Last
Saturday, after a grueling few hours of flea marketing, my friend and I were
hungry. We briefly contemplated a few of our favourite restaurants, but then a
place we’d literally never seen or heard of before caught our eye.
With
its bright orange, retro diner-style seating and tasteful decor, To Dine For
appeared to be the typical “after” picture on the Food Network’s Restaurant
Makeover.
My friend and I joked that it looked like a futuristic re-imagining of a retro
diner – lots of shiny chrome, but with a 50’s aesthetic. It looked the part,
but would the food match our expectations? (Spoiler: yes, totally).
The
waitress brought us our menus and water promptly, and the first thing that I
noticed was that they had a variety of vegan and vegetarian options. In
addition, there was a note saying that all their burgers were hand-formed daily
with meat purchased from long-standing local butcher shop Jackson’s Meats and
Deli. As well, all of their condiments, excluding ketchup, are house-made,
including vegan aioli – “because vegans are people too.”
While
we were tempted by the various Korean fusion items and the Grilled Mac &
Cheese, we ultimately decided to both get burgers. To Dine For’s menu
advertised a spread of the most unusual – but simultaneously mind-blowingly delicious
sounding – burger combinations I’d ever seen. Options included the Peanut
Butter & Bacon Burger, Kimchi Burger, Poutine Burger, and one burger
featuring something called “bacon jam”– um, yes please. For less adventurous
folk, they also offer a Plain Jane burger. As a poutine fanatic, I couldn’t
resist the notion of the Poutine Burger, while my friend opted, purely out of
curiosity, for the B.J. or Bacon Jam Burger.
They
were both so good. The Poutine Burger was perfect, oozing mushroom gravy and cheese
curds, the french fries at the perfect level of sogginess. The beef was
flavourful and tender, and we couldn’t stop talking about how good our burgers
were as we ate them. My dining companion allowed me to try her burger, which I
actually liked better than mine – no easy feat, as mine was so good! The bacon
jam was intensely smoky and just the right amount of saltiness that allowed all
the flavours of the meat to come through.
We
raved to the waitress about the food, and she genuinely seemed really happy
that we were happy – she even brought out a sample of their Bruléed Grapefruit
to try – a grapefruit halved, sprinkled in sugar, and presumably blowtorched until
the sugar melted to a delicious golden-brown. So simple, and yet so creative and
delicious!
On
their facebook page, To Dine For has written, “Let us begin the bastardization
of North American comfort food.” If this counts as bastardization, I fully and
wholly support it.
//Celina Kurz, copy editor
//Celina Kurz, copy editor
|
