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| - I wanted to write this review after visiting last night, but came home and immediately passed out in a food coma. The portions here are massive especially considering the price you pay, so we may have overdone it a bit by ordering four things for two people last night... blame me and my gluttony...
After reading reviews, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to try, and I did NOT hold back. I ordered the pulled pork poutine and mussels in white wine sauce to start, thinking they would both be fairly small appetizer portions, but no, they are like full plates. Followed that up with the squid ink spaghetti while my mom ordered the salmon linguine (they ran out of linguine so she substituted with spaghetti.) I also decided to add $4 to make my order a combo, with a soup and salad and dessert (creme brulee). For $3 you get a choice of soup OR salad and a dessert.
I think my expectations were quite high, so the food didn't blow me away. The poutine ($4.99), which everyone raves about, was good and was my mom's favourite dish. I liked the barbeque sauce they used on the pork, which added a nice bit of sweetness to it. I think it could have used more cheese and could have been warmer. I would have liked to see those stringy bits of melted cheese, which were a rather lacking. 3.5/5
I liked the mussels in white wine sauce ($6.99) and was surprised that my mom didn't find it flavourful enough. But I thought the flavour was fine, the sauce was tasty, and the mussels were abundant. 4/5
The salmon spaghetti ($13.99) was unfortunately a miss for both me and my mom. The sauce (was there even sauce?) was really really light, I think it might have been just olive oil based. As a result, the dish overall was a bit bland, and the noodles were a bit tough and dry. The salmon was okay. 2/5
Luckily for me, the squid ink spaghetti ($16.99) I ordered was a lot better. With all the squid ink sauce, it was definitely nice and moist, and also made my noodles softer. There was a decent amount of seafood in there - a couple of shrimp, small scallops, squid, etc. Flavouring was pretty light and let most of the natural seafood flavours shine through. I mostly just love the look of the pasta with all the noodles being all dark and black and ominous looking... mmm right up my alley. Be warned though, the ink will get all over your lips no matter how carefully you try to eat - I thought I looked pretty badass, mom thought it was hilarious. Probably best to avoid ordering this one on a first date... unless your date is into that goth look. 3.5/5
The salad, soup and dessert that came with my meal were pretty standard. The soup (I think it was cream of cauliflower) was way too watery, not creamy enough at all, and a bit bland. The creme brulee was okay, although there were parts of the top that weren't hard enough so didn't crack when I tapped at them, they just kind of... sank into the custard. Tasted fine though.
There was only one waitress working, but also not a lot of other patrons. The waitress was sweet, and I thought made a good effort to provide good service. She brought us an extra spoon when I asked so we could share the soup, and also an extra bowl. She was also pretty attentive and brought our food out super quickly from the kitchen.
I think this is a cute little diner to check out if you are in the area. The prices are reasonable, but not like dirt cheap or anything, especially for the pasta. The portions are, however, substantial for what you are paying - we only finished the mussels and most of the poutine and maybe half of each our pasta dishes. In total our bill for the night came out to about $53. Some of their other items however are a steal e.g. steak for $10, so may come back for a second try. In general I didn't have any problems with this place, I think it's pretty decent, but just didn't find it to be as amazing as other reviewers did.
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