I was first introduced to Bar Louie in college and actually never went but always thought that it as more of a college hang out rather than a formal dining place, so I was surprised to see it pop up in my hometown recently. I guess it's positioned here as more of a casual bar restaurant instead of a college-like place. For some strange reason I kind of thought that the food would be a step above college bar food here since it was in a nicer suburb area, but really the food seemed like it would be better suited for the college crowd instead. I mean I get it's totally bar food but I've had some pretty decent bar food before and this place just wasn't it.
The menu consists of a bunch of overpriced "small plates" (let's just call them appetizers here shall we?), burgers, big salads, sandwiches and other bar favorite entrees such as mac and cheese and pasta and tacos. Louise, Jeana and I split the nachos ($11) to start and I got the tuna sandwich ($14) medium rare. The nachos came out and they just looked kind of sad and put together by a bunch of stoned high school kids. The cheese was orange and only on one half of the nachos and the sour cream and guacamole looked like they came out of a can or jar. Now I know that I shouldn't be expecting gourmet food here but something about seeing food so sloppily thrown get together kind of annoyed me. I mean they could have at least presented the food a bit better (i.e. spread out all the ingredients evenly vs. plopping the sour cream in one corner, the cheese in another and the beans in another). One of the reasons I ordered the tuna sandwich was because Bar Louie listed the calorie count on their menu and it was one of the few items that was less than 800 calories. I know that eating out is fattening and unhealthy but the fact that 90% of the menu was over 800 calories was just frightening to see on paper. I will give props in that the tuna was cooked medium rare as asked. But the cut of fish was so huge that it didn't eve fit with the bun they gave me. The fish was cut like a filet, so it was long and skinny that there was no way the circular bun could fit around it. So I ditched the bun (it was hard and dry anyways) and just ate the tuna on it's own and adding the slices of avocado to each bite when I could. The fish itself was marinated and seared with soy sauce and was actually totally fine. Thankfully, it did make me feel like I was eating something healthy. The sandwich came with fries that were overcooked and dry but of course, I ate the entire thing anyways because I am such a sucker for fries. I didn't try Lou's salad or Jeana's BLT sandwich but judging by the looks of them, they were just eh too.
All in all, the food was your standard sub-par bar food but I did like the spacious atmosphere and the waitress was super friendly and nice about letting us hang out in our seat for 3 hours (granted there weren't a lot of people there anyways). I realize that I can't judge every restaurant to a high quality, fancy pants standard that I probably do in NYC or even Chicago, but I don't think it's too hard to offer decent food using fresh ingredients is it? Total bill: $50 total for 3 people w/out tip.
Photo Credit: Segallgroup.com
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