The Battery Hotel
Ph. 576-0040
“The Landing” is the relatively new appellation for the dining room at The Battery Hotel. I suppose current management wanted to give the restaurant its own separate identity. That makes sense when a hotel has two or three restaurants but since The Battery has just one, I don’t think a name change was necessary. My bet is it will continue to be called “The Battery” restaurant - by most folk - for a long time to come. After all, despite serving some uneven cuisine over the years, the room has become a sort of St. John’s institution. No doubt many of us can remember it for some event in our lives that took place there. For example, half of St. John’s probably had their wedding receptions in The Battery’s windowed dining room.
Yours truly and guest checked out The Landing on a fogless evening recently. The room wasn’t busy so we got a table in the middle window. There were no worries about glaring sunlight because the sky was mostly cloudy. It helped us enjoy the stunning panoramic view of the harbour and city. If I were a St. John’s tourist, sitting at one of The Landing’s window tables enjoying a glass of crisp pinot grigio would be my idea of a perfect sightseeing excursion.
The room has gone through one major renovation since the hotel was established in the sixties. It’s much larger now and has less stained wood than in the beginning - sacrificing much of the warm atmosphere brought by that device. Apart from that the room has remained pretty much the same, with the exception of the occasional change of furniture, wall coverings and carpeting. Clearly, the windows and view “make” the room. I tried to imagine what the space would be like without them and, I’m sorry to say, it would be a very plain, sterile looking place.
The Landing’s new menu seemed to be catering to average tastes, more “family” restaurant cuisine than higher-end food. I don’t know about you but when I’m out for a night in a restaurant - especially one with a million dollar view -I like being served something I would not go through the trouble of making at home. Perhaps if earlier managers had kept the coffee shop they jettisoned years ago, current management might have been in a position to offer a more challenging menu in the main dining room. It is a little ironic that The Battery, the hotel with the room that - potentially - could be the swankest of all St. John’s “fancy” restaurants has chosen to settle in middle range. They offer some dishes for a slightly more educated palate, like escargots marinara, smoked salmon and calamari but the card is mostly chain fare like: Buffalo wings, nachos, thunder crunch chicken burgers and pizza. Dedicated carnivores will be happy to know that staples like prime rib, rack of lamb and pork tenderloin are still available.
Of all the various seafood soups and stews I don’t think there is anything to compare with a competently made crab bisque. When done right it’s especially comforting on frigid January evenings. It wasn’t January but the version I was served at The Landing was such bisque. It was a luxurious, pinkish combination of finely chopped crabmeat and cream, with additional subtle flavours of tomato broth and onion. The seasoning was perfect as well; just the right amount of salt was used and the viscosity or thickness - achieved I believe with flour - was excellent.
I’m rarely served bread as good as what I was served at The Landing. I happily used it to mop up the remaining puddles of bisque. The basket contained slices of very fresh baguette of two varieties, one, olive bread, the other darkened red and flavoured intensely by tomato. They both featured their “star” ingredients in the best possible way, with lots of freshness and character.
My guest started with The Landing’s calamari. It was described on the menu as “strips of tender calamari lightly dusted, fried and served with a zesty dipping sauce.” In fact, they arrived “battered” and “deep” fried. There’s a big difference. They were good for what they were - but were not what the menu was offering. The calamari was indeed tender and was deep fried properly. I found the chili sauce tasted exactly like the chili sauce served in many pubs and eateries, cloyingly sweet with little zip.
The Landing’s pan-fried cod came exactly as described, “flaky and pan-fried with scrunchions until golden brown.” My guest was very pleased with this entrée and thought the cod, scrunchions and baked potato especially flavourful. I had a bite of the cod and agreed. The fish was fresh and flaky. It made our server’s promotion of the entrée understandable. Sometimes I wonder if servers are motivated to promote a dish because of a hefty price tag - meaning bigger tip - or to increase the chances of a good dining experience for the customer. In this case it was obviously because of the superior quality of the fish.
I wish my entrée had been as good as my guest’s but it was not. I had the “fresh halibut fillet lightly seared and broiled, topped with a citrus jalapeno chutney.” I really wondered about the “lightly seared and broiled” part; after all, it was a delicate piece of fresh halibut, not a 36 oz. Ribeye. My fear was well founded. The halibut was very dry and cooked minutes longer than it should have been. I also doubted that the fish was fresh. Fresh-frozen is not the same as fresh, although, if my halibut had been cooked properly its raw status would not have been an issue for me. The Cajun spiced oven fries that accompanied the halibut were not overdone. They actually tasted quite tender and zesty.
To conclude our meal at The Landing we chose to share a portion of figgy duff. It came napped in a molasses sauce. Unfortunately, an unwelcome giant scoop of vanilla ice cream sat atop the duff like an uninvited guest at a wedding. No mention of ice cream had been made by anybody. There was a boorish shamelessness about the rotund, fat laden, frozen intruder as it rapidly threw off melt and adulterated our duff and molasses sauce. I had the urge to take a utensil and send it flying, but wisely held back. The damage was irreparable. The duff was undone. It was impossible for me to assess it and the sauce on their own, although the few cream-free bits I tasted were very good, moist and rich. My choice would have been a brown sugar sauce with a dash of dark rum instead of strong molasses. Also, there is no way I would serve vanilla ice cream beside, atop or even on the same table with traditional Newfoundland figgy duff. Both my grandmothers - God rest their souls - would be spinning in their respective graves!
Our meal at The Landing, including wine and a tip, cost $122.56.
Best Points:
Spectacular fair weather view and good service.
Areas for Improvement:
Correct your method for cooking halibut.
Ratings Category:
The Landing gets 7.5 points out of 10.