Nathaniel’s Pub

Well, I wanted to give a small business a good review but no such luck. We went to the restaurant before lunch time. There was no one there. We sat down and ordered drinks. The soda machine was not working. We were not offered an alternative. It took 35 min to get our food. 2 burgers. Again we were alone in the place. After half our meal was over the waitress brought out our sodas and we were still charged for them. Burgers were good but by this time we were disappointed. She never came over to check on us. We ordered food to go and it was Shepard pie. So salty it was inedible. Tried calling just now to share my concerns with the management but was told he is in on and off, no set time. If you don’t mind a very long wait maybe might be your choice but not if you are on a time limit. Waitress was all by herself doing pre which should be done before customers come in. After reading other reviews about quality of service I have to agree. Really disappointed since I would rather patronize local businesses. Even with a groupon won’t go back. Maybe owners should reinvest in management which according to the waitress is non existent.

I went to rage on a Thursday. They had a cover, which was dumb. Good place to dance and check out girls. Drinks were relatively in expensive. I would go back for drinks at night.

8pm on a Thursday summer night, my GF and I were excited not to be competing with a croud. 3^rd time here and only came to use a Groupon purchased months ago. Service was terrible took waitress 15 min just to see if we wanted something other than water. Wasn’t impressed with the food the first or service on all 3 visits. 3 strikes your out, such a shame as this is in walking distance from our home. Luckily our bill is covered by our deal.

Stopped in here for a bite after I snagged a groupon. The place was empty so we snagged a table. Ordered some drinks and apps.
Food was a little slow and they were out of fish n chips.
The wings were tasty. My French Onion soup had several Bay leaves in it which I’ve never experienced before.
It isn’t on our short list of places to go again.

WTH? We were there last night and were not offered this menu! 7:30 PM and the place was dead! The food was just so-​so. nothing to return for :(Friendly waitress though.

Ughh. This location is prime for some regular good pub food. I came here twice with my sister. First time service was incredibly slow and one of the tables was broken. We only had an hour time slot because she had to go back to her big girl job. We were worried that we would just have to get it to go considering the time constraints. Mind you there’s one waitress/​bartender and only two tables. Second time same thing happened and the French fries were disgusting. I ordered a seafood biscuit and right away felt sick. It happens but its sad to see a restaurant in such a good spot do so poorly. We decided on not going back there and to find another place.

Great Pub with great people.
I went there many times and I liked the chicken wings and the great beers.
They play good music and on tuesdays they have a big party.
Bryan and Taylor are my favorite bartenders.

The 2 star rating is pushing it, if not for the outside porch to sit on and lots of TV’s to watch the U.S. soccer game then they surely would not even get that many stars. Service was terrible. It took FOREVER to get food and drinks, and the bartender kept messing up what we wanted! She never brought waters even though we asked multiple times.
We didn’t get napkins and had to ask for ketchup too (and it took forever to even get anyone’s attention.) And on top of that, she wasn’t very friendly. The environment was cool because everyone was watching the game and cheering which was fun. Definitely unsure as to if I would go back or not.

This place is in need of a serious revamp, it smells like urine, the carpets are stained, my legs and arms are sticking to the booth as I write this. A cleaning job wouldn’t do this place justice, it’s a dump and I am afraid for my food to come out after being in this place. There’s cobwebs and dust balls everywhere, should’ve gone across the street!!! They don’t even deserve a star

Worst bar/​restaurant in Rochester. Food is bad, service extremely slow and the crowd is trashy. So many great places in corn hill but this place doesn’t match. Needs help

I went here for lunch. I had a caeser salad with steak. The lettuce was fresh, the dressing was VERY good (not too creamy, nice spikes of citrus). The steak was overcooked and a bit tough.
My friends got a garbage plate and a hamburger. Both enjoyed their meals.
Waitress was adequate. Serving time was adequate. Nothing special.
Reasonably priced.
Menu in the restaurant was dramatically different from the menu online.

Where do I begin? There should be an option for 0 stars. You might like this place if u like over salted and over cooked food. You might like this place if you enjoy luke warm, stale, and skunky draft beer. You might like this place if u like terrible, incompetent service from both the wait staff and the bartender. You might LOVE this place if you like to have ur car plucked from the parking lot by a rogue tow truck company for thinking you went to the Amerks game. Well, I don’t enjoy these things, people, and places so if you don’t either, I advise u to steer clear of Nathaniel’s Pub. Not a whole lot of good to say about this place but I’m the loser who knows what I’m getting myself into when I go back there repeatedly. Not anymore. The $ 130 tow charge was where I draw the line and proof of my receipt from eating at the restaurant w 7 people was not enough evidence to prove I was there because «I could have found that receipt anywhere» per the manager. So thanks Nathaniel’s, u achieved your goal of protecting your parking lot from lewd perps; I will never return here.

Soooo sad… Met friends there after I got out of work at 9:30 on a Friday night. I was worried when I hit the parking lot and it was packed, but all of those people must have been smart and went across the street. I approached the (not crowded) bar, and waited for the «right side» bartender to stop talking to the regulars long enough to ask if I wanted a dring. After an EXHAUSTIVE 20-​second search, she couldn’t find the Cuervo Gold and pushed the Silver on me. I know it’s probably such an amazingly long trek to the liquor closet that she was just sparing me the wait, so I accepted… in case you’re wondering, it’s nasty stuff. I get my shot and beer and wait a few more minutes for my change. All this time, my friends are waving and yelling to me, which I can barely hear over the crazy loud dance music (did I mention the not crowded bar?). I finally make it to my table and am told that I went to the wrong side, the LEFT side bartender is MUCH better… well, that proved to be wrong also. I went up to secure a round for myself and my compadres… two gentlemen hit the bar before me. They each order a draft. One is pouring foamy… for a while… a looooong while. Rather than let it settle, or offer a different beer, or offer 2 half foam glasses, or let it sit and take another order… she just kept pouring, dumping, pouring, dumping, pouring… this just kept going and going until my friends asked if i wanted them to go to the LEFT side and see if it would be quicker!!! Two drink orders, 10 minutes each… have I mentioned the lack of customers in the bar? Finally a guy shows up to relieve the two ladies… thank goodness, the left side girl just kept whining about him not being there loud enough so that EVERY patron (what few there were) could here… NOW I can actually get a drink in a reasonable amount of time… WRONG!!! My last attempt was so long, the WAITRESS finally asked me if I needed help… the relief bartender was somehow slower than BOTH of the previous ones combined!!! It’s such a shame, they have a nice place and could probably get more beer geeks in to spend a lot of money, but they just don’t care about how they treat customers.

Rather gargantuan sized burger appeared even larger than billed, cooked nicely medium rare, but on the greasy side, not really in a good way, and light on toppings, very sad lettuce and tomato hidden under the meat… I can see why. I actually asked the server for lettuce and tomato because I literally couldn’t see it until I lifted up the burger. Sweet potato fries not very crisp and forgettable. Nachos are served with liquid cheese… this is NEVER acceptable and should only be tolerated by whiny 5 year olds at a ballpark concession stand, and even some ball parks have given up on this gruesome abomination of gastronomy. No, I did not eat them. Atmosphere is OK. Servers are young and good looking. The only real plus to pre-​gaming for the Amerks here is that you avoid the ridiculous 2 hour wait at Dinosaur. Certainly better food choices across the street at Tony D’s. The men’s bathroom was literally freezing. My hands were cold after being in there for 2 minutes. And the hand dryer blows ice cold air. Seriously? Are you trying to get rid of your customers?

Groupons have a way of making you do things you wouldn’t normally do.
A groupon, purchased several months prior, before having read the scathing reviews of this joint, forced me to wander my way over here, dragging a poor soul with me to brave the reported bad food and service.
Maybe it was because my expectations were so low, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad. Went on a sunday evening, was pretty empty.
The TV screens were pretty cool for watching sports games, hell I was following the game and Im not into pro football at all.
We got seated pretty quickly, menus, drinks were all supplied in a reasonable time frame. The waitress did screw up our order and our «appetizer» wings didnt make it to our table until after our burgers were brought to us. The waitress was very apologetic though.
My burger was tough, overly spiced with cheap generic black pepper, the roll was desiccated and stale, the fries were ok. I thought the wings were actually pretty good except again, the overly liberal use of cheap black pepper which took the mild out of mild wings.
I never made it into the bathroom, so can’t comment on the cleanliness of it; yeah the place overall has a sticky beer soaked floor kind of smell but it wasnt as filthy as other reviews have made it out to be.
This place really isn’t that much different from the distillery. I can’t say I would resent anyone who dragged me here because there was absolutley NO other choice, late at night for some bar food.

Just say no. Much like the ineffective anti-​drug campaign of the 80s, poor reviews and stern warnings seem to be useless at curbing the traffic at this Corn Hill watering hole. It smells like sweat and disinfectant, the beer tastes like piss, the regular crowd is sketchy (leering men who unrealistically oogle their favorite tip-​lusting female bartenders), service is poor and the food is below average — making this place pretty much unbearable apart from the fact that it has a favorable location. Clearly grandfathered into the Corn Hill commercial district, Nathaniel’s has withstood the test of time, a phenomenon that remains a mystery to me. I do cringe when I’m forced to recall a dark period where my former restaurant co-​workers and I sometimes visited this bar on ladies night to play beer pong. Oh, the shame. My guess is that the unsuspecting student crowd falls prey to this joint out of convenience and the neighborhood and proximity to Blue Cross keep the rest coming back for more. Suffice it to say, if you’re new in town or you’re looking for a new bar to try, think again. Lots of other places to spend your money!

Oh, Nathaniels. What can I say that hasn’t been said already?
My friends and I had just finished seeing our team lose at Blue Cross Arena. Each of us lives in a different direction, and no one wanted to deal with the traffic of a sell-​out crowd leaving Blue Cross. «Let’s go to Nathaniels, it’s close by, we can walk, and it probably won’t be too crowded.» And this much turned out to be true.
The «security» at the door was patronizing, but doing his job. We get inside and the music is just too darn loud. No, seriously, like blasting horrible pop-​dubstep. The dude at the hostess station saw us coming and saw our jerseys and figured maybe we weren’t there for the music. Charitably, he sat us at a table far enough away from the speakers that it was a little quieter (but not by much).
Our waitress came over, took our drink orders, and brought them back pretty quickly. Maybe a little too quickly, she spilled a little of my beer on me. No big deal, she apologized and brought napkins. Next she took our food orders (I will say this, Nathaniels has a pretty deep menu) and we were on our way.
Food came out relatively quickly, as we all ordered some combination of wings, wraps, and sandwiches. Those beer spill napkins were the only one we ever got, no one at the table got silverware, either. I got chicken wings on the bone and asked for them «mild,» which means different things to different kitchens, but these were okay. Just enough heat for kick, but not many other flavors. Everyone dutifully consumed their sandwiches and wraps while the music invaded every possibly entry into our collective consciousness.
The food was fine. It was okay. It was late, we were tired and hungry and a little dejected that our team blew the game, but what are you going to do. But in my opinion, Nathaniels is not a pub, it is a loud bar that happens to have food service. A pub is a cozy, inviting place where the management does everything they can to encourage to you to stay and partake of their hospitality. Nathaniel’s is not any of these things.
Our waitress seemed to disappear after a while. Had to practically tackle her to get the check. Then she wasn’t sure what to do with the cash and cards we left her when we asked her to take the cash and charge the balance. But we explained it to her and she seemed okay.
Nothing about Nathaniel’s makes any of us want to go back. Nathaniel’s wins because it’s the ONLY bar/​pub near the Blue Cross and we didn’t feel like venturing into the high-​falutin’ places across the street in Corn Hill Landing.
Nathaniel’s: Winner by Default.

Yes, it’s obviously not as good as other bars, say, Distillery.
We wanted to eat there on a Sunday night but unfortunately the kitchen closes at 8pm on Sundays. I was a bit surprised about that, especially for a pub. But ok, it’s Sunday.
We went there again on Friday evening and made sure they didn’t close the kitchen at that time. Entering the pub, I was surprised that it was a bit empty (around 5 people at the bar and 2 people at a table). It was 7:30pm so I guess it’s too early to conclude it’s not a popular pub??? Anyway, we sat down and waited for 15mins for services. When we got our waiter and ice water, we tried to order chicken wings and dessert, and figured that the waiter doesn’t know what’s the difference between «Golden Barbecue sauce» and «Barbecue sauce». Also, cheesecake was the only option for dessert. What kind of cheesecake? The waiter said :“I think most of the time it’s regular style cheesecake.“
Chicken wings turned out to be ok. I ordered Chicken Alfredo and my boyfriend ordered steak. Portion was big for the price. The pasta has no flavor (yes, not even salty).
The good thing I can say about this pub is that they have a giant screen with live football games and they do have a nice view outside.

A coworker and I went to Nathaniel’s on 07÷20÷12 at 5:30pm right after work because we were craving wings. For my money, Nathaniel’s has the best chicken wings in Rochester, but the service just keeps declining. We asked if we could be seated outside, and were told yes. We were not shown seats so we just walked out to the patio. After 10 minutes, no-​one came out. So we went inside to order a pitcher and grab menus. 10 minutes later someone comes over to take an order. 25 minutes later our food is served, and true to form… still the best damn wing in Rochester, but that’s the last we saw of our server. We went back inside to order beer to bring it outside and then were given the check. I have been a patron of Nathaniel’s for years, and have always heard of poor service, but never experienced it until this outing. Also, scrap the bathroom attendant.
My rating would be a 1 normally… but damn those wings are good.

Food was ok, service was very slow. We went for the wings, and I can describe them in one word… PEPPER! So much in fact that I have to question if the chef has taste buds.