SBC Restaurant & Brewery

no longer in business at this location.

Subtract a star because this is one of those breweries where every beer comes out hoppy. I’m also not convinced of their ABVs because I didn’t get the buzz I was expecting after two tall beers. Plus, they weren’t THAT tall — certainly not the 20 oz you get at most places. I definitely liked the food here, and for a large group, we were handled very efficiently with enough attention. If I were in New Haven and hungry, I would come back here again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

The food was good but the service was horrible! Our server wanted to leave early so made us pay just as we got our appetizer. The food was most definitely not worth the price and we got charged for sampling beer, wtf?!? Won’t be going back any time soon.

We met another couple for lunch on Wednesday afternoon at around 11:30AM. The location is convenient to the Merrit Parkway (exit 60) and approximately equidistant from our respective homes. The restaurant was virtually empty for our entire 2 hour stay. Our waitress was very accommodating — not rushing nor ignoring us either. My wife and I each ordered a special of the day — hers was peach salad with grilled chicken and caramelized walnuts that was dressed with a peach vinaigrette. The peaches were not ripe and the chicken was way overdone. I fared not much better with a pesto chicken wrap that included grilled red peppers and prosciutto and accompanied by house made potato chips. I did not feel the amount of ingredients in either of our dishes warranted their respective price tags; $ 9 wrap and $ 11 salad. The wrap was excessively oily from the pesto and the chicken was similarly overdone. Overall we are not inclined to seek a repeat performance.

When the place first opened, the menu was remarkable. But they’ve changed the menu several times since then, each time taking my favorites off. You’ll get an OK meal at an OK price, but there’ll be nothing compelling about it. A friend of mine who likes microbrews won’t come here anymore.

The food was OK, as was the beer. The service was good/​bad. Please bear with me. The waiter was attentive and polite. He seemed genuinely interested in taking good care of us. The back of the house, not so much. My GF ordered a pizza. Five minutes later the waiter came out and apologized and informed us that someone forgot to turn on the oven so it would be about twenty minutes until it was properly heated. It happens, no big deal. We had wings to appetize and asked for all of our entrees at the same time. Beer was a problem too. There were 4.5 of us (4 plus a baby boy) who ordered 3 different beers and they had to switch out kegs on two of them.
Finally, when all of the beer and food showed up, we were satisfied but not blown away.
Overall, decent waiter, poor management, acceptable beer, decent food, meh experience. After some of the other spots we tried (see my other reviews), probably would skip this one next time

The original remains the best. This location is just ok. Service is good and the staff is friendly, sometimes the food is cold and the drinks watered down. The bar area is nice though. Easy on and off the Merritt parkway.

Nothing at all special here. Wings were dry and tasteless and service was sloppy. Gave em an extra star because of the line I got to hear this douchbag sitting at the bar run on the girl siting next him. I’ve never heard anything like it. Was beyond priceless.

You have GOT to be kidding me!!! ???
Go to Prime 16 if you want great beer and great food.

I travel a lot for work and I love hitting the local microbreweries when I can. The food was great and came out in a timely manner. Service was outstanding.
The down fall of this place was the beer. Out of the sampler of 5, there were two I couldn’t stomach. As a Porter and Stout drinker, I found their Stout appalling.

Visiting family in the area, and decided to start our brewpub tasting here at SBC.
The beer here is absolutely appalling. At least 3 of the 6 HOUSE beers we sampled tasted contaminated, fair warning to Unilocalers, DON’T waste money on this stuff. The cask conditioned English Pale Ale is sour and smells like a bacterial cesspool. I don’t know if it’s a processing problem they are having, or contaminated tap lines, but there is something very VERY wrong here. Didn’t try any guest beer, so can’t say if it’s a common theme indicating a cellaring/​storage/​serving problem.
The other 3 beers that we found drinkable were lackluster, boring, weak representations of the style they are trying to present.
Breakdown:
The Strawberry Blonde tastes like bad soda, cough syrup-​esque.
The Blonde is lifeless, tastes and smells oxidized.
The Brown was the best of the bunch, but lacked body and flavor.
The English PA was decent, nothing funky with this one.
The Cask Cesspool, see above.
The Stout is advertised as a light Irish Stout, had a sour taste throughout, with some roastiness. Literally undrinkable.
Had high hopes for our first stop, but walked away with a stomach ache and disappointment. I hope you guys figure this out.

On a separate note, I filled out a comment card and noted the issue with the pizza I had. Just the other day I received a letter from a manager thanking me for my input and sent me a couple coupons for free drinks. Thats service!

So what to say about SBC?
I love brew pubs. Love em. They certainly do have a nice selection of beers on tap.
Their menu is pretty typical good pub food. Their calamari is delicious.
Also they cater. And they catered my wedding. and I have to say Neil did a phenomenal job! He and his catering skills get 10 stars!
To this day people still rave about the food served. I wish I had recipes for certain things because I get a yen for them!

Great place to have a good time with family and friends. We visited this establishment for a pre-​graduation party and were treated like someone visiting a friends home — thank you Trevor for your service. Also thanks to Aaron for making sure every detail was taking care of and going above a beyond.

Upon my fathers’ insistence, I met him at SBC for dinner on Friday and had a much better experience than I had previously. They were pretty dead at the time we arrived, so we got pretty prompt service. I ordered the portobello «burger,» which was a million times better than the chop chop salad I had ordered on my first visit.
I probably won’t make it a point to go back, but I thought I’d give the place a fair shake and update my original review.

I’d rate this one star if it weren’t for the BoGo deal I got. It was just an unimpressive dining experience from start to end. We got the Mediterranean calamari as an appetizer. It was o. k, but the service was slow and we waited a while for it. We ordered a burger and a tuna steak burger. The burger was ordered rare and came out well-​done. The tuna steak was ordered medium-​rare and came out raw. The waitress knew that we weren’t happy with the dinners, but did nothing, just stayed away as long as possible. We won’t be back to this one.

The atmosphere was pretty nice but the food was terrible. It made me sick.

Nice bar setting. Sports and food shows along with some classic rock on the speakers (The Beatles as I type this).
Since they were out of the HeadRush Bowne Ale, I tried the Sleeping Head IPA. Not a bad taste, but nothing that makes it memorable. My dad ordered the Hamden Red, which is supposed to be a deep amber ale. It was weak and appeared watered down. Taste was definitely weak.
For the food, I ordered the Buffalo-​style wings with Ranch. I’m a fan. Low amount of sauce, but I liked the crispy skin and they were cooked well. I ordered a Parkway Pilsner (the menu recommended this to go with the wings). This was a good recommendation. The pilsner was refreshing and nicely hopped.
Since I’m from out of town, I doubt I will visit the place again. If you’re willing to try out new beers SBC is an okay place to check out.

It’s like Applebee’s with a better — no, different — beer selection.
We ordered two beers, the American Brown and something that was hoppy and tasted like Sam Adams. Nothing to write home about.
The calamari was okay, but oddly sort of burnt. I’ve never had burnt fried calamari. Again, I’ve had much better and I’ve certainly had worse.
My husband ordered the prime rib sandwich which on first look seemed to have promise, but a solid third of the meat was fully grilled fat. I got a basic cheeseburger — nothing to write home about, and was definitely juicy — but it seemed really greasy. The fries were initially good but once cooled tasted of old grease.
We both agreed that the best thing we ate were the pickles accompanying our sandwiches. Our dogs liked the prime rib fat and the burger, but they aren’t very picky.
In conclusion, if you are seeking greasy food, you would be better off at the Glenwood with some clam strips or a hot dog.
Not awful, but definitely not good. We won’t be back.

Located right off of the Merrit at the former Benigan’s location, the building has nicely renovated. The services was really good. The atmosphere was so-​so, nothing too exciting at all. The same could be said for the food as a whole. You need to pay a dollar extra if you would prefer fries instead of chips. It is worth it as the fries were the best part of my meal. For desert, my friend got a hot apple crisp topped with ice cream that looked great.
Overall, this place deserves 3 stars. It was OK but nothing exceptional.