Super delicious spot to grab some fried chicken and bourbon flights at with friends! The atmosphere is chill, the food is excellent and well priced, the staff are friendly as can be, and the ambiance is typical bar. Definitely 10/10 would recommend!

Awesome older building right on whiskey row. Huge bourbon selection and great drink selection with those bourbon. We ordered the queso and chips and added the chorizo I recommend this for sure it was exceptional. Also got the brisket and pulled pork taco . The brisket taco was good but oh my the pulled pork with green chili sauce was absolutely phenomenal. I will definitely go back here again

Fantastic lunch. Mint Julep, fried chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread were delicious. And the green chili pork taco…wow! That was the best taco I’ve had all year! Add in great friendly service and it’s a no brainer to come here when you’re in Louisville.

Another Louisville surprise during my time here as I was expecting 4/5 food but got solid 5/5 food around the table. Prices are fair and they have great deals on alcohol, I’d be a regular here if I lived here. Thought the award winning chicken was just a marketing scheme, it wasn’t. Fabulous 1/4 chicken options and I’d highly recommend the dark meat as a subjective preference. The sauces they pair with it are awesome as well. This place is some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, and I don’t even think this is the best in the city. This place explains the hype around why friend chicken in Kentucky specifically had a name for itself. A good mainstream option to start off with when visiting or stopping through as they have a lot of other options besides fried chicken. I’ll be back when routing through Louisville.

Eaten here many times I never had any complaints. Today I probably had one of the best waitresses I’ve had in years. I’m confident that you’ll find Nicole as charming and friendly as I did.

One of the best places I’ve eaten in the world personally. The chicken tenders were incredible, and while I don’t particularly enjoy honey, the honey gave them a whole new flavor that was quite enjoyable. I also had the Queso which was another major flavor packed delight. The drinks were well mixed and the price was fairly reasonable for the quality. The only down side was being slightly over crowded and loud. All in all I would say if you are in Louisville, this is a must visit spot.

Amazing tacos (pulled pork & brisket) & bourbon mules. Great atmosphere and service. Will definitely come back for another.

Delicious chicken tenders and macaroni & cheese. The atmosphere was fun and the bar was great. I would definitely recommend this place.

Really enjoyed Merele's! Typical bar food, but you go for the conversations and atmosphere! The pork taco? Too much sauce. Yuk! The fried chicken? Yum! A lot of different kinds of whiskey! The bartender knows her stuff!

Merle’s melt was very good, southern fried chicken sandwich was also great. Mint julep was awesome, service was quicker than expected. Server was polite. Not bad prices for being downtown, I’d stop again when back in the area

The green chile pork tacos were amazing! Everything we had was so good. Service was super fast. Would definitely return!

Great Place and Great ambience, love the bluegrass marg, music was nice and the food was very fast to come out. Had the nachos and chicken tenders. Will be going back for more.

This area has so many great places to eat and this is another one worth visiting. They have flights of bourbon to try. The food was great and all 6 had something different and everyone was pleased.

Great value for lunch. They have a $7.95 special for which you pick two items from a good selection of small entrees and sides. It was perfect for us. Service was excellent and the food was very good. Outdoor tables available. I think most are covered.

We loved our food so much that we went back on the day we were flying out to try other items. We had all the tacos. The pork with the green sauce was the favorite. We loved the fried chicken and their Mac n' Cheese is excellent. Someone ordered the fried avocado and another person in our group got a salad that she enjoyed and the bacon in a jar was ordered, but it wasn't a fan favorite. The rub didn't taste right. On both occasions the group split multiple cookies with cream. They all enjoyed that. The first day our food came out really fast and our server was great. The second day was a Saturday and they were much busier. They have parking on both sides for $10/day. Some of us went across the street to shop and went to an Irish pub. It was a great experience. Our whole group highly recommends Merle's Whiskey Kitchen.

Awesome place, stayed downtown for evening and hotel recommended and was completely satisfied!! Our Waitress Courtney was fabulous with our service at the table and service at bar was great! Food menu including fried chicken tacos and Mac and cheese is highly recommended

We visited here because it was close to our hotel. We ate tacos and they were definitely solidly good. The cocktails were the downfall - my husband's old fashioned he said was terrible. I ordered a couple of cocktails from their cocktail menu and I didn't really like them all too much either. But we sat at the bar and the bartenders gave us good service.

Oh my goodness. The food was off the charts. The spicy bourbon bacon and the Parmasan garlic fries were my favorite. The cornbread was my husband's favorite. It was busy and we were a table of six. So my advice is to ask for a printout of your bill just to check for accuracy as they have a new hand-held system the servers are getting used to. Some items ended up on each other's bills, but it was fixed quickly. I would go back here again and again! The food was so good!!

This is a great little restaurant in the distillery district. The decore is old industrial vibe: exposed brick and metalwork. Ambiance is loud. The Bourbon Caramel Cookie desert is outstanding. I highly recommend it. Huge warm cookie, gooey caramel, melty vanilla ice cream. Two spoons, big enough to share! My only complaint is that they have no printed menus. You scan a code on the table. If your phone has low power or data issues, you are out of luck. The code downloaded pages and pages of images very slowly. The server had to come back, twice. It would be nice if they could provide a printed menu (just print a few off your website for people who are technically challenged).

I was so disappointed at our experience at Merle's, especially since it was my choice. The food was just barely okay. I got the "half chicken", which, while tasty, was just a couple pieces of fried chicken. KFC would have been preferable. The candied bacon appetizer wasn't very good (our party of 4 didn't even finish it). I'm trying to remember what everyone else got, but honestly nothing was memorable at all. I know no one left particularly happy. Drinks were just fine. Definitely nothing to write home about. Service was lackluster. We knew we messed up when the waitress asked if we needed a couple more minutes - she ended up not coming back for at least 10.

Really great atmosphere and beautiful building. You can choose to sit indoor or in the patio - we chose to sit indoor as it provided the best view of the live music. We were only visiting for the night, but our bartender, Cami, was very accommodating and made sure to answer any questions we had about the drinks/town!

Fried Chicken was amazing. Cornbread was absolutely amazing. Parmesan Fries were delicious. Green Chili taco was not good. Didn't live up the hype at all. Too salty.

Merle’s whiskey Kitchen is a great place for some drinks and dinner, the menu is well priced and the food is very delicious. Atmosphere has great energy with live music and local people having a great time. I highly recommend Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen.

Very cool atmosphere. The salad that I had was okay. The maple bacon appetizer was hard to take in. I ended up only eating 1 of them. It was too sweet and caked in spices. I think people who love that kind of soggy sweet would like it. I eat a lot of tacos and this pork taco was like a 2/10. Not much flavor and there was a gelatinous sauce or something in it.

Great food! Finally got a Mint Julep. (Delish!) Awesome plant based selection on menu. The fried avocado taco was amazing. The carnivores in our group loved the candied bourbon maple bacon. My husband said the pulled pork sandwich was fantastic!

Nikki at the bar was super friendly! Today I ordered the El pastor taco, Fried chicken taco, and the Kentucky fried avocado Taco. The avocado one was a lot spicier than I’d expected but it was still delicious, the food was amazing altogether and the service was very fast. I will definitely be back. The Interior is very open and modern with a cute Kentucky vibe throughout the building.

My first time visiting Louisville from Boston, MA. Wanted to try some fried chicken and whiskey so I came to this place. Immediately, when I walked in, I was greeted by Nikki and Kayla at the bar. Their service and conversation were top notch. They really made me feel like I was a regular here, better than Cheers, where everybody knows your name. Their drink recommendations were phenomenal. Definitely stop by here and give Nikki and Kayla a holler.

This was such a fun spot for dinner. It has an outside patio area just off Main Street in Louisville. It has an extensive drink menu - REALLY extensive…For dinner I had three tacos. All really good but the Al pastor pork taco was incredible! The Manny-Rita is just the right amount of tart and sweet. Highly recommend it (fresh ingredients only!) And all this for $15. Super yummy and affordable!

Loved loved loved their taco selection. The old fashioned is great too lolz :) they had live music Saturday night so we really enjoyed the whole Ambience. Wait was long so sorry we put our selves on the list and walked around and grabbed a couple of drinks down the block and got back to eat. Try their corn bread it’s like eating a corn cake :)