Winnipeg | Restaurants

[drew]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

Also near the MTS Centre is Ghion (Kennedy, between Portage and Graham). It's billed as Ethiopian, Greek and Burgers. What a great a place. The owner is super eager to please and extremely nice. I didn't see any Ethiopian items on the menu, but I hear it's available if you call ahead. Portions are generous and the place is fully licensed. It still looks like an old Sals from the early postwar era.

Next time you are there, ask for a "Ghion Sub". Not on the menu, but oh man, is it tasty.

I have gone there several times before Jets games. Beer is cheap, food is an exceptional value and good.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by drew

Next time you are there, ask for a "Ghion Sub". Not on the menu, but oh man, is it tasty.

I have gone there several times before Jets games. Beer is cheap, food is an exceptional value and good.

Oooh, I'm intrigued. Will definitely ask for that next time.

This place also has one of the weirder washroom setups in Winnipeg. Totally inaccessible and in the basement. Reminds me of Kelekis's subterranean facilities.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

Also near the MTS Centre is Ghion (Kennedy, between Portage and Graham). It's billed as Ethiopian, Greek and Burgers.

Heard the owner got his start working in a Greek place in the city before taking over the old Greek burger place that had the same location for many years and changing up the menu a little.

[Authentic_City]

Just noticed that the Feep has anointed Bartley Kives the new restaurant critic. Not sure if this matters to anyone anymore, but the old critic Marion Warhaft certainly had a lot of haters. Also, it's kind of weird that they are publishing the identity of the reviewer because now restaurants will know when they are being reviewed (or assume they are being reviewed if they see Kives). Warhaft never published a photo of herself.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/food/more-geek-than-gourmet-368340361.html

[drew]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

Oooh, I'm intrigued. Will definitely ask for that next time.

This place also has one of the weirder washroom setups in Winnipeg. Totally inaccessible and in the basement. Reminds me of Kelekis's subterranean facilities.

Yes, the bathrooms are odd. My wife was not impressed.

Food made up for it though.

[esquire]

Warhaft was a really good reviewer, she was pretty trend-neutral and really honed in on the food with a chef's eye. Kives strikes me as someone who will be inclined to favour trendy joints.

I like Kives' city hall and urban affairs stuff, but it's too bad the WFP couldn't find someone else with a restaurant kitchen background to replace Warhaft.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by esquire

Warhaft was a really good reviewer, she was pretty trend-neutral and really honed in on the food with a chef's eye. Kives strikes me as someone who will be inclined to favour trendy joints.

I like Kives' city hall and urban affairs stuff, but it's too bad the WFP couldn't find someone else with a restaurant kitchen background to replace Warhaft.

I didn't hate Warhaft like some, but she did seem to favour certain styles of cuisine over others. Asian cuisine and seafood always seemed to get more attention by her, I always thought.

[esquire]

^ Too often ethnic food gets consigned to a low-end ghetto, but she gave those places their due. She really opened my eyes to the cornucopia of great Asian restaurants we have, especially Chinese and Vietnamese (also Japanese and Indian). Many Asian dishes take a lot more skill, care and detail work than throwing a slab of meat on a grill at a steakhouse... she recognized that some hole in the wall joints can do as good of a job at preparing food as anyone. I liked that about her... the food was king.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Originally Posted by drew

Yes, the bathrooms are odd. My wife was not impressed.

Food made up for it though.

Spring Roll on Notre Dame has to win the award for the worst washrooms! down a very narrow, dilapidated staircase into the basement dungeon.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

I like Kives' city hall and urban affairs stuff, but it's too bad the WFP couldn't find someone else with a restaurant kitchen background to replace Warhaft.

Seems like a cost cutting move by the WFP. Instead of bringing on someone new or going with a per-article freelancer they assigned to role to an existing staff. Seems to be the overall trend with the WFP lately. I am sure they could have found someone with food/service industry experience that has interest in taking over the review column if they wanted.

[Kronos]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Seems like a cost cutting move by the WFP. Instead of bringing on someone new or going with a per-article freelancer they assigned to role to an existing staff. Seems to be the overall trend with the WFP lately. I am sure they could have found someone with food/service industry experience that has interest in taking over the review column if they wanted.

Not surprising given the current tenuous job security of reporters, journalists, and show hosts in the media world, especially the print media. Every week seems to have reports of more layoffs, with Macleans letting staffers go yesterday I believe.

[cheswick]

I first remember Kives as being the music reviewer at the WFP. Unless I'm totally mis-remembering things.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by cheswick

I first remember Kives as being the music reviewer at the WFP. Unless I'm totally mis-remembering things.

Yes, correct. He's a Free Press lifer -- probably been there for 25 years. He was the music reviewer for years, but he always said nobody over 30 should be reviewing new music, so when he hit that age he switched to the city hall beat and the odd column about travel, outdoors and culture. The move to food is consistent with his interest in culture and travel I guess.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Seems like a cost cutting move by the WFP. Instead of bringing on someone new or going with a per-article freelancer they assigned to role to an existing staff. Seems to be the overall trend with the WFP lately. I am sure they could have found someone with food/service industry experience that has interest in taking over the review column if they wanted.

It's a sad statement on the Free Press that there are like five reporters covering the Jets and Bombers while the City Hall guy moonlights as an outdoors columnist and restaurant reviewer. Maybe they'll put him back on music soon.

[CoryB]

^^ To me what is sad is the WFP needs to really focus on unique content to actually get people buying their product. Pumping out restaurant reviews or covering the local pro sports team just isn't where they should be spending their limited resources.

Focusing on the restaurant side, there are a few independents that do excellent jobs covering that beat locally on the Internet and with appearances as guests/experts in other media. If the WFP has let their time as a source for restaurant reviews end with Warhaft it would have been fitting.

The one that screams at my as being under covered in the local media is the Leg beat. You get about five different local news sources with a reporter at every committee meeting at City hall sending out virtually the same coverage on Twitter yet the Leg has a single wire reporter seemingly working mostly for the Brandon Sun and the wire service.

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

Spring Roll on Notre Dame has to win the award for the worst washrooms! down a very narrow, dilapidated staircase into the basement dungeon.

Baked Expectations is pretty terrible too.

[Portmanteau]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

Oooh, I'm intrigued. Will definitely ask for that next time.

This place also has one of the weirder washroom setups in Winnipeg. Totally inaccessible and in the basement. Reminds me of Kelekis's subterranean facilities.

Stop by Santorini on Portage Ave if you're in the mood for Greek some time. You have to nick through the kitchen to get to their basement washroom. There are definitely Liam-Neeson-abduction-movie vibes down there too.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by Portmanteau

Stop by Santorini on Portage Ave if you're in the mood for Greek some time. You have to nick through the kitchen to get to their basement washroom. There are definitely Liam-Neeson-abduction-movie vibes down there too.

Lol! Yeah, I've been down there and it's a trip alright! But the food is awesome and the people are very nice. Just remember to bring cash, no cards!

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by h0twired

Baked Expectations is pretty terrible too.

Originally Posted by Portmanteau

Stop by Santorini on Portage Ave if you're in the mood for Greek some time. You have to nick through the kitchen to get to their basement washroom. There are definitely Liam-Neeson-abduction-movie vibes down there too.

I feel a knew idea for a thread surfacing..

Take going into the washrooms at the PP foodcourt at the wrong time, it's an adventure on occasion, not for faint of heart..

[esquire]

^ I just don't have the nerve

I generally avoid public washrooms downtown to the best of my ability.