Tempest Lounge

*Restaurant is now closed*

Here we go. Back to the regular routine of heading out for eats after Friday Night Hockey. After doing a somewhat "last resort" visit to Breka Bakery last week due to an 11:00pm game, we were in search of something more substantial this time around. At first, we attempted to go to the Kozmik Zoo (which was formerly Hennessy), but that idea was quashed quickly due to a massive crowd inside. We couldn't figure out why it was so busy... So the only option for non-Asian eats nearby that I could quickly think of was Tempest Lounge (formerly Tempest Steakhouse). Sure, there were other places nearby, but I had recently visited all of them! Too early to do a revisit...

As implied in its namesake, Tempest is a lounge-type restaurant, so food is not necessarily their main focus. Thus, the menu is quite simple and limited. As such, Mr. Blueberry and Sweet Tooth both had the Steak Sandwich (because it was hard to not have duplicates) which they both enjoyed. The steak was cooked medium-rare as they requested and was relatively tender. The sauteed mushrooms and onions were flavourful with a proper amount of caramelization. Although they liked the crispy fries, we would've liked to see a better attempt than Cavandish from Costco. They could've done a better job with the bun though, which was of the generic sesame variety. For myself, a steak sandwich wasn't enough, instead I went for the 10oz Top Sirlion Steak with fully stuffed baked potato and creamed corn. The steak looked bigger than 10oz and was cooked roughly medium-rare. It was fairly moist and tender considering it was not one of the premium cuts of meat. It was seasoned properly and nicely charred. The baked potato was surprisingly good considering we were there for late night. It was soft and required very little effort to eat. The creamed corn was quite watery and that was slightly off-putting. However, I thought it tasted decent with a cream flavour and the pop of sweet corn.

Milhouse had his ol' standby being the Cheeseburger. Well... It was a cheeseburger. The meat was nicely charred and not too overdone. Gadget Girl surprisingly had the Veggie Burger (she is a meat lover) and she actually liked it. I'm thinking that they don't make their own veggie patties here, so it was probably supplied by Yves Veggie or something like that. Whatever the case, it was moist and flavourful. In the end, most of the food - other than the steaks - was probably supplied by Sysco, GFS or merely purchased at costco. Therefore, the one thing I can comment on is execution. In that case, I would give them a passing grade since nothing was particularly wrong. With fairly reasonable prices, Tempest is an option for those wanting a side of food with their drinks.

The Good:
- Most items are reasonably-priced
- Food is alright considering the focus of the restaurant
- Service is pretty decent, if not a touch sparse

The Bad:
- Not the most spacious of seats in the middle section
- Food is not the main reason you come here