Union Station Restaurant & Bar

Terrible food, terrible service, terrible mixed drinks. Steer clear of Union Station.
My wife and I decided to try this place out for our date-​night. We typically go to Texas Roadhouse or someplace downtown (Clementine, Jack Browns, etc…).
Appetizer: Crab Dip — was decent, no complaints there. ⁶⁄₁₀.
Drinks: Mojito — I am not sure the barkeep knew what they were doing. Tasted like water, only had 2 mint leaves in it. After a single sip I asked if we could get something else instead (Sparkling Wine). Waiter stated the would have to check and see if they could do that and not charge us. We did receive the sparking wine, however the waiter never stated that both drinks would be charged to the bill, we discovered this when the bill arrived.
About 5 minutes into the appetizer the fire alarm started going off and continued to go off for 15 minutes. I understand that this is out of their control, I am upset at the fact that our waiter disappeared during this entire ordeal. Luckily other waiters were around and telling their tables to either stay or hang out-​side for a few minutes. I would also expect a free app /​dessert for those of us who stayed (about half the restaurant left, in retrospect we should have too).
Dinner: Fish Tacos — recommended to me by our waiter. I live tuna, taco’s, and fish taco’s. I am not quite sure what happened back in the kitchen, but these were disgusting. I could only get through 1 of the 3, which has never happened to me before, and I have eaten some pretty exotic items. ¹⁄₁₀ — the 1 is coming form the spiciness of the dish, i did enjoy that.
Upon receiving our check, we gave our credit card, then had the charged card returned to us with the wrong check. Yes, we initially received the correct check, then somewhere along the way my card snuck into another dinners check. This took 10 minutes to figure out, charge back my card, and charge the correct amount.
So, if you like terrible food, terrible drink, and a lousy dining experience then Union Station is for you. If you like your food, drink and experience literally anywhere else in Harrisonburg can fulfill you better than this place.

Absolutely great atmosphere, very nice place to enjoy a relaxing meal. Has a nicely rustic and historic feel to it and it a gem in the city of Harrisonburg. Couldn’t be happier with the service! The food was fantastic and delicious! The mixed drinks were very artfully put together. Couldn’t wish for a better experience.

Excellent Service. The Calamari was delicious. I had the Filet. My mother had the fried oysters. Very good. The homemade in house raspberry shortcake was good enough to take home. First time and we will return when in town again.

Food and service was outstanding! My hubby had ribs and I had the fried chicken. Both were delicious! The restaurant was nice but casual so it’s just right for a casual night out.

I haven’t see any of the negative things that people are saying about this place. This was my first visit here and everything was great. Great service, food, & beer! If you like microbrew beer then try Lancaster Strawberry Wheat. A must try! Everyone has told me this place is awesome. Now I can say for myself that yes it is.

This was the nasty restaurant; the waitress didn’t remember the orders she did admit the ribs be dry but I wanted to try anyway big mistake! 2 bones I ate and left the rest on the table! If your in Harrisonburg try the local chop house!

Slow service and mediocre food. We came down with our son to visit JMU and picked this restaurant based on positive tripadvisor reviews. Bad choice — we regretted this one. Service was very slow even though restaurant wasn’t overly crowded. We had to flag down the waitress to ask about the appetizer we ordered. One entrée arrived late and was wrong (we had asked for veggies instead of rice, but got the rice anyway) — tilapia was hot but with cold canned pineapple on top sprinkled with cilantro (not appetizing) Food was just OK overall. Green beans were barely cooked or seasoned. I would not go back. There seem to be better choices…

Really great lunch spot. Stopped on a college visit to James Madison University. Menu is mostly sandwiches and burgers and salads which is exactly what we were looking for.
Food was well presented, tasted great and service was excellent.
Highly recommended.

Average food with a good price and good wait staff. Drinks are pricey but Sunday is happy hour all day if you sit at the bar. I come here often and I like it. It’s usually either hit or miss with the food, I’ve gotten a raw burger, but I’ve had some great tacos.

Union Station is my favorite place to eat in Harrisonburg. The food is delicious and the service is great, which is why I stop in every time I am in town. I have had the cannon ball burger (will give you a heart attack, but might be worth it), the caprese panini, fish and chips, vegetable penne, beet and bacon salad, and more. The beet and bacon salad is my absolute favorite, and even though I don’t eat meat anymore, I still think about that salad. The combination of sweet beets, salty bacon, and the tangy vinaigrette is as perfect as a salad can get.

We have eaten here many times. It’s one of our favorites. We love the crab dip and hind made chips. We’ve enjoyed the paninis and the martinis. I would recommend this establishment.

Was in Harrisonburg for a meeting and went out to lunch here with some coworkers. One of them was from the area and gave some history about the building. Apparently, it was a feed store years ago and was converted into a restaurant. I give them kudos for the ambiance and friendly service.
The food was average. Nothing remarkable that would make me want to come back but I enjoyed my lunch with no complaints and so did my lunch partners. There were not a lot of patrons when we were there but the food still took longer than it should have to come to the table.

I forgot to check-​in while we were there but it’s such a great place it deserves s review. We stopped in for a late lunch on the way to Lynchburg. It’s a cute historical building that’s casual and kid friendly while still has s great atmosphere and food. The parking lot is a plus (coming from Baltimore City where parking is difficult). The menu has kids items, burgers entrees and vegetarian items. I don’t live anywhere close but on any future trips to that area I would go out of my way.

The barbecue and brisket are terrific. Sweet potato fries are excellent. My swordfish and basil oil is good. Nice ambiance. Oh and great local beer!

If I could leave ZERO STARS I would. Worst service ever. Sat at bar to get faster service. Totally ignored by bartender. Had to ask for everything including drinks, menus, silverware, napkins, and salt and pepper.
Everyone in bar who came in after us got food before we did. Explained we were on short timeframe because we had to get to Roanoke.
Bartender gave us bill and asked if she should take off food that was not delivered. Classic.
I travel a lot and eat out frequently. This is first negative review I’ve ever written. This place didn’t deserve my business. Totally sucked.

This was our third trip here. The first trip we had sandwiches. Both very good. Our second visit we hung out at the bar for happy hour drinks and snacks. This s time around we opted for dinner entrees.
On our first visit I was extremely impressed. We were given just the right amount of attention and ever had to worry about an empty glass. Food as I said before was great. The second trip we went to the bar area and the service was a bit slow. We had to flag down the bar tender and the appetizer we ordered seemed to take forever. In fact people who came after us seemed to get their order and finish eating before we even got ours. Food was still tasty and the drinks were equally good. On our most recent visit we decided to have a full dinner. The place had maybe six tables but I’m guessing lots of people at the bar because the food runner passed our table often. We ordered the prime rib crostini. Loved this appetizer. Loved it even more because it was on half price special. Monday all apps are half off :)
For dinner I had the crab cakes with green beans and red jacket mashed potatoes. Veggies were quite tasty. The crab cakes had a decent amount of crab but not lump. I’m a bit spoiled when it comes to crab so will not say they were the best but they were definitely better than most serve. My husband had the BBQ plater. It comes with brisket and pork. He says it was ok. The pulled pork was good but the brisket was eh. This is so hard for us because we know good brisket and have yet to find anything that compares to Texas BBQ brisket. For this reason he said he wouldn’t order again.
We will come here again but it is not a regular stop. The drinks are always good and the apps are as well. Entrees maybe not worth the price.

Was worried at first when I read the reviews about bad service. Things have turned around service was very good. Food was very good recommended see if in Harrisonburg VA

Nice little place. Good friendly service.
Bbq platter was excellent. Good stop for food on our road trip.
Food was good.

I went to Union Station a few nights ago for a late dinner and am extremely glad I did. The food was great as well as cheap, and my server, Evan, was excellent.
Union Station is located upstairs above some store (didn’t pay too much attention to it, since the store was closed when I arrived). Visually, nothing about the interior particularly grabbed my attention (it was late and I was hungry; I couldn’t have cared less what was on the walls lol), but it was clean inside, which is probably the important part of the appearance anyways.
I ordered a Germantown Burger with a Blueberry Bliss to drink. First, let me talk about that blueberry bliss – it was phenomenal. If they hadn’t been about to close, I might have ordered one or two more of these. I’m not usually a fan of mint, but the amount of mint flavor paired with the blueberry was wonderful. Extremely refreshing drink, and for only $ 3 or $ 4 I definitely recommend giving it a try (or one of their other similar drinks, which I’m sure are also great).
The Germantown burger was also quite good. The patty itself is made of bratwurst and sweet Italian sausage and is topped with Swiss cheese, dijon aioli, sauerkraut, dill pickles and grilled onions. I don’t think I’ve ever had a burger made of sausage like that, but I wish I could find them in more places, because it was wonderful. The pickles were a bit thick for my tastes, but I only recently began to be able to tolerate pickles at all, so I’d chalk that up to me still being a bit iffy on them. For $ 8.75, it’s a good sized burger with a great taste to it. They also have various other burgers that sound worthwhile as well. And don’t even get me started on the fries; those were surprisingly tasty and disappeared from my plate much too quickly.
My server, Evan, was great; you’d never guess from his interaction that I’d come in at the end of a long day. Took care of my initial drink and rolls quickly, and didn’t take too long to come back and get my order (I was one of only two people in the dining room, so this much I expected). What really impressed me was mostly his interaction with the other guest in the restaurant. Out of the blue, the other guest asked Evan was his top 5 restaurant picks were in Harrisonburg. With only a brief pause to think, Evan quickly listed off a few places (of course, naming Union Station as #1) and why he particularly liked them. Then, the guest started asking for more specific recommendations (asking for a variety of styles and price ranges); Even quickly came up with an answer for each, and even supplemented the guest’s variety of tastes by recommending something the guest hadn’t thought of – a good German restaurant. Trying new, local restaurants is one of the highlights of my many road trips, so having such a good list powered by personal recommendations is wonderful and I’m very much looking forward to trying some of those places out (Evan, if you happen to see this, you might not have realized I was taking down the names of all the places you said, but thanks a ton for such a great list.)

Stopped by on the way back to our B&B for dinner. The menu was unique, we had a calamari salad and a Cannonball (deep fried) burger. I’m glad I tried them both, but neither was jump-​off-​the-​page. Calamari was a weird fir for the salad, and the burger kept sliding out of the fried-​batter shell, but the taste was pretty good. I also had a beef stew kind of dish that was my favorite thing of the meal.
The service was a little slow, but it’s a nice and creative space in an old train station. I’m betting it would trend towards a 4-​star if I went again.