It’s very well established that I am a sucker for breweries with animal names (even if those animals are extinct…how amazing would it have been to see a Dodo bird? Sadly, my husband soundly and with good reason rejected my request to buy a stuffed Dodo to add to the wildlife collection of stuffed animals we/I seem to be accumulating in our condo).
Back to the regularly scheduled post…
Almost. What is cuter than a flying…Dodo bird…?! And the Flying Dodo is one of the few craft breweries on the island of Mauritius. So we were super excited to head to Flying Dodo to check out what they had to offer around lunch time one day.
For the second part of our stay on Mauritius, we stayed at the Westin Turtle Bay, which is on the northwest coast of the island. Bagatalle (close-ish to Port Louis) is about a 30 minute drive, depending of course on traffic. Which can be quite bad. Not DC bad, but on a 2-lane interstate, bad enough to spend an hour stuck in traffic, as we learned on our way up to Turtle Bay.
Coming from the pretty undeveloped southwestern tip of Mauritius (where we stayed at the beautiful St. Regis), Bagatelle and Port Louis are significantly more developed and reminds you of a normal bustling city. Flying Dodo is located in a huge shopping center/mall, the first we’d seen in Mauritius. If you need anything, this would be a good place to go to find it. Flying Dodo is located at an outer corner of the mall, and does do on-site brewing.
We arrived early for lunch (since we are early eaters), and while we couldn’t yet order food they happily seated us outside for some beer tastings. Despite the fact that nearly everything in Mauritius is expensive, a flight of beer was about $12, which is pretty comparable to what we’d pay in many places in the States.
And the beer was good. Really good.
We did a full flight (6 tastings) from our choices on the menu. Two blonds, a red ale, a stout, and I believe a sour. They came out in the order in which they should be tasted. The traditional Flying Dodo blond as well as the old style Belgian wit were two of our favorites, though the stout didn’t disappoint either! If you are staying in the area, they also offer 1-L refillable bottles and 5L mini-kegs.
Now, in addition to beer, the Flying Dodo has a great lunch menu, including some excellent pizza! I mean, beer + pizza? Who can refuse.
Since we were in the middle of the ocean on a tropical island, we opted for the seafood pizza, which came complete with a giant (monstrously sized) shrimp and mussels. It was a great addition to a pint of the old style Belgian wit.
Since we were car-less at the hotel, we opted to take a hotel-hired car to and from Bagatelle, which was about $40. Hiring cars isn’t cheap on Mauritius, but neither one of us was really gung-ho about driving in traffic on vacation. Points for relaxing.
I’m not sure how popular Flying Dodo is with travelers–I think many stay in their resorts and don’t spend much time exploring the island. There were a lot of expats and business people from the Bagatelle area who filled up the restaurant for lunch, so we were glad that we got there early enough to get a jump on things. Our server was super knowledgeable and helpful. They also offer free brewery tours (we didn’t do that–we’ve been on a lot of brewery tours and were more interested in tasting…and eating).
All in all, if you are passing through Bagatelle or looking to get away from your resort in Mauritius (or there on business…if only I could be so lucky), Flying Dodo is definitely worth a stop!
You can find the brewery online (they have another restaurant in Port Louis too, called Lambic) at www.flyingdodo.com.
