Hop Lounge — Restaurant in Montana

I randomly stumbled across Hop Lounge without seeing any advertising. I have been there on two occasions now. The first was just to stop and have a beer. Second included trying the food.

My impression of the "bar" (upstairs) portion of the restaurant is impressed. They have 50 beers on tap with 49 of them being MT beers. They have lots of unknown beers rather than local favs which I really enjoyed. My personal favorite was the white stout from Kettlehouse Brewery. The staff is great and patient while checking out the HUGE beer list. 5/5

The downstairs contains a counter to order food. Staff was friendly and answered all questions. I ordered to-go. The food was mediocre. The sandwich my friend had was delicious, as well as the cajun fries. I ordered a quarter of a chicken. This was served on a bed of rice. The chicken had excellent flavor but semi-dry. The rice on the other hand was kind of atrocious. It had an oatmeal like consistency, while also being undercooked in the middle. The different sauces I was told were made in house. Excellent flavors! I just wished that a place that only deals in chicken would have the best chicken. 3/5

Overall, this is a new business and if they can turn around some kitchen woos I can really see the potential here.

Edit: Now this is all my fault for not updating my review prior to six months. I have been to this establishment between my original review and my update. I came in today 5/21/21 and spoke with Ben about my previous visit. Ben told me they had issues with the rice cooker and the time and they have been fixed.

My stop today I had Ben pick out my sauces and sides. He chose various sauces and baked beans for my side. The rice was cooked to perfection and had dripping from the chicken that was top notch.

Like Ben had said, the issues have been resolved and this vibe and employees are happy and solid. Thanks for the corrections...

I’ve been here a few times and had wonderful experiences. This was my first time in over a year and the bartenders were awfully rude and put off the vibe like they hated their jobs. We went Monday, I think it was a trivia night, and wanted to grab a quick beer before picking up our dinner down below to bring home. The food was spectacular but the bartenders truly made our pub experience terrible. We must had been standing at the bar for 12-15 minutes as 2 bartenders just kept walking by us and wouldn’t even look at us or greet us. Meanwhile one of the three bartenders are chatting casually to the couple beside us about tattoos for a while... We were sitting there without having had any service yet and were baffled at their behavior. We finally got a beer from one of them chewing some food. But their poor service truly made us just want to get out of there as soon as possible. We felt like we were in the way, not welcome and as if we did something wrong. Of course we couldn’t get their attention to pay so we just left some cash on the bar. It’s too bad because they used to have the nicest bartenders. Next time we will just pick up food and get...

I've been here 2-3 times. It's decent.

Upsides: Music nights are really cool. The sauces are dope. Great beer variety. Cool barn feel.

Average: The nuggets and some other apps they sell are Sysco brand level tasting, not very good, but some of their other stuff is solid, enjoy the Cajun fries.

Downsides - Half the time, the fries are way oversalted, bordering on...well we'll eat a few cause we're hungry then just stop it's that salty.

It's always too loud where your ears ring from a little hearing damage when you leave. (I told my wife it reminded me of the Taproom in Bozeman that's always loud AF and needs soundproofing, like on the ends behind the TVs maybe).

Tonight we went, we ordered downstairs. The 23ish year old in the grey top was super friendly to my partner and like instant mask change - mad RBF to me at every interaction to the point I was like WTF? My wife noticed too.

Our server was nice. She said she was comping a beer cause it was the last in the keg and then didn't, and 2 sandwiches took about 45 minutes which was underwhelming. Our server was nice though. Don't know if...