Iron Door Saloon — Restaurant in Sonora

They can't really decide what they want to be. I went for a late lunch, so I'm sure it's pretty different place late night, so maybe that's where part of the disconnect is coming from, but it was just a weird place that felt disjointed.

All the marketing - signs, ads, etc. and even the decor want to cash in on the claim of being the oldest saloon in California. The decor is appropriately kitsch for that.

However the food is contrastingly modern hip gastropub, and the quality wasn't that good. The menu looked like it would be a good destination for a foodie, but the food itself was just fine, a little bland, and not well presented. I think that food quality would be fine for the place if only it wasn't pretending to be high class in name and price.

The last contrasting piece of this place was the attitude and the dollar bills tacked to the ceiling. That was very small-time-dive-bar. Usually places that do that are the gross bars where you just can't wash the smell of old cheap beer out of the floors and walls. The kind of place where you just go to unwind with the locals on a Friday night, but you wouldn't dare order food even if they offered it. The kind of place that's so low key, nobody complains when they get hit by tacks from dollar bills that didn't stick to the ceiling or the weight you used to propel them there (usually quarters or washers). But aside from some dustiness and an uninterested bar tender, this is NOT that kind of place.

The service was pretty slow too. I went in mid-afternoon on a weekday, so they probably didn't have a lot of staff since it should have been the slower time of day. But there was a group of four in front of me who had been waiting to sit for over 15 minutes, so I asked if I could order food at the bar (as we know that's almost always a faster way to go). The bartender told me they're not allowed to do that, but offered to ask if it would be ok if that's what. She came back 5 minutes later and said that would be ok. This bartender then took my order and provided food service like a pro (though quite terse) so I'm not sure what that was all about. I did notice that group of four was getting extremely slow service, but that could have been them and not just the waitstaff.

The beer and alcohol selection was like a small trendy pub too. only large nation-wide brands and entire categories of hard liquor missing.

All in all, the food was fine, the service was almost adeqaute, the decor was interesting if noting else, but from waiting for seat to paying my check it just felt like none of the staff wanted ANY of the...

We weren't really sure what we would be expecting at a "historic" establishment - the oldest saloon in California. And absolutely, the place screams history. But we weren't sure because we had kids in our party.

The interior is historic alright, but also really worn down. We were a bit confused as to how to enjoy the atmosphere - whether soak ourselves in 1852 or cut it slack for being quirky in 2025. The ceiling was a bit gross with spitballs of bills stuck to it like a disease. I'm sure there's some significance here but it was ghastly to say the least. And yes, it is a saloon but they could absolutely use a bit more lighting during the day. Again, at 2pm, it isn't a nightclub nor a karaoke saloon. Other than this, the entire place is again like a museum with artifacts from all over time hanging from walls and ceilings.

Surprisingly, the food was quite good. The battered fries were near perfection. We were genuinely blown away on the quality of effort that was put into preparation - especially given the cuisine being American comfort food. The bacon burger was juicy and flavorful. The cobb salad was well made except they could've used a bit more fresher avocados and eggs. Other than that, it held well together.

Iron Door Saloon has so much potential. All they need to do is "clean it up" a bit and be more museum and lean on history than a run-down, random collection of artifacts. The food backs it up. But everything else comes up short.

The service was friendly but super slow. And I don't think it was our table only. And there weren't many in restaurant.

If you are passing by Groveland, and want a bit of history, then this is it. But I wouldn't recommend it more than once...

I usually get so excited about historic restaurants, and the Iron Door Saloon wasn't any different. However, our experience was less than great. It started by walking in the door where you have to push, it's an older door so we thought it was just us. We finally got it open but upon entering there was a gentleman there who immediately mocked us for "not reading the sign that says push, because there's like 40 of them, they're just in different languages." I looked at the door when we left there wasn't a sign in any language that said push. We get sat in a booth, which was comfortable and cute. We waited for 15 minutes before we were approached by a server for WATER, we asked twice more for water throughout our stay, said water took 45 minutes to show up, after we had already gotten food. I work customer service, I understand when you're busy you get overwhelmed and a little scattered and forget things, but I watched three tables sat after us that were immediately brought water and other beverages and just generally serviced with better customer service. I showed up with my baby and wasn't offered a kids menu, we blindly ordered a grilled cheese. We asked for a drink menu, server took 20 minutes to come back and take said order. We didn't get drinks until our food arrived and we had to ask our server if we could get the drinks (and again for water). Our server was nice when she did...