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Submitted to yellow page: New Brunswick/D/Dieppe

(Review ID: 11)
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 
There is room for improvement but overall, not bad!, Oct 2, 2007
Reviewer: Canada Food Critic from Dieppe
    
Value For Money  
2.00/52.00/52.00/52.00/5
 (2)
Atmosphere  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Food Quality  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Service  
3.00/53.00/53.00/53.00/5
 (3)


Pros: If your hungry you won't be for long when you drop by Don Cherry's.
Cons: I feel the food here is over priced, but you do get over sized portions...

The new and improved Don Cherry’s! They have moved from the mall to their new location and the new facilities are a big improvement.. They are now located next to the new city hall. The new place has a much more modern look and appears to be larger than the last place. It had been over a year since I last visited Don Cherry's.

On arrival I immediately noticed how busy this place was. I was thinking to myself, this is going to be a long wait. However, much to my surprise the waitress said "your table will be ready in 15 minutes". I guess she was on Newfoundland time because we had to add 30 minutes to that wait time for a grand total of 45 minutes. It was a long wait and had I been told it would be 30-45 minutes I would have been fine with that. I was really disappointed that their estimate was so far off.

Regardless, the 45 minutes allowed time to take in the new environment while relaxing with a beer. Yes, I said relaxing! For a joint this busy I surprise that is was not insanely loud. You could think and talk freely with out having to yell over the crowd.

One thing I like about Don Cherry's in the screens all over the place. And to make things better, I am pretty darn sure I saw built in X-Box consoles built into some of the booths... I have to verify that some time, but what a great way to wait for your food! Just play video games.

Any way's, down to business, the food! We were seated after our painfully long wait and our server was up front with us as he prepared us for a long wait for the food. Not many servers think to warn customers of a long wait for food so this was very much appreciated. Perhaps a free beer with that apology for the long wait would have gone over even better but I was glad to know regardless.

For an appetizer we had the Carlos' Nachos (~$12). Thank god we were sharing because this was a monster serving. If it was to be my main meal I could have polished it off my self but with the main course yet to come it definitely one for the team.

For my main course I ordered the Chicken Fajita's. Now, there is a story behind these Fajita's. When I first tried Don Cherry's many moons ago these where fantastic. Then they took a sharp dive into the "not worth the money category". Now with a new location and new staff I was ready to try them again. As usual they came from the kitchen piping hot on a skillet. Included was 4 warm shells, salsa, sour cream, salad, and cheese. Given the size of the portions on the skillet it would have been nice to have 1-2 more shells. I saw right from the get go that they did make an improvement. I could actually see some red and green peppers. The last time I tried them they were all onion and chicken. I would have to describe the chicken as dry and bland. I know you get the condiments to go on the Fajita's but the chicken needs to be moist and flavourful. Regardless, I did enjoy these Fajita's very much.

If you are hungry and looking for a big meal, you will find it at Don Cherry's. The food quality is pretty good but if you want a quick meal you will have to look some place else. Perhaps they are faster on weeknights when they may not be as busy. We visited on a Saturday. I am going to give them a 3.75/5. They need to work on the speed. Perhaps they need more staff on busy nights. There is some room for improvement on the food. Though you get good-sized portions I still feel that this place may be a bit over priced.

S.R.
 
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Reviewed: McGinnis Landing
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Submitted to yellow page: New Brunswick/D/Dieppe

(Review ID: 21)
3 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
 
All was great except for the service., Oct 3, 2007
Reviewer: Canada Food Critic from Dieppe
    
Value For Money  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Atmosphere  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Food Quality  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Service  
1.00/51.00/51.00/51.00/5
 (1)


Pros: The fish and chips are excellent, try them.
Cons: Bad service....

Yet another lunch hour review. As per usual a small group of colleagues and I visited McGinnis Landing for lunch. We showed up at 11:30ish. There were very few people already there and that was the case for our entire visit. I was expecting more people to come in but apparently this is not a prime lunch location in Moncton. The interior is somewhat of a cross between a pub and a family restaurant. The lighting was dim and there are tables in the center of the dining areas with booths around the perimeter. We were seated in the section near the bar almost immediately on entering.

The waitress returned quickly with menus and water. I wanted to try something "different" from their menu but the fish and chips where calling my name. When I ordered I noticed that the waitress did not write down the orders. Very few times have I had a waitress recall an entire table of orders from memory without screwing up. This was not going to be one of the few times. Two of four orders came "not as ordered". That's pretty bad.

One thing that really tweaks my melon is when i get served fish and chips and the waitress disappears with out brining the ketchup or asking if I at least want it. That's exactly what happened here.

When I finally got my ketchup I started with the fries. They were warm, not hot; and limp, not crisp; alright, not great. The "slaw" was very tasty. They served a generous portion in a tortilla cup. Next to that was their in house tartar sauce. Be for warned, it is not tartar sauce so much as it is dill sauce. However, it was excellent with the fish. It nice when a restaurant does something a little different to stand out from the crowd. Its even better when that something different works. The fish was large in size and battered with a soft pancake like batter. I suspect it was beer batter. I typically do not like the soft style batter because most places make it too thick and it becomes a grease soaked sponge. This batter on the other hand was not too thick and taste fine. With the dill sauce added it made for a nice meal.

This order of fish was a 2 piece. I typically order the extra piece to make 3 but the waitress said the fish was big pieces and she was right. This 2 piece fish and chips for about $10 was well worth the price and definitely hit the spot.

Now, I did not ask if the fish was cod or haddock as I usually do. I like trying to catch them in either a lie or just not having a clue. With my first piece of fish I thought I was eating haddock. However, with the second piece I know for sure I was eating cod. I will not order fish and chips made with cod but surprisingly this was not a problem here. The fish was still great.

On this visit McGinnis Landing earns a 3.5. I am being generous because I really enjoyed the fish; However, the service was lacking in effort and 2 errors were made in the orders. I am sure others at the table would not score this place as generously.
 
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Reviewed: Morton Pub
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Submitted to yellow page: New Brunswick/M/Moncton

(Review ID: 24)
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 
For a quick lunch, thier buffet hits the spot!, Oct 3, 2007
Reviewer: Canada Food Critic from Moncton
    
Value For Money  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Atmosphere  
3.00/53.00/53.00/53.00/5
 (3)
Food Quality  
3.00/53.00/53.00/53.00/5
 (3)
Service  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)


Pros: Service and value.
Cons: They really do not have the room set up well for thier lunch time buffet.

I visited Morton pub with a friend on a Friday for their noon hour buffet. Anticipating a crowed we showed up at 11:30. It was a good choice because by 12:00 the place was packed. The server was fast to seat us and take our orders. Seeing how busy they get, fast service is a necessity.

I find buffets more difficult to review because you get to sample many things, in my case, as many items as are present! Generally speaking their buffet is good quality food. There were a few items that I did not care for much like the fake wings. But there were others that I went back for seconds of. Over all I enjoyed the buffet. If you go at peak traffic hours, like 12:00 noon, be prepared to have a 10-20 person line waiting for food. The place is not designed well for that many people because you have to push through the line to get back out of the buffet section and return to your seat.
 
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Submitted to yellow page: New Brunswick/M/Moncton

(Review ID: 27)
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 
Reminds me of a high school cafateria., Oct 3, 2007
Reviewer: Canada Food Critic from Moncton
    
Value For Money  
3.00/53.00/53.00/53.00/5
 (3)
Atmosphere  
2.00/52.00/52.00/52.00/5
 (2)
Food Quality  
2.00/52.00/52.00/52.00/5
 (2)
Service  
3.00/53.00/53.00/53.00/5
 (3)


Pros: No pros
Cons: The food and the food littered tables and floors....

I got roped into this one... J, decided he wanted all you can eat sundae's and after twisting my rubber arm there we were. It brought back memories of standing in a long cafeteria line at high school... or university. On entering you look up you order on the walled menu and proceed to the line up. There you get your tray, flat where and drink. Then you order your meal, you pay, and you find a seat. I ordered the sirloin steak strips and fries, mainly because it came with 6he free sundae bar!! for only $9.99. How could I go wrong!

One nice thing about Ponderosa is the soup and salad bar. There are plenty of goodies to start filling that void while you wait for your meal to arrive.

After just one plate from the salad bar my meal arrived. It looked good but that was about it. I did not find the steak strips to be very tasty and they had a very strange texture. If I did not know I ordered steak I would not have even guess that this stuff was meat. J said that the strips reminded him of worms... personally, I have never tried worm so I would not know :) The fries were nothing special, I could have done them in my oven at home and they would have turned out the same. Overall the plate seemed a bit bare but I assume that's because they expect you to eat from the salad bar. After eating my steak and fries I had no other choice but to attack the salad bar 2 more times.

Now, lets move on to the best part of the meal... the sundae bar!!! This was a great treat. The problem is that I can not be trusted with caramel sauce. I put some in the bottom of my sundae dish and then piled more on the top. Was it ever good!! In fact it was so good that I had to go back up for more ice cream because I had too much caramel sauce!

Over all I was not overly impressed with ponderosa. It was a typical cafeteria feeling and the salad bar and sundae bar should have been more clean than they were considering the fact that they were not particularly busy. The service was good, and the manager asked how our meals where. He actually asked about 3 times so in the end it because a bit awkward. Perhaps we over stayed our welcome.

So for a quick meal at a reasonable price I give Ponderosa 2.5/5. Had I received this quality of food in a traditional style family restaurant I would have scored it lower.
 
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Reviewed: St-Hubert
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Submitted to yellow page: New Brunswick/M/Moncton

(Review ID: 31)
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 
Clearly a favourite in Moncton, and easy to see why., Oct 3, 2007
Reviewer: Canada Food Critic from Moncton
    
Value For Money  
5.00/55.00/55.00/5
 (5)
Atmosphere  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Food Quality  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)
Service  
4.00/54.00/54.00/54.00/5
 (4)


Pros: The value and food quality are great but the dessert menu is fantastic.
Cons: Whats with the half burger bun instead of an actual roll?

I am sure everyone in Moncton has eaten at St Hubert's. What review site would be complete without including this place! I recently visited St. Huberts with my family. We were lucky and beat the line up. Just after we were seated (5 minute wait) the line grew until it was out the door. For those of you who know this place, you know that this is a frequent occurrence. If you have not been to this place you will soon find out.

After the 5 minute wait we were seated and drink orders where taken immediately and served up in an instant. Shortly there after the waitress was back to take our orders. Considering how busy this place was our order's were served extremely fast. After we were done the table was cleared and dessert was server.

These guy need to stay on top of excellent service if they are to maintain a happy clientele. That line has to move fast or else people will just not wait to get in. If you want to avoid the line, avoid peak hours.

Now lets get down to business... The food. I started with the coleslaw which is included with every meal, and is all you can eat. They server a vinegar or creamy version. Both are very good. For my appetizer, I went with the cream of chicken soup, The soup is really good but I would expect it to be thinker for a cream style soup. Never the less taste is most important. On this occasion I went with the quarter chicken leg meal, fries for the side. St. Hubert's rotisserie chicken is one of the best there is. It has a great taste and is always very tender and served falling off the bone. As for the fries... It nice that there is gravy to go over them, otherwise they would need lots of ketchup! The fries with nothing on them are not that good. They are frequently soggy as if they have been sitting in the warmer a half hour too long. BUT, there is plenty of gravy to pour over the fries so they are great in the end :) The one think that I really do not like at all about St Hubert's is that tiny half burger bun that they give you instead of a dinner roll. I am almost 100% certain that the vast majority of people would agree that a real roll would be FAR better. Next up was desert, I ordered the hot pudding cake. This is one of the 12 choices on their desert menu and I highly recommend it. Keep in mind that it is very sweet. You might want to order a large glass of milk with it.

As far as the atmosphere goes at this place, it is highly variable. It can be loud and obnoxious with annoying baby boomers bellowing out as if they own the joint, as well and crying babies at every second table; OR, it can be a quite relaxed dining experience. On this occasion it was somewhat quite for the number of people present. We were able to have a normal conversation without having to strain to hear the person across the table. I guess it was a happy medium between silent and too loud.

Price wise, I think that St. Hubert's is one of the cheapest chicken places in town. I will have to compare. My complete meal as describe above was $14 + tax which in my opinion is a great deal.

St. Hubert's has earned a few demerit point but still scores highly from my self. I give them a 4.25/5
 
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