Sunday, October 08, 2006

Restaurant review: Senior's

Senior's Steak House (Yonge Street just south of St. Clair)

There's a door right on Yonge St. but I have to admit to never having been into that part of the restaurant. If you want the experience I'm about to describe, you need to go around the side and take the door that leads up to the charming "Dining Nook". Senior's is a time warp. The upstairs Dining Nook has simple white tablecloths and wood-panelled walls. Orange lanterns on every table provide a cozy glow. Service is from a woman of "un certain age" who may or may not be one of the owners. She enthusiastically refills water glasses and makes sure everything is good.
The moment you sit down, you are presented with a plate of dill pickles, and a platter with a bowl of kalamata olives, one of taramasalata and one of cottage cheese, oddly enough. Also an enormous basket of hot, crusty, buttery garlic bread. Ignore the small crunchy bread-bits on the bottom of the basket. I'm not sure what they are, but they are poor cousins to the yummy garlic bread. Order steak. I can't imagine having anything else here. It feels like it's the 1950s up here, so you may as well eat like it. The starter salad testifies to this: iceberg lettuce, a few chunks of tomato and cucumber, all in a nice, classic dressing that is certainly not low fat.
The steaks arrive on wooden trays, done exactly right per our specifications, topped with sauteed mushrooms, although they call them "butter fried". Either way spells delicious. For a side, you get a baked potato. You can have butter, or sour cream and chives, or both. In this one instance, we leave out the butter.
House wine is very mediocre, but it's also very cheap.
It isn't a source of culinary masterpiece, but for your money, it's a fine sirloin. Nothing to complain about.

rating: * * * (thoroughly enjoyable)

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