Fred's Not Here is a restaurant located on King Street (a bit past all the theatres). It's a relatively small restaurant with two floors (actually, it's two different restaurants owned by the same owner, Fred's Not Here on the top level, The Red Tomato at the bottom). Fred's is more of a dark and chic place, whereas the Red Tomato was with more of a diner feel. Surprisingly, everyone got there on time. However, the group that had the table before us did not want to leave, so we waited for an extra 15 minutes for our table.
After we were seated, everyone was amazed at the extended list of food offered as part of their Winterlicious menu. Most restaurants offer 2 or 3 items to choose from, Fred's has around 5 or 6. Also, they had adiverse choice for vegetarians. Ordering took a while as it was hard for everyone to decide what they wanted, and it was pretty busy. Here's a list of what everyone ordered:
Me: Lobster and Crab Soup/Ontario Pork 3-Ways/Creme Brulee
Ana: Grilled Calamari/OntarioPork 3-Ways/Chocolate Mousse Cake
Darren: Lobster and Crab Soup/Seafood Risotto/Bread Pudding
Tyler: Grilled Calamari/Steak/Bread Pudding
Victoria: Mixed Greens Salad/Mushroom Stuffed Ravioli/Bread Pudding
Lei-Ley: Chicken Pot Sticks w/ Spring Rolls/Sea Bass and Sticky Rice/Mousse Cake
AK: Lobster and Crab Soup/Ontario Pork 3-Ways/Mousse Cake
Chris: Lobster and Crab Soup/Seafood Risotto/Fresh Fruit Ice
Boris: Grilled Calamari/Seafood Risotto/Mousse Cake
The appetizers came really quickly. The soup had a puff pastry on top of it! I love it when my soup comes like that. It, however, did not have chunks (or at least bits) of lobster and/or crab meat in it, which was sort of disappointing. Ana liked her grilled calamari, but Tyler found it rather... "rubbery", and that the portion was not enough for him (he is a big guy). The main course came relatively fast after we were doneour appetizers, and they were of a reasonable portion as a part of $25.
My Ontario pork 3-Ways included sausage, pork ribs, roasted suckling pig and mash. I traded my ribs for Darren's lobster, as he doesn't enjoy lobster and I wanted to ditch my ribs on him so I could steal his dessert later. The sausages were really juicy and tasty, the ribs and roasted pig were okay. Darren's lobster was just okay (maybe it would've been better with some risotto, which surprisingly I did not steal from him). For the roasted pig, Ana got an entire piece of fat, which was very disappointing (I offered her some of mine, so I could steal her dessert later). Tyler liked his steak (it was a reasonable size), Victoria really enjoyed her ravioli (she made this really funny eye gesture when she said it), and LL liked her sea bass as well.
So, after dinner, the LONG awaited dessert. My creme brulee was to die for!The sugar crust was crunch and and the creme underneath was SO delicious (as opposed to some creme brulee I've had where the top part was also mushy). I really enjoyed it, and was sad to have Ana take 2 spoonfuls of my beloved creme brulee. Ana REALLY enjoyed her chocolate mousse cake, and it was REALLY good. I would've stolen more if I wasn't trying to tone down the chocolate eating. Now, the bread pudding. A lot of people were excited about the bread pudding, but it turned out to be a BIG disappointment. Basically, it was jelly bread. Literally. Where bread puddings were usually mushy, this had an unfamiliar solidity to it. And the taste wasn't that exciting. The only thing from the plate everyone finished was the ice cream. Nobody touched the bread pudding after the first bite.
Overall, Fred's Not Here was a unique experience. It served a large portion of food. However, what it did well it did really well (like the soup, the sausage and creme brulee), but all others were just okay. And I've had enough pork to last me til the end of time.
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