The best thing I've ever eaten at Jack's Gastropub #FoodPornFriday

This isn't the first time I've featured Jack's Gastropub for #FoodPornFriday and I'm sure it won't be the last. Jack's is our favourite place to eat. The only thing that stops us from going there more often is the fact it's out in Kingsville and not here in Windsor.

I had to share this particular meal this week because it was the best thing I've ever eaten at Jack's. If you follow me on social media you must realize that is saying a lot. We love Jack's, I don't think I've ever had a bad meal and I've had many amazing ones. This dish topped all of them. 

What you see here is Fried Chicken Scaloppine: Cornflake breaded chicken cutlet, summer potato salad, grilled marinated tomato, warm biscuit and sausage gravy. 

Now Jack's changes their menu every season, so I suggest you head out there before this deslish dish disappears. Personally we've already booked a table for next Saturday.

A short #FoodPornFriday post today, featuring Jack's

This weekend is the North American Sport & Hobby Expo. I will be there all weekend representing the Windsor Gaming Resource. As part of this I'm helping host a Settlers of Catan Tournament and the fifth annual Windsor Great Canadian Board Game Blitz. Due to this, I'm a bit too busy to write a long post.

This delightful lunch comes from Jack's Gastropub and features their amazing Cheddar, Onion & Ale Soup with a Canadian Club. It was even better than it looks.

Have some #Foodporn to share for #FoodPornFriday? Link up with us:

It's been a while since I mentioned beer

It's been a long time since I've shared some of my recent beer tastings. This is something I intended to do more often when I launched the blog. That's something I hope to get back to starting today.

Here's some of the most recent new beers I've tried. Note these are new to me, not necessarily new beers. One of these is an Ontario Craft Beer. Windsor Essex is turning into a hotbed of craft beer activity. WindsorEats recently posted an article where they note that as many as 7 new breweries may be opening in the area.

The reviews:

For this post I'm going to feature some great draft beers that you can get locally. I'm one of those people that would much rather be drinking freshly poured draft beer over anything out of a bottle.

Note all of these are written live as I'm drinking the beers. Usually on my iPod. So grammar spelling and autocorrect sometimes get in the way, as does previously reviewed beers that night ;)

Sam Adams Cold Snap - They currently have this on draft at Rock Bottom Bar & Grill. If you haven't been there and you enjoy a good beer now and then I seriously suggest you check the place out. They have the most beers on draft in the city and a huge amount of awesome Ontario Craft Beers (Though note that this isn't actually an Ontario beer). They always use appropriate glassware which is something I appreciate.  

Very hazy orange pour in an awesome glass. Check out that glass.

Weak scent overpowered by the scent of chicken wings. What an odd beer. Very not beer like. Lots of odd spices. Reminds me of a hard cider. Or maybe a mulled wine. Very unique. Very drinkable. Love the aftertaste.

Wasn't expecting much but really like this.

Big Rock Saaz Republic Pilz - You can get this one out in Kingsville at Jack's Gastropub. Another great place for good beer. They have an Ontario Craft Beer menu that is dropped off on the table for every set of guests.

Brownish red pour. A bit rusty. Clingy thick tan head. Weak scent, hoppy a bit grassy. Mouth is not nearly so subdued. Sweet start. Like a sweet European Pilsner but better. A touch of hops in the finish. Not too bitter. Easy to drink.

Unibroue Noire De Chambly - This is my last beer for today.

I'm a big fan of Blanche De Chambly from the same brewer and had no idea that they did a Noire until we saw the draft menu at Jack's last weekend. Yep this one is also available on draft out in Kingsville.

My wife was the one that ordered this while I got the Saaz mentioned above. Thus the picture of a partially finished beer. They didn't serve it
like that.

Very dark black pour as expected. Pretty much no head. Distinct smell I cannot place. Thick, with low carbonation. Very thick. Stout like. Nutty and fruity. Raisins, plumbs and more. Lots of different fruits.

Its okay. Not great, but in no way bad.


If you want to see more of these beer reviews from me, I post all of my reviews on my +Big Dude Likes Food Google Plus account. You should circle me over there, then you won't miss any of this beer snobbery.

#FoodPornFriday Pork Squared from Jack's Gastropub #FPF

Well the weather is finally starting to be a little nicer out there. It's still way too damn cold out, but the roads are all finally clear. This means that the drive to Kingsville is now a much safer prospect. You remember what's in Kingsville right? Actually lots of great places, but my personal favourite is Jack's Gastropub. We finally got back out there last weekend and man, it was as good as ever.

What you see here is the Pork Squared: Prosciutto wrapped pork tenderloin served abed a wild rice blend, finished with a brandied cherry and baked apple relish and accompanied by evening vegetable. The veg that night came in an awesome little hot pot and was a mix of carrots and parsnips with a few other bits in there (I think there may have been onion) with some Parmesan cheese on top.

Have any awesome drool worthy pictures you want to share? Join in the #FoodPornFriday fun. Link up:

A food filled vacation right here in Windsor

For about 10 years in a row we had a tradition of heading up to London Ontario for my Wife's birthday. It started with a random trip to the bus depot over breakfast that ended up with us having probably the best weekend we've ever had. Well this year we broke that tradition and had a vacation right here in Windsor.

One of the best parts about our kid free weekend was the food. We took the chance to hit a bunch of our local favorites as well as try a couple new places. So what we have here is a synopsis of some of the great food we had during our stay in Windsor vacation for my Wife's Birthday. Over the next week or so I hope to do a full review of each of these great places, well except for Jack's as I already did that one back in January. For now though I'll just leave you with these small bites.

Pulled Pork from The Twisted Apron

The Twisted Apron - this amazing place is somewhere we only discovered late last year but became an instant favorite. It's one of the best places in Windsor for breakfast. What we found out during the birthday weekend was that it's also amazing for lunch. Located in the heart of old Walkerville on Wyandotte it's also pretty close to home for us. Great food at great prices with focus on local produce and meats. Check out this Pulled Pork Sandwich  $10 for local pork, cheddar, crispy onion and coleslaw on a pretzel bun. Add some fresh made local tomato soup and I was very happy. 

Rosemary Lamb Meat Loaf from Jack's

Jack's Gastropub - when we first started talking about this stay in Windsor vacation one of the places we knew we had to try again was Jack's Gastropub. We first went there during Winter Bites and it was amazing. The return trip was just as good. I had the most fantastic meat loaf I've ever had. The Rosemary Lamb Meat Loaf was served with a Three Cheese Potato Strata and finished with Beef Gravy and Onion Tanglers. It runs $20 which may seem high but is worth it as soon as you try the first bite. I've been recommending it to pretty much everyone.

Pizza with Corn Beef Hash and
Eggs Benedict, hell yeah!

Casino Windsor Buffet - I've been hearing from friends and co-workers that I have to try the Casino breakfast buffet sometime. Well what better time than a weekend checking out local sites. What is more Touristy than the Casino. I was totally blown away by this buffet. I've never seen so much variety. It ranged from fresh made omelets to a Pizza bar. There was a chocolate fountain and a Mongolian grill. You could grab Chinese or make yourself tacos. There was fresh carved prime rib even at 10am. Okay it's not cheap but come on. Everything was fresh and hot and attended by a chef. Where else can you get this good a food in this amount of variety for $25 a head (cheaper if you have a Casino points card).

Three of the 5 rolls we ordered at
The Sushi California

The Sushi California - Okay we went downtown to hit a new favourite, Terra Cotta. Sadly they closed earlier than I expected for a Saturday night so we tried somewhere down the road and found some of the best Sushi we've had in the city. Awesome looking place that's Tardis like in it's size inside vs it's unassuming  front. Really great authentic Japanese feel with actual J-Pop playing. The biggest sushi rolls I've ever seen in my life. Not just width but 8-10 piece rolls. Just look at this plate! We ended up with literally twice as much food as my Wife and I could eat and ended up spending about $70, which is about the same price we would spend at our usual Sushi choices.

Corn Beef and Cheese Omelet from Paul's

Paul's Kitchen - this is another one of those hidden gems that is right up there for best breakfast in Windsor. This place is tiny and very popular which usually means it's hard to actually get in without a wait. So I'm not telling you where it is ;) Paul's is an old school home cooking breakfast diner. Amazingly good fast and cheap breakfast. My personal favorite is a Corn Beef and Cheese Omelet which comes with a horde of hashbrowns, toast and a slice of melon. I don't think I've ever completely cleared my plate.  My wife and I hit this place regularly, both with and without the kids.

Breakfast Poutine at The Twisted Apron

The Twisted Apron - didn't I already mention this place? Yep, but it's so good we went twice. This time around we went back so I could get one of the most amazing breakfast items I've ever eaten. That picture right there is the Breakfast Poutine. Hashbrowns, bacon, cheddar, chicken gravy, scrambled eggs and a side of toast. At only $10 this is the breakfast item I find I crave the most often. Seriously you owe it to yourself to try this sometime. Sure it looks odd and I know you are thinking: Chicken Gravy!?! Trust me here, I thought the same thing. It works and it works well.

So there you have a highlight of some of the amazing local food I got to enjoy during our stay in Windsor vacation. Check back here over the next few weeks as I find the time to do a full write up of each of these amazing restaurants. 

EDIT: check out my full post on The Twisted Apron and my first ever guest post over at Eyes on Windsor where I talk about The Sushi California

I drove 45 minutes just to eat at Jack's Gastropub

Hoping to get in at least one more restaurant during Windsor Eat's Winter Bites we headed out to Kingsville, Ontario Saturday to try Jack's Gastropub. Now Kingsville is about a 45 minute drive out of town from where we are, so I doubt this will become a regular trip.

We got into town a little early (on purpose) and stopped in at the Butcher of Kingsville before driving around a bit to find Jack's. For some reason I thought it was located on Main St. when it was actually on Division. No big deal, Kingsville isn't very big at all and it took less than five minutes to find.

Jack's is located in a converted house. There's a small bit of parking outside and it looked like there was an overflow lot as well, but we didn't need it and I didn't think to confirm. A quick walk around the front of the place gave us a good look at a large obviously popular heated patio. It's mid January and the patio was packed, at just after 5pm. Once inside I couldn't help but point out the very cool little bar room off to the right. If I lived in Kingsville I could totally see sitting here drinking some craft beer and catching up on some reading.

We were asked if we had reservations, which surprised me given the time of day. Note to self and anyone reading this: make reservations, even if you think you are coming too early to need them. Thankfully they did have some room for us upstairs. As noted the place is a converted house. Well they didn't convert much at all. It was still very house like upstairs. We walked through an obvious living room, to the back hall, almost to the kitchen, up the stairs, past two bathrooms and into what I guess was at one time a main bedroom. Much of the original fixtures were still there. There were also lots of hats. No clue on this one, I guess someone digs hats. Cool enough.

Bad iPod pic of the Beer Menu

We got a booth seat, noted they have a high chair up here (hey cool this is a place we can bring the kids), and started looking over the menus. Note I said menus, as in plural. No I don't mean mine and my wife's I mean the food menu and the beer menu. That's right Jack's has a beer menu. I didn't think anywhere south of London had a beer menu. Awesome!

What we then realized is that we didn't have a copy of the special Winter Bites menu that brought us here. This was quickly corrected and we ordered. I went with the Pulled Pork Poutine followed by a Farm Burger, which is an all beef burger topped with bacon, goat cheese, onion tanglers and fried egg on a toasted Kaiser. Instead of a third course Jack's continued with the awesome offering up a Beer Tasting Flight.  That's right, instead of desert, you get four beers to try. For my flight of beer I decided to get Walkerville Blonde, Okanagan Springs, Maudit and Dead Elephant IPA. I will admit that I was slightly disappointed that between the bottle list and the craft beers on draft they didn't have anything I haven't tried before, but that is become more and more common as I reach the 700 beer's reviewed mark.

Flight of beers, a beautiful thing.

The beer came very quickly and it was nice to see a waitress point out which were which. I've been to a few places that serve flights that forget that important step. Our first course showed up before I had finished the first glass.

The Poutine was great, probably the best I've ever had. My pulled pork was fantastic and I tried a bite of my wife's Cheeseburger Poutine and it was good as well (though not as good as mine, score). Seriously this stuff is awesome.

Now here comes the one bad experience this whole trip. While about half way through my poutine our mains showed up. Holy cow, talk about fast. At this point we have probably only been at Jacks for 20 minutes. I can't help compare this to the disaster at Crave, this trip is like the complete opposite. Now I'm not happy the second course came out before finishing the first, but really, if it had to happen to any type of food, is it really that bad to get a burger while still eating your fries? I think most of all I just would have liked a breather and time for things to settle and to drink some more of those beers.

My Farm Burger

So that main course, how was it? Fantastic! Truly fantastic. This may be the best burger I've ever had. I'm still on the fence about it. It's most definitely up there with Motorburger. It might actually be better. I think I'm going to have to go back to Motorburger to check.

The picture over there doesn't do this burger justice. It was big, thick and amazing tasting. I couldn't even finish it, which is a rare thing for me (I'm a big dude for a reason). I also have to add, that bowl of coleslaw was great. Why I need to add that. I don't like coleslaw, well most of the time. I hate bitter, pickled tasting slaw. This was not that this was creamy fantastic slaw.

So yeah, this was good. Really good. Remember up top I said that the 45 minute drive meant this won't be a regular trip. I was wrong, totally wrong. Right now I'm sitting here typing this and trying to figure out how I can get back out to Jack's again this coming weekend, or maybe somehow tonight. Anyone know a good sitter?