Christiane W.
Yelp
I was passing thru Eugene for the night and was in search for the best food in town. A friend recommended Claim 52 and I'm so glad they did. I give this review 4 stars for the food & drinks.
The spot:
A great space with indoor, outdoor, and bar seating. The flow of the restaurant service needs to be improved. It's a walk up, order, and seat yourself kind of place. When the peak times arrive, I can imagine the ordering line getting pretty long and customers experiencing slow service. When I ordered, there were only 2 groups in front of me and the wait was about 10-15 minutes. What I did notice was, the order taker/cashier is also the bartender. So you can imagine how inefficient the flow of service is between each customer and how the long waits can occur.
They need to make menus available at the door for those standing in line. When I was there, they only had a few laying around by the cashier. With this kind of ordering process, they need to make the menu easily accessible and create a QR code so people are prepared to order once they reach the cashier.
What I really disliked was that you had to stand in line again to order another drink. You're better off ordering a couple drinks at one time, to avoid the line waiting hassle. Nothing is worse than going to a restaurant to stand in line multiple times and experience long wait times.
The staff were friendly, helpful, and offered great suggestions. Overall, casual atmosphere.
The food:
After traveling Oregon for 5 days, this was by far one of my favorite meals I had.
The menu is extensive and offers so many great options. I loved that they had a dedicated vegan and gluten-free menu.
I tried the seasonal salad: watermelon, strawberries, mixed greens, chèvre, pepita brittle, with a strawberry mint vinaigrette. Everything about this was fresh and amazing! I'm still day dream about this salad. The pepita brittle is genius and one of the best additions to this salad. Do not sleep on the seasonal salad, it's big enough to share too.
Chicken Banh Mi was everything I hoped for and more. Perfectly spiced, crunchy, and filling. The gluten-free hoagie roll is one of the best I've ever had.
The fries are perfection. I'm obsessed with fries and these hand cut treats were crunchy, soft, salty, and topped with the perfect seasoning. They have a handful of dipping sauce for your fries too, the Chipotle aioli was super tasty. You can add a spice to your fries too, I tried the Korean spice and it complimented my fries nicely.
My husband tried the Pulled Pork sandwich and loved it! The sandwich was piled high and very filling.
They have a self-serve water station. You can fill up your own carafe for your table. They also have a server that runs your food to your table.
The drinks:
They have a house cocktail menu that offers some very unique options. I tried the Claim-a-Rita and I was obsessed. It was a Margarita on the rocks with a float of their house fruited beer. It was refreshing, tasty, and not too sweet. I tried the Prickly Pear Peach Lime and Pineapple Whip fruit beers, both amazing and really elevated my Margarita. My husband was a fan of the Belgian Pilsner and it was refreshingly light.
The have a cocktail specials menu and beer menu where you order and a beer specials menu located by the bar area. Don't forget to check all menus for a variety of drink options available.
They sell single cans in a lot of beers, so you can buy beer to go.
Overall, I'd come back for the food and drinks if ever visiting Eugene again.