Bastone

hopsolutely

Ontario (Canada)

3.15/5  rDev -19.4%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3 | $$

Visited this past Saturday night and it was a genuine disappointment. Not the best Royal Oak has to offer.

Nightclub music was loud, overpowering in pub/bar area. Although the continuous stream of youth walking downstairs was an aesthetically pleasing distraction. Our service was poor; not happy to see us or to be there. Food was filling but unremarkable.

Beer sampling selection was enjoyable, and although none of the beers themselves were earth-shattering, they were reasonably priced, well-presented and definitely the highlight of the visit!

10-23-2011 23:54:34 | More by hopsolutely

Kerrie

Michigan

4.33/5  rDev +10.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

Been to this place twice; once inside, and once in the outdoor seating area.

The indoor atmosphere quite nice: clean, somewhat dark and barlike, and huge. It is a bit noisy, however, but nothing excessive. The outdoor seating allows you to people watch on Main Street, but it's a bit cramped and the tables are tiny. Also, if you're looking specifically to sit outdoors, prepare to wait a bit, as seating is limited. I'd actually recommend sitting indoors if you're having food simply due to space limitations.

The quality is top-notch. The food and beer are excellent and look excellent too.

The service is good; it was quite busy when we went both times and the servers were quick and attentive.

The selection is huge when it comes to food. Lots of fatty Belgian cuisine, but sooo good. It took me a long time to decide what I wanted since the menu was so large and had a lot of attractive options. I've only had burgers so far but they were fantastic.

The beer selection is quite wide, too. They offer flights of 6, 7 or 8, so I got the flight of eight, which was all their general beer plus their two seasonals. I liked all but one.

While a bit pricy, I'd say the value is worth it overall. Had my boyfriend and I gotten pints rather than the biggest flight each, our bill would have been much cheaper. I'd say the food prices are about average for dinner in Royal Oak.

05-09-2013 18:33:13 | More by Kerrie

Dogbrick

Ohio

3.88/5  rDev -0.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$

(Visited 08/2011): Bastone is located in the heart of Royal Oak at the corner of S. Main and 5th. Metered parking is available in the surrounding area.

The interior is pretty cozy with a small bar area on the right and high backed booths and tables in the restaurant area. They have a patio as well. Brick and tile motif. Above the bar hang signs featuring each of their standard beers.

Bastone serves 8 beers including a seasonal or two, and a sampler is available. They range from Blonde, Pils, and Wit to a Dubbel, Tripel and Saison Noir. All of the beers are above average. They also have a few bottles from Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak.

Service on a relatively slow weekday (I arrived right as they opened). The bartender was knowledgeable about their beers and of other recommendations for the area.

The food at Bastone has a Belgian tilt, and my pomme frites and sandwich were good.

Overall this is a pretty solid spot. Maybe not a fair comparison but I think Brugge is a lot better, however this is still a place worth visiting in the area.

01-02-2012 03:16:55 | More by Dogbrick

steebo777

Michigan

4.22/5  rDev +7.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

Bastone in Royal Oak is a great place to eat and usually a great place to grab a brew. There are four components to the Bastone buildings. Commune in the basement is the nightclub, Vinoteca is the wine bar, Habana is the Cuban resteraunt and Bastone is the Dutch resteraunt and brewpub. You can get all drinks and beer at all places, but I am only reveiwing Bastone.

The atmosphere is a cool, trendy looking vibe with a younger crowd for the most part. Families are welcome, as well as the single crowd.

There is a small bar where you can order drinks including the beer. There is usually 4-5 differents drafts on. I would say 65% of the time there are really good taps, 25% of the time are average brews and 10% of the time is below average fare. The head brewer changed last year and he has been doing great things, with the saison being their best.

The food is where it is at here. My wife is 1/2 Dutch and loves coming here as it is a Dutch-American menu. Fish n Chips to Chicken Cream Sauce to stellar deserts. One of the top 10 in Royal Oak to hit.

All around this is a great place to hit in Royal Oak and shouldn't be missed.

08-04-2011 21:59:42 | More by steebo777

ColForbinBC

New Jersey

3.95/5  rDev +1%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$

Was in town for a sports filled weekend and found our way here after a red wings game.

A dimly lit place, that's for sure. We made our way through the bar and into the dining room where they sat us in a rather tall wooden booth. While the privacy was nice, it felt as though we were in a phone booth with seats.

They had about 8 beers on tap along with an extensive wine menu. The crowd, from what I saw, seemed to be more into the wine than the beer. I had the Royal IPA, which was nice, but didn't wow me at all.

The food was solid. I had a hangar steak sandwich with pomme frites that was prepared nicely with some arugula and a cheddar biscuit/pancake bun. My buddies each had a flatbread pizza and remarked that they were very good.

Overall, this was a nice place that I would like to check out again as I feel it has more to offer than what I got out of it on this trip.

I bumped the service score up a notch because our waitress was really good. On top of her game, able to explain the styles of beers, and was just plain friendly.

12-14-2010 15:55:25 | More by ColForbinBC

beerguru15

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -4.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4 | $$

Was passing through on my way home from Detroit and decided to make a stop at Bastone to check out the place, as there beer is quite wonderful.

Bastone had a nice atmosphere to it, in which it would be a great place to stop in for lunch or dinner, or just sit at the bar and have a round with a few friends. The place seemed a little more upscale but a wide arrange of people were present.

The quality of the beers were excellent as they were the previous few times that I tried their beers at beer tasting festivals. I ended up having the sampler which had the following beers:

American Blonde, Pilsner, Wit, Dubbel, Triple, Dunkel,Brown ale

All, except the Dunkel, were excellent and represented their styles well. The Dunkel had a off taste to it but may have just been at the end of the barrel or an off day or something. Highly recommend this beer.

The service on the other hand was a different story. The bartender started out well by presenting the different styles of the beer, but after the initial approach he seemed to disappear. The bartender that was there with him, also at times disappeared and left the bar unattended for periods of times. I'm not sure if he left or? but we never saw him again, and the other bartender only acknowledged us once, in which we were pretty much at the end of our order. We sat there another 20 min waiting for her to come back over to deliver the bill, in which she handed it to us and practically wasn't interested in helping us. I'm sure it may have been a off day but we weren't pleased.

Ended up not trying the food being we already had lunch for the day. Quite a few people were eating though and there was a nice selection of food available.

Overall not a bad place and was enjoyable, for the most part. The next time we return I hope to try some of the food out and look forward to what additional styles will be available. Bastone is pretty easy to get to and is right on Main st.

09-24-2010 14:22:46 | More by beerguru15

rudyarmand

Georgia

4.63/5  rDev +18.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I attended a tradeshow in nearby Troy, MI and poured over the BeerAdvocate website to find out where to go over the weekend. Never having been to Detroit, and frankly a bit apprehensive about going downtown, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Royal Oak was such a nice little town. There were several places that received good reviews, but I found Bastone first, and am happy to say that it was a great choice!

The weather was very pleasant so I sat outside and ordered the beer sampler (8 different beers) and their famous steak sandwich.

My wife says that I can be very picky, but I enjoyed every beer that they brought and would order any of them again. The sandwich was marinated in wine and spices and was delicious.
The service was fantastic-the waiter was delighted to answer all my questions about the beers.
Highly recommended!

09-22-2009 20:41:57 | More by rudyarmand

after5

Tennessee

4.15/5  rDev +6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

Very nice Brewpub without some boring beer choices. I had the sampler and got to try everything.

American Blonde- A
Pilsner - B
Wit- A+
Dubbel- C
Royal IPA- B
Triple- B
Dunkle- A
American Stout- B

The sirloin burgers are just awesome as well.

I commented to the bar tender that it looks like this place was really rocking for the first 2 years and then people drifted to the other new locations in Royal Oaks. All the while the guy making the beer still rocks. Somebody makes that beer with lots of love.

08-20-2009 21:49:05 | More by after5

ElGrecoVerde

Michigan

4.35/5  rDev +11.3%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 5 | $$$

One of my favorite places to dine and drink. Very cozy atmosphere. Dark wood and and nice location tucked off main street make it a great place to settle down in the winter.

I've yet to have a bad beer from Bastone. They have a decent variety of styles though tend to focus on European (mostly Belgian) styles, which is fine with me. Rotating seasonals add to the variety and tend to be a bit outside the box.

The food is delicious. Personal favorite: Steak Au Poivre (spellcheck please). Even the Mac and Cheese has a classy feel to it.

It's not cheap, but well worth it.

02-13-2009 21:15:56 | More by ElGrecoVerde

DrJay

Massachusetts

4/5  rDev +2.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

Stopped in here recently for a full afternoon of enjoying some fine brew. It looks fairly upscale from the outside, but it's a little more comfortable than that on the inside. We sat in the bar area in one of the large booths. The extremely high ceilings helped reduce the effect of smoking in the bar. Large dining room, lots of dark wood and brown brick.

There were eight beers available during our visit, 5 standards and 3 seasonals. These included a blonde, pils, wit, dubbel, IPA, dopplebock, Belgian red, and tripel. Beers were of good quality overall, with the Belgian red and tripel being the favourites at our table. Sampler trays were available (roughly 5oz pours), as were full and half pints, plus growler fills.

Service was quite good, even as the bar started getting busy. I wouldn't hesitate to stop in again and might even try the food next time.

12-31-2008 19:59:02 | More by DrJay