Solvang Brewing Company

Well, how was it?

The beer was good.

The food was mediocre.

The service was terrible.

After a nice day hiking with my mom and sister, we decided to drive into Solvang for a bite to eat.  Solvang Brewing Company is a place we had yet to try and decided we would give it a go.  The place was not very busy when we got there and we were urged to sit any place we liked.

We picked a nice corner near the front of the bar area.  We were seated several minutes before a waitress arrived with menus or water.  I assumed it was just the one server.  Turns out there were two and they just were slow.  Slowness I can deal with, especially when an establishment is busy.  It was FAR from busy.  The service was just slow, oh well.  We weren't in a particular hurry aside from being thirsty and hungry.

The waitress comes by to take our drink and food order.  I ordered the Odin Stout, my sister ordered an Odin Stout Float (it was tasty) and my mom wasn't sure what to order.  So I asked the waitress what drinks she had to offer; she listed off the typical soft drink choices that restaurants offer.  My sister, knowing my mom all too well asked if there was coffee available.  The waitress said yes but she would have to brew some.  Mom is satisfied, she is a coffee drinker and after a cold hike she needed something to warm up with.

The waitress brings out the drinks with the exception of the coffee.  We figured it was still brewing.  Then our meals arrive, still no coffee.  I ordered their SBC wings, my sister got the Greek Burger and my mom went with the Baja Burger.  They seemed to enjoy their burgers that came with a side of sweet potato fries.  While my wings were typical bar food, the blue cheese dressing seemed a bit different.  I smelled it and the pungent blue cheese aroma was lacking.  So I decided to take a sip of the blue cheese to find out what was so different.  Until this point I had been dipping my wings into the sauce.

I take a sip and it seems a bit runny for a blue cheese dressing, it's also missing the big chunks of cheese.  I let my sister have a taste and she notices it's different too.  Right at the same time the light bulb clicks on above our heads.  We both, almost simultaneously say, "Ranch dressing with cottage cheese."  The sauce was sad, really sad.  It lacked the blue cheesy flavor, I love blue cheese!  I decided to just cut my losses and enjoy my delicious beer.

Before leaving the brewery I thought it would be nice to get my hubby a growler of the Raspberry Wheat beer they had on tap.  I had a little taster of it and it was great, so I decided to go for the growler.  I asked the server if she could charge my card separately for the growler.  My sister was picking up the tab on the meal.  She brought the receipt back for me to sign and it turned out she charged it all to my card.  So we asked that she split the meal from my growler purchase.  She did and now today I show two charges pending; one for the growler and another for the meal+growler.

I am going to assume the meal charge will not go through but I will have to wait until my bank finishes processing stuff.  And the coffee?  Oh yeah, the coffee.  At the end of our meal my sister inquired about the coffee.  The waitress was sorry that she forgot about it, brought it out and told us she wouldn't charge us for it.  Overall the establishment was weak at best.  I was not impressed and will most likely not return.  If I do happen to return it will be to refill my growler with more of their delicious beer.  Next time I might go with the Valhalla IPA or 1547 Porter.  Most likely the porter as I have grown tired of every brewery on the face of the Earth trying their hand at making IPAs.  Kinda burned out on them, unless it comes highly recommended I will stick to my tried and true black beers.

Pics of Nojoqui and Gaviota hikes coming soon!