Restaurant Review

So for the next three posts I’m going to be talking about my life, not Hokkaido. Now that you’ve been informed, let’s get into this lengthy review!

I recently went to the restaurant Moxie’s located on Hunt Club road, and throughout the meal, I wrote down all of the things that I had experienced, and because I have this blog, I want to share those notes with you. Here we go!

First walking into the restaurant, I noticed that it was dimly lit and I could hear some faint pop music playing in the background. Personally, I would think that it being winter, the lights would be brighter so that I could see my food, and pop music wouldn’t be my first choice for a grill, I would pick some jazz. Other than that the restaurant was clean and well decorated with fake potted flowers. Once my dining partner and I sat down I took a look at the menu and realized that there were many dishes on there with ingredients that I was allergic to, such as fish and nuts, making dish selection difficult. Looking at their drink menu, I noticed that there were only nine beverages that were non-alcoholic, and this is a family restaurant. Our waitress came to our table and immediately told us about their special ales that were on sale, but we don’t drink alcohol so I disregarded that information. Other than that she was very nice and friendly, and she seemed informed enough to tell us about the beer on sale. Though when my dining partner ordered a lemon pineapple craft soda off of the non-alcoholic drink menu, the waitress said that there might not be enough pineapple syrup, and that she would have to check.  

We did receive the drink, but the pineapple simple syrup wasn’t fully mixed into the carbonated water, so the initial sip was very sweet, but later on everything became incorporated to create a refreshing drink.

When ordering the appetizers, our waitress wasn’t 100% sure what the soup of the day was, so my dining partner ordered a broccoli cheddar soup with a garlic baguette. It arrived very quickly, and the waitress even asked if we wanted some pepper on the top.

There’s where the positives end because the soup wasn’t a broccoli puree, it was a salty cheese soup with big chunks of overcooked broccoli that wasn’t piping hot. The soup had an undertone of processed cheese and there were unidentifiable hard chewy bits floating around. The baguette wasn’t made from scratch at all. Then the appetizers and my main came.

First were the Korean fried cauliflower with two dipping sauces and sushi cones with a sesame dipping sauce. The cauliflower was under-cooked and the coating of batter was greasy when it should have been crispy. The dipping sauces tasted good on their own, but they didn’t bring anything to the dish as a whole. The second appetizer was the sushi cones: rice, tempura shrimp and vegetables wrapped in colourful rice paper with a sesame dipping sauce. While the rice paper looked appealing on the plate, there was too much rice in the cones which overpowered the other ingredients, the tempura shrimp was tiny and the batter had an almost grainy texture, and there was a sauce in the sushi cones even though there was already a dipping sauce on the side.

My main course, a medium sirloin steak with shrimp, roasted baby potatoes, broccolini, and beets was entirely cold. The steak was slightly under-cooked and bleeding so I sent it back to be reheated as I tasted the vegetables and shrimp. The exact same problem occurred before when my parents went for dinner, but the steak was blue when they got it. The beets and the roasted baby potatoes were cooked and seasoned well, if not, a little over seasoned. The broccolini was so under-cooked that I could only eat the heads. The shrimp were perfectly cooked, although they were plated in a manner which I had to separate them with my hands before eating. Once the steak came back, my dining partner noticed that is was overdone on one side, but at least it was hot, unlike the rest of the dish. Another thing, I felt that the steak needed a sauce of some kind, it would’ve added an additional flavour and make the steak the hero instead of the vegetables. The portion size of the dish was quite large as well.

Now onto the dessert, which I had been waiting for since the beginning. My dining partner and I wanted the sticky toffee pudding, but the waitress informed us that they were out of sticky toffee and would have to go check. She came back and told us that the oven wasn’t working, so they couldn’t cook it. Defeated, I ordered a white chocolate brownie instead. It came, and what I saw before me was a triangular white chocolate brownie, a big dollop of whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a large drizzle of chocolate sauce on the bottom of the plate. The brownie itself had only a subtle taste of white chocolate and was very dense. The whipped cream tasted like Cool Whip, the ice cream tasted like it was from a carton that you would get in Loblaws, the chocolate sauce was also artificial and overpowered everything else on the plate. There needed to be more contrast in colour, flavour, and texture, because dessert was three sweet, soft, white food items with way too much chocolate sauce.

Luckily our waitress was sympathetic and gave us half-off on our main because it was cold, and a free dessert. She practiced some of the principles of customer service, being that she was empathetic, honest about what she didn’t know, quick in bringing us our food, friendly, and she connected with our struggles. But she wasn’t too informed when it came to knowing what the soup of the day was, if the soda could be made, and what was stopping the production of the sticky toffee pudding. Being informed and practicing the other principles I mentioned earlier are really important in the Hospitality setting. This is because having excellent service is part of what keeps the customers coming back to your business, and earning you that profit. Overall, I would give the Hunt club Moxie’s 2 stars out of 5. Hope you enjoyed this lengthy review.

Click here to go look at their menu, they are open 11am-12am from Sunday to Tuesday, 11am.-1am. from Wednesday to Thursday, and 11am-2am from Friday to Saturday. Their phone number is (613) 731-5000.