7 Hills Brewing Company — Restaurant in Dubuque

What a great time we had in Dubuque while visiting several local places for just a few days getaway. We really were excited to visit 7 Hills brewery based on our love for craft beer and all the positive reviews and pictures online on all social media platforms. My wife and I travel the country both personally and for business all the time. We usually look for places like this! We came in on a Monday night around 8pm. The business was slow as you can imagine. We were greeted with hellos and smiles. Sat right at the bar were a friendly and informative bartender immediately stopped to fill us in on specials and menu suggestions. Off to a great start we both thought as we looked around this impressive establishment. That's when it all went downhill! We ordered the Steak Bites appetizers Med-Rare and a couple flights of beers to try all there creations. Beers came quickly and then followed by our Steak bites. Beers were all very impressive just so everyone is clear on that! Not the Steak sadly. Ours were way over cooked, NO pink whatsoever, no seasoning, no flavors and lot of hard grizzled chunks. Very disappointing on a 1 out of 10 it was a 1. Then we sat and watched the kitchen employees all singing having a great time goofing around while customers were still giving them business. We should have taking photos or videos to show the owners. All the local joints we talked to about this over our few days stay said that it was disappointing to hear because this place has much higher standards. We never said anything about this because we still had our dinner to come. We didn't want to be those people my wife and boyh said. Next our Breakfast Club sandwich came out and WOW was it spot on delicious! Amazing 👏 However we ordered the Mac-n-Cheese as our side and the noodles were hard and old as if they were never stirred and the air drued them out. Just no passion from the cooks i believe or pride in what they do. We both said even at the end of the night they should have know not to serve that and told the bartender to have us choose another side as an option. So we did decide to tell the bartender about this because it was horrible. He apologized and offered us something different right away. Which was the right thing for him to do, but at this point we were just completely over it. So we politely declined as we watched all the cooks /waitresses sitting at a table next to the bar playing on their phones hanging out. When the bartender confronted the cook about the issues with our noodles he blantly laughed out loud and looked right at us with the other staff. Not the bartender though! We decided we had enough at this point so we got our bill and left. Owning several successful large bars and restaurants ourselves this would never be tolerated or acceptable behavior for any customers to recieve in any circumstances. Unfortunately we would not come back the next time we visit. Very expensive meal to leave feeling the way we did. Especially during these unique times when all business owners are fighting to either retain their existing customers or get new ones that leave with happy that go on to spread the word about about how good the visit to your establishment was. Not the case for us we were very...

Right off the bat, we had a problem. They have huge picnic tables and seats to use. They most definitely used the wrong type of varnish when these tables and seats were finished. Or else they used cheap varnish...bc the table tops R EXTREMELY TACKY AND STICKY! As R the seats. It's a horrible, disgusting feeling. Then we ordered strawberry lemonades. Do not order them unless U LOVE sickenly, unholy sweet drinks. The lemonade was SWEET on its own. Add strawberry syrup, and it's really hard to drink. Plus, 2 glasses came with the stawberry syrup, the 3rd didn't. They have no extra napkins to be found anywhere on the tables. Ordered 2 Cuban sandwiches, one with fries and mine with a salad and Ranch dressing. Their Ranch had great flavor, but was extremely thin and runny. Their fries R the bomb!! So awesome...and this is coming from someone that doesn't care for or even like fries!! I ordered my Cuban with raw onions on it. Well, apparently that request was just too much work for the cooks, as I got them on the side! We quickly went thru our lemonades due to our dinner being on the salty side. Our waitress never came back 2 ask us if we wanted any refills at all. We didn't care if we had 2 pay for another drink, we just wanted something more 2 drink. And since we were seated in the furthest back R corner, we were largely ignored. My son ordered a pulled pork BBQ sandwich with beer cheese on it. THAT WAS HORRENDOUS, 2 say the least. There was 5x as much beer cheese as BBQ meat on that sandwich. If there was 2 T of meat on there, I'll kiss your tukous. And the beer cheese sauce was nasty!!! It was ridiculously SWEET as well. Tasted like it should have been a dessert sauce!!! So my son opens up his sandwich 2 remove as much of the beer cheese sauce as possible. That's when we observed the total lack of pulled pork on there. All in all...an extremely disappointing meal. Absolutely not on par with our previous visit...

I enjoy the atmosphere and friendliness of the staff and most of the patrons. I even got a memorable and unexpected birthday serenade by an older gentlemen placing an accordion and his wife, occasionally service has been a little shaky, not being able to locate our server and keep mugs full, but there a,ways seems to be someone nearby to flag down that is ready to help.

There have been some changes in the menu over time that I miss. Originally you had a delicious vegetarian pizza with a red pepper sauce, and it disappeared, unfortunately.

Along with that, the vegetarian options seem to be pretty limited, which limits our options and how often we come in. The salads seem very meat centered, and while the pretzels are delicious, and the spinach dip is tasty, we like having extr options for variety.

The beer selection is solid and I love the Muddy Tugger. It’s nice to have a local place making something that isn’t an IPA.

And then there is the kombucha. I’ve enjoyed almost every flavor you’ve put out. There was an odd banana one that didn’t agree with me, but overall, they’ve been great. I also need to thank you for setting me up with the starte to get my home kombucha brewing back on track.

The frequency and variety of your on-site events are nice, and having family-friendly trivia events makes it possible for us to invite our friends from out of town. If I had a comment on the live music, I would say tat it is often a little too loud. It would be great to hear an acoustic set without it blowing you off your bench.

It has also been really impressive to see how he on your feet when the pandemic shut you down. Seeing you jump into providing takeout meals, takeout drinks, and even some grocery commodities. You showed that you are fully invested in the community around you, and want to be a part of it.

Thank you for that, and for listening to the community.

We...