Estes Park Brewery — Restaurant in Estes Park

Walking into the Estes Park Brewery, the decor is bland, boring, and disjointed between the upstairs (the bar/restaurant) and the downstairs (the gift shop). The restaurant tries to be a combination of restaurant and sports bar (they had tv's with sports on). But it could really use an update to make it look nicer. The mountain mural on the wall really didn't add anything to the ambiance. It also feels huge, with no dividers or anything to break up the space. The gift shop was pretty crowded with clothes, trinkets, etc., and attempted to feel like a mountain cabin or something. It doesn't fit at all with what they did upstairs.

We were promptly seated, but it took a while for a waitress to even come by to offer water or beverages. It appeared our initial waitress may have been new. We then somehow ended up with a second waitress (in addition to the first one). So when we got our food, one would ask how it was, and then the other would come by a few minutes later asking the same question. It was strange, but they were both very nice. It seemed uncoordinated, though, as though neither realized the other was helping us.

The food was mediocre, at best. My chicken sandwich was a bit dry, and had no sauce whatsoever on it, just the lettuce and tomato for which I asked. Not even mayo, which is standard fare on a grilled chicken sandwich. Fortunately, I ordered a side of ranch dressing to put on the sandwich, which costs nearly $2 extra...for ranch dressing. My wife's steak sandwich was quite thin, for the price. It was cold by the time it arrived, and was appeared to be previously frozen, not fresh.

I'm a sucker for great craft beer, and there are a lot of excellent breweries out there these days. But, at EPB the beer is okay. It's pretty standard, as far as flavor goes. Nothing that really stands out or is unique. I typically like dark beer, so I had their Samson Stout. It was decent. I've also had their honey wheat beer, and their porter before, both of which were just okay.

The waitress tried to make up for the cold food by giving us a free beer glass, which was a nice gesture. The food was also quite expensive. For two sandwiches and a beer, it cost us over $30.

Overall, the experience was extremely disappointing. There are lots of good places to eat in northern Colorado, but this was not one of them. I can't imagine we'll be returning to EPB...

What a wasted opportunity for what could be a really great concept!

We love trying local brewpubs, and figured we'd give this one a try. First off, the decor is confusing (and not in a good way) - sort of a hippie low-end bar vibe, with a giant outdoor mural that wraps the room. The light fixtures looked like a low-budget DIY project, and the furniture is from 1982. There was a deck, but even though it was a nice night, we weren't offered a table outside.

The food was meh. Not awful, not great. I had the Santa Fe chicken sandwich, and it was okay. My husband had the mushroom swiss burger, again, just okay. I did try a 4 oz. sampler of the blueberry wheat beer, and it was...again...okay. I had to concentrate hard to detect the blueberry flavor (even with two blueberries floating in it).

The service was less than stellar. One person took our order, and had to come back to ask what my husband ordered. Someone else brought us our food. When we asked her for A-1 steak sauce (a bottle of which was on the shelf not too far from where we were sitting) she didn't seem to understand what we wanted. Another server had to point it out to her. The bartender brought us our check, and it took me three tries to flag him down to ask for a box for the rest of my meal, since one wasn't offered. I understand they're short-staffed, and we try to be patient these days, but the place wasn't very busy at that point (mind you, this was at 7:00 on a Friday during the weekend of the Scottish Festival, so it should have been packed).

It's like the restaurant's owners just don't really care that much and are relying on the overflow of tourists to keep them in business. If they would update their decor (maybe something that actually looks like it belongs in a mountain town at the gateway to a national park), elevate the food offerings just a bit (at the prices they're asking, they really need to), and train their waitstaff a little better, they would have a line...

I wish I had something nice to say about this place. We came here for lunch after a hike on a Saturday. It wasn't crowded and we were able to be seated right away. The atmosphere/decor of the place makes you feel like you're back in the 80s/90s. It was cool that from the upper part of the restaurant you can look into the brewery, but other than that the vibes in the place were not my style.

Being a brewery I was interested to try the beer. They had several wheat beer options and I asked if I could try a taste of the blueberry wheat and the honey wheat before making my decision. The server informed my that I could try the blueberry wheat, but not the honey wheat. He didn't really explain. He alluded that if we went downstairs then we could try it, but then maybe we could only try certain ones. None of it really made sense. Another person in our party wanted to try a sip of the raspberry wheat before committing to a full beer and was also told no. We were however allowed to purchase $2 4oz pours of these beers. I have been to TONS of breweries and I have never been to one that wouldn't allow you to take a small sip of a couple of beers before making a selection. Heck, most restaurants will also allow you to do this. Moving on...

A few members of our party were vegetarian so they ordered the veggie burgers ($14). The patties were frozen which is fine I suppose. I ordered the fish and chips ($15). I received two frozen fish fillets that looked like they came out of the school cafeteria. They tasted very fishy and smelled. I didn't finish them. My mom got the buffalo burger ($15) and also suspected it was frozen. For the price paid I expected that at least some of the food wouldn't be frozen. It was honestly all pretty awful. Cafeteria food is better.

If you are in the area and want a beer, maybe give it a try. Otherwise there are plenty of better places. Whatever you do don't waste your money on the...