Hakodate Beer — Restaurant in Hakodate

Such a nice building from the outside. A red brick structure reminiscent of the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse buildings just down the road. But inside… oh wow, what a dog’s breakfast. It was straight out of the 1980’s, all a mess of bar seating tables, unused fire pit, stacked chairs, baby chairs and boxes, and a second floor that all but obliterated the promise of soaring ceilings that we had imagined from the outside.

The beer was not to our liking (but that’s just personal taste). What was not okay was the price. The tastings (for less that 500ml of beer) was ¥1,760. That in a town where a half litre of beer will cost you ¥500. Only ordered one item of food, and it was significantly smaller portion that shown on the menu. However, my mate was very pleased with the taste.

Ordering was done by a tablet, and it worked well. It was one of the better systems...

Visited the brewery after a day of sightseeing. Ordered the "injection beef," a beer taster flight, squash/pumpkin fries, and beer flavored soft cream (not pictured). The food was a little bland but still good. Also, the butter added to the steak and fries didn't do much to elevate either dish. The beer was on par with other micro brews I've had in Japan. The beer soft cream was interesting, but I much prefer the flavor of plain milk soft cream.

This rating was saved by the two women singing on stage and the complimentary dehydrated or freeze-dried corn. The singers were entertaining and interacted with diners. The corn...it caught me my surprise how good that was. Luckily, the brewery sold the corn in small plastic packets at their register. Overall, the food was ok, and the service was quick. Thanks for the entertainment...

The beer and ambiance were great, true to its name, 'Hakodate Beer.' However, everything else was rather disappointing. The food was bad, and none of the dishes we ordered were even close to being good. The food was extremely salty, as though the chef had dumped an entire jar of salt into it. The diced steak was very salty, and the seafood linguine was even saltier—so much so that we couldn't take a second bite. The French fries were also incredibly salty; even after shaking off the salt, they were still too salty.

On the positive side, they had a live band, BEAR&OWL, who were awesome and truly the saving grace of the evening. The beer was excellent, and we enjoyed a variety of Hakodate’s...