How many times have I asked myself that question while dining in one of Saskatoon's many restaurants. Thirty, forty, maybe fifty times. And knowing full well that this trend will continue, I want to talk about how this has affected me, how dining in this city whether it be for lunch, dinner or even just for dessert and wine can be such a depressing ordeal, one that I can't stand for much longer. Therefore, before I continue, I would like to paint a familiar picture for you, one I'm sure we all have experienced countless times before.
Hey sweetie you hungry? You want to go for lunch?
Sure. Where to?
Oh I don't know, you pick?
No, I don't care, you pick?
Okay, okay I'll do it. How about that new place Bliss, wanna go there?
Sure, that sounds good.
Then you're off, you both trek down to Bliss.
You arrive and find that it looks nice, and I say that with caution. I mean it's clean, very open and very boring. If you're 80 you might enjoy it, but for me having my chef stare at me while I eat my food kind of got to me... Seemed a little creepy I might say. Any who, back to the food.
So we order, can't remember exactly what it was because it was that forgetable, however, I do remember getting some sort of pasta and chicken sandwich. Now here we are, my girl and I eating our lunch and I'm thinking "What the fuck!!!!, this is terrible, extremely bland, tasteless and something I could make ten times better".
I was so irritated. I wanted to walk up to the chef while holding my plate of food and ask him, "Hey retard, eat this! This is awful, why would you serve me this? Do you not have any pride? Seriously you can't be happy with this, I mean come on, when you were making the menu did you step back and go "hey this is great" or did you not give a fuck?"
I was so mad. I mean this is a BRAND NEW restaurant that the Planet S gave glowing reviews too, how could they be so clueless? By the end of it I walked out $40.00 poorer and much more disappointed and this wasn't even the first time something like this has happened to me, my girl or someone I know. Take for instance friends of mine who dined at The Barking Fish last night, a place they hadn't been to in months. Excited and hoping for something great, they quickly realized when their dinners arrived why they had stopped their patronage. The food was awful and sub par, end point.
Am I asking for a lot? Is it that hard to take pride in what you do? Fuck I don't know, as it stands I trust only a few places in this city. Sushiro, Amigos, Earls and Calories and that's about it. Everything else to me is either crap or dog shit. The food at Bliss seemed more catered to the taste of babies rather than adults. And to take this even further, my girl and I visited yet another Planet S recommendation a few day later called Octane. In short the food was atrocious, humongous food portions, food that had looked as if it came from a can or had been through a microwave, . This place Octane had such a huge menu it scared me. I mean how can a place stand to say they can make a great club sandwich, a ginger beef stir fry and have fresh LOBSTER? There was no direction in this place, no format, just a massive menu with items on it and the list goes on and on. I could destroy so many places it scares me, and I'm no food critic with a massive ego. I'm just a man who expects quality and I see no problem in declaring that, and neither should any of you.
Okay so maybe I'm ranting a little, but seriously should I settle for less just because it is being given to me? Saskatoon, we deserve better. We deserve a dining scene that can rival the big citys. We need to stand up and say "Hey we need to be better". We need establishments that take pride in what they do, that care, places that want to be better and strive for it. We have enough dry ribs, nachos and caesar salads restaurants to kill a fat kid, we need better, more creative and quality. And if they don't want to do it, fuck em' is what I say.
Any who, sorry for the language, I get emotional just thinking of this stuff, take this article for what you want, but I'm sure you all can agree with me that I'm not alone in thinking this, we need to stand up and say something.
Later.
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