Latest reviews from Santa Clara

“Came here on 29.11.2023. Small, nicely decorated beer bar. Roughly 20 beers on tap. Good selection of mainly California beers. Good mix of IPA’s, Stouts and Sour beers. Very nice Russian River sour beers!“

Schlenkerla 203 days ago

“I came here on 28.11.2023. Interior is not impressive. A U-shaped bar and a few tables in a large room. Almost no decoration. The beer selection is amazing and one of the best in the area. 70 draft beers including many Russian River beers. Unfortunately there was a quiz night when we came.“

Schlenkerla 204 days ago

“Came here on 31.7.2023. A short walk from Bare Bottle. Small Eureka place with not an impressive beer list. A few beers from The Bruery are the highlights. I had a Chronic Amber Ale from Pizza Port.“

Schlenkerla 325 days ago

“Came here on 31.7.2023. The brewery is in the SF area and they have one more tap room in Menlo Park. Good selection of sour ales, lagers and Nitros. Tasted a few hazy ales, all were quite good. Visited on a Monday early afternoon hence not too much going on.“

Schlenkerla 325 days ago

“Closed down 1yr and 8months after CoVid March 2020 shutdown. I thought there were gone for good. Last week they reopened. Wow what a huge tap list. Not the full 70 taps were on, but pretty close. A lot of large micros. Sours are rare. A few barrel aged beers. Definitely a dearth of local beers. Half=8oz pours for $5. Maybe $8 for full pours. In general I really like this place, especially when they ramp up, and start rotating taps more often, and have more locals.“

wetherel 945 days ago

“This was literally the first brewery I have been to since February 2020, other than a couple local to-go pickups. Felt good. Outside seating only of course for now, but this is a huge space in the new SC dining/shopping area that is clearly trying to compete with Santana Row. Its going to be crazy when things get back to normal, but for now its pretty low key. Extensive tap list available, plenty of to-go options. Flights of five available as well. At the moment you must order food, but their empanadas are solid and only like $6, so its all good. As wetherel says, a brewery in SV that is actually worth visiting on a regular basis is definitely a good thing. I am guessing parking is a challenge in normal times, but at the moment I parked free around the corner.“

bytemesis 1213 days ago

“Ug. I think a marketing firm is plastering this place everywhere for free advertising. Only 6 beers on tap, half macros. Definitely not a beer destination. On the other hand, other rating websites have tons of locations, even peoples homes.Their barbecue is good, but then almost all barbecue is good.“

wetherel 1343 days ago

“Tick. Agree with bytemysis. Grocery stores with macros don’t belong in the database.“

wetherel 1363 days ago

“I like this BevMo better than the one at Westgate mall. More single bottles. Most often I don’t buy anything at this or other Bevmos, because I’m looking for local singles, much preferrably at 16oz or less, or top 50 beers. Nevertheless, the selection is great otherwise. Definitely worth a visit, but only if you never visited a Bevmo before.“

wetherel 1383 days ago

“Best beer selection (of many) Whole Foods in South Bay. Right beside Bare Bottle, and they have a large selection of Bare Bottle beers. A few good singles, but mostly 4-packs. Worth a visit. Taproom is closed for Covid, once it opens my rating will go up.“

wetherel 1384 days ago

“Seedy location. Has a good selection of lost abbey and Russian River beers, but not a good selection of locals. I went here for the rating, so I probably won’t visit again, because there so many better beer destinations close by. Meh, unless you live close by.“

wetherel 1390 days ago

“Nice university area location. Right beside Santa Clara liquors, so you can visit two places at once. Parking was easy (during covid). Only one house beer on tap (that was a good smash ipa). Maybe around 20 other good beers on tap. Half pours are reasonably priced. Paninis, cheese plates, olive platters...all looked good.“

wetherel 1404 days ago

“Finally a great brewery tasting room in Santa Clara. Cool location. Lots of taps (like a couple dozen) with some cans to go. Looks like some nice appetizers, which I didn’t try. A few kettle sours, and one barrel aged stout. Excellent“

wetherel 1564 days ago

“Good beer store, some rarities, some stuff available way after you see it commercially available (like I was getting variants of Goose BCS that I missed here from last year - those usually get picked over very quickly). Also some oddball stuff from the US and abroad, along with a bit of hyper-local stuff. You could do fine with this as your only beer store. Not a world-beater but very solid. Bit of a strip mall type place, but you don't shop for beer for the ambiance.“

WestCoastHawkeye 1703 days ago

“This store really has a huge selection of beers. Also it's one of the few locations where you can find local beers“

rja 1884 days ago

“A nice selection of beers. The proces are higher than in the supermarket but the beers you want to buy there are usually not in the supermarket.“

rja 1884 days ago

“Visited on one of the first nice days this year to catch some sun and drink some local beers. I did rate the food low because of the tiny selection, not because of the quality as that was OK.“

rja 1884 days ago

“First place I visited during my trip in US (June 2018). Spacious place, crowded when I went there since Golden State Warriors were playing at the NBA finals and the game was on TV (many TV screens). A lot of taps, many new ticks for me. Half pours available. Good service even-though it was crowded. I didnt try the food.“

rouhlas 2009 days ago

“Definitely worse places out there than this. 24 taps, mostly local. Their house beer was pretty solid (peppery). The other beer I had didn't do it for me. Food gets a low rating just because I'm not a fan of paninis. The tasting plates that came out looked decent.“

WestCoastHawkeye 2146 days ago

“Agree with bytemesis - this is a Smoke Eaters knock-off / standard wing shop. They bread their wings so these are more hooters wings than B3W wings - I prefer these and would actually call these wings legit excellent. The beer doesn't have a ton of rarities but NoCal does excellent hoppy beer and Wicked Chicken has some good IPAs. Also had a good stout there. Would absolutely go back here.“

WestCoastHawkeye 2156 days ago

“Broad selection but not very interesting - although, as bytemesis observed, 70 taps will and did yield something good. Food was a bit more interesting than just burgers but the brisket didn't do it for me (I preferred Armadillo Willy's brisket). Would probably go back but other places around I'd prefer to try first.“

WestCoastHawkeye 2156 days ago

“Good chicken wings, spectacular onion rings and some really very good beers. Went here in the evening on a Tuesday and had to walk back to the hotel (they had some big and boozy stouts on draft, at least one of which was legit excellent).“

WestCoastHawkeye 2156 days ago

“Asadero is owned by the same folks as Aptos St BBQ, which is a good thing from a beer and food quality perspective. This version is sort of a Mexican/bbq fusion thing; think pulled pork tacos. Very near the El Camino / The Alameda junction in the Santa Clara University area. Dedicated parking lot behind the building, which is nice. Not crowded on a Thursday evening. Fairly steep prices - 3 tacos and a beer ran $16. Food quality is good and includes a number of smoked meat selections in various forms, plus a salsa bar with about 6 different options. Taplist was not large; perhaps 10 taps; but it is well curated with nice offerings from quality regional breweries. Go for the food, enjoy good beer as a bonus.“

bytemesis 2372 days ago

“Newest bay area whole foods, opens with a twenty tap taproom, which is awesome. Plenty of parking, but as it is in one of those shopping center things is may get crowded at peak times. Taproom is large and open, natural wood tables of various sizes. Did sourced from the store, of course. Twenty taps with a mix of local and interesting worldwide beers. Flights of four are $10. Friendly efficient service. Cool hangout.“

bytemesis 2733 days ago

“Pretty new place in Santa Clara, located in a small strip mall behind Burger King. Parking lot was plenty large enough for lunchtime anyway. Not busy at lunchtime on Friday; apparently the place does a better business in the evening. Upscale decor, large open seating area and a smallish bar facing the giant wall of taps. Service was enthusiastic, perhaps a bit too enthusiastic, but all good in the end. Food was an interesting gastropub mix, but they had a burger as well that was actually quite good. Beer list was well organized by flavor characteristics, but printed menu was not up to date; two of four of our selections were out. Anyplace with 70 taps is going to have something worth drinking, and Halford is no exception. They had the usual array of standards as well as a smattering of local brews of interest. Nothing really amazing, but again, you will find something. All beers available as half pours as well. All in all a welcome addition to the Silicon Valley beer desert. Prices were a bit high overall.“

bytemesis 2791 days ago

“Walked here from Taplands as it was a highly rated liquor store just a block or so away.

Well, they have a TON of beer here. And a lot of really good beer at that. However, they are offering a lot of, shall we say, out of market beers here. If you want some limited release 3 Fonteinen beers, you can buy them here, it might just set you back $150. Miss out on the Bruery Reserve Society beers from 2015? They’ve got you covered...

Prices were maybe a touch on the high side, certainly for those grey market items, but I guess you can justify it by telling yourself that you can’t get the beers anywhere else in the area.

I want to rate this place highly because the selection is really fantastic, but it does kind of irk me that they are doing some of the things that they are, at least so blatantly.“

brokensail 2864 days ago

“Basically down the street from Santa Clara University, so I would imagine parking here can be difficult at times. I was able to find a spot on the street on the July midweek evening when I visited.

They are allegedly a brewery, but from what I have gathered brew one beer at a time in, essentially, a homebrew sized batch. As such, no house beer(s) when I visited. Good taplist as it stands, though. Found a couple interesting beers on draft such as a fruited sour from Hop Dogma and a fruited session IPA from Moylans. No flights/tasters, but they will give you a free sample before you commit.

A handful of decently well curated bottles in coolers near the back. Free wifi. Small kitchen and food offerings.

I may try to stop in again, particularly if they have a house beer on, but I don’t often find myself in this area.“

brokensail 2864 days ago

“This is the best local place to pick up bottled beer in the south bay. The staff is very knowledgeable and they are constantly striving to get the most interesting beers their distributors can provide. Also if you have a kegerator or just are hosting a party come here for your keg of choice. They keep 5-10 kegs in stock of popular beers like Grapefruit Sculpin, Pineapple Sculpin, St. Archer Mosaic and Elysian’s Spacedust. Want something you don’t see on their shelves or in the keg. Ask the staff and they will be very helpful in trying to order it. (This includes Keg orders) In short, if you are looking for something new to try or something hard to find this is the first stop.“

iggyfenton 2879 days ago

“This is a pretty neat spot. Nice and bright and clean look to it. Friendly bartender and owner were the only 2 people working, and they were taking care of a good 40ish people. Interesting draft offerings, fairly friendly crowd, and a nice (I’ll be it rather small) food menu as well. Should I find myself back in the area again (and I probably will) I’ll definitely be back. Exactly the kind of neighborhood place I look for when visiting an area. “

ben4321 2911 days ago

“Caught this on opening weekend. Parking on the street was a challenge, but there is a free lot across the street. Place was packed, and the staff were kind of deer in the headlights about it. Presumably that will die down with time. Eventually they will have a kitchen and a nanobrewery. Right now they have 24 taps, none of their own beers yet - according to the guy behind the bar they hope to have the brewery up by the end of the month. Decent mix of taps with a local focus. Prices were a bit, no actually a lot, high. $8.50 for a tap of an Eight Bridges IPA? We shall see how that goes. They also have a set of coolers with 50-100 beers. Hard to even get a look with all the people. Annoyingly no tap list display, although they had two monitors behind the bar that were not working an may eventually solve that problem.

Mid April update - more reasonable crowds, but still busy, and they had one of their own beers on tap this time.

Jan 2017 - things are settled in now, electronic taplist is working and printed versions are available. No flights but half pours are offered for the pint pours at least, and they do give out samples on request. They typically have one of their beers on at a time, and the rest of the taps are well thought out. Prices have dropped somewhat as well, which is very much a good thing.“

bytemesis 3028 days ago

“Visited here while on vacation in mid August ’15. Nice corporate big box liquor store located in a suburban shopping mall. Nice wide aisles, great presentation for all of the products which includes a large selection of gourmet food items. Beer is located in two areas, several cooler doors in the back and a few aisles to the left as you come in the store. Large selection of west coast craft, plenty of bombers and six packs. Not a whole lot of singles, not exactly geared to the ticker, but enough to keep it interesting. Prices are reasonable. First visit to a Bevmo! - so not sure if this is representative of a typical store or not.“

PorterPounder 3226 days ago

“Visited here in mid-August ’15 while on vacation. Small suburban liquor store, kind of cramped, but full of goodness. Friendly, helpful service, asked if I needed help. Back wall cooler full of hundreds of west coast bombers and sixers, mostly California stuff. A few singles, mostly broken six pack kind of stuff. Prices are reasonable, many bomber are less than $5. Have a few Russian River for sale and when I was checking out, due to my large selection, the cashier could tell I was a beer geek and he asked if I wanted a Pliny the Elder - only available behind the counter. Why of course! A must visit if in the Santa Clara/San Jose area.“

PorterPounder 3230 days ago

“Why do people keep entering Armadillo Willys? I have been to them all, in the bay area at least, so I guess its a free tick. The Santa Clara location is like the others. I actually enjoy the food, and the fries are awesome dipped in the Jalapeno BBQ. The fact that they have better than Bud is nice, but really its not a beer destination.“

bytemesis 3236 days ago

“Great Local Spot. They Have a good selection and it changes as they get stuff in. Prices are what you would expect buying from a smaller liquor store. I have compared their prices to others liquor stores and bevmo and grocery stores and on some beers they are lower and some higher. They know what they are doing and I have found item here that no one else has gad.“

toml219 3433 days ago

“This place has quite the selection. A few gems you don’t see very often in the bay.“

fidel 3494 days ago

“Large beer selection. Tester option as well. Food is American style. In general this is the sport bar with very wide beer choice.“

mmark 3505 days ago

“Visited October 11, 2014.

I was expecting the worst but was pleasantly surprised, for a Lucky’s. They have a large fridge full of singles. Firestone, Stone, Ninkasi, Coronado, Sierra Nevada, Bear Republic, Napa Smith, Green Flash, Anderson Valley, Gordon Biersch, Mendocino, etc. There is a whole aisle of refrigerated six packs but that’s mostly macros. On the one end cap you’ll find some more beer including what I assume is the house lineup. It’s made in Rochester so most likely just a rebrand but there is a pale, a wit, and an amber. On that same end cap they have Allagash, Chimay, Erdinger, Uinta, and Unibroue among others.

Not a terrible selection for a grocery store actually.“

t0rin0 3539 days ago

“Visited May 14, 2014.

I didn’t realize that this place was here because let’s be honest, who drives down the frontage road that goes behind the airport? I found it because someone added the new Fantome Artist Series beer as available and it was one of only two places in California on this site that had it listed. Turns out that it’s a pretty cool store. They’ve got two fridges, so not a ton to pick from, but it’s definitely quality over quantity. In one fridge they have a bunch of IPAs and in the other fridge I found Fantome, 3 Fonteinen, Anchorage, Hanssesns, Beersel, and a bunch of random Scandinavian stuff like Mikkeller and To Ol. The employee was very friendly and offered some help. After he asked where I was from he mentioned that they have a sister store in Orange County somewhere and that like K&L they ship between the stores. I’ll have to keep an eye on the listing to see if I need the newest Fantome sent down here. Prices were a little high but not out of control.

Like a lot of bottle shops this place is cluttered. There are boxes everywhere. Doesn’t affect the quality of the beer so I don’t really care but it’s kind of surprising that a store could be that lax about organization.“

t0rin0 3627 days ago

“Visited November 25, 2013.

This place is legit, and by legit I mean they have a good beer selection. Funny thing is the beers available are far from legit. I counted about a dozen beers that aren’t distributed that were on the shelf. But more on that later. First I want to rant about how crappy the roads are in San Jose. The more I drive in this city the less I like it. No roads go in a straight line, they all turn, merge, and have weird repurposed lanes that get changed from thru traffic to center left turn lanes arbitrarily. Everything is some kind of expressway. And drivers are complete idiots. Lots of yuppies driving hundred thousand dollar SUVs that think they’re entitled to the road and cut off semis and pedestrians on a regular basis. At least San Francisco makes sense, even if you can’t park anywhere. Screw San Jose. Back to the beer selection.

The first thing I noticed upon entering was just how much beer they have. They have four fridge doors completely full with tons of different beers as well as a couple more fridges with macros in them. Then in the middle of the store, right across from the fridges is a large display of beer. In that display I found some really interesting stuff, for a liquor store. Westvleteren 12 (not the labeled XII bottles), Cantillon gueuze 375’s without the surgeon general warning, and all of the latest Bruery Reserve Society stuff like Oude Tart with Cherries, all the Bois variants, and Windowsill. Someone here is a beer nerd that reads the beer forums, and uses the Ratebeer tags by the way. In addition to all that they have hundreds of California made beers to pick from (I got a Knee Deep Midnight Hoppyness) and plenty of Mikkeller beers as well. He also puts a green sticker on anything that is sour which I thought was interesting. The prices were maybe a bit higher than usual but not by much and the guy at the counter was friendly and offered his help.

If in the area again I’d definitely stop in, despite my new found hatred of the city (technically this is Santa Clara but it’s a block from the city limits).“

t0rin0 3859 days ago

“Agreed with mrhoppy. We need a way to get these non-beer places pushed down in the overall ratings. There should be one master rating for all Lucky stores, since they probably carry the same shit in all of them.“

bytemesis 3899 days ago

“They have spm pretty awesome Bruery stuff! You can find some good and rare stuff here. No bargins on the good stuff but it’s a lot cheaper than driving to the brewery itself. I’ll be Back!“

mrhoppy 3904 days ago

“Visited September 26, 2013.

This was on the route I was driving for work and I’d heard enough about this place that I wanted to stop in. It’s a small store, even by liquor store standards. All the beer is up against the right side, both in fridges and across the aisle on the shelves. They have just about everything you could imagine jammed in here. The prices are pretty high on most things like the Bruery stuff and reasonable on other things. I grabbed a bottle of the Rodenbach Vintage 2007 for $25. The 2010 right next to it was $22. I saw a number of Bruery club exclusive bottles on the shelves like all the Bois variants and cherry Oude Tart. They also have a pile of Mikkeller and Nogne beers, which is becoming more common these days. I also saw some Tilquin and 3 Fonteinen gueuze bottles for about $25 each.They definitely have a lot of good stuff here but they charge for the convenience. I didn’t ask for any help which was probably a good thing from the sounds of it.“

t0rin0 3917 days ago

“Visited September 25, 2013.

This is located right on Stevens Creek Blvd so it’s easy to get to. At 4 pm on a work day the parking lot was somehow full already. Inside is a bit different. This is one of the larger Bevmo’s I’ve been to. I was impressed by how big the selection is. I counted four aisles of beer plus some random displays around the store and some fridges. The prices were also better than average. $5 for a St Bernardus 12 (still higher than it should be but comparatively it’s good), Knee Deep beers for a dollar cheaper, and Vitus for $2.49 a bottle. However, I was not as impressed by the actual selection. Most Bevmo locations have about the same selection with small differences but since this one had so much more I was kind of hoping for a more creative inventory. At least they have Beersel Oude Kriek 750s for $15. And why don’t more stores carry Cuvee Rene? They have all the artificially sweetened ones but not the one that is actually good.“

t0rin0 3920 days ago

“Visited September 23, 2013.

Stopped in for lunch on the way from one client to another. Despite this looking like a sit down restaurant this is basically fast food but a little better. I had a tri tip sandwich that came with a side of BBQ sauce and some potato salad. Not exactly what I would call a cheap meal but it wasn’t bad. There isn’t much to say about the service, since there really is not service unless you’re at the bar. You order your food at the counter and they give you one of those vibrating pagers to let you know when to pick it up. Soft drinks are self serve. Maybe next time I’ll try the wing challenge.

The beer list looked pretty good for a BBQ place. I saw some Ballast Point, Stone, Firestone, and Bruery on tap. Actually most of the taps were pretty solid. I could see getting lunch here or even coming in the evening for a beer if I was in the area.“

t0rin0 3922 days ago

“Yes indeedy, another Smoke Eaters! Pretty much the same idea, same plan. I like the wings and fries, and they usually have good beer. This place has a bit more ambiance than Cupertino, but it is also busier. Update: it seems that their tap list changes less frequently than Cupertino as well.“

bytemesis 3933 days ago

“Pretty cool small place. Decent beers on tap. Bruery, Alagash, Stone. Wings are OK. The best thing is free UFC Fights.“

mrhoppy 3946 days ago

“A little cramped, but there’s a lot of not commonly found beer crammed into the place. Prices are mixed. Some high, some low. Ambiance: kind of a hole Service: Just someone at the cash register. But it’s a very good place to get beer. Very. Went back at 9:30am. Not open No posted hours. Not a good thing. Lowering service rate.“

bhensonb 3952 days ago

“Shit, how the hell did this place exist 5 blocks from my old house and I never knew it? Pretty good selection of craft beers, petty good prices. Shit. Update: owner is friendly and helpful if you talk to him a bit. They were one of the few places in the south bay to get all of the variants of BCS this year as well, although they were staggered over about a month. He clearly is a RS member at the Bruery and puts the stuff on the shelves, at a hefty premium. One of two places that you can sometimes find Cantillon as a shelfie as well, again , at a healthy premium.

Update, Jan. 2019. After 5 years this is one of only two SV bottle shops that I still hit with any regularity. They have a solid selection and if you stay away from the grey market stuff the prices are pretty competitive. I wish they sold more single cans, but that is a bit of a nit overall.“

bytemesis 3953 days ago

“Don’t go here for beer unless you are looking for Bud. Good food yes.“

mrhoppy 3979 days ago