Since I knew this was my week to pick our Saturday lunch spot, I was determined to pick somewhere besides just the same old chain restaurants. I was looking through a mailing and noticed a coupon for J. Greene's Pub which I remember took over the Big Bear Grill location on Manchester across from P'Sghetti's, so I thought we should try it out. The reviews on Yelp looked pretty good, so I was willing to give it a try.
We arrived pretty early and they seated us at a booth on the side of the restaurant. We noticed the decor did not seem much different from when it was Big Bear Cafe, with plenty of St. Louis sports memorabilia on the walls and various flat screen televisions showing basketball games (hey, March Madness had started!) The booths have mirrors between them so we were startled to see such a familiar and good looking family sitting in the booth next to us. The mirrors and wood also seemed to reflect the sound too well since we could hear the conversation of the booth next to us much too well.
The menu featured a variety of burgers and sandwiches, but the special of the day was fish tacos, so I had to try that. Both my children ordered burgers, as did my wife, and my mother-in-law ordered the cod sandwich. They each had different sides, though, with my son ordering the tater tots, my daughter ordering sweet potato fries and my wife and mother-in-law ordering the fries. It took a while for the food to arrive, and when it did we were guessing they were spending all that time salting everything! The burgers, tots and fries were all over salted, but luckily my tacos and side of black bean salad were spared. I actually liked my tacos which were generously proportioned and filled with plenty of tilapia and sauce.
The burgers themselves were well cooked and large and well topped but even they were salted. They came in large, tasty buns from the Breadsmith next door and everyone seemed to enjoy them. I sampled all the sides and sure enough, the tater tots were crisp and well flavored but over salted, the home fries were well cooked and crisp but also over salted, and the sweat potato fries were nicely cooked up and tender inside but also over salted. Someone was having too much fun with the salt shaker! Perhaps they were busy shaking salt over their shoulder for good luck to help the SLU Billikens beat Louisville, but that did not seem to help anyway!
My wife checked the restrooms and she said the ladies room was clean and in good shape, so the only thing that disappointed us was the over abundance of salt! Hopefully that was a one time event due to an over zealous cook, but there are too many other good "pub" and burgers places around to risk it.
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