The Buck Burgers and Brew

The service is always great here. I really appreciated how AJ went out of her way, with being patient with our party, and how she checked on us to make sure things were good, but not too much to feel like you can’t have a conversation with your party. A very good balance. The burgers were good. If your vegetarian they have a burger for you, and you can also mix it up.

Had such a great time at Buck’s while staying the night in St. Joseph. The beer selection is out of this world. The bar tender, who I think is also the owner (his name was Travis maybe?), was one of the most helpful, prompt, clean, and respectful pub mangers Ive ever met. His beer recommendations were spot on, with frequent samples when needed.
What was so surprising is that the food was equally good. My burger was perfect and the Lady’s southwestern salad was phenomenal.
We had a great time meeting the locals while watching a basketball game. If you’re in the mood for good beer and pub food this is your spot; anywhere else you’ll be missing out! For a quiet dinner I would go elsewhere but Buck’s certainly delivers on what it advertises!

Sour beer takeover! As always, great selection of beers.
There wasn’t a host so we sat ourselves. After 5 – 10 min our friend ended up just ordering drinks from the bar. Once he brought them to the table, a waitress popped up and said future drink orders should be placed directly at the bar, which was a little off-​putting as no one seemed to care when we entered the place, but once we were able to get some service, someone shows up to tell us that we wouldn’t be waited on because of that?
Unfortunately, my sister did not heed my advice to eat before we got here at 10 pm on a Saturday night. Kitchen was closed so we asked if we could bring food in from another place after she got hungry all of a sudden, but they said no. And they didn’t have chips or other small snacks she could buy to munch on either, so we had to leave to get food after having only a drink.

I have been twice. I love the Farmfresh. Good beef with a well cooked egg. They have a pretty big drink list. My friend was able to find his favorite ale. Busy on a Saturday night, but tables freed up pretty quickly. They will text you when it’s ready, so you can look at nearby shops if you want.
A burger was more than enough to make me full. Meal, drink, and tip was under $ 15. I think the burger was $ 10.

Decided to check out The Buck due to Unilocal reviews and we were in town for the ice festival. Got a seat at the bar immediately. The food came out relatively fast & was super excellent. I had the Mexican burger. Delicious. So many beers on tap too! The bartender was knowledgable and super nice! Can’t wait to go back!

Came to town for the Ice Festival to watch live ice carving and do some wine tasting. After all that we saw on Unilocal that The Buck looked like a great spot. We were seated at the bar immediately, decided on the soft pretzel and beer cheese (great choice) to start. The beer list was huge! I went with the Asian Seared Salmon Sandwich, and mac n’ cheese as a side. I was extremely happy with my experience at The Buck. The food and drinks were amazing, and the server was knowledgeable and on it, who according to the receipt was T. Sweeney (Sweeney Todd?)…

I was from Cleveland and in St Joseph for work and when I am out on the road across the country I love trying local gastropubs. Sorry to say I have to agree with other reviews in that the food is subpar to match the lame ass miserable service, but the beer selection is incredible. Stick to that and you will be alright.
Maybe it’s not their fault at being miserable. After all they have so many interesting beers on tap EXCEPT that they are separated by two bars on Different floors. No wonder when I asked for a sample the bartender pulled a splash in a glass that was the equivalent of what I can spit.
The food was nothing great. I had a pulled pork sandwich which was way too sweet for its own good. The house made buck chips are OK, But a bit dry. Both the upstairs bartender and downstairs bartender Seemed totally miserable with myself and any other patron that was not recognized by face. It was a hassle for them to bring me a draft that was either upstairs or downstairs and I even moved just to please them but my dumb luck switched drafts and made them ask another server to fetch my beer. I saw my bartender act rude to a patron that he couldnt hear order a beer. Oh well vote with your $$ if you like this place and the service visit often and tip heavy. If not… well you get the point.

Food was good but the service? ehhh, that’s another story. I mean, can people at least pretend to be somewhat happy to be alive and at work. It makes everyone’s experience much more enjoyable.

This place was incredible. I had the peanut butter burger and it was the best burger I’ve ever had. A perfect blend of sweet and spicy. The beer choices are amazing too. I had a wonderful chocolate milk stout. I will definitely return.

Horrible service and hair in the food.
Service is consistently bad. I went here today for the last time. After we were seated we waited 15 minutes for our server to come to our table, and that was only after complaining. During this trip there was hair in my appetizer. This was my second experience with there being hair in my food here, the last time it was in my burger. The first time is an accident, the second time it happens there is a real problem.
There was no apology given, even as we were leaving. Unacceptable. I won’t go back again.

Wandering downtown St. Joe’s waiting for the wineries to open, realizing we needed a burger to help us get over the night before.. we walked into The Buck hoping for something to cure our urge. There was a short line to get in (as they just opened) but we were seated immediately. Our server came to the table right away (literally) & asked for our drink order. After figuring out that they were out of the first 6 beers we were interested in, we finally found a winner. They apparently were waiting for a beer delivery.
For food, I decided on the stuffed bleu cheese bacon perfection burger & let me tell you. . I was not disappointed! It was perfectly cooked and seasoned. I have not a bad thing to say about that amazing burger!
Other than the beer being out & slower than usual service, our trip to The Buck was successful.

Great dinner! Huge burgers that are juicy and flavorful. The chili cheese fries were delicious as well… I love chili that has meat and beans in it. I tried a local cherry mead that was very tasty! Live music was very good too, a gentleman was singing some of my favorite soft rock songs. Maybe that’s not for everyone but it suits me. My waitress was very nice and checked up on me often. I would definitely think about stopping in again when im back in the area.

Amazing selection of draft beers. Most diverse around. The actual burger is just ok but they have some nice specialty toppings that add a lot of flavor.
Nice view of Lake Michigan from the back deck.

They refused to provide us with a wait time for the balcony. Serious? That means you can’t get your act together and you have no business opening a restaurant. As we walked away we noticed many open patio tables. Never going back.

Second time here. Love it! Only downside is that we gave our name and phone number and they told us they would text us when our table is ready, they estimated 20 – 25 minutes or sooner. 47 minutes later I came in to check our status and they said they text me already awhile ago. I told her to try again and she pressed a button on a IPad and immediately I got a text. They apologized and sat us right away. I enjoyed a brat on pretzel bun, yummo!!!
Love this area on weekends in the summer and will always pass thru here at least 1x per summer!

Pretty happy with our visit here. I love a place that embraces where they are. Live Local. I’d say 80% of their beers are from Michigan and I love that! That’s how it should be. I got to drink a lot of great beers I can’t get where I live. My favorite was a strawberry shortcake beer from Shorts Brewery. Yum!
We weren’t very hungry but we couldn’t pass up their summer appetizer special. It was 2 whole heads of slow roasted garlic served with goat cheese and fresh baguette. It was amazing. Dangerous. But amazing. I throughly regretted it today as I can still taste garlic and might smell like it too.
Worth it!
If ever back would try the burgers. They looked great. We actually tried to come back at 9 pm and they were closed. Bummer.

I cannot overstate how much I adore this restaurant.
I always get the Thornberry Burger (pretty sure that’s what it’s called anyway). It has cream cheese, buck bacon, and raspberry jalapeño jam — and it is the yummiest burger in all the world.
This last visit my husband got the Mac & Cheese burger. It looked odd to me, but, he really enjoyed it.
I swap out my fries or chips or whatever comes with for sweet potato fries. They’re well made and come with a fantastic honey cinnamon spread/​dip.
The atmosphere doesn’t ever seem too noisy. They have a nice outdoor eating area, although I’ve never sat in it. There’s also a pleasant lounge area on the second floor and I was pleased to discover that the second floor also has it’s own restrooms.

I’m so stuffed from my burger, couldn’t eat it all. It wasn’t award winning, but it was good. The Amish Habanero cheese is gooood! The house made vhips are yummy. Get you some Archie sauce. It’s yummy, to go with chips. I’d definitely come back for drinks and appetizers, maybe a sandwich instead of a burger.

The food was okay but even for pub fare I guess I expected a little more. Service around us looked pretty good which surprised us since our server was hard to find and made us feel like we were imposing on her.
I felt the prices were on the high side of reasonable for the quality.

We decided to make a Sunday afternoon drive to St. Joe from South Bend and have been talking about checking out this place for awhile now (thanks to my husband’s quest for a perfect burger).
We were seated right away at a high two-​top in the front window which was perfect. My husband couldn’t resist the Bloody Mary garnished with a slider special. It was a great — although I would have ordered mine spicy. They were out of my first choice beer, but luckily they have a great selection so no complaints. The beers were a little pricey compared to comparable places we have gone.
We ordered the onion rings with Archie sauce as an appetizer. They were nicely beer battered and the portion size were huge.
My husband ordered the stuffed Bleu Cheese Bacon Perfection and loved it — actually said it was in his current top three. He opted for the sweet potato fries, but they were nothing special. I had the Buck Burger with regular fries. The burger was cooked a perfect medium and huge… definitely big enough to share. The side of regular fries were the same — nothing special.
Service was a little slow and our bill was wrong thanks to the last minute beer switch since they were out, but was corrected as soon as we pointed it out.
We’ll definitely be back in warmer weather to check out the deck!