Jack Astor's

A friend of ours lives around the Eastgate Square area in Hamilton, and we’re always struggling to find something to eat when we come to visit. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that it’s always ridiculously late for dinner and nothing is open? That can’t be it. (If you know the area and have recommendations, I’m all ears.)

The night we came, the place was busy, but there was no wait and we were seated right away in a booth along the wall. It was after the mall had closed (it’s actually in the mall parking lot, but I don’t think it’s actually attached to the mall? I could be wrong, but really. Who cares that much, right?) Apparently this post is all about writing in brackets. It’s like...split personality-two conversations at a time-goodness. Awesome. (Totally makes up for the fact I write like.....once...a month....right? This counts as two posts? No? Ok. Fine. Tough crowd.) I always find Jack Astor’s to be dark, and this one was no different. I actually had to strain to read the menu because the lighting was so low. (Don’t you dare make an old joke.) The dining room was loud because there were a few large groups of people by us, and it felt more like a bar than a restaurant. If that’s the atmosphere they were going for, they totally nailed it.

Our server was...interesting. He looked and acted like a Jersey Shore character (Gym, Tan, Laundry, anyone?) and I’m pretty sure he was hitting on me. Not that I’m complaining, but most people don’t do that when I’m sitting next to my husband-to-be. He was extremely attentive at the beginning and was quick to bring us our drinks, but after our food came, the service dropped off and we didn’t see him much until we were ready to pay.

As an appetizer, our server suggested one of the seasonal items, the Baked Brie with Garlic and Berry Compote. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again – I love brie. I had high hopes that it would be good because the description sounded safe, but I was disappointed. It came out very hot but looked completely unappetizing. The cheese itself was over-heated and was a gooey, unattractive mess with a thick film of grease on the top. The compote had spread everywhere and mixed with the grease, so it was almost inedible unless you wanted a heart attack. Roasted garlic was scarce and there were only a couple of cloves on the top. My favourite part of the dish was the crisp bread. Overall, it was a very disappointing start to the meal.

You can’t go to Jack’s without getting Pan Bread – it’s like going to a seafood place and having the chicken. You just have to have it, and you have to have it with cheese. I mean, if you’re already eating a skillet of butter, what’s a blanket of cheese really going to do? Go big or go home, my friends. This Pan Bread did not let us down; it was hot and crispy around the edges with a soft, fluffy middle. Plenty of butter sat on the bottom (made me think of a guy I knew in high school who would lick the parchment paper to get every drop of butter), and lots of gooey cheese on top.

I went with the Duelling Sausages Pizza which had both chipotle chicken sausage as well as shitake mushroom chicken sausage along with roasted red peppers and onions. Unfortunately for me, it looked better than it tasted. I found the dough to be too bread-y and was not a fan of the tomato sauce at all (it was too sour for my liking). The key players, the sausages, were bland and I had trouble distinguishing the flavours they were supposed to be. I pouted a lot when I ate it, and could only get through a slice before I gave up. (Side note: when I got the takeout box back from our server, he wrote on the top “a delicious bedside treat for you” .... weird, right???)

Chicken Fettuccine was also on the seasonal menu (how is that a seasonal item? I don’t get it.) and was average. The sauce was creamy but bland and the chicken didn’t have much flavour to it. You could probably do a better job of it at home yourself. Jack’s, if you’re reading this – a little bit of salt goes a long way. Just saying!

The best entree of the night was the Figgin’ Good Burger with a side of fries (someone told me once that it wasn’t very fig-y, so if I ever had it I should order it with extra fig sauce. Thank goodness I remembered because it made a huge difference). Aged white cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato, Thai ketchup (couldn’t even taste that) and fig sauce are piled on top of a thick, juicy patty. After the addition of a significant amount of fig sauce, this was one tasty burger! Sweet, salty, juicy, crunchy...all the flavours went fantastic together. It will probably be the only thing I eat from Jack’s from now on, considering the fails we had with the other entrees and how good this was.

All in all, it was a pretty disappointing meal. Bread and a burger don’t seem worth it to go to a restaurant when there are so many other places out there (although I can’t seem to find any around the area I haven’t tried/want to try). Probably not on my “have to go back there soon” list anywhere in the near future.

Jack Astor’s
75 Centennial Parkway North, Hamilton
http://www.jackastors.com/index.aspx

Baton Rouge

Recently, the boyfriend and I had tickets to a show and had under an hour to find something quick and delicious to eat. Just outside the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts, we came across Baton Rouge and popped in hoping that we could find a good meal in a very short period of time. After confirming with the hostess that it wouldn’t be a problem (they get asked all the time from people who have tickets to shows if they can accommodate a quick meal), we sat in a big booth in the bar area. 

The restaurant itself is decorated in dark wood everywhere. The entrance doors are large and heavy, and the hostess stand was large and imposing. Everything seemed to be much more oversized than I’m used to, and I felt small in our booth.

There is a promotion on at the moment that is the Mardi Gras Prix Fixe Menu – for $25 you can have your choice of appetizer, entree and dessert, all in the Mardi Gras theme. Both of us opted for the fixed menu since it sounded like the best bang for our buck.

We both started with the Jambalaya Cajun Soup, which came with a side order of sweet rolls. The rolls were rock hard and as cold as if they were just pulled from the refrigerator. Such a shame too, since they actually would have been tasty if they were warmed up, with buttery, sweet dough. The soup was steaming hot and hearty, with rice, sausage, shrimp, chicken and plenty of vegetables. The flavour was amazing from all the different ingredients with the tiniest hint of pepper. It was a good way to warm up after walking in the cold.

The Penne with Shrimp and Sausage was a huge portion of pasta with a side of another sweet roll. This roll was room temperature, so it was a bit better than our soup accompaniment. There were large pieces of sausage that reminded me of the sausage the hot dog cart by my work sells, and a couple of big, meaty shrimps. There were large pieces of carrot in the sauce, which is strange, since I don’t think I have ever had pasta with carrots before, but it surprisingly suited the dish pretty well. The sauce had large chunks of tomato but it was runny and there was too much of it. 

BBQ Pork Back Ribs came with a large scoop of coleslaw, sweet potato fries and a Cajun dipping sauce. The ribs were tender and fell off the bones, but what I liked the most about them was that they were so lean. There was hardly any fat on them, and they were extremely meaty. The fries were hot and crispy, but the dipping sauce tasted like mayonnaise with seasoning salt. I much preferred the fries dipped in the BBQ sauce off the ribs. Finally, the coleslaw, though plentiful, needed more dressing and less parsley. All I could taste with each bite was parsley, and I only ended up eating a couple of forkfuls.

There were only two choices for dessert, and we chose one of each to be able to try them both. The Key Lime Pie was a disappointment for me, but the boyfriend said he didn’t mind it so much. My biggest complaint was that it wasn’t very lime-y. It tasted more like a cheesecake with a slight hint of lime. When I order key lime pie, I want the lime to be the featured flavour (I want it to punch me in the face when I bite into it, was how I explained it to the boyfriend) but this lime was pretty muted. Not to say that the pie wasn’t good, because it was very creamy and smooth and not overly sweet, but the lime was too subtle for me to consider it a true key lime pie.

Finally, the Bourbon Banana Bread was interesting and not at all how I thought it would be. The bottom layer was banana bread and the top layer was bread pudding, and the whole piece was drizzled with a thin caramel sauce of sorts. I was expecting it to be typical bread pudding with banana flavour? Not to say that it wasn’t good, because it was moist and sweet, but it just wasn’t what we were expecting. It was ok, but it was different.

We ended up making it to our show with a few minutes to spare, so we really appreciated the staff for making our order quickly and getting us out on time. I have to commend them because at no point did we feel rushed, or that we were being bothersome because they had to hurry with our order, and it still felt like we had a relaxing meal. Though not a perfect experience, you can’t beat the price, and I would give it another try. The Mardi Gras features run until March.

Baton Rouge
5000 Yonge St., Toronto
www.batonrougerestaurants.com