Flying Otter Grill

Address: 950 Wharf St. (in the Harbour Air Terminal)
Phone: (250) 414-4220
Website:  http://www.flyingottergrill.com/
Price: ~$10
Notes: Quick lunches, smallish menu, great value!



The Flying Otter Grill isn't the first place I usually think of going. It's inside of the Harbour Air Terminal, right on the water. It's actually a very lovely spot, and you can't beat the value especially in comparison to some of the over priced tourist traps and hotel restaurants that surround it.

The food here is actually really quite fantastic! The menu is pretty small... you basically have to choose between a special or the 'standards' (salad/fish&chips/burgers/pizza) if you want a main. Their burger is actually pretty spectacular (Victoria Burger Blog - I would love to see your take on it!).  Still - they have a good take on most things.

I have to confess - we were here to use our Groupon, and I had to confess to the waitress that I am a food blogger (which I don't normally like to do because it feels wrong somehow) because she was looking at me like a weirdo for asking if the cheese curds on the poutine were actually cheese curds. (She didn't know for sure... but she didn't find out either sorry folks! She thought they were real though so it might be worth checking out...). Plus, friend's friend  (used to?) manage the place. So... despite the fact the service has always been good it feels weird to rate it lest I have gotten preferential treatment for any of the above reasons, and so I won't.


Service
May 26, 2011
Our service tonight was for a bit of a larger group. I started out unsure how it was going to go - we had to go on a list to wait for a table, but we weren't given any indication of how long we had to wait. Luckily, the turnover worked out in our favour and we were in within minutes. Our orders were taken promptly (actually we held things up by being indecisive), and our food came in no time even though they were packed. 

Food
May 26, 2011

The Capital Burger via foodspotting.com

I opted for the burger this time because I couldn't resist the siren's call of a bacon and brie burger! Look at all that brie - that's practically $8 in cheese alone! Although the burger seemed like a pre-made patty, it was cooked to perfection which took away some of the Dislike I usually have. The bun, although you can't see it in the picture, was a pretzel bun which elevated the whole burger into epic status. Love the rings of red onion too!

The fries were the weak part - I feel like they used to have better fries here. The seasoning was weak and once they got cold they were kind of icky. Totally seemed like pre-made fries. Would go for the salad with the yummy homemade dressings next time for sure!




February 13, 2011
We opted for the $3.75/pint for draft beer special. Sadly, they only have four taps and even more sadly only one of them is local. It's Driftwood's White Bark which is more of a summer beer but I do love it so no complaints. We also had the 35¢ wing special. Their jerk chicken wings are pretty tasty - crunchy and spicy with a nice spicy sauce hiding down the bottom of the basket.

My partner-in-life-and-food had the burger with bacon (no cheese). I had a bite and have to agree that it's pretty stellar. I don't think the patty is homemade but it's cooked well, and served on a really nice bun. Their side house salad was quite lovely as well - the greens weren't bitter and the ginger cilantro homemade dressing was really tasty.

I opted for the chorizo flat bread pizza. Overall, it worked but the tomato sauce didn't quite have enough zing. Everything else was awesome, though - great mozzarella and goat cheese combo, lovely fresh mushrooms and nice choice on the chorizo.

All told, we were so stuffed we could barely finish our meals and the whole tab was under $40 before the groupon!