Runny Gravy and the "Best Wings in the City"

I had the rare pleasure (actually not so rare) of going out for a nice lunch with K and baby A yesterday.  It was great because it gave us an opportunity to cross one off our 'list'.  You see, we have a list of food establishments we would like to visit before we move back to the suburbs in the summer.  After living downtown for 2 years, we finally caved and bought a house in Vaughan so Baby A will have more room for her forays around the home.  (Sorry for the tangential direction I took this post, back to the food...)  Anyways, I love cooking and cook a lot at home so we tend to dine out less.  That being said, we probably eat out or order in once a week for convenience's sake.  Now that we have a 9 month old bundle of energy in our laps, we tend to order in more than we eat out.  We have our favorites like Enoteca Sociale, Pizza Libretto, Pho Tien Thanh, Golden Turtle and now the newly found Khao San Road for dinners and School, Mildred's and Le Select for brunch.  The problem with having favorites is that you continue to gravitate to them because they are your favorites.  And since there are only so many times you can go out - not to mention limited dollars to spend - you end up missing out on many other great establishments.

We've had our fair share of visits to some of Toronto's top restaurants but there's a list of spots that are not necessary fine dining or fancy, but infamous for one reason or the other, that K and I want to try before we move ourselves out of the downtown core. I won't go through the entire list here, but I'll give you some examples.  The Real Jerk at Queen and Broadview is legendary for serving really good Jamaican food for the last 28 years.  They are closing down within the month because the building has been bought and they have been given notice to move. I can't let myself live knowing I didn't taste some down right dirty (in a good way) jerk pork from a Toronto institution, so that made the list.  Then there's The Wheatsheaf, serving Toronto since 1849 and self-proclaimed oldest pub in Toronto and home of the "Best Wings in the City".  What? "Best Wings in the City"?  Just up the street from me, the spot I drive by almost everyday?  The best wings?  Sorry for the double take but anything deep fried gets my mouth watering but wings are on a whole different level.  I LOVE WINGS!  Is that clear?  I LOVE WINGS!  And naturally, The Wheatsheaf is (was) on the list.  It comes as no surprise to you then that I was thoroughly ecstatic when K suggested we visit this fine establishment for an easy Friday lunch.

I'm not a restaurant critic and I'm not going to turn this into a review.  But here's my two cents.  I go to a bar/pub expecting to eat bar/pub food. I have a taste for refined cooking but also like to indulge in greasy everyday grub, bar foods no exception.  After all, there's a time and place for everything. So when I go to a bar/pub, I have slightly different expectations than if I went to Lucien or One.  So with that said, I will have to say I was both underwhelmed and disappointed. 

The food in general was not that bad.  We had calamari dinner with Greek salad (do the Greeks call it Greek salad and what makes a salad Greek? If lettuce comes from California, tomatoes come from Ontario and feta comes from a tub, can it really be Greek?  I digress), lentil soup, fries with gravy and an order of the "Best Wings in the City".  Calamari was good, perfectly cooked, well seasoned, lightly breaded and had a nice light crunch.  The 'greek salad' had a bit too much dressing for my liking but was passable.  The lentil soup came cold but otherwise tasted like lentil soup you would expect from a bar.  Now the wings.  The wings came piping out. They were large roaster sized wings.  They were fried perfectly, without batter and had a very nice crisp to them.  The were moist and juicy and I have to admit, as wings, they were fantastic.  But every wing needs a sauce and I'm sorry...for all the good the wing did, the sauce was utter failure.  I ordered medium since K doesn't share my fondness for hot and spicy.  The spice level for the sauce was right for medium but it was very sweet and ketchupy.  Now I spent my early adolescent years in Thorold and St. Catherines which is a stones' throw away from Buffalo.  Cross-border wing runs was an integral part of my early food experiences.  So to get this sweet ketchupy sauce for what would have otherwise been a really good win was a complete disappointment.  I'm a purist, give me that butter vinegar hot sauce that has made buffalo wings so famous. Different strokes for different folks and I guess I'm just a Duff's kinda guy.  But that was not the worst of their transgressions.  Fries and gravy is a Canadian thing. Its really hard to screw up fries and gravy.  I mean, can you imagine the Brits screwing up fish and chips?  Or the french screwing up croissants?  I know I'm in a watering hole so I will forgive the fact that the fries were frozen.  But the gravy that came with my fries was runny like soup stock.  If I dip my fry into gravy and the gravy slides off of the fry, guess what?  The gravy needs some thickening.  It needs to stick to the fries.  Gravy should not share the same consistency as water or au jus.  We all know that fries and gravy is not the healthiest thing to eat, so we don't eat it that often.  Which is why when we eat it, we expect it to satisfy a long enduring craving.  But this was the disappointment of the week.

I know it may seem petty to whine about wing sauce and gravy but mastering basics turns ordinary into extraordinary.  Look, I'm sure the Wheatsheaf is a fine establishment.  The service was friendly and quick.  But 'Best Wings in the City' is a little ambitious and the overall experience was a little underwhelming.  Ah well, just because we have a list, doesn't guarantee everyone on the list will be good.