Murray Street

$$$

My husband and I have a tradition that the day we get home from a holiday, we go out for dinner to decompress. Last night we did so at Murray Street restaurant. We sat on their back patio which was beautiful. It was nestled in a pergola with grape vines and after the sun set the dim lights were very relaxing. I immediately started to get excited as I read the menu. They have three sections to their menu, small plates, large plates, and the section that makes them so unique, the charcuterie menu. They use regional and seasonal ingredients in their dishes which is even more exciting, and also have a selection of regional micro-breweries and Canadian wines; however, upon their recommendation we went with a Californian wine, the Waterstone Pinot Noir - dry and light. We started off with 3 meats and 2 cheeses from their charcuterie bar menu. We had the Smoked Ostrich from the slicer, Venison-hazelnut from the terrines and the Elk Liver-brandy from the pate. For cheese we had St. Benoit Benedictin from the blue section and Indiscretion from the semi soft. Our blue cheese selection was not too strong for a blue cheese and the semi soft one was very flavourful. For the meats, you have to get the Smoked Ostrich, that was my favorite, but the terrine and pate were equally delicious. As I was eating all of this I was thinking they would definitely get a 4 star rating for sure, these meats and cheeses were so delicious I didn't want my meal to end. Unfortunately tho, the small plates we ordered, although very good, didn't meet the standard that the charcuterie items did. They were slightly bland in comparison. We shared 2 small plates, the BLT, which is an in-house smoked St. Canut porcelait belly with North Gore tomatoes and basil on toast and the Wild Sockeye, in-house smoked salmon, cucumber salad and pickled mushrooms with goat cheese. The service was good, had our server not been so busy it may have been great, but I think she got a lot of tables in at once. The prices are reasonable for what you're getting too. The charcuterie plate was $25, the two small plates came to about that amount as well. Our wine at $65 brought the total up and we finished off with a vintage port and long espresso. I'll definitely be back again, even if only for the charcuterie menu.

www.murraystreet.ca