Bannock

About a month ago, I attended a birthday gathering of my close friend/high school friends at a downtown restaurant called, you guessed it — Bannock. Around that time, I had an allergic reaction to something (my allergy test is coming soon... *sigh*), so I researched ahead of time to see what kinds of food I could eat without potentially causing my health to get even worse.

I saw a familiar name (Oliver and Bonacini) when I was searching them up, so I thought Bannock was going to be fairly similar to the Joey/Moxie/Earl's/a little more pricey kind of place to eat restaurant vibe I got when I went to Oliver and Bonacini a while back.

Nope.

The prices were kind of in that range (or maybe a little lower? I don't remember exactly), but the interiors of the restaurant were more down-to-earth and "hipster", for a lack of better words.

There was a lot of light streaming into the room due to the big panels of glass windows, the tables were wooden and it seemed like a place anyone would just go to for a nice lunch while they wanted to catch up with some old pals.

So this is what I ended up getting for the night:

This was their BLT Bannock, which was a pretty unconventional sandwich to say the least. I found it nifty that they used a flatbread/pita bread medium to encase their ingredients, rather than the traditional whole wheat bread or white bread that I was so used to seeing in most sandwich places. Their housemade belly bacon on the inside caught me by surprise too, as I came with the assumption I would be munching on crunchy hard bacon strips (that and the word 'belly' was probably completely overlooked when I was reading the menu...). It was tender, and reminiscent of a mashup of pulled pork and ribs. I wouldn't quite call the marinated sauce as barbecue; but it definitely reminded me of it with some deviation as a more sweet variant. 

Also, nowhere in the menu did they describe using horseradish as a condiment in the sandwich. For someone who normally despises using wasabi in my sushi, this was actually a pleasant mixture. I didn't mind the occasional minty tingles of said condiment, as it kept my taste buds on edge without overwhelming the whole tasting experience. I also thoroughly enjoyed the taro chips they had at the side (again, they didn't mention this in the menu at all). It was a good alternative to the usual french fries or potato chips found at most places, and it wasn't oily at all, making me feel a little more relieved.

My friends also feasted on something you don't see everyday either:

Behold, the Duck Poutine Pizza. I took a small slice to just try it out, since the birthday girl and another high school friend were raving about just how delicious it was. They were right on that. Though, if you ever do find yourself at Bannock ordering this, just make sure you don't order it for yourself only. You will not be able to finish this, unless if you had a massive appetite and have the ability to finish whole pizzas. The size is about a medium size, but I think what fills up the stomach the most is that sheer amount of carbs this dish has. Not only is there the pizza dough, but there's a copious amount of poutine fries.

The fries were good poutine fries (I still need to go to a poutine specialty place sometime, however), and I don't remember if I tasted any duck in the slice I had, but the birthday girl says it tastes like Peking duck. I'll take her word for it.

Apart from their slightly eccentric (but delicious!) food items, I found their staff to be friendly and accommodating, which is always a good thing.