forgetful

Restaurant meals have been few and far between since Jaia’s arrival. It was easier when she slumbered peacefully in her carseat, but now that she’s mobile and incessantly ravenous, she’s a handful! Couple that with the terrible sleeps we get if we keep her out past 7pm, and restaurant visits just aren’t worth it.

However, last Thursday we wanted to mark a special occasion, and decided to head out for an early dinner at a nearby restaurant. Our corner of Barrhaven is growing fast, and so is our list of options for restaurants within a 5 minute drive. Our old standby is the Barley Mow, which serves good pub food and has Creemore on tap. There’s a new Boston Pizza that just opened on Greenbank, a new asian restaurant beside the Galaxy movie theatre, and several others.

We chose a place just up Woodroffe called Terra Grill. Inviting from the outside, pleasant on the inside, and dead enough at 5pm for Jaia not to bother anyone. It turned out to be a poor choice.

Service: Pleasant and helpful. We had our waitress’ full attention, as we were her only table.

Atmosphere: Besides a wobbly table, wonderful. It’s a nice place inside.

Appetizers: Great. They have a $5 grazing menu during happy hour with an interesting list of choices.

Main courses: Terrible!

• Shannen had “Pad Thai”. It’s in quotes, because it was nowhere close to Pad Thai. Boring rice noodles were drowned in a bland, pasty peanut sauce (think PC “Memories of” peanut sauce, with less flavour), topped by passable chicken. I would have called it “Noodles in Natural Peanut Butter with Chicken”. $19.
• Dan had blackened halibut. It was served on a heaping mound of “rice pilaf”, which was really just rice, and a side of vegetables that tasted like deep fryer oil. The halibut was nicely blackened on the outside but … RAW in the middle. I think they must have cooked it from frozen and not realized that it takes longer. I called the waitress’ attention to the uncooked-ness of my fish, and she said she’d take care of it right away. 3 minutes later (?) she brought the same piece of fish back out, steaming. It’s obvious that they microwaved it. They added some more deep-fryer oil tainted vegetables.  $23.

Needless to say, disappointing. We tipped an average amount, as our server was OK. It’s the food that stunk. It’s obvious that those responsible for food preparation at Terra Grill have lost any passion they once had for food. They’re just grinding it out, content in their mediocrity.

You’ve been warned – stay away.