Birdog — Restaurant in Central Core

It's pretty nice.

I would characterize the food as kind of like upscale pub food in its theme. There's a lot of snackables and shareables, and with pizza holding a prominent roll. They do make very nice pizzas at that. On one hand, when they mention "truffle" on the menu, it's actual shaved truffle and not "truffle oil". On the other, they're prone to using the term "forest mushrooms" to refer to the everyday Agaricus bisporus that are what you think of as the common white/brown/portabello mushroom that you encounter in literally every grocery store.

Despite boasting "rotating taps", the beer selection is a bit limited (one of the rotating taps was Vizzy). The fanciest thing on the menu is Fin du Monde, which is nice and not something you find everywhere, but is still a mass brand. The wine selection looked nice, and there's a lot of options there for high-end bottles. The cocktail selection didn't really tempt me.

They have a good, functional patio setup, at least during the height of summer, though it seemed to take quite a while to emerge which is why we didn't try it until now. Dogs seem to be welcome, and they seem to provide water and possibly treats for them. Like many places along 104, it felt like a relaxing place to eat, and it was a nice easy night out for the other half and I on a night neither of us felt like cooking, and it seemed to have drawn a lot of other people from the neighbourhood. It seems like a nice, relaxed place. But it's not the place I'd take the other half to really impress her on date night, though it seems to want to be.

But hey, your mileage may vary. While we were eating, some guy with a ridiculous super-car with the doors that open upwards brought some lady in who was dressed precariously to the nines (and if you've ever wondered as you've wandered through the pharmacy who would use a product labelled "butt polish", it's exactly her). He ordered some onion rings and a few other things, then left VERY QUICKLY because the police were on the street and his car was parked very illegally. He then disappeared for about half an hour to park his car somewhere where a poor person couldn't touch it while his date furiously rapid-fire texted and the staff checked to see if she'd been bailed upon, then returned on an e-scooter. Googling his sneakers suggested that they cost about $900 and they're not even made with a good waxed rough-out Horween Chromexcel! So, there must be something here to appeal to high spending tastes, such as they are.

But if you're not a $900-because-they-have-gold-on-them-and-not-because-they're-even-particuylarly-well-made sneaker guy, there's plenty there that I would say is a good value,...

I rarely leave reviews regardless of what I have experienced but Birdog was unforgettable and not in a good way….

When my boyfriend and I arrived in the parking lot, we were debating on going to either Birdog or another restaurant across the road as it was a very special night and was our anniversary but how I wish I did not step foot into this establishment.

Once we got inside, we were greeted by a quiet hostess who said Hello and continued to stare at the iPad below her and were later seated by some man that was sitting at the bar?? Who I believe was the manager. We were seated at a tiny high top table and I made the initiative to ask a server if we could switch tables as the table was too tiny and could barely fit 2 plates of food, she replied with “Ya sure whatever you want” in a very passive aggressive attitude.

When we switched to a low top table, the server decided to tell us the second we pulled the chairs out that the table was reserved which is fine but she should have let us know before we made the switch. She then redirected us to a different low top and it was quite filthy and unprofessional on this side of the restaurant. The table was sticky to the point where the menus would not peel off from the table top even with force and there were many crumbs left on the table. A table over from us was a table top filled with paper work that some employee and the manager seemed to be working on. When it came time to order food, the server came back but still had a horrible attitude to her. I asked for the cocktail menu and she grabbed it from the table next to us and swiftly yet aggressively placed it in front of me saying "HERE!"

We ordered and everything was pretty much fine… the potato skins and ribs were delicious and plated beautifully, until our entrees came out. We both ordered the 8oz steak frites and they were VERY inconsistent. My boyfriend’s steak was tiny.. looked very much like 6oz with maybe a dash of arugula. As for myself, my steak was up to 8oz standards but it looked like I ordered an arugula salad. There was so much and made my boyfriend’s steak look unhealthy. Both our steaks were ordered to be medium rare but they were VERY VERY DRY.

Safe to say, I will not be returning and I am very disappointed with the customer service of Birdog. Need a day that the server did not even take the time to introduce herself or bother to tell us her name? I have worked in hospitality myself and do understand the challenges as a server but this is no exception due to the unprofessionalism displayed within the establishment and the server. We were nothing but nice and we received this treatment. Never again....

I really enjoyed the appetizers we had. The “lemon pie” was delicious. Lemon flavour was light, nothing too over powering. Trying “born to Brie” was delicious, a wonderful blend of blueberry use and Brie with truffle, honey and thyme. All of these flavours and cheese over perfectly cooked fries.

My date order the Maui ribs and didn’t read the description to well so he was expecting big ribs and got more like bulgogi. I thought it was an awesome dish - he did not. The kimchi Mac and Cheese it comes with is perfection.

I got the Gnocchi with a side of the kimchi Mac and cheese and an order of the beer battered onion rings. The gnocchi was good, the pearl onions were awesome but I did wish it had more of a sauce, that being said with all we ordered it was nice to have a “light” dish. It felt like a healthy gnocchi. Clean and simple flavour that’s anything but basic. Kimchi Mac and Cheese was everything I wanted it to be. Creamy with a punch of flavour, nothing too hot just enough to make you finish every bite. My favourite was the beer battered onion rings. So crispy and addicting. I can’t believe this is true but they were even good when I went digging through my left overs the next day 🙈 I know who eats day old onion rings but they were sooooo good. It blew my mind.

After all that we pushed forward to try the beignets. The come with a cream or custard and a chocolate on the side so you can add to your own discretion. That cream/custard - should be sold in jars. It was amazing. I would put it on waffles, my coffee, my toothbrush 🤪 it was just so good.

The atmosphere was so trendy with stylish mixes of masculinity and openness. It very much reminded me of early 2000...