Quasi-Restaurant review, Iron Hill Brewery, Wilmington DE

I've never written a real review of a restaurant before. Sarah and I enjoy eating out, and we love to try new places. Now I has a blog, so I thought I would try my hand at reviewing restaurants as we go to them. Here goes.

Iron Hill Brewery is, yes, a brewery, but it is also a restaurant. It is called a "brewpub" on their website. They have seven locations in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Yesterday we went to the location in Wilmington. The first thing you see when you walk into the place is a large room to your right, which contains many large vats. This is where they make their beer. They have year 'round beers and also seasonal beers, all made on the premises. Our waitperson (Meredith) was extremely knowledgeable about the beers, which was very helpful to our friend Adam. Sarah and I don't drink beer, but we did try a seasonal beer, raspberry wheat. Sarah liked it, but i thought it tasted like raspberries that had been out in the sun too long, which I guess isn't far from the truth. This review is spiralling out of control already.

The atmosphere is definitely not pub, it felt more like a lodge to me. I got the same vibes at the restaurants at the Grand Canyon, if that helps. The overpowering scent was some aromatic wood, maybe mesquite? I don't really know. If you've ever been to Trader Vic's (and really, who hasn't, it's very affordable), it smells just like that, but I don't know for sure if they were using a wood burning oven or not, I forgot to ask. Sarah said that the Wilmington location was much fancier than the Newark location, which she had been to previously.

We didn't get any appetizers, but I did get the French Onion soup, which is something I order whenever I can find it. It had Gruyere on top, which was new to me. It's not as elastic as other cheeses I've had on this soup, but also not as salty. There was a very large crouton underneath, and a lot of onions, more so than almost all of the other versions I've had. It had a generous sprinkle of paprika on top, which also was new, and welcome. All in all, it was excellent.

I had the fish and chips for my entree. The best fish and chips I've ever had was at Epcot Center (don't laugh, it's true). This was easily the second best I've ever had. The batter was crisp and the fish was very tender. The menu said the batter was made with a Vienna lager, but you really couldn't tell, which was unfortunate. Maybe it's milder than Budweiser, which is what I used to make beer-batter fish. :) It came with a roughly chopped Cole slaw that had a bit of a kick to it, and not too much dressing, which was very good. We got there around 2:30, and they don't start serving dinner until 5, so maybe that's why there was only one fish fillet. I was a bit sad about this, but then I realized that I had room for dessert, which I'll get to in a minute.

Sarah had the Roast Turkey sandwich; she was very interested in the cranberry walnut mayonnaise, I think. She said it was excellent. Adam had the Portobella Mushroom sandwich, which was the largest portabella mushroom cap I've ever seen. It also had roasted red peppers and provolone, which looked really good. Adam is a vegetarian, and he said that there were plenty of choices for him, but it seemed to me that he was pretty limited in what he could order. he did like the sandwich though.

For dessert I had the bread pudding (it was the special), which was a giant slab of it on a plate with real whipped cream and caramel sauce. Not the best I've ever had, but it was good. Sarah had raspberry sorbet, which you can't really screw up.

Adam had two different beers, the first of which was the House Belgian (if I remember right). He said it tasted a lot like wine. He is a beer aficionado from way back, so I will tend to believe him. He offered it to me to try, but I was a little afraid I would make a face. I think the second one he had was called the Pig Iron Porter, but again, I'm not sure. I'm sure your server would be happy to help you out with your beer choice if you ask, it is a brewery after all.

So in the end the Iron Hill Brewery was a very good experience. It was a little on the pricey side (it averaged out to $25 per person with tip, but that might have been because it was lunchtime, some of the dinner entrees were expensive), but I would definitely try it again. Maybe I would even try a beer next time. Maybe.