The Lodge Ocala Pub & Eatery — Restaurant in Ocala

My husband's Aunt and mother came last night to visit and his aunt is a huge beer connoisseur and it so happens that I am too so we headed over to the lodge for some local brews and food.

This was my husband and I's 1st time actually visiting this place as well so it was great to kind of experience it all together.

BEERS:

I love when you can do a flight and try different beers which is what his aunt and I did. We did a 5 flight and I have to say if you're ever there try the Hawaiian lounge juice and the West Floridian! Their watermelon sour gosé is really good too but more so I would say it's great for a really hot day by the pool and not so much for pairing with burgers.

FOOD:

I apologize in advance for not taking a picture of their absolutely beautiful and equally delicious pork nachos. Definitely flavorful and packed with pork, corn, their house barbecue sauce some slaw, bean, sour cream and pico.

Next up is their German pretzel and beer cheese. It was pretty good I think that the pretzel was a bit overdone (very hard crust) but otherwise the beer cheese was very good and the inside of the pretzel was very moist.

My husband ordered the Bison Burger with beer cheese smothered fries. Although the flavor was good unfortunately my husband ordered it medium and they brought him a very overcooked Burger. But I will say that because it was so good and fresh he overlooked that and still enjoyed it.

My husband's aunt ordered their pulled pork sandwich with fries. She said it was one of the tastiest sandwiches. The pulled pork was not dry at all or overcooked, it was smokey moist and flavorful topped with complimenting pickles, some slaw and their house barbecue sauce.

My mother in law wasn't really big on anything on the menu so she just ordered some fries and a side of Mac and cheese. She enjoyed it although the Mac and cheese was pretty under salted but it's better to be under salted than oversalted I guess lol

I ordered their pork tacos and a side of Mac and cheese too. The pork tacos were really refreshing. It had avocados, pico de gallo and greens along with some really good pork. Again, I did find the Mac and cheese was very under salted but nothing that a little salt shaker couldn't fix to salt to taste.

THOUGHTS:

Was this the best "gastro pub" that I have been to? Not really. The service was OK but really not the greatest considering that the place was pretty empty and the service should not have taken AS long but definitely has some great options on the menu and over all the food was good. Their beer selection was pretty versatile and although at one point they could not find 1 of the kegs that we had asked for to taste the beer but otherwise it was tasty. The general atmosphere was good and we had...

Came in for a drink before heading upstairs and asked if they had the ingredients to make an espresso martini. The bartender replied that they did and I was elated as I assumed they probably wouldn't. Upon walking over with the glasses I immediately knew the drink was wrong based on color alone but tried to be optimistic and drank a bit. Awful.

I was very polite and said "sorry but this drink just doesn't taste like an espresso martini" to which the bartender replied "it's just kahlua and baileys". Though this is obviously not what an espresso martini is I was still very polite and asked to exchange my drink for something of similar price or even below. She argued with me about how she couldn't do that because I knew what I was ordering and that's when I explained that clearly she did not have the ingredients to make the drink. "Well upstairs has all that not downstairs", even though I had asked before ordering if they had the ingredients.... eventually she "snuck" a replacement drink to me.

I am from Ocala but no longer live there and this being one of the "nicer and newer" bars I am really surprised that it's ran like a dive bar. Couldn't exchange my drink because a bartender didn't actually know how to make a drink? Also, the pretzel I ordered didn't come with stone ground mustard, but bottled yellow, which I feel is an easy upgrade to the kitchen.

The only reason I am giving it three stars is because the staff at the speakeasy really saved the night. They were polite, accommodating and the drinks were much better. I waited about a week after returning home to leave this review but this interaction is still...

We stopped in for dinner around 6 pm on a Monday 4 people sitting at the bar (we think one was a manager because he went into the kitchen at one point and then came back out to sit at the bar and have a beer) my husband and I sat down at the bar and ordered drinks and food. The music went from everyday pop to loud Metal head grinding Metallica which just sets your teeth on edge and is absolutely NOT conducive to dining at 6 pm on a Monday. I asked the bartender if we could change the music and she said someone had chosen it and she couldn't change it. I was ready to leave then, but my food came which was a buffalo bacon cheeseburger with fries and again another heavy metal head-banging song came on. Well, now the air conditioner came on blowing so hard the light fixtures moved and also directly over my food blasting cold air onto my plate which immediately cooled off my french fries and hamburger which came without the bacon I ordered. I couldn't hear my husband over the grinding metal music so dinner conversation was facial expressions of my displeasure. We paid our bill and left. I will not be back. The food was average the atmosphere was mosh-pit/headbanger. The name The Lodge would mean they have a cozy, homey atmosphere with decent music, this is not what we experienced. Oh and when I mentioned to the waitress that my bacon was not on my burger she removed it and the other waitress mentioned that the cook "always" forgets to put bacon on the burgers....