Rock Bottom - Seattle

No Longer In Business

If Chili’s was a brewpub.

Ambiance felt like most major sports bars I’ve been to. Service was amicable. Selection was somewhat lackluster. Food looked great, but we went in afternoon, after having had lunch...didn’t try it. Prices were way okay.

Visited around lunch on Thursday June 25, 2015. Had a cup of soup and one beer. Pretty good service. Sat at the bar. Fairly big room, some outdoors seating as well. Wifi available. OK selection. If you’re n the area a nice enough place for a beer or some food, but nothing to hunt down perhaps. You need a code for the restroom. Walked up from The Pike Brewing Company, not very far. Centrally located in the Capitol Hill area of town.

Typical Rock Bottom floor plan and beer list. Nothing to go out of your way for, but a pleasant enough place to kill a couple hours.

The convenient downtown location was our primary motive to visit and it kinda met our expectations as a typical Rock Bottom, albeit I was expecting a bit more differentiation from the Seattle branch. It is of course huge and the food was decent, typical for the chain, but with a menu going beyond basic pub fare. Pretty predictable beer list with little going outside modern comfort zones, but everything being clean.

I’m used to seeing these in CA and didn’t realize we had one in Seattle. For some reason I had higher expectations and the place fell a little flat. They were out of 2 of their main 6 or 7 beers on tap. She was nice enough to let us sample (very decent sample BTW) the porter and white. Nothing too exciting. I ended up going with their Red Ale since I ordered the Baja Chicken sandwich. The Red was above average. Nice color, great lace. A little under average on mouthfeel but good flavor for a red. My wife ordered the Bourbonzola Burger. It was rich and the dipping sauce was excessively sweet. My sandwich was ok. Not much avocado and the lettuce was super fine chopped like stuff you buy in the bag. The onion rings were thick and good. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to return but wouldn’t put up a fight if everyone else in the group voted for it. Take it or leave it kind of place for me.

(Visited 03/2013): Rock Bottom Seattle is located downtown on 5th Ave in a shopping plaza, with the entrance on the upstairs level.

The interior is large, with multiple rooms including a banquet hall. There is also a patio out front. The bar is in the center and offers a view of the brewing equipment.

As with most Rock Bottom establishments, the tap selection is around 8 with most being the year-round offerings plus a seasonal or two. Pretty standard styles, and the quality is consistently average to above average with nothing standing out either way.

Service at the bar on a slow weekend afternoon was pretty good. The bartender was knowledgeable about their beers and attentive.

Food at Rock Bottom is similar at the locations I have visited. Our sandwiches were decent.

Overall Rock Bottom Seattle is maybe worth a stop if you are walking by, but with all the great beer spots in and around downtown I would not go out of my way to visit again.

Nice place with 8 taps of their own stuff. I had 6 samples for $4.50 which I found cheap.

Really crowded but big pub. Very busy on Friday afternoon. Decent selection of own beers on tap. OK prices. Some of the staff members liked what were doing some doesn’t.

The familiar and unexciting. An Applebee’s that brews the sort of beer you’d expect from such a place.