Microbrasserie Archibald

May 3, 2007
Établissement visité le vendredi 27 avril vers 11h30. Ambiance: On à l’impression d’entrer dans un gros chalet (Mur de pierre, présence de grosse poutre et de panache au plafond). Plein de télévision branchée sur RDS et musique rock en sourdine. Service: On m’a expliqué le menu du jour ainsi que le choix des bières maisons. Sélection: Tout ce qui a de plus classique... blonde, blanche, rousse et noire. Nourriture: Menu une coche au dessus des menus de type pub. J’ai pris un plat du jour. En entrée, il avait une salade de verdure et de saucisses. Le plat principal était de succulents cannelonis aux crabes des neige et le dessert était un gros carré aux dattes. (43e rating d’établissement).

October 10, 2005
Very big and flashy, and last night was Oktoberfest in full regalia, lederhosen et al...! Beer was from marginal to decent. The food menu is, however, the saving grace of this place (they maybe changed the chef too...;)). Had the Pizza Suisse, with swiss cheese, viande des grisons, and wild mushroom...excellent. Very friendly...and pretty...staff (hey, I have a weakness for QC City ladies).

August 24, 2005
A very stylish log-cabin brewpub - this is supposed to be in a ski district - well that is hard to tell in the scorching summer heat. A mainstream brewpub living off the hype of homebrewed beer - the 5 beers they had on were average. Staff friendly, but knew little of the beers.

July 29, 2005
Funny looking place. Pretentious and with a few surprises, though very clean and expensive. Large terrace with those annoying mirror-tables that reflect the sun in the face. Uninspiring beers and selection. Friendly service, though not very knowledgeable. An event come through place.

July 22, 2005
Stylish-from-a-kit sort of place...all polish and brand-new wood. Needs to be lived in a bit more but that will take decades. Service was good, though clearly they weren’t sure what to make of us. Didn’t go with any food. The beers were fairly well-made but quite dull. Typical blanche, blonde, rousse et noir lineup, though.

July 17, 2005
Ski lodge type atmosphere is big on flash. Lots of polished stone surfaces. Large bright terrasse with fire pits for the evening. Friendly attractive servers were efficient. Unfortunately, so far this seems to be style before substance. Going down the stairs, does offer a nice view into the brewery on the way to the toilets. Food appeared quite pricey for what was on offer and considering the previous review, I’m happy to have passed it up. Five beers on tap were fair at best and considering the brewer was busy showing a Budweiser rep around, I wonder how serious they are about the brewing.

July 3, 2005
Just opened a few weeks ago. Decor is of a faux ski lodge, lots of money has been invested, stainless steel shines everywhere, as does the wood panelling and the suntans of patrons and personnel who are proud to show it off. This seems like it’s the kind of place where attention-hungry people like to be seen, or at least that was my first impression when I got in. It remained throughout the dinner. Food was as tasteless as can be, luckily there was some pancetta and some black olives in what I had ordered, you can’t really make those tasteless even if you try hard. Everything we ordered in our party of four was vapid, without any inspiration, seemingly mass-produced. We ordered beers as soon as we were approached by our waiter, which we got a few minutes later...WITH THE FOOD!?!? Everything was slammed in front of us, obviously prepared in huge batches already laid out in the kitchen. No time to taste the beers, the aromas of watery, overcooked pasta and vinaigrette-less salads were hovering atop and around the beers. I’ve seen fast service before, but this was drive-thru fast. Ridiculous. The beers were as uninspired as the food, at least the IPA and Rousse were, the stout and pilsner being okay for someone being introduced to something with a different name than the local macros. Definitely not my kind of place, definitely not what the beer traveller looks for.