Sherman's Food Adventures: Sports Bar
Showing posts with label Sports Bar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports Bar. Show all posts

Burger Bender @ Match Eatery & Public House (Delta)

There are many things I look forward to each year.  These include Summer holidays (and usually a trip somewhere), taking off my winter rims and switching to Summer rims, Birthday dinner(s) and Match's Burger Bender (from Jan 16th to Feb 23rd) .  Wait.  Really???  Yes, as I've said many times, I enjoy the burgers at Match (also their wings) and I honestly look forward to their new burger creations every year.  This time around, they have 5 offerings with 2 hold-overs and one that has been voted by customers as the best for 2 years - the French Onion Big Dipper.

So let's talk about the French Onion Big Dipper first as it is also my favourite as well!  That might shock some people since they know my aversion to raw onions.  If you know me well, I actually don't mind onions, when they are cooked right.  For this burger, they are completely caramelized and for the ones in the dip, they are super delicious and add depth and sweetness.  The burger itself features their thick moist patty that is evenly seared.  This adds nuttiness and smokiness.  They put a large breaded onion ring into it as well as melted slices of Swiss.  The key to this burger is the French onion soup dip on the side.  It is not overly salty and has all of the rich flavors of sweet onion.  One dunk of the burger and the toasted brioche soaks it up and it becomes a flavor bomb of umaminess.  Delicious.

Now for the other returning burger, it is the Mighty Mushroom.  This is a pretty classic mushroom burger with the same 6oz chuck beef smashed patty.  It is not the thin type of patty you might be thinking of as it is thick and plenty juicy inside.  However, it does have the crispy edges of a typical smash patty.  I find that they properly season the meat while not making it super salty, so you can taste the meatiness.  They top this patty with sauteed crimini and button mushrooms along with Boursin cheese.  As you can imagine, this is plenty strong with bursts of umaminess.  A touch of dijonnaise helps add a bit of zing to keep things from being too bogged down with heaviness.

One of the new burgers that I think will be a fan favourite is the Crispy Chicken Bacon Mac & Cheese.  Yes, that is quite the mouthful and in fact, literally as well.  It is hard to fit this thing into my mouth!  The base of this burger is the fried chicken breast which I'm happy to report is moist and not dry.  The batter is relatively thin, properly seasoned and crispy.  Topped that off with crispy smoky bacon and some non-offensive mac n' cheese, we have a tasty concoction.  Now let me clarify what I mean by "non-offensive".  Sometimes, when people shove more carbs into a carb heavy sandwich already, it bogs everything down.  They put just enough of it that you know it is there without thinking you are actually eating the dish.

Okay, when I first looked at the Mr. Rib, it gave me some McRib vibes.  However, it is nothing like the McD's versions as the piece of rib is actually pork ribs without the bones!  So no formed ground pork patty here, it is real meat. Furthermore, it is tender fall-off-the-bone meat (hence no bone) which is very easy to eat and a bit smoky.  I think a bit more tangy and smoky BBQ sauce is needed to give it that messy deliciousness.  There are the obligatory sliced onions and pickles to give some bite and zing to the heaviness of the pork.  As much as the toasted bun is fine, I think a softer roll is necessary to keep the sandwich from being too dense.

Lastly, the Brooklyn Deli is really a burger with a corned beef sandwich surrounding it.  So same 6oz patty with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss on an "everything bagel" brioche bun.  This is pretty solid with the corned beef sammie vibes coming through.  I think that it needs more corned beef because it got a bit lost in the smoky meatiness of the charred burger patty.  Otherwise, still very good, especially with some mustard!  So there you have it, another year of Burger Bender with the excellent French Onion Big Dipper and Mighty Mushroom.  I think the best of the new ones is the Crispy Chicken Bacon Mac & Cheese.  That is a massive burger which is hits all of the high notes.  Get them before February 23rd!  Oh get some wings too, they are great as well!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- The French Onion Big Dipper
- Crispy Chicken Bacon Mac & Cheese
- For the sides, get the Breaded Onion Rings or Tater Tots!

The Bad:

- Maybe the bun could be softer for the Mr. Rib
- More corned beef for the Brooklyn Deli?

Match Eatery & Public House Delta (Game Day Wings)

You've probably heard me yammering on about how good the wings are at Match Eatery all the time.  Sure, you might chalk that up to me being invited to eat there every now and then.  Well, for those who read this blog often, they will know that I put my money where my mouth is!  I've dined just as many times at Match on my own coin because I genuinely like the place!  So when they invited me out to try their Game Day Wings menu, they didn't have to ask twice!!!

So you can get this menu on "NFL game days" as the name suggests.  We were here for a Sunday morning to catch the football action and to enjoy the wings!   The first one I'll discuss is a favourite of mine in the Nashville Hot Spiced.  Now, this time around, they toned down the spice with less dry rub.  For me, I would ask for more of it, but I get that they have to appeal to a wider audience.  So, if you eat it like I do, you will get some sweet heat to go with the pickles.  If you can take spice, highly recommend you ask for more rub!

One of their new flavours is the Buffalo Blues featuring a hot sauce laced with real blue cheese.  Normally, the dip on the side is the blue cheese, but in this case, it was garlic ranch dip.  Hence, the blue cheese pungency was all in the real chunks of cheese.  The hot sauce itself was mild with some tanginess.  The wings themselves were not dry and the skin was completely rendered and crispy.  Instead of carrot and celery sticks, we found matchstick versions.

One of my favourites of this tasting was the What's the Dill Yo?  This featured crispy wings tossed in dill pickle seasoning.  Hence, the wings were tangy and mildly salty.  There was also some sweetness.  To drive the point home in terms of impact, we found sour dill pickles and dill pickle chips.  If that wasn't enough flavour bomb for us, we also dipped everything into the spicy dill dip.  This was like a chunky tartar sauce that had a kick.  Would love this on my fish sandwich!

The absolutely most tasty dish was the Rising Sun Togarashi with a soy drizzle that was both sweet, salty and tangy while accented by the aromatic sesame seeds.  This was perfectly complimented by the creamy and sweet nori-kewpie mayo.  This had some vibes related to a blast from the past in the Thai wings from Milestone's in their heyday.  Definitely a must order and it really does the Asian fusion justice in its flavour profile and execution. 

Last wing creation was the Stadium Nacho with wings tossed in taco seasoning and served with a nacho cheese sauce topped with salsa.  We also found some tortilla chips and pickled jalapenos.  So this was essentially nachos with some chicken.  However, this worked as a the flavour profile was cohesive.  I enjoyed dipping both the wings and chips into the nacho cheese.  The taco seasoning was definitely there but not enough to make things salty.

So if you see in the background, we also had a the Game Day Beer in the Gridiron 24oz Budweiser for a great price of $10.50!  You can have this as a Bud Light for the same price.  It was served ice cold and naturally went well with the wings.  I think it particularly paired best with the hot wings and taco wings.  For those who can't finish so much beer, there is an $8.00 option for a 16oz.  But honestly, go for the 24oz, it is a better deal!

We ended up ordering a few more items including the Blackened Chicken Sandwich with Jack cheese, crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion and house mayo.  This was fantastic as the chicken was truly blackened giving off nutty smokiness.  At the same time, the meat was still moist and tender.  Crispy bacon and melted cheese added texture and more flavour.  It was served on a perfectly toasted potato roll.  

We also had our usual in the Game, Set, Match... Burger with all the same fixin's as well as pickles on toasted brioche.  As per usual, the smashed beef patty was nicely seared while still moist and tender.  The bacon was crispy, so each bite wasn't a struggle (with flabby bacon).  Also, the texture was appealing.  The brioche bun was soft, but toasted enough to hold everything together.  We got the side of breaded onion rings and they were great!  

Since we were there during brunch, our dessert was the Sweet French Toast Bites.  We've had this dish before, but this time around, it was perfect!  The cubes of brioche were crispy on the outside (while not being greasy) and the inside was still soft and fluffy.  They tasted great on their own with aroma, but the side of Kentucky Bourbon Caramel Dip was money.  So rich and sweet.  Another tasty visit to Match and we overloaded on the wings.  Not a bad thing to happen to us!  Come for the games on the big screens and order the wings as well as some inexpensive beer!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- New wing flavours are great, especially the Rising Sun and What's the Dill Yo?
- Great beer special for the 24oz
- The rest of the food is great too, especially the burgers

The Bad:
- Not really a bad, but you'll have to ask for more rub on the Nashville wings because the new version doesn't have enough

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