lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, almonds, and It did have some sort of cup made of some sort of carb, it had texture of something stale, so we just put that to the side.
Pork chop was pretty big, and very flavorful and juicy. We asked if the sous-​vide it, and it was.
Brown Butter Strozzapreti Pasta Broccolini, Wild Mushrooms Asiago Cheese, Bacon Lardons Poached Farm Egg. This was awesome, just wish it had more mushrooms, but I’d order this again.
Mac & Cheese, was hot but I wish they actually used macaroni, I feel the texture would be less mushy. Also wanted some type of crunch on top. I suppose the melted cheese that created a crispy top is crunch.
In the end, it is a place you should try, and the prices are very reasonable.

Hit up lunch as often as I can for the Daily Mac n Cheese — which is always laced with some amazing protein and a few extras.
Last time I had dinner there it was splendid. We ordered a sushi roll, I got the Tuna Lo Mein and split crème brulee for dessert. Left feeling completely full (but not too full).
I always describe this place as the swanky sibling to a fine dining place. Oh, and go visit the restroom while you’re there.

Brought a group of 13 (with a reservation) for a UAB recruiting event. The service was efficient and quick, the meal was impressive (important when trying to recruit people!) and the atmosphere was a great balance of young/​hip and relaxing. I would highly recommend the burger as a low-​price, high quality option as I was shocked at how much food was plated and was pleased when many people complimented it. The seafood was, unsurprisingly, absolutely delicious. My only dissatisfaction was that they tried to squeeze us in a spot just a *smidge* too narrow for 13… more generous seating plans would have been appreciated and made us feel more welcome.

Service was good, atmosphere was great, and the food was incredible. Must try Mac n cheese and the fries.

Excellent spot for a date. Great food
I went here with a group of 8 for work. However, most of the people here seemed to be in small groups or on dates. The restaurant has a warm inviting atmosphere that lends itself to being great for a date night.
I ordered the blackened chicken with a side of mac and cheese. Honestly, this was probably some of the best chicken (baked or grilled) that I’ve ever had. Cooked to perfection and full of flavor. The mac and cheese is raved about in all of the other reviews so I had to try it. It definitely does not disappoint. Some of the better homemade mac and cheese I’ve had and for $ 5 you can not go wrong.
Definitely recommend this place to anyone in the Birmingham area.

Here on Wednesday night — Had only appetizers to try to sample everything.
Wednesday nights — FREE wine tasting.
Had the following appetizers:
Crunchy Salmon
King Crab roll
French fries
Fried oysters
Spring rolls
Mussels
Unfortunately, nothing left me wanting more or desiring to come back. It was all bland and average. My sister said entrees here are good but…
It appears APPETIZERS ARE LACKING!