Visited 4 or 5 times in the past few years, mostly combined with a stop to Beer Revolution and/or Pacific Coast Brewing.

A high end / classy kind of place in Oakland that serves expensive beer and expensive food and also sells their glassware for expensive amounts of money. The employees are nice and the beer selection is usually pretty good but it’s the type of place that you cant get in and out of for less than $20. If they have something on tap that I really want to try I’ll stop in but for those prices I usually scroll past.

A great place in an old brick building. They have 2 bars with different vibes. The front bar was dark and quiet, the back bar was brighter with music playing. A nice outside area with picnic tables. The service was great. Good beer and food. I didn’t look at the bottle list but the coolers were full. Prices were on the high side. I’ll be back.

Oct 2012. 10 minute walk from the BART station on 12th street. The place is very cozy and quiet in the opening hours. Service was excellent and I had a long conversation with the owner about Scandinavian beers and the new Mikkeller Bar on SF and Pliny the Younger events. Beer selection consists of top-of-the-line Belgian beers with some Belgian-style US beers. I was surprised that I had already tasted almost all of the draught beers they had. Bottle selection is carefully selected and has some Scandinavian beers as well (Haandbryggeriet, To Øl, ...). Food selection seemed to be excellent, but we only had a cheese board for snacks (excellent as well).

Now, the beers here are somewhat pricy. Sampler set of 3 beers was something like $18-$20. Still the prices are in a reasonable range unlike in Monks Kettle at SF. Bottle selection has Cantillon beers that you won’t find in SF.

Awesome selection of draft and bottled beer from Belgium, America, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, and more. This place is incredible. Good food obviously made to pair well with the delicious beers they serve. The staff is both friendly and knowledgeable. They are excellent at helping you pick just the right beer. I wish there were more places that took the same care with the products they served. You can’t go wrong with The Trappist unless you just don’t enjoy good beer..

very upscale bar, and very nice interior. The taplist was amazing.

Visited during SF beer week, during a Mikkeller event. Cool space inside a brick front structure. Lots of wood, tile, dark, yet with plenty of windows weird random separation of seating spaces/tables and a larger outdoor area. They have a ’front bar and back bar’ and you can order at either then they give you a number and a server will bring them out to you. Prices were a bit higher, maybe high by Oakland standards, but they focus a bit more on imports. They had the Mikkeller yeast series of 6 samples on a tray for $20 and was happy to try that instead of having to buy the bottles. Service was solid, food menu was small but they were pumping out plates and they looked good. Would defiantly go here again…even though not sure what would take me to Oakland again. Place did seem a bit out of place for the area to me.

Two bars which helped with service. More of a restaurant feel than a bar feeling to it. Food was good, however prices were high. A great selection of Belgians of course.

By far, my favorite bar in my 25+ years of bar hopping beer loving life since way back when I turned 21. The Trappist offers an amazing selection. The bartenders are fucking GREAT! I love this place! And it’s near BART(SF-Oaklandish subway) so who cares about designated driving.!

Rating based on Zwanze Day 2012 (will update next time I go if that is too harsh). Small place with narrow halls and minimal seating; not a great place for 200 people in a line. Staff is medium helpful; not really interested in moving folks through the lines. Tap list was interesting and appears to change often. Didn’t try the food or the bottle list. Likely a great place to go on a "normal" day. I was not impressed with how they handled a very NON normal day. OK, returned for lunch on a "normal" day and it is indeed a better experience. Staff were knowledgable and helpful, beerlist was first class, and the food was great. Rating updated.

This has a nice interior and decoration. It’s a very comfortable and relaxed place to drink. The selection is not so impressive to me as I have most of their Belgian beers available where I live. There were some beers that I would have liked to have tried but did not due to the high price.