The Pit

I probably don’t need to review The Pit, as the locals know where it is, and the tourists keep finding it anyway. I’ll still review it, as I can’t eat here every night, and they deserve their share of visitors too. Please, if you’re from out of town, use your inside voice and don’t disturb the locals, we’ll let you stop in if you behave.
In the off season, this is the spot on Tuesdays — the best entrees are $ 6 a plate, and the place is packed. The rest of the week, dinner is just a little more expensive, but still one of the best deals in town.
Food is reliable, not showy, portions are on the bigger side, and pricing is fair. Service is quick, friendly and attentive.
Cool part of The Pit — a local eye will recognize judges and lawyers, cops and firefighters, doctors, undertakers, retirees and young families in here every night. Everybody in town knows their way here, and everybody is comfortable here.
This is one of Cooperstown’s best kept secrets, if you’re visiting us, you’re welcome to a table, just don’t tell everybody, k?

Place is a bit deceiving from the outside. We ordered French onion soup (delicious), burger with bacon (average), and the Angry Orchard Chicken (delicious). Place is a bit outdated and Fox News on the TV could put you off a bit. The food was real good. We will keep this on the list if we are in the area again.

This is an old school establishment that’s decorated like the bar/​lounge of a ship. Come here if you want no frills shrimp, steak, fries, etc. for dinner.
We grabbed a spot at the bar, ordered a couple of drinks and a basket of fries. The bartender offered up prompt and professional service and was also taking care of the two or so tables of patrons lingering in the restaurant nearing closing time.
While there might be nice restaurants and more popular bars in Cooperstown, The Pit has a charm all it’s own and is a nice place to hide away from Baseballville USA for a bit.

We had a hamburger with fries and pulled pork sandwiches with fries. It was deeeliicouuss and the setting was perfect. We definitely would recommend this restaurant.

My cheeseburger was terrible– ordered medium and was over-​cooked and dry– really inedible. Hard to trust a place that can’t handle a cheeseburger.

A disappointing lunch for a «steak» place: burger and chicken breast were over cooked, and elk burger needed some inspiration (seasoning, cheese, a bun that fit). The seafood bisque, though, was tasty and the beers were cold.

Needing a lunch place that could seat. 8 of us is tricky in this small tourist town. The Pitt as this place is apply called didn’t look like much upon arrival. It is old and very worn, but the blackboard outside advertising lunch specials for. 6.99 lured us in. The lunch menu is quite varied. Our order included gaspacho, barbecue pork sandwich, hot dog, salads, veggie burgers, seasoned fries and pasta. All the food was pretty good.
However, The wAit for our food was looooooong. And throughout the wait and the meal we listened to banging from above at the Inn. After the meal the kids investigated and we learned that Some cleaning and repair work was taking place which wAs really annoying. One in our party commented on the fact that it was at least drowning out the horrible music that played in the background. The draft root beer was a hit with the kids and all 8 of is were fed and quenched for under. $ 90

The only reason I gave this place 2 stars is because of the service. I had a burger here but I could make one better. I would suggest going some place else

The Pit was not as good as the Cooperstown Diner, but it was decent. They had lunch specials, but charged extra for cheese on the burger I got and extra for fries. The price wasn’t so special after the add ons.

We only ate here so I can’t speak on anything but the restaurant.
The service here was great. The food was just ok. The wine list was small but reasonably priced.
They had a seafood special, but they didn’t have the food to make it. The food was cooked well, but it had no flavor. The best thing I had was french fries… they didn’t have exactly what I wanted so I was allowed a special order. However, they didn’t get it right. Not really a place I would go back to, but on the upside it was expensive either. Oh well another place I will not go back to.

Good food and service. Open for dinner year round unlike many other Cooperstown restaurants.

After numerous sub-​par meals while in Cooperstown, it was a PLEASURE to eat at «The Pit» below the Tunnicliff Inn.
It was good food, relaxed atmosphere at a reasonable price. Couldn’t have asked for anything else… plus the waiter was very friendly and courteous.

It looks like this is either a love it or hate it kind of place. Personally I enjoyed our dinner here. I tried my first full lobster meal, served with a side of fries. Despite not considering myself to be a «seafood person» I thought the lobster was very good. (I guess most things are, though, when you dunk them in butter.)
The atmosphere is a bit of a dive but it adds character to the experience. Service was good. Contrary to another review here, we did receive free refills on our soft drinks and it was listed that way on the menu. Perhaps this is a recent change.
Overall it’s a decent place to stop in for a meal.

Had a great mean in the Pit, food was good, service was good as well. Plenty of TVs for the game, a small fireplace in the back and a full bar. However, they tend to run our of their specials very early…

We ate at the pit yesterday, and it was the low-​light of our trip to Cooperstown.
We had a party of 6 — Myself, my 8 year old son, my husband, my son’s friend, my father and his fiancée. My dad and his fiancée wanted to get a separate check, but they wouldn’t allow it. Thus, we were subjected to the mandatory 6+ already included 18% tip.
The meals were ok. Nothing memorable. The boneless buffalo chicken app was basically 5 frozen chicken tenders covered in sauce and served with tartar sauce (!? eww). Not worth $ 9. They had a ½ lb. cheeseburger special ($ 7), so two of us got that. The burger was okay, but both sets of fries were ice cold. The garden burger salad was tolerable, but nothing that wonderful ($ 9). The kids had a fried shrimp meal ($ 7) and a hot dog meal ($ 7) and they enjoyed them. I had the crabcake poboy sandwich, and it was horrid. ($ 12). It was 4 mini crabcakes, fried and thrown on a roll. On top of them, there was a sauce with no flavor and then two pieces of not even melted american cheese. Gross. My fries were cold and limp.
The kicker? Our server neglected to tell us that the drinks weren’t a free refill. My husband got 3 sodas. Our bill amounted to $ 21 in beverages.
For crappy food, service that was painfully slow, and a lousy environment, I cannot believe we shelled out $ 93. It was ridiculous, and completely ruined our day.
Furthermore, I felt like puking for the rest of the afternoon. I would never, ever recommend this place to anyone.

Dark, outdated décor. The «pit» is an apt description of the place. Very slow service and the food quality was poor. Sort of like bad diner food but more expensive.

If you were thinking about eating at «The Pit» — think again. The place smelled like a frat house — old beer, sweaty, musty — not pleasant. There are only about 12 tables in the place and despite having 5 servers working, every table received SLOW service. I’m talking 15 minutes after we sat down no one had come by to take our drink order. We almost left, but the one server who seemed to be keeping things together (the only female — go figure!) finally got things rolling. Food was not great — really not worth waiting for. Pass this place up!

Really good food and their prices made it even better. I had the cheeseburger and hubby had the cajon chicken salad. Yummy!

Service was horribly slow, but friendly. The décor and furniture is from a 70’s bowling alley. No one in our party had a meal worth remembering. My prime rib (Friday special) was more like a piece of shoe leather and I could not even give it 1 star. My daughter had a one pound lobster that was worth the $ 14.95 special. It’s a good second choice place.

While we were visiting the National Baseball Hall Of Fame we heard some folks talking about this place that had an underground restaurant called the Pit and they enjoyed it.
We went there @ night for dinner and returned the next day for lunch.
The wait staff were so polite and attentive.
We had the Spinach Au Gratin Dip served with Foccia bread. For the entrée we had chicken cutlet parmigiana and Fish & Chips. the food was excellent. I thought hubby was nuts for ordering chic parmigiana but I was wrong, the sauce was quite good. The fish & chips were not greasy at all. Never had Fish & Chips this good, tasty and flaky.
For desert we had the mixed berry pie which had fresh raspberries, blueberries, strawberries with moscapone cream and a buttery flavored crust.
Very nice baseball atmosphere with people having fun watching the big screen TV with old Yankee games on it.