Side A Brewing - Public House — Restaurant in La Grande

Updating my review to say that, as seems to be the case in a lot of restaurants, the quality of food here has gone down significantly. We gave them a few tries post-covid & were disappointed every time. It is no longer worth dealing with the fact that it is always loud in there for us anymore, so we’ve stopped going, which is a bummer because we used to frequent it.

It’s probably still a good place to hang out & have a beer with friends if you are okay with loud energy, but that is not my scene.

Previous review: In short: Ridiculously good food.

In detail: This place is seriously top notch. The foods are made with quality ingredients and are creative enough to be unique, but not pretentious enough to be annoying. And delicious... sooooo delicious. The first time that we went here it was so loud & the atmosphere was so not us that I was pretty skeptical, but when I was served the HANDS DOWN best veggie burger I've ever had with a side amazing fries, I was sold. I keep going back to that burger, but my husband has tried a few dishes & loved them all. We discovered that they have a children's menu, too (which I posted a picture of); while usually it's been our spot to go with just the two of us, it's what my husband wanted for his birthday lunch so we figured we'd just find something on the regular menu for our youngest 2 to share but we were instead presented with said kid options. Bonus. I don't discredit any restaurant for choosing not to cater to kids but, as a parent, it's handy when they do. So I will say that I kind of hate the atmosphere. It's located in an old fire station and, even when the place isn't packed, the sound gets amplified. It's a hip beer spot, but I didn't like those kinds of places when I was a drinker & they aren't any more appealing now that I'm not. ;) It has an impressively huge beer hall table that I'm sure would be fun to hang out with a bunch of friends on if you're into that kind of thing. They also appear to have a great selection of craft beers. I do appreciate the music that they play there when I am able to hear it because it's my kind of stuff & rare to hear anywhere around here that it isn't me who's playing it (Spoon, Radiohead, & Beastie Boys come to mind as things I've heard there). An especially refreshing change from the country music standard. BUT. Even with atmosphere that isn't enjoyable to me, I still give the place 5 stars because the food is...

Just moved here so have been trying all the places to eat around here. I can see why some people love it, but it's not my style. The restaurant is in the old firehouse, very cool for an atmosphere... but literally also cool in that it's drafty because of the old building. I don't drink, so couldn't appreciate what I've heard is a great selection of beer. Food is high end pub food... we happened in at happy hour and got the smaller portions of Mac & cheese, simple salad, and burger with fries. All high quality, but I prefer a salad with a green/red leaf or romaine lettuce mixed with the spring mix so it's not just dressed up weeds and the dressing was near nonexistent. Burger and fries was just fine. Ended with the stuffed chocolate cake which has a layer of cheesecake in the middle and salted caramel on top. Very nice and really rich. For how much we paid I felt the environment was a bit low end with a big picnic table in the middle and generic tables and chairs around the edges. Lighting was a bit too dim and when it got packed with customers it was really noisy. Service was slow, but they make everything from scratch, so to be expected. Again, if I was a drinker I'd probably like this a lot more, but for date night with the hubby probably wouldn't choose here again. Gave four stars because they were doing most everything right other than needing some noise dampening on the ceiling and changing the lighting, not going to penalize them just because it's...

The best, most mouthwatering, creative dishes in the PNW!!! My boyfriend and I were headed to Seattle from Boise but didn’t want to settle for subway or McDonald’s so google suggested ‘Side of Brewing’ This was back in late September so we sat on their quaint patio and received excellent service. The interior is a remodeled fire station. We both got the grilled cheese and tomato soup. The absolute best grilled cheese and tomato soup E V E R!! (We’ve recently made the trip to Pasco, WA. I called and requested tomato soup to be the soup of the day BUT they only use the fresh ingredients they have on hand for the fresh soups! HOW AWESOME! We didn’t get our soup but still stopped for some grub!) on our way back from Seattle to Boise, we stopped for dinner again. I ordered one of the specials, spicy Thai Mac n cheese or something along those lines and it was incredible. My mouth is watering thinking about how delicious this dish was. Not only do they have top notch dishes, but they’re brews are killer as well. We do the flight where you pick five beers(I think) they’re good sized pours and shareable between the two of us! We’re beer connoisseur’s, we like to think, so it’s awesome to find a place with amazing food that pairs perfectly with great beer! We have now made it our place to stop each time we travel through La Grande. 12/10 suggest to friends, family, locals,...