Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

I love this Rock Bottom location, especially eating out on the patio during the cooler spring and fall months. I’m shocked that they’ve closed. What a bummer!

Sadly this location is now closed :-(Even though someone at corporate keeps updating their statuses on Facebook. What a tease.
Looks like Glendale is the last standing AZ location. They sure went downhill since Gordon Biersch took over!

Good food, good beer, good ambiance. Unfortunately they won’t be around much longer, so get there before Feb. 1. Looks like the Glendale location will be the sole survivor…

I had forgotten about this place and the great experience I described in my previous review: (
We found ourselves right next to this establishment and went there for dinner last Thursday.
We were seated promptly an the service was good.
Hubby had the cajun pasta, I had… some other pasta with tomatoes and basil, but I didn’t even taste he basil: (Hubby loved his cajun pasta, I thought mine was so so…
We shared a southwest rolls appetizer, I thought it was OK.
Our friends had the calamari, and a tortilla soup. They said the tortilla soup was kind of salty.
Anyway, I will make sure to go back and have some of the cauliflower that I am raving about in my previous review :)

Had great service from James made us feel welcome!!! Great IPA !!! Well done.
The appetizer platter was great.
Great for a Sunday foot ball game

Yawn. Yet another so-​called «brew pub», exactly like the one before and exactly like the one after … boring. In fact there are, at last count, six virtually identical «brew pubs» in Desert Ridge alone, and Rock Bottom does absolutely nothing to stand out.
The menu is limited and boring and too expensive for what you get (my Quesadilla was one tortilla folded in half with a slice of cheese and a few slivers of dry chicken for $ 8.95. That plus a side salad and one mediocre beer was almost $ 25.
At 7:30 PM the place was almost empty. Hmm, didn’t I write the same thing about another brew pub at Desert Ridge that went belly up a few days later?
The choice of beers is THEIR choice of what they have … no cold frosty Bud served here!
And I use the term «served» extremely loosely. Like the slew of other brew pubs that are nothing more than a Denny’s that serves beer, the service is non-​existent. I’ve seen a trend at the look-​alike brew pubs that they seem to hire either attractive but very bored women or buzzed up guys who think they are auditioning for a comedy store audition.
Even the manager could use some training. He stopped by our table because he recognized someone he knew. Big fat huggy/​kissies for that person and «so glad to see you» while he treated the rest of our party like chopped liver. Not even a «hope you enjoy your meal».
I couldn’t wait to get out of there, screaming to myself that I really felt that I had been to rock bottom.

I’d never been to this location before. With a Yard House, Wolfley’s, and a BJ’s in the same lot, there is enough competition of the same style place that I would have thought it to be par with those. Or maybe this is something different altogether, which explains the lack of charisma and personality :/
We went in for a late lunch (2 p.m.) on a Thursday. Besides our party of two, there was a family of 4 in the dining room and 2 guests in the bar area. We were seated by a waiter that hasn’t learned to smile, served by the same smile-​less waiter, and otherwise we only saw a bartender on staff during the visit.
The menu seemed to have plenty of choices, but we kept it light and simple. My friend ordered the sliders, medium, and they came out well done with absolutely no toppings or sauces or cheese. Is that normal? She dealt with it. I ordered the lemon rice that was missing anything tasting lemon-​y and the black beans that actually had a nice spice to them. We had iced teas, which we were drinking quite quickly since they were weak enough to taste more like water, and I think it made the server upset to have to refill them so many times.
Weird experience for an empty chain restaurant… I would think a server and kitchen staff stuck on that shift would want to make enough of an impression to bring people back at that same time in the future :/​Meh :/

If you’ve never been to a brewpub, then maybe the shiny casks behind the windows will intrigue you and you’ll be overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the idea of a brewpub as you ask your server what they have that is like bud light.
If you are looking for great craft beer, theres more and more brewpubs popping up around town which are worth your attention.

I think its funny that when I went to UCSD, there was a Rock Bottom close to campus and I never went. I finally got to try it during our trip to Phoenix.
We went to Rock Bottom with Brian D’s family to celebrate his Dad’s Birthday. We made a reservation and had issues with waiting.
I got an IPA and a BBQ chicken sandwich and both were pretty good. I am a weirdo and like when you get shredded lettuce on a burger/​sandwich instead of just a piece of lettuce. The fries were not anything special so I wish I had gotten a different side.
Overall, service was good but our waiter did disappear for a while towards the end of our meal but cited that it was starting to get busy.

We went here during a family vacation. We wanted to take our dad out for his b-​day and thought this would be a fun place to grab some beer and eats while still able to take my young nephews.
We made reservations cause there was 8 of us. We were seated right away. Our table actually had a reserved sign on it when we were seated. Makes ya feel kind of special. :)
What I got to drink:
Rock Bottom White Ale — Brewed with two-​row malted barley and wheat, with a hint of orange peel and coriander. The beer was quite refreshing especially being in the hot Arizona sun all day long.
What I got to eat:
Tillamook Bacon Burger — Steakburger topped with Tillamook cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and finished with BBQ jalapeño ranch dressing. This burger was so juicy. They use a brioche bun that soaked up all the yummy juices. Got to go on the list of the some of the best burgers I’ve had.
I whispered to the waiter that it was my dads bday and he brought out a decent sized chocolate cupcake with an gooey frosting that everyone at the table gobbled up pretty quickly.
Me and my brother split the bill. With 6 adults and two kids we got out of there for a 118 bucks including a decent tip from the both of us. It was a great experience. I’ll have to see if there is a local RBB in my area.

The happy hour is amazing — I wish the had a smoking section outside, but that’s fine. I can deal with that.
I got $ 5 guacamole with chips first. When they say «made to order» they don’t mean that you can customize your guacamole but rather that when you order it, they make it (which I though was the assumption for all food, but whatever.)
Then, I got the $ 5 vegetarian quesadilla which was pretty good — the mushrooms were a little weird, but otherwise it was tasty. Came with sour cream and more guac, which was nice.
Bartender will give you samples of their beer, which is good. Both of their IPAs and very tasty, and one is particularly stong (10%ABV). I would highly recommend sitting at the bar, watching some baseball, and hanging out like I do.
Great place.

Nice. Only four stars because the server didn’t bring out what was ordered… she did catch it before it was served but after a very big deal was made about NO SQUASH on the plate, its amazing the plate was served up with any.
But, the food was excellent. Ordered the Bourbonzola burger which was wonderful and some appetizers. Good quick seating and service, other than mentioned above, and will most certainly go back.

Tasty and yummy. I had been to a Rock Bottom before in Bethesda, MD. I texted my buddy that I went there with and she said that she’d hope it was the restaurant and not the figure of speech that I was at rock bottom. OH, that was a good start of the night at Rock Bottom.
I got the brew house chicken on the server’s recommendation. Great choice. The season vegetables were green beans and they were fantastic. Cooked perfectly. Not too hard and not too soft. Perfect. They were out of mashed potatoes by the end of the night so they substituted with fries, which was fine.
The beers were tasty. I got the sampler because I couldn’t decide on one. I eventually got the red ale, which was perfect for the weather. Good place. Only bad thing about the night was that I left my favorite credit card! I called back the next day, but they couldn’t locate it. I am certain that I left it in the check folder that comes with the bill. I’m used to the credit card being placed in the sleeve on top instead of the side sleeves with the receipt. Shame, but that didn’t ruin my trip to Phoenix nor my delight at Rock Bottom.

I will not be returning.
This is place used to have the best beer in town. I got their summer honey ale and it was bitter. Service was slow, spotty, and their classic mac & cheese recipe has been changes. It was a goopy mess that I did not finish.
Everything has changed so much. I won’t be returning.

In this spot, I ingested the world dullest Cobb salad and a watered down Arnold Palmer. My accompanying bread roll was hard enough to break a tooth, so I could not partake.
At least the prices were not outrageous.

The food is a tad better than okay. The service is somewhat mixed, it depends who you get for the evening. Some are more motivated than others. The manager, Summer :-), is awesome. Ask her if you need anything or have tips for her to inspire you to come again. If I do a food business, I will
We love the free wifi. A must for any locale these days. The bear is GREAT. Love the micro brews.
A note in general: somebody get a grip on the fish prices in Arizona please. The only healthy omega3 and protein source we all need, instead, yes yummy but unhealthy quesadillas are cheap. Something’s wrong here. Most locations throughout the valley still don’t take enough advantage of the promotional built in coupons Unilocal has to offer to attract new and keep old customers.
The five different music styles running non stop in the desert ridge outside area mixed with every store’s individual out put is nerve wrecking.
A few big plants and bushes along the iron fence would create a more natural and soothing setting. Atmosphere is half the rent.

This review is for the happy hour. I love the patio, although sometimes the smokers are a bit much. The service is usually very good and the hostesses always are accomodating by trying to seat you where you like to sit.
I enjoy the Brewery Nachos which are served with melted cheddar and pepper jack cheese along with beans, tomatoes, jalapenos and onions. I tasted my wife’s fried calamari last night and really liked it. They serve it with marinara sauce and a spicy Thai Chili sauce. The Ball Park Pretzels (two pretzels) are huge and served with jalapeño cheese dip. I find that this app has way too much garlic on the pretzel. The three Kobe Sliders, which are served with fried onion strings is excellent.
The dish that rocks my world is the Roasted Vegetable Pizza. During Happy Hour the pizza is $ 7. It has roasted zucchini, roma tomatoes, red peppers, mozzarella and feta cheese with sun dried tomato pesto, spinach and
WAIT FOR IT… Vinaigrette dressing which is a perfect topping to this pizza. I normally used to get the yummy BBQ Chicken Pizza but have switched allegiance to the Roasted Vegetable pizza.
This happy hour is so reasonably priced that my brother-​in-​law actually took out his wallet last night and picked up the tab.

I had a great experience, of course I was with my favorite group of moms so how can I not have a good time. We were about 20 twin moms and the restaurant had our table ready and Josh our server was on top of everything. The appetizers were delicious. My glass of wine was very good. Of course, wine makes everything better and isn’t it considered healthy?

My experience can be summed up as entirely average.
I’m not usually a big fan of chains I got a Groupon for this place some time ago and decided to finally use it. We sat in the bar area, the atmosphere was as expected, sports TVs, decent brews.
We ordered the firecracker shrimp and the sirloin steak, nothing spectacular but decent. The menu said they had a chimichurri sauce for the steak but our waitress had no idea about it. The food was served cold, might have been better had it been warm.
I probably won’t be back to Rock Bottom when there are so many other (non-​chain) options

So now they’ve nixed the potstickers, the asiago dip, the portabella sandwich, and the fried mozz appetizers. They also changed their fries away from the thinner variety to a more traditional & common medium thickness. They just can’t get it right, can they?
Beers are the only reason to come back. Who knows what they’ll do with the menu next?!