Mother’s Tavern

Great service, great food and one of the best beer selections in the area. The seared Ahi tuna sandwich was spectacular!!! We also enjoyed the Greek (lamb) burger. The fries and side salad were quite tasty.

I consider myself something of a connoisseur of the classic Reuben. I got one to-​go today for lunch back at my office, and wow did it hit the spot! Excellent! I will be back again and again. The fries were better than most, too, but that Rueben… wow. I’m confident the other menu items are excellent too if my lunch today was any indication.

Came during the farmers market and got this and it was really good both on flavor and price point. Will try again. Hubby really liked it too

This is only for the food since we ate before this restaurant turns into a nightclub. Fish and chips were delicious. I ordered a mojito and it was perfection (definitely made from scratch). My husband ordered a burger and said it was very good. Service and ambience were good. Will def come back on our annual summer trip

I was looking for a good restaurant in downtown SLO that had something for everyone, both kids and adults. Mother’s was perfect. Excellent food, beer, service and ambience. Would absolutely return.

Came here yesterday for lunch. Service was friendly, but not memorable and the atmosphere was nice.
We ordered a flight of craft beers – they had good selections and we were happy with all the ones we picked.
For an appetizer we shared the nachos. These are huge, and we couldn’t finish them all. The chips are great, and they come piled high with beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and jalapeños.
A lot of options on the menu looked delicious and it was nice to see different varieties of burger (i.e. ground lamb). My husband ended up going with the tavern burger, which he said was delicious. I ordered the pretzel doggie, which was also pretty good. I love a good hot dog, and with grilled onions, dijon, cheddar, and pickles on a pretzel bun I was pretty satisfied.

Came here on a Friday night with three others (including my husband) for dinner & we stayed several hours for when the restaurant/​bar becomes a dance floor.
When we got here, there was live music playing & the restaurant was crowded. They were unable to seat us, but the hostess said if we gave them a phone number, they’d call or text when a table became available. 30 mins later, after no call or text, we walked back anyway to see how much longer it’d be, & there were A TON OF SEATS AVAILABLE. So why did the hostess not call or text as promised??? Anyway… we get seated & the live music is going on. I was enjoying it. The food was alright… typical bar food. I got a simple salad & the chips & artichoke cheese dip. The drinks were better. I ordered several off of the drink menu. All in all, ignoring that the hostess forgot about us while waiting to hear back to be seated, the restaurant portion of the night was ok. Three stars.
As I said before, we stayed for several hours because we wanted to dance. They slowly moved all of the tables & we went to the bar to get more drinks. They took away the stools & the DJ started to play music. We started dancing & we were having a great time. The DJ was playing really awesome songs, a lot of hits that most of the crowd knew & sang along to & could dance to. The night was turning out to be one of the better nights I’ve had going out dancing. However, after about only an hour, an hour & a half, I noticed that it had gotten a lot more crowded. After another half hour, it had become too crowded. There was almost no room to dance anymore. I was constantly getting bumped into & I at one point I got spilled on, at another point in the night, someone elbowed me in the head. NOT FUN ANYMORE. I get that the bar is trying to be a dance club on the weekends, but you need to keep the size of the crowd at least somewhat safe. There were way too many people here. If I’m in the area, I’m probably not coming back.

Stopped in today after picking wedding flowers with my daughter for a drink and quick snack and boy what a treat. Just had an appetizer some roll with carnitas and wow was it good. Service was good took a little longer the expected to get our order for the amount of people there so I don’t think I would go when it’s busy or maybe when it’s busy they have more staff. Hey I will go back the food was good.

The place is spacious with nice décor, and a good liquor section. It can get pretty busy in here though and service can suffer because of that so be wary.
That being said, I’d come here for two things really, and return for the same. Everything else I’m unsure about haha. They have two whiskeys I like: Balvenie 14 and Monkey Shoulder. And one of the better vegetarian sammiches I’ve ever had. Well, the giant turkey leg on farmer’s market days too. But that’s a limited time thing to procure really.
Now, I don’t remember what exactly it is called To be honest, though I did come here and get it twice. So… lemme at least get the ingredients down. From what I remember, there was a vegetable patty, grilled portobella, mixed greens, onions of some sort, and a basil garlic aioli. If I’m missing something, I apologize but really I enjoyed that sammich through and through. This actually got me onto making aiolis at home because of how much I liked it.

Although I have no reviews for the food, I do have a review for the night-​life and bartending staff. Mel is the best bartender in San Luis. She has a knack for mixing drinks and an entertaining and lively personality to boot! I try to go in every Tuesday evening for pint night just because of the experience! For example, I ordered Ballast Point Mango Even Keel and it was a little too bitter for my taste. When I told Mel my opinion, she picked up my glass and added Ace Pineapple Hard Cider to sweeten it up a bit… kind and bartending savvy! I have nothing, but good things to say about Motav’s night life! I’d highly recommend!

Have been coning to Mother’s for several months while I’ve been there on business. GREAT place for some GREAT food and now I’d like to recommend a server who’ll give the VERY best … KUDOS to Aislinn Oka … she is the very best … ALL of the servers and bartenders are the GREATEST but Aislinn REALLY stood out and made sure everything was perfect for our meal
Thank you so much

Oh dear… one star for the beautiful ambiance. We ordered vodka/​soda… were served the most watered down drinks ever. Maybe a complete misunderstanding ~ maybe waitstaff heard «water» instead??? No wonder it was not crowded… Never again, nor would I recommend this place to anyone else, other than to admire the wood work

I was at mothers tavern on February 19 and at some point I got punched in the face by another man at the bar. As a natural response I asked him what the heck the reason for it was and he repeatedly told me «hit me». I said I’m not stupid. I won’t hit him. At that point I was removed by the security without a way to explain my situation. They told me I could tell the cops but honestly I had no person to identify. They would not let me in and the security guard in the back lied to me saying I could explain my situation to Marcos in the front. When I waited in line to explain my situation. The gentleman that was defined as Marcos said I was done for the night and the only option I had was to report the problem to the police. I tried to be civilized but they would not hear me. I urge you to go to marstons or frog and peach where they treat people like human beings.

Amazing food! Great service! Everything we ordered was amazing. The portion sizes are perfect! Not too big and not too small. Very reasonable pricing! Maui Wowies is a great choice. All the burgers are fantastic! As well as the Fish and Chips! I am definitely coming back here.

Stopped by for a quick bite! Staff was friendly and food was good. Tried their lunch menu and no complaints from me. Nice and relaxing atmosphere.

Excellent burgers and tacos, staff was friendly, oh and the beer was good! We’ll definitely be visiting again.

It’s restaurants month so my husband and I decided to start with motav. Foods always delicious so why not start with a place we’ve already been to. We got there at 6pm and the place was not too busy. We sat down and ordered everything within 10mins (3 for $ 30). We received the first course ahi tacos around 7:00. Our salad and corn chowder came about 30 mins later. By that time we had been waiting for our food forever! A table of 6 that arrive after us got all of their entrees before we got our 2 little burgers. We got outta that place around 8:15 and that we because we asked them to just put it in a to go box. Our server was nice but you get tired of apologies and excuses like the kitchens backed up when the table next to you is enjoying their 6 meals in a timely manner. And we still got charged full price for our meals and my husband still left a tip… Needless to say it was not a good date night.

Lunched here recently. The service was great; the Truffled Mac & Cheese was the worst mac & cheese I’ve ever tasted. Overcooked noodles galore. Barely any cheese (or flavor). A few breadcrumbs sprinkled on top but obviously not toasted off in the oven. Seriously, SLO Brew and Black Sheep blow this paltry excuse for mac & cheese right out of the pub world.

Stopped by last week for an early drink and dinner. Bad service, average food. We ordered drinks and fries while we people watched and checked out the menu. Sadly, our fries were gone by the time our drinks arrived. No lie – it took us at least twenty minutes to get a margarita and a moscow mule. This was at 6:00 on a Saturday so it wasn’t like there were many other customers. The drinks were only okay and the food wasn’t anything special so I don’t think we’ll be back.

Raw Burger. Steak with «Ju» that has a thickening agent — not «Ju». And a wobby ass table trying to cut food. –_–

Amazing burgers! Tried the Santa Fe and was very impressed, amazingly light for how far it was. Goes well with a brown ale.

I’m only giving a three not because of great service great food! Beautiful scenery. but honestly. fix your air conditioner. I’d stay so much longer and spend more. I went to a crappie bar because it was so hot in that bar I literally couldn’t drink a beer.

My wife and I just finished lunch and was not impressed. The burgers were the best part and they were just ok. The bacon was from yesterday. The coleslaw was sour. The sweet potato fries were barely warm and tasteless.
This is our 2^nd meal that we were not impressed with. We won’t be back. It used to be good.

I’ve been here three times now. Once for lunch, once for the club and the other for drinks.
Food wise, great! I had the Caprese Sandwich and I absolutely loved it. It was made very well. Crunch bread, perfectly melted cheese and the balsamic vinegar was on. Point!
Club seen, DJ SUCKKKKKKS. Seriously. He didn’t know how to mix. Each song did not flow well into the next one. And he played the most randomest music. He didn’t even stick to a few songs before switching genres. He played Katie Perry, then Snoop, then Carry Underwood. Totally killed my vibe. I’m into Hip Hop & Top 40s, but at least make everything flow smoothly into the next song. That and he didn’t even play the whole song?! Da faq?! Let me get my groove on when you play my song, Mr. DJ!!!
Bar prices were average, wish there was a happy hour but it was fine. Probably come back just for lunch.
There isn’t too much in DT SLO anyway, so I guess I should be thankful for having another option of a bad DJ.

Came here on a Saturday night, it was pretty dead until around 11 which is to be expected in a college town. Crowd was amazingly fun, and the bartenders were super quick and incredibly nice!
Their bouncers on the other hand, are terrible. I obviously don’t look like I’m in college anymore and was dead sober, and they were a**holes to me. There’s inadequate ventilation in there when it’s packed, so my friend stepped outside to get some air. I wasn’t going to leave her outside alone, so I went outside as well. The bouncers wouldn’t let us back in to close our tabs, and because tabs were open, they held our IDs with our credit cards.
No bueno.

This place is ok — Burgers are ok — beer list ok — service ok… you get the point. It’s just average, there is nothing to make it stand out or make it special. Maybe I was just there on an off day?
The place just looks kind of run down — like it’s seen too many 3am drunken nights without a shower. There are so many better places to eat and drink in SLO that I probably wouldn’t return.

This place is ok not bad, good place for Lunch and have some drinks. I had the truffle mac and cheese it was pretty good.

Stopped in while bar hopping up there this past week. Came in during happy hour so the place was pretty slow, which we like. Waitress was super accommodating. I’m picky with my alcohol and she made me a drink «off menu» but still gave us happy hour prices .
We got tots and the beet salad… Which were great !!! Can’t find many places with beet salads its what originally drew me in.

Went to Mother’s Tavern for my friends 21^st birthday dinner. It was a Wednesday night and the place wasn’t busy at all. However, the service was extremely slow. We probably waited 15 minutes to get one drink that had zero alcohol. All their drinks were really weak.
The food took quite a while to come out as well but it was actually pretty tasty. I got the turkey sandwich which was excellent and my boyfriend got the MoTav burger that he devoured in about 3 seconds.
I would probably come back again but maybe skip the drinks. Hopefully the service will be a little quicker

One of my favorite clubs in SLO!
The DJ’s are great, the alcohol is strong, and the place is spacious! If you want to dance crazy, you are more than welcome to do so here. Just keep in mind, it does get real hot up there. ;)
Literally here every weekend LOL.
By the way, cover charge is $ 3 & the bouncers are super friendly… bartenders too.
GO MO-​TAV!

This is really only for the night experience… I didn’t try the food or the drinks. The bouncers were pretty nice as were the bartenders. $ 5 cover on Saturdays… yes, that applies for girls too –_–
I really liked the music here… none of that EDM stuff. The crowd is pretty friendly without being sleazy and there’s definitely enough space for dancing. It doesn’t get super stuffy either thanks to their high ceilings.
We went to the library right after and I think this place was much better! Overall, great experience and I would definitely come back again if I were in the area.