Wilshire Tavern

I review places based on what they are. A sliding scale of achievement if you will. If a place is trying to be an upscale dining establishment, expect the bar to be set high. If the place is a neighborhood dive, the bar is set where it needs to be. The Wilshire Tavern is one of my favorite bars EVER! It goes up with a distinguished list of dives from across the country everywhere from Kalispell to Altoona. Free bar games (shuffleboard, pool) ,video lotto, Big Buck Hunter. Sports on TV, cheap beer, and crockpot roulette, if you want more from a bar, then we probably won't be friends. I have seen some reviews mentioning negative staff interactions. I have had some slow service here, but not regularly. I have never had bad or rude service, and after reading the reviews and some of the other ones posted by the haters, I will say that the problem may not have been with the staff. Enjoy the Wilshire, because Old Portland is way cooler.

A dive bar, a hole in the wall, a pit. The regulars, I'm sure will like it just that way. MMA on the television, Keno on another and video games and shuffleboard collecting dust in the back area.I guess you could call it just another Saturday night, but it was a nice night out and I'm sure many were somewhere, anywhere downtown or beyond. All of ten people at the bar area including the bartender. A special reads"sloppy joe's" on a sign towards the rear but no one is eating it and I'm sure for good reason. Options of jerky, candy bars, chips, nuts and gum are just behind the bar and are probably safer choices. Steelers and Cubs items are all about the bar area, so someone there is a fan. This looks like a cool place, right? They have a small selection of good beers but PBR seems to be the choice of the guys next to me. The woman in the seat by me, chatting with bartender, is choosing some of the local beers while guys at the far end are casually watching a Cardinals baseball game. The rest of the bar and the patio are empty. I don't know if that's normal, but it is for tonight. The beer is decent in price and I nursed a local IPA while I watched some of the MMA fights. I was just there to unwind and it's a great place to do that with no expectations.It's not a place I'd go to often, but I'd go back. Enjoy.

We'd heard about this place because we've been getting into ping pong lately and they have a ping pong table. Bingo. Well, sort of.The place is a total dive complete with leftover smells from the smoking era. What's it been, three years now? Yickkkhhh! When the smokers go outside they're just too close to the front door so the place ends up smelling like an ashtray anyway. The carpet is ratty and looks like something people have been wiping their feet on for 30 years. Oh wait. They have been.The crowd is friendly and we participated in several games of friendly ping pong. Hey, I almost won one of those losing by only 3 points. There don't really seem to be any undesirables here and the crowd is mixed, both young and old who actually seem to communicate with one another. It didn't seem like a Frank Sinatra type of crowd but that's what was playing when we walked in. To sum it up, this is a friendly, gross, disgusting, divey, ratty neighborhood bar.There seems to be something for everyone here, from ping pong and pool tables to pinball and shuffle board. If you can get by the smell and appearance, hey, you're in.

The barsraff was very rude and condescending, screwed up my drink order and did not listen to me. There are plenty of different places to go in the area this is not one of them.

This used to be a great little neighborhood spot but it's gone waaay downhill! I don't know what happened but both the staff and customers seem absolutely miserable, which makes for a rather hostile and unwelcoming bar.They've obviously tried to make some changes to the place over the last few years but didn't really do any good.Definitely won't bother stopping back in.. Wouldn't recommend that you do either.

Definitely a solid neighborhood joint....hot nuts, cheap beer, cash only, lots of games [pinball/shuffleboard/ping pong/pool/lottery/video]. Bartenders who remember you, great service. Yeah, its divey...thank god, keeps away the crowds.

I love this place. There are lots of fun things to do - pool, pinball, ping pong!! They have an awesome full size shuffleboard table. Sometimes they have live music and a pretty kick ass jukebox too.Service is great.Beer is cheap.Good place to watch a football game.Hot dogs, hot nuts, pepperoni sticks, and cans of sardines.I also appreciate that they have a bathroom tucked away for women only,because the other bathroom, let's just say, doesn't smell like roses....

Great place. Bartender was very friendly and helpful, even though it was obvious we weren't local. Gave us a free game of pool(only 25cents). Also great advice on local beer selections. Neighborhood bar with all kinds of options.

I had to do some quick work on my laptop before a meeting, so I decided to stop in and see if they have wifi. As soon as I walked in the bartender (middle-aged woman, with an old school hairdo) gave me a snarky look and before I could even get to the bar she asked to see my ID. I'm 30 years old, but I look younger so I wasn't that put off right away. I was reaching in my pocket and while I was getting it out I asked if they had wifi, she wouldn't respond until after looking at my driver's license. She then didn't answer my question, but proceeded to respond with "Well, are you drinking?" (with the same sourpuss face).. I then started to get a little irritated and responded "well...it is a bar". I then ordered a bloody mary.. she said "this is a Tavern".. my response "So...no liquor then?".. "Just beer and wine, she said". I ordered an Summer IPA ($5), and as she was pouring it I thought to myself.. "I bet this place is cash only". I looked around and saw a POS machine with a credit card reader, so I thought I was good. She sat the beer down (still not smiling, making it seem like I interrupted her at her house or something), I asked if it was cash only.. "Yes!". "Well... do you have an ATM?" I said. She points over, past the only customers in the bar and off I go to withdraw money to pay this nice woman. After putting my card/info in the machine, the ATM only allows you to withdraw $20 at a time... while charging you $3.00 to do so (my bank charges me $3 ATM's not associated). So here I am trying to decide on if I should spend $11 for this beer (that I don't want) to sit in this place (that I don't feel welcome in). I decide to go to my own bank, so I walk past the bar as she's chatting with some locals and say "I'll be right back". As I walk out I hear her say "WELL, ISN'T THAT NICE!". I continue to my car, and she proceeds to come outside, and yell. "THAT'S NOT VERY NICE!". I turn around and with a big smile on my face, say "JUST, GOING TO MY ATM..". As soon as I got in my car I decided I woudn't give them my money, and I would tell anyone I could not to either.

Went there for my bday...Everyone I talked to was super cool, bartenders and customers alike. Perfect place to go for bar games. It was my first time there but I'll definitely be going back even tho there's like 30 bars closer to my apartment. Just moved here so I was hoping to find a place w friendly strangers and from my first experience I would say I did. Great place.