Godspeed Brewery — Restaurant in Toronto

I... truly don't know how to explain my experiences here. I've been twice, once many years ago (maybe 5?), and again more recently and I just don't know what it is.

My first visit was very lacklustre and I said I would never go back. The beers were very pricey considering what you got, and just simply didn't taste good. I remember just having one and we were all like, "Okay, meh. Let's go somewhere else." Back then they were truly leaning into the (fake, pretentious) Japanese angle of everything and the food was absolutely mediocre at best too, and extremely expensive Japanese-style snacks. But they were newer, and I thought it was maybe just growing pains.

But I tried again more recently with a friend only to see that barely anything has changed in my overall impression of the place. Still the same disappointing beers which actually surprised me as I thought they would have developed and gotten better over time. And it's one the only breweries I can think of in the east end that doesn't do flights, which I think is crazy for any brewery. The point is to try out small amounts of all sorts of different beers, not pay $10+tax=tip for a half-litre beer I may not even like, and then $10+tax+tip for the next one, etc. I can do that at the LCBO without the tip. If you are a brewery and have them all on tap, why not offer flights? I just simply don't understand the deal here. I don't want that much of a single beer at a brewery, unless it's after I've had a flight and picked one I actually like.

And the food just screams identity crisis. Why does a "Japanese"-style brewery have Belgian/Czech/Bavarian food? It makes no sense. Sure, beer and greasy food is great together. But you're making Japanese-inspired beers (allegedly), with delicate flavours like green tea and yuzu. What's the point if a greasy burger or fatty fries are just going to destroy any nuance of the beer? But then again, a lot of their beers seem to have shifted from Japanese inspired ingredients over to basic European styles. We ended up leaving and going to another brewery, again.

What a shame. I can get a better Yuzu beer down on Queen. The Japanese thing was all Godspeed had going for it to differentiate itself from any number of craft breweries in Toronto. Now, it's just a regular brewery with an identity crisis and mediocre (at best) beer.

And the service left A LOT to be desired. Very inattentive. Maybe if anything had been positive about my second visit, it wouldn't have felt like such a letdown overall, but honestly? Nothing...

I went today really excited to have an amazing beer experience in a beautiful place.

However things got a bit strange regarding the service.

I am a visible minority and noticed everyone else getting table service, being checked on, and paying their bills at their table.

At first I was being checked on, but then it was like they forgot I was there.

I waited for over 30 mins while seeing other tables being waited on, asked if they wanted to pay their bills, and how they are doing.

My server who I later learned was in training was initially lovely, but kind of disappeared. I tried to make eye contact with staff and I noticed servers avoiding to acknowledge me.

After when I spoke to the management I was told it was bar service, which is absolutely fine if that truly was happening, but it was not.

People were being asked if they wanted to pay their bills around me minutes before I asked what was going on and what made things worse is when I brought up, "Hey I am a visible minority here, so it might just be a mistake but its concerning that everyone else is getting table service and I am not" to a lot of defensiveness and arguing by white staff.

I am fine with bar service, mistakes happen, but its helpful to be consistent in your service with all customers present and communicative of what the service will be and to stick to it.

I am someone who doesn't like making a big deal or writing negative reviews. I hope this was a misunderstanding or a bad experience based on miscommunication.

Considering this brewery is in little India it would maybe make sense to try to be more welcoming, inclusive, and kind to folks from the community in the area you are making your home.

I notice I am the second person who has made a similar review who also seems to be South Asian. This is something worth checking into as it seems to becoming a pattern.

*edit: I am going to raise my review from 2 stars to 3 because I really want all local places to do well, but I hope if I ever go there again things...

While the beer was great, the service was terrible.

We got to Godspeed Brewery around 5pm last night with a few friends and while the server was not rude, he definitely set a weird tone throughout our experience. When he got to our table he grabbed my friends tea drink off the table without saying a word and just started inspecting it which kinda just felt awkward and strange. What really gave us such a bad experience is that we had asked if we could do half pours instead of full pints because we all wanted to try a few different ones. After he agreed that he could do half pours, I asked what the price would be and if they were literally half the price of a full pint which was 8.5. He said yes they were just half the price of a pint so we kept ordering half pints our whole time there. However, when we got the bill, we noticed that the half pints were priced at 6.5 and not the 4.25 we were anticipating. When I asked about this, he said that he thought I was asking if a half pour was half of the 400ml pour, even though i specifically specified the price. If we knew the price of the half pour was going to be substantially more than a full pour we all would’ve just stuck to a pint, especially the guy who got 2 half pours of the same beer. He didn’t try to resolve this after the fact instead just chocking it up to a miscommunication. My issue is that why should we have to be responsible for the mistake that he made? Although I know some breweries charge a bit more for half pints relative to a full pint, it’s unfair to tell a customer one price and then charge them for a different amount. I was impressed with the beer, but the service left a bad taste...