tartan toque

wings taste like dirty deep fry oil, way overcooked and leathery. had aburgerit was burnt. and lastly tried the poutine and the gravy looked like congealed hood vent grease was cold and just sad. i'm sorry to say but tartan toque you need to step up your game because so many other establishments prey upon the wing,burger, poutine market and have better locations. i will give you 3 months and when i come back i hope to have juicy perfectly cooked wings, juicy burgers, and properly made poutine with real cheese curds. thanks

second visit. as previously noted, i did say i would make a second visit after the tt had been open a while.
my self and a friend entered a packed venue on 30 may.at approx. 8pm. the place was packed, a good sign.
this time i ordered the hottest buffalo wings, the waiter said ok the hottest we have. the order from my friend was combo plate 6 boneless wings and a mushroom burger.
i sat down with great thoughts of enjoying my wings with a pint of beer.
the wings arrived and sadly by initial look they sat in sauce that had been poured over the top.
my friends mushroomburgerlooked great and he thoroughly enjoyed it so 08 points for the burger.
now back to the slathered wings, there was simply no heat what so ever? i have been a professional cook since 1956 and have lived, worked and eaten in many foreign countries.
to come back to victoria and to enjoy a good old suicide wing was all i was looking for.
the wings were soaked but even when taking some sauce on a fork it lacked, heat,taste and any smidgen of buffalo sauce.

the cook should be taught to baste the wings like normal operating wing joints.simply simmer the wings in a separate skillet. rahter than just pouring sauce over the wings in the basket.

melt the butter in a large skillet. stir in the, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. season with salt and pepper to taste. add cooked chicken to sauce and stir over low heat to coat. the longer the wings simmer in the sauce, the hotter they will be. serve warm.

the venue is great, the beer is chilled, the burgers so far are good. but the wings once again lacked flavour and taste.
will there be a third visit from myself??? at the moment i doubt it.
robby mcrobb


-----07 apr, 2013-----

saturday opening time 12 noon. the name of the venue attracted my attention as a born and bred scot. my daughter took me to lunch on saturday. her second visit my first. as a wing shack the décor is great, a wee bit dark with all the dark paint etc. however the menu was quite extensive.
as a wing aficionado, of many years and around the world, i was anxious to give the toque the chance to impress me. sadly this did not happen. first we ordered 2 pounds of wings one with house hot sauce and the other buffalo bleu. neither had a tang of any type. the wings were barely cooked. one basket was slathered with what looked like a mayonnaise based dressing. a very poor performance for this operation. i write this having been a cook/chef in the food business globally since 1960. i will return and give them another opportunity. so out of 5 venue scores 4 food scores 1.

good food at a good price.. if you haven't been to the tartan toque for aburgercheck it out. it is fresh and tasty and reasonably priced. worth checking out, at least once.

for a place that specializes in wings, you'd think the wings would be amazing. unfortunately, the wings we had were dry and over cooked. the sauce on the wings were good and was the only source of moisture. we also had the burger, that was delicious. great flavour.

overall, atmosphere great,burgergreat, wings m'eh.

great service, average food. the service here was outstanding - the staff were very friendly and helpful and this is also one of the rare victoria establishments that has an open soft drink bar/serving station where you can select and pour your own soft drink and go back for seconds/thirds on your own and without being charged. it sounds like it's not a big deal but trust me, it is for victoria - places like bin 4 and the pink bicycle have much better burgers than tartan toque but also overcharge on the small stuff like soft drinks, where free refills are unthinkable.

the burgers were just ok - they pre-mix theburgermeat with onions, without asking you or giving you a choice, which isn't for everyone. the boneless wings are also ok but not great - ours were burned and were very rough and difficult to chew. if you've had really good, properly made boneless wings then it's hard to settle for this. i wouldn't go back here but i'll give credit where it is due - the wait/counter staff were awesome.

always tasty!!!!!! best wra.... always tasty!!!!!!
best wrap i've ever had.
bestburgerbun i've ever had.
best loaded fries.
wings bone in or out- never dissatisfied!
will be back of course!

my favouriteburgerjoint in victoria, not because they do anything crazy but because it's well priced and tastes great! chicken wings are really good and the poutine is good but has taken a slide recently.

the burgers are flavourless the amount of onion with the flavourless meat was completely overpowering and wasn't a fan of the baby greens (butter lettuce is best imo) over all fail won't have those again the wings on the other hand love them! i would say they are on point about 80% of the time the other 20% they are terrible. not sure if it depends on who's making them or how busy they are. i only write this because i love this gem and wouldn't want it to fail. one last critique is the cajun and how it's a dry rub, it would be amazing as a wet? it's far to overpowering as a dry rub. love the candied bacon love the house made hot sauces been here probably over 20 times and have no plans to stop going just never getting aburgeror the cajun wings again :)

we really liked it! the atmosphere is really cool and so unlike most pubs in victoria. i had the veggieburgerand onion rings. they were both pretty good but my boyfriend's salmonburgerwas pretty amazing and i wished i had gotten it instead. i could see us going back and drinking lots of beer over a game of trivial pursuit!

fantastic burger!!. we had a bacon cheeseburgerwith caramelized onions and a chicken burger. what a great menu! so many choices of all local fresh quality stuff. so many fresh made extras. we can't wait to come back and try their wraps and salads, like the waldorf or the caesar! beer on tap! the poutine was great! excellent value, with friendly staff who really care about what they are doing. i just loved that fine bacon burger, it was exactly like i would make it. so so good!! friendly and fun too.

thank you!. dear barry and family... thank you for offering a fun place to eat great food. having a good place to go to to eat wings and a greatburgeris fantastic. love that you are family friendly.

re: not safe for celiacs. to all who have been a witness to this public discussion, as the founder of www.theceliacscene.com and as a celiac myself, i take consumer concerns like these very seriously. when i received this complaint through my website, i emailed the owners of tartan touque this afternoon.

i set out to handle these situations as neutrally as possible, trying to balance my personal concern for the celiac community with a mandate to support restaurants in getting gluten free right. admittedly, there have been many times when a diner's misfortune becomes that 'teachable moment.' a silver lining, at someone's expense, unfortunately, but an opportunity to educate just the same.

to be absolutely clear, restaurants can not pay to qualify to appear on the scene, nor can they retain their listing should they fail to meet celiac standards.

i received a call back within ten minutes from barry, one of the owners, expressing tartan touque's collective regret for what happened. while barry was not present at the time of the incident, co-owner kara, was the acting chef in the kitchen. kara corroborated the information; a gluten bun was served to a celiac. they feel very badly for that; feel terribly that she became so ill; wish they could make amends by offering to compensenate them for their meal.

i then reviewed their protocol with them. when a gf order is placed, it is given a code in their computer system, the preparation of a gf order is announced for all to hear in the kitchen so that everyone is alerted to the special preparations that must take place, and when the order is ready, it is announced to the dining area as 'order #xx, 'gluten-free hamburger." when the diner comes to collect the order, the gluten-free order is identified to the diner. this concurs with the protocol i witnessed on the three occasions that i dined with tartan touque before they qualified to appear on www.theceliacscene.com/map283-british-columbia--fort---oak-bay.html.

the point of contention seems not that tartan toque lacks an appreciation of the seriousness of providing a celiac with a gluten bun. after hearing both sides, it seems that despite the discussion of the restaurant's gf offerings, an order for a 'gluten-free'burgerwas either not made by the diner or not recorded as such by the server. some will say that they should have known, given her enquiries. tartan toque will say that it was not clearly requested. of the consequences, all are agreed on their seriousness. at the time the order was collected, the order was not confirmed as gluten free by the server, who was under the impression she was providing a regular order, nor by the diner, as per related recollections.

at the end of the day however, a diner is ill and the tartan toque is very sorry. having corresponded with both parties; balancing my own celiac interest in being able to dine out safely; not having a monetary interest in whether tartan touque appears on scene maps or not, i am electing to maintain their listing, not to deny a diner experience, but in trust that tartan toque is genuinely aware and committed to the safety of their celiac diners.

i will undertake to dine with tartan touque myself without notice to confirm that their practices meet celiac standards and revisit my decision at that time, if necessary.

ellen bayens
the celiac scenetm
ellen@theceliacscene.com
250-727-6275

love the relaxed vibe and location of the place, and i'm a big fan of tartan's restaurant booth seating. we shared wings, aburgerand an onion nest. all good, all reasonably priced. while i'm a big proponent of short, concise 1-to-2 page menus, i'd like to see a couple more options on the tt menu, maybe a club sandwich (i don't like wraps) or a smoked meat sandwich, perhaps another non-wing appy option. overall, tt exhibits a well thought out, focused vision. they keep it simple, and customers like me appreciate that.

fool of a toque!. i have now been to tartan toque 5 times and the fifth will have officially been my last. when i first heard rumblings of this place before it opened, it was that we were getting a 'chicken wing restaurant from the owners of shine' and as a wing junkie i was pretty damn excited. this much is true, they do have a lot of different kind of wings, the problem is that the wings themselves just aren't good. if you are going to actually make chicken wings the star of your show, you need to source yourself some good quality chicken. these taste like the same frozen sack of wings from sysco that you would find at any crappy pub. they are dry, lack meat and are just overall unimpressive. the sauces are hit and miss; i have tried about 7 different kinds and liked maybe 3 of them. as for their other food, it is also quite disappointing. the hamburger was completely over-seasoned to the point it was almost inedible and i had to drink 10 glasses of water after to flush the sodium. the last time i went the fries were some of the worst i've had in awhile; they were limp, ugly & it tasted like their frying oil was in dire need of replacement. the first time i went i had the falafel and was actually pretty impressed, but the second time i ordered the falafel it was dry and flavourless. then there is their identity crisis; i absolutely love the counter service style and am surprised that we don't see it more in such a uk style city. but they seem to be conflicted about it. one day it's counter service, the next day they've stopped doing that and are doing table service and now i see they are trying to meet halfway by giving you a coloured chunk of wood that you are supposed to display on your table if you want service. they really need to just figure out who they are and roll with it. also they could really benefit from staying open until 10 on weekdays. 9 is just too early for a place that serves beer and pub fare and they could really bank off people that are turned away from the big line at nearby bin 4's after 9burgerspecial. so far the tt is a huge disappointment with so much potential; chicken wings, counter service and $5 pints of phillips, how can you go wrong with such a winning formula? i don't know, but they've somehow found a way.

great idea, bad execution. so disappointed with this place. maybe i had high expectations but unfortunately turned out ot be one of the worst wings experiences. 3 of us went there and shared 6 different flavours. we couldnt even finish half of them. i dont mean this in a mean way but the wings were not good quality wings and other than buffalo wings other flavours were just okay! to come up with that many flavors is not easy, and i think there are some great ones like 'greek' but as some other reviewers mentioned they need some improvement to boost up the flavours.

i see that the people who liked it, like mostly the burgers even though this place is a 'wings' place. maybe i'll try aburgernext time if i go there. still, this was far from the dream i had when i first heard about the restaurant.