Forestiere’s Place

So I’ve posted my pictures awhile ago but forgot to push the post button. I really wanted to like this place since its local, the food was mediocre the pastrami sandwhich was not up to par. I should have listened to the other reviews on here about it. Also the customer service was lacking my husband and I were the only ones in there and sitting at the bar yet the bartender kept to her self and the owner sat in his corner texting. Probably won’t return, no wow factor.

This place is disrespectful to their customers/​patriots.
Our first time being at this place there on Clovis Ave in Old Town Clovis, Ca.
I say this because if ur gonna have a private party, post it! Let Ur customers know in well advance. Not 4 minutes before the private party is to walk in. AND 15 mins in AFTER customer’s buy drinks and appetizers. WTF. Not the business.
The word of mouth is the best weapon and trust me we have been using ours to voice how we feel about how U treat ur local patriots.
Figuring on a Saturday the place would be a place to be. Well… not true. As U waitress mentioned u’ll are not that busy for a Saturday, but that does not mean to treat ur customers/​patriots with little respect.
Stepping off my soap box.

Hands down the worst place ever. Food sub par for waiting 25 – 30 min for a pastrami sandwich with sweet potato fries. And really does it take 15 min for a water refill. I’m writing this review as I’m seating at the horrible establishedment.
Ps. This is all happening when the owner is sitting on his chair people watching…

If you want to get out of the house, grab a beer and watch a game, Forstiere’s is a decent place to go. The location is great as it’s centrally located in Old Town Clovis and is walking distance from a lot of different establishments. Just keep in mind, there really is no «wow» factor here. The food is decent, but nothing special. The service has always been good when I’ve come here. I am part of a running group that meets once a week. We have come here on a number of occasions and we’ve had nights of 20+ people and the kitchen, bartender and server all did a great job taking care of our group. I’ve had their tri-​tip tacos which were good. I’ve had their steak sandwich which was actually disappointing because there was more bread than steak and no cheese. No bite of a steak sandwich should be just bread. I’ve also had their tri-​tip salad which was ok. Nothing special. The meat is sliced extremely thin and the rest of the salad looks like it comes out of a ready made bag. Definitely edible, but I’d take a Dog House tri-​tip salad any day of the week. Not a bad place to try, but if you’re looking for food that will amaze your taste buds, you will need to go elsewhere.

Good food. Really nice servers. A lot of food for a good price. I’d say this is a great lunch place. The atmosphere is very relaxed. Need not worry about jeans and shirt here. I do recommend it!

Super nice staff! Yummy sandwiches! We had the Tri tip sandwich and sweet potato fries! Great place to go to watch some sports and grab a bite.

How can one screw up an Italian sub? Come to this place and you will see. The town blacksmith could make a better sandwich.

I had the Hot Pastrami. I thought it was kind of bland and the meat was also a weird color. The pastrami was a lot darker like it was over cooked or had gone bad. I have been twice now and both times the pastrami was subpar.

Arrived around 7:15, seated ourselves, and might I add there was A LOT of open seating. For a sports bar on a Friday night, (And Notre Dame and Duke were playing) I was surprised. I honestly could count how little people were in there. I was with a group of three other people and we were outside. The lady that came over to take our order seemed frazzled. She was the owners’ wife so I’m not sure if she actually worked here as a waitress. Regardless, she did not know what she was talking about. After we ordered we waited, and waited, and waited for our food. The people inside were waiting also, and it seemed that no one was getting anything. The waitress, or whatever she was, didn’t come out to tell us that our food was coming or to apologize for the wait. Instead, at one point she came out, saw our table was empty, and grabbed her notepad like she was going to take our order (the same one that had first taken our order). Later, after about a half hour of waiting, we asked the same waitress how long our food would take and she said she would have to go check the kitchen. When food started to come out (1 HOUR AFTER WE ORDERED) only one plate came, and then a couple minutes later everything else came. Another waitress came out with a plate that we hadn’t ordered and asked if it was ours (it was for another table). One of the plates we got wasn’t even what we had ordered! My friend and I shared a meatball sandwich and it was TINY (It was $ 8). Although it was later, I still would want a more substantial sandwich. Once I took the first bite, I knew the meatballs were frozen. I honestly could name the brand of the meatballs they use because I use them at home to cook with. The house salad I got came in a bowl someone would have in their home, which isn’t a bad thing, but it was so small and I could have easily just thrown lettuce in a bowl to make it. One of the individuals at my table got a teriyaki salad in which she said the sauce for the meat was just poured on it and not cooked in it. It was really small too and for $ 9 not an acceptable size AT ALL.
When my friend and I first received our salads, my friend asked the waitress how long the other food would be. Her excuse: «Everyone came in all at once and the kitchen got backed up». Not acceptable, that is absolutely no excuse and I have NEVER IN MY LIFE heard that before. You are a restaurant, you need to be prepared for rushes, especially since you know it is a Friday and it should be busier in there.
Overall, my experience here was not good at all. I would never recommend anyone to go here (unless you are just going to hang out and get beer then I guess that would work fine. I did not have alcohol). It was not worth the money and not worth the 90 minutes I was there. The fact that I was at a restaurant for that long and waited for my food for ¾ of the time is sad. I have never waited this long at a restaurant. Yes, it would be more understandable if they were slam-​packed with customers, but there were not enough people in there to cause a «back-​up in the kitchen». Work on your speed, work on the knowledge of the menu for your workers, and work on giving me food that is actually good and worth the money I am giving you. If I was on my own I would not have paid for that food. Disappointing way to start my vacation.

Walked in to watch Giants game and expected a crowd… but instead it was really really quite. Two other tables with other people but still felt a little odd on how quiet it was. Food was average.

We have been here a handful of times. The two stars are for the atmosphere and the pizza balls… when they have them, which is big time hit and mostly miss.
I have tried the hot dog, BLT, and burger. The food is just food, nothing you can’t make at home better. However, the pizza balls are yummy but obviously the owner doesn’t feel the need to make enough to last the day. The servers have told us he doesn’t even make therm everyday. Since the rest of the food on the menu is something I can get anywhere and have it taste better, this owner should at least have the one and only original item available everyday. Looking at the reviews on his character though, maybe we should help him close his doors instead…

I feel so sad for the little Italian grandma they must have chained to the stove back there. I hope they bring in her grand kids once in a while.
not sad enough to call the police mind you. i don’t want her set free. went again and had side salad and spag with sausage. love it.
if you order bleu cheese dressing, you get dry crumbled and wet homemade like a real restaurant. the red sauce is deep, rich, and probably seasoned with her tears.
it’s delish.
it’s way too much. I’m a porker and can never finish it. it’s lunch the next day.
but they need to serve bread. it’s Italian food. I order a hoagie roll that they happily bring out.

My husband and I ate here 1 time and we were not impressed.
Our fried pizza balls that we ordered for appetizers were still frozen in the middle. The outer part was tasty but the middle ruined the whole thing.
The sandwiches we ordered were okay but nothing special.
We most likely will not be eating there again.

They are listed as being open until 9pm, but if you show up after 8 you will feel unwelcome. I was not allowed to order a sandwich at 8:20pm because I was told the kitchen was closed. Serious?!? I was allowed to order a beer, but the hovering waitress made we feel like I needed to finish and get out. I wish I could review the food, but as I mentioned, I was not able to order any. They do have a number if television showing sports, if you are looking for that.

Forgot to leave this review last night but this is a great place! Food was really good (tri-​tip tacos) service was amazing a quick. Just really good vibes! Probably a hidden gem as far as bang for your buck goes! We will be back for sure!

Great drinks, service is good, good is not so amazing. But I would come back to get drunk!

I would like to give a review but its 8pm and the kitchen is closed. What the heck??? When I asked why she told me they’re serving drinks til then. Whatever. I can see why the reviews are so bad here.
Truth be told I ate here probably 6 months ago, had the tri tip salad, the meat was soooo dry. I just thought I would try again. But seeing as how they’re not serving food at this hour…8pm. :-/​guess I’m done trying!

Went in during the lunch hour the other day and it was dead: we were the only ones in there. Not a good sign. The wait staff was hanging around by the counter looking bored, but perked up once we arrived. They were nice and friendly throughout the meal.
The food wasn’t all that great. I ordered a sandwich and while it was ok, I thought the meat was dry. And the bun to meat ratio was skewed in favor of the bread.
This place looks like a great local hangout and has all the makings of one: friendly staff, clean interior, ok prices, but maybe it’s the food quality holding them back. Other Unilocalers seem to think so. I wish them luck, they definitely have potential.

I really wanted to like this place… I love Downtown Clovis and enjoy eating at local small businesses!
My husband and I both tried a hot sandwhich.
I had the Tri-​Tip sandwhich and he had the Philly Steak. Both sandwhiches were VERY dry/​plain and lacked flavor. The Tri-​Tip had a teaspoon of BBQ sauce on it, didn’t even cover the bread to the ends. You can tell it was straight out of a large Sisco style tub of BBQ sauce, no originality. I had to ask for my BBQ sauce and didn’t get it until my husband was almost done with his sandwhich, 10 minutes later.
The bread was ok, no taste for sourdough. The meat on the Tri-​Tip was flavorless…
The Philly was just as subpar and dry.
The waitress was nice. I just wish the food were better. I did notice the staff had to go all the way around the bar from the kitchen to serve drinks/​food. From a business stand point, they need a make-​over on their layout to provide better service. As well as a menu make-​over… All the food was plain and had zero flavor. You could tell none of it was made fresh by the chef’s.
For $ 9 sandwhiches, that didn’t come with any sides and only dressed with a TINY amount of sauce/​cheese and nothing else we were displeased and will not be returning. The service was ok. They did have good onion rings, but my husband burned his finger when he went to eat one.

I give this place an extra star because it is local. and I’m a fan of non-​chain places. I think Forestiere’s definitely has the ability to rise to four star service… I think the atmosphere is perfect for a sports bar and casual place to eat, there is plenty of room for a group to gather and enjoy a game on tv or just being out on the town, the servers are polite and sufficiently attentive, and the fries are delicious. My husband ordered a cheeseburger. He’s not a fan of mustard and was disappointed that the burger came with mustard (a good thing in my book), but found the burger to be moist and flavorful even with one of his least favorite ingredients unavoidably on the bun.
I ordered an italian style chicken sandwich, which was breaded chicken, marinara sauce, and melted cheese on a toasted bun. The chicken was dry and overcooked. The sandwich would have been tolerable but for two factors – (1) there was very little sauce on the already over-​dry sandwich, which made the entire sandwich extremely dry (stick to the roof of your mouth, need a glass of water dry), and (2) the breaded chicken was diced into inch-​size pieces that crumbled and fell out of the very dry sandwich every time I took a bite – no matter how hard I tried to trap the pieces between the buns.
Okay…I know I’m obsessing about one bad sandwich but come on – who dices up a breaded chicken breast to put on a sandwich (a terrible thing for those of us who are motor skills-​challenged)? Given that the fries were good, service was good, and burger was good, I will definitely give this place another shot. Be forewarned about the dry sandwiches, and ask for extra sauce. Watch out though… there may be an extra charge for it.