Alvarado Street Brewery — Restaurant in Monterey

After spending the day on the mountain bike I finally made my way into this much talked about brewery. I was pleased to find it was not just another local tap house or maker of the trendy. Their beer, especially the IPAs, are some of the best.

I had the Mai Tia IPA. Here is what they had to say about it: Mai Tai PA, Technically, an International-Style Pale Ale but We Call It an IPA Our drier, decidedly “tropical” IPA that’s light on bitterness, but heavy on hop aroma, courtesy of 100% Mosaic hops. One whiff and you get super intense notes of passion fruit, mango, and lychee. Grain bill of just American two-row malt and a clean fermentation keep it simple and allow these hops to shine. ABV: 6.5%

And I say, I wish I lived closer to it! This would most definitely kick off my Santa Cruz areas top pick! Might even take frequent day trips just to love it more.

The other beer I had was the Planes, Trains, & IPAs, a classic American IPA. They say, Cleanly fermented India Pale Ale with a hazy appearance, hopped abundantly with Nelson Sauvin, Strata, and Citra hops. Also a 6.5% I say, it was good, but the not fruity at all Mai Tia IPA was way better.

Yep! We ate too. And this gastropub did not disappoint! We just wanted light snacks and not a full meal, no problem. The Chicharrones with a lime wedge... I could survive on a deserted island with just these, so good and crunchy. Oh Canada! We love the Québécois for introducing the USA to Poutine. There is a special place in my heart for little chunks of succulent Roasted Pork Belly on top of a plate of french fries poking their heads out from under a slurry of thick Brown Beer Gravy and and melted mozzarella.

Yes, The pretzels and beer cheese, not your typical double loop and twist but three mini-baguettes. Hot and fresh.

Overall this beautiful and classy restaurant wrapped around an unspeakably clean beer making hallway was exactly as I expected. Really great food, better beer and at a price to be expected. $$$. Service was tops! Bathrooms clean, outside seating a must on a warm day. Stay for the...

This One’s Tough Because the Food was Good and the Beers were OK.

I believe no baby is ugly (my wife disagrees), wine pairings are BS, and there’s a beer someone will love. Alvarado Street Brewery brews their own, I had three of their concoctions, and struck out. I won’t go into my tastings, because no one should care, but I will say I tried their Mai Tai Pale Ale, Centennial 3 Way IPA, and their Pardi Mas Imperial Stout. They offer flights and if I could do it over, I would have done it that way; when we went, they had $4 pints as their happy hour special (along with cheap apps) and we partook in that.

We ordered their Chicken Wings app ($10, $7 during happy hour), which was a basket of their house-smoked, free-range chicken with a dry-rub and ranch dressing. These were OK; the rub was fantastic—a great blend of sweet and savory flavors. However, the chicken, while advertised as free-range, seemed to come from depressed chickens. It just didn’t taste like high-quality chicken. I ordered their Vietnamese Lamb Burger ($17), a house-ground lamb patty, with corriander, cilantro, basil, and sriracha mayo, served with fries. I ordered it medium and they nailed it—the burger was juicy on the inside with a nice char on the outside. My only recommendation would be not to skimp on the sriracha mayo or toppings (check out the pics). When you’re spending $17 on a burger, give the patron a good portion of veggies and sauce to compliment the burger. My wife ordered the Triple Mushroom Pizza ($15), a pie with cremini sauce, fontina cheese, trumpets, arugula, and truffle oil—she added red sauce. She absolutely loved the pizza and was so glad to add the red sauce. The kids had a burger with fries and pizza. Needless to say, they loved it and finished it up.

Overall, I would recommend Alvarado to anyone—great food and great happy hour specials. I would even go so far to try more of their beers, but would opt for the flight option so as to not...

I recently made the mistake of visiting this restaurant. At first glance, the place looked promising — cute décor, decent atmosphere — and after a long day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, my family and I were ready to relax over coffee before heading to Alvarado.

That brief moment of optimism ended the second we interacted with our waitress. Instead of politely mentioning the no-outside-drinks policy, she came at us with an attitude so unnecessarily hostile it was genuinely off-putting. If basic human decency is too much effort, maybe she’s in the wrong line of work.

And here’s the kicker: while lecturing us about health codes, she personally violated them — multiple times. She delivered our drinks with her hands all over the rims of the glasses, then refused to properly provide a straw when asked, tossing it over bare-handed with no napkin. If you’ve ever worked in food service, you know this is a complete failure of sanitation.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was even charged for chicken I didn’t order, didn’t eat, and never asked for. When I politely brought it up and asked to have my bill adjusted, the waitress doubled down with an attitude that was downright rude and condescending — as if correcting an obvious mistake was somehow my fault.

This wasn’t just poor service — it was a display of arrogance, laziness, and contempt for customers. The waitress knew she’d get an automatic 20% gratuity because of our party size, and she acted like that gave her license to be careless, disrespectful, and completely unprofessional.

To summarize: cute restaurant, ruined by disgusting service, unsanitary practices, and staff who treat paying customers like a nuisance. If you care about basic respect, food safety, or not being overcharged for food you never ate, do yourself a favor and go literally...