I am reviewing the Elks Club itself, and the catering at the Elks. My high school had their…read morereunion at the Elks on Sat. evening.
1. The food, the event started at 5 pm with appetizers and the dinner wasn't served until 7:30 pm, and I saw everyone checking their watches & asking about the food for at least an hour. I thought we would eat about 6 or 630. By 7, everyone seemed surprised it hadn't been served. It was a buffet where everyone served their selves on both sides of the tables. Appetizers of cold shrimp were good & they had sliced bread with brie cheese, some BBQ sausages, etc. Pretty good selections of appetizers.
They served Tri-Tip and BBQ chicken. I didn't try the chicken as I wasn't in the mood to break apart the pieces of the legs & thighs. I had Tri-tip and had to put salt on it as there was no seasoning on the outside edges of the meat. I noticed that others at my table also salted it. It was just bland. Also the pieces were too small, and most were overcooked. I was at the front of the line, so it was not picked over when I got there. They served a green salad but it was ruined by covering it in italian dressing hours before I think, so it was all limp. Strange because they had about 4 large containers of salad dressing to put on the salad on the table.
They had chili beans which looked good but I didn't like something in the seasoning, but they were pretty good. Garlic bread, a good, but small bowl of pasta salad with tortalinis that was good. The dinner was unsatisfying for the cost we each paid which was $50.00 for the event. I felt I did not get my money's worth. They put out plates of cheesecake on a table with raspberry sauce drizzled on it for desert. They were very small pieces about an inch & 1/4 wide & I didn't take one as I have to keep my blood sugar low.
2. Now, for the review of the Elks Club facility. This building was constructed about 1960, as my father was an Elk and as a kid we used to come there in the summers to swim in the outdoor pool, etc. However, the building has had no improvements since that time, and it is in bad need of upgrades. The women's bathroom (I havn't seen the mens--LOL), should be gutted and upgraded for this century! They have the room as there is a large room you enter with just mirrors and stools to look at yourself & then you go through another door into the actual bathroom. The bathroom lost a toilet to make room for wheelchair access, so I know that when events are crowded there are not enough toilets for the women to use. The bathroom really looks awful, old painted wooden partitions & doors, and there is a steel beam added that looks like it is holding everything up. You can see the plug in the floor where they just plugged the toilet hole in the one that is for handicapped now. Then there is a too small sink area. As I said, just knock down the wall & remodel the two separeated areas into one new large bathroom & make it look like a place where you could hold events instead of looking like the bathroom in a dump of a place.
3. There is RV camping at the rear of the building toward the back for Elks members. If you don't mind camping right next to the graveyard, which is next door. The club has easy access to the Route 101 Freeway, going North, take the Prado Road exit & keep to the left on Elks Lane and it will be on your left. Heading South, take Madonna Road exit, then right onto Madonna Road, then right lane for South Higuera Street, and then a right on Elks Lane just past the graveyard on your right side & the driveway for the Elks Club is on the right. For RV's camping you must take the first Elks club driveway & keep going to the back past the club.
4. The event room is not as large as you would expect & it needs to be cleaned out. There is always lots of clutter around the room that should be stored elsewhere. It just looks a mess. They also lost some square footage by running an added storage closet along the interior side of the event room to store stuff & then just running a long accordian door over the storage, so that entire wall is now plastic accordian door which looks trashy. The entire room is just brown, and clutter, except for a couple dividers they made with fencing & lattace on the tops to use as backdrops at each end of the buffet. They look cheap & trashy.
I used to like going to the Elks Club for events decades ago, but when you make no effort to make any upgrades and you have no style, clutter, and a horrible ambiance with bland food, I really do not want to ever go back there again. The Elks in Atascadero have a new club that was just constructed about 4 or 5 years ago that also has RV camping next to it for members.
5. They do serve lunch at the Elks Club in SLO at least on weekdays, but you must come with a member to go. They have a full bar in the center of the facility.
