The Crooked Goose Bistro is a bit of a crapshoot, with some original takes on foods and some classics that leave much to be desired.
The Goose can be found near Camosun College’s Interurban Campus, at the intersection of Interurban and Wilkinson: that god-awful one that backs up in every direction every morning and afternoon; it’s terrible and I hate it. But I digress; the Crooked Goose Bistro is a place I have been meaning to go to for quite some time; it’s right near where I go to school, after all! So, I made a work event out of it for us college and near-college types from my office and ended up going with two of the lovely ladies I work with.
Once inside we were quickly seated and brought some water and menus. The inside was quite nice, brightly lit from the large windows up front. It had a very modern feel to it. I was a bit disappointed to see there was no goose on the menu, though. Perhaps I took the name of the restaurant too literally. As we waited around for the waitress to come back, I noticed that the restaurant seemed quite slow, despite the completely gridlocked traffic outside. I wondered if that incessant traffic helps or hurts business.
We ordered the Bacon and Blue Cheese Poutine as a shared starter and my coworkers ordered a pizza. I went with my industry standard, a simple beef burger called the Goose Burger. Oddly enough, of five or so burgers on the menu, it was one of the only non-pork burgers; this probably should have been a tip-off, in retrospect.
The poutine was fantastic, though a glob of blue cheese caused me to make some interesting facial expressions, to the delight of my companions. The gravy was good, real bacon, great fries, lots of cheese curds, and the blue cheese added an interesting element on its own.
Our mains arrived and we dug in. I was anything but impressed with what I got. The burger was quite small, dry, unappetizing, and, in general, just did not taste good. I didn’t really want to finish eating it (although I still did, for the record).
Luckily for me, my coworkers lack my gastral fortitude and shared the pizza with me, which was actually really good; it sported a medium-thick crust, quality toppings, crispy on the outside, and a little bit of chew on the inside. As pizzas go, it was a bit small, I’d say, but was made of quality ingredients.
So what can I say about the Crooked Goose Bistro? That burger was really bad; a lesson learned in not picking one of the only items with beef on a menu that mostly features pork. But because they feature so much pork, I would be very interested to revisit them and see how they do it. The pizza was good and their unique twist on the much-loved Canadian classic poutine was great.
A mixed review, but I’d say give the Crooked Goose a try, but for all things good and holy, don’t order the beef burger, and don’t go during rush hour.