Ye Olde Hotel Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Lyons

If you like good fish and horrible service, then this is the place for you! Had to wait forever for everything, yet the bus girl lingered constantly like she didn't have enough work to do. Why couldn't she get us ketchup? Why did I even have to ask for ketchup? I ordered french fries. A good waitress would have brought it automatically. She had no idea how to work her section. Kept checking on ONE table at a time, going and getting what they needed, then checking on another.... Made her look like a chicken with her head cut off. She wouldn't even make eye contact with us to see if it looked like we were needing something. Total tunnel vision. And my husband ordered sour cream WITH his baked potato, but it came without. When we finally flagged her down to ask for it she said, "Oh? You want MORE sour cream?" No stupid! I want the first one I asked for! Waited a ridiculously long time to tell her we wanted more fish for our AYCE fish fry. That's how they make sure you don't order too much; just ignore you until you don't feel like waiting anymore. I also heard her offering a lot more options for things like potato to the table next to us. We weren't offered all those. Kids ordered hot chocolate, and it took until the food was about to come out because the water wasn't boiled. So we just paid $2 to wait 45 minutes for crappy, super low quality box mix with no marshmallows or whipped cream! Come on people! This place is also supposed to be famous for their $3 Old Fashioneds, so I ordered one, like I always do. It's on the bill as $5. I ask about it at the register when I pay (which also took FOREVER for someone to finally come take my money) and she asks my waitress who says, "Well, you didn't tell me whether you wanted a tall or short. You got a tall. The $3 one is puny." I said, " I didn't know I had an option. You didn't ask me." And she said, "Well most people order it and then say 'For $2 more just make it a tall.' so........" What the bleep does that have to do with me?!?!?! My husband actually asked her how much for draft vs. bottle beer and she said $3/$4. So he ordered a draft and she charged him $4! So it really doesn't matter what we specify she's going to charge whatever she wants. Really unfriendly to us like she was too busy for that, yet it really wasn't that busy. Change careers so you stop driving customers away! If you desperately want the fish, which was good, order take out! Also don't ever order the potato pancakes unless you just want regular pancakes...

We were recommended to Ye Olde Hotel and Bar for Friday Fish Fry. When I checked the website to see if they offered Walleye (my favorite) I didn't see that we "needed" reservations. We drove from Lauderdale Lakes and even got there early (4:30) in hopes to beat the Friday Fish Fry dinner rush. BEHOLD, the sign on the door said: "Reservations Recommended". No worries, there were barely any people in the restaurant and pretty much no one in the bar. GREAT!

Well, no. We walked in and were greeted with "Do you have reservations?". No, but there are three of us (again, barely anyone there). "It's going to be an hour wait". UMMMM what? "We are backed up on reservations". UMMMMM what? I will reiterate, that there was an almost empty dining area and like one guy at the bar.

So, we asked if we could sit in the bar area and have a few of their "famous" Old Fashioneds. Sure... great. Yeah, mom can't get up on the barstools. I asked if we could sit at a table. They hummed and hawed and finally said, I guess you could sit at a table in here while you wait for your table. So we did. A few minutes went by and I finally got up and went to the bar to order our drinks. The Old Fashioneds were delicious as advertised, but so far I'm not impressed with the service. I'm sad.

Low and behold, mom proclaims "Hey lady! Nice to see you!" I turn around and a friend from Elkhorn is standing next to our table. After hugs, she lets us know that she loves this place and is there literally every Friday night for fish. We chat it up for a bit and she heads to the bar.

Almost instantly the bartender is bringing us menus at the "forbidden" table, taking our orders, and suddenly paying close attention to our needs. HMMMMM. Was it because of our friend? I'm saying probably.

Well, the food was terrific. I loved the Walleye. The drinks were delicious and after our friend who is a regular arrived, the service turned out to be good.

All I can say is that upon arrival the hostess was rude and seemed like we were inconveniencing everyone by even walking in the door. I am, however, happy we stuck it out, our friend prompted service, and we enjoyed delicious drinks and...

Needed a place that was between my friend's house and mine. Somewhere comfortable for a "catch up" dinner. This restaurant was in the right place and AUCE fish sounded really good. It was! The food was very good and the decor around the place was even better. If you want to go back in time a little bit or just appreciate a dining room with a museum attitude, this is a place you really want to stop at. So many cool items to catch your eye. Not sure how to describe the service... The bartender also took care of us in the dining room. Makes sense not to have a large staff since most of the people were in the bar area. There were 2 tables occupied (this was a weekday) and another person wasn't necessary. As I mentioned, we wanted a catch up kind of dinner. We were in it for the long haul and talking a lot and weren't really interested in the "in your face" service. She was SUPER friendly and kept us fed and watered! We were happy with it. If you want a server that is all over you, keep in mind that common sense staffing might not get you that here - at least not during the week. Can't talk about weekends. If you want good food, very cool decor and friendly service, you need to stop in here. This is an easy to get to, laid back small town restaurant that...