On the first evening of our recent Waterloo weekend getaway, we decided to have dinner uptown in a quiet part of town at the appropriately named Red House restaurant. This restaurant is the vision of the talented young local chef Dan McCowan who decided to create his first independent venture after spending many years perfecting his craft at various large chains.
(Photo courtesy of Red House Restaurant Website)
Inside we found the space to be very casual and homey and were seated in a lovely corner with a view. While deciding on the menu, to our pleasure, Chef Dan came to our table and we chatted about his career, influences and how the Red house came to be. He explained how important fresh local ingredients are to his menu and the close relationship he has with local purveyors and with his customers.
The menu has an interesting mix of cultures and tastes for everyone while the cocktail menu has some sophisticated and fun choices. Beer and Wine selections are simple yet well thought out and with the help of our very knowledgeable waitress we decided on these interesting dishes:
Smoked Cured Goose Prosciutto with Grilled Peach, Arugula, Fennel and Pistachio (Chef Dan prepared this for us though it was not on the menu. This was one of my favourites)
Cape Town Caesar: Crisp romaine, house-smoked bacon, cucumber, cherry tomato, white anchovies, hard-boiled egg, focaccia croutons, Grans Padano, garlic anchovy dressing
Polenta Bites: Fried Parmesan & rosemary polenta, house-made spicy ketchup, pickled vegetable slaw
Grilled Calamari: Green olive & sausage tomato ragout, brown butter (the ragout made this dish very unique)
Baked Lake Perch: Casper kale, quinoa, peaches, feta, toasted almonds, preserved lemon
Duck Two Ways: smoked duck leg sautéed with chanterelles, atomic green tomatoes, wild rice, seared duck breast and micro green salad (this was hubby’s favourite)
(photo courtesy of Red House Restaurant website) Broken Lemon Meringue Pie: Lemon curd, puff pastry shards, vanilla mousse & blueberry anise compote (this was so delicious – I love anything lemon)
With every one of these dishes, it was obvious how extremely fresh and vibrant the ingredients were and how well they were paired together. Chef Dan explained to us how he loves the freedom to change up the menu according to what freshest ingredients he can get and play with different combinations. This definitely makes the difference here and the choices he makes are simple yet work so well. The beauty of this style of cooking is that is a dish may be a little different or even better each time and personally I love that unexpected surprise of flavours.
We had a very outstanding meal here and were pleasantly surprised with the level of simple yet sophisticated preparation. Service was outstanding, the restaurant has a casual and exciting vibe, and its obvious by the customer satisfaction that Chef Dan has a very good thing going here. This is a must visit restaurant in Uptown Waterloo with great food in a friendly, cozy setting that will keep you coming back for more.
Thank you so much Chef Dan and Red House Restaurant for a wonderful dinner.
ga('create', 'UA-90955915-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');