The bright green leaves taste as fresh as they look, crispy and crunchy with each bite. There's plenty of dressing to cover the greens. I would like to see them add some colour or texture to augment this simple salad. Imagine how much brighter the dish would like with some cubed tomatoes or minced red pepper, perhaps a sprinkling of some sort of seeds or nuts.
The soup comes tepid, which is not great. Unless it's a cold soup, you should never get soup any less than piping hot. That tells me that it's been sitting in a vat for a while, not stirred. Despite that, the large chunks of potatoes do not taste overcooked or mushy. I can't say the same for the small chunks of fish, which disintegrate without chewing. Happily, the big pieces of clams taste well done and there are enough of them to make me happy.
Although not al dente, it's also not overcooked or mushy. I would have taken it out of the heat a minute earlier, but it's perfectly acceptable. The sauce however, is not nearly as pleasant and largely disappointing. The menu describes the dish as:
A classic, light flavourful infusion of shell-free littleneck clam, garlic, chilli flakes and extra virgin olive oil served with linguine.
When they say "light," they mean light. I taste no garlic and every chilli flake I've ever encountered has a spicy bite. I get no spice from this dish at all. The only thing I taste is the olive oil and salt--making for a very boring pasta. The clams taste a tad bland but they have good texture. When the menu says "shell-free," that's another way of saying canned or frozen--you want clams with shells, meaning they were cooked fresh. Freshly cooked, live clams give out beautiful juices. When those shells open, the juices help flavour the dish. Since these clams have no accompanying juices, they need some help, more help than just olive oil can provide. This sauce needs some cream or herbs to add flavour and body. For goodness sake, when you advertise garlic, please use garlic. And use it generously; that alone could have saved this dish. I hoped for the retired clam sauce I showed above, updated with whole clams on this dish, but sadly, that's not what's here. To be fair, the last time I had linguine alle vongole, I was in New York, and I never dare to expect to be able to find New York quality food in most of Winnipeg. Still, I expect the dish to have a lot more flavour than what's here.
If you want to stay away from pasta, the menu has a small selection of traditional off-the-grill dishes. The New York Steak Sandwich comes with a 6-ounce cut of strip loin on a half-loaf of the sourdough bread.
As a general rule, when I got to an actual steak house, I order steaks medium rare--and I want to eat them medium-rare. When I go to a non-steak house, I order steaks rare, expecting them to overcook and give me medium-rare (this works 99% of the time). If I go to a restaurant where I suspect no one knows how to run a grill, I'll order blue rare, knowing it will come severely overcooked.
True to the rule, today's steak comes one degree more well done than requested. I give them credit for trying: if you look at the photo, you can almost see the startings of crossed grill marks. Sadly, it falls far short. They need much higher grill heat to be able to caramelise and sear the meat. Also, because the steak is quite thin, you need volcano heat to be able to flip it before overcooking the insides. Without those char marks and the caramelisation, the meat tastes hollow, bland and boring. As a certified Grill Master, and Grill Judge, I would score this steak 3/10 on appearance, 4/10 on doneness, and 3/10 on taste - not exactly championship material.
The fries make out a lot better than the meat. Nice and crisp on the outside, but still soft on the inside, they have nice texture and doneness.
Rounding out the meal, the Spumoni ice cream comes with nuts and a blend of chocolate, vanilla and an unidentifiable teal-coloured flavour.
Although nuts are promised, I only see one morsel. I would like to see a few more nuggets, blended into a homogeneous swirl of flavours and textures. Despite the paucity of nuts, the ice cream tastes sweet and rich, a perfect way to wrap up a meal.
Service was hit/miss. The server oozed with enthusiasm and eagerness, but water and coffee refills did not come without prompting.
As one of the few sit-down, dine-in restaurants left at The Forks, I'm not sure this is a great fit for the city's top tourist attraction. Many locals love Spag, and that's fine. When tourists come, we want to show them our best. Winnipeg has a lot restaurants putting out top end food that would leave good eating memories in tourists' minds. The Old Spaghetti Factory isn't it.
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Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge – Badge #97736
Certified Steak Cook-off Association Judge – Badge #7788
Canadian Barbecue Society Member
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