Johnnie’s Tavern

Been going here FOR YEARS! Daughter didn’t pass driving test… I said she had earned a Johnnie burger. LOVE the atmosphere and people. Great little gem.

Update number 2 (and probably late, as it’s been a while since I’ve stopped in): Four (4) beers on tap. Still have the original singleton, Yuengling, of course. But, today (do I REALLY think changes would become commonplace?), they also have Columbus IPA, Bud Light, and Summer Shandy. Which leads me to yet another one of my character-​damning digressions… In a galaxy, not so long ago, Yuengling wasn’t sold in Ohio. The next day, it was everywhere. And, it cost less than Bud Light, which is brewed right here in C-​bus in quantities enough to put the entire dinosaur population into delirium tremons until the meteor would, mercifully, put them out of their misery. Here’s where my money is: Some member of the Yuengling clan, probably when scooping up detritus from a failed battlebot project, found a winning lottery ticket in the alley behind the family mansion and said, «Hell, let’s send some beer to Ohio. They drink beer there, too. Right? I don’t need this money for anything else.» The rest is history. Regardless, Johnny’s is still the best neighborhood watering hole here, dear Central Ohio. Smack dab in the middle of the new Yuengling country.

Best burger in town!!! The ONLY place in Cowlumbus where you can get a medium rare burger!!!

What a burger. It was as great as advertised. Interesting atmosphere with a diverse clientele. Certainly not a place to go for ambiance but the food was just perfect. I had the fried clams, too. Very well done and the cocktail sauce had the perfect amount of zing.
Thumbs Up!

Stopped into Johnny’s for lunch yesterday with a colleague who suggested it. Said it was a great dive bar. I’m game. We walk in and it’s certainly a dive. Two blue collar guys at the bar with beers and the Price is Right and we grab a booth on the coldest wall in the place. My feet were ice. The lady running the FOH was nice. Helped us get through lunch pretty easily.
They don’t have menus, just a poster on a mirror. It consists of fried apps, cheeseburgers and extra charge toppings, bologna sandwich, fried fish sandwich, and coneys (only on Wednesday).
We both got cheeseburgers. I got tots, Tom got onion rings, but wanted fried mushrooms. Our server informed us they were out of fried mushrooms because GFS was out of fried mushrooms. hahaha!
Anyway, the burger was solid. They only cook them well done, but it was still juicy and greasy. I could only eat half my food, which is probably advisable anyway. They know how to use a fryer for sure. We weren’t given silverware and I didn’t feel like it was an option. I guess I didn’t really need it.
Burger was $ 7.50, tots/​fries $ 2. Apps $ 4.50. We both ate and had cans of coke for $ 24.50, which felt pricey for the spot, but whatever.
Surprisingly, the place picks up for lunch with a lot of guys meeting friends for burgers.

Ndhdjdjs

4 on the burgers but a 2 on service and selection.
If you have 1 beer on tap (Yeungling –which I LOVE) make sure your tap is working! NBD as they also carry Rolling Rock (which I also love) in the bottle but damn, if your tap is broken then OFFER me the chance to pay draft prices for a bottle.
Not that I would because I get the cost difference for you, but at least offer?
Not a burger fan in general because most places over stuff crap in an evenier crappy bun that’s already disintegrated by the time it hits your bar spot — but not this place! Bun holds up well and I’ll be damned if I could eat it all. The meat was fresh and obviously hand packed.
Fries were not anything I would ever order again, nor the tater tots but quite frankly with the size of the burger, who needs them anyway?
Prices — reasonable if you’re from the right side of the tracks which leads me to :
Their bar dive status!!? I’ve been in divier places on a Sunday morning.

The cheeseburger I ate was huge and delicious. The service was quick. It’s a hole in the wall, dive type of place. There are great happy hour specials here.

Great burger joint on the other side of the tracks! literally. this dive is referred to as ‘Johnny on the tracks’ b/​c it sits just off the RR tracks. Gotta go with the Super Johnnie Burger ($ 6) w/​hot pepper jack cheese, side of onion rings ($ 2.50), and an ice cold Mich Ultra on tap ($ 1.50). Johnnies SuperBurger is so big it comes cut down the middle for all those small-​hand mongoloids out on the westside. Delicious burger & no nonsense service, love this place!

The four of us each tried the cheeseburgers! I had mine with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion! Also has a side of tater tots! The burger was delicious! The bun was perfect because it wasn’t a bun that was thick with bread! The burger held together very well! Server was speedy and polite! We definitely will be back! Think I’ll try the fried bologna sandwich with onion rings when I go back and my spouse the cheeseburger so that way we can try something new there

We tried this place after ABC 6/​FOX 28’s Bill Kelley and Bob Kendrick rated it their top burger in Columbus. Wow, they couldn’t have been more wrong. The place was dark, flies were buzzing around us, and the barmaid was very unfriendly and I’ll even say rude (seemed like she was miserable in her job!). The burger was just OK, not terrible but definitely not good enough to return.
Not a fan.

I’m prone to getting behind a small divey place with great food. But it’s not a restaurant. it’s a bar that serves food. A restaurant would be on top of their game to keep up with the orders. Twice I’ve called for a carryout and each time have been told to call back because they don’t know how long it will be before they can get to my order. (Last time, told — there are 10 people ahead of you that we haven’t served yet.) Tell me it’s a hour, 90 minutes, whatever — take my order– and when I show up, have my food ready. What sense does it make to trade off whatever good will they’ve gained from word of mouth advertising and publicity by not even taking the order. That’s just stupid. If they could fix that they’d really be doing something. A good problem to have I guess.
I’m glad they’re busy. And I don’t desire to run otherwise hard working people into the ground — but if you’ve heard the hype– you need to know that the service is really slow to non-​existent when they get backed up. Now, when you’re on deck or it’s your turn they couldn’t be nicer. They really are friendly — but the workflow needs fixed.
The hamburger is okay… not great but you won’t go away hungry for sure. But far from anything to get overly excited about.

Certainly the dive-​iest dive I’ve ever dived in, but great happy hour specials ($ 1.50 for Yuengling draft in a frosted glass) and yummy burgers. I can only imagine that back when smoking was allowed in bars this place used to have a 10″ thick ceiling of thick cigarette haze, but there’s no real trace of it left, which shocks and amazes me. (And for the record, regular price Yuengling draft is only $ 4!) Burger with a side only $ 7.

I’m not sure how I haven’t written a review for Johnnie’s yet! Johnnie’s is a small, divey joint. If you blink, you could miss it! The seating is limited, so it doesn’t take much to get a little crowded.
Johnnie’s has a limited menu, and are known for their burgers. The burgers are pretty damn big, and made to order however you want it. They don’t come with anything, but if you need something else, the sides are all pretty good. I prefer the onion rings! I’ve also tried the roast beef sandwich which is served with real horseradish, and it’s really good as well.
It’s actually been awhile since I’ve been… going to need to plan to get back soon!

Cheap food. Cheap drinks. Small space. Dive bar. That is what you need to know about this place.
The burgers are delicious and huge. There are no menus because you have about 4 options to choose from.
Everyone we have ever taken there has loved it. Some of the best burgers in town!
Short and simple review for a small and simple place!

Nope.
Lots of hype, but $ 7.00 for a stand-​alone burger? That’s gourmet level pricing for a burger that is pretty pedestrian. It seemed like a factory made patty, but maybe the meat was overworked. What I got wasn’t horrible, but it was a bit dry, and it left me regretting that I didn’t go elsewhere. The fries are food service standards, slightly over cooked. No fresh cut potatoes here.
I’ve got no problem with a good dive bar. I’ve always liked the cut of Johnny’s jib, but this place might want to get over itself a little and embrace some local beers. I don’t care if they want to rock one tap with Yuengling, but how about representing C-​bus with some local bottles and cans?
I just moved to the general area and Johnny’s is in convenient spot for me, but I’m not feeling it. I really wanted to love this place, and maybe it works for some people. Not this guy.

Well — the husband wanted to try this local yolkal out per the reviews and sure as it reflects — burgers are on point! The ambiance is casual all the way and the place is tiny and dark– but don’t let that detour you from giving it a try! We had burgers, onion rings, and the fried zucchini– all exceeded our expectations!

A dive bar to surely ask to your list. Beer that rivals college prices ($ 3 dom imports $ 2 domestics during happy hour 5;00−7:00 pm everyday), solid bar food. Burger piled high with all the fixings and piping hot jalapeño poppers are worth a try. I went here in search of a solid no frills burger, and voila! I got one. Nothing like eating a burger to the slow jams of trains rambling past the bar, in the company of the locals.
The menu is small – burgers, fried bologna, fish baskets – and all fried favorites – mozz sticks, French fries, fried mushrooms. No worries– the cooks are good at what they do.

Thanks to reviews made here and elsewhere, I gave Johnnie’s Tavern a try for a late lunch today — and it lived up to the hype.
As many have mentioned, the menu is small, though the drawing card is the cheeseburger. It’s a bold statement to use the term «superburger» on your sign, but it was a tasty burger. The fries were of the skinnier cut variety, not steak fries like I would have preferred, but they tasted good.
And, yes, there is just one beer on tap: Yuengling, which I ordered happily since I’m a fan of it. Mine came served in a frosty mug and hit the spot on an 80°+ day.
Only one waitress/​bartender was working, but the service was great. An older couple who arrived about 2:40 p.m. learned some bad news: the cook had gone on a break apparently right after he fixed my meal. Happy Hour is M-​F from 3 – 7, so you might want to avoid arriving in that last half-​hour prior to it if you’re planning on having a meal.
As others have noted, there is no pool table in there now, but there is a golf video game in the back corner. By the front is a Touchtunes jukebox that one of the people by the bar kept feeding money into, playing country artist covers of rock songs. Somehow that seemed fitting.
This experience is one of the reasons why I love Unilocal.As a newcomer to Columbus, I might have never ended up at Johnnie’s Tavern despite living nearby if I had judged the place solely by its exterior. I recommend giving it a visit if you find yourself in the area.

Not much to look at from the outside. But this is a nice working class bar with good burgers and a variety of deep fried side items. Staff was really friendly and attentive. I liked the atmosphere (e.g., furnace sits in plain view rather than in a closet). While not posh, the place is clean.
Based on some reviews, I hoped the burgers were going to be among the best I’ve ever had. Although they didn’t meet my lofty expectations, the burgers were pretty good. What kept me from thinking the burgers were the best of the best? In my opinion, my burger was just a bit over done (and perhaps a bit salty). I gather all burgers are cooked to the same level of doneness — well done. Also, beer not quite as cold as I’d like.
I wouldn’t object to returning for more burgers at some point.