Pickles Grill & Bar

My husband and I drove around aimlessly, looking for a new place for dinner. Pickles looked cool from the outside and there were a lot of cars in the lot. Good sign, right?
Inside it was pretty empty. Uh oh.
I ordered the half rotisserie chicken. It came with a Caesar salad. We also got the beer cheese dip appetizer. My husband got the chicken and shrimp fajitas and French onion soup.
My salad was drenched in dressing. I had two bites. The beer cheese dip was very beer-​y and the pretzels served with it were dry. My chicken was gross — it was so bland, I’ve had hospital food that was more flavorful. The texture was chewy and dry.
The French onion soup was the least terrible item, but it was still forgettable. I didn’t even try my husband’s entrée.
The worst part was when the waitress cleaned the table next to ours. She sprayed cleaner directly. On. The. Table. I watched in horror as it splattered onto our table and nestled in our already-​terrible food.
Maybe it would have added flavor.

My friend and I had a very pleasant experience at this restaurant (very different than the reviews!). The food was good. The fried pickles were delicious. The side salad was huge (and caesar dressing was good but if you don’t like a lot of dressing, get it on the side!), my steak was cooked perfectly. I will say that I usually like my steaks medium rare and would normally have to order rare to get it cooked properly (as most places overcook meats) but I ordered the medium rare and it was perfectly cooked (the black diamond steak has a great marinade). I would definitely go back as the service was good too (and their selection of drink and food specials each day is enticing!).

We went there last night for dinner, I ordered the crab cakes, wife had a burger. With my dinner came two sides, I picked a salad and fries. The dinner came but I never got my salad. I told the waitress and she said she was sorry that the manager told he delivered it, maybe so but not to me. when the bill came I asked about the salad I did not get, she told me «its free anyway it comes with the dinner» Really??? no managers came to even say sorry. There are so many great places to eat, this one is off my list. One other thing the crab cakes were dry and full of filler, for the price they were not very good. My wife did like her hamburger.

This is by far the worst steak house in the Lehigh Valley. Steak was undercooked, service was slow, and the manager was extremely rude when I asked for my steak to be returned to the kitchen because it was so poorly undercooked. We went there to celebrate a birthday and it was both the first and last visit!

Food was 5 stars. Customer service was 3, unfortunately our waitress was unenthusiastic and seemed she wanted to rush us out. We bought from the bar, apps, and entrées and everything was good. We would return.

Excellent service. No wait time on a Saturday evening — but the place filled up quickly after we arrived. Had the rice balls as an appetizer, which were tasty as hell. Made the mistake of getting the French onion soup — too thick and very, very dark … Avoid this.
Three of us ordered steak, one ordered pasta with shrimp. My ribeye was cooked perfectly, had a great char and the flavor was great. One person got the Black Diamond steak (marinated) and she loved it. Mom loved her Alfredo with shrimp. The person who got the porterhouse had to send it back as it was «tough» (but then, he ordered it rare) … He sent it back and got the ribeye instead and enjoyed it.
Coffee at the end was rich and flavorful. A great family dinner. The server was attentive and made good recommendations.

530 on a weeknight and we were the only couple in the dining room besides the 2 waitresses eating. Looks like it should be hopping, but we figured out why once the food came out. Pickles were great, rolls were stale, Chicken Nachos… the chicken looked and tasted boiled and missing toppings traditional to nachos like jalapenos and guacamole. We ordered fajitas as they were on special. The beef was skimpy and full of sinew. Shrimp still had shell on half. We wanted to love this place, we’ll skip it in the future.

Saw the place driving my daughter back to college after break… she loves pickles, so we had to try it. Food is decent enough to stop again when we pass by. We both had sandwiches, her pulled pork was tasty, but lacked any smoke flavor. My grilled chicken sandwich was on a soft sourdough roll that make it worth the stop… Great Fries. Gwen our waitress was very friendly and attentive.

Food is hit or miss. Music in the bar is very loud and seems intended to attract 14 year old girls. Tried to use a
credit and was told that no portion of it could be used for alcohol. If you use that service, you know to look for that small print when choosing restaurants for which to buy certs. The small print for Pickles states nothing about this. Bait and switch. Boo.
I was in on 11÷18÷15 at about 3 pm and I sat at the bar.

This place gets 1 star for extra friendly staff and 1 star for neat décor.
Stopped in because we always drive by it and I was curious about it. The beer selection is decent. There are a lot of craft beers on tap. That can be a good thing but in this case it isn’t. The craft beers are 90% of the selection. I feel like a bar should at least have the standard selection (yeungling, bud, miller, blue moon, etc.) and then anything above that is a bonus. That way, there’s something for people who aren’t in to being adventurous or wanting flavored craft beers. I like flavored craft beers but sometimes I enjoy just a plain old yeungling.
Whenever I try a new place I order an appetizer before deciding whether or not I want to try their regular menu. I took advantage of their free appetizer when you check in on Unilocal.I had the fried pickles and peppers. The peppers were great. Nicely covered in batter and fried crispy. The pickles were awful. They were spears, which if you’re not experienced with frying pickles is harder to pull off than slices. The spears were covered in this thick cakey batter almost like the kind on sweet and sour chicken. The edges of the spear were fine but when you bite in to the middle, the spear was cold and the batter on the inside was still raw and gooey.
Overall, I wouldn’t mind stopping in here for a drink if I had a friend who insisted but I would not willingly return.

Came here on a Friday night and was seated right away. I had a skirt steak and my companion had ribs. He said the ribs tasted more like pulled pork than the ribs he was used to, but they were good overall.
We also go the rice ball appetizer, which was pretty bleh and didn’t have that great of a taste for the price. I could see this as a family option and good for larger groups, but not my favorite.

I’ve eaten here a half a dozen times over the past two years and every time I hope the food will be better… it isn’t.. I had their rotisserie chicken — the «whole chicken» as it is listed on their menu– tasted like it was not fresh, tasted very very bland, tasted like they were using microwave frozen chicken and the cheapest bird you could buy– again the food was lousy here –six times over 2 years. service is okay but I won’t go here for the food again — unless you just want a burger and fries because that’s pretty much all their chef does a reasonable job at.

I hope this was an isolated incident because we have never had this problem before. We live about ½ hour away and it’s usually worth the trip. We requested to sit in the bar at a regular table and the hostess rolled her eyes at us like we were an inconvenience. After being seating for 15 min without anyone coming to the table, the owner came and asked if we had been helped. We told him no and he didn’t even offer to get us a drink. We waiting another 5 – 10 min until our waitress finally got there. By that time we were ready to order. Our waitress went to take our order and didn’t have a pen. So it took another 5 min to get waters and she still forgot her pen. Tac on another 5 minutes to find a pen and we were finally able to order. The waitress brought out my fajita shells and fixings and that food sat for 15 min until the chicken for it came out. My husbands steak was cooked medium rare as requested however it was bland and not as good as normal. After done eating, we waited another 20 min to get our check. She then forgot to take off the coupon I presented to her at the beginning of the meal. That took another 10 – 15 min to get the final check. This entire time the owner was 20 ft from us and didn’t acknowledge or apologize once. I don’t see any reason to come back.

Against my better judgment we went to dinner at Pickles Steakhouse in Emmaus. We have not been there in years because of bad food and service. Well unfortunately it has not changed. My food was inedible. So I watched my family eat. Owner said they were busy? I wish our meal was comped, it ruined our night.

I came in on a Thursday evening after getting off of work early. I had a mussels appetizer, which was ok, there were a few non-​openers (NEVER EAT A NON-​OPENER!), but the rest were relatively tasty.
For dinner I had a skirt steak with potatoes. It was cooked correctly, and well seasoned.
The beer selection was varied and the bartender was attentive and friendly.
The décor was akin to chain restaurants that offer «extreme fajitas» or «jalapeño shooters».
For a quick night out with the family or some friends, this is a good bet.

We eat at Pickles almost every week as it is close to home. Never once got sick from the food. Can say they have improved over the last couple of months. I used to stick to burgers because that was all they could get right, but the last couple of times we have been there we have tried some of the new entrees and have been pleasantly surprised with the taste. NEVER had a bad experience with the waitresses, they are always very pleasant and attentive.

Really, this deserves 3.5 stars: 3 for food, 4 for ambiance.
I’m not sure what all the hate is with this place. My friend and I stopped here for a quick lunch and some beverages on the way to a hockey game, and I was extremely and pleasantly surprised (especially based on these reviews).
No, it’s not groundbreaking food, but yes: it’s cheap, quick, and decent. We sat in the bar, so I can’t speak to the dining room, but Rylee, the bartender, was excellent: attentive, efficient, and glad to help. (Sidebar: +1,000,000 stars for the great throwback jams on the touch tunes. Yeah, I said it.)
Drinks were cheap, food wasn’t terrible, and all in all, it’s a fine place for a quick stop.

I don’t understand how this place is in business other than Emmaus is underserved by not enough restaurants. Clearly this place is broken. Typically this kind of systemic failure starts at the top with owners and management and trickles down.
The place has an almost noxious smell of something deeply and disturbingly wrong. There are enough flies buzzing around you have to swat them away. I ordered a flatbread and it came out almost raw, dough not even cooked through and was the grossest most appalling thing I have seen come out of a kitchen in a long time.
The patrons seem dominated by workers clocking out from nearby company and take over the place. There is lots of swearing, and excessive drinking and this is in the early evening. I don’t know why anyone would take their family there. So cheap drinks is probably only thing keeping this place alive. It’s a dive bar but not even a cool dive.
I will say the bartender is nice and seems sincere but she can only do so much to put a good face on the place and keep it alive. She deserves to work in a better establishment more fitting to her professionalism.

I feel like I need to update this because I had previously given it 5 stars… twice…
This place has gone downhill like it was on Steel Force…
Over the past 3 visits, the service has been non-​existent (we’ve even had to ask for the pickles for our table…) the quality of the food has been mediocre at best, and the servers don’t even know what is on the menu. They don’t know how to use the Unilocal!coupon that they advertise — and that is very frustrating.
I’m not going to go into specifics because we’ve simply had poor experiences the last three times on just about every level. And for what the food costs, it simply needs to be better. The place isn’t horrible, but it is getting there very quickly and we aren’t likely to return at this point. Very sad…

Our trip to Pickles Steakhouse was our first… and last. The food was absolutely disgusting. I ordered the double decker burger, and it came on a kaiser roll and cost me $ 10. The burger itself was bland and underseasoned (or seasoned at all?) and tastes gritty as if it had fillers and not 100% beef. My mother ordered just french fries since she didn’t like anything on the menu, the fries were DEFINITELY frozen fries you get at Sam’s Club and were not seasoned one bit. Not even a generous helping of the table salt could render these bland floppy fries palatable. My father ordered the Rotisserie chicken was rancid and was obviously reheated, I usually try my parents food but this chicken looked so gross I didn’t even bother trying.
The Service
The server we had was generally nice, but was very inconsistent with our drinks, we all ordered water with lemon, and she only asked to refill it for us once, at the end of the meal, I grew so thirsty that I had to drink from my fathers glass.