Silver Heights Restaurant

Silver Heights Restaurant

2169 Portage Avenue Winnipeg

Phone: 204-889-7246 or 204-832-1416

Fax:  204-889-7247

http://www.silverheights.mb.ca/

October, 2011

If you ask anyone from St. James to recommend a restaurant, there’s a good chance you’d hear one of two names—Silver Heights Restaurant will be one of them.  The Heights has sat inconspicuously on the north side of Portage Avenue for over 50 years and the billboard/façade looks it.  The yellow-green billboard probably hasn’t been painted since the 50s but don’t let the exterior fool you; the interior looks fresh and modern.  The menu doesn’t feature much out of the ordinary but the Heights throws some unexpected curves into their offerings.

I love the combination of green peppers, onions and sliced beef, smothered with Swiss cheese, making the classic Philly cheese steak.  The Heights’s rendition injects a zap of spicy chipotle mayo, bringing the great combo to new heights.  You don’t see many Mexicans sport a Philadelphian accent but this fluent sandwich speaks to the tongue on many levels.  Unfortunately, the Heights splits their sandwich into two halves, one with the green peppers, onions and sliced beef on the chipotle mayo break, and the other with just sliced beef and cheese on the same chipotle bread.  The whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts and here, you end up with two inferior half-sandwiches, rather than one gigantic super-sandwich.  I recommend slapping this monster together, squishing it until it’s manageable, and taking greedy, gobbling bites. 

If soup and sandwich is your thing, feel free to swim into a bowl of New England clam chowder.  A lot of restaurants load you up with huge chunks of potatoes to create a hearty soup; I prefer it when they load you up with huge chunks of fresh clam meat.  Sadly, you won’t find much of this in a landlocked city.  The Heights gives you a considerable amount of potato, but it’s finely diced so you don’t fill up on starch.  The broth has enough seafood flavour where you don’t feel that the soup tastes inadequate.  The layer of baked cheese adds a delicious perk to this competent intro.

The Heights also offers crispy, fresh salads for intros.  Leaf through their assortment of house dressings and you’ll find something that interests you.  The raspberry vinaigrette tastes more like a tangy raspberry jam than a salad dressing, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  I often infuse my salad dressings with jam and they rarely fail.

Although the Heights offers a variety of choices, many know it as a meat pit, and no wonder since they dedicate a large portion of their menu to satisfying carnivorous urges.  The certified angus beef steaks come well charred on the outside and done to your preferred degree of wellness on the inside.  Most steaks either come with a topping of mushrooms or the classic peppercorn sauce, both of which enhance the beef beautifully.  

The Heights brags proudly about their angus beef but the biggest boast comes with the ribs, as advertised by their great green sign “Best BBQ Ribs in Town.”  The baby backs come tender and smothered with their secret barbecue sauce.  Well seared to caramelise the meat’s fat content, the Heights certainly delivers delicious ribs.  At one time, these might have been the best ribs in Winnipeg but as the Deep South slowly creeps into the Great White North, we start to see Barbecue Belt-type smoked ribs, which I think are incomparable.  With the introduction of Woody’s and Famous Dave’s, and Lovey’s continued presence, smoked meats are marching their way into the mainstream.  I hope that the Heights will eventually add some smoke to their menu, but in the meantime, enjoy what they presently have to offer.

Everything from the Heights looks and tastes fresh, including the bread which comes steaming hot, meltingly soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside.  Take the well-made food, couple it with the great attention to detail and present it with expert service and you end up with a wonderful dining experience.  I hope the Heights sticks around for another 50 years.

**** /5

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