Great Basin Brewing Co. - Sparks — Restaurant in Sparks

I have been trying to come here for awhile now to enjoy a nice cold beer during happy hour, but every other time we have tried the place was packed! Well I was home a little earlier from work and since we knew the happy hour started a little earlier than other places we headed on over. I am so glad that we came when we did, because there were only three open tables and a couple spots at the bar, but by the time we were ready to order, those seats were all taken up. Our server was a nice lady who was patient with us answering questions for us about the beer and food included in happy hour. I didn't feel that $1 tacos were the way to go, and decided on the rib-eye french dip sandwich (added a picture to the page), which was very good! I was a little disappointed to see that I had to pay to include cheese on this sandwich, but to be honest, it didn't need the cheese. Overall the food was hot, tasty and satisfying. The beer was cool and refreshing. The place got a little loud at times, mostly due to a person close to our table speaking over the normal noise level, but that happens in places with so many people in it. The only knock I had was when the waitress spilled my remaining beer onto the table and on my phone. She did apologize and offer a new beer, but I had already had my one beer for the meal. We will come back to enjoy more of the menu items as well...

Great beer, food is...meh. But the service...WOW! It'd have improve significantly just to be merely poor. Had the misfortune of drawing Taylor as our "service" person. Ordered a beer and a few minutes went by with only a beer for my wife. I went to the bar and got my own. Informed the waitress that she needn't charge me for the beer as I had paid for it at the bar. Fine. After the super greasy fish tacos, which I didn't finish because they were...well ruined by the greasy state, I obtained the check from Taylor. I double checked it and discovered that she indeed charged me for a beer that I'd already paid for. Taylor was now visibly annoyed and asked how I wanted to handle it? Did I want to have the beer credited back to my card or get a free beer? A "free beer"? If I've already paid then a second beer would certainly not be "free." Please, credit my card. Now Taylor was really unhappy and pounded the transaction into the register, threw the old receipts into the trash, missed, knocked over the trash, left it. Tossed down the new receipt for me to sign and in the most snotty sarcastic tone, Taylor wished me a fantastic night. Taylor screwed up, twice (no beer and wrongly charged for it) got called on it and I'm in the wrong? Great Basin can have Taylor. I'll keep my money. Great beer but double...

The service is decent and the food is usually okay, but not amazing. I feel GB is slightly overrated. The Shepherd’s pie was more like a soup than a stew, with a strangely sweet tomato base and barely any beef or veggies. The fettuccine Alfredo was a bit dry and was just okay. The chicken appetizer and fried fish tacos were a bit greasy. I’ve tried a few of the specialty beers so far, and while their regular brews are pretty tasty, I’ve found that they seem to go overboard with the weirder flavors. Where you might expect just a hint of mint in the mint chocolate stout, for example, it ended up being so strong it was undrinkable. Of course our server noticed we didn’t eat much of our dinners and didn’t drink the beer, and she did offer to take an entree off the check, which we declined (but appreciated). I like the atmosphere, but the food is just so-so. I’ve eaten at Great Basin many times because my ex used to really like it for some reason, but in all those times I never really had anything that wowed me. Also, the wait to get your food is always on...