Holmes & Watson

Cute building, but I wasn’t impressed with my meal.

I’ve had drinks and cottage fries here.
They have a small but decent selection and the bar tender isn’t a wimp on pouring whiskey.
The owner’s Ipod is playing and he has a lot of Tom Waits so I have a secret crush on the owner even though I’ve never met him.
The cottage fries were yummy and had a salt, pepper, garlic powder dusting on ‘em.
The ladies’ room is strange. It has those swinging doors on the stalls and you can see over the doors and the stalls. Its amusing but weird.
Because I’m old I wasn’t there late and it was quiet enough for normal volume conversation. I like it a lot.

Good beer selection, food, and atmosphere. For a place this great, I’m surprised it’s not packed. But I’m glad it’s not, because it’s more enjoyable that way. Perfect for some grad student discussions. Chicken breast sandwich the size of your head.

I like this place a lot. Really solid pub. Actually reminds me of some of the pubs I visited in England (not trying to brag about traveling – it’s trying to be an English pub and is doing a good job.) Fairly standard pub fare, and I will say… this is the BEST BURGER in Troy. Yup, I said it. Nice little patio out back and there is Trivia Night on Wednesdays.

You know what?
I like this place.
I have never tried the food so my 4 star is based on the dive bar status.
They usually have decent beer on tap, decent prices and it’s almost always low-​key when I go in for a beer or 2.
I enjoy the owner.
Stop for a second. Picture what you think the owner of this place would look like. Yup, that’s him.
I’m pretty sure this place has more bad qualities than bad but gosh darnit I’m still giving it a 4.
Some of the female bartenders are not exactly pleasant so the service is hit or miss.
They close at odd hours. Why would you close so early? It was around 10pm, they had a decent crowd going & they started kicking people out? That’s just silly pants.
I don’t know about the food but if you are just looking for a beer and some conversation with friends, come here. Just not too late because they will be closed.

I’ve heard many good things about this place, but my lunch experience there was not fun. My open faced turkey sandwich was OK, but was literally a big hunk of deli turkey slices thrown atop bread with bland brown gravy on top. My boyfriend ordered a burger that contained bacon, cheddar and mushrooms, and asked for the mushrooms to be omitted. The waitress said, sorry, no substitutions. you would have to get the plain burger and add each topping as an extra. So he ordered the mesa sandwich instead, which is topped with jalapenos and cheddar (no mushrooms). Lo and behold the sandwich comes out COVERED in mushrooms. Perhaps it was just a misunderstanding, but in the end the 7.99 sandwich turned into a 10.99 sandwich due to the $ 3 worth of extra toppings. The chicken was really dry and bland. We were asked if we needed take out boxes about 5 minutes into our meal. We felt rushed and uninvited. The staff overall was inattentive and even rude. lots of shouting from the bar to the kitchen. Maybe this place was good in the past, but I don’t see myself going back there.

* Cajun fish sandwich w fries
I have been in this restaurant twice for lunch having the special of the day. When you enter you can just see the bar, then you can either go to the patio (we went there the first time) or to the dinning halls. The patio was really nice, rather unexpected for the location (Downtown Troy). The dinning hall feels like a repurposed house and its confortable. The fries were really good, the cajun fries was barely ok. The waitress was attentive, nothing special.
I would like to try other things in the menu, and eat them in the patio.

Horrendous. I walked in here around 5 pm on a Thursday wanting a Guinness for happy hour. There were two bartenders and 4 people at the bar. The bartenders completely ignored me while they shouted across the bar to a prep cook. I sat right in front of one of the bartenders – seriously, less than five feet from his face– and he didn’t even acknowledge me… so I put my backpack on the floor and took a seat and waited… he continued to ignore me so I pulled out my wallet… and he continued to ignore me so I pulled out a twenty. I was looking straight at this bozo and he continued to shout at the prep cook, so I picked up my stuff and walked out the door. I think this guy needs a customer service refresher. It is the industry he’s in after all.
On top of that, the place stinks to high heaven. I mean, it seriously stinks… like bad body odor. I think that the wood floor has soaked up lots of stale beer.
Another strike against it is that it just has horrible hours. I was going to meet a friend there on the FRIDAY night before labor day weekend. My friend got there and they told her that they were closing at 9 PM… on a Friday night. It’s a friggin’ bar for chrissake.
Avoid this place.

The last time I was here was for lunch. A whole different vibe. This place is meant for after work. Good for winding down. Always was a fan of the concept. Too bad they’re not all over as are many Holmes appreciation groups. I belong to one in the twin cities out of the U of M. Serious business. My favorite is the missing three quarter. A grilled roast beef, provolone, with garlic butter. It was a little disappointing on my last visit, on the dry side. It wasn’t busy, and unfortunately that can be a drawback with service. They tend to disappear. I’ll give it another shot next time in the evening. A beautifully decorated pub. This was the one place I would go with on street parking. It’s really unnerving.

Holmes and Watson has a great selection of beer, and great food to go along with it. Unlike many pubs/​restaurants in Troy, the atmosphere is friendly and warm, without being overbearing. The traditional style of the building along with the friendly and helpful staff make this a must-​go-​to restaurant if you’re visiting Troy.