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See also: la Cuisine Pacific Rim

Foods from West End Station
Comments

2010 Sep 12
This place is officially closed, and now features a sign promising "la cuisine pacific rim" opening soon...

2009 Dec 17
I was excited when our CEO decided we're going here for our corporate holiday dinner - I've enjoyed going here pretty much since it opened, although it has now been probably 2 years since I've been because the last time I went here they told me they no longer had beer on tap, and this was always a key reason why I went here. Even though they only ever had 2 taps, they always had really good beer flowing from them.

Well, wasn't I pleased to come in the door and find out that the taps were back, and they were even serving Beau's!

Unfortunately, things sort of went down hill from there.

We were all in by 12:05 for our 12:00 reservation. Some 20 to 24 of us filled 2 longish tables straight ahead when you come in the door. Beers were on the table very quickly fortunately. But about 12:20 they took our order, and aside from the appetizers which arrived about a half hour later, nothing else started arriving until about 13:40! By this point we were all getting pretty restless and disgruntled.

Fortunately, most of the food was really good once it did arrive. I think I was the only one who was actually displeased. I had the "Gourmet Cheeseburger" with certified Angus beef, and I had them replace the side of sweet potato fries with the Yukon gold fries from one of the other items. I just do not like sweet potato fries. I was glad that they were happy to swap them out like that, but the fries were pretty terrible when they came. They were cut really skinny - even thinner than normal julienne. And they were extremely greasy and floppy / mooshy / not-at-all crisp.

The burger looked absolutely incredible when it arrived. It was enormous and on an odd bun that was square. It had 3 year old cheddar, and brushetta tomato on it. The side salad was exceptionally good too - some of which i put onto the burger.

But the bun was all crumbly and so I had to eat it with a fork and knife so it would not fall apart. I guess it is odd to complain that the burger was too big, but it was. Must have been close to a pound. But the bigger issue was that it just was not very flavourful at all. They definitely won't win any awards for best burger in town - not by a long shot.

In hindsight maybe I should have stuck with some of the fancier dishes, especially since the boss was paying for it. Everyone else's looked spectacular, and they all really enjoyed it. So lesson for me : avoid the burgers here.

EDIT: I forgot to mention another problem. The one table got bread right around when the beers came, but my table did not get bread for about another 20 minutes! And it was the same waiter! Then for dessert, the other table got asked if they wanted any, and my table did not get asked! Again, same waiter.

2009 Nov 17
Went a few years back for lunch a few times, my father and myself were the only ones there it seemed.. I had some kind of fish which I thought was one of the best fish dishes I've ever had.

My advice is be prepared to wait for your food, like bdm mentioned, it does take a very long time for the food to come out.

2009 Nov 16
This place has been around for quite a few years (10? 15? More? I dunno...), so it obviously has a following. We've tried it periodically over the years, and each time we've come away with mixed feelings. Our most recent encounter with WES, today at lunch, was no exception.

The restaurant was fairly empty, just two or three other tables occupied, but that's not too surprising, since it was a Monday (we actually had several other places in mind to try, but they all proved to be closed Mondays). We passed on the appetizers and just ordered mains - the seafood stew for me, and a smoked salmon roulade with salad for my wife. I must say that I was a bit concerned with the number of mains on their lunch menu - no less than a dozen selections. Often, when a kitchen tries to do too much, it ends up doing nothing really well. Though it didn't take long to get our orders in, we had a surprisingly long wait for our food, about 45 minutes. My wife liked her dish well enough... no real wow to it, but fairly tasty. My seafood stew didn't impress, however... most of the components (mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari, pasta) were okay, but the scallops were very chewy, and worse, the sauce was way too salty. It was all quite edible, but for $29, I expected this dish to sing, and it didn't. Not good value.

And speaking of poor value... we each ordered a glass of Chardonnay, usually a good match with seafood. The only one available by the glass was Butterfield Station, from California, for $9.50. This wine gives new meaning to the word "nondescript"! It was thoroughly bland plonk, with no identifiable Chardonnay characteristics, other than being white wine. Of course, this is one of those not-available-at-LCBO wines that restaurants are so fond of, but it's easy enough to check the price elsewhere - in the US, it appears to retail for anywhere from $5 to $7 a bottle! I reckon it would be about $8 here if the LCBO listed it. At $9.50 a glass, it's a ripoff.

In fairness, our server did listen attentively to my criticism, and he did give us a $25 gift certificate as some compensation for our less than satisfying meal. I don't think we'll be in a hurry to go back, though... there are lots of better alternatives out there these days.

2009 Sep 2
We went again last night to celebrate our wedding anniversary and we were slightly underwhelemed. Hubby had the lobster cakes and the cheeseburger. He barely touched his sweet potato fries and salad, but more because he was full, not because it was bad.

I had the table d'hote with tomato bisque soup (good), caesar salad (more like a wendy's caesar salad than one I would expect at a nice restaurant. Kind of bogged down with dressing), and steak/shrimp. My steak was a lot closer to medium-well/well done than the medium I had ordered. If I hadn't had the guilt on my mind that pregnant people should eat well-done steak anyway I would have sent it back. I took the tiramisu for dessert but it's in my fridge right now as I couldn't possibly put another bite into my stomach.

The service was a bit slow for a Tuesday night when they had two servers for 5 tables. It took quite a while for all of our food to come out as well, but whatever... we weren't in a rush anyway. Their homemade bread is dee-lish.

2009 Feb 18
nice to hear good things about WES
i have a well respected friend that worked there as sous chef and had nothing but good things to say
I also know one of the original owners and again nothing but good things to say
little known place, fab food, undying loyality, and a littany of regulars, what more could a Chef ask for?

2009 Feb 18
My wife and I had a fantastic dinner here on Valentine's Day. It was a four-course menu for $59 each, and was well worth the price. We had soups first, hers a Roasted Garlic and Celery root, mine a Tomato bisque. Both were wonderful, especially the tomato. Next we each chose a duck confit salad, with strawberries and an orange poppyseed vinaigrette. Very, very tasty, with nicely complimentary textures. My main was a rack of venison, perfectly cooked, as was her Filet mignon. Desserts were lemon sorbet, served in a large half lemon, and a chocolate mousse that was fantastic.

Our only complaint was the incredible speed at which each course came out, we needed to slow it down quite a bit, as the portions are quite healthy, and our stomachs were filling quickly! Towards the end of our meal, they seemed to have run out of soups, and were offering guests a half liter of wine in exchange, which I thought was a pretty good compromise. Will definitely be heading back, as it's a great restaurant tucked away in a fairly unexpected location.

2009 Jan 20
We went here for dinner to celebrate a few things and it was fabulous. Hubs had been here for a company dinner last year and I have always wanted to go. What a GEM hidden away in an obscure strip mall.

We both had the table d'hote menu. $49 each (with a $5 surcharge for the bison steak)

Soup
-Yukon gold potato bisque with truffle something - SO delicious, quite possibly my favourite part of the meal

Starters
-hubby had beef carpaccio - said it was good. my bite was certainly delicious
- I had a salad with balsamic, strawberries, grapes, goat cheese, walnuts and a few other gems. It was pretty good

Mains
- Duck cooked medium rare with a light saucey drizzle underneath, roasted potato and vegs. Hubs enjoyed it all. He loved the potatos and he doesn't normally likes potatos much.
- Rib eye Bison steak with a roquefort cheese sauce - cooked medium. Seemed more like medium rare to me (maybe because it was so thick?) Absolutely delicious though, sauce was very flavourful and light. I couldn't finish this, had to give it to hubby to eat.

Dessert
- Vanilla bourbon creme brulee (Delicious! My favourite dessert and I could barely eat half of it!)
- Strawberries in a crepe with chocolate sauce.

My only complaint was that the coffee isn't very good! And it should have been included in the table d'hote menu instead of paying $2.50 each for them. Ah well. I only had a few sips of it too since I was that full. I practically had to roll home.

2007 Mar 17
Used to go here a lot when I was working in Bell's Corners, and it is always fabulous! For some reason the evening meals were always more expensive than the lunch-time meals, even though they served about the same things. They always used to change the menu every day - not sure if they still do but I'd guess they do.

Everything here is spectacular, though. Right up one side of the menu and down the other. My only disappointment is that I went back recently a few weeks ago and they no longer have beer on tap. They used to have 2 or 3 taps and always had excellent beers that you had trouble finding elsewhere. Local beer geeks used to go here just for the beer (and stay for the food). But the food was still absolutely fantastic, in any case.

The space is very nice and more 'upscale'. Excellent place to take that special someone you are trying to impress. Unless you want good beer too :-)




2007 Feb 10
Oh my goodness, I wished I had taken my camera with me! We came here for dessert after a somewhat disappointing dinner elsewhere (Il Piccolino Ristorante ).

They were almost empty when we arrived at 9:20pm and were happy to seat us for dessert (they close at 10pm). Servers here excel at striking the perfect balance of friendliness and efficiency without snobbiness. I've noticed that this approach is the hallmark of all the best restaurants.

They had about six dessert choices. We opted for the Maple Pecan Tart and the Lemon Blueberry Cream Tart (exact names not remembered), a chamomile tea and an espresso. When the desserts arrived, we both said, "Wow!" They were beautifully presented and garnished with really good strawberries and blackberries, the likes of which we haven't had since summer. Other garnishes included a delicious strawberry/raspberry sauce and various semisweet chocolate creations. I declared the Maple Pecan Tart to be the best "pecan pie" I've ever had. Wifey's Lemon Blueberry thing was so delicious too, with just the right balance of tartness and sweetness.

Each of these dessert choices was just $7 -- great value considering the presentation! It's been some time since we had truly excellent food at a restaurant so we were really happy to discover that perfection still exists.



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2007 Mar 17
What a shame. This used to be one of the real gems in the city for beer. They only had 2 or 3 taps but they were always serving something unique that was difficult to find elsewhere, like Hacker-Pschorr Hefeweizen and Edelhell. It was a bit of a hot-spot for local beer geeks. Sadly, they no longer serve draft beer at all. I hope they'll see this and bring it back.