Yard House - Irvine

My second encounter with the Yard House chain and a lot better than my first visit. This is a big one: max occupancy is 753, central bar counter holds 168. Afternoon of 25th May 2015, four of us plus a baby. Interior is dark with a large food station to the rear, kegs visible to the right through windows where subdued lighting shows off the pipes and barrels. Open plan single room with a few square boxwood covered pillars holding the ceiling in place. Functional more than pretty, plenty of staff, all three who dealt with me were fine. Beer selection was huge with some interesting options. Happy Hour prices helped with the Bill, although we arrived before the deals started. My Burger was very good and everybody else enjoyed their food. I was then left alone to try another four beers before leaving. All in all a pleasant experience, would prefer it if the place was brighter though.

Visited December 8, 2013.

Stopped in on the way to a concert. This is the largest tap set up I’ve seen so far. They have that wall in the center of the bar for the taps to be mounted on but they actually have it broken into two, each completely surrounded by taps. Despite the fact that most of what they carry is Anheuser the sheer amount of taps means that they have more good choices. For the first time I saw Bruery and Bootleggers at a Yard House. Naturally they have some Stone, Ballast Point, and Firestone present in addition to the usual Belgian suspects like Delirium and Chimay. Service was surprisingly friendly and bordering on helpful. Prices are high for both food and beer but especially for food. We didn’t eat. Parking is plentiful here at the mall. On a Sunday evening the crowd wasn’t too bad but it was still fairly loud.

Been here a bunch for work functions and a couple times just to eat. The typical enormous beer selection, most of which doesn’t rotate. They do have some good stuff that you can usually count on, though. Food is pricey though usually pretty good. I really only go here when I’m not paying. Place gets really loud, though, which I’m not a fan of.

This is the first Yard House location I ever visited and is partially responsible for opening my eyes to what good beer is and can be. I know enough about beer now to know that they don’t get anything rare or spectacular but always have a few go to brews on tap. The food is phenomenal and they have decent happy hour specials. This location has decent wait staff but no one really knows much about beer outisde the typical "light and dark".

Huge place with a TON on tap, unfortunately not a ton of good stuff. There wasn’t much I hadn’t tried, but they did have St. Bernadus ABT 12. Gotta love that! For the newbie to craft beer, it would be quite a great place to visit. Lame sample policy though. The have 2 pre selected lists with around 5 beers each to choose from and that’s it. You can’t pick and choose what you want to sample. Good and interesting food and we got lucky with a fun and spunky waitress who was pretty knowledgable.

Very helpful waitress. Very wide selection, but mostly crap. Had a few great beers and even less I wanted to try.

Rather large Yardhouse. As usual, there are about a million taps, but only a few are any good. I had Anderson Valley David’s Triple and Fransiskaner Dunkel. Pricey food, but you have to know that when you go to Yardhouse.

Went to this one st. patricks day of last year so it wasvery busy. They have a ton of taps with some very good stuff. they have all the crap as well, but you just have to ignore that. I cant remember exactly what I had, I think I had delirium nocturnum, maybe great white, and st. bernardus abt 12 on draft. I had a pretty good time. i’d go back.

The greatest thing about this place is the spectacle of 100+ tap handles located behind the bar. I used to get frustrated with the large beer selection because there are far too many pale lagers and amber ales littering the menu. Recently, they have added a few new belgian styles to spice up their menu a bit. I hope they will add a few more local brews to their menu in the future and offer a bigger selection of porters, stouts, and IPAs as well. The food is good, but its usually so busy visiting here on a Friday or a Saturday is definitely out of the question. Too bad they discontinued the novel of ordering beer by the yard. The 1/2 yard serving is still pretty cool, but not the same novelty as the full yard glass.

Yes, it looks cool to get 1/2 and full yards of good beer. But this place is expensive and overrated. On top of that, they won’t let you get the higher ABV beers in the big sizes. Sure you can order as many pints as you want, but no yards? They do have a decent selection and some good food though, but the crowds keep me out.