The Beef Restaurant & Pub

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  OK, kids - if you want to know what dining out was like when your parents were your age, stop in here.  This is dining at it was in the 1970s:  dark room, lots of wood and photos of Bing days past, and slabs of meat.  Lots of slabs of meat.  This is not a bad thing; sometimes you want a slab of meat.
  
  The menu is a classic assortment of beef, chicken and seafood.  French onion soup (with cheese!), shrimp in various forms are typical appetizers.  Chocolate peanut butter pie is a typical dessert.  Not much adventure or imagination here, but what they do, they do well.  The food is tasty and the service is friendly and competent.
  
  They recently remodeled and expanded the bar area, which is good.  It was way too small before.  We live around the corner, but gave up on stopping in for a drink.  Maybe we'll give it another try.
  
  In conclusion:  if you're in the mood for sauteed tofu in Thai peanut sauce, don't come here.  But if you have a hole in your appetite that only bacon wrapped pork tenderloin can fill, then this is the place for you.

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  Posted on 01.26.12 Earl W.

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  Lived around the corner for a year during my senior year at BU. Needless to say I walked by this place  A LOT going to Cavanaughs for beer and pickles. Decided to drop in with one of my housemates and some girls before we headed downtown... I mean it's right by the drunk bus stop, we had to try it.
  Man, this place was a lot of fun. At first, the people who I can only assume were the "regulars" were none too happy to see 5 college aged kids come in. After proving our maturity by ordering shots of whiskey with  NO chasers, bloody mary's and rum and cokes we began to grow on them. I'm guessing us not screaming and going wild helped too...
  Long story short, by the end of the night we were doing car bombs with the old couple celebrating their anniversary in the corner, getting drinks bought for us by the owner, and making plans to come by for lunch the next day. We ended up making this place a necessary stop every weekend.
  In typical irresponsible college fashion, I never was able to make it there for lunch or food, So i can only rate this place on their drinks and complimentary trail mix (they keep the bowls full) I have to say this place is amazing, definitely worth giving a shot-regardless of if you're an undergrad, local, or new to the area.
  
  My roomates ended up coming to eat here after I left and LOVED it, they rave about their food often. I'm excited to go back. woo woo,
  
  - Oh, and they now serve pickle backed Whiskey shots thanks to me and my friends.... you are all welcome.

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  Posted on 09.25.10 Aez A.

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  The layout of the restaurant is odd: push to the back of the bar and you will find the dining room.  This large space is dark (bring a flashlight) and filled with heavy furniture and the good bourgeois of Bingo chomping away.  The onion soup is delicious, and do get it with the cheese, which charges it with a delicious flavor (noted negatively by the other reviewer), but which I like.  I usually ordered the salad with blue cheese dressing, which was not bad, but not great either.  The steaks are good, get a side of Sauce Bernaise, which pushes it over the top.

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  Posted on 08.08.10 Edmund R.

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  Working all day works up an appetite while slaving away, doing whatever my father wants me to do, Melissa texts and wants to go to whats your beef for dinner. Strangely enough, that was on my list of restaurants that i want to review. put two and two together, and you get the latest addition to the restaurant review EL CARNE, aka The Beef!
  
  Curb Appeal
  the beef is located on leroy street in the wonderful west side of binghamton. the location necessarily ideal, being right next door to a liquor store, and adjacent to low income student housing. it gives the "whole in the wall" feel from the street. one of those place's that are popular to the neighborhood but so well known by the rest of binghamtonians. needless to say, its quaint.
  
  Dinning Room Ambiance
  the place was JAMMED! the way it is set up is a little confusing at first. you walk in and you there is a door right in front of you and one to the right. if you go in the one in the front, it leads you into the dinning room, but not like an entrance. its more like right on top of somebody's table. if you go in the door to your right, it takes you into the bar. the bar is small but very full and the colors make the room feel really warm. its kind of confusing on where the hostess station is. you have to go all the way to the other side of the bar, and there is the hostess. thats one thing they should think of. maybe a sign for people who've never been there before. i had to ask another patron "how do get sat in this place" before i figured it out.
  so after an hour of waiting, even though i was told it was going to be an half hour, we were sat. you can't see the dining room from the bar so i didn't get to check out the actual dinning room until we were actually sat.
  the dinning room is very small. probably seats 50 people at a time. the whole place had just been redone and you definitely notice. there was no built up scuzz from years of neglect. the colors, like the bar, were very warm and the lighting was perfect for a fine dining atmosphere. One thing that I loved, is that all through out the restaurant there were pictures of binghamton. Old, artistic, new, and paintings that ive never seen before, gives me a little more pride in my 'hood.
  
  The menu
  Wow, the menu, someone finally got it right! The menu was small, to the point. Had about 5 starters, probably 11-15 dinners, and a few sides. Perfect! I'm trying to start a new thing were im trying to take suggestions from the servers and really only order what they suggest. But, this guy, didn't really suggest anything. He will get his own review later on. I ordered a 8 oz filet mignon with french onion soup "house potatoes" (sliced baked potato with salt, pepper, and garlic), and chicken skewers as a starter.
  
  Food
  We got our salads and soups before my starter, little weird. The soup was good but a little over cheesed. The cheese was so strong that it almost made the soup taste like it had some kind of booze in it. The soup was very tasty other than that. A very good size portion and there were a lot of onions in it.
  Next the chicken skewers. I was expecting them to look a little more like spiedies, but instead they looked like strips of chicken thighs, on wood skewers. They were served over a bed of lettuce and a peanut dipping sauce. The sauce had a very unique taste. Almost soy sauce mixed with peanut butter and some other ingredient that I couldn't place. It was adequate.
  Now on to my filet.
  Hmm, im a little disappointed, but mainly in my self, is to blame. The fist thing that I noticed was the lack of potatoes. I had a big hunk of beef and like 5 slices of baked potato. That seems a little scarce. Not to mention that Chris', who got the marinated chicken breast, got completely ripped off. They must have had a special on chicken because this was the smallest breast ive ever seen. Plus the green beans came in a pudding cup and there were only a small handful. BUT im not reviewing Chris' food, just mine.
  The beef, I should of got mine medium rare, that's my first problem. It was too cooked. I ordered medium, but if that was medium, then well must be black and tar-tasting. It wasn't bad by any means. Im sure most people probably would have been completely happy. Just for me, I expect too much. I want to be wowed and be at a lost for words. This was just ok. It didn't have much flavor and was a little dry.
  
  Service
  Our waiter wasn't bad. He was attentive and likable enough. He did forget somethings a couple of times, but was very quick to fix it. My only complaint is that he was too comfortable. Melissa knew him a little, so the formality of the service was lost because he automatically thought we were all "friends". Sorry I know that sounds really pretentious, but unless you are my friend, don't talk to me like you know me and think its ok to drop the f-bomb in front of me. Overall, he was very nice and got the job done right.
  
  Cost
  The beef is a little pricey but not too bad.

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  Posted on 01.29.08 Santino G.

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