Arena Bar & Grill

Amazing beer and amazing service! The Arena is always a good time. They have more beers on tap than you can drink in one sitting (50 I believe) and the menu is large and delicious as well. The Rosemary chicken is a classic and one of my favorites. We also love to drink framboise and hoegarden while we eat. Two thumbs up!

Truly a fine establishment… my friends and I stopped by here on our way to Boston. We arrived near midnight, which is when their kitchen closes, but they encouraged us to order anyway. The food was scrumptious and their beer menu was wildly extensive. That said, the food and drinks were perhaps both outmatched by the service. Both our hostess and waitress were startlingly friendly and helpful, it didn’t hurt that they were also beautiful. Would come here again. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ experience. Come to this place, you won’t be disappointed.

The food is great, the beer selection is great, the atmosphere is great, and the place is always clean. That makes AB&G good for dinner or happy hour any time.
Their crab stuffed pretzel and Captain Crunch chicken are both among my favorite appetizers in the area, enough so that I’ll typically order both of them instead of getting one of the entrees.
The only complaint here is that the parking is horrible. There isn’t much room to park and the parking lot is a little tight.

Happy Hour on Wednesday from 5pm-​7pm is awesome! I met up with a friend to finally celebrate our July 9^th birthdays together. She choose to sit at a table across from the bar which was a sweet spot for service. Our waitress was very friendly and knowledgeable of the drinks and menus. She frequently kept checking on our needs and clearing our table as needed during our visit. We ordered chicken bites as a regular appetizer. My friend ordered mild; they were good. She thought they were too spicy; I love super painfully hot so I can not tell you that. I will order their Satan Sauce next trip there for myself. We each ordered a mix drink. She ordered the Pina Coloda. Looked yummy; she said it was excellent! I ordered a Coconut Mai Tai; it was just ok. Next I had to order the gourmet beef sliders along with cheese fries (both happy hour items at $ 2.00 each). My friend ordered the Oriental Chicken Salad. My burgers were cute and perfect! Four bites each. And the fries were plentiful. Hot and fresh served with a modest amount of cheese. My friend’s salad was huge! About four skewers of chicken seasoned perfectly. Salad was crisp and fresh. However, the Thai Peanut dressing was bland; needed more peanut butter. The list of beers @ Happy Hour was HUGE! Lot’s of craft beers included; which is a great way to try new things… like a Cowbell Imperial Oatmeal Milk Stout at only $ 2.00!!! Yum :) We also signed up for the Birthday Club for next year’s celebration.

Awful service. Just awful.
Great beer and cheap during happy hour though.
Place is ran like a circus.
Avoid if you have anxiety problems and/​or sit at the bar.

excellent food I love the buffalo chicken cheesesteak is too die for with a blue moon beer, the staff is also very friendly, very impressed keep up the great work

This place sucks!!! The service is beyond BAD!!! When the waiters ask you how to spell what your order is it’s more than sad!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!
Food was ok at best. Never was offered another drink. Never brought the lemon I ask for from 4 PEOPLE!!!
So STILL never again!!!

I can’t believe how long I’ve waited to give Arena the review that they deserve. Let me start by saying this: if you like food and beer, this is the premier establishment in the Scranton/​Wilkes-​Barre area. Their happy hour is outrageous — 4 days a week, 5 – 7 and 10 – 12 plus Sundays 9 – 11. Easily the best beer selection in the area and ever-​changing with some of the best craft brews in the world FOR ONLY 2 DOLLARS! The food is tremendous with a very diverse menu of both bar foods and full blown home-​cooked meals. — all delicious. I just read what I have written, and yes I know it sounds like a commercial for their business, but I promise you it is actually that good and I am just a frequent customer, not a co-​owner lol. I will leave it at this — you are missing out if you haven’t been here!

we drive to this place from Jack frost because we. we’re. bored… and. let. me. say… this. place has great food and drink… the. music and atmosphere has a lot of fun energy… the waitress are super. awesome checking. on you every minute… this is a 5 star service bar restaurant… I thought I was in beer heaven… COME. see for yourself… it. just what this city girl needed.

Stopped in Sunday night after seeing the «best burger» sign. We ordered burgers and wings and were in for a real treat. There were mild, hot and PB & J wings, because we just had to try them, They did not disappoint. Meaty wings cooked to perfection and with the right amount of sauce. The PB & J were especially good, with an Asian flavor and good peanut taste. Mild and hot were also tasty. As for the burgers, they might as well make the sign permanent. Certainly outdistances the chains up the street with flavor, service and quality. We certainly will return soon.

BEST BEER SELECTION IN THE VALLEY! My family, friends, and I have chosen Arena for dinner or drinks on so many occasions, and they have hit a home run every time. The beer list is extensive, the cocktails are yummy, the specials change every month, and there really is something for every different kind of palate here. A great place for a family dinner, or to meet up with friends for drinks!
I came here for my 21^st birthday, as well as several other birthdays for myself and friends, and I absolutely love the happy hour!
A WORD OF WARNING: if there is a hockey game, or any major event at the arena, you may be waiting for a table! It gets very crowded around dinner time on those nights! However, Arena is always one of my top choices :)

I came here with a friend to try out the bar and it was good experience. The food was good. The options of drinks were plenty. They also have glass nights some days of the week. I recommend this place to anyone passing by.

I visited here one evening after giving up on the bar at the hotel I was staying at (Hilton Garden Inn in Wilkes Barre).
I wanted a good local IPA. Arena has a rather large selection of beers and Ales — on tap and in the bottle.
Molly was my bartender. Very friendly. I wanted to taste more than one IPA to choose which one to order. She told me she could only let me taste one. I told her I would pay to taste both. So she then gave me two to taste no charge. I did not end up liking either one — so I rolled the dice and ordered another IPA that comes in a bottle.
The IPA was named «Four Seasons IPA» from Voodoo Brewing Co., Meadville, PA. It turned out to be a really good IPA. Nice combination of citrus, hoppy, piney, resiny flavors with a crisp, bitter finish.
I also ordered their Nachos — the platter of Nachos is very large, but was average. It needed a lot more beef in the Nachos. And the guacamole was this processed product — it did not taste very good. Freshly made guac would have been way better!
I met the owner/​manager — he would help out at the bar. It was a Saturday night and the place was slammed.
It was very loud at the bar area.
I’d come back here again if I was in the area to try more Ales!

Wings were disgusting and large. Kinda mushy. Had them make buffalo bites which were pretty decent. Took a long time. Waitress was ok.

I dine at Arena pretty frequently, usually for weekday happy hour but I admit that I don’t go as often as I used to, almost solely because they got rid of the $ 2 appetizer menu. I used to look forward to going here after work, ordering some fried pickles and a few beers before getting a burger or something more substantial and now they don’t even have fried pickles anywhere on the menu! NONSENSE!
Even still, the food is almost always good and the service is always attentive.

I have been here on many occasions, and only during the early years did I experience good service. On my last experience here there were 8 of us. That being said, I have been here with parties of 2 and 4 and still had the same service experience. Now shall we begin.
We had a reservation due to the large party on this evening. We entered Arena to a sea of staff running around, yet no one was at the hostess station. So we stood there for several minutes before someone came over and asked us how many.
As we were lead to our table, it appeared there was a larger wait staff than customers in the place. It was a nice day, so maybe some poor shlebs were sweating it out on the patio. So we get to out table and we dig right into the beer menu, because well it’s was 6:30 and we all wanted to get at least one drink in under the happy hour deadline.
And then the waiting began. And kept on going, and … You guessed it more waiting. Then we gave our drink orders to one person at one time, yet at least 5 different people brought our drinks, at varying time intervals. First comes one drink, then someone else brings two, then another one and so on and so forth. And wouldn’t you know, the two people that ordered soda, got theirs last. Now that’s the first time I saw that happen.
Now at this point I know what you are thinking. You had a party of 8, of course everything will not come out at once. Well you can put that baby to bed right now because this is the same scenario every time I am here. One waiter/​waitress takes the order, 11 other people bring it out and never at one time.
I’ll add one more note, when they staff brings your drinks, they don’t know who they belong too and half the time even what table they belong too. They pretty much stand in between several tables and yell out the drink they are holding until someone says «That’s me.» Very, very annoying and not to mention inefficient.
Now that we all received our drinks, it is time to place out food order. Wouldn’t you know it, our waitress was not one of the people who brought any of our drinks out, so she had no idea we had been served them or we wanted to EAT! Now we wait again. Though this time, thankfully, it was not nearly as long as the drink order wait time.
So the food order is placed. The conversation goes on, the drinks are being consumed and it is closing in on time for another round of drinks. Well I’ll be damned if one of the 20 people working at arena and loitering in our area came over and asked us if we would like another round.
We all ordered drinks about 10 minutes later everyone else has drinks but myself and one other person. Finally our waitress comes over to check on us, at this point we tell her we never got our drinks. So she goes to check, now it is a whole 15 minutes sense we placed our order for bottled beer, no pouring necessary. And yes I was pretty pissed at this point and I was timing it. She comes back and tells us they are out of both the drinks we ordered. 15 minutes to tell me you are out of two bottles of beer. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! She asks if we want a minute to look over the beer list. It was a resounding NO. We both ordered two different bottles of beer. Another 7 – 8 minutes later they finally arrived! That is over 20 minutes for two beers, after happy hour, not ordering drinks that would have been on special, in a bar with more wait staff than patrons.
Now on to the food. Again with the orders coming out at different intervals, by too many people. By time the last person got their food, the first few were close to halfway done eating. I think my frustration was well expressed when I talked about this same delivery manor above with our first round of drinks.
SIDE BAR: Do not subscribe to their text alerts. They promise a free appetizer or something on your next visit. But I never got that alert. I got far to many updates about specials and DJ’s. I received 2 – 3 texts a day telling me about a DJ or reminding me about their not one, but 2 happy hours. About once a month you get a message saying if you come in that night you get a BOGO dinner with the purchase of 2 drinks. I have used this once or twice, and that works out ok, but it is not worth the daily messages about happy hour. Great, you told me the same thing the past 4 days in a row, I got it. And forget about unsubscribing. I lost count of how many times I replied stop before I finally stopped getting the messages.
All this being said, it is a shame. The food was actually pretty good and they do have a great beer selection. But all I ever remeber is the bad service. I can only guess they have such a large staff to appear as though they are super busy. Making people think this is the place to be. Maybe not. It not how I would run this establishment. If there is a next time, I’ll try sitting at the bar.

I love this place. I go here regularly. Great food and a huge beer selection. Check it.

A girl hits up Arena for dinner and drinks with 10 of her co-​workers. She orders the shrimp and lobster scampi upon the recommendation of her manager. She sits and passes the waiting time by enjoying the outdoor patio over happy hour drinks with her team.
Then everyone’s dishes arrive. And before taking her first bite, she finds one long dark strand of hair in her scampi.
Nonplussed, the girl asks the waitress to send the plate back to the kitchen. A manager comes out to apologize, and swears that a new batch of scampi is being prepared at the moment for her. While waiting, her coworkers joke that the kitchen staff will simply mix the old pasta around the plate and send the same dish back. Remaining optimistic, the girl takes their comments for jokes.
Then her second scampi dish arrives. And after taking one bite, she finds ANOTHER strand of HAIR on her plate.
She subsequently lost her appetite and created unnecessary drama in front of her 10 coworkers. For her trouble, the girl was offered a complimentary drink of… one shot. Worth $ 2 at most.
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I mean really what kind of HAIRY PLACE is this that this happens TWICE?! Put some hair nets on your kitchen staff for crying out loud! Or make them bathe!
Furthermore, who offers ONE complimentary shot for a girl who’s out with a billion coworkers?! Let me tell you manager, no one wants to take awkward turtle shots by themselves.
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Needless to say, the girl has now become completely cynical about the state of hygiene maintained in kitchen restaurants. Her experience has also convinced a whole table of coworkers (with expense accounts, I might add) never to dine at Arena again.

Arena! Stopping by to thank you for the many years of meals, services, and life-​changing beers. You guys must be hitting your 10-​year birthday soon at that location, right???
Unilocalers. Let me tell you about Arena. People in Wyoming Valley swear by chain restaurants and the comforting nonsense of catchy menu items and walls chock full of wagons and antique farm equipment. They actually think Olive Garden serves authentic Italian food!!! So the fact locally-​owned Arena Bar & Grill has survived for a decade speaks volumes for its outstanding food, beer, and most important: commitment to customer service.
I have visited Arena probably 50 times, and I’ve booked parties and functions there. Back in the day, I’d stop by during a snow storm and order three hours worth of food because they were the only bar in town broadcasting a Penguins hockey game. Every single time, they treated us like good friends, and that’s the attention you get from local owners who know their area, and know their people.
If you are visiting the Wilkes-​Barre area, and you are reading this, stop reading now and figure out how to get yourself over to Arena. Ignore all the vapid fare around the Mohegan Arena. You’ve had it all before, and if you haven’t yet, you will. You think Yardhouse has an extensive beer menu? LOL You, my friend, need to go to Arena.
This place was built for you to have good food and beer, and for you to meet people. If you enjoy having a life, get over there. Rated four stars, because if you told the owners you rated them five, they’d laugh in your face.

4.5 Stars. Arena Bar, you get four stars for your food and a solid five stars for your beer selections. I was disappointed you weren’t open for lunch, but you made up for it during my late dinner.
Let’s see. What to drink? There are so many choices. Oooo, I notice you have a limited Dogfish Head Bitch’s Brew imperial stout (inspired by Miles Davis) on tap. You definitely don’t see that every day, so pour me one of those. Mmmmm. Very smooth. It’s 9% ABV, so I’ll enjoy this one slowly with my meal.
Speaking of which, I’m starving, so let’s take a look at your menu. Hmmm. The Loaded Baked Potato Chicken with red garlic mashed potatoes and green beans sounds interesting. Let’s do it. Actually, the meat is tender and very flavorful, especially since it’s topped with bacon, cheese and sour cream. What a unique and wonderful entrée. Your chicken noodle soup and bread with olive oil were also great appetizers to get things started.
Oh, you have a late night Happy Hour? Tell me more. $ 2 bottles and drafts from 9 – 11 pm? Wow, what great timing! Your list of select bottles is varied, but let’s stick with the dark stuff and go with a Tommy Knocker Cocoa Porter. Oh man. I don’t even need to order dessert now.
Do I really have to leave here? Okay fine, but I’m not happy about it.