I feel like I’m cheating a bit on this week’s Food Friday because I’ve written about this restaurant before in a previous blog post. But I love it so much that recently, I went again and found out they added new items to their menu, so I just had to write about them again!
If you’ve been a follower of my Food Friday posts, you will know this restaurant is none other than:
[custom_box width=”60%” bgcolor=”#D5F2B6″ border_color=”#3F9F29″ text_color=”#3F9F29″ icon_url=”https://www.fionaman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/knife-fork.jpg”]RESTAURANT: Zees Grills
ADDRESS: 92 Picton St., Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0
CUISINE: Canadian
PHONE: (905) 468-5715
WEBSITE: http://www.niagarasfinest.com/properties/zeesgrill[/custom_box]
As usual, we started off our meal with an amuse bouche. I actually wasn’t listening to our waiter this time around (I know…bad food blogger me). But I did remember it had beets and chorizo. Needless to say, it was delish!
Amuse Bouche
For some reason, I’m on this whole gazpacho trend. I’m always intrigued by cold soups because it really requires fresh and flavourful ingredients in order for you to taste it. Chilled Tomato & St. David’s Red Pepper Gazpacho was jammed pack with flavour! You could taste how fresh the tomatoes, cucumbers, and red peppers were. What contradicted the dish but complimented it well with the amount of heat from the chili. My boyfriend and I both loved the dish but were in agreement that to elevate the dish even more would be an element of sweetness.
CHILLED TOMATO & ST. DAVID’S RED PEPPER GAZPACHO
Compressed Cucumber and Heirloom Tomato Salad, Chili & Black Pepper Infused Gin, Basil Oil & Sprouts for Life Organic Seedlings
This is our staple “no fail” dish at Zees Grill…Nori Wrapped Rare BC Albacore Tuna Loin. The only thing that differed from the original dish we had was the sea salt. We were both craving for it as it truly makes the dish that much better. The warm soba noodle salad and the daikon & pickled ginger salad was just as good as the first time. The house made miso & sweet chili sauce smeared on the bottom of the plate added great heat to the dish.
NORI WRAPPED RARE BC ALBACORE TUNA LOIN
Warm Soba Noodle Salad, Bok Choy, Daikon & Pickled Ginger, House Made Miso & Sweet Chili Sauce, Toasted Cashews
For some reason, my boyfriend is obsessed with lamb. But he is quite finicky when it comes to lamb because he isn’t keen on the “gamey” taste. He usually opts for grilled lamb chops that guarantees the “gamey” taste is masked. I was a bit apprehensive when ordering the Sous Vide Canadian Lamb Sirloin because of the way it’s cooked. For those that don’t know, sous vide is a way of cooking food in airtight plastic bag submersed in a water bath for an extended period of time at a low temperature. This ensures that the meat is evenly cooked and all of its natural juices are retained (thank you years of watching Top Chef!). Because it was sous vide and cooking in its natural juices, I was worried that it would taste “gamey”. Well I was wrong! This must be the most tender pieces of lamb I’ve ever tasted. The black streak on the plate is actually charred eggplant purée and it added such a great smoky flavour to the dish. The sweetness of the cornbread croutons and the heat from the jalapeño & mint yogurt just added that layer of complexity that was missing from the gazpacho. You think with the smokiness, sweetness, and spiciness in the dish that it wouldn’t work well together…but it did! The icing on the cake was the freshness of the vegetables. I have to say…that this has to be our favourite dish from Zees Grill thus far. Even the waiter agreed with us!
SOUS VIDE CANADIAN LAMB SIRLOIN
Roasted St. David’s Peppers, Marinated 100km Seasonal Grilled Vegetables, Cornbread Croutons, Jalapeño & Mint Yogurt & Charred Eggplant Purée
If you ever mention dark chocolate in a dish, I just have to order it. So that’s what prompted me to order the Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake. What was interesting about the dish was that since the chocolate cake was flourless, you expect it to be super heavy. Even though it was rich, it wasn’t heavy at all. As you put each bite in your mouth, it just melted. The braised pineapples weren’t heavily spiced and very light in flavour. I thought I would be thrown off by the coconut cream as I’m not a huge fan of coconut, but it helped tone down the richness from the cake. The pecan brittle is everything you imagine a brittle would it. It was sweet and crunchy. It wasn’t hard to bite and didn’t stick to you teeth.
FLOURLESS DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE
All Spice Braised Pineapple, Coconut Cream & Pecan Brittle
Since it is autumn and pumpkins are in season, Executive Chef, Jason Dobbie, decided to include it in one of his dishes. Let me present to you the Vanilla Chai Semi Freddo. Based on my knowledge from Top Chef, semi freddo is semi-frozen dessert where you mix equal parts of ice cream and whipped cream. The end result is a frozen mousse type texture. The pumpkin mousse was to die for! If you just served that in a cup, I would totally eat it! The pumpkin mousse had just the amount of spice. The semi freddo was very light in flavour and in texture, so it wasn’t fighting in the mousse. The black currant jam wasn’t too sweet and the pistachio tuile was perfectly cooked and gave a bit of contrast in texture since it was very light and airy throughout.
VANILLA CHAI SEMI FREDDO
Pumpkin Mousse, Black Current Jam & Pistachio Tuile
The thing we noticed about Zees Grill is that each dish is portioned appropriately. So it isn’t heavy but at the same time, you feel satisfied after eating the dish. Because the portions aren’t huge, you do have room for all three courses without going into a food comatose.
I would definitely recommend Zees Grill again and again. I mean…heck…we drove over an hour and a half just to have dinner there. That must mean something…right?
