Taste of Burlington Winter Launch

It’s that time of the year when the number of customers visiting local restaurants are at their lowest.  In an attempt to attract more customers, restaurants in various cities across the GTA participate in a promotion where they offer prix-fixe, three course lunch and dinner menus.

I was recently invited by Tourism Burlington to attend the winter launch event of Taste of Burlington (TOB) at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. This year, the promotion is running from February 16th to March 9th.  This is the second time that I was invited, along with my fellow foodie friends Chanry, Christine and Craig, and it appears to have grown from last time.

There are thirty two restaurants participating in this year’s promotion and 26 of them were represented in the theatre lobby.  Even though restaurants offered up sample sized portions of their menu items it was still a lot of food to take in.  I have to admit that I wasn’t able to sample everything that was offered.

My favorite dish of the night was, surprisingly, the sweet potato donut from Queens Head Pub.

I say surprisingly because I do not have a sweet tooth at all but Chef Will Edsall really delivered on this dish. The donut itself was not too sweet and the maple cream and crushed pralines all worked really well together.

Chef Will Edsall, far right, and members of his team

Chef Edsall was born in Halifax and spent a big portion of his childhood on a farm in New Brunswick where his family raised and butchered their own animals and also grew their own fruits and vegetables.  It was there that he developed his love and passion for food.  Eventually he moved to Burlington and worked at various restaurants but took a leave to attend George Brown College for Culinary Arts.  After graduating he returned to Burlington and landed a position at Queens Head where he has been the head chef for almost three years now.   For two winters in a row Chef Edsall has won the `Best Taste` award at the event.  It just goes to show how high he has raised the bar on pub food.

Beet risotto from Red Canoe Catering

Chef Tobias dishing up his heirloom beet risotto

My second favorite was was the local heirloom beet risotto with goat feta and topped with a naturally raised beef ragout created by Chef Tobias Pohl-Weary from Red Canoe Catering. I don’t like beets at all but I would definitely order this. It’s the type of dish that you fill up on during a cold winter’s night.

Tuna canapes

One of the most beautiful dishes of the night was the tuna canapes from Test Kitchen, unfortunately, it was also one of the most disappointing for me.  I really wanted to like this dish but personally I found that it was very bland.  Test Kitchen does have a unique way of changing up their menu though, according to their website, “We have a core menu of 16 items including Elk, Dry aged Striploin, Farro and Striped Bass. Every 2 weeks we launch a new 6-8 items and Test them out. If they make the cut, they eventually will make the core menu.”

Prima Donna Primavera

Look at the above picture. Who would think that those ‘noodles’  are actually spiralized zucchini. The Naked Sprout presented their Prima Donna Primavera which was the aforementioned zucchini tossed in a sundried tomato marinara sauce garnished with tomatoes, kalamata olives and a cashew ‘meatball’ and sprinkled with brazil nut parmesan. This 100% vegan dish was full of flavour and very enjoyable.

Beer braised short rib with truffled turnip puree

After the vegan dish the carnivore in me started calling out for some meat, so I headed over to the booth from Stone House Restaurant. Their short rib was so tender and my wife was blown away by the sauce. She would’ve been happy with a bowl of that sauce and a big chunk of bread to sop it up with.  This was one of the winners of the “People’s Choice” award

Curried cauliflower soup

The second winner of the “People’s Choice” award went to West Plains Bistro for their curried cauliflower soup with a dried mango, raisin and almond garnish. West Plains was the defending “People’s Choice” champion. This soup was delicious, but the garnishes didn’t do anything for me. The almonds alone would have sufficed.

Sticky toffee pudding

Another of Wifey’s favorites was the sticky toffee pudding from Ye Olde Squire.  It was moist, sticky and yes, even with my lack of a sweet tooth, I have to agree that it was very tasty.

Angus beef meatball with a mushroom compote

At the last TOB, the folks from Paradiso won the ‘Best Taste’ award for their chicken liver pate. Needless to say I was expecting them to follow up with something just as amazing, but unfortunately they didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, the meatball was tasty, but the mushroom compote didn’t help the dish.

Loobiah Polo from Rayhoon Persian Eatery

Another dish that I thought was delicious was the Loobiah Polo from Rayhoon Persian Eatery.  Tilapia was served in a sauce that was packed with aromatic herbs, tamarind and tomato on top of saffron infused rice.  This wasn’t the best looking dish, but it was one of the most flavourful of the night.  I wish I had discovered this restaurant earlier in the night because when I finally made it over I was too stuffed to really appreciate it.  I couldn’t even finish the sample even though I shared with Wifey.

Icewine marshmallow smores

Another dessert item served that night was the Icewine marshmallow smores served by Spencer’s at the Waterfront. This consisted of a quinoa graham cracker, icewine marshmallow and chocolate ganache. Another lovely dish, everything was all hand made in house.

There were other dishes that we sampled but I didn’t take a picture of all of it. There were some hits and some misses but overall this was a very fun evening filled with good food and some really great people.

This was the winter launch of the Taste of Burlington but they also hold one during the summer. If you can’t make it there during the winter, I would highly recommend visiting for their summer time promotion.

*Disclaimer: I was invited to this event as part of the media but all opinions are my own