Review: Beertown (Waterloo)

There are at least four analogies that I've half-written to sum up my feelings towards Beertown, the glitzy brewpub in Uptown Waterloo and the latest addition to the Charcoal Group's holdings in & around KW.

The Beergarden! (co-starring the California Cheeseburger)

Most of the analogies are positive - it's hard not to like a place that has beers like Innis & Gunn and Maudite on tap, and their burgers are great. Equally so, and somewhat improbably so, is the Beergarden salad. Poached pears, beet strings, radishes, Napa cabbage, craisins, and candied pecans add texture and flavour to one of the most inventive and delicious side salads I've seen in a long while. Moreover, my weakness for terrible puns remains intact.

I liked that their menu caters to a wide variety of beer enthusiasts, which definitely makes Beertown more friendly for groups, not all of whom might be equally passionate about the pub's namesake beverage. Depending on your level of interest, there's a comprehensive book that describes everything on tap, then divides up the bottle list into ales and lagers, and then into subsections (the ale category features fruit ales, dark/brown ales, amber ales, IPAs...); a subtle, helpful "if you liked this, consider that." There's also at least three ciders available, an intriguing list of beer-based cocktails, and a short but robust wine list with a "good-better-best" ranking/pricing system that at once seems oddly honest and eye-roll-inducing.  Regardless, five points for featuring wines from Malivoire, one of my favorite Niagara vineyards!

Tour of Beer & brewery coasters. (Snag the Flying Monkeys'; it's redeemable for a brewery tour!) 

Choosing by not choosing, I went with the Tour of Beer, a sampler paddle of four ales which showcased an interesting mix of ale varieties and flavours, some new and some well-loved (and some, like the Smashbomb IPA by Flying Monkeys, almost too hoppy to drink without the savoury flavours from my burger to mellow it.)   To run with the restaurant-as-student-type analogy, Beertown's definitely One Of The Cool Kids; a football player, perhaps, with a ready smile, a knack for throwing shindigs, the best beer fridge in town, and a weakness for classic rock anthems and the latest indie hits. From Welcome to the Jungle to We Are Young, the music was upbeat and lively, though increasingly auxiliary as the night went on and the conversations got louder.

my Mushroom Burger w/ Swiss cheese, arugula, & truffle mayo

This is the case even if you are, as our table of four was, tucked away in a corner behind the bar. Although the brewpub's ambiance is modern and welcoming, with cool touches ranging from using mini-kegs as seating area dividers to the warm glow of the tungsten lights overhead, several building materials (tin detailing on the roof; tiling) reflect sound instead of absorbing it.  On the upside, we weren't shouting, no voices were lost, and when our food arrived - in a timely fashion especially for a busy Friday - we weren't talking much, digging in to our burgers, salads, and chicken entrees with gusto!  I still have to quirk an eyebrow at their choice of programming - I've never mourned the loss of the NHL season more than the moment of looking up to the flatscreen over my head and seeing Scooby-Doo, not Sidney Crosby.

Service was good; as a newer establishment, there will always be some wrinkles, but they're a hard-working team. S's half-chicken entree with side salad was served as a quarter chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, but our server was quick to bring out the salad once S noted the mix-up, and one of the kitchen staff arrived soon after with the other chicken portion. (Tables seem smaller, so at this point, we were almost out of tabletop, but we made it work, and our server checked in regularly to see if we needed anything or to clear empty glasses.)

As an aside, our hostess pointedly asked if we were celebrating anything - so it's likely worth mentioning to yours, if you are when you visit! A pint on the house, or one of their decadent brownies with a sparkler on top, could be a lovely addition to your night.*

(* = these ideas are conjecture/wishful thinking; no sparklers or free pints were witnessed over the course of our meal.)

It's not a place to go for soulful conversation or a quiet night out; even early in the evening, Beertown's received lots of buzz around town and so is both packed wall-to-wall (with lots of very pretty/handsome folks) and unabashedly loud. But if you're looking for a lively evening with friends and an opportunity to try a couple of new brews, Beertown could definitely be just what you're looking for.

Review: Bhima's Warung

I'll admit to not quite understanding Bhima's Warung for some time - the storefront was quirky, but never drew me in. And so it was, until a coworker-of-sorts told me about how his first reaction to one of their desserts was anger.

Anger, he said, with the kind of smile usually reserved for talking about things like Sherlock on BBC or the band Teenage Fanclub. The gulab jabon, he told me, were beyond decadent. Spice-scented, donut-like morsels drizzled with rose syrup and gold dust, served with a house-made cinnamon-cardamom ice-cream... Anger, because upon his first bite, he knew they wouldn't last long and they were three steps past delicious.

Now I was curious.

So M and I circled our anniversary on the calendar, M scrawling "Bhima's Warung" across the square. We had a date.

We arrived on the late side, closer to 8, smiling back at the friendly hostess and trying not to stare too openly at the open-concept kitchen. I'd love to return and sit at the bar and absorb the goings-on, perhaps with another Castro in hand - not the politician but an enticing cocktail featuring a 7-year-old rum and fresh passion fruit - just to have a different view and perhaps pick up an idea or two.

After yo-yo-ing around the appetizer menu, we dove in blind with the bhima's bocas: an appetizer platter featuring the chef's selections. At just over $40, it's an investment - but oh, was it a wise one.

Good food takes time; the time that the chefs took to prepare the various elements of the platter gave M and I some time to catch up (March has been hectic, and doesn't look to be changing its pace!) That said, the wait was not unreasonable, and when it arrived, the platter required its own table.

A small table, true, but still.

My photo doesn't do it justice - my camera has nearly given up the ghost, and the lighting at Bhima's certainly leans towards "romantic" (that said, ten points for the real orchid sprigs on the tables!)

But back to the food. Everything was tasty, and brought different flavours to the mix. From the earthy tofu, sweet pineapple, and peanutty flavours of the gado gado (which, I decided upon second bite, was scrumptious and should be eaten more often) to the crispy vegetable pakoras and their dynamite spicy tamarind sauce - they're the more spiky entities in the middle of the platter in the picture, and along with their dipping sauce, were one of the standouts - we enjoyed every bite. Even, to my surprise, the freshly shucked oysters. They've never been my seafood of choice, but was willing to give them another try. This likely had something to do with their topping, a cool, compelling blend of ginger, lemongrass, chili, and garlic. I'm glad I did.

A special kudos to the chefs who prepared the dipping sauces; I wish I'd been less hungry when I started so I'd have paid more attention to the distinct elements of the sweet and sour sauce intended for the peanut-encrusted prawns beyond noting that I'd have happily eaten it with a spoon. (KW chefs take their sauces seriously, it seems, and Bhima's is no exception. ...the mango butter, served with a chicken/scallop dumpling is also to live for! From Little Mushroom's 40 Creek BBQ sauce to the blueberry mustard down at 41, I can remember leaving catering events and restaurants alike waxing poetic about sauces. I don't remember having done that before moving here.)

Somehow, we ate our way through the platter, but we're both hearty eaters, it was late, and it was dinner for me; M's hollow leg is the stuff of legend. Portions are large - we'd been eyeing two desserts but could only find room in our collective hollow legs for one.

When she brought our dessert out, I told M the story about my coworker; after our first bites, we agreed: he was absolutely right.

Oddly enough, I found that the ice cream was the standout element for me - cinnamon and cardamom are a heady, sweet-spicy-earthy combination that I'd happily try again. But with at least four other homemade ice cream varieties offered at Bhima's, it might be a while...