Checker Bar

This is one of my favorite spots downtown! Drinks are always great, only ever had the sliders but they were delicious, and service is the fantastic… Robert is my favorite bartender. Bonus this place has classic arcade games like Donkey Kong, Galaga, pinball and more.

Checker bar has come a long way in the last year or so. It’s a dim, unpretentious spot where the drinks are cheap, the bartenders are friendly (ask for Robert or Sarah!), and the burgers are delish. Everyone is welcome and comfortable here, although you’ll probably find a mostly 25−35ish crowd. Hipsters and downtown professionals who’ve gotten off work. The vibe ranges from a quiet spot to drink and talk to weekends when it can get a little rowdier ;)
When the weather is warmer, grab a spot on their sidewalk patio seating and enjoy the view of Campus Martius and great downtown people watching!

Checker is just one of those great old bars in Detroit. You come in here for whiskey and cheap beer, no matter how much more hip it’s becoming by adding the POP upstairs. It’s fun to see old mainstays like this mixed in with all the new restaurants booming around it.
Grabbed an egg salad sandwich and it was about what I expected. A little small for my taste but for the price couldn’t be beat. Just one of these places I will keep coming back to as long as I live near the city.

Awful. Service was so slow and the food didn’t even come out as described on the menu. My burger was supposed to be stuffed with feta. Called «Mt Olympus» it was a shriveled lamb patty with no feta even near it. The patty melt Mt friends ordered was greasey enough to lube a car. I will leave it to your imagination what this did to or stomachs before we even left the building. Rough.

Great bartenders. Benjamin was very helpful with selecting the perfect beer. The burgers are fantastic. The meat and toppings were all fresh. We will be back.

Opening the doors of Checker, you’ll feel a puff of musty air hit your face. The smells and memories of thousands of cigarettes smoked, beers spilled on the floor, and the conversations of our grandparents lingering in the atmosphere. The décor matches the feeling of nostalgia. Edison bulbs, obviously checkered tabletops, a long wooden bar, some stuff on the wall, wood paneling, a slew of pinball and arcade machines and a kitchen hidden from view. Honestly, it’s not too far away from what Pizza Hut used to look like — and let’s not even get into the embarrassing memories that came out of there.
In the middle of a hot Southeast Michigan summer, you might already feel like you’re less than half alive. Take a trip in to Checker’s on a Sunday afternoon, like the three of us did, and you’ll have to pinch yourself to make sure you’re still going. Customers float around like tortured ghosts, and the bartender, while nice enough, serves some perverted metaphor of apathy with your draft beer that will make you feel like you’re in a waiting room to hell. With that said, their beer selection will cool you down, with a good selection of national (no emphasis on regional, unfortunately) craft beers for good prices.
Burgers were cooked as ordered, and my medium rare was actually medium rare. The seasoning was simple, and the patties came out not very charred, but still juicy — exactly what you’d expect from a bar with old-​school charm, made with high quality ingredients and purporting to be a classic. The buns were weak, boring, heartless.
(read the rest at
)

I love this bar! The prices are low, the drinks are generous, and the food is good, from what I’ve tried so far. I’m pretty sure this is a new favorite place.
The bartenders are the best thing about the Checker Bar. Our first visit, we met Robert, who is this funny, sharp and engaging guy with very unique tattoos. (Ask him about them!) He was chatty and full of info; I fell in love with him instantly. The second time, we met a lovely woman from Ferndale who was also funny and chatty. Awesome.
So far, I’ve only ordered onion rings and the deviled eggs, but they were both excellent, and the food is cheap.
The décor is cool with murals on the walls and pinball machines, and they have some outdoor space up front. We’ll be there for karaōke Thursdays, so come on down!

Onion rings were good. Good beer menu for a dive. But… The Burgers are really disappointing for the Price. $ 7 – 11 for tiny average flavor burgers. Honestly if they just got a better bun I’d have been more satisfied. These looked like they were 4 for a dollar and ran over by a Buick and soaked in grease and tomato water. A better bun would bring this place out of fast food zone and into a quality bar burger but for now, not very good. Also the bathrooms are sticky with urine and smell like an outhouse.

Great chill (literally, it was cool on a hot day) spot to grab a beer and some grub. It’s got the timeless Detroit feel that I can always dig — — tarnished tin ceilings, wide open spaces, and a mixture of stained glass and neon.
Love this place!

In a city that claims to have oodles of restaurants on Unilocal I was hard pressed to find many open at 8:00 pm on a Tuesday. Checker was my choice… a decent burger and a full bar was all I really needed, I’m not picky… found it here.

TL;DR Revised review after restaurant is under new management. A good place for a drink and a bite on a hot day.
This place is pretty rad now. Most of the dungeon feel is gone now after the space was opened up and patio seating is now an option.
The biggest improvement is the food. The old food menu is gone and a newer, some would say, hipper, menu has replaced it.
No more rancid cole slaw and disgusting burgers. A solid burger that will satisfy hunger or intoxication. The deviled eggs are a nice addition, with four different varieties, although they were a little light on flavor, I could of used a face smacking spicy egg or something creative and pickled.
I wouldn’t call it a health food restaurant, but it was great to see a place that can hold it’s own with bar food without resorting to throwing everything into a fryer.
The server was attentive and friendly, not too knowledgeable about the drinks they serve, but not for lack of trying. After visiting the website, I did notice that I was not being given happy hour prices on my mixed drinks, which I will be more attentive to next time I visit.
Beer was pretty fairly priced. The signature mixed drinks seem to be a bit pricey, and again, I was overcharged for my drink.
They also have events, which is a nice addition, especially the off world arcade night which is always a great time to visit. $ 5 for all you can play arcade cabinet games. The fenced in patio is nice on a warm day.

Brooklyn Lager & Alaskan Amber –delish on Tap! Robert at the bar is a doll and super attentive! Also, the vanilla & choco ice cream was scrumptious and it helps the local economy! On it! The bar has the jams too! Why are u still reading? GO! ;)

The food is great! The service is HORRIBLE!!! I haven’t had one nice server yet. They all seem like they have their noses up their butt. The first time I went was for karaōke night. Our server who we call «Dreads» didn’t crack a smile once… bad day maybe? Nope! Was like that the second visit too.
The third time we went we had to track our server down to get our bill. She was sitting at the bar on her phone…
I shouldn’t feel bad to ask you to do your job…
For some reason this place is always empty… But hey, the food is great.

They are a small dive bar that has a lot of charm. I had the lunch special hot dog and sloppy joe with frys. Not bad the hot dog is just a regular dog and the french frys are a bit dry. The sloppy joe is the best part lots of flavor. I like the drink specials they have here as well and lots of Detroit made booz.