Oh golly gosh. I have been dreaming of checking out this restaurant for years and finally got a chance to check it out today and I'm glad to say that I will be back. Last minute decisions today I decided that I wanted to get some lunch before heading to work and my friend was on her break between classes so I called her up and we meet up in the mall to head over to the restaurant in the market.

I love how when you walk in there is a big sign that says Play Food & Wine in orange and there is a comfy couch to hang out on if you may have to wait to get in or your table may not be ready yet. We luckily didn't have to wait because they weren't quite busy so we got in, the lady in the front took our jacket and bags and were seated.

The menu was nothing just a piece of pair with the food in the front and the wine on the back but the layout looked great and inviting and organized. They had 5 different boxes of the different options of plates, Cheese, Savoury, Sides, Charcuterie & Dessert. They had a special for lunch of any 2 plates for $22 so me and my friend order 4 plates we wanted to try and just shared them all. The concept of their restaurant is that the food is made in smaller portions and meant to be like appetizers.

Sooo the waiter came back and we made our order of potato leek soup, striped bass, gnocchi and lamb pancetta and 2 very berry lemonade. We were served some bread and butter and then our pretty lemonade came in long lovely glasses. I have a thing with my drinks be in nicer glasses because I think it makes them taste better and its such lovely presentation. The bread I wasn't much a fan of because it was cold for one and I think it would have been nice to have some oil with our bread as well. I like how they sliced it instead of bringing a loaf and having you do that for yourself.

Not too long after that we got our first set of dishes, the Potato Leek Soup & Striped Bass. The potato soup was nice a light and a great soup for winter on a cold snowy day. The striped bass was nice. My favourite part of the bass was the rutabaga puree, watercress, lamb merguez and the whole thing. The only part of it that I didn't really like was the charred part of the bass and the cabbage was alright. Overall though it was a nice light dish that had many different parts to it but not too much going on; I would order this again.

The next set of dishes that we got was the Gnocchi & Lamb Pancetta. The gnocchi was alright nothing really special about it. I was just eating the gnocchi and ignoring the other ingredients in the dish but I felt like the gnocchi could have been more flavoured. The Lamb Pancetta was alright as well. The flatbread was salty which was fine but when its eaten with other salty foods it becomes too salty. The lentil stew with the Lamb Pancetta was good, a little too spicy for me but good. my favourite part of that dish was the salsa verde on top of the lentils.

After all that we gave in and got dessert as well which was pretty good. Apple Berry Strudel with Apple Compote, Apricot & Chantilly. The Strudel was on point and I enjoyed the Chantilly (a whipped type of cream) and the apple compote was the perfect amount of sweet. I think the berries that were tossed on top added a tart flavour to it that was still the perfect amount of sweetneess.

Well enough of my talking. Enjoy the pictures I snapped away right before I enjoy this lovely lunch.

xoxo