Boston Pizza - Regent: 4.1/5

BP's Prime Rib Burger
Platter: $11.95
Score: 4.0

Double Bacon Whiskey BBQ
Platter: $12.95
Score: 4.3

Mushroom Swiss Burger
Platter: $12.95
Score: 2.8

Our waitress stole the show at Burger Club this week. She had that native Transconian humour that just can't be faked no matter how many pink flamingos you plant on your front lawn. The table was all setup for our group when we arrived and $Kathy (that’s how it was on her name tag) took our drink orders as we sat down. Once we told her we weren't going to wait for the dawdlers - "How rude!" she said – she took our table's food orders quickly. She was very fast - mostly because she didn't write anything down or repeat anything back. We took bets on whether any of us would get what we ordered but she remembered it all!

The food arrived fairly quickly. She was quite busy serving a number of tables and if you didn't tackle her as she went by, she wasn't stopping for trivial things like extra serviettes and drink refills. If you caught her eye, she was quick though. Sign language and making faces worked best and pointing at my glass got me a "What are you up to?" followed by a fresh ice tea a few minutes later. Several diners from the west end of the table had seemingly conflicting reviews “The waitress was great but the service was slow.” They were politely waiting for her to check on drinks rather than tripping her as she ran by. That’ll learn ya.

The burgers were served open faced and two things immediately stood out – the big slice of real cheddar cheese and the ludicrous amounts of bacon. Dani observed the “Burger was beautiful! The BBQ sauce made the patty glisten.” Stan commented “The Jack Daniels sauce and the bacon made this a great burger for my taste.” I couldn’t distinguish the meat patty through the sauce but Karen said “It was like roast beef - in a burger patty! Yummy, although on the salty side. Four thumbs up!” For me, the plentiful bacon was undercooked and difficult to bite through. The romaine was bitter as it was snapped off close to the core and the winter tomato was quite cold. The biggest detraction was the bun though – it was hard and cold. We’ve had fresher ingredients - any of the cafés we’ve dined at come to mind - but BP’s burger did come with a nice thick prime rib beef patty. I don’t think they were forming patties in the kitchen though – they were quite uniform.

Karen liked hers: “Excellent flavour - lotsa burger and toppings. The burger had a nice big slab of cheese which I could taste all the way through the burger.”

Nelson had structural issues: “Burger held together, except my burger patty snapped in half even before I started eating it.”


Russ’ was messy: “It was a two napkin burger and I only had one.”

April had the Mushroom Swiss Burger and said “I have had burgers with more flavour. This one was meh.”

The Fries were lacking and gravy was chicken, not beef. Dani tried a bowl of cream of cauliflower soup and said it was "Very yummy.”

Karen said “Salad was just the right amount, although a little heavy on the dressing - Caesar. Fresh parmesan topping.”

It was a big burger but fairly pricey at $13.95 for a bacon-cheeseburger platter. Kari commented “As per usual – I did not finish my burger and there was no Cary or Omega-Russ to finish it for me. I was Russless in Transcona."

When it came time to separating out the bills, our waitress told us “we only had one chance to get it right or it was like the Wheel of Fortune and you'll have to wait 72 hours before they can be redone." I don’t actually understand that. She came out with a tray full of wireless machines when it came time for payment and concluded with a cheery “Spank you." Awesome. When feeding plastic into the terminal the waitress asked Russ to "Whip it out”. April noted “We joked about it and she actually dared him to Whip it out!"

On a side note, when we first came in from outside I noticed a slight, unidentifiable odour in the restaurant. Me, being me, asked the waitress what smelled. She said "You can smell that?", shook her head, muttered and walked off much to the shock and dismay of Karen who thought our food would now be tampered with. It turns out that only 3 days before, someone had left ribs baking in the oven for 26 hours which were subsequently incinerated to ash. “We cremated a pig!” They'd had the carpets and booths cleaned and spent $70 on Febreze but a faint smell still remained. Within minutes I wasn’t aware of it so it certainly didn’t detract from our meal. Nelson commented “I don't recommend ordering the pork ribs for a few weeks.”


We all wiggled when the group shot was being taken