While I like the selection of cocktails available, what caught my eye were the Draft Cocktails on their menu. I feel like beer cocktails are on the upswing, so I’d definitely recommend checking some out. I did try the Rad which was an IPA and Grapefruit ($7). It was nice and tart mixed in with the hoppiness of the IPA. Radlers are one of my favourite ways to enjoy beers in the summer – something that Nathalie had introduced to me when she came back from Germany.
We started with the Tuna Poke and Fraser Fries.
The Fraser Fries ($12) is made with their house fries, bacon, sundried tomatoes, herbs and garlic. We addd the garlic aioli ($1.50) for a double punch of garlic. The house fries are crispy on the exterior but still nice and starchy in the middle. The big pieces of bacon were nice and a good surprise, as I thought it would be much smaller and fried. The sundried tomatoes helped cut the overall natural saltiness from the bacon, and although this is a large serving, it was still quite enjoyable to share between the two of us.
The Tuna Poke ($13) is made with mango salsa, avocado, Ahi tuna, sesame seeds, herb chili oil, green oil and sitting on tortilla chips. I felt a lot of the flavour was quite mild, and I would’ve love to see more mango salsa in this to balance the neutrality of the entire dish. While they do provide lime on the side, it’d be great to have the lime incorporated into the dish before it comes to the table.
For dinner, Diana (you can read her review here) ordered the Mussels Vino Blanco and I ordered the Dirty Sanchez (!!) Burger after the recommendation from our server.
The Mussels Vino Blanco ($22) is a full pound of mussels, white wine, butter, shallot, garlic and parsley and served with a side of fries and bread. It’s interesting to see these type of dishes served in a gastropub, and they do it good here. The sauce has good flavour to it and there are a lot of mussels, so you do get your money’s worth.
I ordered the Dirty Sanchez burger ($16). A lot of their burgers sound awesome and I’ll definitely have to come back to try a couple more, including the Waffleburg and Cowboy. The Dirty Sanchez is made with a 6oz. all beef patty, monterey jack cheese, guacamole, pickled onion, pickled jalapeno, lettuce, tomato, garlic aioli on a pretzel bun.
I appreciated the fact the burger was put together on a pretzel bun, as I find most buns disintegrate with a juicy burger patty. It is a bit on the thick side, so there is more bun in every bite – I’m not sure how they could fix that problem other than shaving a bit more of the bun off when they cut it. The crunch from the pickled items is a great combination with the other more neutral items in the burger. The patty was great – it was juicy and not too salty. I felt that the burger was one of the highlights of the evening.
If you’re in the Fraser area, I’d recommend checking them out, they got pretty busy as the evening went on, so come early for dinner or check out their brunch!
Food: 3.5
Service: n/a
No rating for fairness, as this was a media dinner
Value: 3.5
Prices are comparable to other pubs with food and pretty fair for drinks/cocktails.
Ambiance: 3.5
Nice, dimly lit pub that doesn’t feel too cramped.
OVERALL: 3.5
