It was our last day in Toronto and we decided to take the long ride from our hotel by the airport into town for one last shot at what could be the best plate of nachos in Canada. I wasn't ready to say that the Beertown nachos were the best on our trip or that the Snooty Fox in Fredericton were the best in Canada. I was ready to have my mind blown and when it's your last day in a big city, you have to make it count. I wanted these nachos to be on my mind while we are trying to land in foggy Saint John and then rushing to work immediately after landing with my ears still plugged up from the plane. Plus, who knows when we will be in Toronto again? It's between Toronto or Quebec City for our fall marathon next year. They are doing a battle in my mind. We went to Squirly's because the editor did some research and saw that Squirly's might be good. This restaurant had previously closed their doors after 36 years and recently re-opened to be Squirly's 2.0. How were t...
The Pilot House is located in downtown Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I am told that this is where the locals come to either sit inside for that cozy pub experience, or sit outside at the "Queue" bistro area, and enjoy some live music. As I write this on the last day of September, I have to think back almost three months in time... to a time where it was 18 degrees first thing in the morning, and comfortable to sit outside - a time where you can sit outside on the patio no matter what time of day. The day we visited the Pilot House, the weather was warm, so we sat outside and enjoyed some live music on a July evening on PEI.
When we were on the island, I tried to have lots of seafood, especially oysters. If you ever visit, you have to have two things: 1) Seafood, & 2) Cow's ice cream. You should also go to the Haunted House in Cavendish and bike on the beautiful trails they have there. Alas, this is not a travel blog. Let's get to the nachos.
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| The Pilot House Chicken Nachos - July 2023 |
Distribution of Toppings
I think the distribution of toppings was pretty average. We did ask for extra cheese, but it still did not seem like there was a huge amount of cheese on them. There were some bare chips left over but I have seen a lot worse when it comes to bare chips being left over.
Quality
There was well-seasoned curry spiced chicken on the nachos and there was a good cheese blend. The toast factor was somewhat present, but not that great as there were some un-melted shreds of cheese hanging out up top. The traditional triangular chips were very tasty and crunchy and there were black olives, tomatoes and green onions for veggies, although maybe they could have used a little more of them. The overall taste was pretty good.
Quantity
We had oysters as an appetizer and it was sufficient as a meal. I was really hungry going into it because I remember only having a small-ish seafood chowder poutine for lunch. Yes, that's a thing.
Value
A regular plate of veggie nachos at The Pilot House is $20. If you add chicken it is $6 extra. If you add extra cheese, it is $3 extra. If you add guacamole it is $1.50 extra. We always get the extras so it was a pretty pricey plate of nachos considering the distribution of toppings and the quality. I thought the live music was great though. I would say the value was average.
Conclusion
It was hard to objectively review these nachos at the time because we previously had some bad nachos on this trip, so perhaps it felt like these nachos were a lot better than they actually were. This is a type of bias that I studied in university some 20 years ago, which seems to have stuck around in my head. I can even remember a lot of things from around 30 years ago, but when it comes to types of biases in the class "Organizational Behaviour" from the 2000's? Not so much. Getting back to the nacho review conclusion: I loved the atmosphere, I had good company, and the nachos were overall pretty good, but I might be biased!
Nacho Blog Rating: B+