October 13, 2009
Hoping local brewpub that has a decent selection of their beer along with a cider or two. Clean and good feel to the place. Both times I have been it is rather busy but they are efficient and service is above average. If you are in Oly this is a good place to grab a quick bite and a beer or two. If you do stop and have the time you should also walk on over to the Eastside Club since it is so close.

August 9, 2009
Rather bland/boring brewpub. Food is pretty good and a good value. I just don’t think their beers, other than the big winter/barley wine/strong ales, are very good. The IPA is boring, the pale the same, the porter unexciting, etc. The Leavenworth beers are ok, but somewhat bland as well - which is especially disappointing w/ the dunkel weiss. The strong ales are fantastic, but rarely available, even in the winter. The service is consistently poor, even if you sit at the bar. People tell me it was a better place/better ambiance before they expanded, I can see how that might be true. After living here a number of years I rarely go to Fish now - generally hit ESC 2 blocks away - unless its winter & I think I can get one of the fantastic seasonals.

February 14, 2009
The only problem with this place is that it’s over an hour from my house. Great selection of beers, including cask/big beers. If anybody in Washington has the pub grub think dialed in, it’s these folks. Spacious, friendly, great service.

November 28, 2008 [ Updated August 29, 2009 ]
03.11.2008. Very nice beers and lovely food. I think this is a very nice place. Good selection of beers from both Fish Tale and Leavenworth.

August 3, 2008
I love this place. They always have a healthy selection of Fish and Leavenworth beers. I always sit at the bar and try whatever I have not had before, which is usually 1 or 2 beers. I have never gotten bad service at the bar, but cannot say how service was in other parts of the pub They also have the Spire ciders available as well. Food is well done and not overly pricey.

April 6, 2008
Great little historical-ish setting in a reclaimed warehouse district. I’m a big fan of that kind of setting, and they’ve been there for years and years, which makes it even coolerthey kinda pioneered the neighborhood. Hopefully it hasn’t jacked their lease. They’ve certainly expanded in the ten years since I was here last they have a dining room in 4 distinct parts now, plus an upstairs. The bar itself has three sides lined with stools. They let you call whatever samplers you want as long as you don’t insist on the sampler tray price, which is ultra cool. Service was very friendly, knowledgable, responsive, efficient only miss was when they were late dropping the check. But they had just gotten slammed with 20 new tables at that point, so it’s kinda forgivable. Food was grubbin, lots of pub grub standbys and a few more adventurous choices befitting a granola-crunch smallish town. Solid lineup of Fish and Leavenworth beers. They even had Leviathan on cask. Yum!

March 24, 2008
This was a very bad visit for me. Service was poor. The staff has lot and lots of attitude if you are not a local and would rather not answer any beer questions that you might have. If you order the sampler tray of beers, the bartender picks them for you and you are absolutely not allowed to select the ones that you want. Thus, expect the light stuff because that’s good enough for you. In all our travels throughout our Pacific NW trip, this was the only place with lots of hostility toward tourists. Otherwise, Olympia is one quality town with lots of very nice people.

December 14, 2007
The Fishbowl Brewpub sits across the street from the small warehouse where the Fish Tale beers are brewed. The pub itself is divided into a few distinct seating areas within its quaint well-lit space. Most inriguing was the living room, which contains over 200 mugs of Fish Tale beer club members. Each mug contains the name of a member and the year that he or she joined. For a one-time fee, the member has a place to store his or her mug. Use of the mug on a visit gets him or her a discount of $1 per pint. If I lived in Olympia, then I would definitely be a member, simply because it is such a great idea. The service was impeccable. My server knew her beer and her food. At her recommendation, I tried their as-yet-unnamed beer. It was a great match to their special of the day: emu tacos. Each taco consisted of spicy emu, cabbage, tomato, onion, cilantro and the pub’s own jalapeño cilantro sauce, all wrapped in double white corn tortillas. The tacos came with a generous salad of wild mixed greens in a vinaigrette dressing. For the reasonable price of $10 for the food and $3.50 for the pint of excellent beer, I had a great pub meal.

June 15, 2007
I agree with the other comments, you should recognize a brewery when you see one; this place does really look like a cafe across the street from a warehouse. The selection was ok, rated it down because the quality was inconsistent. The atmosphere was just too hippie to me, and this is coming from someone who last lived in Berkeley, Eugene and San Francisco. When I go to a brewery, I expect to see a number of folks who look like beer drinkers. Too many people weren’t drinking beer, playing on laptops and I was hoping someone would please order a burger. Food and service were very good, though, and I’ll be back to see if there’s a different crowd.

May 20, 2007
Avoid this place like the plague when a band is playing. Waaaaaaay too small to handle live music and more than a dozen punters at the same time. Beer is good, food is nice.