THE PRESS DINING OUT

Press, 25 October 1978, Page 23

THE PRESS DINING OUT

A. PETIT

Hie Faimyartl Restaurant. Car Montreal St and Oxford Tee lei. 63-656. It is not always true, although it sounds good, to say that the simple pleasures are the best. But it is true that it is good to return to the simple after one had one’s fill of the complex, the sophisticated, the ultra-refined. After savouring the far-out mixtures of the cocktails, with their exotic, intriguing, exciting and often confusing flavours, one appreciates the straightforward taste of a Scotch; after the alluring, . seductive taste of the punch, one honours the honest glass of wine. And so, after having enjoyed to the full our coquilles St Jacques a la Parisienne, we turn with greater keenness to the open sandwich of coarse brown bread, thick butter, and good cheese. Really, what 1 am trying to say in this roundabout way is how much I enjoyed having lunch at the Farmyard Restaurant. On a crisp sunny day to have one's meal in the open, from rustic furniture under the trees, is an unaccustomed hut great delight. You can have your lunch under a roof, of course, but 1 am certain that somehow the food would not taste half as good. The Farmyard, is on the South West corner of Montreal Street and Oxford Terrace, in a complex of old buildings that has been transformed into an art and crafts centre.

Parking spaces are reasonably easy to find, but in any case it is only a short healthy stroll away from the city centre. The food at the Farmyard is simple and wholesome, but good. It is not vegetarian, and they do not make a fetish of health food, and yet the accent is very much on healthy food, and vegetarians are well catered for. The luncheon menu begins with a wide range of fruit juices, and one soup—a delicious vegetable broth. The main courses are all served with a great variety of salad: a very nice rice, tomato-onion-and bean, coleslaw, cold asparagus, etc., liberally, sprinkled with cottage cheese. You can have a separate, more elaborate vegetable salad instead of meal: otherwise you choose from ribeye steak, corn beef, roast pork, ham, chicken, salmon, or cheese and spinach casserole, at prices a few cents either side of $2.50. We chose roast pork and the cheese and sninach casserole, and were given two helpings larger than we could eat. The roast work was plentiful and good, and I fomid t’he cheese and sninach delicious—one of the finest casserole dishes I havp pvpv eaten. We could simply not eat any pudding, but there was a choice of cheesecake, annle crumble, or fresh, fruit salad, at price around 90c. There is a great variety of drinks, including rich milk shakes such as chocolate-and-honey, and four kinds of herbal tea. Lunch for two. with fruit juice and coffee but with-'"t pudding—s6.9o.