Hops n Drops — Restaurant in Spokane Valley

NEW REVIEW - The location @ the Spokane Valley Mall was a serious disappointment when my wife and I attempted to visit around 6:15pm on 6/7/2025.

When we went in, there seemed to be roughly 12 parties currently spread throughout the place. Of those parties, two were in the bar area, so we decided to sit there, after asking the bartender if we could. We sat at a bar area booth for a bit and watched the staff move about as expected.

During our 15 minute wait for menus or even an acknowledgement, we noticed the various staff members, that were passing near, seemed to be unwilling to make eye contact with us. Hmmm... that was not reassuring.

Finally a hostess brought us menus, and told us our server would be with us shortly. We only had menus, nothing else.

We reviewed the menus. After 15 more minutes, my wife went to the hostess station and asked her who was our server. They offered to get the server, but by that time we were fed up, and my wife asked for the manager. The hostess said they would get them for us, then went to do so, while my wife returned to our booth.

We waited. Shortly the Hostess returned and informed us that the Manager had said that she would get to us when she could get around to it. Granted it may have been a mistaken choice of phrasing, but I was not willing to extend any more allowances at this point.

I got up and then said no way, forget it, we are leaving. My wife stood as well. We started walking to leave, when I noticed a person come from behind the bar towards the Hostess area. My wife had halted at the Hostess station, to await the manager.

Interestingly, the bartender, who had only 2 people at the bar counter on stools, and previously 1 other party in a booth - they had paid and left 8ish minutes ago - was the Manager.

I continued out of the restaurant, to the mall hallway. My wife interacted with the Manager, and expressed our dissatisfaction, dissapointment, and unhappy surprise at the complete lack of service, especially since my wife brought me there for my birthday meal.

The Manager apologized, stated that she was filling in that day, and that she couldn't see us from where we were sitting. My wife reminder her that she was the one who said that we could sit in the bar area. [I call bovine scatology on the 'apology' as it smacks of a big dose of CYA.]

The Manager offered a gift card, my wife said we did not want it, but the Manager insisted that my wife take it. It was for $40. [Oh sure, offer $40 to appease your own consciene due to a full on fumble.]

While I have liked their food, I will not likely be patronizing their operation again.

Just a rotten encounter, and a very weak attempt at even trying to resolve it.

In a word: Bah!

OLD REVIEW - The location - @ the Spok/Vall/Mall was quite the pleasant visit for me and my family. We four (4) came in about 9:40pm-9:45pm. This location is open until 11:00pm.

The server - Jessica, was excellent. She was highly professional, while still being pleasantly enjoyable in conversation.

The food - was very well done. Excellent quality and portions. I went to another burger chain restaurant the day before, with two others from tonights' party of four. That eatery shall remain name(fowl)less, and Hops N Drops beats their food products in quality, taste, and presentation/appearance.

The desserts were good. The cheesecake with raspberries & huckleberries on top was as quite wonderful. The donuts were very good, and disappeared quickly. The chocolate cake was quite sustantial, very rich, very dark, and enjoyably consumed.

I can understand now, why our server was so good at her job. While paying, I found out her title is bar manager. No wonder. 🙂

I highly recommend this location to you, especially if it is later in the evening, and...

Two senior citizens took our adult son to lunch at the Spokane Valley Hops and Drops today (Wednesday). The service was excellent (and courteous). Prices were a bit steep. Atmosphere was average for a pub (but the bench seats were comfortable). Presentation of the food was good, but at least half our food was awful.

Our son had the jalapeno cream cheese burger, with tots. He described it as "OK," but he is a real burger aficionado. It did have a whole, large, fried jalapeno pepper balanced on top, which I thought looked good, but he didn't try it.

My wife ordered the veggie burger with tots. The veggie patty honest-to-goodness was like a hockey puck. You couldn't bite into it and you couldn't even bend a piece of it. We brought that to our server's attention and between server and manager, a replacement was soon brought. That one was at least edible but nothing worth writing home about. They were professional enough to remove the cost from our tab. Because we had a guest, we stayed, but my wife tends not to ever return to any place that has a bad start with her.

I had the "smash burger" with, of course, tots. It was one of the worse burgers I ever tried to eat. The Kaiser bun disintegrated in my hand (segments just falling away). The patty itself was unlike any real smash burger I ever had. It was incredibly tough, difficult to chew, and I truly struggled to cut it with the sharp kitchen knife they brought to the table. This was a HAMBURGER.

I had also misread the menu and ordered a cup of clam chowder to go with my burger, believing it was $1.95 when added to a burger and not the $6.50 I was charged. The $1.95 price was if you substituted the chowder for the tots. That one was my fault for not reading more carefully.

The chowder was just OK, although light on clams and HEAVY on onion.

The things that were best on all 3 plates were the tots.

Lastly came the tab. This is not related to the quality of the food we received. The total, including tax and excluding the comped veggie burger, was $52.66. I prefer round numbers to help me keep records of my expenses, so I generally round up when tipping. In this case, I tipped $11.34, which was 21.5% for a tip. It was very curious that when I used their handheld and entered this amount as a "custom tip," which I always do, their machine showed the percentage using those SAME numbers as 16.4% tip. Interesting at least. If I were not paying attention, I can't imagine what their 20% would have equaled, but I can calculate that. Probably just a glitch, but I've also always wondered why we all blindly tip 20% (or thereabouts) on State taxes. Maybe 20% for collecting taxes from us? Lack of...

I'm just absolutely livid with my experience tonight.

(TDLR: I get average food. Manager didn't like that I I thought the food was just okay. Forces a discount into my ticket without notifying me or providing an updated receipt, which leaves me to question the total. Waiter forces payment through by forging my signature on my card without me seeing what I'm paying for.)

Since it was my first time there, they offered a complimentary basket of house-made chips. The chips were fairly average - nothing special. That was the best part of the night.

After that, I asked about the tap selection. I didn't exactly get a selection, just that they have an IPA, a Blonde, etc. I asked about an Amber. They said that they have a house Amber. Many didn't mention this & I seemed skeptical, but I ordered it anyways. It tasted almost identical to Mac & Jack's, so whatever.

I order a Western burger. It came out within 5 minutes, which left me skeptical that it was cooked properly. So I take the paper off to cut it and check.

Most of the toppings are loaded on only one side, so it looks impressive. Patty was squished and grilled to within an inch of its life.... completely dry, except it was slathered with bbq sauce.

Obvious, I'm not that impressed. I did the burger to give it a nice, even bite of flavor, but the patty was too far gone to be that good. The manager asked what I thought of it & I told them that it was okay. He asked if there was anything to help improve my experience, and no, at that point, there was nothing you could do to improve it.

(Ask how the restaurant can improve to make a better experience for everyone in the future, not what they can do today to fix one meal.)

He leaves and brings back a $10 gift card for my next visit. I live 3+ hours away and don't plan on returning after eating part of that burger, so I declined. He insists, but I decline again.

So it comes time to pay my bill. They provided me with a receipt, but the total doesn't match the electronic device used to pay at the table. I ask for clarification to make sure I'm paying for the right ticket (it's asking me to pay less). The writer says he'll provide me with the correct receipt... but does so by signing for me on the device and processing the payment. Then, he prints a receipt after the transaction is complete.

How in the world is this ever okay? If there's a dispute in the bill, shouldn't that be handled first...