Eric Balter
Google
I haven't been to a Barnabys (this one) since I was a kid. I don't remember much about that trip aside from the restaurant being dimly lit and me leaving my jacket behind after we left.
We finally got around to coming back and I have to say, this was way different than I thought it was going to be. Not technically a sit down restaurant since you have to go up to the cashier to order. Drinks are ordered (and purchased) separately. So that was unusual. Also unusual while adding frustrating to the mix is that there are no menus to look at other than the actual order card found in half sheets at the cashier. Orders are called out so there's no table service here either. The man tending the bar provided better service than the man who was taking the orders and calling them out.
The interior had a dated look and feel to it and was entirely wooden. (booths, paneling, walls, sectiom dividers, etc) and just as I remembered it was dimly lit too.
In addition to pizza, we ordered cheesy garlic bread and fries. The garlic bread was delicious and absolutely worth it, the fries (crinkle cut) were likely microwaved and only borderline done and some of the larger ones had the grainy uncooked potato texture to them. If these were deep fried and cooked completely through, they'd probably be pretty good.
Now for the Pizza, it looked good, but the story here was the edge/crust, the edge was very tough and it had this weird way of dettaching from the crust on the underside. The edge was braided and appeared to be pinched on the bottom where it would meet the crust which contributed to it seperating the way that it did. The bottom of the crust was far more enjoyable than the edge, it absorbed the tomato sauce and had cracker crust like texture but it was much thicker than normal cracker crust would be. The underside was also dusted with corn meal, which is always a solid trait for a thin crust pizza. Normally, the middle pieces are the last ones remaining, here they were the first ones gone. The edge was the culprit for that. The pizza had a nice taste overall though.
Of note, There were maybe a half dozen slot machines on the south wall of the restaurant.
The lingering curiosity I had with Barnabys is over. My first visit to one in the 21st century was about as mediocre as it could possibly be.