Vincci Tsui
Located in Western Canadian Place on the corner of Ninth Avenue and Sixth Street S.W. Korq Winehouse and Kitchen is a sleek modern lounge catering to the young downtown crowd with floor-to-ceiling windows a second-floor dining room area that can be accessed via Plus-15 and a glossy lacquered bar in the centre of the main dining room.
My fiancé and I arrived for supper one night just late enough to have missed the happy hour crowd but too early for the clubbing crowd so we were one of only two or three tables there. Our server was friendly but seemed inexperienced struggling to answer questions about the menu and the night’s specials.
From the menu it appears that Korq is meant to be more of a place to have a glass of wine and some appies as opposed to a full sit-down meal. All wines are available by the glass — including an Alexander Crown Cabernet Sauvignon for $46 ($184 for the bottle) — and most of the dinner menu is made up of sharing plates including a choose-your-own cheese and charcuterie board though there are a handful of entrées. My fiancé and I decided to share the roasted Brussels sprouts the Red White and Blue pizza and the Brome Lake duck breast.
Although the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy we had to wait a while for our food but fortunately everything arrived at around the same time. As soon as the Brussels sprouts hit the table we were disappointed — there were literally 12 charred Brussels sprout halves on the plate. For $10 that is more than $1 per sprout! Despite their appearance the Brussels sprouts were not burnt and in fact quite delicious — you can’t go wrong with guanciale bacon Piave cheese and hazelnut as a flavour combo.
The Red White and Blue special pizza ($20) was Korq’s entry for YYC Pizza Week but Korq’s regular menu does feature margherita funghi and prosciutto pizzas. The YYC Pizza Week special was a bianca pizza with sage béchamel sauce topped with red wine poached pears blue cheese roasted walnuts arugula and a sweet pear syrup. We liked the choice of toppings though a sharper blue cheese could have been chosen for a stronger sweet-savoury contrast. However the thin crust had no char and tasted like it needed a touch more salt which makes me unlikely to try the pizzas regularly on the menu.
Our Brome Lake duck breast ($25) was the highlight of the night cooked to a perfect medium rare and drizzled with a cranberry port jus. The best part however was the fingerling potato hash tucked underneath the green beans — it was buttery and rich with large chunks of crispy guanciale goat cheese and the distinctive flavour of truffle oil in every bite.
After this the service got a little bit weird again as the clubbing/lounge crowd started to trickle in; after clearing our plates our server never offered us dessert or the bill but just left us there with our waters. Finally we flagged her down and she explained the only dessert available that night was Kahlúa panna cotta ($6). The panna cotta was served unceremoniously in a tall glass with a dollop of whipped cream like it was made the night before and she just pulled it out of the refrigerator. It had a lot of coffee flavour but was not particularly exciting.
Korq might be a cool hip place to meet friends for a drink after work but like a fine wine hopefully the service and food will improve with time. It will probably be a while before I consider going back.
Korq Winehouse and Kitchen is located at 801 6 St. S.W. 587-352-5677.
