Thirsty's Brew Pub & Grill — Restaurant in Hays

Okay, this place is fun with exceptionally great food. They did an excellent job abiding by the COVID-19 guidelines, and our waitress was just wonderful. Our party of 11 had to wait about 45 minutes, but that's to be expected with such a large party right at the lunch rush in an era where restaurants have to maintain social distancing between tables.

The special for the day was grilled salmon with two sides for $12! That's insane! Most of our table ordered that and from the parts I sampled, it was perfectly cooked salmon that was very flavorful with beautiful grill marks, and drizzled with a bit of lemon juice. It was excellent. I ordered the Boom Boom Burger with onion rings. The burger came with pepper jack cheese, breaded fried Jalapeño slices and boom boom sauce. The sauce wasn't as spicy as I had hoped, but the burger was still great nonetheless. The fried jalapeños really stood out and had a wonderful heat. The onion rings were perfectly breaded and cooked, with a thick yet crunchy batter. We have all had onion rings with too light and loose of a batter that it just falls off the slices of onion or where the onion slice slides out whole from the coating and those are disappointing. These were not those onion rings. This is everything you want in an onion ring, and the coating somehow stayed super crisp throughout the entire meal. One bite from a ring was a clean break, leaving the rest of the onion slice intact in the remaining batter. Get these when you come.

Our waitress continued to check on us throughout our lunch, always quick to bring more beer. We had three youngsters with us, and she made sure to out their order in first so they would get their food sooner to keep them occupied and happy, something so many restaurants and servers overlook. Your family will love this place and it's somewhat...

My wife and I heard a lot of good things, and we've been wanting to try it for a while. It was not what the hype said it would be. We ordered 2 appetizers, the mozzarella sticks were served cold and the seasoning was off, just didnt taste right, but the mango habanero wings, SPOT ON, by far the best part of the meal, however i felt we were rushed to finish our appetizers as the main course was out not even 5 minutes afterwards and they sat us at a table too small for 4 plates. The steak they served me, while cooked the way I asked, was sour as if they use the same grill rack for all their cooking and the seasoning from other meats got mixed in. The cream corn started good after eating the mango habanero wings but quickly lost flavor, and i probably would have liked it better if i mixed some of the wing sauce into it. The teriyaki chicken was basically just a char grilled chicken breast with a little, and I mean a LITTLE bit of teriyaki glaze spread on top and the rice was over cooked, the fries were okay texturally, but I feel I've had better fries out of an air fryer. The waitress we had, while super friendly, was horrible at table management and was behind the bar a lot, leaving our drinks empty on several occasions, and the glass size is small to begin with. Lastly, when we arrived, we were (not) greeted by the hostess at the front desk. She had an attitude that screamed she didn't want to be there, talk to anyone, or do anything and basically pushed the notice disk into my wife's hand. Overall, it was a very poor experience, and we will not...

Decided to try Thirsty's for the first time. We had just picked up an international exchange student, so were a group of 9 total, representing 5 different countries; Spain, Germany, Belgium, Vietnam, and the US. Our wait time was probably 35 minutes or so, much better than the 1-hour estimate, and with a group our size, that is very good. So, Food- Solid 4 star. We had the sirloin, the sweet and spicy salmon and shrimp, and associated sides. Also tried the mountain oysters, and then told the exchange students what they were after eating. They all liked them before we told them, but not as much after. This was not the fault of the food though. The onion rings were ok, nothing spectacular. Sweet potato fries were cooked a little hard, but these are just nitpicking points. Service- our waitor really engaged with the group, asking where everyone was from, and really made them feel welcome. The wait staff looked spread a little thin, but they got it done within reasonable expectation. The front desk people looked a bit stressed, but it was a busy night. Everyone remained pleasant and professional. The food took less time than we expected. Atmosphere- This place has a lot of hard surfaces, therefore sound was an issue. Those with hearing loss will have a difficult time with conversation. Beyond that, it was pleasant, clean, and welcoming.

I really had to look close for my down points, and I am comparing Thirsty's to some very good restaurants all over the world.

So the final question...would I return? I would like to try more of the...