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| - Given the proximity of this place to where I live, I have watched this place go up over the last year in anticipation to see what was in store. When it finally opened I was excited to try it out and see if there was another local joint i could frequent.
Walking by, I've often gazed in, seeing a relaxed, upscale atmosphere with large windows and casual, bistro style table arrangements. When I finally visited I found the ambiance to meet these expectations, though I did find that the lighting for the tables themselves was a bit dim, such that I wasn't really able to inspect my food to see what it looked like. The candles are also fake battery ones, which took more away from the upscale casual mood that I expected it would.... real tea lights are not difficult - that would be an easy fix.
Service was on par with what I would expect from a restaurant at this price point - they were friendly and helpful.
The Tapas sharing style is popular these days, and I was interested to see how Donna Mac would execute it. The menu is a brief one pager, which is good - don't want to get too complicated, I'd rather have them focus on a handful of things at a time. For two, it was suggested that two "appetizer sized and two entree sized plates" would be filling. We opted for the Eggplant and tomatoes (with sourdough) and the scallop tartare for appie sized dishes, and the duck breast and tagliatelle for our two entree plates.
Overall, I found the quality and taste of the food to be quite mediocre, for a comparatively high price point - this left a lot to be desired. The scallop tartare was an extremely small portion size, though the flavour profile was great - realistically a double portion of that is a more practical split for two people to have a taste. The sourdough with eggplant and tomatoes was disappointing. The sourdough was on the charred end of grilled in an unpleasant way, and the tomatoes and eggplant "bruschetta" style was too salty and tart.
I had a similar response to the pasta. I was told it was "home made", but I found it to be both a little undercooked as well as a little too dense, which resulted it it being tougher to eat, which was not impressive. The flavour profile of the pasta was also very boring - the "pork ragu" consisted of a few chunks of shredded pork.
Finally, the duck breast. The breast itself was cooked nicely and not overdone, but it relied on the other components of the dish for flavour. The main profile was a vinaigrette, which was fine, but I found that the balance of the flavour profile with the texture and choice of vegetables in addition to the natural flavour and texture of the duck to be off - as if the combination was a valiant effort to be creative but fell short on having the flavours and textures come together hamoniously.
Overall, I found that the suggested quantity was not enough to be full, tho we didn't leave ravenously hungry. at this price point ($70 incl tip, excl drinks), I am expecting better... I will give this another shot when they change up the menu to see if they can change my mind.
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