There was a time when Corner Brook was in want of good places to eat. It’s much better today. In my opinion, the number of good eateries in Corner Brook has doubled within the last ten or fifteen years. This fall I spent about a week in the mill town and what follows are my impressions of some of the restaurants - low-end and higher-end - that I visited. This is not a usual review because I have not included ratings. However, I think you’ll find it worthwhile…
Aromas Plus (located at the corner of Park and Main) has
been around for a few years. By Corner Brook standards it’s a large restaurant
with a large dining area and a couple of other nooks and crannies where they’ve
managed to place tables. At lunchtime, Aromas Plus features a cafeteria-style
service where you get yourself a tray and scoot it on a rail while the cooks
dish you up whatever of the day’s delights you want. Usually, it’s pretty tasty
fare.
I have enjoyed their signature roast turkey dinner with all
the trimmings, a meal that really puts the “comfort” in comfort food. I have
also enjoyed lighter fare, like their delicious mandarin salad with honey
roasted almond slivers (truly yummy), along with a couple of curried beef wraps.
They were a little dry but still quite nice. Aromas Plus is a friendly place
that reminds me of delicatessens and cafeterias you’d find in much larger
centers like, Vancouver. I like it a lot.
A brand new discovery of mine was Broadway Café, located in
the Broadway Mini Mall, and owned by Pat Cosman. Pat used to manage the Howard
Johnson’s at Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick for years. She’s well known in
Corner Brook for her catering and consulting work. Broadway Café started as a
tiny place with modest ambitions but since a few months ago they’ve expanded to
twice their original size. It was for good reason. At their former capacity
they were turning away dozens of customers every week.
Broadway Café’s menu features plenty of variety. If you’re
looking for a one-dish meal they have a Mexican style chili with grilled
baguette, as well as soups and salads. I sampled one of many sandwiches on the
menu, a Reuben. Their Reuben was a tasty arrangement of smoked meat, Swiss
cheese, Dijon and sauerkraut on grilled rye.
I had my first Reuben sandwich in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
in 1978 and I judge all others by that one because it was so good, a real
discovery. (Until then, I thought all sandwiches were made with Holsum white
and mayo.) My 1978 Reuben had (as any classic Reuben should have) corned beef -
not smoked meat. I’m not a stickler about the corned beef, so, I enjoyed
Broadway Café’s version very much, although not quite as much as my Florida
sandwich. A Reuben should be nice and thick. I have high hopes for Broadway
Café but they need to pile the sandwich meat on a little more.
The Carriage Room at the Glynmill Inn (1b Cobb Lane) has to be one of the most elegant dining rooms in Newfoundland. It’s worth a visit just to be able to sit in this venerable old dining room and soak up the ambiance. No matter the season, you can sit at the tall, curtained windows of the very traditional British style room and enjoy an outdoor scene that is reminiscent of an A.Y. Jackson painting. In fall, the Glynmill’s deciduous trees are full of red and gold, in winter the contrast of sun and shadow on pure, white snow is exquisite and in the summer everything is a luscious green. Meals have been served in The Carriage Room since June 1924…since Babe Ruth played for the Yankees. The food in The Carriage Room is very good and sometimes even rises to the level of the room itself. I remember being there on my lonesome for lunch one time, tired and cranky and being served a meal that was so extraordinarily well prepared it made me almost euphoric. It was a huge halibut steak that was so fresh and cooked so expertly that it literally melted in my mouth. I have often thought The Carriage Room deserved the kind of public profile given the Glynmill Inn’s second restaurant, The Wine Cellar (located in the basement of the hotel).
The Wine Cellar
For many years The Wine Cellar was regarded as the premier restaurant in Corner Brook. It had a reputation that was well deserved. Like a secret, it is hidden deep in the recesses of the hotel’s lower level. The very dark circular room is tastefully decorated with an anteroom displaying a nice selection of wines on varnished display shelving that you can view while you’re waiting to be taken to your table.
I was a little disappointed with the meal on my recent visit. A couple of friends joined me. Two of us had steaks that were overdone. It was more than a little surprising since The Wine Cellar is essentially a steak restaurant. However, I could have been persuaded to get over that disappointment had the rest of the meal been what I’d expected.
You see, I ordered steak en croute, a fillet of beef that was supposed to be topped with a layer of pate, then wrapped in pastry and baked off in the oven. It’s usually served with a nice wine sauce. However, when mine arrived it was not covered in pastry. It was an undressed steak, save for a thin slice of pate resting on top in naked embarrassment, which in turn was covered with a small disc that looked and tasted like Melba toast. A dollop of stodgy gravy moistened the toast or whatever it was.
I’m not sure what caused this dish to go so badly off the rails but something obviously did. Perhaps the Glynmill Inn should amalgamate the upstairs and downstairs kitchens and concentrate on operating one really good restaurant. The Carriage Room, along with being extraordinarily beautiful, could become an extraordinary restaurant. It gets my vote.
There are a few more Corner Brook eateries worth trying but I think that’s enough to get you started. In the meantime, as our blessed Julia used to say, “Bon appetit!”