Selena C.
Yelp
I'll start off by saying I like Respect is Burning. I thank god it exists in Sudbury. There's not a lot of places you can go in this city for a beef carpaccio and that it exists downtown, in the heart of the city (although I'm not entirely if sure the two are synonymous anymore) is a definite bonus. I've been to Verdicchio's, it's sister restaurant and enjoyed it as well, but it's out on Kelly Lake Rd and besides, it's a little too fancy for a single diner like myself. RIB is a place you can go dressed down without the danger of being penned in between couples celebrating their anniversary nights decked out in their Sunday best. They have a long cocktail list with reasonable prices so I could even see going for a before or after-dinner drink at the bar.
The menu is Italian. It's not hugely inventive but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The pasta dishes appear to come in healthy servings. Wanting something on the lighter side, I ordered the beef carpaccio and the mushroom bruschetta. The beef was perfect, nicely arranged on a small pile of baby arugula (not baby spinach as the menu says). It was drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. My only complaint was that it was sprinkled with a pinch of grated parmigiana. When it comes to a dish this simple, you don't mess with the key components. Shave the parmigiana. It's not supposed to be decorative.
The Deep Woods Bruschetta consisted of button mushrooms, fried in butter, I think, and piled onto toasted slices of bread generously spread with mascarpone cheese. Delicious. The portion size was a bit big for one person but perfect for sharing.
The wine selection by the glass was shameful considering that this is an Italian restaurant. Only one red and one of white was available. I didn't look at the bottle selection since I was dining alone.
The prices are on par with some of the Toronto restaurants I frequent which made me do a double take, particularly when I glanced at the pizza menu. For dishes over twenty dollars I'm looking for quality over quantity, and with pizza it had better be blow-my-mind good.
That said, I'll return and I'd recommend it if you're looking for something outside the Deluxe Drive Through experience. Not that there's anything wrong with that.