Back Page Restaurant

We came to give this place last night for one last try because we had a Double Take Deal.  We've been going to this restaurant occasionally over the years because they are right next to a grocery store we sometimes go to.  Also, they have an arcade room that my son loves.  The arcade room has acquired more and more holes in wall, stains on carpet, etc over the years.  Last night I felt like I was in a frat house, the place looks trashed.  Then our food came and my $16 salmon was definitely tasted like it was frozen before they cooked it for me.  I don't expect fine dining in a casual bar setting like this one but I also don't expect to pay $16 for frozen fish.  My husband's cheese steak was small and looked like a minute steak.  The fries were so brown and unseasoned, no one at our table ate theirs.  A burger for my son, a cheese steak for my husband and salmon for me, all of us had sodas or iced tea and our bill was $42.  Thank God we had a Double Take Deal.  We will not be back.  
With all that said, the bar area has always looked like a good crowd.  It's a bar, but it's not rowdy and there are tons of TVs all around it.  Good drink specials and attentive bartender.  Just don't take your family there for dinner.  Or order the garlic salmon.

Double Take Deals brought us to the Back Page last night. Overall, it was a solid dining experience! The bar area seems to be the hopping area, but the restaurant section was fine to bring our two boys...it didn't seem as if we had brought them to an inappropriate atmosphere. The bar crowd was well behaved, and there was a poker night going on which drew a pretty good crowd. The menu had some interesting offerings- mostly comfort food- and I ended up with a crab quesadilla, while the wife had a build a burger special, and the kids had wings and pizza. Food was good...no complaints. Service was good...attentive, helpful, not intrusive. Spot on, with timing.

A game room adjoins the dining area, with pool tables, darts, and several video games. In the back is a "patio"...which my wife suggested, but given the heat yesterday, I declined..it turned out to be a fenced-in area in the rear access road of the strip mall...you know, where the dumpsters are. Maybe it was quite nice inside, but I'm sure some creativity was required. Who knows...just looked silly, from the outside.

The waitresses' shirt touted that this was the 20th Anniversary of The Back Page, and I'm not surprised. It's a clean, solid restaurant/bar that offers decent bar food and a clean atmosphere.

We went here to try the wings, grab a beer and nosh on a few other bar treats.  Overall it w as a tad disappointing.  Our waitress albeit very nice, was very difficult to track down - that said I do think she was one of 2 waitresses for the entire place.  

There were 3 of us, and we each ordered a drink from the bar and the ordered a dozen wings, bowl of soup, and cheese fries.  Amazingly it took almost 40 minutes for these items to arrive.  Normally I don't care all that much about that type of thing but these items I feel are usually mostly prepped prior to ordering and it was also not a wicked busy night at the Back Page.  

Again, our waitress was very sweet, our order was placed and made the way we requested, and it was all hot and tasty.  I was worried that since it took so long that the food might be cold, but was happily proven wrong.  :)

This is a casual joint, a number of TV's on the walls, a decent sized bar, a separate dining area and a fairly large menu.  A GREAT bonus was that there was a $2 beer on tap and that's whet my husband and our friend had - I had a glass of red wine.

The prices are good, for 5 drinks (3 at $2 each), soup, dozen wings, and cheese fries our total bill was about $34.00.

Not to mention, we were there on a Saturday night and a guitarist showed up, Adam Blessing, I believe - and he was great!  We were not expecting live music but we really liked him and the music he played.  

Overall I'd head here for a drink or two, but I think I'd rather dine somewhere else.  We'll probably give it another shot and if so - I'll write an update.