Ye Olde Alpha

Dingy, long wait for bad expensive food. It came highly reccomended, but I really wish I didn’t go. The very worst part was the obnoxious snooty hostess and staff. Never again will I go there.

Still a good place to go and most everything I said before is still true, but the drink prices have been raised recently so they are not longer the best in town. Still a reasonable value on drinks, but feels like the push is more towards a family restaurant that just happens to have a bar in it. Mind you the bar side is totally separate from the restaurant side giving it the chance to be both.

Been going here for years, still love this place! Great variety of foods at reasonable prices. Beer cold, burgers perfect, onion rings, great fries, salads… love it!

I was a little concerned after reading some recent posts on Unilocal!The Hotel recommended this place.
I had the mesquite grilled wings. When I saw price for 2 pounds the waitress said it was 8 or 16! I got the 2 pounds, 16 wings. These were biggest wings I have ever seen And the price was reasonable. They had great flavor and are juicy too. The plate of fries was humongous. They also have a great selection of beer to. Defiantly worth the visit.
Décor is nothing special, but who cares. I came here to eat some good food, drink some good beer. The locals here are friendly too.
Doesn’t get much better!

This place is awful. Not only is the décor atrociously bad and the bathrooms filthy, but the food is equally bad. Take a second to actually wipe off the menus so there is t dried food on them. I got the fajita and it was awful. The steak was fatty and not appropriately cut and the chicken was flavorless. The guacamole was brownish and gross.

My wife and I were in town wanting to try somewhere local and Ye Olde Alpha was definitely worth it. Service was great and the ribs and the reuben sandwich were delicious. The location and décor add to the experience and we would certainly go back.

While over at oglebay, we decided to see what Unilocal suggested. We try to eat local, and this place was at the top of the list. The old building made us feel at home, and the staff was welcoming even tho she was pulling a double shift The food was traditional, and was prepared very well. Our bellies were full and my request for a wheelchair was humorously denied (favorite joke of mine). We will gladly come back again!

It has been a long time since we ate food that was this unappetizing… how can they keep the doors open? they know families like us travel and stay here for a few days and want to go eat out other than fast food
I feel compelled to share all the great food places and really really compelled to share the really bad especially for the out of towners like us.
We were staying at a local resort and came here because the reviews were good when we arrived we saw a restaurant that has not been updated since Ronald reagan was president but went in because the «good food reviews» not the décor we were tired after being on the road all day it was 8 o’clock and we were hungry.
I had fish and chips, the chips were actually v good… the fish however was straight from the freezer and had some pretty thick breading on it that tasted like cardboard.”“
Wife had the fajitas and her comment was it was the worst she had ever eaten” very bland and I caught hell for choosing such a dud, the kicker was our server said we have some «licensing issues» so we can’t serve you a drink tonight. :(

Over last two years, gone down hill.
Use to order pork chop entrée. Now it’s tough and not prepared to same perfection. Tried more than once. Broccoli is continuously overlooked.
The thought of eating in a place with sewage problems grosses me out.

Our food was really good! I had the moose wrap, which was a warm pita club type of sandwich. It was so so yummy. My husband had The Eagle hamburger, it was a great mix of flavors. We ordered no sides to leave room for the dessert — The Bridgestone Brownie — however it was SO HUGE that we did not finish it! The waiter was very attentive.

I’ve eaten at the Alpha several times and gave always enjoyed what I’ve ordered. The vegetable pasta is my favorite menu item: long pasta sautéed with tasty veggies and whole garlic cloves, it’s delicious. The blue cowboy burger is amazing; I was really skeptical about a burger with peanut butter, but two bites in it won me over, and it was so filling I could only manage to eat half of it. The cole slaw is pretty bland, fries are good but nothing out of the ordinary. The bruschetta is a must; the bread is nicely toasted, and the spread under the bruschetta topping is perfect. The portabello mushrooms are huge and as filling as a burger, and they’re stuffed with deliciousness. My only complaint about the place is the servers can be a little unfriendly. And this review is based solely on restaurant dining experience, not as a bar.

I have to preface this review by saying I am not a local and thus am perhaps used to a different standard. That said, I cannot understand great reviews for this place. We started off with a cranberry salad, with the advertised «warm raspberry vinaigrette» tasting like like warmed up corn syrup sticking to and oozing over the vegetables. There wasn’t a hint of raspberry to be found. Next was a bowl of «house made chili» that would make about any canned chili look great; it was watery with absolutely the blandest, uninspired flavor I have ever had in chili, including canned.
For the main entrée, mine came out 5 minutes ahead (Guadalajara steak fajitas) of my other dinner guest’s. Cold tortillas, limp lettuce, and guacamole out of a week old container most likely, and fajita veggies that were either out of a freezer bag covered with grease or been sitting all day. The other entrée was a chicken dish which was palatable but came with broccoli out of a freezer bag and was bland except for all the grease and salt added to compensate for lack of seasoning or flavor.
The reason I am giving one star versus 2 here is the service. The waiter regularly did not refill beverages, left side, salad, soup, and entrée dishes stacked on our table while chatting with coworkers in front of the kitchen, and showed zero interest in our concerns with the meal and offered nothing in the form of dessert or refund for this poor meal and awful service. If this is the best Wheeling can do, it is time for some new locally owned restaurants. I hate to say it, but you are better off with corporate chains that value their guests.

Let me start by saying I’ve eaten here a total of 4 times and each time has been in the bar «section.»
Jason has been our server each time and he is probably the best waiter I’ve ever had. He has a dry humor to him, but I find that appealing and straight forward. Others may like an overly invasive waiter who is always up in your face. he’s not like that.
It’s an awkward place to arrange for seating, but yet again it’s on the bar side. No more than ⁵⁄₆ if you plan to sit in that section. Although I think it’s way better cause of the music and TVs available.
There was a cool 80 ounce beer contraption that we ordered which was awesome.
Need to get bruschetta for an app.
Need to get the lobster mac and cheese if they have it.
I would say for being in a less metro area than pittsburgh or DC, this would be a great place to hang with friends and eat great food.

The server and service was terrible. She had an attitude and seemed annoyed that we were even there, and was «put out» when I asked for more salsa. Then couldn’t find her to pay the bill. The food was over salted and I could barely find any lettuce in my salad. There was a can of corn dump on top of it! My husband like the bean soup though so that’s why they even get a one star! Won’t go back.

I’ve been here several times. Service can be hit or miss, but the food has always been on point. The menu is huge and can be overwhelming. The greek pork shanks are excellent as are any of the burgers. The bruschetta appetizer is a half-​loaf of Italian bread and is a meal in itself. Highly recommend. The sweet potato fries with truffle oil and their special BBQ sauce are awesome. They even hand-​grate cheese on top of them until you tell them to stop. The chips and salsa are excellent. Chips are fried fresh in house and the salsa always has good reviews, but I find it to be too thin.
The bar side is separated by a door from the restaurant side but you can get the full menu on the bar side as it has several tables for groups.
What this place does need is some updating. Nothing is worse than dingy looking ceilings and outdated/​dirty bathrooms. Other than those small issues, the food is excellent and it is worth a visit.

Local favorite, the food is great, fantastic wings & huge selection of amazing salads. Nice beer selection however no Stella Glasses which is odd. The place smells of sewer gas & the restroom was dirty. The bar stools are uneven almost fell off my chair. Bar tenders are very slow service of staff very poor. This place used to have outstanding service but has definitely gone down hill. The place needs a good cleaning.

This was one of the strangest places I’ve ever been, and not in a good way. The atmosphere is really what killed me. Gross carpet floors, taxidermy EVERYWHERE, old… just not good.
The menu was overwhelming. There are about 100 things to chose from which is never a good sign. I order the duck burger which was surprisingly good, and a side of onion rings (based on Unilocal recommendations) which were surprisingly NOT good. Our server was nice enough, but a little slow. I would recommend the burger, but that’s about the only thing that saved this place from a 1 star review.

I highly recommend the alpha!!! I would like to talk about cleanliness service and quality of food. It was super clean maybe the bathroom floor need a little scrubbing but nonetheless i’m going to give it 3.5 stars. My servers name was eric. I give 4.5!!! He hustled and made me feel important. When i come back i would ask for eric
I save the best for last which was the food quality i ordered the jones. I had said to my girlfriend during the meal this is probably the best dish i’ve had in a restaurant ever.

First stop on my trip across the country with my Dad.
Came here because of the high Unilocal rating. I can only imagine it is bolstered by the locals.
It really is like some sort of old lodge or rotary club of some sort that has been fashioned into an unattractive multi-​room restaurant. Decent beer selection and a sprawling menu – so I had high hopes it would end up being a tasty dive.
I ordered the Bison burger and it was honestly SO rare in the center (and I typically ask for medium rare and don’t shy from raw meat) that it was inedible. Not only that, whenever we had to find the wait staff, I’d have to get up and wander through rooms to find someone.
The stuffed animals on the wall are kinda cool, but you have to go to the bar for that.
If I ever have to pass through Wheeling again, I’ll try somewhere else.

In the foodie mecca of Wheeling, WV (not), Alpha is a local favorite. Although the building, inside and out, has seen better days long ago, it does have a certain charm. It filled up fast for lunch with a mix of businessmen, families, and a lot of teenagers on what turned out to be their last day of school.
My Pastrami sandwich was decent, but gets an extra star for the house spicy mustard which added a zip to an otherwise OK sandwich. One lunch partner got the signature Greek Chicken Wings. They looked great with the Greek dressing and crumbled feta. Our third for lunch had our least favorite meal, fish and chips. The best thing about this dish was the perfect symmetry of the square shape of the fish. Poorly cooked frozen fish was not what we expected when everyone else’s meals looked so good.
Overall, I would go back, but will stick with the sandwiches until I actually catch a square fish.