It's pretty rare that I'm making a stop in Dartmouth, and if I am it's for one of three reasons:
1. It's Christmas and I'm shopping at Micmac Mall.
2. I'm trying out a new-to-me Dark Side restaurant.
3. I got stabbed on my way through Dartmouth and am now at the ER.
Luckily for me, my most recent visit was for #2 (snicker), with my target being Janina's Cafe, a lunch spot in Burnside that has a Polish bent to it. Located in one of the massive strip mall-ish buildings between Burnside Dr and Brownlow, it took some Internet sleuthing and good old fashioned driving around the building to find out how to get in (hint, it's on the Burnside, uh, side, by the RBC office).
Janina's is a lunch spot catering to desk jockeys if I've ever seen one, with just two two-person tables, a counter with the hot foods in trays, and a kitchen in back. The menu is your typical sandwiches, soups and salads that you would expect, as well as hot meals that vary with the day of the week. While the guy behind the counter was suggesting the shepherd's pie, I was here to try their Polish fare; I don't need to cross the bridge for a mediocre club sandwich and salad, there's plenty of those in downtown Halifax. Unfortunately, their Polish items are few and far between, with only one a day, if that on some days. I was here on cabbage roll day though, so I went with those and a good ol' fashioned Caesar salad.
It was nice that the Caesar was made to order, instead of being a soggy mess that had been sitting there since 11am. The cabbage rolls were larger than I had expected, being the thickness of a small wrap, instead of egg roll-sized, as I had pictured in my mind's eye. I took a seat, the only person to do so during my time there, and dug in. The Caesar wasn't anything fancy, with mozza for the cheese, and it was hard to tell if the sparse bacon bits were real crumbled bacon or sketchy fake-on. At least it saved me the guilt of ordering fries. The cabbage rolls on the other hand were fantastic. The filling had a generous amount of ground pork (I think) mixed with rice, and was still moist and not overcooked. The tomato and cream sauce added further richness and a slight acidic bite. Their may have only been two, but like I said, they were big and hearty.
While a person like me would love it if they took more of a Polish food focus, Janina's is making a go of it feeding the hungry Burnside masses what they want. Better to have the occasional access to Polish food, than having a place like the Russian Laura's Cafe which never found a market for its tasty dumplings and borscht. Pop in if their Polish grub is on the menu that day, and join me in lobbying for fresh pierogies to be available everyday!
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