Big Hops Gastropub

This location is not closed. They are under new ownership and once all is said and done, will be under the name of Brewers Grill. The food is good. Especially the burger! If you’re feeling adventurous, make it Diablo style. Been coming here since day1 of Gastropub and the quality of food has not gone down between owners. Give it a go!

Stopped in for a quick bite and a beer. Met Jerry, the new owner, with a great attitude. The food was great and they have 52 beers on tap. They are changing the name to Brewer’s Grill in a few week.
The diablo burger was a party in your mouth. The mac and cheese was creamy goodness. My sister had the duck frites that were crispy and unique.
Come over to the east side of 281 and have a good meal and a craft beer with friendly people!

I ordered the pulled pork sliders expecting the bbq sauced version. Well, they aren’t. The meat was very dry and the pickled cabbage was only a few strands, but when I added the malt-​vinegar ketchup, that did the trick. That made them taste more like I was expecting.
The service here is above expected. The servers and bartenders have always been friendly and very knowledgeable/​helpful. I’ve been here 3 times so far, and really love the fries. I got to try the Peach Mead, yum! It was so delicious.
The $ 11 nachos weren’t that impressive. The nacho cheese is gourmet or something because it tasted funny. Too expensive for such a small portion. I get it, it’s a gastropub, that means it’s more cultured and «fancy,» hence the higher cost for food items.
Overall I will return, and don’t mind paying a little more for the fancy food. It’s only a mile from my house so, I love that!
****Tuesdays they have FREE KIDS MEALS! The kid’s menu has some awesome mac n cheese!!!******

Don’t go for the GASTRO, only the PUB!
Went back for the beer on a weeknight, only a few clients at the bar and a few at the tables. The beer selection was good and the bartenders were knowledgeable. Beer prices were normal for NYC, not SAT.
Didn’t try the food as I saw not many people were being adventurous in that regard and prior experience taught me my lesson.

The only thing I remember about this place were the duck frites. Everything else we ordered was forgettable or poorly executed. It’s a nice spot to have some drinks with friends, but I would stay away from the food.

How is it appropriate to allow newborns and toddlers into a pub? Adding a kid section to the menu doesn’t make it okay. I’m trying to get my drink on and there’s a newborn — I’m not exaggerating by saying this newborn couldn’t have been two weeks old — 5 feet from me with a dirty diaper. Really, Big Hops? It’s worse than a day care center in there.
I ordered a spicy burger, finished it, then sat for 10 minutes with no water and no server, my mouth on fire. I watched my assigned server hover around a cute coworker in the corner for five minutes, then disappear into the kitchen, never even glancing my way. The place was practically empty other than the three tables crawling with kids, making my horrible experience all the more baffling.
This place is absolutely pathetic and should be avoided until they fire the incompetent wait staff and ban people under 21.
Businesses that operate this poorly go under quickly, so if you do like this place, enjoy it while you can, because the ownership obviously isn’t listening and/​or can’t be bothered to care.

We were informed of their Founders tap takeover, and their special release of Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS), so we made the trek out to Big Hops Gastropub last Saturday. We didn’t plan on eating, mainly because I had read the reviews beforehand on Unilocal.
We started with flights of four beers each, both of us trying new beers we hadn’t tried or heard of. Of course, like the other Big Hops locations, they have their huge menu board of their current beers on tap. The waiter was helpful and told us how the tap takeover was going to work, as well as their special release of CBS.
The beers were mostly great, and the flight ordering was fun. We got hungry (beer will do that to ya) so we ordered their famous cheese curds. They tasted straight up like the county fair, and I was pleased. I expected nothing less.
With the release of the perfectly scored CBS, things got a little crazy. The place had slowly filled to capacity in anticipation of this release. We ordered it around 20 – 30 minutes in advance of the release, and once 5:00 hit, they began to bring out lovely little snifters of the dark brown delicious Imperial stout. Table after table received their glasses, and we continued to sit there, staring jealously at all the other patrons. Finally, finally, we got our glasses and proceeded to savor every freakin’ drop of that $ 14 glass of deliciousness. Sadly, the table next to us did not receive their CBS because they ran out. Like I said, craziness!
It was a fun place to be on Saturday, and we really enjoyed the CBS, as well as all of our other beers. We were a little shell shocked with our $ 70 tab, however. The flights turned out to be pretty expensive, and I think it would be a wiser (and cheaper) choice to just order individual pints. It was fun to try the new beers, but I would’ve been just as happy with one choice. The CBS was not to be missed, and we knew it would be pricey, but a $ 14 price tag for a 12 ounce snifter pour is not for everyone.
Overall, the experience was totally worth the trip. I look forward to going again when they have another tap takeover, and hopefully another special release.

Came here on a Thursday to grab a couple of beers with my husband. I ordered the Beer Battered Fish & Chips for $ 12. I was pretty excited because I’ve had their cheese curds and they were amazing. They came to our table surprisingly fast… red flag.
They looked like 2 gigantic egg rolls and they were sitting on top of a bed of fries… which was my first inkling of something off. When I cut into the fish, I needed a knife and fork, I noticed that the breading was really soggy… hoping it was just that one area I kept digging… only to see that all of the breading was soggy around the massive chunk of cod. I couldn’t finish the first one and I didn’t even cut into the second fish roll because after touching the breading, it felt soggy as well… no crisp at ALL… disappointed. When I picked up a fry, I noticed the same problem. Most of the fries were soggy and wilted. The slightly crispy fries were the ones that were really short.
Beer was good as always but maybe you guys should consider smaller sized cod and plate them away from your fries. Because all that grease from the fish just dripped onto the fries making them soggy as well. No waiter asked about the fish or fries even though we pushed everything to the corner of the table, barely touched. We were a little disappointed in that. Definitely not worth the $ 12 for the fish and chips, Fox in the Hound is still #1 in that department!

I don’t understand all the bad reviews on here. This place is amazing. The bartenders know about beer so if you have a question, they’ll answer! The food is great for San Antonio barfood. They have an amazing selection of craft beers, great food and smart bartenders. What more could you want?

You can’t lose with good food and food beer!
They’ve got an impressive beer list, focusing heavily on Texas beers. They serve the beer in the proper glassware, depending on the style you order. The bartenders know how to pour a beer properly, which is crucial– especially when they serve beers from casks.
The food was delicious. Had the duck fries, which means that they’re fried in duck fat. This gives a cleaner, crisper fry with a hint more of an organic taste to it. It was served with cheesy chunks all over it, which were an amazing pairing.
The bratwurst was nothing special. It seems like they skimped on the flavor in the brats. But it was good that it was served in a pretzel roll. They served it up with homemade mustard and beer ketchup. Great pairings! I also had the WTF! What the Fries! Isn’t this stuff a Canadian dish called Poutine? It’s fries (not the duck fries, probably once frozen) in a bowl with brown gravy at the bottom, and topped in cheddar cheese.
The service was absolutely great, we were constantly asked if we needed refills, and they made great recommendations. The prices were quite fair.
I wish they had some games or things to do around there. It’d be a much better place if they had a dart board or some dominoes.
There’s a nice outdoors area that’s roped off where you can take your drinks outside.
The décor is almost exclusively beer advertising, which looks pretty good to me! The place was clean, and parking was easy.

Not very impressive. The food sounded interesting, it also looked interesting. The taste on the other hand… not so much. I would never guess that you can make bacon taste bad, but this place managed to do it.
I should have looked at the Unilocal!reviews before stopping here, but we were hungry and in a hurry.

Do not waste your money!!!
My husband and I just moved to the area from California, where there are several places like this. I was excited to get good food and a nice cold beer. The menu and atmosphere were very promising but they failed on the execution. Epic Fail!
I ordered The What the Fries (WTF) and the Smokin’ Mac and Cheese. The WTF were horrible. They were burnt and covered in cheddar cheese not cheese curds, and the fries tasted like frozen fries. My husband had two bites and said he refused to eat anymore.
The Mac and Cheese tasted like a cheap knock off of Velveeta. In fact I wish it would have been Velveeta bc it would have tasted way better.
My husband had a BLT with a fried egg. He said it was good but not great.
Overall, if you just want to throw away money, eat at the Gastropub. If your looking for some great locally made food, this is not the place.

Tap selection is decent and they do a good job of rotating the taps, but there is room for improvement in terms of breweries. For example, currently there are 6 Victory taps, 6 St Arnold and 8 Karbach… So roughly 40% of the 51 taps come from the same 3 breweries. Something is to be said though that you won’t find any of your common American Dishwater taps.
Regarding the food, the menu is what you would expect of a Gastropub… example buzzwords include «Charcuterie, Pops, Frites and Tinga.» The prices are «Gastropubish» with entrees between $ 8 – 12, and appetizers from $ 5-​$ 15. When it comes to the quality of preparation however, Gastropub is not a descriptive word that comes to mind.
The staff is consistently friendly and service is great.
Although my initial visit to Big Hops, shortly after opening, left me with an opinion of interest and potential, my opinion rapidly declined with the following 3 – 4 visits over the past few months.
Most recently I ordered Chicken and Waffles off of the menu. While I was happy to receive a well cooked waffle, the chicken, arguably the most important part, left much to be desired. While the chicken had what appeared to be a nice crispy breading, it tasted as if it was fried at the wrong temperature or in old/​dirty oil causing darkening/​burning. This may have been forgivable were it not for the fact that it was dark meat chicken, most likely a thigh, rather than chicken breast. A hot, short order cooked waffle at Waffle House might cost around $ 2, the actual cost of ingredients is probably less than 50 cents. At $ 9, I should expect a big juicy piece of white meat chicken breast, instead of what I received which would not have passed quality control at Popeye’s.
TL;DR Beer selection is decent for a draft house but has room for improvement. Food simply is not worth the cost. Frankly the only reason I have returned the past couple of times is because I don’t have to worry about seating and the service/​staff is consistently good/​friendly.

Beer *
Food ****
Beer selection in my opinion is average at best. Nothing really stands out in the sense that you could just buy most of the stuff in the beer section of central market. Also, all out beer seemed to suffer from a little flatness. In fact we all refrained from bothering with a second round of beers.
The food was a complete 180 from the beer. The duck fat fries, fried cheese curds and soft pretzel were nice shareable appetizers. I had the bratwurst for my main course. The sausage had a nice snap and was quite juicy. The pretzel bun was a nice touch. Service was slightly slow but adequate.
Big hops gastropub has the gastro part down. However, if you are into beer and just looking for a drink you are likely going to be disappointed. If this were closer to where I live, I would definitely be back for the food.

We celebrated my bday here and had the best time. The beer was tasty, the food was unique, and the band was pretty darn hip. Not a single friend had anything negative to say about the evening. I will certainly return to try more of the menu items.
I got the Nachos Frita. Spicy, smoky and the chips were a perfect crisp.

Wasn’t as impressed food-​wise the last time at Big Hops; the Pulled Pork sliders were very, very bland and watery. My wife’s BLT was ok but light on the bacon and I would think that Big Hops could do better than use Texas Toast from HEB! Disappointed with these selections after liking the burger and brat so well. Will stick to those from now on.

Update: It’s been two months since opening and this is a organized, well staffed place that cranks out some top notch food and has the people to pair it with whatever your taste buds want.
Love the wine on tap for the non beer drinkers!
When Tom is behind the bar the service is amazing and fun. I watched Jay get a Miller Light drinker to have a Saint Arnold Santo.
Summer patio specials and beer education classes are happening now too!

The only reason for my rating as a 4 is because of the number of beers on tap. The staff does not know the beers available so I would give them a 0! The food was not worth the price and I would rate it as a 1! When you have phenomenal beer provide decent beer food such as nachos, poppers, and wings. Get it right or you too will be like the tap exchange, a distant memory.

I hate giving as many stars as I am now because the big hops crew are my people and I care a ton about them. Unlike some when it comes to «the Hops»…I am a regular since the Broadway location opened and so its always personal for me (went to Big Hops when it was barely open for 3 – 5 months). This place has allowed me to gain new friends (some that are employees still, on a personal level outside work), establish new hobbies (homebrewing) and meet very amazing people (potential brewery owners/​brewery owners-​workers-​etc/​beer lovers). I am fully aware that tonight was the Grand Opening and expected it to be busy and plagued with a FEW issues. I was wrong about «few»…
It took me 1 hour to get my food and beer at one point. One of those moments I was told to not go far (I was tired of waiting to pay after getting my beer so I left to place my beer on the table which was RIGHT BY THE BAR) so I got agitated and literally tossed my wallet on the bar and walked away. ive given this place several hundreds of dollars of business monthly and by no means am I asking for a hand out but that was a major slap in the face). I just wanted to put my beer down by MY CHAIR to lay claim to my spot which was neglected for long periods of time by our waiter/​bartender (back bar). You read that correctly… my waiter was also my bartender whom was serving many others at the same time. I also failed to mention that tonight was karbach hellfighter 005 cask night. This is a LOVELY done brew that was amazing and in high demand. I doubled down on beers because I knew this cask would take forever to get.
Food:
I tried their duck fries (not bad. nice amount of duck fat with what seems to be a garlicy flavored mayo. Fries topped with Truffle salt?). I ordered the bratwurst because I am very picky about mine and to me it reminds me of your typical American bratwurst. I had a side of a spicy ketchup and a side of regular mayo. I got fries with it as well so meh. the bratwurst to me was something that had the consistency of a johnsonville beerbrat. I know it wasnt that brand because of how thick the brat was. I dont have any complaints except that for me when it comes to brats… im a german and american citizen and my ideal brat is your typical weisswurst brat which was cooked nicely with a lovely bavarian style mustard/​saurkraut/​curry ketchup. We have made a style of coffee (Americano) so can we label Bratwursts Americano style now? (es tut mir leid aber ich muss dass sagen :(…).
I know Rob was actively looking to resolve this issue of low staff for various reasons which I cannot indulge due to certwin reasons. I still recommend people to go here if you can… just please be patient because tonight I had little to no patience about how long it took me to get my drinks and food. I cant apologize for being blunt as its just in my nature. Give it a try… your experience may be different than mine.

The food was perfect from the burger to the frites. The beer list was also a big hit with all the local brews. I think this is going to be a new favorite spot!