Speakeasy

This is great place and I’ve eaten here for over 30 years and I’ve never had a bad meal. I write today because I had lunch on Sunday after church with what started out as a group of 4 and evolved to 12 or 13. Our waiter couldn’t have been more accommodating. The Speak as we call it, is consistently great casual dinning.

Love this place. I go with my family every Wednesday and they treat us like we are family. Great food and great price

Ambient atmosphere with courteous and prompt service. I had the Reuben sandwich with fries. Generous portioned sandwich sliced in half with 1000 island sauce on the side. Although I found it messy, I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Tea was kept filled by bartender, whereas I ate at the bar.

Would not return. Buritto flavorless and chicken was out of a frozen bag unimpressive.

Decent nachos. Came late one night. Service was great. Bathrooms were clean. Music was appropriate.

So good! I no longer live in Columbus but make a point to go to Speakeasy every time I’m in town. The Camel Rider is the BEST!

Just ok… Yarixa was a great server, but the food was just ok. I ordered the Georgia Caviar for an appetizer. It was small, but delicious. For lunch, had the following:
Reuben — Son said it was good.
Chef Salad– Nothing chef about it. Lettuce, cheese & a slice of tomato.
Camel Rider– It was good, but not anything real special.
Murphy burger-​It was way undercooked & my husband didn’t eat it.

My best friends choice on his birthday even though it was a twenty minute wait. «A twenty minute wait?» You would assume that the vittles were good and the service as well… Not so much. The food was standard pub-​fare at best, but we didn’t expect four stars, but the service was «atrocious» as my friend called it.
After waiting twenty minutes for a table, then fifteen before the drinks (all fountain drinks and teas) the waitress dumps a soda all over my friends daughter. Ok, no biggie, we’ll get over it. After nearly another fifteen minutes to wipe down the chair though, replace the drink, and apologize incessantly, we get an order in.
While we waited nearly twenty minutes for the appetizers, I began to parch. I know a water is a difficult recipe to remember, but you would think that if the food wasn’t coming out of the kitchen, the service staff might have the time. And at this point we are, for whatever reason, still optimistic.
Ok and now we get the food. But wait, my daughters food isn’t out yet because «were waiting on fresh fries» that took nearly fifteen minutes. Now Ive been in the industry long enough to know that fries don’t take fifteen minutes even if you hand pick the spuds to order. Let’s just call a spade a spade and admit she forgot an order. On top of that our drinks are again empty, a side of black olives I order with my salad still have not been received, and my daughter is in need of a snickers ’cause she’s turning into a real diva. And for good reason!
Now comes the ticket and my friends wife has already taken the kids to the cars when the waitress comes back to the table to inquire of the check split, again! Frustrated and annoyed I politely tell her to put it all on one and take my card now so as to save the extra trip.
Not once did I see a manager make a table touch, not once did our server offer to make things right (not that we wanted handouts, but the gesture would have been the proper way to handle the situation, and we would have declined).
So for all this time and patience i spent nearly $ 70 and we got two hot wing apps, two kids fingers, two salads, and two hotdogs and a couple fountain drinks. SERIOUSLY?
The moral of this story is this: It doesn’t matter how nice and apologetic your server is, with this many and level of mistakes to have occurred in one visit, this tells us that poor management and flawed training technique are to blame here.
Twenty-​two years in the business and I assure you this is at the top of my list for one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had, and please believe that even though we can be more critical as fellow restauranteurs, we are also much more understanding, and we still end up here. I hope that they can get it together, because my friend is going to force me to eat here again for sure. Ill keep you posted on the revisit.

CCQ is great, add taco meat. Chicken finger basket is classic, with honey mustard. They have draft beer, which is great. The pizza is some of my favorite around. The combo plate is a common favorite as well.

This place has the best club sandwich I have had in town! I have tried a club at almost every place around, so far this is the best! Yum!

Agree with the folks above. Decent (at best) food. Get the CCQ with the Spicy Taco Meat… it’s so simple, but so delicious.
The thing about this place is it’s an old Columbus tradition– it’ll never go away, it’ll never sell out to a chain (that I anticipate, at least) and it’ll stay a solid option for a quick, cheap, easy and FRIENDLY meal in a relaxed, if unrefined environment.

Eh. The service was fantastic! But the food was mediocre. I got the camel rider and it was ok. I’d rather get a sandwich from jimmy johns, firehouse subs, or publix. All those are within a mile of speak easy. They also «specialize» in pizza. If im getting pizza deorios pizza is right down the street… It’s ok. But much better food in the same area.

I went to Speakeasy for the first time yesterday. We went for lunch and got the camel rider (weird name for a sandwich, but whatever) and the club sandwich. The food was tasty, fresh and reasonably priced. Our server («Princess C.») was prompt and pleasant. I dig the 70s vibe of the place. Reminds me of places I may have gone when I was a very young child, since the décor is reminiscent of the 70s, complete with a small enclosed arcade area in the back. Evidently Speakeasy was established in 1976, and seems to have retained all of the original furnishings. I like that; gives it personality. I plan to return and highly recommend it for lunch or a casual, low-​key supper.

Based on friendly factor a 4 and a food factor of 3, I will settle for a 3+ rating. The place is always open, always friendly and the food seems consistent, the ½ pound Murphy Burger with secret spices (soup mix) was enough for two, the onion straws are fun too.
The Lasagna was pretty good, they have hot wings and the usual items that you would expectThe pizza and Pita sandwiches are above average.

Perhaps the worst meal I’ve ever had in my entire life, including meals I ate in Soviet Union. Granted, the waitress was super nice and the only redeeming factor. Cardboard «food» reminiscent of ice rink frozen pizza, withered from faulty heat lamps. Not disgusting like we discovered a hewn-​off finger in our meal, just utterly tasteless, tough, stale and plastic-​ee. Even the curly fries were soggy and inedible and it’s pretty hard to make a french fry undesirable. The best part of the meal was the awesome ‘70s Leopard mural on the wall. Whoever wrote the 5 star review, perhaps is fed intravenously, or owns stake in the awful awful «eatery». A better meal could have been had at Wafflehouse or Hooters.

We ate dinner here with friends last night, and while it is a pretty good choice for a low-​maintenance meal, it’s definitely not worthy of more than 2 stars. But for what it is, it’s good.
First of all, the place is always packed. I guess that can be a testament to their yummy food and low prices. This is definitely not a place to bring a date — kids are always running around the restaurant while their parents get tanked on the cheap beer or watch whatever sporting event happens to be on the large-​screen TV. Definitely don’t go for the ambiance– there is none. In fact, the guy we had dinner with said he had always thought the place was a strip club because there are no windows and the sign is a little sketchy looking.
The food, on the other hand, is pretty decent. My husband loves their turkey rider, which is basically very fresh turkey meat with lettuce, tomato and swiss cheese. Ever since I became a vegetarian, I’ve been getting the thin-​crust pizzas … the small is more than enough for one person, but I get that size because I’m not wild about their personal pizza crust (a pita). Back in my meat-​eating days, the burger and fries were always a good choice for those nights when you wanted a burger and a beer. And, oh, I almost forgot: the beer is so cheap! An entire pitcher of Michelob Ultra is $ 8, by far one of the better deals in town. Coors and Bud are probably even cheaper than that.
The service is usually pretty good, and I’ve never had a problem with our food taking too long or coming out incorrectly prepared. So overall, it’s a reliable experience at a very family-​oriented restaurant.

Oh, Speakeasy — I love you! Yes I know that for a while you and I were hot and heavy. Sometimes we would see each other three or four times a week. But then I strayed. I’ll admit it, I began to see other places. But I still come back to you. You are so comfortable and accomodating. There is always room for me, whether I am by myself or have 11 or 12 other people with me. You have the greatest waitresses around and I love how gay-​friendly you are. I love your chicken philly with cubes of chicken and lost of onions and cheese. I love your pasta salad with chicken. i love your pizza made on pita bread that is just enough to fill me up at lunchtime. My daughter loves your tuna salad and chicken salad. I have to say that I have stopped coming for dinner. But only because families with kids let their children run wild in the place. I love you, Speakeasy!