Bar Louie - Evansville — Restaurant in Evansville

Where to begin...

First I want to say that the staff had all the best intentions and services that they knew.

This review is STRICLY a management review, or highlighting a lack thereof re: training.

First - the hostess seemed absolutely strewn and wasn't at all thrilled to greet anyone at the door - make your customers feel welcome!

(OK not a big deal - but it IS the first impression / interaction with staff)

Next - female staff LOVED to just hang out and chit chat behind the bar with the bartender (not a big deal) but took 7 minutes to even ask me what I would like to drink.

Same female staff member was asked to go handle a task - she cleaned up some trash, then immediately (without washing hands) grabbed 4 forks by the prongs and handed them to 2 elderly customers with their dessert.

One staff member was washing down the bar with the fountain gun and I could see the runoff falling into the open liqour bottles that were located below, in the well.

Next - my order comes out. Appetizer was calamari. It was cooked well, however for $15 I expected a little more than appropriate 1 cup of frozen/fried calamari (ok - we will chaulk that up as inflation and margins)

But then the "Fish and Chips" for $20 Fish was absolutely overcooked (like burnt chicken) and flavorless.

I grab the watered down malt vinegar that was provided and BOOM - no pour/drip stop on the bottle.

I attempted to eat the, now soggy, Fish. But... I just couldn't and no point on sending it back.

I politely mentioned to the Bartender, that he shouldn't put the vinegar back without a pour stop. He couldn't believe it was missing the top and also smelled foul. (Not sure WHAT was added to it) but my stomach didn't like it.

The senior bartender immediately offered to take it off my bill. However, I politely said "I'm not worried about, just don't want anyone else to relive the vinegar fiasco"

End of the day - sanitation and customer service is severely lacking from a professional standpoint.

If you're going to charge mid-grade/ chain restaurant prices - the sanitation has to at least be a little better.

This will probably read as if a Karen wrote it - but honest constructive criticism.

Because I do love visiting Bar Louies when I travel. And I travel...

The waitress steals money! Someone in my party was shorted $2.60 in change, and the waitress did it on purpose! She knew she did it. How many people is she stealing money from on a daily basis? Unfortunately, I don't remember her name or have a photo of her to share, but honestly? I'm sure the manager/owner already know and they let it happen. She was a dark haired white girl around 30 years old.

They also told us a 20 minute wait, and that 20 minutes turned into an hour! If we knew it'd be an hour wait, we would have ate somewhere else. They had at any given time at least FIVE empty tables and they just slapped a "reserved" sign on the table. While I think it's silly for such a mediocre establishment to take reservations in the first place, that's besides the point. Why are tables being reserved for 30 or 45 minutes when the people are late for their reservations? We could have easily got seated, ordered our food, ate it, and left before they even came. Lots of customers left because of the long wait (they finally started telling people an hour). Is it worth? It makes me sure as hell not want to come back.

I attached photos so you can see all the empty tables. It was really quite ridiculous.

The restaurant is also super crowded with no waiting room so people just standing around everywhere.

And to top it all off, the bacon was undercooked and nasty. I attached a photo to see the uncooked yucky bacon.

Also, the burger was supposed to be half a pound but it looked super tiny (as you can see in the picture) and the bun was super tiny. REALLY skimping out on the burgers.

1/10, would not come back here again, at all. Stay away! ESPECIALLY if you don't have a...

It was pretty crowded and I was advised to sit at the bar. I ordered the calamari. The menu indicated that it was "flash fried". I am a big fan of calamari bit it was overcooked and WAY too chewy. After many minutes of trying to flag the bartender or any staff, I explained to the bartender and a member of staff that I could not eat this dish. I ordered a burger since they tout this item. After a bit, it was served and okay. Not great... okay. In spite of having been there on an exceptionally hot day, I couldn't manage to get a refill of my soft drink. I think the air conditioning was having a hard time with the heat. Anyway, unless you just want drinks, I would go elsewhere.

** I thought that my comments were pretty detailed and verbose. However, as you can see below, the owner wants me to write an email to the address specified below. Why doesn't he just forward this? Do they need MORE detail? The above review should be an opportunity to make things better. I don't intend to write more about that evening. It's time to review what's going on... not to best a dead...