The Little Owl, Geneva

On Saturday evening the husband and I met two friends of ours at The Little Owl, located at 101 W. State St. (Route 38) in Geneva.

It's a historic bar and restaurant, with lots of dark wood and American food including burgers, chicken, lots of fish options, and your standard bar staples.

The bar options looked pretty good, too, and I was tempted by the martini menu, but decided to stick to food. They brought out a bread basket full of a small loaf of sliced bread, garlic toast rounds, and crackers. We shared cheese nuggets as an appetizer, which is every bit as bad for you as it sounds, but in a delicious way.

I had fish and chips, substituting the chips for their "sour cream and chive sticks", which turned out to be french fries coated in a ranch-dressing-like powder before frying -- which was pretty tasty. The fish was nicely fried, though some of it did come out in a chunk away from the batter. My husband had a chicken wings basket, which he reports were very meaty with a delicious batter.

Our friends had a fish-wich and an Italian beef sandwich with mashed potatoes, and reported that those were good as well.

I do have one small complaint: our waitress was a little flighty and took a while to take our orders; after she brought the appetizer out we had to actually tell her we were ready to order. The check also took awhile to come, although she did keep our drinks refilled nicely and took our credit cards promptly.

Prices were pretty good, although portions were not huge, but I was nicely full and not stuffed when we were done.

While there are a huge variety of restaurants in downtown Geneva, I think the Little Owl is a good option if you want a cozy tavern-y sort of place, with solid comfort food, drinks, and a place to sit and talk with friends.