Wunder Brewing Company

New liquor license statement taped to the window???
Five Stars for the massive cajones of the people who are about to reopen this brew pub. It has had 4 different owners since I moved to this area and all have had to shut down.
I love having a brew pub in the area and I seriously hope it works out this time… and get an exorcist or a shaman or a witch (or all three to be safe) to rid the place of the bad joo-​joo so that you will be successful.

This is the second brewery that has attempted to succeed at the same location in the Inner Sunset. Unfortunately this is strike number two. While the previous business had decent food and beer, the atmosphere they were trying to create was decidedly not that of Inner Sunset. Wunder Brewing Company toned it down to more of the mainstream community but they missed the mark on quality of product and service.
I have been to Wunder Brewing Company three times, each time in hope of having a better experience. The exact opposite was achieved instead.
The service was slow and lacking any urgency which was odd since the establishment was always pretty vacant. The brew master was a very nice person but the rest of the staff was a bit rude. When I would ask questions regarding the beer I would be answered with sharp answers as if they were offended. To cite an example I simply asked what kind of wheat beer was being served. Their reply was ‚“Wheat.” When I asked what kind… German Weissbier, British or American Wheat, or Belgian Witbier, they barked just wheat. The waitress followed up by saying that ‚“Belgium isn’t even a real country. It is part of Germany.” This offered some much needed comic relief. She was swapped out for the rest of the visit either because she realized she made a mistake or the other staff did not want to offend one of their few customers.
The food was average at best and not memorable. Not much more to say there.
I consider myself a bit of a beer aficionado and am a brewer myself. Below I will categorize some of the beer I tried and my reactions:
Lager: The beer was young and needed more time conditioning. The result was a very sweet lager which tasted closer to raw wort (unfermented beer). This I can accept as a mistake since the brewery was new and the first time I went they had only been open a few weeks. Obviously they hurried the process to have variety.
India Pale Ale: Probably the least hoppy IPA I have ever had. No significant hoppy flavor and no aroma. There was little to no lacing (basically a good clear head that persists and also sticks to the glass as you drink it) to the beer. Even without the taste the IBU (bitterness)was reasonably high but without any flavor. They probably used only a bittering hops and skimped on the flavor and aroma hops. There definitely was no chance it was dry hopped.
Chili Beer: While some seem to like it on the reviews here the beer was overwhelming and completely unbalanced. One sip was enough to deter a beer drinker from trying another after this. It was very difficult to get rid of the taste of this beer to try and taste the food after-​wards.
Brown: The only passable beer for the style. Rich and malty with a great rich brown color. I had this twice and it was good. Quality control issues at this brew pub may offer different experiences though.
Atmosphere: This place has potential but has no vibe. This could be due to the lack of customers but also has to do with the subdued atmosphere created by the inattentive staff and the low mumble of the television behind the bar.
If you are looking for a brew pub then I would suggest the following with comments:
21^st Amendment: This is a great brew pub. The beers are true to their style and there are some interesting concoctions created by the brewmeister. The food is generally good but greasy (very common to brew pubs). The atmosphere is great. There is energy in the air as customers hastily eat a burger and down a couple pints before they move on to watch the Giants play.
Beach/​Park Chalet: Great scenic location with live music. Beer is mediocre but you can’t beat a sunny Saturday afternoon in their lawn at the edge of Golden Gate Park. Food is decent too.
Magnolia: Pretty interesting beer that can be hit or miss but mostly hits. Staff can be extremely rude at times and the food is decent. Most of the time this is a very pleasant experience and they have cask conditioned ales to boot.
Rogue Brewery: Great beer. Disappointing food. This is a pass.
Pizza Orgasmica: Mediocre beer and decent pizza which is overpriced for what you get. This is a pass.
There are other brewhouses I have only been to once and I feel I should always give a place at least two or three times before I make judgements.

Gosh, why cant they just make a BrewPub in the Sunset work? This location is perfect, the layout of the restaurant has so much potential! Beer is okay, I like the chili beer, but the food is terrible, at best! Service is slow and the place is always empty.
Funny how they just opened yet are now «closed for renovation.» Im pretty sure they arent coming back, lets rejoice!

Stopped in here after a relaxing day at the park and a friend’s BBQ for a light dinner. The place looks really unfriendly as you walk in — it’s dreary and cavernous. Despite its vast size, it was practically empty at 8pm on a Saturday night. They have two levels but don’t even try to ask to be seated on the top because you’ll be met with much resistance.
I genuinely believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt but the service here was straight-​up rude. As some of us went to the restroom, apparently the waitress told me someone in our group that they were out of sweet potato fries. When a different friends tried to order those same fries, the waitress was so bothered that she sighed, rolled her eyes, and painstakingly explained how they are out of sweet potato fries as if we were asking her to make them herself. Not a single drink refill, either.
As far the food is concerned, I split the tuna melt and fries with a friend. The tuna melt was decent, but as dry as the Sahara. The fries were the only redeeming part of the night. My other friends split the fish & chips, and they said it tasted fine but usually you expect three whole pieces of fish. Overall it’s pretty lackluster; nothing special here, folks.

Speaking from the new to the city, new to being single black man’s perspective …
I come for the beer. I stay for the beer. I return for the beer.
The bar is usually perfectly crowded, where you dont have to press to get a pint or to get room at the bar to watch the game.
This place is a quality conversation room with fantastic beer at really good prices.
Wunder Brewing Company… My 1^st West Coast home.

For a brewery, this place would rate average according to my taste buds. Usually I expect great burgers and food with a tasty beer to top off my meal, so comparing it to other known breweries, I wouldn’t say this is the best place ever, but mediocre.
So we checked it out on a Friday night, …pssst…*whispers* it’s a bit too quiet in here for a Friday night. It was a little past 9pm and we walked in, & to our surprise we were told we just to made it in time before the kitchen closed (wow that’s early for a brewery).
The bf got a patty melt, and me, the chicken salad with veggies and all that good stuff. $ 12 for a salad though… I know it’s a brewery, but maybe for $ 12 I can get the whole chicken & lettuce field next time. To my surprise the chicken was pretty tasty, and my cold crispy green beans were fun to munch on. The patty melt was a little onion crazy and the fries were okay, but a little dry and lacked garlic. Beer was okay, not spectacular. Overall not bad, a lil pricey for what you get. I felt like maybe I was just comparing it too much to gordon biersch…
The structure itself was pretty neat. Very industrial and there was a cute upstairs to eat at, which it seemed to take a journey to get to. Overall, the service wasn’t bad, and the waitress was nice.
So in the end, it wasn’t a bad experience and the food was average. I left wundering if i’ll come back though…

Sunday 4pm. My friend and I are wandering around the IS (Inner Sunset) looking for a strong drink. She suggests Eldo’s now known as Wunder Brewing Company. We belly up to the bar and order two mojitos. That’s right – we order fruity girly drinks in the brew pub along with some sweet potato fries. a great combination, by the way.
surprise surprise, those mojitos were pretty damn good! even better than some $ 10 cocktails I’ve had at ritzier bars! who would have guessed…

Worst Service EVER!
We went here last night for a bit of food and beer. Wow. We were seated and then ignored. We waited for over 15 minutes for anyone to come over to take our order. This never happened. The people at the table next to us had to get up to get their own check as no one would bring it to them. Finally, my husband got up to tell the maitre de that were were leaving since no one had come by to take any order. This was his opportunity to make things right. Instead, his response was «ok.» OK??? They obviously don’t care about serving customers. It must be nice when business is so great that you can not serve and be rude to customers. I guess that means that they don’t need my money. We live right down the street and I can guarantee that we won’t be back.

Stopped in for a drink last night around 6:30 pm with a friend. Empty. Three two-​tops seated at tables. Two guys, not together, sitting at the bar.
My friend and I sat down at the bar and made eye contact with the two bartenders, young girl, older tubby guy.
Got a twenty dollar bill on the counter. Young girl bartender, with 80’s haircut, walked right by us and takes an order from a couple that just walked in and sat down after us.
My friend and I look at each other, not believing this just happened. Oh well, we’ll still have a drink.
Girl bartender walks by us again, no word of «be right with you» or anything.
Other bartender, older guy, sees us still sitting with no drink.
Long story short, eventually, he takes our order but we still sit around and don’t get our drinks.
Horrible customer service. This place will not last. No WUNDER it’s empty.

Gotta say I wasn’t very impressed with Wunder Brewing Company. I was starving and wanted a burger so the odds were stacked up in their favor because I probably would have loved anything they put in front of me. What they did put in front of me was a mediocre at best burger. It came on a focaccia bun, which is something I would normally like, but theirs was dry.
It was Taco Tuesday on the day I was there and my dining companion opted for the tacos. Since they couldn’t finish their last taco I gave it a try and it was pretty bad.
I did enjoy their wheat beer. I don’t normally drink beer but for some reason it sounded like a good companion to my burger.
The service also wasn’t that great.
I did notice a «we’re liked on Unilocal» sticker on the way in… well, not by me. I don’t think I’ll be back again.

Good beer. Happy hour $ 2.50 pints of… yes. indeed, GOOD beer. Tuesdays, $ 2 tacos all night $ 2.50 pints. Its chill and close by. I really like it. nice servers, movie night tuesdays, rad movies. Also very nice atmosphere.
Awesome sweet potato fries! MMMMMMHM.
My new happy hour hang out!

Home after 14 months away.
I’m in charge of finding a pre-​lunch rendez-​vous point as an old friend is running a tad behind.
It’s 2 pm and I find myself in the Inner Sunset, wandering around 9^th & Irving.
I instinctually veer away from Starbucks and eye the Mucky Duck, scene of many delirious late Christmas nights, or the Beanery, scene of many half-​hearted attempts at studying from Barron’s books.
«Come on in!» says some man.
«Huh?» say I.
I look at where he’s motioning to.
Wunderbeer
I scratch my head. What is this place? How long has it been here? Why haven’t I heard of it before? I look across to Arizmendi to get my bearings right and twist my brain into a knot trying to figure out what stood here before. Eldo’s.
Interesting. I walk in and sit at the bar.
Jimmy and I start conversing immediately about the venue’s history and what it’s like to move away from the City. I describe Phoenix to the best of my ability and he asks me if I want to try chili-​infused beer. Spicy beer? Are you kidding me? Is this Shangri-​La? Hell yeah.
Alas, spicy beer was a lot mellower than expected. A slight bite in the aftertaste versus anything resembling liquid heat. I try the pumpkin brew next — decent, but not something I’d be pining for. Jimmy calls it their novelty brew and mentions that they’re working on a steam beer upstairs as we speak. My friend then arrives and we try a few more brews while talking to Jimmy about all things San Francisco and how things used to be decades ago and where things are now. I then get a pint of the porter, my friend an IPA.
The porter? Excellent. I could sit here and have many more, but I haven’t had lunch, I’ve barely slept, and I’m starting to not make sense while it’s still light outside on this late autumn day. I ask for my bill. $ 5. That’s right. 5 buckaroos for two pints and 4 taster glasses. I think I’ve found a new go-​to place the next time I’m home.
Well, one after lunch, anyway. Time and time again Jimmy turned folks who were eager to sit down for lunch and beers away since the kitchen wasn’t open until 4. Management’s going to need to work this out — because I just saw stacks of $ 20 bills just walk back out onto 9^th Ave.
But in the meantime, I’ve got more brews to try. Damn me having to fly away when I just got here. Again.
4 stars.

Sweet Potato Fries!
Burger w/​Gruyère!
Beer & Cheese Soup!
Shepherd’s Pie!
Pumpkin Ale!
and the best part? CRAYONS!!!
The food was great comfort food for a misty cold night. My roommate had told me about this place and with the weather, he had an incredible hankering for the Shepherd’s Pie.
The Pumpkin Ale had the right seasonal spices and I loved it. We both had cups of the Beer Cheese soup and it was the first time I’ve had Beer Cheese soup where you can taste the beer and not just the cheese.
He got his pie and it was piping hot and my burger w/​sweet potato fries were just what i needed. I had been craving a food coma all day. This was the perfect thing to help induce that.
Pub food done right with excellent beers.
Do it. You know you want to.

After a full day of apartment hunting with my boyfriend I just needed a drink and an appetizer. We were already in the neighborhood so we stumbled upon the Wunder Brewing Co. which was cool since it wasn’t packed with Sunday NFL fans like many of the other options around.
All in all we had a good time sitting at a table by the window, drinking wine and having tasty, spicy wings, and hot pretzels at Happy Hour prices.
After our first drink delivery, our original server vanished from our lives, and never came back to check to see if we wanted anything. Another server finally appeared with our wings and we realized later that he was taking over the table, as the first guy was cut and doing his side work.
As a suggestion/​complaint: Waiter #1 should have told us he was leaving, and Waiter #2 should have introduced himself as our new server.
It must be difficult to be the only server who is waiting on tables upstairs and downstairs. Well– our waiter, Mike, ended up turning out to be quite funny and nice.
So, yea– although I think the service could improve a bit, I would totally go back here.

What a disappointment. We made plans to have dinner at Wunder Brewing after the De Young Museum when our group suddenly swelled from 6 to 13 people. We called ahead and they said to come on down and they would do their best to accommodate us. When we showed up our table wasn’t ready yet so the manager (owner?) bought us a round of beer. That was the last thing that went right.
Once we were seated (13 people squeezed into an area meant for 10) we were all starving and ordered. 30 minutes later the waiter came by to tell us that they were out of pulled pork. Why did it take 30 minutes to figure that out? So the pulled pork people ordered new items. 15 minutes later the waiter comes back to tell us they only had 5 veggie burgers and we had ordered 6. At this point it was comical so one of the veggie burgers became tofu curry. Once the food finally came out we were still short a veggie burger. One of the veggie burger people (a former pulled pork person) gave up and didn’t eat at all.
Our waiter was really nice the whole time (wouldn’t you be?) and said he’d comp the burger we never got. Wow, too kind. Then the bill came and of course it was still on there. Eventually it was taken off the bill but that was it, no other food comp’d. Two stars because the food was decent but I don’t plan on returning since the kitchen definitely seems out of sorts.

A group of friends and I went to Wunder Beer to grab some dinner after the Bluegrass festival at Golden Gate Park. The service was TERRIBLE. We waited 45 min for our food and my boyfriend never even got his fish and chips. After about an hour and a half the waiter still didn’t bring his food and the rest of us had finished eating. All the waiter did was offer him a beer. My boyfriend ended up canceling his order and went next door to get pizza.

OMG… proper bar food. PROPER… like Welsh Rarebit. No kidding.
Everything I have had so far is GREAT… seriously. This is not some mind blowing epicurean experience… this is a brewpub that has figured out a way to have cheese on almost every single entrée… this means. yes. you have snapped into deliciousness.
Aside from that, they have a bizarrely cheap beer flight… something like 9 different 6−8oz tastes of beer for $ 9. That will change soon… to $ 11, but the intro pricing is ridiculous…
In the end, this is a brew pub. A brililant re-​imagining of a stale old brew pub that seemed to suck… since they re-​opened, the branding, the iconography, the culture, the staff, the vibe… everything about this joint is perfect, for me. It reminds me of the culture and spirit behind a lot of my experiences in Boulder CO… these cats at Wunder even have GROWLERS… a joyous part of any day. They also are talking about a mug club, and in the end there is this:
I don’t go out to eat in my inner sunset too much. I order in almost every night. the restaurants are fantastic, but none of them seem to bolster, unite, or create community… but I think this place might have the capacity to create a union and culture around it… unlike the other horrid bars on our strip. Fireside gets props for allowing dogs, but since Canvas closed down there hasn’t been a unifying gathering spot like this.
I have a feeling Wunder Beer is at the front end of a redfinition of the Sunset, as well as getting a foothold in SF culture for years to come.
BEER: I like the Pale Ale, possibly better than Sierra Nevada as a drinking beer. The Scotch Brew is fantastic. a zinger for a cold night. A thick, powerful beer.
And The habanero? What can I say… blew my mind three seperate times. I have had pepper/​hot beers before… most are not drinkable. This one is subtle, with a great finish. GREAT for steaks, or spicy foods. Thai, Mexican. etc.
ENJOY!!!
(wow I sound like a shill… I have no affilliation other than respect… I have worked in F&B for years, and as far as I can see… this is a slam dunk. Well done guys)

Listen up California! Apparently none of you know what a GROWLER is. This is tragic and I will make it my life’s work to enlighten you, starting here and now. A growler is a beautiful bottle of beer. It holds a half gallon of draft, and most micro-​breweries sell them and refill them.
Wunder is one such brewery. It’s only $ 15 to buy and $ 11 to refill, so stop by the brewpub at 9^th and Irving, sample some ales and take home a couple gallons of your favorites.
Wunder Brewing offers great craft brews at $ 4 a pint. We stopped in for a drink while waiting for take-​out to be ready at San Tung, and we didn’t really want to leave.
The ales (they don’t make lagers) we sampled were superb, the bartenders were on-​point, and although we didn’t get to eat at Wunder, the hangar steak and sweet potato fries looked fantastic.
The space has an industrial loft aesthetic that suits a brew pub well and the upstairs seating area looks comfortable. My only compliant is the shape of the bar. This might seem minor to you, but the four inches along the front edge of the bar are slanted toward the customer’s lap, a design flaw that must lead to a number of wet seat spills.
I’ll go back soon and update my review.

We went there on a Monday night — 5^th day open and we loved it. The lighting and atmosphere is really nice — mellow music playing in the background. The feeling was so pleasant, I could easily hang out there for hours on a weeknight (not always good for work the next day!).
The bartender/​manager offered us tastes of the 2 beers they had on tab — an «IPA that tastes more like a Pilsner» and a brown ale. Both were quite good. We got the basic salad, rarebit, and the beer cheese soup. Food was good, not amazing (but day five… what do you expect). I found the soup to be too greasy and bitter, the salad was good (but pre-​mixed with the dressing, which is odd), the rarebit was great.
Both bar tenders were very friendly — and really want to make the place work. They added to our enjoyment.
This is definitely for your older — 30’s crowd (which I am part of) — 22 year-​olds looking for cheap Budweiser (which is not even served — thankfully!) will not be happy here.
Good selection of Scotch as well.
We will definitely go back!

SOFT OPENING, July 07– They only had one house brew available, a pale ale (which the bartenders were calling an IPA), and it was pretty good. Nice and sharp– it looks like they’ll be following in the the tradition of Speakeasy and Magnolia and making bold, interesting beers instead of that watery 21^st Amendment stuff. It wasn’t as good as Proving Ground or Big Daddy IMHO, but it was good in its own right and I look forward to see what else they come up with. They also had a few guest brews– Moylan’s stout and a raspberry framboise. Full bar as well.
They were passing around sampler of their appetizers (but not yet serving actual dishes). We had the pretzel (dusted with salt and served with three good mustards) which was good, and garlic fries, which probably could’ve used more garlic. I got a look at their full menu, and it was slightly more upscale than your typical burger joint, but it all looked pretty good beer food, and it looked priced just right.
The staff was friendly and attentive (I would hope so on the first day open), though I’m not sure how much they knew about beer.
RETURNED August 7^th– I wrote the above based on its soft opening, and after returning some time later, I can say that they’ve only gotten better. The staff was fun and knowledgable, and they had about seven beers on tap, most of which I liked, and all of which were creative and bold. This place is welcome to stay in the city that hosts Anchor and Speakeasy.