Bar Lupulus — Restaurant in Ottawa

Extensive beer menu with many unique beers bottled and on tap. Bartenders are friendly and knowledgeable about their drink menu. The cocktails are good but not exceptional. The food is also good, but not exceptional. I was thrilled to see some of the ingredients on their menu, but was underwhelmed by their preparation. For example, the rigatoni featured lion's mane and hen of the woods mushrooms (two mushroom varieties that are delicious and hard to come by), but the stock used to make the sauce overpowered the mushrooms (and other more delicate ingredients in the dish such as pattypan squash). The rigatoni was homemade and half the noodles were perfectly el dente while the other half were soft (strange?). The dish wasn't bad (it still tasted quite nice), but it was a let down from what I was expecting given the quality of the ingredients in it. My partner's emu tartare was beautifully prepared (stunning presentation) and several of the dish's featured were beautiful additions (such as the delicately pickled blueberries- sounds nasty, but tasted lovely and was a wonderful complement). However the tartare wasn't served with a traditional accompaniment such as bread, so it was like eating a hunk of raw meat. I also ordered a new menu item that featured sunchokes prepared in different ways with raisins, Israeli couscous, orange, and local honey. The fried sunchokes were exceptional as was the sunchoke puree. The dish also featured a "leatherized" roasted onion strip, which sat on the plate and atop which the main was served. This reminded me in look and texture of a savory fruit rollup. I was initially skeptical, but the flavour was lovely and complemented the dish wonderfully. However, it was extremely difficult to cut and I had to borrow my partner's steak knife to get through it (would have been best served in pre-cut rounds to avoid this). Overall, the flavours in this dish were wonderful, but trying to eat it was a challenge. The espresso had no crema when served, but the sous vide chamomile cheesecake (they sous vide a cheesecake?!) was actually quite lovely. The overall experience was quite good, but lacked the warmth in service that I would hope for at this...

Follow my food blog on Instagram for restaurant reviews: @mimi.munches! 💖

I want to share my favourite spot in @wellington_west with you guys! ❤️Every time I've been to @bar_lupulus , it has blown me away. Each time I've gone, I've also had amazing company too! 🥰The interiors are seriously cozy, the food is DELICIOUS, the service is excellent, and what's most unique to me is that they offer 4oz sizes drafts of a TON of beers/ciders - I can sample a huge variety at a reasonable price! . I went with my friend @lusiisun and we had an amazing time. She took this awesome photo 📸! My stomach always hurts from laughing with you! ☺️

The drinks 🍺 I tried this time were: Nanaimo Imperial Stout - Double Pastry Stout with Toasted Coconut (10% ABV!), from @bellwoodsbeer WHOA. This stout was SMOOTH. I love coconut 🥥 . Zhuzh (Strawberry) - Strawberry 🍓 Farmhous Ale (3.2% ABV), @matronfinebeer . Funkhaus Cider (7% ABV) - from @farmgatecider . Vines (No. 6) - American Wild Ale w/Chardonnay (9.3% ABV), from Bellwoods Brewery . In my opinion, the best appetizer to have with any drinks is a charcuterie board - theirs has crackers, pickles, and preserves, and meats and cheeses are $8 each! We chose: Meats :🍖 Cured trout (elderflower) Smoked duck proscuitto (sumac/lightly smoked) . Cheeses: 🧀 Beau's Abbey (semi-soft beer washed abbey style cheese) Amazing Grey (hard goat's milk cheese) . For mains, these are the dishes we tried: . Charcoal Grilled Octopus 🐙(amarosa potatoes, baby leeks, green romesco, wild rose, vinaigrette, field sorrel, hazelnut) $26 (The octopus was so tender)! . Slow Roasted Lamb 🐑(miso glazed lamb, "creamed" sweet corn, black garlic salsa, sour corn, crispy garlic) $28 (I thought I would like the octopus more, but I was blown away by how tender the meat was here! We both found the sweet corn went really well with the lamb). . The only thing I would change is to reserve early and try to get a seat on their backyard patio, that I've been wanting to try forever 🥺; but I think that'll have to wait...

Used to really enjoy going here. It was always a fun experience with great food and extensive beer and cocktail list. Unfortunately I have to leave this review as they continue to discriminate against their guests on vaccination status. I cannot encourage or support this kind of divisive and stigmatizing behavior. Whether you have zero, two, or three shots we all need to respect each others personal medical choices and understand what may be a good choice for some might not be for others.

Under the guise of science and safety this establishment requires guests to have two out of the three doses in order to be welcomed here which conflicts with the reasoning behind their decision. By this logic, if they want to provide a safe environment for their guests they should be asking for proof of booster or antibodies test or subject guests to a body fat measurement, all of which are ridiculous and unnecessary but would be far more effective than ensuring two Pfizer shots.

Regardless of transmission and Ct values (which many studies show no statistical significance between classes) this is unjust discrimination. People don't deserve to be punished over refusing a shot that; isn't 100% safe, doesn't stop the spread, doesn't prevent people from getting sick, and isn't needed to keep healthy people out of the hospital.

If I'm vaccinated and for whatever reason fear another guest because they might be unvaccinated perhaps I shouldn't be in a "high risk" environment. If anything this policy just introduces guests to a false sense of security if they haven't already been infected.

We need to learn to live with risk and be rational about our fears. We are not living in 2020 anymore. 2022 is a very different environment and people need to let go of and accept what might have been true in the past isn't true in the present.

I would love to forgive and support this restaurant again but it may be hard.

Edit: Spoke with the owner and the policy has been dropped since I...