The Red Ox Inn - June 20, 2010

9420-91St. 780-465-5727
Ang's Pick

This was the smallest Dinner Club restaurant on record. It had only nine tables. It had a very simple decor with nothing on the walls. Before we go any further, we had a visiting member. Carol Zawada (aka. Morley) was Angela Zawada's plus one. In other words, she was Zawada's Zawada. As simple as the restaurant was, the server's demeanor elevated it to a more formal atmosphere. For appetizers we had, get this, Green Eggs and Ham, shrimp and dumplings (which were not sausome) and spinach beat salad with candied pecans. The Zawada's (being Polish) thought that there should have been more beats. For the main course, Dave had a little lamb, Bree had pork (417 calories... she is on this calorie counting kick), Ang had halibut and we are saving the best for last. Carol selected the special: the jerk snapper, and ohhh snap, it was good! It was coated in jerk seasoning... just the right amount of spice. The pesto cooled it off. It was served with rice and beans as well as a sprout salad. It was voted the best of the four dishes. The bottle of wine that accompanied the meal was Pinto Final Malbec. All three ladies gave it a woop woop (in case you don't know, woop woop is a good thing). Then it was time for dessert. Ang vetoed the cheese plate so that left us with four out of the five available choices. This caused a bit of a quandary because we would have to order the bread pudding. No one looked forward to it. Here are the four desserts: Bread pudding (#1 in appearance but #3 in taste), chocolate cake (least liked on all counts), pecan pie with really cool whip cream (#3 in looks #2 in taste) and lemon tart (#2 in looks #1 in taste... props to Zawada C. It was when Ang made her ritual trip to the bathroom we learned she would make a lousy interior decorator. She clearly grew up on the farm because she was in love with the barn theme therein. She was the only one. As the night drew to a close, we realized we didn't yet know the server's name so we made a game of guessing. Dave guessed Cyril. Carol guessed Allan. Angela made two guesses because she is special: Jeremy and Theo. Bree guessed Bobert. His actual name? It was Ramone. We were all wrong. He laughed at our silly game and said Theo was his favourite. We made his week. Just the right portion of food + great service + good company = another successful Dinner Club. Oh yeah, and Carol can come back next time she is in town.