Big Dog's Draft House

Sprawling spot with an outdoor patio and several interior sections. Has its own parking lot. Larger interior section has a circular bar with video gambling screens and surrounding tables. Dimly lit, with a high dark wood ceiling, plaster walls, and a wood plank floor. Many TVs showing sports. Has a Green Bay Packers decor. Smaller section is set up as a tap room with a glassed garage door letting in outdoor light. High peaked lighter wood ceiling and wood plank floor. Has its own straight bar and taps. Other seating at low and high tables and a couple of couches. Thirty or so taps, including guest brews. Wide style selection. Cooler has cans to go. Full food menu prepared on site. Efficient and cordial staff. Local institution founded in 1993. Gets loud when full.

this place is awesome, a vegas icon at this point, and it was way cool to finally be able to check it out. they have basically two sides of this place, its huge, and they each have their own vibe. there is the gaming side, which doubles as a sports bar with a loose packers bar theme, old school brew pub with the tanks in the back, low light, a full menu, and medals galore on the wall as you walk in, a very well decorated operation, holy moly! great setup in that side, mellow as can be but kind of seriously bustling when we were there too, feels timeless. the other side is newer, more of a modern craft taphouse vibe, more family friendly maybe without the gaming, a whole separate bar and beer list including an impressive range of their own beers but also guest drafts and an exciting mix of guest packaged beers and spirits too, and the full menu is available on this side as well, great energy here, a stage area for performances, more natural light, comfortable. they have a patio out front as well. i was stoked on the diversity of the menu, we had some nice hoppy beers including the one they did for the golden knights, but i was also stoked on a belgian dark strong with dates and a pumpkin pie inspired beer, tons of options here, way cool. less impressive were their oktoberfest and everyday lager, but still decent beers. i think a great mix overall, certainly something for everyone. they have a huge food menu with a ton of options, i had something from the all day breakfast menu and was very pleased, but their chicken wings looked epic as well. great people top to bottom in here, all warm and friendly from hostess to server to manager to brew people, all were so cool to us. this is a killer spot, highly recommended, like the antithesis of the strip, loved our time here!

edit: more of a side note here, and a general comment not a comment about this place specifically, but ive long thought the service score was grossly overvalued in these place reviews, like truly awful service can be miserable, but for the most part the quality, selection, and vibe matter more to most i would think, but it doesnt seem like that is reflected in how these scores are calculated. like this place overall now ranks among the elite, which it isnt from a beer or food standpoint, great for sure, but there is no doubt another level or two north of this place, yet at the same time i do not want to give a lower service score to level out the overall rating because the service was indeed sensational here. not ideal, but i think it inflates the composite score of this place, and many others in my experience, above where it should actually be. for me this is a very high 3 or a low 4 on the aggregate, but with how the score is figured, it comes out a bit ahead of that. no big deal, just an observation...

Latest Visit 6/30/25 (Las Vegas, Nevada): One of the original craft beer breweries in the Vegas Valley. Over 20 brewery taps plus guest taps and standard Macro pours available. Also serves bar food, and is a bar featuring broadcasts of Packers and U of Wisconsin Madison sports.

Vibe: Friendly staff, mostly locals as this is away from the strip. I like the newer non-smoking craft beer area built years before, as the gaming area is very smokey. I avoid the very loudly broadcast trivia and karaoke, but ok with other visits including musical performances. 3.5

Quality: Beers can be hit or miss here, a few solid, the majority ok to good, and a few stinkers. Seem to do best with their IPAs. Their Barleywine sampled this trip was excellent, and I’ll return later this trip for that one. 3.75

Service: Staff friendly and kind, beer properly poured and served with the exception of beer glasses (shaker pints for all styles served at 16 oz). Sometimes short staffed during events. 4.25

Selection: 20 plus tap lines from their own brewery, across several plus styles, with additional craft guest taps (typically local) plus standard AAL and Macro international selections. 3.75

Food: This was the first time I recall ordering food, a lunch special, and while the price ($12) and ice tea were good, the tuna melt had burnt pieces and the fries were awful, so pick a different side and perhaps more standard pub fare if you go with food. 2.5

Overall: This is a good brewery, selections are typical ok to good, and worth checking out with a car and you’re in the area.

Cool place! The only think I don’t like about em is that they root for the Green Bay Packers. Lol. All jokes aside.... do yourself a favor and visit this place when you visit Vegas! The beer and service is awesome.

Located in a somewhat generic, old-school looking building, Big Dog's is not impressive from the outside. On the inside it is a bit heavy and somewhat old-fashioned, although clean and comfortable. Service was competent, but not great. Food was very good and prices were reasonable.

Given this so-so backdrop, the beers were an exceedingly pleasant surprise. They offered a flight of five of your choice, which came out in a handsome and clever, spiral-shaped, wrought iron rack. All the beers I tasted were good to excellent and I rated them all greater than 4 out of 5.

So, to sum up, the place is good and quite enjoyable by itself, but you should visit for the beer.

This place brews some really good IPAs, there food is outstanding "Korean Style Fajitas"!!

 

Not exactly in my wheelhouse but anyplace you have to search for a empty seat is definitely doing something right. The beer is very drinkable to outright good and the food delivers for what it is listed. But, beware, a half pint is only 1 dollar less than a full pint. $6 versus $7 for the Underbite IPA.

 

I was amped up to go and visit this place, I like the selection of foods and brews available. Around 3 in the afternoon, I made my way to Big Dog’s, walked in and just grinned. The place had a Great Lakes theme and sports on the televisions, who could not love that. I made my way around the bar and found a seat. About 10 minutes goes by and the waitress finally saunters my way and get my drink order. I inquired about the beer they made, the response I got was the beers are good. Thank you very much for telling me exactly what I wanted to know, that information is super helpful. She had no clue to what they were serving or anything. I waited another 15 minutes and finally got two beers, she took my order. I order pull pork sandwich with garlic fries. The order took 35 minutes to get to my table. In almost an hour, I got two beers and food, now I know what you are thinking, they were busy. It was quite the opposite, the place was dead, maybe 20 patrons. The Pull pork sandwich was just one sad dry pork sandwich, to which they tried to drown it in this god-awful BBQ sauce. They said it was Guajillo-coffee BBQ sauce but tasted like the 88 cent Kraft BBQ sauce at Walmart. The garlic fries were an upcharge, I was hoping there was something salvageable to eat there. It was a waste of an upcharge, there was absolutely nothing special, or worth the charge. The garlic fries were terrible, Betty Crocker could have done much better job. I decided to wait for one more to beer to wash the subpar food down. I ordered the English Brown ale, it was the best thing that I had ate or drank at that point. Service was terrible, food subpar, vibe awesome, selection great, and the beer was average. I would go again, only to drink beer.

Big Dog's is a neat old bar with dim lighting, Wisconsin sports memorabilia and a window onto the brewery in the back. That said, it's still a smoky casino bar with video poker at every seat. The beer, however, is quite decent, and with 17 house taps (!!) plus 16 guest taps, you probably won't run out of stuff to try. Service is pretty good; friendly if not eager to talk about beer. I would say Big Dog's is worth a visit if you are already in that part of town or really love visiting breweries, but it is probably not worth going all the way out there if you are staying on the Strip or even downtown.

Love Big Dog's Draft House in NW Las Vegas. Wisconsin meets Vegas! All the beers are very good. My fav is the barrel aged Red Hydrant. Nice selection of house and guest taps. Many excellent food items: Big 10 pizza (scores a 10, my all time favorite pizza), Camp Randall brat, Pot Roast Melt, Walleye dinner. Great atmosphere. Packers fan hangout. When in Vegas I'm sure to stop at least once. Can't recommend highly enough!

 

 

This is the place to be if you are a Wisconsin or Packer fan. The original owner was on the Badger 1959 Rose Bowl team. If you are a fan definitely the place to be, otherwise not worth the drive on that its 20 miles from downtown,

Lots of food, definitely about quantity! Their brews are OK not great, but have lots of other choices.

 

I really like this place.

 

Big old, spacious place on the north side of town. It must have been bad timing, but they were out of stock on half their taps. Otherwise the food was pretty good

 

This locale is a bit out of the way if you're on the strip but it is still worth it to take a break day out to it. Food was really tasty to me, though I was starving so. Nice rounded selection of in-house beers to enjoy and a few guests. Lots of TVs and is a Wisconsin fans hub so if you like the Packers, the game will be on. Like I said, take a day from the hustle of the strip and try the place.

 

Food was expensive and mediocre while the beer was merely average. Seemed like they're more interested in being a BJ's Brewhouse than a craft brewer.

 

Got to go to this location as the Cafe & Casino location on West Sahara near where I was staying in Vegas was closed for renovations. This is the Main Brewery and is readily accessible from anywhere in Vegas. Tried several of their brews but the one that captured my fancy and would have gotten a Blue Ribbon in a judging was their Lake Mead Monster Imperial Red 9.0 ABV ! This is a style that I really like but is rarely found. Made my visit. Will definitely go back.

 

 

Fairly typical brew pub. Around 15 taps with most of them being their own brews. A couple of guest taps but nothing I was interested in.

Tried the Dirty Dog which was a solid IPA. The Calrsbad IIPA which was outstanding and the Sled Dog Imperial Stout which was one of the 5 best non-BA stouts I have ever tried.

The food was average pub fare. Nothing special.

Service was good, but the waitress had to double check most beer related questions with the barkeep.

 

 

This is hands down the best brewery in Las Vegas. The food always pairs well with beer drinking. Light or heavy. I highly recommend the Bratzel Burger and a Dirty Dog IPA. Great cheeseburger, brat, bacon on a pretzel bun. The Dirty Dog is a classic "west coast" IPA.
I have had several other beers there and most of the time I am COMPLETELY satisfied. They usually have great guest taps (Lagunitas, Ballast Point, Stone, Deschutes, etc.) and local breweries (Tenaya Creek, Triple 7s) on tap as well.
When in Vegas this is a MUST visit. I always get 2-3 growlers of their brews to take back to L.A. Love this place. Cheers!

I couldn't sleep yesterday morning and at the same time I had an urge for Chicken Fried Steak, and a few pints of course,its Vegas.
So I decided on Big Dog on Rancho. Its been years since I have been here. The atmosphere is like a farmhouse inside and a little like a barn on the outside.Its Vegas so smoking is allowed in the bar but at this hour there were three other customers and none were smoking.
For beer I started with something light,the Leglifter Lite, good lite micro beer, something one could drink a bunch of.Next was the Holy Cow Pale Ale, a very good Pale Ale.
The Chicken Fried Steak was very good but expensive $11. Every 24/7 sports bar in Vegas has this item on the menu and prices range from$5.95 to this price.The menu is sort of Wisconsin based, cheese curds, brats etc.

Big thanks to BA Destral for recommending this place. I have never met the guy but his posts about where to go when in Vegas are right on, in my experience.

Big Dog's Draft House was well worth the 20 mile drive from my hotel on the Strip. (Jesus H. Christ is Las Vegas big. 20 miles away and I am still in Las Vegas? I live about 20 miles from Philly and I am not even an adjacent county!). Located off a busy road out at the border of town, Big Dog's has the feel of a family friendly brewpub, much like Victory here in PA.

Well, except for the blight of video poker machines covering the bar. And the smoking, but smoking seems to be encouraged if not required wherever there is gaming here. I made the rare (for me) decision to sit at a table instead of the bar. The atmosphere was much better here.

Tap selection is huge, with about a dozen house beers on, plus about 4 guest taps. The beers were uniformly high quality, with the IPA being the standout for me. I had to drive back to town so I only had a little taste of the barleywine, but that was delicious as well.

Food was good pub grub. The cheese curds were fair representations of ones I have had in the Midwest, though I am no expert. The chicken sandwich was very nice as well.

Service was really good. I liked it here a lot.

HV

I visit Big Dogs about twice a month. The beer selection is always good with usually some good guest taps. Their burgers are very good but the service is slow. I always sit in the restaurant part as the bar part is filled with smoke and I can't stand to eat in a smoke filled place. The restaurant part is family friendly and welcoming for kids. Mine range from 18 months to 16 years and all 3 like Big Dogs food. The wait staff doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about beer and their beer list is often out of date which is a little irritating.

I stopped at Big Dog's for lunch and liked the place so much I went back for happy hour.

The place is a spaciousrustic barn style building. The restaurant is clean and smoke free. There is a country/farm/hunting lodge decour. The bar is much darker and smokier. Brewery tanks visible through a glass wall on one end. Seating for about 200 at high tables. Another 40 so at the bar. Gaming machines in the bar top.

Quality is good. BD brews and a few guest taps.

Service was good. Fairly busy at lunch in the restaurant. Not real busy in the bar at Happy Hour.

Selection included 13 BD taps, 6-10 guest taps and 25 micro bottles. There is a small selection of macros. Full bar.

Food is good. There is an extensive lunch annd dinner menu. Pulled pork sliders and slaw were good outstanding. $9.

Value is reasonable. $4.25 a pint. $2 off pints at happy hour 3-6 PM.

Notes: The restaurant and bar are separated. Major differences are smoking and gaming. The place has a Wisconsin connnection. Packer and Badger memorabilia around the place.

Big Dog's Draft House is an interesting little spot. Large bar, well staffed, knowledgeable bartenders, and some great original brews populate the main area. Some circular tables orbit the main bar area, and to the left you can see the brew house through some large windows. To the right lies the restaurant area, which I never ventured into. Video poker games occupy most of the bar surface, although there is still plenty of room to eat and drink. The food was decent, and moderately priced, but other than their signature brews, don't expect to find many other beers in the selection.

Overall a nice place, I came here often during my stay in Nevada. Don't miss their Stout and Double IPA.

Average looking bar with a limited beer selection. Showcased their in house brews. Many popular styles were represented. I tried the stout, my wife had the IPA. The prices were really reasonable. Stout was decent, medium bodied, lower alchohol, needed more flavor from specialty grains, very light on the typical toasted barley aspects. IPA was average. Very good deal on the food, we went on a Tue. and they run a BOGO on their burgers, which were good. Can't go wrong with a free entree. Overall a good bar, just needs more of a beer selection outside of their in house beers.

Living in San Diego, the wife and I visit Vegas at least twice a year and I have always meant to stop in and give this place a try - it's a bit of a trek from the strip so we always end up putting it off. We finally stopped in on our last trip there to have some dinner, drinks and fill a growler for the night.

Upon walking into this place, you're hit with a blast of cigarette smoke (still legal to smoke inside restaurants in Nevada) and sour beer/liquor smell. The place is dim lit and decked out with a ton of wood finish (old time western feel to it). The bar and the restaurant are split up into two sections and we decided to sit in the bar area, which may have been a mistake because there were cigarette smokers in full force - it was pretty intense.

It took a good 20 minutes to even get a drink order in, and then when I did try to order, they were out of the IPA and the Begian Witte (these were the two I came to try) and on a Friday night - what the hell!? I ended up ordering a Tailwagger Wheat that was pretty good and followed that up with a Red Hydrant Ale that was decent but not as good as the Tailwagger.

We both ordered food - veggie burger with fries and man, that was one of the best veggie burgers we'd ever had - no joke! After a meal and a couple beers the smoke and general noise were getting to us, so I asked for the bill and a growler of the Tailwagger and got the hell out of there.

We came back the next day in the hopes of the IPA or the Belgian Witte being back on tap (as they assured us it would be when we ate dinner there the night before) but no luck, so I figured i'd just get the growler filled with the Tailwagger again. Some nasty barmaid smoking a cigarette behind the bar took my growler and without even rinsing it, filled it with the Tailwagger and charged me $1.00 less than the price I paid for it the night before, which is pretty pricey if you ask me. Usually after you buy the growler, the refills are much cheaper - not just a buck cheaper. We left no tip and once again, got the hell out of that place!

Overall, this place is a conflict of interest - you have the locals who could give two sh*ts about craft beer, and then you have the owner who obviously knows his stuff, but has to cater to the locals. I'd like to see this establishment moved nearer or on the strip so it can blossom into what it should be instead of hulled up in a stinky-ass western bar on the outskirts of town.

i had there sampler of beer, wanted to try as many as possible without getting tanked. bought some of there glasses and while waiting for the girl to get them from the back, the bartender asked me what beers i like and gave me 2 free half filled glasses of there ipa's. all in all liked there beer. I didnt like the dog tail wheat beer. but liked there Ipa's and there 38 special, the dog bollucks is a 9% ipa that has great flavor and aroma. If you are a wisconsin fan or a packers fan and live in vegas or out there during football season, you have found a packer backer bar and badger bar.

Things are a lot different now in North Las Vegas than back when Big Dog was on the strip.

Cool place now, but sadly, the beers, the most important thing, are still every bit of predictable as they were ten years ago. Nothing is terrible, nothing is outstanding, everything has that similar vibe going through it.

Service, staff didn't seem too knowledgeworthy. Pushed styles that certainly didn't match whatI described what I was looking for (Irish Red is really hoppy huh?). But she meant well. Food is standard pub food. Worth checking out, but not gonna blow the doors off you or anything.

Edit: dimly lit place is still disappointing ambiance wise, but the beer and walleye tacos are getting better. Bumping up what was all 3 review. Still, if the place wasnt the first stop i could make coming in from up north. . .