Crabtree Tavern

I met my wife @ Crabtree Tavern and enjoyed the unique variety of foods, even with a small menu. It meant enough that we had our wedding reception there-​the food choices were even greater as Leslie the owner went out of his way to bring in exactly what we wanted.
So sad to drive by one evening and see the parking lot empty! We had dined there 3 more times since our wedding…

Cool little place, we came here new years eve, $ 50 tickets, got here in time for appetizers, dinner and desert buffets. All were pretty good, wasn’t anything special but def no complaints. Servers were awesome, and the place wasn’t totally packed which was nice. We all had a great evening.

Great bar with good beer selection. The food is certainly better than most bar food.
Unfortunately they are closing this place to open a Mexican restaurant.

My husband comes here about once a week to watch Soccer. The owner is a Tottenham Hotspurs fan and shows all the matches. Their fan group meets here, about 25 – 30 or so people so it’s a good time if you are a Tottenham fan. I will join him when the match is on a Saturday because they serve a delightful Bloody Mary that has a Guinness Stout base. Their food here is not bad but it won’t blow your socks off either with a large menu to choose from you are sure to find something you would enjoy. They have tons of flat screens so rest assure they will have your game on whether it is college or professional. It’s a large space so even during a major event you don’t feel cramped. One of the better sports bars in the area in my humble opinion.

Great folks !! First time here.
Tasty food. Wonderful service. I travel for a living, this is a nice change of pace from a chain restaurant/​bar. Do stop by !

The night started off so promising. They have plenty of fall brews on draft and the kitchen is open until 2am! We ordered some apps. Standard bar fare and they lived up to expectation: mozzarella bites, nachos, tater tots and fish bites.
A couple beers in a roach came descending down the wall of the bar. Gross. The only thing worse was the bartenders response. As we scrambled to move our food and selves away, the bartender killed it with an errant piece of marble from the bar. No apologies. No disgust. After throwing out the pest he gleefully came back and reported that «the antennas were still stuck on the marble and even though the roach was in the trash the antennas were still wiggling.» Who does that??? What prideful, customer service oriented employee tells stories about the roach they just killed to further gross out dining customers? We settled our checks and left. Won’t be heading back that way ever again.

Always a great burger!
This is such a great place — always friendly. Always fantastic food.

Giving this place 3 stars mainly for the service. It can be a bit slow and not super attentive. Food is pretty good for your standard bar and grill. The burgers have been great! The wings are good, nice variety of sauces. My favorite is the sweet potato fries without the brown-​sugar dusting. The taps are usually good beers and lots of local brews. Monday has $ 3 NC drafts.
Atmosphere is standard bar and grill feel. Good for groups that want to mingle. Has a couple of pool tables. They do have events such as poker and trivia on various nights. Havent attended one yet, but sounds fun.

Great drink specials. I’ve never eaten here but like to grab a drink here after work.
Tuesday nights they have karaōke which brings in a good scene.
They’ve got a bunch of tv’s where they always have the game on.
Bartenders are nice and personable.

This place is awesome. The bartenders are personable and attentive. They recently changed their menu. The whiskey drinks are creative and fun. Their buffalo wings and flatbread pizza is awesome! They make suggestions for drinks and food. Most important they tell you if they think something won’t be your taste. They entertain you in conversation and make you feel like you are at your local watering hole!
They have tvs with local sports on and they have the best jukebox which you can play songs from your phone! Nice chill place to hang out with your friends.

Good beer options and lots on tap. Several tvs for sports viewing. Even though it’s a few miles from downtown, it had a good crowd on a weekend night.
I don’t recommend the wine– it tasted bad and had probably been opened for awhile– stick with beer or liquor.

Tuesday night for dinner — out with my bride to celebrate our 14^th wedding anniversary. She was looking through some sort of city coupon book and we settled on CT. In the 8 years we’ve been in the area, we’ve never tried the place and thought maybe it was about time. I’m pretty happy we gave it a go.
Drinks orders came out quickly. Ordered an app — jalapeño boats, okay but too oniony. Ordered a second app — ½ dozen wings — Boomshakalaka blow your face off hot, and ordered dinners at the same time. Dinners came out before the wings — that was weird, but they folks realized their error and at the end of the day comped the wings — I actually wasn’t going to complain about it — I just pointed it out when our dinners arrived at the table and the guy dropping off the plates asked if there was anything else we needed. Anyhow, I dug into my ahi tuna and it was really really good. The peanut slaw that came with it was excellent and the rice was a perfect complement to the meal.
The wings arrived about 4 minutes after our meals so I put my plate aside to see if the wings really were hot or not.
Here’s my issue with the Raleigh area, and quite frankly all of NC. When one orders Hot wings, they expect HOT wings — not wings drowning in a mild run of the mill buffalo wing sauce. NOT THE CASE WITH CRABTREE TAVERN! Holy Moly and Good Googely Moogely, FINALLY! A place that serves Hot Wings! In my mind, CT just went from average to making me a FAN! I asked to meet the guy who made the hot sauce for the wings and I got the 411 on how he did it. Not that I think I could replicate it, but boy oh boy am I going to try! A word to the wise — if it burns on the way in, it’s going to burn on the way back out — just keep that in mind before going after a couple dozen of these wings.
I know where to get my wing fix, and the rest of the stuff ain’t too bad either!

Part of four visited on ³⁄₁₃. Forgot to take pics and get official scoring.
My aunt and I shared a gyro and a cheese steak both with fries. The french fries were delicious. The gyro was exceptional. I have to be honest, I had low expectations of it simply because a lot of places ‘try’ to make gyros but are typically below average. If I return, no question, gyro it is. The cheese steak was okay. I will say that the bread was very good, soft and fluffy; however, it needed a little more meat and less peppers to make it a 5 in my book. We ordered it the way it comes, however, the mushrooms were obsolete (which was okay by me!).
My husband had a burger that he said was pretty good. He got chili on it and said it was right spicy for him. He said the fries were good too.
My uncle got the chicken pot pie. He said that it was too much pie and not enough filling. He did not finish it. He did enjoy his fries.
We got a loaded tater tots app and zucchini fries. Both were excellent. I enjoyed the zucchini fries as something that is not too heavy of an app. The tots were perfect to me, two others would have liked them a tad more crunchy. We got the sour cream and onions on the side, so not completely sure how it comes if you don’t get it on the side. I would suggest both.

I ate here recently before a hockey game. I had a bad experience here in the past, but my most recent experience was much better so I’m glad I gave it another chance.
There are lots of TVs here and it seems like a great place to watch a game. On the night we were here it was not very crowded, but they did have some good drink specials considering it was a Friday night.
For my meal I ordered the shroom and swiss (a grilled chicken sandwich topped with swiss cheese, mushrooms and garlic mayo). It was good. I had the house chips with it, but you had a choice of fries or sweet potato fries with your sandwich as well. They also have a variety of choices for entrees (cajun mac and cheese? I’ll probably get that next time), pizzas and burgers. It was not the average food I’d expect from a sports bar.
Service was friendly and the rest of my family enjoyed their meals as well. The prices are reasonable and the menu is not overwhelming! This is a good place to check out for lunch or dinner if you are near the mall.

This is one of those times that I thought three stars would be appropriate, but after going, I was pretty firm it was a four star gig. We went on a Saturday night with a group of people and had a really nice time! I’ve stayed at the Homewood Suites (Hilton) right beside it a few times, but had never ventured in. The location is literally right by the mall, so it’s easy to find. They could probably do a little with their landscaping, because the few times I’ve been by, I wasn’t sure they were even still in business. Regardless, they have a ton of beer and the prices are right.
For dinner, I ordered the roasted portobello wrap with sweet potato fries, and my boyfriend had the mushroom and swiss burger with homemade chips. I wasn’t expecting great food, but the wrap was really, really good. Definitely impressed! The sides were delicious too. Of course, you can’t beat the drink specials (pretty sure it was $ 3 domestics on a Saturday night). Lively crowd and a ton of sports games going, so that kept all the guys happy. Not my favorite place in Raleigh, but for sure a place I’d go back to for a casual dinner with friends.

A little tricky to get to and frustrating if mall traffic is heavy but otherwise decent parking and a very accomodating for a meet up holiday party we had there. Hummus and pita bread were fresh and loved the spinach artichoke dip (generous on the artichoke which you rarely see anywhere). Server was attentive and made sure we had drinks. Comfy atmosphere for a tavern. Nice variety of high tables and regular ones.

Crabtree Tavern is a delightful little bar near the mall. It can be tough to find, so as other diners have suggested, use the Google machine to help if needed. The food is consistently above average to excellent, if compared to other bars. Otherwise, it still ranges from average to above average.
Drink specials are about what you can expect from bars. Selections are good, but slightly limited by their lack of a blender.
The greatest thing about CT is how well bartenders Aaron and Kim have consistently taken care of me. They recognize and treat regulars very well. This fact makes it difficult for me to drink here regularly, because I cannot afford to tip these lovely people as much as they deserve that often.
Crabtree Tavern is a terrific place to come for drinks or to catch the game, and a formidable one for a meal as well. Give it a try — you won’t be disappointed!

Oddly empty on a Friday night and no lighting on the patio. Other than those two issues I really enjoyed Crabtree Tavern. Went with a friend and used a groupon which we had no issue redeeming. Between the two of us we were able to get up to $ 30 with no problem. We had the loaded cheese fries, a split order of 18 wings (spicy & sweet and bacon garlic) and two desserts (banana ice cream and some sort of chocolate mousse.
I enjoyed everything, the wings were saucy and had a nice flavor (though no celery *insert sad face here*), the cheese fries were definitely loaded but I would have liked them even more if they weren’t potato wedge style. The dessert was definitely my favorite, my banana ice cream had nice chunks of cookies and white chocolate! I could have enjoyed it all night.
Please invest in some outside lighting, by 8:30 we were eating in pitch-​black. We actually had to use our phones to see! We would have went inside but it was freezing in there.
Our waitress was very nice, albeit a bit scattered. She seemed in a hurry despite not having many other tables. She got us everything we needed though and was very polite!
All in all good but definitely room for improvement!

It’s refreshing to see new blood in the sports bar choices here in the Triangle area. Crabtree Tavern is another hidden find, directly behind Crabtree Valley Mall (at the intersection with the flashing caution lights if you come out the very back of the mall parking lot). The first time I went there, just stumbled across coming out of the mall, but have gone back as I like the atmosphere. It’s got the sport bar feel to it, but it seems to be a bit nicer than your average sports bar. There’s plenty of seating around the bar, but also dedicated dining space and even limited patio/​outside seating. There are many flatscreen TVs anywhere you can look at many angles, so no lack of getting to see what you want if on the screen. Nice layout and plenty of space.
Hanging out with an app and beer at the bar is nice, my first visit was drinks and Carolina Chips (homemade potato chips) sitting at the bar. Great chill place, and they make about the best homemade chips around (less seasoning is better). The bartender Chris made sure we were well taken care of, good service.
Came back another trip for some food action, and had the cheesesteak, with the chips of course! The cheesesteak was a good choice, I enjoyed it, and will probably pick it again. Just enough cheese to make it cheezy but not drowning in it, and plenty of steak. The corn and sausage chowder was also pretty tasty, great combo for a soup choice, would be good on a «comfort food» day. I do find that the menu choices are lacking in what I’d like to see in different things to choose from, but that just may be their format. But I have enjoyed my food selections so far, and the wait staff I had was great and attentive.
After the meal, I had another Big Boss Blanco Diablo beer and hung out by the bar. Bartenders Taylor and Chris both did a great job and were very interactive with their customers, another thumbs up for service. Everyone else around me at the bar seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.
My experiences at Crabtree Tavern, good ones. I will be back soon.

Since my work moved near Crabtree, I’ve been going to a lot more restaurants in the area. After work on Wednesday, me and some coworkers decided to hit Crabtree Tavern.
We actually had a great time. Our waitress was very nice. She was also wearing a Patriots shirt, which made me happy. Though, apparently she’s not really a Patriots fan and her mom just gave her the shirt… oh well. We ordered a tower of FullSteam (check the picture!), 18 wings, and «The Tower» sandwiches. It was way too much food for three of us, but everything was delicious. The 25% off two entrees coupon on the Unilocal iPhone app was another bonus!
With towers $ 2 off every Wednesday, we are talking about making this an after-​work tradition. Wednesday night is also trivia night, which starts @ 8pm.
Crabtree Tavern is advertised as an «upscale sports bar», which I guess means the décor is taken up a notch. HDTVs surround the bar and restaurant, so it’s a great place to catch the game. I wish they were open for lunch!
I’m looking forward to exploring the rest of their menu. It’s a pretty standard sports bar menu, so I’ll probably stick to the wings and the sandwiches/​burgers.
They’re serving food later than a lot of sports bars in the area, closing at midnight Sunday-​Thursday and 1am Friday-​Saturday.