Stella's St. James — Restaurant in Winnipeg

I prefer Ikea's salmon Lox over Stella's Smoked Salmon Breakfast at this point.

I used to go to Stella's a lot before the controversy was around, but I stopped some time because of it. Went back today because of a birthday and got the smoked salmon breakfast, because they took the Salmon Lox off the menu. It was the worst salmon meal I have ever had. I am giving 2 stars because the hash and the toast/jam were amazing.

The smoked salmon was served on 3 full leaves of iceberg lettuce, with capers and red onion thrown on it. Finally, I kid you not, an ice-cream scoop of cream cheese was on top of all that. At first I thought it was a wad of mozzarella, which would have been a cool addition, although if it were sliced. The lettuce served no purpose aside to add green to the plate. Iceberg lettuce is cheep and crunchy, the taste of it is watery. There was also no sauce, like honey dijon, or dill cream cheese maybe. Finally, the red onion was very freshly sliced, with no seasoning.

What this resulted in was when you construct your open face "Lox like" sandwich was the the following. First you add a bit of cream cheese, then shove some capers on there to keep them rolling around. The lettuce eclipsing the cut bread they give you, because it was a full leaf. Then you add your 1 of 2 slices of salmon on the lettuce. Finally you add the onion on top.

Because the onion was so fresh, and not brined or seasoned, I had to take them off because it was like getting pepper sprayed. Then that left me with a salmon tasting bread. There was no other flavor aside from the little bursts of brine from the cappers. Cream cheese has no flavor. Iceberg lettuce has no flavor. The bread was good sourdough, but sourdough has that subtle taste which is overpowered by the salmon. This is why I was complaining that there was no seasoning to the onions or the cream cheese. All the other flavors are so bland that the only thing that sticks out is brined fish. I am not saying the fish was bad, but why add all this other stuff if it has no flavor.

I know brined fish is a bit of an acquired taste, but things like seasoning your vegetables or adding things like mustard greens or arugula help balance the fishy taste.

The old Salmon Lox Stella's had was amazing. Deli style, nutty, pumpernickel, thin sliced bread. A honey dill type sauce, that wasn't exactly honey dill. A really amazing mix of salad greens with arugula. Paired with an amazing potato salad. Bring that back please. I know you have the ingrediencies back there somewhere. Just give it the time it deserves. It takes 5 minutes to quick brine fresh cut onions. I know you had the time because there was only 5 people in the place at the time aside from us.

Finally, not to just add one more on, but the eggs were weird. I also know what they were trying to do. Something like between a english and an American style of scramble egg where its not quite cooked in the middle. But some parts ended up turning out chewy, like rubber. Not sure what was going on there.

So yeah, if you are looking for a good salmon type of light meal go to the swedes who know salmon better. Yeah Ikea is a cafeteria, but you can get a much better lox, minus that deli bread now, for like 7$ there. Plus you can walk off...

Not Ready For Prime Time Stella’s.

Although the sign outside said, “Now Open”, we still weren’t prepared for the experience- and neither were the staff. It was more like “Invite Your Parents” afternoon at a junior high home-ec class than a lunch at any Stella’s in the city; well-meaning, but…eat before you go.

After sitting for an uncomfortably long time, my companion and I looked around to see that of the SIXTEEN full tables in the restaurant, TWO of them had food on them - at 12:30 in the afternoon. Two or three other lucky folks had coffee or water on theirs. Our water classes were as clean as the glass someone’s grandma keeps her dentures in. I DID get my Americano…

While I was drinking it, the elderly couple (of many - it’s St James.You might be starting to sense a theme, here) who had been there when we arrived, finally got their drinks… then 10 min later their food, after asking, “Do we go up there OURSELVES and get it, or how does it work?” The waitress finally brought it. It was wrong. In the meantime, she returned to our table (10-ish min after taking our order) to inform me that the kitchen was out of pancakes; again, it was 12:30 pm. I changed my order, as my companion’s was already in. Our food finally came. His order was wrong.

Did I mention that 14 out of 16 tables didn’t have food in the middle of a lunch seating?…

We finally got our food, which was pretty good. Usual Stella’s fare. Our earnest waitress came by after to ask if we’d like dessert. We declined, saying we were full, thanks. She then came back later to apologize for the mistakes and ask if she could comp us some dessert; I declined again, reminding her that we’d said we were full, but thanked her for her apology.

When our elderly neighbours finally finished their lunch and got the bill, the (earnest, bless her, but painfully inexperienced) waitress must have asked how everything had been. The lady said, in true grandma style, “Oh, it was good eventually, but TOO LONG!! It all took TOO LONG!” The waitress earnestly commiserated with her - “Yes, because we’re busy.” Oh my. There were what looked like about 8 waitstaff, 2 hostesses and a manager on - at lunch. With a half-full restaurant …at lunch time. When a restaurant is SUPPOSED to be busy!

Lord help them.

A table with a 50’s-ish looking man and his 80’s-ish looking mother waited about half an hr before their drinks even came, never mind their food. Yah, I started timing…

The room is awkwardly set up; too sunny in one direction and too dark in the other. The wait staff are not old enough to drive themselves to work. I’d say R & R Family Restaurant down the street and the Silver Heights Restaurant are going to see a spike in their lunch time...

Last night me and my fiancé accompanied by my mom, went to this wonderful restaurant. We found it by accident. We were actually looking for a pizza joint, but that pizza joint turned out to be a walk-in walk out so then I found another one that looked interesting, which was also a walk-in walkout And I saw Stella‘s and said let’s just go to Stella‘s cause it looks like a nice restaurant it wasn’t very busy. when we walked in We were accompanied by the most beautiful jazz music I’ve ever heard in my life the instrumental jazz Music was so beautiful. I was enjoying it so much , they had the most beautiful moons lighting and beautiful with booth chairs and I absolutely enjoyed my seat. It was a very comfortable seat very cozy, romantic for me and my fiancé and my mother. Our waiter came over the table and asked us what kind of drinks we would like we got some waters and then she gave us some time to look over the menu and she answered all of our questions and she was actually really kind and sweet. She was one of the nicest waiters I’d come across in Winnipeg in my life, she was so kind and caring and really took time to care to about what we needed and wanted. I ordered smoothie with my fiancé and she offered to split it into two separate cups instead of just one so me and my fiancé could share the smoothie together. we got the Stella smoothie and it was so good. We asked for it without yoghurt and it came without yoghurt. then I ordered carbonara for the first time in my life was made with actual egg yolks and cream instead of the regular Alfredo sauce most restaurants give me so I got real carbonara. this carbonara had vinegar on top so I said no balsamic vinegar and she made sure there was none on ther. overall this was the best service I’ve ever had in my life and I recommend everyone to this particular location if you’re looking for a good time good music, amazing mood lighting in a romantic time with the ones you love. Also our waitress complemented me and my fiancé Fredrick and told us that we were the cutest together which really...