Good burgers, but $40 (with tip) for 2 people? No dessert, no appetizers, no alcohol. Won't be going back.

Good food and friendly service. Went to Boulder Tap House for dinner following a football game. It was full, but the wait was not ridiculous, maybe 30 minutes. Tons of beers on tap and all of the games on multiple TV's - so not an issue with a short wait. Burgers were very good - jalapeno bacon and avocado was the perfect topper. Even though the place was full, our food came pretty quickly & was at the perfect temperature. Our server was friendly and attentive. Overall a really pleasant evening out. read more

The food is definitely not as advertised. Was not worth it in any way. Waits took ridiculously long. I really wanted it to work out but it just didn't. This is also like my fourth time being here and I am just done. Also, not a good place to avoid COVID. No one is socially distancing. Look elsewhere. read more

Had dinner at the Boulder Tap House two nights ago. The burgers, fries, salad were excellent. The service was fantastic. Our server was Holden who not only served food, but also served as a great ambassador for ISU. We are from Massachusetts and my daughter is considering ISU for college. Every time Holden stopped by check on our table, he gave us interesting and helpful information about Ames and ISU. Highly recommend the Boulder Tap House!! read more

Good food, nice staff, nothing super special as far as selection, but if you're looking for basic, good bar food, this is your place.

The stuffed burger that I ordered was undercooked about half way through. They happily offered to make me a fresh one. The owner/manager was working and came over to check in with us. He also apologized for the cook as he was fairly new. They brought me a new burger along with fresh fries. The owner and waitress stopped by to make sure the burger was correct. read more

Probably my worst experience ever living in Ames. Waited over 2 hrs for food, no explanation from waitress. Waitress was extremely rude. Owner's son came to out table and started bragging about how great of a business man he was (apparently owns 80+ restaurants) and told us how awesome a restaurant this was. Terrible, terrible, terrible. And I am a craft beer enthusiast so it is really disappointing, but Dublin Bay is Awesome, so I have that to look forward to from now on. read more

Great drink selection and great food. The cheese curds that I got as a side at lunch were oddly flavorless. The menu is a bit on the expensive side. Great staff, all very friendly. Also a very clean environment. They require masks, sanitize, and enforce social distancing through their seating arrangements. read more

Took my college boys here for burgers & brew. Great selection of brews & waitress had a couple good recommendations that didn't disappoint. Very good variety of burgers that more than satisfied all three of us & serving size was very filling. Service was great too. Will stop here again next time in town visiting. read more

Delicious food, clean establishment, and kind hosts. Stopped in St. Cloud for a college visit and stayed in a hotel next to Boulder Tap House. We wanted some dinner so we walked next door. I loved the customizable burgers! Would visit this restaurant again. read more

I've been to this place multiple occasions and have never had an issue with my I.D but the waitress took it and checked it along with a friends and told us that they couldn't serve us because our I.D.'s Weren't scanning? I'm not pleased with what happened and still don't understand why they were taken in the first place I am of age and have never had an issue with my I.D before. But the manager came out and continued questioning us as if we were underage. I'm not happy to say that we chose to leave and go somewhere else. I was planning to take a nice lunch with a friend that I haven't seen in awhile and have a drink and catch up but wasn't able to do so. read more

We had a group of four and did not receive good service from a server named Jessica. She worked extremely slow for it not being busy at the time we were there. We did not receive plates for our appetizers and could not ask her for any due to her not coming to our table. We had been done eating for about 15 minutes before she came to clean it off, and had yet to receive our checks (again the place was not busy at all). Once she finally brought us our checks our cards were already out and ready and she walked away without them and was gone for, yet again, another 15 min. After she finally took our cards, instead of going straight to swipe our cards, she took them with her to clean off another table, went back to the kitchen with the dirty dishes of someone else's group, and was gone for another 15 minutes before bringing us our cards and receipts. Horrible customer service. read more

15.99 for a build your own veggie burger. If you are going to charge .75-$1.50 for each add on make sure they are generous amounts. Added Pabst onion and I had a total of 3 onions. Added jalapeños and I had a total of 3 jalapeños. For the price of this burger I'll take my money to provisions for a burger/drinks for half the price ‍ read more

Great food. Great service. Nice looking sports bar. Only complaint was the country music constantly blaring. Every time I'm there. Every location. Seriously is that really necessary? Am I missing something and this is actually some kind of country bar? Doesn't make sense. read more

Absolutely incredible service! Mike, the owner, gave us an over the top experience for my sisters graduation dinner! Was so attentive and comped some of our order in celebration of my sister's graduation. Have never had such an incredible experience at any brewery or restaurant. Would give it a 100/5 if I could!! Highly recommend the food is incredible and beer and specialty drink selection is phenomenal. Personal recommendation is pepper jack cheese curds and cucumber infused vodka lemonade! We won't be going anywhere else on this trip to Iowa!! read more

Disappointing food, poor service, lots of mistakes on order. In short, they have not been open that long and either their management is in the dark about all the problems, or they don't care. I've been here twice and both times sucked. First off, for a place that does specialty burgers, you'd think they would ask you how done you want your burger. The first time, my friend was given a domestic beer instead of the one he ordered. My mom received the wrong flavor of shake. Burgers were cooked inconsistently--mine was medium and everyone else's was well done. My brother's and friend's fries were mixed up. Brother and friend were both missing different things from their burgers. The kitchen had 3 tries and still didn't get it right, and after that we didn't see our server again until it was time for the bill. We were being friendly despite all the problems, but our server basically gave up and avoided us as much as possible, and tried to keep each required interaction as short as possible. The second time, it was super cold outside and inside, and they didn't have the heat on. Servers and customers were all wearing coats. We should have turned right back around and walked out but we made the mistake of staying. My chocolate-strawberry shake tasted like it was made with vanilla ice cream and Hershey's syrup, instead of flavored ice cream. Burgers were flavorless and disappointing. Service was again not great, the food took forever to come out, and our server looked like she was working too many tables. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times...you're not gonna fool me again. read more

I don't know if this place was having an off night or is still working out the kinks. But I ate there last night and it was pretty underwhelming. I ordered the Greek turkey burger. And what came to me wasn't what was described on the menu. The tomato was raw not grilled. The burger had regular lettuce not spring mix. They didn't put any taziki sauce on it either. The only Greek part of my turkey burger was some feta. What brought this places score back up for me though was their shakes and cheese curds! Shakes are creamy and tasty and they give you all the extra in a metal tin so you can refill your own glass almost all the way over again, and the cheese curds were these great fried cubes of melty cheese that came with a tasty chipotle ranch. If you come I'd skip dinner and stick with apps and beer. read more

Great beer selection, extensive menu. Some of the best wings we've had in a long time! And, homemade cheese curds.

Great beer selection and very friendly service... 2nd time here in the last year... thanks to covid the wait was really short.

We stopped by for a light lunch today. We split the sliders and the large order of cheese curd. O. M.G. The sliders were pretty tasty but the cheese curds were out of this world! I have, ahem, many years of experience eating these, and have never eaten anything do light, flavorful, and gigantic! The service was good, the restaurant is very nice, but if you are a cheese curd fan, run, don't, walk to Boulders. read more

Looking for someplace new in Ames, we decided on this place for a weekday lunch. Mainly we wanted the enormous cheese curds we had heard about. The parking lot was almost full at 1230pm on a Monday. Must be a good place for work lunches. We were seated right away in the last booth available. There were still plenty of 4 person hightop tables available. We weren't in a rush, but our service was quick. The menu had a wide range of bar/pub food with unique twists and add-ons. We shared the cheddar cheese curds (option for cheddar, white cheddar, or pepper jack). They lived up to their reputation!! Delicious, huge, cheesy. Plenty to share and take some home. My SIL got chicken tacos with chips/guac. I got the stuffed avocado burger with fries. My burger was so tasty!! Normally, I'm not a burger girl, but I'd get this again. The fries weren't very crispy so I'd probably get a different side next time. SIL liked her tacos and says she'd order them again too. Total bill with one lemonade, one app, and two entrees was $32. A little more pricey than a typical Ames lunch, but I think the food is worth it. The parking lot was completely empty when we left, so if you really don't want a crowd, come for a late lunch, afternoon snack, or early supper. read more

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They've changed their menu and the wait staff is even less responsive than before. There were maybe 5 tables seated when we walked in, with 1 person at the bar. We requested for tvs that were showing nothing to be tuned to NFL games...when we left they hadn't been touched. The waited said that "when the girl had a chance, she would get to it" apparently serving one person makes it impossible to change a channel for the next 30 mins. The food is merely decent and the wait staff clearly doesn't care about providing actual service, just hoping to get tips from larger parties. Don't go here unless you just plan to sit at the bar and drink read more

Nice clean restaurant. We had a party of 7 and didn't have to wait at all for a table. Food was excellent we had zero complaints.

Wanted to check a new place in Ames and headed to Boulder Tap House. I understand it was busy as it was a Saturday night but our service was slow. I think our server was trying to keep up, but it was clear that they were understaffed. I was looking for comfort food so I elected for a burger and tater tots. My burger was overpriced which was especially frustrating as the menu for building your own burger is very misleading. To top it off, their tater tots came as 4 huge "gourmet" tots with seasoning and some sort of cream filling. Not great! I don't think I'll make a return trip. read more

I went here on Lunch Today and the service was great and food came out fast and hot. The cheese curd burger with Parmesan fries were delicious. I will be back for sure 39 beers on tap.. read more

Boulder Tap House - Sports Bars Near Me - Ames, Iowa

Never had any problems with this establishment. Their potato swirls are nostalgic to fairs and festivals that I grew up going to in Oklahoma. The burgers are not bad, the bacon was super chewy and I do personally like the bacon that way. Alcohol selection is the up there with most, I wish they had shiner bock, but that's being picky. read more

The jalapeño bacon was very flavorful and the service was good. The fried pickles and French fries were quite greasy maybe due to low temperature on the fryers read more

Really good atmosphere, had a 35 min wait for a table so went to the bar and the bartenders checked on us continuously. Once seated i ordered the jalapeño popper stuffed burger which was DELICIOUS!Love all the different options of tap beer! Will definitely come here again soon! read more

So I've eaten here several times with no problems and great food. We came for dinner tonight and were told that they were not seating any tables because the kitchen was to backed up even though there were several open tables and open spots at the bar. We were also told that the wait time couldn't really be defined because they weren't sure how long the back up was going to be. We then left to go somewhere else and as we were leaving we saw two of the kitchen staff out behind the building smoking and reading their phones. Unreal. I hope someone in management sees this and fixes that because in Ames that's pretty bad for business read more

This has become my new favorite bar and grill in Ames. By far surpasses West Towne, Wallabys, Brick City, etc. They have quite a variety of local craft brews in addition the regular domestics, and the flights are nice to have if you can't decide. Also can tell their burgers are fresh beef and the flavors are amazing. The brown sugar burger is so so good and my go to. As is their Taphouse Potatoes. Their dipping sauces also taste like they're made from scratch. Anytime I've been there the longest I've had to wait is 15 mins. Also, you can order to go which isn't highly advertised! Have gone back at least 3 times and will continue to go! read more

Nice spot for a beer and a burger in Ames. Stopped here after a show at Stevens Aud. There was plenty of beer, burgers, and TVs. The burgers were pretty good. The salt and vinegar fries and "tator tots" (actually deep fried shredded potatoes) were excellent. It was clean and service was food. I would come again. read more

Great service, nice atmosphere, looks great, fries were tasty, the lettuce was fresh. I tried veggie burgers back in the 90's that had more beef flavor. The burgers at Culvers and Wendys are MUCH BETTER! Dry and tasteless is no way for a burger to end up. The buns were stale, I'm calling them Sunday Buns. Delivered early Friday morning and left out. The shakes were the size of a small across the street at McDonalds served in very thick glasses to look bigger than they were. The tomato and onion were sliced thin, single slice for each and didn't cover but half the burger. Ames needs more good restaurants, I had hoped that this would be a good burger joint, boy was I wrong. I feel very sorry for the servers as I don't see repeat business happening. Has management dined in Sunday night? Might be a great place to drink, but we made the mistake of going to celebrate a family event. read more

Only thing good here is the bar and their milkshakes. Food really isn't that good, definitely don't recommend if you're going out to eat here. read more

Great place, good food, and almost always excellent service. Staff very accommodating for large groups. Beer is nice and cold, lots of options. Terrific happy hour specials. Only complaint is that it's always freezing--shouldn't have to wear a coat when out for a meal. read more

I've been the Boulder Tap House a few times within the span I've been in Ames. The last time I went was about a year ago and got lettuce wraps. I ended up getting severe food poisoning that lasted a span of days. It was absolutely awful. I called to ask what kind of lettuce they used because it was in the midst of the Ecoli outbreak. They stumbled upon their words and said "Iceburg" however, it looked very much like Romaine. I've always been curious as to what the situation actually was. read more

Great place to watch the final four! TV screens all around the restaurant. Food and service were good

We stopped here on our way through town. It is a great atmosphere for watching a sporting event or having a drink with friends. We both had a couple of micro brew beers and they were very good. My sour-dough burger was very good. The sour dough bread was great and the burger was cooked perfectly. My husband had the Stuffed tap house burger. He had the burger stuffed with blue cheese. While it sounds great, I think the cheese inside was a little to be desired. It completely melted away and he never actually got a bite of the cheese while biting into the burger. The fries that were served were perfectly cooked. The biggest downfall of the entire meal was the additional charge that was on our bill for the mayonnaise we requested to go with our fries. At best, I had 2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise, which was not even enough for all the fries that were served, which they charged 50 cents for. read more

Overall satisfied with Boulder Tap House. Food was great with lots of options on the menu and it's very customizable. Great beer and drink selection as well. Some things including beer are a little pricier than their competitors in the area. This is a very loud restaurant and seems crowded when full if that's not your thing. Servers seemed to be very accommodating, however kitchen is a little slow. Some minor issues people might not enjoy but I'd definitely return! read more

This restaurant was incredibly rude to my dear friend. We went in pursuit of some of their spiked shakes, and handed our IDs to the server, and since my friend is from out of the state, he asked if he could show it to a manager. Of course we complied, and the manager came back asking "where did you say you were from?" She replied with her state of residence and then proceeded to ask what her address was which she listed. I have seen this before since AZ state IDs are a bit odd in that they allow you to smile, and have a very long expiration date. However after answering the questions correctly he did not allow her to order the shake. He claimed there was no hologram. There was no other way for him to validate her ID such as scanning the ID or using a black light. I was very upset as to why he interrogated her if he was still going to proceed to not give her the drink with very minuscule alcohol content. (But who doesn't love the novelty?) We left the restaurant. I was very offended by his paranoia and accusations, and will not be back because of his sarcastic and mocking undertone. read more

Never had a problem with the food or wait here and the food has always been phenomenal. The food comes out fast and servers are amazing. Definitely my most favorite restaurant in Ames. read more