Food Review: Elements

Elements

599 Portage Ave
UPDATED: March 2nd 2014

 

              

Elements is located right by the front entrance in Richardson College for the Environment at the University of Winnipeg. It occupies a smallish but airy feeling corner of the building with windows facing Portage and Langside. Due to its location, many of the seats offer a good vantage to people watch as students bustle in and out of the building between classes. However, it also means that they do a bit of watching you too as they walk by. The clientele appear to be mostly the corporate lunch crowd, professors, the well-to-do, and the semi-retired. I have been here several times and I have never seen more than a few students, usually during 4:00 happy hour (when the beer is probably the cheapest you can find on campus). The staff are reliable and more often than not friendly. You also might get a chance to rate them, because they sometimes give you a “how was your experience” sheet.  Elements sources their ingredients locally wherever they can, serve sustainable seafood, and even feature a few of their suppliers on the back of the menu.

Its great that there is an extensive list of vegetarian options. Most of the other food is tasty, good to eat, enjoyable even, but not any more so than other places of a similar price. I guess I would call it safe food, and that goes a long way to explain the clientele.       

My wife and I ordered:
Mushroom Almond Burger (With a fried egg)
Quinoa Salad
Beer and Cheese Soup (soup of the day)
Ginger Sodas with shots of Gin.

We both agreed that the veggie burger has been better in the past. This might be because some ingredient or other is out of season and so the flavor is not as flavorful as it has been at other times of the year. They might have changed their recipe. What stood out was the quinoa salad, which is fantastic. The beer and cheese soup was also very good.

In the past I have also ordered:
Grilled Bread with Baba Ganoush

Sharable Size Nachos

Warm Goat Cheese Dip with corn chips - tasty

House Made Ginger Ale

St. James Pale Ale

Blueberry Cheese Cake

Tea
Banana bread toasted with butter - wonderful
Chai Latte

Baked Mac and Cheese (hold the bacon) - exactly how you would imagine this to be (hot and cheesy)

Mushroom Almond Burger - the better of the two veggie patties

2014 Burger week burger (veggie patty local greens, slow roasted tomato relish, housemade feta)

Pad Peanut

Veggie Sandwich

The Pad Peanut is probably a 3/5 on the Pad Thai scale. What is really worth ordering is the Mushroom Almond Burger, which might be in the running for top 5 veggie burgers in Winnipeg. The House Made Ginger Ale is also fabulous, especially with a shot of gin. Why not round off a solid meal by ordering the blueberry cheesecake?

If I could suggest the ultimate time to go, I would recommend 4:30 on a muggy 25-30 degree summer afternoon. They have a very nice patio and you are well taken care of there. Order a veggie burger, a beer, and a piece of cheese cake. Sit for a while and watch the warm world pass you by. Stay about an hour so you can watch traffic swell and begin to calm. Order a ginger ale and drink it while the day is still hot, maybe bring a book or the newspaper. You won’t regret it. UPDATE: this suggestion would be even better if elements didn't close for the summer. Alas. 

Until next time,