The Beef Restaurant & Pub

We went to the Beef last night for supper. They don’t serve food until 5pm. So we went there at 6 and the place was packed. We had to wait for about 45 mins on a Thursday. This place is worth the wait! My uncle got the pork chop and I got the NY strip steak. He got the soup and wild rice. I got a salad and Mac“n“cheese. The waitress was great! She knew the menu and the different wines. So I highly recommend this place to eat at.

Had dinner with a large group, and no one was particularly impressed. The service was good, but the food was nothing special. The baked haddock was well received, but the sandwiches were not as good.

This is my favorite restaurant in Binghamton! Everyone here is family! All you have to do is say hi and you’re in. The staff is great, the food is amazing. My wife and I love it!

Went here tonight expecting good things and was so disappointed. The food was so plain and boring. The potatoes that came with my meal were very dry and had no flavor.
Such a let down!

Bland food and poor service… you would think a place called the beef would make a steak well, but that was not the case

A fantastic meal — legit beef-​on-​weck, great staff, kid friendly … Really, truly enjoyed it!

Finally made it to the Beef! I’ve heard this place is fantastic and boy is it ever! The bartenders are friendly, funny, entertaining and quick. The interior of the place is not the Waldorf but who the helk cares when your steak comes out delicious and perfectly cook! I ordered rare and guess what? I got rare! And rare as in rare! Not their made up version of rare! Their wedge salad! Forget about it! Exploding with bacon and delicious blue cheese and not the blue cheese imitation that comes in a plastic cup with your chicken wings… the good kind! My guests had soup and my mouth was salivating when it came out but then my steak came out and diverted my attention away from the soup. Service was good even though it was busier than usual we didn’t wait long in between each course. Staff is great, food delish… it’s the kind of place where you want to crawl onto your couch after and enjoy your food coma!

The Beef is fine if you know what you’re getting yourself into. Went last night with a couple of college friends. Super old crowd but that’s not really an issue if you ask me.
Small selection of alcoholic drinks. No craft brews.
I ordered the French onion soup. Such a salt slick. I think it caused me to gain 8 pounds of water weight. Not good.
The steak burger was decent. My friends enjoyed their meals but it’s a pretty limited selection.

I admit it. I like old school steakhouses where it’s super dark, the drinks are strong and the clientele has been frequenting the joint since before you were born.
The Beef meets all of that criteria and then some. I knew I was gonna love the place when we stumbled into the packed bar and there was live music — a duo that just happened to be belting out Billy Joel’s «New York State of Mind».
We weren’t super hungry so we ordered the prime rib sandwich and a burger to share, along with French onion soup. Great choices for sure. The French onion was deep in flavor and not overly salty plus the onions weren’t that gross texture that I can’t stand. We cut our sandwich and burger in halves so that we could try both items. I loved the prime rib. It was a perfect medium rare. The burger was great too but I would definitely pick the prime rib over the burger. And definitely get these items on the weck roll, totally adds an extra layer of flavor.
Pro-​tips: the pricing on the sandwiches is totally reasonable and more than enough food for a good meal. There is a parking lot in the back in case you can’t find street parking.

Firstly, The Beef is not really a restaurant geared towards younger folk. As another review said it’s like going back to the 70s here, it will feel a bit strange if you’re young. It’s a place you go to have a steak. Honestly found the food a bit overpriced for what it was. I live near this place and I usually see older folks hanging out here. If you are looking for a hip, modern place with exotic foods this is def not the place.

So I have a beef with The Beef. Service is the worst I’ve ever seen. After we got our check, we realized it wasn’t split (there was only 3 of us, and we all had cards). The waitress YELLED at us when we didn’t tell her ahead of time. I was shocked… I was never yelled at by a waitress before. Very awkward and not a good end to the meal. I could understand it would be annoying if it was a large party, but it was just 3!
I ordered the steak– and that’s literally all I got. Just a simple, boring slab of steak. It wasn’t even marinated. The sauce wasn’t special, fun or exciting… it was VERY tasteless and bland. The sauce was thin, watery and salty. The beef was edible but nothing great. And certainly not good enough for the restaurant to be named after.
However the salad was great– I could tell it had quality, fresh ingredients. I got blue cheese dressing which was good. And the clams casino appetizer was actually flavorful unlike the steak.
After hearing so much hype about this place, overall I was very disappointed. I know it’s convenient for BU students living downtown, and the food is much better than the average student’s cuisine. But there are WAY better places in Binghamton to go.

OK, kids — if you want to know what dining out was like when your parents were your age, stop in here. This is dining at it was in the 1970s: dark room, lots of wood and photos of Bing days past, and slabs of meat. Lots of slabs of meat. This is not a bad thing; sometimes you want a slab of meat.
The menu is a classic assortment of beef, chicken and seafood. French onion soup (with cheese!), shrimp in various forms are typical appetizers. Chocolate peanut butter pie is a typical dessert. Not much adventure or imagination here, but what they do, they do well. The food is tasty and the service is friendly and competent.
They recently remodeled and expanded the bar area, which is good. It was way too small before. We live around the corner, but gave up on stopping in for a drink. Maybe we’ll give it another try.
In conclusion: if you’re in the mood for sauteed tofu in Thai peanut sauce, don’t come here. But if you have a hole in your appetite that only bacon wrapped pork tenderloin can fill, then this is the place for you.

Lived around the corner for a year during my senior year at BU. Needless to say I walked by this place A LOT going to Cavanaughs for beer and pickles. Decided to drop in with one of my housemates and some girls before we headed downtown… I mean it’s right by the drunk bus stop, we had to try it.
Man, this place was a lot of fun. At first, the people who I can only assume were the «regulars» were none too happy to see 5 college aged kids come in. After proving our maturity by ordering shots of whiskey with NO chasers, bloody mary’s and rum and cokes we began to grow on them. I’m guessing us not screaming and going wild helped too…
Long story short, by the end of the night we were doing car bombs with the old couple celebrating their anniversary in the corner, getting drinks bought for us by the owner, and making plans to come by for lunch the next day. We ended up making this place a necessary stop every weekend.
In typical irresponsible college fashion, I never was able to make it there for lunch or food, So i can only rate this place on their drinks and complimentary trail mix (they keep the bowls full) I have to say this place is amazing, definitely worth giving a shot-​regardless of if you’re an undergrad, local, or new to the area.
My roomates ended up coming to eat here after I left and LOVED it, they rave about their food often. I’m excited to go back. woo woo,
— Oh, and they now serve pickle backed Whiskey shots thanks to me and my friends… you are all welcome.

The layout of the restaurant is odd: push to the back of the bar and you will find the dining room. This large space is dark (bring a flashlight) and filled with heavy furniture and the good bourgeois of Bingo chomping away. The onion soup is delicious, and do get it with the cheese, which charges it with a delicious flavor (noted negatively by the other reviewer), but which I like. I usually ordered the salad with blue cheese dressing, which was not bad, but not great either. The steaks are good, get a side of Sauce Bernaise, which pushes it over the top.

Working all day works up an appetite while slaving away, doing whatever my father wants me to do, Melissa texts and wants to go to whats your beef for dinner. Strangely enough, that was on my list of restaurants that i want to review. put two and two together, and you get the latest addition to the restaurant review EL CARNE, aka The Beef!
Curb Appeal
the beef is located on leroy street in the wonderful west side of binghamton. the location necessarily ideal, being right next door to a liquor store, and adjacent to low income student housing. it gives the «whole in the wall» feel from the street. one of those place’s that are popular to the neighborhood but so well known by the rest of binghamtonians. needless to say, its quaint.
Dinning Room Ambiance
the place was JAMMED! the way it is set up is a little confusing at first. you walk in and you there is a door right in front of you and one to the right. if you go in the one in the front, it leads you into the dinning room, but not like an entrance. its more like right on top of somebody’s table. if you go in the door to your right, it takes you into the bar. the bar is small but very full and the colors make the room feel really warm. its kind of confusing on where the hostess station is. you have to go all the way to the other side of the bar, and there is the hostess. thats one thing they should think of. maybe a sign for people who’ve never been there before. i had to ask another patron «how do get sat in this place» before i figured it out.
so after an hour of waiting, even though i was told it was going to be an half hour, we were sat. you can’t see the dining room from the bar so i didn’t get to check out the actual dinning room until we were actually sat.
the dinning room is very small. probably seats 50 people at a time. the whole place had just been redone and you definitely notice. there was no built up scuzz from years of neglect. the colors, like the bar, were very warm and the lighting was perfect for a fine dining atmosphere. One thing that I loved, is that all through out the restaurant there were pictures of binghamton. Old, artistic, new, and paintings that ive never seen before, gives me a little more pride in my ‘hood.
The menu
Wow, the menu, someone finally got it right! The menu was small, to the point. Had about 5 starters, probably 11 – 15 dinners, and a few sides. Perfect! I’m trying to start a new thing were im trying to take suggestions from the servers and really only order what they suggest. But, this guy, didn’t really suggest anything. He will get his own review later on. I ordered a 8 oz filet mignon with french onion soup «house potatoes» (sliced baked potato with salt, pepper, and garlic), and chicken skewers as a starter.
Food
We got our salads and soups before my starter, little weird. The soup was good but a little over cheesed. The cheese was so strong that it almost made the soup taste like it had some kind of booze in it. The soup was very tasty other than that. A very good size portion and there were a lot of onions in it.
Next the chicken skewers. I was expecting them to look a little more like spiedies, but instead they looked like strips of chicken thighs, on wood skewers. They were served over a bed of lettuce and a peanut dipping sauce. The sauce had a very unique taste. Almost soy sauce mixed with peanut butter and some other ingredient that I couldn’t place. It was adequate.
Now on to my filet.
Hmm, im a little disappointed, but mainly in my self, is to blame. The fist thing that I noticed was the lack of potatoes. I had a big hunk of beef and like 5 slices of baked potato. That seems a little scarce. Not to mention that Chris’, who got the marinated chicken breast, got completely ripped off. They must have had a special on chicken because this was the smallest breast ive ever seen. Plus the green beans came in a pudding cup and there were only a small handful. BUT im not reviewing Chris’ food, just mine.
The beef, I should of got mine medium rare, that’s my first problem. It was too cooked. I ordered medium, but if that was medium, then well must be black and tar-​tasting. It wasn’t bad by any means. Im sure most people probably would have been completely happy. Just for me, I expect too much. I want to be wowed and be at a lost for words. This was just ok. It didn’t have much flavor and was a little dry.
Service
Our waiter wasn’t bad. He was attentive and likable enough. He did forget somethings a couple of times, but was very quick to fix it. My only complaint is that he was too comfortable. Melissa knew him a little, so the formality of the service was lost because he automatically thought we were all «friends». Sorry I know that sounds really pretentious, but unless you are my friend, don’t talk to me like you know me and think its ok to drop the f-​bomb in front of me. Overall, he was very nice and got the job done right.
Cost
The beef is a little pricey but not too bad.