The Half Moon Bar and Grill in Gresham has launched a pretty extensive radio advertising campaign lately – I’m sure some of you have heard one of the radio ads boasting about their menu or the one focusing on their huge deck… I had heard both and was excited to go see what all the fuss was about (the fuss over the FOOD, that is – not the deck).
We decided to try it out one Thursday night at around 8 pm. I don’t even know why we bothered to go inside, because when we pulled up the parking lot was PACKED. This would have been a great thing if I was looking for a big crowd, but I was intent on trying the wonderful food they have gone to such great lengths to advertise – not the crowd. The advertisements left me under the impression that this was just as much a restaurant as a bar. Based on my experience this is not the case.
We walked in and were greeted by the doorman who scanned our IDs. The music was very loud which was ok because the band was pretty good. As far as I could see it was standing room only, so my hopes of enjoying a meal here were diminishing. We walked room to room past pool tables and gatherings of people and finally made our way to the door that leads out to the huge deck. I was CERTAIN there would be room for us to sit and eat on the deck (since it is so enormous of course), and there was! There was plenty of room on the deck, but NO CHAIRS. Still hopefull, we walked back inside and asked the bartender if there were any chairs we could pull up to the tables outside. Sadly, we were told that there were not any chairs. Since the band that was playing that night was pretty good we decided to stay for a beer then head on down the road to an actual restaurant.
I really wanted to like this place and was expecting an awesome time, but unfortunately the Half Moon didn’t deliver that night. The food that I saw looked good, so my advice would be to anyone who wants to eat here to go early. I don’t have plans to go back anytime soon, mainly because we could never get of the house early enough to get a table. So, good luck to any of you who venture that way!
Half Moon Grill & Saloon
16884 FM 2493
Tyler, TX 75703-7378
(903) 534-1884
Love all of these great captured memories !