To paraphrase Full Metal Jacket and the US Marine Corp, " This is my Boston Pizza. There are many…read morelike it, but this one is mine." Now, I don't mean "mine" in a loving way so much as a "bound by geography and circumstances" sort of way. This is the closest location for trivia that my father-in-law and I and our merry band of triviators can go to, so here we are.
Like all Boston Pizzas, the lounge/sports bar is on the right, and restaurant on the left. We post up in the sports bar area, naturally, as suburban families having happy birthday sung to them by staff (yup, that happens here) don't want trivia shenanigans going on during their meal. Which is fair.
In the past, my teammates have had frequent mix ups with their orders. It isn't particularly surprising since I doubt BP or any of its ilk employs many graduates of culinary programs, but at least the friendly front of house staff always makes amends.
I've tried several different appetizers here, as generally I'm coming after dinner and/or am pretty uninterested in their entrees. I'll go through my accrued notes with the same cold efficiency of an oversized, chain restaurant menu, but with fewer pictures.
Salt and pepper dry ribs - these bite-sized ribs had a nice and crisp exterior from the deep fryer, but what little meat that was on them was still moist. Even with my deeply unhealthy love of salt, they were way over seasoned though.
Garlic pizza fingers - I don't know why BP doesn't just call them garlic fingers like everyboday else, but sure. They had a decent flavour and came with the generic donair sauce that's a bit sweet for my preference, and bread was too thick. OK in a pinch, but far from the upper echelons of G-finger greatness.
Nachos - (a teammates, I wasn't touching this dumpster fire) - they put shredded lettuce on top, so that says it all. F'ing lettuce. One time they didn't even shred it properly, so there was long strips of wilted romaine on top. Cheese coverage and layering looks to be very poor. They do give you a ton of sour cream, but it's so much that they should just give less of that and more of the actual toppings and cheese. Plus it's indicative of bad management in the kitchen; that stuff isn't cheap and is going to waste en masse.
Wings - BP has four options for types of wings: boneless, untreated, breaded and oven-roasted, as well as eight ways to coat/season them. I had to go breaded, and went with the salt and pepper dry rub to get a feel for their wings, free of cloying sauces that doubtlessly come out of obscenely large plastic containers. There's a reasonable amount of wings in an order, and the wings are a good size. I enjoyed the simple salt and pepper dusting - I'm old enough that I'm not getting in pissing contests over wing hotness. Breading was crispy. A very solid wing!
Spinach and artichoke dip - not as big a serving as at most bars or restaurants, comingin a 5" x 5", shallow dish. Triangles of a BP's Pizza Bread were the dipping implement. The dip was alright, nothing to write home about or to suggest to my dip aficionado wife, and the bread was a bit sparse.
The beer menu is disappointing because it's all Molson branded products, so nothing local, which is a lost opportunity by the franchisee, although they may have their hands tied by corporate contracts.
Service is consistently really good, especially since we're regulars. Our usual waitress that seems to work Thursdays will bring the guys their usual beer, and make things right whenever the kitchen botches an order. They're the only reason this isn't a two star.
They also win some good will back as you don't need a password for the wifi here.
This is my Boston Pizza, and there are many types of restaurants like it. If it were a rifle, it would be the fabled M16 - produced en masse and frequent misfires when not in ideal conditions.
