Went for dinner and drinks after work today at Rugby Beach Club Grille on West Broadway. Read about a happy hour dinner and drink menu, so thought why not try it? Everything on the menu is a la carte, meaning you have to order the meat, veggies, and carbs separately, each at a different price. The happy hour special is that you can have a 6 oz steak & prawns for $5.96, or a single chicken breast for $3.97. Sounds cheap, right? But if you want potatoes, then there's a bunch on the regular menu you can choose from that all cost between $4.95-6.95. And veggies are about the same price. So really, $5.96 + $4.95 + $6.95 is still an $18 meal. That's pretty cheap, but it's not like you can get away with spending just $6 like the ad in the newspaper implies.
Also, I've never been super crazy about the food, but it was tolerable. But honestly, after what I ate today, there's no way I can say that again. I ordered the steak and prawns and my friend ordered the chicken. We both got mashed potatoes and split some szechuan green beans. The steak, prawns, and chicken were obviously from the freezer. It's not that I haven't had food that's been frozen before in restaurants - but normally, they don't have that freezer-burn taste and texture to them. The prawns didn't taste right, I can't explain it. But it just wasn't fresh. The steak was clearly thawed out quickly and the meat was tough. I've truly made better at home. The chicken was dry and just kind of gross. I've had better frozen chicken from Costco.
The worst though - the very worst was the mashed potatoes. We both love mashed potatoes, and so when we dug into them, we both immediately said, "these are instant, aren't they?" Yep, INSTANT powdered potatoes. WTF?! I can't believe a place like that, that tries to come off as being cutting edge - can't even mash their own potatoes! Gross.
The only decent thing was the szechuan green beans, but now that I know what they're all about, I'm guessing that it tasted good because they probably just scooped out the sauce from a jar that they got from an asian supermarket. I also ordered a maple cream ale, since it was only $2.68. (I'm trying to get used to drinking beer. Long story.) I would say that when you hear me saying that the best thing I had all night was the beer, then you know the food was bad.
I just think it's insulting to charge the kind of prices they do (the regular menu is way overpriced) and then to not use fresh ingredients. Plus, you can't even say it's because they charge so little, so what do you expect - because there are lots of restaurants out there that are inexpensive but still care about fresh, quality ingredients. I could have a plate of thai green curry chicken with rice for less than $10 and I guarantee the ingredients would be fresh and the flavours would be vibrant.
My stomach has not felt well from the moment I got home. I kind of suspected that would happen while I was eating my food. I should've just not eaten it, but I guess you make dumb decisions when you're hungry. So anyway, don't waste your money or stomach space on any of the crap at Rugby. Just go for cheap beer or cocktails ($3.95 martinis) and that's enough.
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