Wine Bar

Date Visited: Summerlicious Lunch on Saturday Jul 13, 2013

Company: Catch-up session with +Will

For a last minute lunch date, I booked +Will and I a reservation at Wine Bar the morning of. The location was close to where we were and it had an entree that I knew that Will would enjoy (pulled pork sliders). I had passed it a few times before, walking on Church down to the Esplanade, but it never really stuck out to me to give it a try. Upon further research, I discovered that it's a tapas style restaurant that uses local and natural ingredients in their dishes. 

We arrived at noon on the Saturday and were one of the first diners there. We were seated in a small dining area near the main window to the right of the door where there were about 6 tables. There was a long bar leading to the kitchen in the main area but I didn't get to walk around to see what the rest of the restaurant looked like. It was quite fancy and authentic though, with a wide assortment of wines at the bar.

They had a pretty cork material menu customized for Summerlicious to match their main menu and every dish had a wine pairing. Upon ordering our meals, we received our appetizers almost immediately. I had ordered the Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Dip. The presentation of the dip was very lovely and they also provided a fancy butter knife to scoop the dip. The flavour was subtle and not as heavy as I had expected. I also thought it would be thicker but it was more runny which made the knife helpful. The crostini's were rather crispy, but it complemented the dip nicely. The pickled roasted red peppers and red onions were delicious too on the side. It was a excellent light start to the meal.

For my main, I ordered the Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich. I'm not sure why there's 'Almond' in the title because I didn't taste anything almond related in the sandwich. The chicken salad was quite refreshing and had a nice combination of vegetables mixed in. The foccacia wasn't as heavy as it's usually made and toasted to a crispy, but not too hard texture. The shoestring fries with the spicy mayo dip was also fun to eat.

To end, I decided to have Creme Brûlée for the first time. I'm not sure why I never had an interest in it before because I do love custard. Maybe because I'm not a fan of the hard syrup texture of the top layer because it gets stuck in your teeth. Despite this, the brûlée was very tasty with strong egg flavour, and the strawberry was a nice complement.  

Overall, this was a very light and somewhat healthier Summerlicious meal that may be good for first-timers to try to introduce you into the fine-dining experience.  I was very content after the meal and felt just a bit better about myself knowing I supported the community :)

Food: 4/5 - Fresh ingredients and well-planned dishes.
Service: 5/5 - The waiter was so attentive and eager, too bad we didn't need much service.
Decor: 3/5 - Nice ambiance and well established.
Willingness to come back: 2/5 - I'd be a little lost ordering if they didn't have the fixe price menu.
Overall: 3.5/5
Website: http://www.9church.com/