Wing Wednesday is everywhere... but where can you go enjoy good wings in a huge open space with…read moreoversized TVs, friendly staff, and free games including darts??? Fidens Brewing Company on Broadway in Albany Each week there's a different wing flavor to try, so whether you're into stepping outside the box or sticking with your favorites, the choice is yours. And let me just say this... people were constantly coming in for pickup orders and filling seats to the point they SOLD OUT of wings I heard one poor guy say "Ummm... now I don't know what to get." But those Buffalo Wontons??? Absolutely delicious Outside of the food menu they also have a huge selection of beers, and since I'm definitely not a beer connoisseur, "Mike" behind the bar let me sample a few while breaking down the different flavor profiles which honestly made the experience even better.

This place has become my usual spot for lunch when I'm in Albany area. There's parking lot next to…read morebrewery. I had raspberry and dragon fruit hard seltzer. It is very refreshing. Not overly sweet. I could smell the raspberry when I was drinking it. It has vibrant raspberry color too. My favorite dish here is the chili. Not too salty but well seasoned. Perfect consistency. Brussel sprouts are great appetizer. Crispy, not bitter as it is drizzled with balsamic vinegar. My husband had Reuben sandwich. It's good but greasy. You order the food and drink at the bar area. You are given a buzzer that you put on the table. The waiter will come to deliver the food. There's misunderstanding about our salad order. We ordered regular salad but were given a side dish size. The waiter quickly told the kitchen to make regular size salad.

The food is so good definitely try the Mac and cheese and their burgers! It's amazing staff tooread more

14,000 mile 48 state food and craft beer road trip stop in Saratoga, NY. My reviews on here are…read moreoverall positive but I admittedly had one of my worst experiences of my 14,000 mile trip at this spot. I will start by saying that it was an hour before a FIFA World Cup game at mid-afternoon on a weekday. The bar was full and the outdoor seats just over half capacity. To not steal a table for 1 if a crowd came in for the game, I asked for a high top that was by bar that was about to be empty. After waiting 20 minutes to order, it took an additional 45 minutes to receive my Nashville hot chicken fries appetizer. As the photo shows, it had just a drizzle of ranch at most as the fries needed some sort of sauce. But after my food arrived, nobody came over to check on me and I finished them without what I was trying to ask for. On top of that though, I ordered a flight which I believe was around $17. By that point I gave up trying to order a sandwich there and knew that to get my tab I would have to grab it in advance from the bar when I saw the bartender was on a free moment (my server was nowhere to be seen). I walked about 10 feet to the bar to snag my check and came back to table that was entirely bussed including my flight that I only drank about an ounce of each from. So I was charged for the flight despite not being able to drink it. After paying, I asked for a manager at the front table. I waited 7 minutes for them to arrive. I told the manager that my goal was not to post but I explained the situation face to face. They asked for my check and I see just over a month later I was still charged for the flight that was dumped before I was able to drink it. They were not busy enough to be that poor of service but they were super quick to try to rotate tables. This was on June 19 as this review was August 9. The photo was of Nashville Hot Chicken Fries (hand-cut fries, crispy nashville hot chicken, alabama white sauce, shredded dill pickles).

If not for the amazing atmosphere, Common Roots would be pretty common…read more Although the establishment is vast with plenty of seating, the food has much to be desired. I ordered a sour beer of raspberry-lime. It was decent but something was missing I still can't determine. My starter were house made chips with their blue cheese dipping sauce. They arrived almost instantaneously and were well done, which I appreciated. The dipping sauce is so thick, it's more like a spread with some intense flavor. My smashburger arrived, which looked great until I realized the burger had been smashed to the point of being paper thin, making the edges crispy. This made for a "bread sandwich" that was dry until I got to the sauce and kimchi in the absolute center, which was quite good. There was no side salad option, so I went with the German potato salad. It was over-seasoned to the point where I had to stop eating. The runner also brought over fries, which I hadn't ordered, but he left them on my table anyway. They were also well done and tasted good. However, I was "potatoed out" at that point. Many other diners had pizzas and they looked great. Clearly, they knew something I didn't and I should have tried one of those instead. I couldn't relay this to the server because he kept disappearing for long periods of time and never happened to see me hold up a hand for help. He was kind but not attentive by any means. After fifteen minutes of waiting, he did reappear and finally got my check. Common Roots could be an amazing place to dine and hangout but they've got some work to do. Five stars for the atmosphere and two stars for food and service.

I have found the best restaurant-made potato chips at Common Roots Brewing in Albany. The thing is,…read moreI wasn't even looking for them. They came free with my Nashville fried chicken sandwich order.They do great deep fryer food. My sandwich was all sorts of crispy, spicy and tangy fun. The space, however, has changed a lot. I remember when it was the Pump Station several years ago. The late owner, Neil Evan, was a fixture there and his seafood Mac & Cheese was something to rave about. By contrast, Common Roots has a more limited menu and plainer furniture. A lot of pizza varieties, tacos, salads and burgers. Decent bar food. By contrast, Common Roots flagship in Glens Falls appears to have a better menu with more variety. I generally eat healthy. I can't eat bar food regularly. The meal was great for a Friday night out. There's also a very good non-alcoholic beverage and drinks menu. I was happy to see all of varieties of stout. The snowy stout was delicious. So was the kombucha. The bar where I sat was clean, sleek and modern. The bartender, who took my order was helpful with suggestions. The main dining area looked a bit sparse for 8pm on a Friday night but the business is still relatively new. I'd like to see an expanded menu with at least a few more healthy choices and some family-friendly selections. Meanwhile, I'll know where to go if I get a craving for awesome freshly made potato chips.

Great place! Their new food menu is amazing and the service and drinks are top notch. Great place…read moreto watch a game or just to meet up friends.

Taproom is a bit of a misnomer in that there are not 20+ beers on tap…read more What I liked was their food choices and the bacon and blue cheese burger I ordered. It was both massive and tasty. They also provided a generous portion of of chips as a side. I was less happy with the beer pour for my two IPAs. I ordered a Fiddlehead and a Dogfish IPA and both had an inch of foam. Aside from the beer pours, I would recommend this place for a burger.

I absolutely think this place is great!…read more I was introduced to Fallside through a Yelp Event earlier this year. I talked about it so much at work my friends begged to go. We met up for 50 cent wings on Sunday. Yeah, that's right, what is this 2006? 50 cent wings, and they are no joke! Big plump and juicy wings cooked perfectly crispy and generously tossed in sauce with was was described as house-made ranch or blue cheese dressing? My friends really enjoyed them. I had the fried vegetable gyoza and I can't say I've ever had them deep fried before, more like steamed or pan-fried, but this was a game changer! I was really looking forward to the Imposter cheezy jalapeno bites but our server informed us they were out. I love that they have several vegan options on the menu. At the Yelp Event we were fortunate enough to try the vegan pizza and it was honestly one of the best vegan pizzas around the Capital Region. They use Imposter plant-based cheese which is a local product made by a small business in Troy. I love that small businesses are supporting each other like this. The beer is excellent too, we were looking forward to having the red ale since I spoke so fondly of it but it was tapped out. I had a really good mango IPA which hazy doesn't even begin to describe! It's really nice inside and on Sunday it had just become warm enough by mid afternoon, they opened the big garage door and let some fresh air in which was no nice after such a long winter. I think I can speak for my coworkers and I that we will be coming back again soon so please keep those vegan options stocked up!

I was disappointed that I could not attend Yelp Albany's recent event at Bye-I-now-Fallside Brewery…read morea few weeks ago. So the next time I scheduled a brewery crawl in the area, I made sure to come here. I submitted a business page update regarding the rebranding, but at this point, I don't know whether Yelp will simply rename the existing page or create a new one for Fallside. For the time being, my update goes under Bye-I. The new space is great. I had no idea how much bigger it was until I walked a ways inside, and I was equally impressed by the cool artwork. The beer is, of course, as tasty as before. We seated ourselves in the back to enjoy our pours, and within a couple of minutes, a server dropped off food menus and attended to us the rest of the evening. Had I read my recently obtained copy of the March-April copy of local "True Brew," I would have known that several of their dishes were featured in it, specifically their beef stew and mac & cheese. But I had the Chicken Caprese sandwich, which came with steak fries perfectly cooked and obviously cut in their own kitchen. We were checked on frequently, and as we were finishing up, their Friday evening music session was starting. Food and drink here are reasonably priced, and I feel the quality of both were just as good, or perhaps better, than what you get at "those larger breweries" along Broadway. Of course I'll still patronize them all, but for me, Fallside has the edge in this part of town right now.

I stayed one night at the Renaissance because I was overnighting in Albany and it looked close to…read moreCity Beer Hall which looked good on Yelp. Well that's a confusing sentence. I walked the half block from my hotel room and saw the lighted sign on the building drawing be to City Beer Hall. The bar is old school wood, long tables, and people generally having a good time. I was alone so chose the bar for sitting because that is more convenient for me and the wait staff. The beer menu was long with a few regionals new to me. Too many sours though for my taste, but those are popular now. I am not going to talk about the beers available because those will surely change by the time you read this. I ordered a beer and checked out the food menu. There were some good looking items on the menu, I really wanted a good pizza after my earlier airport pizza debacle, but a whole pizza was too much for one guy. I discussed the food choices with my friendly bartender and settled on the chicken nuggets and a side of fries. The nuggets are hard breaded from thighs and pretty good. The fries were crispy, well seasoned, and overly abundant. Overall the meal was great! It was Thursday night and they had a trivia-like game that was related to Family Feud so I played that. Might have stayed a little later than I should have but the beer was good. I was looking at the beer refrigerator and saw Fiddlehead IPA and asked my bartender about it. He was not really keen on it but that is the best beer they had there, but that is one really good beer. Later I notice that was the beer they were giving you if you ordered the $8 beer and a shot, which is an excellent value! There was some kind of drama this night. There was a lady who first tried to order Jager Bombs for her table and the bartender told her sorry we don't do those so she ordered Tito's shots instead. Well this ended about how you would expect with her losing a credit card and blaming everyone in sight for her problems. The bartender and manager were S-tier professionals managing her and keeping the food and beer flowing to the rest of us. Guys, thank you for your service! If you are in downtown Albany and you are hungry or thirsty hit up the City Beer Hall.

I was staying at the Renaissance down the street for a conference at the Albany Capital Center. I…read moreneeded a quick dinner before I went to do more work in my room. The City Beer Hall fits the bill. Located on Howard Street, the City Beer Hall has the local hangout vibe for professionals in town like me and locals wanting a beer and a pizza and fun times. The building at one point housed the city's old telephone company, and now is a cool pizza bar joint with a speakeasy that wasn't open when I went. The large room that houses the bar and long communal tables with high ceilings and large windows is like a Biergarten that is works great for happy hours and evening hangouts. Pizza wise, I was pleased with their Hot Honey Pizza that balances sweet, savory, and spicy flavors between its delicious crust, pepperoni, creamy ricotta, tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh basil, and a lovely drizzle of hot honey. I enjoyed the pizza with a Ommegang Blueberry Falls that was a "Blueberry Kolsch" whose crisp and slightly sweet flavors balanced well against the spicy and savory I was noshing. The only downside was I found the service behind the bar to be a bit slow and distracting from conversations with other customers. I felt I was forgotten until I finally flagged for the check. But overall, the City Beer Hall was a solid experience highlighted by their hot honey pizza.

This spot is known for good beer, a stellar friendly staff, and so many fun ways to share your time…read morewith friends while visiting (coloring, old school video gaming, andlive music - oh my!) We loved visiting the outdoor patio space for drinking while rocking to live music, with easy access to food truck parking. The beer list contains a nice variety of styles which met the variety of tastebuds in our group. Also love that this place features rotating guest taps, wine, cider, canned cocktails and kombucha, too. So many local brands are featured and promoted in this spot. Visiting Rare Form again is for sure on the 2023 Summer Goals list - I've heard good things about their pizza and I think we need to test the "what goes better with good beer?" theory v. soon.

The day I was here I had visited a few other local breweries. This one was the smallest in terms of…read moresize and beers offered, but it was also the most casual, and most friendly in terms of ambiance. They had more beers of interest to me here than at the others I visited today. This was, for me, the perfect brewery at which to wind down for the day.

We are from out of town and don't have a BJs near us. I have been to this location once before…read more Previously the service was horrible but we all loved the food. Our experience last night was much better service. We had Vicky as our server and she was a delight. So hardworking and caring. You can tell she pours her heart into her job. My major rave about BJ's this trip is the happy hour deals and deals of the week. We were thinking we were going to use a good sit down dinner and we ended up diving into "snacks". We just made it before the end of Happy Hour and we got some spinach artichoke dip and we both ordered personal pizzas. We also took advantage of the $5 wing specials on Wednesday. The spin dip was great but seemed to be missing something. Maybe some spice. The personal pizzas were a bit smaller than we were expecting, but for a $7 special you couldn't go wrong. I had the BJ's classic combo minus olives. It was delicious. The freshest toppings. The wings were a bit disappointing. Maybe because we're from Buffalo... but the dill pickle boneless really didn't have much flavor. The hot honey buffalo didn't seem to show any of those flavors. I almost wonder if they were the wrong flavor. But anyways, cheap deals, great waitress! I'll be back next time I'm passing through. We also loved that even though the place was packed, it wasn't loud! They have designed it well.

Had a wonderful experience there today for lunch. We started with the calamari which was really…read morecrispy. I ordered the Garlic shrimp and parmigiana bread appetizer for my lunch. I really enjoyed it, plenty of shrimp also. The service was quick and accurate, glasses were kept full. This is your typical BrewHouse atmosphere with sports on the TV's. Overall a good experience.

Missed the swordfish but the salmon was great. Mariah offered professional and gracious service…read more The Albany location met my needs!

Very small menu. Standard American pub food trying to be a real restaurant. Fish and chips was a…read morebig let down. Medium size single piece of fish and cold fries. Any add on , like condiments, was by request only. Wait staff was fine but not really interested in the customers. Definitely seemed like a job for her to stop by every so often. Price was way higher than the quality. Would not recommend and I will not return. Get a fish fry literally anywhere and it will be twice as good for half the price!

I was looking for somewhere different to eat before going to Proctors. The space was huge, almost…read morecavernous. It was really quiet when we got there, only a couple of people at the bar. I had a Fighting Irwin and it was pretty good. The downside was that the bartender was more into the conversation with the regulars than checking on other people. I probably would have stayed for a second beer but when I finally got their attention it was time to go. I'd probably go back again for a beer and a pizza.

Big space nice beer selection Live music…read moreFood right in the space pizza burgers and wings Cool spot for groups Lucked into a parking space across the street A good v stop if you are in the area