elephant & castle

date: july 7, 2005
bet: can't remember
stakes: lunch
winner: olive
loser: mason
destination: elephant & castle (160 east huron)
cost: $35

olive: more than a week since the original post. pathetic. so, this is a recap of the first lunch. we can't remember the bet, but i was the big winner. my prize? a delicious salad w/ grilled chicken and bruschetta off the summer menu at elephant & castle. i was trying to decide between several dishes, but one of the salads on the summer specials list had all the ingredients i desired. i also ordered a side of fries, which, if memory serves, were those big steak-cut pub fries. yum.

the atmosphere is pub-like and fairly pleasant. we sat in the back because we didn't want to get busted by co-workers. i was kinda nervous about this.

the service wasn't great and the food took awhile to show after ordering. negative points here because i was starving. also, the waiter was kinda weird. i think he was trying to be extra friendly, but if came off kinda creepy. mason, can you verify?

overall, this place was pretty good, but probably better for a casual dinner with drinks than a lunch during business hours.

mason: regarding the waiter's creepiness, i concur full stop. was he flirting with olive right in front of me? what did he think i was her brother or something? or perhaps her lunching coach? lucky i'm not a fighting man (but, rather, a man of science), cause that waiter was asking for it. and what he should have been asking for was our order, which we didn't get a chance to place until at least 10-15 minutes after we greeted our chairs with our wares.

at any rate, seeing as i was the loser of this, the inaugural bet, i thought why not treat myself to not only lunch, but also a nice bowl of soup. like most men of science, i love soup, and i like to think it loves me back. this hypothesis of mine was all but confirmed when our overly presumptuous and dangerously bold waiter arrived with a piping hot cup of their Irish French Onion soup. That's right, the flavors of two European countries mixed into one American bowl of delight. To this I say well done Elephant, and well done Castle.

i was not as pleased with my meal: the Buffalo Chicken Wrap. it was okay, i guess, but you can always tell how good any burrito, wrap, or similarly packaged food item is by how long it takes you to abandon the item's innards and concentrate solely on it's outer protective layer. in this particular case, i was eating pure tortilla before i reached the half-way point. as for the side salad, it needed more dressing. and maybe a crouton or two. a hard-boiled egg would have been nice too. man, a hard-boiled egg might have made this entire review a horse of a different color.

in summation, i agree with olive that E&C is a far better destination for boozing and cigaretting, and maybe even dinner. in fact, we've done that very thing several times since the meal we just reviewed, but without the dinner. and in olive's case, without the cigaretting. either way, if you do decide to check this place out, just try not to sit in the section with the creepy waiter. he'll be the one trying to distract you with some multi-cultural soup hybrid as he attempts to seduce your girlfriend.