The Vault Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Porterville

The atmosphere is casual bar dining. Wood tables with chairs, var stool counter seating, and booths all available. Handicap accessible. Street parking on Main and back parking lot are free for customers. Overall the food is good. Burgers, salads and grilled chicken sandwiches all cooked well with good flavor and wide choice of toppings. I like to request the innings be grilled on my burger for the extra yummy pop of flavor. You might like to add grilled mushrooms. They also usually have vegan-patty burger substitute upon request. However I cannot recommend the bland sweet potato fries or greasy onion rings. Vault Fries, curly & regular fries are good when fryer oil has been recently changed. Some more unique side offerings such as fried pickles are available. I didn't care for them but other customers do enjoy them. There is a wide variety of unique beer choices (hoppy, ales, ciders), a few wines, and 805. My favorite is CaliSqueeze which is mild and just a tiny bit of sweetness. If you're looking for a good selection of cold draft beer and decent bar food, The Vault is a great choice. At end of 2023, a burger+fries/salad meal averages $16-$18. Restrooms look and smell clean, with normal supplies well stocked but otherwise nothing worth mentioning good or bad. The floors near the salad and bar counter areas always seem greasy or somehow almost weirdly gooey when walking on the linoleum (but not really slippery or sticky). Tables are usually bussed and wiped down pretty quickly. Rest of dining area also appears clean. There is some limited outdoor seating with covering/shade next to sidewalk. Service is not slow but don't expect consistent accuracy for requests of sauce on the side. Appetizers sometimes do not arrive before rest of the meal. To-go cups with a refill of your non-alcohol drink are available on request. The Vault can quickly get noisy inside even when there aren't many patrons so don't go here to have quiet conversation or romance. But it is perfect for an after-work beer and variety of bar food...

Have been here a few times. Always like to give restaurants a couple of chances to get it right. We travel the country for work and have seen the good the bad and the wth regarding restaurants throughout the US. When looking up this restaurant originally, it came across as a bar/ restaurant, which was what we were looking for. Upon entering its set up like a family restaurant in front with a small little bar in the back and a few bar tables. I've never seen more than one person tending to the bar, so if it's busy, order 2 or 3 drinks at a time. Trust me, they are in no hurry to offer great customer service. Especially if they have friends there, which has happened on 2 if 3 visits where the bar was yet, they thought discussing after work plans with friends seated next to us was way more important. I don't know who or if there is a manager working, but no one seems to care if they are seen doing nothing and no one comes over to say, "Hey, do your job." The service is just terrible. I could share a story regarding all 3 visits, but you'll figure it out. The bar area is designed like someone was drunk and said, "Let's build a bar." Absolutely no effort put into making it appealing or inviting. On one of our visits, it wasn't busy at all, yet they still couldn't keep up. On our way out, some gentlemen & his wife were complaining at a table regarding the service. Seems to be common. Food is decent, but nothing special that you can't get at any burger joint. The burger joint interior may be more appealing to the eye 👁 than here. Might even have management or at least one who assures staff are actually working. While we travel around the country, it's no secret about CA having the worst customer service in all areas, so we didn't expect much but it's sure sad to see yet another place with potential only doing enough to simply get by. Don't worry if you know a staff member, then you'll definitely get better service. If not, sorry. Visited 3 times and struck...

It's not often I give a 5 Star right away, however the Vault exceeded my expectations right away. From the moment we arrived we were greeted with friendliness. Our server was knowledgeable about all aspects of the menu and food. It's traditional pub food with a little twist. I ordered a pastrami burger that was just fabulous with flavor. The pastrami wasn't over processed ( salty) and the burger tasted very fresh. The garlic fries that accompanied we're the best I have tried yet (and if you've read my reviews, I've tried a lot of them). We also ordered the wings with the extra hot sauce on the side. Yes! You will need a pint to get through it. The wings themselves were plump and flavorful, roasted with garlic and parmesan. The choices of beer/IPA/Ales/stout were plentiful. I can't say enough about the friendly, helpful staff who were attentive without being vultures. This is a must on the list of places to experience. I wish them all the success they deserve for...