After enjoying the trails at Howard Marsh Metropark, my wife and I wanted to try something new for dinner. Since the signs on the highway extolled the virtues of Bono Tavern as being the best food in town, we decided a visit was in order. Once we arrived in Bono, we understood the ironic humour of the signs, as the tavern appeared to not only be the only restaurant in town, but it also looked like the only business period.
From the outside, Bono Tavern looked like a dive bar. From the inside, it also looked like a dive bar, but with nicer seating. Nuff said. We helped ourselves to a high-top table, and once the lone employee finished up with another table, he brought us menus and took our drink orders. Nick the employee was friendly, but even with just three tables, he was clearly stretched pretty thin, being server, busser, and cook all wrapped up into one "cute bearded package" as my wife put it. Eventually he was able to take our order: the chicken Pepper Chunks for my wife, Bono Burger for me, and to share, a Fried Pickle Chips and the Bono Oh-No. After tax but before tip, our bill came to $50.08, which felt on the pricy side.
Nick cooked everything fresh, a fact we knew because we could watch him hand batter each fried pickle. As such, we were not surprised at how long it took to get our food (especially considering he was also taking care of other patrons), however we were impressed by the quality and taste of the food when it eventually got there! My Bono Burger was stacked mouth-wateringly high with two thick, hand-made patties, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and melted pepperjack! Likewise my wife said her chicken chunks were excellent, and the deep fried pickles were also very good. The only part of our meal that did not taste great was the Bono Oh-No deep fried Twinkie, but that may have been a case of unrealistic expectations on our part, because even when you put lipstick on a pig, that does not change the fact that it is still a pig.
PROS: food which ranged from very good to excellent, Nick was both a friendly server and skilled cook
CONS: gravel parking lot, too few staff members, kinda pricy
Overall we found Bono Tavern to be Very Good, and would definitely return. read more