Restaurant Reviews
Todd and Conway's excellent steak adventure
Fall 2010 |
Two chaps, with a flare for fine food, Todd Robson and Conway Fraser, were tasked with finding out just who’s serving the best cuts of meat in Greater Sudbury. The rules were simple: restaurants had to be locally owned and operated. No franchises. It was a difficult, yet delicious journalistic journey. Menu choice: The Nutty Stripper. A New York Strip topped with goat cheese and rolled in roasted almonds and pecans. Todd: Medium rare meat and nuts makes no sense at first. And then you try it. It still confuses the senses…until the second bite when you realize the risk they took combining these two staples pays off. An original idea and one that stands conventional meat on its head, but the nutty stripper is stimulating, sexy and well above a burlesque cut of meat. Conway: It seemed odd ordering a nut-crusted New York Strip while eating in a jazzy, cool restaurant that looks like it came right out of the TV show Mad Men. But, all questions were quickly answered with the first bite. I went with a medium-cooked steak and the combination of flavours is unlike anything I had ever tasted. It is easily the most original steak I have ever had. And, for fear of lacking creativity, the only word I can use to describe it is "delicious." Menu item: Elk, red deer and kangaroo served on a Himalayan salt block. Todd : At first, I wasn’t sure if deer, elk and kangaroo were exactly steak, but tenderloin, by any other name is still a loin. Lay all three down on a 400 degree block of salt and curious is just one of the terms going through my head. The thing is the smell, the taste and feel of each meat is like going on a safari. A wild trip for the taste buds and a feast for the senses. If I had to choose, the red deer seared up the best, but the elk and roo weren’t far behind. Conway: I've had my fair share of wild game and it always seemed rather bland to me. But, that wasn't the case here. All the cuts came out on the sizzling Himalayan salt block for you to grill to your liking, and were immediately dunked in the fondue oil that came with it. The meat was tender and exploded with all sorts of new flavours, nothing like a traditional "steak." Meantime, the presentation was better than anything I've experienced in any of Canada's major cities. For me, it was a toss-up between the red deer and kangaroo which has a lamb-like flavour. It was all great. Menu item: 8 oz. fillet mignon topped with a sauce peppercorn and gorgonzola. Todd: The fillet, as tall as it is wide is grilled to perfection. Perfectly seared on the outside and rare on the inside. The peppercorn has a zip and a zest that makes the steak pop.Just enough sauce to taste, but not steal anything away from the meat. Toss in a lobster tail and glass or two of wine, and there’s no better way to end a round of golf with the wife or the guys. Conway: I could tell from the abundance of pick-up trucks in the parking lot that this was a place to get a man-size piece of steak, and wasn't disappointed. The combination of my juicy, thick, medium-cooked fillet and the absolutely-spectacular peppercorn and gorgonzola sauce created only one problem: I noticed I was devouring it so fast that I was almost done in a few minutes. So who won? A tough call. Each place was so uniquely different in just about every aspect, it would be too hard or unfair to compare. In the end, it is Sudbury that is winning. This city has great restaurants, quality food and service that is far above what you get in a larger, less sensitive city.
THE HOURGLASS RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE
183 Cedar St.
The HourGlass is urban, cool and a mix of hip and class. Owners Brad and Cindy have found the perfect mix of tastes and it definitely puts a flash of class in the eastern edge of the downtown core.
CURIOUS THYME’S BISTRO
1200 Paris St.
Curious Thyme’s is tucked inside the Travelway Inn off Paris. Step inside, and the open air kitchen and floor to ceiling windows that wrap around the entire place just about guarantee anyone dining there gets a window seat. And if the name’s got you asking questions, that’s exactly the effect what owners Jen and Vince were hoping for.
GRILL MARKS BISTRO
Highway 69 North, Val Caron
Owners Christine and Tyler give Grill Marks a touch of class, all the more reason to take the trip up the highway for a round of golf, some surf and turf, and ideally both. The only thing close to a clubhouse at the old Valley View links is the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the 18th green. The plates are big and the fillets custom cut to order.
