This year I’ve gone on more Dine Outs than I have ever. It’s been an absolute whirlwind! My stand out was Wildebeest, but I definitely had high hopes for Notch8 Restaurant.
I came here last year and was blown away by their Dine Out menu, so I was hoping for a similar experience this year.
I had an early birthday dinner with my amazing friends, Trudy, Tina and Charmyn and we had a 9:30PM reservation. For our late reservation there were still a few tables lingering, but the restaurant wasn’t too busy. We went on a Friday and there was some lovely live music.
All of us got the same thing, and the theme of the dishes we got was “spruce”. It seemed like all the dishes had some iteration of that flavour.
This appetizer was definitely on the smaller side, but what was there was delicious. It was essentially a motoyaki scallop. The scallop was cooked beautifully and the aioli was so creamy and delicious. I could eat a bowl of this with a spoon!
If this is the motoyaki sauce they have on the scallop, I’m now super tempted to try their Weekend Brunch with all you can eat torched motoyaki egg benedicts!
The main was on the saltier side. The portion was very generous though. One piece of my venison was cooked perfectly the other was a bit over. The wheat berries had a really good texture, but the sauce was way to salty.
I was absolutely stuffed by the time dessert came, but it was too delicious not to at least try a little! The mousse was thick, smooth and full of chocolate flavour. I couldn’t taste any roasted chestnut, which was disappointing because I love chestnut and I was really looking forward to that.
Overall my dinner here was good. It wasn’t as good as last year, but it was on par with what I expect for a Dine Out dinner. The service was on point, and the live music was an unexpected bonus. The stand out dish for me was the appetizer.
I would come back to try their Weekend Brunch buffet and for their cocktails!