Vina T.
Yelp
As it's known for it, I had to get the Chicken Pot Pie and my fiancé got the French Dip. Both of us had the side salad with their basalmic dressing.
I don't typically have many expectations for dishes like Chicken Pot Pie from a restaurant. It's not an overly difficult dish to make, there's only a handful of ingredients and either you can make it well, it or it's edible. Rarely can you mess it up too badly and even less rare, can you make something that is absolutely phenomenal and goes directly to the top of my "must have every single time" list.
I was blown away from the first bite! From its flakiness, to the flavour and its density; the crust was perfect! Then moving to the inside each bite had the perfect amount of chicken and gravy and the flavour of everything was amazing. Every bite of the dish worked together excellently!
I rarely order French Dips at restaurants. I am more often than not, disappointed. Bread of some sort (often french bread), meat of sort (usually shaved ribeye or roast beef), cheese of some sort, occasionally onions and lastly the au jus, are typically the ingredients that make up a French Dip. While not overly complicated ingredients, I usually find these get messed up more often than not. You can have one, two, three, or four things all done well, and then the fifth doesn't turn out well, or any mix and match combo of those numbers. The bread might be too thick and not enough ingredients with it, or the meat is entirely too dry, or the au jus is just a watery, flavourless dip. I've never found a French Dip that impressed me; until tonight!
The French Bread was very well done. It didn't just crumble as soon as you took a bite or dipped it into the au jus. The ribeye was cooked perfectly, had amazing flavour and was juicy throughout. Each bite had the perfect layer or bread, meat and cheese. And the au jus! Wow! It's the first time I've ever came across a gravy style au jus for French Dip and let me just say again, WOW! It tied the sandwich together perfectly! If I go back and don't get the Chicken Pot Pie, I will easily get the French Dip!
Lastly, the side salad and the house basalmic dressing... Like our other two dishes, this one also was excellent! The salad was fresh, had a great balance of ingredients and the dressing was phenomenal! Be warned, a little goes a LONG way!
The ambiance of the restaurant was very nice. Lighting was good, flow was nice. Felt a little tight as I had to squeeze past some tables and the bar when I got seated and was leaving, but otherwise not bad.
It is VERY RARE I give 5 stars, and tonight is no exception. The meal itself I'd easily give 5 stars to, but the service gets a few dings, so I can't give Ginger and Baker 5 stars, but a very close 4.8 stars. Overall, we'd both easily highly recommend this place if you still haven't been, and I have no doubt we both will go back again!
My dings for service were easy things. A customers water / drink should NEVER be empty. EVER. Even if you're getting the bill, one should be asked if they want more water. Mine sat empty twice. The second time it didn't even get filled. This is hands down my biggest pet peeve at a restaurant.
Next, ALWAYS ask if they want desert, especially if you make killer deserts!! Pie here was $7 + $2 for ice cream = $9. Dinner was $42. 20% on $42 = $8 give or take. 20% on 51 = $10. $2 extra per table. It's not a ton, but it all adds up. Upsell, upsell, upsell! For our server: WE WANTED desert! We had never been here and it immediately stood out to us but you immediately dropped off the check. No check in, no question if we wanted anything else. Check and left my water empty. Left a very bad taste in my mouth after a previously amazing dinner.