Sunset Grill & Tap

GarthDanielson

New Hampshire

4.3/5  rDev +1.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.25 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I had been wanting to visit this place for a while. I saw a clip about their nachos on Phantom Gourmet, and I was sold. The parking is a nightmare, but once you get past that it's all good. Plenty of seating throughout the establishment, and the atmosphere was great. We were there on a Saturday afternoon, and the place was probably about 80% full. Plenty of sports on the televisions hung throughout, and a ton of beer paraphernalia throughout covering the walls of the dining areas, hallways, bathrooms, and even the street frontage. Old taps, serving trays, beer signs, coasters, and just about everything else you can imagine. The draught list was at least 40+, and the bottle list took pages to list...easily over 150+. There are cask offerings, they do taster flights, and they put together promotional packages on the beers based on country of origin, style, etc. The food was great, and it comes out fast, so you can make this a quick trip for a meal, or, with all of the beer choices, you can hang out all day. Prices were reasonable, and I am already looking forward to a return trip. A must visit if you are in the greater Boston metro for any length of time.

02-01-2013 02:07:58 | More by GarthDanielson

HattedClassic

Virginia

4.36/5  rDev +3.3%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.75 | selection: 5 | food: 2 | $$

Atmosphere
Depending on when you come in, the restaurant will be loud or quite but still bearable either way. the restaurant is pretty dark and the lighting is fairly low but it gives it that nice dive bar feel. The decorations are advertisements for old breweries and pretty interesting.

Quality
An interesting restaurant and fairly good quality.

Service
Superb. The staff was friendly and attentive as they were inked (very). Overall, they were great people.

Selection
300+ beers from around the world. The Tap has some of the more common beers and well-known breweries such as Lagunitas, Stone, etc.

Food
Come for the beer, stay for the beer. Skip the food if you can. Personally, I found the food a little too greasy for my taste and wasn't really anything to write home about.

Value
If you stick to beer, then the price is worth the extensive selection but skip the food unless you're really desperate and hungry.

05-21-2013 22:01:36 | More by HattedClassic

HawkIPA

Massachusetts

3.85/5  rDev -8.8%
vibe: 2.25 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3 | selection: 5 | food: 2.75 | $$

Sunset has an outstanding selection of beers. The tap list is enormous, well chosen, and often offers exciting beers. The bottle list is very extensive. One thing that's clear about Sunset--you're guaranteed to find many outstanding beers here in all styles.

Everything else about Sunset misses the mark for me though. The atmosphere is reminiscent of a sports bar, and the food is forgettable. My advice on Sunset is to go if you know they're tapping something awesome, but if you want good food and a nice atmosphere with your beer, there are better options.

05-15-2013 20:09:49 | More by HawkIPA

Davepoolesque

Massachusetts

4.24/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.25 | service: 3.75 | selection: 5 | food: 3.75 | $$$

Beer selection is second to none here. I find the prices to be a bit on the high side, but I usually do most of my drinking at home. Food and servers are both pretty good, but inconsistent. The only real criticism I have is I just never know how old some of their beer selections are, like IPAs.

05-14-2013 17:48:35 | More by Davepoolesque

dbrauneis

New Jersey

4.48/5  rDev +6.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.25 | $$

The place was pretty laid back on a Saturday afternoon and we sat at one of the bars. Decor had a lot of breweriana. If I lived in the area, this would be a place I visited regularly.

Beers were very well poured in appropriate glassware and at the proper temperature.

The bartender was awesome, offering some helpful suggestions to the people in our party that were unsure of what they wanted as well as offering samples of draft beers that were under consideration. She was very attentive and even provided some backstory on a couple of the local beers.

The selection at this place was great - 112 taps and 350+ bottles and tons of great stuff that you are unlikely to find at other places. I found several beers that I had been wanting to try - I actually had a hard time making choices. Tons of different styles.

Food was really good - had some appetizer special for Cinco de Mayo weekend and had some really enjoyable deep fried fresh jalapeño slices with shrimp. I enjoyed all of the foods we tried.

Prices are very reasonable here.

Overall, this was my favorite place that I visited on my trip to Boston - I could have been happy just stopping in here.

05-08-2013 02:26:15 | More by dbrauneis

shigg85

Japan

4.33/5  rDev +2.6%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Great selection of beer on tap and in bottles (perhaps one of the biggest regular selections i've ever seen). Parking out on the street is tough, but hey, it's Boston -- what did you expect?! Service is decent although the servers can be lazy and inattentive sometimes, standing around just chatting with each other instead of focusing on the customers. A nice big place with lots of seating around. One of my go-to places in Boston for great beer and awesome bar food (especially the Mexican-style grub).

03-28-2013 21:46:34 | More by shigg85

BigOldOaf

Massachusetts

4.49/5  rDev +6.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.75 | food: 4.25 | $$

I've been living in the Boston area for six months now, and ever since November I've been going to Sunset to grab a fresh beer at least every couple weeks. The beer list is very extensive, covering many styles and variations from different brewers. I always find myself laboring over what to drink because there are so many great options. The food is very tasty and fairly priced. I would suggest grabbing a burger; both the turkey meat and ground beef are equally enjoyable. The Santa Fe and Buffalo toppings are both excellent choices. I've also ordered a pulled pork sandwich, duck quesadilla, chicken club, portabello sandwich, and a brat, and have never been disappointed. The bartenders always make good suggestions and are willing to pour relatively generous samples at your request. They always have good music playing, it never gets obscenely crowded, and the beer-centric decor makes for a very warm atmosphere. Overall, a very enjoyable establishment with a lot to offer.

03-24-2013 22:11:37 | More by BigOldOaf

DerekMorgan

Massachusetts

4.45/5  rDev +5.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I've lived in Allston/Brighton for 6 years now and Sunset has been a staple of my beer experience near home. The selection is unmatched in the area simply by the number of beers available plus they rotate very quickly so they are always fresh. If you sit at the bar the managers and bartenders are excellent at helping you decide on a beer off their extensive menu and most of the wait staff is decent but I recommend sitting at the bar. It really isn't their fault especially if they're new because there are 300+ bottles and 100+ taps so it isn't easy to remember them all. The food is always good, I like something light when I'm trying new beers so the chips/salsa/guacamole appetizer is great to break up the drinking and cleanse the palate - the mango salsa is excellent. If you're looking for something heavier I suggest the ranch fried chicken sandwich or for the vegetarian the veggie quesadilla. Whether you're going for a few beers of dinner and drinks this place definitely has what you're looking for. Really the only downfall is that it takes so long to decide which beer you want from the 400+ on the list.

03-15-2013 04:50:41 | More by DerekMorgan

Birradonna

Quebec (Canada)

3.6/5  rDev -14.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

This is my must stop when I go to Boston because of their huge beer selection on tap. I mostly like having their flight selection (choice of 4 glasses of 4 oz) to try the most of their beers possible. Everytime I go, I must have their Subatomic Wings. They're so good and a bit spicy.
For beer collectioners, this place is great because it has many beer collectibles all over their walls. What I do reproach is the knowledge of the staff, there seems to be no beer connoisseurs in the restaurant (at least from the last 4 different visits I had). They seem to be confused and often mix up the flight selection you order, especially if you're a party of 4 or more. Also, the restaurant having a huge variety of taps, I am not sure how often their tap lines are cleaned, because some of the beers don't have the same taste or freshness.
I think, the beer selection rotates a lot. A very nice place to try out different beers.

02-12-2013 02:12:36 | More by Birradonna

RockAZ

Arizona

4.45/5  rDev +5.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 3 | $$

Boston is one of the places I fly to on business at least once a year for a week or more, and have had the real pleasure to be there over 6 weeks one time and this bar is everything I would want in my local bar. So a few times it was obvious that a zillion other people felt the same way and tried to pack themselves in there at the same time I did. How the wait staff manage these nights is beyond me, I am not in the industry, but I have to give my respect to every server I met there on the front of the battle lines.

Since I am from the Southwest, there are an amazing amount of beers on tap that are just not available here and I feel like I am in the Beer-land of my dreams. So many strange names, familiar recipes but exotic breweries and special one-offs to choose from. A wooden barrel firkin set on the countertop from DogfishHead really made my night.

Last time I was there I could no longer make a beer order from the pool table room, it seemed confusing and complicated at the time - probably was the time of day or something, or maybe they lost their arrangement with those guys but that was another perk I enjoyed since I love to play pool with strangers.

As others have said, when someone orders a macro-brew in a 40ouncer, some amusement is evident to the whole bar. One time the server announced a "keg-buster" special, that only pitchers would be served from a particular keg that had been tapped long enough, at a special price with the bonus of free beer to the table that ordered the pitcher that blew the keg. Anyway, that was the way I remember it; our table did not win. And that to me seems like a fun way to create excitement and to deal with the turnover on so many taps.

12-19-2012 23:25:03 | More by RockAZ