I came to Bistro 990 for a Winterlicious meal with a group of eight. While I will only discuss the food that my girlfriend and I ate and cannot comment on the regular menu, I am certain from the post-dinner talk that nobody was impressed.
The Winterlicious dinner is a three course fixed price menu for $35 which allows for a selection from three or four options per course. My girlfriend and I started with the kale & baby spinach salad, with feta, almonds, Bermuda onions, & pomegranate vinaigrette. It was an average salad, lacking in any real flavour. For the main course, we both had the 6 oz striploin medallion, with jumbo tiger shrimp, garlic mash, & pearl onion jus. This was the biggest disappointment of the meal. It consisted of a bland and fatty cut of meat, a single overcooked jumbo shrimp, lukewarm mash potatoes, unseasoned steamed brocoli and a pool of unappetizing sauce that covered the half the plate. For the desert, I had a creme brulee that was gelatinous and grainy. My girlfriend's chocolate mousse torte was passable but far from spectacular.
Given the price and the generally positive reviews, I was hoping for a far better meal. As this was our third consecutive mediocre Winterlicious experience, we have decided to stick to the regular menu from now on.