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| - I was impressed with my meal at Essen and am looking forward to going back to try more! Here's why:
We ended up at Essen after trying to squeeze in at a well known Italian eatery nearby. They were all booked up for the night, so we continued east on Dundas and stumbled upon Essen. It is new to the neighbourhood and looked promising, so we walked in and asked for a seat. Lucky for us, they were able to tuck us in to the last remaining table at the back of the restaurant. The hostess was welcoming, cheery and happy to accommodate us on short notice.
As we sat down, we quickly settled on wanting to try the roast cauliflower and roast eggplant. Unfortunately, our server let us know that these two dishes were all sold out for the evening, so we had to set our sights on some different eats. We then considered the seasonal greens but were again told that this was sold out. Pretty big bummer that three of the main vegetarian options were all sold out. Yet we pressed on and were still able to make some yummy selections.
We settled on trying the following dishes:
Appetizer: house-smoked olives with warm pita
Mains (to share): Caesar salad, peirogies, vegan fries, and fish schnitzel
Dessert: the puff daddy
Appetizer: the house-smoked olives and warm pita were very, very nice. The olives are so flavourful. My only suggestion would be to warm up the olives. I think they'd taste much better and smokier warm. I was a bit surprised to bite in and realize how cold they were. Still, very yummy. The pita with fresh za'tar was perfect.
Mains:
That Caesar salad was one heck of a delicious Caesar salad. We ordered the small portion and were shocked at how huge it was! My guess is that they felt a bit bad for not having three of our requested dishes and so provided us with big servings. Whatever the case was, the salad was huge and bursting with flavour. When a Caesar salad is done right, it can be a beautiful thing. Here, the dressing was perfectly tangy and creamy and the pita-chip croutons were fantastic.
The pierogies were also quite tasty. I'm not a huge pierogy fan but my dinner partner loves them and thought Essen's were particularly tasty. Again, large portion size.
The vegan fries were so, so good. My only qualm was how oily they were, but perhaps it was worth it given how tasty they were. They aren't typical fries...they're thick potato slices with a bit of a crunch but a perfectly soft middle texture going on. An added seasoning salt makes these things addictive!
The fish schnitzel was definitely a hit. We're both not fans of roasted red pepper so didn't use the sauce that accompanied the fish, instead opting for the house-made hot sauce. With the hot sauce, the fish was perfect. Crispy and flaky and juicy all at the same time. Just how fish should be!
Dessert:
Meh. The dessert is about as lack luster as its namesake (no offence, P-diddy fans).
All in all, our meal was pretty starchy due to Essen being sold out of the main veggie options but was still very tasty.
Bottom line: the prices were right, the atmosphere welcoming, and the food tasty. I'm sold to come back and give it another try! I'm confident that I'll be even more impressed next time I go, so long as they have what I want available. :)
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