Idle Hour Biergarten

Had a great time hanging out in the beer garden for food, drinks and live music. Great food… We had brats and hotdogs for the kids. The brats came with a unique combo of sauerkraut and spiral cut cucumbers along with their homemade mustard, super tasty! Kids enjoyed hotdogs and German pretzels with cheese sauce for dipping.
Overall a great kid friendly, relaxing environment with a good beer selection and tasty eats. A definite spot to come check out on your visit!

Several things to like here, and a few disappointments.
The beer selection isn’t overly extensive, but they do hit a few German favorites, such as Weihenstephaner. There are also a few local NC brews available, and a few of the national swills.
The fried pickles are really great, and the sauce served with them for dipping is excellent. Highly recommend as an appetizer. Great sausages and sandwiches in general. The fully loaded sausages were fantastic. I wanted to eat more than one. They seem to do the main courses really well. For those that got fried sides, like the onion straws, those were good.
I was disappointed that outside of the sausages, there was not a ton of German fare available. I was really hoping for some Schnitzel, I did not see any offered when I went.
The German potato salad was not good, in my opinion. This was the cold variant. The potatoes were not cooked tender enough when the salad was made, and were therefore overly chewy, and it kind of ruined the whole thing for me.
The cucumber salad also tasted off in our opinions. It was overly sweet. Almost like it was swimming in a sweet marinara sauce of sorts. It looked extremely attractive to the eye, but eating it wasn’t so good. We were expecting something a bit more vinegary.
The beer garden itself is pretty neat, though unfortunately many of the palm trees in the fenced area have died. On the plus side, there is plenty of table space and lounge chairs for everyone to relax in. Would be nice if the palm trees were providing shade, however. But that is just bad luck for the owners I would imagine.
Overall, I think I would definitely come back to this place with the knowledge that certain things are great, and others might disappoint. I could definitely see myself hanging out here more often if I had a place nearby.

This place is great! The food was delicious and the outdoor seating is great! We will definitely be returning.

Wow.. All I can say. I was surprised at how good everything was. We had the chicken wing appetizer. The wings look small because how they are cut and they are small.. But huge on flavor! The shrimp avocado wrap was delicious and the cubano sandwich is awesome. We chose the cucumber tomato salad as our side instead of fries and it was the best I’ve had. Definitely worth the stop.

We were really excited to try this place out-​it was walking distance from our beach house, and has a great atmosphere. We’d heard great things, so decided to walk over for a drink and a quick late dinner. The outside atmosphere was perfect and we were greeted immediately by friendly staff who took our drink orders. After a good 30 minutes, we were still waiting for our drinks. When we went in to investigate, the waiter hadn’t even put our drink orders in and had forgotten he’d even taken them-​no one seemed too concerned. We didn’t have the energy to find out how long food would take, and left empty handed, eating chips back at the beach house since our other food options had closed by then.
Super disappointed by the experience, and definitely put a damper on an already short vacation-​we would’ve spent our evening somewhere else if we had known. Needless to say we probably won’t be going back.

So this is an off-​season review. If you come here during tourist season, I’m sure this place is stupid busy.
But off-​season, this place is great. The draught selection is sort of a «best of» German selection, and the food is great. Wife had a quality shrimp burger, I had cheddarwurst «all the way» and the kiddos split a great hot dog.
Sit outside for the full experience, and be open to having weird conversations with professional alcoholics.
Awesome staff works here too.

Overall, this was a good place to eat. The food was good and a fair price (I had the bratwurst which was falling apart so I ate it with a fork and knife, which I didn’t mind). The atmosphere is cool with the sandy courtyard, too. However, we had an issue with our service. I think our waiter was new, but he basically neglected us after getting our drinks. Other tables sat after us and ordered food while we waited, so we finally had to ask another server to take our order. I hate for one bad moment of service to alter an opinion of a restaurant (and other waiters took very good care of us after that), but it hurt the experience. I would still go back if I was in the area again.

Sam was our waiter and he was awesome with great customer service. He brought a water bowl for my dog as we sat outside enjoying the sunshine in a rope swing chair chilling out after a long beach walk. Great environment. Perfect addition to the Circle. Glad to see Sam here. My previous customer service experiences were not as awesome. Food is good German fare. Beer cold and yummy. Dog approved too.

Here now. Horrible place. They think I am drunk (which I am not, I am actually the DD for the night, so they are actually extremely judgmental).
A

Good beer selection and food, disastrous operation. The day we went, March 26^th, they couldn’t decide if they were open or closed and the staff was openly hostile (to patrons and each other). Basically they acted like they were doing us a favor seating us and letting us stay despite their kitchen backing up to an hour wait. Let’s hope that this was an early season problem and they’ll get their act together because the food was good and the outdoor area is pretty nice.

Best food in the area with many tasty brews on tap. I love their take on German food. Those fried onion straws rule.
This spot is conveniently located right next to the ocean and the restaurant interior feels refreshingly different. Lots of clean lines and a nice open feel.

Discovered this gem in Atlantic Beach! We loved EVERYTHING about this place! Quaint little building with great atmosphere and outdoor biergarten. We had dinner New Year’s Eve and ended up back the next day for dinner. The food is amazing, we loved that most things were «house made» and our server Hunter made our experience perfect! The tomato jam is so good that I wanted to put it on everything and I don’t like tomatoes very much! This is sure to quickly become our favorite place in the area. I’m just sad that they are now closed for the season until March. You can’t go wrong here!

Drizzly Friday night in late September. Almost no one there. Server was superb. Mom and I ordered wine — excellent. At the recommendation of others on Unilocal,I ordered the cheese curds. They come with tomato jelly. I also ordered fried pickles and the bratwurst sliders. Mom had the lobster roll. Everything was out of this world! Their menu is small, allowing them to concentrate on quality. Pickles, tomato jelly, bratwurst, sauerkraut — all homemade and the quality shows. This is my first and maybe only time in Atlantic Beach but a very memorable meal

My husband and I visited Idle Hour Biergarten when we were spending a long weekend in Atlantic Beach. We enjoyed all of our food, but what stood out most were the cheese curds – they were fantastic!
While the food was great, the best part of this restaurant was being able to sit outside on a picnic table with the sand between our toes. We even got to see fireworks the night we were there! We’ll definitely be back next time we are in Atlantic Beach.

This place isn’t fancy and doesn’t have an extensive food menu, but everything is excellent and it is loaded with charm and character

Beautiful night and a Biergarten at the Beach go together really really well! Took my sandals off to walk across the sand and sit at a bench. Some tables have umbrellas over them. Ours did not, but wasn’t needed that night anyway. Note, some of the picnic tables are pretty large, so this is not the place if you don’t want strangers sitting down at your table. They do have indoor seating, if you prefer that.
The other three in our group enjoyed their brew choices. At the risk of embarrassing them, I really just wanted wine and they had a decent one (BV) for $ 6 a glass.
Sis & Bro-​In-​Law had been here before and raved about the Fried Cheese Curds, so they ordered those along with the Chicken Wings to share. They were a bit disappointed in the Curds this time as they weren’t hot like they had been last time. Those wings sure looked good, and they must have been because they weren’t offering up a taste!
Husband got the Bavarian Grilled Cheese with German Potato Salad. I got a small taste of each and they were both good. He liked them, but would have preferred the sandwich a bit more «melty», and the potato salad to have more vinegar.
I loved my choice of the Hot Sage Sausage minus bun and mayo. The mustard they use is so creamy, I can’t imagine anyone needing mayo. The sausage itself was indeed spicy and really tasty. Would have loved more sauerkraut and maybe for the mustard to be on the side for dipping purposes rather than smothered in it. The Onion Straws were flat-​out amazing! YUM!
I would order both again.
Service-​wise, we had a Friendly Gal who took good care of us. Prices are reasonable, and there are plenty more great-​sounding menu choices that would bring us back in next time we’re in the area!

Had the bratwurst and onion straws. Brat was very good, but not great. The onion straws were fantastic. Service was excellent! Recommended!

In an area with truly plain food, Idle Hour stands out in a very good way.
We were there early on a weeknight so there was no wait. The place is small, but there’s outdoor seating too which I am sure is nice with some beers.
Our server was super friendly, and our beers and apps came up quickly. Beer wise, they have a good selection but I stuck with the Weiheinstephaner which is always a fantastic choice, and at a very fair price.
For an app, we had fried oysters (which were fine… more breading and less oyster than necessary, but still good) and the pretzel with cheese and mustard, which was great.
Meal wise, I went with a burger and onion straws. The burger was surprisingly very good, and the onion straws were awesome. My mother had a bratwurst which was good, and my wife had a schnitzel sandwich which… well, I didn’t love. The sauce on it completely cancelled out any crispiness of the schnitzel. That was the only low point of the meal to me.

Excellent sausage, well-​selected beers, and outdoor seating that takes full advantage of the sand, the sun, and yes, palm trees. Not sure if those last ones are native to Atlantic Beach, but they sure pump up the «island style.»
My wife and I have eaten here twice to date. Both times we crushed the pretzel with mustard and beer cheese dips. You can’t go wrong with Hefeweizen and a pretzel, I always say.
I enjoyed the crab cake sandwich; the second time I ate the bratwurst.
Bier selection: they have authentic imported German bier as well as American-​brewed beer in Belgian, German, and local styles. Mother Earth and real Kölsch are two examples.
We plan to visit das Garten every time we go to Atlantic Beach. See you there!

This place is the best addition to the Atlantic Beach circle area that the area has seen in years! The building offers bar seating, small indoor seating area, and a large area outside complete with picnic style seating and individual chairs around fire pits. As long as the weather is decent… this place will not disappoint.
They are a ‘German’ inspired ‘beer garden’ but many of their German beers are too sweet for our taste. no need to fear they have plenty of other beers on tap and bottle (as well as a full bar w/​wine).
They have a pretty impressive menu considering they specialize in beer. We ordered the grilled cheese with onion fries and it was delicious… not the typical grilled cheese. I came with tomato jam on sourdough (melt in your mouth).
The service is great, I have to give a shout out to Damon, he is awesome!