Moab Brewery — Restaurant in Moab

The Fat Man and his wife took an adventure out West to Utah. We traveled to several places in the state, and with traveling comes new food opportunities. We stopped into Moab Brewery, a microbrewery known for ales & IPAs, an American restaurant, bar, patio dining & a gift shop.

We started with Desert Wings and BBQ sauce. The wings were good-sized, juicy, and cooked well. The skin was crispy, and the BBQ sauce was sweet and sticky, with a slight heat note on the end that tingled the lips. The Bleu cheese and the ranch were made in-house and had great flavor. The order size was large for an appetizer.

My wife had the BLTA sandwich with applewood bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheddar cheese, and garlic aioli served with fries. The fries were well-cooked and seasoned well. The avocado, tomato, and lettuce were fresh, and the portions were in proper amounts. The Texas toast was lightly toasted and had a good crunch. The bacon was medium cut but had a good salt level, crunch, and chew. The Mayo added a salt level and creaminess that tied the sandwich together.

I went with the Santa Maria Tri-Tip sandwich served with chimichurri, Cole slaw, and jalapeno-dusted fries. The pub-style fries were cooked golden brown, light, crispy, and pillowy on the inside. The jalapeno dust adds some good salt and heat to every bite. It was also served with beer cheese soup with a heavily sweet garlic cheesy flavor and some heat on the back end; it was very thin. The Texas toast was lightly toasted with a slight crunch and was not greasy. The chimichurri had a heavy, vinegary sourness that was overwhelming. The Tri-Tip was juicy and tender with a slight chew but lacked flavor.

Moab Brewery serves appetizers, salads, burgers, wraps, sandwiches, fish, pasta, and main entrees. The Fat Man says Moab Brewery is Fat Man Approved...

The good: (5 stars)Chante; our server. She really made the experience here worth coming. She was very attentive, pleasant and straight forward, even with all the circumstances going on. (To be told later). -liquor is served here as well. There is a distillery next door.

The bad: since tonight (12/30/18) is the last night they're going to be open for at least 2 weeks, certain fouls on the menu wet not going to be available. Those items being pretty much anything battered or fried. French fries, onion rings, fish and chips, certain chicken items, and Prime rib. Guess they didn't want to have those items on hand because a deep cleaning is going to happen the next week or two? Or just ran out of all that stuff?

The beer: Moab Brewery FMU DIPA 9.6% in a 16 oz can. Smooth, slightly sweet malty beginning, strong hoppy finish. --Moab Brewery: Johnny's American IPA 7% in a 16 oz can. (Wife).

Caveat: All draft beers are 4%. Don't ask me why. Yes, they're different. Utah's alcohol laws. Of course wifey and I opted for the can.

The food: actually decent. Get the spicy furnace wings and Jalapeno corn bread.

I ordered the mushroom Swiss burger. Supposed to be med, but came well done. It was edible. Wife orderes quesadillas, that came with a twist. Due to the fact that some items on the menu were not available the cook had to improvise. Again, the quesadillas were edible. ( We did get chicken quesadillas on the house because intially we were told they were out of chicken, but somehow found some and voila, chicken quesadillas showed up!)

Check this place out of you're in the area, but be...

We ate here twice over a Moab weekend, it was that good. Night one, I had a dozen wings with teriyaki and buffalo sauce with a side of the fiery sauce, which I didn't find to be that hot. The teriyaki was amazing, not too sweet, nice and sticky. The buffalo was also good, but not quite the flavor party. We shared a plate of beer battered onion rings which had a wasabi sauce which WAS pretty hot. Our only regret was not being able to take the leftovers home! My wife had the chicken quesadillas - WOW. Literally some of the best we've ever had. Loaded with flavor and perfectly tender chicken.

Night two I did the quesadillas with pulled pork, and they were not quite as successful. The meat was a little overdone and it overpowered the other flavors a bit. Still, really good. My wife had the Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Pasta, which was just OK. Really the food overall is more of a 4.5, but I can't do 10ths, so you get the round up.

Pet peeve - I get you're a brewery, but I don't like brewery beers, and would prefer something simpler like a Stella or Modelo.

Value - we were mostly eating appetizers, (Which was plenty to eat!) so neither night was over $60. Service was good, although their dedicated alcohol runner needs some training. On night one, a large table next to us asked him something and he said they'd (the customers) have to check with their server, instead of saying he'd get the server for them. He seemed constantly frantic and full of himself.

We went on both Friday and Satuday nights and no problem getting in. Highly...