In the heart of downtown, in a beautiful historic building lies the Swans Brewpub. With a casual, “Cheers” atmosphere, Swans is a popular gathering spot for after-work drinks and hearty meals.
And that’s just what we did, a group of six of us met after work to take part in Dine Around with both $15 and $25 menus available. From the $15 menu I had the celery root, mushroom and potato soup. Slightly pureed, this soup was thick and flavourful and definitely hit the spot. And from the $25 menu my husband had pan fried calamari with bell peppers, onions in a Thai sweet chili sauce. This dish was tangy and sweet and very good. We also tried the pan seared scallops. This was very good – the combination of scallops and bacon, however served, is always a hit.
Four mains, my husband had the bacon wrapped beef sirloin served with potato flan, roasted root vegetables and a blue cheese demi glaze off the $25 menu. The steak was juicy and cooked to his liking and the potato flan was a dense cake of layers and layers of well seasoned potatoes. A couple of friends had the pan seared spring salmon off the $15 menu and I tried the cedar plank salmon off the $25 menu. As a general consensus, we all found the salmon to be moist, but a bit bland for our liking and we couldn’t detect a difference in taste between the two methods of cooking. Over all, both salmon dishes and their accompaniments proved to be a bit of a disappointment. I paired my salmon with the recommended VQA wine suggestion and found the wine to be crisp and clean and a good match to the salmon.
All the desserts we sampled off both menus were very good. The black ripple raspberry ice cream off the $15 menu was creamy and perfectly sweet with a hint of tang and the chocolate molten cake off the $25 menu was a warm, moist cake dripping with melted chocolate, paired with a dollop of vanilla ice cream – a very satisfying ending to our meal.
One of our friends ordered off the regular menu and thoroughly enjoyed her meal of the ever-popular, rich and creamy seafood chowder and pesto pizza generously topped with chicken, artichokes and sundried tomatoes.
Overall, Swans is a great place for casual dining in a warm and friendly atmosphere with a great menu offering something for everyone.
- The Secret Diner
T: (250) 361-3310 506 Pandora Ave.
