Big John's Place

My friends and I used to be regulars about 7 years ago when it was still All Stars. We used to go almost every week for 5 years. We even went to their original location before the fancy city hall buildings were built and made them move to this location.  For one reason or another we outgrew it. The scene was transitioning from friendly local dive bar to seedy local dive bar. The wife and I decided to go back for a blast from the past to check them out.
We ran into our old bartender, Matt. After 7 years he still remembers us and our crew. Matt was friendly as always and still pours a stiff drink if you are on his good side. 2 Gin and Tonics had me buzzin. We caught up with him on the goings on at our old All Stars hangout. He said there hasn't been a fight in the 7 years we have left them. The crowd is back to friendly locals. The prices of drinks are good and appropriate for a dive bar. I think wells were $4 or less. Big John's has the occasional live band making it one of the few places in Hillsboro to regularly feature live music.
Big John's is a huge place and can get crowded. Cost cutting put in place about 9 years ago has the bartender(s) as your only means of service. This is a real drag. Waiting for a drink can take a while even for a decent sized crowd. It is really inconvenient to leave your pool partner alone while you have to wait 10 minutes for a drink. Or leave your table for 10 minutes and wonder what laughs and good times you are missing out on.  A place this big with so many tables needs at least one server.
The place is showing its age. Even for a dive bar. Same drab carpet, old booths, It needs a face lift of some sort.They need to stand out and be a little more progressive. One way is to stock and specialize in Local Oregon Spirits. A little Aviation, New Deal, Big Bottom Whiskey. My eye didn't spy too many local brews either. More local beers, PLEASE. I didn't eat here on my return trip so I didn't get a chance to try the normal bar fare of burgers and fried stuff.
Big John's gets the my usual 3-star dive bar stamp of approval.  A friendly bartender, cheap and stiff drinks, and only 2 miles from my house makes this a dive bar worth going back to.

Have been going to this place for the last 4 years, since arriving in town.

Like most places, the experience varies, but in general, the waitstaff are really attentive and helpful... they do work for their tip!

The food is also pretty darn good, especially for a bar!
The burgers are the stars of the menu, with the Farmer's burger being my favorite!  Especially on 1/2 price Tuesdays!

I'll continue to go back, and bring my friends.

This place was known as All Star Sports Lounge. It closed on 10/15/2009 and it is under new ownership now and is known as Big John's Place now.

I visited this place off and on over the past few years in the All Star days and a few times under new ownership. It has A LOT of pool tables.  I believe it used to be an arcade before it was All Star.

It is conveniently located right along the MAX line.  

The drinks they serve are comparable to other bars in Hillsboro.  

Food sucks.  What they serve as French fries are soggie as heck.

Service was horrible. Door guy is too busy on his cell phone to greet customers. He used his hands to picture ID and carried on his conversation on phone.  

Previous visit, the employees were using profanity.
Most recent visit, service was very slow even though it wasn't very busy. Staff members and the DJ was hanging out with each other while customers had to wait a long time.  

I think they're all about serving its own employees, not customers.  

As if poor service was bad enough, to add salt to wound, they're charging a dollar for water.

Three stars in last review, but down to one for crappy food and crappy service on second visit.