Chocolate & Ginger

On Saturday, me and the boy went to a restaurant we’ve been wanting to try for a while…Home Tasting Room located in the historical Ashdown Hardware Building that was built in 1861. The restaurant layout is reminiscent of other spaces close by like Blink and Avenue Diner. A long rectangular space that seats 82 with exposed brick, high ceilings, an open kitchen concept, dark wood and an overall cozy atmosphere.

Interior images from Home website

The idea behind the restaurant reminds me of some of the newly opened restaurants in Calgary like Farm and Charcut - fresh, seasonal and local ingredients, house made preserves and hearty yet sophisticated comfort dishes.

The restaurant had rather dim lighting, so without having to resort to using my flash aka – the most unflattering thing to do to a food shot, I settled for darkly lit photos..

We started off with a couple of glasses of wine (a Cabernet and a Malbec) and decided on three dishes to share..

Shortly after we were presented with this Cheese Tasting Plate ($20) – a selection of three cheeses served with a smear of fragrant lavender honey, a stack of “home” crackers…

…and a mound of roast shallot chutney presented in a shallot skin bloom…This cheese plate was ok…the three cheeses were quite mild and we usually prefer aged and bold flavoured ones..I guess that can happen when you don’t pick the cheeses yourself.

Our next dish fared better. A plate of 3 large rock crab filled ravioli ($15) topped with a sweet corn emulsion. Finished off with tendrils of nostrala cheese and mint oil..

…delicate chunks of tender crab enclosed in a house made pasta dough. I have to say the sauce was a bit on the sweet side for me though. Almost borderline dessert sweet..But I still ate every bite

The last was our favourite dish of the night, the Spring Creek natural beef short rib ($26), served on a square stack of scalloped potatoes, grilled sunchokes and a mint salsa verde…The meat was SO tender, we just flaked it off with our forks with no effort at all, it practically fell apart. The potatoes were cooked perfectly with just enough bite to it and absorbed all the delicious meaty juices of the short rib…um..could we have seconds?

Overall, a good experience. We loved the ambience, a nice place for a date or to bring a group of friends to share a bunch of plates. I thought the cheese platter was a bit pricey for what we got (still love The Living Room’s charcuterie and cheese board the best). We will probably come back here again to try the Broek Acres Pork Chop with white bean ragout and home preserves ($25) and the Ewe Nique Farm Lamb with mustard spatzle and organic swiss chard sour cherry demi ($26).

Home Tasting Room - Main Floor 110 – 8^th Avenue S.W.  |  Telephone – 403-262-8100

Monday – Thursday 11:00am – 10:00pm
Friday – 11:00am – 11:00pm
Saturday – 12:00pm – 11:00pm
Sunday – Closed