Deer + Almond

Deer + Almond

85 Princess St

R3B 1K4

204-504-8562

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/deerandalmond

Twitter:  @deerandalmond

March, 2013

For as long as I can remember, dumpy diners always sat at the corner of McDermot and Princess, in the heart of the Exchange District.  Deer + Almond is a welcome change—from the décor to the menu, this place is now anything but a diner.  I love the grey/black colour combination that greets you as you enter the door.  Aside from a few knick knacks and some pieces of antlers, there isn’t much else to adorn this atmosphere.  The friendly server brings the menus, which are as plain as plain can be.  This is little more than a printout on cardstock that anyone can generate in minutes.  I’m fine with this; if you want to change your menu often, why bother putting a lot of effort into it?  By contrast, the liquor menu has more to it and looks like it could have been stolen from Rae & Jerry’s tables!  It houses a decent selection that can pair nicely with most food items.

Winnipeg has seen a lot of Spanish “tapa” type restaurants open recently but most of them charge a lot of money for a lot of food, which contradicts the idea of eating tapas.  Tapas are supposed to be small, inexpensive dishes so that you can try lots of them, akin to dim sum or sushi.  The Deer doesn’t call its food “tapa,” but the dining style’s the same.  Each entry features a small amount of food and the prices are equally small. 

The arancini is a rice ball that’s covered with breadcrumbs and lightly deep fried.  The Deer’s rendition comes stuffed with delicious risotto and sits on a bed of chunky tomato sauce.  The crunchy outside imparts a wonderful texture to the rice ball and the tomato sauce adds a lovely zing.

I like most vegetables but admittedly, I haven’t eaten Brussels sprouts since I was a teenager.  My foray into making them ended with green rubber balls that tasted little better than pine cones.  Ordering Brussels for me is a stretch, for a person who never thinks twice to eat scorpion meat, chicken feet or eye of sheep.  I am glad to give Brussels another chance as these taste wonderful.  The halved sprout comes crispy caramelised and jacked up with a mild blue cheese.  The pistachios add wonderful savouriness and crunch and whole concoction comes nicely spicy. 

All of the larger dishes come with a side of soup or salad.  The sesame salad comes with assorted greens and lettuce.  The sesame seeds bolster the oil dressing so nicely that I can’t wait to start using sesames as a regular enhancement to all my salads.  The only complaint I have is that the lettuce rib looks brown and past fresh.  I don’t like getting the rusty stem from the grocery store and I definitely don’t want it on my salad plate.

The smoked lamb pita sits unwrapped on your plate waiting for assembly.  This is one of the messiest pitas you’ll ever encounter as it oozes fluorescent yogurt all over your hands, even before you pick it up!  The sheep feta (fay-tah, not fet-ah) gives a nice zing to the mounding heap of delicious lamb. 

Most of the menu items at the Deer + Almond come dressed with chilli sauce so if you don’t like spicy, this might not be the place for you.  This definitely is the place for me as all the dishes look meticulously put together and prepared with care. 

**** /5

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