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| - I wanted to give Charcut more than 3 stars for my visit... but the more I pushed "expectations" and "reputation" out of the equation, I couldn't have upped the rating and still have been honest with myself (this was my first visit, BTW).
For all the praise heaped on Charcut, I think I must have hit it on an off day. The restaurant was only batting .500 on this Friday.
We had stopped in for a "business lunch," and ordered the two "lunch all at once" options. They were a BBQ beef sandwich, and a thinly sliced, roasted pork, respectively.
The beef was deemed "excellent" by my lunch mate.
My pork? Well, not so much.
I think part of the issue was it WAS a later lunch, with our food being ordered around 12:45 - 1:00.
With the lunch rush tailing off, and perhaps "remnants" being used up, a good percentage of my pork was just fatty ends.
Some people chew fat down because "that's where the flavour is" (to quote someone I know). But not me.
To be honest, when I trimmed away the fat, as I always do, those excluded pieces took up about half the plate I started with. Not much left to eat, really. And what was there, I found particularly and unusually salty.
As well, our waiter seemed to also be checking out after the lunch rush -- he brought one drink late, and forgot the other drink order altogether -- until he brought the bill (at which point he remembered, and then apologized for his mistake).
So, as I said: batting .500. One meal was outstanding, one not. 3 stars: middle of the pack. No more.
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