Martin’s Downtown Bar & Grill

Love Martin’s, especially on a Monday night for burgers. The menu is diverse, the sides are unique, and the atmosphere is always fun.
My favorite burger is the Texas Breakfast (with bison if I’m feeling fancy!), but so far I like everything I’ve tried. They have different specials every night of the week, and lots of live music and drink deals. Definitely a little hidden gem worth visiting!

Martin’s is a spot that was a little off the beaten path for me and took a while for me to check out. However, each time I’ve gone I’ve had more fun! My review is much more for the music and bar than the food (only eaten here once).
Martin’s has a small outdoor area that’s splendid in the summer and a good break from the heat inside when a band is jamming and the place is packed. And that situation is more often than not with tons of bands rolling through every week. The area is a spacious enough that you can still get timely service at the bar and have a good view of the venue’s band stage, which lies at the back right of the restaurant.
My only food experience here is the Thursday Taco night, where domestic beers are only $ 2 – 3 and gourmet tacos are $ 3 each. There’s a veggie option, but you can also ask to change up different tacos to make them vegetarian. Not the best options for us herbivores, but I come here mainly for the people and the music.
Plenty of beers are available here, and the chalkboard above the bar depicts all the specials currently going on, usually at least 4 – 6 of them at one time! My favorite part of Martin’s though is most likely the people — I always seem to meet new, friendly faces here that make the entire experience even better.
If you’re looking for some live music and cool people, Martin’s a great spot to drop by when in Star City!

I come to Roanoke about once a year for work, and this is the best place I’ve found downtown! The food, drinks, and happy hour specials are all excellent! At first glance this place is a sports bar/​music venue, which is why I was surprised at the selection of food and how good it is! I would point out specifics, but I haven’t run across anything bad yet! Definitely come for Tuesdays’ half price bourbon and BBQ night! $ 5 pulled pork sandwiches and half off all their bourbon! The ribs melt off the bone and are some of the best I’ve ever had! We’ve been coming pretty much every night the past week to take advantage of the specials and have not been disappointed. Sara has been our waitress — she’s very friendly and remembers us when we come in and already knows how we like our drinks! Definitely check this spot out!

I only come here to see the Riverbank Ramblers rock the joint. Great local bar for great local bands.

Our favorite place for ‘Burger Monday’ w/​½ priced burgers. Have tried almost all the burgers and they are all excellent! Martin’s has a lot of live bands during the week and on the weekend making it a very happening place. Reasonably priced drinks and food make this place a real crowd pleaser.

Maybe I am just ignorant because I come from a big city, but even so, I wasn’t impressed. My dining partner and I sat at the bar, during happy hour, which only had 4 people at the time. Considering the lack of customers, one would think service would be great. However, the bartender seemed more interested in small talk with a local, deterring us from even ordering off the menu. 30mins to put in an order killed the vibe. So we politely drank our beers and left.
–Typical American bar with nothing really noteworthy. They do have a decent amount of craft beers to choose from though.

This place is the bomb! I really love the bartenders. They’re real, down to earth, friendly, and intelligent. The food is amazing, and for an hour during lunch all of the sandwiches are half off.
We got the french dip and a crab cake sandwich. It was on. point. Healthy enough, with your guilty pleasures added in.
QUALITY beers on tap and in bottles, and they have abita purple haze– which is my homeslice, and brings me back.
I am pretty impressed with this place, and highly recommend going for lunch or for some live music.

I stopped in after work on a Wednesday so it was pretty quiet. They were getting ready for the band that must have been playing later. I sat at the bar and had a couple of beers and a burger. The bartender was friendly and the folks that were there seemed to be regulars. That is a good sign to me.
I will be sure to stop in again.

We came here to watch a game and grab a bite to eat. Lucky for us, the game was on a Monday, so we took advantage of the half-​priced burgers. Overall, our experience was good. The service was good, the burgers were good. It got a little crowded around 7ish, and with limited seats from which you can see a TV, it might not be your first choice for a popular gameday. I think the live music is their main selling point. We may have to go back to check it out.

I think that this place is a hidden gem for food. We’ve gone here for burger and wing nights as well as for appetizers on the weekend and we’ve never gotten a sub-​par plate of food. The live music is always great on the weekend and the staff here is always friendly and attentive to us.

Went here for lunch today! Fabulous food, great service as well! My burger was juicy and hot, the fries were hot and fresh as well!

The beer battered cheese buds are one of the best appetizers I’ve ever had. I could literally get 2 orders and make it my meal. They have a great selection of beer on tap with good weekly specials. Their Mac and cheese is awesome. Go for the Cajun! Burgers are good also. Atmosphere is okay. Has a sports bar feel but isn’t too bad. They have trivia and karaōke throughout the week also.
The only not so great thing is that they always seem to be understaffed. There is usually only 1 – 2 waitresses on the floor. They always seem to be running around and are not always able to help refill drinks and help customers frequently as desired.

Good or bad? Starting with good the food was outstanding. Ordered nachos and girlfriend ordered dessert! Both very good. Sat at bar and both bartenders were very good. Now bad! The environment was pretty crappy. We rushed our last drink to head out and went elsewhere. Only a few regulars in there, which is common on slow nights at any bar. BUT one very drunk, very loud ex manager (as he blurted out several times) ruined it. He had his feet propped up on middle of bar, screamig loudly and acting like a douchebag! Then he turned the houseband into his very own karaōke band. His loud, horrible version of prince was the end of us wanting to be there. Left asap to go elsewhere!

I am not a huge burger guy (at one time in my life I would have considered myself one) but still appreciate a well crafted burger. First off, Martin’s does make great burgers (best in Roanoke… And there are a few decent burger joints in this town, Jack Brown’s, Beamer’s)… But their newly added Southern Belle burger gets 5 stars! Gouda pimento cheese (say what? Is that even possible??) Slide in a Fried Green tomato, lightly battered (and I don’t typically care for battered stuff in my burger), plenty of applewood smoked bacon and caramelized onions (and they snuck in a piece of lettuce for my greens). WOW!!!

On of the better burgers in town. The burger of the month is always a great choice. The staff seem to always have an off-​center choice that is great. The half-​price burger night is a must if you want to try the place, but do not want to break the bank. (under $ 10 dollars with tip)
Probably the best place in town to catch a live band as well. Good selection of beer, helpful staff and a laid back environment.

We went a couple weeks ago on a Monday night and I was looking forward to trying it. I was impressed with the variety and selection in the burger section of the menu. For a place to offer half price burgers every Monday, it’s surprising to see so many on the menu you can choose from. Some of the options include: The Wisconsin Cheeseburger (pepper jack, cheddar, & provolone), Philly Cheeseburger (mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, & provolone), Bistro Burger (havarti, mushrooms, whole grain mustard on an English muffin), and The Pitts-​burger (coleslaw, French fries, tomato, & provolone). I ordered The Western — a burger topped with smoked bacon, house BBQ sauce, cheddar, and an onion ring. They also have good variety with their side dishes, but I ordered the traditional staple — French fries.
The presentation of the burger was great. The combination of the onion ring, bacon, and BBQ sauce made for a nice picture with lots of different color. Unfortunately, I wish it had tasted as good as it looked. For as many different flavors as I had on the burger, I was hoping I would be able to taste more of them. The meat seemed to lack seasoning or any sort of grilled flavor and the BBQ sauce was relatively bland. The hamburger bun also didn’t do much for me — it tasted a little stale and could have used a minute in the toaster. I had high hopes as I was seeing people’s orders delivered to the table and even higher when my plate was served, but it just didn’t live up to expectations. However, the size of the burger was great, and for $ 5.50, it’s a very good deal.
Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the food for my first experience, I’m definitely willing to give Martin’s Downtown Bar & Grill another chance. I think the Pitts-​Burger has good potential and there are a number of other things on the menu that look good besides the burgers. The first visit might have been a let-​down, but I’m confident my next meal there will be a better experience.

My wife and I came here last night to their outdoor festival to see Tobacco Apache, because the guitarist works for the same company as me. The band was great, but we’ll never spend a damn dime in Martin’s, ever…
The band was going to play outside, so we came in to grab a bit to eat before they started. were told to take a seat anywhere, so we found an empty table smack in the middle so we could get a bite to eat and a beer before the band started. We sat for 10 minutes and in that time, 3 different servers walked directly past our table several times each. I made eye contact each time, and we expected, since we were sitting there with no drinks and no menus, that one of them would bring us menus and ask us what we’d like to drink. Sorry, no such luck…
As we were sitting there, we saw another couple come in and sit down, and the waitress was at their table within about 30 seconds. Their drinks came back, their orders were in, and the waitress came back by their table again to check on them. My wife was doing «the countdown» (when we get tired of waiting, we count to 100, and if we hit 100, we get up and leave), and she finished up just as the waitress at that table turned to leave.
I waved at the girl, and beckoned her to our table. I explained that we’d been sitting for quite some time, and in that time, she and several other wait staff people had walked right by us several times each, but it was like we were invisible. She apologized and asked me if I wanted a drink, but by that time, my wife was at the door leaving. I told her absolutely not, that we were over it, and she tried to pass it off that they were busy and short-​staffed. I told her that was no excuse, and she asked if there was anything she could do to get us to stay. I have to give her points for trying, but really, it was a day late and a dollar short by that point. I told her that we’d be outisde to see the band but that we’d not be spending any money there, ever.
By that time my wife was waiting out front for me, so we went around the corner, watched the band, and had a great time hearing them play. After that, we left and went to Grace’s Place for pizza and beer.
Seems to me, from reading other reviews, that the service problem is a recurrent theme at Martin’s. That’s a problem they need to solve…

I made a habit of going here for lunch while in town. So I can’t really complain about it, nor rave about it though. But here are some things I’ve noticed so you can make up your own mind:
–Service varies from server to server, it’s almost like they’re people… with differing personalities. Some days we had servers bending over backwards for our group of 6 with complimentary to go drinks, others days, it was hard to get our order taken despite the same level of crowd. I don’t think we were a pain of table either. That said, I expect uniformity in my servers… I mean service. Although I did notice that all the waitresses had lopsided haircuts.
–The food was ‘meh’. I mean this place falls into the same trap that other bar/​restaurants get themselves into: «Our profit margins are made a drinks, so food is secondary». Not to say Martin’s wasn’t eager to give the appearance of a funky eatery. The menu was fairly extensive, but it just seemed thrown together. Just because you have ‘herb butter’ on your menu, doesn’t make you a good eatery. I wish I could say what my best meal was here, but I can’t. I never finished any of them.
–I never stopped here at night though, and it seems to be a great local music venue though. Maybe the next time I’m placed in Roanoke, I’d consider coming here for a show and hopefully microbrews or imports, which I’m sure they’ll have to accommodate snobby obnoxious yankees like me.

My wife has eaten here several times but this was my first trip. my initial impression is that this place is probably a better bar than restaurant. We went on a Thursday evening. A band was setting up. I got the feeling the place wouldn’t come
until 10pm when the band would start.
I had the cheese steak hoagie. there was nothing special about this sandwich whatsoever. I was really disappointed. My wife had the petite crab cakes off the appetizer list. Like my sandwich, they were just ok, nothing to get excited about.
As popular as this restaurant is, I expected a lot more. It was just ok. Our meals could have come from Applebees, logans or just about any Chain restaurant. Martins will have to do better to get my repeat business.

Martin’s Downtown is always my default bar for three reasons: the live music, the staff, and the low key atmosphere. The food is all very delicious, though admittedly I don’t walk in the door early enough to really sit down and eat in many cases, but I’m a picky eater in many cases (though you wouldn’t know it looking at me! haha) and I have absolutely no complaints about anything I’ve tried to eat at Martin’s Downtown. None! It was all great.
Now, back to the music… There are several venues in the Roanoke Valley that cater to live music, and I have nothing but good things to say about each and every one of them, but this is the one that I find myself the most comfortable at – and the booking manager tends to bring in music that I always love and enjoy. We’re not talking about The Worx here… If you want to see a cover band, you’re going to have to find another bar. If you want to hear music, this place should be ranking high on your list!
Aside from the music, and the food, I’ll briefly mention the staff: the staff is amazing! I did say brief, didn’t I? ;) I have nothing but good things to say about Martin’s Downtown. See you all there!