BANNOCK

This year for Summerlicious none of the menus really enticed me. I still decided to use the event as an excuse to grab dinner with friends and only looked at dinner menus at the $28 or $38 price point. After waffling between restaurants, we ended up at Bannock, an O&B restaurant in heart of downtown. For $28 the 3 course dinner was a good value, but perhaps wrongly, I had higher expectations.

Atmosphere: With the facade of Bannock being under construction the entrance was little hard to find. Inside, the restaurant separated into two sections. On the right was a “grab and go” area and on the left the “dine in” restaurant. Decor was modern with natural wood chairs that contrasted the light tabletops. Throughout dinner, the room was lively and we had to raise our voices to maintain a conversation.

Service: Our server was friendly and always made sure drinks were full. Courses arrived together and we had no trouble getting anyone’s attention. Overall, there wasn’t any aspect of service that was super memorable, which is how I like the majority of my meals to be.

Food: For dinner, I ordered the Ontario Heirloom Tomato Salad for my main, which also had sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and garlic brittle. I was expecting slices of tomatoes or bite size chunks, instead the tomatoes were large wedges, or halves and just piled in the center of the plate with sad shreds of garnish. The tomatoes were ripe and sweet but wasn’t seasoned enough for my taste.

A friend and I split our mains, allowing both of us to try dishes. All of the mains sounded promising and we chose the Northern Woods Mushroom and Gouda Pizza and the Birch BBQ Tri-tip Steak. Between the two, I prefered the pizza, which had a thin crust fresh arugula and strong earthy flavours. With the steak dish, the portion was large and cooked well, but again I thought it was underseasoned. Maybe I really need to cut back on salt in our own kitchen. Served with the steak was charred ratatouille, avocado and blue corn tortillas. Ok, but nothing spectacular.

Dessert was the highlight of dinner. Between the three of use, we ordered a Citrus Mousse Mess and two slices of Vanilla Cheesecake. Heavenly. None of us were tempted by the Crickets on a Log, real roasted crickets on a stalk of celery.