The Answer Brewpub — Restaurant in Lakeside

I found The Answer while looking for a local place with a selection of stouts. This place stood out for two main reasons during my search:

It had a much wider selection than most places which are simply over-saturated with IPAs. They update their tap list frequently. I cannot stress enough how wonderful this is.

So we gave it a shot and were not disappointed. The service was fast and friendly and the building itself was large with decent spacing between tables. I tried a flight of 4 their Andalls which had very reasonable pours for the price. While I wouldn't make any of them my "go-to" drink, I enjoyed tasting some different things and that is the whole point (and fun) of a flight.

I was also hungry so tried the Pork Meatball Banh-Mi. This was sort of a double-edged sword. I enjoyed the flavors of the sandwich and was very pleased. However, my palate never quite recovered and it made discerning the tastes of the beers a little more difficult. This is in no way a knock on the food, I really enjoyed it, it just didn't pair well with the beers I selected.

Afterwards I had a glass of beer from the "guest taps" which is a very impressive list with great variety. We also ordered a hazelnut ice cream sandwich (can't remember the exact name) which was the unexpected standout of the meal. The flavors were amazing and I could see it being a perfect compliment to some of the stouts.

Overall, I would say that this place succeeds both with the food and beer, although I'm not sure if I will partake of both at the same time in my future visits. It is probably just related to the type of beers that I enjoy, but the food (with the exception of the ice cream sandwich) detracted from the taste of the beers. Again, this is not because of any deficiency with the food or beer, just not my kind of combination. We will definitely be back though. I highly recommend this place for someone looking for a great...

Definitely think twice before going to this brewery! The service (ie server) was atrocious! We were there last Sunday (11/5) for my boyfriend's birthday and our server Megan was incredibly rude and nasty the entire time. If he had any questions about the availability of beers he read about on Untapped, or just in general, she would just say "look at the menu". This happened about three times! If all you're going to say is look at the menu when someone has a question regarding the selection then why should you receive a tip yet McDonald's workers shouldn't?

Everything interaction we had with her she was abrupt and rude. When the food came out only one of the dishes was decent, 2 were edible, and one no one could even stomach. When we told her that one of the dishes was basically inedible she just looked at us blankly, made no indication of caring about how upset we were with the food, and took it away. More than 75% of the food was still on the plate and she made no attempt to see if we could have a replacement or take it off the bill (it was definitely taken off her tip though).

When we paid the bill she didn't say thanks for coming in, bye, have a nice day.... she just dropped the card and receipt off and without a word left. The only reason I even know her name is because I specifically asked knowing that I would give a negative review about her. Seriously, this woman should not be working in a position where she interacts with people.

Didn't help that when the bar manager came up to see how things were that I told him how we sent back the food for being so bad he also made no attempt to rectify the situation. 2 stars literally just because the beer was pretty good, but honestly the service was so miserable I wouldn't recommend going back.

Edit: dropper from 2 stars to 1 because management didn't even care about the...

UPDATED We have to update our review from last visit to our great experience today. We went to the video game swap again. We sat at the bar, enjoyed our flight and received our mushrooms this time. The bartenders were exceptional. We got a chance to talk with our bartenders. Hardworking individuals with smiles. Thanks and we look forward to more fun, drinks and food. Wife and I went to the video game swap etc. We have been here before and the selection of beer is amazing. I would love to to try the food but every time we go we just can't seem to get the service. We got there at noon. Ordered a variety of beer, which were amazing and then asked for mushrooms. Our first waitress was a waste of space. We advised her we had ordered and she stated because the restaurant was busy. After 45 min people around us that came later received their food. It really looks amazing. 1 hr later after we had received the bill the mushrooms came out. We tried to tell the runner that we had canceled but he seemed to run off as to not want to hear our experience. All the bartenders looked as if they didn't want to be there. A real shame. The young hostess was the only one bussing tables and seating people with a smile. God Bless here. She needs a freaking raise. Asset to this business but would be an asset to any company that recognizes the hard work she was doing. We stayed around for the swap and ordered from another waitress, just beer and it was quickly served. We then tried to order more beer but the 1st waitress was there and we decided not to order because of the 1st experience with her. This waitress doesn't know she could have had a great tip. I am not sure if I would recommend and restaurant that...