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Categories: Restaurants, Breweries, Venues & Event Spaces, Sports Bars
Neighborhoods: Northwest, CBDMon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
"Basically every drink is $3 before 8 p.m. The bartender was a good guy and poured a strong drink. Nice outdoor patio and cool futuristic…" read more »
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So what if it's a chain. Rock Bottom was started here in Colorado, they brew their beer on location, and the atmosphere is good.
There's always a beer of the day, available for $3 bucks a pint, and they are always willing to let the customers sample the other flavors.
The downtown location is centrally located on the 16th street mall, making it a great place to meet up with the crew before heading out for a night of debauchery in the city.
Rock Bottom is the one of the only chains I can think of that most people have no idea is a chain. Rock bottoms are everywhere. Every city. Even smaller cities. And goddamn if they aren't all mediocre as hell. Sure, I'd choose any old RB over the Applebees/Chili's dynamic, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a -good- place to eat.
Redeeming quality? The beer is decent. Not great. Decent. There's a difference.
I went here for dinner during a business trip and I had a very enjoyable experience. Here's the rundown:
The service was great. My server looked really young but he was very nice and checked in on how I liked my beer after I took his recommendation to try the Titanic brown ale. He also didn't hover but seemed to come by at the right moments.
The Titanic brown ale was really tasty. Darker than a Newcastle but lighter than a Guinness, it was almost complex enough to serve as its own appetizer. It went well alone and also with the food.
I ordered the standard sirloin, not expecting fantastic food. However, the steak was cooked perfectly medium-rare with a delicious charred crust, the cheddar mashed potatoes were to die for, and the seasonal vegetables (red pepper, zucchini, squash) were fully edible. Having perfectly cooked vegetables at a steak place is truly remarkable. They weren't mushy at all and made the meal that much better.
Great place for an easy meal!
I always like Rock Bottoms, they're a good consistent restaurant. After going to a show downtown, a group of us stopped for some food and drinks. We had great service even though it was busy, and the food was good and came out quick.
Not much else to say. Good chain, and I enjoy this location.
I really have two opinions about this place. The beer here is awesome! I highly recommend the Rocktoberfest. If I wouldnt have been driving, I easily could have had a few more of these. The food here is so so however. Nothing to write home about. Obviously, they are catering to the beer drinking crowd. Nothing wrong with that.
The next time I come to Denver I plan stopping here again, and cabbing it. They have quite a few microbrews that I'm wanting to try out. I'm looking forward to my next visit.
They serve beer and food late: check, validate parking from the afternoons onward: check, close to public transportation so you can get back to your place after many beers: check.
The beer brewed here at this Rock Bottom tasted better than some of the other Rock Bottom I have been to, the seasonal beers when I was there during end of September were pretty good. But the food at all the Rock Bottoms I have been to have been mediocre, really mediocre. I had the short ribs and the ribs was just warm, and the sides tasted like an after-thought.
Come here for the beer, skip the food unless it is late and you can drink enough beers to kill the taste buds.
Haven't tried the food here yet, but it's a great place to come and hang out and grab some beers with your buddies late at night. Beers were pretty good. The waitress was very nice and organized. The place wasn't super crowded because dinner time had passed.
Four stars for the service and clean nice venue for late night drinking.
A largely forgettable experience here yesterday. So much so, I almost forgot to post a few words here about lunch at Rock Bottom. This is a great hang-out place on the patio on the Mall - nice for people-watching over a cold one. But the food for me is over-priced and merely average.
I ordered a reuben. I'm starting to get into reuben's, especially after having a couple of really good ones at other places across the metro area. A good reuben, in my humble opinion, should be crispy grilled with tender corned beef, sauerkraut and sauce all mingling together. I ordered mine with light sauerkraut. Instead, it came with no sauerkraut. That really isn't a reuben, then, is it? That's a grilled corned beef and cheese. The server wanted to know if I just wanted the sauerkraut on the side? Well, no, 'cause that defeats the purpose of a beautifully grilled reuben with all of the flavors combining together. Even though the kitchen was pretty swift about a new sandwich, the whole thing was pretty lame. Gristly corned beef and not a lot of flavor. Fifteen bucks for a sandwich & fries, water and my share of the tip. Meh.
So...I love Rock Bottom for a cold one when I need a break from shopping but I'm not a fan of spending lots of dough on average food.
What really makes me a fan of this place is the awesome patio. The chairs are comfortable and the lighting is really nice. We went here after going to Comedy Works and it worked as a great place to grab a drink and snacks.
The food was ok. I didn't really care for the nachos, but the pizza was tasty. I saw some burgers come past our table that looked amazing.
I don't see myself craving anything from here, but it's got good atmosphere and people watching potential if you're out on the patio.
great meal and great service. beer was okay. not sure if we both just weren't in the mood to drink or what... but... the beer didn't do it for us. but the food was delicious... and so was our server!
Be Still My Heart! I have been to the Rock Bottom before and it's been Good, but this time was a great experience. We got a chance to meet the master brewer and he gave us suggestions on choosing beer to accompany your food just like you would wine. We learned a bunch.
We tried about 4 or 5 of the microbrews and enjoyed them all. My favorite was the Molly Brown Stout.. chocolately, malty, smooth.. and my hubby liked the San Diego style IPA.
We had the Titan Toothpics HUGE serving with chicken, Jack cheese, peppers and onions in crispy tortillas with the best restaurant guac I've ever tasted, salsa and chipotle BBQ sauce... the bbq seemed odd as a dressing for a mexican entree but it blended flavors REALLY well.
I had the salmon sandwich with a chipotle mayo on Ciabatta bread with onion rings. It was fabulous! My husband had the Overnight Braised Short Rib with cheesey mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes and onions with roasted mushroom sauce. He was really quiet until his plate was clean... so.....
It was pretty crowded so we sat in the "back bar" I never knew it had one.. that restaurant is HUGE. There were pool tables back behind the back bar also. We were told this was THE place to watch local sports.. kind of the locals secret room... sssshhhhh......
No dessert.. we had more of those amazing microbrews instead.
I've been twice, both for lunch and on business so unfortunately I have not imbibed the spirituous beer libations. However, I can say for a casual business lunch this place does a nice job. The waitresses are cute and efficient, the location is a prime spot, walking distance from to most of the business district and the patio is the place to plant yourself. Pending further review of the beers, I look forward to awarding another star.
Surprising.
The beer is actually very good, the food is bar-fare decent.
But the pizza? Surprising.
Been here many times for the decent beer and the 16th St. Mall easiness in taking out out-of-towners.
As a rule, I would never eat a pizza pie at a joint like this, makes no sense, why order a medium-rare slab of red beef at a car dealership or buy a car at a great steak place?
This review is for the cheese and pep pizza only (as there are many faults of this place that could ruin a night).
Medium-style, thicker than NY, much less than Chicago. Decent dough, light, flaky, and with a dusting of flour. Good meat with great full-fat motz cheese (I have at theory about cheese and altitude, somehow they don't mix). Unfortunately suffers from the Pizza Hut syndrome (excess grease... hopefully not from larding the pan?) so despite looking like a chick, it helps to blot, get over it.
You can stop reading here.
Part of the lack of good reviews is that this place is mainstream and popular with the non-hipster "normals" so you'll be sitting next to some Nascar-cap wearing true locals.
But it's not only a judgment on us, in order for a restaurant to become wildly profitable and serve so many people, it has to adopt a more corporate structure. This means lack of great personal service.
Which is why we recently had a bad experience here at the hands of Juan (real name to protect the innocent, the customer) our server. He actually professionally served us the aforementioned great pie, but we enjoyed his service a few weeks back.
It was one of those incredible cold spell, we were entertaining NY guests, and my 'ol lady forgot her ID in the car (like 8 blocks away, virtually another universe). No biggie, the other three of us ordered up some beerz!
What followed was a service no-no, never imply or assume improper behavior from otherwise good customers. Juan gave me not one, but two 1-2 minute monologue reminders about how much he would have to kick me out if my 28 year old wife sipped from my beer. She never did (it's OK we went out after and got properly drunk) but Really?
This place was an awesome chill spot.
The beer was good and the waitress and bar staff were fast and friendly.
We hung out in the "back bar" all night away from the families eating.
The music was good and pool tables to pass the time.
It was not very crowed for a friday night however.
I didnt eat the food, just drank the local beer.
Its worth checking out if you are in the area.
This is a review on Rock Bottom's macaroni and cheese dish.
So, I have eaten the mac & cheese here several times now and I think it is pretty okay. What does that mean? If someone asks me what I think of the m&c at Rock Bottom I would say it isn't bad and they should try it. It must be good if I keep ordering it for my Friday beer lunch...right?
It comes served in a small round casserole dish with a small salad and costs around $9. The mac and cheese is shell style, with cheddar cheese and chicken pieces (which are an optional order). It is slightly baked with some toasted crumbs and parsley on top.
All together the dish is good but i deduct one star for a subpar consistency which is a tad bit oily. I deduct another star as the taste is good but far from great. It is mac and cheese for crissake...which is almost always yummy so I look for a rich or unique taste for it to rise above average.
Incredibly busy lunch spot in Downtown! By pass the waiting masses and walk past the hostess to the back, my favorite thing to do is say I am seating myslef, chuckle at the whoa wtf dude look you get. The bar is seat yourself and there is a big expanses of it in the very back with tables usually open.
The food is nothing to write home about or review for that matter but we will give it a go. I usually get the pizza because I love pizza and thats how it is, its decent, and I swear it has shrunk in size while they say it hasnt! The burgers are a safe bet as well and so is the Mac n Chesse thing with Chicken. One mistake I made one time was having the cheessteak, now you can throw cheese meat on a hoagie and call it a cheesesteak in my opinion this is a sandwhich.
Its an occasional goto spot when a group from Q goes to lunch! Other then that I can think of almot 100 other spots I would rather go to for lunch.
Decent, for a chain. I've been here two other times in separate Chicago locations. All three times the beer has been refreshing and the bar food a bit above average then you'd expect. One complaint: I ate in the bar area towards the back and I felt like I was eating in a darkroom. My eyes were straining.
I've never had mac n'cheese with chicken...until yesterday. It is amazing. I have seen the light.
Sat at the Back Bar this time...didn't even know there was a back bar! The beer is great (I love the Red, and Buff Gold is always an easy choice), the wings were okay (plenty but tiny; the blue cheese dressing was too chunky to dip a wing into), and the pizza was surprisingly tasty. It was a fun, laid-back Saturday happy hour crowd, but we were still able to enjoy a fairly quiet table.
I'd give this place three stars, it's great beer and average/overpriced food, but the patio is wonderful when it's warm enough out. Fantastic people-watching.
I was in Denver on business and visited the brewery. It was early happy hour. The place is pretty impressive if you are a beer fan with all the vessels used for brewing visible. We sat in the bar as we were just going to drink. That is until we saw the giant plate of nachos the group at the next table was eating. We opted for a half order of nachos with chicken to go with our brews. The service was excellent and we had our beer-a kolsch style and a wheat beer within minutes of ordering. Both were excellent. The half order of nachos was huge and featured chicken breast, re fried beans, cheese, jalapenos, sour cream. They arrived hot with a generous bowl of hot sauce. Great food, atmosphere and service. Can't be beat.
While exploring downtown Denver stopped here to rest our feet and try a beer. We ordered some Red Rocks Reds and decided to split some Titan Toothepicks. The beers were great and we even purchased a couple of large bottles to take back home. The Titan Toothepicks, super size chicken taquitos, were pretty good but were also very oily. the atmosphere was nice and the staff were friendly. I would visit one of these Rock Bottom Breweries again as I like the beer. The food looked average.
Met the gals here for lunch today. I'm usually not a big fan of this place but today might have changed my mind. We arrived at 11:30 and the patio was already full - very sad. So we just took a table inside and that worked out fine!
Our waitress was Harmony and she was all over my abnormal water intake issue! Love that!
I also made her choose between the ahi tuna salad and the salmon dish (they didn't have the new Ponzu Salmon dish listed on line, sigh, just the regular salmon on rice). And she said definitely do the ahi tuna salad, and that it was great! So I did!
And I was definitely happy I did! The dressing is a little thick, so I was glad that I got in on the side! But had a great taste! The ahi tuna had cool green sesame seeds on it - not sure what that will do to my insides, but it was good going down! The greenery was fresh and the options on the salad were great! Baby corns and noodles - mmmmm!
L got the burger and was very pleased! She had yummy goodness dripping down her arms! Gross visual but yummy!
J had the cob club and wow did that thing look good! She really enjoyed her meal too!
L2 got the turkey cob and was unfortunately was less than impressed. It was on a base of iceberg lettuce and they used the middle icky part for most of it. Boo hiss.
All it all it was a great meal for me and I would definitely get me the ahi tuna salad again! Can't say this place would be top of my list of places to dine, but now i know i can get something good to eat!
Too bad it was lunch I would have loved to pair it with a good beer... bummer!
Another place I've been too many times to even warrant a new opinion.
Love the sampler platter - platter O' beer that is.
If you wanna try everything or just wanna get as many different sips as possible (sensing some greed in my tone?), get the sampler.
Food - just ok.
Always crowded.
On the 16th street mall (don't know if this is a positive or a negative).
Service - always average.
Note: the bathroom is always FOUL FOUL FOUL!
Pee before you leave home, go to Rock Bottom first, then pee at the next bar...serious.
How have I lived here a year and only checked out the local Rock Bottom now?
I have always been a fan of Rock Bottom in San Jose & DC. I love that even though RB is a chain, they always have a few brews on tap that you can only get in that geographical location.
Stopped in with a small group from http://MeetIn.org for the Weizen Tapping and Free Samples. About once a month RB taps a new brew and gives away FREE pints of the new beer for half an hour, usually on a Thursday 6-6:30pm. We really enjoyed the Weizen brew (although their standard wheat is better). We'll be back for Rocktoberfest ;)
Another plus is that you can park in the garage under the restaurant (Independence) and RB will validate your parking ALL NIGHT. Free parking always rocks!
The only downside of Rock Bottom is their food. It's like they try to get too creative and fail every time. I got an artichoke, baked pasta that was pretty much white mac-n-cheese with some artichokes and sundried tomatos on top. As long as you stick with the appetizer menu (wings, quesadillas, etc.) you should be good.
Don't go to this brewery expecting a gourmet meal. Go for a burger and a fantastic brew!
I've mixed opinions about this place, the microbrewery beer is really good but the food I had was so-so. I guess I should have known better than ordering jambalaya this far from Louisiana. The place had a really diverse crowd.
This one has been reviewed to death, so I'll just throw in my two cents...
Each year we gather at the back bar of the Rock Bottom for drinks and nosh before the "Parade of Lights". Last night we had the nachos with chicken and guac with our Bottoms Up micro-brews and they were *fabulous* - great presentation and the jalapenos kicked my butt.
Our waitress was totally on top of things; it was a mad house but she still took good care of us. Only complaint? It was fah-reezing back there!
After a couple of hours, we went to the front bar to wait out the "Parade of Lights" (oh yeah - we don't actually *watch* the parade) and ordered coffee and Kahlua to warm up but the coffee was ice-cold. Boo.
Is anyone else paranoid about sending things back to the kitchen (or bar)? Hey - I saw the movie "Waiting" - just sayin...
It happens, by coincidence, that I am here during the Democratic National Convention. I decided to go out for a late dinner and was recommended Rock Bottom by the hotel staff which gave me a coupon for a free beer (Comfort Inn - review available).
It was rather full as there were a lot of people watching the DNC speeches on the big screen televisions located throughout the bar. My colleague and I decided to work our way to the bar area and join the crowd. I thought I had to go to the bar and order drinks. I was trying to figure out how to move within the crowd to get to the serving area when a very friendly server came to us and took our drink order. Nice!
As the last speech of the evening winded down, the crowd started to dissipate. We order the typical bar food; fish and chips, onion rings and fish tacos. All I have to say is yummy! The fish and chips was made with salmon; which I never had in my life... and it was super tasty, moist and with good flavor. My fish tacos were super good with plenty of the side rice and beans. Portions were huge too. The servers were constantly coming around to check on us and offer more beer...
As for beer, they have a great selection of them which are brewed on location. I had the wheat beer and loved it (had 2 of them). My colleague had the light beer and it was very tasty too. The ambiance of the place is very nice. However, the music was very loud so we had to talk loudly to be able to hear each other.
The Final Verdict:
Ambiance/Decor: 5.0 out of 5.0
Staff Service/friendliness: 5.0 out of 5.0
Seating Arrangement/Layout: 5.0 out of 5.0
Seating Comfort: 5.0 out of 5.0
Food Quality/Flavor: 5.0 out of 5.0
Wine/Alcohol Selection: 5.0 out of 5.0
Price Value: 5.0 out of 5.0
Bathrooms Cleanliness: 3.0 out of 5.0
Final Score: 38 out of 40 (95 out of 100% or A Grade)
Final Comment: Great ambiance, great bar food, great service and drinks. A great place to hang out with friends.
3.5 stars.
Nice brews, love the sampler, food is just mediocre, and I don't think you can't be a brewery with good food.
I prefer Wynkoop. But for a chain brewery, rock Bottom is a-ok.
I sat in the back bar with some friends to chat over a drink and some food. Unfortunately at about 6pm they turned up the music. This made it difficult to hear, even over the small bar table. Next time I think I'll sit in the restaurant.
They had a beer special, which made drinking affordable. Although someone ordered a Cosmo, which cost $8.50. The food was good. I shared a pizza with feta cheese, kalamata olives, prosciutto, and sun-dried tomatoes. It was really different, and really good! I ordered a side salad too. Their large side salad came with eggs and bacon on top. With the extra toppings on the salad, I left feeling more than satisfied. It was a good amount of food for the money.
I heart Rock Bottom. Although it's a chain, what I love about this chain is that no two Rock Bottom's brew the same beer. This Rock Bottom has a hugggge beer selection including casks beers.
Although the menu is the same, just go for the beers. Batch 3000 - highly recommended. And the Titan's Toothpicks.
2 stars for the Aegean pizza.
5 stars for the carrot cake!
Get the nachos!
P.S. The Ballpark Pretzels are exceptionally good pretzels and the spinach dip that…
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Beers are sub-par, food is so-so, and wait staff don't care very much. Yet it's always packed. Thankfully, they provide validated parking, which is good for a night on the town. If it weren't for the fact that it is centrally located, I probably wouldn't go.
I must give Rock Bottom extra kudos for putting up with a really large group. I attended a sorority alumna function there today and had a good time. I had the jambalaya with red ale rice, and others had everything else from the menu. We all enjoyed our food; nothing spectacular, nothing horrific. They do have kettle chips as an option for a side, which is cool, and it's actually served in a kettle, how cute. For dessert, some of us shared the chocolate raspberry passion (giant brownie), but it was kind of dry. The waiter was really polite and dealt with our shared orders, split bills, and obnoxious laughs. This is definitely not a good place for a romantic date, but it's a great place for large groups. There were a few guys gawking at our group after finding out we were a sorority, which is weird 'cuz we're *alumna.* Old. Married. Wrinkley.
1 star off: so-so food
1 star off: dry brownie
1 star extra: staff was cool enough to put up with us
Decent place with pretty good beer. The food is also just fine, not great but not bad.
The back bar is cool and we spent the better part of a morning there watching football and drinking bloody mary's.
The Rock Bottom is on 16th street in the middle of what is called the 26th street mall. It's great area with lots of places to go and i would be happy going back here again.
The previous reviewers are fucking stupid!!!
who cares about the food at a brewery??
Just drink the god-damn beer!!!
it is excellent!!!
could drink it all day!!!
(there is a great diner around the block to eat at afterwards)
This is one of my favorite places on the 16th Street Mall. Great beer--especially the Molly Brown. The food is really good but nothing that really stands out, like the beer.
A buddy of mine used to live two blocks from the Rock Bottom, in one of the lofts downtown. It was a great place to stumble from home.
I'LL HAVE TO TALK A BIT LOUD BECAUSE AT LUNCHTIME THIS PLACE IS A FRIGGIN' ZOO! Good, meaty chili...ice-cold salad. HEY - WAITRESS...OVER HERE PLEASE?
Madhouse atmosphere. I guess the food props up the beer, and I guess the beer is good, but being one who imbibes only in the evening hours, I wouldn't know.It's fun, though, to watch someone go through their beer sampler - little urine sample glasses of multi-colored ales.
I have to suspect that their entire menu tastes better with barley pop. So crowded at lunch that I usually opt for the bar area where you can seat yourself and not too many tourists are aware of this fact.
I just have to sing the club sandwich's praises. The mayonaise on there was amazing. I like the way they cut it into little triangles. And there's enough for two meals. And their vanilla brown beer is yummy, but get it straight from the bartender before you find a table or else it'll be warm by the time it gets to you. Service is still lacking. And everything else I've had here? Mediocre. But I do just love that club sandwich.
I was surprised to find that the beers here aren't exclusively sold by Rock Bottom. I've seen them… Read more »
Rock Bottom rocks to a dynamic tempo, noon and night. The eclectic crowd ranges from pinstripe suitsters, swinging singles and couples with kids, most of whom come to nosh on colossal portions of well-prepared brewpub favorites.
Try the gussied up smoked salmon fish and chips, and wash it down with one of the bar's own microbrews -- or better yet, order a couple of beer flights and sample them all. The hopping patio, which welcomes some of Denver's best live music acts during the summer months, is an unparalled open window to the always lively and character-studded 16th Street Mall.
I have been here a few times on dates and I came last night for my birthday! We had a group of 5 and were seated immediately. We started off with drinks and a toothpicks or something--- they were southern taquitos and chips and I can not remember for the life of me what they were really called). I was feeling frisky so I decided to grab a glass of korbel to start things off. They were out : ( Their other option was a 46 dollar bottle of Champagne.. Ehh I went with a raz-apple tini that was reallllllly sweet and a shot o jager!
A friend and I ordered the fillet cooked to a perfect medium rare and a ahi salad that was FAB! Everyone Else's food looked great too!
No complaints. Our server did not give me any birthday cake : (
(I like capitalizing on the free birthday stuff when I can... )
Not my favorite place but it is always pretty Good
Oh and validated parking!! Gotta love that when you are downtown
I'm an ultimate snacky food type fan. We ordered the gigantic ballpark style pretzels with a jalapeno cheese sauce. Fresh malt kettle chips. Ahi tuna on a cabbage salad. All of it went well with the beer of the day. Totally touristy and sportbar-ish feel. Great casual place to lounge and drink beer.
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