Mr Roberts

This is my main joint, chill group of people, entertaining and Wanda the bar tender is the best one there (she works Monday Wednesday and Fridays, go in and show her some love, you’ll love her!)!!

It is what it is. Divey bar in the extreme, drop your high expectations at the door and you’ll be fine. Met some old friends here the other night for karaōke and a birthday celebration for one of us; I hadn’t realized they even did karaōke there. The clientele that evening ranged from decidedly shady to incredibly adorable, the latter being a super cute older couple in their 70s, I’m guessing. They both had nice singing voices and they sang old standards from the 40s, and we were all completely charmed. Us ladies dragged our reluctant gentlemen onto the dance floor just to show our appreciation for their performances. Bottom line, don’t let the diviness scare you, because you just might be surprised what a nice evening can be had here. They have a fairly basic tap beer list, several pool tables, and friendly bartenders.

Mr. Roberts is one of my favorite bars on the East Side.
Not only do they have great bartenders who make excellent drinks (seriously the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had — Thanks Sunday morning bartender!), but on Sundays they have FREE POOL!
If Sunday Funday isn’t your thing, they have some great live music throughout the week, specializing in some seriously awesome local bands.
This place is your friendly neighborhood watering hole, and is a top notch dive bar. They have very decent pub food, nothing fancy, but gets the job done.
Highly recommend.

It is a great place to see and support local music acts FOR FREE, some are very good! If you don’t like dive bars, don’t go in, I mean what do you expect? If you go, woohoo!

Karaōke on Tuesday night is so fun! i love this unpretentious, accepting place. The drinks are well priced.

The service at Mr. Roberts is okay, but the free live music is what pulls me in! Drinks are reasonably priced too.

Haha — this place is tawesome. A group of my friends caught a comedian at the Barrymore Theatre and had some time to kill beforehand. We wanted to find a place to eat nearby but everywhere had a 15 minute wait — and we didn’t have that kind of time before the show. We setled for Mr. Roberts Bar and Grill, and what a hoot it was!
First off, their food was okay. Nothing to rave or complain about. The menu is limited though — it definitely isn’t really a place to go to eat. They didn’t have any drink specials, which made me sad :(I’m used to just getting whatever beer is on sale, because I like everything, but no such luck. However, they aren’t expensive so I paid about 4 dollars for a beer I think.
The best part of this place is that it is totally divey, and it had a lot of interesting characters. This drunk 30 year old guy played pool with my friend and had a lengthy conversation with me about how he used to unpack semi trucks or something. I don’t know.
My friends would say the best part about this place is their mixed drinks (a gin and tonic and a rum and coke I think?) came in pint sizes — haha. Biggest mixed drinks they’d ever seen. Can’t vouch for how strong they were — but large none the less.
I wouldn’t say this place is a destination, at all, but next time you’re at the Barrymore, it is a cool place to check out next door for a drink.

Mr. Roberts is a good place for lunch. They have a great Thursday lunch special.

It’s not that bad of a place if you go in at the right time (8 PM). But be careful you will get hit with a Sublime cover band. Food is regular bar food and nothing special. Drinks are cheap and the bar is long there are plenty of places to sit. There is a pool table and video poker (All Fruit Bonus). Very Sconnie however a little seedy for the faint of heart.

Come on people, it’s Mr. Roberts. It’s a dive bar, it’s stinky, dingy, sometimes scary and that’s the way it’s supposed to be, to keep the squeamish out. Quit being haters, there are plenty of white-​washed established to frequent for the faint of heart. As for the crap tap beer-​order a bottle. I for one am thankful that shit-​holes like this exist.

Mr. Roberts is not a place I’d ever go to for the sole purpose of going out. Both times I’ve gone have been for bands, and both times were fairly different experiences.
My first time was a one-​star experience: it was ridiculously hot and humid inside, the staff lacked any sort of motivation for good customer service, and they crammed the 7– or 8-​piece band in the front of the bar near the window, making for awkward viewing and playing. The sound was terrible and I spent more time outside than in.
My second time was a better experience, but still not one that would cause me to suggest other people go there. This time around it was a reasonable temperature in the bar, but that may only be due to the fact that it was in the 50s outside. The bands played in the back of the bar in an alcove/​side room deal and it made a lot more sense. The sound was still deafening and subject to random strangers twiddling the knobs on the mixer, but overall not too bad.
Free music is the best thing (only thing?) Mr. Roberts has going for it. Its biggest downsides:
— it’s touted as a blue-​collar bar, but it’s more an excuse to be shabby and dirty than anything; $ 15 for a 5-​bottle bucket of beer is not a good deal, and $ 5 for a PBR & a rail shot is a special for a couple hours one night a week when it should be the standard price for such a combination
— the ladies room is ridiculously tiny and awkward, had a seat that was half hanging off the bowl, and no TP
— every surface was dirty or sticky, yuck
You probably won’t die if you go to see a friend’s band play, but supporting a friend should be the only motivation for setting foot inside.

I fully appreciate that Mr. Roberts is a blue collar dive bar that’s located on Atwood. So when a friend asked me to join him to watch a favorite band there, I set my expectations accordingly.
Is it possible for an establishment to disappoint you when you’ve already lowered your expectations to crackhouse-​lows? Only if that establishment is Mr. Roberts.
The tap beers are not only unexciting, they’re as stale and flat as day old bread that’s been run over by a steamroller. Bartenders are more interested in talking with their buddies than they are helping anyone. And the whole vibe of this place is more sketchy than an Etch-​A-​Sketch wearing Sketchers…
I’d give anything to not be stuck here right now. I’m scared to death of what might be lurking in the bathrooms… Think I’ll go pee in the parking lot.

Don’t go here unless you want to get blackout drunk, buy crack, or catch a disease.

Welcome to my exclusive 1-​star club, Mr. Roberts.
I went here to see a friend’s band play, despite my boyfriend’s warning that it was not the greatest bar. I do so love dive bars – how bad could it be?
Bad. It’s so bad. It’s past the stage of being a fun dive bar, it’s just plain frightening. The people looked like the kind of scary, angry drunks you would only encounter in a movie. The bathroom stall was so little that had I weighed 20 pounds more, I probably would have gotten wedged in (the door opened inward, not outward).
We did not stay long, I did not regret it, and won’t be back. Ick, yuck, blech, and ptooey. Why would anyone think this is a good place?!

Unpretentious Wisconsin-​y hangout with good live music.

This bar had become something of a second home to me on Monday nights for the 2.5 years we lived in Madison. During most of the week it’s a nice blue collar hangout, but on Monday’s it keeps the blue collar drink pricing, but adds some of the best live funk and soul music to be found in the midwest. Also check out Wednesday nights for the open jam session they have weekly. Best beer on tap? Moose Drool hands down.