Yellow Dog Tavern
Address: 386 Donald Street
Phone Number: 204-775-6676
Website: yellowdogtavern.ca
Neighbourhood: Downtown
Pub food has a reputation.
Grease and fatty foods often prevail. And when it comes to pub portions, more isn't necessarily better.
Winnipeg's Yellow Dog Tavern breaks all the pub food rules. And thank goodness for it.
Inside this downtown eatery, you'll find homestyle cooking with a twist. Soup, sandwiches, burgers, quesadillas, classic sandwiches and comfort food like Guinness and beef stew, perogies and chill populate the menu. But even classics get an update.
A tuna melt goes Japanese with the zing of wasabi and thick slices of ripe avocado hidden beneath a canopy of melted cheeses. Daily lunch specials (one each for Monday to Friday) are a good bet and range in price from $10 to about $14. That's where you'll find the kitchen staff stretching their legs a bit and adding their personality to the plates.
One thing you won't find at Yellow Dog: A deep fryer.
It's a bold choice for a modern restaurant to forgo a fryer but you don't miss the French fries at Yellow Dog.
Instead, choose from one of four sides including daily soup, house or caesar salad, or jalapeño kettle chips. Or for $2 extra try the pear, feta and walnut salad. This salad—a bed of romaine lettuce topped with juicy julienned bartlett pears, crumbled feta, crushed chunks of walnuts and slightly sweet vinaigrette—is uber-simple but exceedingly satisfying. It's summer on a plate.
Yellow Dog attracts a mixed bag of clientele to its 70-seat or so dining room and bar. Weekday lunches bring business folks, seniors and a smattering of university students. At night, Yellow Dog hosts sometimes raucous crowds of live music lovers, who crowd the bar side to see a myriad bands do their thing.
Children are welcome in the dining room. Indeed, we lunched with a toddler at Yellow Dog. Staff were friendly and accommodating with the wee one.
Yellow Dog is located just north of Ellice Avenue on Donald Street, a one way street heading south. Yellow Dog can be a bit difficult to find. It's located behind the Burton Cummings Theatre on the west side of Donald.
It's worth finding.