Nodding Head Brewery & Restaurant

I wish this place would re-​open. They had stated they were re-​opening at a new location. I love their food and beers. Especially their grilled chicken sandwich and chipotle mayo! Hope they find a new location soon!

I really hope they find a new location and re-​open. This place has some of the best beers. My only complaint is that they don’t do take out for their beers (come on, guys, offer growlers!). The food is always good, especially the mussels. The service is usually quick and friendly.

This was the BEST little restaurant!!! It was a great vibe with all the bobble heads and personalized feel to the city. It also had custom t-​shirts from specialty brews that they created that were creative and hilarious. The staff was above and beyond and had no problem bending the menu to accommodate. The burger I had was one of the best I have ever tasted!!! Great little gem in Philly!

I’m not reviewing this based on it’s primary function as a brewery, but I had a pleasant lunch experience and felt like it deserved a review!
My friends and I stumbled in here severely hungover on a painfully sunny Saturday afternoon craving fried foods and other delicacies of that heart disease-​inducing nature. We were not disappointed with our order of chicken wings with chipotle sauce (AWESOME!), onion rings with this bangin’ dip (REALLY AWESOME!), fried mac n cheese balls (so-​so) and about 13 gallons of water to rehydrate our frail bodies. I had a salad because it made me feel better about myself afterwards and my compadres had the quesadilla and cheese steak which they both loved.
Overall, we were satiated enough that before we even got the check we were overwhelmed with tiredness and early onset of diabeetus. Mission accomplished. Bravo, Nodding Head, bravo.

Liked the BPA beer and the mussels. Décor is dark bar but friendly. It’s on the second floor so walk up is required.
The harvest beer was delicious.

Being the beer nerd that I am, after booking my stay at the Latham, the first thing I did was look for the closest brewery and/​or brewpub, and discovered that Nodding Head Brewery and Restaurant was just a block or so away. I went to their website for some research and was greeted with very colorful branding that had a dated/​throwback feel more suited for an old school neighborhood joint than a modern brewpub. And that’s the enigma of Nodding Head. It’s an old upstairs city bar that looks and feels more like a locals hangout than a brewpub. It’s classic wooden interior, old-​style bar and kitschy décor — Nodding Head refers to the hundreds of bobblehead dolls that adorn the interior — offer the warm and inviting casualness of your local dive bar.
I would expect any beer brewed in a place like this to stick with the basics ales and lagers. This is not the place where I’d expect a lot of variety and creativity. But you know that old saying about looks …
Nodding Head was one of my final stops in Philly. It was our last night and the wife was getting tired when I reminded her that I still wanted to check them out. She graciously allowed me to go while she rested, so I headed out and arrived to a mostly empty bar at 11PM on a Saturday night. I grabbed a seat at the bar and grabbed a beer menu. As others have noted, the service here isn’t exactly the warmest, but I’ve come to expect that from places that give off the «locals bar» vibe.
I was surprised to find a wide variety of beers on tap, offering beers that showed some deep knowledge of beer styles and brewing techniques. I started with a «flight» of three — their Berliner Weisse, Pepper Pale Ale, and Summer Nights Sour Brown Ale. Their «flights» are served in a full-​sized white wine glass, and can be ordered in any amount or combination of their brews. The sours were very good, and I enjoyed the subtle peppery kick (which comes from white pepper) of the Pepper Pale Ale.
I knew from my interwebs research that they had a Berliner Weisse here, but I was pleasantly surprised to see two sours here. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a cask ale here (Bill Payer Ale — a hoppy pale ale) and an aged beer on tap. Their aged beer was their «BBA BDG» — a Bière de Garde (a strong ageable farmhouse ale similar to a saison) aged in Burgundy Barrels. The barrel-​aging imparted very complex wine notes and added a bit of pleasant tartness to the beer.
I didn’t have food here, so my review is a bit incomplete in that aspect. But if you are coming here just to try the beer, don’t judge the book by the cover. If you can get past the dim dive bar vibe and the kitschy bobblehead décor, you’ll find that Nodding Head offers a selection unique and complex well-​crafted brews.

While the food was decent, I don’t really want to even comment on that. I read ahead that other Unilocalers said the service was lousy here, but I didn’t want to prejudge. I was happy to try it with a group I meet with once a month as we’re looking for a new venue.
I’ll be honest, I will never be back here again. From being rude about questions to VERY slow service (we waited almost half an hour for the check and had a basically non-​existent server) to rudeness when a friend asked them to add something to her margarita since it tasted off, our group of 5 – 6 left with a bitter taste in our mouths and a group decision to hold our monthly meetups elsewhere. Too bad, we tip well, order a lot and are generally easy to please. But we’ll find a better place that will appreciate our business and just have basic customer service skills.

Went to dinner with a friend last night. It was my first time there– my friend has been there many times.
The two of us were seated at a giant table. We could barely hear each other! Ordered a glass of wine– the «house wine,» which was fine. We then ordered our entrees…
It took forever for our food to come, but at least the waitress explained that they had to serve a large party first. Annoying, but we waited patiently.
My friend got the muffaletta sandwich, which she has tried before and really likes. I got the French Dip, which was very good– the fries were also great. The portions are very generous, which is good, because by the time we finally got served we were very hungry :)
I sat there with an empty glass of water for at least 15 minutes, and the server walked by multiple times and didn’t ask if we needed anything– they were not particularly busy.
The food was really good (4 stars), but the service was not (2 stars), which is why I had to give them a 3 star rating. I would definitely try it again and give them another chance, just because the food was quite good.
It’s also affordable as well– 3 glasses of wine and two entrees came to 37 $.

Hmmmm… I think I can probably just agree with the other poor reviews but I’ll dive into a little of our experience.
While walking in the area, we were really wanting some local beer and decided to give Nodding Head a try. When we got there, we realized as divey as the place looked, it was more for after-​work folks who want to get drunk and hit on each other. Despite it being a casual looking place, there were no real places to just sit and have a beer. There were tall tables and areas to stand, but not very relaxing. No one ever came over and asked what we wanted, even though there were bartenders walking around cleaning up stuff… hubs went to the bar to get us a couple of beers, and after the first round wasn’t tasty, we got two others, and they weren’t very good either. And yeah, there is a message on the menu that says that if you don’t like their beer, it’s you, not them.
Well, in this case, it’s clearly them.

I still love the beer, and I still contend it;s better than most of the region. My abundantly flavorful Berliner weiss and mild ale (cask) were amazing and at 3.5 percent masterfully done. And for the beer, I’d give it four stars (like I previously have).
But my mistake was ordering the «jerked pork» sandwich. The result? A flimsy piece of pineapple, overcooked, leathery pork shoulder, with a decent amount of spice. Not my bag. I wish it were better. There are items you can find on this menu that are great, but it’s a treasure hunt at this point.
Food needs major improvement.

I am rating this based solely on the beers, I love them. Well, I especially love one of their beers– ICH BIN EIN BERLINER WEISSE. Citrusy, tart, german style beer– it’s the best. I can’t find any other beer quite like it!

This place could easily be summed up as «okay» (insert indifferent shoulder shrug) Nice selection of beer varieties (kind of a given eh?). Saturday lunch time music was a little out of my ideal zone for a casual lunch at a microbrewery (Whitney Houston, Madonna and Journey etc). Have to agree with the comments below — service seemed slow and it wasn’t that busy. Ambience is kinda cool, large tables/​booths. Server was nice enough and checked on us. Food wasn’t bad, but wasn’t special either. Probably wouldn’t come back on my own accord but wouldn’t turn down an invite. Meh, Okay. Ok?