There's potential here, but it needs to be realized.

A5

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

1 Comment(s)

Abby's Home Cooking & Donair is located at 236 St. George Street (basement side door) on the corner with Archibald Street. It offers up home cooking in the form of platters, sandwiches, pastries and more for both breakfast and lunch. Info: 854-2221.

Husky E's Verdict:

It's easy to miss Abby's Home Cooking & Donair. I've lived in Moncton for many years and never noticed the location, although from what I gather it hasn't been there too long.

Near the corner of Archibald and St. George streets, you have to walk down a set of stairs off street level to get there. It felt like walking into a basement or subway. Inside, though, was a pleasant little eatery.

I was hoping we found something special here, but our visit didn't get off to a good start. We came in, seated ourselves and weren't acknowledged by any staff for about five minutes. There was only one other table occupied at this point.

Fortunately, menus were already on the table, but I didn't need one. I came here for a donair.

When our waiter finally appeared, I ordered a large donair ($5.99), as well as a Caesar salad ($3.50) and can of pop.

Abby's seemed to appeal to the lunch crowd "" many people were coming and going during our visit "" so I was surprised when we didn't receive our food for a good 30-35 minutes. Not bad for a higher class restaurant on a night out, but obviously not for a quick lunch.

When our meals finally came, I wasn't impressed. My donair was rough looking. The meat was cut up in large and thick chunks, some of it was burnt pretty badly and wasn't enjoyable to eat. It came with lettuce, tomatoes and donair sauce on a very thin pita that was mangled in no time.

The donair meat, which was slightly spicy, had a different taste and texture than what I'm used to. I guess it's all subjective, but I didn't enjoy this donair at all, even though I'm usually a huge fan of all things donair. On top of all that, my "large" donair wasn't actually all that big.

I also ordered a Caesar salad and it was just as disappointing. There were no croutons and the romaine lettuce wasn't crisp. It was wet and soggy; the kind of lettuce that looks like it could have been in a fridge for a few days. It left a bad taste in my mouth, literally.

The service also left something to be desired. It appeared our waiter was the only person working the dining room, handling take out orders and working the cash during this lunch hour. Surely it wasn't his fault, but it did make for a long lunch.

This was a disappointing meal, no question about it. Abby's did seem like a popular spot and maybe there are better meals to choose from, but I'm not sure I'll be coming back. I give Abby's a 4.5 out of 10.

Heavy T's

Verdict:

I wanted to love this place, I really did. Unfortunately though, for some of the flashes of brilliance it showed there were equal parts huge disappointment.

As Husky already stated it took a while to get served and the one waiter there seemed to be running ragged. More staff could be a huge benefit to this place.

I guess the charm of Abby's is that everything is home cooked. You won't find anything prepackaged or tossed in a microwave here and that level of care and dedication is to be admired.

I went with a Monte Cristo sandwich that came with onion rings and salad ($8.25)

The Monte Cristo wasn't too bad, with an almost French toast like grilled bread and generous helpings of ham, turkey and cheese.

What really was the star of this meal though were the onion rings. As I said, they appeared freshly made and had a great batter to onion mixture and a different texture than traditional French fries. I give the thumbs up here. The salad was nothing special and was actually quite small. The waiter asked me shortly after we were served if I wanted some dressing, but then he got caught up in his many other table duties and forgot to bring it. Oh well.

I actually got to try some of Husky's donair too, since he was actively trying to get me to eat it. Usually when we eat hs is keeping a close eye on me and jabbing with me his fork if I get too close to his meal.

The donair meat was certainly unusual and not what one would expect. I think it would be best described as gristly meat loaf. Unfortunately, for a place that has the word donair in their name, these babies didn't deliver. Anyone looking for a classic Maritime donair should look elsewhere.

The strange thing is despite our disappointment with the meal, I get the feeling that if you ordered the right meal it could be dynamite here with the attention to detail and home cooking aspect. They serve breakfast too and that's probably a better bet than what we had.

Abby's has potential, but the potential certainly wasn't realized this time around.

I give the restaurant a 6 out of 10.

Have a comment, question or suggestion? E-mail thetwofatguys@gmail.com