Golden Road Brewing

I visited this before AB had any hand in the business. Overall the brewpub is big and full of seating options-outside, in a covered area and inside. Pretty cool setup. I ate here with a big group and thought the beer was solid nothing ground breaking. Decent if you are in the area.

Stopped in on a Thursday afternoon. Big place in a fairly industrial area. Doesn’t look like much from the outside. Big parking lot (valet service even -- hey, this is LA). Situated right next to the rail line, and when that Metroliner zooms by and blasts its whistle, you’ll jump out of your seat. Inside bar, big deck area, and lower seating area on the parking lot level. Fairly loud in the inside area, with sports on several TVs and lots of semi-shouting conversations.18 taps of Golden Road, plus a few guest brews, were on. The menu has three types flights, all four glasses: a "Core" flight for $8; a "Hoppy" flight for $9; and a "Specialty" flight for $10. But.... when I asked, the server said flights were not available because they were "changing their glasses." So, I chose four different 8oz. beers. They were out of one of them, and the server included a free glass of another. Did not eat there. The menu seemed fairly basic and uninspired: snacks, salads, burgers, and sandwiches. Friendly service. And the beers were all pretty good. Not a place for hardcore geeks, but not bad.

Was not really keen on going to Golden Road, went as the only brewery open at 1 PM in that part of LA. Big place. Lots of seating and a good bar area. Have had a few of their beers so had some of the specialty beers. They were OK. Food was quite good. Lots of interesting food items. Also had a cider and some wine selections so not all that bad. Service was good but that is more at the end of lunch. More of a place for a non hardcore beer person. Really enjoyed it though.

Brother took me here when I was in town. Place was huge. Lots of space, big bar, nice outside seating. Beers come in pre-fixed flights which was a bit of an annoyance, but since I hadn’t had anything from them, it wasn’t a big deal. Lots of families and people with dogs (one table had 3 dogs... really?). Can we stop this trend across all breweries? Dump on them all you want because of who owns them, but the brewpub was pretty snazzy. Some of the hoppy beers were pretty darn good. Food was tasty.

Nobody I know likes this place. Golden Road beer is notoriously mediocre - it’s brewed by wealthy opportunists, not beer lovers. I can’t think of a food item on the menu that I like. Has all the ambiance of a Costco food court - it’s blatant that the place was designed to herd people into and sell, sell, sell. And of course they foster the notion that it’s a family place so there are awful children running around everywhere. Nobody who knows any better ever picks this place - it’s always your visiting aunt or non-beer friend from NYC. If Golden Road is their plan for the night, I make other plans.

Kinda cool place with a nice patio. Close to a railway and you did not miss the trains passing. Apart from that it was a nice ambiance and service was good. Flights were available, but you were not allowed to choose the beers you wanted for the flight. Did not try the food, but enjoyed the beers on the patio.

Hmmm, a tricky one for me. Huge place, very busy and noisy on a Sunday afternoon. Loads of kids, loads of sports fans. Not exactly my kind of place, but I was prepared to give it a go. Decent selection of their own beers which I didn’t get to try for reasons soon to be stated. The two I had were average (in my opinion). My big problem, and for me this is a huge problem, is that I ordered the vegan pulled pork and they served me with a real pulled pork sandwich. Quite a significant difference for me. Thankfully I am not veggie for allergy reasons, but I still felt pretty sick afterwards. It was a real hassle getting the waitress to come to us when we noticed this. I think she was avoiding us for this reason. Finally got the manager and he apologised, gave me his business card and told me to email him if I got sick. The price for this item was removed from our bill. In such a litigious country, I’m surprised they didn’t try a bit harder to make us happier. I know mistakes happen, but I was very specific when ordering and I didn’t like the way we were ignored when (I presume) they had worked out what had happened. Ambiance and selection scores are as would have been without the cock-up, service and overall reflect my experience. I never want to go here again and I don’t think I’ll be missing that much.

Stopped in on a Monday for lunch on a brilliant sunny warm SoCal day. Had the family with me. Was happy to see lots of booster chairs and a small kids menu. Wide variety of beer on tap. This time I stuck to their sours and a saison since I’ve had a few of their IPAs in cans previously. Good but certainly not great. However, big props for having a nice diversity of brews on tap. The food was excellent and the service was very good. Will certainly be heading back again. Nice outdoor patio area. Right near a fairly active railway (over an hour there were 3 passenger trains that were pretty loud). Still, ambiance was very nice. Comfortable, breezy, good music playing not too loud. Nice flat panel tvs.