Do a search below using the city or postal code search box if your city is not listed above.
Get dining news including restaurant closures and qualify for giveaways.
A family steakhouse restaurant featuring steaks and prime rib dinners at a very reasonable price located in historic Strathcona neighbourhood since Expo 1986. Parking in the back. Ecletically decorated like the 80's culture - what an icon -- you won't find this in any museum, you've got to see it for yourself. Check out the leather bar. Will bring back memories of your childhood, not to mention the prices...inflation didn't happen here...so come in and let the gracious hostess and waitress Linda, make you feel like a kid again cause she's a grandmother herself. Fully licensed.
This place has always attracted me, with its numerous signs promising cheap prime rib, cheap steaks, etc. I mean $8.95 for a big slab of prime rib, every day? Wow!
I finally gave it a try a couple of years ago. The interior is like a trip back to 1970, and it is to put it mildly, dingy. The place is owned and operated by an old Chinese couple and they are attentive and friendly (hey, they are not youngsters, so don't expect any running). But most people go to a steakhouse to have steak, not to soak up the atmosphere...
The steaks and prime rib (and pretty much every dish) come on big stainless steel platters with a few steamed vegetables on the side (more like a garnish). I have eaten my way through the menu here over several visits. I found that the meat is always done right, and the fish is just okay. They have a couple of vegetarian offerings, probably for the vegan friends of the carnivore crowd.
Basically, everything is unexceptional except the meats, which are great. It is a unique place to eat, and not for the fussy.
Meat lovers will find this joint a guilty pleasure. The rest will likely heap scorn upon it.
My Fiancé and I have driven by this so many times and scoffed at the ghetto signs, but decided for once, we'd go in and judge for ourselves.
We went in on a Monday evening after work and there were only two other diners there at the time.
True, the decor is incredible dated but the Host/Server makes up for everything. Extremely attentive and sincere. I felt guilty - I felt as if I was ordering my mother around chasing my food for me.
I ordered the prime rib (9.95), and he ordered the black pepper steak (13.95). Both done to our liking: Mine medium rare, his also. The portion sizes were quite small - likely what Canada Food Guide suggests anyhow, so I was okay with it. Both were tasty and we really didn't have any complaints.
Will we go back? We'd go back for the service, but not for the steaks. The important idea is that we finally went in and tried it. Who knows how long they will be in business?
Well worth it!!
The food was great,I had the veal with mashed potatoes,which were real,not powdered.
My pals had the pepper steak,which was great,and the speial,which was also solid.
The deep fried prawsn were a throwback to the oldschool Dragon Inn Smargasbord recipe in taste.A nice suprise.
Service is a bit slow,but,it gives you time to enjoy your friends company.
Word of note though..come early,by 8:45,they start shutting the kitche down,and won't seat you if its too late.
This is not Gothams or Mortons,Its the Brave Bull,and what you see is what you get.
Went here for my birthday and all I have to say is it's absolutely fantastic.
The sole waitress is a lovely lady named Linda who went out of her way to sing me Happy Birthday and bring me a butter tart. Yes it's the small things that count.
Im no stranger to steak or dining out and this was a wonderful meal cooked to perfection by a wonderful staff.
No longer will I sneer at it as I drive by, quite the opposite - it'll be one of my regular spots.
I agree with the previous post. This restaurant has been around for years. A trip inside is like walking into a time machine and you are instantly taken back to a different era - for me...an era where I wasn't even born yet. Anyway...might I digress.
The couple are attentive and the regular customers are patient. I felt like helping out seeing how it was the waitress who was kept very busy. I actually asked her if they were hiring and she said no. This restaurant definitely has a charm which I really enjoyed.
I enjoyed the baked potato!
For some strange reason me and my boyfriend went here a few months back. May have been because u saw an add in the tv guide saying cheap good eats...steak meal for like ten bucks. I wasn't expecting much, the neighborhood is yucky. So we went in ample parking in the back. Arrived old lil friendly lady showed us to a table where the table beside was littered with dirty old dishes.after about 5 or so minutes she took our order two steak dinners, and orange juice from a can and possibly watered down. Then the wait began, I started to wonder if they had went to the farm to slay the beef themselves. But later I found out that it's just her and her aging husband thawing steaks out of the freezer thus the long wait.We were starving by the time the food came, so how could u not enjoy it somewhat, the high light was the garlic bread and the tiny baked potato and that's not saying much. An old steak from the freezer, u can not believe the gas we had after this meal, I must have tooted all night. I'm not sure why that was. Anyhow the lady Linda is sweet but really this seems like a resturant on it's way out. To top it all off the bill with tip was $50 for this dive of a resturant.Please avoid unless u can't get or know no better.
this place has been in business since 1984.. and it shows.. so don't expect a crazy nice place.. but i mean .. the price hasn't change much since then either..
for $8.95 you get soup or salad, a steak, veg, mash or baked potato and garlic bread.
I ordered the prime rib.. it was pretty good. Won't be the best you had but it's good. Tender and tasty.. better then any diner for sure.
My friend had a pepper steak and that wasn't super but it was also solid.
My other friend had the sirloin and it was okay... the best was the prime rib.
For under $10 for a full meal... this is hard to beat... i think they kept the price the same for the last 20 yrs.... $1.60 for apple pie? how do they pay the rent???
8.99 Prime Rib. 8.99 T-Bone. 8.99 Sirloin. Old Chinese lady who is owner/server: awesome. This place is a dump, but is there anything not to love about?
Everywhere around the restaurant is framed clipping from their (only?) review, with the title, "no frills, just good steaks".
Went there again, still so enjoy their service and steak... especially the bake potato!!!
I totally don't think this is a place for poor people, this old couple, the owner has the passion to operate their own resturant. OK... this place might be a little bit too old fashion; however, this is a place full of their memories, which is meaningful to them.
I will still keep going to this place since the food and service are good!
This place was interesting to check out but I don't know if I need to return all that soon. The food was edible but even at the low prices I wasn't that overly impressed. My steak was really more of a glamorized breakfast steak. I suppose if one only has 8.95 to spend on a steak they might want to think of eating something else. I dared someone with me to order a fish dish and it was truly horrifying - the bravery of bull would be needed to consume the greasy pan fried halibut steak that looked like it had been in the bottom of a freezer since 1983.
There were plenty of interesting characters having dinner - I think it may have been in and around welfare wednesday so a lot of the Main and Hastings crowd were sitting down to their monthly steak dinners. It seemed that one side of the place was insanely bright with flourescent lighting while the other half was a type of dim grotto of wierdness that is definately where you want to be sitting in this place - I rather enjoyed hiding in the shadows so I could take it all in...one particularly interesting fellow had at least half a dozen empty beer bottles on his table and was attacking two t-bone steaks at one sitting. He belched loudly and shamelessly as he gnawed on the tbone with two hands. I don't want to slam this place as the couple that runs are indeed pleasant and goodhearted folks...although I think the rave reviews I often hear are a bit overboard the food is passable and as cheap as it gets... I might go back one day just to subject a few unitiated friends to one of the more oddball eateries in town.
This restaurant is packed with the feeling of history, back in the 70's or 80's. Take a sniff and you can totally tell by its scent from the ancient times. Ok, back with the food and service. Since it's one server, we all can't ask for too much, as though the old lady had been very entertaining to everyone and talks to people. Definitely, everybody must be wondering why only one person as server?! It's very simple, because their price is at $8.99 for steaks! They have not updated their prices every since 1990, when they added the GST to our service systems. More servers, means that the cheap steaks will increase in price.... This is all legit details, well that's what the old lady told us. As for their steak, eventhough it's served in metal trays and plates, I suppose it was the style back then...? When it comes to the quality of the steak, first bite, it is quite tender and juicy, as requested for medium rare. portion is quite decent in such a way that it will fill you for what you pay for. I have tried their Ham and Pea soup and it taste pretty good, soup is not too thick, and not too watery. They were fresh made on the current day, so you will not be tasting anything from cans or such. I would recommend this place for anyone who wants cheap steaks.. just give it a try and you'll will agree completely.
This is a great adventure into the seedier side of dining. The food quality is attrocious, service is odd. The room is old and dirty.
I think I've gone here maybe 5 times over the last 20 years...and it's pretty much unchanged in that time, and it was seedy 20 years ago.
The food is beyond dirt cheap, and you definitely get what you pay for. You cant really complain about the quality of food, when you can get a NY steak dinner for 10 bucks. At a decent restaurant this plate would be 25-50 dollars. You cannot really expect the same quality for something that's 1/5th the price.
If you want an adventure in dining, experience the low end of city living, this is worth a visit. This is a poor restaurant for the poor, check it out.
It's......interesting.
| 1. | Tracy's Kitchen (16 m) | |
| 2. | Axum (17 m) |  |
| 3. | Latin Organics Cafe (56 m) | |
| 4. | Pink Pearl (150 m) |  |
| 5. | Agro Cafe (190 m) | |
| 6. | Leeteg Room, The (206 m) | |
| 7. | Grove Pub & Grill (206 m) | |
| 8. | Nuba (206 m) |  |
| 9. | Europa Deli Restaurant (252 m) | |
| 10. | Buddy's Place (316 m) | |
