Most of you are probably already familiar with El Dorado Saloon, but for those of you who have never been there it’s located on the corner of Green Valley Road and Francisco Drive in El Dorado Hills. There is ample parking and the establishment has a very large outdoor seating area, as well as ample room inside. The bar itself seats about 12. The décor doesn’t boast much of anything particularly interesting to look at and the place is a bit rundown looking as if it is due for some TLC.
I’m struggling a bit with writing this blog because my experience at this Happy Hour did not meet my expectations. Not any of them. The menu we were handed had a small blurb at the very bottom of the back stating what their Happy Hour consists of. It listed some beers, wine and well drinks at $1 off. There was nothing to be said about what kind of food was available, so we played it safe (or so we thought) and ordered some nachos. For drinks, Brian got an old go-to of rum and coke, and I went with their house margarita (which was also listed on the Happy Hour blurb). Our cocktails were just that. Cocktails. Nothing spectacular, but when I saw what the Happy Hour choices were, I wasn’t expecting anything super special. Our nachos took a while to get to us, and when they did, the chips were already getting soggy. Considering the guy sitting next to us got his order before we got ours even though he ordered quite a few minutes after we had, I have suspicion to believe our nachos were left abandoned sitting on a counter for a bit before ending their voyage in front of us. Aside from the sogginess, the taste of the nachos was just so-so. It’s a good thing we ordered a half-size, because we didn’t even finish that.
Most of the patrons around us were busy engaged with their phones, and there was barely any interaction between us and our bartender. So little in fact, we didn’t even bother leaving him a card explaining why we were there and why we were dressed in matching outfits. So far to date, this was our quickest Happy Hour exploration clocking in at just over 30 minutes in and out. Which has produced, now that I think about it, also my quickest blog. Hopefully none of you just said, “thank goodness”.
For those of you who do enjoy going to El Dorado Saloon, please let me know what we missed about this one. What you enjoy about it, what you order (I’m guessing not the nachos), etc. We had been there before but don’t recall it being like it was this time. So here’s a Happy Hour cheers to having a better “shake” for next time. Maybe we should have our friend do it again.
Time to Get Happy
Tuesday – Friday 2pm – 6pm*
Location
879 Embarcadero Dr., El Dorado Hills, CA
Website
https://www.eldoradosaloonandgrill.com/
*Information provided on this blog was current upon the post date. Please confirm on the restaurant’s website prior to visiting as to whether times, days, menus, etc. are still accurate.
El Dorado Saloon used to be one of our favorite places to eat out at! They have a lovely outdoor patio. I admit I’ve actually never been inside. But ever since COVID they’ve really struggled to give me a reason to come back. In fact the last time we went with our two young children we ended up waiting about 25 minutes for a table to open up for us and then they tried to seat people who came after us at the table we were waiting for and it took quite a lot of trying to convince the manager why that was not a cool thing to do before we were actually given the table. And ever since that experience I haven’t ever really wanted to go back. Their servers don’t seem to be enjoying their job, the food feels perfunctory and tired and I agree the place just feels like it’s in need of some TLC. I just feel like it’s really run its course. It’s too bad it used to be an awesome restaurant!
Good to know! 🤮
I definitely won’t be going there anytime soon! Thank you so all your help!
A group of 12 of us went there last month and sat outside, I rarely eat there. The service was absolutely wonderful. Our server was friendly, efficient, even as the table kept getting larger, the person who delivered our order was super helpful and brought us additional needs, napkins with our seeming put out, our plates were cleared. It was over all the best experience I’ve had in awhile. And it was a Saturday. I’m sorry you had a bad experience. I’ve done that job, and I was super happy. Not having a specific happy hour food menu is super disappointing, anywhere that has a bar.
They have (or used to) a decent Sunday brunch. Cheers to a better on next time!
The outside seating is beautiful. That’s about it.
Yeah. We only go there to see our favorite bartender, Johnny Mena, but recently the experience has been so lackluster that I don’t think we’ll be back again, unless it’s a good band. Seems like they are resting on whatever laurels they think they have, which they don’t. Kind of representative of EDH though, in our experience.