NV Kitchen + Bar

Order at NV Kitchen + Bar usually starts the same way: a plate of Sesame Pulled Pork Nachos lands in the middle of the table, and then the table has to decide what kind of night it is having. The nachos pull from both worlds the kitchen works in — pulled pork and house chips under cheese, pico de gallo, a sesame glaze, sour cream, and salsa — and once they are gone the menu forks. One direction is a real dinner: a ten-ounce New York striploin, plated as Steak Frites, seared to preference with hand-cut fries and chimichurri. The other is a shareable, thin-crust pizza night. A downtown Guelph restaurant and bar that plates a proper striploin is doing more than bar food asks of it, and that ambition is the first thing worth knowing about NV.

The food has range without losing its centre. Steak Frites is the cleanest main, but the comfort run underneath it is deep — Mini Burgers with cheddar and crispy onions, an eight-ounce chuck Beef Burger, lightly dusted Wings with the sauce on the side, Fish + Chips in a crisp beer batter, and a Brown Butter Mac + Cheese built on a brown-butter mornay with bacon, broccoli, and confit garlic gremolata. The pizza section carries its own personality on ten-inch thin crust: Hot Honey Chicken with pepperoncini, goat cheese, and a pesto base; Korean BBQ with pulled pork over creamy garlic; Apple Bacon with green apple and smoked provolone. Starters cover the rest of the table — Calamari with citrus aioli, Mussels in roasted red pepper butter, a Chef Board of cured meats and focaccia, potato curls made to order with sriracha aioli. Dessert holds the line too, with a dark, dense Sticky Toffee Pudding under vanilla ice cream and chocolate-caramel-banana Monkey Dumplings to close.