Village Squire, 1977-07, Page 22SQUIRE'S TABLE
/. $.• 1VI
Were been fans of the Friar's Cellar in
London for several years so it was welcome
news when we heard that another Friar's
was going to open in Stratford. It seemed
like an excellent addition to the Stratford
dining scene.
Well it is a good addition, but based on
our visit this month, not as excellent as we
hoped. Perhaps it was that our expect-
ations were just too high. We had fond
memories of the London location and it
may be a bit much to expect the new
branch to do as well when it's only been
open about a month.
Not that our experience was bad, just
th... it wasn't as good as expected. For one
thing, we found the service a little erratic:
prompt to the point of almost being rushed
at one moment, neglectful at the next.
That's the kind of problems a new
establishment has to endure for a while
until the staff is fully trained.
There certainly wasn't anything to
complain about as to getting enough to eat.
The Friar's Cellar is not the kind of place
that makes it easy to stick to your diet.
The evening began with the delivery of a
salad tray with many kinds of fresh
vegetables. It was accompanied by a pot of
meat balls and sauce and a small loaf of
bread, enough for a meal right there.
We followed that with French onion
soup. It was a very large portion but it was
also our first complaint. Most restaurants
serve French onion soup in individually
baked pots with the cheese a lovely light
layer across the top of the liquid. Here the
soup was served in a large metal container
and seemed to have been poured steaming
hot over pieces of cheese which proved a
sticky, rubbery mess in the bottom. The
soup too was very strong in flavour and
combined with the size of the portions,
proved just too much for either the lady or
the writer to finish.
The effect of the soup helped spoil the
rest of the meal with the strong flavour
PG. 20. VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1977.
Stratford's Friars'
not up to London's
standards yet
lingering. One of our favourite dishes at
the Friar's is the Black Forest platter which
provides a wide variety of foods for two or
more. We decided that we should try
something different this time out. The lady
chose a beef dish and the writer chicken
cordon bleu. The dishes were accompanied
by a plate of tastey carrots and a baked
potato for the writer and fried potatoes for
the lady.
The lady found the mushroom sauce on
her meat too strong and the meat tasted
like a cheaper cut of meat than one might
expect at that price. The writer found his
chicken a tastey dish with the cheese and
bacon stuffing.
We were sufficiently stuffed by this time
not to be able to manage the dessert. The
tab came to $21.12 including a glass of
wine for each of us.
Hopefully, the quality of the Stratford
branch will soon reach that of the London
Friar's. If it does, then Stratford will have a
strong addition to the variety of its dining
places, already. strong because of the
influence of the Festival.
•
dandelig4t destautant
is
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