James A.
Yelp
Best Happy Hour Menu in Long Beach in terms of selection and value. And most of the dishes tasted pretty good.
Yard House was the go-to place for Happy Hour when I worked in the Valley, often meeting my colleagues after work to socialize while imbibing. Even then I really appreciated their happy hour menu, and made it a point to try other locations whenever possible. And knowing that this location in Long Beach was the original and is located in Shoreline Village on the shore of Rainbow Harbor, we planned a Friday afternoon walk to arrive a little after the start of their M-F Happy Hour from 3:00 - 6:00. We wanted outdoor seating, so put our name on the waiting list and got seated within 20 minutes.
Yardhouse is known for their very large (100+) selection of draft beers. All pints are $2 off during HH, which entices you to try beers you haven't tried before (there are beer flights as well). The three of us tried different ones: House Honey Blonde ($4.99); Firestone Cali Squeeze ($5.29); House Belgian Tripel ($7.99). In terms of food, we tried 4 appetizers that were half off:
- Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($8.24) - OK...my wife likes it better than I do. It comes with not enough bibb lettuce, and large chunks of terriyaki marinated chicken served in a wonton edible bowl.
- Pepperoni Mushroom Pizza ($8.75) - all the pizzas at YH are surprisingly good, and this was no different. It's big enough to fill up one person and is very shareable.
- Calamari ($8.49) - really good value, with a huge amount of freshly battered and deep fried small squid pieces, and two different dipping sauces. Very greasy though...became a chore to eat towards the end..would have been a great app if spread across 4 or more people.
- Boneless Buffalo 'Wings' ($8.24) - skippable. The sauce was very hot and flavorful, but the chicken had been over-fried and greasy, and the quantity was mediocre. It came with a good dressing and celery sticks.
There are a lot more things on the HH menu that I much prefer (not everything is deep-fried), but since the quantity is so good, you can only order 1 or so per person to fill you up.
The outdoor seating is located with views of the harbor and is right next to the walkway going in/out of the Village. There are definitely good and bad seating here, and we unfortunately got the not-so-nice one: parts of it were in the sun, and was right next to a very high traffic area (my seat got bumped a few times by passing by diners).
Service was good throughout, and the pricing on the final bill was correct. They don't have tableside payment processing. Briana and her teammates took care of us, with food and beverages being delivered at the right temperature, and our water being constantly refilled. It was quite busy and noisy....thinking next time, we will come for HH on a less crowded day than the end of the work week, and being prepared to bring unfinished food home.