Ellicottville Brewing West

A gastropub in Fredonia?  This place is great! Great beer and great food. I especially like their Bavarian pretzels and beer cheese. It's crazy good. I also recommend their truffle fries and any of their burgers.

I have been to EBC many times for food and drinks, but my housemates and I went a couple days ago for a going away dinner.

At first, I thought our waiter was new because he was very hesitant with everything he said. However, after a few minutes he seemed to almost warm up and was actually a really friendly guy. I'm still not sure if he was new but he served us well.

Now the beer. I generally like all the beer EBC brews but this time I saw on the menu that they had some beer "guests." Two of the guest beers were from Southern Tier in Jamestown, which happens to be one of my favorite breweries. So I got the Southern Tier LIVE. It's a delicious, citrus-y pale ale that left me wanting five more pints.

Our food came relatively quickly as far as I know (we were playing hangman). I ordered two appetizers, the Pork Flautas and their new "Fresh Cut Yukon Gold French Fries." As soon as I ordered the fries our waiter became overly excited, claiming they were so much better than the old fries. I must say, they are better than the old fries (which I'm pretty sure are just straight cut frozen fries that come in a bag) and I received a heaping plateful. But they were a little soggy. If they were crispy, they would have stolen my heart for sure. Our shy waiter had to mention the fries every single time he walked by our table. Unbeknownst to us, we were getting a history lesson in fresh cut yukon gold potatoes.

I got the Pork Flautas without knowing what they were but I discovered that at EBC they are basically tiny tacos. They came on a slider plate and had a great presentation. The meat was delicious as well as the salsa verde they put on top. After doing a quick Google search, I discovered that the way they serve them is actually much different than a traditional Mexican Flauta, but I certainly approve of the EBC version.

Overall, it was a good experience. If only those fries were crispy..

I don't give many five-star reviews, but Ellicottville Brewing deserves every star. I absolutely love local craft breweries and their foodie-centric restaurants, so I tend to be overly critical about places where I have high expectations, and EBC met and exceeded every single one.

The beer is absolutely amazing. I love flavorful beers that make you smile all the way down, and the Nitro-Stouts at EBC made me grin like an idiot. They were full flavored and very smooth. I am going to long for those beers for quite sometime. They were reasonably priced at $3-5 a pint. The beer alone would earn my patronage, but wait there's more!

The food, and particularly the specials, are absolutely divine. They're priced in an upscale manner, so it's not a place for a cheap bite, but the quality of food that they serve is very high. I enjoyed the Mushroom Ravoli with a roasted chicken breast and artichoke cream sauce. The chicken was moist and the pasta burst with flavor. I'd recommend it to anyone who asks.

EBCis a wonderful restaurant and I would go there again in a heartbeat.