Eli’s Orange

Eli’s does a good job putting out tasty food on a consistent basis. I think some of their best offerings are fries, Mac and Jack, penne vodka, Asian calamari, bar pizzas. I have rarely been upset with my meal at this Eli’s or Eli’s in Branford/​Hamden.

We have been to this location twice. Once to sit at the bar, and once for dinner. Both times they were packed. The bar is shaped liked a rectangle, with bartenders in the middle. Lots of TVs to watch sports. We saw the Pats game when we were there. There are also tables in the bar area. It was loud, but you have to expect that. The dining area was nice, food was good although I had to send my burger back because it was not cooked. They brought me a fresh one back. Waitress was excellent. Overall very good. Many restaurants have had this location and failed. Not sure why. The location is on the Post Road. Hope this one survives.

Love this place. Great food, good service and great atmosphere all reasonably priced nice gem.

Great food the Mac and jack is phenomenal, buffalo wings great, however the burger was lack luster. If you come here skip the burger.

Bad ass joint. The New Haven areas premier local mini-​chain pub and grub bar done good once again by moving into Lemon! The steak egg rolls are almost as good as a large moots at Sally’s. If you want good pub fare and cute bar keeps skip the Chili’s, 99, and TGIF crappola and head here. Go Yale, wait Yuck Fale!!!

Went to the new location because the menu is different than the Milford location and my girlfriend wanted a specific salad. Pretty friendly staff but was moving at a slow pace. We didn’t really mind because we weren’t in much of a rush.

I had a very nice first experience at Eli’s in Orange. It is very similar to the Milford one, but I don’t think they have as much of a late night scene here. We were seated right away in a comfy booth. I like the décor and lighting here. It is a true gastropub with a more elevated take on classic bar food. I enjoyed the Mac and cheese and my husband had a nice medium rare cooked burger. They have a solid selection of draft beers and the staff are knowledgeable. I look forward to returning soon. It is nice that Orange has some more sophisticated places like Eli’s and Prime 16.

Absolutely a great place to eat with some friends. My service was fantastic and my waitress was very outgoing and fun to talk to.

Food is crap. Drinks are weak. Read on to find out more.
Eli’s in Orange is a sad excuse for a dining establishment. I have visited multiple occasions and really wanted to like it, but It just fails on multiple levels. The food is just plain bad. I’ve had the nachos, burgers, wings, pizza, steak egg rolls, probably the majority of the menu. Nothing ever tastes good. Nachos with unmelted cheap cheese, greasy egg rolls that are barely filled with anything. The pizza is pathetic. Soggy, limp, and so undercooked. This is basic bar food we are talking here. Not a complicated menu. It’s not hard to make any of these items, however I feel the kitchen staff either doesn’t care or is clueless. The only decent thing I have ever eaten here is the tomato avocado salad.
The front of house is also nothing to jump up and down over either. None of them seem like they want to be there. Also, the drinks are crap. There must have been a training where management specifically told them to be stingy with their liquor pours. I’m a full believer in not over pouring for a drink, but you need to at least give your customers a decent drink. They charge top dollar for their liquor and under pour your drink? Quick way to loose business fast. Place is dead after 10 pm. Inside is okay. Weird layout in my opinion. Also, the bar is always sticky? Try wiping it down a few times a day, usually helps. If you’re looking for a place with a little bit of a crowd, find somewhere else.
I always give the benefit of the doubt and try a place a few times before I say whether it is good or not. That being said, Eli’s in Orange in my opinion is a huge disappointment.

We dined here for the first time today. We were seated immediately. Our server was attentive and got our orders in promptly. 3 stars for being what I’d call more on the expensive end for a lunch on Sunday with some plates on the smaller side.

The beer selection was very minimal. Cocktails were very weak. The guac came with a tiny scoop and too many chips. The chicken buffalo tenders were pretty good but they jipped us one!!! We also asked for ranch and it took 20 mins to get (after we finished the tenders!!!) for a chain restaurant I was expecting more.

Why oh why do they keep opening Elis that are inferior to the original?!
Where to start. Arrive Friday 7:30 there is a 30 minute wait for a table of 6. No problem, completely understand that. Hostess tells me we should have made a reservation. Ok, good to know in future.
Hey, grab a beer at the bar. 20 minutes later the bartender helps me. Btw, he closed 6 tabs in that time but refused to serve people waiting. Hmm, bad business model IMO.
Dinner time: Waitress was very pleasant and helpful. Zero complaints on her helpfulness and efficiency in delivering food and drinks. Though she kept trying to suggest water vs a beer to the men at the table.
Food: it’s definitely much better than milford but never order a burger medium rare. I did and I got it rare and not a little rare but so much so I could see the meat prepressed. (See photo)
Honestly. It’s new and since I love Hamden location– I’ll give it another chance. Just check food before serving please!

I always have a great time at Eli’s. The new Orange restaurant is just as good as the Hamden one. Food is delicious, very clean and service is great. Last time I had the Savanna salad for lunch and it was really delicious, definitely way above all those average chain restaurants. Go local!

We don’t leave many reviews but were compelled to do so after our experience today…
For starters, our meals were great and our server was super. When we gave her a heads up about an issue we had encountered, she was quick to address it and the manager also came over to make sure we were satisfied.
We simply wanted to bring something to their attention and they went above and beyond to make sure our experience was a positive one. Not too many restaurants left that operate by that motto.
Great food. Super service. Can’t ask for more that! Will definitely make this a part of our regular rounds.

Went for dinner tonight. My wife and I split the calamari as an appetizer. The calamari was VERY salty and the red sauce was very bland.
For dinner I had the black and blue burger. I asked for medium rare and did cook it right but again with the salt. I know Gorgonzola cheese can be quite salty but this burger was beyond that. Between the burger and the app I felt like they served me a salt lick. The fried onions on my burger were way too much. The pile of fried onions I scraped off the burger stood taller than the bun and meat. I’m not even kidding… I wish I took a picture.
My wife had the Cali burger. After about 3 bites she put it down and said we should go elsewhere for dinner. The French fries are the real thick cut style and the inside tasted like an overlooked baked potato.
With places like Plan B and Prime 16 within a few minutes from them, I don’t see how this place will last. Funny, I have heard several people comment about this physical location and say «nothing ever lasts there». I have a feeling this will be the same with Eli’s.
I do want to say that the staff was very friendly. That was the only good thing about our experience.

My rating kept going up and down while we dined. We walked in for dinner on a Sunday. Not too busy and we were seated immediately. While waiting for our waitress we see the same one waitress in our area. No other waitress in sight. Minutes later after watching this one waitress tend to her tables she stops by our table to inform us our waitress is busy with something so she’ll take our order. Again — not very busy in here so I’m not impressed with the service already.
Order taken, drinks brought over. Things can be turning around. Food brought to the table. We were so close to getting those 5 stars. I ordered a Veggie Burger which according to the description is a black beam burger. Instead I got a Grilled Vegetable Sandwich. I’m not sure how a Veggie Burger turned into a zucchini sandwich. I brought it to our actual waitress’ attention and asked what my sandwich was. At first she says it is a Veggie Burger. As I’m lifting up the top piece of bread I tell her I don’t think so. The only reason I didn’t ask for my original order was we had two kids with us and I didn’t want them to have to sit and wait for my dinner to be made and brought out. Besides I probably should be eating more veggies.
The sandwich was delicious and tasted fresh. The cinnamon chipotle sweet potato fries were good but not enough chipotle for my liking. The kid’s chicken fingers were great and none of the extra breading but did lack any type of season in the breading. Very bland even if it was for the 12 and under crowd.
I wanted to give this place a 5 because the food was pretty good. I wanted to give a 3 for the less than stellar service. I’ll give a 4 in hopes that my next visit has better service.

So while there are good points to this restaurant (atmosphere, décor, food), I’m going to take a pass on the Orange location for a good long while.
I’ve eaten at all the Eli’s locations and I had never had a problem. So when I went to the Orange location almost 3 weeks ago I expected nothing different. I was with a party of 14 and we were split between two booths, which wasn’t too bad and happens from time to time. While we waited for everyone to arrive and our orders to be taken, the server (who was wonderful by the way) brought me a soda (I asked for it) to drink. Fast forward about a half-​hour, I was eating the ice from my glass like I usually do and I had reached the bottom. As I tipped up the glass to get that last piece of ice I realized that there were pieces of glass from the cup that my glass had been stacked with all over the bottom (4 to 6 pieces, one large and the rest the size of a dime or smaller). The manager was brought over and he seemed pretty horrified and immediately assured that my meal and drinks (alcoholic and non-​alcoholic) were on him, and offered to get me another alcoholic drink in addition to the one I had already ordered.
The rest of the night was fine. They continued to apologize and as I was walking out the door, our server ran up to me and handed me a gift card for $ 25. As a Chef and former server/​line cook/​trainer in these types of restaurants, I thought they handled the situation above and beyond what they needed to do to get me to return. (By the way, I had zero complaints about the food and it was just as good as the other locations)
So fast forward two weeks, my girlfriend and I decided to go there for lunch. There were only 6 parties sat at tables and 3 people at the bar when we walked in. The hostess sat us across from each other at an 8 to 10 person booth. Not that it was a huge issue, just extremely awkward as there were at least 10 – 20 smaller booths they could have sat us at. Our server (Roz, Sp???) took our drink order and while we waited I realized that of the 3 people at the bar, 1 was actually someone from the Kitchen staff (possibly a manager) and 1 was someone in an interview. After the interview was over I watched and heard the bartender, manager, and the guy doing the interview laugh and talk poorly about the guy that was just interviewed. That was something that I did not expect to see done out in the open so loudly in front of customers and definitely did not convey professionalism.
We ordered and received our food (a taco salad and black and bleu burger) only to realize that a bunch of things were missing from the salad (aside from the lettuce, tomato, and dressing.) We brought it to our servers attention and she went into the kitchen, brought out a plate of chicken, told us they were calling her back as she brought our food out because they weren’t finished but she didn’t go back to the kitchen because she didn’t know why they were calling her and left. From what I can remember from looking at the menu, there should have also been at least avocado and Parmesan Cheese in addition to the chicken. Service was pretty non-​existent for most of our meal even though there was plenty of staff (three bartenders, 2 managers, a couple servers, and 2 hostesses). Our server came back by, asked if we wanted dessert and dropped the check off. We paid and left and most likely wont be returning to the Orange location for a long time.
I hope this was just opening jitters and they manage to get on track and stay around for a while.

I had the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer, and the veggie burger with pub fries. The food and service were excellent. Great atmosphere too: a great place for an after work get together.

I always goto the Eli’s in Milford, so I thought the Eli’s in Orange would be the same quality id come to expect… boy was I wrong! Apon walking in you are greeted by a hostess and seated in what looks to be a nice restaurant. I ordered the nachos for the table TERRIBLE. They had some nasty cheesy sauce on them and when I asked the waitress to get us a new one without queso she started basically arguing with me saying it’s no Queso… then after asking a SECOND time for a new plate with JUST NORMAL CHEESE she took it back with attitude! Nachos come back out normal– edible but not appetizing. Then I order the avocado salad. TOTALLY different from the Milford Eli’s!!! it was literally lettuce mashed together with guacamole and piled on the dish in some weird shape with cheese shavings on top — are u serious??! It tasted horrible and flavorless. I sent that back too and had a beer for lunch! I figured that couldn’t mess that up! Only reason I give 2 stars is the place looked clean and the waitress took the salad off my bill. Food was awful. will stick to the Milford location