New: The Sparrow

I had lunch at The Sparrow twice last week and breakfast this morning, and it has already become a real fave. Part of that it that's it's right around the corner from my apartment and across the street from my office - but most of it is the food and the whole vibe of the place.

My first time there I tried the burger which was very good, and not overcooked like most people do to burgers these days. The fries that came with it were great as well.

My second lunch was the seafood soup which was very tasty and came with at least 8-9 mussels in it, followed by the (cheddar) cheese sandwich. The sandwich was simple but very well executed.

Today I had the English breakfast which has already been described - it was very good as well.

As Bopuc and others have reported they're having trouble getting the liquor license, which is definitely related to the former Mile End Bar and noise concerns in the neighbourhood (which really shouldn't be an issue with the kind of thing Sparrow is putting together) and I hope that gets resolved soon. Everyone I have met at Sparrow is awesome, and it's really a family (2 families in fact) business and I have great expectations for the time when they can really get the whole place working as they have envisioned it.

BTW I learned today that they make all of their sausage on site.

mikelbyl in Quebec (including Montreal)

Short Parfyum report

I was about $50/person plus wine. We skipped dessert though.

mikelbyl in Ontario (including Toronto)

Short Parfyum report

A quick report on Parfyum. We dined there on Saturday night after having a somewhat disappointing experience back in July. In the summer the food was good but not great, the service was sloppy and rushed, and the wine list was surprisingly short and overpriced.

Everything seems to have been fixed though - we had a great experience Saturday. Clearly the new chef (Vardy) has brought the food up to where it should be, the wine list was improved (and the sommelier helped a lot too), and the service was great by Ottawa standards (that is to say polite and pleasant but not obviously professional) and not rushed at all.

I had a little pasta and pig's cheek appetizer and a main course of duck two ways (magret and what they called pulled confit), both of which were perfect. My companions had the lamb and arctic char mains and they were impressed as well.

mikelbyl in Ontario (including Toronto)