This is the best place in Newark, DE to get shitty, if you want to avoid all the annoying college kids. Usually you can go in anytime on a weeknight and enjoy the mediocre food and luke-warm beer for a reasonable price, Awesome! If you do decide to go on a Friday or Saturday night, be prepared to run into some inexperienced college lightweights getting in your way at the bar. I think there is a cover on the weekends (like 6 bucks), but it's not too bad compared to the other places in Newark. Sometimes this place can get pretty rowdy and turns into a Roadhouse remake, which is kick-ass. The Deer Park caters to the select few people that want to drink, eat, and bust-balls in Newark. It is not a trendy hangout at all, most of the hot chicks go to Klondike Kate's or the new Kildaire's (above Grotto's). Unfortunately Newark is plagued with "my new haircut" Italians, Preps, and trendy airheads, that's why The Deer Park is Awesome. The Deer Park has a more local feel, and if you talk to the regulars, you'll know what I mean. The only bad thing about TDP, is that you'll miss out on most of the hot girls or guys (ladies), if you go here. It is both a blessing and a curse; on one hand if you're out to get laid, and don't mind suffering through horrible conversation and total douche' bags go somewhere else. However, if you're just out to chill, and don't mind talking to women with peg legs and c-section scars, make your way to TDP. Besides the place is old as hell, it has alot of history, and it has an awesome wrap-around deck for us smokers. Bottomline: The Deer Park is what it's supposed to be (that's what makes it great), this is a book you CAN judge by the cover... read more

The menu has a great selection....the execution fell a bit short. It was super crowded so the wait for food was long (almost an hour). Our waitress Amanda was great though. She kept us updated on the arrival of our dinners and was friendly and apologetic. The food finally arrived but is was cold. We declined having it warmed up as we were all starved. The burger had good flavor (even though it was cold) but is was quite small. The fish tacos lacked flavor and fish for that matter. The shells were toasted perfectly but very bland. The dirty rice was tasty...would have been even better warm. I would give them another shot. I think it fell short due to being so busy. read more

I'm rating one more star only because the waitress and the bartender we had were both friendly and helpful. Considering it's more of a college tavern we weren't expecting much and thought we'd bring our friends back to this place in a few minutes after dinner. However as we were leaving to pick them up, I got stopped by one of the black bouncers who said he was the "manager" and asked me in front of everyone how I managed to get inside the place with my basketball shorts on, laughing and poking fun at me. Mind you, I didn't even ask to go upstairs or to the bar when we initially arrived; we simply went to the back of the tavern to grab a bite to eat in peace. The bouncers let us in with no incident when we arrived. Some of the other clientele in the tavern were dressed in basketball shorts and tank shirts and were not harrassed. If there's going to be a dress code, it would have been better if it were enforced fairly among everyone. Otherwise, I'm pretty much saying I was harrassed in front of everyone on the front steps of the tavern, and could even hear him going off and pointing at me as me and my friend were already in the parking lot, not wanting to cause a scene. Not sure what his deal was, but that was unprofessional. read more

Bartender juice was the BEST bartender I have ever had. So friendly and so helpful I had the best time and it is thanks to him. Love this place and love the workers. read more

I think this place is better if you're just looking to get drunk. I've had a lot of good drunken times here, however I went there to eat recently and it was pretty bad. It was such a beautiful day and we wanted to eat outside, unfortunately all of the tables were taken by people smoking and nursing a beer so I guess there is no designated outdoor spots for people to eat. Our waitress sat us inside it a hot stuffy dining area then after we were all settled and looking to order she informed us that even though she had just seated us, she forgot that she had a reservation and the people were there waiting so we had to move. Note to servers, it really sucks to move people around like unpopular kids in a high school cafeteria. We ordered drinks and she came back to say she was actually out of some stuff, also she still charged us for it. The food was not good, mostly dry. My burger itself was good but drenched in A1 sauce, so after I scraped that off it was ok. I wouldn't recommend this place, it has the potential to be good but is lacking in good service and taste. There's a lot of other restaurants in the Newark area, I would suggest giving them a try. **Side not, there was a half eaten orange peel from someone's drink in the popcorn machine...so that free popcorn is also a trash can. read more

DO NOT GO HERE ON THURS NIGHT AND ORDER WINGS AT THE UPSTAIRS BAR. You will wait 45 mins between plates and you will be made to feel as though you are bothering them and you will be ignored and you will be given the wrong food to shut you up when you ask where your order is and you will overhear the bartenders talking shit when you try to tell them "it's okay," you will "just have the one plate," and you will be treated like shit. This will happen if you order wings on thurs night at the upstairs bar. read more

My favorite of Newark's many bars. It is important to remember, that is what this is, a bar. Not a restaurant. The food is good, if predictable, but nothing to get too worked up over. However after 9 is when things start getting good. Best crowd in town, $3 Captain Cokes, and maybe not the best music in town (RIP East End Cafe) but always good live bands playing. read more

Best bar staff in town, great live music almost every night and the food is awesome! Great for large events or just going to grab apps, we love Deer Park and use them frequently for large private parties! read more

Against my better judgement we tried this place again, after all the other positive reviews I thought maybe we had a bad night. still bad food and ad service with high prices. read more

This was one of the most over rated places ever!!! The food was horrible!!! The grits were very dry!!!! This is one place that I will never visit again!!! read more

Deer Park Tavern - Bars Near Me - Newark, Delaware

Very poor service on what seemed to be a slow Sunday afternoon. Had to get up several times to find our waitress. At one point we asked the hostess who was seating a table next to us to please send our waitress over, 10 mins later I was getting up to go find her. Food was OK but place isnt worth it IMO. read more

5/18/17 lunch 1/2 price burgers, ordered burger it came out with slimy lettuce "Grose"! right. They bought out another that must have ebeen rushed, it came out raw. The third attempt was much better and delivered by management who simply suggested that he made sure it was medium as ordered. No mention of how he felt about this third attempt to get it right, or to comp the burger. Bad business ethics. Paid bill. Will think twice about returning. read more

I very much love deer park. It is a very low key spot and I love the outside seating. Staff are always very friendly and will come and check on you to make sure you are ok. Very clean. Just need to be careful if you are there later in the evening because the college students get drunk and one broke a beer bottle outside which was a little much. read more

I think I saw Annabelle Lee there in khaki short shorts. I give this a 3 because, while the waitstaff was nice, and the food was good the person checking IDs was a total douche. My boyfriend and I had gotten drinks at Deer Park once before. We decided to try their food as the menu is the same as McGlynns. We ordered drinks; a beer for him, a glass of wine for myself. The waitress didn't card us. I hadn't really noticed until we were already halfway through our drinks when this bulky guy asks for our IDs. Not a problem. We fish out our IDs. He looks at my boyfriends' ID for a minute, asks him what his apartment number is to double check it isn't fake. When he looks at mine he glares at it. He looks at it, back to me, and back to it for several minutes. Then back to me again. He puts his flashlight up to it. He waits another minute. Then he finally hands it back to me. It is an old picture, and an out of state (Pennsylvania- that far away state thats 20 minutes away) ID, I will grant him that. I almost felt bad for judging him until he went on to grill the college girls at the next booth, and then proceeded to flirt with them. CLASSY. Now I can get on to reviewing the food and drinks. The beer selection seemed decent. Well, decent enough for my beer snob boyfriend to find something he wanted to drink. The wine selection was pretty decent for a college bar. I found a blush that was fruity and light. The food was pretty good for an establishment that is more bar oriented than restaurant. I ordered a standard burger, and was pleasantly surprised to find out it came with a slice of fresh cantaloupe. The portions were generous. The dining area was nestled away from the bar enough that it had a nice atmosphere, no one was yelling and rowdy in earshot. Basically, this is a good place to eat, but the douche/misogyny factor is high.Oh, and that wretched music! read more

Long time Newark resident. I would really like to give the DP a better review, but we keep trying to give them a chance to get it right, and have been repeatedly disappointed. On the positive side, there is never a wait for dinner, drinks are cheap, waitresses are generally friendly and the popcorn is free. Husband had the fish tacos which used to be made from mahi mahi and are now made from rockfish. The "fish" was mashed up to be almost unrecognizable as fish and it was so overseasoned (with salt particularly) that it was mostly unedible. I had the warm Santa Fe chicken salad. Generous portion, but the chicken was barely seasoned, way overcooked (dry) and the chicken pieces ranged from lukewarm to cold. This used to be my favorite thing on the menu... The waitress did take the taco price off the bill so that was favorable. We used to enjoy coming here for weekend breakfast as well, but the only thing good about that lately is watching people create their bloody mary's and getting hammered at 10 a.m. Just doesn't seem like the kitchen has any pride in what they are putting in front of customers. read more

Let me start by saying that the pretzels MAKE IT WORTH IT... The service is EGH... and the management isn't much better. I know it caterers the college crowd but they have standards too... read more

I usually go here on Monday nights for Trivia. It is fun and the host has great charisma. The Apps are 1/2 price on Monday and they are okay. They are very greasy. Tonight I am going to try the soup. The drinks are pretty good the blue Hen is super good I would get it all the time if I could (broke college student over here). read more

four stars for college-town ambiance. two-three stars for food. The Deer Park, now and in my youth, was not known for good food. It was known as the place you hang out with friends to drink beer. Our server was pretty much on the ball, but I saw other tables waiting for long periods. read more

Any place where they carry in Edgar Allen Poe on their shoulders in hero fashion is A-OK in my book. And they sling $2 Yuenglings all day every day. Do I really need to say anything else? OK, fine. Food here is pretty damn good for a bar/tavern. Their French Dip is bangin'. Staff is top notch, not just a handful of college kids talking to each other. I had to give myself a tour of this place when I first went because it was so damn big and cavernous. Lotta space and lotta spaces in here. Old wood that's had centuries of beer spilled on its floors. My kinda place. I'll be heading back here again for sure. read more

I went to Deer Park Tavern to watch football and have a couple beers. The prices were excellent...$2 for one of the coldest Yuenglings I've ever had. They had free popcorn and the nachos looked delicious. They had all of the games on TV which was great. My only complaint is that a lot of the games were in Standard Definition which is pretty hard to watch in this day and age. read more

The waiter recommended the blackened chicken sandwich so I went with his recommendation. It was barely edible, no flavor, completely overcooked and dry with no flavor and the chicken breast was 2" x 3". Very disappointing, would not recommend eating here and I won't be back. read more

There are several ways to mess up french fries - Deer Park Tavern manages to mess them up in every way. Mine came out burnt and cold and limp. The $12.99 burger was overcooked as well. Won't be back. read more

I was visiting friends for the weekend and we ended up here on a Saturday night. I can't say anything about the food or the drink prices (a friend was nice to enough to buy me drinks), but I will comment on the atmosphere. No one who worked there or hung out there that night did anything wrong or bad, its just not my scene. There was a band there that night (What Mama Said) that I really didn't enjoy at all, but I seemed to be in the minority on that one. I suspect I would like this place more if I tried it for sitting around watching a game downstairs with a plate of nachos or something, but for a Saturday night I think I'll pass. Oh, and it was a $5 cover. I don't know if they do that every night or if its just for nights when there's a band. read more

This is my boyfriend's favorite burger spot so I end up here every week. While their burgers are great (easily earning 4 stars), I haven't found much else on the menu I love. Also, it is often quite chilly in the front dining rooms during the winter months. I would love to see a tad more heat. Definitely superior to a chain, but not my favorite restaurant on Main St. read more

Not a bad place to hit up for a few drinks with some co workers. Came here to knock a few down before heading back to my home away from home. Had a Gin & Tonic and a few shots which I can't really complain about. The bartender that night was pretty chill and the establishment seemed a bit cool. We wanted to go upstairs that night, but unfortunately it was closed so we only stayed in the bar section since it was raining and humid out. Overall, I'd come here again to try their food for lunch. read more

Great Location for Sunday Brunch and Live Music. Highly Recommend Jefe on Tuesday nights!

We usually love the Deer Park--decent food, local atmosphere, been going there for many years. We were there last Sat night & it wasn't particularly crowded but the service was really slow. The waitress said there were 2 larger parties & that was the reason. First of all waitresses shouldn't make excuses like that in my opinion. Food was good once it got there but we had 2 small children w/ us & their pizza could have been brought 1st. Things just weren't running as smoothly as usual. Hope it improves! read more

Recently had lunch with the family at deerpark and everyone wanted me to leave a review about how amazing our serve was! She was more than helpful, and made our deer park experience 1000 times better. We think her name was rachel and she had brown hair. You don't usually leave a restaurant super excited about your waitress but she rocked. Food was also great lol! read more

Love the food but depending on what day of the week you go (at night) you may see more townies than you care to admit. And idk about you but townies make me feel unsafe and they creep me out. read more

Nice cozy atmosphere. Good burgers. Good people. Good time. Watch out for the bikers because they like to fight in the bar and then everyone puts on their dusters and cowboy hats and have an old school shoot out. read more

Disappointed with brunch today. Serving tater tots alongside salmon Benedict or crab Benedict is just a sign of laziness.

Cool environment, kinda tight, couple different bars to serve the overwhelming, young population they serve. Food is mediocre. Some bartenders aren't the nicest, but how could you hire a happy young adult to bartend, when they are a full time student on the same campus they work on? I wouldn't go out of my way to go here, but I guess the kids w fake ID's enjoy it. read more

Honestly, this is the worst bar with the worst service. We waited 30 minutes to get a drink and there was literally 2 people in front of us

Never came here for the food -- just the booze, the bands and the company. I was never disappointed. Returned back after moving away three years prior, and nothing had changed. Just the way I like my college half-dive bars to be! read more

In college days, I woulda given them 5 stars but for a very different reason. George Thorogood used to show up unannounced and jam til the wee hours as UI drank Rolling Rock long necks. This trip was a Sunday Brunch, which they are known for. The Bloody Mary Bar was fantastic and priced very well at $3 for a shot of vodka on the rocks and an infinite number of combinations to create your perfect Mary or Ceasar. That was awesome. My brunch was good, Eggs Chesapeake, which is Benny style but sub crabcakes for back bacon. I was disappointed in the crab cake and really hoped to be more wowed. My wife enjoyed her omelette enough, but was not over-impressed either. With the Bloody Mary Bar, though, they will get another chance next time I visit and I will go in with an open mind. Back in the day, they had this thing called the Hedley Special. Now that was a 5 star sandwich!!!! read more

College dive bar - decent food with reasonable prices. My boyfriend and I came on a Saturday night and decided to make reservations in case it was jammed packed. Our server was really attentive even though he did seem kinda scattered from the crowd. Food came relatively quick and pretty good considering it was pretty standard bar food. read more

They don't care for their customers. Service is terrible. Don't go here unless you want nasty food. They treat customers like garbage

Nice place for being in a college town. Very rustic with dark wood. He'd bar games, which is always fun. Waitress was very helpful in accommodating our 14-month-old, and I was able to get salmon and avocados for his meal. He of course ate some of our hummus, which was great! Burgers were good. The organic was better than the tai. Ordered them both med and they came out just that. The avocado we ordered for our son was not fresh and was coated with lemon. We didn't give it to him. The salmon however, was very good. Salted caramel cake was ok. My husband liked it more than me. You could tell it was one of those readymade deserts. Probably would have been better if it had gotten to room temp. read more

My favorites are the Breakfast Burger with scrapple, the Tavern Sandwich, Thai Burger, and Baby Kale Salad.

Honestly juice was the best bartender I ever came across. Power to him. He gave us a shot because we were nice to him on a busy day and he honestly made great drinks. Def recommend read more