Bear King Brewing Company — Restaurant in Marble Falls

I like going around to breweries and seeing what's what. These days, there are a lot of microbreweries or brewpubs popping up, and most of them are average at best. Average, meaning they are not terrible, but nothing inspired. If the brewery has one beer or drink I like, it's pretty good. If they have two, then it's really good, and if they have three, then I better buy some stock in the place (if it were possible.) Bear King had at least four beers I liked and I didn't even try all the ones they had! It is rare to find a microbrewery with that many good beers, and it's been a while since I've been to one. My recommendation is to go for the beer, stay awhile, and bring friends. Also, don't forget to try their truffle fries.

update I dropped a star because of my last visit. I was all set to make Bear King my new stop every time I go through Marble Falls, which is about once a month. So, I tried more samples, many of which I hadn't tried last time, and I found two I liked. I then ordered the nachos and tacos. The nachos were outstanding, but there were some issues with the card readers. The network came back up, and I was able to pay. After the flight, food, and a couple more samples, I decided which beer to get. I said I wanted two of their howlers or growlers filled with the pale ale, one for me and one for my father-in-law. We have different tastes, but we would both appreciate that one. So they get the containers, clean them, fill them with beer, and I then hand them my card. Long story short, they can't charge my card after about 15 or 20 minutes and countless swipe attempts. They decided the network was down and would switch to cash only. I told him I didn't carry that much cash and what can we do to make this deal happen. Throw in a free hat or cash discount for my wasted time and effort to find an ATM, then come back with cash, nope. I was ready to get back on the road and wasn't up for tracking down an ATM and returning because their network went down. On top of that, they double charged my card for the flight and food; I hope it is caught so I don't have to open a fraudulent charge case with my credit card.

update 2 I am going to drop another star. I took my family and some extended family here because I thought the whole menu would be excellent. It wasn't. The food should be way better for the price, but aside from the salad and kids' hot dog, I could have much better food at almost any fast food burger spot and for considerably less money. We tried six different dinners, and all except for the kid's hot dog meal were, at best, disappointing. And while the truffle fries were good, the regular fries were not. Aside from that, the service was the worst I can remember having experienced in a long time. Soon after, we got our meal, and while I was about to take a bite, the waitress asked if I would like to pay my bill. Never mind the empty water glasses on the table that were never refilled and that I had to go to the bar to order my beer. She brought water and took our order, and for her "service," she believed that I would like to be interrupted as I was about to start eating to pay my bill so she could get the "suggested tip of between 22% and 25%" of a $100 plus dollar meal and then leave. And yes, the little handheld machines they ask you to pay with while standing next to you have those as the suggested tip amounts. They also expect a premium tip to go with the bad service and food. Unbelievable.

TLDR: the beers are great, but the food isn't, and both are overpriced. The appetizer menu is decent. Also, their flight, which is a selection of 4 beers each, about 4oz, is $14.50 (essentially a pint of beer.) This was written in 2024, maybe in 2044, that price may seem fine, but in the here and now of Texas hill country, those prices are laughable. There is another microbrew restaurant within walking distance (across the main road) that I will return to if I want beer and food. For just food, the Bluebonnet cafe is right across the way. Bear King has good but slightly...

I came here on a Sunday afternoon with my husband and his family and unfortunately got some of the worst service I’ve ever experienced. I walked in and noticed there was no one at the host stand, but it was pretty busy so I didn’t think much of it. After about 10 minutes someone came by and added us to the wait list which they said would be about 30 min. We were then escorted to our table by the hostess and she said our waiter would be with us shortly. 10-15 min passed before he made an appearance at the table and all he said was “what can I get you?”. I asked if we could go ahead and order our food along with our drinks and he just silently stared back at me so I went ahead and ordered, then my husband, but when he got to my sister in law she ordered just a drink and he skipped over to my father in law. He took my father in laws and my mother in laws order and was about to walk off but we called for him to let him know he had not taken my sister in laws order. He then left without saying a word and returned a few minutes later with our drinks. He placed the cups on the table and walked away. I noticed we were missing a drink but by the time I looked up he was half way back to the bar. Normally I’d just wait until he came back but considering our experience so far I knew we would not be seeing him anytime soon so I got up to let him know we were missing the drink. When I caught up to him I just politely said excuse me we are missing a drink and he looked at me and just replied “no you’re not you have all the drinks I just brought them to the table” to which I replied “yes but there’s 5 of us and you only brought 4 drinks”. Again without saying a word he walks off grabs a cup and takes it back to the table. We did not see him again until our food came out 40 minutes later. The food was ok, fries were great but other than that nothing special. After another 25 minutes our server came by with his new personality to drop off the check. I can only assume at this point he wanted our last interaction with him to be positive so we would keep it in mind when tipping.

If you made it to the end of this sorry for the rant, and if you choose to try this place out I pray you don’t have our...

This place was so disappointing. I mean the atmosphere was great, however the food was mediocre for the price. And the server we unfortunately got, was a rude pos. Not sure if it was his first time serving, or woke up on the wrong side of the bed or got called in to pick up a shift on his day off, but he made sure to let us know he wasn’t having it. I went with my brother, sister, parents and son since my brother spoke highly of this place. We caught them on Sunday rush hour which is understandable having to wait 30 mins I don’t mind. But having to wait 10 mins for someone to finally come to our table and with an attitude to top it off. He just came to our table, didn’t introduce himself just asked what we wanted to drink. We told him we were ready to order our entrees along with our drink order, and as I about to tell him what i wanted to order, he completely ignored me and moved onto take someone else’s drink order. Our appetizer came out fairly quick for onion rings, but we waited a good 40 mins for our entrees to come to our table. There was a family, with the same amount of people, who sat after we got sat who got their entrees before we did. I was once a waitress, I can understand when it’s rush hour, but our server could’ve at least let us know that he checked on our food and it would be out soon or something. I got the brisket sand-which that should have come with bbq sauce but I guess they were low on the sauce or something cause mine came dry as the Sahara desert. I was hungry and didn’t want to have to wait so I ate it, but for $13, I could’ve just gone to Rudy’s and gotten a better sandwhich. I got my son the chicken tenders, there was only 2 tenders and they were over cooked..there was more bread than chicken in these tenders. Overall, I would not waste my money at this restaurant. And if you get the server with the gold ring on his right hand, change your server, unless you’re into people being rude to you for no reason then switch their energy once you’re about to pay so you can leave him a tip. Keep the same energy you came to our...