Bier Markt

199 N Queen St, Toronto, ON M9C 4Y1                                                                           Rating: Fair

"Schnitzel Special isn't so special"

We met a couple of friends for dinner at the new Bier Markt across from Sherway Gardens. It was in the old East Side Mario’s location where we had dined several times so the place was nicely familiar. It was fairly busy for a Tuesday night, but we didn’t have to wait for a table. The server warned us that if it had been a Saturday night, we might have waited for hours. All I can say is that I am grateful that I didn’t have to wait for this particular meal.

Who would go to a specialty beer establishment and order wine? I would. What can I say except that it was a lovely chardonnay and I was in the mood for wine. My co-diners all ordered beer and had no complaints. A couple of them tried some complimentary tasters in cute little glasses, which was a nice touch. The wide variety of beers is definitely a draw, and the wait staff know their beer. 

With drinks safely ordered, we spent several minutes staring at the menu before admitting to each other that we were at a loss as to what to order. We were distracted by the possibility of ordering a whole roast pig at $58 a person and wondered how it would arrive at the table, but this item needs 48 hours notice. I guess you’d have to be a repeat customer to know that it’s even on the menu. Fine by me, because I wouldn't want to be looking at a pig's face while digging into a slice of pork. 

My one friend ordered oysters and mussels. The oysters arrived in a large bowl of ice. Six oysters at $3 each so it was $18 for six bites of seafood. Each oyster was covered with a large dollop of horseradish, an act that has always puzzled me when it comes to slugs and such. Take my opinion with a grain of salt because I am obviously biased, but I don’t like slimy bits of rubber-like raw creatures covered in a searing hot sauce sliding down my throat. However my friend, like many people, loves seafood and quite enjoyed the oysters and mussels at Bier Markt. Fair enough.

Three of us ordered the Schnitzel special which was a serving each of pork, veal and chicken schnitzel on a bed of fingerling potatoes with a side of asparagus. Having been told that it was a substantial portion, I decided to forgo the appetizer. It was one of the rare times that I have not finished a restaurant meal when I was still somewhat hungry. The schnitzels were all overcooked, dry and flavourless. It was surprisingly difficult to tell which was the chicken, pork or veal. Unfortunately, each piece of meat was covered with a different flavoured jam. That's right folks, JAM. Blackberry jam on the pork schnitzel, tomato jam on the veal, and lingonberry jam on the chicken. You would think that jam would have given those dried out bits of meat some flavour and that might have been the case if the jam had actually tasted good. It did not. I scraped it to the side of the plate and attempted to continue sawing away at the meat but eventually gave up. The fingerling potatoes were not memorable, perhaps because there were so few of them.  

Not a satisfying meal, which was surprising because everything about the place smacked of a ‘you want it, we got it’ attitude. But they don’t got it, and I don’t want it. I doubt I’ll visit a second time. This restaurant was rated Fair because only one out of four of us enjoyed our meal.

http://www.thebiermarkt.com/

Butler's Pantry

591 Markham Street, Toronto, ON                                                                   RATING: Excellent

"New favourite brunch locale in the Annex"

I have visited this location of Butler’s Pantry twice for brunch in the past month with a fellow foodie. We meet regularly to have a good meal and do a lot of catching up.  ‘Catching up’ venues need to be comfortable, not too loud, with seating spaced out sufficiently to avoid people overhearing personal girl-stuff gabbing.  Butler’s Pantry gets a gold star on all counts. 

We came upon this restaurant by accident when we couldn’t get into our first choice.  My friend, local to the area, remembered Butler’s so we popped in out of the cold to check it out.  The menu looked promising, although there wasn’t a soul in the place which can be a serious red flag.  We were famished and decided to take a chance.  The waitress sat us in a cushioned booth at the front of the restaurant beside floor to ceiling windows.  The wait staff is very pleasant and have attained a wonderful balance of neither hovering, nor ignoring. 

Mugs of aromatic freshly brewed coffees were set in front of us.  I added cream and took a sip of Java-heaven.  Was this coffee really that good, or was I in some kind of withdrawal needing a fix?  

They have a full brunch menu that I would like to have sampled in its entirety but I settled on the Eggs Benedict ($11) which was accompanied by three (probably from frozen) hash browns.  But so what if they were frozen?  They were crispy and not super greasy and didn’t even need ketchup.  The eggs were beautifully prepared because they were cooked with a soft yoke and well cooked whites.  Just the right amount of hollandaise sauce was spooned over the top.  The eggs were set upon a layer of crispy bacon atop the usual English muffin.  It was a delicious breakfast. 

My ‘catch-up’ friend ordered the Benny Gone Veggie which replaced bacon with spinach and the hash brown with a salad.  But she asked for smoked salmon which she thought was going to be inserted where the bacon would have been.  Apparently the waitress thought the same thing because she apologized for the placement of the salmon - a blob on one side of the plate -  explaining that she didn’t want to ask the cook to move the salmon after the dish had been plated.  Fair enough – it would have been a messy looking Benny.  But the only nit was that there was a charge of $3.50 for the salmon and it would have been nice to have been given a heads up about this. 

Happily that was the only nit that we had in our two visits and I’m really just being picky. This place is a ‘must-visit’ location for brunchers in the Annex area (university district) of Toronto; however, one word of warning is that this venue is not for the student budget because our bill before tip was $31.00. 

My ‘catch-up’ friend and I will definitely be back to sample more of that delicious menu. 

Restaurant website:  http://www.butlerspantry.ca/