J’s Tavern

The foods okay here, my wife gets it from the red arrow and me from js, but it’s fairly good. Bartenders are great though and have a good rotation of beers

My husband and tried this location for the first time and the location has great potential — it was a rainy day so the patio was closed but it looked promising. Food was very good and beer selection equally good. The waitress, though, colored our experience negatively. Although she was apologetic, she seemed pretty unconcerned with the lack of attention or timliness of her service. Drinks, food, bill all arrived very late despite a small group of fellow diners. IApologies aside, she was eating her own dinner, chatting with friends, and suggested that a lot «was going on» to explain her lack of service. We may try it again and hope for better service.

I’m giving J’s tavern a 5 star review based on: location, food and price
Location: they have an incredible back deck that sits elevated on the souhegan river. Really can’t beat the location in milford.
Food: I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. Typical American but pretty tasty.
Price: very reasonable with great specials. I went for lunch and had a $ 2 any draft special.
It’s typically an older crowd bar that does not get super packed at night

Great place to stop for a refreshment after a long ride. Food is good as well. The servers at J’s bar do a great job

A great experience all together. Our waitress Ceara was exceptional! Exactly the food and drink you’d expect.

What a NYE! Great band, great crowd and what a staff. The bar manager Justin has put together the place to be in southern NH. I’m quite sure he has already wrapped up Bar Manager of the Year for 2013! Come on down and see for yourself!

While out for a ride we stopped in for a quick lunch. Bartender was friendly, food was good (bison burger) and beer selection is very good. Lunch for three and 2 beer each less than 50 including tip. will visit again

Checked it out for the first time the other night with my husband and decided to return during the afternoon to take advantage of the sunny deck overlooking the river and falls.
The service was excellent and the venison burger with fresh buffalo-​flavored chippers was a filling late lunch. I kind of wished there were more to the burger in the way of toppings — only tomato and lettuce. I’d be willing to pay the upcharge for some grilled onions or portabellas.
Noticed on the way out that Thursday night is trivia night — will definitely have to return for that.
Overall, this will be my first suggestion to out of town friends as a local tavern/​pub.

This is a great neighborhood bar with a «Cheers» vibe going as far clientele. I think Lisa Guyer, who plays acoustic there every Wednesday, says it best. Come to Js with old friends and you will leave with new ones.
Because I don’t eat Burgers and regular diner fare, the staff at Js said «no problem» and «invented» a Haddock Quesadilla just for me. Its not on the menu, but now when I walk in and say give me the «el Roberto», they all know what I am requesting. What is inside is very tasty haddock, grilled with with onions and fresh green peppers. Its fabulous.

Try the burger with blue cheese and bacon… top notch service, open mic on Mondays and weather permitting the best deck around. This place truly has that dive under the bridge local bar feel… Wait that’s literally where and what it is… welcoming, fun, friendly and good eats… try it out!

we had a bad time at Amigos… so we went lookin for a «dive bar» to cheer us up… we did NOT find it here at J’s Tavern… and THANK GOD!!! we went in expecting (hey its located UNDER milford’s Red Arrow Diner off the oval) our shoes to stick to the floor and toothless «locals» to look at us like we were the catch of the day. instead we walked in and heard live music, saw a VERY CLEAN, well kept tavern with a granite bar, moody lighting a beautiful deck seating area off the back over the river with beautiful view of the waterfall. All this was incidental as the point of a bar is not just to look and sound nice but to have good drinks and service… NOT A PROBLEM here! the bartender’s name was Justin (there was a female bartender as well but we never met her (not her fault lol) He was charismatic, friendly and all over a wonderful bartender. He was right there with the drinks (4 bucks for a tuckerman’s ipa draft), witty repartee (yeah i said it!) He offered/​recommended shots, and i even tried a custom drink he came up with (i forgot what its called but its got patron xo tequila liquor, amaretto and er… something else! it was about 8 bucks but SOOO good!) The music was good, and they apparently have open mic nights (speaking of which our mighty bartender went up and sat in for a song that he wrote… also pretty good.) Overall i have to say that J’s saved our night and we went home 4 VERY happy women (and one slightly less happy but still pretty thrilled driver) We were never made to feel rushed (ie last call/​closing time etc.) i would go back again and again for drinks and i plan to go sometime when i can try their food!(yes i will add a review of that when i do!)

Lunch recently, small place beneathe the red arrow diner, they just recently added an outside deck so on a nice day you can have a great view of the bridge and the river and the falls, very nice. It was raining so we sat at the bar. Service was very pleasant, and (I didn’t relaize this…2 $ beers)…the fish chowder was excellent, the burger very good, the buffalo chicken tenders very good. They have music 5 nights so I expect it is a ppretty busy little place, we will be back!

This review was difficult to write, but I was here today for lunch. J’s Tavern is owned by the same family who also own the Red Arrow Diner, which is located below the Red Arrow Diner (Milford).
J’s Tavern is named in memory of Jesse Isabelle who passed away too young in 2006. Jesse is the son of the owners. To read Jesse’s story, visit
Onto the review. After taking a stroll around the Oval on a warm winter day (almost 60), I decided to stop for lunch. The Arrow was very busy and packed, so I decided to walk around the corner and try out J’s Tavern. The atmosphere of this cozy pub is casual, comfortable, and inviting with seating up at the bar and table seating as well. A few tables are lined up along the window with a great closeup view of the historic Stone Bridge footings and the waterfalls. There’s a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall showing sports. The background music playing over the speakers was coffeehouse music with folk and rock acoustic performances. There is also live entertainment on some nights including local band Mama Kicks.
The food menu offers tavern fare with a few staples from the Red Arrow Diner including sandwiches, paninis, appetizers, soups, salads, and dinner entrees (haddock, chicken tenders, & tenderloin). There are also posted specials too. The food is prepared upstairs in the Red Arrow Diner kitchen and sent down to the Tavern via a dumbwaiter next to the bar.
The bar offers a selection of cocktails, mixed drinks, after dinner drinks, 8 beers on tap and 40 bottled beers to choose from. They have Shipyard, Longtrail Blackberry Wheat, Tuckermans Pale Ale, and Sam Adams on tap.
I took a seat near the window to have a great view of the Stone Bridge and the big TV. I ordered the Chicken Cacciatore ($ 9.99), one of the specials in the Tavern, which is one of my favorite dishes to order at the Red Arrow Diner, especially after a night of clubbing in Manchester.
The entrée arrived 15 minutes later, but initially without the garlic toast. The bartender went upstairs to retrieve the garlic toast. The Chicken Cacciatore looked pretty good as I expected with a good portion of spaghetti, topped with breaded juicy chicken tenders, grilled onions and green peppers, but the sweet and rich chunky tomato sauce was on the lukewarm cold side. I informed the bartender when he arrived with the garlic toast and he went back upstairs with my entrée. About 5 minutes later, my entrée was returned, this time the tomato sauce was hot, much better tasting! I barely finished the entrée which was very filling. No dessert or after dinner drinks for me. The bartender did not charge me for the soda because of the food snafu.
Overall, the Tavern offers a very nice atmosphere, a great place to relax, unwind, and be chill. The bar selection here is very good. The service was pleasant and informative. However, the food preparation and delivery from the RA kitchen still needs some work with quality control, which is echoed by most Unilocalers who reviewed the Red Arrow Diner (Milford location). The food tasted pretty good after being corrected, but it still did not measure up to the original Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, where the cacciatore there is served so piping hot that my glasses fog up.
I plan to return for dinner and an update to this review will follow.