A favourite of seniors.
The place: Old Admiral Pub
The meat: 8 oz. (approx.)
The fat content: Close to nil/evaporated
The fixin’s: Mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding, frozen vegetables
The cost: $9.99 (only available Sundays)
You see the signs sprinkled sporadically throughout the city. Neighbourhood pubs and senior-friendly restaurants proclaiming cheap prime rib specials served on the weekends.
Intellectually, you know your 10 bucks at these establishments won’t get you the kind of prime rib that 10 bucks will get you in Las Vegas.
But emotionally? You can’t help but hear that tiny voice in your head telling you that maybe, just maybe, you’ve discovered a little piece of Vegas in your own backyard.
Which brings us to the Old Admiral Pub, a no-frills hotel pub in Burnaby with a sandwich board out front advertising a $9.99 prime rib dinner every Sunday. And, well, they certainly delivered what they promised.
The good:
- You can’t beat the price.
- The Yorkshire pudding was a pleasant surprise. Not a side you see that often. It was generously sized and tasty, too. I’d almost suspect it was made from scratch, if it weren’t for what the rest of the plate looked like (see below).
- The Old Admiral Pub is no stranger to serving raw meat – it used to be a strip club called the North Burnaby Inn.
The bad:
- The beef was served well-done, thus requiring more chewing than I would prefer.
- The fixin’s all came from a box, from the clearly artificial mashed potatoes to the frozen veggies that had been left soaking in the water until they lost every ounce of life.
- When I asked for some au jus, I was told the prime rib had already been soaked in it. But as mentioned, the meat was awfully well-done and dry. So I remain skeptical.
- I miss the NBI.
The ugly:
- A half-hour after we ordered our meals, a group of seniors entered the establishment looking forward to enjoying the Sunday special, only to be informed they were sold out. Sorry, folks.
The verdict: One-and-a-half blown colons out of five
Well, you get what you pay for. I’m not going to complain about the quality because I knew what I’d be getting and it was certainly edible enough. Still, it also made one thing clear: the Canadian dollar may be approaching parity with the US dollar, but the $10 prime rib exchange rate still clearly favours the southern side of the border.
