Happy Hour - Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen
Everytime I hear the full name of Sayler’s, I think about the Country Kitchen, one of those chain restaurants. Let me emphasize, NOT EVEN REMOTELY the same place. I’ve been frequenting the Happy Hour in the lounge for a long time… long enough to remember when the pepper steak bites were $1.95. (Which actually wasn’t that long ago.) But I promised myself in this post I wouldn’t complain about HH prices going up. Sayler’s is a family run business, with 2 locations, one Eastside, the other Westside. They serve a good steak, but sometimes you feel like you are transported back to the late 70s, early 80s in their dining rooms.
The HH draw has always been their Pepper Steak Bites, which were the trimmings off all their hand cut steaks, marinated in a pepper sauce, and served, as I mentioned before, for $1.95. Now they are $3.95 each, I believe, and the other HH menu items are $2.95, except for the cheeseburger, which is $4.95 (and not nearly as good as the McCormick and Schmick’s HH cheeseburger!) They make decent drinks here, too, not too weak (although I have also had stronger.) This is the type of place where everyone knows everyone, and back when I was a regular, the waitress even knew my name. I had stopped going for a while, because the HH is only in the lounge, which can get extremely smoky. (Can’t wait for Jan 1st, 2009!!!!) Also, the small video poker section (which is about 4 machines) can get a little irritating…. if you forget to sit on the other side of the lounge. Which it seemed I was always doing. They have a nice fireplace, and the lounge has a true “loungy” feeling to it, with overstuffed chairs that roll about, instead of restaurant tables and chairs. Our server was Shannon, and these waitresses really know what they are doing, they have all been around for a while at Sayler’s. I think they are a little too busy sometimes, if it’s a full night they should really have 3 cocktail waitresses, and I think they only do 2, but these girls make sure you have drinks in front of you all the time. So after Jan 1st 2009, I think this place will be a regular for me again… ok, maybe give it until Feb 1st for all the old smoke to clear out. Located at 10519 SE Stark St (just look for the huge rotating steak sign). Open M-Th 4pm-10pm, F 4pm-11pm, Sa 3pm-11pm Su 12pm-10pm. Happy Hour is 3pm-6pm M-F and 9pm-close daily.