201 Tavern & Grill — Restaurant in Anoka

I went here for the first time for a late lunch on a Wednesday after hearing from a friend how great the food and pull tabs were. It wasn't very busy, which was nice. The waitress was very nice, but it felt like we were interrupting her prep/shift close.

The food was really good!!! We got the reuben sandwich with hand cut fries and that was the best we've had in a long time... and we're reuben snobs, lol. For sure a perk having hand cut fries, they're the best, and they're hard to find these days, and not having to pay extra is wonderful. The fried pickle spears (dilly dilly) were wonderful as well. They have dill in the breading, and aren't punchy with vinegar, which elevated these to the next level! (Bonus that they're spears, nobody has spears anymore!) The ranch is the typical amazing "restaurant ranch", you know, the GOOD stuff! The onion rings were good, but not anything special besides being beer battered. The fried foods were not overly greasy either, which we liked.

The seating is mostly hightop tables and chairs, so if you're not into that type of seating, get food to go. The pull tab booth is close to one of the doors which makes it a challenge standing there while people are going in and out, but that didn't bother us much, but during busy times it could be a pain.

The atmosphere is iconic and truly has the small hometown bar feel, which is my favorite! I like that they have 2 rooms with a few "sections". It has high ceilings and lots of natural light. The shared bathroom is down the back hallway which screams OG Anoka!

The pricing is fair, especially for the portion sizes and quality. It's affordable to eat here, which I love! They could easily jack up the prices, but I'm thankful the owner is down to earth and has reasonable prices.

Would I recommend stopping here? Absolutely! Will I be back? Yes! SO many other items I want to try! I'm really glad I was told about this little hidden...

Looked like a really good place to eat. Menu was broad. I got the steak salad with horseradish dressing, my partner got the burger of the month and our friend got the Alfredo with shrimp. The steak tasted like it was about to expire if it hadn't already. The dressing wasn't good. I love horseradish based dressings but this had no flavor to it. So I am glad I got the blue cheese dressing in addition to the horseradish one. The Alfredo was not homemade as advertised. The noodles were over cooked and mushy and not reheatted with the sauce in a pan. You could tell the sauce was heated up and put onto the noodles. The sauce it's self and absolutely no flavor beyond flour. It was obviously a food company product that comes premade. Alfredo sauce is extremely easy to make to order especially in a bar setting. The shrimp was charred. Not in a pleasant way either. It was put on the grill and forgotten about. Rubbery and super chewy. The only reason I give 2 stars is because the burger was actually good. Cooked and topped well. I may be willing to return for a burger but highly disappointed in the other items. Atmosphere was for the most part good, but the giant 'wall' of condiments or whatever was by the front door could have been more well kept. I understand why it's there I just felt it needed some attention and not just be tossed around. Service was ok. Getting a refill was our biggest issue. Not blaming the server to much as she was a bit busy. But we chose a table closer to the wait area as to help keep her running around...

Good food. They helped us out with a fundraiser and in the end we were fairly disappointed. We had not a great turn out but did everything from weeks of flyering, to Facebook live videos putting out all the details even had friend going live showing our Silent Auction Items and Karaoke. The problem we heard from everyone who came was, "what the hell was with $5 and $7 beers?" I have been in this industry since 19 years old (almost 20 years) as a server all over and no one EVER upcharged for a fundraising benefit. Seriously we didn't have some well known band to draw that large of a crowd so disappointed to say the least. And yes I heard the comments from some of the staff regarding someone being "retarded"and hopefully they are out of here soon . Seeing as how we were raising for The Epilepsy Foundation I would have hoped for help with advertising since it would have benefitted their establishment. So all in all there were some great to work with, great food but the whole experience really didn't impress me. I thought it was a way for them to make a new opinion from the public for a new place and a venue for us at the same time. Instead it almost felt like failure. Better...