English pub meets sports bar inside Fox and Fiddle, one of Winnipeg's newest restaurants. The Exchange District eatery serves pub favourites and a twist on the classics, including this butter chicken flatbread.
Fox and Fiddle
Address: 456 Main Street
Phone Number: 204-505-1511
Website: http://foxandfiddle.com/winnipeg
Neighbourhood: Exchange District
Go big or stay home.
That's the overarching theme played over and again inside Fox and Fiddle, one of Winnipeg's newest restaurants.
From the marble floors and walls to the cathedral-high ceilings to the 10 flat-screen TVs hung on every wall (including an 80-inch behemoth at the back of the dining room), the Fox and Fiddle, a franchise chain from the States, is a lesson in shameless and joyful gluttony.
Even the menu is expansive: Think English-style pub menu times five. It includes:10 sandwiches and wraps; eight burgers; three kinds of nachos with an additional choice of grilled chicken, pulled pork or bacon; three flatbreads; 15 flavours of chicken wings; and 12 pub favourites, like fish and chips, liver and onions, bangers and mash, and beef and Guiness pot pie.
There are also numerous appetizers and salads to be had. It doesn't stop there. East Indian curries also make an appearance inside this Main Street pub just a short walk from the famous Portage and Main intersection.
Located inside a circa-1905 Toronto Dominion bank, Fox and Fiddle has retained much of the original handiwork including the highly polished marble floors and walls and a row of bank vaults in the basement which double as a storage area.
The dining room is a place to be heard and seen. Conversations travel reverberate around the cavernous room. Quiet tête a têtes are for other restaurants and bistros. Fox and Fiddle is a mash-up of modern pub with a healthy dose of sports bar.
Whatever the formula, it seems to be working. (The dining room was packed with business folks and lunching ladies during a recent mid-week lunch.) Food arrives fast by amiable and capable staff.
Butter chicken flatbread delivers tomato-dense, rich, creamy and cilantro-spiked notes on toasted thin-crust, pita-bread.
One quibble: Fox and Fiddle's fish and chips—the touchstone of pub grub everywhere—was a touch heavy on batter and a little light on actual fish.
Insider's tip: Fox and Fiddle's plates are made for sharing. With so many options on the menu there's no sense to limiting yourself to just one choice.
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