Black Trumpet, London

I popped into London for an overnight trip last night (London Ontario that is), and I managed to meet up with some friends for a late dinner. My friend TT was flying in from L.A. and he finds French food in Canada to be exotic, so I did some research to find a nice place that he would enjoy. Unfortunately, it seemed that most restaurants closed early on Wednesday nights (by 9 pm) and every restaurant I had picked was closed by the time I arrived.

Our plan B was to pick a restaurant from the visitor guide that was displayed in our hotel lobby. We decided on Black Trumpet because I remembered reading some good things about the place. Despite the positive reviews, I was not overly impressed with the food.

For appys, we all shared the seafood sausage. This was aiiiiight…nothing special. It was a bit salty, and in the end, I think I ate more of the onions that came with appetizer than the appetizer itself. It was still early on in the meal, so I decided to wait for the entrées before judging the restaurant.

I ordered the bison as per the waiter’s recommendation, and TT and Jo had the ahi tuna and beef pasta.

The bison was a decent choice. The other entrée’s, unfortunately, were an entirely different story. I tasted both, and didn’t care for either of them. The sauce served with the pasta was insanely salty (no exaggeration here), and the presentation of the tuna was corny. The tuna was served with a side of rice stir fry (whoopee), and was garnished with a cheap looking sushi roll. The tuna itself tasted ok but it was a little bit too thick.

I wasn't going to order any dessert, but when they announced that they had homemade banana chocolate icecream, I decided to try it. It is my favourite icecream flavour, and I was hoping that my meal would end well. The icecream was ok...although fresh tasting, it did not have enough banana taste. TT had a sorbet, and Jo had a chocolate dessert.

The service wasn't very good either. Our waitress told us she was going to bring us bread, but never did. When we asked her what places served breakfast, she said she would check for us, but never came back with an answer. What topped it off was when we told our waitress that the pasta was too salty, she didn’t seem to know what to do, and ended up doing nothing in the end.

Although my bison wasn’t bad, I would not come here again. If a restaurant is going to advertise themselves as a fine dining restaurant, I expect a certain level of quality.