school house restaurant & tavern

over priced and over rated. mediocre across the board. salad was boring and lacked flavor. the braised short rib burger has potential but was really dry. good fries though. staff was very friendly but service was extremely slow. the whole visit was almost 2 hours for a party of 3. the cheesecake was so small it was almost funny, if it didn't cost $5. it wasn't a bad experience necessarily but i struggle to find something good to say. with all of the hype surround this place, i'm thinking maybe we allorderedthe wrong thing. ??? it's a nice old building, i was just hoping for a better meal. 6/10

giving up. chaotic. music in the bar is so loud that you can't have a conversation with the person next to you without a struggle. the greeter told us that we could order from the restaurant menu in the bar, the bar waitress then told us that we could not. we were told that to eat the food from the main menu, we had to have "the entire experience" of eating in the main restaurant. (which we wanted to avoid as the last time we tried that, it took 20 minutes for a waitress to come to our table). in our group of 10, 3 orders were wrong and had to be sent back to the kitchen. several items never came (a salad and 2 orders of fries) which we had to have discounted from our bill. this place is disorganized- some food is good, some is not. a frustrating experience.


-----24 may, 2012-----

can't decide. we have eaten here 3 times.
they have done a marvelous job in renovating-used to be dismal and now is tasteful and comfortable. food and service is a different story. the first time we ate in the dining room. the food was mediocre. 2 people in our partyorderedsteak- steak # 1 was large- steak # 2 was 1/2 of the size of steak #1... waitress just giggled. the fries were cold. the waitress had to keep going back to the kitchen to get answers to our food questions.
the second time we tried the bar. disorganized! we ended up having 3 different waiters/waitresses attending to our table. the food took 45 minutes to get to the table and the orders were wrong. the sweet potato fries were delicious. some of the home-made dipping sauces are bland and others are good.
try # 3- we decided to try the dining room again. waited 15 minutes before getting up and asking someone if there was a waitress assigned to our table. a flustered gal came over and apologized and said that our table had been added to her section but she wasn't told. the shrimp appetizer came with 4 shrimp with a high price.
the "roasted beet" salad came with slices of canned pickled beets. when we pointed the canned beets out to our waitress she again apologized and made a comment about a banquet in a back room and the kitchen running out of things. we ended up cancelling the rest of our dinner and leaving.
in spite of the short comings, we will probably give the school house 1 more try. the menu reads well, but what comes out of the kitchen does not always match. better training for wait staff is also needed. this place could be a diamond in the rough but may end up being a bar/hangout if things don't improve. that would be a shame as much thought and expense has gone into this place. come on school house, you can do it!

homemade is critical. the reuben is a standard bearer, like a wedge salad, or burger, or rib-eye, or creamed spinach it's something that has to beorderedif available in order to properly evaluate a restaurant.

the reuben sandwich was well stacked with meat, not overstacked, but balanced with the size of the bread, like an appropriately portioned taco. the dressing, kraut, and cheese also well balanced, not too much or too little of any element. the bread was lightly grilled and wasn't soaked wet on the plate-side of the sandwich when delivered, indicating it didn't sit at the pass long. no complaints and certainly enough to pass the test and get me to come back again.

the onion rings were fresh, crispy, well seasoned and not made by sysco. not much more you can say other than homemade and worth trying.

one additional note, i made a rookie move and didn't ask for the homemade ketchup and mayonnaise. not many places in fresno make their own ketchup and mayo, so ask for it when you go.

not enough food. they seemed to be unorganized and lacking experience. everyone seemed to be a beat of on everything.orderedthe !/2 roasted chicken. the chicken was good but there were only 4 pieces of paper thin potatoes and a few drops of gravy and some kind of mixed greens on top. it was very disappointing. the ticket came and they charged use 12.50 for shrimp cocktail which we did not order so watch your ticket.i will not return and i do not recomend.

not worth the money. the service and food does not match the price. the food tasted good but it was nothing special. weorderedan appetizer shrimp cocktail $12.50 for (4) shrimp!. iorderedthe rib eye steak for $32.00. on the plate was the steak a small potato a little bit larger than a gulf ball and about 2oz of broccoli. that's what you get for $32.00 ! if you want anything else it costs extra. my wifeorderedthe tiger shrimp fettuchini $16.25 which according to the waitress the pasta was store bought . oh i did forget to say they do give you bread for no extra charge. if you are on a diet and money is no object this is the place to go!