Latest reviews from Olympia

“Nice brewpub in the center of Olympia, with a more modern industrial look to it, with a few nice touches to not make it too modern. Great for families as there is a "bar" and restaurant area. The people working here are really nice and knowledgeable and want to make sure that you have a good experience. The food was also really good especially the tater-tots and the accompanying sauces.“

jprausch 1643 days ago

“ Have had a couple of their beers down here in Portland, so when I was up there yesterday to perform, jumped on the chance to have dinner there, A newish, commercial space (1st floor of 'mixed-use'), not the warmest feel, and happy to be here on a sunny day without a major sports event. Love their beers! Quite a hop head so with 6 IPAs on tap, out of 12 or so, Casey & i each had 2 each. They also have a nice selection of bottles & cans to go. Service was friendly, but had a little miscommunication. . More than your usual pub grub. with a couple nice happy hour prices. I instead went for the day's special of salmon fish & chips (very good) & Casey had the lamb burger“

raphael 2322 days ago

“I can’t get over the fact that they open at 8am, have a legit breakfast menu and server beer at the same time. Front area is rather small mostly table seating. There is a bar along the front window where I sat which looks out to the street which was nice. There is a bunch of barrels along the wall for various aged beer. In the middle of the restaurant is the kitchen. Not truly open air but you can certainly get an idea of how they cook the food. The music Sunday morning was awesome with a good mix of soul, funk, jazz, R&B, the appropriate selection of artist for a beautiful morning. In the back of the building is a larger bench and table area along with the bar. Several TV’s on the wall. Fridge with all sorts of bottles to go. Large patio as well with a garage door that was open because of the nice weather. Really clean bathrooms.“

HippieFee 2325 days ago

“Really comfortable place with outdoor seating and malt forward beers in a hop forward region. Chuckunut pilsner on tap was much softer than usual.“

joet 2679 days ago

“Cozy, compact interior with a cafe-like dining room somewhat separated from the bar. The beer here is modern and well done. Pub food also pretty excellent with great vegetarian options. Definitely the go-to option for good local beer in Olympia.“

Stine 2807 days ago

“Everything about this place has the feel of an outdoorsy, hippie vibe brewpub of the nineties. Lots of blocky wood and ugly tables and chairs, bland cafe style menu, servers who can’t help you much with beer information. Chalkboard lisitings and menu listings for tap options didn’t really align. Their beers are still acceptable quality and priced well; there’s just a much better, modern option just up the street. I wouldn’t spend much time here if I lived in the area.“

Stine 2809 days ago

“I’m usually appreciative of industrial settings but the noise and close quarters weren’t that appealing. though found a good seat. Very good service. My fried oysters were excellent, light & fresh. Been familiar with their beers a long time--and the German leaning not to my preferences. Only beer I felt like drinking was the IPA and that wasn’t very good, harshly bitter while thin & a little flat.“

raphael 2925 days ago

“Found an old note from a daytrip up from Portland in 2013. It was a pretty typical taproom. I was on my own and remember chatting up the bartender quite a bit. Had an oyster sandwich and it was "solid"... apparently.The beers were so-so.“

DialSquare 3143 days ago

“This is my ideal dive bar. It’s cheap. I’m talking "back in the day" cheap with some $3 options. Pay as you go, at the bar, cash only. Half of the patrons aren’t drinking craft beer, and the ambiance could not be better. It’s got the whole package. Games of all types, a grungy party crowd of all ages and subcultures from hen/stag parties to old geezer drunks, all played to the soundtrack tasty rock and roll music. There’s often a lot of skuzzy types outside, and the area itself is gritty. And on top of it all, their beer list is stacked! I only wish I wasn’t so dead tired that night because this is my kind of bar.“

Beershine 3226 days ago

“Cute little place with fun food and beer and friendly service. Really chilled out and unpretentious. Cozy with a taproom feel but full menu and quite a decent selection of beers. One of the few "must" visits in Olympia, along with Eastside Club.“

Beershine 3226 days ago

“Solid lunch stop on way from Seattle to Portland. Food was good (and kid friendly), and the beers were generally pretty good and included a couple of guest taps. Service was a bit slack, but otherwise no complaints.“

argo0 3294 days ago

“Nice little place in a strip mall featuring lots of craft brews on tap and a few meads available in small pours. The beer selection is great, the guest meads were good, but the house mead is just atrocious -- let’s hope they improve this, as it’s undrinkable right now. The feel is modern, mixed with a bit of hipster and punk, which is rather strange. A little pricey for some of the items, but more or less acceptable. I’d say it’s worth checking out for sure, especially if you’re spending some time in Olympia.“

mcberko 3321 days ago

“Stopped in on my way from Seattle to Portland for ratebeer summer gathering. A great place the guys were very friendly and helpful. It is a nice large place. Keep this in mind an extra bonus free parking on the back by the patio.“

BuckeyeBoy 3378 days ago

“Cool place, they have a bar section and family section (opposite ends of the brewery) and a patio, plenty of seating. Modern design with lots of dark wood. Good, friendly service. The beers and food was good. 9 taps“

Sledutah 3407 days ago

“Great place. Really friendly and helpful staff. Bar section and family section. I think 8 taps of their own stuff on. Food was great too. Really pleased we came here and really looking forward to trying their beer again as it was pretty good stuff.“

shoulderbroken 3422 days ago

“This is a brand-new (as of this writing) beer bar that definitely gives Oly a new splash of variety on the beer scene. They focus on finding the rarest and most-interesting kegs they can get their hands on. They have a beefy tap list and a half dozen coolers as well. Most interestingly, they have taken over an old house and turned it into a real business. It might actually be the most convincing transformation of residential real estate into a cool business that I’ve seen. They’re up on the hill on the east side of downtown. There are tons of all different kinds of businesses all around here, and the busy street on the south side of the building runs straight out to the freeway. Despite all this nearby activity, the house setting makes it feel very private and even like a bit of a friendly treehouse club meeting. There’s a bit of parking out front, and there’s a gravel lot behind the building. The front door has a couple of landings as you move up the slope from the street. This makes the place feel as much like a home as anything else about the place--the steps and railings feel like they’re original to the house. From the outside, you still see the gables and eaves that make it the little bungalow that it is, but as soon as you see the glass in the door and look inside, you know it’s a completely professional and very new beer bar. There’s blond wood on the floor, big windows on three sides, and on a sunny day it was very bright and cheerful inside. There are a few seating areas--a nice mix of heavy wooden tables and benches alongside overstuffed leather chairs and a sofa. There are several different areas where a group of friends can have their own space, and there’s a big sunny deck out back that they’re working with the city to license for service. Can’t sit out there just yet, but by the time you read this that may have changed. The coolers are not totally packed, but they have a nice selection of good stuff. Still, after being open only eight weeks, they have filled six coolers nearly full with a nice lineup of bottles, so it seems likely that they will fill these much fuller before too much longer. You can crack any bottle in the coolers, or take it home. There’s no charge to crack a bottle in the bar. The bar is the centerpiece of the whole place, of course. It runs along the long outside wall, with a nice barback and wall of taps. They offer 6 and 9 ounce tasters along with pints, in a sensible small variety of glasses. This isn’t the place to come for a huge variety of glassware, but the variety of beers is spectacular. You sit on gigantically heavy custom-made barstools, with hand-welded legs under seats that look like butcher blocks. And then there’s the taplist--two dozen beers focused on Washington breweries. They featured two breweries that were so new they didn’t appear on most of the more-common lists of Washington breweries, as well as plenty of interesting kegs from tiny newer breweries in the south Sound and southwest Washington. They really do the legwork to find cool stuff. They also feature a few more-familiar names from Seattle’s brewery scene, and up and down the west coast. Not too many from farther away than that, though. And that’s really cool. Emphasizing the local goods gives the place a great feel. The staff are incredibly well-informed and super friendly. The manager has extensive brewery experience himself, which goes to show how closely connected these guys are to the industry and the scene. The prices are very fair, and there’s nothing about this place that you would change. It’s a long drive for me from home to here, but I can easily see return visits in my future.“

after4ever 3427 days ago

“I walked in here having absolutely no idea what to expect from them, and that’s speaking as somebody who spends waaaay too much time reading about new breweries, special releases, and beer industry news. I don’t know if they’re under the radar, or there’s just too much going on to keep up anymore, or whether it’s because they’ve only just recently begun shipping kegs up north to the Seattle area, but all I knew about them was their name and address. Clearly, though, in the year they’ve been here, they’ve already built up a nice following and they know what they’re doing for sure. They’re right downtown, near the capitol (I say that like I know Olympia geography...forgive me if this area isn’t considered close to the capitol). Even very early on a sunny day when most of the world was probably headed outside to recreate, they were already building up a steady stream of customers through the door. You can park on the street on one end, or in a decent-sized lot on the other. The parking lot enters on the bar, and the street side brings you into a medium-sized cluster of restaurant seating. In between the two, there’s a kitchen and a brewhouse. The brewhouse looks sizable, with nice shiny new equipment, but it wasn’t in operation on the Sunday we visited. The kitchen was bustling (plenty of staff all flying around at the start of the lunch hour), though. We wandered down to the bar. There’s a big high bar with tall stools, a long barback, some communal highboy tables, and then a scattering of smaller tables. They have nice coasters and glassware, and the tables even have the company logo burned into the wood at regular intervals. Lots of full-custom construction everywhere you look. These guys got some cash from somewhere before they opened this place, that’s for sure. They haven’t even been around a year yet and they already look as nice as 90+% of the breweries around. Fortunately, the nice touches extend far beyond the superficial. The beers were all startlingly good, and not messing around with a garden-variety lineup, either. We had an APA, IPA, saison, table bier, pils, and kellerbier. They all had great flavors with real clarity and balance. Only the pils showed some off flavors, with the pilsner yeast throwing some esters that smelled (and tasted) like swimming pool toys. This is an easy mistake to make in brewing a pils (and it’s not even a mistake, so much as it is a yeast by-product), and I’m sure they’ll tidy this beer into lovely shape in short order. We didn’t try the food at all, but the burgers cooking definitely smelled great. There were tons of families and small groups of friends coming in for meals and beers. It seems like this place has already found its niche. The staff are super friendly and nice, cheerfully answering questions with information that was helpful far beyond just addressing the specific questions we were asking, telling us all about the local beer scene and interesting details about the brewery. I like everything about this place (most importantly, the beer), and will definitely be back.“

after4ever 3427 days ago

“A hipster, funky and angry coffee, beer, meadery. Confused? You will be and maybe insulted as well. I hated this place in 10 minutes and loved it in 30. Unapologetic, good beer, great priced bottles, crazy staff and unfortunately small batch bad mead. Go for the staff, stay for the guest taps and have some local mead for fun.“

Ferris 3492 days ago

“A craft beer only shop which is fantastic to see. Lots of the usual good bottles, with interesting releases and a growler station. I was hoping it would have some forgotten bottles being out of the way, but it has a loyal local following so no hidden surprises. Still good though and worth a stop.“

Ferris 3508 days ago

“A casual local bar with a small dining section and a comfortable lounge. Bright and airy. Lots of beers on tap, non particularly great. Tasters available and well priced. We didn’t eat but it looked OK. Not a bad stop and a convenient location if you are going between Seattle and Portland.“

Ferris 3509 days ago

“Brand new and in an industrial type warehouse setting in the middle of town. Big new and pretty. Service is awesome and passionate. Let us try unreleased beers and talked our ears off. Food looked great and am disappointing I didn’t get a try. Beer was a mix of great and good. Prices and paddles are good. Wonderful place, highly recommended.“

Ferris 3509 days ago

“Good bottle shop for a small town with a fairly extensive selection. Seasonals are located on a shelf near the cash register. Nothing overly special here on our visit, but it certainly seems like *the* place to go for bottles when in Olympia. Prices are typical and service is quite friendly. Recommended.“

mcberko 3510 days ago

“Old school brewpub with a decent selection of house beers on tap. The regulars are very bland, but the seasonals are decently made. Service is friendly, though not overly knowledgeable about the beer. Very reasonable prices. Worth a stop if in the area, but not a must stop by any means. Better go to Three Magnets a block away if you have to choose.“

mcberko 3510 days ago

“New modern place a block away from Fish Tale. Really wonderful experience we had here. 8 beers on tap, all of very high quality, especially the saisons, imperial stout and IIPA. Extremely friendly service -- the bartender was all too happy to chat about the beers and ratebeer, and was very generous with free samples. Very reasonable prices. Didn’t have food, but it looked great. A must stop in Olympia. And for such a young brewery, these guys are killing it.“

mcberko 3510 days ago

“Super new place in Olympia. I was impressed with the beer, the service and the food. So glad this place has been added to my local.“

BrewDad 3568 days ago

“Ambiance is typical brew pub. Service is very good. Selection is very good. Food is typical brew pub.“

Hanuta06 3603 days ago

“Nice place decent tap list. Good food and good service. If in a hurry this is a good place.“

BrewDad 3610 days ago

“First, the place is now called "Fish Tale Brewpub (Olympia)." Came in with my wife on Sunday morning. Decent food, good prices, okay beer/cider. Laidback. Okay service.“

Prufrockstar 3715 days ago

“Nice little spot in Olympia. Good atmosphere, friendly staff. Good food and healthy!! Cool graffiti art outside. Nice patio and loft. Worth visiting.“

50belair 3765 days ago

“This was my first experience with a hipster brewpub. The service was OK; a little slow and slightly off-putting, but OK. There was a great selection of beers, but the quality of them was not all that great - a few were fine, but a lot weren’t. And more weren’t than were. Food was decent, though we only had an appetizer.“

maxwelldeux 3876 days ago

“You know, I really enjoyed this bottle shop. The service in here was great - the guy working was really friendly and helpful, making nice suggestions, and generally chatting with us. The selection wasn’t as great as a lot of other bottle shops, though still quite good, and was stocked with some nice rarities I appreciated (e.g., barrel aged Alesmith Wee Heavy). Prices were decent, and there was a nice atmosphere in here. I’ll happily stop back by when in the area.“

maxwelldeux 3876 days ago

“This is a great place. Nice tap list with some unique brews, nice bottle selections too. No samplers/flights though, and cash only. Friendly crowd and the service is great. knowledgeable staff. I will be back.“

Beergeek23322 3931 days ago

“Small store, but with a good selection of beers and ciders. A lot of West Coast brews. Friendly staff, but a little pricey.“

Beergeek23322 3932 days ago

“I was homeless in Olympia Washington during the month of April 2013 I had discovered an abandoned shopping cart near a dumpster outside that was full of garbage. I emptied the garbage out and used the cart to push my things around in for a few days. The cart had no name or logo, so I thought it was just one of the several several, carts I have seen just sitting around during my past two years of homelessness. Apparently the cart belonged to a Bayview Thriftway in Olympia Washington, and they had me arrested for theft. I had to plead guilty to "possession of stolen property" I spent twenty six days in jail I Olympia and chehalis Washington from April 14, 2013 through may 10, 2013 and I now have a misdemeanor on my record and had to pay $283.00 in fines The employees of Bayview Thriftway, I loathe, and I loathe their company. If I had $400,000,000.00 USD I would pay every soul in the city of Olympia Washington $100.00 USD to not shop at Bayview Thriftway for two weeks time. That would be approximately $67,200,000.00 I would spend.“

Zues5000000 3940 days ago

“We actually stopped here for breakfast since they open at 9 am. Of course, we also had a sampler of four beers. They have their own stuff plus guest taps. The men’s room is worth a look too.“

Travlr 4022 days ago

“Stopped here for lunch while on vacation. One of many stops on our way back to California.“

mrhoppy 4066 days ago

“We entered Olympia solely to visit the Fish brewpub, but they do not admit children at all so we ended up visiting our first McMenamin’s establishment here. It was pretty much as expected: a large, spacey bar area in the middle of a large restaurant with two to three different sections. English in nature and thematics with lots of old wood all over the place, very high ceilings and light wells, glasswork. Actually a pretty place, but not particularly atmospheric inside. The beers are okay, undeniably clean, but undeniably not adventurous and simply under average for the Pacific North West. Probably no surprises there. As for the food, there were a few entrées over the usual pub grub and it was again of average quality and despite the few patrons inside, took a long while before arriving. Outside the kitchen delays though, service was friendly and attentive. Not really a beer geek oriented premise, but it’s not like there are many alternatives with a family in Olympia. “

Rastacouere 4363 days ago

“A very nice corner pub in the middle of the street. A decent selection of beer was available and the food was pretty good. The prices also were very good. The service on both visits was very good with our waiter sporting a Philadelphia Flyers tattoo which matched my sons hat. Locals told me it was the best place in town.“

keepersj12 4402 days ago

“A very good selection of brews on tap and even wider range on bottles. Good service and the place wasn’t too crowded.“

olio 4426 days ago

“Mediocre service. Alright beer.“

txspartan 4431 days ago

“Excellent place. Great service. Enjoyable beer.“

txspartan 4431 days ago

“Nice place. Extremely helpful staff.“

txspartan 4431 days ago

“OK. Here is what I like about the Eastside: Outstanding selection - not only to they carry a wide variety of the best regional craft beers, you also find small batch craft beers here that are so rare they only have one or two reviews on ratebeer. Prices are good too. $3.75 or even $3.00 for some of the beers on Thursdays. A few beers like Pliny are more expensive of course. Atmosphere is kind of like a hippy dive bar. But sports on TV for those of us who like that. And pool tables. Order at the bar like in England, no waiter to bother you. This is the only place to go in Oly for beer geeks. You can order some excellent pizza etc. through a window to the restaurant next door.“

caseyjones27 4472 days ago

“A favorite stop when home in Olympia. This is a great focused shop with a well organized and curated extensive selection of NW, national, and pretty good import beers. The shop staff were very helpful picking out WA and OR beers that don’t make it to the Northeast. I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of The Abyss to stash at my mom’s for aging! Prices were reasonable.“

bmerz 4588 days ago

“I love stopping into the Spar on my way through Olympia. It feels like you have been transported back to the 1920’s. McMenamin’s beer is top notch. The service here is god awful. It always seems like we get the same waitress everytime, and it’s as if she just woke up from a three day bender. Service is very slow and she is not friendly, and does not see how you are doing. If it weren’t for the beer and the cool location, I don’t think I would go back as often as I do.“

JFParnell 4687 days ago

“Unusual place where you can do your laundry, shoot some pool, have a beer and order a meal from the place next door. Good prices on beer make this a tempting opportunity. has a great selection of beers 30+. It’s kinda cool that there aren’t any waiters, just a bartender. So you gotta go up to the bar and order your beer - efficient operation. The bad It’s a bit seedy, with a bad smelling bathroom.“

Reisterbrau 4703 days ago

“2010-06. Visited for an early lunch one Tuesday last June, we sat by the door and ate a tasty pulled pork sandwich and seafood stew. Full of concrete floors and wooden tables and chairs, this strange multi-level ceiling has interesting artifacts on display. Two 4-beer samplers found us trying four Fish Tales and four Leavenworths, all quite interesting but nothing stood out. Service was fine if a little on the slow side. This was en route for us and I enjoyed the break, but am not in a rush to return for the beer -- the pulled pork, more so.“

mabel 4818 days ago

“I enjoyed this place. It was a pretty low-key bar on a friday night, comfortable seating outside. Beers were solid and service was good. Good curry veggie burger here.“

GJF 4818 days ago

“It’s an interesting place, a redone old diner/club. The service was really bad, though, and the beers were nothing to make me want to stay. Not much in the way of food either, so we didn’t stick around.“

GJF 4818 days ago