Amber Inn Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Eau Claire

Map To Your Appetite Score: 80/100 Appearance and Atmosphere 11/15: Price 14/15: Service 20/20: Food and Drink 35/50: General Comments: Being one of the oldest and original bars in all of Eau Claire, the Amber Inn seemed like the perfect place to start my reviews for Map To Your Appetite. The Amber Inn was apparently founded in 1881 and the same family have been running it ever since. I have to admit I had been to this place one time before, but I only tried one thing on the menu. This time I decided to go for the full experience. Looking from the outside, it looks like your stereotypical dive bar, a rugged exterior, a half lit sign, and no where to park. Yet, when I walked in I was completely shocked. It is of the most humble and well furbished bars in the entire city. Considering that it is so old, it was amazing how much was actually new and updated. However, it still managed to have that old classic feel, not the worn out classic, but like a nice ‘66 Chevrolet classic. Even though the bar is almost 100 years older than that. After the initial shock wore off, I looked around and saw the bar standards; dim lighting, a pub Style Grill, a couple of televisions, and a place to bet some money, but one of the things that stuck out the most was the “place order here” sign. I thought it was kind of humorous that even if you sat at a booth across the room with a menu and every intention of ordering, you had to get up and order it yourself. It really conveys the “we’ve been around so long we’re not doing extra work to make you happy and if you don’t like it you don’t have to order” mentality that seems to come with all walks of aging. Now they do bring the food out to you, but I thought it a little funny and kind of quirky that as a customer you're expected to go and order the food for yourself. The food came out surprisingly quick, even though we had shown up about 10 minutes after happy hour. Our appetizers came out in about 10 minutes and our entrees came out 20min after that. Just enough time to enjoy my wings and crisp beer. Now, I could sit here for days and compare it to other pubs and bars in Eau Claire but that's not really the point of this. In my opinion the food was exactly what you’d expect, but a little simpler that most.. The food was pub food, with a couple unique items, and nothing that I would personally drive out of my way for, but if anybody hasn't been here before, you absolutely must stop in and at least have a couple drinks, talk to the lovely ladies behind the bar, and take a picture of this comfortingly old classic, and maybe soak in some of what has kept them running...

Upon entering you seat yourself - menu's are at the tables - then you go to the bar to order. The food will be brought to you.

The portobello mushrooms - deep fried - were the best! I would go back for those!

I had the mushroom Swiss burger. You can only get the burgers well done. For my liking it was too cooked and drier than it needed to be - It wasn't too good. I would never order one again here. The menu states onions, fried onions and pickles are optional for all plates no charge. I asked for onion and pickle, but got neither. I chose not to go back and ask for some. The mushrooms on the burger were canned - this day and age with so many restaurants this should change. Canned mushrooms taste canned = not too good!

The burgers are also alacart. To add a side - fries - it's $2.49.

Everyone was friendly and food came out in a timely manner. So as I wouldn't get a burger here again, I do want to fried the fish and shrimp they have - Thurs and Fri nights. The oil was at the right...

This was the place to get a burger in Eau Claire for a long time but there have been some changes recently that have made the food suffer. This last order, which was carry-out I made came to me wrong. I asked for no mayo on a burger and when I got it it was slathered in mayo. It was a California burger which to me is a burger with onion lettuce tomatoes and pickles all it came with was some chopped lettuce and ½a cup of mayo that I didn't want. I also ordered a mushroom Swiss and it came with what looked like a can of mushrooms dumped on the fried burger with a slice of Swiss cheese on it that wasn't dully melted and theushrooms were cold. I also ordered some fried food French fries, onion rings and fried portobello mushrooms all I asked to be extra crispy but they looked barely cooked and dripping with oil. I don't think I'll be ordering from them again It's a shame because they really used to be an awesome place to eat. I don't recommend going to the Amber Inn...