Not particularly good, some 'operations' issues

Joined: Sep 17, 2013
Posts: 228
Review of Dongli Brewery
2

I really wanted to like this place because it is in a convenient location to me, much easier than heading across town to Arrow Factory or Jing A.

It actually appears to be an restaurant primarily, rather than a 'brewpub' - we were directed to a table for two and placemats and condiments put in front of us, and I had to explain that we just wanted to drink.

We tried to order two sampler flights of four beers with little success. Half the beers on the menu were "mei you". My mate gave up and just ordered an IPA. I persevered and managed to find four beers that were actually available. It would be helpful, by the way, if places like this just used a chalkboard to show which beers were actually available instead of having an extensive menu of "mei yous". I thought I had finally solved the issue, then the waitress came back with the menu and pointed at one I had ordered and said "zhege - mei you".

My mate's IPA (a British beer, traditionally) arrived in a British style pint glass, but it was far from full to the top and about 20% of the contents of the glass were foam and air. Maybe this is a Chinese-style 'Cha bu duo' IPA - I didn't want to look at the menu again to find out, though. Eventually the flight arrived with an IPA, a wheat beer and two 'Pilsen's that I think were identical. Admittedly the IPA was quite good (7/10). The other beers were just inoffensive.

On a nearby table, 5 hammered locals slept on the table, waking up briefly to talk at 200 decibels and light and half smoke cigarettes (indoors), and no-one seemed to care. This is worth mentioning as it would ruin the ambience for some regular Beijinger readers, but if a place is serving strong alcohol (in annoying and irregular quantities), you've probably got to expect some of that.

They managed to present us with a bill for 6 drinks and a flight at the end of the night (so, 7 items total) which was weird because there were 2 of us who had been matching each other round for round. We asked them to take one of the items off the bill, but they insisted it was ours. The waitresses seemed a bit simple but cute and largely responsive, which is what I generally look for in a woman, so we just paid rather than be a pain.