The Kraken Gastropub

Columbia is lacking for brunch spots (slowly growing), but this is a hidden gem among them. Complimentary coffee bar truly compliments the unique brunch menu. Been here several times and the recent inclusion of the «breakfast pasta» of fettuccine, eggs over easy, and pork belly was an excellent addition to the menu. Previously have had the chicken and waffles — portion size was slightly disappointing, but nonetheless delicious. The standard brunch fare is solid. Have not experienced issues with wait staff/​service similar to those mentioned by other commenters. Certainly recommend.

I’ve been here several times and have had different experiences each time. The service has been hit and miss. Tonight the service was very good. The waitress was pretty unknowledgeable of the menu items but she was very attentive.
The food has been good each time I’ve been here. I especially love the Fried Green Tomatoes. Tonight I had the smoked wings also. I’ve been wanting to try them. They were cooked to perfection and they had a lot of meat on them. They were very good, and I’m already wanting to eat more of them.
I’m looking forward to going back. Hopefully the service will continue to be as good as it was tonight.

A cool place with a unique menu. I had the fried crawfish with succotash and grits and washed it down with a Belgian Tripel. I was too full to try the donut topped with peanut butter sriracha sauce and bacon… next time. Can’t remember our waitress’s name but she had very short hair and was super cool and well informed about the food and beer.

This place is great. My boyfriend and I tried it on a whim, trying to find some cool places in columbia to relax and have a couple drinks. Kraken is right down the street and now one of our top spots.
We usually just go and sit at the bar and order drinks. The bartenders are nice and a little slow, but there’s usually only one bartender serving both the bar and the restaurant. They do their best to keep up but naturally this can make service a little slow at times.
We have only eaten there once (so far) and the food was really good. We split the fried green tomatoes, they were some of the best I’ve had. I got salmon cooked in olive oil, over succotash and grits. My boyfriend got the lobster grilled cheese. It was a lot of food but it was delicious! The service was a bit slow but it looked like our server was the only one for a packed restaurant. Not sure if someone didn’t show up to work or they’re short staffed but they could probably benefit from another person serving.
Overall, great atmosphere and great food! Unless you’re picky about slightly slow service, you’ll probably love it!

I read some decent reviews about this place, and it’s down the road from where I live so decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately it was a big let down. The food is mostly where they take the hit. Tasted pretty good, but overly oily, and felt sick the day after eating here. They have a nice beer selection, but I would not recommend this place to anyone I know.
I think it was a good idea, but they missed the mark. A «gastropub» is supposed to be a pub that specializes in serving high-​quality food. They do not deliver on this.

Why would you open at 4pm and not open your kitchen til 5pm? Dumb. And not indicated at all. I was excited, but don’t know if I’ll bother coming back. The staff that indicated the kitchen wasn’t open looked to be a kitchen staffer and wasn’t pleasant.

I have been here twice before. The food has been good but the service a bit slow. Last night was a record. We Waited 26 minutes for drinks… We left.

My favorite dish from here is the lobster grilled cheese. At first I was hesitant in eating seafood mixed with dairy but the flavors complimented each other very well. This is my go to dish. The pork belly is prepared perfectly and is very flavorful.

Stumbled on this place after a long day at the Masters. Unbelievable. Pork belly, shrimp and grits and 30 kinds of beer, what’s not to love?
Bartender was great and helpful with our beer selections… a great Columbia find!

This is one of my favorite places in Columbia. Amazing food. Unbelievable craft beer specials. Very friendly bartenders. Cozy atmosphere. Love love it.

Service took forever. My wife’s entrée was cold in the middle. They ran out of grits, and instead of telling me, just served me a fried gritcake.
I was really excited about this place, and it tanked. Bummer.

The wait staff were much better this visit and the food was great. Glad we gave them another chance after we heard they had a new chef. The siracha doughnut sounds strange but it was surprisingly good. I would recommend!

Kraken has everything you and and group of friends need to kick off a fun night out or to simply sit around enjoying good conversation, a solid selection of craft beers and a sneaky little menu of incredible, fine dining quality food.
I suppose I should qualify that initial paragraph by stating that myself and the majority of my friends are Generation X’ers and much of the Kraken’s appeal stems from catering primarily to an older — but certainly not old — clientele who are not too far removed from their younger, harder partying days.
The Kraken Gastropub is located right off Rosewood in a cool little borderline dive-​y spot. It has a great deck for those who want to partake of South Carolina’s generally warmer climate and is cozy without feeling too small on the inside. The walls are decorated with paintings from local artists and the staff is attentive and knowledgeable without being overbearing. It has quickly become my favorite spot in Columbia over the past couple of years because it’s both comfortable and cool, at the same time.
There are always exceptional beer specials and the creative menu — which they often switch up – nips at the heels of the tip top restaurants in all of Columbia. I have honestly never tried a dish at Kraken that did not work. From their terrific burgers up to a gnocchi to die for, me and my fellow diners are never disappointed. And don’t sleep on the sriracha donuts. You will regret it if you do.
If you’ve been meaning to try Kraken, or if you’ve never even heard of it until lately, don’t hesitate to give it a shot as soon as you can. It is more than well worth the money and you could use the kind of night out that Kraken will provide for you.

Have you been to brunch here yet? No? Shame.
The beer here is very good. The weekday beer specials are great. The food is mostly very good — but the brunch is simply awesome. Great value and you can get sriracha-​peanut butter doughnut with free coffee. Do you honestly need to know anything else?

Tried this place out for the first time after wanting to visit for a while. Pleasantly surprised. It’s tucked away off Rosewood in a really neat, old building. The inside is pretty small, but it feels right. They have a ton of really great craft beers on tap and even more in bottles. They seem to run specials most nights of the week, so it makes it easy to enjoy new brews without breaking the bank.
If you’ve never been to or heard of a gastropub — it’s essentially gourmet bar food. I may not be doing that justice, but trust me — it’s delicious. We tried the hummus with pita chips which were great — although not served with enough pita chips, so we asked for more. The burger was awesome. Came with a pretty large group of around 30 and even though the place is pretty small, the staff did a great job accommodating the party and the service was stellar considering we were being served by one person. When you’re with a large group, you have to expect certain things to take a little bit longer, but the wait wasn’t bad at all.
Definitely will be going back soon!

Visited this basement establishment yesterday. First walked in and over heard the question between two waitresses «you want them?». I felt like we were a chore, mind you this was our first visit. Anyhow we ordered several appetizers and a couple of drinks. They ran out of or didn’t have Bacardi 151 (I feel it is very odd for a good bar not to have this standard liquor). Our meals weren’t that flavorful and it took a while to prepare even though the place wasn’t busy at about 5pm on a Saturday. The lighting was horrible and difficult to see the menu and our meals.
Btw, we were visited by a creepy crawly pest during the meal that really killed the mood. Thankfully it was the end of the meal and we promptly left. The waitress and owner was lucky we didn’t make a big issue but we ended up leaving the standard 15% tip non the less. I am certain if we saw one critter there were possibly more. You’ve been informed and warned!

Brunch was fantastic for their first time! A lot of local business owners came out to give their support, saw the guy from drip and a lot folks were here at least 50! But the soft shell crab was outta sight man we will be coming back next Sunday.

We went again on a Friday night, around the same time as our first visit (a little after 9pm) — this time it was suppppper busy in the small dining area (big parties).
We were greeted by a server who told us she’d get Aaron to get us on the list… he came over almost immediately, apologized for the wait, took our name and offered for us to go have a beer at the bar.
Eventually a high top bar table became available (a server passing by told us it was open) — we walked over and waited to be served by the bartender who was super busy with server drink tickets that kept coming thru (our table and one other bar table appeared to be the only two she was waiting on in addition to making all the servers’ drinks).
The bartender came over (which seemed like it took forever because we were hungry) with menus and took our drink orders…
We got our drinks and decided to put in our food orders to expedite the process.
This time I got the gnocchi and he got the fish & chips again.
A kitchen guy brought out our food (which didn’t matter — we were ready to eat!)… my guy was done with his bourbon & coke after a couple bites of his (old tasting fish & chips — he got it the first visit and absolutely loved it — this time it was a major disappointment)… she never came over and offered another drink (considering she only came and checked on us at the VERY end).
I hated my gnocchi (yes, hate is a strong word… sorry). It too was way too salty and stiff (maybe my expectations were too high — having had the best gnocchi ever at another restaurant a few weeks prior).
The owner was very friendly and polite, the servers were polite, the bartender was nice too (she was just too busy for us).
We may visit again for drinks only… at a table where we can have the attention of a server.

Very impressive–
Casual, but nuanced food.
Now I’m regular.

I really wanted to like The Kraken so much but after my experience I’m not sure that I’ll be back.
When I arrived there were only a couple of people at the bar. I was greeted when I walked in and was told to sit anywhere I liked. I was quickly brought menus and was told that there was a $ 2 bottles and cans special (Mondays and Wednesdays) which was nice. (Tuesdays are $ 3 draughts. Happy hour is M – F 4pm –7pm…$ 1 off all draughts, house spirits and wines, and 50 cents off all bottles.)
When my friend arrived we ordered drinks and the fried green tomatoes. Drinks came and I had to ask for a glass. Tomatoes came out and there was very little sauce and the breading was odd. It was very grainy and fell off the tomato. The tomato was also thin and the balance of tomato to coating was not great. I would not order them again.
While we were having our app I looked down at the table to pick up my drink and a small roach was running across our table. Now… I grew up in South Carolina and I know those little suckers are everywhere but seeing it run across the table at a restaurant was definitely startling. I put my glass down on top of it and tried to get the attention of our waitress. I had to waive her down but she came over and I told her what happened and asked if we could move to another table. She said that someone had sprayed for bugs that day and suggested we sit at a table in the middle of the dining area, not against the wall. She also offered to comp our drinks. After we moved she cleaned the table thoroughly.
Our meals came next. I ordered the fish and chips but substituted the truffle frites for the chips. The portion was extremely large. I only ate about half of it and brought the rest home to boyfriend. He thought the leftovers were pretty good even after reheating. It was fresh and hot when it got to the table. I was glad to see it was not the same kind of breading as the tomatoes. My friend got the quail special with grits and spinach. She said it was really spicy and she also did not finish her food. She barely ate any quail.
The restaurant is dark and became very loud as other people started showing up. This place might be good to grab some drinks with friends after work but I don’t know that I would suggest eating there. I’d be willing to give it another shot.