Eat! bistro

We tried out Eat! bistro last night.  I had emailed the owner who assured me that while they don't have free-range chickens running around the back, "virtually everything at EAT! is made in-house".  I figured that was good enough for me.  Now, I don't know if to them, "whole ingredients" include things like mayonnaise, but whatever.  If a restaurant promotes itself as making things from scratch, I'm not about to trek into the kitchen to look at ingredients.

The ambience in Eat! was fun, ecclectic and there was a lot to look at.  I'm not sure what they'd do if it was really busy though, because at our table (four adults and 2-under-2), the backs of our chairs were rubbing against the next tables. 

Our food was enjoyable.  I ordered the taco salad.  Sitting among the rest of the entrees, it seemed a bit like the "thing to put on the menu for people who don't eat everything else."  It was tasty, but a bit uninspired.  There was nothing new and interesting about it, and I personally would have preferred if the meat was hot.

A note about the entrees, They are SMALL.  For an average man like Husband, get two.  Husband ended up eating his (the crabcakes) and then ordering some more (a really tasty pulled-pork flatbread pizza).  The crabcakes were good, but after talking to Husband, he found them "not very crabby" (I guess he's used to me).  He said it could have been virtually any seafood.  He would have liked to see big hunks of crab in there. 

I really enjoyed the fries.  for $5 you get this massive pile plus one of their 15 or so dipping sauces (each additional  dipping sauce is $1...  which concerned me slightly, since ketchup and vinegar were listed separately).  We went with the chipotle mayonnaise and the tzatziki.  I think of the two, the chipotle mayo was my favourite.  The tzatziki was ok, but nothing special.  The fries are huge and well cooked.

The rest of us finished our meal a little hungry (after each having our own entree and sharing the fries) so, in addition to Husbands extra pizza, we also ordered the chicken dippers.  I'm not sure what planet that chicken came from but it was extremely light and tender.  It had a nice light, crunchy breading, and for $7 for four pieces, I'd say it's worth it (just get the fries or a salad too, if you want it to be a meal).

Overall, I found the food enjoyable.  The prices were ok, average for an "expensive-bistro", but that was mainly due to the size of the entree.  It ran us just under $20 per adult plus tip for 6 entrees plus a side of fries (no alcohol, just coffee and lemonade... which was very sweet).

The desserts, which apparently were supposed to be amazing, fell a little flat.  Looking at the website, (no, I don't know what's wrong with it...  you have to scroll down to see anything) I was excited to see the desserts, as the pictures looked stunning.  In reality, there were some small pies, some sad-looking brownies a cake and some cupcakes.  Nothing that tempted us away from the brownie and homemade ice cream I had at home. 

Eat! is a great spot, good for lunch downtowners, and I'd go there again.  Though, I'd like them to put the Mexican Wontons back on the menu, I saw them on the website and wanted to order them, but they were crossed out.