Yard House

MiScusi

California

3.78/5  rDev +3.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5 | $$$

The Yardhouse in Pasadena offers a pretty good beer selection, some good food (lunch and dinner, but a little pricey for the young crowd it caters to). The atmosphere is usually filled with early to late 20's. Most of the people that go here don't know a whole lot about beer and neither do the bartenders. However, the selection is better than you will find in most places, with Bear Republic (racer 5 and rye), Stone (IPA, APA, Arrogant)), Anderson Valley, Anchor, Firestone, North Coast, Full Sail, and many many more, albeit many of the largely distributed microbrews (like Abita amber, the Sierra Nevada's, Redhook etc). It's worth checking out, especially at happy hour from like 3-6 where I believe pints are ~$3 +/- 25 cents. It's not much of a place for foreign brews other than the ones you can get in some of the better super markets (Young's, Guiness, maybe Fullers), but nothing really great in that area.

08-13-2006 23:33:38 | More by MiScusi

ArrogantHopHead

California

3.55/5  rDev -2.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Yardhouse is a good solid start to trying quality craft brewing. They have a huge selection (over 100) different types of beer on tap and bottled. Does a great job of organizing the beers in to general categories (although some I don't understand), and just recently presents some of their own microbrews (which I haven't tried, or wanted to for that fact).

Anyways, overall decent selection, but my beef is that they don't carry any specialty taps or custom brews. They have the general stuff I can find at my local retailer. For a real beer place, I want the stuff that only comes from the keg. The hard to find types of things. Yardhouse is not that place.

Other aspects, great atmosphere, but the service can be hit or miss. The bartenders are to the point with orders and provide no aspect of their humanity to the customers, but they are speedy and polite. The Happy hour is AWESOME though!! This is their strongest pull to get me there sometimes is the happy hour. Fairly good prices on craft beers and half of appetizers...I mean come on!! It's a great deal.

12-09-2009 12:23:08 | More by ArrogantHopHead

drabmuh

Maryland

3.43/5  rDev -6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

I did not realize what Yard House meant until it was too late. I suppose I could have turned around and walked away once I saw yuppies drinking out of yard glasses, but I foolishly decided to stay.

This looked like a modern American chain restaurant. More upscale than an Applebee's but not by much. The food was trendier but I didn't care about that. 100 beers on draft, let me see a menu.

WTF is this? 100 beer but about 40 of them are BMC or variant light lager knock offs. And they were more expensive then they should be. I suppose they want you to order the yard but I'm not doing that.

I order a tuna tartar dish and quietly eat is and drink my 16 ounce 7$ Rogue Dead guy ale. I finish and leave. The waiter was plenty nice and attentive. I tipped well. Time for a new bar.

12-03-2009 21:06:24 | More by drabmuh

JTahoe

California

3.03/5  rDev -17%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

Lots of beers on tap--and the selection does change and has improved a bit recently (added Bear Republic for instance). While there are few "great" beers on tap, there is always something good to choose from. Though you really need to dig through the beer list which is a bit overwhelming with lots of distractions.

This place is of the more is better, bigger is better, quantity over quality mind set. When it comes to quality, the staff knows really nothing about beer and have poor pouring technique. In addition, all beers are served ice cold without regard for style. They have a huge "specialty martini" list too... if that is your thing...

Food menu is big and of the corporate variety. Usually pretty decent, though prone to the off night. Food is also pricey, but you are paying for the huge portions.

11-14-2009 22:58:59 | More by JTahoe

drugsbunny

California

4.03/5  rDev +10.4%
vibe: 3 | quality: 5 | service: 3 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

I was very happy with my visit to The Yard House. This is someplace you must go for a beer. It may be a chain restaurant with bland atmosphere and mediocre service, but they really have a focus on good beer. The food is fine and two vegetarian friends I went with had no trouble finding something they enjoyed on the menu. But the beer is what is so outstanding here. The selection isn't mind blowing, but everything you order will taste absolutely fresh and perfect. Their "high tech" draft system is amazing. I ordered a Weisse Dunkel (relatively obscure ale) and it tasted like it was just tapped. Never an old or stale beer at The Yard House... and isn't that the most important thing when visiting a place for a beer? And while you are in Pasadena, stop by Lucky Baldwin's just down the street. Another gem in town. It turns out that Pasadena is a real nice place to have a beer.

06-16-2009 06:23:03 | More by drugsbunny

GRG1313

California

3.38/5  rDev -7.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3 | $$

This is a nice place to stop for a beer if you really have no good alternative. You will find some very good beer. You will likely not find many great beers and you will find a whole lot of decent, average and well drinking beers on tap. Again,- decent but nothing you have to have; nothing really worth going out of your way for. Yes they have the quantity - they don't have the quality.

Don't get me wrong; there is some nice stuff. It's just that with their "largest selection in the world" I had a tough time finding a beer that I really wanted.

I go to some first rate places and I have trouble making a selection because I want all of them!

Ok if you're in the area and are thirsty. Otherwise, one need not run to this place.

05-29-2009 05:58:12 | More by GRG1313

davexisxrabid

California

4.28/5  rDev +17.3%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

I've been to a couple of Yard House's, and this one is probably the closest to me. Everybody seems to like to celebrate their birthday at the Yard House. Then again, all my buddies have beer guts...

The place is noisy and crowded and usually is exptected to be such, especially on weekends. I don't find this too bad but some people may; it's just a typical sort of chain.

Service (at all the Yard House's I've been to) is usually pretty good. They pick up your orders quickly and with minimal screw ups.

The beer selection is amazing. Only once in ordering beer was I told my selection was out. Can't win 'em all I guess. I like their samplers too, for a $1 you get 4 oz. of beer. This is an excellent way to taste a brew and decide it you really wanna order that with your food or to pound it down.

Food is usually good. Nothing great, but well prepared and presented. Don't expect anything great. My only suggestion, don't order the California roll (sushi) here - it has an odd presentation and an even odder flavor.

12-11-2008 02:03:24 | More by davexisxrabid

Newsman

New Jersey

3.55/5  rDev -2.7%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

100 taps? Immediately you think, wow, I gotta go there. So I did. Being from the east coast, I didn't know The Yard House chain. So when I went in to the Pasadena edition, I was immediately struck by how...chain-feeling it was. Blessedly, there wasn't a surfeit of odd crap on the walls. But it had very little character, either. It reminded me of a large, but subdued, sports bar. The bar itself was impressive...a massive oval in the middle of the room with taps all around it. But it was mostly made of stainless steel with some generic dark wood mixed in. Ehh...not a lot of character here.

The selection, of course, makes up for it. There's probably about 10 taps taken up with American macro crap, from Bud to Michelob to MGD. Another 20 or so are the kind of "classics" you'll see at various bars, from Sam Adams to Harp to Guinness to Stella. That still leaves a good 70 taps that ranged from rare Belgians to small local micros. The selection was primarily West Coast, with a focus on SoCal. Too bad...I really had hoped to see a Brooklyn brew there (though I know their distro has yet to reach that far west).

The waitstaff was not very knowledgeable. I asked for a saison, then had to explain it was a Belgian style, at which point I got a recitation of all the beers -- from Belgium -- they had. And the list overlooked the Belgian-style beers brewed locally that were featured. I ended up having a Pranqster, which was quite nice.

The food is VERY pricey, but the appetizers make meals all on their own, so some gourmet-esque sliders and fries were plenty of food for $9.99. And coming from NYC, I thought the $5.50 per beer was quite reasonable, considering rarity and selection.

Overall, the Yard House is an OK choice. But compared to some beer bars I've been to, the generic atmosphere, so-so service and pricey food make it a second-tier stop. I'd go for a tasting, perhaps, with some fellow BAs, but I wouldn't take the work crew there.

12-09-2007 18:50:08 | More by Newsman

schoolcb

Texas

3.64/5  rDev -0.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

I was in Pasadena last week for a business conference and while out for dinner noticed The Yard House and made my way back the next night with the group. Amazing amount of beer on tap, I wish I had more time to go back. And it wasn't just crap on tap they had a really good selection (100 beers on tap I think they claim). I didn't try any food, although members of the group did and they seemed to like it. Service was decent. In fact, our waitress dropped some food that splattered my buddies shirt and mine and the manager came right over to offer to pay for dry cleaning. Since we aren't from CA we asked if he'd comp us a couple of pints and he agreed (at $5.50 for a pint of Franziskaner I thought this was a good deal). If you are in the area it is worthy!

03-04-2007 21:53:49 | More by schoolcb

brewmaster411

California

3.78/5  rDev +3.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 2.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

Take your typical TGIFriday/Chili's/ElTorito/CheesecakeFactory corporate type menu and service and add one very impressive beer bar, and you have Yard House. The food is good, but uninspired, and the service is what you would expect from TGI Friday/Chili's, etc.

The bartenders are not very knowledgable about beer, but if you know what you want, you'll have no problems. The customers are your aging yuppie type with the 20-somethings trying to keep it hip.

Like most Yardhouses, it's a draft beer oriented place. In fact, I didn't see any evidence of botles at all, but didn't ask. The draft selection is quite large however, and features a good selection of micros and imports. Breweries included Anderson Valley, Avery, Bear Republic, Corsendonk, Deschutes, Four Peaks, Gulden Draak, Left Hand, Lost Coast, New Belgium, Nimbus, Rogue, Stone, Karmelite, Young's and Fuller's. Quite nice, but there's a lot of filler here too, and most of the above breweries only had one style. There's not many extreme styles here, only one barleywine on tap, no DIPAs, but plenty of good IPAs and Belgians to keep most people happy.

Now, beers are available in goblets, pints or half-yards, but don't expect to get an Arrogant Bastard in a yard...apparently beers over 7% ABV are served in goblets only, although I did get a Hop Rod Rye in a pint.

11-28-2006 04:15:52 | More by brewmaster411