#LunchKingston: Grizzly Delivers the Goods

Deceiving from the façade, The Grizzly Grill at 395 Princess Street surprises and delights customers as they walk through the front door. The space exudes an elegant, yet rustic charm with soaring ceilings and a majestic staircase that beacons one to climb to the second floor. Deep seated booths, and an open kitchen with a wood burning pizza oven round off the first welcoming impressions as you enter the main foyer.
As customers stroll to the back of the restaurant it evolves into an old world club setting with a significant fireplace, lounge chairs and the “must have” gleaming dark wood bar. For the fall season, this a perfect gathering spot for group lunches or post work soirees.
I had a chance to try their new lunch menu. It highlights many local producers in the region.
The restaurant is committed to using regional suppliers and celebrate and promote them on their menus, walls and website. The menu caters to a wide variety of dietary preferences, which is key today with more people choosing gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian items. Head Chef, Ryan Pitt, incorporates a lot of bold flavours and textures, giving the consumer a number of great taste combinations to try.

On the appetizer front, I was delighted to try my first deep fried red beet fries, served with roasted garlic basil aioli – a great alternative to the typical sweet potato variety. Other unique starters include braised short rib poutine with double smoked bacon and roasted garlic demi-glaze, plus their popular baked chicken wings served with an apple honey bbq or a maple black pepper sauce.

On salads, they offer more than just greens. I sampled their quinoa salad with a refreshing homemade tomato vinaigrette and plump grilled chicken, roasted corn and arugula. Other tempting salads to try are their new steak and avocado salad and a spiced potato salad with blackened potatoes, pork belly, aioli, and grilled peppers tossed in a basil and garlic sour cream dressing.

Also on the menu for lunch is a wide variety of pizzas, burgers and unique sandwich combinations – it was difficult to choose. I finally decided on the fried chicken sandwich. How could one resist a crispy breast, topped with buffalo mozzarella, sambal aioli, tomato relish and fried pork belly? Other notable sandwiches include porchetta on a spaccatelli roll – a wood fired sun dried tomato stuffed pork belly with prosciutto and onions crisps or a bacon jam beef burger with fried mozzarella. All menus are available for viewing on their website.
While this establishment has been around for a couple of decades, the Grizzly Grill remains fresh and relevant to today’s food savvy customers. Definitely worth a visit!