Baker Street Station

Baker Street Station
76 Baker Street
Guelph, Ontario

519-265-7960

In her opinion:


It's been a while since we blogged about someplace local. So after doing our research on Urbanspoon we decided on Baker Street Station for brunch. I am really glad we did. I was thinking pub fare in Guelph, I wasn't thinking upscale foodie pub fare in Guelph. This place was awesome.


Unfortunately, the service was slower then I would have liked but the waitress explained that our bone marrow had not been successfully done so they were making a new one for us. This resulted in a rather timely delay but believe me it was worth it.


We ordered a couple of pints to start.  I had the Baker Street Brew. A nice light coloured beer with amazing flavour. We started by ordering a couple of items from their grazing menu. The "Bone Marrow" and the "Pork Rillette".  Both dishes came with thinly toasted croutons/bread and a small side salad.

The "Bone Marrow" was very delicious.  Very nicely done.  I really enjoy bone marrow and I am glad that the kitchen took it upon themselves to do this over for us.  I personally believe the wait was worth it.  The "Pork Rillette" was also very good.  It was classically done and tasted incredible.  These types of dishes are two of my favourites.

Pork Rillette

Bone Marrow

For my brunch main, I ordered the "Gypsy Eggs". Three eggs baked on top of pea and tomato ragout with chorizo sausage and fresh bread.  

This dish was so unbelievable. So good.  It reminded me of my mom's 'Peas with Eggs and Chourico stew" or "Ervilhas com Ovos e Chourico".  It was delicious.  I loved the ragout and the eggs were perfectly baked.  

I was very impressed with the caliber of the food. I was too full for dessert but the small dessert menu had a few personal favourites. I'm so glad that a place like this exists 20 minutes from home. Will definitely go back.

In his opinion:
Let me start by saying that I was pretty excited after checking out this place and its menu online. We made the short trip to Guelph in a gloomy, rainy day with expectations of a foodie experience beyond what is usually expected from this city.

Baker St. Station is an innovative take on a traditional English pub but with a twist on the usual pub grub. The menu reads as an up-scale bistro slightly bordering on fine dining ingredients and presentation. The portions resemble tapas and might not fill the very "hungry" customers but it serves just right as pub portions.

There are three separate menus (pictured below), the regular menu, the razing menu and the breakfast menu. The last two are available on the website and on chalkboards hanging on the Pub's walls.

We ordered a little from each menu, while picking some of our favourites like  "Pork Rillette", 'Bone Marrow" and "Poutine", that in this case was covered in short ribs. The food took its time to come out. After 20 minutes of waiting and watching clients at the next table that come after us, already eating their second dish, I must admit that I wasn't impressed with the service, at all.

Our waitress came to tell us that something had gone wrong with the bone marrow and that our food was going to take a little longer than expected. We told her that the marrow could come at the end if needed but we ended up getting all the items together, around 10 minutes after that.

The food is very good. All the dishes come well presented, hot and full of flavour.

The "Pork Rillette" was smooth, flavourful and served with toasted bread for spreading and arugula salad. The "Bone Marrow" was fatty, creamy and full of texture,  also served with toasted bread and some spices to sprinkle (smokey paprika, fleur de sel and coarse ground pepper).

For my main dish I ordered the "Short Rib Poutine". I had a craving for poutine since I came from holidays, one week ago and when I spotted it in the menu, it was a no brainer for me. It's your typical curds and gravy on crispy flavoured fries but with the added value of the short rib on top of the dish.

A simple dish, packed with flavour and served in an cast iron pot. The fries and gravy were perfect, some of the the curds weren't melted but tasted amazing even before I mixed the tender short ribs into them.

The Good: Great atmosphere and excellent food in a nice setting, topped with excellent beer selection and a menu created for foodies.
The Bad: The wait for the food is well reported on a lot of other reviews but ours was a little too much. If I wasn't so eager to try this restaurant, I would have paid for my beer and left. In the end it was worth it.
The Verdict: I recommend this restaurant for anyone looking for up-scale food in a pub setting. The flavours, textures and presentation scream fine dining but without the pretentiousness found in some establishments. Great place for any time of the day and especially for patrons with a champagne taste and beer budget.

I give it a 3 1/2 olives out of 5 as rating