The Evergreen — Restaurant in City of Syracuse

A nice little downtown spot to grab a craft beer with friends. Plenty of potential. Full review below:

Visited with 3 friends late April 2018 around 8:00pm.

Parking 1 out of 5: Street parking. Get here early or you'll have to add a stroll to your itinerary.

Ambiance 3.5 out of 5: The grub pub is decorated with the theme of an alpine lodge. A dark woodsy color palate, hard wood trim is accented nicely by antique saws on the walls and firewood stacked in the corner. The seating area is cozy but not too cramped. It does get loud. Even though we were seated at a table on the other side of the room from the bar it became difficult to hear conversation at our table. Oh and the floors were a bit sticky.

Food: 4 out of 5: I ordered a burger with BBQ pork on top and beer battered fries on the side. It was delivered promptly, cooked to my liking and quite tasty. Portion size was just right. A bit of ranch dressing on the side for a salad was an extra 50c which I thought was unnecessary.

Beer: 5 out of 5! A beer enthusiast dream come true. One whole wall of the pub is adorned with a mega list of micro brews, names plastered on wooden slates. I had not heard of most of them which was a pleasant surprise. I sampled several and enjoyed most.

Service: 1.5 out of 5: *Preface: I have worked in food service, catering bar service and general customer service for most of my adult life. My view on customer service may differ from others. That being said:

Who works here? Uniforms are for chain stores. However it is important for branding and to let customers know who works at the pub. Employees here were all in street clothes so it was hard to determine who was a bartender vs. bar-back vs kitchen staff.

The bartenders looked like they wanted to be anywhere else I understand working a bar can take a toll. However in this case the bartenders wore serious/stern expressions, exchanged irritated glances and had little engagement with customers. I felt like I was bothering someone to order a drink.

Beer flight fail This pub offered 4 sample glasses of any beer for 10 bucks. Reasonable given the higher quality product. I ordered the dark beer flight. There were 4 choices in that category. How convenient! I was told that only 3 were available. Not a big deal, I ordered a different beer from the board that had a catchy name. It is customary that a beer flight comes with a little note listing which beer sample is in which spot on a beer board so a customer can tell the difference. No note. I asked the bartender back to inquire about this to which she shouted the names of the beer while pointing at each spot on the board. By the time I got back to the table I had forgotten and had to guess.

Margarita fail I ordered a margarita for a lady at my table. The bartender over poured the booze and shook it once. I'm getting picky but the drink was around 8 dollars as it featured the tequila being shown by a brand ambassador at the bar that night (the tequila tasting event on Fbook was what interested the ladies of our party).

Ladies first, I guess. So I don't mind waiting to order. Keeping the room flowing for bartenders is tricky. But it was only 8:30 on a Friday and not crowded. So after about 7 minutes standing at the bar, money in hand, smile on face I got to wondering... A young lady strode up to the bar next to me. A bartender passed by me and filled the young lady's order immediately. Huh.

Single drink fulfillment A skill I had to learn when serving the bar at a wedding was to ask for, remember and fill orders from 3 or 4 different customers at once. It isn't easy and I by no means mastered the skill. Here however I observed the bartenders take one order at a time, fill it and deliver it before speaking with the next customer. Possibly part of the reason it took 12-15 minutes to get back to my table with drinks.

$: One app two entrees a beer flight and 3 drinks: 68$

Recommended: For beer enthusiasts yes Will...

I went here for dinner with a friend during a trip to Syracuse. I immediately liked the atmosphere upon entering the Evergreen. The music in the background (rock) was enjoyable, but not too loud. The food was great! We had the brie bites to start. Yum! My companion then ate the spicy fried chicken sandwich, while I ate the grilled shrimp tacos. My companion isn't a heavy eater, but devoured the entirety of her large sandwich easily. So when she told me she liked her food, I believed her. My tacos were great! They were three good-sized tacos filled with shrimp, slaw, fried onions, and chipotle ranch dressing. I found the recipe simple, but creative. It was well-executed and the flavor combination totally worked! Each bite was a pleasure! I found the chipotle ranch dressing to be a way better option than aioli (that some other restaurants use for tacos). I will mention that the service here is a little weird. Even though there's a really nice, large food menu, this is predominantly a bar. There isn't someone specific who seats you. And it appears that the bartenders double as the servers, so as it got busier, service was less attentive. But, it wasn't really an issue. The staff was very friendly, and it would have been easy enough to go up to the bar if we needed to ask for anything. When we were ready to leave, we ended up going up to the bar to ask for our bill and to pay. Easy enough. If I lived in Syracuse, I suspect I'd be a...

We've been here many times now and I have some tips. If you want your appetizer to come out first make sure to order it and then go sit down. Then after 10 minutes go order the rest of your food. The cauliflower wings are hit or miss. Sometimes they are fantastic and sometimes they taste like deep fried gobs of salt. The blackened tofu sandwich with fries is a great meal. However, the sandwich is very messy and the plate it's served on is very small. I presume this is done because they want to appear as though they are giving you a "full plate of food" (and to skimp on fries). The psychology of this practice is undeniably useful but it is canceled out by the frustration one encounters when food falls onto the [dirty] table instead of an appropriately-sized plate. The soft baked pretzel is also a good choice when it comes to appetizers, however, be prepared for it to come out of the kitchen without being cut into small bite-sized pieces. At that point you are left watching everyone at the table rip apart a large pretzel with their dirty fingers. The bar is often overcrowded and with no designated place to order drinks, it can take a long time to be served or even noticed. Would I go back? No, I've given this place too many chances and it's just too inconsistent and disappointing. There's nothing like spending $60 on dinner and going home...