Ale House

My husband and I recently dined at Ale House for a date night after a friend raved about it. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by every single employee we walked by. We went at about 6pm on a Friday night and it wasn't super crowded, which was nice. Right away, we loved the layout and decor. It as definitely our kind of place. From the outside, it looks pretty small but it's not! We were brought upstairs to our table. We unfortunately had the absolute worst table in the house. Upstairs all the way in a back, dark corner. It was nice for us because it was private, but we couldn't really check out the restaurant. The waitress offered to move us but we just stayed put.

We were impressed by the beer selection. And even more impressed by the menu. We couldn't agree on an appetizer, so we each ordered our own. My husband ordered the Calamari and I order the fried pickles. He liked the calamari and the pickles were okay. I've definitely had better! It took us quite some time to decide on our entree. We were happy to get great feed back on the menu from our very sweet waitress and she was able to help us narrow our choices down. My husband ordered the Spicy Fish Wrap. He isn't one to normally order a wrap from a restaurant, but he really enjoyed it! I ordered the Short Rib Grilled Cheese and it was TO.DIE.FOR. The fries/frites are amazing and FRESH!

The staff is very accommodating and friendly. The food is great. We are already looking forward to visiting again so we can try something new! Price wise, it wasn't bad. The two of us ordered 2 appetizers, 2 entrees and 3 beers plus over 20% tip, it was around $80. The area the restaurant is located in is really nice too. A quiet, downtown area. After dinner we walked to an ice cream shop and enjoyed a nice stroll on a hot summer night! :)

Waitress was a great help in choosing entrees and of the beer selection. Great selection of local micro and nano brews.

Onto the food... The fried pickle chips weren't cooked in hot enough oil. They were running of a little oil -  but tasty. The Mac and Cheese was runny and not thick - not baked long enough? I would consider it OK. The burger my other half had was greasy. The bun was a wide long piece of bread and not a round or square roll so bread to burger ratio was on the bread side. The bread was soaked in grease from an attempt of browning it on the grill the grill. Skip the burger.

I would go back for the atmosphere and a beer. Possibly try a different app... however not for lunch or dinner.

We walked in and were really impressed with the beautiful space. The lighting and noise level were encouraging. We took a seat at the bar and looked through the large beer selection. We were disappointed at how little beer we were served for the money ($7.50 for 8oz). It took us a while to get the bartender's attention for food menus because he seemed too busy chatting with the other bartenders. When we got our menus, I was pretty disgusted - the pages of the menu were sticking together. They were covered with food particles and other crud. This was not a good first impression. We ordered the "oven roasted wings" which were clearly deep fried - possibly previously frozen. Our entrees were mediocre at best. The bartenders were really frustrating to watch throughout our meal. When we tried to make eye contact, they kept their heads down or continued to talk to one another. As a former restaurant employee, the phrase "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean" kept going through my head. I believe in second chances, so we will likely be back - just in case this was an "off" night.