Murray W.
Yelp
Looking to grab a bite and a drink before getting our board game on, I stopped at Temple Bar with my wife and a couple friends.
The sister restaurant to Chives and 2 Doors Down, the design is closer to that of 2DD. There's a mix of brick, cement pillars, and re-purposed wood tables, with a warm palette. All in all a pretty modern feel. A long bar dominates the relatively small room, with a handful of tables and another drinking rail running parallel to the bar.
The bar was pretty quiet, with just a couple tables occupied on Christmas Eve eve. We were seen to quickly, with our drink orders being taken after we took a minute to peruse their diverse list of drinks. I started off with the enticing Black Cherry Flip, which is made of bourbon, house cherry syrup, egg white foam, lemon juice and bitters. Served in a martini glass, it was a bit sweeter than I typically go for, but it went down quickly.
Round two was the comedically named Silent Treatment - made from a mix of rums, muddled pineapple, squeezed orange juice, and Propeller ginger beer. It had a nice tang to it, but was the pineapple was a bit too loud.
Their food menu is almost too lean, but has a few tempting options like meatballs, arancini, and spaghetti bolognaise. We ended up ordering a cheese plate and the mushroom arancini. The cheese plate had a generous spread of four cheeses, including a goat, aged cheddar, gouda, and blue, as well as baguette halves for spreading. The cheeses were really enjoyable, but the bread didn't come pre-cut and took a significant amount of sawing to cut slices off with the basic steak knife we were given.
The arancini was a big winner though. The mushroom risotto was creamy and had a great flavour, and contrasted nicely with the crisp crust. That wasn't it though, as it was served in a braised brisket sauce, which helped make up for the fact that there just one arancini.
Service was spot on and friendly.
From what I can tell Temple seems to be having some issues finding its niche in the Halifax food/bar scene, other than being a holding area for 2DD customers waiting for a table. However, the drinks are destination worthy and the food is good, if in need of some polishing in execution, and a dash more selection.