Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant

If you’re staying in the 4^th Street area, this is the place to enjoy a great meal and a few excellent craft beers. Our server, Olivia, was awesome! Had the BBQ Chicken sliders, Southwest Eggrolls… both excellent and so tasty, and a Winterbock! The Winterbock is one of the best craft beers around.

This is the the type of restaurant you think of when «chain» pops into your head. Located inside Fourth Street Live! in downtown, the vibe was great on a late mid-​December Sunday afternoon when the weather was so warm, outside seating was packed. Adding to the fun was a Santa’s house drawing children waiting for a visit and a photo. Lots of people milling around. Unfortunately, the festive feeling did not translate in terms of good food or service. We initially sat at a table in the bar area but after 20 minutes and some pleasant waves, we picked up our menus and headed to the bar so we could order some drinks. The female bar tender seemed a little upset that three women were taking up spots at the bar, but she recovered nicely. I think she was considering the tip ratio when she shouldn’t have worried or let that be a driving factor in service.
We could have been in any downtown in any reasonably sized city in the United States. Nothing distinguishing and the service reflected that there are probably not that many regulars. Just people who come in and out for a convention, competition or some odd reason. We had to be persistent to order both food or drink. Never once did they ask if we’d like another round, to order food or another anything. Fortunately we were in their face so we could wave them down easily. I cannot imagine if we had stayed at the table.
The food is totally undistinguished. The burger was over cooked and the «legendary garlic fries» anything but legendary. The seafood cobb salad was acceptable but nothing special and one of my dining companions had to ask three times for more salad dressing. Lots of iceberg lettuce and some sad little thawed shrimps. Plenty of bar tenders (three) and they must be great friends because they talked only to themselves.
The beer on draft was good and they offered little tastes without much explanation. Big televisions turned to all kinds of sports. Very loud and full of good spirit, but not somewhere I’d consider returning, but not so offensive that I’d put up a fight if someone wanted to give it a try. The menu is ambitious with everything from pasta to pizza to steaks, sandwiches and lots of appetizers. If you need a place to watch a game and not want to be bothered with conversation or good food, this just might be your place – it’s not too bad and certainly not too good.

Good food! We had average service, but the waiter was nice. The burger was fantastic, BBQ sauce really good! The sweet potato fries are worth the extra $ 1! The «lighter fare» was full of flavor too!
The beer was alright, found two that we liked enough to drink a pint, but I was surprised that it was «award winning.»
Overall, great atmosphere and good food. Would eat here again, but probably order water.

First, I will say that our server was very attentive and helpful in making our selections.
However, the chef either doesn’t know how to prepare the food, or just plain doesn’t care. We tried the Crab Risotto Balls app, and it was pretty good, but there were way too many capers on the dish, making it extremely sour.
For dinner, I ordered the Chicken Schnitzel, which came with sauteed spaetzel and mushrooms with lemon sauce. The schnitzel was topped with capers, and lots of them! They are way too heavy-​handed with those things! Capers add flavor, but are so strong and sour, that too many can ruin a dish. That’s how I felt about mine — the spaetzel noodles were sauteed with mushrooms, and of all things, a lemon sauce. To me, it tasted like they just squeezed a bunch of lemon on the dish, and it was so sour, I couldn’t eat them. The schnitzel was hot and well prepared though, so I ate that.
Hubby had the Steak Frites (their famous garlic-​rosemary fries). He ordered his steak medium, and when he cut into it, it was RAW. Not only that, it was like shoe leather! I tried one of their famous «frites», and it tasted like it had been prepared 2 hours before — terrible! I would expect something like this at an Applebee’s, but not Gordon Biersch! We hailed our server, who came right over, and re-​ordered the dish, so hubby had to wait, while I continued eating, since my food was hot. The second steak was medium rare and tough, but hubby ate it anyway, because he was hungry! The fries were fresher this time as well.
Meanwhile, the server discussed our issue with the manager, who had him remove the charge for the steak dinner from our bill, as well as comping him with another beer. At least there’s that.
Finally, I just want to point out that I gave the 2-​star rating because of the food, not the service. They made it right, but the food was simply not worth the money we paid. There’s no excuse for the quality of the meat they called ‘steak’.
We would not go back.

Had lunch here with my husband and mother in law. It was better than I expected. Heather was our server and she was fantastic. She was never intrusive and always close by in case we might need her.
We had the calamari, fish and chips, blackened fish sandwich, and cheeseburger. Everything was good, we were nowhere near finishing everything and my mother in law took leftovers back with her to work, as we were leaving town.
We live in Chicago, but based on this visit, we will be back next time we come home to Louisville.

A dangerous place for a work lunch. You’re likely to come out of here reeking of garlic and beer and $ 20 – 25 lighter in the wallet. But if you have willpower, you can weather the storm.
I’m a fan of Gordon Biersch because I think they make some pretty solid German-​style beers. It won’t make you forget about Hofbrauhaus, but you’ll also be glad you’re not drinking the crap at other places along Fourth Street Live. I’ve had nothing but good service here too.
The food strikes me as variable, but you’re probably not going to regret a meal here (nor will you get nostalgic for one either). The signature item is the garlic fries, which are fun for an occasional treat, and a good idea if you want to frighten the neighbors or chase away the vampires.

I was in Louisville, KY for a bachelorette party and we were looking for a place to get a bite to eat and maybe a couple cocktails as well, so we stopped in at Gordon Biersch to give it a spin.
I was super pumped for my grilled cheese because… well, I love cheese. So we all ordered (we were starving because again… bachelorette party…) and we didn’t get our food for over 30 minutes! We didn’t even see our waiter in the wait time so if we did want a brew or two, there was really no way to get one.
Moving on, the food arrives and we were all pretty happy with our meals, they were tasty and still hot, which usually doesn’t happen when you wait so long, so for that I was grateful!
I’m not going to rule this one out because I for sure think that they can get it right and my next visit I’ll get to try one of their specialty beers!

My boyfriend and I used to LOVE this place. The first time we came here we got the garlic fries and OMG they were the BEST I’ve ever had. There were chunks of flavorful garlic covering the fries. I mean, even when the fries were gone I could literally take a fork and eat the garlic left at the bottoms of the plate. EVERYTIME we have gone back since the first time the amount of garlic has decreased until tonight there were LITERALLY maybe 5 tiny pieces of garlic ! These fries used to be the BEST I had ever had now they are average.
Here was the main issue though — the shrimp and lobster Mac and cheese. Also used to be our FAVORITE like out of this world. Tonight it was AWFUL. We had to send the first plate back bc it was like warm when it was brought out. They then microwaved it and it was hard on the top and gross so we requested a fresh one. The fresh one was worse than the first one. It was literally sitting in a pile of oil. It looked like pasta with WAY too much butter and a little cheese sprinkled on top. It was not creamy or good. This dish used to be our favorite … It’s pricy but we would look forward to this special dinner … Now we won’t be back. Such a disappointment
I have 2 stars bc the service and wine was good and they did take the Mac and cheese off the bill.