Park Slope Ale House

This place is great for burgers, but what makes it such a fun place is that you can sit outside with your burger and beer at a wooden picnic table in the shade. The food is fine, but it's such a relaxing place that it's almost beside the point.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

Good atmosphere, terrible food. Terrible. Over many visits I've had cold greasy fries, cold and overcooked burgers, limp salads and a cup of [instant] hot chocolate with the paper from the tear-open envelope floating beneath the surface. Go for a beer or three but don't eat a thing.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

Mixed feelings. Good taps but sometimes flat. Decent menu and food's OK for the most part, but like the vibe. Lousy fries though. Great place to sit outside and have a pint. Below par for the food, which is a shame 'cause if it were slightly better (see fries comment) I'd go a lot more often.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

I got really drunk here just the other night... so that's gotta be worth some points.

Been there a few times, ok for the burgers. It was better when they first opened and made their own been on premises.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

They have super cheap wings - during election night I stopped off here to watch the returns (Obama won Pennsylvania and everyone cheered) and my bill was $2, and they gave me an extra wing.

No happy hour specials, but the sidewalk sitting is good. Someone's local, not mine, just pass through occasionally.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

Have the fish & chips (enough for 2) and a pint and you cannot go wrong.. Inside or out, it's good spot. I understand some of the comments that it can be "iffy," and the service does, sometimes, take forever, but we'll be back.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

good to go with a large crowd. food is decent, beers okay. the service is slow, it seems like everyone working there is a bunch of 16 year high schoolers.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

what is wrong with 16 year old high schoolers working there? what a strange odd comment to make. good for them to be working and not mooching.

*rob*

The food is not good at all. The beer and drinks are too expensive, even during happy hour. I keep going back because of the location and atmosphere, but am always disappointed. Nice bartenders.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

I love this place! Beer is great, food is fantastic (portobello wrap, onion rings, the new buffalo calamari, the wings, great guac....), the red-headed bartender is awesome, and it's just a great neighborhood joint. V. kid friendly during the day.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

Classic neighborhood bar. Nice atmosphere, friendly people, acceptable beer selection. A good option with a group when you want to make everyone happy. Food is not a high point...but c'mon, this place is really a bar with food, not a restaurant with a bar, so the food achieves the main point for such an establishment (soaking up the excess booze).

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

@rob - the problem with them working there is that the ones ive encountered there do not know their drinks and are on their iphones/psp's. so it can take some time to get your next round. serving us is not their #1 priority.

ah okay guikazoid, gotcha. that does sound annoying.

*rob*

Opinions on the burger are mixed so far; I have found that they are rarely (pardon the pun) cooked to order. Portobello burger is very tasty and the western chicken sandwich a sinfully-good, gloppy mess. The pulled pork sandwich is too saucy and too sweet for my taste, but I've eaten *real* barbeque in TX, KS, NC.... The *Mexican* dishes are often the safest bets, although the enchiladas have that smothered in cheese and sauce quality you find at restaurants that are really more about the Margaritas.

Nice selection of beers, but I wish they would mix them up more. They replaced the taps not too long ago and quality seems to have improved a bit. The red-headed bartender is Kristin and she's a trip. Sixteen-year-olds don't make drinks, just deliver them. But yeah, they do seem more interested in their electronics then the customers.

If anymouse knows a cheaper place for this (functional) level of food, do tell. I'm not sure there is anything on the menu that costs more than ten bucks. Sure, there are places in the *outer boroughs* where you can still get a pint for a dollar or two less, but $6 seems to be the prevailing price.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

This is a purely local joint. The food is unambitious, but succeeds in being quite palatable bar food. I've eaten here dozens of times and rarely had anything that wasn't as good as you'd expect cheap bar food to be. It's a great, low-stress place to bring kids or friends and enjoy a beer and a bite, especially if you sit outside. The service is spotty, yeah, but generally friendly.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

One word: Potential

The place is charming (dig those old school ceiling fans) but the food is just not that great. I'll go for a few pints but even the burger doesn't stack up. The wings might be the only decent thing on the menu. I wish I knew why the owner doesn't try to hire a better chef. Some young kid out of culinary school could really bring some inventiveness to the uninspiring menu.

You can say...well, it's just a bar with some food. But compare other bars with food such as Dram Shop, Sidecar, or Sheep Station and you'll realize that a good bar can also serve great bar food.

This place has the potential to be the closest thing to an English pub in Park Slope.

Why wouldn't the owner want to make more money?

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

I have no idea how this place has stayed open for so long. The foods sucks. The beer selection is ok, but there are many far better selections within easy walking distance at places that actually care about the quality of their lines and take an interest in getting interesting new beers. I've wanted to link this place for years, but every time I go back, it's as bad if not worse than the last.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

I've been there a few times. I would love to love it, but it's hard. Food is decent, beer selection is better than most bars, but I wasn't impressed by the service. They have deep fried pickles -- an excellent concept that they poorly executed.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

WTdreamer- you answered your own question. How does it stay open? Because people like you who think the food sucks but yet you keep going back. Hello?

Booze and kids, and not a scene for posers. This place rules. If you don't like it move back to Manhattan, you teabaggers.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

When my wife and I first moved to the Slope 4 years ago, we like this place a lot. Over the past few years, though, we've had enough bad experiences here that we've pretty much stopped going. The food has gone downhill. I don't know if why, perhaps staff turnover in the kitchen, or cutting back on costs, but the food underwhelms every time here.

If you do find yourself eating here, stick to pub food like wings and burgers. Stay away from the Mac and Cheese - just awful.

I've also had flat beers from their taps sometimes. I would still go back, but probably just to sit outside on a nice day and enjoy a beer on quiet 6th avenue, as opposed to the bustle of 5th or 7th aves.

As an aside, the loosely affiliated Henry Street Ale House, in Brooklyn Heights, is definitely worth going to. Similar layout, menu and overall concept, but the execution is much, much better.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value:

@billyboomer - when I say everytime I go back I man like once every 3-4 years, starting back when it was the park slope brewery in the early 90s. that's not enough to keep it in business. But you're right, I shouldn't go back and vowed not to last time I was talked into going by a friend. I guess what does keep it open is folks like Voskresenye thinking 'it rules' and that being a brooklynite means you should put up with bad food and subpar taps just so you can drink with your kids, who probably shouldn't be eating that crap food anyway.

Just once, I'd love to stroll in one friday evening in the dead of winter, with lots of snow on the ground. Nestle up to the bar, imagine the old souls who used to frequent the place decades ago and get fairly schnockered. Then Lloyd the bartender from The Shining would appear behind the bar, and ask me " What'll it be,,,,"

WTdreamer--Thank you for considering of yourself a Manhattan teabagger. Case closed.

WTdreamer--Thank you for considering yourself a Manhattan teabagger. Case closed.

Voskresenye - did you miss the part where I've been in the neighborhood since before the brewery opened? even born in brooklyn. you're just an ass with no tastebuds. enjoy the ale house, I'll be at the gate. btw, I can go to any restaurant with my kid and drink, but go ahead and be happy thinking you're getting something special at psah.

Voskresenye - did you miss the part where I've been in the neighborhood since before the brewery opened? even born in brooklyn. you're just an ass with no tastebuds. enjoy the ale house, I'll be at the gate. btw, I can go to any restaurant with my kid and drink, but go ahead and be happy thinking you're getting something special at psah.

I live across the street and have frequented the place over the years. It's really not horrible as some say but it's nothing special. The place has a ton of potential, nice interior, outdoor tables etc but the food is kind of like a chain restaurant, heavy handed. There is a woman who tends bar who has been there for years. I think she is great and does a good job. I think "Jackie", an older man, waited on us the other night and was a refreshing blast of old Brooklyn. What I really wish for is a better place to take over and really make something special out of the location. The crowd can often seem like out-of-towners from some suburb or some kind of post sorority/fraternity hang-out. The mixed drinks do seem watery. A place like this would be fine in a lot of places, like a Shari's or an Applebees, but here in NY seems woefully out of place and out classed. The TV's have to go as well.

• Food:
• Service:
• Ambience:
• Value: