The Underground Café
70 Arthur St
204-956-1925
December, 2011
The Underground Café has carved an impressive reputation,
especially for a small restaurant in an obscure basement that only opens until 4 pm from Monday to Friday. For many years, the Underground’s Sun-burger has
owned the stellar standard for meatless burgers. From reputation alone, every vegetarian
burger will get inevitable comparisons to the Underground sandwich—and with
good reason. The Sun-burger stands as an
entity of its own without trying to imitate its meat cousin: “Our burger is a compilation of toasted
sesame and sunflower seeds, vegetable protein, mozza and cheddar cheeses, rice,
eggs, and assorted spices, baked to perfection [and] served on a toasted bagel
with lime-dill sauce, romaine, green peppers, onion and tomato.”
Breaking it down, the heart of the burger, the meatless
patty comes juicily thick, with wonderful texture from the seeds. This fabulous patty comes on a bagel that’s
not too thick and dense, like some bagels can be. The ultra-fresh vegetables doubly add nice
textures and moisture to the bagel, which can sometimes be dry by itself. The lime-dill sauce truly brings this burger
to an ethereal level as all the flavour blends melodically into the perfect
melange. I know that most hard-core
carnivores will scoff and not even try it, which is a shame (and their loss),
because this is truly a great burger.
Despite the thickness of the burger, it doesn’t have a huge diameter,
which means that you won’t have to return to the office holding your belly in
agony. The only shame about this burger
is the hole in the bagel, which allows the delicious sauce to leak out into
your hands. I don’t think this is what a
certain colonel meant with the phrase “finger licking good,” but you’ll be
doing exactly that.
Every time I come to the Underground, I have a hard time
having anything but the Sun-burger, but if you must, they offer six-inch pizzas
made from whole wheat and a red sauce reduction. This is a very thin pizza with a crispy
crust; the edge was a little burnt but nothing that can’t be easily picked
off. Lots of cheddar cheese smothers the
pie but there’s very little else. The
toppings I ordered came very finely chopped and barely visible.
The Underground also offers an assortment of the common
sandwich types, including a chicken salad that’s loaded with big chunks of
chicken. The sandwich also comes with
chunks of celery and fresh, crisp lettuce that add wonderful texture. The goop isn’t overloaded with mayo so your
blend isn’t drowning in sauce. Soft,
thick and fresh slices of pumpernickel bread packages this well-made
sandwich.
The Underground Café is definitely not your average
restaurant with white tablecloths and fine
silverware. First time diners may be
shocked by the mishmash of chairs and the bright colours splattered over black
walls. You might feel a bit out of place
in the three-piece power suit but it won’t take long before you don’t care
about much more than the food that sits in front of you.
****½ /5
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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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