Fred's Not Here (Summerlicious 2012)

Fred's Not Here for Summerlicious lunch 2012! The environment of the restaurant was so-so.. but the food was good - Huge portions..!

FRED'S NOT HERE
Where: 321 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5V 0C4
Price: $20 for Summerlicious Lunch Menu

For the full Fred's Not Here Summerlicious menu - click HERE

Evidently not too much of a upscale restaurant

Fred's Not Here is actually connected with its sister-restaurant, Red Tomato

Entrance

The building houses two restaurants (under the same owner)

Ended up taking the patio seats. Very simple patio..

Our table setting

Judging from the way their patio is set up, you can see it is not too upscale at all. It's weird to think that Pangaea and Fred's Not Here are on the same price level for Summerlicious, when Pangaea is so much more upscale!

Baked Lobster and Crab Soup

My brother and I both ordered this and it was actually a spicy lobster soup with more of a bisque-like texture. FNH is famous for their lobster soup and they lived up to my expectations. The puff pastry on top was light and fluffy and when paired with the soup, tasted heavenly. Only issue with this dish was that I could not taste as much lobster or crab as I would have liked :(

Don't get me wrong - I love my spicy food but I was surprised by the amount of spice in this since I was not expecting it. Definitely something they should mention on their menu..

Smoked Tomato Soup

My sister got the smoke tomato soup which had a basil oil drizzled on top and a dollop of some type of a creamy cheese (No, it's not sour cream!). This was a chilled soup which was perfect for the hot day, especially since we were sitting outside. The flavour was like a ..  pizza sauce (due to the basil oil!) but much more tart. But it didn't leave you feeling icky. It was so.. fresh and tangy!

Wood Grilled NY Sirloin Steak
Duck fat frites & vegetables

My brother ordered the Sirloin Steak for his entree and this was a pretty massive plate. While the quality of the steak wasn't amazing, the rub they used for it was certainly to remember!

Brother asked for it to be cooked medium - Good job, Fred!

Wood Grilled Salmon and Tiger Shrimp with Linguine
Signature Jalapeno Sauce

As for my sister, she ordered the linguine which came in a jalapeno sauce. It sounds really spicy,  but the heat of the jalapeno peppers was not actually that strong ! Enough for you to know that you were eating a jalapeno-based sauce but not hot enough that it overwhelmed anything else. From what I'm told, the shrimp was cooked very well and from what I tried of her salmon, it was ridiculously fresh. You could smell it (and not in a bad way!) before you even tasted it!

3 Way Pork
Roasted Pork belly, garlic sausage and ribs
Sweet corn + Black Bean Salsa
Duck Fat Frites

Right off the bat, this is one of the biggest plates I have ever received for Summerlicious. They were NOT stingy with their meat and gave huge portions of all 3 pieces of pork. Although all three were cooked well, the ribs were definitely my favourite which was odd since I'm always impartial to ribs.

Came right off the bone!

How to spot good ribs? The meat just peels off the bone. I literally just cut into mine and the meat fell right off the bone. Mmmm!

Creme Brulee Cheesecake

Like the appetizers, my brother and I got the same dessert too - creme brulee cheesecake! There was a very subtle hint of creme brulee but it was mostly very cheesy. The crust was also soaked in the strawberry juice so it wasn't a hard crust. The entire cake was really smooth albeit a bit heavy for an ending dish.

Double Chocolate Brownie
Coffee Ice Cream

My sister, on the other hand, got the double chocolate brownie which was extremely rich with chocolate. The coffee ice cream on top was really refreshing and acted as a slight counter to the decadent chocolate

Overall, in terms of quantity it was worth it for Summerlicious however the quality was not as great. The service was decent at most, but I felt like our server could have been more attentive to our table. One thing that I take for granted at most restaurants is having my water glass constantly filled. We had to ask several waiters before we could get our water filled again. The decor was also a little underwhelming but nothing too dingy or fancy.