Zeke’s Uptown Bar & Grill

Zekes has one of the best chefs in the area. The food is amazing. The atmosphere is really junky. We go here because the food is worth it. But, even on New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, there weren’t any decorations or anything to dress it up.

Decided to try Zekes for dinner on a Wednesday night around 7. Got there and there was a party of 4 waiting at the hostess stand. But no hostess. There was a sign hung at the stand basically saying you might have to wait a minute but please wait. Seemed like the party in front of us had been there a few minutes. A gentleman did come by and say he’d be right back to seat them.
Meanwhile there was a party of 6 sitting in a booth right next to the door craning their necks like they were looking for someone. Their glasses were empty and they had no plates.
The gentleman who previously walked by the hostess stand walked past them. One of the customers asked why he couple who was seated after them already had their food. His excuse was something about how the tickets come in. The customer stated they had been waiting an hour for their food and were leaving. The gentleman seemed kinda indifferent to it. He apologized, but hat was about it.
Needless to say we followed them out the door. So glad we did as we found a great dinner spot up the street.

I crave their pancakes and don’t get me started on the French toast. Syrup isn’t even needed it is so yummy! I look forward to visiting my mom just so I can go for breakfast. They do seem a little short staffed for breakfast, but I promise it is well worth it! The biggest downfall and the reason for the 4-​star rating, their breakfast ends a little early. They should consider extending it. It would also be nice if they did mimosa or bloody Mary specials. Nonetheless, this is the spot for breakfast! I cannot review on their dinner or lunch because I haven’t tried it yet.

Two servers and neither knew what the other was doing for us the diners. Well drink at $ 4.95 had no alcohol. When I mentioned it to the waitress she said the bar would replace; the response from the bartender was that I shouldn’t have ordered a tall drink. I never did. One of the two servers ordered it that fashion. The bartender recommended I order their premium liquor (evidently if I wanted to actually taste the liquor I needed to order top shelf)!!! And overruled the server and did not replace my drink! She apologized but I was not about to banter with the bar but I’ve never heard of a server being embarrassed by the bartender in front of a customer.
As for the food it was insipid: fish tacos were served with ice cold corn salsa; $ 11.00 appetizer was a large platter of potato chips on which this establishment prides itself and contained a very small amount t of crayfish.
Upgrading from potato chips to a cup of soup added $ 3.50 to the bill as a side.
Also the bill presented suggested an 18% tip minimum! The nerve of a second rate restaurant!
My party could write off the cold food to a busy kitchen but there only a few customers; now we know why. That uncaring bartender needs to find a different line of work.
Inglewood is still waiting for a restaurant that prides itself on service and food. What a shame and we felt bad for the server (s).

Best breakfasts in area. Have enjoyed eggs, homemade biscuits, biscuits and gravy,
Huevos rancheros and brought friends for a nice dinner too.

Read some really good reviews so we thought we’d enjoy our dinner meal there. Best thing we can report is that the place is relatively easy to get to.
Here’s a report on our experiences.
Our expectations for a really good meal were overly positive. We walked in and saw right away not so clean but took seat anyway. Quite a lot of noise. Looked over the menu… meals are rather expensive for a ordinary bar & grill. Our meal was disappointing — nothing was hot at all but was on the warm side. And not so much of anything.. The salad was quite ordinary and unusually small… portions are minimal. No bread or rolls. Especially wanted to taste the crab cakes… they were served to us just warm… nothing was as hot as it should be. and lacking in taste in comparison to others… we are trying to find best place for crab cakes around and so far these cakes are at the bottom of 6 places we’ve gone… not much taste in comparison to others. And the white rice… best we not speak of it. Wondered if rice had been heated at all. The filet steak (6 oz) was OK but not one I would order again. Anyway, we’ll not be back… sorry to say.. And if you go, try not to hold your expectations to high. Better to go in with low expectations and maybe be surprised.

I have had issues with this restaurant in the past, but still recommended it for their cheap prices on drinks. Welllll, that too seems to have disappeared. The other night my friend and I stopped in for a glass of wine and some fries, and got sticker shock when we had to pay $ 6.00 each for ½ glass of house wine and the fries were not so hot either. The waiter offered to replace them, but I cannot waste food. Service was slow and nothing to brag about — guess that’s it for me!!!

The service was exelent! The food was fantastic! The dessert was extravagant! I give Zekes a 5!!!

We waited over an hour for our food. When I walked to the other side of the restaurant to find our waiter he was surprised that we did not have our food. He was our waiter! I told him that if we did not receive our food in the next few minutes that we would leave. Our food, conveniently, was served to us. I asked the waiter why we had such a long wait and he told me that the hamburgers we ordered took 15 minutes to cook. We sat waiting for over an hour and two hamburgers were the reason? My mother ordered Mahi Mahi tacos and they were so salty that they were inedible. The hamburgers that my Aunt and I ordered were nothing special. Lesson learned. We will not be back. The area has many other restaurants to choose from. I would choose from those instead.
Dale W.
I can see that you talked to our waiter. He was nice and was very helpful in getting me something to nibble on due to the long wait. I am not going to change, what I originally, stated as to the long wait time. We did wait over an hour. A young couple that came in and seated at the same time we were had there orders taken and served way sooner than we were. I get that you have your numbers with cook times, wait times and so on and so forth and that’s great but does not change the fact that the service and quality of the food items you provide are extremely inconsistent. I am not the only patron to leave a dissatisfied review. Our poor waiter! I almost hate to mention this little tidbit but when my mother explained why she was unable to eat the Mahi Mahi tacos due them being so salty. Ironically, he told us that he has had other patrons tell him the same thing. He informed us that he has spoken to the cooks in regards to that fact. Dale W. You may want to spend more time managing Zeke’s or cooking or what have you than on Unilocal desperately trying to explain why your food is ok at best and your service is not so great either.

Simple lunch served deliciously– Grilled Romaine and perfectly baked potato– knocked it out! Took one star away only because it took a while but it was worth the wait.

We are here on New Year’s Day 2016 for breakfast arriving at about 9:25 am. I’m writing this while waiting for our food. Apparently they are understaffed although the restaurant looks empty. Our waitress, «Jill», seated us and took our drink orders — mostly coffees and water. We waited a while and I looked around the restaurant for breakfast menus because she didn’t give any to us. I finally walked back to the coffee station and simply asked if we could have some menus. Our waitress yelled at me «You’re not the only ones here!» I looked at her and said «it’s not that unusual of a request.» She said «well we are short staffed and everyone came here at once.» Wow. Not my problem, I’m sorry. Be happy you have customers and that you have a job.
Another gentleman came to our table moments later with menus followed by our waitress with our drinks — no apology for her behavior. The gentleman «apologized» and said she’s upset because someone was late. I requested that he serve us from this point on and asked to speak to the manager. He said he was. Looking around the restaurant right now, there are about 4 tables occupied inside and a couple outside. That’s it. We will never be back here again. If we didn’t have a 2 year old with us we would have walked out and went to Mangos instead where we’ve always had great service. We wanted to try something new to support a local business and celebrate the new year as a family over breakfast. We are just all sitting here shocked that in an economy where people are desperate to work, someone like your waitress is earning a paycheck instead. If you’re the owner reading this, look at how many checks were processed around the time we were here. It was not busy at all. There are plenty of other ways to convey to customers that you are overwhelmed and still be nice and apologetic at the same time. Awful.

Great grouper sandwich! Delicious Eggs Benedict! But please lose the square plates! The delicious hollandaise sauce gets stuck in every corner and I can’t get it in my mouth without licking the plate! Especially the really narrow rectangular plate. I know they look cool, but they just aren’t functional. This would be 5 star if not for the plates!

I cannot believe how good our breakfast was. We had 9 people with us and everyone’s meal was fantastic.

I may starve to death waiting for my food… This better be good.
20 min later… I got the fish & chips, it was good, sweet potato fries instead of chips, they were good also.
My daughter got the pulled pork sandwich, it was a little too smokey for our liking.
Husband got clam chowder, it was good not great.
Waiter (tall thin guy) was lacking any enthusiasm and friendliness… Didn’t even smile once. Won’t go back it sucked

Got here and was sat quickly. Was given no high chair which was an obvious, so I got it myself. Service was slow due to all servers pretty much having a pow wow in the back. I literally had to walk past them and stare them down for them to scatter and take some orders. as my table and the two across each other waited at least 10 minutes to order. The people across wanted to order and the server told them to wait and took forever to come back (I really don’t like to write bad stuff about restaurants, but customer service is important, hopefully someone can read this and talk to their workers)… waiting for food. well see how it comes out… food was great!

So far the bartender seem a little toasted NOT IMPRESSED with his bartender skills got my food needed ketchup, he gave me an empty bottle, when I I couldn’t get enough out of the bottle he took another bottle that was half empty joined then. So now I have ²⁄₂ empty bottles of ketchup joint to gather which only made about a quarter of a bottle and he said that should be enough for you tonight. Not very professional. Great location. That’s IT

Breakfast was very good, service was excellent. Had a spinach and Monterey Jack cheese omelet, delicious and good portion. Also garnished with fresh orange slices and strawberries. Disappointed with the lack of cleanliness in the restrooms. Overall very good.

Great Breakfast! Friendly service and friendly atmosphere! Great prices to boot! I had the three egg omelette and I had mushrooms spinach and mozzarella cheese with wheat toast my husband had a bowl of fruit which was good fruit strawberries blueberries then he also had the biscuits and gravy !

We went there last night and had the pork chop and the NY strip steak. Both were just sensational as were the sides and the amazing chowder. Before posting this review we decided to see if this was a fluke and we went back tonight. No accident! This place is the real deal. The pork chop was so memorable my wife had it again! Seriously, this just the best damn pork chop ever. I went for fish tonight and had the cobia. Just great as well.
A shout out to Rick, our waiter, whom we had both nights. Great service and conversation.
This place ain’t fancy but you don’t eat the décor. The food is just first rate. If I was staying longer, I’d try everything on the menu!

Can’t say enough about this place. Bartender great, food to die for. Had craw fish nachos again… yummy. then some cowder, the sherry came shining thru. Then THE muscles… OMG. Will he back for sure!

4 stars but with a warning! Avoid during busy times if you want to have a conversation. They really need to do some work on this problem. There are a lot of fixes that will dampen the sound. Wooden floors, high ceilings with exposed wood is a recipe for bad acoustics. The food: we had breakfast. First got wife’s order wrong and when we told the waiter about it he said well that’s what was put up. When they brought the wife’s correct order the sausage was undercooked. I ordered chipped cream beef on toast, a trip back in time for my military days, and it was nothing like it should’ve been. It was a brown sauce was so little chip beef you could barely see. It was also loaded with pepper. All in all not a great experience.

Second time for dinner. Visit one, sat at the bar and watched the bartender fling ice and spin coasters. When we asked for something, he literally asked us to wait so he could finish his game. Good food.
Visit two, 5 of us went to dinner. Atmosphere just ok, wait staff a bit rough. When my brother asked what sides came with his meal, the server pointed to the menu and said «they’re right there.» We were floored. Appearance and attitude had to go. Everyone enjoyed their food-​would have given more stars but the rough service had to go. Will yet again try them-​strictly for good eats in Englewood.

Three of us ate here on a busy Saturday night. I had the crab towers. Nice presentation, good flavor. But menu said there was cilantro and herbs, what I had was micro greens. Could not taste any cilantro. Also this is listed under entrees which states you get your choice of a salad, rice, veggies or potato. This meal came with none of those. Also ordered was the Black n’ Blusey. A perfectly cooked sirloin with a wonderful sauce ordered with a salad,(which came just a few minutes before the entrée,) no potato or anything else. At $ 18.00 should have a starch served with that as well as a salad. The 3^rd person got the shrimp ala vodka, again a very flavorful dish, perfectly cooked. It did come with a salad and some french bread.
But really the water came in a togo cup and the soft drink in a plastic glass. If you serve up scale food you need to have a little better décor and you need to lose the plastic. Also it was noisey. I don’t know what they could do about that, the place was rocking. It also would have been nice if we saw our waiter at least once after he served our food. No walk back to see if everything was alright, (it was) but a good wait staff knows to check back. There were a few items on the menu I want to try so I will be back. All and all the food was good, the wine glass generous, not much else.

Came here on the high recommendation of my in-​laws. We were here for a quick getaway weekend with my wife and two tweens. The smoked fish spread was amazing! We loved it!
My critique. Service was a little slow — great for a Florida lunch to relax with friends. However, it was so slow that our food was icy cold by the time they delivered it. They even forgot to deliver one of my son’s burgers and claimed that it was coming right out. When delivered, it was charred on the outside, but raw on the inside, suggesting they just remembered to cook it.
This was supposed to be a special treat from grandparents to grandchildren. It was… We got to test the plumbing in their condo. :-)