Berkeley North — Restaurant in Hamilton

So this is based largely on value - but it isn't very good.

Not sure if the Michelin guide told them when they were coming and they hired new staff for that meal exclusively, but the dinner we had tonight wasn't even top 50 in this city.

TL;DR: Bad food + value. For the $200, you're better to go to Le Tambour or The Ship / Bernie's twice - or just go to J.Waldron and cook yourself a nice steak.

Food:

We ordered the 'October Taste of BN' menu - except, despite it being Oct.22, it was still the September menu. Even though both are comprised of just their regular a la carte menu, so it isn't like they wouldn't have had it. Also not early in the month so the menus couldn't still be at the printers, right?

BN Salad was good, but overdressed - making it a bit soggy by the last bite. Fresh cheese & sour dough was probably the best dish of the night - pretty balanced - good texture. The fried chicken dish is a mess - was both tough and fried very dark - either they fry it in batches early in the day and then fry it again to warm it up, or more likely their fryer oil hadn't been changed after the weekend. Also came in a butter chicken style sauce, and not Bulldog sauce + black garlic mayo or any slaw as on the menu. Felt like it was supposed to be sort of Korean fried chicken style, but came off as a weird butter chicken fusion thing - avoid.

As a sharing coursed menu, serving the steak+frites with the chicken (which again, covered in sauce) made it impossible to eat the steak without the sauce from the chicken getting on it. It was also very under seasoned, especially considering how thin of a cut the striploin was. Also not trimmed well, and had a lot of unrendered fat and tissue. Fries were good, but tasted like the bought-in breaded fries from most pubs - and didn't seem herbed at all. Steak was also cut way before resting, leading to most of the juice soaking the fries on the bottom - avoid.

Cheesecake was good, but served quite cold - and with the basque style it should be tempered to room temperature - fatty desserts tend to taste 'dry' when they're cold - and that was the case here.

Service:

Cold, but attentive - kind of like a bad first-date kind of vibe. Refilled water 10 times, cleared plates 20 minutes after the last bite - for each course - was 20 minutes between dessert being cleared and anyone coming back - literally drank my water to catch them during a refill to ask for the cheque.

Feels like half the staff started yesterday.

Atmosphere:

The room is cute - music was a good volume - and tables weren't too close together, though might be a bit small if you weren't sharing...

I'm not going to bury the lead: two of the three of us who went to dinner here found a hair in each of our main dishes.

For appetizers, we ordered the sourdough and fresh cheese, the teriyaki eggplant and the channa rolls. The eggplant was great and the bread and cheese was good as were the channa rolls, though the latter could have been filled with more channa so that the proportion to the dough was more balanced.

For mains, two of us ordered the Manatoulin trout. The dishes came out looking completely different. One, fortunately the brithday girl's, was well plated and looked lovely. Mine was messy with a puddle of liquid - I think it was a mix of butter and broth- with nothing to absorb it. I was underwhelmed anyway by the lack of flavour of the fish, but didn't get far into the dish before I found a hair. The third person ordered the fried chicken. Again, the protein was lacking in flavor, but the sauce and the coating was good. He also found a hair about half way through the dish. I know: super gross!! But I'm trying to be fair here.

Of course, our food was comped and they gave us a complimentary Basque cheesecake, which would have been excellent had the generic blueberry compote not distracted from the flavour.

The birthday girl was very happy with her cocktails (old fashioneds). I was drinking draught beer and got what I expected. The third person ordered a repeat of the first cocktail he ordered - the bartender's surprise - and was surprised to get something completely different . The service was slow, overwhelmed and apologetic. We were completely neglected between courses, even though we'd ordered a second round of drinks. I tipped the server well, anyway, because she was mortified by our experience, and since we were only paying for our drinks, she would have been screwed had I tipped her percentage I thought she deserved.

I'm glad the brithday girl had a good experience with both her drinks and food. But, I'm not going to lie, I'm low-key disgusted by the place overall (I mean, hair in not one, but two dishes). And I'm really frustrated by the experience. I had been looking forward to dining at the restaurant, and had gone from Toronto specifically to celebrate the birthday of a loved one there. I very much enjoy exploring the restaurants on the Bib Gourmand list every year, and to say that this one was under par would be an...

We were excited to try out this place since we're new to the area. It's a very cute, stylish, bright place and we felt like we would feel comfortable settling in for a long meal. One of us ordered coffee, and they brought one of those cute sand timers like the ones you use in board games to time the French press. We loved that and thought it was such a fun touch and creative idea! The sourdough toast side was delicious - great flavour, generously buttered which we loved, and not too crunchy or sharp as toast can be at a lot of restaurants. The flavour was excellent with fragrant herbs, salty, and the perfect amount of butter with no unmelted lumps. We loved the Berkeley North salad with falafel. The combinations of flavours and textures were excellent. Our favourites components were the pearl couscous, pickled carrots, pomegranate, and avocado. The avocado was a great level of ripe, and very thinly sliced which we found makes it more palatable in terms of texture and easier to eat. The pearl couscous added a soft texture to it and held the flavour of the lemon vinaigrette very well, which was refreshing, flavourful, but not too strong or oily. The pickled carrots contributed a great sharp and sour element, and the falafel was mouthwatering, I would just add a touch more cumin. We asked to have the salad split between two of us, which made the perfect portion size. We were very satisfied and definitely wanted to order that salad again. Someone else in our group ordered their B.L.T sandwich, and they loved it, especially the bread and the tomato jam. All of us were too full to look at a dessert menu but given how much we enjoyed our mains we would be interested to go back and try it for dinner or brunch perhaps. Although our server seemed a bit impatient at times, overall our service experience was good. The food exceeded our expectations and we would definitely recommend you go in and try their delicious...