Braincow

I went to Fred’s Not Here for their Summerlicious menu. First off, it’s an awesome name, and if they were to make a chain out of it, they could come up with crazy stuff like, “Fred’s Over There”, “Fred will be Back in 30 Minutes”, or “Fred’s in the Can, Taking a Dump… Wanna Leave a Message?”.

Anyways, the decor is all over the place, with chandeliers coexisting with coloured spotlights, black wall paint, and a mural and explains the current location of Fred. The theme is inconsistent, but that kind of matches the menu; you have plain-jane Canadian fare, Chinese dishes, a heavy dose of Indian cuisine, and I think a Russian dish or two, along with some other crap.

I had their Crab and Lobster soup, which is a spicy concoction of invertebrates with a puff pastry sealing the bowl. I didn’t think the soup itself was anything special, but the presentation was great.

I chose Ontario Pork: Three Ways for my entree, which includes some sort of sausage, a hunk of Peking duck-inspired crackling pork, and ribs with a handful of salad on the side. The plate on which everything sat looked like a feeding trough, so I acted the part of a hog and went at it. It was pretty good, except the crackling pork was really dry. I think it’s supposed to be the point, but it wasn’t very enjoyable.

Finally, I got a strawberry Romanoff for dessert. It was delicious… There’s not much else to say since it’s pretty standard stuff.

So all in all, it’s a nice restaurant with interesting decor and pretty good food. Give it a try.

Man, I walked by this restaurant so many times over my 5 years at Waterloo and never thought to myself to check it out until my final year. I regret that. Sure, it’s a hole in the wall, with the typical Chinese restaurant decor (I don’t care if the box of styrofoam containers should go in the storage room! I think it looks fine in the middle of the dining room!), but the pad thai is good enough to make you not care.

I’m not an expert on pad thai, but I do know good food. It’s noodles loaded heavy on the peanutty sauce, with a perfect amount of heat to compliment the whole shebang. It’s got the odd bit of celery in it though, but then again, I have a raging irrational hatred for celery.

I’m sure the rest of the food is good too, but who cares about that. Go for the pad thai. It’s awesome.