Dining Out: Belgravia Hub a place to meet friends
You’ll want to linger at Belgravia Hub
Restaurant: Belgravia Hub Address: 7609 115th St. Reservations: 780-756-3344; belhub.com Dinner for two without wine or dessert: About $45 to $55 On a warm summer evening, you’ll hear Belgravia Hub before you see it. With its westfacing windows wide open, bits of conversation and laughter and the clinking of cutlery on dishes drift into its quiet surroundings.
If we hadn’t already been headed to the restaurant for a reservation, we’d have certainly been drawn in to its welcoming interior.
Leslie McGlennon, NAIT culinary arts grad and Red Seal chef, opened Belgravia Hub in May with a focus on spotlighting seasonal, local food made fresh in-house.
The restaurant is nestled on 115th Street, hidden just a block from the Mc KernanBelgravia LRT station, in the space formerly occupied by the much-loved Belgravia Books and Treasures. Judging by the tables packed with happy diners, Belgravia Hub has quickly become another beloved treasure of the neighbourhood.
Lively conversation filled the sleek yet cosy interior, furnished with simple woodtopped tables and comfy black seats. Our server seated us at a table next to the wall of open windows, a nice substitute for the restaurant’s lack of a patio on a warm summer evening — even if our dinner was occasionally interrupted by the swatting of a few uninvited mosquitoes.
We were promptly brought two glasses of water that included a slice of cucumber — a nice touch. The beverage menu features a selection of beers and plenty of wines by the bottle, as well as few choices by the glass. The one-page food menu changes with the seasons — as it had about a week before our early August visit — and is divided into three sections: Beginnings, Get Fresh and Fill Up.
Most of the options fall under the first section, which carries a diverse array of shareable plates, like the fundido, a Mexican dish reminiscent of fondue, made with a blend of melted cheeses and served with house-made tortilla chips. Four salads fall under the fresh section, including a panzanella that changes with the seasons, as well as five entrees.
We started with the garden fritters ($9) and lamb meatball sliders ($14), and neither disappointed. The small bucket of five fritters arrived with a house-made caper and scallion aioli, along with a spicy ketchup. The outsides were fried to a glistening golden brown and sprinkled with minced parsley. The crispy fritter gave way to a fluffy, moist centre, steaming hot and bursting with the corn’s mild sweetness.
Decidedly lacking in spice despite the description, the ketchup was outshone by the aioli, as the saltiness of the capers matched well with the sweetness of the fritters.
The meatball sliders were tender, moist and deliciously spiced, important considering the brioche buns featured only marinara sauce and a tzatzikilike feta spread. My partner hasn’t stopped talking about them since and says they rivalled the lamb burger on offer at Sugar Bowl.
Always a meat and potatoes fan, I was swayed by the flank and taters ($18), which arrived piled high in a shallow bowl. The meal is rustic and comforting, sort of like Mom’s Sunday night dinner brought together in one beautiful dish. A diced red and yellow bell pepper salsa topped the sliced steak, welldone but still amazingly tender and resting in a fragrant, but slightly over-salted broth. The dish’s only pitfall was the slightly undercooked potatoes I occasionally bit into.
If the flank and taters were reminiscent of a Sunday night dinner, the stuffed Portobello mushrooms ($14) chosen by my partner seemed like a bursting summer garden on a plate. This creative dish will be a winner with vegetarians, an inspired choice that goes beyond the run-of-the-mill meatless options available at some eateries.
Topped with a medley of colourful veggies, goat cheese and a seven-grain pilaf, the earthy flavours of the mushroom played well with the pungent goat cheese and freshness of the spouts garnishing the dish. I couldn’t resist helping myself twice to the handful of bright yellow pattypan squash lining the plate.
Our only gripe during the meal was the spotty service. The top of our meal went off without a hitch, but my partner’s wine glass sat empty about halfway through our entrees and remained that way through dessert.
Our server did, however, tempt us with a long list of desserts, including a bourbon pecan pie, flourless chocolate torte and a white chocolate and raspberry creme brûlée ($7), which we chose. Served with a trio of berries and lemon biscotti, the dessert’s crispy shell relented after a few raps of my spoon, revealing its cool and creamy centre. We savoured every bite over a few steaming cups of Americano ($2.75 each).
Dinner was barely over before we were planning our next visit with friends — how it always seems to go at Belgravia Hub. The restaurant is the perfect spot to meet friends after work over drinks and quality meals. It’s the type of place where a spontaneous get-together easily turns into a night of lingering over great food, company and conversation.