Here's the thing. I heard good things about the Gabardine and I was excited to go. My girlfriend and I came on our anniversary and started with their cocktails, which were really nice. Very inventive drinks with good flavours.
The place is small and intimate but with a warm and inviting atmosphere. The staff is friendly and attentive and our waitress recommended some dishes, her top being the skirt steak. Now I've made some skirt steaks in my day and I think it's a nice cut of meat but since it was one of the most expensive items on the menu at $30, I had high expectations. I wasn't impressed with it. I asked for it medium rare but it was a little more on the rare side which didn't bother me but as I made my way through I found the steak was kind of cold. I also thought it didn't have much flavour even though it came with an au jus type sauce and some fries which were well seasoned. The cut of meat just tasted cheap and it was a little tough. It came garnished with bacon which was over cooked. I eventually asked them to heat it up a little (I had eaten half of it by the time I got to the middle and realized it wasn't warm enough). When it came back it was only slightly warmer but on a new plate with practically none of the sauce, which made the meal even more disappointing.
My girlfriend had the mac and cheese, which was quite good if you don't mind a rich dish. Overall, I might go back to try something new as I heard good things about the chicken pot pie but my experience has been kind of soured. I really wanted to like this place but maybe I went on an off night. Our waitress saw that I wasn't that into the meal and she offered to buy us dessert, which kind of insinuated that she would go out of pocket instead of it being on the house, so we politely declined. It was a nice gesture but it wasn't her fault my steak wasn't good. Nonetheless, give one of the other dishes a try, you might have better luck than me.