Sandtrap Pub & Grill

Niagara-on-the-Lake sells itself on tasting menus and wine-tour itineraries, which makes Sandtrap Pub & Grill the useful exception — the one a table picks when nobody wants a performance. The draw on Mary Street is pizza out of the brick oven, wings by the basket, and a golf-themed pub that keeps its lights on until one in the morning, seven days a week. It reads as a local hangout first and a tourist stop second: large booths, televisions tuned to the game, local beer, and Niagara wine by the glass. The golf-course theme runs through the décor, but the appeal is plainer than that — a wide pub menu, a long drink list, and a door that stays open later than almost anything else in town.

The brick-oven pizzas lead the menu, and the Supreme is the clearest first read — a five-topping build meant to land in the middle of the table before anything else arrives. Wings come next, with a sauce list that runs from Buffalo and honey garlic to dill pickle, cajun, maple and bacon, and the house Trap Wings. From there the kitchen keeps widening. The Classic Reuben is the sandwich the menu marks as a pub favourite; the Meatzza and a BBQ Chicken Pizza extend the pizza lane; panzerotti, Pub Style Fish and Fresh Cut Fries, Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, a daily homemade pot pie, and the House Roasted Turkey Clubhouse fill out the plates. Shareables hold up their end too — poutine with real cheese curds, Bam Bam Shrimp, deep-fried pickle wedges, nachos. A seven-ounce house burger and a Cobb salad cover the table that wants something plainer; a Beyond Meat burger and a Thai chili shrimp wrap cover anyone eating around the rest of the menu.