Tampa Bay Brewing Co.

WoodBrew

Illinois

4.29/5  rDev +4.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.25 | $$

Recently visited TBBC and it was my second time there and has another great visit. This time we sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather, as compared to Chicago in February. The patio offers a neat experience in the historic part of Ybor City. The selection was great there were at least 9 beers of their own brews available. The food was decent....who thing of culinary worldly. The service was decent but nothing extraordinary. Overall I enjoy my time in Tampa and the TBBC is a great place to visit.

03-04-2013 02:58:16 | More by WoodBrew

goldtar

Indiana

3.3/5  rDev -19.5%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5 | $$

This stop has an unusaul location in an open air maill. Outside seating is available, always a plus in Tampa. The Cuban was average but the Rat Stout was above average. Okay atmosphere with an outdoor bar. Overall a friendly place with a good family vibe.

01-28-2013 18:31:53 | More by goldtar

AngusOg

Maryland

4.18/5  rDev +2%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 5 | $$

This place is smack in the middle of the bar district of Ybor City, which besides this place and New World seems to be devoid of good beer destinations (unless i just wasn't looking hard enough). The space seems like a typical brew pub type feel, more resturaunt than bar or brewery, but the tanks are right there to the left as i walk in, and there is plenty of beer swag, growlers, etc around to let you know they brew beer. The place is crowded on a Tuesday night (although Ybor itself on this night is pretty dead) which makes me feel like the place must have a good reputation. The service is attentive and extremely friendly, both the greeter at the front door as well as our server. My buddy and i both ordered the sampler flight, which on this evening with 2 regulars out, but 3 sesonal selections came to 10 samples. I would describe the beers as solid, but maybe a bit unspectacular. In other words, i enjoyed working my way through the range of samples, and would have no problem drinking their beers again, there's just none that are going to blow your socks offs. And that is fine, i'm not the kind of person who always needs to be "wowed" to enjoy driking beer. Where this place really seems to shine though is the food. i had a salad and the meatloaf, and both were excellent. My buddy had the wings, and he said they were really good as well. I'd like to try more food on the menu. When we mentioned this place to some locals later in the week, they all said the same thing "Good Food!" I'd go back to this place in a heart beat. I'm always up for some solid beer and great food.

01-21-2013 21:06:40 | More by AngusOg

Rifugium

Pennsylvania

2.54/5  rDev -38%
vibe: 2 | quality: 1.25 | service: 3.75 | selection: 2.5 | food: 4 | $$$

Many people seem to talk this place up, and it has an unexpectedly high rating. I really don't know why. Homerism is the only thing I can fathom.

The place screams "tourist trap," and reminded me of a typical family-oriented / college kid hangout, similar to a low-end chain. It's big, it's noisy, it's crowded, it's tacky, it's generic. I'm also really shocked at the way their beer is praised. Their beer...was really not very good at all. Sub-chain quality, if I had to put a label on it. BJ's and RB at least have some good offerings. The beer here? Generic, home-brewy, mass-appealing swill, most of it. There were maybe a few relatively inoffensive brews, but others I literally found undrinkable, and I couldn't even get through a sampler of some without holding my nose and downing it like a trooper. On the plus side, they definitely had a very good selection, but it was all quantity, no quality. No quality. I'd equate these beers with something like Gordon Biersch, or even bordering on Michelob. They're selling crap and getting away with it.

Service was definitely on the ball, which was good. It was pretty busy, but our bartender was handling his area like a champ. Also, the food was quite good. It almost took my mind off the terrible beer, but not quite. I had the fish and chips, which was excellent...but I was craving a tasty IPA or something to go along with it, and I was SOL.

For what was being offered, the prices here were too high, I thought.

To sum up again: this is a tourist trap. I do not recommend Tampa Bay Brewing at all for the serious beer drinker. If you find yourself in Tampa, go to Cigar City, go to Datz. Avoid TBBC like the plague.

01-18-2013 10:08:20 | More by Rifugium

merc7186

New York

4.45/5  rDev +8.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

I came here on my recent trip to Tampa, FL with my family.

A: The place has a great brewpub vibe about it. They have a great sized indoor bar, plenty of tables around it and another exterior bar with plenty of seating and tables around it. A great layout for a place with good weather year round.

Q: The three beers I had were outstanding and I had tasted several others that were really good. There average beer was better than most places best beer.

S: The waitress was very friendly, knowledgeable about the beers, and was quick to replace a pint once it as emptied.

S: They had a great selection of 7 in house regular taps, 2 speciality taps and an in house root beer. They featured a blonde, hefeweizen, porter, stout, red ale, APA, IPA, DIPA, & barleywine. A really great selection.

F: The food was solid, split an order of bavarian beer pretzels, beer cheese soup, and ordered the Sausage and Rigatoni which was really good. Everyone in our group had something different and all loved their food.

V: 5 people, several apps, many pints, under $100, great value.

Overall, a really great place to visit when travelling to the area and especially when in Ybor City. Also, as a guy who went here with my two year old, the simple fact that they had a Family Bathroom was huge for my wife and I. Highly Recommended.

01-12-2012 02:30:10 | More by merc7186

JayS2629

Alabama

4.6/5  rDev +12.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$

Impressive! Spacious and restaurant focused. Lots of artwork scattered around and a nice display set up of the small brewery. Low lights, friendly service, family friendly and clean. Very classy!

The quality was awesome! Every beer was great and so was the Cuban sandwich. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the beer!

Service was quick and knowledgable about the beer and food. Informative, friendly, and quick.

The selection was great! Ten different brews on tap! All quality!

Food was excellent. Best Cuban I've had in a long time! Everyone enjoyed their meal.

Overall, the prices were very reasonable. Great overall. Service, quality, atmosphere and food and beer! Clean, spacious, family friendly! Awesome place!

01-02-2012 05:49:57 | More by JayS2629

DamonB

Colorado

2.55/5  rDev -37.8%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 2.5 | service: 4 | selection: 1 | food: 2 | $$

A brewery with NO BEER! Visited on dec. 6, 2011 and was horrified to find out that, even though they had chalkboards in all of their exterior windows listing 10 craft beers, they were out of 8 of them. We had driven all the way down there and paid for overpriced parking just to try their beer and weren't told until after we were seated that they had somehow run out of all but 2 of their menu beers. The 2 that they did have were both IPA, and we aren't big fans of bitter beers so those were also no good. The server told us that they had 2 guest taps, one with woodchuck cider and the other with Hoegaarden, so we ordered one of each of those only to have the server come back to tell us that the Hoegaarden was also tapped out! If it weren't so late and we hadn't already paid for parking we would have left. We decided to go ahead and order food and the meatloaf I got was cold when it arrived. By this point I knew that if I spoke to the server I would end up yelling at her so I just ate it and drank my tepid water then left extremely angry.

12-16-2011 15:35:34 | More by DamonB

zac16125

South Carolina

4.6/5  rDev +12.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I visited this place a couple days ago for the first time, and boy was I impressed. I'll start with the beers, I had 3 which were all very good to excellent. I started with an Old Elephant Foot IPA which was very good. Then I had a Moosekiller Barleywine to go along with my meal, and it was one of, if not the best barleywine I have ever had. Served just over room temperature in a nice solid chalice, with the batch coming in at an impressive 14.2% ABV. What a treat. I ended the night with the Iron Rat Stout, which was also a great beer, in fact one of the better stouts I have had in quite some time. Overall they had about 8-10 styles of beer, and I was very pleased with my choices.

I was also very pleased with the food, which I thought was excellent. My girlfriend and I started with a couple appetizers, the pub pretzels which were pretty good, and the beer cheese dip which was very good. For entrees we had the sirloin w/ blue cheese, and the Barleywine-mushroom topped meatloaf. The sirloin was delicious and the meatloaf was amazing (sirloin cut meatloaf, bacon wrapped topped with mushrooms in a barleywine sauce, and served over mashed potatoes and onion straws; I definitely recommend).

Service was great, our waiter (who was the acting manager) was very pleasant, friendly and informative about the menu, beers, and the place in general. We arrived late on a Monday night, were the last to leave, and never felt rushed, which I appreciated. The atmosphere was more chain restaurant than neighborhood pub, but I did appreciate the mugs from the "mug club" (their membership club where you design your own mug and leave it at the bar so its always waiting for you when you want to stop by for a drink) decorating the walls.

Price was certainly resonable, our bill which included 4 drinks, 2 appetizes and the 2 most expensive entrees on the menu came out to around $70, which certainly isn't bad. I think beers ran at $5 each and all were served in 16 oz pint glasses except the Barleywine.

Overall, definitely a place I'd recommend. In fact I've recommended it to a multiple ppl already just in the couple days since I was there, and I plan on going again soon.

08-19-2011 01:40:39 | More by zac16125

Pete0714

Indiana

4.95/5  rDev +20.7%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

In tampa for a meeting/ vacation,looked up places onBAand found this. Must say this was fabulous for so many reasons. Beer was top notch(had a sampler so can say that for the range of 10beers they offered) , service and food was excellent, (they even gladly made a special order of mushrooms for my son who liked them more than the rest of the pizza he was sharing with my wife.) Atmosphere was anything I would expect for abrewery/restaurant, and very friendly. Wish I could come more often, know where to go when and if I do.

07-07-2011 01:38:28 | More by Pete0714

fulcrum

Massachusetts

4.35/5  rDev +6.1%
vibe: 3 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 3 | $$

My main comment is these guys brew and serve delicious beer. They had a great IPA (Elephant Foot IPA) on tap and cask. Both terrific--esp cask. Our server was a young guy who was happy to dole out samples (Moosekiller Barleywine was excellent but too much ABV for me that night; their Pale was also good but I was into IPA). The food was fine, nothing special but better than pub food. The atmosphere was a little disappointing though. It felt like a glorified TGIF. The outdoor patio looked like it would have been much more fun but I was with a sweaty New Yorker who couldn't handle the 90-degree heat that night.

06-27-2011 13:53:56 | More by fulcrum