Tam Tavern — Restaurant in California

Went to Floodwater for the first time to meet an old friend. We sat at the bar so the service - especially considering it was a slow Weds night - was very good.

Got a couple beers and caught up with my old buddy. When it came time to order, I was really jonesing for a burger. In fact, I had found the restaurant on a Marin website list for best burger.

I ordered the burger. I would say it was just OK. The meat pattie was a touch too thick, too dense, not juicy enough, and had a bit too much char for my tastes. It was of the size where you have to cram it into your face and open your mouth very wide. I did appreciate that it was a classic burger with your standard condiments - not some over the top BS that takes away from the burger. The Kennebec fries were excellent and abundant.

I may go back and try some other dishes. My friends hummus/cheese app thing looked good. I ordered the burger Med which perhaps was a mistake as it was probably MW. Hard to know if the line cook is going to over cook it or get it right. In this case it was overcooked and had that "char taste" going on.

In any case, nice place, dark, good for meeting a friend or meeting a date or even taking the wife. Has sports bar vibes with a few TVs but I would not call it a sports bar. Prices more or less what you would expect in pricey Marin county. I would recommend the line chef stop in at Tam Commons in San Rafael. They really know how to do a burger there. It's always juicy, the perfect thickness, with good flavor. Now, if Tam Commons would just give you a decent portion of fries instead of skimping out - Floodwater gives you practically an entire plate of excellent fries. ...

I was honestly not expecting much when we pulled into Floodwater's parking lot and saw it was part of a Holiday Inn Express, but we were hungry, it was on our way home, and it was getting late and other restaurants had closed. When we walked in there were lots of kids running around the pool table area but we were glad the hostess sat us closer to the bar where the vibe was chill. The beet salad was surprisingly good, the Reuben sandwich was rather bland but there was a generous amount of meat, and the garlic fries seemed to be fresh made. The service was by far the part that made the experience excellent! I started choking on a bite of pickle. Our waiter, Gabriel, was taking the order from another table and noticed i was in distress and that my partner was concerned. He immediately came over ready to administer the Heimlich maneuver but also checked with me calmly to see what help I needed. When I was able to breath again on my own, Gabriel made sure I was ok and quickly returned to helping the other table. He checked on me two other times before we paid our bill, including refilling the hot water for my tea, making sure I was ok but also having some good humor which helped me feel less awkward. Thank you for the wonderful...

It was fine. It's a little pricey for typical bar fare and it's not like the food was super high quality. It took a while for anyone working behind the bar to even acknowledge us, let alone give us menus. Once we finally got our menus, it's like suddenly we were visible and a bartender came over to take our orders, about ten seconds after we got them.

The food is just okay and a little on the expensive side. $18 for a hamburger and french fries that probably cost them no more than a $1 to actually make is a little ridiculous. If it was like top quality ground beef, sure. This was probably your basic chuck.

The fries had basically no flavor, which is a little mind boggling. I could see that they were seasoned, they just didn't have any flavor to them.

The baos were actually pretty good. The bread was soft and warm and the filling wasn't bad.

The cocktail and beer prices are about standard for a bar in the Bay area, so no real complaints there.

All in all, it was a rather forgettable experience and perfect for being paired with Holiday Inn. It's somewhere you go because it's not really possible to go anywhere else and everything is just ho hum and generic. Absolutely nothing about this...