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Editorial Review

Reviewed in May/June '05 issue of WHERE

For nine years, Star Grill has been this city’s tiny restaurant with the big location. Acting as mediator between the tranquility of its across-the-street neighbour, Assiniboine Park, and bustling Portage Avenue, this 12-table spot is busy noon and night. Shirley Vlassie runs the show, a woman who, like her restaurant, is both small and incredibly high in energy. Ian Morrison and Reid Edwards are the resident fortune tellers, prophetic men who have created a keen following.

As small as it is, there is nothing diminutive about the decor. The room is positively crammed with stars: they hang from the ceiling, they’re painted on the walls, and a tree stands in the middle literally choked by them. But softening the jumble are blue and red linens and silver valences that weave across the ceiling. In the summer and on warm spring days, tables and chairs sit outside on the sidewalk, allowing you to watch roller-blading Winnipeggers glide into the city’s largest green space.

Chef Brian Lapointe’s menu is a fusion of Asian, Mediterranean and down-home continental dishes. Many of these dishes have a high “taste sensation” factor, with the entire flavour spectrum often covered in one bite. Echoing this multi-flavour standard, Star’s plate presentation is also dramatic and creative, with sprigs of rosemary, rice cracker baskets, and flowers of lotus root making the plates pop.

Ben’s Chinese Combo, served only on Fridays between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm, is a popular lunch draw. This ever-changing special is always made up of five different items. In the center of the dish is a bowl-shaped mound of rice, which can be surrounded by chow mein with a pink and syrupy Cantonese sauce; a doughy and deep-fried black Thai rice roll; diced veggies with cashews; and a hoisin tinfoil chicken, a chicken breast doused in a puddle of hoisin and oyster sauce and twisted in tin foil like a Hershey Kiss.

The calamari, as avid Folk Festival-goers can attest, is excellent. Dredged in the fun tang of lemon pepper and garlic powder, these lightly fried rings and tentacles are lusciously tender. Also notable are house-made vegetarian spring rolls, made by Vlassie’s brother Ben. They are filled with soft, warm veggies—carrots, celery, onion, bean sprout—which accentuate their crisp outer shell. The tightly rolled bundles are served with a chile mayo that is perhaps more mayo than it needs to be.

For a distinctly Mediterranean entrée, choose the sun-dried tomato-encrusted chicken. A little pocket has been made inside the breast which is then stuffed with fresh spinach, feta and roasted red peppers. Then the chicken is grilled until it has a beautiful gold and ruby crust, the outcome of a coating of breadcrumbs and the finely chopped sun-soaked tomatoes. Cutting into the center is like finding a prize, with the flavours—nutty, sweet, salty—soft and well-balanced.

Grilled salmon with brie is a pretty pink filet covered with an inch-thick slab of brie and half moons of cinnamon-flecked Granny Smith apples. It arrives at the table with the apples swimming inside the fiercely melted cheese. The result is royally decadent.

Spinach tortellini tossed with artichoke, spicy eggplant, roasted red pepper and Thai basil is a harmonious blend of tangy, sweet, and spicy. There’s even a note of licorice floating in the cream-based sauce, which is spiked with a squeeze of lemon and a shot of white wine.

Long-time resident baker Tammie Caldwell whips up the extraordinary desserts on provocative display in the front cooler. Be sure to try her gravity-defying lemon meringue pie.

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