I really want this local downtown business to succeed, but Im just not going to keep going back to way over-salted food & asking to find the waiter or waitress, who regardless of which section we're in, always seems to disappear after taking the initial order. I have sat at the bar previously & service there is great. This last time we were a group of 8. The waitress was a little older & very nice, but the service industry may not be for her, initially she forgot to go back & get the drinks from the bar after putting our order in & the 2nd time forgetting to put the 2nd drink order in at all. Either situation on its own is understandable, but when multiple food items came out so salty, they were almost inedible, it turned into a disappointing experience for all of us. Ive had a couple of things in the past here that were also zealously seasoned. But usually it's not most of the food like it was this time. read more

My class came here for a formal dinner and the food and service was very good. The only letdown was the broccoli which was unseasoned and not well cooked. Some of the plates they gave us were dirty, but they quickly switched them out. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

Sat on the patio with our dogs for dinner. Food was decent. The half size salad was as big as a full meal. The brisket was a little dry but burnt ends were good. Mac was okay. Just a stop through for us. Service was fine. Nothing extraordinary. Conveniently located off the highway for easy access. read more

This place is surprisingly huge, very organized and tidy. It was great that it is a restaurant as well. I saw a family with their little ones enjoying their meals. I ordered the Burnt Ends with Seasoned Fries. The beef was tasty and very tender and the fries are awesome! Their food seemed popular as there were a few pick orders on the counter throughout the time we were there. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - Seating/Dining Area - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

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We had the pretzels with beer cheese, nacho fries, and brisket mac n cheese. The brisket mac was so amazing. I also had an espresso martini which was perfect. Very well decorated place with chill vibes and kind wait staff. read more

My first experience here, I wanted to try it out for a possible rehearsal dinner. I sat at the bar and the bartender was very helpful in helping me select a beer that I would like (after I told him what I normally drink) he also allowed me to taste a couple to decide what I wanted. The menu had a lot of great items listed, I decided on a turkey, apple, brie sandwich. The sandwich was delicious and so were the homemade fries. A side of honey mustard was also included and was plenty for my sandwich and for dipping my fries. I also enjoyed the atmosphere and that it was local. I will definitely be back and hoping to bring a crowd with me!! read more

The BBQ will stand up with the famous kc BBQ. The brisket and burnt ends are top notch. I have been smoking my own meat for 30 years. This is only BBQ at a restaurant I will buy read more

Big and very loud. I kept looking at the beer fermenters wondering if the deep fryer was just as big. Service was good, but food not worthy of a return read more

The atmosphere was cool... but they weren't serving any of their brewed beer which I thought was interesting! We did have local brews and delicious food! The pricing was a little high in my opinion, I spent $20 on a sandwich that had dry bbq.... Which was a bummer! Service was great though! read more

Nice menu, bbq centered but exclusive to bbq. Beer is pretty good, their variety is wide enough to find a style for everyone. Busier over lunch. read more

This was a good place for dinner. Service was friendly. Restaurant had a big open atmosphere. I had the Big Chief Oatmeal stout which was very good. For dinner I opted for a Cobb salad which was good. I liked that you could choose large and small salad sizes. A small is usually enough and traveling you can't take leftovers anyway. Husband had a pulled pork sandwich. He said it was excellent. It has a bbq theme with a special on Friday's of ribs (which were very tempting) but I stuck with my salad. Prices were very reasonable. One of the best values for our dollar in our middle-USA travels. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - Huge colorful paintings line the walls of the restaurant - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

Mediocre at best Blahhhhhh My description if the bartender asked would've not great read more

Was in town at a conference and wanted to go out to dinner with some friends. The place was packed, understandable for a Friday night. Waited a few minutes and got a table outside. Good good, good beer, nice location. Free parking on the street. Staff were helpful and kind. Good starting point for walking up and down Main Street looking at the statues or making your own pub crawl. M read more

In Topeka for one night and was looking for good bar food. Trusted fellow Yelpers and was very pleased. Beer selection wasn't big but found one I liked really easily. Went with Brisket Mac & Cheese. Mac & Cheese wasn't over the top but creamy and the brisket was tender and had good flavor. The BBQ sauce over the top was very good. Ate at the bar and bartenders were great and just the right amount of attentive. read more

1st Friday is one of the busiest nights and the staff do an excellent job keeping up the pace especially Hayley and Jamie. Have never had any food that I did not like and the lemon drop martini is my favorite cocktail. read more

An amazing place to grab a brew and hang with family or friends! The food is on point. Takes a little while to get it, but when you do it's definitely worth it! read more

Ate here Saturday to meet up with out of town family. We have frequented IR quite a few times. We have never had a meal we didn't like. Unfortunately, there always seems to be some type of issue with our service. This time our waiter just seemed too distracted by who knows what. We waited forever for our drinks, beers, for him to take our order. Then my order was 100% incorrect. He made it right but honestly it's hard to go back to a place when service isn't always guaranteed to be too notch. And we always love the food. Our waters never got refilled. read more

Always fun to come here! This time around the service was a little slow, but I have been seeing lots of signs around that places are understaffed so maybe that was the case here. Anyway, our food was yummy and we had a good time. The place was hopping as it was a Friday night. read more

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I ate here for the first time during lunch. The atmosphere was good and I had the friendliest waitress (Katherine). I ordered the brisket sandwich with a side of potato salad. Everything was tasty and portioned just right. I'll definitely go back. read more

First time here and live in lawrence. I really appreciate the owners trying to livin up downtown topeka. We arrived around 615 and had a 45 min wait as it was packed for prom etc. loved seeing that type of atmosphere but when we came back at 7 there was hardly anyone there , sad on a saturday night! Anyway service was great and beer was good. Food was ok but just wished they gave me more for 19.00 2 meat plate. Sausage was not thick like a typical bbq place but was the of a cheap hotdog and pulled pork was decent. Lots of fries which were good but you put the small meat portion on a bit tray looks sad. Either give more meat or another side or decrease the price. Just my 2 cents. I was at biggs bbq in lawrence last week and got the 3 meat plate 18.00. Holy cow they give you alot. Thats how it should be and good too. We did enjoy ourselves and will be back and will order the bbq parfait next time! read more

Wonderful addition to the downtown and a fantastic brewery! My brother had been in a few times before but when he found out they were going to launch a new limited time Wit Beer he had convinced me to come out from KC and then a try. The beer menu is diverse, something to be found for everyone! And the dinner menu was impressive. Beers and BBQ, what more could Topeka ask for?! We even received the opportunity to chat with the brew master and talk about what the future Brewing season looks like! I know I'll be coming back for some of their seasonal releases. I highly recommend this for beer drinkers or even just a wonderful family restaurant. Oh and check out the murals. They're done by a like Topeka artist and represent the staple beers on tap. read more

My husband and I visited Iron Rail for dinner with my in laws while we were visiting from out of town. We were excited about our upcoming meal we had planned for a couple of weeks in advance as Topeka really needs more up and coming restaurants as this one appeared to be. Being a prior employee of BNSF he was equally excited about the railroad theme. Upon arriving the interior of the restaurant seemed current and clean but not overly impressive. There wasn't really a big wow factor just a lot of mediocre design elements sprinkled throughout. It was a nice attempt at a theme but just not executed that well. When it came to our meal we were quickly sat after using yelp to join the waitlist. Drink orders were prompt and drinks showed up quickly. We ordered right away and then the waiting began. We waited and waited for our food. The waitress came over a few times to tell us we were next up on the list to get our food. When the food did finally come out (well over an hour after ordering) my mashed potatoes were ice cold and meat was lukewarm. My husbands was hot but was presumably made more recently whereas I'm guessing mine sat for a long time. The food was pretty bland overall and lacked flavor. The bbq sauce is served out of a solid red ketchup bottle the waitress had to point out as bbq sauce. Not much flavor to it either. You'd think a bbq restaurant would nail that aspect of it. Being allergic to wheat and gluten I was excited about gluten free options but ultimately got sick after our meal from cross contamination. Would not choose to return but giving 3 stars for attempted effort and rejuvenating the downtown Topeka restaurant scene. An improved menu and chef would go a long way here! read more

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The bartender here was an amazing guy. We chatted about the town & their beers and he was quite knowledgeable. I was a big fan of the porter but the others were a standard run of the mill few. I'd come back with a craving for the darker one for sure. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

Everything we've had here in past year has been fantastic! Tried fish & chips again and they were amazing. Ribs are best in town! Service has been great. Great vibes! read more

I went to Iron Rail for a casual dinner with a couple of friends. I had the pork bbq sandwich which was reasonably solid. It wasn't dressed with anything, which is fine I suppose. The BBQ sauce was on the table for folks to dress it as they like it. Overall, this was a fine BBQ pork sandwich. It won't win any awards, but it is satisfying. To be honest, the fries were the best part of my dinner. One friend ordered the mac and cheese and said that it lacked flavor and substance. It looked runny to me--for the love of everything, if you're going to serve mac and cheese as an entree at your restaurant you should invest in some good cheese. Finally, the third person at our table ordered the philly. Yikes--it took over the whole plate. I didn't get much of a report on the quality or taste, but it is huge. With regard to the beer--I sampled five of their beers and was disappointed in most all of them. It seemed to me that they all lacked personality. There really was no flavor or "punch" to any of them. It was like I was drinking a slightly amped up version of Bud Light. Don't get me wrong--I think that there is promise to the beers, but the flavor profiles could be better developed. Lastly--the service was friendly when present. But it was mostly absent. Service was slow. Perhaps they haven't figured out a good plan for staffing on (reasonably) busy evenings. However, it seemed like there were plenty of servers working that evening. read more

Had to grab a quick bite to eat between meetings in downtown Topeka. My host/client took me here. Loved the murals and my shrimp and grits was delicious. Service was impeccable and incredibly friendly. High recommend this place! read more

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November 24th, 2018 The decor is Cool and goes along with the Railroad History. The Super Chief Stout was good but not a true stout like Blind Tiger or Happy Basset, or the Norman but the food, I'd recommend to BYO. The burnt ends weren't burnt ends, more so pork belly cubes of fat and gross. The BBQ sauce was watery and lacked any flavor. The kid meals need prices on the menu, the Mac and cheese is gross, which you shouldn't even be in business if you fail at that. The brisket was tough, and was served barely warm. The fries were good. We shared a high top table with a few other people and they weren't impressed. Soggy cat fish and fried bologna sandwich which was thin slices of pork belly. They stated the burger was like eating dried out hamburger and lacked any flavor. We told the manager our thoughts and the whole meal including the beer was free for everyone at the table. I would have appreciated the manager telling us rather than to tell the waiters. She obviously along with the owner didn't want to show their faces. Beware, if there's a wait for seating, they have a very small area to wait. In addition The floor shakes every time someone walks by. As Rod S. States in his review, it's like you're eating on a train, but worse. Definitely not a Fred Harvey Restaurant November 25th - Hospital diagnosis - Salomnella poisoning Thanks read more

Iron Rail Brewing - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

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We've been looking for something like this place in Topeka! What a great addition to the new downtown vibe. Had to wait 15 minutes to have lunch on a recent Saturday because the place was hopping! Hubby and I tried the sausage plate appetizer which comes with a 3-beer flight and we added a side salad and fries so we could share. Our friends tried the pulled pork sandwich and ribs. Everything was tasty. Truth be told none of us are craft beer snobs, but we like the "flights" so we can have smaller tastings of a variety of the beer offerings. All in all, it was a very enjoyable outing. Walking around downtown Topeka afterwards also gave us a chance to stop at Cashmere Popcorn, Hazel Hill Chocolates, and the Leaping Llama art gallery. Downtown with all the new art work and landscaping is really quite nice!! read more

Quiet Thursday night, Simpson trivia night (which I had clue of answers) but mild crowd, great beer and the burnt ends and sweet corn were very good. Only issue, I sat the bar and must of been invisible as service was slow and why I gave it a 4. read more

Food was amazing! We didn't realize it was a BBQ place/ but we hit the jackpot! AND their sauce is sooooo tasty!! And got some beer flights to go with it. Will definitely be bravely before we leave Kansas. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - Hubs & I celebrating 7yrs - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

A good addition to the Kansas Boulevard strip. I think this will be a great scene as it grows for happy hours and drinks. I do want to clarify, I had the beer flight and I didn't like any of the beer. All (IPA, Kolsch, Saison, and Pale Ale) subpar or barely mediocre but the food is good. Go for the food, scene, and service but I'll be ordering mixed drinks moving forward. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - Loaded Fries and Beer Flight - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

First time trying this restaurant today. Normally when I see barbecue on the menu of a restaurant that is not exclusively barbecue I skip it. My wife decided to try it, and after sampling that will not be the case on future visits. The meats are smoked the right way, and the sauce has a good sweet, tangy, and touch of sour that compliment them well. Not a spicy sauce if you're in the mood for that, but it's the right flavor for the dishes they serve. My Salmon with herb butter, red skinned mashed potatoes, and broccoli were all amazing as well. Melts in your mouth and packed with flavor. This shows an attention to detail across a variety of dishes and has certainly earned a second visit. Compliments to the chef and staff! read more

Truly upset with the taste of the food, it was flavorless. Street Elote and Okra more like canned corn balls with cheese, and only given 4 and guess what??? Okra was not flavored but we were given plenty of them to hide the fact that we were given only 4 Street Elote pieces. I have never had a chicken taco taste like it has been over smoked, unfortunately it was smoked injected and no added flavor was given. Brisket should have a barbequed flavor and well that did not taste like barbeque nor did it have any seasoning. I hate going to eat anywhere because I expect more flavor and am given nothing. Husband got the Turkey sandwich with green apples and brie, that looked good but Ummmmm maybe thinner slices on the turkey, we don't need a pound full in every bite and again no flavor!! Guys don't be afraid to add seasoning and season salt, give it some taste and a signature flavor. As for the beer, we had asked for a sampler and please tell me why the sampler vs the actual glass of it tasted soooo different, sampler gave skittle flavor while the glass gave a watered down beer taste and though it was on tap it was not cold like it should have been. Won't be back!! read more

An amazing place to grab a brew with family and he breakfast is on point. Takes a little while to get food but I'm hoping it's from scratch read more

Iron Rail Brewing - A delish raspberry sour - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

Very fun, open atmosphere. Food is very good as was the service. Wide variety of sandwiches, bbq, and excellent sides like Mac/cheese, hand cut fries, coleslaw, salads, etc. will be back. read more

Came in for a second try am2 years later ,We tried and ipa, a martini and a cider 10/10. Over two years later and we can all agree this impression was a 180 degree flip. Brook took amazing amazing care of us today. Come by for a good drink and a very calm atmosphere. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

Driving from Saint Louis on the way to Las Vegas... we stopped at this wonderful restaurant.. From the moment we arrived we were greeted by Lindsay with a warm natural smile, then Zack took care if us, kept checking on food quality and our well being, super friendly nice young man. Now the food ... wow .. best Cobb salad ever, think juicy bacon, fresh avocados and an unbelievable house made blue Cheese dressing. Zack's suggestion "the engineer sandwich "... what an explosion of flavor (3 meats perfectly cooked, coleslaw and a nice toasted bun)... fantastic ... I highly recommend it. read more

Iron Rail Brewing - Traveling from Saint Louis MO to Las Vegas NV ... stopped at this fantastic restaurant for a bite.. oh boy.. what an experience.. - New American Near Me - Topeka, Kansas

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Everything was great. Bbq brisket Mac and cheese appetizer, craft beer, pretzel with cheese, smoked sausage. You name it, it was good.

Parking is ok. Topeka had free 2 hr pking. I am super hungry and needing a cold drink at 5 pm Monday. I heard this place was good, I am completely ignored. There are five customers total. Two managers, very self-important, are following each other around. I need to find a good place to eat in Topeka. I will not go back. It smelled faintly of beer and I was relieved that place did not reek of yeast. Bar was also not wiped down. BECAUSE THERE WAS NO BARTENDER. Goofy. They spend easily $500,000 on a lovely restaurant and will not hire quality help. But they had two managers and one waitress. Maybe I left my invisible cloak on by mistake in 94 ° heat downtown Topeka. Maybe it was the governor's office. No service, and I left. read more

Tried their new brunch today. Service was polite but slow. I had the breakfast burrito smothered in gravy. The gravy was great. (I was concerned it would be bland like their sister restaurant The Weather Room.) When I pay extra for it to be smothered, I would like enough to have some gravy with each bite and they fell short. The burrito was good but contents weren't hot; a couple bites were even cold. My husband had the locomotive, which he enjoyed. He had to have it redone because initially the eggs were overcooked. I also expect better coffee and would pay a little more for it. Topeka has some great local roasters they could support. read more