Sudwerk Restaurant & Brewery

My wife and I were in doubt to go there or not because of the bad reviews but we had a great experience trying it out. The service was friendly, the food was very good and we got a very good deal buying our favorite beer!

Amazing beer and good food. I took the tour and it was amazing we got 6 sample beers and than went on the tour witch was amazing. They know there beer. I will come back here for sure.

Stopped here on our drive Between CA and Utah. Drab interior with shiny Brew Kettles brightening the space. Food was a bit grey but beer was yummy. We tried the lager, martzen and seasonal. Hubby liked his patty melt. My chicken schnitzel was covered in a heavy sauce I didn’t care for. BUT, the garlic, mushroom, green beans it was served with were to die for! Bonus star– They were out of the dish I ordered originally and comped my beer for the inconvenience…

Chicken Caesar salad was excellent. Tasty, good use of spices, dressing is good, not too heavy, just right.
Tri-​tip sandwich is very good. Excellent flavor with the tri tip.
We’ll return.
Oops, last minute decision to order desert. Ordered Carmel Apple Tort and it came out frozen. Not good. Please don’t serve frozen food to patrons. May have to downgrade the review to three stars.
Server’s response to our complaint about being served frozen desert was excellent. She is replacing with properly prepared tort.

I try to give a place two tries if the first time there is a hiccup. Unfortunately both times were just awful. The first time I went it was with my daughter. We had only order appetizers since we were on a schedule thinking these would be out quick. Unfortunately we were mistaken. We had the crab cakes which were tasteless; you would need the aioli sauce so it will have a taste to it. The deep fried artichoke hearts were a joke. They had too much batter on them. & last the hot wings which took the longest & were way to spice to even to eat. As for the wait staff, it’s a joke. We couldn’t even get our waitress attention to give us a doggie bag or our check.
My second attempt was with my sister & our daughters. This time we each got a beer (which is the only reason this place gets 2 stars) I order a margarita Pizza, which turned out to be a cheese pizza with no sauce barely any tomatoes & 3 pieces of basil chopped up. My sister ordered her pizza, which was cold in the middle. & of courser our waitress was nonexistent.
If you’re going for the beer that would be your best bet, otherwise if you’re going for the food I recommend going somewhere else.

It was yummy but I’ll consider it a treat at those prices. My schnitzel (breaded chicken) was tasty and the green beans that came with it were seasoned well. The mashed potatoes looked almost reconstituted consistent, but were tasty nonetheless.
And I really enjoyed the sauce that came over the chicken. So much so that I asked for some to take home with my leftovers.
As for the beer, it was decent and not horribly priced.

I’m not a beer drinker, but I love pub food. The burgers and more traditional pub food is great here. The pizzas are disappointing and the salads are small and not worth the $.

I liked the beer a lot more than I liked the food (which was decent) — tried several different beers from their wide selection and nearly all of them were great options. I preferred the Marzen as well as the Cascaderade. Others in our group had different preferences, but everyone seemed to enjoy. The food was decent, but I was dissappointed there weren’t really any german dishes, considering the name of the place. Oh well, fish & chips were a good alternative complement to my beer.
One tip: it was really hard to see the driveway entrance in the dark — we drove in from the downtown direction, and the map on our phone said to take Pole Line Road… the turn is just before the bridge to go over the freeway and not lighted at all. We drove right past the entrance, especially since the address technically says «2^nd Street» — had to turn around and come back and nearly missed it a second time — its a rough driveway off Pole Line Road. Keep your eyes open and go slow so you don’t miss it.

Discovered this awesome «German style» beer garden and restaurant on Open Table while attempting to drive to a festival beyond Sacramento on a Friday eve… Traffic at standstill so found this and FELL IN LIEBE
Normally I am a red wine drinker but they got me when they serve me a fresh Hefe weizen beer. And the gourmet burger with bleu cheese was terrific! Especially when they cooked it medium rare! Heaven…
The food is five star, the beer is worthy of a German Brewer and you won’t go away hungry! I will certainly be back !!

The beer here is great. I don’t mind paying full price, unlike the dollar Wednesday reviews. But the service is atrocious. I don’t expect to wait over 30 mins to get served in a quiet pub on a Sunday afternoon… My server looked like she’d just rolled out of bed… I mean … Literally she was wearing pyjamas… She couldn’t be any less interested in my business.
Dude Owner needs to chose his staff like his hops. This place has quality beer but needs better servers and bar staff.

We had dinner at Sudwerk on a Saturday night and had a great time. We ordered two of their seasonal IPAs and loved them. Very hoppy and they had great flavor!
For dinner we ordered the margarita pizza and a salad. The margarita pizza was good but it didn’t look or taste like a margarita pizza. It was super good but it was more like just a plain cheese pizza. For the salad we ordered the Southwest and it was delicious! We were scraping every last piece of it off the plate!
The only reason I took away a star is for the décor. The restaurant needs an update. The carpet inside looks gross and they even have carpet on the wall leading up to the bathroom. It’s just all very outdated.
Overall we had a great time! Service was quick and friendly and the food and beer were tasty!

Sarah was a sweet waitress, the salad she suggested was fabulous! The Marzen beer and Mediterranean pizza was delish. Sitting on the lovely patio after a long traffic sit from the bay area, perfect ending of my work week.

First tried their beer over the summer at a beer fest in Santa Rosa, not bad, there was a double IPA that stood out. I’m in Davis visiting my beautiful and über smart daughter who is attending UCD. As my wifey, daughter and I are headed to Target for supplies for my daughter… low and behold we pass Sudwerks… Que me mentally screaming…“STOP”!!. As we drive by my brain is scrambling on how I can get out of a shopping trip and get me some Sudwerks suds! I end up blurting out…“I WANT BEER… STOP”…Wifey and daughter were cool about it and there I am bellied up to the bar deciding what to order, Yeah me! They have a large patio area, but I want no sun, I am after the shade and coolness of a bar side seat. Their beer offerings are lager heavy… which is generally not what I lean toward, as you would know lagers are on the lighter side of beers. Monica tells me they are not pouring the douple IPA… my heart and jaw drop. I settle on a marzon, which was good for a lager… my second beer was a double lager… didn’t know they made double lagers. There was a local sitting next to me and we strike up a conversation while watching some college ball. He ends up introducing me to the beer master… who tells me, I can buy some of the double IPA in 22s… I end up buying two, to enjoy later. The bar area was nice and roomy, TVs at good intervals so all can enjoy sporting programs… Monica the bartender was very cool, and very easy on the eyes. I didn’t try any food but it seemed like standard pub grub. When I’m back in Davis, I will for sure stop by again for a pint and to try their food.

Good beer. Come here if you’re not a pansy candy ass and enjoy food of the fried variety.

First time here at Sudwerk and came in on a Tuesday around 3:30 p.m. It was pretty much me and a bunch of men over 50 hanging out at the bar. The beertender was female, so that was nice.
I noticed that there was no soft pretzels on the menu, so that was a bummer. The vegetarian options looked uninspired. Beer samples come in 4oz pours and cost $ 1.50/each. This is what I thought:
Liked:
1. Cascaderade
Indifferent/​Just Okay:
1. Pilsner
2. Hefeweizen
3. Simcoe IPL
4. Gose
5. M.L.B. Saison
Didn’t Like:
None…so that’s a good thing.
I felt like they played it too safe with their beers. Everything tasted okay, but nothing really stood out. I’d love to see a wheat beer flavored with fresh fruit.
I don’t think I’ll be rushing back, but would come back if someone else wanted to go.

Another ancient brewery having a hard time keeping up with the craft beer revolution.
We came in about an hour after they opened, but it was so silent, they may as well have not even been open yet. There was also no one greeting guests, so everyone that came in, including us, just stood there awkwardly until one of the bartenders noticed.
They don’t have their own coasters (but cheap, gross little doilies).
The «beer board» is on a 2’x 3′ black board in a really awkward place and impossible to read.
The décor is dated, the bar chairs are too high to rest your feet on the actual pipe-​footrest on the bar. Lots of dust everywhere.
My «Citrus Gose» tasted like orange Budweiser.
The BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad was actually very delicious.
The girls behind the bar were supremely attentive and polite.
Overall, Sudwerk is very obviously neglected and needs lots of love to get to where it has the potential to be.
Start by dusting.

I mourn for what this place used to be. I’ve been coming to Sudwerk off-​and-​on for 16 years. Spending afternoons on the patio, doing liter-​stein curls, watching the clouds drift across the sky. Bringing family to celebrate with a leisurely lunch or dinner inside. Singing karaōke on the patio in the evening.
But now, everything about the place is tired and sad. The building and décor has been allowed to fully depreciate, and the management of the restaurant seems to have given up. Maybe (hopefully?) a lease is coming to an end and there will be some money plowed back in and Sudwerk 2.0 will pop off. You kind of sense that would be a logical next step for the Dock folk, supposing they bring in the right talent from out-​of-​town.
We’ll be there to support and update if anything changes.
So sad.

It’s been more than a couple years since my shadow had darkened Sudwerk’s door. I returned last Saturday to meet up with 3 High School classmates (and assorted family members) from Estherville Iowa who all live in Northern California. Our school name is the Midgets (or Vertically Challenged for all you Progressive PC types) and considering our 1974 graduation year, we’re pushing 60, but still very young at heart and spry.
We had a great couple hours together, over tasty micro brews (my favourite remains Mai Bock), delicious lunch choices, and great conversation. I didn’t want the afternoon to end, but the promise of another Sudwerk meet-​up has me savoring the next time.

Pint Night has moved to Thursdays!
I went twice last year when it was on Wednesdays and recently went this past Thursday. $ 2 entry gets you a wrist band to buy pints for $ 1. They have big tables which are great for groups! I have always gone with a good size group of friends which makes it a lot of fun. Super chill place, lots of seating, and oh yeah, good beers ;-) I’m not a beer drinker so I usually drink whatever my friends recommend, but they have their favorites for sure!
If you’re not a beer drinker they also have margarita pitchers (way better than Mojito Night’s pitchers from Bistro 33) and cider (bottled, Sudwerk does not make cider I believe).
Be sure to bring a deck of cards to play fun drinking games!

Today I came here with my 10 friends for the first time. The restaurant accommodated us well where we all were presently seated so we can engage and see each other. I like how the menu offers a variety of food from salad to burgers to sandwiches to pizzas and to pasta. For an appetizer, the garlic cheese fries comes with ranch and they tasted amazingly good (maybe because I was starving, anyways, it was a great starter dish).
I ordered the reuben sandwich with apple coleslaw; both my reuben sandwich and apple coleslaw tasted so good. My other friends had their «gourmet» burgers and they didn’t like it so much because it wasn’t amazing or anything great about it. Others ordered pizzas and it was delicious to them. As for beers, the oatmeal stout is something to try out, it’s new, smoothe and well balanced. This place has tvs and a bar you can sit at to watch games.
The service was phenomenal because Michelle was helpful and attentive. After you leave, there are mints in the front counter by the entrance and their mints are good! Bathrooms are to the right back side of the restaurant where you first enter. I’d come back here again for good food like the apple coleslaw, beers and good times with friends.

Been there a few times. Food there is really good, different waiters served me in each of the times. One of them kinda throw us out right after we finished eating and the other one was one of the best waiters that ever served me.
Overall, an excelent place.

Mein Gott Sudwerk, was ist mit Dir passiert?
When this place opened, it was amazing. The beer, the food, the atmosphere and service were all really good.
Fast-​forward to now, and all I can say is: what happened?
The beer: Overall, it’s not bad, but it is nowhere near as good as it once was. This used to be the only local pilsener I liked, but now, not so much.
The food: When this place was run by Germans, they had not only better beer, but they actually had German food. Various Schnitzels, sausages, etc., but now it’s bland and uninspired bar food that you could find at damn near any fake-​ass Applebee’s/Chili’s/Tchotchkie’s/Flinger’s/etc. Extreme Fajitas anyone? There was a time when Sudwerk had to compete for German food dollars, since there were other places in the Sacramento area that served it, but now no one does.
The service: Well, it’s a college town, right? About what you’d expect. I know because I went to UCD and had my share of restaurant jobs. I didn’t like working in restaurants either, but I tried not to be quite so obvious about it.
What has happened here hurts my dark, brooding German soul. I now have to travel to the Bay Area to get my German food and beer fix.
Won’t you join my Weltschmerz?