Bison Witches Bar & Deli

Good beer, good food, good location!

Have a great time here. Food is da bomb. And this karaōke guy spencer is crazy badass cool.
Great times!!!

Decent sandwiches. Terrible slowwww service. There is no reason that with only two other tables seated I should wait 20 minutes for a drink 25 to order and then another 30 minutes for a SANDWHICH. On top of that it wasn’t particularly clean.

Will never go again. This use to be a great hangout. But this last visit was the worst service I have had anywhere! Got ever single order wrong, completely forgot one meal. Waitress said she would «comp» something and only removed the sandwich that was never served. Horrible. And the food has gotten worse each visit. Not what it use to be.

The quality of the food has really plummeted over the past year. We use to love coming her to get the creamy clam chowder, not its watery and gross. The nachos were awesome, now the cheese looks brown and disgusting. After 7+ years of coming regularly we likely won’t be back.

Awfully Nice Of Management To Buy The Staff Karaōke To Entertain Themselves With, But They Should Have Spent The Money On Competent Bar & Kitchen Staff
We used to frequent this deli bar all the time. I loved the soup & sandwich combo, and I always capped it off with a Bloody Mary… or two… or three. After tonight, I’ll never go there again. Awful. Just awful. What the heck happened?
We arrived around 8pm. I was happy to see there were several patrons inside… but then this unbelievably loud, booming voice came on the PA in the corner announcing karaōke time. The place went from 15 people down to 4 in a matter of seconds. It totally cleared the place out, and we were about to find out why. The volume was so loud you had to shout at the person next to you, even though there was nobody in the bar to warrant the loudness. The first singer was absolutely horrific (did I mention the stadium volume). But the place has a nice patio, so no big deal, we went outside with everybody else. That’s when I saw that the singer was the bartender, and that my Bloody Mary arrived during his song.
Apparently the bartender had been mixing my drink with a microphone in one hand. That was obvious by how disgusting it was. There was no garnish. It was oddly bitter and must have had half a can of black pepper in it. After three sips, neither of us could stomach any more of it, so we left it and drank our waters and waited for our food.
When the food came, I looked at my sandwich. It was roast beef & turkey with smoked Gouda on white. It was haphazardly thrown on the tray. They missed the bread completely with the roast beef. I had to put it together myself. The roast beef was old, tough, and tasted of freezer burn. My date’s sandwich was smashed to paper thin and looked like something I would find in the bottom of my daughter’s 7^th grade locker. My bread bowl tasted funny & was tough & chewy… old bread. My date had ordered the Creamy Potato Bacon chowder. What came was bacon potato vegetable soup mixed with some potato chowder. It was runny, gritty, and tasted horrible. The chips were pretty good, though (those come prepackaged in little snack size bags from an outside company).
Thank God for Mary, our server. She was quick and very pleasant. If it hadn’t been for her, we probably wouldnt have gotten any food at all. We could see in the windows that the bartender & servers were all taking turns dancing around & caterwauling into the microphone. Sometimes the DJ would even take a turn singing… through a bullhorn… into a microphone.
We left half the food and all of the Bloody Mary. I wanted so badly to get up and just walk out. I’ll never go back.

I’d like to amend my last review because I just saw they were on the local news for having 6 health code violations one being no soap in the hand washing station and the other for keeping food past the expiration date… just saying.

Nice people for sure.
Beer selection trying to be hip by overpricing it. Their food gimmick is that they serve everything on a cafeteria tray…, I guess. Marble rye bread was good. I got a half sandwich and ‘salad’. White iceberg lettuce, limp accompanying veggies. Maybe their next produce delivery is tomorrow, who knows.
The dressing was good though, Honey Dijon. Oh, and bathroom was EW.
Validated Discount parking underneath– $ 3.00 for 2 hours, vs $ 6.00.

Stopped here for a quick bite with friends before a conference. The drinks came right away. After waiting over 45 minutes for our food, we finally received one order: allegedly «chili nachos,» it was a plate of dry tortilla chips accompanied by a cup of cold chili and a cup of ice-​cold, congealed nacho cheese. When we asked where our other four orders were, the server was very defensive — «sorry about the wait, but a bunch of other people just left and cancelled their orders, so we had to deal with that.» (Wow, can’t imagine why that happened!) At that point, we decided that we needed to leave without the food, because our conference sessions were about to begin. To his credit, the bartender said he wouldn’t charge us for the drinks. We tipped him and left. I’ve had decent — if not stellar — experiences at the location in Tucson, but I’m certainly never visiting this location again (and I’ll probably think twice before patronizing the Tucson location, too. There are too many places with good food and service to waste time on a place like this.)
I almost forgot to mention that the booth was comically decrepit — giant holes in the seat and a spring poking out from under the seat, occasionally scraping my leg if I wasn’t careful. And… for the coup de grace, when we exited the booth, the seat completely collapsed. It was actually sort of hilarious.

After waiting 45 – 50 minutes for our food, only one of our 5 orders arrived. It was chili cheese nachos. The cheese had already hardened and the portion was small. The server then asked, «are you waiting on other food?» Yeah, 4 more orders. That never came.

Got the smoked turkey and bread bowl-​chili combo. Bread was awesome, turkey was perfect, and the chili was excellent. Nothing processed.
Place is on the smaller side, but doesn’t take away anything from it. Has outdoor seating, and what looks like to be full bar.
Great place to get a quick bite.

Today my girlfriend and I figured we would try something new in Tempe, after parking we came across Bison Witches and figured we would try it out. I have never been there before but she raved about going to one in Tucson while in college. The below is the story of the only 10 minutes I will ever spend in this Bison Witches again…
We walk in and there are two young men working at the bar (college students?) and there is one other person seated. Outside, there is one table of around 4 people. So basically «dead». We take a seat in a booth by one of the tv’s and it is in pretty poor shape rocking back and forth. One of the young men comes over and hands us menus and says «we should probably fix that haha». He then proceeds to walk away while NOT taking our drink order. For the next five minutes he is outside while the other guy is messing around the tv, which is NOT high def, nor is the DirectTV. But the Nintendo and VHS player on the rack was really sweet *sarcasm*. Then we both notice that its about 90 degrees in this joint, its 100 outside, can we get some A/​C?
This is when it gets frustrating. Another young couple walks in and the guy behind the bar gets them their drinks/​water in UNDER A MINUTE! He returns to the bar, not looking at us. I understand he isn’t the guy who brought the menus over but come on man. Im in amazement as I keep starring at him and he is paying no attention to us. «Our guy» was still outside with the college kids doing god knows what. This is all while another 5 minutes passed.
Well at this point, 10 minutes in, on a dead day, we decided to leave. I haven’t done that in, well maybe ever. The guy behind the bar and our menu guy outside do not even look our way. We ended up going to Steak and Shake and enjoying a delicious burger. This poor service is probably why the place looks like its stuck in the early 2000’s and why people on here keep saying its dead. Whoever owns this bar should call John Taffer immediately…

Good sandwiches and good beer selection, but the service tends to be slow. If you’re not in a hurry, this is a great option for lunch.
I tend to order a half-​sandwich, since they’re pretty large. However, if you’re hungry, taking down a whole one isn’t too difficult.

When your server says, «I don’t have time to tell you the drinks, there’s the sign,» and points then stares at you blankly… I don’t have time to spend my business here. With maybe seven customers in the entire bar at 11pm on a Saturday– your best option: go somewhere else. If you’re looking for a good time, this is definitely not the right place to be.

Great place. Their house shots are unique. Lunch menu is good. And it’s unusual to say a tuna sandwich is amazing, but it really was. You should try it. But the greatest thing is that the service is great! And props to the new owner,(forgot his name), who checked up on our meal. And props to the cool, pink arm-​casted, bartender who played some really chill music.
Update: since we had such a great experience the first few times we kept coming back. Unfortunately, the subsequent times we went we did not have such a great experience. Between the bad music (random as fuck pandora stations), inexperienced bartenders (what’s in a mojito), dead atmosphere, and expensive drinks I don’t think We will be giving this place another chance to get back in our good graces.

Great spot right off of Mill. Went for lunch with some co-​workers and the place wasn’t too loud. Food was great.
Not only is the food selection great but the drinks menu is huge as well. Definitely give them a look if you are in the area and are thirsty/​hungry or both!
Also they usually have brats and beer on game day.

I thought this place had sandwiches made out of Bison meat — but no… «Bison Witches… Buy Sandwiches.» Get it?
I know I’m on a roll with the 5 star reviews here, but this place deserves it as well. So incredibly good. It’s a great little bar tucked behind the bank and the food is amazing. I loved my sandwich. I’m definitely going back.
While I was sitting there eating my sandwich, a bus rolled up and a girl’s college volleyball team piled off to come in and eat — they were all wearing their uniforms and some had ice packs taped to their knees or elbows etc… I won’t say that this swayed my review score, but it didn’t hurt. This is a lovely place. Eat here.

Blessing and a curse that while everything else is bustling on mill at 1AM, Bison Witches is slow and quiet. When I needed a break from loud music, this was a welcome reprieve. The beer selection is small, but eclectic. I don’t see Big Sky Moose Drool in just any bar, ya know. Good to see they’ve got appreciation for all the Rocky Mountain Brews.
$ 5 jäger bombs, and they were actual bombs where you drop a shot glass into a cup. So thrilled to see it done right! Perfect margaritas weren’t so perfect, but they were pretty big so I’ll let it slide.
This is a chill bar that I recommend using to regroup during your late-​night Tempe benders.
What’s that… it’s a restaurant too? Maybe I’ll get around to trying the sandwiches!

The boy and I stopped in here for a «quick» sandwich and brew while we were perusing the Tempe Art Festival. I hadn’t been in years, and remember it being so yummy.
Yummy it was. Service was alright, at best. We had a seat at the bar, bartender immediately greeted us, and got us a quick beer, he even offered up a second choice for me when they didn’t have the 8^th Street I wanted, How does a Tempe bar not carry 8^th Street? Anyway… I ordered the Cali something, it had avocado and turkey and some other stuff, I asked for wheat bread and it came on a croissant. I would have sent it back but it took almost 30 minutes to get there to start with I wasn’t letting it out of my sight. He got the creamy chicken salad, very tasty.
I stopped int eh bathroom at one point and was not surprised to see they had one of those atypical party bar bathrooms, shit all over the walls, locks not working on the door, clogged toilet that made me almost loose my lunch, and sand paper for TP. But what can you expect in Tempe, a decent bathroom? Psh no way!
We got the bill, after trying to catch the bartenders eye for a few minutes. Paid up and hit the festival some more.
We had a good lunch but it could have been better. Their food is very good, at the very least if you want a great sandwich, you should hit them up!

Bison Witches (the Lawrence, Kansas location) holds a special and highly sentimental place in my heart — I stopped there on my long drive from the midwest to Tucson, for my first year of undergrad. Then when I arrived in Tucson, what did I find? Bison Witches! Right there on Fourth Ave! So on a recent swing through Phoenix, I convinced my carful of road-​trippers to stop at good ol’ Bison Witches for a late (around 3pm) lunch.
I try not to let sentimentality get in the way of my reviews, which is how BW landed at three stars for me that day. They might’ve earned four stars, but our food took FOREVER, and longer than fellow patrons’, at a non-​busy time and with no explanation. Our waitress was nice enough but pretty MIA (which is NOT my usual service complaint, as I can’t stand hover-​y servers), and we didn’t see her at all between ordering and receiving our food (over 30 minutes later). When she delivered it there was no acknowledgement of the wait time or the fact that the three other tables of people in the whole place had all gotten their food before us, despite ordering after.
Oh well. Everyone has an off-​service day. The sandwiches were good, but not as good as I remember (is anything ever as good as in our memory?).