Place is a little weird. There're '90s Art Deco-revival light fixtures and other elements of a past business. Beyond that, the current remodel offers a dark, cavernous sports bar that doesn't feel all that inviting and is a little grubby. There's a nice, private patio that seemed to be the place to be. We grabbed a couple seats at the bar. Bartender was nice and knew her stuff. Drink prices were average. The rest of the staff seemed a bit confused as to what was going on. Maybe they were still in training. I feel for anyone who has to where a referee jersey to work who's not a referee. Is this place better than Applebee's? Maybe. read more

Great food, great service, large space, and employees went above and beyond to help us feel comfortable. read more

Sports Zone - Sauvignon Blanc - Sports Bars Near Me - Columbia, Missouri

Great service and the Cowboy Smashburger was delicious and large! I will be returning.

Delicious hot and fresh food. parking on Holiday inn lot. really good and friendly wait staff, and a great atmosphere for sports and cold beer. Extremely large screen Main Screen plus smaller screens throughout. Family friendly if you have children. read more

Sports Zone - Philly steak with pub fry's - Sports Bars Near Me - Columbia, Missouri

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Been eating in the sports zone on my layovers working for an airline. Always cold beer and good food. Great service. Every time. Hope this helps when staying overnight in Columbia,MO at the holiday inn. read more

Came in for the conference to this restaurant was very impressed by the atmosphere but more impressed with the food I had a cowboy burger and wings and it was absolutely amazing I would recommend this restaurant very highly.! read more

Good cheeseburger and fries. Add some options grilled onions, mushrooms, jalepenos and will be a 4 star burger. Friendly and personable employees. Highly recommend. read more

Located in the Holiday Inn where we were staying, this was our favorite spot to end the night during the short visit to Columbia. It's a sports bar, but it's open for a buffet breakfast in the mornings....which was perfect to watch College Football in the morning on their giant screens. The Breakfast Buffet was ok, pretty basic.....Scrambled Eggs, Toast, Bacon, Fruit, Oatmeal, etc. For lunch & dinner they offer standard sports bar fare. The only other food I sampled here was the Nachos and Quesadilla....both were excellent. One great thing....they have Gentleman Jack (Whiskey) at the bar, so it was the drink of the weekend...cheers! http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sports-zone-sports-bar-columbia?select=RdaouQ-pIgnGDlVgEm6HXQ#RdaouQ-pIgnGDlVgEm6HXQ Return Factor - 87% read more

Sports Zone - Gentleman Jack on the rocks baby! - Sports Bars Near Me - Columbia, Missouri

The vibe is completely off in this place. It does not feel like a sports bar. Got a beer and left.

We ordered the triple play club sandwich and it came n stale dry bread. The bread was so hard that it was like eating a crouton. It hurt our mouths. If I could give 0 stars I would. My mouth actually started bleeding after taking a bite. For $13 each you should have a better sandwich. Sad. Too tired to go back. read more

This marks the second time I have eaten here, or should I say attempted to eat here, while staying at the Holiday Inn next-door. This morning's experience, was the less than stellar ice cold gravy? Got plate at buffet, sat down, and gravy was ice cold along with bacon and just didn't feel comfortable about the whole situation afterwards,... I left with a cup of coffee that I served myself... At least I know they CANT screw that up. read more

Stuck in a Holiday Inn in Columbia, MO with no rental car, my prospects were looking pretty dim. Miraculously, the dubious looking Sports Zone actually had some delicious food! I got their veggie pasta, and while missing the feta it was described as coming with, it was a crazy good pasta dish! It came with a ton of food, a generous side (I chose zucchini fries) and some bread to make sure you are nice and full of carbs. When I came for breakfast, I ordered off the menu rather than go with the small looking buffet. While breakfast wasn't as delicious as dinner, it still wasn't the let down I expected when I first saw this place. The staff was friendly here, if not overly concerned with being professional. Lots of personal conversations went on loudly every time I was here. But it was relatively empty, the service was fast, and the servers were very kind. So, fear not if you are similarly stranded! It really turned out to be not too bad at all! read more

I want to give it 2.5 stars but I just can't do 3. How about a 4 star rating for the folks behind the bar and in the kitchen and a 2 for the space. I have been coming to Columbia for over 10 years. Conferences usually are held at the Holiday Inn (SZ is attached). They've made some upgrades to the hotel but this poor place seems like it's been left out. It needs some serious updating. Food is just OK but again, people are good. read more

Came up for a school and the bar wasn't open, the tea was from the soda dispenser and you had to have cash because the POS system didn't work. Waitress was awesome but we didn't stay. Hope they lost cash this weekend. New owners need to learn read more

Located inside the Holiday Inn, this sports bar is about as good as you can get for a hotel sports bar. There's a big dining area, a nice sized bar, and more TVs than you can count. It's open from lunch through late night, so this is a good spot to grab a quick meal or a drink if you don't feel like venturing out from the hotel. Drinks were cheap and service was great. If I were to stay in this hotel, I'd go back again, but if you're in the area, do yourself a favor and check out some of the local bars, too. All of the college craziness is only about 3 miles away. read more

We hit Columbia during their last snow storm for the season and were therefore more or less stranded at the hotel. Restaurant was deserted (always a red flag for me), but that may have been the weather's fault. Menu and table very sticky...yuk. Asked server about this, she swapped out menus...with ones that were just as sticky. Limited selection. Went with chicken tenders (those were decent), but they were out of honey mustard dressing (which is a key ingredient in at least 3 of their dishes...so how can this happen?). Kept me from certain starvation, but certainly no culinary revelation...would pass on this if given the chance read more

Good place to grab a quick bite. Service was very attentive. All my food came out correct and hot.

Love love love this place. While all the downtown sports bars are packed with people or with lines out the door, this place has plenty of seating. It has a massively huge tv at the "front" of the bar and then smaller, yet still great sized flat screens all over. The food is great, the staff super friendly and accommodating. I no longer have to go to the "kids bars", downtown, this one is awesome. read more

We got to Columbia at the end of the first day of our road trip, and we really didn't feel like going elsewhere for dinner. Luckily, the Sports Zone was right in our hotel, was affordable, and had a very interesting menu. I took the waiter's advice and tried their Mother's Little Helper IPA, and was glad I did. My wife had a Cosmo, She says it wasn't the best Cosmo she's had, but it was the strongest. We started with the mini fish tacos which were very good. My wife had the Frisco Melt and says it was delicious. I had the chicken quesadilla and thought is was OK. read more

Great service bit the new pink color is absolutely HORRIBLE! Not sports bar colors. I feel like I'm in a Victoria's Secret in the 80s. Gag! read more

Stay away! Restaurant is dirty, service is terrible, food is revolting. I visited this place with my mom and kids because we were staying at the Holiday Inn and the weather was bad. If there hadn't been flash flooding we would've gone to some place outside of the hotel. The first problem is that the place wasn't very clean. The tops of the salt and pepper shakers looked a bit cruddy and there were some stray crumbs on the table. It was about 6:45 on a Saturday night in a sold out hotel and there were maybe 5 other customers. An employee rode in on a motorized lift cart and began changing light bulbs right in the middle of the dining area. Our waiter seated the five of us, put down three rolls of silverware and left. He came back about 5 minutes later to take drink orders. He eventually brought more silverware. My expectations were pretty low considering the decor and cleanliness. The menu described standard bar fare -- wings, chicken strips, burgers, sandwiches, etc. One in our party ordered the fish tacos. They looked okay, but had a terrible strong, fishy odor. Two in our group decided to split an order of pretzel bites with cheese sauce. The pretzels were hard and stale and the cheese sauce had obviously come out of a jar and was congealed into a solid mass. My mom got a Caesar salad with shrimp. She said it was fine, but the greens were not torn into bite size pieces, so it was a bit hard to eat. I ordered a baked potato and I shudder to think how long this thing had been in the kitchen. It was old and barely warm. I took one bite and stopped eating for fear I would get sick. I was very tempted to warn some people who entered as we were leaving, but I saw a look of repulsion on one of their faces so I'm pretty sure they didn't stay. Our server left us for long stretches and never cleared our dirty plates. It was particularly gross because of those stinking fish tacos. They reeked and I told my daughter not to eat them. This place is just gross. Stay away. read more

This place is a joke!! Waste of time and money! Staff is horrendous and the bartender is by far absolutely unprofessional. The management "Dennis" food/ beverage director of Sports Zone is showing an awesome leadership of how I will never stay nor come to this establishment again! Holiday Inn WAS my always go-to for my constant traveling business, but after seeing "Dennis" who degraded, humiliated, and screamed at my server who was amazing and made my entire day less stressful than the usual. Myself and my company will never stay and/or go to this establishment again. After speaking with "Dennis" he seemed to be careless and unknowledgeable of others in his restaurant trying to enjoy their meal. Sarcastic and rude apology will never be forgotten. When new management replaces " Dennis" they can be sure I will return to any Holiday Inn. read more

As you would expect, a bar with lots of TVs. Probably loud when the place gets busy. When we were there the place as about 1/4th full. Service as average. The fish tacos were nice. The menu indicated they would be spicy but they were not. read more

We come here every year after a long day of watching wrestling. It's convenient to our hotel and open late. Every year the service sucks and we swear we will never come back. Yet here we were again. The place was not that busy when we walked in. We asked if we could sit in the bar and she said sure. We took a table and waited. I counted five employees who made eye contact with me- yet my husband still had to walk to the bar and order drinks. We NEVER got a menu. It's ridiculous. The bartenders were complaining loud enough for everyone to hear. The servers acted like they had not idea what they were doing. ONE STAR is being generous. read more

I'm glad that I didn't let other reviews keep me away. I needed breakfast before checkout so I thought I'd check it out. It was almost 10:00 but the buffet was still fresh and tasty. The bacon was as crisp as I've had at similar places. I guess my only complaint would be not enough offerings for a $13.00 buffet but I just wanted eggs, bacon and fruit anyway. Wait staff was great and I found the decor/atmosphere pleasing. read more

We ate breakfast there 3 mornings while staying at the Holiday Inn. The oatmeal on the buffet had a lot of cinnamon & an unpleasant texture. Our wonderful waitress brought me a bowl from the kitchen. It still had the texture of instant or quick oats. The worst were the pancakes. At 8:10 AM they had not been prepared that day. And when they were microwaved, they didn't even get them hot. The restaurant reflects the over all quality of this particular Holiday Inn. read more

I rate it a one because I made a happy plate. Outside of that, unless you are a local, you are spoken to in an extremely neutral way. Not friendly, not rude. Just nothing special. I compare it to McDonald's. I ordered wings as an appetizer and pasta as my main course. Wings were good but the pasta should have been called pasta soup. I will not return to this establishment. read more

Service was not good. Food was mediocre at best. I ordered hot wings and fries. Wings were swimming in sauce and fries had a dirty drier taste. Very disappointed. read more

We appreciated their happy hour specials, although the staff didn't fully understand their own specials and what it entailed. We will give it another shot! read more