Lucky 13 — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

Wife and I decided to go out Friday night to this place. I used the open table site to reserve us a table and the website was showing only 7:45pm or later (this was looking at it at 5:30-ish pm) We decided to reserve a table for that time and figured it wouldn’t hurt to show up early in case they had open seating. Upon our arrival(6:00-ish pm) we noticed a decent size crowd outside the front near the host which made me think that wow I’m glad we made a reservation. Well we approached the host and explained we had reservations and wanted to know if we could get seated early. The place didn’t look more than 1/3 full on the inside. Sure enough we were getting our ID’s checked and proceeded to get seated.

Our waitress I think was Mel. She seemed to be in charge of both the outside patio and the indoor area section. She did a fantastic job managing what she had to. We were seated inside (my preference because a lot of sports were playing and I noticed a couple tv’s). Only one game was being played though (Padres) and another tv had TikTok type content for animals (wife didn’t mind, I thought it was lame as I like sports more). The inside decor was a total bar feeling with classic neon signs and posters. I thought it was fitting for the name of the restaurant.

Food menu was simple and to the point. I think the drink menu could be updated. I asked if they served any type of draft sour beer which they did. I had a pineapple mango brew (can’t remember the brewing company name) quite yummy though. My wife got a cocktail which didn’t seem strong at all.

Appetizers we went with the chips and homemade salsa. I thought it looked liked Doritos when it was presented but it was just a lot of seasoning in them. The salsa wasn’t as flavorful as I was hoping for. Also tried their basket of onion rings and I thought it was tasty. The sauce with them was a house sauce that had a fry sauce vibe with additional flavor to it. It paired well and the onions were fried to be crispy which I like. I notice it was super greasy though but I wasn’t holding back on this adventure. I ordered in the picture their double cheese burger and asked to add bacon to it (worth it). I hadn’t tried their food as a dine-in experience and I thought the chuck meat was seasoned with a lot of salt and pepper. It was really good because it isn’t the normal plain Jane seasoning you get at other burger joints. The seasoning was almost too much though on a double cheese burger. Towards the end of the burger I was basically over the seasoning side of the chuck and didn’t have much other ingredients to make it enjoyable. Unfortunately I left a couple bites and wasn’t able to finish it because I wasn’t feeling the taste to keep going while full. When I get in the zone on something super delicious I’m the type to finish the plate even if I’m like over the top full. This burger was a lot of meat and hit all my spots for a burger however it was too much in the end.

By the time we were finishing our meal it was around 8pm and it still didn’t look as packed as the website led me to believe.

Next time I’m gonna just go with the classic bacon...

YOU CANNOT EAT HERE IF YOU ARE NOT 21.

I wanted to put that out there in all caps so anyone who is contemplating coming to this restaurant sees that first and does not attempt to bring their family and get disappointed like we were.

Lucky 13, it is not your fault that you are located in a state with the most ridiculous liquor laws, which is why I gave you five stars even if we didn't even make it INSIDE your establishment (because the host's stand is OUTSIDE the front door.) Utah says you gotta stop us sinners in our tracks and make sure the minors can't even witness a frothy beer being poured or (clutch my pearls) being CONSUMED!

Sorry y'all, we are from Georgia, the very BUCKLE of the Bible Belt, and even Georgia doesn't have insane laws like yours. "Alcohol cannot be poured in a place where minors can SEE it happening..." I'm just over here shaking my head over my hard cider, which I am definitely drinking within sight of my kids.

For anybody coming from outside of Utah, this review is to let you know if you have people in your party who are under 21 years old, you will not be allowed to enter the restaurant. You cannot get a table far from the bar. You cannot eat on their patio. You cannot eat here, Sam I Am. I suppose you could order your food to go, maybe over the phone in an alcohol-free bubble and send a legal adult to pick it up and take it back to your hotel room or the cute park nearby but you will not be getting into Lucky 13 to eat.

Do I sound a little salty? Yes. Yes, I am. We flew into Salt Lake on Father's Day and I planned to take my husband and children here for our Father's Day meal because it had such great reviews and my husband is a burger and bacon lover. But, when we got there, my kids (who are 21 and 19) could not be allowed inside. Staff were very kind in telling us that we couldn't come in, but also very firm. So, Salt Lake Code Enforcement, Lucky 13 is honorably upholding your ridiculous rules. But that doesn't mean we weren't disappointed.

It's ok though. Want to hear PEAK ridiculous? We found another place with burgers that looked good about 15 minutes away. A place my kids could legally eat. It was Corner BREW PUB at Sugar House...which is literally labeled a brewery. A BREWERY!!! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!

Also want to add, Lucky 13, we visited in June and you had your Pride flags waving like a welcoming rainbow and we loved that too. I imagine Utah can be a tough town for LGBT folk and it made my heart happy to see support throughout the city and at your place.

Lucky 13, y'all are cool.

Utah, COME ON. Who do you think you are saving? It's time to change some of these ridiculous laws. You are frustrating the tourists and I know we drop a lot of cash in...

Me and my friends had a negative experience that definitely guarantees that we will not be coming back. The two bad experiences were that the employees rang a bell on us and then one of them proceeded to follow us out the bar and hurl obscenities at us.

First experience happened when one of our friends was falling asleep at the table. Now, the most important information I must inject before I proceed forward is that nobody in our party had any alcohol to drink, remember this. Our server goes behind and starts ringing a bell really loud for about five seconds and says “Stay awake!”. This bell ringing startled and confused us, not only that but it definitely got one of our friends very aggravated because she gets really agitated by sharp, loud noises. At this point, we are confused because we can’t understand why the bell ringing was necessary. So our sleepy friend is trying to stay awake all the while our server keeps walking by our table, giving our sleepy friend the evil eye. Within time, a female worker comes up to our table and informs us in a stern tone that our friend needs to stay awake or that we should leave, informing us that sleeping in the bar is prohibited. At that point, we decided that we would rather leave. As we were leaving the bar, our female friend who was already aggravated by the bell ringing, began to voice her frustration about the whole situation with some choice words. As we were outside and were roughly 15 yards away from the front door, the same female server bursts out the door and is yelling very offensive language at our friend.

I don’t frequent bars often but I was with some friends in this situation that have been to more bars than I have and we all never knew that sleeping in a bar was prohibited. I even looked this up on the internet and it says that even though it is not illegal to sleep in a bar it is illegal to be intoxicated on the premises. Our friend was not intoxicated, however I do understand that a person sleeping in the bar can make it seem that this person is intoxicated. This makes sense but the point that I want to get across is that the server should have came to us and let us know that they do not allow sleeping in the bar. He knew that no one at our table ordered any alcohol and that no one was even close to intoxicated, and if he would have simply told us we would have left without...