tartan toque

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.
thistimei 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 mushroom burger looked 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 openingtime12 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.

this is the secondtimei've gotten food poisoning from the tartan toque. the first was a couple months ago, i had a chicken wrap lasttimeand wings this time. i gave it another shot because i hadn't been 100% sure it was their food that did it lasttimebut that was a huge mistake. i'll never go back, the food is mediocre anyway. my boyfriend is sick too. maybe they don't store their chicken at a safe temperature- i don't know. get your kitchen sorted out!

wing woe. firsttimewings were not fresh. they had obviously been cooked sometimebefore and refrigerated. second time, the wings were fresh but the flavours i chose were just flavoured salt shaken on the wings. i think they are trying to do too many flavours. sorry but even frozen m & m wings are better. i will probably give them one more try just cause i really want a good wing place around.

i debated on writing this and decided..why not, it's my opinion...like it or not lol. my wife and i ate here about 3 months ago after hearing the hype on the food. we arrived around 5 ish and the place was moderately busy. nice set up, cool vibe for sure. i placed our order...thai wings, 2 burgers and an order of fries with some adult bevies. the order was filled fairly quick, it looked great...hot, nice basket presentations..that is where things went south. the wings were so over cooked, the actual wing pieces were splitting apart, the flavor was a weird combo of funky 'oil' and massive portions of garlic..did not eat past one. the burgers, mind you the bun was nice and the veg was fresh..it didn't make up for the very dry, flavorless patty that it contained...did not eat these either. the fries were standard bagged fries, but hot and fresh..we liked them and the drinks were really good. for $48.00, i really expected a hell of a lot more. as we left, the counter was busy...i was going to mention the food, but i wasn't really mad...more disappointed . we are pretty easy to please, so it had to be pretty bad for us not to like it. i chalked it up to a bad day. i went home, thought about it and figured management may want to know, so i posted a similar review on their facebook page...which i noticed is loaded with high praising reviews. never received a response and after a couple of months...my post was deleted. i guess they don't require my business as i do not need theirs...victoria has far too many good places ready to correct their short comings...which happen fromtimeto time. sorry but i cannot endorse or praise a food establishment that allows this to slide by. best of luck to you anyway.

great food. i love this place! it's like a small and friendly version of a pub. they have a great selection of wing flavors and their burgers are amazing. i get the bacon cheeseburger with chipotle mayo and it always hits the spot. i love that they have milkshakes too! the only negative thing i would have to say is that i think their hours could be better. first of all its confusing that they close at different times on different days, i find myself having to look up their hours everytimei want to go because i can't remember what times they close on what day. i also think that they close too early every day, especially friday and saturday. i can't count the number of times i've wanted to go for a drinks and some wings after work and not been able to because they close at 9 and i only get off work at 8 every night.

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 thetimethe 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 a burger or the cajun wings again :)

not really vegetarian/vegan friendly as it seems.... so i've been here twice. the firsttimei asked for the tofu 'wings' and which sauces were vegan. the girl was super helpful on choosing vegan sauces. however, the secondtimei visited and ordered the tofu 'wings', i found out that the tofu 'wings' are thrown into the same deep fryer as the chicken. shouldn't you use a separate fryer if you claim they are vegan friendly?! i said no thanks to having them put in the same fryer, and the girl offered to fry them on the grill. they didn't taste very good; very bland even with the sauces. i will not be returning.

love the wings. a dropped by the tt after hearing all the positive reviews. i was not disappointed by the atmosphere or the delicious wings. a little to much sauce for my liking but i'll let that slide as they were nice, plump and not breaded. nexttimeby i'll try a burger. they looked great as well.

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 thetimeof 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' burger was 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 thetimethe 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

back for more. after learning that some staff were let go i decided to try the tartan toque again and i am glad that i did. i've been back twice since my last review and both times the food did not disappoint. the owner did offer to make my previous visits up to me but i wanted to try the food on my own.

wings were full of flavour and were juicy as opposed to the previous overcooked ones. the crispy chicken wrap was incredibly good and fries perfect.

i will definitely continue to give this restaurant business and appreciate the efforts the owner and staff have made to improve. great job, guys!


-----02 jul, 2013-----

i've really tried. i have been to the tartan toque at least 6 times in the past 2 months and have really tried to like the wings. i love wings and was excited to see this place open, and i also am a big fan of shine so the fact that they both are close to my house is great.
unfortunately, everytimetheir wings have been extremely dry. i have had 8 different flavours and the sauces could use a bit stronger of flavour as well. i also recently had a coleslaw salad that was slimy and uneatable. if it hadn't been take out i would have returned it.
i did have a chicken wrap that was delicious although it did have ingredients in it that i had asked not to be.
the staff is so friendly and so is the overall atmosphere and have wanted so badly to like this place but i most likely will not be returning to this restaurant :(

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 lasttimei 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 firsttimei went i had the falafel and was actually pretty impressed, but the secondtimei 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 9 burger special. 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 a burger nexttimeif i go there. still, this was far from the dream i had when i first heard about the restaurant.

decent, fairly priced. made it in for the 1sttimeafter going by a couple of times to see a huge line up for ordering so i decided to go back when it wasn't as busy. i ordered a cheeseburger, small fries and maple chipotle chicken wings. decently priced, it only cost me $17.50. the wings are a nice size, cooked well, and the sauce was good, but could have used a little more zip with the chipotle. the burger tasted really good, but would have maybe liked a bit bigger of a burger patty and more curry mayo that came on it. the fries were alright.

i will be back one day, maybe to try out a few other flavors off the menu. i like ordering at the front and getting your own drink and seating yourself. the only big flaw i found was the staff were a little on the unprofessional side and a little too vocal about their personal lives, drinking pop right beside the cash etc, but i am sure some kinks will get worked out as the business grows.