Kellys Brew Pub

This is a good place to go for beers with friends but the service is super slow. The food has seen better days and I feel like it has gone a little downhill in the past couple years. Still a good atmosphere and fun hangout with friends though.

We just left Kelly’s and it was horrible. I have never written a bad review but this visit warrants that. The service was terrible. Our sever was rude, inattentive, and complained to us about the kitchen, the bartender etc. When our food came it was partially wrong and the food itself was atrocious. And WAY overpriced. We have gone to Kelly’s many times but today was the last time.

Two words; «Never Again»!
Too bad too… Arguably one of the best patios in ABQ, but after a few trips and really WANTING to like this place, I just cant do it. The service was horrible. A 45 minute wait for a drink order? The food on other trips was mediocre at best. This spot just isnt that good to be so bad. The upside is that we discovered the Two Fool Tavern across the street when we walked out. Now THAT is a good spot!

UIt had been a while since I’d been to Kelly’s. The last time I was here the experience wasn’t great, this evening it was better. I like that you can sit on the patio, hang out and enjoy a nice, sunny day or warm night. The food menu is a bit limited but it’s bar food so it’s alright. If you’re looking for a mixed drink, not here — it’s only beer and wine. I had a little glass of Moscato and a nice-​sized glass of the pear cider which was really good! We were in with a large party so the service took a while but the waitress was very nice. We had the chips & salsa and the guacamole to start — the chips and guac were fresh. We also had the edamame, it was lightly salted with a side of soy sauce. For dinner we had the nachos — which have lots more toppings than the menu indicated, plus, I was able to add chicken. We also had the reuben and a small side of hot wings. Overall the food was better than I had expected based on our previous experience. We’ll be back, I’m sure.

The house beer leaves a lot to be desired, there are strange off flavors.
I also watched the bartender pour beer until the foam back filled onto the tap which is bad for the beer and equipment.
The Triple grilled cheese was good I added bacon to mine which was a bit tough, but ok over all.
The fries are a mixture of normal fries and sweet potatoe fries, the normal fries were ok but the sweet potatoe fries were cold. How does that even happen?
Funky atmosphere, clean restrooms, average-​ish service. Long tables giving it a great community feel.
They give you the check in glasses at the bar top, which is fine but after I dropped my card it took a long time to get cashed out.
All-​in-​all, service needs some polishing, the beer needs serious help and the fries need to be consistent, but I would come back.

We decided to check out this place today since they have a great patio & my boyfriend had been here once before. We found a two top table and were given menus. We literally sat there for almost 30 minutes before our drink order was taken. Then it was another 20 minutes before the drinks showed up and the server brought me the WRONG BEER. We asked for the check because there is no reason to wait that long & then get the wrong thing. It was busy but other areas of patio with different servers seemed to be getting their orders in a timely manner. The table of four people next to us left too. Thankfully they didn’t charge us for the wrong beer but we went across the street to the Two Fools Tavern. The service there was AMAZING!

I have had many meals at Kelly’s Brew Pub and this review is for one experience alone. The rest of my experiences were just fine besides this one.
However, I feel that this one experience out weighs the rest.
What’s better than Kelly’s creamy green chile chicken soup when you feel like you’re on your death bed? Not much. So today, when my throat is so sore I can barely swallow and my nose is ridiculously congested, I figured a bowl of that soup could only help.
And for the first three quarters of it, I was right. However, as I’m finishing my bowl of soup. I bite down on something unbearably hard. Having been a loyal Kelly’s customer for many years and even working there a short time, I know that nothing rock hard goes into that soup. I reached in and pulled this ghastly item out of my mouth.
Needless to say, all the soup I had consumed was instantly ejected from my mouth and I will never again return to Kelly’s. Friends, I urge you to do the same.

The soup is great.
Service is terrible, sandwiches are decent.
The place is really nice looking, especially on the patio.
Took an hour to get my check.

Attention. If you are going to Kelly’s with 7+ people, be prepared for a world of stress. I have been to Kelly’s with a decent sized party on more than one occasion and they screw everything up time after time. Most recently, for some reason I decided to have a going away party at Kelly’s. I decided that because I called weeks in advance and gave them plenty of warning, we would be accommodated. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I had a party of 40, and made a reservation for the patio weeks before the event. I even called the day before to confirm everything. I arrive the night of and I am taken to a table inside. I confront the hostess about this and she leaves and a young guy approaches me and proceeds to tell me excuse after excuse. With no apology. If he would’ve just apologized for the mistake, I would have shaken it off. Even when I told him that all I wanted was an apology, he replied with, «Sorry your table isn’t outside.» How heartfelt and sincere. His remedy to the situation was that he would open the garage doors (which he didn’t even do). We were provided with three long tables; .5 of a table taken by people finishing their meal. Our party started trickling in. Within thirty minutes, I noticed our poor waitress was overwhelmed. I found the manager (which I found out later was actually the owner) and requested a second waitress. She said okay. I also requested separate checks for our party. She said okay. Thirty minutes later I find myself at the bar because I can’t get service at our table. I spoke to the owner about this several times throughout the night only to be served by one waitress and to have one master ticket at the end of the night. Our waitress literally crossed things off the receipt as people paid for them and I had to trust that she was being honest. At the end of the night, $ 170 was unaccounted for. A friend chimed in to make sure his $ 50 he contributed was being added — our waitress forgot about this. It was such a mess and I wanted to cry. The only reason I am giving one star is because I have to. Oh, and the next day I called the owner to tell her about my frustrations and she basically told me they were understaffed and proceeded to avoid the issue of the master receipt at the end of the night. I will never come here with a group of people again. The experience was awful and I felt bad for my friends who came out and were also burdened with the situation. Probably only three of the waitresses are sweet and hustle to help their customers. Best of luck to whoever is brave enough to bring a group of people here. You’ll find out who your real friends are.

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! Sat down at a table in the middle of the restaurant for nearly 30 minutes before being helped by one of the hostesses. She brought our drinks and took our order and that was the last we saw of her. Finally, after another 45 minutes our food was brought out by a member of the kitchen staff. For the remainder of our time here we did not hear from a SINGLE member of the staff. After an hour and a half of being ignored by the staff we requested our check which contained NO DISCOUNT whatsoever. After complaining to the manager we made no headway as far as improving the experience. I paid the $ 42 bill, which is a lot to pay for not receiving any service whatsoever, and will not be returning to Kelly’s.

The food is good, the apercot beer is my favorite, but the waitresses are really rude. The place is dirty and smelly, and it took us a good 30 minutes to get a waitress to serve us. Our beer glasses were dirty and we had to send them back, then the waitress gypped us when she braught our change back.

Good service, wonderful wait staff.
Terrible food. How can you mess up a club sandwich? Shrimp taco? Cold shrimp + cabbage

I won’t be going back. Unless I’m in the mood for bland food and awful service.
First off, my friend and I stood at the empty hostess desk for several minutes waiting to sit. Waiters and waitresses walking by us, no one seeming to care. Finally, a man who I believe was the manager, seats us and says our waitress is very busy and that she’ll get to us ASAP. Well, ASAP actually never came. After waiting for what felt like forever for her to come get drink orders, I set a timer on my phone for 5 minutes — if in 5 minutes no one came to help us, we’d leave. I think that same manager who seated us realized what I was doing or saw our facial expressions filled with annoyance. He jumped at us at the last second (literally) to take our orders.
The rest of the meal reflected these first 20 – 25 minutes at Kelly’s. We were hardly helped and never saw the woman who was supposed to serve us. I almost grabbed a nearby pitcher to refill my own water! The food, when it eventually came, was bland. Not much flavor at all. And especially not worth the antics we went through.
The weirdest part — they were hardly busy. Seriously. I’d say we were one of 10 (max) tables in the entire restaurant… and it’s a BIG place with several staff members.
I don’t plan to go back. The experience was too bad. I’ll admit I was a bit cranky because I had woken up for work at 2:30am that day. Still, the beyond-​poor service and the shoddy food combined will not convince me to return.

My friends and I enjoyed sitting on the patio at Kelly’s. It was warm and sunny outside and the patio — people watching.
All four of us ordered different things from the menu and everyone liked what they had.
I ordered a French Dip which happens to be a favorite of mine. It was good but not the best I’ve ever had.
I liked how thick the sandwich was. There was plenty of meat. The bread was a bit soggy right away which made the sandwich hard to hold. The Au Jus was slightly bland but ok.
On the other hand, the French fries were excellent!
The service was good as well.
Most of all I enjoyed the atmosphere.

This bar is an old and historic Route 66 mechanic garage/​shop that has since been converted into a bar and brewery restaurant. How cool is that? This is the perfect place to stop for a drink or some food if you’re doing a historic Route 66 tour through Albuquerque. Both inside and out the place still maintains that old mechanic garage look while still being able to pull off a trendy bar atmosphere. This place brews their own house beer and also has certain times where customers have the opportunity to brew their own beer! Their chips and salsa comes with a different green chili salsa and they have a nice variety of beers available in addition to their house brews. If you’re doing a Route 66 tour or are just interested in old Route 66 definitely don’t miss checking out the Hi-​Way House Motel directly next door to Kelly’s for a great photo opportunity with their historic sign.

Green chili chronic soup with a tortilla in the side. Great Rubens. Huge clubs. Perfect patio. Just okay Kelly’s brewed beer. Albuquerque staple.

Great patio, chips and salsa and plenty of tvs to watch football. Great beer selections and fantastic for people watching in the summer

I haven’t reviewed Kellys yet??? I am really falling behind…
Okay, here we go:
The patio is gorgeous, but ridiculously over-​crowded. It’s a fabulous place to sit and watch the Nob Hill word go by. It’s great for events when you just want to sit and have a beer and relax before going back out into the madness. But only if you are lucky enough to get a seat, and even then, they place the tables and chairs so tightly that it has literally occurred that we could not actually get to the seat we were given.
The food is meh. Some of the options are pretty decent, but most are meh. We mostly get something like nachos to share because we have never found an item we really want to pay for. But on the occasions when it’s been a group decision to go, we have generally found edible choices and nothing either noteworthy or objectionable.
The beer pretty much all tastes the same, and has a weird flavor to it — I have heard more than one rumor that they do not clean their beer lines, and it’s easy to believe. This is the main reason I stopped going there in general.
It’s pretty at Christmas, and generally decorated pretty cool all year. Fun place to look around.
We heard you can brew your own beer there, but we brew at home and given their lack of good beer, we didn’t see the reason to try it there, but it might be a good thing for newbies. Curious how they instruct on cleanliness, though.
Generally speaking, it’s a good place to go in Nob Hill for events if you are willing to be crammed in like sardines, but it’s not a place I would choose to go to just for myself or because I was hungry. The patio is a good reason to overlook the diffidence of the staff and the mediocre food.
I don’t really recommend it, but I wouldn’t recommend against it, either. It’s an Albuquerque institution, and there is something to be said for that as well.

Always disappointing. It’s sad that Kellys isn’t better than it is; they have an awesome location and so much potential.
The main downfall of Kellys is the service. The other day, a group of 6 of us was sat in a booth and we waited about 20 minutes to be helped, until we left for a different restaurant. If you can get help, the beer and the food both aren’t bad. I enjoy their long beer list and there is usually an option for everyone. The food is pretty consistent; I’ve never been disappointed with the quality. If you don’t want to wait twice as long as you should to be helped, don’t come here.

Kelly’s is definitely a must in the summer time! The patio area is the best! The food is great!

Here for the Beer Week watermelon saison release. The beer was ok, you could definitely taste the watermelon. Their regular saison was much better though. I ordered a burger and fries for dinner while I was there. The burger was ok, nothing wrong with it, but nothing special either. The fries were limp and soaked in grease, I ended up not eating them.

Awesome beer selection. I personally like the Apricot beer. And I can never get anything on their menu except their green chili cheese fries because, in my opinion, they are the best in the city! Good chili with a nice kick to it, and good portion size. Loaded with cheese. Big enough to share if you have company. The atmosphere is kicked back and they have a nice patio right off of central. Perfect for people watching!

So I’ll start with the pros: this is the place for NFL Sundays. Tons of big TVs, lots of tables, and generally a fun, fun atmosphere. No hard liquor, but wine and beer, and it’s reasonably priced and reasonably good. If you want food, stick to the fried stuff, like the wings and, well, the fries.
Now the cons. Don’t try eating anything remotely healthy here — literally every salad I’ve had has given me a stomachache. Frankly, it’s my fault for ordering salad at a bar. The service is… not good. Waitresses will be looking at you AS you sit down, and then not stop by for a solid half hour after. The floors and tables are generally a bit sticky, and the seats are tightly packed together. On a busy day, you will get to know your neighbor. As far as a sports bar goes, fun for the sports part and maybe even the drinking part, but I would eat elsewhere.

I really wanted to love this place because I heard so much about it. I will start off with the good… My beer, The Blonde was very good. Well that is the end of the good. Now the bad:
When I checked in I received the reward of free chips and salsa, well that made our server roll her eyes like we just asked for the moon! Her service went downhill from there. I ordered the chicken philly and it was just awful, dry bread and way to much cheese.
Back to the chips and salsa. I could have used the chips as coasters because they were so stale.
I would go back for a beer.

Sat outside and had a pint. The list was crazy long and the beer was a-​okay. Did some people watching and enjoyed the lovely weather.
Didn’t eat. Didn’t really want to.

Atmosphere is a nice, boisterous place to be on a Saturday night if you’re looking for a bar.
Food is mediocre. Ordered a French dip au jus sandwich. It came with just roast beef– no caramelized onions or cheese. So, it really was just some meat between the French roll. The rest of my friends’ plates looked good, though. They got everything from chicken wings to the rib eye dinner to turkey burgers.
With 11 people in our party, I wanted to buy a whole cake for our table, but the waitress informed me that it would be $ 45 for the whole cake. I declined. Can probably get just as much cake at Smith’s for less, and likely same quality. She also gave me back $ 2 less for the change than I was supposed to get, so I took that out of the tip.
Nice location, but the rest of the details leave something to be desired.

Great spot for happy hour! I’ve been here a couple times and the service does not disappoint. Also sitting on the patio in the warmer months is such a nice treat! They also have a good selection of wine for the $ 10 bottles of wine Tuesday. A great way to spend an afternoon with a friend.
As for food, I haven’t tried out the food here. I’ve only been for a glass of wine or a beer for happy hour.

Kelly’s was convenient restaurant for our small, varied group. Not only did they have a broad, family-​friendly menu the kids could dig into, but they had plenty of room for my partially-​disabled dad, plus a huge beer list (for me of course).
But that’s pretty much it for the positives. Their house-​made beer list was long, but I found the quality lacking, based on my taste tests (I sampled an awful IPA and a thin, boring Belgian Pale). When I decided to try an out-​of house beer, the waitress didn’t know what was on tap, and she had to go ask about the IPAs and pale ales.
Which brings me to my biggest issue with Kelly’s — How could they not have a LIST of all the beers on tap? (a printed list or a chalkboard list would do). When I finally decided to go to the bar myself and check the tap handles, I was told these were not accurate either. WTF? Is there some reason the beer list here is a secret?
After working a little too hard to find out, I finally learned they had Stone IPA on draft. I hung on to that life raft for our meal. A tasty beer, as usual.
As for the food, quality was pretty average. My green chile cheeseburger was fine. Not the best, nor the worst. The green chiles had very little flavor. (So much so that I had to check under the bun to make sure they were there). I also sampled my Dad’s tortilla soup; decently spiced and warming, but I can make better at home.
Kelly’s would have been bordering on two stars for me, but the space brought the experience up one notch. The restaurant occupies what used to be a large, old-​school, southwestern style Texaco station on old Rte 66, complete with what used to be an immense garage with tall bays. Very unique.
I might be going back here for the family-​friendly convenience, but next time I’ll have to quiz the bartender personally on the beers.

Dining in at Kellys Brew Pub is hit or miss. Every once in a while an improperly cooked dish can be brought to your table, which means the cook and the waitress/​waiter both didn’t notice something was wrong. I documented one of these instances with a photo just in case the management needed to see it.
Some of the waitresses are notorious for being slow and uninterested. I have had at least two experiences like this, and I have gone as far as getting up and leaving without even being asked what beverages my guests and I wanted. Remember that book written by Pete Blackshaw called, «Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-​Driven World» first published in 2008? Well, I have had other people complain to me about the service here, so I have been part of the 3,000 listening audience a few times, and I have to agree with the dissatisfied customers that there are chances that you will get little to no service here. The hiring manager ought to ask prospective employees about their ideas about good service.
So then you may be wondering why subject yourself to such miserable ways? We do this to ourselves because we actually have had good service and delicious food here. We all have our good days and bad, right? If you are blessed with a great server, s/​he will be fast, smart, and attentive. There are times when we were seated in a great section where all of the tables seemed happy. Note to the owners: those are the servers you want sitting in hiring committees and in employee review committees to help decide which people are able to work at Kellys.
I have to say we have visited Kellys Brew Pub many times for their beer selection and their «cup» of Creamy Green Chile Chicken Soup; the cup is more like a bowl. I don’t mind the sandwiches too. The Reuben is good. The appetizers are okay as well. I like the iced tea, and I heard the lemonade is good.
Keeping up with the positive side of things, here are some reasons to dine at Kellys: the bar area is able to seat many, and my husband and I usually sit there when it is just the two of us. We have had good service in the bar area. He likes the beer here. Plus overall Kellys is usually clean, and the restaurant and patio parts of the place can hold large groups. I like it when the Tango group shows up here to dance, eat, drink, and be merry; they meet every other Sunday at Kellys. Also, this is really important: the well-​kept ladies restroom is large.
Two perks exist with dining in Kellys Brew Pub. First, it is connected to a Coldstone Creamery [
]. Secondly, kids eat FREE here on Saturdays and Sundays. Just note the limit of two free kids meals per paid adult entrée [
]. The two perks are enough to brave the traffic.
Free parking spots are on the south side of the restaurant. It’s a little tight, but at least the bar exit leads you directly to your vehicle, and, yes, it’ll save you the dollar that you otherwise would have to pay the city. I think people can park for free after 6:00 pm in the city parking spaces. I know, I know – we Albuquerque people are so spoiled by not having to pay east coast parking prices.
We will be fortunate in our next visit to dine here when the Tango group meets on a Kids eat free opportunity. I think they plan to meet here on Sunday, October 5, 2014, but you have to call Kellys [(505) 262-​BREW (2739)] to confirm that. I look forward to sharing something on the menu that I have not had yet. I would like to sample more beers. For all this and more, Kellys Brew Pub is A-​OK in my book.

Have to put my tip first:
If you check-​in on Unilocal you get a special surprise! I got free chips and salsa :-)
Very large place and a large selection on alcoholic drinks. I was there for the pub food and really enjoyed the Kelly’s Club. You get a choice of fries (sweet potato or regular) or salad at no additional charge. That was a definite plus since most places charge extra for sweet potato fries. I didn’t specify and was delighted when the plate came with a mix of both fries. Good portion size for the price and the waitress was very attentive to us.