First off, let me say that I love Hough's as a beer bar. Best in the city I've found in two years of living here. However, they recently changed their food menu when they hired a chef and while the food was average to good with big portions before, it is now completely unimpressive with smaller portions for the same price. I had the mesquite chicken sandwich and it was supposed to be smoked but actually only tasted like grilled chicken with barbecue sauce and cole slaw on it. I can make it better at home. My girlfriend had the Reuben. This used to be one of their best. Tons of nice pieces of corned beef on huge rye bread. Now it comes on a sickly pumpernickel roll with a quarter of the meat. I've also had the nachos which are a quarter of the size as before for the same price and the new black bean dip which is not worth the 8 dollars.
The saving grace food wise at Hough's are the wings. They are still quite good. Wednesday is wing night for 50 cents a wing but the special is eat in only. No taking dinner home for a nice price. Hough's needs to get back to it's roots and be a great neighborhood bar with good pub grub. The menu had been getting stale but the change they made was too extreme.
My rating is for the beer and the awesome bartenders only. Food is one star now. I can't give a higher rating until they change the food menu back our into something different. The new chef did the classic Food Network revamp of a kitchen and screwed it up bad. Please change Hough's, I've noticed less people in the bar the two times I was there this week. I hope this doesn't ruin what was a good thing.