The premise of the tours is that every Wednesday for the month of August, you will go on a walking/ food tour around the West End where you try out 3 or 4 restaurants in the neighbourhood. While walking to each restaurant, you are entertained with stories about the neighbourhood such as where the street names came from and how West End was one of the first established neighbourhoods in Winnipeg. There were also some pop quizzes. I was embarrassed over how little I knew about Winnipeg.
Every tour has a different route and a different restaurant to try so there are no duplicate tours. At each restaurant you are given a sampler of what they have to offer. Because this is such a diverse neighbourhood, it does force you to try new foods that maybe you would never have been brave enough to try on your own. All part of the fun!
The price feels a little expensive at $45 per person and then an additional fee for alcohol (you pay $6.50 for imports and $4.50 for domestic) but we did end up having 4 small meals (4 small AMAZING meals) and so M. and I felt it was worth it. Our total came to $120 which included 4 import drink tickets. This did not include tips for each restaurant that we left. (Also to note, this is not a vegan friendly tour.)
We were twelve for this particular tour and our first stop was at the corner of Sargent and Langside where a Chinese/ Vietnamese restaurant called Thanh Huong is located. They had the largest summer rolls I have ever seen. Our vegetarian option were two summer rolls with deep fried tofu instead of the shrimp and deep fried spring rolls with accompanied sauces. It was a great way to start. M. and I shared a Chinese beer which was also light and refreshing.
We then made our way to X-Cues. We found it odd that we were making our way to a pool hall for dinner but we were game. It's also the go to spot for all west enders to celebrate the World Cup! X-Cues is also still run by the family of the original Italian owner who opened this location as a members-only espresso bar in the 60's. They still have an espresso bar set up. We didn't get to caffeinate ourselves this round but we are tempted to go back. We were served fresh pasta with tomato sauce, an omelette and a salad. Our import beer was Heineken which was too bad because we found out later that there was an Italian beer we could have tried. The food was okay. Not our favourite but we really enjoyed the atmosphere.
We took a longer walk down Sargent and made our way to Central Park to go to Merkato's, an Ethiopian restaurant. We had to get very cozy with the other participants because you eat the food with your hands and the food is shared with everyone. We had our vegetarian dish that had lentils, potato, salad, spinach and mixed vegetables M. and I have gone to Massawa, an Ethiopian restaurant on Osborne a number of times and so we weren't foreign to Ethiopian food. We really enjoyed our meal.
Finally, for dessert, we took a walk by the University of Winnipeg and made our way to Homer's, which has undergone some recently renovations. It looked great! We had Baklava with coffee to end the evening with tales from the original owner about his village in Greece and how he turned this restaurant that was once a Dairy Whip into one of Winnipeg's favourite go to Greek restaurants.
I highly recommend this tour. It was very well organized and only lasted 2 and 1/2 hours. M. and I thoroughly enjoyed the food but we think Thanh Huong was our favourite. It was vegan friendly as well and we can't wait to introduce this restaurant to our friends.
If you are interested in joining a tour, click here. The West End Biz's plan is to make this an annual event if it is successful. So far so good, says Joe!
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