Belong Sharbot Lake — Restaurant in Central Frontenac

The food here was incredible. Literally incredible, in that I kinda can't believe I had such a good meal in a place as small as Sharbot Lake.

I had the soup of the day (chicken), a shot of espresso, the haddock on greens, and a cookie to go.

The chicken soup really struck me as scratch made, not overly salted, and with a lovely complexity from the herbs and spices used. The fish was incredible, it was well seasoned and perfectly cooked with a nice textual contrast in the crunch from the corn dredge. The greens had a delicate vinaigrette, and the tartar sauce was rich and creamy. Worth noting that I don't usually like the intensity of tartar sauce, but this was balanced and I found it played nicely with all the flavours on the plate. The cookie was also tremendous, crispy edged with a soft interior.

Any criticisms I can think of are ultimately trivial. A bite with salad and fish might overwhelm the vinaigrette if it's only a couple leaves? The espresso was balanced, and might disappoint fans of either the darkest or lightest roasts?

Finally I want to touch on the fact that the main dish had that characteristic of fine dining where each element of the meal tasted lovely on its own, but each combination of elements offers new flavour experiences, like how a note can form a chord. You can experiment your whole way through a meal and you're probably going to have a great time doing it.

Service was excellent, I was welcomed warmly and my wine questions answered knowledgeably. The chef also entertained a barrage of my questions after I had finished. They don't appear to do tipping there, so allow that to challenge any notion that you can't have great service without tips.

I will be actively thinking of excuses to...

Our experience at belong was a pretty big let down unfortunately. I had followed the opening of the new restaurant and waited for a special occasion as I heard it was in the pricey side so we went for our 12th wedding anniversary. Initially we were greeted and taken care of quickly but things went downhill from there. The dinner menu only had 4 items, 2 fish, 1 chicken, 1 steak. We were there at 7:30 pm and after ordering the chef came to tell my husband he had sold the last steak just before we ordered. Dinner service started at 5 and they were already out of steak? How does this happen? As a top Canadian chef I’d expect you know how to order and stock appropriately for a Saturday night dinner service. The waitress also never mentioned you must order a side separately, most meals dont come with a side, which is nuts because the food prices are extremely high. So put on the spot my husband said he’d have the chicken, which was a pice of chicken with tomato and basil. He isn’t a fan of tomato so he quickly looked at the takeout menu and asked if he could switch to the prime rib sandwich. Rather than just saying absolutely the waitress reply was the chef had already fired up that chicken you requested but sure no problem, as if it was a problem actually. On the takeout menu the prime rib sandwich is $15 but they charged us $21 for eating it I’m not taking it out. $21 by the way was for a deli sandwich only, no fries no salad just a sandwich. We were never asked how our meal was, my drink was never asked to be refilled we were just quickly given our cheque and what I was so excited for turned out to be one of the biggest let downs and on our anniversary made it even more upsetting. We won’t be back...

I’ve been visiting Sharbot Lake from the UK for 25 years and have known this place as many different businesses - you’ll see that some of the reviews here are for the old companies. Yesterday was my first time at Belong and I was so impressed.

First of all the service was fantastic - they’re a lovely team and we received a warm welcome from everyone, including the chef/owner. We were a group of 6 and everything was served very efficiently without our conversation being interrupted. The staff could really read the room.

Now onto the more important stuff - the food/drink. As Sharbot Lake is such a rural area with so much fantastic local produce available, it’s really great to see it being used. I had a local beer called Relax Alice, from Sharbot Lake’s own Kick & Push Brewery. The menu of the day had a good variety, and I had a really tough time choosing between local scallops or masa corn dredged pickerel. I went for the latter and was delighted. The sandwich was light and airy in texture, the fish was flaky and perfectly cooked, and the homemade tartare was the perfect balance to add a bit of kick. We shared two generous portions of fries (Yukon gold potatoes if I remember correctly?) and they were great too. Crispy on the outside, perfectly seasoned, but you could also taste that it was a good potato as the base product.

I definitely didn’t need dessert but what better that local fresh fruit with crème anglaise and whipped cream?

Highly recommended to anyone in the area and I hope to visit...