Nodding Head Brewery & Restaurant

September 22, 2009
An upstairs old time looking place- reminds me of a 1950s ice cream parlor. I believe there was 6 taps, and a cask- (I’ve had two different casks from this brewer and they’ve been pretty bad). The sampler came in 7oz pours, which is a generous amount to try to get through all of them. I was looking forward to the Berliner weisse but it was a bit grainy and not sour enough. The other beers were solid, but nothing standout. Friendly service- attentive. A nice atmosphere with OK beers. This place should be on your list of stops when in Philly.

September 16, 2009
Quaint, dim,old warehouse style building with the restraunt fitted in around the brew house. Servers were friendly but busy. After work crowd while I was there plalying darts or watching the game. 8 house beers on tap with some unusual and challenging styles. I had a Berliner weisse, Scottish 60 and a nice cask pale ale. All the beers were well crafted. The burger I had was good. Three pretty good beers and burg for 25 bucks in downtown Philly...not bad me thinks.

August 14, 2009
I stopped in with my family for dinner after spending the day at the Franklin Institute. The place looks old and well used. I like the use of church pews as table benches. Neat collection of bobble head dolls at the top of the staircase as well. There were six beers on tap the day I was there, with a very nice assortment of styles not usually found in typical brewpubs. I opted for the Berliner Weiss, which I quite enjoyed and was thankful that the server asked me if I preferred it without the woodruff syrup. My wife had the Monkey Knife Fight. The food was very good. Again, a nice variety of menu items and something for everyone. The sampler platter appetizer was a big hit with everyone at the table. I could definitely see myself stopping by again during a future visit to Philly.

June 20, 2009 [ Updated June 25, 2009 ]
Cool place, had dinner here tonight with my girlfriend and some friends. Good small selection of brew and good food, with good variety of vegan and vegetarian and meat eater options. Can’t say a bad thing about it. Cool interior with a lot of bobble heads. Nice place.

May 17, 2009
Straddles the line between college pub and microbrew pub. Big place, with lots of space. Lots of interesting beer offerings.

March 27, 2009
Cool place. Decent service but when they get busy it drops off. Nice selection of their brews. They are all good. I really like the food. Burgers, muscles, seitan stew, it’s all worth eating, and at a decent price. Goood value. I’m a fan.

March 21, 2009
This was our first stop in Philly and it was a pretty awesome stop. I can’t say that I loved the beers, but I really enjoyed the bar. There was a very wide range of styles on here though and while they weren’t knockouts, they were good. Busy and crowded, but the crowd was very friendly. Excellent food although the service was a bit muddled initially, with orders gone missing and a few harmless mistakes. All in all, I’d highly recommend this place and I can’t really understand why it doesn’t get more love.

March 9, 2009
First stop of the Philly trip, and one of the best.Though the quality of the beer wasn’t too high (3.2 average from me), they served an interesting and atypical mix of styles, including a berliner weisse, Belgian chocolate stout, 60 /-, scotch ale, and a few others. Service was generally good, except the bar tender who poured woodruff syrup into my berliner weisse without asking me and then got pissed when I wanted one without. The atmosphere and music were great though, as was the food. Highly recommended, and essential stop on any Philly beer tour.

March 8, 2009 [ Updated July 24, 2009 ]
This is a pretty nice place. Couple TVs for watching some games, dart board, and a pretty lively bar crowd. Be sure to check out the bobble head collection. There are only a couple of beers on tap, and all are their own. I’m not crazy about their beers. All I’ve tired are pretty average, but I’ll go back for the food! Try the baked brie appetizer. Not expensive either, which is a nice plus.

January 11, 2009
Stopped by here on a Saturday night with fredandboboflo. Atmosphere: A pretty chill hangout. It wasn’t very crowded for a Saturday night though. They had TVs and a dartboard. The bar was small, but we found seats easily. Quality: An average brewpub, I didn’t really care for any of their beers. It seems like some of the better beers weren’t on when I was there, so maybe that was it. Service: Service was good. No complaints. Selection: Only 5 beers on tap, so a little lacking (they had a brown ale, pale ale, golden ale, Belgian strong ale, Scottish ale). Food: N/A Value: Good pricing. I don’t remember exactly, but probably $4-$5. Overall: A good visit and a nice place to check out if you’re visiting, but I don’t know if I’d come back again.