Fort Pub & Grill

As of late, I haven't been heading out to Langley for eats for some reason or another.  Yes, I do not live in Langley and in fact, I'm on the other side of the Port Mann.  A more important factor is that I haven't made it out to visit friends out that way either.  They are still my friends...  I hope...  Whatever the case, I made it a point to meet up with Hot Mama and some friends at the Fort Pub & Grill located near the train tracks in historic Fort Langley.  Yah, we really went that far to meet up with Hot Mama...  She'd better appreciate this!

I decided to get a the classic Salt & Pepper Wings which ranged from small pieces to really large ones.  Despite the variance in size, they did a good job with the deep-fry as the exterior was uniformly crispy while the inside was still juicy.  This was rather impressive since the wings didn't seemed to be the beneficiary of any brine.  All the flavour was from the toss of salt and pepper after-the-fact.  For my main, I had the Bedford Burger with an Angus beef patty, sunny side fried egg, sauteed mushrooms, onions, smoky bacon, apple wood smoked cheddar, house mayo, lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickles.  This was definitely a 6-napkin burger if not more.  The egg was perfectly runny while the meat was moist and well-charred.  I loved the soft brioche bun that was still able to hold in all of the ingredients.  The side of fries were crispy and well-salted.

Miss Y had the Steamed Mussels in a creamy white wine broth.  They were fairly large and plump while cooked just enough. The modest amount of sauce was impactful where it was well-seasoned and lightly creamy. The wine was rather mild and had been completely cooked down.  For a pub, this was completely unexpected, but impressive nonetheless.

On another visit (also meeting up with Hot Mama), I decided to start with the Poutine.  It was a rather large portion doused in a considerable amount of thick, meaty gravy.  It didn't taste particularly typical, rather it was more like a gravy one would find with a veal cutlet.  No matter, I liked it as well as the legit cheese curds.  The fries were pretty pedestrian though being thin, not crispy enough and dry.  But the gravy solved that problem.  I also had the Cottage Pie which was also well-portioned.  The beef, carrot, peas and onion mixture was pretty tasty with tender meat and well-developed flavours.  I found the mash potato topping to be a bit plain where some more cream and/or butter would've made it fluffier.

CeeCee (formerly known as DeeDee...) went for the Roast Poblano & Crab Dip featuring roasted poblano pepper, mascarpone cheese and crab served warm with fresh baguette and Parmesan crusted naan bread.  We found the dip to be thick, creamy and a bit salty.   The lemon wedge on top was really necessary in brightening up the heaviness.  Although hardly a real naan bread, it was cheesy and soft though. It was a Bacon Cheeseburger for Zamboni Guy as he has doesn't venture far from the regular.  Unlike my Bedford Burger, this one was overdone and dry.  Bacon was crispy though.  From these 2 visits, it appears that consistency might be an issue, but if you hit it on the right day, Fort Pub offers up decent eats in Fort Langley.

The Good:
- The solarium portion of the restaurant is great for a sunny day
- Food is decent
- Service is not bad

The Bad:
- Inconsistency
- Lack of parking