The American Pub

Solid beer selections. However, got there at 8 on a Friday night and the kitchen was already shut down. At one point, they cranked the music up and the bartender got up on the bar and started pouring shots directly into people’s mouths. Didn’t seem like it was that kinda hang but hey, it takes all kinds. Overall, I’d go back but earlier in the evening.

Drove super far here to see my favorite band. Guess the owner didn’t like the music. Said it was too slow or some crap. So the band got axed and a dj came on. I’m pretty sure the Dave Matthews they played sucks more then my favorite band. However, the dry turkey sandwich I got sucked more then the Dave Matthews music. What garbage! Book a band and have them travel and bring fans who drive from far and pay for parking and trains and shitty food etc??? Ax them an hour into playing? We will Take our money somewhere else then this dumb in the basement bar that probably only serves the people who work in the building since they have zero advertising outside indicating a crappy bar is inside. I will never come here again after I wasted so much money and time getting here (including paying for a dogwalker so I could come straight from work). Owner sucks. Food sucks. The band rocked. Peace out corny American pub.

This is one of the hidden gems of Philly. No really, it’s literally hidden underground in the basement lobby of a building. If you know where the giant clothespin sculpture is at the corner of 15^th & Market and across from City Hall, then you’re close by. Enter the office building on that corner, and take the escalator downstairs and you’ll find your destination.
It’s technically a pub, but I’ve only ever been here for sit down lunches/​work meetings. I’ve only ever ordered sandwiches (the open faced chicken salad is awesome!) and they’ve all been decent. The food comes out of the kitchen fast, probably due to the fact that without foot traffic, it stays fairly empty. It’s the perfect spot for any business lunches where you don’t want to wait forever for a table & want to actually hear your conversation. Only con really is the menu isn’t too expansive, although I’ve never had difficulty finding something to eat.

I was looking for this place to spend a quiet night as I arrived for a meeting in Philadelphia. While walking to the place, found out that it was under my companies headquarters!
Didn’t see any of my colleagues as I wanted to spend the night quietly and thank god not my superior.
But anyhow, I ran in here first because I had to use the bathroom. Thought it would be respectful to order before using the restroom but there was only one bartender and she was busy serving other customers. After I ordered a beer, I found out that the bathroom was at the other end of the bar which was a pretty long way.
Enough about my bathroom talk!
I had about three beers not noticing they had an happy hour, but the bartender gladly gave me a check for the price of happy hour. As the bar was closing early, i didn’t realize that the kitchen was closed. I asked and in the beginning, they said no but if i ordered a typical dish like a philly sandwhich, they would gladly do it for me. I made it to go as I felt bad the bar was closing and I asked for a favor.
I ordered the philly sandwhich with hot peppers and gottta be honest, they did a better job than other philly sandwhich places I’ve been in the area. The spice for the hot peppers were on the dot! Beef slices were juicy and the fries were soo much!!!
Will love to stop by again and enjoy the other menu’s theyve got!

Meh. 2 and a half stars if Unilocal allowed halves. The service was decent, and the food was edible, but nothing to write home about. Fries are crinkle cut, which I despise. They seemed a bit overdone, but I guess that’s better than underdone. I had the reuben and it felt a little on the small side, especially for $ 9.45. Corned Beef seemed like it was from a corner store deli, and it was a little light on the Russian dressing.
You can easily get a table here. I went during lunch hour on a weekday, and the tables were empty. I guess others share my sentiment about this place. Glad I finally got to try it as I work in the building, but I probably wouldn’t return here given a choice; this place feels like I’m settling, and there’s just too many other options down in the city to just settle on this place.

We just took a group of 10 people to this restaurant for lunch. We never knew it existed even though we work closeby. The service was great, the food did not take long to be delivered and everyone liked their meal. Looks like a great place for happy hour after work. Check it out!

Woo my first one star review! Have been here twice and pretty bad both times. The biggest issue is the service. We literally got ignored most of the time for lunch. I came late so had put in my order later than the group. 30 min later and still no food. I asked one of the waitresses to check (because our waitress literally never came back once after dropping off everyone else’s food) on my order and turns out it was never in put. So 10 min later comes out a sad, gross, soggy chicken taco salad with stuff on it I did not want. I was so hungry at that point I made my way around the stuff (since I did not want to spend after 5 hours waiting). It tasted super cheap and terrible. After that we had to flag down another waitress for more water and then it literally took 10 min to find someone (anyone at this point) to give us a check. I was actually shocked at how bad the experience was. So good luck to whoever is going there… maybe you’ll have better luck and better food! Make sure you have some time to spare!
PS. It you work in the building you do get a discount so that’s nice.

If you’re caught in a snow storm do not come here! My friends and I were walking through center city and with the inviting décor thought we would stop in for a quick shot (brrr it’s chilly out!). We walked into a bar with 10 people already seated but were told that the bar was closed. The reason? Bartender claimed to have no cash. Odd enough we offered to pay with card. The bartender shooed us away. Strange as we could hear someone else in the bar (presumably the manager) telling the bartender to go ahead and give us a drink. As an employee of the hospitality industry I find it shocking that this bartender had the Gaul to determine who is served and when. I wonder if the owner of the restaurant knows that he turned away money on a day like today.

I decided on this place for lunch as it is part of the Skymiles Dining program, and it was a solid lunch, although nothing remarkable.
Started off with a potato soup, then moved on to cheesesteak spring rolls and then a burger. The soup was good, and the spring rolls practically a meal unto themselves. Unfortunately, the bartender either didn’t listen closely or didn’t really care to add the toppings to my burger, but it came out completely plain, and the kitchen then had to run the extras out to me.
Quiet place, and since we were there for a late lunch we saw a number of people come in who had obviously left work early to start to drink their day away, so it was good for some friendly chat.
All in all, good food and vibe, but the service was just off enough to make me question coming back.

I used to work in the building complex, so I would come her occasionally for lunch, or post work with some coworkers for a drink or two. The food is perfectly fine — nothing too special, but definitely not bad. I’ve had their taco salad a few times, and its pretty good for the price. They have omelets available for lunch which is always a good option to have. The bartenders are pretty nice, and they’ll give you a nice size pour on occasion which is always a nice delight, and drink prices are pretty reasonable, and they often have a lot of specials. No reason to seek this place out if you don’t work in the building complex, but if you do work in the complex, definitely check it out.

Came here for lunch because it was part of the UPromise Dining Plan and I was pleasantly surprised.
The restaurant only had maybe 5 other parties seated for lunch, and my waitress was on top of things. I had a very nice crock of Italian Wedding soup and a bun-​less «Green Bay» burger. I thought it might have been just undercooked of my requested medium, but it was very tasty with its cheddar cheese, fried onions and mushrooms. The coleslaw was much better than most I’ve tasted.
Although I did not drink alcohol, it looked like they had a nice selection including a cider which I love.
$ 22 including tip (a nice one here). I’d come back.

I visited Philly on a business trip and found that Philly is a city that seems to roll up their sidewalks at 7:00pm. We wandered around and by luck found The American Pub.
I don’t know about other’s experiences but we had excellent, friendly service and a great meal. I ordered a burger and got a fresh-​made, cooked to perfection taste treat. My co-​worker ordered the shrimp salad and was surprised with a dozen perfectly cooked shrimp on a fresh greens salad. Not what she was expecting but was delighted with just the same.
I do think the owner needs to advertise more. The restaurant name was not anywhere outside the building but we were happy to have found this great little gem.

I work for the city, two of my coworkers were transferred to another location and we as a unit figured we would have a little get together. My dept. had a retirement party here about a month before that, that led me to believe everything would be great and the set up would be done before we arrived. Boy was I wrong!!!
I spoke to someone (Shannon the bartender) at American Pub about a month before the party, confirmed the party two weeks later. Paid the $ 70.00 for the food the day before and spoke to the cook. An hour before the party I dropped off a vegetable tray for the party since some people like to eat healthy, and said this is for the party at 5.
Supposedly I am the hostess and get there five minutes after 5, nothing is set up, they don’t have the section I specifically asked for, but that isn’t what gets me. I told them we had an older party, we wanted booths, half of my party shows up and guess where they put them, on the high stools. No food is ready and they keep asking people what do they want. This is horrible service, I don’t care how many times they apologized what really, really, really got me was another party came in and got seated were we were supposed to have been seating. We are all squished in, more of our people come in and they don’t get extra seating, they run out of plates and instead of clearing plates they bring out paper ones. I will never ever go there again, and if your having a function I would suggest you look somewhere else. Even when you think you have everything taken care of this place right here will find a way to screw everything up and make you look like you didn’t even try! Not only did they make themselves look bad, the food was bad, the beer was hot, and service was horrible. If I could have given this half a star I would have.

Just got back from lunch there — and after reading past reviews from others — reviews are a funny thing — people rate establishments for things they do not have, eat, and such — and that baffles me —
I had the Chicago Burger and fries — and my mean was excellent. I found it online as they give air miles to eat there — so i always find those places — and yes it is downstairs of the 1500 Market Bldg —
10 bucks for a half pound burger is a good deal, and its a big burger indeed.
Was very satisfied for the prices and food — and of course for the air miles — so would return indeed.

I would never go here again. I must not be the only one because this place was completely dead during lunch hour. The environment was fine, but the food was just super bad. Usually when I go to a pub, I get a burger because it is really hard to F that up. Well, they managed to do it. It tasted like something my mother would have made (this is a bad thing!). I asked for it to be cooked medium and they served me a hockey puck in a bun.
You get some fries with it, but not many.
Waiter waited until the end to ask me if I needed a refill.
Food Quality/​Taste = 1 Stars
Portion Size Given Price = 2 Stars
Price = 3 Stars
Service = 2 Stars
Experience with Staff = 3 Stars
Décor = 3 Stars

It’s crazy to me that this place exists? It’s in the basement of a big shiny building in center city, so one would easily miss it. I went for a PAWS fundraiser that a friend asked a group of us to come to. The drinks were fine, I had beer. There wasn’t a very wide selection. I didn’t have any of their food.
I guess this would be really handy if you worked in the building and needed to not go outside to have a dinner and drinks meeting — although there are a ton of amazing restaurants above ground less than a block away.
Our waitress was a gem, though. I want them to stay open and have customers mostly cause she was so fantastic.

This is a sufficient place to get a lunchtime load on if you work in Center City. The food I had was tasty (taco salad) and the beer was fine. The waiter was actually quite knowledgable about the beer selection, which was good.
For Center City-​the prices were very reasonable. I’d go back.

Went here for a professional happy hour and the entire experience was decidedly Meh. First of all, the place is hidden in the basement… I wouldn’t even have known where to go had I not stalked it on a GPS on my phone and then literally scoured the lobby of the office building it was in. The space was nice, but pretty small. No biggie.
What bugged me most was that it took forever to get a drink at the bar. There were hardly any customers, but yet the bartenders did everything but tend to us: taking forever to fill up on glass of beer for someone, washing out glasses, cleaning up, etc. We had to FLAG one down and we were paying customers.
The food was okay. The happy hour paid for some quesadillas that were poorly constructed. The nachos were inappropriate for our group, and stuck together, so people had to pull them apart with their hands. Chicken wings were smothered in buffalo sauce, but had good flavor. Unfortunately, the blue cheese sauce was TOO chunky, as you couldn’t even pour any on your plate.
All in all, I’m not even going back to try it out as a regular patron.

Never Again! I would love to tell you the food was decent but I didn’t eat any, I would love to tell you that my beer was good but I never drank one.
This isn’t because I didn’t want Any of these things its because our server never came over. We were seated and waited for 20 minutes and no one came to our table, so we went a spoke to the hostess who did apologize and told us she would send someone right over. another 10 min or so go by and still no one came. Now I get it if your busy and understaffed our the kitchen is messing up but at least come over and acknowledge that we exist. I have never walked out of a restaurant before due to bad or non existent service but this time it was required. We let the hostess know who again apologized and was very sweet (poor girl) but we will most likely never go back again.

The American Pub agreed to partner with me for a Leukemia & Lymphoma fundraiser. They were great to work with. The owner and his daughter (who set up the event) were super-​nice and helpful. They even donated a $ 50 gift certificate to raffle off.
The hostesses mom was there for happy hour, so the hostess got her to donate to my cause. And when I tried to tip my bartender he donated his tip to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as well.
Great location. Staff were fast and friendly. Talented bartenders. Great pub food for reasonable prices (nothing over $ 10.) Everyone who came had a great experience. Would definitely recommend.