Merk’s Tavern & Grill

First off Joey, the guy with the long hair, is the man. We had a blast at this place and definitely recommend that you hit up the bar if you are staying at the Hyatt.

Stopped here for dinner b/​c we are staying at the Hyatt Regency. Ordered a chicken Cobb salad and a hamburger for my spouse and me. After waiting 30 minutes (we were the only people there .5pm on a Fri eve) the server brought our meals. The salad had no dressing so I asked for her to bring some. No problem with that, but the Cobb salad was basically a bowl of iceberg lettuce. The chicken pieces had no taste and mostly whatever it was coated with before frying. My spouse’s hamburger was average and his French fries were warm, not hot as we like our food to be served. We will not be eating here again.

The kitchen received at 70 on a recent health department inspection report. See report at:

Being from New Orleans, the hipster places we visited in Birmingham were really cool and industrial. The death metal bands plastered in the bathroom didn’t bother me a bit. I had to return my memory to a «dead milkmen» concert some time ago. Comparing «Saw’s» to this place «Merk’s» is not even close.
Look at the photo I posted of the cob salad and read the description. After the «restaurant manager» offered to refund the purchase, he reneged on his promise. On the food and the refund. It was garbage two times. It’s not that he didn’t try-​the fact of the matter is he doesn’t check the orders, employees, or is just plain ignorant and just doesn’t know any better. At first there were no worries because «Merk’s is open till midnight…».
Now, it’s «the ticket is closed, and he has NO authorization (even though they SHARE A KITCHEN WITH SHULA’S)
They deny having anything to do with them. (If I was the manager, I would insist on the same notion!)
But it’s hard to believe you share a kitchen and have two different chefs. Don Shula eats Nutrisystem. This Hyatt should be embarrassed to have not one, but two restaurants that emanate from this same kitchen.
When we got the food back it was just as inadequate. Raw chicken, a spec of Bleu cheese, a few diced pieces of tomato, slivers of cucumber, minced olden egg, a bite of bacon, no avocado, but a whole red onion, uck! We had to throw it out after it was made right!!!
As for my Reuben, it was BBQ beef thrown in a bag with fries on top. It’s what a professional chef would do to have the sandwich bread mop up the fry grease. The ARBY’s sandwich is much better, swear on my mom’s grave! –no sauerkraut nor swiss. Just globs of brisket. I eat a Reuben every day at cooter brown’s in NOLA. I never understood why tourists freak over the most basic of foods (like garlic bread)
Now I can completely empathize! Even AMTRAK serves a better sandwich. We cook like we travel: low and slow. Real and by rail!
Sorry for the initial misspelling of Merk’s, but my wife was about to Merc me. If it was a quick here, take a refund and get lost – it would have been fine. But this guy who could pass for «Tom Fitzmorris» insisted that he could make it like glitter. Most errors can be summed up in two words (as Douglas MacArthur quoted). «Too late”-by the time we got this mystery bag up to the room everywhere else was closed, and it had to be discarded anyway. Just holding us hostage to be released in the Darien Gap only compounds things. You think a Hyatt would put a microwave in the room?

This place needs some help. Took a loooong time to get food. But once it came out it was very good.

I live in the area and my BFF and I like to eat here for breakfast every month or so. The buffet is really good but a little expensive ($ 16). However, it does include your drink or drinks. I usually have a soft drink and orange juice. The menu changes slightly on each visit but overall you get a good selection of meats, grits, eggs, biscuits, yogurt, fruit, pastries, oatmeal, waffles, and a custom made omelet if you desire. I am sure I have left some items out but you get the idea. It is not a super huge buffet, but just right. The food in general is pretty good. The last visit the food didn’t seem quite as good. I hope this was just a fluke. My only real problem is the service. When we first started our girls breakfast out (no spouses!) over a year ago, the service was outstanding but now it is just sad! We are hard pressed to get a drink refill and the wait staff are all attached to the cash register like magnets to a refrigerator! I hope management whips them into shape a bit. Lack of leadership is the cause; I don’t blame the wait staff as much as mgt. Training! Training! And Expectations! I love the décor, it’s modern but warm and it makes for a comfortable long visit between friends. Please don’t let this jewel slip downhill! Locals will come and support the restaurant if the food and service remain excellent!

In between meetings at the Wynfrey Hotel, decided to try for a quick bite of lunch.
Seated quickly and drink order taken reasonable amount of time.
Food order took longer than expected to come out.
I had the bacon cheeseburger. It was quite good. Service was not. Once we had our food we didn’t see our server again until she brought check and cleared table.
One of our party flagged down someone else for a drink refill. None of the rest of us were offered a refill.
Probably doesn’t typically have much of lunch crowd, with the service we received I can’t imagine that will change anytime soon.
With the $$ and service experience, I doubt I will return. Also didn’t make a good impression on out of town guests.

Solid breakfast buffet, can’t speak about menu as we didn’t order from it
Service was…
Many people wandering around attempting to whisk you plate away at every moment. Ordered a made to order omelette but the lady who was cooking them had left on break— other service folk around didn’t seem to be able to man the pans so 20+ minutes later after we had checked on it twice (there was no one else in line and the restaurant was not slammed with business), I went up the third time and waited while the person mangled the eggs and ingredients around over the heat. Finished product was tasty– not an omelet and NOT pretty, but edible.
Personnel need some pushing up on their «service», it’s not just about removing plates…

This was the first time my wife and I had eaten here since they came under new ownership. We stayed this past Saturday night at the hotel and had complimentary passes for breakfast here. This was by far the worse breakfast buffet we have ever been to. First all they were under staffed to cater to everyone there. They had bread that you could toast yourself. The bread was stale and when you put it through the toaster it did not toast it at all. They had gravy for biscuits but it was the worse tasting gravy ever. Then you had to order eggs at a hot plate. My wife ordered a waffle from the hot plate and they told her it would take 5 mins to cook the waffle and she was fourth in line. When she went to get her waffle they had given it away and on top of that the cook wouldn’t even acknowledge her and was rude when she did earlier. While we ate we saw them give another customers table who were still away. Then we couldn’t get our drinks refilled. It was the first time I have left a buffet hungry.

Came in for breakfast ordered egg white omelet and a cappuccino. They nailed the presentation and it tasted as good as it looked. Very large portion and a good value esp if you can share it with someone

I am giving it a 3 because our server was really good. He was also the bartender and stayed pretty busy with a few tables not at the bar. The kitchen had no reason to be busy and was super slow. Joey, our server, stayed on top of our drinks and apologized repeatedly for the delay. When we finally got the food, it was very below average. My wife got the steak and fries and actually used steak sauce for the first time in our marriage. I got the roast and mashed potatoes thinking I couldn’t go wrong. This was not the case. It was so dry and the gravy had a burned flavor. My 2 yo daughter got the kids grilled chicken fingers and they were great. Of course!
I hope this helps and happy eating.

Love the breakfast everytime. A very nice deal for a great price. The waffles and sausage are awesome.

Nice upscale tavern and grill. We were a party of 9, and the had several tables devoted to large parties. TV’s were playing the NCAA tournament. We sat down and then it started. It was 1215, on Sunday, they were open. We waited, then had to track down the wait staff to get menus. A few minutes later, they came with menus, finally came to take the order. Bright the teas and waters. I ordered a chicken cob salad. Another 15 minutes later the food arrived. We’re about 45 minutes into this. «Could we get more tea and waters?» All the ice was gone in the glasses on the table, and no attempt at bringing ice. Filled glasses with warm drinks. Let’s move onto the salads. All the cob was on the bottom of the bowl then leafy lettuce then five over cooked chicken strips. Should have ordered the club sandwich. Took 1+30, the restaurant was pretty empty, now I understand. Won’t be back. Cleanliness 3/​5, sticky tables, service ¹⁄₅. Food was tasty.

For breakfast the food is amazing, but the service is pretty terrible.
I stayed for a week at the Hyatt, so breakfast at Merk’s was pretty much a no brainer. They even bill it straight to the room, so you don’t have to take out your credit card.
The first morning I tried the Harvest Buffet. It is $ 15 and consists of made to order omelets, oatmeal, a lot of hot items like eggs, sausage, biscuits, cold items like cereal and yogurt. I ended up getting an omelet with mushrooms, spinach, and cheese and some yogurt. Did I feel like the amount I ate was worth $ 15? No, but if you’re in a rush and don’t want to wait for your order, it is a decent option.
The next day I got up earlier and decided to order off the menu. I’d been eavesdropping quite a bit in the morning and realized that the waitresses would never even bring up that there is a menu. Usually a customer would ask about breakfast and the server would motion to the buffet and say there is a buffet over there, get whatever you like. I found it odd that nobody ever mentioned the menu. Well, I asked for the menu the server looked at me and informed me that the buffet is really good. I had to tell her I didn’t want to eat that much and that I wanted the menu. I’m not sure if it is sheer laziness that the servers don’t want to have to take an order, but their aversion to the menu is strange. I ended up ordering a burrito under the Stay Fit menu. The burrito I got was delicious, but it was filled with meat and had cheese smothered on the top. Definitely not the Stay Fit burrito, but I didn’t have the time to send it back so I just took it.
So now the next morning I wanted just oatmeal and toasted macadamia nuts. The waitress was again shocked I didn’t want the buffet but put in my order. When it came out there were no macadamia nuts. I was directed to the buffet bar to get them, but there were none there either. Turns out they don’t have toasted macadamia nuts. I sent the oatmeal back on the sheer principal that they didn’t have what I ordered and I ordered the Stay Fit burrito again. I figured I had 15 minutes at that point (it took 15 minutes for the oatmeal to come out) and that was enough time to eat a little and box the rest. Nope, it took 15 minutes for me to get the burrito. I just had them box it and I had to take it to work with me. At least this time it was the right burrito.
So now I’m at a conundrum. The food was always spot on and delicious, but the service I had was amazingly bad. Bad enough that I never ate at Merk’s again for the rest of my stay (and I had been hoping to try there for dinner). So 5 stars for food, 1 star for service, I’ll give it 3 stars.

I’ve lived in this area my whole life, been to the Galleria more times than I can count, and I had no idea Merk’s existed. Lucky for my, a colleague was staying in the Hyatt (Winfrey) and we settled on Merk’s for our meeting place.
It was relatively empty for prime lunch hours (12:30) and that suited me just fine. Our waitress quickly came by to take our drink order and let us know about the soup/​salad/​pasta bar. We looked at menus just in case. While everything on the menu looked pretty good, we opted for the salad bar.
The pasta looked sinfully delicious as did a hot peach cobbler that was on the line. Trying to be good I went with a salad alone. They didn’t off the most toppings I’d ever seen, but what they had was plenty. The balsamic vinaigrette was fantastic and set the whole salad off. Good and simple.
The wifi was free (for two hours), which made it a great place to get some work done. Between that and our server being very attentive with our drinks, I’m officially a fan.

Food is a four/​five, service is a two, so I’m sticking with with a three.
I understand restaurants like these are mostly open to serve the hotel, so I’m sure the breakfast buffet is good, and room service is effective. And while I’m glad they were open during the day for dining in the restaurant instead of paying through the nose for room service, there was still something so lacking in the service that even when making all the excuses for them I possibly could, I was still upset with the service.
I needed to grab a quick lunch. I had about an hour and 15 minutes, but I didn’t really intend to spend 50 minutes waiting, 10 minutes eating, and 15 minutes trying to get the check taken care of. There were several people working in the restaurant, and though I’m sure they had other tasks, it didn’t need to take so long to deal with me. It took 15 minutes just to get a drink. There was one other couple in the place, and a man finishing a meal at the bar.
If they don’t want to serve people in the restaurant beyond what they do during buffet hours, they shouldn’t. If they can’t take care of people in a timely fashion during off hours, they should close, or serve a more limited menu.
I enjoyed my meal, but felt unwelcome.

Our breakfast was superb! The French toast is a MUST! Not only is the food really good, but the service is excellent. Will definitely come back again!

This is the new restaurant inside the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel.
Prices: Appetizers $ 8.50-$ 18; Sandwiches $ 10.50-$ 13; Entrees $ 27.75-$ 31.
Hours: Breakfast weekdays 6 – 10:30 a.m., weekends 7 a.m.-noon; Sunday brunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; lunch 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Dinner 4 – 10 p.m.; late night menu served until midnight.
Info: Full bar; credit cards accepted