Union Bear Brewing Company - Denton — Restaurant in Denton

The TL/DR is good food, good beer, good atmosphere, and fair prices; some of the overall experience just misses the mark.

I was happy to find my crowd immediately seated on a busy Friday night (we chose the patio). The outdoor area was well-spaced, and not overly loud. The indoor space is a bit too echoey for my liking.

The staff was very friendly and accommodating. The waits weren’t long for anything once we ordered. And the menu is stunningly cultivated with great food options. I had a falafel burger with fries, and it far exceeded my expectations. The trip was close to my birthday, and our waitress gave us a dessert on the house, which was also stellar.

I wanted to sample their entire beer menu, so I started ordering flights; these were $8 each, which is actually low these days. Full beers mostly ran $6. I couldn’t find cans for sell (for take-home), and it’s one of those places where you have to ask for pricing on growler fills. The flight prices also aren’t on the menu, but should be.

The beer was all solid, some of it being downright great. 1/5 of the beer menu wasn’t actually stocked, 2 of the menu slots were placeholders, and they had a Helles Lager that wasn’t yet on the menu at all. But the glasses weren’t tiny, they clearly labeled each drink, and the pours were filled to the brim, while not heady. Also, the Mexican brews had the option of tajin and lime additives, which worked really well.

This brewery shines brightest in their darker grain work; specifically the amber, the dubbel, and the 2 stouts. The greatness continues (to only a slightly-lesser degree) when it comes to the IPAs, the blonde, the New Zealand, the Mexican amber, the hefeweizen, and the helles. The brews I thought were good, if a bit lacking in wow factor, were the Mexican lager, the German, the Oktoberfest, the bock, and the saison.

I also found that some of the beers felt mislabeled with regard to their styles; clear examples being the bock (which was darkly grained to the point that it tasted too near to a stout), and the New Zealand (which tastes far closer to a pale ale than a pilsner). As good as their catalog is, I think it’s a bit too safe on the whole; by which I mean that you won’t find much beyond the classic beer styles here (no fruiteds, sours, cheladas, strongs, etc.) — odd when compared to their variety-stuffed food menu. Still, I couldn’t find a genuinely bad beer in the entire bunch. And the fact that their best beers (the darks) aren’t too thick, or too high in ABV, is truly commendable.

I’d visit Union Bear again without hesitation; foodies and beer enthusiasts can count on a mostly positive experience that won’t break the bank. The beer menu could be more informative and current. And I could see the more adventurous drinkers finding their offerings lacking after a few trips. Overall though, it’s a very satisfying...

So so happy we found this place, please never leave denton! Novel incoming, but worth the read to let anyone wondering what kind of place this is. Yesterday was my second time there, after stumbling in randomly with my boyfriend about a week ago and having the best pizza ever (the UB white pizza, amazing) So i recommended this place to my friends for a birthday we were celebrating, and it was even more amazing this time around. Before this award winning dining experience at union bear, we went to another restaurant one of our friends recommended on the square that we had reservations for. Unfortunately we had a comedy of errors experience at that restaurant, and left that place after 1.5 hours of no service, waiting for congealed food (only for half of us, the other half of our party was told their food was actually out of stock an hour after ordering and when the other food was coming out lol), we were feeling hungry, frustrated, and disappointed. I recommended coming here again after loving my earlier experience, and it was the best decision. From walking in (no wait, friendly greeting, immediately offering to put our friends handmade cake in the fridge which was almost melted after the previous restaurant did not bother to offer refrigeration) to the food (warm, actually had what they offered on the menu, great assortment of bites from veg to meat friendly) and the prices were amazing. The star of the show was our waiter, and the previous server Ive had here before was amazing as well. I believe our server was Gracie (my friend caught her name, forgive me if Im wrong-short hair, bangs, super sweet) and she was so on top of it and gave us the perfect dining experience we were hoping for. They were accomodating when a couple nearby friends came to grab a drink, food was quick, the beer flight was an awesome deal, and our friends birthday night was quite literally resurrected from us giving up. Last but not least, at bill time, after a wonderful slice of refrigerated cake and celebrating our friend, our server came up and let us know she had taken the beer flight and another item off our check because of the hard night we had had before coming to union bear- at the nightmare restaurant. It was completely unexpected (we had just been venting to her earlier and letting her know how much we appreciated her fantastic service and union bear) and really set such a great tone for our experience. It was so simple but meant so much to our group just trying to enjoy a night out. Thank you for saving our birthday dinner union bear, and for hiring the best people!! Will be back with every person I know to shout yalls name from...

We went on a Sunday around 1:30pm. It was shortly after the Denton location opened for business. We didn't leave till about 3:30pm, and they were packed the entire time. There was a lot of staff training going on. So we weren't expecting stellar service. But holy cow, service was awesome. Our server Bruce was one of the best servers we've had in a very long time... friendly, knowledgeable, attentive, always a huge smile despite obviously working his butt off. Even the runners were all smiles, super-friendly, and accommodating.

The décor is attractive and inviting... several notches above your average brew pub, but not the least bit pretentious like some high-end restaurants. Just the right balance for almost any group or occasion. Seating is comfortable, bathrooms were spotless, noise level higher than we'd like, but not too bad.

Drinks were amazing and reasonably-priced. We tried the Vanilla Sky, Golden Root Mule, plus a flight of 4 beers. When we asked about other beers, they brought us complimentary samples. The beers were all quite good but we especially like the No Coast IPA. It's not overly hoppy and has a nice citrusy finish. Most beers are $6-7 for 16oz, which is a very reasonable price.

But the food was the highlight of the day. Definitely not your typical pub fare. Amazing flavors from start to finish. We had the Tempura Beech Mushrooms and Sweet & Spicy Shrimp appetizers. Both were off-the-charts flavorful. We also had the Fish & Chips, Woodsman Pizza, and Falafel Burger. Everything was creative and well prepared. Only room for improvement was the fries. They were fresh cut from potatoes, which is nice. But very slightly underdone, a bit oily, and too much salt. Anyway, we are looking forward to future visits to try other menu options, all of which sound amazing.

Overall, we were all extremely impressed with our first visit. Denton is lucky to finally get a restaurant and brewery of this caliber. I love that they used the old Armadillo location. It looks amazing inside and out. If they can maintain the early operational excellence and provide consistent high-quality food and service, this place will be a Denton...