Upscale Food, but for a Price

The recent trip to Canada (okay, the trip was in August and I’m finally finishing up articles about it) was capped by one more, very big meal. My sibling asked to have dinner at The Springs, a restaurant in their city that they’d been eyeing for a while. Their original plan was to get a whole big party of people together for it, but organizing that many people, and doing a whole to-do, was too hard to put together. So, instead, we arranged for the meal to be just four of us, my sibling and I along with our spouses, all so we could have a quieter meal at this restaurant.

Or, at least, that was the initial plan. The meal happened, but the quieter part did not as the restaurant (we did not know this, as we made our reservation ahead of time online) was booked out for a wedding party. They got the main banquet hall (which is, realistically, the whole main body of the restaurant) and we were put into one small room off to the side which was technically away from the chaos but still pretty darn loud. All things being equal, it would have been better if The Springs had just reserved the whole restaurant for the wedding they were hosting, not just because of the noise for any other diners but also because wandering in through the main doors and walking into a wedding reception was really strange. We felt like party crashers that didn’t get the memo we were crashing a party. It was awkward.

Regardless, we were already there so we settled into the small back room for our meal. The room itself was fine. Not great, but fine. It had a television on one wall displaying a fake fishbowl (which eventually gave up the ghost and shut off) and then a fake fireplace on the opposite side. It was a bit cramped in there, even with just one table, and when we arrived there was a second group in there, at their own table, making it feel especially tight. It was not an ideal eating situation from any perspective.

Still, we were there to have a nice meal, so we tried to do our best. And that meal started with appetizers: crab cakes. These were made from back and claw meat, formed together and coated in panko bread crumbs before frying. Light and crispy, the texture on them was great, and the Thai chili lime aioli was delicious. With that said, the crab cakes themselves could have used a bit more flavor on their own. Clearly you were meant to coat them in the sauce before eating, but if what you wanted was a clear bite of crab, these could have been better. A touch more seasoning to the coating would have really helped these a lot. They weren’t at all bad, but they could have been kicked up a little higher.

My wife and I followed these up with soup and salad that we shared. I selected the Springs House Green Salad, a mix of greens with cherry tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, carrots, and cucumbers, served with a citrus pomegranate vinaigrette and goat cheese. The flavors on the salad were great, but only once you got it all properly mixed. I tossed the salad on my plate some, but I clearly didn’t mix it enough as I got primarily bites of just greens at the start, and mostly just seeds and cheese at the end. The middle section of the salad was fantastic, though, full of fresh veggies and bright pops of pomegranate. When mixed well the salad was tasty and refreshing, with a lovely citrus bite. On its own, I’d get this again (probably as a main, with chicken or grilled salmon added on top).

My wife’s soup was equally confusing, but for different reasons. She got the Soup of the Day, which was a creamy squash soup. And, by basic construction it was very good. The soup was well blended and very creamy, feeling like silk as you ate it. But the soup was very heavily cream based. Calling it a “creamy soup” undersells that; it was a cream soup with just a passing bit of squash thrown in for color. It didn’t taste like squash, it tasted like cream, and while that flavor wasn’t bad, it wasn’t what we expected from a “squash soup”. The composition wasn’t quite right, and it left us unimpressed.

Heading into the meals each of us got our own item to test. I had the Venison Loin, which is something I really can’t get in the States. Most places here aren’t allowed to serve deer (due to FDA regulations), so seeing venison on the menu, I had to try it. The meal was composed of two venison medallions, served rare, which had been crusted in organic espresso and black pepper. They were served on a bed of roasted fingerling potatoes and seasonal veggies, with a side of arugula topped with a chocolate pomegranate gastrique. It was both a lot to take in and yet, somehow, not enough food (especially for the price).

Part of the issue was that I got a tail piece of the venison for one of my two cuts, so the crust that should be light and mild around the edges, adding a hint of the flavor, was full bored for one of my slides, taking up the whole flavor. It was a lot to take in, and I actually really like espresso and black pepper. There were also only two slices of meat, which amounted to, at max, five ounces of meat (and I’d be surprised if it was even that much). This should have been the highlight of the plate, and while one of the two slices was delicious – tender, juicy, flavorful, and not in the least bit gamey – on the whole they didn’t really bring what was needed to the plate. Especially not when the rest of it was some pretty basic potatoes (there wasn’t anything bad about them, but they weren’t really special either) and a sad little salad.

My wife enjoyed her Grilled Atlantic Salmon a lot more. It was well cooked and very juicy, served on a bed of creamy lemon orzo and seasonal root veggies (carrots and potatoes again), along with a creamy dill sauce. This is a nice blending of flavors that compliment salmon well. It’s really hard to go wrong with lemon, dill, cream, and herbs, so it makes sense that this all went well together when a professional chef handled it. It was a solid dish, and the only thing that I think really held it back is that it’s not far off from how a lot of people (that cook salmon at home) would cook a dish like this. It wasn’t as special as I would like.

My sibling got the Seared Duck Breast, and they were pretty happy with it. It was a duck breast, cooked on the slightly rarer side, served with roasted fingerling potatoes and seasonal veggies (so more carrots, but also some zucchini, which was nice), and lightly sauced with bordelaise. The flavor was decent on this meal, if kind of light. If you’d asked me what sauce was on the duck without telling me, I wouldn’t have been able to guess (bordelaise is a French brown sauce full of rich flavors of wine, shallots, and butter). It tasted light, maybe a little salty, and that was about it. It was a nice serving of duck on its own, but there was something missing from the preparation that I wanted: flavor.

Their husband got the Chicken Supreme Roulade and, to be honest, I was worried about this dish when they ordered it. And rightly so, as it turned out. I’ve had a number of roulades over the years (see our trip to the Idlewyld Inn & Spa London for another failed one) and what I’ve come to realize is that roulades are hard to make well, especially in a restaurant setting. More often than not they sit too long and dry out, and that’s exactly what happened here. The chicken, rolled with duxelles (finely chopped and sauteed mushrooms and shallots) and served on a bed of mushroom risotto, came out very dry and lacking in flavor. The sides, from the risotto to the seasonal veggies (of course) were decent, and the sauce vierge (an herby tomato reduction) added some brightness, but none of it could save that sad chicken.

After, to get the full experience, we ordered desserts and drinks. My wife and I shared a slice of the Turtle’s Chocolate Cheesecake, and it was fantastic. It was a chocolate swirl cheesecake, smooth and luscious, served on a chocolate crust with a healthy pour of caramel sauce and a side of whipped cream, and it was absolutely heavenly. If I ever went back to the Springs to get a salmon green salad, I would get this cheesecake as well.

By contrast the Vanilla Creme Brulee my sibling ordered was well made but not as impressive as I would have liked. It was very smooth, with the custard clearly having been made with care, but I felt like the custard could have used a little more flavor. For vanilla creme flavor, it wasn’t as strongly vanilla as I would have expected. It was also not that sweet, which some might like, but I thought it was grasping for something but didn’t really get there.

Drinks for the meal started with a Sparkling Lemonade, made with fresh squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup, and it was very nice. Lightly flavored, and not at all cloying, this was a very good drink to accompany the meal. After desserts, I had the B-52’s Coffee, a mix of Bailey’s Irish Liqueur, Grand Marnier, and coffee liqueur. Honestly, it was too much liqueur for a small cup of coffee. Had it just been the Irish cream and Grand Marnier, adding cream and orange flavors to the coffee, I think it would have been better. The extra coffee liqueur on top pushed the flavor too far and made it taste too alcoholic and way too strong.

The Blueberry Tea that my brother-in-law got was better. It was made with Grand Marnier, Amaretto Orange Pekoe Tea, and a bit of orange. How you get blueberries there I’m not sure, but the flavor was very good. Not as in your face about the alcohol, with a light flavor that really suited the tea and the liqueurs. I would honestly have rather had that than the coffee I got, all things considered.

On the whole the meal was just decent. There were some bright spots, like the salad, the salmon, and the cheesecake, but there were plenty of elements that weren’t as good as I would have liked. It was a matter of balance and for just about every item we ordered something in that balance felt off. None of it was disastrous, but not of it really raised the bar either, and for the price I was expecting it to. Bear in mind this was four people eating one meal each, and while we did get desserts, sides, and the like, that is still not a ton of food considering. And yet the final bull was over $400. Yes, that was Canadian, but even factoring in the USD discount, that’s still a ton of money for a meal that left me feeling underwhelmed.

I don’t mind paying that much for a really special, really good meal, and if The Springs had nailed it, I’d be singing their praises no matter the cost (see my review of Victoria & Albert's Orlando for a really expensive meal that was worth every penny). This meal just didn’t rise to that level, and it left me feeling like, someone, I was cheated. I want to think that due to the wedding party in the main room that maybe the restaurant was having an off night and they could do better, but for the price it costs to eat there I really don’t feel like giving them a second chance to prove it. If they couldn’t hit it out of the park while a larger party was eating in the main hall then they shouldn’t have been open for additional diners at the time.

Whatever the case, The Springs wasn’t as good as the price would demand. It was a fine meal, and I’m not sad I tried it, but unlike some other fancy meals I’ve had I don’t think I will be going back to The Springs to have another dinner again. This one time just wasn’t good enough.