Taplands

Great place with new selection of beers everyday. they were doing bingo and I won a t-shirt on completing someone else bingo card lol. Matt and Chris are great and always welcoming ! There are some regulars who are always pleasant company and the place has varied seating including comfy couches and games to play with good for groups.And yes Santa Clara has its own downtown !

Pretty cool place.Randomly went here for a drink or two while watching part of the Warriors game.Lots of seats and tables. Bar size is decent.Service was good too.Good beer selection even tho I'm not much of a beer drinker.I was confused on when and where to order food. Since I was not offered a menu when I was at a bar. Wish I was asked or offered or directed to the right direction.

Overall really like this place. Go every once in a while with our dogs and sit on the patio, or also a good place to meetup for a casual drink. Good beer selection and if you're not into craft beer they always have a cider or sour (at least one of each) on the menu.You order at the bar so not much to say on service. Staff is friendly enough.Can be busy at times -- it's fairly close to Santa Clara University and they have trivia night sometimes (I think on Mondays but don't quote me).

It's a "counter service" beer bar. Good beer selection, very small food menu, a couple screens, and mostly outdoor seatings. It's good for local or nearby workers to get a drink or two. If the weather is good, it can entertain few groups. Otherwise, bar stools are pretty much it. There's no waiting staff. You order at the bar/counter and bring your own drinks back to the table.The beers are good choices. As a bar, it is really too minimalistic.For yourself plus the internet or few afterwork before dinner. It's not a bad choice.

3 of us showed up and as soon as I we walked in, the bartender and a few people at the bar looked at us as if had interrupted a private conversation. We walked around the bar and began looking at the menu while it was dead silence. Decided it was best to walk away and find a better place to drink and watch the Sharks game. It definitely had a feel for locals only. Not welcoming at all. I would stay away from this place. We're locals BTW. Smh.

Overall I enjoy this spot. It's a close walk from my apartment with amazing beer selections you can't often find like Trillium and Moksa. I'm a cicerone and bjcp judge and been home brewing for 15 years now so I know a thing or 2. I fluctuate between a 3 and 4. The vibe is nice, the staff is pretty average; some going above and beyond, Chris I think his name was, tall and skinny with glasses. Super nice guy. Other staff I'm left waiting and treated like someone who just turned 21. What's keeping me from giving a 4 was the food. I came for Oktoberfest and paid $7 for a soggy microwave pretzel. For a couple more bucks I could've gotten a Costco pack of the same thing! Just sat there looking at it thinking I'd look like a dick if I returned it lol. I just wanted to be like, "seriously?" I'm not broke or anything but yeah, $7 for a microwave pretzel kinda makes me feel suckered. Tried the food again on taco Tuesday and again was very underwhelming and not worth it.

Awesome beer selection at this beer bar with light food. The place was very popular on a Friday night. It is near a college campus and Jesuits aren't Baptists. Hallelujah!The low rating is for a kitchen that is clearly overwhelmed. It took 40 minutes to get a charcuterie plate and pita with dips. None of our food needed to be cooked. The kitchen really needs to be streamlined especially since they are starting a no outside food policy. One place to start is by not heating the olives. I've never been serviced hot olives before and they are not better for it.But by all means come here for a beer or three.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed Taplands yet! My husband and I come here all the time since it is in walking distance from us. Taplands always has a great selection of beers from across the state as well as other states. And they sometimes have their own brews on the menu as well, so look out for them! In the way of food, check their Instagram to find out about upcoming food trucks schedules...we have always found something good, and they consistently have great taco trucks. Also, they host events here from time to time, and they also will do fun themed things sometimes like beer cocktails and micheladas (using a delicious local mix from Gilroy!). It can get quite busy here, but we have not had trouble finding a spot--everyone who comes here is generally friendly, and people are happy to make room. Bathrooms are clean, and beertenders are nice too. I hear they host trivia, so need to come soon for that!

I went to Taplands on a Friday night around 8:30pm and was pleased to find a chill vibe and a lowkey taproom. Loved the 90s ska music playing, and when I looked around the room it honestly did feel like an elder millennial crowd. My people! It wasn't super busy during that time, so my friend and I had plenty of spots to choose from including indoor and outdoor. Around 9:30pm the energy of the place definitely picked up as more people came to the bar. I saw that they had a solid selection from local breweries. I don't love sours, but I was looking for something with sweet notes. The first sour that I tried nailed the flavor palate I was looking for, so I was content for the rest of my evening. Customer service was great. The server at the register was friendly and helpful. I didn't try the food at Taplands. Frankly I didn't know that they even had a kitchen since the server told us that the tacos from the food truck outside the restaurant were amazing, hah!

Was tempted to give 4 stars because they don't do flights and let's be real, ya girl LOVES flights. But, that's not their business model so taking that out of the picture this place deserves 5 stars for sure!They have a pretty large tap list with a variety of beer styles - I think there were between 24-28 on the menu when I went. I tasted a sour, which I liked, but ultimately ended up with a hazy IPA. It was a nice evening so we opted to sit on their large outdoor patio. Seems like they have an original patio and then what one can assume is the added covid-era patio, both of them were covered and had heaters. No heaters on while we were there, but I'm sure they would've obliged if we asked. Instead we moved inside the taproom which was full of beer and Santa Clara decor - made for a fun and homey environment. Didn't order any food but was nice to see that they do have a kitchen. Street parking was fairly limited and most of it is only 24 minutes to an hour. Since we were there on a weekend we parked in the big lot on the side...not sure if this would fly on a weekday, but all was good when we returned to our cars. Definitely would come back here sometime!