Barnstormer Brewing Co. Brewpub Restaurant — Restaurant in Barrie

I’m not sure how you can host a home brewers competition with the first line saying “there will be prizing given to each category winner as a result of generous sponsor donations”. Multiple sponsors reached out and asked what they could donate with no response. Others donated. The brew competition scheduled for April 15 2018 was delayed due to weather which is understandable. A month went by before a communication was sent. Keep in mind people paid a small fee to enter. Finally the competition happened. I won a category as did others and no communication was sent about picking up a “prize”. I had to email that simple question on May 31 2018 as I received the results for the competition on May 28 2018 that happened on May 27 2018 but no mention of prizes. After I sent 3 more emails due to a lack of response I finally received an email saying “I have been informed that Barnstormer was unable to receive sponsorship items from all of the sponsors listed on the website. We tried to follow up and contact the various sponsors but, in the end, only obtained sponsorship items from The Beer Store and Home Brew. As a result, prizes are solely awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall, as well as 1st in the BJCP Best of Show category. We apologize for the unfortunate circumstances.” Which we know is not true as prizes were dropped off in person and Barnstormers never got back to others. The least you could have done as a responsible/respectable business is offered a small gift card or even a pint. Instead you chose to deflect the blame to others even though it was a lie. I have all the email communications, my receipt, my lack of prize threads from brew clubs regarding lack of communication etc. It’s extremely hard to do for a local business, but you managed to piss off people on a national level without gaining a sale. You took in prizes from sponsors and instead of awarding them, I’m not sure what you did but appears it could be called fraudulent. Attached are images of the emails including my responses. It should be noted others in the GTA brews discussion on facebook said the same thing. Unfortunately they deleted my review on...

We came here to have a beer and grab a quick bite to eat while we waited for our dog to be ready for pickup at the vet.

The beer was pretty good, and they had a nice variety. Service was attentive and very friendly.

The reason for the 2 star rating was the food. We ordered Irish nachos to share and they were 80% inedible. For anyone who's had Irish nachos in the past, you typically expect very thinly sliced potatoes. Our nachos had thinly sliced potatoes on the very top but had thicker pre-cut ridged potatoes for the bottom 80% (known as dollar chips in some pubs). The dollar chips were rock hard and it was physically impossible to bite through them. Not just a little hard or tough but actually impossible to bite through. The rest of the dish was stone cold and very underwhelming. I'm almost certain that this was mostly a day old dish that was reheated and served to us with a few of the thinly sliced fried potatoes added on top.

By far the worst food order I've ever experienced in my entire life.

I complained to the waitress who remarked that she's never seen the dollar chips on this dish before (essentially confirming this is old food that was reheated and re-used). She said she'd discount the order. I expected that she'd remove the nachos from our bill given we only ate 20% and it was completely inedible but they decided to only discount 50%. $9 for maybe a dozen thinly sliced fried potatoes, cold partially unmelted cheese, and cold dry chicken. Horrible.

Long story short, come here for a pint but for your own safety, do not...

I make a point of visiting a craft brewery in every new town/city that I visit but after frequenting Flying Monkeys every time I’m in Barrie, I thought I’d try something different and oh man, was I glad I did!

The Hurricane Hunter Double IPA was probably one of the most sessionable Double IPA’s I’ve ever tried: fruity, light on bitterness but still packing a punch at over 7%! So good I bought a growler of it!

The food was some of the best I’ve eaten since moving to Canada over 3 years ago! The fried Brussels sprouts were amazing, a generous portion coated in a hoisin sauce that made them extremely addictive. But the main draw was the Haddock and Chips: a succulent piece of haddock, deep fried in Miss Vickie’s Salt and Vinegar chips, genius! It was absolutely delicious and will be a recipe I’ll be stealing for home cooking! Their ‘Spitfire’ hot sauce is some of the best I’ve ever tried too, I loved it so much that Dani, our awesome server managed to give me a free bottle!

To top off our perfect meal, was one of the best bar musicians I’ve heard in a very long time (and I work at a bar with live music in downtown Toronto!) his name was Tim Ronan, he did a great job pumping up the crowd and was an absolute genius on the guitar - loved the part where he was playing ‘Guess The TV Theme Tune’!

All in all, it was a fantastic dining experience and I’ll be back sooner rather than later to get my growler refilled...probably stay for a bite to eat too!

What is it with Barrie and having fantastic...