Draught House Pub & Brewery — Restaurant in Austin

I hadn't been back to the DH in years. It used to be my one of my favorite pubs in the 90's. You went there and they served beer in the frozen "Conan" goblets. Food was outstanding. It closed, reopened, closed, reopened, so I hadn't gone back in a while. About 7+ years ago I went to get a beer and the bartender was a bit snooty when I asked about beers. He said, "We only serve Texas beers on tap here". Okay. So I stayed away for a while. Time has passed and I decided to go back and try it for dinner. Now there is no in-house kitchen and the have a food trailer close to the entrance. I ordered online, via the Toast app. I placed the order around 6:40 and the app told me that my fish and chips, creole fish and wings would be ready at 7:12 and they would text me when ready. I've use Toast often and I always get texted when the food is ready. Around 7:16 and still no text. So I wander up to the trailer (no lines since everyone orders online) and it's not too busy. I ask for my order and he says, "Oh yeah....uhhh, here" and he hands me one of two large trays they've got sitting on the counter in front of him (he's above me by a few feet). Okay, the fish is small for that price. The fish is no longer hot. The chips (fries) are no longer hot. The wings are room temp. The fish is good, but you know how it's just okay when you're eating fish at room temp? The wings are surprisingly very hot and good, but again at room temp. Also, they didn't sauce the wings very well. Yes, they were rolled around in Buffalo hot sauce, but it wasn't drenched in sauce. Sent over $50 for all 3 orders and it wasn't worth it if you've got park yourself at their window checking to see if your food is...

Fantastic brew house. Weirdly, I seem to come here mostly to show out-of-towners who want to drink "somewhere cool and Austin-y" (yes, I'm one of those people who thinks we should be showing off our city and not pretending we can hold back the tides), but it's actually a great little neighborhood joint that rewards consistent patrons as well.

They've got a great tap list, with both decent sipping beers as well as more exotic beers for people looking for rarer stuff. I really appreciate that their chalkboards with the taplist show both the ABV and the size of the beer alongside the price - I've been to places that don't, and it's annoying to order something stronger like a Belgian that sounds cool only to be presented with a tiny 8oz or 10oz pour instead of a full-size pint. Luckily that doesn't happen here. Beer prices are pretty standard for craft beer, but some days like Tuesdays and Thursdays have much cheaper prices, possibly to compete with the Flying Saucer over on Lamar. The staff tend to be cool and knowledgeable.

Their interior is a fairly decent size with an ample assortment of variously-sized tables, but the real action is outside where there's plenty of long tables for groups. Even better, outside is closer to their onsite food trailer, which as of winter 2013 is East Side King! I can't get enough of that place, but they also offer free bratwurst on weekend afternoons, which is an awesome perk. The only downside is that parking in the neighborhood sucks if you're not lucky enough to get one of the few front spots, but just tough it out, since this place...

Came here for the first time for an anniversary party for this place some many years ago (2011?). Was super stoked to finally see what this place was about. The lines were out the door and down the street to order. We waited forever, finally get to order and everything we wanted wasn’t available. They insisted we just order a Fire Eagle (local IPA). We didn’t drive across town, to come to an anniversary party at a beer establishment to order beers we can find any other place. We were caught off guard having waited 20-30 minutes in the hot sun outside to order any beer. We didn’t know what to order so they just gave us Fire Eagles which I refused. They made us step aside while they served other customers. The bartender was extremely rude and unprofessional. Somehow I got an anniversary glass here with Draught House on it. I know many many beer drinkers and service industry (brewery folks) in Austin and a lot of people have tried to buy the glass from me. Apparently a lot of people say it shouldn’t even exist? Well I don’t know but I do know that this was the worst beer spot I’ve ever been to in Austin, and most people will rave about how great it is. Unfortunately for me, we never came back after our awful experience and thought you should know how terrible the staff was here...