Latest reviews from Iowa City
| 82 /100 1225 S GILBERT ST. “Ultra modern place with a very open interior and a massive outdoor space, tons of tables with umbrellas plus fire pits. Beer was tasty with a decent variety of styles and food hit the spot. Most fun place in the area.“ |
| 78 /100 Hy Vee Wine & Spirits - Iowa City (North Dodge) (Grocery Store) 1125 N DODGE ST “Setup similar to other Hy-Vees, beer in coolers with doors on the left. Single beer options were pretty good, as well as a full lineup of local and a good amount of national micros. Pretty good overall.“ |
| 78 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “This place is an old school grocery first and foremost. You can get your fruits and veggies here along with prepared meals and frozen foods. But you came here for the beer which is in the back right of the place. A well stocked crowded corner greats you and don't forget about the claustrophobic walk in cooler that has most of the craft singles you're looking for. Your bound to find some Iowa craft beer here from brewers you have never heard of. I don't know if I would go out of my way to come here but if your driving across Iowa on I-80 it's worth a stop.“ |
| 86 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “A few blocks down from Johns. Ambiance and service were both pretty good, value was good, Iowa City is expensive pretty much everywhere. Among the best craft beer bar I’ve been to in Iowa.“ |
| 94 /100 1225 S GILBERT ST. “There are places with better food and there are places with a bigger beer selection. But for flat out fun, this is the place to go. I would live there if they would let me. Big outside area with yard games and fire places. It feels more like a neighborhood center with beer and food than a bar.“ |
| 76 /100 Hy Vee Wine & Spirits - Iowa City (North Dodge) (Grocery Store) 1125 N DODGE ST “Stopped here while passing through Iowa recently. Large liquor store attached to the main market. Very good selection. Toppling Goliath, other local Iowa breweries and Surly. Well worth a stop.“ |
| 86 /100 1225 S GILBERT ST. “Huge, busy place with tons of barstools, indoor and outdoor seating. Nice selection of 11 house beers and ~10 guest taps as well. The house beers have all been pretty good so far. Prices are reasonable and the food looks amazing.
Iowa City needed a place like this, Go Hawkeyes!“ |
| 78 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “This pub has loads of ambiance, with massive wood beams and stone walls dating from the 1940’s. A nice rotating draft list and some interesting bottles, although many are 22 oz or 75 cl. No flights, but a pretty liberal small free tastings. There were a few off notes in the three drafts I sampled. Food was very good and the service friendly and pleasant.“ |
| 84 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Feels like a neighborhood grocery. Big wine room to the right as you walk in. Beer room to the back. Staff was friendly. No DietPepsi here today, so I had to go full calorie. A crap ton of beers. The walk-in cooler that looks small from the beer room is actually massive and wraps around. Even more impressive was I got excellent cell phone reception inside the walk-in! Tons of beers from all corners of the world. Solid prices, decent deals. Still didn’t stop me from racking up 80 bucks pretty quickly. Some Prairie Bomb variants, but I’m not paying $14 for a 12 ounce bottle of anything unless its Jean Van Roy’s tears. Lots of rarities. Not too far off the interstate. Worth going out of your way for.“ |
| 82 /100 1225 S GILBERT ST. “Right off of Highway 6 on Gilbert St. on the left around the back of the building. Stopped in for a flight of five and a taster. Selection was good and they also had several guest taps. Didn’t try the food but it was early. Good local brewpub, will stop in again.“ |
| 90 /100 BlackStone (Restaurant) 503 WESTBURY DR “Always enjoy this place. They don?t have a lot of taps but they always have a very nice variety of beer styles.“ |
| 80 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Cool little grocery store with focus on wines and beers. From the pure beer perspective it’s worth a visit. Wide selection of international but also US and IA beers. Singles are kept in walk-in-cooler which is cool indeed. Don’t wanna spend there too much time. Good selection of Toppling Goliath and other IA craft ones.“ |
| 92 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “Re-rating, Oct. 15, 2016: My favorite place in all of the whole of my beloved home town of Iowa City. In an earlier review, I mentioned that I thought the place had slipped in the food department, but I am happy to report that as of late August or so, the place made a huge rebound. They’ve gone back to the basics with their pizza dough, and what a world of difference that makes! Sanctuary now makes, once again, perhaps the best thin crust pizza in town--and yes, I mean even better than that place that starts with a P. Great draft selection, too, and while I’ve noticed it tends to lag in the summertime when the students are out of town, they pick things up again when school is in session.“ |
| 76 /100 Pullman Bar & Diner (Restaurant) 17 S DUBUQUE ST “A really nice restaurant in downtown Iowa City. Indoor and outdoor seating available. There are 10 taps, solid varied offerings. I had a Two Roads/Evil Twin gose and my husband had the Ballast Point Even Keel. Food menu is sandwiches and "breakfast all day". I had the breakfast tacos, which were excellent. Solid place to get food and craft beer.“ |
| 78 /100 Iowa Chop House (Restaurant) 223 E. WASHINGTON ST. “A fun bar in downtown Iowa City. Beer selection was a little confusing but also unique. First, they had a regular tap list you could order from as usual. Then they had other offerings only available at the Beer Barn. Basically you got a bracelet that was linked to your credit card. You walked to a back room that had about 10 taps. You could pour as much as you wanted of whatever beer and you were charged by the ounce (so you could try a sample first before getting a full glass). I did not order any food, but it is a steak house. Overall it seemed like a great place to get a beer, with quite a large selection.“ |
| 78 /100 Hy Vee Wine & Spirits - Iowa City (Waterfront) (Beer Store) 1720 WATERFRONT DRIVE “Similar to other Hy-Vees, apart from all of the bombers being in the walk-in cooler. Probably due to the proximity to campus, there were some pretty good prices on sixers and twelve packs.“ |
| 84 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Very cool country market ambiance. Very impressive beer selection. Many are kept in a walk in cooler, which makes liesurely sampling a bit uncomfortable. Still the selection makes it all worthwhile - Topling Goliath and numerous other Iowa breweries along side extensive Belgian and English beer selections. We chatted with the Grandson of the Dave that started the grocery many years ago and that now runs the store. Enjoyed very minute.“ |
| 86 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “I don’t intend to write a book. Me and the missus were very well received in that well decorated pub. Cozy, quiet, comfortable. Friendly and probably knowledgable service. Very good selection of both draft and bottled beers. No taster flights, but I was offered to taste some booze (wich I refused, being a ticker-swine above all). Food was nice and prices fair. Hard to beat.“ |
| 90 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Stopped by on way out to Colorado. First time through Iowa CIty, and it seems to be a college town first - with that said, I did find parking difficult, even during the summer. They do have their own lot, but lots of trucks surrounding this destination. No biggie, parked a block away. Not at all what I expected from this legend. I thought a more open market place, but no, this is an old building/maybe former house...when I walked in I was not sure which direction to go to, to find beer. However, the ambiance of an older building, negates the lack of navigation, in my opinion. I stopped by on a busy Thurs. afternoon. Selection was outstanding, lots of hard to get, locals. regionals, and one-offs. I do know one of the workers, but taking him out of the equation, service was outstanding. I wandering around by myself, and was helped when I needed it, and left alone, when I needed it. Very friendly staff! Food, I did not try, but options were available. Value seemed to be fair. Overall - if 8 mins. from my house I would definitely be a weekly visitor, however I live 8 hrs away. If in the area - you must stop by! Highly recommend to other!
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| 90 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Cool store with a very nice selection of beer.“ |
| 92 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Stopped here just before midnight on the Friday night we rolled into town. It’s in downtown Iowa City by some other cool restaurants and shops and stuff. It’s a nice little market with tight aisles and goofball employees, and it has rooms off to the back for wine and then for beer. Such cool rooms. I snagged some goodies from Toppling Goliath, Exile, Central Waters, Crooked Stave (a 375 I hadn’t seen before), and Lagunitas ($2.99 bombers of Equinox). I could’ve spent a lot more time and money here but Ms. phaleslu was almost passed out in the car and we had 12 hours of driving to do the next day, with limited trunk space. Good layout, given limited space. Good prices, too. The service here is A+ top-notch number one, with Andy (pepsican) leading the team of misfits who were around that night. I also grabbed some groceries while in there, and damn if they don’t have an outstanding house-made wheat bread. It lasted our whole trip and gave us some high-quality peanut butter sandwiches, staying fresh and hearty for a week-plus. If I lived in Iowa City (sigh), I’d be here every week. I loved everything about this place. I’ll be back whenever possible.“ |
| 90 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “We stopped in here on our cross country adventure and I’m real glad we did. You walk in to what looks like a cramped corner market. As you make your way to the back you enter the beer room, which is truly impressive. Loads of import bottles and some USA crafts kept warm along with some sixes. The cold storage room is where most of the craft six-packs and singles are held. Loads of local and those pesky, hard to get Iowa ticks available here. I snagged a couple Toppling Goliath brews and a bunch of other Iowa stuff. They have loads and loads of top notch stuff all at very reasonable prices, IMO. If you are anywhere near Iowa City this place is worth a detour.“ |
| 88 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “Un pub style anglais avec une sélection monstre et équilibrée, un service impeccable et candide et deux ambiances distinctes aussi chaleureuse que possible.“ |
| 86 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “L’instant que vous aller trouver le cellier derrière l’arche façonné de croustilles, vous aller avoir de la difficulté à perdre votre sourire. Chris a eu la gentillesse de brandir ses meilleures bouteilles après une bonne discussion avec lui. N’importe où tu peux acheter du TG est un must.“ |
| 94 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Grocery/Convenience store near the U Iowa campus. Beer is in the back. Huge selection of locals and random things I had never seen, or would be sold out in minutes back in Denver. Friendly staff and prices. I have heard they do get TG, but it sells out quickly. Alas, no TG when we stopped in.“ |
| 74 /100 Hy Vee Wine & Spirits - Iowa City (1st Ave) (Beer Store) 812 S 1ST AVE “Beer is in the back center of the store, one of the few Hy-Vees I’ve seen like that, I believe its one the few with the old set up. Had a pretty good six pack selection, although the singles and bombers were a little lean. Prices and quality in line with other Hy-Vees.“ |
| 66 /100 Short’s Eastside (Restaurant) 521 WESTBURY DR “Nice sized place, same food and Iowa only draft menu as the downtown location. Basically burgers, chicken burgers, veggie burgers, and a few sides. The food is decent for a burger joint, but nothing too interesting and over $10 per. It has less drafts as the downtown location but also less college kids and plenty of parking. Overall this just feels like a more sterile and family friendly version of the downtown Short’s.“ |
| 84 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Dirty John’s was our go-to spot for a wide variety of interesting beers long before every grocery store and liquor store caught on. Staff is very knowledgeable, which sets this spot apart from most local options. We stocked up on a wide variety of beers for our wedding reception beer tasting. Dirty John’s introduced me to the concept of a mix ’n match six pack of really good beers.“ |
| 84 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “It looks bad till you find the weird back room full of heavenly delights. A delight of strange and great beers from all over the world. I spent a ton and was only limited by space. Prices were great and service was friendly but not helpful. I could go there everyday for a month and be surprised. Also great vintages which I have never seen before.“ |
| 80 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “Good little pub, food was better than typical bar fare and they have a nice selection of taps and a large selection of bottles, service was decent. I would definitely go here again.
(I was here a last summer before I remembered I had joined Ratebeer and rating from memory)“ |
| 66 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “dingy and moldy interior. service itself ranges from excellent (the beer manager, a son or grandson of the founder of the place, is outstanding and will talk to customers for hours about craft beer, and even is willing to crack open bottles for sampling) to terrible. they employ this curmudgeon who will harass you.“ |
| 90 /100 BlackStone (Restaurant) 503 WESTBURY DR “great interior (dark wood and incandescent lighting), great staff (fully attentive and beautiful people), and solid American food. Only ten taps, but usually have something of interest; and they try hard to get rare and special kegs. Great place.“ |
| 60 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “I return to this place again and again because they get some amazing beers on tap. However, the service is horrendous. You can wait 35minutes between visits from your server--and this when there are only half a dozen customers in the place. One particularly surly and porcine server, been there for years, is consistently bad--and after not being attentive will have the brass to scoff at you if you ask for split checks. Seriously, Sanctuary, step up the service and this place would be world class.“ |
| 100 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Exceptiomal beer place. Doug and everyone went out of their way to see that I was happy. Definitely a lot of selections, many of which aren’t available in NKy. All were purchased as singles. What a place. Worth searching out.“ |
| 60 /100 Short’s Burger & Shine (Restaurant) 18 SOUTH CLINTON STREET “All Iowa Taps, usually 2 TG taps on. The regular crowd is annoying college bros and service is what you’d expect from 19 year old servers. Last time I went they wouldn’t allow any substitutions on the burgers. Burgers used to be damn good, and now are just decent to good depending on the night. still, one of the better places to drink and eat in Iowa City. Not terribly expensive for downtown either. Really shitty service on multiple occasions, just like everywhere else in Iowa City.“ |
| 80 /100 Short’s Burger & Shine (Restaurant) 18 SOUTH CLINTON STREET “CIB on tap!!! Very cool atmosphere with pretty decent staff. It can get a bit hectic here at times based on my experience, but definitely worth a visit. Never had food, but supposedly it’s pretty good. TGLOL on tap and the best part is that most of the taps are Iowa locals. Tasters offered. Pretty chill.“ |
| 94 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “The best beer store I have ever been to, incredible selection. I came here on a Wednesday morning and probably spent half an hour looking around. A ton of singles and imports. Prices are fair. Sometimes I wish I still lived down the street. A must stop.“ |
| 42 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “1848 dry goods store is appropriate location for international & micro-brewed beer selection fueled by Big 10 university town prices. Just learned they treat special batch beers as if supplying heroin addicts. Total turn off. Haven’t stocked Okocim in eons.“ |
| 98 /100 Hartig Drug (Beer Store) 701 MORMON TREK BLVD “Austin Westhoff is the certified wine expert there and he’s been creating the place to be like the "John’s Grocery" of the West side so you don’t have to go all the way downtown.“ |
| 88 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Never been to the physical location but I’ve had some great online orders. The promptness, selection and packaging are grate.“ |
| 70 /100 Short’s Burger & Shine (Restaurant) 18 SOUTH CLINTON STREET “Nice beer bar that serves Iowa Craft beers. They are a burger place and have a variety of burgers and associated sandwiches. Small bar, though and gets crowded.“ |
| 92 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “Ordered beer from them once through some bro named Andy. He hooked me up with a nice discount too. Very easy to work with, very prompt, and the pricing was pretty good (even if the beers I was ordering were really expensive beers). I got a mixed case of 3 Fonteinen (Doesjel and Scharbeekse Kriek). The selection at John’s is really quite good and everyone should check them out. If I ever make it Iowa City I’ll have to stop in.“ |
| 86 /100 The Sanctuary Pub (Restaurant) 405 S GILBERT ST “Located just down the road from Johns Grocery. I found parking spots on the side Road as well as the lane behind the pub. Very dark wood panels, Low key lighting, an absence of tv’s gives this place a laidback pub feel perfect for conversations. Didn’t see the bottle list because the tap list was plenty. They had about 20 taps with a nice mix of local and national craft including a number if Deschutes who seemed to have recently invaded the state. Didn’t expect to see the Evil twin Justin Blaeber. Had a nice conversation about craft beer with the bartender as well. 2 for 2 this trips off to a great start.“ |
| 94 /100 John’s Grocery (Beer Store) 401 E MARKET STREET “I don’t know if this is the biggest selection of beer in the states but it’s certainly one of the most thoughtful and carefully curated. This place has been open in their current location since the 1940’s. Thankfully there’s parking behind the store. I saw their video on YouTube and was expecting a bigger place although it looks just the same. Given the small size of the space and the amount of stuff crammed in there, johns has the feel of a market in Manhattan. 800’s probably a conservative estimate. I’d guess closer to 1000. They have a fantastic selection of Belgian and Scandanavian craft and very solid English, German, and American craft sections. They also have a separate room that has a pretty massive wall of beer glasses. The service was friendly and very helpful and the prices were far less than I’m used to. I think you’ll find few bottle shops more complete than this one.“ |
| 64 /100 Bread Garden Market (Grocery Store) 225 SOUTH LINN ST “Selection isn’t crazy but it’s a cool spot to grab a beer and sit out on the patio and basically drink and people watch in the pedmall.“ |
| 62 /100 Clinton Street Social Club (Restaurant) 18 1/2 S CLINTON ST “I have had some of the worst service and food at this place, but I’ve also had some damn good food and good service. Kind of a mixed bad. When it takes 4 hours to get seated and get 6 small plates and 3 or 4 beers, you know they have a problem. I wouldn’t go if it was crowded, but it’s worth a stop for the bourbon list and some poutine if you can get a seat. Beer list is average but they have some .rar wale gems floating around on occasion.“ |
| 62 /100 Hy Vee Wine & Spirits - Iowa City (1st Ave) (Beer Store) 812 S 1ST AVE “They’ve been doing better since I first started coming here. Half an aisle of cold + warm beer section for 6 packs and another side with bombers and random stuff. Certain things stick around here for weeks that sell out at other places in a day. Prices are good for the town. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed them having a beer person on staff, but the people at the checkout are pleasant enough.“ |
