Hops Downtown Grill — Restaurant in Kalispell

Went here on Saturday and there was a large amount of people here due to the fact that Spartan Race was in town. As I have Celiac disease, I looked for restaurants on Google that had gluten free options. A few reviews mentioned gluten free options but they DO NOT have a marked menu or a separate fryer.

This is a very small restaurant in a historic building downtown. This is not the place to bring a large group. It's also quite dark and cramped in here, so be warned if you have mobility issues.

We gave a name and phone number as there was a 30 minute wait for a table for two. We received a text message and ordered.

My husband started with the $14.95 huckleberry duck wings without the gorgonzola cheese dressing. He was asked if he'd like ranch, which he said yes, but it never showed up.

He ordered the grilled meatloaf for $20.95 and I ordered the $19.95 Hops Huckleberry Burger without crispy shallots and no bun because there is a $2.50 upcharge for a gluten free bun. I also ordered mashed potatoes instead of fries because they use a shared fryer and their twister fries have a gluten coating on them regardless.

It took more than 40 minutes from the time my husband got his appetizer to the time we got our meals. It was clear that staff was extremely overwhelmed by the amount of people they had to serve. My burger came with a gluten free bun and the waitress said I wouldn't be charged for it because the kitchen just added it when I ordered my food gluten free. That's fine, I ordered it sans bun simply because I didn't want to pay an upcharge.

I enjoyed my modified burger and my husband liked his meatloaf. I did notice a lot of tables weren't eating their twister fries. I asked the couple next to us (like literally 3 inches from us) if they liked the fries because I noticed lots of tables weren't eating them. We were told that they were just okay. Another table mere inches from us got the 3 burger sampler. The guy complained that they were good but too small to actually get enough bites to compare the flavours of the different meats. He was eating off his girlfriend's pork chop because he scarfed the burgers in a few minutes and left his fries. Skip the fries and skip the 3 burger sampler if you're hungry.

They do offer a 15% off discount with military...

We had dinner for the first time at Hops on Friday night of Memorial Day weekend 2022. After reading Hops is a smaller (and we discovered very personal!) restaurant that doesn't take reservations, we arrived at their opening time of 5pm and were seated promptly; by 5:45, there was only a single table for two available. We tourists from Oklahoma, we love to try new things, so two of our group of four ordered the tri-fecta Hunter's Trio meal of sample/slider size burgers of Bison, Elk and Yak. One of these trios was mine. I've never eaten any of the three before but, my bucket list says I need to try new things. 🙃 My first bite was the bison and it squirted red across my plate and onto my white sweatshirt. Now, I am someone who normally orders all food well-done, zero pink, no shine: but I did not cut and run after the first bite because it was DELICIOUS! I had not actually bitten into the red center and I finished eating all around the edges. It was probably my favorite of the three and if I am able to return, I'll be sure to order well-done. The elk burger was delicious, no pink and 100% consumed. The meat of the yak burger was good, but Hops makes the slider with a jalapeno sauce that wasn't to my taste. I scraped the sauce off and enjoyed the meat. I ordered my dinner with fries and no one in our group has ever seen fries cut the way these were: thicker cut flat curls that were wonderfully flavored and cooked. Had I wanted something else, they had a lengthy list of sides I could have chosen. The third and fourth meals in our group were the evening's specials: Mahi-mahi ($30) and a 16 oz steak ($40). The lady who ordered the mahi-mahi was still raving about how good it was the following day; the steak was good, though not as tender as we would like to have seen. Our waitress deserved every penny of our generous tip: she was superb not only in serving us and helping us with choices but also in answering our questions about the Kalispell area. I will definitely return to Hops should the opportunity arise and strongly suggest you...

Pretty bad experience here. To start, as I was halfway through eating my appetizer the bartender asked me to move seats so they could accommodate a larger group. I was fine with moving, but they moved me to the bar seat right next to the entrance to the back of the bar and the walkway to the kitchen, so there was constantly traffic right next to me. I could've been moved to the middle of the bar, but whatever at that point.

The appetizer itself was not great. I got the Elk Sausage and Pretzel with Bleu Cheese Fondue and a mustard. Obviously, elk is inherently dry because it's leaner, but it tasted like it was overcooked and flavorless - this was depressing because it was the feature of the dish. The pretzel itself was pretty small. Honestly it should've been the other way around with more pretzel and just one elk sausage instead of two. The fondue was actually very good though and I enjoyed that for as many bites as I could get out of the pretzel.

Next, the entrée I got was the Elk Bolognese Lasagna. The people at the bar sitting down from me that got there after I did had their entrée come out before mine, so the timing was off to start. Once I received by lasagna it turned out to be cold in the middle (where the main portion of the ricotta was). The waitress was very nice about it and offered to have the cooks reheat the dish. However, when you reheat a pasta dish like elk lasagna, the elk becomes even more dry than it initially is and the pasta itself tends to become overcooked. The flavor wasn't terrible once it was warm, but then the texture of the pasta was then a little off.

Two starts instead of one because of the nice fondue and the kindness of the waitress. I believe her name was Jordan? In all, after the tip everything came to $42 or $43 for one person. So in my opinion, it...