Monica the Food Critic

OK, so my current job is not food critic, but it certainly doesn't stop me from trying.....and from what I remember being told as a kid, I can be anything I put my mind to. I tried food critic this week, and here is my review of Duggan's Brewery, at lunch, over a bottle of wine:

• Let's start with the physical location, something about a brewery is always appealing, even if you are not drinking beer.....so it had that going for it. Clean and simple approach without that annoying modernistic look that is never comfortable and almost always clinical feeling.

• To start we ordered a bottle of wine, and not only did the server open the bottle at the bar before bringing it to our table for inspection, it was the wrong bottle. This was the first indication of the kind of server we were dealing with, nice enough but not detail oriented.....and slow at best. Luckily we are fairly patience, especially after the correct bottle of wine was brought to our table. (Mission Hill, Pinot Noir.....not bad)

• Duck Poutine- nice flavour as duck should provide, and pretty good poutine, as far as Toronto goes anyhow.

• Curry Poutine- very much a standard protocol, The Flatiron pub's curry poutine is arguably better, and just a block or 2 south of this place if you are craving a curry poutine.

• Onion Rings- good enough if you are craving onion rings, nothing special about them and be warned, the 'ketchup' is more of a bbq sauce, no thanks.

• Beet Salad- I was very excited to see yet another restaurant embracing the fabulousness that beet's offer, however when this salad was served my first thought was "Where are the beets?", and even upon discovering them underneath the standard green salad I wasn't too impressed, sadly, as anything with beets is usually top of my list.

• Beef Rib Dinner- by far the best thing we sampled that day, and worth going back for! The beef was incredible, tender and deliciously spiced in a jerk seasoning. The ribs sat on top of mashed potatoes that had red peppers cooked in with them, giving them a unique and delightful flavour, and to the side were a few spears of perfectly cooked asparagus (still a bit crunchy). Did I mention, this was an amazing dish? It was!

• Lamb Dinner- very different than the beef rib dinner, I hope I never have to eat something as bland as this was again. Again, against the odds, since lamb is almost always a sure thing for me. This was cooked well enough to fall off the bone, but it was fatty and flavourless. It sat atop some couscous that wasn't all properly cooked. The dollup of spicy sauce on top of the lamb was the best part of this dish.

• Pizza (The Feisty Hawaiian)- this was the last thing we ordered, and sadly didn't leave the best impression. Presentation was fine, delivered like a pizzeria on a tall platter, but it was this platter that made it that much easier to detect that it wasn't properly cooked. We could see uncooked dough, and on a thin crust pizza that is an amature mistake. Not to ruin a tasting, we sent it back to finish cooking, and upon redeliverly we determined there was far too much cheese. I often wonder why some chefs load a thin crust with too much, especially when there are other flavours there to showcase? In this case the tomato sauce could have stood on it's own; it was delicious, with a hint of cilantro and a nice sweet tomato sauce.

• The atmosphere- it is loud and it felt like the wait staff was constantly rushing by, which was ironic considering how slow the service was. We only finally heard the music that must have been playing through the whole lunch hour when we were the only customers left in the restaurant, which at the point was an Old Lady Peace song....umm that doesn't scream lunch music to my ears, but given we were nearly done and awaiting our pizza to to come back out it wasn't top of our mind.

• I will say we did exit on a high note upon discovering our favourite restaurant mints; individually packed white lifesavers.

All in all, not a bad experience, but not a great one either. I think we will need to try this as an after work stop, for some beer from the brewery and some oysters before striking it off the list.....and maybe that beef rib dinner again, yes, definately that beef rib dinner again!

Happy eating Toronto!

xo

Monica