[this post is written by Andrea T. in Ottawa.]
We live walking-distance from Westfest. There were six of us, child-free (WOOT!), drinking wine on the front steps. We laughed. We talked. We drank. And before we knew it, it was 8 p.m. We hadn't eaten. The plan was to go down to Milagro Grill for dinner. We've had some pretty good meals there before. Their menu leans toward Mexican, with fajitas and the like, and they have some kind of stew a friend of mine raves about.
I am sad to say that our lovely meal wasn't going to happen. Upon arrival we were informed they had run out of food and were only serving drinks. Oh. Okay.
The Works, which has been known to serve up a very good hamburger, did the same thing they did last year: slashed their menu down to two styles of burgers. You could purchase a cheeseburger or Westfest-burger (something with fried onions). They were busy too. Despite the fact they'd extended their patio right onto the road, there was no room to eat.
That left us with Newport. Guess what? It was going to be a 45-minute wait. So we phoned in our order, picked it up, and ate our pizzas in front of All-Saints church.
Newport makes these wonderful gourmet pizzas … thin crusts, fresh ingredients … they're delicious. One of the pizzas we ordered was one of these. I think it was a supposed to be a chicken/thai pizza. But instead of the lovely thin crust it was on regular thick/doughy crust and all of those fresh, delicious ingredients were buried under their trademark pile of mozzarella. *sigh*
After we ate, we meandered over to the Kathleen Edwards concert. The crowd was huge, and OMG were there ever some rude people in the audience. Several people squeezed through the crowds and stood themselves directly in front of me without a nod or acknowledgement.
I lasted two songs. My legs were killing me anyway. All of our group (save one) gave up. We went back to Milagro's for drinks. Looking back, I wish we hadn't.
Someone mentioned they were getting a Mojito. Sounds good! One for everyone! Well, they were disgusting. I've never ordered a drink that was so utterly undrinkable. It was unbelievably sour.
We called the waiter over to our table.
"These are really sour… " I said.
"They're MOJITOS," said the
waiter, with extra emphasis. "They're supposed to be sour!" He said
this as if I was a big freakin' idiot.
"Uh,okaaaay, but not THIS sour."
A Mojito is supposed to be a clear, refreshing, summery drink. This was cloudy with concentrated lime juice. It was far from refreshing. In fact, it was making my tongue curl and the sides of my throat shrivel up.
Our waiter came back with a huge bottle and squirted some liquid cane sugar into everyone's drinks. It didn't do the trick. I should have sent mine back like one of our party did.
I don't think anyone at the table finished their Mojito. We settled our bill. We were charged full price for the drinks, minus the one which had been sent back.
"Sorry about those drinks man," said the waiter. "It's not like we're in Mexico you know!"
(What?)
"The guy makin' the drinks, he's SO TIRED! He's been busy all day…"
(WHAT??)
In summary: if you're going to do Westfest, you shouldn't expect a nice dinner. It's not the point. You're better off buying a hotdog off one of the street vendors, or drinking/eating at home.
I hate that this experience left such a sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps we should have tried Fratelli's or Trio, or gone as far up as Whispers. Did anyone have a positive dining experience at Westfest? If so, I would love to hear it.
Westfest has such a great concert program, and great stuff for kids too … so why can't they do a bit better on the food front?
[This post is written by Andrea Tomkins a regular contributor to CheapEats Ottawa
(where she is known as AT). Andrea is an Ottawa-based writer, blogger and photographer. You can peek into her journal at www.quietfish.com/notebook]
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