Turtles Bar & Grill

After hearing lots of good things about Turtles, we stopped in for dinner. I was waffling about, not sure what I wanted. I asked about the soup of the day… «Pineapple pepper jack».
Say what? Naturally, I had to order it! The waitress suggested to order a cup instead of a bowl since I was also ordering an entrée. She was right, because the cup is huge! It was different, kind of tasted like pineapple and pimiento cream cheeses that used to come in those dinky glass jars! Yeah, it was great! Warm sourdough roll and butter too.
I ordered fettuccine Alfredo, which came with a dinner salad and (another) roll and butter. I like yo salad, Turtles! Onion, chickpeas, red onion, green peas, beets, etc. Fet Alf was good, but I was stuffed already, so just had a few bites and took home the rest.
Other half had the Garlic herb roast chicken, which smelled super awesome. Caesar salad, baked potato with fixing, corn muffin. All good.
Nice drink selection. He had an old fashioned (glad to see this old timey drink get some love– it’s been around forever because it tastes good!). Coke for me– whoopee ;-)
Nice vibe, not too crowded, parking was right but we squeezed in. Good service. Good job, kids. We will be back.

Absolutely loved the food, but hated the service. I had fish and chips and ordered the side salad to go with it. They were both amazing and super fresh. I had to go up to the bar to ask for refills for our table because none of us had anything to drink. The waitress disappeared and never once checked to see how our food was or if we needed anything. Not sure if I’ll be back or not, but I highly recommend they do something about their waitresses if they want to keep business.

We sat in the loft room-​no minors allowed. Nice atmosphere. Ordered the hummus plate and chicken dinner to split between the two of us. It was more then enough. Great cocktails –a lot to choose from. The service was very friendly and quick. I highly recommend this place!

Im giving them four stars because i really dug the ambience and the music they were playing ~ the bananas foster is the best i ever had. I wish the bartender would have been more attentive and involved. She never asked how the food was and didn’t engage me at all, even though i told her upon entering that it was my first time there. I asked what the house specialties were, she handed me a menu.

Great family atmosphere and friendly folks. Salads are delicious! Check out taco Tuesday, such a great deal, plus fish is all super fresh from newman’s fish market. :)

We made a 7pm reservation, checked in 5 min early and waited for 40 minutes, when we went up to ask about our table, they said it wouldn’t be ready for another 20 min. That would’ve been an hour wait for a reservation we had made before hand. I’m not impressed with the staff at all. No one came to clarify the situation, and by the time they figured out that they gave our table away to the wrong party, we were out the door. Complete waste of time.

Great price, organized, excellent waitress, and an easygoing environment. If I lived in Eugene I would be a regular. Our waitress was thoughtful and brought our daughter a finger food snack while we waited for our entrees. The forethought was much appreciated and I would recommend anyone with tiny people to come.

I live in the neighborhood of Turtles… After my last visit I will not be returning which saddens me as I like to support our local small businesses. I’ve noticed the quality of the food eroding over time. The last visit, ordered a patty melt. Came GREASY, actually used my napkin to soak up some of the grease. Ate half of my meal-​took the rest home & threw it away when I got home because I felt terrible from what I had eaten.
The fries were terrible! If you serve fries on several selections you would think the quality would be better… tasted like they had been frozen & then quickly fried to heat up only to turn them TOUGH and delivered cold… very chewy! I felt terrible the rest of the day. I keep trying to give Turtles a chance– this was the last chance!

I lived in Eugene for a year before I discovered Turtles. That was my loss! I should’ve discovered it a long time ago. Please understand I eat out almost every meal all the time as a single guy. But, I have to tell you, I’ve eaten out all over the world and by far this is the best food for the money that I’ve ever experienced. They serve organic food, with a smile and friendly waitstaff. Kate, the owner is phenomenally friendly and ordinal! She obviously has it all together. Once you walk into the place you appreciate the atmosphere particularly of the Loft Bar in the back. The loft could be used for catering and wedding receptions. Quite professional! My favorite appetizers are the half rack of ribs on happy hour for $ 6.95. This is at least half the price and twice the quality of anywhere else I’ve been. I’ve been phenomenally happy with the half organic chicken dinner, Caesar salad, the chicken Caesar salad which has organic chicken on it, the huge bowl of chicken soup, and many other things that are far too numerous to mention. The normal bowl of soup is twice the size anywhere else that I’ve been for half the price. Also apple pie and ice cream for $ 3.50 for crazy not to come and try it. I owned two restaurants and I can tell you, unequivocally, this is the place to be.
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12÷20÷15
I stopped by for breakfast today and had them do a low-​carb breakfast for me substituting Caesar salad, which is killer, for all the carbs. Take a look at the attached picture. You can’t beat it for $ 8.95

Ok, I have been coming to Turtles for years, and we hit a bad patch where we were receiving slow service. Turtle slow. I wanted to be honest, so I left honest reviews. Because my kids love it, and I LOVE their salads and the location works well for us, we have been coming back and the last year have been receiving great service. Everyone working is very friendly, helpful and attentive. The pace has improved dramatically. I hoped that the owner was hearing the constructive criticism and responding appropriately, and I really believe she has. We are going back again this evening, as our kids picked the location. I know I will have my favorite salad and receive great service. :)

How this ranks as a «sports bar» is beyond me…
The atmospere of this restaurant is typical Eugene, «old, casual, pretty much lacking
any distinguishing features. Service is a little slow and friendly enough. Most of the
food would rank as comfort food at a fair price. None of it stands out to me. But
the location and availability of tables makes it an O.K. choice. I would not recommend
the ribs, as they seemed day old, tasty but very dried out.
Worse yet, they don’t serve breakfast until after 11a.m.

Used to be pretty good. Not anymore. Food; not so fresh. Service; slowest I’ve ever experienced. Margarita; no evidence of any alcohol.

A friend and I met here on a whim. I immediately liked the lighting and the overall feel of the restaurant. I ordered a hamburger and it wasn’t anything amazing for the price — I felt that it was a bit expensive actually, but it went well with the delicious marionberry ale they had on tap. The service was very slow but friendly. When we stayed till closing, they didn’t rush us out of our seats. The server was patient and although next time I will reserve more time to wait for our orders to come around, I will definitely return.

So food was descent, I had the garlic herb chicken which came as half a chicken and made it a little more difficult to eat. The corn bread was probably the best part. My mango margarita was tasty, the presentation of it was below average. It came to me with the drink overflowing and all over the glass, which then got all over the table. My girlfriend had the stir fry which she said wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either. She claims that the strawberry drop is delicious. The server was friendly and the candle lit table was nice. Turtles was an okay place to eat.

Turtles is a great combination of friendly service with delicious large portions of food. You get ur money’s worth and I always leave full and happy. Great cocktails with tasty fresh squeezed juices, and huge fresh salads with free range chicken or my favorite blackened salmon. All reasons why I keep going back. Turtles and the loft side are my go to spots, I recommend checking it out, so many options on the menu, never gets old!

Choices galore! Best dinner salads ever. Always tip-​top customer service and consistency although the atmosphere and menu are fairly mediocre… Nothing wrong with being sure of what you’re getting into for dinner though! They take good are of ya, and if you’re luckily they’ll be hosting live music!

I’ve eaten here probably 6 to 8 times, after my son moved to So. Eugene and I began taking him out to lunch when I visited him, along with my girlfriend. Turtles is convenient to his location. Parking can be a problem, with space for around eight cars alongside the building on the south; another 6 or so in back and a couple more in front, on Willamette St.
Food:
I’ve only been going here for lunch so I cannot comment on the dinner business.
Typical «barngrill» fare with a reasonable selection of craft brews from the bar. Burgers are fine and come with fresh french fries. Cold sandwiches are also okay. Salads are fresh but a bit skimpy in my opinion, especially at $ 9.50 a copy for a Greek Salad. I would say that nothing on the lunch menu is particularly distinguished. You can get what is offered just about anywhere else.
Service:
In a word, abysmal. My last visit was on 7÷28÷15 and after waiting 10 minutes for even an acknowledgement from a server that I was there with my party of three, we just finally gave up and left. Other patrons who were in various stages of either waiting to give an order or waiting to get their order served from the kitchen were visibly annoyed at having to wait a long time.
Ordinarily I probably would have waited it out, but this snail-​paced service has been the case for virtually every time I’ve eaten lunch here. Each stage of the process — presentation of a menu, taking an order, arrival of the food — seemed to take forever.
In fact, I gently complained to our server 2 visits ago and she agreed that their service was «lacking.» Clearly, yesterday demonstrated that whomever runs the show there doesn’t seem to care; or, if he or she does care, they are unable to correct the problem.
Ambiance:
Clean, contemporary, relaxed. The bar downstairs kind of dominates the dining room. Can be noisy when busy, but it is a barngrill after all.
Conclusion:
Regrettably, Turtles is removed from my list of Eugene establishments at which to eat. I’ve given them enough chances to improve.

I’m a great big fan of this place. Useta to come to Eugene every so often to visit friends and maybe watch the Ducks play. Always busy, solid breakfast and drink. Lately, though, noticed that they open later: 11:00a —no big deal at all, just used to a earlier open for brekky. This visit was fun. There were 6 of us and we got served in good time. Everyone seemed very satisfied. I had eggs benedict. It was well made, perfectly poached eggs, good hollandaise. Their Spicy Bloody Mary’s were $ 5 on Sunday. Chris had a ManMosa-​basically Mimosa in a Pint Glass.
Service fell apart at the end when we wanted to pay — –we waited several minutes with our cards out. I had to flag down the manager. He apologized and took care of us pretty quickly. A nice touch. Lots of families throughout. I guess they have a separate bar, called the Loft, only open in the evening.

Quit whining about what you perceive to be slow service. If you don’t want to wait for food, have a bowl of cereal loser. You’re pathetic.
The food here is good. Great environment. The problem is the stuffy slash brutal clientele. Arrogant, self-​centered, rundown, 40 something soccermoms who could be best described by paying homage to the old fundemental baseball term: «Bunt», minus the B, plus the C, multiplied by Gigantic. They have nothing better to do than thumb out a meaningless, hate-​filled review because «Little Johnny» didn’t get his chicken strip basket within 10 minutes. Hey «Mary Ann» bend over and I’ll shove «Little Johnny’s» limp, little chicken strip up your one star review. Have an outstanding day!

So Turtles, or Turts, as my friends and I affectionally call it, is my home away from home at times. Of all the places in this city, this is where I know I can stroll in, looking like I just rolled out of bed, park myself in a corner and stay there for hours. The girls and I will literally stay in our spot and have mimosas on Sundays, tacos on Tuesdays, and meet up with groups of friends on Fridays and Saturdays.
The bartenders and servers are absolute dolls. We love ‘em. The food! The turtles salad of course is my favorite, the magical mix of greens, corn, red onions, garbanzo beans, kidney beans and that garlic ranch dressing! I am obsessed with their ribs, that fall off the bone tenderness has me drooling just writing about it. The smoked salmon caesar salad is one of my absolute faves as well! The carnets tacos on tuesday are seriously so delish and addicting!
The outdoor seating is superb during the nicer seasons, but the choice of the main dining room at Turtles or the Loft is nice to have. The Loft does have some really talented live musicians as well on Friday and Saturdays. The ambiance is mellow, and the lighting perfect. Love me some Turtles.