Ada L.
Yelp
Bridgette Bar located at The Well near Front/Spadina serves up seasonal dishes with fresh and local ingredients where the menu is chef-driven. Hailing from Calgary, the menu is divided into sharables, pizzas, pastas, and larger mains. There is also an extensive wine, cocktail, beer, and non-alcoholic drink menu as well. They have a great happy hour deal (daily from 2-5pm) where cocktails are half off and menu items are discounted. If you sit in the lounge area on the main floor they have additional happy hour deals which run all night long. The main dining hall, which is located on the second floor, is big where it is suitable for groups or small parties. The space is accessible where there is an elevator available for use to access the 2nd floor.
Recently dined at Bridgette Bar on a Friday night. Our party of 4 made sure to make reservations ahead of time. The place was pretty busy the whole night. The lighting can be a bit dim so you may have a hard time reading your menu depending on where you sit. Seating is comfortable and the space is big.
Service wise, our waitress was friendly where she offered recommendations and made us feel welcome.
In terms of food, I ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc, the garlic bread (with cheese curds) to share, and a shrimp and calamari pasta (radiatori, pine nuts, capers) for my main. We also shared the banana pie (coffee, pretzel, rum caramel). Food and drinks came at a reasonable time. We never felt rushed during our meal.
The garlic bread was a pillowy bite of cheesy goodness where there was cheese inside the bread as well as on top of the bread. My pasta was a bit of a letdown. Pasta was a bit overcooked where it wasn't al dente and I felt that the pasta was swimming in sauce (there was a lot of sauce left over when I finished my plate). Felt like the pasta dish also needed some salt and the combination of the seafood with the capers didn't work for me. Also, the shrimps in the dish were all baby shrimps where the calamari was cut up into really small pieces. I did enjoy the sprinkle of breadcrumbs on the pasta though as it added an additional textural component to the overcooked pasta.
Lastly, the banana pie was great for sharing, however a bit too sweet for my liking. I also didn't taste much banana flavour in the pie but I enjoyed the crust of the pie which added a nice crunch to the whole dessert.
At the end of the meal we felt like we were rushed out of the restaurant as if our time was up. The waitress just gave us our bills when we had not even asked for them. Another staff came by with the credit card machine expecting that we were ready to pay.
Overall, a good place to share many dishes where the space is able to host larger parties. Food wise, I didn't find anything special about what we ordered and likely will not be returning.