Tom D.
Yelp
I was conflicted on whether to give the Shipyard Brew Pub a try for dinner last night. On one hand several of the guys at the Navy Yard had recommended it as a good place for Happy Hour with decent food. On the other hand the Yelp reviews were hammering it, primarily for poor service. In the end I decided to give it a shot for 2 reason, 1. I really like the Shipyard Beers and 2. I took the recommendation of people I know over those I don't, sorry Yelpers...
My coworker and I got to the Pub fairly early, and found the bar to be pretty crowded. Crowded enough in fact that we decided to sit in the dining area, which was completely empty when we first sat down. It did fill up as during our meal.
Our waitress, Lindsay, was right over to take our drink order. She was attentive and friendly throughout the dinner. Granted at first we were her only table, making it pretty easy, but she handled us well as the dining area filled up. We had no issues with the service as mentioned in several of the other reviews.
For food we split an order of the Nachos with beef chili. The Nacho order was a good size and loaded with toppings. It probably skewed a little to far on the chip to topping ratio which forced us to the forks when we ran out of solid chips.
The menu is full of standard pub food. As a Philly Cheesesteak connoisseur I decided to try their steak & cheese sandwich to see how it compared to the cheesesteak I know and love. The sandwich was overflowing with meat and topped with peppers, onions and mushrooms. The flavor of the meat was really good, but hadn't been cooked with the toppings all mixed in distributing the flavor like a cheesesteak. Instead it seemed like the toppings we put on top at the end. Regardless, it was a good sandwich and I was fully satisfied.
Finally, it's a brew pub so I had several of their beers. My favorite was the Summer Ale. The Export Ale was also good, while I found the Fuggles IPA to be too hoppy for my tastes. Fuggles was my favorite one to order though ...
In conclusion, maybe they've gotten better with their staff, maybe I hit a good night, or maybe Lindsay is a good waitress in a sea of crappy ones. But for me the Shipyard Brew Pub was perfectly fine. I wouldn't hesitate to go back.