279 Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Plains Township

Ah...279. This place has come quite a way from when it used to be Donelley's Pub. I don't actually remember how many years 279 has been in business, but they now have themselves a good following, and consistency that is lacking at a lot of other places. I liked the changes I saw happen over time with the inside, although the outside is a bit unassuming, yet still inviting. Clean inside, with many seating choices... you can sit at the high or low side of the bar, a high top table, a lower table towards the middle of the floor, or even booths that looks like they seat up to 8. Pretty cozy all around. Plenty of TVs for sports. Live entertainment or karaoke on certain nights. Staff is always great, friendly... now about the goods... if you want a gooood espresso martini, here's where to go. No foofy garnishes on them, but the flavor says it all. You'll have to wait for the espresso to actually get done, but that's why they're worth it! There are a few other specialty cocktails listed, many beers, decent whiskey selection, among others. The menu is worth a look, they've got your fried staples...fries, rings, tofu, mozzarella. Burgers with the fixins, salads, a few seafood items, soups, wings. The menu shrunk a bit I believe, I was disappointed that the cauliflower crust pizza was gone, they actually had a good one! I settled on the crab stuffed pretzel, added a side of hot honey garlic sauce(it IS a pretzel after all), and decided to try the French onion soup. The soup was great, perfect amount of cheese broiled on top, and the best part was that it wasn't overwhelmed by salt, nice beefy oniony broth. The pretzel was pretty good too, but not the best imo because of the consistency. I had a hard time figuring out where the crab topping stopped and where the pretzel began in the middle, it was kind of wet doughy, mushy. I know they're popular, but I'll grab something else more than likely, I had 2 cooked the same on 2 different occasions. The sauce that accompanied was ok, but let's talk about this hot honey garlic, they aren't messin' around! Pretty nippy, and if you know the bite of fresh garlic, oof! I even had a whole little clove at the bottom, pungent and tasty! Maybe some wings next time?! Lastly, it can be lively and noisy here, partially the acoustics, but I forgot how loud pairs of imbibing excited women can be, so be prepared. Party on, ladies. And if you're early and beat any potential crowd you may snag a parking spot in their actual lot to the right of the building. If not you can head across the street near the bakery and not worry about being towed. But please be careful when playing Frogger, people tend to speed through this area! Until...

We had a party of ten on a Sunday afternoon for mother-in-law's birthday. We were the only table in the place: there were one, maybe two people at the bar (at 5pm). Server was April (or Amber). She did a good job. The food was hit and miss. We had appetizers (nachos, pepperoni and cheese egg rolls, soft pretzel with cheese). The apps came out a little slow but were good.

The entrees took forever to come out (apps were long gone and salads were finished for quite a bit of time) and there was A LOT of time between the first plate and last plate being served - maybe 15 minutes. April apologized profusely, but it didn't get the food out any quicker.

We had two orders of bites, two lemon garlic chicken dinners (much too salty- used garlic salt maybe and chicken had no color - looked boiled or poached, pasta was still a bit crunchy), chicken tenders (were ok), a chicken salad (looked good), a cheese steak, a crab cake sandwich and two burgers One order of chicken bites was WAY over cooked, dry and hard (sauce was tasty, though).

The quality of the food was wildly inconsistent. If I had a guess, the correct was hung over from prior night or called off and some poor dishwasher was promoted to cook for the day. (I was a server for a long time and recognize the signs) I was highly disappointed, especially since I have seen good reviews in the past. I just looked at the website which states there is...

279? More like 666…

I was here last week, and we had by far the worst customer service I’ve ever received in my entire life. The place was also just really gross as well.

If you want to go on a sight seeing tour of piss spots and pubic hair on the toilet seat of the men’s bathroom— this is your place.

The blonde owner of the bar was extremely rude and kept purposely avoiding our table for over half an hour while talking to the table in front of us with her arm above the chair cushion of the booth. I read through the other reviews here, it seems like it’s a common occurrence. She finally comes over to give us the menus, and she starts taking orders of people JUST WALKING INTO THE BAR. My friend tried to go up to the bar and get our orders that way - the bartender took everyone’s orders EXCEPT HERS. We did not do anything to provoke ignoring us like this at all…

279, keep up the nasty behavior if you want your profits to go down to 000.

If you have a choice between 279 or prison, choose prison because at least you know they have to serve...