Good food, but at what price?
Ric's Grill
Since I've started my culinary career a lot of my friends have made comments on how it's no longer fun to go to dinner with me, as I tend to critique a lot of the food and dishes put before me. However when I asked my friend if he wanted to join me in doing a review for a local restaurant, he was quite excited about the chance to practice his own critical eye.
We started with Ric's Grill located at 1436 Eighth Street SW just north of Calgary's hot spot 17th avenue. The location was easy to get for myself via mass transit, while my guest had to drive around to find parking on the packed side streets.
Upon entering the restaurant I was met by a young hostess who quickly got me seated in the main area, arriving promptly at 5:30 I was the first person to fill the 40 person capacity dining room. The room was dark for the late afternoon, the dark walls and heavy curtains covering the wall of windows to the street left the room with an almost cave like atmosphere, the only light coming from low wattage bulbs over every table and the occasional glint of sun brightly reflected off passing cars as they peeked between the curtains. Techno music I was later told was “House” was playing over the sound system.
While waiting for my guest to find parking I took the time to make sure I checked in on FourSquare and look at the local reviews. FourSquare had a 50-50 rating of Ric's; one remark complimented the food, while the other denounced the service.
Our server arrived promptly, she gave me a quick tour of the wine and cocktail menu took my drink order and left quickly and efficiently. By the time she had come returned with my drink my guest I had arrived sitting down with an abrupt “Parking sucks here.”
We quickly went through the appetizer menu, with barely a few moments his voice picked up, “What do all these symbols mean?” in reference to the symbols marked on the menu to denote “Vegetarian”, and “OceanWise” food items. While there was an explanation on a later page of the menu on OceanWise I never saw a legend for the vegetarian symbol anywhere on the menu.
My friend had a problem finding something that he liked due the shear amount of seafood in the starter menu, he ended up picking the only item that did not include seafood; “Sesame Ginger Chilli Chicken” (11.95) while I waited for the server to return to ask what the Soup of the day was. Once she had told me; I decided it sounded like a good idea “Green Bean and Lentil Soup” (7.95) She left with our appetizers orders which gave us a chance to pursue their entree menu.
The entrees seemed reasonable for a level of restaurant Ric’s was trying to show. With prices ranging from 16.95 for their Vegetarian Linguine to 36.95 for their 12oz. New York Striploin.
After she had taken our appetizer order she came back to drop off a small bundle of bread for us to share, 20 minutes after we had both sat down at her table.
My soup arrived in a small 4oz bowl, on a doily-laden plate with the doily off centre and with the soup bowl only placed upon the rim of the paper. My guests chicken tenders arrived neatly placed upon a small bed of mesclun greens. The soup tasted very nice, it was well seasoned with a nice smooth texture and rich flavour. I just felt the portion size and plating was very poor for the price point it was being offered at. My guest remarked that his chicken was “Very nice, tender, not dripping with sauce.”
A short period after we finished, the server came by to take our appetizer plates, as well as our bread basket without asking if we would like a refill.
She followed by asking us for our entree order, we had delayed giving it so that I would have more chance to go over the menu. My guest went with their Top Sirloin (28.95) with a piece of fatherly advice he was once given “You can never have a bad top sirloin.” Our server deftly tried to upsell a prawn skewer on top of his steak, which he declined. I went with an item of their spring feature menu, their Steelhead Halibut (26.95). Our server nicely pointed out that it was freshly caught in season and just arrived just that day.
When asked if we would like wine with our order, I asked her to recommend something for me. For which she was more than capable of doing. Her recommendations were for either their 2009 Larch tree Prospect Winery Riesling (9), the 2009 Desert Hills Okanagan Valley VQA Gewurztraminer, (12) as well their special bottle of Mission Hill Chardonnay that wasn’t even on their menu that had been used as part of a Chef’s taster they had the week prior. When I showed a reluctance to choose one over the other she offered to bring me a taster set with my order so that I could have a better chance to get a feel for the wines, which I felt was a very nice touch.
While waiting for our entrees the dining room started to fill up to about half capacity tables spread out here and there with one other server working the room. The music felt off with the dark ambiance and steak house feel of the room, its constant bass beat in the background tended to break into conversation. It wasn’t enough to deter my guest “I like this ambiance, it makes for good conversation.”
Shortly before our entrees arrived the server dropped off three small wine glasses labelled with marker 1-3, which she explained which was which as she placed them next to my cutlery.
My halibut soon arrived, covered with a very nice seasoning, was cooked through and still moist. I had a small selection of seasonal vegetables cooked perfectly al dente in jammed into one corner of the plate, while the rest was taken up by a huge portion of Basmati Rice Pilaf which was overflowing the plate and onto the rim. While the halibut was nicely flavoured, and the vegetables were nicely cooked, the rice was bland, slightly dry, and way to large taking up almost half of the plate, especially when compared to the small portion of vegetables that came with it. Of the three pairings that accompanied my meal I would highly recommend the Gewurztraminer, it was sweet, and smooth and easily worked with the halibut.
My guests steak arrived on a piping hot plate, which he realized quite quickly with a painful yelp and a rub of the arm. It was plated with the potato special of the day “Roasted Potato in a Fire Tomato Sauce” and a larger portion of the seasonal vegetables than I had received. His comments were that the steak was underdone, only Medium-Rare to his requested Medium. He said “There is not a lot of spice on top of the steak,” finding it bland. He added that the potatoes were Earthy, tasted well but “nothing I would write home about.”
For an after dinner course, my guest opted for the Cheesecake of the Day “Raspberry” (8) while I again went to the spring special menu for their “Red Velvet Cake” (7.95).
The cheesecake was and I quote “Awesome”, while my Red Velvet cake with cheesecake icing, was rich and a nice ending to the meal.
All in all the meal was... good. In regards to flavours and tastes, I have nothing to complain about, they all turned out well, and it was a joy to eat. It was the plating presentation, and portion sizing that honestly seemed sloppy to me, and at this price point I find that unacceptable, I can go a lot of places for good tasting food, I would hope for $30 a plate they would take a bit more care into their presentation. The atmosphere struck me as dark, with music I felt fit more into a pub, then for a more upscale dining establishment. The service was spotty, with long waits between seeing the server, whose name I never was given. I can not highly recommend Ric's Grill as they are, I feel they should work on creating more equal portion sizes, and more eye to detail when it comes to plate presentations .
-30-
Since I've started my culinary career a lot of my friends have made comments on how it's no longer fun to go to dinner with me, as I tend to critique a lot of the food and dishes put before me. However when I asked my friend if he wanted to join me in doing a review for a local restaurant, he was quite excited about the chance to practice his own critical eye.
We started with Ric's Grill located at 1436 Eighth Street SW just north of Calgary's hot spot 17th avenue. The location was easy to get for myself via mass transit, while my guest had to drive around to find parking on the packed side streets.
Upon entering the restaurant I was met by a young hostess who quickly got me seated in the main area, arriving promptly at 5:30 I was the first person to fill the 40 person capacity dining room. The room was dark for the late afternoon, the dark walls and heavy curtains covering the wall of windows to the street left the room with an almost cave like atmosphere, the only light coming from low wattage bulbs over every table and the occasional glint of sun brightly reflected off passing cars as they peeked between the curtains. Techno music I was later told was “House” was playing over the sound system.
While waiting for my guest to find parking I took the time to make sure I checked in on FourSquare and look at the local reviews. FourSquare had a 50-50 rating of Ric's; one remark complimented the food, while the other denounced the service.
Our server arrived promptly, she gave me a quick tour of the wine and cocktail menu took my drink order and left quickly and efficiently. By the time she had come returned with my drink my guest I had arrived sitting down with an abrupt “Parking sucks here.”
We quickly went through the appetizer menu, with barely a few moments his voice picked up, “What do all these symbols mean?” in reference to the symbols marked on the menu to denote “Vegetarian”, and “OceanWise” food items. While there was an explanation on a later page of the menu on OceanWise I never saw a legend for the vegetarian symbol anywhere on the menu.
My friend had a problem finding something that he liked due the shear amount of seafood in the starter menu, he ended up picking the only item that did not include seafood; “Sesame Ginger Chilli Chicken” (11.95) while I waited for the server to return to ask what the Soup of the day was. Once she had told me; I decided it sounded like a good idea “Green Bean and Lentil Soup” (7.95) She left with our appetizers orders which gave us a chance to pursue their entree menu.
The entrees seemed reasonable for a level of restaurant Ric’s was trying to show. With prices ranging from 16.95 for their Vegetarian Linguine to 36.95 for their 12oz. New York Striploin.
After she had taken our appetizer order she came back to drop off a small bundle of bread for us to share, 20 minutes after we had both sat down at her table.
My soup arrived in a small 4oz bowl, on a doily-laden plate with the doily off centre and with the soup bowl only placed upon the rim of the paper. My guests chicken tenders arrived neatly placed upon a small bed of mesclun greens. The soup tasted very nice, it was well seasoned with a nice smooth texture and rich flavour. I just felt the portion size and plating was very poor for the price point it was being offered at. My guest remarked that his chicken was “Very nice, tender, not dripping with sauce.”
A short period after we finished, the server came by to take our appetizer plates, as well as our bread basket without asking if we would like a refill.
She followed by asking us for our entree order, we had delayed giving it so that I would have more chance to go over the menu. My guest went with their Top Sirloin (28.95) with a piece of fatherly advice he was once given “You can never have a bad top sirloin.” Our server deftly tried to upsell a prawn skewer on top of his steak, which he declined. I went with an item of their spring feature menu, their Steelhead Halibut (26.95). Our server nicely pointed out that it was freshly caught in season and just arrived just that day.
When asked if we would like wine with our order, I asked her to recommend something for me. For which she was more than capable of doing. Her recommendations were for either their 2009 Larch tree Prospect Winery Riesling (9), the 2009 Desert Hills Okanagan Valley VQA Gewurztraminer, (12) as well their special bottle of Mission Hill Chardonnay that wasn’t even on their menu that had been used as part of a Chef’s taster they had the week prior. When I showed a reluctance to choose one over the other she offered to bring me a taster set with my order so that I could have a better chance to get a feel for the wines, which I felt was a very nice touch.
While waiting for our entrees the dining room started to fill up to about half capacity tables spread out here and there with one other server working the room. The music felt off with the dark ambiance and steak house feel of the room, its constant bass beat in the background tended to break into conversation. It wasn’t enough to deter my guest “I like this ambiance, it makes for good conversation.”
Shortly before our entrees arrived the server dropped off three small wine glasses labelled with marker 1-3, which she explained which was which as she placed them next to my cutlery.
My halibut soon arrived, covered with a very nice seasoning, was cooked through and still moist. I had a small selection of seasonal vegetables cooked perfectly al dente in jammed into one corner of the plate, while the rest was taken up by a huge portion of Basmati Rice Pilaf which was overflowing the plate and onto the rim. While the halibut was nicely flavoured, and the vegetables were nicely cooked, the rice was bland, slightly dry, and way to large taking up almost half of the plate, especially when compared to the small portion of vegetables that came with it. Of the three pairings that accompanied my meal I would highly recommend the Gewurztraminer, it was sweet, and smooth and easily worked with the halibut.
My guests steak arrived on a piping hot plate, which he realized quite quickly with a painful yelp and a rub of the arm. It was plated with the potato special of the day “Roasted Potato in a Fire Tomato Sauce” and a larger portion of the seasonal vegetables than I had received. His comments were that the steak was underdone, only Medium-Rare to his requested Medium. He said “There is not a lot of spice on top of the steak,” finding it bland. He added that the potatoes were Earthy, tasted well but “nothing I would write home about.”
For an after dinner course, my guest opted for the Cheesecake of the Day “Raspberry” (8) while I again went to the spring special menu for their “Red Velvet Cake” (7.95).
The cheesecake was and I quote “Awesome”, while my Red Velvet cake with cheesecake icing, was rich and a nice ending to the meal.
All in all the meal was... good. In regards to flavours and tastes, I have nothing to complain about, they all turned out well, and it was a joy to eat. It was the plating presentation, and portion sizing that honestly seemed sloppy to me, and at this price point I find that unacceptable, I can go a lot of places for good tasting food, I would hope for $30 a plate they would take a bit more care into their presentation. The atmosphere struck me as dark, with music I felt fit more into a pub, then for a more upscale dining establishment. The service was spotty, with long waits between seeing the server, whose name I never was given. I can not highly recommend Ric's Grill as they are, I feel they should work on creating more equal portion sizes, and more eye to detail when it comes to plate presentations .
-30-