No, not the pinball game. Not even the actually act of being a Devil's Advocate, as described by wikipedia HERE, no I'm talking about the popular pub in downtown Toronto.
Located on Bay street, the DA was a common hang out for the Dons when LJ worked at Luker House (aka the Residence College Hotel). I always see it busy, partly because its in a business area, with little to no pub competition (I guess the Wolf and the Firkin is pretty close).
Its also popular because it has a patio - and any location in the downtown with a patio is a goldmine. DA's patio is like other patios downtown; crappy. Concrete, with plastic chairs and an iron fence around it. And the smokers. But at least DA's has a lot of space (most downtown patios are the size of a 4 person table with 10 chairs squeezed in). Complaining aside, I wanted to be outside with my dinner, so I went around the corner with my beautiful view of wall or parking lot and settled in for pre-class wings.
THE SCORE
SIZE of WINGS: medium to small
HEAT: 4/10 for the hot, suicide 5/10
WET NAP FACTOR: 4/5
PRICE: $5.25 small order(approx 10 wings) , $8.25 for large (approx 20 wings)
EXTRAS Info
SAUCE CHOICE: mild/medium/hot/suicide/honey garlic
SIDES: veggies and dip
WETNAP: 2!
DEEP FRIED, GRILLED, BATTERED: deep fried
WING NIGHT: Monday & Tuesday nights ( didn't say what the deal is)
OTHER: good platter special of wings, chicken fingers, garlic bread and fries for $9.75.
The wings were good. They were not special - simple pub wings. A nice flavour, crispy and wet. On their own, little to complain about - but being a chicken wing critic, I wouldn't be doing justice to my quest or to you the loyal reader if there weren't something for me to pick on.
The worst part of these wings was the suicide sauce. Its now my rule that unless I know what the suicide sauce is like prior to order, I order it on the side. This is the reason why. Suicide wasn't even on the menu, I had to ask for it. Which is fine, most people can barely handle medium to hot so suicide isn't likely to be popular. When it came, I thought there might have been a mistake and I got marinara sauce. Nope. This was one of the worst suicide sauces I have ever had. It was literally a tomato sauce with some spice to it. I do not want my wings tasting like V8. And what makes me more upset is that I didn't eat any of it (because of the taste), but I know they (the staff) are thinking I can't take the heat. A little hurt pride on my part especially considering that suicide was hot at best.
Also not good were the veggies and dip. The veggies were not super crisp (I can live with that) but the blue cheese was so blah in flavour, it was like eating paper.
So to recap the Devil's Advocate: horrible suicide sauce, crappy dip, concretey patio - but friendly waitress and wings that are good to the last flapper. I do like the DA, really I do. Just don't ask for suicide.
The Devil's Advocate
655 Bay Street, Toronto
416- 595-1105
2 comments:
The problem with the DA suicide sauce is that it becomes "assisted suicide" sauce when you put it on the side. When you would actually order suicide sauce the wings are always tossed in the sauce and then finished in the over to bake. This changes them to suicide sauce. If you've ever made chili at home with copious amounts of scotch bonnets, take a bowl right out of the pot and then try it again the next day cold from the fridge...see how different the heat is? Sadly the owner passed away in 2007 and the pub is no more, but the original hot sauce recipe when ordered properly is completely different to what you ordered. Had I been serving you I could have told you not to bother with sauce on the side although it does sound like an unusually tame batch if it resembled marinara sauce, it should have a deep red colour with lots of seeds from the peppers visible. The suicide sauce at the DA always took several hours to prepare. In the late 90s it was top 2 in the city in the Toronto Star.
@Anonymous - Thanks for the info! It sounds like I would have prefered your version of the suicide sauce. Sad to hear about the owner as well. Do you know what all went into the sauce? WK
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