Champps Restaurant and Bar

The best thing I can say about this place is the location is pretty ideal, right next to the parking lot, but not in the main flow of traffic like other big restaurants in the mall.

I usually only go to Champps once or twice a year... usually to meetup with a friend or colleague. The food & service are just "ok". It's a bit pricey for a sports bar, and heavy on the calories (ask your waitress for the "nutritional content" menu... you'll be shocked).

My most recent visit was during their happy "hour" (3-7 p.m.). Draft beers and rail drinks are discounted during this time, and most appetizers are $5. My colleague ordered the Chicken Satay, which looked pretty good and not too decadent. I made the mistake of trying the Crab Bread, which turned out to be just a spicy pizza on french bread... and not very good.

Even though there were few patrons in the bar or restaurant area during our visit, our waitress only checked up on us a couple times, and never cleared our dirty plates or empty bottles of beer ....until I placed them on the empty table next to us.

As other reviewers have noted, the restaurant can get quite noisy, and in spite of the dim lighting, I've never found it to be very "cozy/relaxing" feeling. I think that may be in part because all the bar area seating is on tall chairs, and even most of the tables in the non-bar area are on a raised platform... making you feel like you're on display.

In summary, Champps isn't a bad restaurant/bar, but if you're looking for good food, good service, or a cozy/intimate restaurant... there are better choices.

I came to Champps during the Army vs Navy game. It was crowded, but we were seated immediately. I shall dive straight into the review.

The Good:

Service. The server was knowledgeable about the menu, gave her honest opinion about some of the dishes and the food came out in a reasonable amount of time.

The Bad:

Prices: Most of the things on the menu are expensive for a restaurant that is anything but 5 stars. I ordered the Tuscan Salmon and it cost $16.99. I could understand if the portions were huge, but 75% of the dish was composed of mushrooms, peas and diced tomatoes.

Taste: The salmon was luke warm and it was under seasoned. I would have sent the dish back to get something else but after seeing the 20/20 special on the service industry, I tend not to make any restaurant do more work than they have to.

Overall: There was nothing particularly special about Champps. To me, its just a bigger version of Applebees. A sports bar with food that is primarily heated up in a microwave if not deep fried. Add the expensive prices and you have a restaurant I probably wont go back to for a while. TWO STARS. .

I usually never go to a restaurant on a Saturday evening, especially after 7 PM, but we were out and I wanted to go somewhere that myself, my wife and 4 (yes 4) kids could find something they would like, which almost never happens. We got there and there was a little wait, but I'm use to that with a party of 6. I was pleasantly caught off guard when one of the hostesses came out and asked what number I had to check where we were in line ( I had only been there for like 7 minutes max!). Good start so far. Oh, and did I mention that this was the night of a big UFC Pay-per-view fight that they were showing, and the place was crowded? We were seated fairly quickly, and food and drink orders were taken and served very swiftly. I never felt rushed the whole time we were there. Our waiter even found time to check on us at least five times during dinner on this busy night. I've been to other restaurants on a big "game" night, and been completely ignored because I had kids and wasn't drinking like a fish. I will go back again, maybe not on a fight night with the kids, but everything was great, food was excellent for the price. I recommend the Kobe sliders and the Sam Adam's beer battered fish and chips and my wife loved sharing the BBQ Tripple play with EVERYONE at our table (it was freakishly huge, but in a good way).