Waterfront Ale House

Recommends

foodguy29

Joined 3 years ago

Local place, comfortable feel. I am a frequent traveler. Often I get stuck eating at the local "tourist" attraction restaurants, which is horrible. Waterfront Ale House is exactly what you need if you want a really chill place to relax, respond to email on your blackberry, have a few good pints, and be SURPISED by the food. I had the Wednesday special of a Venison burger topped with mushroom ragu....not your typical "neighborhood bar" menu. Food was great, beer was fantastic, company was even better. This truly is a loca place with good flair, good company, and great food. Only a 10 minute walk from the Brooklyn Marriott on Atlantic avenue, it is a easily a place you could go to every night while you stay in Brooklyn for dinner.

Recommends

Charles Gray

Joined 4 years ago

Love it. Had the best time ever. Would drink here again.

Doesn't Recommend

nyeats09

Joined 4 years ago

Gone downhill. I was a regular customer of the ale house. Service is a bit slow, but the food usually makes up for it. However, on my last visit, we asked for a high chair for our one yr old baby and the waitress told us that it was located in the back and we had to get it ourselves. Unreal!!! ok so now we ordered the Texas dip and usually the brisket is moist and you get a decent size sandwich, but this time it was laughable. Both halves was half the normal size. I felt like i was getting half a sandwich then they cut that in half...and the brisket was dry and burnt. This place used to be good. If you want rude service and get cheated out of your hard earned money then the ale house is for you. No more ale house for us.

Recommends

Jacko3

Joined 5 years ago

Has hard-to-find beers!. Relaxed, pub-style atmosphere. I was thrilled to find Palm beer on the menu. I fell in love with this beer when I lived in Belgium and have been unable to find it ever since. After four years of searching in many different states and cities I found it on tap at Waterfront Ale House - I was quite excited. The veggie potstickers were also good and the free popcorn was great! Beer and popcorn is definitely a good combo. The service was a bit slow but other than that, I'd recommend the bar for relaxing after work and grabbing a few pints.

Recommends

where2be

Joined 5 years ago

Great neighborhood BBQ and brews. Used to live around the corner on Clinton St. and this was our favorite "go to" place. Not living as close now but still worth the trip. It's a local pub not a 4 star establishment, but everything is solidly done and consistently tastes good. The beer selection out does most bar/pubs. The smoked meats are great, (note - the brisket sandwich is a lot of meat and costs a lot less than the plate). As some other reviews point out, the staff can be a little rough around the edges at time, but that just seems to oddly add to the non-pretentious character of the place. On Friday and Saturday it can have a little wait but the popcorn machine and a beer from the bar help it go by fast.

Doesn't Recommend

coqui729

Joined 6 years ago

Great beer selection but rude staff and overpriced food. My husband and I have refused to come back after an embarrasing incident where a bartender (who has been rude to us in the past) refused to serve us despite the fact that we were well over 21, because he was refusing to accept our NJ DLs as proof of age.

We tried the once again a year later, and was yelled at by a waitress for sitting at a table even though the kitchen was closed. The same bartender once again gave us attitude as well.

The beer selection was great, but the food is terrible considering how much they charge. Very little space at the bar to comfortably sit, if you can get a seat. If you can't get a seat, there is no place to stand.

Doesn't Recommend

kipburg

Joined 6 years ago

Disappointed. Stopped by to get a beer; I remember having read good things in The Beer Advocate or some similar beer-oriented publication. I especially wanted a cask ale. Well, the beer selection was truly amazing, for example, I didn't know Monk's Sour Ale was available outside of Monk's in Philadelphia. So I ordered a cask IPA. To my astonishment, the beer arrived refrigerated - truly cold. That's a first for a cask beer for me. Now, I can understand wanting to prolong the life of a cask beer, so I sympathized and waited for it to warm up. However, I lost sympathy when my girlfriend ordered a Long Trail (being from Vermont) and received something that tasted like it had been tapped ages ago. Any flavor was masked by an overpowering nasty metallic taste. So, needless to say, this was disappointing (these two beers set us back $13). We headed back to our neighborhood and to Spuyten Duyvil however, and were soon in beer (and cheese I might add) heaven.

Recommends

memmy16

Joined 7 years ago

best fish and chips. Better fish and chips than neighboring Chip Shop! Great beer selection complemented by free popcorn and super friendly wait staff.

Recommends

longkappa

Joined 11 years ago

One of the best places two indulge... daily. I can't go to other bars any more. They all seem like pretenders to the throne after indulging myself here for a year. The food is fantastic (the specials are the best part, especially the game). The beer selections are great. One or two of the barmen may not be very talkative, but they're all very professional barmen(and women). From a properly mixed martini to a properly chosen scotch or tequila, you can count on their expertise and advice. It ain't cheap (outside of happy hour, when it's pretty reasonable) but they're pretty generous with buy-backs. The music is in general wonderful. Each bartender has his own personality and shows it in the music selections -- mainly jazz and blues, but covering the full gammut.

Recommends

boerumbrahmin

Joined 7 years ago

Heights/Hill mainstay. One of the more established bars in the area; it made a name for itself when it opened across the street in the spot now occupied by super-hip Last Exit. The crowd has followed, and the service remains quite good and the food ranges from fair to poor. Their established following perhaps explains why they seem willing to rest on their laurels beer-wise, and it still has an atmosphere the Smith Street places can only dream of matching. Don't expect Brooklyn chic here; do expect to find the soul of Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill here.