Uncle Louie’s Backyard

We came here after work. Uncle Louie was preoccupied on the phone discussing the denamds of the restaurant business. The food was ok although they mentioned being known for their burgers and chops. I ordered the veal which was not tender but rather tough. My boyfriend got the steak which looked more well done than medium. Perhaps it was an off day.

I’d like to be writing a better review. I know the owner does a free Christmas dinner which I commend him for. But my experience was not good. To be clear I had lunch on the lounge-​side. I had a Buffalo Chicken Wrap. The chicken was stringy and dry, like it was sitting in a buffet warming pan for 10 hours, it was only noon. It was day old and/​or re-​frozen chicken, either way it’s 5:30pm now and my stomach is still unsettled. I know it can seem wasteful to throw out product — but it costs you more to lose a potential repeat customer. My fries were really good. Everything in the resturant was dusty. My girl had a glass of wine and the glass was dusty –on the in-​side, after a couple sips some dust (I think it was dust anyway) had come loose and floated up — so yeah: gross factor 10. As the other reviews mentioned — this place would probably make for an interesting episode of Kitchen Nightmares. The owner seems nice, I hope his staff take care of him and turn this place around. It could use a new menu and grand reopening.

Gordon Ramsay would have a field day with this place. It gets absolutely everything wrong. My brother, and I tried to take our mother out for a nice birthday lunch. She suggested coming here and getting the lunch buffet, so I agreed to take her wherever she wanted. We arrived to find the main dining room locked so we went into the other side marked «Lounge» to find a dingy, cluttered, outdated bar with a handful of tables, and patrons scattered about. There was one server to attend to everyone, and her service was abysmal. She told us to sit wherever we wanted, and gave us menus before darting off to another table. She eventually shouted over to us that they had a lunch buffet available, and we agreed to do that, but we still had to ask what was offered on the buffet. When we walked up to the buffet, and found a plate that was actually clean in their stack, we were surprised to find a very disappointing selection. What little food they had was all clearly frozen from a bag, or boiled from a can. We asked to have more brought out, and they did alright. Undercooked fish, and totally different pasta than was there initially. First it was ravioli, and the woman just dumped a pan of penne into the same pan, and mixed it with the remaining, stray ravioli. The clam chowder was ok, it was a challenge to find a clean cup to put it in however. I hastily paid the $ 31 check for the small nibbles we had all taken, and left to go have lunch elsewhere. Absolutely horrendous, and completely worthy of a reality restaurant rescue show.

This restaurant was quite simply the worst dining mistake my family has ever made. After waiting for almost 90 minutes, we were given our undercooked appetizers in a toddler sized portion. We were then informed that they had run out of hamburger, so two of our meals were substituted with the driest, rubbery chicken I have ever had the displeasure of consuming. When our entrees arrived at least 20 minutes later, my brother found that his turkey-​bacon wrap was lacking in both turkey and bacon. The «meat» they then filled his wrap with was clearly reheated in a microwave. Suffice to say, I will NEVER be eating here again.

If I could give zero stars, I would. Cart iron steak tastes like it was soaked in fat, no beef flavor at all — and over cooked. Burgers undercooked. Carpet smelly and dirty. Gordon Ramsay would freak out on louie.

Food was surprisingly good. Décor is horrendous. Think serial-killer’s wall clippings meets your grandfathers’s basement hat collection. Very divey albeit my broiled seafood was good but lacked any flare. Something your grandmother might make. My boyfriend had the haddock stuffed with crabmeat and the sauce was awesome. Service was fine.

Don’t bother. The food isn’t worth the cost. The service doesn’t stand out as spectacular. They need to scrub the place from top to bottom (they especially need to clean the tap lines). Really no good reason to go there…

I travel to Cortland often and I love this place. Staff is great, very attentive and I love the food. Prices are great.

This place was not what I expected, in a good way!
I absolutely enjoyed the crab stuffed mushroom and half rack of ribs! The waitress was friendly and kept our glasses filled without us having to ask for more. She also knew the menu, which says a lot.
We sat outside in the back and enjoyed the fresh evening air. It was like being at a family backyard bbq in the summer time. There was even music playing. Yes, it had ambiance!
I would definitely come back for more and recommend this to everyone. ENJOY!

We had lunch and the food was excellent with very reasonable prices. We would definitely come here again.

I really want to give Uncle Louie’s more than two stars, but I can’t. I’ve gone back to this restaurant many times with hope that my experience would be better than the last. Unfortunately, I think I’ve gone for my last time.
The décor of this restaurant is outdated and definitely attracts an older crowd. Although the dining area is quite large, I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than five or six tables full at one time. The appetizers and entrees are overpriced for portion and quality. The lunch sandwiches are priced fine, but the food’s not that great.
The only food I’ve ever gotten here that I liked was the filet mignon and the prime rib. In my experience, the meats have been tasty, but everything else has been pretty bad. Once, my side of broccoli was burned so badly I was shocked the chef would let it leave the kitchen. The croûton in the French onion soup was nothing more than a very, very hard and stale dinner roll cut in half. The fish in the broiled haddock sandwich I ordered featured some odd topping of soggy breading and the fish itself was limp and soggy. The croutons on the salad appeared to be another reincarnation of the ever-​stale dinner rolls.
If you dare to try Uncle Louie’s, order a steak and have some turtle cheesecake (I wonder if that’s made in house or not). Skip everything else… or skip this place all together.