The Maple Grille

For those of us in the eating-out-for-lunch crowd, downtown Charlottetown has been difficult terrain this month: [[Interlude]] is closed until January 16, the [[Formosa Tea House]] closed for a week, the Thai food place on Kent Street is closed until March. I’ve been forced to explore new terrain.

Today it was [[The Maple Grille]], the recently renovated restaurant on University Avenue just north of Kent Street.

Every earlier visit I’d made to The Maple Grille had been disappointing. The space was cramped — tables too close to the benches in the booths, no place to hang coats — the food mediocre and the service sometimes shockingly slow.

Today’s visit erased all of those bad memories.

The space has been entirely transformed: the wall to the space next door, now a blues club operated by the same owners, has been opened up, the booths re-designed, the interior has been redecorated, and there’s even a heated coat rack near the door.

The food was excellent.

There are few places in [[Charlottetown]] that can cook vegetables properly — [[Cedar’s]] and the Delta Hotel are two that come to mind. And now The Maple Grille: the baby red potatoes were perfectly cooked; the side of celery, carrots, onions and broccoli hit the sweet spot of al dente without being too crunchy.

The meatball sandwich on a kaiser — something I ordered despite the fact that I’d never ever had a meatball sandwich before — was hot, tasty and had just the right amount of cheese.

The chocolate cheesecake, which I was warned before ordering was “more like a chocolate caramel cake” was indeed exactly that. And it was fresh and very tasty.

Service was warm, attentive, and friendly.

Recommended.