Mudhook Brewing Company is located in York, Pennsylvania. I developed a hatred of York because of this trip. The city is full of one way streets and the one road we needed had 2 blocks closed off for no reason. There was no construction, no street fair, nothing, absolutely no reason for it to be closed! Finding parking was impossible; we ended up parking in what looked like the only parking garage in York. Mudhook is connected to the Central Market York. It is a rather small place with a small batch brewing set up.Service
We arrived at about 6:45pm on Friday and were given a 15 minute wait. (We decided to check out the Central Market York (which is basically York’s version of Reading Terminal in Philly). This wait was surprising for the fact it was so close to multiple theaters and it was about an hour before shows usually start. We kind of brushed it off figuring it was because there were a decent number of other places to eat so if someone was worried about finishing dinner before their show and they had to wait too long, they'd just go somewhere else. The service was decent in general and our server was very kind and attentive. Our appetizer came quickly. The kitchen was super backed up. The place isn’t that big, maybe about 70 people total (it actually should probably hold only 50). I really do mean super backed up, we waited over an hour for our food. Overall we spent more than an hour and a half at the brewery and by the end I just wanted to leave and be done with the whole experience. I have never wanted to leave a place this badly.Food
So, onto the actual food. All we can say is we were sorely disappointed. Dave got a barbecue bacon cheeseburger. The bacon was ultra crispy to the point where it didn't have much flavor anymore, just crunch. The only other topping was a couple rings of red onion. The burger was ordered medium, but came out completely charred and dry. I had a chicken sandwich with swiss cheese, bacon, and honey mustard. It came with no lettuce, tomato or onion. The chicken was so thick that it was barely cooked. It was cooked but half way through the sandwich I got worried that the meat wasn’t cooked because it was so thick. The sandwich was ok overall.
I ordered seasoned fries and Dave ordered the beer bread as our sides. We both ended up with seasoned fries. We were hoping to try the beer bread, but Dave likes fries too and by that time we just wanted to eat rather than bugging them about which side they gave us. The fries were fresh, tasty and reminded me of home since season fries are common in the Chesapeake Bay region. The portions were large but really the food was just meh. For the extensive wait, I was expecting more, as was Dave. I would not eat here ever again. The food was just a massive disappointment.
Atmosphere
They had live music while we were there and live music seems to be quite common there. There were two seating areas: an inside portion, which was a little dark, and an outside area that had an awning over it and flexible plastic walls. The outside area had heat lamps up near the ceiling on one side. We sat in the outside portion. The heat lamps did not really make things comfortable. I was sweating on the side of my body sitting near the heat lamp but the side of my body away from the lamp was cold. The seating was cramped. They had 3 chairs at the tables that should have seated 2 people. Despite the fact that the third seat was empty, it left almost no room between it and the table beside us. The waitress could barely fit past it to get to the table behind us. Dave moved the third chair against the wall away from our table so that the waitress could get past.Beer
They weren’t doing beer tastings (or flights) because there was an event and all their tasting glasses were in use. Mudhook is about 3 years old and has only 6 beers with no seasonals at the moment. They were also out of their newest beer, a Belgian Dubbel. Despite only having a handful of their own varieties, they didn't have any beers from other breweries on tap to boost the selection. We ended up getting three beers, two dark and one light. The beers were decent but certainly nothing special. Check back for a full post reviewing the beers. They do a lot of simple beers, nothing with any real pizzazz. Mudhook beer is available at the brewery and you can take home a growler, which was reasonably priced at $20 for a growler and fill.Overall
We did not enjoy our stop at Mudhook Brewery. Personally I would never go again, ever. We watched one group of four come in, sit down at the table next to us and then get up and leave after only drinking half their beer. Our stop for dinner took 2.5 hours in total, finding parking, waiting, eating and getting back on the road. We wouldn't suggest this Brewery even if you are in the area. After we finished dinner and left, we played a little game of “think of any place we've been that was a worse experience than that” for the remaining hour and a half drive to the eastern part of the state. Neither of us could come up with any restaurant experience that was that bad. Maybe we're just both blocking out the memory of anywhere we've been that was worse, but that's still pretty darn bad. We agreed that next time we're headed that way, we'll keep driving and go somewhere else, it's not all that much further to Lancaster.Rating
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