The Half Moon Grill and Saloon

Terrible bar, service is crap as the drinks and food. I wouldn’t waste my time here.

There are about 3 bars left in Smith County that allow smoking! Don’t like smokers go to the other 100 or so bars that don’t allow smoking! Some of us enjoy coming in to a bar where you can smoke and drink.
The food is great! It’s not Jules but then it doesn’t pretend to be.
I wish they would turn up the juke box during the day. If I want to watch TV I can stay home!

This place is the biggest joke! We come here because it’s close, but charging $ 5 a person to listen to the «DJ» is ridiculous! It’s literally equivalent to someone’s iPhone plugged into some kind of pandora station! Then you pay premium prices to drink beer in a smoke filled space! I honestly feel that I’ve been kicked in the balls (if I had balls) every time I come here! Come on half moon!!! Pay me the cover and I’ll hook my phone up to you surround sound! And make people smoke it up outside for Christ sake! That’s all!

3 year later update anyone? Sure, I’ll bite.
This place is in a time warp of a 1990’s bar. The smoke is so thick you risk getting the Black Lung just wandering in.
The beer is hands down the most expensive in Tyler. $ 4 for a domestic bottle? Are you for real? How about $ 10 for a 32oz draft? Yeah, these guys really stick it in your ass.
How about a cover charge? Sure, have a 5 spot ready to hear a «DJ» or more for a live band.
Best thing I can say is this place is good for people watching. The service has always been friendly.
If it wasn’t for the Smog and the anal-​rape for beer, I would come here more often.

Gross. This place reeks so bad of smoke that I had to sit on the patio to escape it. The few times I went inside was to try to get a drink but the bar is so tiny and understaffed that you had to wade through a crowd to order something. Listen, I like a good dive bar but this was nothing but a hillbilly watering hole. You will never find my back in this joint.

Perfect place to hide from the big city and hipsters. Most of the people in this joint are just trashy, down right, real people. You’ll get lung cancer before you leave, so all you people who freak about about smoke, this is not your place.
If you want to hide from all your exes, your family, your friends, and you just want to have a beer, hit on a hot waitress, and grab a beer? This is your place.
Food sucks. Atmosphere amazing.

Listen young Unilocalers, I drink like a champ. Now, when I say «champ,» I don’t mean like Toronto’s crack smoking Mayor, Rob Ford, because he’s in a completely different stratosphere than the rest of us. No, what I mean is that I can power drink with the best of humans. Rob Ford is not human.
Now, since I’ve established that fact that I enjoy an occasional night of power drinking, the Half Moon is the closest place that serves alcohol, in relation to mi casa. Get the drift– close proximity, Half Moon, here I come.
To be clear, I don’t come here because I smoke. In fact, I despise smoking. I don’t come here because I’m blown away by the food, because it’s merely average. But, I’m willing to try it again sometime, because supposedly (according to some of the servers) they’ve up’d their game in the kitchen. Beer. On any given night, they will, most likely, be out of certain drafts, so if you come in here knowing this, you won’t be overly disappointed.
So, with a review, so far, that doesn’t list many positives, why the decent rating of 3 stars, you must ask? Well, it’s quite simple: The Half Moon exudes an abundance of character. The servers are always young, and generally quite attractive. And, quite honestly, the service has always been very good. In addition to the –easy on the eyes– servers, the crowd that frequents this dive, are also never ones to disappoint.
The «Moon» is what it is. If you want to take one of their regular patrons out to your car, so she can perform oral sex on you, this sure as well might be your place. If you are married, and want this to remain a secret, dive bars are generally the type of establishments, (assuming I were throwing out recommendations) to carry out this type of activity.
Until the Gresham area gets a new bar, I will faithfully continue to frequent the «Moon.»

As far as bars go, this is the best DIVE BAR I have seen in Tyler. It has succeeded so that should tell you something. It tends to attract the older crowd during happy hour as most older people live and/​or work in the area and stop off for a drink and a smoke with locals before heading home (or as means to get out of the house, whichever works). The college kids flock to it because they have friends that work there, its a live music venue (small, smoky and loud, but fun!), and it is the ONLY place I am aware of this close to town that allows smoking in a BAR atmosphere.

It is what it is…
I love this place for the same reason the other Unilocalers hated it. I am 43 and not afraid to have a conversation with a seasoned pro who may be a generation or two older still. Yes the crowds a bit older and the juke box has a lot of Elvis and The Eagles but don’t be fooled this place oozes «cool».
If you are looking for the hipster hang out with the 15 dollar pear and polmagranite infused vodka martini, this is not your spot. If you want a stiff drink and some of the best bar bites in the piney woods at 11 AM, you are here.
First off, we walk in at 11:15 AM on a Tuesday and there are six people at the bar and all are drinking «adult chocolate milk». This is a shot of a chocolate liquor and a shot of Rumplemintz and it tastes like it sounds. GOOD MORNING!!! When you work odd hours it is not easy to find a place with food and drinks if you need one in the mornings. Sure we could have went to Chili’s and watched them set up but thanks to the gal at the hotel we found this place.
The pizza is amazing. They make all components in house and the bake was perfect (see pic). We talked to the cook for quite awhile and it’s obviouse he loves what he does and it is reflected in the food. I wish we would have ordered a smaller pie so we could have tried other stuff but I can’t imagine anything there would suck.
I hope and pray more people find and Unilocal this place so it is there when I get back to Tyler.

A decent bar if you smoke, but I don’t. No cover and live music, which is nice. It is a smaller place, gets crowded and difficult to move around.

Over rated! And over run with grandma & pa types chain smoking and sucking down martinis.
I ordered a draft beer way too watery. My friend tried the strawberry martini which was better then mine, but not great. Menu choices were a joke and being surrounded by every smoker in Tyler, even outside, made it unbearable.
Too many «look at me» types for my taste. They had 1 bike outside mostly just for show I guess, I didn’t see any one that fits on it in their. Mom & Dad might like it when they are in town, but I don’t.
Hey, maybe I’m not in the in crowd or may be too old mid to upper 30’s; I just wished we had more choices in this town!

What’s this, a REAL bar in the Jacksonville/​Tyler area? Live music without cover as well you say? Clientele that doesn’t look like they’re taking a break from working all day at the meth lab in their trailer too? Count me in!
This place was a much needed pit stop for me when I was visiting my old hometown over the Thanksgiving week. Sure the bar isn’t stocked as well as a larger bar in a city, but for a hopping joint that’s pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, you couldn’t ask for better. I’d be more than happy to call this my local bar if I ever moved back to the Tyler area. Hell, I’d make it my local if it was back home in San Francisco too, and that’s saying a lot.