Torun – BAZA Craft Beer & Ramen
This craft beer and ramen bar is operated by Deer Bear brewery, which was founded in the city in 2015 and has been developing a rather good reputation.
The bar area on the ground floor, although there’s another bar downstairs for when it’s busier. The ordering process is a little muddled, some customers ordered at the bar and there was table service for others. The service was always friendly though, it was a low-key and informal atmosphere which was always welcoming.
The interior, which was busier early on during my visit, which has a contemporary feel, whilst keeping the historic elements of the building.
The beer list, this is clearly presented and well curated.
The large beer is the Willy Tonka from Browar Monsters, which is a beer I had last week in Gdansk and it’s one I liked. But that isn’t the star of this little story, it’s the small beer, which I deliberately ordered as a smaller measure because it’s 10% ABV. It’s brewed by Deer Bear themselves and is the Candy Shop Nut Cake imperial stout. This is liquid gold, or liquid coconut and coffee, with the sweetness of something sugary and delicious. A whole level of tastes, initial sweet flavours of vanilla and coconut, whilst an aftertaste of nut and chocolate. It’s beautifully rich, so even a small sip packs a considerable amount of flavour in one go, it even smells slightly sweet and I wouldn’t have guessed at how much strength it had. Insanely good.
Overall, I found this place a little muddled though, I don’t know what the ramen element is doing here as they have perhaps one of the best bars I’ve visited in Poland. The reviews for their ramen are mixed, so they’re perhaps going to get caught up being an average ramen restaurant rather than the brilliant bar that they deserve to be. I can understand that they wanted a concept that was different and unique, but I’m unsure why they haven’t pushed their bar credentials first and offered food as a second priority. Their reviews probably don’t help them, they’re primarily about the food and that means people aren’t talking about their excellent beer. They’re currently rated 173rd in the city on TripAdvisor, which is nearly bottom in Torun, and they deserve to be much higher than that….
