Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub

Reviews 3

CA

Cal Moore

My wife and I own 2 business in Estes Park, Colorado. We had frequented Tommyknockers three to five times a year for over a decade, making our dinners there the apex to our days of skiing at Loveland Ski Area. Their delicious burgers, sides, appetizers and generous glasses of craft beer so impressed us that we regularly recommend Tommyknockers as a "must stop" to many of our customers and RMNP visitors that were headed west through Colorado. That is why I felt I needed to comment about our most recent experience at Tommy Knockers Brew Pub in Idaho Springs. Although our last visit in April of 2016 was as great as ever, we stopped for the first time this year on Tuesday, February 14th, and ordered many of our favorite items, only to be stunned by the drop-off in quality and service. Our draft beers were served in 12 ounce and 8 ounce glasses, whereas they were always served in pint glasses in the past. When we asked if we could get a pint glass, our server told us he had been working there for 6 years and those were the only glass sizes the drafts were ever served in (which I know to be untrue). One of our previously favorite appetizers, the Spinach Artichoke Dip, tasted like a can of Campbells Cheese Soup, and contained 2 pieces of spinach and absolutely no artichokes. The Elk Bleu Burger, which has always been cooked as ordered and deliciously juicy in the past, came out over-cooked, dry and flavorless. The onion rings, which used to be some of the most delicious, flaky onion rings I had ever had, tasted like the rubbery frozen oven-bags of onion rings you get at Safeway. And yet another burger at the table that was ordered seared on the outside and rare on the inside (which their cooks have always done to perfection in the past) came out as a hunk of slightly warmed meet that appeared to have simply been microwaved for a few seconds. And a side of sautéed onions and mushrooms showed up as about a tablespoon of cold, mushy mushrooms and onions - not even enough to cover the top of the burger. Even more disconcerting was the response I received from their staff. After politely making him aware of our unhappiness with the meal, the manager apologized, then assured us he would "Ask the chef to kick up the flavor a notch for next time" (whatever that means), and offered us a couple free beer coupons for future visits. How exactly was asking the chef to kick the flavor up a notch going to alleviate our undesirable situation? How does not even offering a discount for the poor dishes make us want to come back in the future? I had only eaten a very small portion of my meal and would have been happy to have them take it back and remove it from our ticket, but that wasnt even offered as an option. I understand that there may have been staffing changes in the kitchen or other issues that contributed to the overall poor meal, but the general attitude of the manager to just tell us "sorry, try again next time" was a very unprofessional way to handle unsatisfied customers. If I dealt with my customers in that fashion, I would be out of business. Additionally, I sent an email detailing our experience to both one of the owners and the general manager, and never received any kind of reply.

A

A Private User

I visited today with my boyfriend. We hadnt been before. I was kind of shocked at the menu prices - my buffalo burger was $12+. Still, I thought, a good mozzarella pesto buffalo burger could very well be worth that. Ugh, it wasnt. I ordered it medium rare and it came out medium. The actual burger was so small that it was comical. Not thick, not big...it reminded me of a fast food patty. Not what I expect for $12. The mozzarella cheese covered only half of my tiny burger, and the pesto had absolutely no taste. If it werent green, I wouldnt even have realized that it was there. My boyfriends "Pub Brewed" ruben sandwich was nearly inedible. All he tasted was salt. Both of us got fries that were greatly overcooked and hard. I sprung $1.50 extra to get "garlic fries", which were described to me as tossed in garlic butter and sprinkled with parmesan. Sounds good, right? Well, there wasnt even the slightest taste of garlic on those fries. They hadnt been tossed in a thing, just had some parmesan sprinkled on them. You might ask why we didnt complain to the waitress. Well, we may have, if we had seen her once after we got our food. There wasnt a single check in with us to see how things were. I tried desperately to get someones attention, but no one would even look our way. I was in a great mood and decided to just eat my food and vow to never go back. Also, I was horribly disappointed in it as a brewery. Their root beer is just funky tasting. I can appreciate a good, deep root beer...but, this wasnt good. This was just odd and gross. They also charge $2.50 for a mug of draft root beer, which is absolutely ridiculous. Then, they charge $1 for a refill. My Almond Creme soda was $1.99, and they dont even have that on draft. It was also very strange tasting, and I didnt enjoy it. Overall, I dont get the appeal of this place. The food was worth well under what we were charged, and the service was poor. One other note. The first thing we smelled when we walked in was musky beer brewing. I wrote it off, since its a brewery, but wow, this was an awful smell. As we were leaving, I heard a young girl waiting for a table describing it as, "It smells like sweat, old beer, and sunscreen." No matter how you describe it, its not good. We will most definitely not be back. If I want to pay too much for bad food, Ill head downtown and at least enjoy the ambience.

A

A Private User

Being a huge fan of craft beer, I couldnt think of a better finish to an awesome day atop Mt. Evans than stopping to enjoy some great brewery grub and some local craft brew at Tommyknocker. Instead we got poor service, bad food and beer that I would describe as unbalanced which is strange as Ive enjoyed Tommyknocker in the bottle before. We ordered fish and chips and an order of nachos. Out came a smallish plate of chips smothered in what looked and tasted like canned refried beans, cheese (not melted) and a drizzle of sour cream with a bowl of pico de gallo which was nothing more than diced tomatoes and salsa that was so heavy on garlic and oregano it tasted more like marinara sauce on the side. We foolishly opted for a side of guacamole that resembled that guacamole sour cream dip you get at the grocery stores which was too bad because we had specifically asked the server if it was good and her response was "Oh yeah!". Honestly, Ive had better nachos at a ballpark. For $12 the fish and chips were served in a sandwich basket dripping with fry oil. The server also complimented this choice by saying they were hand-battered but perhaps this isnt a good thing as there was more batter than fish and awesome fry cook that didnt feel it necessary to let the excess oil drip off over cooked them. Chips were your average undercooked, frozen variety while the tartar sauce was heavy on the mayonnaise and weak on the tartar. Long John Silvers does a better job in this department. We started off with the beer sampler and as mentioned earlier, I felt the beer was unbalanced and that the brew master was trying too hard with almost everything except the Bock and Lager being excessively overpowered by one ingredient instead of complimenting the key elements. It was truly sad to see this brewery in such a picturesque setting failing so badly in every aspect and making matter worse was shocking cost of it all; $47 for the nacho appetizer with guacamole, fish and chips, beer sampler and one pint!