Review: Dominion Square Tavern

How did it take me so long to get here? I remember working at CIBC across the street and seeing this place before, I think they used to have a sign that said they served pickled pig's foot or something like that. We were downtown Friday night and decided to try it out. My girlfriend had already been and told me she liked it. We get in and sit at the bar, which is seriously a beautiful place to have a glass and a meal at. Copper bar top, a nice rack of hanging cured meats, and a really good restoration job all around with old antique chipped mirrors and leaf shaped lamps. The bartender was very attentive to us even through all the complicated drink orders flying his way.

We ordered a bit of bread after noticing that they serve bread from the Hof Kelsten Bakery which I've read about in the Montreal Mirror (The Bread Guy). Very nice sour dough with what I "THINK" is fennel seeds in it. I also ordered an appetizer of Bone Marrow with Brussels sprouts salad. I'm really trying to get into Brussels sprouts. I used to gag over these things cause my mom used to boil them till they tasted like old rubber balls my dog played with. I'm glad to know there's actually really GOOD ways of doing them. The plate came and holy cow! My expectation was to have a bowl of roasted Brussels sprouts with marrow in it, tossed with a vinaigrette. What I got was an entire leg cut lengthwise with about a pound of butter, and a nice sweet salad of sprout leafs and home made pickles, served with half a dozen wedges of more delicious Hof bread! 

Then our mains came. She ordered a pub classic Bangers & Mash which was very good (yes I stole a bite!) with a nice side of large green peas. The bangers weren't too greasy which is a very good thing as I find a lot of times the sausage to be lackluster in this type of plate. I ordered the mussels cause I saw someone else have them and figured that after that big ass bone marrow, a "light" seafood plate might be in order. But it did come with a ton of bacon. These were the largest mussels I've ever seen and the broth was great. Wish I had more Hof bread to sop it all up with! The fries it came with were excellent, perfect fries really.

The dessert was the nutmeg doughnuts with sour cream. Very nice, you get two doughnuts and two doughnut holes. I'd recommend to share it cause it's pretty large.

I'd recommend this to anybody, it was a fantastic night out, beautiful place, service is superb and the food will make you happy! Our bill came to $125 for two of us, add the tip and you're in the range of any good meal in the city. We had 2 drinks each, nothing crazy.

I love this place and will definitely be going back to try other things on the menu. 

Dominion Square Tavern

http://www.dominiontavern.com/

Hof Kelsten Bakery

http://www.hofkelsten.com/index.php/bread/