The Arena

Went to the arena tonight it was interesting. A lot of people. Smelled like a lot of people. I found a bar seat which was hard. Then the bartender asked what I wanted but said «what do you want N word Jim». I may be black but I’ve been called that. I left disgusted and appalled. I may be black but I’m proud

What a really sucky menu. I don’t want to watch sports while eating with my pinky out. I just want a burger and some fries. And how is there no Michigan beer on tap??? Bar Rescue ruined The Arena. There are many many other places in town to get good food and local beer on tap. **Ashley’s** **cough cough** My point being, it feels like The Arena is trying to be something they are not.

We drive out Sunday after viewing the Bar Rescue episode rerun. I was really looking forward to seeing an «after» of a Jon Taffer project. Unfortunately this was my first visit to The Arena so I can’t compare a before and after. It really didn’t look spectacular but it presents itself as a nice bar and grill. Jon often talks about motorcycles being a turnoff to female customers if they are lined up outside the front door. What I find to be a huge turn off are smokers, puffing away at the door. They litter the sidewalk with their used butts and leave clouds of smoke for bar patrons to walk through.
It would be my suggestion that this owner choose one of three doors in operation, preferably not the main corner entrance, to set up a smoking station at. Although I believe smokers must be removed 59 feet from the property to smoke legally in the state.
Aside from that, we were greeted quickly by Jeff who welcomed us and offered us to choose the table of our choice. He followed and presented us menus, told us he would be our server and that he was leaving to get us water.
No real salesmanship in work here, satisfied in letting my wife order a well drink instead of suggesting say, Absolut or Finlandia. My wife ordered the French onion soup and a bald potato. I ordered the chicken fajitas and some French onion soup too
We loved the soup, although not real hot if you enjoy your soup hot. It was perfect for quick consumption though. The chicken fajita was served on a very hot sizzle plate, common, but may have helped in making the overlooked veggies more well done. I really liked the 4 soft shells and the warmer they were served in. I also liked the side plate of lettuce, tomatoes and cheese blend. Lastly it was served with sour cream, guacamole and salsa. The serving of chicken was about 25% less Han most servings we have seen but well seasoned. All was going well until I found two small bones in the chicken on two different bites.
I brought the bones and the overlooked vegges to Jeff’s attention and later when presenting our bill informed us he had taken half off of the entrée. Jeff did not try to sell another cocktail to my wife but gladly rounded one up when she asked for one. His last attempt at selling was the dessert menu which he tried twice to peak our interest with.
As many others have stated Mike does speak about his experience with the show. If what he said is true I am disappointed that this is a staged show.
And lastly he did find a few people to discuss U of M and MSU with at the bar. However I did not witness any chest beating during this he was energetic and passionate about U if M and allowed to chime in and offer their opinions as well.
We look forward to our next visit for the French onion soup for sure and to see what other items can be our favorites as well.

I ate here recently and received really poor service. I asked to speak with a manager, since our waiter wouldn’t actually talk to us, served the table next to us twice, and finally paid our table a visit half an hour after we arrived. The manager would not hear our concerns about how the server just stared at us to take our orders, no greeting … just blank expression after we personally flagged him down take our orders. Yeesh — It was really unpleasant.
We’re frequent customers, so were mystified, but it’s really not surprising, since the food quality has remained average while the service has dipped considerably.

I had a very good experience when I came here. Their food was very good, they were working short and the service was excellent I will be back.

Ok sports bar. Nothing special

No heat in the building so it’s uncomfortably cold. Space heaters being used can’t be legal with city code. Long wait for food… they don’t seem to have their stuff together

Great sports bar! Had Brady as our server tonight and he was amazing! Great personality, super friendly and helpful with any questions or needs we had. We ordered the egg rolls, potato skins, and mozz sticks as our app, and had the monte Cristo, and the southwest burgers both in Hamburger and chicken forms and everything was amazing! Can’t wait for my next visit here! Keep up the great service Brady!

Bar food, but good, suggest the sweet potatoes fries. Good drinks, cold beer and good mixed drinks.

Honestly we checked this place out cuz it was in Bar Rescue… Bartender Jen was super nice, tried the 2 of the signature drinks, super sweet and missing their garnish but not a big deal. Place looked great and seemed busy

Service is always good here, food is decent and drinks are good. After Bar Rescue came in, they made a few cosmetic changes that I noticed but the rest is similar. Definitely a place we stop in at when bar hopping in A2.

As another Unilocaler mentioned, Jon Taffer and his show Bar Rescue killed The Arena. It used to be awesome — if you were looking for a sports bar with traces of dive bar thrown in. The service was awesome, the drinks were cheap, and the food was pretty good for what you were paying for. I mean, how fancy do you expect mozzarella sticks to be?
Post Jon Taffer: The whole dang inside is painted blue — removing any of the warm wood tones. They put some brighter bulbs in and strapped some Michigan pictures on the wall and called it a day. Thank you for your wisdom Taffer, you made the Arena the lovechild of a T.G.I.Fridays and a Buffalo Wild Wings in Ann Arbor.
We come here regularly for trivia on Thursdays, and as a group of six people, spend two hours knocking back $ 3 Michigan bottled beer which is a happy hour special. This is apparently something they’re not doing anymore. Not only that but there’s almost no Michigan beer left in the establishment. How do you expect to compete with places like Ashley’s or heck even Buffalo Wild Wings with that kind of beer selection.
Finally the service, which used to always be friendly and prompt was neither on our most recent visit. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they’re just having an off night and give them an extra star. In the mean time, this trivia team is headed elsewhere until the Arena un-​does whatever Jon Taffer did.

Went here in a game day after the game to grab beers with some Buddies. All of us were From out of town and to be honest everyone was very very friendly. But there were a few things that stood out. One thing was bartenders taking shots of alcohol with customers. Now, in Oregon that’s a big no no but not sure the rules in Michigan. I also have to say that there was a huge issue with over serving. There we multiple groups around us who were obviously over intoxicated yet the waitresses continued to serve them because they knew they were racking up a large tab at the end of the night. Don’t get me wrong I’m not the fun police here but it’s something that should be noted. Overall bathrooms were clean, waitress was nice. And lots of TV’s including ones at your table. If I’m ever back I might stop in for a beer but I’d be willing to also look for some other great spots in this little town.

I’ve been to The Arena a multitude of times, but after learning Bar Rescue was there to do a revamp decided to stop in for a drink before having dinner at another restaurant. I was with a group of 8 and for a Friday night they looked fairly slow so we got seated quickly.
New décor: I watch Bar Rescue a lot and am always impressed with the redecoration of all the bars. This one? Not so much. Sure, the bar looks a little cooler with lighted stands for the liquor but all it seems they did was put some UM football pics on the wall. It just looked like a cheap job. The kicker for me was that the hallway to the bathrooms REEKED just like it used to before the remodel. Also, I picked a stall where the door handle was broken and unlock able. Come on now Arena, please fix that.
Beer: HOW DO THEY HAVE NO MICHIGAN BEERS ON TAP?! Sure, they have like 10 in bottle, but you’re in Ann Arbor filled with bars that serve craft beer on tap! Was not a fan of that at all. So, I stuck with some Sam Adams.
Didn’t eat the food, as I advised our group against eating here as the food has been historically mediocre.
Hoped for better after the remodel.

Great place to have some drinks, especially if there’s a game on. Food is more or less what you’d expect, but we’ve always received top notch service here no matter how busy it gets.

Far from impressed by their policies/​service. We had one person in our group who did not order a drink and the way they presented their policy about charging $ 2 for her water was unprofessional. Then they had another policy (or maybe it was just because the server felt like it) where the other people at my table couldn’t get their checks until I had signed mine (I requested mine a little earlier). This was also presented rudely and made absolutely no sense. The big problem wasn’t even their policies, although I did think they were a bit ridiculous, it was the way they were presented. Overall I left feeling disrespected and unwelcome.
The Arena had no redeeming qualities that would make me want to go there and endure the way we were treated a second time. There are plenty of sports bars in the area that are just as good, if not better, for watching games and have much friendlier policies and customer service.

Catching some lunch time march madness with a buddy. We wanted to watch the Kansas New Mexico State game. The game was on all tvs until the Michigan State game came one. Great thing about this bar is that the booths have their own tv. Typical bar food and drinks. I had the chicken strips appetizer that doesn’t come with fries (only the dinner comes with fries). I think they could actually reduce the number of strips and add fries for the same price. The server was very attentive even as the place grew increasingly crowded with Michigan state fans.

Came here twice over the weekend when I was in Ann Arbor and both times were good experiences. First time was around 10:00 PM on a Friday night, place was packed, but a table in bar area opened up pretty quickly and we were sat. The feel of the bar is definitely a local, home grown sports bar that is welcoming to the out of towners like myself.
The first night we were there for a few rounds and encountered some fun locals, great service and a laid back and fun atmosphere. We ended up bellied up to the bar the next day, and were greeted by the same waitress from the previous night. We were planning on simply swinging by for a beer, but that beer turned into two football games, 1 shot and 6 beers. It happens, I guess it could have been at a worse place!
It does have standard issue bar food, but I didn’t dive too far in to the food side of the place as I was content with the beer and the people. Overall, both visits were great. Service was on point, beer was cold and the people friendly. Will definitely be back when in the area again.

[3.5 stars] Out for drinks with grad students last night. I will start off by saying we were a group of 6 that grew to about 16 and pushed another table on to ours so sorry about that. Pro: clean bathroom! I love finding a bar with a super nice bathroom and Arena does. Pro: tons of TV screens as a sports bar should have. Con: I know, I know, it’s a sports bar, Ann Arbor liquor licenses are hard to secure, but I’m not a beer girl – I’m a cocktail girl. There were four cocktails for me to choose from. The one I had [$ 3.50-nice price though!] was alright but nothing to write home about. I had a great time there with the people I was with though. All in all, it seems like a good sports bar – just not my personal favorite spot.

First bar I went to in Ann Arbor. I wandered a bot before finding this place, hoping to find a good football bar on Sunday. Not a ton of TV’s but enough. Ended up making friends on both sides of the bar. I ordered buffalo wings, a couples Guinessi* and a Bloody Mary. The BM was tasty, and the bar tender knew how to pour a Guinness proper. Despite being «super hung over» the bar tender was quite nice. I highly recommend checking this joint out for some Sunday football fun. DO IT!

Came here for a pre-​game meal on a Saturday late afternoon. As to be expected, the place was packed. However, this dis not stop the service from being attentive and bringing food/​drink to our table without delay. The food is typical pub grub, with a few variations. The quality was good, too.
Downtown Ann Arbor has some cool and funky restaurants, but it’s good to see they have something for the football crowd, too.

Good food specials and drink specials. There are many great places to stop in and have a drink or a bite to eat on this street. We found Arena’s to have great food specials and the food was quite tasty. The staff was very friendly and gave us information about the area and things to do. We enjoyed Arena’s friendly staff and the food. We will stop by again when we are back in Ann Arbor.

The Arena is a sports bar, it’s the local favorite though so that may kick it up a notch for some people. Not blown away by the food but they do have a decent beer selection. Staff has always been pretty cool.

What can I say. Nothing extraordinary but it’s a good place to hang out with friends late night for drinks. I haven’t eaten here so I can’t base my review on that. Service is slow at times. They have some outside seating which is where we sat when we met up with friends. Beers are good and prices are decent. Fun place all in all.

The place is certainly rustic and older, but hey, there’s a certain charm in that (but maybe not in the old, lingering smell). The wait staff is friendly and efficient, and the food comes out pretty quickly. Coming with a few friends for a night out would be fun. And the bathrooms, those are nice, clean and relatively new.
–Pretzel Roll Turkey Melt (turkey breast, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, Kaiser roll): it’s a good sandwich – well put together and the perfect ratio of ingredients. The Swiss cheese helps make it creamy and the Kaiser roll mushes perfectly into the meat. Mixed with a side of French fries it makes for a good lunch. Not the best, but good.
FINAL VERDICT: It’s a sports bar so you’ll have your sports bar food, but hey, it doesn’t taste bad.

I am just not wild about the Arena. There aren’t a ton of good sports bars in Ann Arbor and this is one of the mediocre ones. The food is just okay. The service is generally good. When I went in last, they wouldn’t let us sit in one of the areas because they didn’t want to move the tables back when we were done. There were 6 of us. It was weird.

This better be a good one… It’s review 200!
This is a strange review for me. rarely am I drawn to a sports bar for food. I found a Living Social deal online and couldn’t pass this one up. Now I’m a believer in The Arena.
The Arena is in the old corner building in downtown Ann Arbor that used to be Metzger’s. They pretty much kept the old ambiance and dark wood surroundings, but added lots of flat screen televisions and neon and a bit of rowdiness.
Drinks… no doubt about it. The Arena has a great beer selection and with a bar that almost runs ½ the length of the building, they have any alcohol you might choose. Prices are reasonable.
The food is what really surprised me. Sure, my wife’s nachos were appetizing, but the thing that caught my eye was the Monte Cristo sandwich. This deep fried, delectable concoction of fat and calories is to die for. Picture a tasty club sandwich kicked up. It’s bread and turkey and ham and cheese (sounds healthy so far!) but then you take the entire sandwich, batter it and deep fry it. Not only does this seal in the flavors of the sandwich inside, but it adds all that GOOD oil to your diet.
Now’s the time to seal the deal. Cut that sandwich into 4 pieces, cover it with power sugar and serve it with raspberry jam.
Three is no way to describe the happiness that this brings to my stomach. I was bad, I covered a quarter with jam and spent the next few minutes licking it off to the rousing cheers of my friends at the table.
At some point in time… you must at least stop at the Arena and give it a go. I can say that you won’t be disappointed.