Arbuckle’s Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Arbuckle's Bar & Grill is located inside the Embassy Suites across the street from the Cavalier Hotel along Atlantic Avenue. The GPS didn't give the right parking area. They don't have their own parking, so you'll need to park in the parking garage by the hotel. There is an hourly fee for parking there. My visit here was on January 24, 2025.

I had seen several reviews all over that the place has been pretty good. This was during the 2025 Restaurant Week and so I figured this would be a good time to try them out with one of the items on that menu. There is an entrance across the drop off area from the parking garage. Once you go in, the restaurant is to the right and the hotel itself (Embassy Suites) is to the left. The overall ambiance of the restaurant is casual. There is room in there for larger parties too. However, it does tend to be noisy in there because of the way the building is designed.

After a moment or so, a hostess came over and got us seated. However, it would take a good five to ten minutes for our server to finally come over. I think they were short staffed, as our server was also the only one working the bar that was further back. Once she came over, we were finally able to get something to drink. I did stick with water with lemon, while my mom went with Pepsi (now you know they have Pepsi products here).

After she came back from the drinks, we were ready to order. We both went with the Restaurant Week Lunch menu. I went with the Tomato Bisque as the first course and "The Perfect Burger: The Mobley Cheeseburger" as the second course. My mom had the same second course, but she had the Garden Salad for the first course.

It would take just a few minutes to have the first course come to the table. The second course would come about ten minutes after that. The tomato bisque was good, but it was just lukewarm in terms of temperature. My mom said the salad she had was good though. The timing was pretty good for when the second course came out since it wasn't too long after finishing the first course. The food looked good and our server left to go back to the bar area. The burger overall was okay, but it wasn't hot. I wonder if it was sitting for a while before coming to the table, which I had the same thought about the tomato bisque as well. The fries were okay, as they were lukewarm at best too. We would try to get a server to come over, but we were unsuccessful. When she was finally able to come back over, we were pretty much done with what we were eating. It would take another 10-15 minutes to get the check and such.

Overall, this was not the experience I would have expected here based on other reviews and such I have seen. I do think a staff shortage is probably part of the issue, but it shouldn't affect the guest experience like it did for us on this visit. We never saw a manager come around either, which I normally find at most restaurants. Maybe this was an off day there, but I feel they should always be on their game. I don't plan to make a trip back very quickly. I live in the southern end of the city, so it's quite the trip just to get there, plus having to pay additional for parking. For now, I'll stick to some other local places for...

The restaurant next door had a 45 minute wait so I took the family to Arbuckle’s where there was no wait at all. I thought that might be good but on second thought…

We were seated straight away due a number of empty tables although they seated us next to four loud foul-mouthed cretins - a perfect setting for a family with kids. I can’t blame Arbuckle’s for the actions of their guests but these uncouth gutter snipes could be heard dropping F-bombs across the whole restaurant. I was glad when they finally left and admonished the male in the group for yet another F-bomb as he passed our table.

Our appetizer was the spinach artichoke crab dip with house chips which was indeed pretty good, and the kids wolfed down their half pound burgers without complaint of any sort. My vegetarian pasta with grilled salmon was likewise pretty good in a bowl served by a food runner who reached across my wife’s space in front of her face instead of from over my shoulder. It was placed haphazardly between us. For re$ort pricing I expected better service.

Our server was pleasant yet the overall service was quite slow. I waited over 20 minutes for a bottle of beer and upon the third inquiry was told the bartender was backed up. No one was seated at the bar. Then I waited 10 minutes beyond finishing my meal to get the check while the family left for ice cream. It took another 10 minutes to get the check back. If we could have shaved a half hour off this experience it would have been much better. Looking back I think we may have been better off waiting 45...

My family and I stayed at the Embassy Suites this past weekend and had hit or miss service from Arbuckle's.

We first went here for dinner on Saturday and suffered through some of the longest wait times for food I've ever experienced. It took over an hour for our food to arrive, and our special request that a toddler's meal - simple buttered noodles - come out before the other meals so he wouldn't be hungry was forgotten - the toddler's food came out AFTER ours. My husband and brother-in-law's requests for truffle fries vs. regular fries were also forgotten.

We had breakfast here Sunday morning as part of the Embassy Suites' complimentary service and were sat by a well staffed crew. The food was good - scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, oatmeal with several different toppings, and even pastries were available.

The last day of our trip we had breakfast here again on Monday and the staff were down to a skeleton crew. We sat ourselves and when my husband asked a gentleman for waters for our table, the gentleman said waters were not provided for breakfast. Odd, as the day before we did get waters. However our wonderful waitress that day, Bree, got us waters no problem!

The bartenders are kind and quick! When my husband and I got in line for the complimentary happy hour, the bartender that day made good suggestions for my mocktail and prepared a strong drink for my husband.

All in all, it seems like a really stressful and unhappy place to be - the crew (waitstaff and cooks alike) seemed tense. We would have breakfast here again, but I...