It was a Monday night so we didn't make reservations. We arrived at about 6:30pm and frankly, it's a good time we got there when we did because within 30 minutes the place was packed and there was a short line up waiting for tables.
One of the selling features that the owner of the Hintonburg Public House mentioned is their selection of local, micro and craft beers. I've been known to enjoy a beer or two in my time, so I chose a pint of the Kitchesipi Heller High Water. Pretty tasty ... liked it. I know, shocking, right? Stephanie being more refined than I am, chose red wine.
The restaurant is very cool, eclectic decor ... mis-matched tables and chairs, dishes (some of which I'm sure are the same patterns that my grandma had, which we inherited to the cottage) and lots of recovered/salvaged wood.
I had checked the menu out on-line before we went out. The menu is updated frequently so it is nice that it is available on-line to see what changes might have been made. I was torn between two choices: the beef burger or the schnitzel. Once we arrived, Stephanie took some time to review the menu because there are lots of unique and different choices on both the bar snacks and appetizers menus.
Even though the schnitzel was one of my possible choices, it was missing from the menu when we got there. I still had to make a decision between the beef burger (with homemade pickles, grilled onion, bacon and Russian dressing) served with fries or the fish & chips. Lots of people around us were ordering the fish & chips and it looked and smelled de-lish!!!
In the end I picked the burger. I was also keen on, basically, every appetizer ... but I knew I was going to be stuffed with just my main. And man, I'm not kidding ... I was stuffed! Check this out:
Awe-some!!! Notice on the top of the burger ... that is house pickled cauliflower -- delicious!!! Who knew??? So yummy. The burger was huge, it was moist and juicy. They offer it cooked to your taste, suggesting medium but I asked for mine just slightly more than medium and it was perfect. Its messy and drippy; if you want ketchup they house make that too. The burger bun is soft and fits the huge patty perfectly. The fries are hand cut and crispy. Absolutely delicious. I'm very glad I made this choice!
Stephanie decided on two small appetizers. The marinated cheese curds (from the bar snacks menu) and the mushroom soup served with coddled egg and crouton. I tried the cheese curds ... tasty. Cheese curds are not really my thing; as Stephanie described them: cheese curds with Italian dressing on them! The mushroom soup however, looked really good and Stephanie said it was very tasty. It had a very rich dark colour, it smelled earthy and nutty and was thick and creamy.
For her main course, Stephanie chose the trout with chickpeas, caramelized onion, cherimoula and yogurt. I don't even know what cherimoula is ... but it sounds cool ... cher-i-mou-la ... cher-i-mooouu--la ... cher-i-moooouu-laaaaa. Sounds cool. The trout dish was absolutely beautiful when it arrived. The colours were spectacular. Since fish is not my favourite thing, I didn't try it but Stephanie enjoyed it. She said it was an excellent meal.
As I said, it was a busy night. All the tables were full. If I had one complaint about the Hintonburg Public House it was really really noisy in there. Of course Stephanie and I had lots of catching up to do and we were non-stop chatting as usual when we get together, but there were moments when it was hard to hear one another over the noise in the restaurant.
However, the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant definitely make up for that one minor complaint that we had and I would not hesitate to recommend the Hintonburg Public House and definitely will go there again. I can even see just going and sitting at the bar for a cold beer and some bar snacks - that would be a totally fun weekend afternoon.
All talked out and totally satisfied:
No comments:
Post a Comment