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The Sardine Can

The Sardine Can Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato The Sardine Can isn't a restaurant per se. It serves appetizer plates at horrific prices if you are hell bent on putting together a dinner together with them. And it looks like a lot of people do try it.

Don't try it. Eat a light (cheap) meal elsewhere, then just try a few things at The Sardine Can that pique your interest. Treat them as snacks to go with a drink. Price for portion, even looking at them as appetizers, is very high.

Gambas al ajillo ($13.75) Spicy garlic prawns
  • Didn't taste particularly spicy or garlicky.
  • Tasty enough and quite a few prawns (10?)
Estufado de pulpo ($11) Octopus, potato and chorizo casserole
  • This tasted like olives in tomato soup. If you got a bite of olive in your mouth, it dominated any other flavour.
Tostas de sardinas ($8.25 for five) Smoked sardines on toast
  • Very crunchy thin slices of baguette generously topped with sardine.
  • Tastes like sardine (not the in-tomato-sauce canned ones) on toast. Pass.
Paella de la casa ($11 small or $22 large) House paella made with real Valencia rice
  • Dry -- All liquid apparently having evaporated, and it's seared onto the pan at the bottom and sides.
  • Generous with the non-rice items (chorizo, prawns, fish).
  • We saved the sauce from the Spicy Garlic Prawns to go with the rather dry rice.
Champiñones ($8.25) Mushrooms in sherry cream sauce
  • Really tasty sauce!
  • Mushrooms are mushrooms. I think they could be cut into smaller chunks so you get less boring mushroom taste and more sauce coating the mushrooms.
Special of the Day - Pata Negra wrapped Halibut Fillet with chanterelle mushrooms and truffle ($16)
  • Halibut portion approximately the volume of a pack of cigarettes.
  • Not shy with the truffle -- such that it almost overpowered everything else.
  •  At first I couldn't find the cured ham around the fish. Not a good sign.
Overall, I felt that most of the plates I tried ended up having one over-dominant flavour squashing other flavours, so you end up paying for quite a bit more than you really taste.

TIP: Single washroom with a red door is labelled "4U2P".

TIP: Go on hockey night. Usually it's really busy with a line-up even late a night, so go earlier on a hockey night when everyone is basically elsewhere. And when you're done and you've paid the bill, be considerate and vamoose because other people are waiting out in the cold for a seat.

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