The District Tapas+Bar — Restaurant in St. Catharines

I loved this restaurant, they play excellent music and offer great mocktails.

The food itself is disappointing. I ordered the sticky pork belly skewers, chimi churri steak and frites, and the district burger with a garden salad.

When I tell you absolutely everything ordered was a disappointment I cannot be more serious. EVERYTHINGR TASTED BLANK OR BAD. If it wasn’t for the staff being so obviously uncomfortable (and doing their best) I would have said something because I’m just curious why the chefs obvious inability to deliver what was advertised or at the very least use salt, is my problem.

Ok ok let’s be serious, I would never have said anything, BUT, the chimi churri steak frites were gross. The steak was dry and not an ounce of seasoning used, not an herb speck in sight to even suggest chimi churri was in the proximity of that steak. The sauce on the frites was a chipotle aioli but tasted like fish and desperately needed salt or garlic, something to break the heavy oily sauce that had no other dimension to it.

The burger was not cooked well, at least for me—I do not like a pink burger and I was never told it would be cooked that way. They soak the bread in butter so that’s really all you taste, and even that was fine bc it had more taste than anything else. But the pink burger was giving AMERICAN BEEF and that was my final straw. I tried to ignore it bc I was hungry since I couldn’t eat the other two things I ordered, and hoped the pink was just a smoke ring, but even the centre was pink, and if im being real, the only smokiness would come from liquid smoke bc that’s all I tasted from the pork skewers.

The salad was just greens with sliced tomatoes and unidentified pink cubes that look like soft pickled radish but without any flavour, the dressing was literally just a mild oil, possibly canola, no seasoning, no discernible vinegar, nothing. I just left it.

Also ordered by others ; tostadas (soggy), Korean bbq burger (false advertising as it was NOTHING like the online photo, it had no sauce , a single burnt black patty, nothing to give it a Korean flavour besides the sesame seeds sprinkled on the patty), artichoke dip (fine, enjoyed by most), carne asade ( no chimi churri but it has chopped corn with the fishy aioli and two people liked it enough to eat it), Brussels sprouts (it was off…. But fine ), chicken and pancakes (fine).

We tipped staff between $70-$100 bc they did nothing wrong, they were stellar and went above and beyond for us, even if they did less than what they did today I’d give them 5 stars. In fact no one did anything wrong, aside from the chef who lied for no reason and his...

This was our first experience at The District Tapas, and likely our last. My husband and I were part of a group. The food here is okay. The service was horrible. Our table ordered some tapas, the apple and Brie grilled cheese was very good, so was the mango salad, beef dip and avocado bruschetta. Beef ravioli were okay and lobster Mac and cheese had no lobster. My husband asked for a condiment 4 times and the waitress just never brought it. The 4th time we asked she apologized and even commented on how many times we had to ask her but she still didn’t bring it. We had ordered 2 more tapas that just never showed up and the waitress just forgot when we asked about them she asked if we still wanted them!!!The beer on tap was rancid and my husband had to order a bottle of beer 3 times before she actually brought it. Then we paid our bill by card, and the waitress randomly handed my husband some cash, which happened to be the change that our friends at the table were waiting on from their bill. Our friend ordered the same drink 3 times and every time the drink arrived looking different than the last time, and the last one the glass was only half full lol. This was by far the worst service we’ve had in a long time. The waitress was completely clueless, and this must have been her first night ever working a restaurant. We frequent many restaurants and bars and like to support the independently owned businesses in this area. However I wouldn’t waste money here again. Unfortunately the service totally ruined the experience. Music and atmosphere were...

The food is fresh and well cooked, the lower score is solely based on the flavour profiles for those of us who ordered and the weird way tapas is done, again for us. The default tip options also are not cool.

The food flavors may be great for others so no knock on the District. I’d definitely recommend checking the place out and would come again to try some other items but the initial items that popped out didn’t wow with 1-2 exceptions.

The fried chicken sliders are very hard to share unless you just pick one only, we just did bites and shared around. The only one we liked was the Nashville - and it’s not really Nashville as it’s basically just franks red hot spice. The other 2 the flavors were not for us, one had an orange marmalade flavor. Chicken was well cooked tho.

Potato Coquettes were great - loved them how ever the dipping sauces again not so much. The rosemary one was so strong it just wasn’t for us.

Ricotta dip is great, but no where near enough baguette pieces to use the ricotta. You had to pile it on or would have so much left over.

The pork belly Banh Mi was the best thing we tried; it’s so good. It is however a weird tapas item as it’s essentially half a sandwich and comes with a knife to cut but it doesn’t cut well - would be easier if they brought this in pre cut pieces.

The red Sangria is great!

Lastly the tip machine starts at 18% which for me is an instant loss of a star. No tip machine should start at 18% and the waiter hovers around so it’s awkward to do custom. Ontario tipping...