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| - I initially saw Black Ox Bistro while I was in Markham for work, and I said to myself "I gotta come back and check this place out" as it looked quite interesting, and finally 3 months later I had the opportunity to!
Initial Impressions:
While it's location is a little unassuming (the restaurant is situated between two medical buildings) the minute you go inside, you feel like you are transported to another place. The restaurant itself is very nicely decorated and definitely feels like a upscale restaurant.
The food:
This place is Halal so everything on the menu is obviously going to be such, having said that this also means that the restaurant features a Dry Bar (no alcohol) while this may disappoint some, I had no issue with that at all.
Their menu does feature a bunch of "Mocktails" so myself and the person I was with both tried one each. We ordered the Pina Colada and the Raspberry Mojito, I must say I was very impressed with both drinks. They featured a very fresh taste and had a very nice balance of flavours (meaning that one particular flavour note didn't dominate the whole drink).
For our Appetizers we had the Brisket Poutine and the Beef Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Bites, I find these two items were the real star of the show as they completely blew me away. I have had my fair share of poutines and this was probably the most "gourmet" tasting one I have had yet! The poutine featured fresh ingredients and the beef in the poutine wasn't dry or "cheap" tasting at all. Although I will warn you and say this dish itself can be extremely filling. The Jalapeño Bites were also quite interesting; typically I'm used to having the standard breaded and fried ones available almost anywhere, but having these nice ones was a real change. Once again they tasted quite fresh, and didn't seem like they were sitting prepared waiting to be ordered. The bites themselves are drizzled with a light sauce to give it a small kick, but besides from that they aren't overly spicy at all and anyone with a low heat tolerance should be okay with this dish.
For our main dish we actually opted to share a platter as this was recommended by our server; we went with the Meathead Platter which features a variety of meats which include: chicken wings, ribs, steak, and fried chicken and potatoes. The dish also featured a side of coleslaw and "loaded" mashed potato that had cheese and beef brisket on it. I found the chicken wings to be extremely tasty, and flavourful. Typically I get the hottest wings available when I go out but having a nice mild BBQ-ish sauce on the wings was a real treat as I got to actually enjoy the flavour and not die of heat LOL! The ribs were honestly spectacular (I almost want to say they were the best ribs I have ever had)! They meat itself was very soft and virtually melted in your mouth, the ribs were also topped with a nice BBQ-ish sauce which paired with it perfectly! The quality of the steak was also very good, and on par with some steaks I have had at very premium (and expensive) steak houses. The fried chicken was also very good, but what really made it for me was the mashed potato bed the chicken was on top of. Those potatoes were by far the best Garlic Mashed Potatoes I have ever had, as they were loaded with Garlic, just the way I like it! The coleslaw and baked potato were also very tasty and "premium" tasting!
For dessert we ordered the Chocolate Cheesecake which was simply phenomenal, the cake tasted as if it was prepared in-house and didn't feature any sort of "kept frozen" taste that some Cheesecakes do at some restaurants.
The Service:
The service was absolutely impeccable! I have been to several restaurants and this by far beat any of them. Our server was very attentive and made sure we were happy with every part of our meal!
I will definitely be back to experience the greatness that is Black Ox Bistro!
P.S word on the street is that they will be soon offering a Breakfast menu, so do keep on the lookout for that!
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