After a long night awake working the on-call shift, there's one thing that beats the comfort of home, piping hot delicious food. On one such occasion, I headed to Bernstein's Deli looking for some home-style comfort food.
Located in a strip mall on Corydon, Bernstein's is half restaurant and half marketplace. The restaurant section is simply decorated with a blackboard in the front highlighting some of their menu items while the rest of the room is filled with numerous tables and benches arranged in booth settings. Bernstein's is a family owned deli that has long been a part of the River Heights Community. However, the menu is not limited to the usual deli fare. There are numerous menu items that put a spin on traditional deli food.
Nothing says comfort food like a hot bowl of chicken broth.
Marla's Chicken Matzo Ball Soup tasted like homemade chicken soup, but the broth was lukewarm and lacked the soul-warming feeling you get when drinking a hot bowl of soup. However, the broth was sweet and rich in chicken flavour that lent a refreshing flavour to the entire bowl of soup. The matzo ball itself though was a large doughy mess that lacked any flavour itself and disintegrated into a soft mushy mess in the soup.
A dish that I had heard a lot about prior to going to Bernstein's was the
Chicken & "Waffles" a variation of the classic using chicken fingers and pancakes. Three tiny pancakes form the basis upon which three more thin tiny pieces of chicken rest, all of which are finished with a warm blueberry compote. And indeed the sauce itself was the best part, rich and bursting full of berry flavour; but it was not enough to save the plain and decidedly boring pancakes and the tiny measly under seasoned portions of meat.
Latke Stackers, Salami & Marble Cheddar (half portion) is another signature menu item at Bernstein's. A traditional fried potato pancake is served with fried slices of salami enveloped by melted marble cheddar cheese. And while the latke sounds great on paper, it truly was a mess when delivered. First off the dish gives an overwhelming sensation of grease and fat with oily latkes topped with fatty salami and a thick slice of greasy marble cheese. And while a certain amount of fattiness is welcome in anything; the amount here was overpowering and destroyed any enjoyment in the dish.
Lastly, it would not be a visit to Bernstein's Deli without trying one of their corned beef sandwich. On the menu are many variations and today I decided to try their
Warm Corned Beef Sandwich (full portion). Thick slabs of fresh bread were filled with thick slices of corned beef and dressed with hot mustard, adding a spicy kick to every bite. The pieces of beef were indeed tasty, nice and tender with a peppery coating, which contrasted well with the spicy mustard and the thick slices of crusty bread. Only negative is the ridiculous pricing giving such a tiny amount of sandwich for $10.
Bernstein's Deli is well-established in Winnipeg as one of the go to places for a corned beef sandwich and other home-cooked comfort foods. Unfortunately, my visit fell short of my expectations. I tried a variety of their signature dishes, but each dish was ordinary and left me wanting more. In addition, the portion sizes were tiny compared to the exorbitant prices charged making it one of the worst values in town. There are better to be found.
Comments
Post a Comment