Tied House Cafe & Brewery

The food here is whatevers. I had the quesadilla. Didn’t care for it much. But! I loved the atmosphere. It’s a huge sharks territory area and people love to come here right before a sharks game in their sharks gear and painted bodies. I love the sense of community that this restaurant evokes.
Based on the food, my experience was mediocre. Perhaps my experience would have been different if I was legal to consume «cheap alcohol». =)

What!!! They closed this place??? No more $ 20 all you can drink beer/​wine and taco bar before the Sharks games anymore… Sad! Curious what will take its place.
UPDATE: Turns out they are moving to South First Street and reopening in Aug. Thanks for the article, Will!

(repost: Previously, at the Event Coordinator’s request, I took down my original review which included ominous hear-​say of their closing.)
I’m sad that you’re gone, Tied House.
We hardly knew ye.
From beer samplers to $ 1 half-​pints.
For Sharks games and Warrior playoffs.
For SJGiants parking lot keggers.
For Brewer’s Platters.
For the Penalty Box.
For all that you were,
all that you gave,
to downtown San Jose.
Thank you for the beer.
_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
*raises empty pint glass in memoriam*

Unfortunately no samplers for awhile. They’ve closed for renovations and are unsure when they will open again. And just when they changed up the menu too.

Now I remember why I haven’t been here in so long. Its funny how bad service and food can take you back to the previous bad service and food experience.
About 5 years ago this place wasn’t that bad. The beer was good and cheap and the service was super fast. It has slowly been declining over the years and wonder when the owners/​managers will start making the necessary changes.
(Beer was not as I remembered it. But not as bad as other restaurant brew houses”)
Get new servers that actually WANT to be servers.
Hire CHEFS, not cooks. There is a reason someone asks for their meat medium rare.
Have management actually walk the dining area when people are eating instead of chatting it up with their staff at the front/​office.

I got tricked! The pesto garlic fries… gaaaah!
Me and my friend were trying to decide where to eat for a snack/​light dinner. We got suckered into this place because we read on the menu they had pesto garlic fries… which we ended up not ordering anyway!
I only wanted a snack so I ordered the pesto cheese calamari appetizer. It was very… boring. The calamari itself was kind of bland. And it comes with cocktail sauce instead of the staple marinara sauce. That was a turn off.
My friend had the Hawaiian Ahi Tuna dinner. It came with sauteed vegetables and rice. And some wasabi and soy sauce to flavor the tuna. The quality of the fish definitely could have been better. But otherwise, it was practically flavorless. The taste didn’t even improve that much more with the soy sauce and wasabi. Disappointing.
I walked out of the restaurant totally unsatisfied. That’s rare. I’m never coming back.

There aren’t too many places where you can get an ostrich burger topped with pastrami and wash it down with good beer. Tied House is definitely a go-​to place before Sharks games.

My coworkers and I came here for lunch one day, and came away hugely unimpressed and promising ourselves that we’d never eat here for lunch again. I ordered a Caesar chicken wrap, which took forever to come out, and the grilled chicken that was in it was incredibly dry and flavorless. I’m not usually a big fan of table sauces, but I pretty much had to douse that wrap in ketchup just to make it palatable.
On the upside, their microbrews are good. This would probably be a good place if you’re just looking to hang out during Happy Hour.

This place is pretty horrible. I would only suggest coming here during Happy Hour from 4−6pm. Some of the appetizers are half off during this time. I suggest the garlic pesto fries. Those were pretty good. I would not recommend the Combo Platter which comes with calamari, shrimp, onion rings and fries. The only edible item on this platter would be the fries. Totally not worth the $ 17 dollars. The nachos were ok but not anything special. I would definitely stay away from this place unless it was happy hour. But a better bet would be the Brit who is just around the corner.
One cool thing about this place is that during every televised Sharks game, from the drop of the puck to the first score of the game, beers are only 25cents! However, the beer tastes like absolute dirt. But for a quarter, you really can’t complain.

Tied House is crazy busy before a sharks game. I have eaten here twice and I will say this, you aren’t going to be finding 5 star gourmet food here, but it for sure gets the jobs done. Everyone is in full sharks gear, so its a good pre-​game place. The service can slow at times, but there are also a million and a half people. I had a burger, and to be honest I love burgers, and am not picky. It was good, greasy, cheesy, and hit the spot. The fries were good, and I left happy. But yes, give your self plenty of time to get to the game on time, and don’t over think this place, it is what it is, but for something filling before the game, stop here.

Wow can I say, I’m happy to see that this place has below 3 stars? Came in with my boy Gabe last week, and service was not great, even though there weren’t that many people. We ordered the game burgers, which was Buffalo on that day.
I had to wait 25 minutes for my burger. Are you joking? Not only that, when the burger came out, the bun was burned, and the onion rings were horrible. Let’s start with the bun: I’m going to hand it to them Gordon Ramsey style. Tied house, if your bun is burned, you toss it and regrill that baby because the cost is not high and it doesn’t take that much time.
Onion rings: Horrible in every sense. They weren’t crunchy, but instead had the texture of overfried onion rings, left in the deep fryer for too long. Or it was old. Either one.
Even if they have good deals, good beer, it’ll be hard to convince me to come again. 1 star well deserved on something that is so easy to make.

I guess this place loves hockey season, due to the regulars that come there to hang out and watch games. Or maybe the fans that go to games that grab dinner and drinks before the game they are going to attend.
But yeah, regardless of their reason for coming, I find it alarming they come here so often. The food is always uninspired and the service is always questionable. Of course, the prices do not help either.
I am given them an extra star because I once came here for a graduation party and their wine was decent. Well, it was free and all.

I ate here for the first time last night and this place is just whatevers. It’s not bad, not great. The beer battered onion rings were good– but they’re onion rings. I would have been happy eating $ 2 onion rings from jack in the box instead of paying $ 7.
Our server was really sweet and accommodating– we ended up moving tables so we could be near our friends and we ended up being located in a section that she doesn’t cover but she still took care of us so we could be billed separately. Also, she knew her shit when it came to their beers– which should be expected but I’ve been to one too many places when the employees didn’t know shit.
Yea, so back to what I was saying– this place is just OK. But I guess this is where a lot of sharks fans come to eat, drink, be merry, and watch the game thats playing on the many flat screens around the restaurant before heading off to watch the game.

Very expensive with okay food and friendly service. My friend and I split a pasta pamodoro and they brought it out on 2 plates… but I asked them not to put cheese on it and they did! They immediately made me a fresh plate though, and were very courteous about it.
My friends got sausage, smoked salmon fish & chips, and a few other things. I asked around the table and everyone unanimously gave ³⁄₅ stars for the quality of their food. The pasta that I shared with my friend was alright — it was kinda swimming in oil though, but it’s olive oil so I didn’t feel that disgusted about it.
The reason I give 3 stars instead of 2 is that my friend’s grandfather created the Ironwood brew. I tried a bit and thought it was actually pretty good. I’ve decided, after trying Tied House and Gordon Biersch, that breweries should not be expected to have good FOOD, but their beers are pretty good! And their happy hour seems like a better deal.

Mom and I seem to be hitting breweries this summer. We decided to go eat on San Carlos Street b/​c a certain side of our family always has us going to the Spaghetti Factory which is right next door. First of all, it was 3 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. The place was dead, but they were happy to serve us.
We order a tasting of the eight beers that they offer (11.00+). These came in six oz. glasses, which gave us ALOT of beer! The nice thing about this was that they put down a laminated mat which had the names of all the beers, which went a lonnnnnng way in helping us remember which one was which!
The menu was pretty complete. Mom was going to order a french dip sandwich, but I talked her into sharing a «Brewer’s platter» (20.00+) which had ribs, sausage, smoked trout, smoked salmon, cheeses and sliced bread, pickes and capers and dipping sauces galore. We augmented this with an order of sweet potato fries (approx. 5.00), because I order them whenever they are on the menu!
Beers were great, food was delicious. Service was a little casual, but adequate. We ate and ate and ate and ate… and drank and drank and drank… and talked and talked and talked…
My favorite beer was the oatmeal, but then I tend to go for darker beers. Mom’s was the Ironwood, which she stated was similar to Anchor Steam Beer. We did not drink all the beer, but we did taste it all, which was fun. Mom said we should have asked for a doggy bag for the beer! :Laugh:

Sooo not impressed… okay, wait. I’ll give them beer. The Amber ale is great. But everything else is on my list.
There I am pumped for the George Michael concert, we all were. We just wanted good beer, food and conversation. Let me also mention it was scorching outside. So obviously we sit outside where we are informed we will not be served. We have to go in, stand in line and order our own food and pay. Same with the beer. we had to keep getting up. I got a turkey burger. Nothing to write home about. Frozen of course.
the inside of the place was a mess and it was like a mile long with the bathroom all the way to the back. Uhg. Rae, you were right we should have gone to that cuban place and had sangria.

A decent place to drown your sorrows and stuff your face in San Jose at 4:30 on a Monday.
My raspberry wheat beer was REALLY good. Question the masculinity of my drink choices and I’ll smash your face with a tire iron. [I think those two sentences balance each other out, manliness-​wise.] [I have actually used an actual tire iron. Not for smashing faces, though.]
The amber ale was equally good, and resulted in far less mockery when I ordered it.
The buffalo wings were really good, and done with a sauce that’s different from usual buffalo fare. But different in a good way. Plus, it was happy hour and they were half-​price. I can’t even remember the last time I made it to a bar in time for happy hour.
I hope never to NEED to go here again (since I, and my group, NEEDED to go drink somewhere, immediately, the last time I visited), but I would be happy to voluntarily return.

I don’t drink beer, but my manfriend does, so I always end up in a pub or brewery which isn’t the worst thing. I like greasy food, a little too much actually. We ended up here because the wait was too long at the Spagetti Factory… just kidding, even I wouldn’t touch that place with a 10 foot pole.
The popcorn shrimp was ok but I felt a liittle strange later that night. I guess popcorn shrimp and sangria don’t go very well together. I think the fries have potential but they were a little noodle-y…floppy and more mush than crunch. It was pretty empty when we went, but it was also a little late on a Sunday night.

The food here sucks, but they do have $ 1 half pints on Thursday nights!
It’s never too crowded (even on busy downtown nights) so we’ll walk over here if we need some drinks at night and want something low-​key.
Wednesday nights (during the summer), we’ll come early and take up some patio tables outside. Last year, it was the perfect spot watch whatever movie Cinema San Pedro was putting on.

The food’s not fab, but it’s a brewery, yo! You go for the beer, food not-​so-​much.
Beer is awesome! Love it! The Wheat is my fav, followed closely by the Ironwood Dark. Stay away from the Light Beer.
$ 1 Half Pints, Thursday Nights after 10pm! Can’t beat it!