Out for the third Dive Bar Dining Society event, we ended up at the Old Port after it turned out that our original target's kitchen wasn't open on Sundays.
Unsurprisingly, the crowds were pretty thin/non-existent on a Sunday evening in Burnside; I imagine that they rely heavily on weekday office workers at lunch and for post-work drinks. The interior wasn't nearly as dive-y as we anticipated - it just had a regular pub feel, with lots of wood, and a touch of nautical kitsch. It's a sizable space, with a central bar surrounded by lots of booths and tables.
We were greeted immediately and given our choice of seating, going with a big booth to fit our group. Looking over the menu, they've got some interesting items that go beyond the typical pub fare. Items like drunken shrimp, a double burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches as the buns (fittingly called The Body Breaker, in a homage/slap in the face to everyone's favourite fitness PSA), Southern fried chicken, and perhaps most intriguingly...OPP sauce. To answer your question, yes, they are in on the joke. In their context, OPP stands for Old Port Pub, but it made for a comedic gold mine that I made use of for the whole night. Our amazingly friendly waitress overheard us talking about the sauce, and comp'ed us an order of their wings in the OPP sauce.
We snacked on the wings while making up our minds on the rest of the food. Lightly dusted in flour instead of having a full on breading, they were airy and crispy, even with the sauce coming on them. As for the OPP sauce, it was tangy and lightly peppery, and not too sweet. I'm definitely down with OPP sauce and these wings, free or not.
I was tempted by the southern fried chicken, but after hearing that it's not prepped in-house, I went with their Old Port Classic burger, which comes with bacon, smoked cheddar, and the house mayo, and I subbed in sweet potato fries. My generous dinner companions got some deep fried pepperoni and potato skins for the table as well.
A Nova Scotian pub staple, the deep fried pepperoni was of the Brothers variety, and nice and crisp. Their house blend of mustard was a bit peppery and not at all like the cloyingly sweet honey mustards that most bars use. The potato skins were fairly run-of-the-mill, with the obligatory cheese, green onions and bacon. I prefer my potatoes either fried and crispy or smooth and whipped, so unless they're really standout skins, I'm pretty indifferent.
Our mains arrived in good time, with a pile of sweet potato fries making up for a not large, but not quite disappointingly small, burger patty. The smoked cheddar didn't quite rise above the great char on the meat from the grill, but this was a solid burger, if a hair on the dry side. Crispy fried onions added some crunch, and slices of bacon worked their porcine magic. The sweet potato fries were of the common from-frozen variety, but crispy and tasty.
They've got some stand out items on the menu, and there's likely more that would arise with further sampling, but the service really made it for us. Friendly, helpful and all around cool, this kind of service can take a serviceable meal something memorable. read more