Sherman's Food Adventures: Big River Brewing Co. (Richmond)

Big River Brewing Co. (Richmond)

All the warning signs were there...  Bad reviews on Urbanspoon, Yelp and whatever else one could read on the internet... But with one push of a button, I bought a Groupon for Big River Brewing Co. in Richmond.  Why the insanity?  Well, it was due in part to convenience as I was going to watch Penguins of Madagascar at Riverport anyways.  Secondly, my curiousity sometimes gets the best of me.  But most important of all, I wanted to save $48.00 despite the great potential for bad eats.  Shame on me...

To begin, we got an order of Salt & Pepper Wings and Hot Wings each.  Firmly crispy on the outside while still surprisingly moist on the inside, the salt & pepper wings should've been named naked wings.  It was as if they forgot to seasoned them. They were super bland where even the dip didn't help.  The hot wings were better due to the toss in hot sauce.  In that sense, these were decent since the meat was not dry (like the salt & pepper wings).  Being a brew pub, I got a pint of the Pale Ale and it was on the lighter side and hoppy.  It was okay and of course it went well with the wings.

My son ended up with the Big River Classic Burger with bacon, cheddar and all the fixins'.  If you look at the picture, you will see the most pathetic mass of bacon on top of the patty and cheese.  The humanity!  This garbled up and undercooked (as in not crispy at all) bacon was so hard to eat, my son choked on the gristle and had to spit it out.  As for the burger patty, it was dense and overly smoky in flavour.  Viv decided on the Blackened Cod Tacos with guacamole, lime cumin slaw, pea shoots and fresh lime.  The fish was indeed smoky and seasoned, however, one piece was pretty overdone while the other was decent.  The tacos were okay but the huge soft tortilla was hard to handle with things falling out constantly.  Also, the pea shoots didn't seem to go with the mix of ingredients.

My daughter had the kid's meal consisting of Chicken Strips and Fries.  Nothing much to comment about the Sysco/GFS-type chicken strips other than they were crispy and a bit dry in the middle.  As for the fries, they were horrible.  They were undercooked where the potato was dense and unappealing.  Also, there was enough residual grease to moisturize her dry hands.  For myself, I had the 8 oz. Striploin Steak Teriyaki with rice pilaf and pan-fried veggies.  I asked for medium-rare and it done to my liking.  I liked the aggressive char, but for some reason, they managed to make a potentially flavourful steak completely bland.  I had to resort to using salt.  Soggy and also tasteless, I ignored the rice while the veggies were doused in a offending amount of oil.  Uh...  Yah...  Serves me right for buying that Groupon...  Food is no good and especially for the price (even the discounted price, heaven forbid the people who paid in full).  Lastly, we found the service friendly enough, but highly inefficient and unattentive.

The Good:
- Um, its location for people at the bowling alley and/or theatre?
- People who want craft beer?

The Bad:
- Food is no good
- Service is inattentive (but friendly enough)
- Expensive for what you get

Big River Brew Pub on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

SL said...

Yes. No idea how this place is still open. Not worth the groupon at all! I remember back in the day, people actually waited in line to eat here!

chanman said...

Haven't been there in years. Last time, our fries were cold and the beer(!) was flat.

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