Backwoods Bistro

I was very excited to try this place as I had heard a lot of great things.
I was extremely disappointed.
First of all, the ambience.
The lighting in this restaurant was MISERABLE. I literally had a headache by the time we left from the terrible, blinding spotlight that was shining directly on our table. (Our table wasn’t the only one with this lighting, the whole place needs to be redone)
We got the stuffed fried green tomatoes as our appetizer. Living in the South, I’ve had dozens of different fried green tomatoes. These weren’t terrible but they weren’t great. The breading was not as crispy as it should have been and honestly they were a sloppy mess. They came paired with a «Remoulade» sauce, which in reality was a poor excuse for mayo with a few spices thrown in and Siracha.
For dinner I ordered the balsamic glazed chicken breast, something pretty basic and difficult to screw up. It wasn’t terrible but definitely under-​seasoned and bland. My boyfriend ordered the crispy cajun shrimp pasta. The shrimp seemed fairly fresh, but they were greasy and soggy.
The sauce on the pasta tasted like it was comprised entirely of ketchup and sour cream. Although its not the worst taste in the world, its something I would drunkenly whip up at 3 am when all I have at home is pasta and condiments.
At this point we weren’t willing to try any dessert.
Probably wouldn’t try this place again.
If they hope to stay in business, I hope they step up their game.

Ok food, my shrimp/​bacon skewers were great as was my friend’s steak-​tips sandwich. Not fans of the twisted hummus. Service was flaky– young person, nearly empty restaurant, almost issued an Amber Alert to find her. A bit $$ for lunch for 2 at $ 42 w/​tip and only water to drink.

I can hear The band jamming from the car. The parking lot is almost full and my stomach is empty. It’s a small dance floor but the aisles are wide. Six different entrees and all of us enjoyed our meal. While waiting for our meal, my sister and danced to music and laughed like we hadn’t in a long time. Good food. Good service. Nice atmosphere. It is everything that you want in a local spot with a lot of local history behind it. Next time in Tally, I will be back to try something else. The tomato basil sandwich with crab bisque was sooo good.

Some friends were visiting from South Florida so we decided to give this restaurant a try. The parking area was small so we decided to park across the street.
The wait was about 15 minutes so we decided to get drinks at the bar in the meantime. It was fast service and about $ 16 for 3 drinks. Once we received our drinks our table was ready and we moved to the other side of the restaurant. We are in our mid 20s and were some of the youngest patrons there. They did have some live music that was enjoyable.
My friend had the Jesse’s Dirty rice and it was superb. It was a nice balance of sweet and savory. I ordered the black and bleu Mac which is beef tenderloin with their version of Mac and cheese. The blue cheese flavor was too strong for me but overall a good dish. The portions are individual based, not good for sharing.
For dessert we had the Kaluha molten cake. It was standard. I have had better molten cakes at Chilis. The Kaluha flavor was also quite strong. However, they did have a nice presentation

Came by for lunch, and it was delicious. I highly recommend the crab cake sandwich. The server was very helpful and attentive. Everything came out quickly. All in all, one of my best dining experiences in Tallahassee.

Excellent food, service and experience. I would highly recommend this restaurant. Try their Hummus !

First time to Backwoods Bistro. Sat. Nite with only 15 minute wait. Early before band started playing. Nice low level noise. Excellent Grouper, Shrimp, Tomato basil salad and reasonable drink prices. We will definitely return.

I haven’t had a Caesar salad so good in a while. The dressing was lip smacking good. The hostess and waitress were very nice and attentive. My father asked for the specific ingredients on his vegetable medley and the waitress wasn’t rude or impatient with him. My Jesse’s Dirty Rice. It was spicier than I anticipated, but I’m not a huge fan of spicy food at all. So on my scale of mild to hot I’d rate it hot. It was delicious though and I really loved the shrimp.

Awesome brunch! Great specials and really unique menu items. I like the bar area and prefer eating there. I haven’t been here in a while but have always liked their food. I bought a bottle of their house-​made hot sauce, which I loved. I’ll be coming back again soon!

Chris and I set out to try Backwoods Bistro, a new local restaurant, that has had reviews that are all over the place. The original location in Sopchoppy FL, and the owner decided he wanted to move to «the city» to open a location here. The location itself looks like a bit of a dive, but I was pleasantly surprised by the inside. They offer a special each day of the week, and have a varied menu, that is sure to cater to most. I was surprised not to see as much local seafood. (but being I am not big on seafood myself this didn’t bother me)
Our server was prompt, and knowledgeable with both the menu and drink selection. C and I ordered drinks. He had a cider (Angry Orchard) and I had a glass of red wine. And we ordered friend green tomatoes as an appetizer. I LOVE fried green tomatoes, so I am always sure to try at a new venue. I was pleasantly that they were lightly breaded, and did not come out at all greasy. I was disappointed that they did not come with any sort of sauce.
Chris ordered Philly type sandwich with spicy curly fries. He enjoyed his sandwich, said it was «delicious», and his fries were just the right amount of spice. (I would of liked them a little spicier, but I love SPICY, so that that for what it is worth) I created my own pizza. It has fresh olives, mushrooms and feta. It was a good size. In fact I ate half and took the other half home for lunch the next day.
Overall we had a good experience and will be back to give it a try again. It has a varied menu, good prices, and we experienced good customer service. I would like to see them offer a lunch menu with smaller portions/​prices.

Terrible first impression! Stopped in for dinner tonight and stumbled into puke on the front step of the restaurant. As an FSU football game had just ended, we hopefully assumed that a patron had enjoyed themselves a little to much and that it wasn’t the food that caused this. It happens to everyone at some point but is not what we want to see on the way into a place to eat. We cautiously proceeded inside only to be told that the wait was «a while». When we inquired about how long «a while» was, we were told over an hour! My husband and I thought this was strange as half the tables were empty. Very disappointed as we were very excited to give this place a try.

I give the food a qualified 3 stars. The brunch dish had an excellent grit cake and wonderfully crisp hash browns. I’d like to rate it higher but everything was over salted to the point that the meal was at the borderline of not being able to eat it.

Five stars in class (local, skillful, artful cuisine & lively atmosphere which includes periodic live music).
Came for brunch today and was very impressed with the range of unique and tantalizing menu options. There wasn’t one dish at our eight-​top that I wouldn’t have enjoyed — and that goes for the «kiddies» stuff as well.
I ordered the «Beyond Mythical» which is truly a great creation. I wish I could recommend some addition/​subtraction/​modification to this, just to say I was involved in its creation — but I can’t. It’s «standard» material — I.e., brunches across the land ought to include this in their lineup and submit royalty payments to BWB.
Elsewhere around the table, there was the «wake & bake» (think awesome breakfast pizza), cinnamon rolls (that really doesn’t do them any justice), grit cakes, etc.
I’ve had lunch and dinner here before — but this was my first brunch. Top notch. Bravo, Backwoods Bistro!

First time I tried basil buttons, shrimp pasta and blue crab with grouper! All of them are good! But the shrimps were kind of salty! I like the buttons best! And I began to like pasta from that time!

This place is amazing. Even for you gluten free peeps, they now have gluten free pizza and plenty of choices! Their food rocks. Brunch is even betta!

I have been here 3 or 4 times since they opened and every time the food is beyond fantastic! My only real complaint is the service… or lack there of. Today I had a WONDERFUL meal but had to wait almost 20 minutes for someone to check and see if I was done and then another 15 minutes to get my check. Normally I wouldn’t bring this up because I know that sometimes they’re busy… but there was 4 other customers in the restaurant. This will not deter me from returning because as I said earlier the food is AMAZING! I just wish the service was.

Been sitting here for 45 minutes finally got a water eventually got food it was great
So service bad food great easy fix

Exceptional service by Sherece! Visiting from Nashville and have to say the Mystical which she recommended is one of the best brunch sandwiches I’ve ever had. Delicious! This place sets the bar high for all of the other restaurants in Tallahassee.

What a amazing surprise this restaurant was. I really didn’t expect much me and a group of friends decided to eat here for brunch. I must say we were all blown away. One item on the menu I highly recommend is the deep fried «Grit Cake»! It was like french toast and high octane cheese grits had a hybrid baby! I will definitely return and love this restaurant!

Week day dinner at 7pm
Loved the sweet and juicy Cherokee chicken wings. The chicken wings were melted down to skin and left with only nice crunchiness like a good Peking duck. The white creamy sauce came with had a good flavor but the wings didn’t need any other flavors, the sauce might be for the veggie sticks on the side.
My pork tenderloin was flavorful and juicy. The fresh rosemary was well infused to the meat and gave extra happiness in my mouth. Two vegetable skewers were fresh and has a hint of sweetness. It reminded of sweet & sour chicken interestingly.
The pasta dish with creamy crunchy and well flavored shrimps was delicious. The juicy shrimps worked wonderfully with penne pasta.
the foods disappeared so fast that I only have the wings…