Mad Mex Columbus

blingger

Ohio

4/5  rDev +5.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Excellent beer selection which changes almost every time I visit.

Can't beat the happy hour for craft brews. Half price drafts and half price wings, and the wings are great - I've tried them all. You also get free salsa if you sit at the bar. They always seem to have draft selections from Avery, Rogue, Great Lakes, New Holland, Victory, and I've also seen Stone and Three Floyd's.

Atmospere is casual and a bit on the dark side, but is modern and nice with some nice TV's at the bar to keep tabs on sports.

Great hangout after work, especially for the price.

10-03-2006 01:12:09 | More by blingger

Osiris9588

Ohio

4.08/5  rDev +7.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

I wouldn't go here for the food, which is a Cali-mex fusion. Though the dip platter "Pick-a-dippa" is a good, filling appetizer. But the beer selection is top-notch, and changes almost daily. They can never even keep their printed beer lists up to date.

When you think of Mexican, or quasi-Mexian food, you think of Corona and lighter beer, but the list here features hoppy ales and a strong presence of stouts. They often offer several selections from the Victory brewery in Pennsylvania which can not be found outside the state of PA--execept at Mad Mex in Columbus.

24 drafts, quality craft brews. Other than The Happy Greek, which has great food, this is the only place in the South Campus Gateway that is worth checking out. Eddie George's place has 27 taps, and they almost all suck (Amstel Light? what's the point?) Come for the beer selection, stay for beer selection.

09-11-2006 20:32:04 | More by Osiris9588

Dogbrick

Ohio

3.78/5  rDev -0.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3 | $$$

Mad Mex is one of the establishments in the newly-sanitized South Campus Gateway area on High Street near OSU campus. Parking is plentiful thanks to a garage. Be careful with street parking as a lot of it is permit only.

The restaurant looks similar to other Tex-Mex chain restaurants. In other words, carefully decorated to look "authentic". This is not to say it's bad, just kind of predicatable. The garage door-enclosed patio is pretty cool. The bar is toward the center of the restaurant, and there is upstairs seating as well.

The beer selection is pretty good. There are around 25 taps with goodies from Rogue, Thirsty Dog, Shiner, Bell's, DFH and more. There are 40 or so bottles too with Great Lakes, Rogue, Stone, and many more represented.

The service here is pretty good. Our waiter was knowledgable about the available beers and made recommendations.

The food at Mad Mex is pricey and average. It would never touch some of the mom-n-pop type places in town but the portions leave plenty for lunch the next day.

All in all Mad Mex is a worthwhile visit in the OSU campus area. I wish Eddie George Grill #27 had put the same effort into variety in beer selection that Mad Mex did.

08-31-2006 20:09:35 | More by Dogbrick

unclederby

Oregon

4.28/5  rDev +12.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

This place is not so much a beer bar as it is a restaurant, but you'd think otherwise from the beer list.

A: Most of the time i really like it here, it's relatively dark with a sort of Mexican, funky "day of the dead" decor. There are several tables and lots of seats at the bar. I've been here several times and it seems eighties music/classic rock is the theme, though it's always at a comfortable volume and occasionally the TV takes precedent (as with the super bowl and the ncaa tourney. During the busiest times, it attracts quite the young, college crowd type (um... it's just south of OSU).

Ser: Service is almost always very good, though it can suffer when it's very busy.

Sel: Really, a great selection. The best I've seen in Columbus (only Surly Girl's even comes close). They have 24 drafts which during this visit included:
DFH 60 min.
N.C. Red Seal Ale
3F Robert the Bruce
Rogue Chipotle and Mocha Porter
Great Divide Hibernation
Great Divide Old Ruffian
Sierra PA and IPA
Bell's Rye Stout
Harpoon Hibernian Ale
Victory Storm King
Ommegang Hennepin

They also had a few macros available on tap for your wary friends.

Additionally, Mad Mex offers 39 bottled beers (all of which were'nt available) with offerings from Great Lakes, Three Floyds, Stone, Rogue, Victory and more...

The bottles can be extravagantly priced: Dreadnaught for $21, Allagash Tripel for $16 for example, but where the hell else are you even gonna find these at a restaurant? And with all these great drafts, who needs bottled beer?

F: I would call the offerings here Amerimexican, for lack of a better description. There are also some very intersting offerings such as shrimp and portabello rolls (recommended). Plenty on the menu if you're vegetarian. I've eaten here a few times now and the food is always good if not a little overspiced (be careful). The bean dip is the best i've ever had. It's also half-priced after 11pm on certain items.

If you're on a budget, you can definitely make out here: while drafts are already reasonably priced ($5.50 for 12oz. Old Ruffian) it becomes a serious bargain when you consider the 1/2 off ALL drafts happy hour from 4-7pm everyday. Food is also reasonably priced from $5 upwards for an appetizer and $8 upwards for an entree (and you get hefty servings).

Overall, this relatively new (for Ohio) establishment has won me over: the draft list is tops in Columbus (though i would like to see a couple of Belgian offerings, but that's just me); the food is above average and consistent and the service is always good and at very least attentive.

I highly recommend a vist.

03-17-2006 01:58:34 | More by unclederby