Review: Peller Estate Fabulicious Lunch, Niagara-on-the-Lake

The Bottom Line

Despite the elegant dining room, the food was ultimately a let-down. 

Rating: 5/10

Overview

Address: 290 John Street East, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON. Canada. L0S 1J0

Website: http://www.peller.com/cms/peller/restaurant/make-a-reservation.html
Recommended duration: allow for 2 to 2.5 hours

The Restaurant

The Peller Estate Restaurant has a very quiet and elegant dining room, with co-ordinated colour scheme of cream, taupe, and a hint of fusia. One side of the restaurant has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the vineyard.

Restaurant entrance

We arrived 10 minutes after our 1pm reservation time (there is a 15 minutes grace period), and were quickly seated at the dining hall. I was impressed by how quickly we were seated. To be honest, with a fully booked restaurant, I was expecting a minimum of a 20 minutes wait.

The Menu

Here is the menu for this year's Fabulicious menu. Fabulicious is a play on words (Fab = Feb = February, get it?), and mimic Toronto's highly successful Winterlicious and Summerlicious events.

The Food

We ordered from the Fabulicious menu, along with the recommended wine pairing.

For appetizers, we ordered the Pear, Riesling and Almond Soup, the Prosciutto Salad, and a Poutine with black truffle fries, aged cheddar and cabernet gravy. The soup has a great creamy texture, and it was well balanced. The prosciutto salad however, was a bit of a let down. It was simply a simple romaine salad with two very small pieces of prosciutto on top. The poutine was also a bit of a disappointment, with the fries greasy and soggy.

"Pingue" Prosciutto Salad with Romaine Hearts, Brebis Parmesan, and Black Cherry Vinaigrette

Pear, Riesling, and Almond Soup with Saffron Pear, Toasted Almonds, and Creme Fraiche

Poutine with Black Truffle Fries, Aged Cheddar, and Cabernet Gravy

For the main, we ordered the Salmon Fettucine with Icewine poached lobster meat, and the Coq Au Vin. The salmon was cooked nicely and had a good flavour to it, but unfortunately both the pasta and the lobster were way overcooked. Imagine rock hard lobster bits, with mushy soft pasta. Ugh! The Coq Au Vin was no better. It was dry, dry, and more dry. They could've redeemed it by adding a nice sauce, but nope, it was sauceless and dry. At this point, I was fairly disappointed with the menu.

Salmon Fettucine with Baby Spinach, Walnuts, Goat Feta & Dijon Cream Sauce and Icewine Poached Lobster Meat

"Coq Au Vin" with Roasted Garlic Lentils, Baby Carrots, and Caramelized Cipollini

For dessert, we ordered the Carrot Cake and the Maple Panna Cotta. Both were … not the best. The carrot cake was again, dry. A good panna cotta should be creamy and melts in your mouth. It is supposedly one of the easiest desserts to conquer as well. However, conquer it not this dish was. It was too dense, and lacks that delicious creamy texture that I was hoping to get. The fruit compote, I would say, however, was delicious.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, and Cinnamon Ice Cream

Maple Panna Cotta with Brown Butter Shortbread, Preserved Fruit Compote

By now, you can sense that I was not having a good dining experience. The one redeeming quality was the wine selection. We had the 2014 Ice Curvee Rose to go with the appetizer salad, and it was just refreshing and delicious. I was such a fan that I end up buying a bottle from the store and bringing it home.

What confuses me somewhat is that the restaurant does have rave reviews. This made me wonder, was my poor dining experience a one-off miss, or were the reviews more of a tourist hype? I'm not sure.

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