Bird Dog Bar

My husband and I met at this location 18 years ago when it was a bar called The Crossing. We stopped in to the Bird Dog Bar 1) to have a drink celebrating our meeting place and 2) the logo was so darn cute I wanted a tshirt. They were out of tshirts but I appreciated the staff racing around to try to find me one. Bought a mug instead. The service was nice and friendly. Look forward to returning the next time we’re in town. Will try to stay at the attached hotel too. Looks beautiful. PS– parking is horrible. We totally stole someone’s permitted parking spot in the apartment complex next door.

Average food and sub par service. Our servers have consistently never checked up on us. They often make mistakes (incorrect food, extra charges on a bill, etc) and don’t both to apologize. Additionally, food is dry and tasteless. Why should I blow $ 50 on a lunch for me and my family with so many other wonderful options in Lawrence.

Had room service and breakfast in the restaurant, each experience was fantastic. I really liked the breakfast Sandwhich: two large pieces of sourdough bread, cheddar cheese, bacon, and two eggs your choice served with hash browns. The coffee mugs were large which is nice so the server won’t have to come over frequently. For room service I had yogurt with granola and fruit. The yogurt was smooth and creamy while the granola was sweet and crunchy. Service was always with smile and after my breakfast in the restaurant they gave me a coffee to go cup. The only issues I had with the food is I wish there was more fruit on my yogurt and the hash browns were lack luster.
I did have an issue with our bartender. I asked for a Moscow mule and the male bartender with a ponytail replied ’ I don’t have one on me but I can make one’. My mother also ordered a bourbon and seven, when he asked which bourbon she asked him to pick. His reply was ’ you really want me to pick ?’ This was the only negative experience I had with the restaurant.

Disappointed… we wanted to give this place a second shot. Our drinks took a crazy amount of time despite only 3 tables being filled with guests. I ordered an Absolut and water with a lemon and it came without the lemon. We ordered the nachos and were told they were on Happy Hour but then they were not and waited 30 minutes for them… not impressed.

The Bird Dog Bar’s new menu is very overpriced. Food is below average. I could get a better turkey club at Perkins. Slow service. We’ve been going to the Bird Dog since it opened and it seems it has just gone downhill. This newest menu is so disappointing. Doubt we will be back.

I’ve been here many times for social gatherings and tried various things on their menu including pasta, pizza, crab cakes, hummus.
Everything I’ve had here was just average, but the price was more than average. Their macadamia nut crusted crab cakes was grossly overpriced: two small crab cakes for $ 16 – and they didn’t even taste that great…
This place, however, is convenient, which makes social gatherings easier to plan.

A great atmosphere and close to campus making it a convenient place to grab a drink or food after class. The wait staff is very helpful and professional.
Food is of a good quality and well made. My absolute favorite is the Black Bean Burger and I am not even vegetarian. If you order it be sure to add the pickled red onion as well lettuce and tomatoes, but the pickled onions really step up the dish.
The biggest pain is parking, you can pay for valet otherwise the options are limited. Generally I park at the Unions parking garage at KU. From there it’s about a blocks walk.

Drinks are what this place is all about and hanging out. Food is really optional but consistent. Lots of students and their parents watching a tv and socializing. On game day it’s bedlam.
A great hangout with plenty of bar fun

Took a trip down to the Bird Dog on a Thursday evening and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were offering $ 5 specialty cocktails that evening. I have visited the place a couple times before, but havent ever gotten the chance to sit down and enjoy some food and drinks. So, this week I have decided to write a more comprehensive review than I could have before.
The Bird Dog is nested on the first floor of the Oread Hotel which sits a hop skip away from the Kansas Union on Jayhawk Blvd. The Oread is host to some very high profile visitors to the university, so of course the restaurant is going to be high end.
The place is classy, windows on two sides of the place that give you a view of the beautiful campus. It did start to get a bit bright in the place as one of the walls made of windows is facing the west. The staff was very prompt in lowering the automatic blinds in the place as it started to cause a glare on the customers eyes.
I was surprised at how poplar the place was! It wasnt just older alumni and visitors in the restaurant, but a bunch of college kids enjoying the drink specials. And special they were! I ordered myself a classic old fashion, and was pleasantly impressed by the drink.
Our food was amazing! After looking over the menu for some time, I decided on a pick two option, with the turkey melt and a Santa Fe salad. Our food was delivered promptly, with a smiling face, and the server was back in a few minutes to check on us. The one down side to the service was it seemed like they were a bit understaffed at shift change. Our server all of a sudden had 6 tables to take care of as we neared the end of our meal. Obviously this caused him to take a bit to get over to us with the check.
In all, I loved heading over to this place for dinner with my coworkers and would definitely consider returning in the future. Also, I found out they have some pretty awesome drink specials everyday.
Check out the Bird Dog next time you’re near the KU campus. Definitely worth the trip!

Went to pizza pub that night because they had a deal going on. Had some of our leftovers to take to work the next day so we brought them with us up to the bar so we could get a glass of wine before leaving. We had about 3 boxes of pizza that were halfway eaten. so there was a lot of pizza left. We set our boxes down on the bar and the bar tender exclaimed that we could not eat those here! I explained that we had our leftovers here and wanted to hold them here while we got a drink. So the bartender takes away our boxes somewhere and we think that he’s just setting them aside. our wine was good and we were ready to pay. we ask for our pizzas and he says he has thrown them away! We ask if he can comp our drinks ($ 10) but he says no… he gives us $ 5 cash. for about 25 $ worth of pizzas. and says they are a separate business and can’t do anything about it. I take his tip off the bill and as we are walking out he comes after us saying «OKAY???» about not leaving a tip. pretty unprofessional.

Step inside The Oread Hotel on KU gameday and follow the trail of crimson and blue clad fans to the Bird Dog Bar. The hotel’s ideal location, just steps from Memorial Stadium and Allen Fieldhouse, make it a popular watering hole for pre-​game and post-​game festivities. What makes it even better? A solid food menu, talented group of mixologists, and an extensive list of cocktails and craft beers.
One of those talented mixologists is Steve Noble. His enthusiasm for creating and serving delicious drinks is contagious. And I’m excited about Steve’s latest concoction — the Boulevard Brewery Chocolate Ale Float ($ 8). The combination of vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate syrup and chocolate ale has become a popular treat at Bird Dog. It’s not too sweet, and the flavors of vanilla complement the subtle notes of Christopher Elbow chocolate in Boulevard’s beer. This drink won’t last long (Chocolate Ale is selling fast — I’m sure you’ve heard), so I suggest making a visit soon.
Steve’s suggested pairing for the Chocolate Ale Float is The Oread Burger ($ 11.95) with tomato bacon jam, melted gruyère cheese, onions, tomato and house made aioli. Bacon jam is always a winner and the combination of the juicy hamburger and cold chocolate float is oddly satisfying. The sweet potato fries are also stellar.
When Steve brought out the Mac & Cheese ($ 11.95) with a side of buffalo sauce, I had no idea why. «Just try it,» he said. So I did. And it was life changing in a way that I’ll never be able to enjoy plain mac & cheese again. Thanks, Steve.
Then Steve had one more suggestion up his sleeve, The Salted Caramel Maker’s Mark Mocha. His speciality drink is made with two shots of espresso, cream, whiskey, chocolate and caramel sauce and course sea salt. It’s strong and delicious.
Make Bird Dog Bar your next gameday destination and try some of their expertly crafted, Steve-​approved cocktails.

Great people, good food, great service! I recommend the spinach artichoke dip! Rock Chalk!!!

It’s a hotel bar and not much more than that. Convenient if you’re staying at The Oread or are nearby, but nothing I’d make a special trip for.

You can’t beat their location as its steps off of campus. The entire hotel is limestone and very warm. The patio is a great size and nice and shaded but still private. The food is well done and an amazing value for the money… must less expensive then I anticipated! Servers are polite, knowledgable, and do a great job. Overall my new favorite weekend lunch spot in Lawrence.

I’ve never written a Unilocal review before, but I thought this merited my first, and could use some good experiences to offset some of the more negative reviews. We went on a Final Friday in August at around 6:30pm.
Service: We were seated quickly. It wasn’t terribly busy for a Friday, but it is the summer. I’m sure it gets more crowded during the school year. Our waiter was very attentive, casually strolling by probably 10 times during the meal, and discretely looking to make sure we weren’t lacking anything or needing his service. Our drinks came quickly, our food was out in a good amount of time. The house manager even came over to check that everything was good and to let us know that there was live music on the rooftop that evening. All in all, great service.
Drinks and food: There’s a pretty good beer list, 10 – 15 craft beers on tap, and they have some seasonals as well. The food was good. All four of us enjoyed our meals. I had a reuben, (I’ve never had one before, so take this with a grain of salt) that I though was delicious. The fries were awesome too. A salad and sweet potato fries from my dining partners stood out as well. Surprisingly good food! Not a huge menu, but they seemed to have the things they did have dialed. I approve!
Price: Drinks seemed a bit pricy (Happy hour was $ 5 craft beers…), but the food was reasonable. $ 68 before tip for 4 entrees and 4 drinks. Not bad, about $ 17 a person. Fine for a pretty nice dinner, you’d probably pay as much at Applebees or something.
Overall: Great experience here. I’m actually a little sad I’m moving from Lawrence soon, or I’d probably make this a regular stop, at least during the summer. I’ll come again if I’m back in town.

We truly enjoyed the setting of this bar. They don’t have a huge menu, but it’s enough to find something decent. We enjoyed our cocktails and the food was yummy. I had Chicken Parmesan and it was really awesome, didn’t seem out of the freezer like so common. Mom had Fish & Chips… they were good, but I’ve had better.
Our server was great. I don’t often ask for a description, but I was a little concerned about the chicken parm; he gave a great description of how it was prepared and it was very accurate. I will crave the spicy sauce for weeks!
Such a beautiful building. We appreciated the free 2 hour valet service. It’s an unusual destination to try.

The Bird Dog is a standard bar at a college campus hotel — it’s conventional with not a whole lot personality. $ 5 cocktail specials on Thursday nights help to offset the ordinariness. I was actually really pleased with service; the bartender gladly altered the menu’s wild turkey old fashioned to my taste. Plus, when a bug decided to drown itself in my drink, he made me another so I was able to finish my drink sans insect. I’ll probably return a couple more times during the summer when campus isn’t as busy; but at the end of the day I’m not sure if the Bird Dog stands out enough to make me a regular.

Ive had lunch and dinner several times, and sat at the bar each time. I could not love it more.
For being a bar, they definitely have upscaled bar food items. Most recently, I had the Wedge Salad (& I’m a wedge connoisseur) and it was totally original and delicious. The bartenders have always provided amazing service; fast, friendly, funny.
It’s also great people watching because you are adjacent to the lobby, and I’ve been lucky enough to watch both World Cup and Olympic soccer from their big flat screens.
When I’m in from out of town, I wouldn’t go here if I want to really have a full dinner, but when I’m looking for comfort food with quality ingredients and fast service, this is the place.

This was my first time to the Bird Dog Bar. Loved the layout and that it’s right in the front door of the Oread. We had a large table, good service and the food was good as well. They have a great beer selection and the menu was impressive for a bar.
The Oread offers two hours free of valet, then $ 5 if you exceed that. Pretty fair in my opinion since you are right on campus.
Great atmosphere, there were lots of players from the team there after the game.

Went to the Bird Dog for the first time tonight. As many know The Oread is a magnificent building and fits well into a quality college town.
First off you should know parking in the neighborhood is a nightmare. The only parking they provide is underground parking via a valet. That kinda annoys me as I don’t like giving away my keys to a stranger.
We sat outside, and it was a bit chilly. I suspect they’ll add some kind of heating units for outside. The music was a bit loud for casual conversation.
Service was respectable, though our server was unclear on the menu, but apologized for being new. That’s fine. We knew the beer selection was extremely high quality and I knew it was a changing menu. I asked if the menu was correct and she said yes, but when the wrong beer was brought out, she didn’t inform me in advance the stout brewery beer was replaced. That’s fine, but I would like to have known in advance of the beer being put on my table in order to give me another choice.
We started with some pretzel sticks with some spicy horseradish and cheese foundue dipping sauces. The sauces were great, but the pretzel to sauce ratio was off. We kinda spooned the sauces and ate them raw (blush).
I got the chili seasoned salmon and potatoe/​green chili hash browns. Mike got the nacho appetizer as a meal.
Both were very overcooked. My hash brown was basically a pancake and the salmon was way overseasoned. The nachos were overcooked so much that there was no melted cheese-​most of the oil had cooked off and he was left with cheese crumbles and fossilized chicken chunks. Nonetheless, they had potential and I’ll chalk both up to a inattentive kitchen to a flaw overall in the restaurant.
The atmosphere was fun and we’ll go back!