Spartan Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Waterbury

7/17/23 - Casual lunch; Buffalo chicken wrap with onion rings and a house salad with add-on salmon. Both good.

6/2023 - Their Empress martinis are wonderful. Wings, Italian wedding soup w/the leg of lamb dinner and the takeout sausage pizza were all tasty. The fish and chips can be improved.

12/22 - Great calamari with a rich amount of add-on gorgonzola. Fine drinks. Friends had a good looking pizza. We always wish we could spend more time here.

8/22 - Two martinis here on still set a bar for these cocktails. A tender lamb gyro and fresh eggplant grinder made a simple lunch. We bought a take-out BadaBing pizza with sausage, pepperoni and green pepper and an eggplant parmesan dinner for two as a gift.

6/22 - Excellent job by the bartender stopping in here for a cocktail before meeting friends in Beacon Falls. Chilled martini glasses were brought to the bar with lime wedges on the rim and then two shakers for each of our drinks. Full pour. Ingredients blended real well in terms of flavor. Nice to see the owner, Vasi.

Spartan Restaurant has been a go-to place in Waterbury for a few decades. Part lounge/bar, and part pizzeria with enough room for an event, the family owned business services many people, from buddies meeting for a beer, three generations enjoying a meal in a corner booth, young couples on a date, or seniors returning to their regular seat for a cocktail and club sandwich.

Spartan reminds me of the Friday's chain on the bar side. Different is the décor, in that large paintings of Greek warriors are on their walls vs. Friday's feel-good kitsch. The take-out/event side reminds me of any place where you can grab your pizza and leave or sit in a booth under bright lights.

Entering Spartan, staff told us if we wanted a booth there wasn't one but we could sit at the bar. Plexiglas sheets hung around the bar to protect customers from staff and vice versa. We never saw one of the empty booths taken, including the one with the reserved marker on it, by 7:30.

Given special and regular menus, we saw prime rib was back on Fridays and Saturdays. We ordered the traditional Prime Rib Au Jus and Prime Rib Madagascar with onions, mushrooms and a brandy sauce to determine the difference.

Our drinks were a double Myer's rum with club soda and lime and ice tea. The double was suggested by the bartender in that it was Saturday. True. Nice pour.

The stuffed mushrooms off the special menu with crabmeat were large and savory. The bread that came before our dinner was warm and the right mix of a crunchy crust and soft interior. Given the choice between soup or salad, we chose soup. Two options: chicken noodle or lobster bisque. We chose lobster bisque. Hearing this, our waiter said there was a surcharge with this choice. We agreed. Not expecting anything, what a pleasant surprise.

Incredibly good with notable small chunks of lobster and a first bite taste that reminds us why we suffer extra pounds throughout this Google Maps Local Guide adventure. Noteworthy that paying $3.50 each for the bisque means soup didn't really come with the dinner, but no matter.

With the starters being so satisfactory, the mains were okay. The Prime Rib Madagascar ordered rare to medium rare, was served well done. A good portion of fat removed left maybe 10 ounces of steak. The menu did not specify the portion size. The traditional Prime Rib with Au Jus was better in pure beef flavor, and ordered medium came to the bar this way.

The sides of mashed potato, mixed carrots and green beans were comparable to what one would expect from a school cafeteria. Zero seasoning. Overcooked. Unimpressive for $23/$24. dishes. We forgot we weren't in a steak house like Chuck's, for example, where our prime rib dinners were cooked to perfection - from rare to a well-done end cut, and a preferred baked potato.

Mentioning to staff that my prime rib was not cooked to order, he winced, apologized and brought us extra au jus to have at home. Pizza, apps and sandwiches are the way to go here, but one of their Greek specialties could also be a...

In short, Spartan is not what it used to be (I grew up eating and dinning at Spartan), if given Spartan as a choice again to dine at I would pass. Spartan, food in my families opinion, is not worth the money. Spectacular wait staff but flavorless food.

Saturday, after a family day at the beach our group of seven were really looking forward to a delicious dinner to round out and end our long fun day. We phoned Spartan about 30min before we arrived to make sure they would be able to accommodate a party of seven. We arrived approximately 4pm and were pleasantly greeted by an energetic hostess. We were ushered to a large, awkward corner booth in the bar area. We should of asked for alternate seating however we didn't want to make a fuss. Two family members sat and ate on the square corner of the table and one family member sat half off the edge of the booth seat. Clearly the booth was not large enough to accommodate seven people comfortably. I wish the wait staff would have been more observant and recognized our space issue. We had two servers as a shift change was in the process. Both servers were excellent. One server started us off with drinks and taking our order then explaining that the second server would be taking over. The service was flawless and attentive without being annoying. However, each of our ordered food choices tasted less than impressive. Within our family group we had three people that have experience in the culinary field. ALL seven of us agreed that the food we ordered lacked flavor. There was an order of Real Chicken Parm, Fish and Cips platter, 2 Grilled Chicken wraps, Steak Euro, Chicken Nuggets and Fries and a Burger and Fries. Our orders all varied greatly so it's not like the lack of flavor was a fluke. We were all very disappointed in the food. We were all shocked that it was ALL the dishes ordered that lacked FLAVOR! I would go into detail and pick apart each meal however this review has become...

April 27- I fell in love with this place for their fresh delicious food! The last 4 times ive ordered food my french fries have looked like this. Cooked in old oil and hard as heck! I order from the parking lot and wait. There is no reason why i cant get my $$ worth as ive gotten over the years. Calling in today and expressing my dismay of the decline of their food was met with rudeness by a man that claims he was the owner(i doubt it bozo). Park Pizza & City & Expresso Pizza has way better pizza than you and THEY GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY EVERY SINGLE SUMMER DURING BACK TO SCHOOL. SPARTAN GRILL DOES NOTHING FROM THE COMMUNITY BUT TAKE TAKE TAKE. You precook your fries and then REDROP THEM for convenience for yourself! The Dept of Health says thats against the law and i will be personally reporting you for that on Monday. I cant stand when businesses like you get too rich and feel like u can treat and run your bozo mouth as if the customer is wrong. Look at the pic below and compare to what u have posted. YOUR FRIES ARE FAR FROM FRESH! I have NEVER demanded free food from your business. There is no need to LIE on Me. Im far from rude. IM HONEST & FARE. I pay in FULL every single time. Your just mad i hang up in your face when you thought i was gonna allow you to yell at me BOZO. Make sure your books are clean as a whistle and all your workers have their papers bc i will be reporting your business to the IRS and Immigration on Monday as well😘 Be sure to give those 3 agencies the free food you claimed i...