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    Gopher's Grill

    4.2 (95 reviews)
    ModerateBars, American, Arcades
    Closed 10:30 am - 10:00 pm

    Gopher's Grill Photos

    GOPHER'S GRILL ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Outdoor seating
    Dogs allowed
    Good for groups
    Happy hour specials

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    Basic b cheeseburger with pub chips
    Mike A.

    Very good place - stopped in for lunch on a Tuesday with a group of 6. We sat outside since it was a very nice day out. We started with a Bavarian pretzel appetizer and it came with a nice cheese sauce and a seedy mustard which was very good as well. I got a cubano, which you will know if you've read any of my review before I am a sucker for. This one was made on a plancha which was nice HOWEVER it didn't come with sliced pickles on it!!! Other people in the group had things like flank steak sammich, Nashville chicken sammich, basic b cheeseburger, jalapeño burger, career chicken wrap. Various sides were ordered such as pub chips, cole slaw, and potato salad. Everybody enjoyed their meals. Portions were quite good sized as well. Service was friendly and attentive. Definitely would eat here again!!

    Father's Day lunch.
    Bill R.

    The ambience: very nice. You (we) are at a sports bar, casual, fine dining place. It's a mixture.a golf game with real clubs, and an entire upstairs donated to gaming. But, not video poker tours of gambling machines. Golf, foosball, pool, etc. The downstairs is the restaurant. Very clean and very well spaced with a lot of room between the tables. TVs galore with a plethora of sports visible from every direction. The service is/was/and always has been fantastic. Our server was observant. He was able to see when we needed something and knew when we didn't. That's a talent. Wifey was most happy and that's always the most important thing. Wifey dined on sides tonight. That's unusual, but she was not actually feeling anything specific. Green beans, soup, potato salad and Cole slaw. All were quite good and did what was needed. They were tasty, and since nothing on the menu was jumping out at her tonight, that's what she went with. I had the pork chop sandwich. It had Tajin flavor and was scrumptious. I got the potato salad. Also good. Let's not forget dessert. We split the Toffee cake and lemon tart. Both were perfection! Overall, ANOTHER exceptional meal at Gopher's Grill.

    Bar area
    PJ C.

    Passing through Effingham we needed dinner before checking into our hotel. A couple of years ago in a similar situation we had a very negative dinner experience at a nearby highly rated place so we were hoping for better luck this time. The space of this downtown restaurant is very nice, airy and feels newer. We got a table and ordered some drinks. They have a wide range of cocktails as low as $6 (I got the Bahama Mama which was good). You cannot find drinks this cheap anymore in most places. My wife ordered the Tex-Mex quinoa bowl with chicken that she liked a lot. I got the gopher side salad which was big and loaded with lots of good stuff. I was surprised how tasty it was. I also opted for the small order of boneless wings with the spicy honey sauce. It really wasn't spicy but they were good. The service was efficient. A good experience overall.

    Steak & Shrimp for the win!

    Absolutely incredible! This dish was a total home run. The steak was cooked just right, the shrimp were plump and seasoned beautifully, and the pasta brought everything together without being heavy. You can tell care goes into both the quality and presentation of the food.

    Dining room
    Carl F.

    A nice, local sports bar in the Effingham downtown area. Plenty of TVs around, the tables are not too jammed together, and I would say the overall feel is industrial. They have indoor golf games which in the winter months get pretty busy. A decent menu selection and somewhat extensive drink options. I've had quite a few items from the menu and I can say I've never had a bad experience. My favorite is the blackened fish sandwich or the steak sandwich. Fries are good and even better if you get the beer cheese to dip them in. The wait staff is friendly and prompt. The only thing to be mindful of is they are closed on Monday's!. I would highly recommend if you are just passing through and looking for some place to eat, take the extra few minutes to drive here.

    a view of the bar area
    Cassandra C.

    My husband and I stopped by again on way home from IL to eat here. Our waitress Macy was great and gave us some suggestions. I had the chicken cordon bleu sandwich and my husband had the SW chicken wrap. It was delicious. Love the potato salad. Atmosphere is very nice, music is not played to loud which is nice as you can carry a conversation and hear the person you are talking to. Definitely will keep stopping in when traveling through town. Thanks for the good food and great service.

    Smothered sirloin

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    1 month ago

    Good food. Great service. 5/5. Avery is awesome. Check this place out if you're coming thru town.

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    11 months ago

    The food was outstanding!! The service was very exceptional!! The ambience was like I haven't seen before, interesting and it works.

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    Kevin H.

    We're glad you enjoyed your visit to Gopher's, Mark!

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    4 years ago

    Really cool place, stopped there on our way out of town and decided we will be back and bring our friends and adult kids.

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    Page 1 of 3

    Ask the Community - Gopher's Grill

    Review Highlights - Gopher's Grill

    Other people in the group had things like flank steak sammich, Nashville chicken sammich, basic b cheeseburger, jalapeño burger, career chicken wrap.

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    Gabby Goat American Pub & Grill - Hand cut ribeyes wed and fri starting at 5

    Gabby Goat American Pub & Grill

    (448 reviews)

    $$

    Food was great. I got the brisket - delicious but MAN those waffle fries with the butter rub sauce…read moreor whatever it was. GET THEM!!! My son loved his burger. Their fries were too! Service was great. Sports bar but families wwre around also and chill area for low top tables. Lots of TVs! Lots of parking!

    Effingham was our first stop on a road trip to San Antonio. We pulled in medium late but full…read morehungry. Scanning the food places we picked this because it seemed to have decent ratings and a lot of reviews. Plus, you get go wrong with good ol' American cuisine. The first kind of hiccup is that they must have recently moved building. Though they moved right next to their existing building, there was no signage and we had to rely on our own eyeballs. Which almost led us into the wrong building. Not a bid deal, realistically, but it threw us for a loop. Getting inside, it was super clean. Long bar, plenty of tables, modern, many tvs for many sports. Plus, the building itself seemed rather large. A chonker of a building, if you ask me. Our hostess brought us into what seemed like the back 40 of the building and seated us next to a garage door that overlooked a cement pad that will one day be a cement pad with things on it. Not even mad. Saw a train. Here's the money shot. Have you ever been happy adjacent? Have you ever been right up to the edge, the precipice, the peak, then turn around and leave? That was kind of the ideal feeling here. The ambiance and service and general-ness of the entire place was spot on. The food itself looked top-tier. But it felt a click away from perfection. Let's look into it. As a hefty man (fat, not the garbage bag brand), I'm a man of appetizers. Also of wings. Therefore, sign me up for 12 bone in wings for an app. Split into three flavors: Carolina BBQ, Buffalo, and regular BBQ. They came out looking and smelling delicious. The sauce flavors hit hard. But I was a little let down with the dryness of the wings. I know sometimes it can be difficult to knock a wing out of the park because those damn things just want to get crispy. But I don't want to fight chewing the meat off the bone. It felt like a battle me and my mush mouth would lose. Now, from what I understood, all sides were a la cart. Color me fine with that, fatty will order anyways. Especially since I saw they offered street corn AND hushpuppies. So naturally, that's what I ordered. The hushpuppies came out and were the round kind. Which I am no stranger to. They had good flavor, good done-ness, but missed the mark on the size. If they were hush people, they would have been premies. A little sad they didn't get to experience their full potential. Now, for this part I will say I was forewarned. My server did mention the street corn came in a bowl and was served cold. I thought I was better than somebody who judged street corn by its temperature. I was wrong. It did come cold. And because of that, it was not tasty. Missed the mark completely. I did get a bonus side, your typical, run of the mill French fry. They came out and looked great. Meadiu

    Wheat Penny - Bar Area and Booth Seating

    Wheat Penny

    (11 reviews)

    My review will be limited as we came during their holiday schedule. We had reservations (an…read moreabsolute must) on Monday during the holiday season (normally closed on Monday). Their service was limited to drinks and a featured appetizer. The ambiance was stunning! Hats off to the designer of the Christmas decorations. The decor set the expectation of my experience and they did not disappoint!. There were 8 in our party and we ordered from the holiday drink menu, designed like a Christmas Card which is a genius idea. We tried 8 of their drinks and passed them around to taste. ALL were well balanced so hats off to the bartenders as the place was packed and it would have been easy to let your standards slip when you are as busy as they were. Although the place was packed our service was great. I can't wait to return and try their food menu. If it is anything like their attention to detail, I am so excited to return and I fully expect to post a great review. What a great evening with friends and a great kick off of the holidays. Just a quick note on pricing: This is not a chain restaurant so don't expect chain restaurant prices. My opinion is it is deserved price point when you consider the standards they set. It's a perfect place for date night, entertaining a client or a girls evening out.

    We had a pre dinner drink at Wheat Penny last night, and the experience was overall enjoyable. We…read morewould definitely come back. We walked in around 4:15pm, and found an open private booth which was cool. The entire space is classy and I'd like to sit in the leather chairs in the back room next time. The drinks were good- a Carajillo and special "love potion". The booth had the ability to control our music volume which we enjoyed. The only hiccup is the menu said to "hit the button in your booth to order", we couldn't find the button. After waiting quite a while our waitress hadn't come back, so I went to find her and put our drinks in. She explained the booths no longer have buttons. No big deal, but we should have been approached sooner for our drink order versus having to go find her. All in all we still enjoyed our experience and will return.

    Niemerg's Steakhouse - Two piece fried chicken, all white meat

    Niemerg's Steakhouse

    (272 reviews)

    $

    Passed through Effingham IL again and decided to commence my 30 minutes + off duty break here…read more Low-Key truck stop next door to Niemerg's Steakhouse is the Speedway; the startegy is park your rig there and walk over to this landmark. Haven't not been inside this restaurant ever, i kept an open mind I didn't know what to expect. Theres apparently three dine in area options. You have a whiskey, bar lounge that probably the likes of General MacArthur would patronize for food and cigars like at the Historical Manila Hotel in Manila Philippines. Then you have the open dining room where you seat yourself and it was reminiscent to an Army Chow Hall...sort of with retro 80s decor. And lastly, I chose the Salad Bar room with a booth seating. Server Jessica was fantastic! Went through the standard protocols with me; I was really enjoying the vibes at this place. It's very Mahogany, 1960s - 1980s feeling, almost like that steakhouse Warren Buffet likes to go to in Omaha Nebraska. Very community family oriented, quiet, really quite different than any restaurant or diner you patronize in a city like Los Angeles. A lot of retired folk here and truly, you feel like you been thrown back in time to the 80s and early 90s in some sense. So anyways on to the food. I'm going to state my opinion straight up, the salad bar hot food bar is the star of the show. In fact everything from the soup to the oven potatoes to the COLESLAW (Best Coleslaw Ever), reminded me of that once upon a time Soup Plantation that died during Covid....and the best part is the Cold and hot bar is all-inclusive with your main entree order. Yes you heard that right, you buy the resort tickets, and you enjoy your stay with unlimited cocktails at Cancun...I mean Neimergs... Now to the Iowa Premium Rib Eye Steak. To the kitchen staff: 2 minutes on the top side, 2 minutes on the bottom side. Bake in oven 1 minute on both sides. Done. Medium Rare. A perfectly good steak was destroyed because it came out well done. To future passerbys, skip the baked potato loaded if you decide to dine in at the hot and cold bar room. Last thoughts. I want to give the steak a 3 stars but the overall ambiance, the grandpappy grandma vibes and that overall feel like your dining at someone's home in farm country really elevated the entire experience. Plus the servers are all working their tails off. So I've rated this place a 4 stars. Think anyone on a road trip, or just driving their rig through town should give this historical site a visit. 1978 right? Or something like that. This place also has some of the freshest greens.

    Wifey and I stopped by here while on the road. We've been here before. In fact, I came here about…read more21 years BEFORE I ever even MET wifey! I first came here ( my I can remember) as a little five year old. Quite a bit has changed over the decades (but, I guess none of that matters for this review, though). We ordered French toast with strawberries (her) and a full order of biscuits and gravy with a side sandwich (Egg n Muffin). First, the full order of biscuits and gravy in no way needed that sandwich sidecar!! The order was definitely full! The sausage gravy was excellent. The biscuits were large, but a bit under baked. They were still tasty, but could have used a touch more time in the oven. The sidecar sandwich (my name not theirs) was not necessary, and I took it to go. The coffee was a little weak, but good flavor. Our server was Felicia. She was incredibly friendly! Wifey's take? My french toast was both pretty and tasty. The good news is I got to take half home for a snack later. I had also ordered the side of eggs and toast and had to take some of that home as well - so maybe I will pull the whole kit and caboodle out for lunch or dinner. The rye toast and my one over medium egg was perfect. My other egg was more medium plus but it was all good. I agree with the hubs that the coffee was definitely weak for us but we are pretty hardcore with that. It did the trick, though. We left more caffeinated than when we came in.

    Chaser's Grill & Bar

    Chaser's Grill & Bar

    (18 reviews)

    I was going to take more pictures of the inside, but there were too many white people and I was the…read moreonly Asian here so I did sound judgment, stay low key and don't get jumped by country folk. This is the American Sports Bar that you can picture in Dawson's Creek...or Smallville..it's country, very country, everyone within the 20 feet radius is blue collar, there's billiards, there's a digital juke box on the wall playing country and I think to myself...do bar fights happen in a place like this. Gawd, the local Illinois accents here...is like sitting in an episode of Boardwalk Empire listening to Al Capone and crew converse. So this is the Effingham they say... Ok the food. Yes, I came here for food. Was originally trying to navigate my way out of the Petro Truck Stop Parking Lot, having my rig parked over there, I was about to walk half a mile out to the other side of the freeway for that Advertised Chinese Buffet...but I couldn't find a walkway, and ran into this Chaser's building by accident. Accidents can be good. I sat down, looked through the menu, and picked up the ribeye steak, some fries, and lemon pepper wings. And I gotta say, it was a solid supper. Steak was cooked right, wings not overwhelmingly seasoned, and food was on par with if say you going to an Outbacks. I don't think I would've ever given this place a chance if I just looked up Yelp, it's 3.5 stars rating, because I most likely would have just glossed over the potential experience. And now that I've experienced this place....I may as well plan my trips next time so I camp in my rig overnight at the Petro in Effingham....that way I can get a few games of pool have a couple of IPAs, get a good dinner and really let loose for the night. So.... Until Next Time. #landoflincoln

    Great place with delicious well prepared food. Nice menu but was lacking a salad other than the…read moreside salad. Husband had grilled and fried chops dinner and I had a side salad and loaded potato. Pool table and some electronic darts. Wanted to sit at bar but decided on a booth. Took a few for service at first but after it was really relaxed and laid back. Looked like a tourney night for darts was scheduled. We didn't stay long enough. Husband raved about the chops. He especially liked the grilled and it was gone. The fried were my favorite l. Good crust and seasonings. I think they brine them so juicy chop. Green beans went just a little long and miss some resistance. The seasoning didn't come through. Good use of fatback. My lettuce was just wrong. I liked everything else on it but the lettuce had turned. There was some I was able to eat. I would suggest at least one main dinner portion salad. Could be basic and be customizable. The loaded potato was delicious! ate every bite but the skin. I wanted too but too much butter needed. My heart was thankful. Good cheese pull. 10/10 Overall, we will come back because it was a nice dinner. Felt like home bars should.

    Gopher's Grill - bars - Updated May 2026

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