Northwinds Brewpub & Craft Beer Store — Restaurant in The Blue Mountains

So it’s Saturday evening and my girlfriend and I are at Blue Mountains near Collingwood Ontario… we’ve just located the conference centre hosting the film and media festival, and the room where “Four Mothers”, an Irish film that’s just a hoot, is showing, and we’ve got an hour and a half wait! So of course my girlfriend says she’s snackish and wants to go to the Village!

I should have known it was in the plans already! She made a beeline for the Northwinds Brewpub! It was hopping! The very personable host apologized that we’d have a 20 minute wait… unless we wanted to sit in the corner near the bar… I thought my girlfriend was going to hug him!

We barely got seated and the server was next to us with water and paper menus… minutes later we had our salad and a mason jar full of Northwinds’ yummy soft pretzels! The real reason for the adventure, if not the whole evening!

Soft pretzels are described as “Hand-made beer dough, baked, drizzled in butter and rock salt, served with warm cheese sauce and honey mustard ($14)”

The salad was Strawberry Caprese… “arugula and baby spinach with fresh torn basil, marinated strawberries, heirloom cherry tomatoes, cucumber, toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh mozzarella with basil balsamic vinaigrette ($22)”. And while it wasn’t her primary objective, my girlfriend gave it a 10 out of 10! As well as the service and atmosphere!

The rest of the menu looked delicious, but we were there only for “snacks” before the movie.

Now for a bit of full disclosure… this review wasn’t created by some AI robot, two very real humans were involved… but I do have a connection with Northwinds, and while I was dragged there unknowingly by my girlfriend, I do need to inform you that I’ve worked as a prep cook, primarily prepping pizza dough and, yes, soft pretzels, at the Collingwood location of Northwinds. Other than a brief stint of mopping floors and washing toilets at 4:00AM, this was my first time at Northwinds Blue Mountains. And I’m pretty sure it was my first time having the soft pretzels off the menu! I’ve prepared and baked thousands, and snacked on my fair share as they came out of the oven, and they’re irresistible! But when they’re served drizzled in butter and rock salt, well, it’s a whole other level of irresistible! And by the way, my preference is for the honey...

We needed to warm up and grab lunch after walking around the village for a bit. We had to add our name to a waiting list, but to me, that’s a good sign that it might be worth the wait… especially when many of the other restaurants were not busy at all! She told us it would be about 20 minutes but we heard back within 10 minutes; awesome!

I liked that they have a texting system to let you know when your table is ready. This allows you to keep walking around if you have time or at the very least wait outside to enjoy the surroundings until your table is ready. Once you receive your text, you have 10 minutes to arrive to the restaurant before your table is given to someone else.

We had their coffee and their Niagara Rose Gold Cider. Both were really good!

Although there was a lot of people in the restaurant, the noise was quite tolerable. They played really good music and the views of the ski hills was an added bonus.

After looking at the menu online, we decided on the Beef Tacos, the Smashed Burger, and the Smoked Beet Salad with Bacon.

The beef in the tacos was extremely tender. There was also a generous amount of beef. The tacos were very juicy between the beef and sauces… it wasn’t pretty to eat but oh my they were delicious.

The Smash burger with fries was a filling meal. This burger is made of two juicy Wagyu patties: delish! The fries were perfectly cooked and seasoned. Good til the last bite.

The Smoked Beet Salad was, visually, a work of art. It was a beautiful plate! Both the beets and bacon were smoked which gave a different taste and may not be for everyone. Because the beets were smoked, they didn’t have a lot of taste but nevertheless they worked well with the rest of the ingredients.

I would most certainly try this place again in warmer months when we can eat on their patio. They are currently building a huge extension off of their current patio which overlooks the pond and the mountain, that will be the place to be...

If there is a negative option I would select that. I am not sure if it's post COVID, services are definitely going downhill.

I arrived requesting a table of 3. A teenage-like girl took me to a seat with high table which is considered as inconvenient for my son. Right next to it there is a booth available so I asked if I can wait for it to be cleaned. She agreed. Then I went back to the front. Next thing you know they took someone in to the booth. So then I expressed the arrangement to another teenager like girl at the front. And her attitude was what really set off the fire. She basically gave me a cold shoulder and said "it is what it is , it's first come first serve, there is other table if you want." Then I asked could you please communicate with the other girl. Then she came out and both accused me that I left the restaurant. I really wish they have a security camera handy to verify my existence inside the restaurant before accusing me. The issue I have is their attitude. No apologies, cold shoulders, don't care. Then I asked for the manager. This is even funnier, he was right behind me which I stood in front of him at all time. All these young adults then gathered a total of 5 basically said I was over reacting. Omg with this kind of service I would never come back to this place and clearly they do not care about customers. How unprofessional! Food is mediocre overrated anyways. If I want a beer there are other choices. If you want to have a good time during your vacation, you should not come here....