Broad Axe Tavern

Steady go to for us. Kid friendly. Efficient, friendly service. Excellent selection of beer. Food is straightforward and good, tavern food. They take reservations but we often walk in without one and don’t have to wait because they have a downstairs and upstairs, tables and booths – but it’s not one huge room, so it feels more intimate. Excellent beer selection. Reasonably priced.

Beautifully maintained OLDEST TAVERN IN USA without a whiff of mold to this sensitive nose, a drink would be charming but eschew the dreadful menu served by young staff that all seemed more like a Home Ec experiment at a frat house than a celebration of US roots, not only entirely at odds with the venerable historical ambience, but the weird mish-​mash of expensive non-​homogenous foreign menu offerings left our bellies as hungry as our tastebuds disappointed, to go in search of greener pastures for grazing like the USA’s oldest inn – the always wonderful William Penn near Blue Bell/​Lansdale/​Chalfont – or the Joseph Ambler Inn in North Wales.

Not a good night at Broad Axe. We visit often and honestly this place is consistently a 2 – 3 star experience. Tonight the service was very slow. Wings were good. Turkey burger was dry and roll stale. My son’s grilled cheese wasn’t even grilled. Honestly how can you screw up a grilled cheese?! Server seemed to be solo in a large area of the restaurant so he was in the weeds the whole time. I’ll give him credit though he was trying hard. Not a good night at the Broad Ass. It’s hit and miss and tonight was a miss.

Over the last three months I’ve been there three times the first time was excellent the second time was on a Sunday and the food was horrible we were told that the main chef was not there and we went again this weekend and my food was undercooked the the kitchen forever but wait staff was nice, but I don’t think I’ll go back again.

this place is so gross. Ive been here twice, and only because it was work related, and I didn’t have to pay both times, luckily.
Service — people a friendly, and nice. However, they are just not good servers. Forgetful about orders, having to come back multiple times to the table because they forgot a spoon, had to run and get a menu or run to ask someone about a question we had about an item on the menu.
First time I ordered a burger, forgot which one. I asked to have it cook well… came out medium. I asked for an over easy egg on top, i got a sunny side egg. asked for a lager, got a belgian wheat beer. Burger was meh, not flavorful or good.
The fries that came with the burger were soggyyyy.
Second time, i got that prime rib sandwich. It was gross, sliced prime rib was dry. fries came out soggy again.
saving grace was the molten lava cake, but thats probably purchased and resold at the restaurant.

just went here for the first time and was really happy the food and our experience. I got the crab cakes which were DELICIOUS. we also started with the buffalo chicken dip that was really tasty, too. they have a really extensive beer selection which is really cool.
only giving 4 stars instead of 5 because my boyfriend got the tavern ribs and while they were really tender and fell off the bone, he said they didn’t have much flavor.

If you are looking for an eclectic beer selection out in Ambler this is the spot, bar service is is always on point. Salads are well constructed, burgers are phenomenal. Taco Tuesday! Everything is $ 2!

Had lunch at the Broad Axe on Saint Patrick’s day. In addition to your normal corned beef and cabbage the restaurant served some different specials. My favorite were the lamb sliders… pieces of lamb not ground lamb, roasted with a great flavor of garlic and rosemary along with some decent «chips.» Good food accompanied by friendly service makes this place a great lunch destination.

We drove an hour and a half to check this place out and it was worth it! The history behind the place is intriguing. The food was wonderful and so was the service! I don’t know why this place isn’t rated higher.
We ordered the duck pot stickers and firecracker shrimp. They both were very good. I ordered the seafood paella with Spanish rice. The seafood was so good! My friends got the ribs with mac and cheese. She loved the mac and cheese and was happy with her ribs. Everyone enjoyed the experience and the food. The Tavern is quite large and nice inside. If only it was closer!!!

We had a sports party here on one of the upper floors a while back. We pretty much had all tacos and boy were they delicious. They had a few varieties of tacos and they even had a vegetarian taco for us as well. The tacos are pretty small so you are going to have to order plenty if you really are hungry. The service was pretty quick and they were great in making sure that we were enjoying our experience while watching the Phillies!

My family and I are local to the Broad Axe Tavern and have given it a try more than a dozen times. While we always want the food to be good, the quality of their entrees is terrible. If you are going to eat there just order typical bar food like burgers, sandwiches and the like. Any kind of seafood or dinner entrée will definitely disappoint.

Very tasty burgers. Their Axe burgers mix in sirloin. The fries and really amazing, fresh potatoes and plenty of Old Bay style seasoning. Excellent choices of 24 craft beer on tap! Cozy booths.

My friend & I came here on a Saturday night around 9:30ish. It was literally just us eating and a few other people in the bar area. The bartender was our waiter. His name was Max I believe & he was hilarious and very nice. I ordered the Dry Rub Ribs, which came with corn and mac & cheese and a drink called the Strawberry Lemonade Hurricane or something like that but it was really good. The corn was cold but that didn’t even matter because it was sooooooo good and so was the Mac & cheese. The Mac & cheese had a little spice and kick to it which I really liked. The dry rub ribs barely had any meat on it and tasted like they were frozen :(My friend got the crab fondue, which he liked as well. They were out of a few things, not sure if it’s cause we came later in the night or what. Not sure if I would come back.

LOVE IT HERE!!! On Tuesdays they have $ 2 tacos, $ 2 margs, and $ 2 coronas. You can also do reservations here which is suggested because they seem like they are always busy!
We got a few apps for the table:
duck dumplings
hot wings
cheesesteak egg rolls
Everything was tasty. I really liked the wings. The cheesesteak egg rolls were good but I’ve had better. I got the seafood chowder and cobb salad as my meal. both were DELICIOUS!!! very fresh and well made. We got the fried ice cream to share, SO GOOD!!! cannot wait to go back!

My 2 $ Tuesday experience was quiet. The drinks were good and the food was tasty. Very tasty for bar food. The other patrons at the bar were engaging and it was a nice welcoming atmosphere. The bartenders were attentive. My glass was never empty. They received a good tip from me. No loud music or loud rude people. My kind of chill space. I drive from Philly just to hang out here.

Just amznly fendly, super good, best prcd food on the butler strip. Actually. The food was awesome. service and the customers were soulful and fun to be around. seems to be always underrated.. GO!!! DON’T GO FOR THE REVIEWS. ALBEIT ALL ARE AWESOME. be surprised and order what u Want… then be surprised.

Probably my last time here, which is a shame for a place with such a great beer list. Ordered the pan-​seared salmon. I’ve had it before — this time it was burned and came with a sauce that seemed as if they just dumped out a can of sun dried tomatoes, sautéed it and called it a day. My wife had salmon that was also burned and was served with mashed potatoes– that were literally mashed potatoes (a baked potato mashed with a fork and some butter — no milk or cream or herbs). Lazy.
The food here was never good enough to forgive a meal this bad. 2 stars feels like me being gracious.

Second time around was not a charm. Totally opposite experience from our first go around with sub par service, sub par food (along with a nice strand of hair embedded in someone’s burger). The manager was apologetic of the situation and took care of us, but only after our waitress pointed out that the lady in our party who ordered the burger also had «dark colored hair». What the !@#$!! Are you kidding me? One bright spot was that the waitress from our first visit remembered our whole party as we were walking out. She engaged us in some nice conversation and would probably be the only reason why I would go back there. Thank you Melissa!

I would give this place a higher rating but it looks like they took my favorite menu item off the menu recently. I work in Ambler and we used to order lunch here all the time but I no longer feel the need to eat here, except maybe when I’m craving really good hummus — and the hummus is great. Guys, the coconut shrimp was amazing. The piña colada sauce was just plain gross. It was totally unappetizing visually even if it tasted… eh, ok. The sweet thai chili sauce from that shrimp appetizer that comes swimming in a gross pool of grease and delicious sweet thai chili sauce is where it’s at. Please add coconut shrimp back to the menu but with the sweet thai chili sauce and I’ll be willing to suggest you for lunch at my office again.
The rest of menu has an interesting array of simple to moderately simple menu items, some I’ve had are really good, others are a miss. The Prime Butler has good reviews around the office as well as the Axe Burger. They have a lot of craft beer, which I don’t drink, nor could drink at work. The staff is usually pretty attentive and friendly. They will offer to help carry your bags to the car if you are taking out a large amount of food. But I drool in my dreams over the loss of my favorite menu item.

What an abysmal dinner. I’ve only ever written two one-​star reviews; once to call out blatant transphobia, and once because of food poisoning that went unaccounted for. This time, I’m actually angry about the quintessential experience of the restaurant.
I’ll start with the food. Over half of what we ordered was unquestionably storebought. The only dish that either of us enjoyed was Ian’s duck potstickers, and they were definitely not homemade. The seafood chowder was greasy and disappointing. The special brandy apple and cider striped bass, which was touted as a customer favorite, was overcooked, poorly seasoned, without sauce or marinade, served alongside a handful of limp crinkle-​cut vegetables and a dollop of mashed potatoes for which I specifically requested a substitution, and generally kind of confusing. I just didn’t understand the sad, water-​logged apple slices on top. There was nothing special about this special.
(This seems like a good time to add that the seasonal «Inspired Menu» has not been updated since approximately October. I asked about the pumpkin ravioli, which is on the menu both online and in the restaurant, and that dish was specific to autumn. Pretty unbelievable.)
Ian’s Legend Sandwich was also overcooked, as were the french fries that came with it. We agreed that the three desserts which we ordered were all identical to desserts that we had eaten elsewhere, down to the appearance. Your fancy swirly icing isn’t fooling anyone; in fact, it only makes your sins more obvious.
In summation, all of our food was diner quality or worse, and we paid over eighty dollars for it.
I’m not stopping there, though. Our server was incredibly unprofessional. He was clearly trying to be friendly and earn memorability points, but he severely overreached. His behavior was undeniably inappropriate. We could overhear his interactions with a nearby table, and he was exactly the same with them. He made decisions for both us and the other customers about what we should order, he remarked on the characteristics of individual diners, and he made a startlingly sexist comment to me and Ian. At one point, he saw Ian’s phone sitting on the table, picked it up, started playing with it, and pretended to dial or text on it. These are several specific instances of his transgressions, but it’s important to note that every single moment he was near us, we were uncomfortable.
The other servers at the restaurant (who were clearly running around trying to pick up our server’s slack) all seemed like perfectly reasonable and professional individuals, so kudos to them.
Please don’t go to Broad Axe Tavern if you value your time and your money.