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I've been for lunch a few times and today the service was better than any previous time, but I forgot the server's name and didn't get the check to give her credit. All previous attempts have been OK to Bad in the service category, but the food is pretty tasty and they have a lunch special menu that has a pretty good selection.
If the Cobb salad were still on the lunch menu, they would get 4 stars because it was tasty and a good sized portion for lunch. As it stands, everything is pretty good food wise and their score will go up if they have turned the corner on server attentiveness.
We went here before hitting a couple nice bars (see review for OM). We couldn't decide on a place to eat, and since the Twins and Yankees were playing that night, we decided to go to a place that we could catch the end of the game.
I decided on their 3-course meal deal thing. Single serving appetizer, entree selected from a list, and a single serving dessert. It turned out to be the perfect sized meal. The food was nothing spectacular. Basic brewery/TGIFridays style. But the dessert was some kind of delicious. It was their peanut butter crème pie with a chocolate cookie crust. It was like a melted Reese's. I would almost go here again just for that!
The drink I ordered was ALL liquor and wasn't very flavorful. All in all, it was a decent dinner at a fair price.
However, our waitress was a gem. Really polite, accommodating, and super friendly. I only wish I could remember her name to thank her in the Yelp universe!
It is always SO pleasant when you have an attentive server. Good service = good dining experience. She even dropped off a beer from the tapping for our dining mate just as they were walking in the door. Plus she hand-split the check, which was like the next level of wow.
They changed their h.h. this week. Now it is $3 for beer or house wine and then appetizers are $5. I kind of liked the old system with the scaling prices for different appetizers. $5 for an appetizer that's $6 isn't really a deal. C'est la vie.
It is a chain so it isn't a really edgy alternative brewpub. That's not shocking.
However, their beers do not disappoint. If you sign up for the mug club, they'll upgrade your pints to mugs, which is a sweet deal. If you show up at their tappings, they give away a free pint of their newest beer.
I enjoyed coming here when I was in school right across the street. It was a nice place to go meet up with your friends after (and sometimes before) classes and enjoy a beer and some food. I really loved their barbecue pizza and thought that there brown ale was pretty decent. I'm not much of a beer person, but every time I come here, I find myself trying out some of their best stouts. I really enjoy the fact that all they basically serve is beer that they brew right in store, rather than your ordinary beer list you can get anywhere else. I thought that was pretty cool. Other than that, service has usually been mediocre, the wait was a bit, not too long, I'd say we waited for service in the bar at the most, for like 20 minutes, but that was right at 6:30.
It's a good place for friends to meet, but nothing that makes this place POP with excitement or anything. I guess the fact that its downtown is nice, I wish they had a better patio though...oh well.
If you've read my reviews you will perceive that I'm not a big fan of chains, with very few exceptions. This would not be one of them. I've always hated the Chicago location and now I get to greatly dislike this one, too. The brews are fair at best, the food is completely forgettable, service is shoddy and the layout just screams "Applebees" to me. With so many other great brewpubs around, it's a waste to waste one's time here.
I give Rock Bottom a 4th star due mostly to the fact that it is consistent as a place to watch football. While it doesn't really have a sports bar feel, I know they will be showing all the Sunday NFL games.
I've been here for Happy Hour a few times. It's about as good as any other place you can go downtown with the exception of the pre-theater rush that crowds the place up some nights.
The service was okay. Their dressing on their caesar salad was a little strong, and their macaroni and cheese was on the spicy side. Seriously. Macaroni and cheese. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great either. I was a little worried when I saw the prices that this would be like another Hard Rock Cafe. Crappy food that will take your entire savings. But the food and service are worth the prices.
It's got a great atmosphere that can go from casual to fancy. Their micro brews aren't bad (this coming from someone who doesn't like beer). Do not ask the waiter what's the closest beer to Grain Belt; he and your friends will make fun of you.
I recently joined the mug club which is a great value. I believe it is a 25 ounce mug for about $5 (around half that during happy hour). I love IPA's and they have on on tap right now that is solid.
For beer lovers, this place is a nice option, great location, okay food. As a rule, I try to avoid anything that resembles a chain but given what they do with beer, I have to give them some credit.
However, the Twin Cities has many options that are better. For a real brewpub with nationally rated beers, go to Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery. Cooler location (old building in Seven Corners), better beer, friendly servers, and really good food. Over in St. Paul, Great Waters Brewing is another great option.
If you are downtown during happy hour and love beer (or you are taking in a show and don't feel like Palomino upstairs), this is a cheap option with really good products. But if you have the ability to pick where you are going, there are much better options in town.
The guy that brews Surly beers used to be the head brewmaster at this location and has moved on to make the country's best beers in a warehouse in the North Minneapolis Suburbs. Todd Haug is his name, look him up, a master brewer. Surly Furious is one of the best beers brewed ever!
My wife and I hit the Todd-less Rock Bottom and it was pretty busy. We were there before a Minnesota Timberwolves Basketball game and I got their Hoppy Madness or something like that Imperial IPA, which came in an eight ounce sifter. The alcohol was like 10 percent and every sip was like heaven. I added a mug club Itasca Pale Ale to the order and they were $2.75 a piece.
Come On!
Awesome beer for a great price and the two of us ordered the happy hour pizzas.
I ordered the pepperoni and my wife isn't a big cheese fan so she got it cheeseless.
My wife's pizza looked awesome and my pepperoni was perfect, but a happy hour pizza could probably be shared by two.
I only wish they carried their Monte Cristo sandwich still, but it isn't on the menu anymore.
I shared a chicken nachos appetizer with some friends lately, and it was great for a group of 3.
I only wished Rock Bottom was closer to my bus stop.
Plus they have growlers you can fill up and bring home with their awesome beer. $8 to refill the growler with awesome beer.
Never had a problem. Food is good and the service has always been spot-on. Had a waitress the first time who sat down and talked to me about Minneapolis, as I was debating moving after receiving the job offer previously that day -- she was very helpful and set the tone for me with my expectation of Minneapolis-ers.
I have sat at the bar the three times thereafter. Bartenders are very knowledgeable about the beers they brew and can recommend something based on you giving them a well-known beer that you like. They can also help with food pairings. They'll even ask if you want to try some of it, as they pour you basically a doubleshot to see if you want a full glass. I didn't ask, they offered, and I thought that was very good business. I now like one of their brews very much, and went in there last weekend to just have one of 'em - sat at the bar and watched arena football. I also live a few blocks from it, so I don't go tremendously out of my way.
Wouldn't take a date there, my parents there or my sister. Would take my buddies though.
No complaints here, for what I need, it's exactly that.
Reading the other stories of poor customer service has inspired me to share mine about this particular location.
My wife and I got seated with 20 minutes to go before happy hour ended. We were planning on eating as well, but we were hoping to get a couple cheap HH beers as well. Well, basically we sat there for about 10-15 minutes and no one came up to us. We saw our server but I distinctly got the impression we were being ignored. She kept walking past our table looking at us out of the corner of her eye. I can't believe she would do this to make a little more money by having us pay for full price beers, but everything sure looked that way. Finally, I got sick of it and flagged her down. She was very brief and she didn't smile or greet us. While we told her the beers we wanted she replied immediately that happy hour was over, even though their clock and my clock said there was at least 5 minutes left. I couldn't believe her.
I think in retrospect the best thing to have done (besides sit somewhere else) was to ask to talk to the manager. It's their job to deal with this sort of B.S.. Instead we did the 2nd best thing...we left. Yeah we were hungry but we decided to hit up Jimmy Johns instead. Yes cheaper, but much friendlier.
I went here on Halloween night for a pre-wedding weekend gathering. We were a large group and had great service! TONY, our waiter, was dressed as a HOT COP. YES.
The beer list is great- the samplers looked amazing, although it is a lot of beer for one person (or would be for me, anyways). I enjoyed all the beers I stole sips of.
The food is fine- pretty average as far as chains go. Burgers looked fine, salads looked fine, nothing special.
Under most circumstances, I would say that Rock Bottom Brewery is a solid 3-star establishment. I've visited this chain a number of times in a number of locations and walked away feeling ok about the time I'd spent there. It's pretty generic, not too unique and is a bit pricey for what it is, but I basically expect that from most chain restaurants. Food is usually consistent and tastes good. Beer is also pretty good, so no complaints there.
But after my last visit, my opinion of Rock Bottom Minneapolis has changed entirely. I'll admit that it was our mistake for showing up on a Friday night at 6 p.m. without reservations. As a result, we had the choice between waiting 30 minutes for a seat in the dining room or to find seats in the bar. We were on a schedule so opted for the bar seats, which was our second mistake. We should have waited for the dining room because they probably put the more experienced servers in there.
In my opinion, this is how dining experiences in restaurants should flow, regardless of whether you are at a steakhouse, the IHOP or at that scary diner under the Granville El stop in Chicago. This is a basic format that is generally accepted and followed by the majority of the restaurants I've ever been to:
1) sit down, get menus, order drinks
2) get drinks, order food
3) get food, consume food
4) tell server food is good through a full mouth, get refill
5) get check, pay check, leave
But this is what happened the last time I went to Rock Bottom Brewery:
1) sit down in bar
2) get menu, order drinks
3) order food, have to ask for drinks again
4) get drinks 15 minutes later
5) wait 10 minutes, server comes back to take food order again because it had been forgotten
6) 25 minutes later, food for some guests is brought to the table
7) after another 5 minutes, the rest of the food arrives
8) server comes back after food has been consumed to ask how we're doing, try to ask for check, be blown off
9) another 10 minutes pass before we saw server again to ask for check
10) get check 10 minutes later, pay check, leave
Additionally, we exchanged the following unusual conversations with the server. Between steps #5 and #6, we flagged the server down and asked how much longer it would be for our food. Normally I would NEVER do this, especially on a Friday night but it had been a longish time and we were feeling a little nervous since she'd already forgotten our order the first time and had had to come back to confirm:
"Hi," said a member of the group. "Do you know how much longer it will be for food? We're on a schedule."
"Mm-hm, and so is everyone else around you. I'm sure you can see that we're very busy tonight. You'll be fine, 10 minutes or so." And then she dashed off without an apology and it left me feeling like it was my fault and that I'd done something wrong. I've worked many, many customer service jobs in my young adult life and this is like Golden Rule #1 for diffusing any potential customer dissatisfaction or complaints. Apologize, and most customers will shut up and just keep waiting patiently.
At step #8, we made an attempt to ask for the check. One member of the group said, "can we get--"
The server interrupted her and said, "SURE!" And then literally ran from the table without even waiting to hear what was being asked of her.
It was obvious from the very beginning that she was frazzled, that they were heinously understaffed and that she was either a new server or someone who was in the wrong profession. Between the lack of apologies from the server, the "blame the customer" attitude and the eye rolling, I was completely dissatisfied with my visit to this restaurant.
Unfortunately, I can't say that I'll never return because the location is prime, but it probably won't be for a very, very, very long time.
We went here only because we were tired of looking for a restaurant in downtown Minneapolis that had good reviews and didn't also cost an arm and a leg. It was close, specifically right around the corner from our hotel. So close in fact that it does room service for the hotel and we'd ordered a couple of their desserts the night before and thought they were pretty good. So we went for the full dinner and drinks route.
We arrived around 9pm on a Sunday night so it was pretty empty except for the bar. We sat in the dining area and thankfully since there was a game on and it got pretty loud in the bar section. Service was great, but unlike a lot of the other reviews, it wasn't busy at all so it would've been difficult to give us bad service.
The food was decent. Its typical chain restaurant food. I'm not a fan of chains in general, but figured we'd give it a try for the reasons listed above. The fiance had the beer sampler and really liked 3 of the beers. I had a couple drinks and one chocolate martini. The martini was awful! AWFUL!!! I mean, yes I'm used to martini lounges that make a fantastic martini and I wasn't expecting much since this place is just a chain, but damn that was really bad. Everything else was ok though. Not a great place or anything, but decent.
Great beer, awesome beer bread w/ asiago cheese dip, good food, what else can you ask for? I guess you could ask for better service, but it still gets 4 stars.
It was my first night in Minneapolis and I got to meet up with my cousin and his wife. We ended up here at Rock Bottom. It's your average Brewery chain restaurant. I do have to say however, the menu was quite extensive for a brewery. Not just your average pub fare. There was everything from Italian to Mexican to American to salads, sandwiches and burgers. Naturally I was apprehensive about trying Italian or Mexican food in an American brewery in the mid-west but I did end up going with fish tacos. The food was alright and the portions were quite large.
I tried the Red and IPA and both were decent brews.
I think this is a great happy hour spot and it's certainly got plenty of space and grub for groups.
I try to stay away from the chain restaurants, mainly because they may or may not lack originality. Duh. For some reason, I always end up at the Rock Bottom in Chicago. Disclosure: Okay, okay. This is because the place I always stay is located right across the street from it. End of disclosure.
In Minneapolis, Rock Bottom seems to be the hit, more for late night drinks. I'm always up for a brewery. Not a huge beer fan but manage to snaggle one whenever I come by. I'm a fan of the light beers they have. Not too dark but still good enough. The appetizers are huge. The nachos are enormous and after my friend and I worked through them for a half hour, it looked we barely made a dent in them. Try the Spicy Spinach Cheese Dip--it's spicy but addicting. Entrees are larger portions. Good, juicy burgers with tasty fries. The Rock Bottom in Minneapolis is usually crowded in the bar, especially on a Friday or Saturday. Expect a small wait for dinner on these nights too. Service is friendly. Would definitely go by for a drink and an app whenever I'm in the area.
I came here for happy hour and it was decent. Some pretty good specials on food and then they also have their beers down to $2.75. But it is still too much of chain for me to really get into it. However, they had a lot of space in there and some pretty good looking pool tables so I'm thinking it might be a good place for a group.
The idea of a brewpub as a chain just grates me to no end. But if I'm walking by I'll drop in for a glass, then move along.
Eh...like any other place you can find. The pulled pork sandwhich with the slaw on it is decent.
I am a sucker for Rock Bottom no matter where the location. This one happens to be in my old work building and the service was always, always good. They had a great pool area and the people were very friendly. Food and beer is the same as other locations...good.
Great beer selection, including local microbrews. Good food, as well. Good for work lunches, and after.
I sat at the bar and service was good to begin with and they I got forgotten about. The brew was good, but my ice cream sundae was melted. I waited 30 minutes for the ice cream and when they finally remembered to bring it, it was mostly milk. The prices for food were a little high but the brew price was about average.
this a cool restaurant and brewery. i like how they have a sampler of all the beers they make to you don't by a beer you don't like even though it cost like 5 or 6 bucks i think its a good idea because you get a good amount of beer. its in a great location in the same plaza at the state theater. i have not eaten there before but the beer was good. so if you like brewery's that make there own beer i would give this one a try.
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Minneapolis, MN
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Minneapolis, MN
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