Fat Friday - Canteen

We're back to diner style meals for this week's Fat Friday (actually, did we ever leave?), and for that we headed to the newly opened Oliver & Bonacini's Canteen, located on the main floor of the newly built TIFF Bell Lightbox. 

We've been watching this new condo building grow taller and taller over the last several months, and with the TIFF arriving in town, they were on a deadline to have the theater space and restaurants open for the grand opening. The Canteen had opened about 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and from the first day, it's been a busy hot spot, crowded with locals and tourists. We stopped by one morning to see what the menu was like, and were delighted to find out that not only do they have an eat in section, but they do take out, too. Our eyes darted to the pastry list on the Grab & Go board and immediately noticed croissants. And if you remember our hunt for the best croissants, we had to give them a try. But we were full that day, so we tried them a couple weeks later. They ranked right up there with some of our favourite croissants, and with being only steps away from the condo, well, that could be a deadly combination. 

But for dinner last night, it wasn't about croissants. It was about tasting their every day dine-in servings. Stepping inside the canteen, you really do get a bit of a cafeteria feel, with  closely-spaced tables and an open kitchen along the back. Servers wear plaid blue shirts, very casual, and the menu is not overwhelming, a few selections of salads, pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, and mains. To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot that caught our eye. We opted to skip the pizzas that night, and I never consider a salad (hello, FAT Friday....), so it was something from their pasta or mains. 

The steak frites seemed to entice Matt, and the Thursday Special (grill) was also a steak - Hammered Steak with Potato Pancakes. He opted for the steak frites with a cesaer salad to start, but agreed we'd have to come back another Thursday for their grill special. The salad was good, but do you see that the fries come sprinkled with Parmesan cheese?!?! Matt didn't even add vinegar to them; a rarity for him, indeed. The steak came with a green pesto of some variety, and his thoughts: "quite good." 

Myself, I ordered something from the pasta menu. The gnocchi really was tempting, but it came served with lamb, and I've never actually had lamb before. The Canteen probably would have been a really great place to try it, but instead, I went for the Mac & Cheese with Quebec aged cheddar and smoked ham, sprinkled with basil (my best guess) bread crumbs. Matt wondered how it compared with the one from The Counter, and, at the time, I said I liked it a bit better because of the added smoked ham, but now that I look back at my previous post, I think The Counter might be a notch or two better, and I think that has to do with the triple cheese factor and the spiral noodles. Regardless, you can't really screw up mac & cheese (unless you add mushrooms), so it was still a winner. 

Saturdays are their burger specials, so we will be heading back to see how they compare to our every-expanding list of best burgers.... and of course, the croissants.