Duffy’s Tavern

Bartender ignored us for a while and food was sub par (freezer burn). Also aluminum bud light cans not desirable. Just a pet peeve.

We have dined on the formal side of Duffy’s twice and had a nice dining experience. Unfortunately, tonight at Duffy’s Tavern was a disaster. From the moment we arrived, even with a reservation we waited 15 minutes to be seated and were ignored by the absence of a hostess.
The meal was rushed and our waitress dressed in a baseball cap and chucks could have cared less if we were there or not. No specials were offered; no bread was served; and the first round of drinks delayed.
Once our meal came no one checked on us until the plates needed to be bussed from the table. We were then asked if we wanted the check with zero mention of coffee or desert. We did leave a tip and would question returning.

Went here over homecoming weekend. Had reservations for Saturday evening at 7-​ish. Had to wait 1:45 minutes for our order. We didn’t order any appetizers, soups or salads, just a main course. I ordered the seafood crêpe and the entire dish was cold. The Italian couscous was clumpy and the veggies were soggy. The seafood inside the crêpe, which was minimal, was tiny, like the kind you find in a store bought seafood salad. Horrible. Waste of $$. Won’t go back.
Parking is also a hassle.

We have taken countless visitors here — I’ve probably dined at Duffy’s 15 – 20 times in the past three years. Great atmosphere, and I’ve been happy with the service (unlike others), but I have the impression that things have gone downhill, food-​wise.
Last week I showed up with a friend for dinner — we both ordered the duck, and where clearly underwhelmed. The roasted brussels sprouts were very salty, and the sweetish peach-​y relish on top of the uninspiring duck didn’t work so well. The crème brulée was nice, but didn’t seem particularly fresh — I would’ve thought they’d take the cup out of the fridge and burn the top to make it a «brulée» — but as cold as it was, it seemed like it was all prepared that afternoon or earlier. Overall, I would have rather spent my calories for the evening on something nicer than this menu.
They do have some good specials on occasion: I remember having excellent elk with a (coffee?) crust, or a smaller dish with cod and potatoes in a milky sauce (somewhat reminiscent of Scots cullen skink). (The seafood crêpe was not my favorite, but some people liked the crab cakes.)
The beer menu at Duffy’s is and has been uninteresting. They have none of the local microbrews, but Yuengling and a also Yards porter, which is nice. Sitting by the fireplace, most beers and wines will make me happy.
Overall, Duffy’s is at a cross-​roads. It might be moving from one of my preferred restaurants to just «okay». I hope they’re going to sit down and think about the menu and their creations, because I really want to like this place. It’s 2015, the nation has seen a food revolution, and just like the «Tavern» in downtown State College, you can’t just keep serving the menu that you’ve developed in the 1980’s.

Friendly, attentive service. Sat at the bar on a Sunday mid-​afternoon. Good local bar and vibe. Definitely a historic building.

Ate here several times during my stay in BB. Very quaint and people are very nice. Food is very good. Kids liked it too. Quiet, not for party people most nights.

It was basically okay. I think it was not so cheap, kind of greasy. I really liked the onion soup though. It is a good place to have some drinks with friends. The cake was awesome, as last time I went.

My fiancé and I went here for dinner and he found a very long hair in his burger. The waitress took the burger away, but brought back the same plate that the hair had touched with the fries on it and set it down in front of him, saying «at least the fries are still good.» We waited about 15 minutes for a new burger, which did not come with fresh fries. The waitress then proceeded to dump the (now cold) fries from the hair plate onto the new plate without asking. They charged us for everything (including the additional $ 1.50 for fries), and didn’t offer anything to make up for the experience. The burger was also ordered medium rare but came back well done both times. Finding the hair was gross, but the inadequate response was worse.

Good food but horrible service. Waitress was so rude and disrespectful. We had a party of 11 and none of us will go back. Complained to the hostess, she said she’d talk to her… but doubt that will happen.

NEVER GO TO DUFFY’S. They continually lied about our wait time (after forgetting about our reservation), saying that we would have food «very soon», but made us wait over an hour for a table and another hour for food. After trying to talk to management, we were lied to again — told that the owner was «working in the kitchen for 10 tickets» when we were the only customers left in the restaurant. Suffice to say, we will never be back.

Whatever you do don’t sit in the bar if you aren’t a local. You won’t get served and service is BAD. We waited 20 minutes for a beer and asked several times if we could get a waitress. Apparently only the bartender can serve people seating in bar or at the bar even though there are waitresses congregating at the bar. We saw locals come and go with refills of beer and food.
Food was good though.
First time ever I didn’t leave a tip. Ruined our old town experience.

My daughter and I happened upon this very charming place and enjoyed seafood crepes, calamari, crab dip and crab cakes. We sat next to Bruce Clark and his wife (Penn state all star footballer and Saints). They were so friendly! Sweet potato fries were great!

While we were a bit disappointing with the champagne offerings, my wife and I both really enjoyed the food. The service was just OK and the beer selection was a little weak in my mind. But neither was enough to keep us from wanting to go back.

Early dinner yesterday with the wife.
Transplants from NY we’re always searching for good food/​prices/​service.
We have dined here probably 10x in the last 3+ years and we have never been disappointed in either of my three critical categories.
Yesterday was no exception.
Starters included cup of house-​made French onion soup and small side salad (spinach) w/​house-​made dressing. Both delicious.
We had burgers this time
Mine was the Colonel Burger (stuffed with fries/​slaw/​egg/​bacon), which was killer and the wife had the expresso burger (lightly dusted with coffee flavor and a hunk of Gouda w/​caramelized onions, also spot on.
Burgers included regular french fries and sweet potato french fries with I believe sea salt. Both were fresh cut and actually very good and plentiful.
Service was excellent and the prices were as expected. Why not 5 then?
There really weren’t any misses but we must leave room for improvement.

I love the rustic charm of this place. It’s a very old house with many interesting rooms.
We celebrated our 7 year anniversary here last night and had a great time. Our service was fantastic!
We order the calamari as an appetizer which was cooked well and had 2 well-​paired sauces. I got the rack of lamb with polenta cakes and it was delicious! Everything was cooked to perfection. My boyfriend ordered te prime rib which also didn’t dissappoint!
We’ll be back!

This is a terrific restaurant. Tons and tons of food options /​extensive menu. Blackened salmon salad was wonderful, so was the pasta putanesca. Nice beer options, beautiful old building restaurant, great place to know about, will hit it up again next time I am passing through.

Really beautiful, historic building, the seating on the glass-​enclosed porch was very nice since it offers a view of the garden. I have been here only once for lunch, which turned out to be delicious, I ordered a sirloin steak sandwich and the steak was cooked perfectly; their sweet potato fries were also very tasty. Looking forward to going back for dinner.

Nice low key spot for happy hour drinks from 5 – 7 at the bar! There is free popcorn at the door, and the staff is friendly and attentive. If you are dining, there are many good seats in the house that are comfortable. Jaimie was our waitress and greeted us promptly and provided us with great hospitality! Love this spot! Will be back here soon.

We were on our way home from a mt. biking weekend near State College and I’ve been eating here off and on since the late 80’s when I was at PSU. I thought that I’d show my friends Duffy’s, a classic tavern, with good bar food, in a cool old building.
Apparently, there are new owners and things are quite a bit different than I remember.
We sat outside (table of 5 including my 8 year old son) and waited 20 minutes to get our sodas/​beer and then had to remind our waitress that we also wanted waters. Another 5 minutes and she spilled them on the table next to us and then we eventually got some water. So about ½ hour into this experience we have lowered our expectations greatly and are just hoping to get some decent food as the service is definitely going to be bad. This is Sunday afternoon at 2:30 and it was not busy.
For appetizers, we order the wings and fried yellow peppers. The wings are flavorful and good — the peppers taste like fried batter and have no flavor. We don’t get plates and have to resort to throwing the bones into a popcorn basket that my son had — no one ever notices this.
Three of us order the ciabatta steak sandwiches and have to remind the server that she should ask us how we want them prepared. Two rare, one medium. Two order onion rings as a side my son gets a cheeseburger.
Now we are 1 hour + into this when our food arrives. My rare steak sandwich is medium and the other two are well-​done. We are NOT sending them back, because we don’t have time to wait again. My son’s cheeseburger appears to be already formed rather than made there. Considering that their adult burgers are in the $ 9 – 12 range I’d be mighty dissapointed had I ordered one.
The food here is 2 ½ stars, the wings are 4, the service was a 1 star — It really was the worst service I’ve ever had. I can not imagine how anyone has had a 5 star dining experience here — seriously you need to get out of Centre County once in a while. We won’t be eating here again and with other options available nearby you may want to think twice as well.
PS — There was an issue with their computer system and two of our debit cards had holds placed on them for the entire bill so I spoke with Tracy, the owner, a day later to get it sorted out and shared how awful our experience was. She apologized, made some excuses about people not showing up for work, our server being new, basically that there wasn’t anything that she could do about it. Just bad luck for us. For $ 90 I dont’ want to risk «bad luck».

Walking into Duffy’s is like walking back into the 1800’s. This place has great character and really good food as well. The town of Boalsburg is great as well and Duffys is the perfect place to grab a bite to eat. The only thing that kept me from giving Duffys 5 stars is the $ of beer is just a tad high… other than that Duffys is great!