NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS
The District Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge
177 Lombard Avenue
(204) 415-3119
thedistrict@shawbiz.ca
http://www.thedistrictwinnipeg.com/index.html
September, 2009
For years, the Liberty Grill sat at this location and I’m going to miss it very much. This was a bustling place that served great food for reasonable prices. Although geared towards the business lunch crowd, the Grill’s proximity to the Centennial Concert Hall and the various MTC locations made it an ideal location for a meal before a show.
The District replaces the Grill and moves away from the pasta-based friendly food items. In its place, the District offers a variety of foods that don’t seem to have any connection to each other. The lunch menu ranges from burgers to back ribs, and from po’boys to pasta. While trying to touch on all tastes and preferences, the district struggles to find an identity. The more-settled dinner menu regains its focus and concentrates on continental fare. While the variety of meats is impressive, the number of items on the menu is short, with only seven choices from the mains. Similarly, the appetiser section only offers four selections, and today, I try the diver scallops on soba noodles with a lime-chilli dressing and soy gastrique. Soba noodles are thin Japanese noodles made from buckwheat that don’t have much flavour to themselves. These noodles are generally eaten in some sort of broth from which it can soak up its flavour. The District lays the scallops on the noodles with a drizzle of sweet soy gastrique around the noodles. While the gastrique has a nice, bold taste, it’s too intense to mix in with the noodles. The lime-chilli dressing is a nice complement to the scallops; however, a little more seasoning is needed. The simplest and most traditional way to cook diver scallops is to fry them in a smoking, butter-oil mixture. The high heat sears the scallops and the butter imparts the perfect complement to the delicate scallop flavour. Unfortunately, the District tries to do too much with this dish and it falls short of its potential.
The Dungeness crab patties come dipped in a deliciously crunchy panko crust that augments the sweet taste of the crab meat wonderfully. The crab cakes sit on a bed of greens, enhanced with a bacon emulsion that complements both the bitter leaves and the sweet crab. This is one of the best all-around crab cake dishes to be had.
The District offers a beet salad and a daily greens salad. Today’s greens include endives that come with candied walnuts in a pear-thyme vinaigrette. This sweet and herbaceous dressing contributes nicely to the bitterness of the endive leaves. The walnuts give an additional dimension of texture to the crispness of the greens leaves. You shouldn’t forego the salad course as this is a superb dish.
For your main course, you have a choice among several meats, including rabbit or lamb, and a couple of fishes. The albacore tuna comes in a thick wedge that’s perfectly raw on the inside and barely cooked on the outside. The District covers the tuna with a layer of wrapping, similar to a wonton or an egg roll wrapping, which is subsequently fried. While on paper, the idea of a crunchy, deep fried wrapping around a raw-rare piece of tuna sounds divine, de facto, this cooking experiment has some problems. First, the wrapping does not fry completely, either because the oil was not hot enough or moisture oozed out of the tuna (this would have occurred if the tuna was originally frozen). Instead of a crispy outer shell, the wrapping becomes a greasy and tough covering. While trying to cut through the wrapping, you exert enough force to mangle the tuna below. Secondly, the flavour of the oil and the caramelising properties are lost in covering; the protected tuna below receives no direct exposure to cooking or seasoning. Essentially, the fish is steamed inside its protective shell. While the degree of doneness is perfect on the tuna, the cooking technique ultimately ruins this dish. The accompanying crispy prosciutto and the bean puree rapini are nice sides but they cannot save the tuna.
Most of the dishes from the District appear to have been deeply thought-out and put together. I’m certain that the desserts are no exception; however the titles “doughnuts,” “bread pudding,” and “s’mores” don’t inspire the diner to jump in and try. The District’s pride comes from exotic ingredients prepared in inventive ways. Adjusting the names of the desserts would blend in with the restaurant’s motif.
Décor wise, the District hasn’t changed much from its past incarnation, although the tablecloths and the silverware are a little fancier, and that’s intentional. The District wants to compete with Winnipeg’s top tables with their dinner menu and vie for the downtown business crowd’s favour over the lunch session. The lunch menu’s ribs and burgers are not compatible with three-piece suit lunches and the dinner items simply cannot compete with Winnipeg’s best. The District demands top prices (lunch mains range from $14 to $17 and dinner mains run from $28 to $39) but food cannot stand up to the cost. A lot of thought and work went into designing the food menus, but alas, some are hits but some are complete misses. I applaud them for their effort and I hope that future improvements will bring the District to where it wants to be.
** ½ /5
This is a free product that I'm happy to bring to you. If you enjoyed reading this, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads. This is the only payment I receive for offering this public service. Thank you as always for reading.
The District Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge
177 Lombard Avenue
(204) 415-3119
thedistrict@shawbiz.ca
http://www.thedistrictwinnipeg.com/index.html
September, 2009
For years, the Liberty Grill sat at this location and I’m going to miss it very much. This was a bustling place that served great food for reasonable prices. Although geared towards the business lunch crowd, the Grill’s proximity to the Centennial Concert Hall and the various MTC locations made it an ideal location for a meal before a show.
The District replaces the Grill and moves away from the pasta-based friendly food items. In its place, the District offers a variety of foods that don’t seem to have any connection to each other. The lunch menu ranges from burgers to back ribs, and from po’boys to pasta. While trying to touch on all tastes and preferences, the district struggles to find an identity. The more-settled dinner menu regains its focus and concentrates on continental fare. While the variety of meats is impressive, the number of items on the menu is short, with only seven choices from the mains. Similarly, the appetiser section only offers four selections, and today, I try the diver scallops on soba noodles with a lime-chilli dressing and soy gastrique. Soba noodles are thin Japanese noodles made from buckwheat that don’t have much flavour to themselves. These noodles are generally eaten in some sort of broth from which it can soak up its flavour. The District lays the scallops on the noodles with a drizzle of sweet soy gastrique around the noodles. While the gastrique has a nice, bold taste, it’s too intense to mix in with the noodles. The lime-chilli dressing is a nice complement to the scallops; however, a little more seasoning is needed. The simplest and most traditional way to cook diver scallops is to fry them in a smoking, butter-oil mixture. The high heat sears the scallops and the butter imparts the perfect complement to the delicate scallop flavour. Unfortunately, the District tries to do too much with this dish and it falls short of its potential.
The Dungeness crab patties come dipped in a deliciously crunchy panko crust that augments the sweet taste of the crab meat wonderfully. The crab cakes sit on a bed of greens, enhanced with a bacon emulsion that complements both the bitter leaves and the sweet crab. This is one of the best all-around crab cake dishes to be had.
The District offers a beet salad and a daily greens salad. Today’s greens include endives that come with candied walnuts in a pear-thyme vinaigrette. This sweet and herbaceous dressing contributes nicely to the bitterness of the endive leaves. The walnuts give an additional dimension of texture to the crispness of the greens leaves. You shouldn’t forego the salad course as this is a superb dish.
For your main course, you have a choice among several meats, including rabbit or lamb, and a couple of fishes. The albacore tuna comes in a thick wedge that’s perfectly raw on the inside and barely cooked on the outside. The District covers the tuna with a layer of wrapping, similar to a wonton or an egg roll wrapping, which is subsequently fried. While on paper, the idea of a crunchy, deep fried wrapping around a raw-rare piece of tuna sounds divine, de facto, this cooking experiment has some problems. First, the wrapping does not fry completely, either because the oil was not hot enough or moisture oozed out of the tuna (this would have occurred if the tuna was originally frozen). Instead of a crispy outer shell, the wrapping becomes a greasy and tough covering. While trying to cut through the wrapping, you exert enough force to mangle the tuna below. Secondly, the flavour of the oil and the caramelising properties are lost in covering; the protected tuna below receives no direct exposure to cooking or seasoning. Essentially, the fish is steamed inside its protective shell. While the degree of doneness is perfect on the tuna, the cooking technique ultimately ruins this dish. The accompanying crispy prosciutto and the bean puree rapini are nice sides but they cannot save the tuna.
Most of the dishes from the District appear to have been deeply thought-out and put together. I’m certain that the desserts are no exception; however the titles “doughnuts,” “bread pudding,” and “s’mores” don’t inspire the diner to jump in and try. The District’s pride comes from exotic ingredients prepared in inventive ways. Adjusting the names of the desserts would blend in with the restaurant’s motif.
Décor wise, the District hasn’t changed much from its past incarnation, although the tablecloths and the silverware are a little fancier, and that’s intentional. The District wants to compete with Winnipeg’s top tables with their dinner menu and vie for the downtown business crowd’s favour over the lunch session. The lunch menu’s ribs and burgers are not compatible with three-piece suit lunches and the dinner items simply cannot compete with Winnipeg’s best. The District demands top prices (lunch mains range from $14 to $17 and dinner mains run from $28 to $39) but food cannot stand up to the cost. A lot of thought and work went into designing the food menus, but alas, some are hits but some are complete misses. I applaud them for their effort and I hope that future improvements will bring the District to where it wants to be.
** ½ /5
This is a free product that I'm happy to bring to you. If you enjoyed reading this, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads. This is the only payment I receive for offering this public service. Thank you as always for reading.
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