Avenue Pub - Northbank — Restaurant in Tuscaloosa

Tuscaloosa local 🙋‍♀️. Avenue Pub was once one of my favorite restaurants in Tuscaloosa. The Thai nachos, spinach salad, Parmesan chicken, and fish and chips were my go to favorites. Since the original location that is now jalapeños moved to the corner, and the new location in Northbank have opened, it quickly went down hill. The last time that I had each of these items, they just weren’t as good as I had remembered. The portions were steadily smaller, prices higher (per usual these days), flavors not as bold, etc. The time before last, I tried the Thai nachos one more time before giving up on those and it came out cold and dry as if it had been sitting a while. Today, we gave it one more shot. I didn’t realize they only had the brunch menu on Sunday at 1:30 in the afternoon, so I ordered just a side salad because I felt like I had to order something, but wasn’t really excited about anything on the menu. My boyfriend ordered the Huevos Rancheros. His meal took over 30 minutes after ordering. After seeing what was made during that time, it was pretty shocking that it had not taken 5 minutes. Honestly, the side salad was great for what it was. It’s lettuce, onion, tomato, and cheese, so not easy to mess up, but it was much better than his. His was a tiny portion for the price, lacked flavor, was barely warm, the fried shell was soggy, and just wasn’t worth coming for. We generally hang out on days that we have time and enjoy whatever game is on and a couple of drinks while tipping generously, but he ate it as quickly as possible just to get it down so that we could leave. The exact comments he made were that this is what should be served to inmates if they want their food to not be desired, and that he would rather have had beans and hotdogs. We won’t be coming back. Prices are outrageous. The food isn’t just not great, it’s not worth the calories or money. It encourages me to cook at home even more often though, so I appreciate the encouragement to give my family more home cooked meals. Giving two stars instead of one due to the atmosphere at least being clean and pleasant, and the side salad being pretty good for a side salad. The waitress stopping by once was better than not at...

Paid $80 for dinner for 2 so we could be ignored for an hour. Our server took our order and never stopped by our table again. We never got a single refill. The table behind us got sat, ordered, ate, paid, and left between the last time we saw our server and the time we finally just flagged someone else down to ask for our check (about twenty to thirty minutes after we finished eating). That server handled the entire transaction. We never saw our actual server again. Again--this was an $80 experience, BEFORE tip (and we did leave a tip, because we weren't sure if it would go to our original server or if it would go to the server who eventually closed us out and who didn't do anything wrong--so after tip, this was a damn near $100 meal for 2).

We've fully stopped going to the downtown location after the consistently terrible experiences with the waitstaff and this was our attempt to give Avenue Pub another chance at their new location. Unfortunately, it looks like we need to not go to this location either. I don't know what's going on with these restaurants, but they really need to get it together if they want to charge that much for a meal. It's genuinely rare that we have a bad experience at other restaurants but it's. Every. Single. Time at Avenue Pub. From waiting 30 minutes to get a check AFTER we ask for it to waiting for 10 minutes with food and no silverware at the bartop because the bartenders are too busy gossiping at the end of the bar to realize you're trying to get their attention, it's been truly horrible experiences with the service staff every time we've gone for over two years now. And what kills me is that it's NEVER been because they're busy--they just don't care! I might pay that much money for the food IF it came out quickly (it doesn't, by the way) and the service was good but, as it is now, it's simply...

Had a group of five out on the patio this evening. Arrived early in the evening and found a spot around a fire pit. We were all excited to get a fire pit spot because while the day hit 70 degrees today, the temps were dropping and the evening was cool. But just after our arrival the staff realized the fire pit was out of propane but they didn’t replace. No one from management came out to say “sorry” or “hey can we get you all settled somewhere else.” Being out of propane is a huge miss and something that should be checked daily if the fire pits are in working order. And now to the drinks — three folks ordered cocktails and two ordered beers: two lemon drops and a salted dog, and a couple of draft beers. Beers good. Cocktails meh. Granted they were only $5 for their Tito’s special but again unimpressed. Food was okay as well. Two folks got the hamburger sliders and liked those but the fries were lackluster as if they’ve sitting under a warming lamp for a long time (one person has had their fries before and had bad fries then too). Two folks had fish and chips. Nice amount of fish and chips but again lackluster fries and the fried fish was oily and lacked some oomph of flavor. This was definitely not worth the price for the fish and chips. Fifth person had a chicken sandwich with a side of beans and rice. The sandwich they liked. But the beans and rice came out looking dry. Again like it had been sitting under the warming lamp. I would say the food server was great. Thanks Lilly. She was truly the only positive. Overall, I’d not return to Avenue Pub which was honestly a huge bummer to have to say. Great location, cool looking place with great visual appeal. But the execution of the details from the fire pit, food and drinks just missed...