Emil's tavern was one of the most interesting bars I have been in yet. If you were to see it from the road you would probably drive right past it. It looks like an old beatup corner store. But when you walk in it was like walking into the old' west. A guy coming in his cowboy boots and hat would fit right in. The place was so old fashioned they had an old plastic fan pushing the air around... I kinda felt like I was back in Oklahoma. Emils's is known around town for having the best buffalo burger in town. The rumors did not let me down.
1/2 lb Buffalo Burger
Burger - ***
Service - ****
Price - **
Overall - ***
The vegatables that came on this burger seemed like they were picked from the garden out back. Fresh and crisp! It also came with homemade potato chips that made a guy wanna snack on them all night. The service in this place was great, we never had an empty drink. We went around dinner time but it looks like the kind of place that would kick off on a saturday.... might have to venture back sometime!
I was shocked on a Friday night when we walked in and only 1/2 the tables were occupied. But I soon realized why... This was the worst dining experience we've had in years. Don't eat here. Drive 10 more minutes and eat somewhere else.
We were there tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday. We don't usually eat here because the service is ridiculously slow and not helpful. When we arrived, it was over 15 minutes before the waiter came to get our drink order. He brought my friend her drink but not my water. I asked again. At least another 10 minutes went by before he came back to bring some of the other drinks out, but still no water. Finally, my friend went to the bar and got me one. Ordering was equally slow, and it took a long time for the food to arrive.
This is where the nightmare began. We waited for the waiter to return with silverware, which he didn't for my table. We had to go up to the area where the wait staff stores it and get our own. One member of our party had an 8" curly dark hair in his dinner. After pulling it from his mouth, he ran to the bathroom to throw up.
In the meantime, another person at the table cut her chicken sandwich in half, only to realize it was green and slimy inside! She finally was able to flag down our waiter, and sent it back. Someone came out of the kitchen and tried to tell her the meat was fine, the problem was with the new silverware. He claimed it hadn't been washed and that's what made the meat green. First, that was a lie, because when we cut into it with clean, "old" silverware it was still green. Secondly, is it just me, or why would you put out unwashed silverware?? The man kept saying, it's not the cook's fault. Well, clearly whoever is on quality control was to blame. It was disgusting. We asked for the owner, who wasn't there, and the manager more or less told us the same story as the man from the kitchen.
We waited and waited for drink refills. I only got the one water my friend brought me. At one point one person at our table yelled  "drinks, we need drinks!" Everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us, but still no wait staff came to see what we needed. Majority of them were at the bar drinking or sitting at tables around the restaurant.
The rest of our meals were just mediocre and I wouldn't recommend eating here to anyone. Fries were cold and barely any on the plate. Burgers were small and dried out. Poor quality food. For what we paid, it was very disappointing. Pretty sad when we go out to eat and are still hungry when we leave.
Perhaps it's time for new management, as it's clearly not being managed now.
Yum!
I haven't been to Emil's in years, since the new reno took place & I am very impressed. I went in for lunch on a weekend with my mother. We must have walked in at the right time, because when we were leaving they were getting very busy.
The atmosphere was fun & the food was amazing.
Emil's is a bar with great bar food. You should try their  famous Buffalo Burger. It impresses! We also got the fried pickles.
I can't wait to go again, next time I am in town.
Oh, also I want to note there was a local goat staring in the window for 90% of our meal. I couldn't get over how sweet & adorable this goat was.
First of all - this 2 star rating is only possible because some of the food was really very good.
The service, however, would get negative stars if that were possible.
It was horrible. Easily top-5 worst dining experiences I've ever had. Get carry out, seriously.
First, the waitress was pretty vague. It was clear her mind was elsewhere. Yes, there were 10 of us. But putting the complexities of serving a larger party aside -
she didn't answer questions: when asked what salad dressings were available she just stood there not saying anything.
She had no knowledge of the menu: when one of our party asked for Dr. Pepper this is the conversation that followed: "we don't have that" "It's on the menu" "We have pepsi products". Yes, both Dr. Pepper and Pepsi products were clearly on every one of our menus.
She also didn't know what was on the Mexican Pizza, and seemed confused when different wing-sauces were referenced.
While that would have been bad enough in itself - it became clear after far too much waiting that something was wrong in the kitchen. Our food not only took 45 minutes to BEGIN to arrive, but arrived haphazardly and out of order for another 40 minute stretch.
All with NO explanation from the waitress.
1 appetizer was brought. The other seemed to have been forgotten about until we reminded her. That took another 10 minutes. Then two of us got our buffalo wing entrees before anyone else got their food. With no mention of the salad or soup that others had ordered, which either never arrived or arrived far too late.
After another 10 minutes, 1 hamburger was delivered, cold and with cold fries. The fries were sent back.
Meanwhile, other tables had come in after us and been served (hot food) before us.
At this point, one would expect the waitress or even a manager to come over and apologize, explain the situation, ask if we wanted refills on our drinks and thank us for our patience. None of that happened. We were now being treated like we were, at best, an inconvenience.
A couple other entrees arrived about 10 minutes after that, again with no explanation. By the time the last person got their food it was fully an hour and a half after we'd ordered, and no more than 2 people ever got their food within 5 minutes of each other.
We were clearly unhappy, and upon complaining to the waitress, her response was "I'm not the cook". Unbelieveable!!
Then, another waitress came over and, when we mentioned that an apology and explanation would have been nice as soon as someone realized there was a problem, she said "I heard her apologize already, but she's not the cook so it's not her fault." At no point did we ever get a simple apology.
Finally, one of the cooks came out with our bill and said that they had taken 20% and all of our non-bar drinks off the bill.
In my opinion, that doesn't compensate for the negligent wait staff and clearly unprepared cooks.
The takeaway?
The Artichoke dip was heavenly.
The buffalo wings, quesadilla, and fried pickles were good.
The mexican pizza was good but covered in way too much grease.
the grilled chicken portobella was awful, rubbery and obviously not grilled.
Everything else was mediocre.
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