Invictus Brewing Company — Restaurant in Blaine

Any other day of the week, and with my previous experiences here, I'd be giving this place a full 5 stars, and it saddens me that that rating has changed because of one employee's poor attitude...

My husband and I absolutely love this place and this has been a go-to place of ours for years now. We've recommended it to anyone coming in from out of town or that had recently moved here, and we'd love to continue to do so.

Last Wednesday afternoon though, I came here with my parents (who live 2.5 hours away), my sister and a family friend visiting from out of the country. I brought along two growlers to be refilled, and my parents brought one from last time they were around. The guy at the bar (maybe mid-30's, blonde hair, backwards cap) was quite rude to my Dad when asking for a growler refill - which surprised me, being this is a brewery. The growler ended up being set at the back counter for a good 20 minutes (untouched), until I came up and also asked for my growlers to be refilled. I asked for refills and he acted the same way - like it was this huge burden to fill growlers at a brewery. At that point, he had finally grabbed my parents growler that was still behind the bar and began to fill the three of them. I was watching him fill them and they were very foamy, poor fills - not even filled to the 64oz line when settled. We paid them - I paid for my two, and called it a day (should not have tipped him but I did lol). Later on, we noticed my parents were apparently charged for two growler refills when they only had one refill. I'm not sure if that's been solved yet, but my mom has reached out to hopefully resolve this. It's difficult now because they live 2.5 hours away...

We've always loved this place and have asked for many refills during significantly busier times of day than a Wednesday afternoon and had no issues or snarky customer service. I'm really hoping this was just a fluke thing and we don't have to run into this again - especially the overcharge. This is our favorite brewery and part of that is because of the great customer service we've received up until now. Hopefully we don't run...

If you’re worried about COVID, don’t eat here. The staff are unmasked and only 2 customers wore masks, me and my husband. No social distancing whatsoever! It’s places like this that keep the COVID virus going!

Update 1/3/22: I stand by my review of my visit on 12/28/21. Everyone who was walking into the restaurant was not wearing a mask and there was NO sign on the door suggesting to do so. When I called earlier, I asked if staff wore masks and was told, only those not vaccinated and that social distancing was practiced between the tables. There were two staff people who wore masks, so I assume they weren’t vaccinated. When we first arrived, it was seat yourself. Two tables were available, but only one was on the end. Only two tables weren’t at maximum capacity, which is 6 people. I had to sit at a table with 4 people hovering over me standing at a high top table behind me, while I tried to visit with my 87 year old mother-in-law who recently broke her hip and suffers from kidney failure. She was the woman in the wheelchair. Needless to say, no staff asked the people at that table to social distance from other tables, so I took my food (uneaten) home. It’s clear who you cater to. I’m just letting those who are cautious and wear masks not to patron this establishment. It didn’t look like you needed my money anyway, with the crowd that was there on a Tuesday night. I can’t imagine what it’s like on a weekend.

Update 1/6/22: Let me be clear, this review is for the Invictus Brewing/Tipsy Steer location in Blaine. Both signs are on the outside of the building and this establishment popped up when I did a search for Tipsy Steer Blaine. How did that happen if you don't share the same space? I don't know, you should talk with Google. If you aren't physically located across the open room from Tipsy Steer, I apologize for this review. But if you're located in the same open space as Tipsy Steer, I still feel this way. BTW, someone contacted me stating that I was lying because my original post said that no one was wearing a mask then my update said two employees. Sir/Madam, that is why I...

"Beer for the unconquerable soul" is etched into the tall pour glasses and is such a great motto for this brewery.

Since being out here, I've spent the vast majority of my time exploring the cities, even though I'm a suburban baby. This was the first time I got a chance to check out a brewery near me and it was wonderful.

The place is huge and and filled with communal seating. While I'm not always a fan of such things, I was lucky enough to grab a seat at the bar. They have a solid selection of pretty easy drinking beers. The Avenger is their flagship, at least as it appeared to me, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The standards were there... IPAs, Stouts, lagers, etc. You can tell these guys aren't up to nonsense because there wasn't any kind of coconut-mango-kittens paw flavored concoction of any kind.

They outsource the food to Tipsy Steer, which I'm assuming is a local restaurant with an outpost inside here. Excellent choices of comforting bar food. I ordered the small Invictus salad & the bang bang shrimp tacos. The salad was surprisingly good. In my yearly quest to eat better, I thought it would be a good idea to at least try. While I'm not normally a fan of nuts, the roasted pine nuts definitely added flavor and texture to the salad. Now on to the real surprise, the delicious bang bang shrimp tacos. Just fantastic flavor and cooked perfectly. So much for my weight loss kick.

I'm thrilled to find a place a mere 10 minute drive from where I stay that I would feel becoming...