Zoiglhaus Brewing Company

We waited an hour and half hoping to get our food, our waiter kept saying it would come next. When the food did come it was not ours it was for the table over that had came 30min after ours. We drove an hour to come to the restaurant as the reviews were great. Beyond disappointed. We ended up leaving as no food is worth waiting that long for, and as we were leaving the order still wasn’t ready. It was just my husband and I, we had ordered the jäger schnitzel, and it wasn’t that crowded. We won’t be coming back, and won’t be recommending it either.

I’m feeling very sad writing this, an amalgam of my two visits. Zoiglhaus is not far from me, and I was SO hoping for an overall positive experience. Unfortunately, Zoiglhaus seems to be the story of two venues.
#1: Service and beverages: Five stars. The beers are very good, and I truly appreciate the repeated offers to receive a sample; IMHO, they are also an excellent value. The service on both of my visits was even better than the beer! Friendliness, competence, pleasantness. If I needed anything, I got it, and I never felt anything but being 100% welcomed into Zoiglhaus.
#2: Food: Negative three stars. I did not order food on my first visit; however, it was a meet-​and-​greet where others did order food, and the general consensus from the others was a «meh.» Because I knew nothing about their palates, I recommended to a friend that we meet at Zoiglhaus for dinner.
My friend ordered the jagerschnitzel; after about ten minutes, he was informed that the kitchen was out of the mushroom gravy, and while they were making more, it would be a while. He changed his order to the goulash with schnitzel; I tried it, and we both agreed that it was flavorless. I will note that the bartender/​manager comped my friend a side salad for his inconvenience (See? Excellent service!).
I ordered the fish and chips. I have been having difficulty finding good fish and chips in Portland, and have had lots of bad versions. However, Zoiglhaus’ version has to be the single worst that I have eaten in Portland, or perhaps anywhere. It looked good when it arrived: three pieces of fish, abundant fries, and odd-​looking but potentially fine coleslaw.
Blech to everything! Soggy, limp fries! Coleslaw that consisted of coarsely chopped cabbage leaves with almost no dressing or seasoning; I had trouble both scooping and spearing the large pieces, so it mostly went uneaten. But the fish! Massive amounts of batter that was soggier and greasier than any fried batter I have had. And there was truly more batter than fish! I know because I pulled each gloppy piece apart, and I could see the tiny bits of fish.
The kitchen problems are all fixable. The frying oil needs to be hotter! Thin out the batter for the fish so that it is a thin coating. Coleslaw is supposed to be finely sliced cabbage, not big chunks. How could the kitchen run out of a key ingredient at 6:30pm? Better planning is needed there! And please season the food! Since I really don’t need a place to hang out drinking beer without also eating, I doubt I’ll be returning to Zoiglhaus. The people are nice, so I wish them well.

So came for trivia. Yes!!! Trivia
Staff not prepared. Ordered Drinks and food. Had to go to the bar and order, repeatedly. I went to the bar and ordered food, it never arrived. Waited. Waited. Trivia ended. We left. Big let down. Will be back next week. Hopefully they are more prepared and we will order early.

Reuben was delicious and the nut brown was very tasty. Clean restaurant and bathrooms. Friendly bartender named Jared-​knowledgable about beer and nice conversation. This place is a huge positive for Lents.

On a snowy Sunday, we were going to walk to this brewpub, but it was too damned cold out, so we drove the short distance.
We were pleased they were open.
I tried the nut brown beer and it turned out to be milder then I expected. Still good, crisp and almost chocolatey.
We ordered from the happy-​hour menu; two side salads with mustard vinaigrette dressing the turkey meatball the pickled platter and the happy burger.
The turkey balls were wonderful, firm and in a really wonderful mushroom sauce.
The happy burger is just a lighter version of their normal burger. This was tasty and with the added deli mustard a little on the spicy side yum yum.
The pickle platter looks fun and tasted great, not overly vinegary at all and vegetables had a nice crunch. The pickled veggies were a bit on the mello side with the exception of their signature spicy pickle.
The side salads were fresh, fun and nice with not a piece of old boring leaf lettuce. The mustard vinaigrette was really great and it was a better choice than their pseudo blue cheese. Loved the rye bread croutons.
Service is friendly and helpful. The kitchen must have been bored because we got our food very quickly. It was rather cold and snowy outside so not very busy inside.
We also noticed the music was not overly loud and appreciate that.
For my second beer I tried the bock as recommended by our server Susan, because I felt the nut brown was a little too mellow for my taste buds. The bock had an almost spicy flavor while still staying crisp. I liked.
Overall a wonderful winter snowy experience.

Everything we experienced was awesome from being greeted to service to food. We shared everything and had pretzel, soup, Reuben, salads and beer. I had the nut brown, much lighter and tastier than many I have had.
We will be back soon!

Maybe I’m a little biased, because I moved to Lents 8 years ago crossing my fingers someone would put in a brewery, but my expectations are high when it comes to beer.
The beer is really, really good. I haven’t had a miss yet. All are deftly crafted. The Hefe-​weiss is the best I’ve had, and the seasonal B-​Boy Bouillabaisse IPA can compete with the top IPA’s in Oregon. I like the Radler made with Hot Lips local craft soda.
The happy hour is awesome. This great beer for only $ 3.50/pint = heaven. The HH food is all solid too, and may be the best food from the menu.
The food is acceptable. I haven’t been blown away by it, but it is good. I’d prefer the HH menu over the regular menu. I really hope they step this up a bit.
I’ve had extremely friendly and welcoming service in my several visits. The servers were all beer-​knowledgeable and could answer questions well. Speed of beer and food delivery is great, and the place is always clean.
The beer is great and the happy hour outstanding. Z-​haus is a welcome addition to the Lents neighborhood, and is worth the visit!

Love this place and can’t believe there is such a gem in Lents! Extremely family friendly, delicious and varied beer, and great food. Nice atmosphere, lots of seating and a kids’ play area. So happy to have this place nearby.
Also, even though it’s a German/​meaty theme, we are vegetarians and found several good options here.

We were in the area and knew this place opened recently so we stopped by. We brought his son and they actually are pretty child friendly here. The waiter let us pick a TV channel to watch.
Their beers are coming in from their sister store Pints. They will be brewing here in the future we were told. The food had a German theme but there are plenty of American food options for picky kids. Definitely try a salad with mustard or citrus vinegarette– those were delicious!

Certainly ambitious. Seating as far as the eye can see. My wife and I sat at the bar. Comfy new chairs. I had the IPA, red, and pale. Nothing out of the ordinary. A little too safe if you ask me. Plate of fries are good, but, «Holy Shit»!! Those skewers of bacon wrapped brussel sprouts looked more like what I should’ve ordered. German menu because it has German headers? You need more than spaetzle, sausages and pretzels. Oh, and you have a «springwater trail tuna melt». Have you guys ever visited the springwater corridor lately? I’ll pass on that one. However, the menu does have some redeeming offers. Ambiance… its a little noisy; kiddie play area, and loud conversations. That aside, there is enough good food and safe beer to return to.

I ate here first when they first opened and was pleased. This time I ate here with 20 of us. A reservation had been made the day before. So, they knew we were coming.
Not one of us had a good meal. The bacon on the brussel sprouts appetizer was very undercooked.
The chicken dishes were overcooked and dry.
My JAgershnitzel was overcooked and dry. The gravy was tasty but, needed more salt to bring out more of the flavors.
One of my Partners-​In-​Dine (PID) had the «ZOIGL SNACK PLATTER
house-​made pickled seasonal vegetables, sausage,
and cheese with house-​made mustard and crostini.» This was probably the most disappointing item. The seasonal vegetables were a single small head of cauliflower, 4 sticks of unpickled carrots, a single broccoli head, the cheese looked like (and according to this PID) tasted like one the Laughing Cow triangles. The sausage was delicious. But, the overall platter was worse than disappointing.
Our server was very congenial. Unfortunatly, he was the only one serving our table. The manager was wandering around like he had nothing to do when, he should have been helping our server and ensuring the food came out of the kitchen correctly.
In my opinion the kitchen was unprofessional and uncaring of the products leaving their hands. The manager ignored us at one point which, was pretty critical since, all he was doing was delivering beer to a two-​top table. It is pretty clear when someone ignores you by their physical attitude. That looks a lot like a stiff, unmoving neck, and eyes straight ahead. A comfortable person looks around and has a moving neck to see left, right, up or down.
We finally got the manager’s attention and explained to him about all the problems we had. He did the right thing by comping nearly every dish.
I hope they get their act together. It would be great to have a restaurant within walking distance of their location which, also has plenty of on street parking.
However, none of us are willing to return again.

I was excited to try this brewpub because it is close to my home and I had heard good things. It definitely didn’t disappoint! We went during happy hour, and ordered the currywurst & fries as an appetizer. At $ 4, it was a steal and so delicious. We tried three different beers and they were all great. We asked our waiter for some food recommendations (we almost always do this at a new place) and he took his time to explain the menu, etc. His recommendations (the sausage platter and the Reuben) were spot on. They have a large play area for children and a ton of seating. Honestly, the service was excellent, the food was affordable and super delicious, and a play area was the icing on the cake. We will most definitely frequent this place!

As someone who’s from Germany, I’m happy to see such a nice place pop up in Lents.
Every time I see a bar or restaurant advertising German cuisine/​brewing I can’t help but to feel a bit skeptical. However, in this case I was quite satisfied. Very much enjoy das Helle beer and their version of Weißbier.
As far as authenticity goes in regards to the food I must say, I’ve been happy so far. The Spätzle were great and so was the Currywurst. But the biggest surprise for me was that Zoiglhaus offers Flammkuchen. Not quite as I’m used to, but a good attempt with plenty of room for improvement. Too dry, a bit bland, and very hard (plus, I prefer the red onions over regular on Flammkuchen). Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I will continue working my way through the menu.
One of the best parts, in my opinion, would be that pricing is spot on. Great prices on beer and food. As others have mentioned, I’d still like to see the happy hour menu expand a bit more eventually but I’m sure it will.
Overall, I think this place has loads of potential and is already on a great path towards success. Warm and friendly staff, paired with good food, and even better beer. I’ll be coming back again.

LAYOUT 4 — nice layout. Spacious with rustic décor
FOOD 2 — took forever for the stew and fries to come out. When it arrived the stew was luke warm. And the fries were soggy. Flavor was good balance of spices. A little on the soggy side. Potatoes were a bit under cooked.
BEER 3 — Average beer, for PDX there are better breweries (maybe not in Lents area though) hefe came without lemon…
SERVICE 2 — Typical Portland service. Nice, casual and slow. not what you’d expect from the looks of the place.

This is definitely the premier food and drink establishment in the Lents neighborhood.
The beer is of good quality, and has good variety for the German style. The Belgian IPA has good depth and character, the Red Ale has a nice nutty profile and a pretty high ABV. I’m not a big Pilsner or Hefeweizen fan, but their versions of both are very drinkable.
The food is good quality, most of the German themed dishes are good — The Goulash is pretty exceptional, both Burger options are solid, and the pub fries are above average. We also very much like the Belgian Waffle for dessert.
Kid Friendly with a small kids play area, and adult friendly as well with a couple of televisions.
Definitely a welcome addition to the Lents Town Center, this place could hold its own anywhere in Portland, and is only going to get better.
I highly recommend the Z-​Haus!

We sampled All of the beers available at the time. 10 of them. I rated them on a ten point scale (10 the highest)
Lents Lager — 8
Zolgl Hefe-​weissbier– 8
Kicker Kolch — 9
Haus IPA — 10 A unexpected Surprise, Great Citrus notes, very smooth.
Ramona Red — 5
Schwarzbeir — 7
Green Line Organic Pale Radler –10 one of the best Lemon Radlers I’ve had, Well done!
PDC Crosby#7 Single Hop — 3
Cavalier Belgian Pale — 4
Fresh Hop-​toberfest — 7 Nice danky fresh hop notes a Nice PNW version of this style.
They have a few wines (4 red, 3 white) and two Ciders from Two Towns Ciderhouse.
So lets talk about their Weissbier cheese soup, Personally I have not been able to find a good beer cheese soup since Ive lived in PDX about 8 years, Until now. It’s real damn good.
I ordered a side of their red sausage $ 5 (not bratwurst) with the intentions of throwing some of it in the soup. It was very good.
Goulash w spatzle — This was a good Rindergulasch (German-​Styled with Beef), I was totally in the mood for some stewed beef and it hit the spot. But… I have had better, needed a touch of salt, and felt it it was missing something. But my tastes for Goulash are more geared towards Czech/​Austrian/​Hungarian Styles, perhaps it was just that difference in style, instead of it missing anything.
I really like this place. I have issues with other PDX German Establishments, some having average to poor food, others are way too small. The only downside of this compared with the others is that they do not serve True German Beers but the German styled beers served are solid, some are great. So its not really a issue except to the Purist.
The size of the place is great, open, comfortable spacious.
As a new Father, I am pleased with the family friendly atmosphere. I believe they place most families with small children on one side of the restaurant, where there is a small play area for the lil ones.
Great service, friendly staff.
I rated it as a 5 but its more of a 4.5 as there is plenty of room to improve as they’re brewing system is installed and they fine tune a few things. So far it’s off to a great start! Looking forward to my next visit.

Our family decided to try this place out because it’s new, has German cuisine, in our neighborhood, and they have a happy hour. I craved a good Reuben sandwich and was eager for authenticity.
First, the place is noisy. You can still have a decent conversation without raising your voice, but it’s hard to ignore the sound level of this place compounded by the loud classic rock music playing in the background. With a large open space and and hard surfaces everywhere, It could definitely use some sound dampening.
The happy hour menu is trivial. I attached a photo of the 5 items — all basic finger food snacks.
The Ramona St. Reuben was $ 11 and consisted of a medium size sandwich and a good portion of fries. (Salad is the other side option.) The corned beef was excellent, but the sandwich as a whole was ordinary. The fries, which only look over cooked, are quite greasy. The entrée as a whole was quite filling, but far from authentic.
It’s a new place with potential and I can sense the eagerness they have for success. If they make a few improvements — noise level, more attentive service, expanded happy hour menu — this place could definitely be a hot spot.

The beer is a welcomed break from the normal hoppy as hell this, and hoppy as hell that. Although they have several IPA’s on tap, they bring in some solid Bavarian standards. The food is remarkable, not only in how it stands heads and shoulders above everything else in the area, but is clearly seeking to take on the palette of Portland as a whole. I believe they are taking on the title of best burger in Portland with the Zoigl Burger. It might night win the title, but it is surely make a competitive effort.
I can only make superficial claims about the waitstaff, and I would be dishonest to asset any definitive. They are all new to the place, as am I. I am very optimistic, as the staff are very happy and excited to be there, also, as am I.
Alan and crew have made an A+ effort for an opening, with a solid concept, and I look forward to spending a lot of time in the place.

This is as good as it gets for a neighborhood brewery. The space is simultaneously spacious and cozy with excellent light and a range of comfortable seating. There’s a kids area that doesn’t intrude on the space — so you can find areas that are kid free even when there’s a herd of families there.
The food is german-​ish and good. There’s a large selection of salads, smaller plates, things that can be shared and sampled and full size entrée meals. There’s no excuse for missing your serving of vegetables here — you can even get bacon-​wrapped Brussel sprouts.
And then there’s the beer. Ten taps of delicious goodness that’s meant for session drinking. The flavors are nuanced and there’s something for every palate.

First impressions — nice job guys & gals!
The beer is made at PINTS for the time being, but I imagine it can only get better. The Ramona Red is pretty solid.
The place is huge but still feels cozy. The bar is the centerpiece of the layout and right under a giant skylight. No more day drinking worries!!!
I only had a pretzel, but it was good and all the food I saw come out looked tasty!