Otaru Bine

donnebaby

North Carolina

3.88/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3.5

The Otaru Bine is the in-town brewpub/wine bar/restaurant for Otaru Wine--and Otaru Winery Beer, based in Asari, a nearby onsen resort area in the mountains.

In addition to having usually 2 of the 3 Otaru Winery bottled beers on-tap, they usually also have an additional beer on-tap that they don't bottle. When I was there, it was a pilsener, which was pretty good.

The location is excellent, in between the Otaru train station and the Otaru Canal in an historic stone building. Once inside, the atmosphere falls off a bit into a psuedo/try-hard image of a "Bavarian" bar. Characterless furniture and adornments (and flags of course) abound. The bar area shows good-looking wine vats and barrels, but didn't seem to be really used.

The food is basic Japanese fare, with a few sausages, etc. I had the lunch special, which was a good deal I thought.

The wait staff is very attentive, and I found the service excellent.

The adjoining store sells Otaru Winery Beer in both normal bottle sizes as weel as in bizarre-looking growlers. Prepare to cough up over $20 for one of those though..

Worth a quick stop if in Otaru I think--and far more accessible than the winery. However, if you goto the winery up in the hills, they'll provide you with all of their beers for free and give a tour (none in English) of the small brewery (the concentration is really wine).

06-22-2004 13:41:53 | More by donnebaby