Barley Works Bar & Grill

Server wAs very nice, old atmosphere is comfortable. Ceaser was wicked! I didn’t enjoy the food it was cold and nothing special but the beer is good Id go back in the summer for drinks

I’ve had many good times at the Huether throughout the last 10 years, out drinking with friends etc. but one thing that remains consistent is SLOW service, and disappointing food (unless it’s deep fried.) Today, I went for lunch with friends (7 total) and we all said it would be the last time we would go back. The food was overall disappointing (when I got my wrap (which was decent) I could tell the plate had been sitting under the heat lamp (even the pickle was warm to the touch.) my friends burger bun was hard and plate was also hot (not to mention we got ours 5 mins before the rest of the party) the ribs were small and didn’t have enough sauce, the salad had quite a bit of brown leaves and the anijitos didn’t have enough cream cheese.) waitress was friendly but waited until our drinks were completely done before asking if we wanted another drink. We all have worked or currently work in the service industry and walked away disappointed, this place has been around for a long time and is not living up to its potential.

I’m very disappointed I even wasted my money here.
Service: I think it’s stupid there is no hostess and you have to find your own spot, then a waitress will finally come out to you and leave for 15 minutes. The first time I went the waitress I had was a huge bitch and asking how many slices I would get on one size of the pizza I got a very rude answer out of her. Other than that the last two waitresses I had were very nice.
Food: if you feel like waiting for 45 minutes to get your food go ahead. The menu is also way too big there has to be 10 pages of food which is pointless. The food in my opinion sucks. I have gone there three times and hated it every time. Do not get the pizza it was so greasy i had to use a napkin to try and get rid of some of the grease it also has zero taste. I went a second time and played it safe with a poutine, it was cold and they used a turkey gravy which was disgusting. I asked if I could have a new one with normal gravy so she brought me one and the amount of thick gravy they put on made me not want to eat it. Recently I went again hoping this time would be good. Nope. I got the nachos which were huge and great for sharing but I made the mistake of getting chicken on them which made them suck. Plus they added this horrible seasoning to the chips which made it hard to choke down because it was like big clumps of it. My other friend paid $ 12 for a Thai salad and got less than a half salad. She got half of the plate with «wontons» and half of her salad was these weird leaves that looked not healthy to eat plus the lettuce was brown.
Overall the food is terrible, the drinks are alright (I found they are either too strong or too weak which means the bartender doesn’t measure it properly), sometimes friendly service, very slow though, but a nice patio.

Absolutely terrible service!
Pros: a nice patio in downtown Waterloo with ok food
Cons: again atrocious service, we stood waiting to be seated for 15 minutes and no one had even talked to us so we left! The couple behind us said this was typical. From paste visits the food is greasy.
Verdict: A waste of time unless you have extra time to waste!

I’ve been to the Barley Works many times, for different occasions: from companies-​sponsored social events to just hangouts with friends. I like their cozy atmosphere and the craft beer. Food is average (not the best, but good enough), and their patio is huge and wonderful during warm days.
It’s more quiet than other pubs in Waterloo and it’s more «mature» than other locations which tends to be filled up with undergraduate students.

I feel ashamed even giving this place one star. Worst service I have ever experienced. Definitely will never be returning. Majorly disappointed. *thumbs down*

Located inside Huether Hotel. Get beer from the Lion Brewery inside the same place and enjoy on the patio. Great place when the weather is nice outside!

I love the Huether, especially for a night at the Princess. The cavern look is a great atmosphere, the food is good, hearty and lots of it, and mostly the beer is spot on. The menu seems to updated from time to time and I recently had the mac ‘n cheese with chicken. Excellent and way too much to eat in one sitting.

The good — decent selection of average beers
— great patio good location
The bad — By far the worst service as far as response time going back in memory quite a while. Make sure you order and have time. our food was 35 min to the table but had to put our order in with another waitress as we couldn’t find ours.

Besides the fact that I still can’t figure out the exact name of the place I dined at inside the «Huether Hotel»… (There are multiple food joints located literally within steps of each other — it kind of feels like one giant house, really), I’d like to point out that this review is for the food up the narrow flight of stairs. And yes, I am taking a wild guess that it is called Barley Works Bar & Grill.
Anyway, despite the average reviews this place has received, I really did want to share something great about this place. I wish I could say it was the service but from the few times that I have been here, I have to say that it’s truly a hit or a miss…
But don’t let that stop you from coming for their chicken wings. For all of you who have tried Morty’s wings and use that as your benchmark for chicken wing greatness, I challenge you to try the wings here. You will be pleasantly surprised.
The trick here is to get the breaded chicken wings, with the sauce ON THE SIDE. If there’s one thing they do absolutely great here, it’s the way they’re able to bread the chicken wings to achieve this fantastic crunch. This is why it’s important to get the sauce on the side so as not to «mess with the crunch». The size of the chicken wings is pretty substantial too for those of you who care about the size (heh). Although it’s priced a little higher than Morty’s wings, it’s definitely worth trying.

Went for a drink and we ordered 2 bottled beers. It was definitely not the bottled beer that we ordered although it came in the right bottles. It tasted exactly like their local brewed beer that they encourage people to order on tap. What kind of restaurant pours a different type of beer into a beer bottle and serves it to customers??? After taking a few sips we asked the waitress to replace our bottles… no luck, she said she couldn’t do anything about it… worst experience ever, don’t go here.

The best thing about Barley Works is the patio. It’s really big and also heated in some sections.
The worst things are everything else. The food is terrible and over-​salted. The pizza is decent, but is a salt bomb. All menu items are standard sports bar foods but worse quality on average.
The beer here might qualify as poison. I’ve had many people tell me that they’ve gotten sick from the beer — perhaps the lines aren’t cleaned properly? One friend had a terrible headache the next day from a single pint the night before.
One time, my food tasted like soap. I speculate that the vegetables weren’t washed/​rinsed properly. When I told the waitress, she went to the chef and then came back to me and said that I was wrong and that my food didn’t taste like soap. This may have made sense if she took my food back and tried a few bites, but that’s not what happened. She then told me that I could order something else but that I would still have to pay for both meals.

Under no circumstance should one ever come here. My experience was awful but I will boil things down to one event so ridiculous it will leave you in awe. The waitress brought my drink and dropped it when transferring it to me, she was balancing the tray on one hand while making me take my own drink off the tray myself. After it fell she insisted I still pay for it! The argument got so heated a third person had it get involved and pay for it. Which still left me with a bad taste because another customer ended up paying for it just to settle things down, which really should have been what the manager should have done.
Avoid this place at all costs.

There is a beautiful patio with heated lamps. This is one of the few places that we were able to find that is open late. If you are in the Waterloo area looking for food past 10 pm, check this place out.
The food was tasty, not necessarily gourmet, but good bar food.

Had lunch here today and experienced the greasiest fish & chips I’ve ever had. Words can’t explain how much grease was on the battered fish. Had to use napkins to take much of it off. In one word «TERRIBLE». I would not recommend anyone eat here!

Does anyone else feel like the stairs for this place from the patio down to the street are nearly suicidal after a few beers?! I foresaw many many drumbles (drunk+stumbles) down those stairs and did some serious white knuckling while I was walking down them.
Besides that, the food is decent – nothing to write home to my beloved states about, but safe. Their beers were great, and I had a homemade brew that hit the spot. The food is traditional pub food sprinkled with some randoms (fajitas and white-​folk nachos). All in all, it’s a good find in a place that I felt was lacking anything else going on.
If there is a social hub in KW region I was determined to find it, one Unilocal review at a time.

Checked out the Huether for a few drinks after a graduation ceremony at Waterloo.
It was a nice sunny Saturday so we sat up on the huge patio. Lots of seats and plenty of sun/​shade spots to choose from. They had a bit of live entertainment with singers/​guitarists which was nice.
We decided to order 3 pitchers ($ 15 each) of the local brew — Lion’s Lager, Wuerezburger Lager and the feature house brew which was an india pale ale. All three were good but the Wuerezburger was my favourite.
Also wanted to order a pitcher of sangria but was told they didn’t have it on the menu. They do have wine on the menu and a full bar so they could slap some orange juice and brandy in a pitcher with some orange slices and call it sangria? We didn’t try any food but I was told that the wings were excellent.
Pitchers slightly on the pricier side especially since the Huether is known as a local student hang out. How can these kids afford to drink? By comparison, you can always get a pitcher of Great Lakes beer in Toronto for $ 10-​$ 12 (if you know where to look).
Service was friendly and prompt. Definitely a great hangout for a sunny afternoon.
On our way out, we picked up a 12-​pack of Lion’s Lager to go from the brewery store ($ 14).
I love to try out local brews… glad to have found this place because when I think of KW breweries, I always think of Brick.

Barley Works — which most of the local students just refer to as ‘The Huether’ has one of the biggest patios in the city and is absolutely packed with people from the moment the weather turns warm until it starts to get cold again in the fall.
Along with your typical selection of beer they serve a number of beers that they make right on site.
The bar is lined with big screen TV’s for catching the game. Their pizzas, schnitzel and sweet potato fries are all worth ordering.
In the same building as Barley Works (which is on the top floor/​patio) are 5 other businesses including: The Lion Brewery Restaurant, Café 1982, Huether Hotel Catering, The Lion Brewery. (The establishment is all run by the Huether family Sonia, Kelly, David and Bernie):
(They also use to have a strip joint in the basement but that closed down sometime in the 90’s, and they still have rooms for rent in the attic, mostly occupied by local students.)
They have pool tables that they charge by the game or by the hour for a very reasonable price. And arcade game.
Party rooms galore if you’re looking to host an event. They’re free of charge, you just have to make a reservation. They will cater it too if you want them too.
Overall I’d say the Huether is worth checking out (especially that patio), though be careful, after a few drinks it’s easy to get lost inside.

I really like this place. Any of my last visits to K/​W (including New Years Eve) have been spent at this place drinking their homemade beers. Big fan of the wheat beer too, garnished with an orange slice, delicious in any weather but especially summer. Had their breaded «famous» chicken wings last time and can honestly say they were delicious. Maybe it was the 12 beers or so talking but they were definitely one of the best breaded wings I can remember having in a long time, very crispy. I reccomend this place and think its a gem for K/​W since i don’t know of any other similar brewpubs in the area.

ate here the other night and developed some mixed feelings. it took the waitress 40 minutes (yes, timed to the minute) to bring us our beers after ordering. she forgot to place our food order, so that took even longer. eventually the manager intervened and gave us a new waitress (who was great). the food was decent (i had a burger), but nothing to rave about. as far as food is concerned, i expected more from a brew pub.
the beer, however, was great. worth checking this place out, especially on a nice day. i’ll give this place another shot… i won’t let one waitress spoil it for me :-)