Eli's Place — Restaurant in West Hazleton

I've lived in Hazleton for years and have only visited Eli's recently. It was a pleasant surprise!

There's nothing particularly flashy about the menu, but the items I've tried have been pretty solid. A thick and well seasoned burger, eggplant and chicken parmigiana, steaks, seafood. The only item I've not enjoyed was an order of potato skins that had a bit too much potato and not much else.

I believe there's a full service bar. Draft beer selection is, again, not flashy but serviceable. Typical domestics, Blue Moon, Sam Adams I think. I don't know if bottles or cans are offered.

The interior is dimly lit in a cozy way. The staff are always pleasant, sometimes remarkably friendly. I think I would say the prices are a bit better than other comparable restaurants in the area.

I'm not under the impression that the menu changes very much. Maybe this is the kind of place where that's more of a comfort...

Food was fine. Service was so slow. From the time I sat down to the time I finally got to pay was over 2 hours. There seemed to be only one wait staff working, but there was hardly anyone in the place. Long waits between when they would even pass by. Seemed that the people at the bar were getting the majority of the attention though. Asked 3 ties for the bill before it finally came. After they ran it through the machine and printed out the receipt, instead of walking the 3 feet over to me to give my card back so I could leave, they instead disappeared in to the kitchen for several minutes, finally coming back with someone's drink on the tray.

Again, the food was fine. Probably better than most of the food I've gotten from local places the past year or two, but nothing to be excited about. But I guess just don't expect to get any service unless you're also drinking, so maybe just...

4 couples went for Valentines Day. Was the worst experience at a restaurant ever and they weren't busy! Took 30 minutes to get our drinks. NO EXAGERATION! Waitress couldn't remember who got what. Then 2 dinners appeared while the 6 others watched them eat their steaks. Ours come out 1 hour after theirs. Weird! Chicken franchise was tough and the crab meat was the cheap suff not lump. Sauce was very yellow (not a normal looking lemon white wine sauce). Balsamic dressing was not mixed with oil so it was pure balsamic vin. Was So sour you couldn't eat it. Overall, we waited 2 hours for bad food. Staff was nice but no clue. She couldn't answer if the fries were fresh cut or frozen. Wow!...