Poor Herbie’s

Nice quaint little dive bar with friendly bartenders and surprisingly high end drinks. I’ll be back. Didn’t try the food.

Nice little local place has a friendly vibe to it. Food is basic burgers and pub food but a little overpriced for what you get and I have been here on more than one occasion with very slow service. Burgers don’t come with fries –have to be ordered as sides for extra money.

Great place. Really awesome food, really awesome people. Good service, good place to hang out and drink with townies. The open mics are dope.
Very cool vibe and history.

My favorite local go to spot since I was a little kid. Their house salad dressing is the best and has not changed in decades. Order a cheddar burger on an English muffin and you won’t be disappointed. Compliment that with a half and half (Guinness/​Harp) and its a perfect meal.

Good food, fun pub atmosphere. Great place to meet friends for a drink and light meal.

The wings are a must! and there Blue Cheese secret sauce is delicious. Dennis makes the best Cosmos yummy! Nice place.

Tried this place out for the first time last night. Like another reviewer said, I wanted to like it, but simply could not. To start off, we waited at the bar for a bit while a table opened up, and asked for the cocktail menu. They’ve still got the winter menu out, which is mostly Irish coffee type drinks, nothing light or fresh for spring yet (54 Main had their spring cocktails out at least three weeks ago). I didn’t feel like a hot winter drink so we just waited.
Then, the service. The waitress did not know menu items or prices very well, and the food took a long time to arrive. It was all pretty much underwhelming. Portions are small, food is very average and just ‘eh’. It would be better if the prices were lower but they’re not cheap.
The atmosphere is alright but the place could use an update. It might have been quaint 20 years ago but it feels shabby now.
Overall, I’d recommend 54 Main over this place, though I don’t really like either. I say BYOB to Palm Thai or Blue Wazabi instead.

Overall, I give Poor Herbie’s three stars because their food is good. I have to be honest, I was very put off by the pricing in the menu. I went out for dinner with a friend on a Sunday evening about a month ago. Between the two of us, we ordered two salads, two burgers, two beers, and an order of fries to share. Our total came to $ 50. I don’t know about you, but that sounded like a lot to me, especially for what I had really ordered:
1. Two good-​sized bowls of iceberg lettuce and an occasional fresh vegetable tossed with a delicious salad dressing – my friend’s had blue cheese crumbles added, with a charge of $ 1.50 that I question, but accept.
2. Two good-​sized but not ridiculous hamburgers, which cost $ 9.00 purely for the burger on the bun. You pay extra for lettuce, tomato, and raw onion. Burgers also do not come with fries. It’s not even the charge that bothers me – it’s the fact that you can’t just offer a burger, fries, and all the fixings for $ 10 or $ 11. I was tempted to not add anything!
3. Two handfuls of shoestring french fries for $ 2.50. They’re good enough, but if you’re going to charge that much for so little they need to be amazing.
Call me cheap, but I wasn’t exactly looking for a pricy night out. I know similar places where I can get the same thing or better for half the price.

My wife and I were in Madison for a concert last night, and drove through the town before deciding that we wanted Good Old American Pub Food. Poor Herbie’s seemed to fit the bill. Poor Herbie’s is an Irish style pub, ans a bit of a local favorite. Nothing Fancy, and nicely decorated in that funky old bar way.
After parking we talked to a man who was leaving Poor Herbie’s and asked him what was good there, without hesitation he said with a smile «Get the burger!»
We got the burger! And we’re damn glad we did. A great simple hamburger, nothing fancy, they’re not trying to win any awards for innovation, they’re just serving up Real Good American/​Irish Pub Food.
We both got the Bourbon Burger, made with a homemade cheddar-​bourbon cheese. When served, the cheese caught us off guard, as it was more of a soft cheese, and not a slice of hard cheese. It was quite tasty! A bit different, but Real Good. And both of our burgers were cooked to perfection. My wife ordered hers Medium Well and I ordered mine Medium. Hers was a light brown throughout and a bit juicy, mine was PERFECT! pink inside and very juicy. I don’t know what kind of meat they’re using in the burgers, but they were very, very tasty, and no gnarly fat bits either.
We also had an order of Onion Rings along with the burgers. A little on the light side, only 5 Onion Rings, but in this instance, that was the perfect amount, because the burgers we’re quite filing. The Onion Rings seemed to be homemade, but I’m not sure of that. Fried perfectly, not greasy at all, big, thick pieces of onion on the inside, nice crispy coating on the outside. Each burger comes with a small side of coleslaw, small being the key word. I asked our waiter for a full side order of the coleslaw, and what he did was bring me a double portion more of the little sides of slaw, at no charge!
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, who worked there and came to our table, and yes, there were several waitstaff who served our drinks and food, were as nice as could be.
Real down to earth, unpretentious, people.
We are going to go out of our way to stop here when we’re passing through, on Route 80, from Pennsylvania to the Bergen County area.
WE LOVE POOR HERBIES!

Great place to grab a burger! The house salad with house dressing is delicious as well. We ordered a Bourbon St. Cheddar burger and a regular burger with mozzarella, bacon and onions. We were both very happy with our choice. If you want it to be pink, definitely order medium rare as I ordered medium and it was more towards well done. The bacon was nice and crispy and the sautéed onions were great. The servers were friendly and everything came out quickly. Hadn’t been here in awhile but would definitely come back.

This is my go-​to neighborhood pub! Family owned, great atmosphere, great food, highly recommended!
Food: excellent pub fare (burgers, French dip!), and traditional Irish food (awesome going to beef, very good shepherds pie), Great sandwiches (recommend the sliced turkey, even the tuna melt!) braised short ribs are good, and also their pink sauce is good… Get the ravioli when they have it! Great wings. they have homemade horseradish mustard which is to die for, and the ***house salad dressing*** with blue cheese is completely amazing. Appetizer: chicken fryz. The desserts are excellent too, get the brownie à la mode!
Ambiance: friendly warm welcoming neighborhood pub, decorations all over the walls, totally quintessential rustic Irish pub
Staff/​service: friendly people, friendly atmosphere, they remember what drink you always like, I’ll always have a smile on their faces.
Drinks: a couple of good beers on tap, quality black and tan service, and a pretty good assortment of whiskeys!

Local pub that is small and gets crowded. Food is ok and on par with pub food. Asked for burgers medium and they came out well done. Had short ribs and they were a greasy fatty mess. Fried had no seasoning. Overall very disappointed and waiter never checked on us. Might consider giving it another try ion the future.

The menu at Poor Herbie’s is surprising in its depth and sophistication. The atmosphere is always relaxed and casual and you feel like you’re in that bar where everyone knows your name (even if they don’t). A great locals bar with a lot to offer. Highly recommend.

Great little pub down the street. Love the interior atmosphere and loved the appetizers as well. Great little spot to catch a game and a bite.

My local go to place. A Cheers vibe every time! House salad with grilled chicken or prime rib are absolute favorites.

The food is great. Every meal is filling and comes with plenty to keep you satisfied. Great service and good options on the food and drinks available. The atmosphere is a little to dark for my taste.

First time visit, with a local. While the turkey sandwich and sweet potato fries were recommended, I went with a cheese burger topped with bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Cooked to order. Perfect size. Fries were good, too.
Great service. Great vibe. Cool place to hang out, while enjoying great food.

Poor Herbie’s is a nice little local spot in Madison’s town center. Drinks on tap are well-​rounded, and the vibe of the place is pretty cool for a bar. It’s a bit dark and hard to see towards the middle and back of the bar…
The food: my wife and I got an order of mozzy sticks to split, which were pretty damn good. Yes, I’m putting in my 2 cents about mozzy sticks at a bar. Yes, there are good and BAD mozzy sticks.
Poor Herbie’s is a standard bar, but it’s location within Madison makes it a ³⁄₅ for anyone nearby. You don’t find solid, in-​town bars too often!

Never again. Bourbon Street burger was disgusting, the cheese was pure Jack Daniels with a splash of cheddar, got very sick afterwords. Service was slow at dinner. Iceberg salad was not fresh.

I really wanted to like this place, but did not. I had been a few times before for dinner or drinks, but have no recollection of the place, so gave it another shot. For starters, I despise restaurants that save a buck by serving RC instead of Coke/​Pepsi. They sale for the same costs as the «better» brands and it is horrible. This place chooses to serve RC. Yuck. The app we got, which was a weird name for boneless chicken wings, was essentially 2 Tyson chicken fingers with hot sauce poured on. The blue cheese dressing was akin to watery bottled dressing with a few pieces of blue cheese on top. The burgers were good, but we did NOT like the fact that for a $ 10 burger you did not get fries. Also, I know this is picky, but… Hunts Ketchup? Seriously? If they are cutting corners on things like the soda/​ketchup, what other corners are being cut in the kitchen?