Latest reviews from Farmingdale
| 76 /100 211A MAIN STREET “Visit date: 12/15/17
New spot since the last time I was in Farmingdale, on the tiny main street right across from Croxley for a nice 1-2 beer stop. Small tap room with a friendly vibe. Small crowd in the place along with a few owners hanging out and a really friendly bartender. 12 beers on tap, most of which were only okay. 11 of their own and 1 guest beer on my visit. Growlers available to go as well as some bottles and cans of select beers for sale. I liked the place more than the beers, but I would revisit. “ |
| 70 /100 211A MAIN STREET “Small storefront on the main street of Farmingdale with a couple of tables outside as well. Inside is a small bar with 10 beers on tap, no food, flights of 4 for $8. There was nothing striking among them.“ |
| 74 /100 32 ALLEN BOULEVARD UNIT E “Slightly larger place than a two-car garage next to car bodyworks shops, 8 beers on tap, separate food vendor on premises, metal rock on loudspeakers, flights of 4 for $9. The brews are not bad at all.“ |
| 78 /100 190 MAIN ST “Pretty much same as RVC location in size, service,food..but they open the front patio when weather gets warmer..will go again.“ |
| 78 /100 190 MAIN ST “I really liked this place. It may not get the best crowd, but man, you can drink good beer here and eat nicely for a good price. Week day wing deal of 10-20 cents. Nice mussels too (and maybe the largest pot I have ever been served). I’m going to have to go fairly high here.“ |
| 70 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Wow, looks like this place could use an update... Anyway, I visited on a weekday evening, and it was fairly crowded (though to be fair, their beer club was meeting that night). The food was actually much better than I expected. With some less-than-traditional German items to go along with the expected fare. My order was excellent, but I don’t know if the rest of the food is that good (I would guess not). The beers were only okay, they hit the styles though, so they should get credit for that. I see myself returning here, since it is very close the my current client location.“ |
| 70 /100 The Republic Pub (Bar) 217 MAIN ST “Beer bar in Farmingdale, NY. Fairly small space - good size bar, but not too many tables. Decent selection of craft beers on draft and some more in bottles. Food is typical pub fair - overall pretty good. Overall, cool place to hang out, beer selection is good for the area. Also check out Croxley Ales across the street.“ |
| 74 /100 190 MAIN ST “Restaurant/bar with a very nice beer selection and decent bar food. They said 68 beers on tap - good selection of domestic craft and foreign brews including some quality Belgian choices. Didn’t see any rarities here, but a solid selection overall.“ |
| 86 /100 190 MAIN ST “They have an unbelievable beer selection.“ |
| 76 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Decent German brewpub. Good food, good beers, not bad to hang for a night and grab some German treats.“ |
| 52 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Was taken here by Thomas prior to a wedding reception. Looks like a warehouse from the exterior but is done up ultra german disney inside. The beers were much better then expected with 5 on tap. They fill growlers...not sure if they only fill their own though.“ |
| 78 /100 190 MAIN ST “Nice little find on LI. First of all this is a pretty cool sports bar alone, let alone it has a solid tap list. Nothing mind blowing or rare, but they did have Life & Limb and a few regional seasonals. The best place about this place are the wing deals. Saturday and Sunday the wings are 20 cents each and 3 nights a week they are 10 cents each. Beers weren’t cheap but not too bad for LI. Seems like a great place to watch a game.“ |
| 70 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Visited on a Wednesday evening, 9ish. Located in a sort of odd light industrial suburban location. Plenty of parking around the restaurant. The interior actually has more character than I was expecting, a Bavarian themed bar and restaurant: two big bars, open visible brewrry, bier garten out the side, as well as a number of smaller dining rooms tucked around the edges of the buliding. Friendly service, varied and happy crowd. They had 5 beers on draft: Pilsner, Amber, Hefeweizen, Helles, and a Pale Ale they mentioned was new. The place had authentic character, neighborhoody in a suburban way. They had the baseball games on mute over the bar, low volume music playing. I did not eat, and based on the reviews perhaps that was a good decision. If I am ever back in Melville for work, I will certainly hit this place again for a beer or two.
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| 60 /100 190 MAIN ST “Croxley’s Ale House went up in the place of a former club called the Downtown (where I saw Marky Ramone in his Ramone’s cover band back in college), hence the strange interior that Notalush mentioned in on of the reviews. Beyond that, the walls are literally covered in flatscreens giving this a very sports bar feel.
The beer selection is large, but generally not very varied. In fact, even with my modest number of ratings I generally find it difficult to find something I haven’t tried yet. They also offer an addition dozen or so "beer cocktails" which are usually pretty interesting in other contexts but here about three quarters of them here involve Guinness. The theme of the beer of this place is potential but disappointment.“ |
| 76 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Been here a bunch of times over the past couple years and just noticed that it gets a pretty low rating. Well I disagree! Only sat at the bar/in the bar area, and have never had any delay in service from the bartenders or with the food. Relaxed, low-key, spacious feel to the whole place, dim lighting contributes to that. As others have said, a bit weird on the faux brewhaus look, but it’s a comfortable place. I’m usually there for late lunch/early dinner, and the crowd is at those times is predominantly older locals. While there are only five beers on tap, I can drink the pilsner anytime, and more often than not I’ve been really impressed by the seasonals. I really enjoy the German plates they do. I’m no expert on them, but they’re what I would imagine is really smashing German comfort food/German bar food. But I really don’t know, I just like it. Food can be on the pricey side for a brewpub, but the pints are priced right for the area, and growler prices excellent. Overall a place I’ve come to love.“ |
| 68 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Decent place overall. The interior has a fake brew house look, which is off-putting, but overall is clean and attractive. The service is not outstanding, but decent, with polite waitstaff. The beers run the gamut, but are overall good. The variety of the stuff they brew is impressive. The food is very good, almost everything they make is good. The value is not bad, the growlers reasonably priced, the food is a little expensive. Enjoyable place, worth going for locals certainly.“ |
| 54 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “I’ve driven by the place a bunch of times and only recently stopped in to pick up a growler, and most recently this past weekend, to have dinner. The entrance area is probably the nicest looking with open space and high ceilings. The bar area is a couple of steps up and looks old and a bit worn out. The worst area is the dining area with wobbly tables, a dingy ugly ceiling, a compressor making a loud humming sound on and off during our meal, and a 40 minute wait for our dinner (mind you there were only two other couples in the dining room while we were there, so the kitchen was not that busy). It actually took 20-25 minutes for our server to bring the bread to the table. The food, when it finally arrived was actually very good. I had two smoked pork chops that were juicy and not overcooked. My wife had the sauerbraten, which she said was very good. There are five tap lines with one or two of the lines being seasonals. The service needs improving and the place needs some sprucing up.“ |
| 68 /100 190 MAIN ST “The newest Croxley’s is located in downtown Farmingdale at the site of the former Downtown Club. Like the other Croxleys, this one also has 66 taps but this Croxley’s seemed to have a better quality of taps than the one in Rockville Centre. Many of the taps are ho-hum, but there are some winners in the mix. Many flat screen TV’s all over the bar. Nicer place to hang out in the spring/summer months when they open up the front windows and doors. Definitely worth a visit.“ |
| 58 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “German style brewpub located off the beaten path in Farmingdale. The bar area is quite dark and dreary but the restaurant area is a little more cheery. They usually have 3 standard beers on tap(Amber, Pilsner, Hefeweizen)and 2 seasonal taps. Quality of the seasonals vary greatly. Best of the seasonals is the Imperial Pilsner. Food is pretty decent and not too expensive. Overall, worth a visit if you are in the area.“ |
| 70 /100 190 MAIN ST “I finally got around to checking this place out - came in here for lunch today, and I had a pleasant enough meal - THE PLACE: right by the train station in downtown farmingdale village - the decor is a mixture of hipster bar and british pub - very spacious inside - cold, hard concrete floors make it seem like they built this in a renovated auto repair shop, and when you get a good look at the place, it looks like that may be exactly what they did - somehow it all works pretty well, though - the servers were attentive and friendly - THE BEER: let me first say that this is not a place for tickers - 66 taps, and I’d already had every single one - however, the sheer number, and decent selection make it a great place for the beer lover - most of the standard british and german imports, plus a few taps of each common regional brew (bluepoint, sixpoint, brooklyn, captain lawrence), plus a few not so regional (green flash, stone, legacy, sly fox, clipper city) - mostly sessionable beers, but a handful“ |
| 76 /100 190 MAIN ST “I was surprised that this was not listed here in any capacity as this new place, which is an extension of three others in the NY area, has a good thing going on. As the open floor space lends itself to becoming very crowded on weekends, with a few olde English touches and wooden booths, this bar is well placed in its community. It has a diverse selection by beer type that is highlighted by tap selections along a facing wall with colorful tap handles. I could see it was not intended to be the Spuyten Duyvil of LI, but it successfully brings good beer to the masses while proclaiming not to serve BMC (though some proxies may be included).
In my last visit, I noted the bottle prices were on the high side of restaurant retail, but the tap prices were in line for what was being well served. I also had a chance to have the basic burger and wings of the place, both of which I found to be very good. The one distracting element of the place was the over abundance of tv sets nestled between the ceiling and walls. I could see it being a great thing during NFL playoffs, but otherwise who needs 20+ screens?“ |
| 54 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Made a trip to check this out while on a vacation to Long Island. The tour guide comments here are very acurate, strange place. From the music to the TV’s, everything is just a little off. We didn’t have time for food, but my wife and I had a beer sampler and found the beers decent. We had the pilsener, brown, summer, amber, and hefe and all were fine beers and I even bought a growler of the pilsener ($12, not a bad deal). The non authentic part was the poker machines at the bar, the forgetful bartender (how many times do I have to say I want the sampler), the mismatched sampler glasses, and the dirty sampler glasses. Wanted to stay for another, but was afraid what I might found in my next glass and I got to check the growler before they poured it, so it was easier to go home. This could be a cool place, but it is Long Island.“ |
| 60 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Kind of a strange faux-German vibe in what looks like an old Denny’s or some such restaurant. Kind of sprawling, but I’ve only eaten at the bar. Decent pub grub with a few German items as well. The beers here are quite solid really. Good IPAs and the pilsner is one of the best I’ve had outside of the Czech republic when it is fresh. Service can be iffy, but most times I’ve been treated well.“ |
| 54 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “This is a great place to hang out, but not so much for people looking for great beer. They have five different kinds of beer that they make, which they offer to try all five of them in a "sampler" for $6. The beer isn’t bad but its nothing to go crazy for. The place is pretty big, they have multiple bars inside, and a place outside as well. I see this as a great place to just go and hang out at with friends and try a few different beers.“ |
| 58 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “I visited the Black Forest for the first time this evening after driving by it for years. It seemed larger than it appeared from the out side and the bar area was a few step up to tower above the rest of the dining areas below. My friends and I sat outside while drinking the beer made on site. I thought the Hefewiezen was very good as a late summer selection and the Pils was good too. It was disconcerting to find ourselves in the flight path of Republic airport with corporate jets zooming in at night. I couldn’t comment on the food, but the sliced steak sandwiches look good on the table next to us. I hope to return another day to try out the other beers made there.“ |
| 74 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “The inside of this brewpub can best be described as a casual dining restaurant with a German accent. In general the bar area is identical to every other bar with the notable exception that they serve 5 different kinds of their own beer. The beer itself is ok usually ranging in the high 2’s to low 3’s. If you are from Nassau or Suffolk you should really make a point to go there, otherwise you are much better off staying in Manhattan or Brooklyn for beer. I will only be going back when they change their line up to the next season. Re-rate: They have been doing some impressive stuff recently in reviving several retired beers. Maybe they are just more of a Winter place.“ |
| 82 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Was out in the area yesterday. We got there and it was my first time there. I liked it. This place is big. Went outside to look at the beer garden and that was big too. The beers were solid. Nice selection. Pilsner, Amber, Klosterbrau, Summer, and the Hefeweizen. I had the amber, it was pretty good. We didn’t eat here, so i don’t know if the food is good or not. I liked the place though. Growler prices are good. Good place.“ |
| 62 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Met up with beastiefan2k here on Memorial Day during lunchtime to trade and have a couple of beers. The atmosphere/decor was nothing special, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. Beers were all solid, with the Maibock, Klosterbrau, and Pils being the standouts for me on my visit. If I lived closer, I think the beer would keep me coming back. Service seemed decent at the bar, but the place was empty so I really can’t accurately comment. The main drawback that I noticed during my visit was the beer prices. With the exception of the Pils (4.75 I think) the other beers offered were all around 6, which is overpriced in my opinion, especially for a hefeweizen. Growlers seemed signficantly cheaper, as I took out the Klosterbrau, which only set me back a little bit over 11. As I am out on Long Island quite a bit, I am sure I’ll be back for a beer and a growler.“ |
| 60 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Ventured out to the Brewpub. I asked if I could drink a sample of one of the offerings, and the girl brought me a "sampler". It had their 5 offerings at the time which were the Pilsner, Hefeweiss, Amber, Choco. Doppelbock, and the Big Rye Doppelbock. Each glass is about 2oz (if that) And that with dinner for my girlfriend and I was $30. Usually I’m not charged for a taste of a beer at any bar, or especially a brewpub. Samples should be free, but other than that they seem somewhat solid, and have new releases every two months. Not a bad place.“ |
| 42 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “One shining star for this place is the Brewer Joe can actually make good beer. Everything else sucks big balls. I have been here a few times now and I want to like it but they just dont let me. Lets start with ambiance- If you come in for dinner they will most likely sit you in the "family" room. It looks like a freaking Denny’s or something. Its got Van Gogh prints on the walls, or more like posters. Nice way to classy the place up, at least put up a German artist in a german themed place. The service, oh this must be the worst service ever. they do not give bread with dinner, when I asked for it, the waitor asked me if I was sure I wanted it. I always have to ask for water. They dont know crap about their beers and take too long to do everything, even on empty nights. The food is ok, they have a German menu as well as other food. But it really isnt that special. Should I go on... Octoberfest could be fun, but too many fat ass waitress in leiderhousen, trust me not a pretty picture. There is a nice bar area and a patio. Um... my favorite part is that they have Coors light and Corona, score. If it werent for the fact that the beer is actually good I would personally set a torch to this place. Also only 4 taps and two are usually the same. I have made a promise to myself to never have dinner here ever again and only sit at the bar.“ |
| 58 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Trying hard to be an authentic german biergarten. The food is good for the area and the wings are HOT (I know not real german food, but a bar necessity!).
The bartenders place heavy emphasis on their regulars. The day I went the bartender said he was out of two beers, I was not sure if they were actually out of the beer or he just did not feel like changing the taps.
I did not like the videogame machine at the one end of the bar and the vintage yet still functioning cigarette dispenser next to the bar, very tacky.
The are currently having their oktoberfest, and I will try to make it out there to see how it is.“ |
| 48 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Kind of like a cartoon version of a German biergarten/restaurant - I’m surprised the wait staff doesn’t wear brightly colored leiderhosen - the food is semi-authentic, but nothing to rave about - four beers on tap doesn’t offer much variety, though they are respectable - overall not really worth a visit, but their beer is worth a try if you happen to see it anywhere else.“ |
| 54 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Nice German Brew Pub“ |
| 34 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “Quite disappointing. See my tour comments, above, which I wrote. Ambiance was the worst/cheeziest I’ve seen in a brewpub.“ |
| 68 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “It will never be perfect but each visit does offer a unique experience. This place keeps trying to make itself better right down to the very own ’Octoberfest’. Fun, family & friends atmoshpere, Live music on the weekends with decent German faire with one or two good brews. The Pilsner and The Amber are the best and goes with almost anything on the menu. Overall a good time to be had by all.“ |
| 48 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “They mostly try to stay close to german beer styles. This gets limited though. They do make an oatmeal stout which is decent and an amber ale and some other non german styles. Theier pils is ok, hefe good, and thier amber is ok too. Service is a bit weak. Nice ambiance though- 2 large bar areas - the upper bar is used more often it seems as it has a few tvs. Good size dining room in the back as well as a biergarten for warmer months. Food and drinks are slightly overpriced considering the quality. The traditional german food is pretty good though.“ |
| 34 /100 2015 NEW HIGHWAY “A brewpub with 5 beers, hmmm. Almost impossible to find unless you know exactly where it is. Since they seem to be the only restaurant in the area and with a UPS depot around the corner, it’s no wonder they don’t really care about quality or service. The 5 beers were nothing to mention. I guess they feel guilty a bit about charging so much, that they give two tasters of the Pilsener. Two big bar areas and an outdoor smoking patio. A few TV scattered around. The lone bright spot was meeting the new brewer Joe, who is fresh out of No. Cal. Hopefully he will add a bit of greatly needed West Coast flavor to an otherwise unimpressive lineup of beers. Good luck, man.
It appears Black Forest is now open after the fire. Since the new batch of IPA was lost during the brew, there are now only 3 online. The Hefe is a good bet.“ |
