Here in Moncton, I’ve been on a journey to find out all the best places to grab dinner. The Pump House brewery | @phbrewery) is definitely a decent place in town to grab a drink and some very decent food. Located just off Esplanade in downtown Moncton, it looks like a typical micro-brew pub, both inside and outside. They do have some booths with a bit of personality … I quite liked the booths with graffiti and scribbles … and don’t worry, it won’t mess your clothes up!
Once you’re all tucked in … you’ll get a newspaper menu … which is another little touch that I quite liked. It’s like a blast from the past … the menu is definitely an extensive one.
If you want a full taste of the brewery, then I would order the $6.75 beer sampler – it’s a sample tray featuring all of their regular brews plus a couple of seasonal/specialty brews. Its almost the equivalent of 2 pints of beer and comes on a little tasting mat that identifies the type of beer and gives some basic tasting notes on each beer. My favorite was the Pump House premium … some people recommended the Blueberry beer; my advice is not to bother with it. Here is a list of what’s on tap …
- Canadian Cream Ale
- Fire Chief’s Red Ale
- Scotch Ale
- S.O.B. Special Old Bitter
- India Pale Ale
- Pail Ale
- Muddy River Stout
- Amber Ale
- Whatever seasonal brew they have
One note about ordering the sampler … the servers seem to have an issue with it. On both occasions that I’ve visited the Pump House … our servers weren’t happy about having to bring all the glasses. In fact, the second time, our server Jesse offered us a little lecture about ordering 4 samplers (we were 4 guests BTW) … she mentioned that they might not have enough glasses and that us ordering 4 samplers would deprive another guest of a sampler!! My question is basically, “Why would this be my problem? Or any guests’ problem?” … if the brewery doesn’t have enough glasses, then they should order more, but for a server to mention this is poor, so hopefully this is a training issue that the pub can sort out. It takes away from an excellent value proposition at the pub.
As for the food … the pizzas are very good … it’s not Italian fare by any standard, but you’re going to be satisfied and they claim to have the only wood fired oven in Moncton. My pizzas were made to spec both times I ordered, which I was quite happy with.
Montreal Smoked Meat Pizza, Extra Sauce, no cheese – well done with tons of Chilis!
My colleague’s BBQ Chicken Pizza
Chicken, Bacon and Pineapple pizza, extra sauce, well done, no cheese … with a ton of chilis.
As for appetizers, we’ve tried the salads, Beer Steamed Mussels, Chicken Lips and Salt & Pepper ribs. I definitely recommend the Salt & Pepper ribs … they’re simply excellent. Fried dry with tons of coarse salt and cracked pepper … it’s a great starter. The mussels are also excellent, but if you’re in the Maritimes, I assume that all seafood should be excellent 
Salt and Pepper Ribs … a definite recommendation!
Chicken Lips … Deep Fried Pepperoni … order the spicy version of it, as the mild is just meh!
As usual, you can click and see my other UrbanSpoon reviews … so in the end … here are the bullet points
- Decent service
- Very interesting and interactive decor
- Very good food at a decent value point. I think it deserves the high rating it gets – it’s good and uncomplicated food, done well.
- Definitely makes my team’s restaurant rotation.
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