Coaches Bar & Grill

It has a very nonchalant atmosphere. The décor is fitting for a sports bar and in good condition. The house Moscato is delicious. We ordered the firecracker shrimp, which turned out to be unimpressive. It wasn’t spicy at all and tasted a little undercooked. My husband got the strip steak sandwich (which we both enjoyed). Our waiter was polite.

Crazy bad time. The place was almost empty but the would not sit us we had to beg to be allowed to stand at the bar they would not let us sit at the empty table rops at the bar. They told us the kitchen could not handle the rush. Rush? The place was empty and we kept say that we were not in a rush we had all night. The staff was nice but they kept going to the back to talk to the manager who kept saying no. I would love to know why the manager would nj ot come talk to us instaed the manager hid out back making the staff be the bad guy. If we could have gone anywhere else we would have but all of the places that actually wanted to make money were packed. It was the craziest olace i have ever been empty tables empty bar and fully staffed but they kept saying sorry we can’t handle the rush. We finally got in and the service was friendly but i would never go back.

Ew. I honestly can’t rate this place a 1 star because it wasn’t THAT bad but it doesn’t deserve over 2 stars. The food is gross. I mean, I understand it is bar food, but it is awful. Are they cooking frozen stuff from GFS back there? So disappointing. I also will give them the 2^nd star because the bartender was very friendly and made me a great margarita. They have a full bar, but their beer choices are very lack luster.
I only came in here to do some work while staying at the Hilton Garden Inn it is attached to, but I’ve learned my lesson and will not be back.

This place is horrendous. I came here for dinner tonight and all I heard were the chefs cussing one another out. The food is way overpriced. I had the waffle fries. Old & dry. My burger was good, however. Server… James? Bigger guy was casual, friendly. This place just has a trashy feel. There is no way the hilton is partners with this place… I hope. Won’t return. Nicks is much better

Great place! Have been coming here for years. Not your typical Bloomington sports bar. A good venue for adults who want a quieter scene. Steak, turkey club, veggie wrap, waffle fries. . all good. Excellent server, they usually are here at Coaches. Will come back many times.

Coaches was a super big disappointment. I went there to watch the IU/​Rutgers game on the TVs, and it was dead, which I found strange, especially on a game day. I had a Fat Tire and the unlimited chips and salsa. Now, the unlimited chips and salsa would have been an amazing deal if they were amazing chips and salsa — but really they opened a can of Pace and served stale red, yellow, and blue tortilla chips.
The service was okay, but most of the staff spent more time on their phones that helping the 4 people that were at the bar.

Food and drinks are not good to begin with. The atmosphere is a poor excuse for a sports bar in a college town. The redeeming quality is that the service is friendly (not proficient, but still really friendly)!

It is a «sports bar» and we went in for an NFL divisional playoff game. None of the many SMALL tvs were on the game. Even though almost nobody was there we were completely ignored. The one bartender was absorbed in a discussion with one patron. I hope he tipped well but Mr. Owner that gets you nothing. We left.

Probably some of the worst food I have eaten. Got a free complimentary breakfast, was able to get tons of free food, problem is it all tasted horrible. I would not eat at this place for breakfast if they paid me to eat their food. I’d rather go pay my own money for decent tasting food.
Later in the evening I gave it a second go-​around and got a chicken sandwich and some chips and «house made salsa». I’m about 99% sure the «house made salsa» came out of a Tostitos Salsa jar, because that’s what it looked and tasted like. The chicken sandwich was edible, certainly nothing great, but probably the highlight of the food I ate there.
I don’t think I’d go back.

I suspect that every single college town in the U.S. has a Coaches Bar & Grill or a Coaches Corner Bar & Grill… be that as it may, they are handy little outlets for quenching one’s thirst while catching up on the sports scene. For Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana the Coaches Bar & Grill is hooked up to the Hilton Garden Hotel on College Avenue.
Since it is hard by the hotel it acts as the hotels food outlet. Just off the hotel lobby and all indoors, this restaurant is perfect when you are staying at the hotel. Whether you meet someone there or use it as the hotel restaurant, it works with the hotel to provide a nice hotel/​restaurant combination. There must be two dozen TVs in the bar so you will not lack for entertainment. The theme is Indiana University coach memorabilia, but they also have stuff from other famous State of Indiana peeps such as Larry Bird of Indiana State and Boston Celtics fame.
When we were there it was a late night stop so we shared a sample platter (pretty good but some of the food had been hanging out for awhile) and a couple of Killian’s Irish Red (always a nice choice). They have lots of beer choices… maybe a dozen on draft… and a full bar for those looking for something else. Pretty extensive bar menu filled with pub grub selections. We’ll go back to try some of the other offerings. Service can be spotty with all the college kids working here, but it isn’t too bad.

This bar/​restaurant is attached to the Hilton.
Hubby and I went here because at check in you get a voucher for 500 HHonors (Gold baby!!) points if you spend $ 25 or more.
Atmosphere at the time was crazy because the hotel was hosting sports tournaments for the weekend, but since they left it seems to be dead. Mind you, school is out for summer.
I ordered the Caesar wrap but made it into a ranch wrap instead. It was delicious. They have an option of sides and I got waffle fries! They were delicious as well. Ranch was amazing. They have happy hours specials all throughout the week. Our server was a sweet heart; I am taking a week away from kids and the place was full of kids so he moved us where there was no children.
You can take your food to the courtyard of the hotel. Same with pitchers of beer (48 oz.) just not the towers (100 oz). Pitcher was $ 8, tower $ 15.
I like that I can order room service from them while staying in the hotel.
Bill was 30ish with pitcher of beer, hubby’s dinner, my dinner, and chips and salsa.
I’ve ordered 3 times if that tells you anything.

The one thing this place has going for it is that it is relatively inexpensive food.
The quality of the food is mediocre at best. I had a burger. It was cooked fine, but the quality of the ingredients was only as expected for the price of the burger. The beer was moderately priced – maybe on the steeper end than what I’d rather do.
The server that I had was incredibly annoying. I’m sure he was just trying really hard on a slow night. But he’d visit our table approximately every 2 – 3 minutes asking if our meal was OK or if we needed something else. My friend and I went to enjoy a game on the TVs — this really disrupted our experience.
I really regretted that our server also did not let us know about the food specials. He was quick to note the beer specials (nothing fantastic) however, I would have appreciated knowing about the cheaper food option (even though I didn’t pay too much in the first place).
Overall, it was mediocre. Nothing special. If you need to watch the game and some of the other sports bars are full or you want a quieter environment, then it’s not a bad place to visit.
Lastly — important notice!!! This restaurant does not appear as a restaurant in your credit card statements (since it’s part of the attached hotel). Thus, any of you expecting higher rewards for restaurants, don’t expect it here because it’ll show up as a hotel expense instead. Just thought you should know if you have Discover or something similar which does higher % cash back for restaurants every once in a while.

We used to live right by this place and loved it. The atmosphere was always fun and it wasn’t as crazy packed as some of the other bars around. I miss when they first opened, though, because they had these ruben spring rolls and they were AMAZING and different, but good drink specials and good food. Always good wings. Also, always clean. And we went to a party in a reserved room in the back and it was a great size and pretty reasonably priced.

Despite the poor reviews on Unilocal,we decided to give this place a try because it’s TGIF, and according to the reviews, this place is fairly empty, secondly, it’s Fish and Chips for $ 6.50, who can deny such temptation? And we wanted a bar with TVs to show the grand opening ceremony of Olympics.
And to our surprise, we totally enjoyed our experience dining here tonight. A guy welcomed us when we walked in, very friendly and led us to a table with the perfect TV view and our waitress, Suzanne, is sweet and attentive, food was served promptly and the waffle fries + steak fries were piping hot and crispy. The fish and chips was pretty good and so was the big portion of pork tenderloin sandwich with fresh vegetables in it.
The price was pretty reasonable considering that we had two entrees, one drink, one dessert and it totaled up to $ 24.95+. If I were to complain one thing, I’d have to say the multilayer-​ed chocolate cake was just okay, pretty rough, dry loose texture? Now, when I think of it, you could probably get those in grocery stores. So, skip the chocolate cake and enjoy the entrees!

Went to this place a couple of times and the food isn’t that great. There are better places to go to in Bloomington. But I would stay away from this place and Scotty’s. Both are mediocre at best.

Horrible service, beer doesn’t taste right. An all-​around sad experience.

I was really craving a cheeseburger around six thirty on a Friday night so I ended up at Coaches Bar and Grill after trying two other places that were running long wait lists. Due to the large size of Coaches dining room we were seated immediately. The waitress we had was new and it seemed like it was her first serving job. Friday nights they have a wells liquor u-​call-​it special and my boyfriend ordered a well whiskey on the rocks and the server came back twice to clarify his order, she didn’t understand that he just wanted whiskey with ice.
Our food arrived relatively promptly, as did our check. The food was very average, nothing was wrong with it, but it wasn’t spectacular or particularly memorable. The fries were lukewarm, which was disappointing because I (like most people) like my fries piping hot.
Overall it met our needs and was reasonably priced, but given the chance I’d rather go to Upland or Nick’s.

If you are looking for a menu with a large selection of bar and grill type food at reasonable prices then Coaches meets that criteria. We went two nights in a row because we were staying in the hotel and didn’t have a ton of time to go elsewhere. While the food wasn’t anything to write home about, it was good. The buffalo wings were very good. Nice and hot. Onion rings were crisp. Steak fries tasted only slightly better than the kind I can buy in the store. The grilled cheese I had tasted good, but there was too much cheese so the cheese that oozed out from the bread congealed rather quickly. I got over that though and would order it again if I was in the mood for it. Overall the food was worth the inexpensive price.
Both times we had groups of 5+ people. Each time the bar/​restaurant was not busy at all. Service was always correct, polite and courteous. They had no problem splitting the bill for us and the fact that you can charge it to your room was nice. They also had a good beer selection.

Stay away from this place. The service was the worst I’ve had in Bloomington. I was with a party of 8 and we were the only people in the entire place. We were very courteous to our waiter yet he didn’t seem to care about anything we said. He got a number of orders wrong and then insisted that HE was right! I’ve never seen anything like that before.
The food was also pretty gross. We got nachos, which had no salsa, no sour cream. It was just dry and kind of gross. The fish and chips were probably the least tasty I’ve ever eaten.
This is supposed to be a sports bar, yet the TVs were obstructed by the walls and/​or ceiling. Very bad planning. Not only that, but most of the pictures on the TVs were so fuzzy, that we couldn’t even make out what was happening on them.
I’m not going back here. Go to Scotty’s Brewhouse which is not far from here instead.

Most of the time I would rate Coach’s a 3-​star for food but I feel the potential to upgrade to a 4-​star with a little effort. Some items, such as fish and chips and burgers are great… kids menu good, and the atmosphere is pretty nice for a hotel bar.
Problem is that service is hit-​or-​miss, some items are bland (chicken fingers, etc) and the dining room is often EMPTY… which leads to less fun, but also no waiting!
Generally speaking, if you’re looking for a quick bite to eat, you won’t be dazzled, but it’s convenient. It’s a bit overpriced, BTW.