Paddingtons Pub

Paddingtons Pub keeps a British-pub sign over a kitchen that cooks well past it. The anchor is the plate the name promises: English-style fish and chips, a six-ounce haddock fillet taken beer-battered or pan-fried, set down with house-cut fries, tartar sauce, coleslaw, and lemon. Read further and the British frame stretches — butter chicken curry over basmati with garlic bread, pan-seared pickerel done Cajun or lemon pepper, bacon-wrapped meatloaf under red-wine mushroom gravy. The fish and chips give the menu its centre of gravity, but everything around it is built to feed a full table sitting down to dinner in Grand Bend.

That breadth holds up across the menu. Beyond the haddock, the comfort lane runs deep: shepherd's pie; bangers and mash with sautéed onions, baked beans, and gravy; and the bacon-wrapped meatloaf set over mashed potatoes. The pasta turns to a smoked gouda penne with artichokes and spinach, or a Cajun chicken version beside it. Burgers and sandwiches hold their own corner — the house Paddington's Burger, a signature pub club, a vegetarian burger, and southwest and buffalo chicken wraps. The starters lean shareable: a three-cheese dip of cream cheese, goat cheese, and smoked gouda with artichokes, roasted red pepper, and spinach, served with garlic naan; panko-dusted calamari; coconut shrimp; garlic parmesan fries; and curry chips, which carry that same butter curry sauce onto house-cut fries. Even the salads do real work, with pears poached for the pear-and-walnut alongside honey-glazed walnuts, feta, and dried cranberries under a balsamic vinaigrette.