White Spot has been pushing their new Comfort Food 2.0 menu, and the commercials are everywhere during the Olympics. My title may be a little bit harsh, it wasn’t that big of a fail. But, I went here the other day for lunch with my dad. We arrived at the Whalley location for lunch, and no one was there to greet us and seat us. We waited around for about 2 minutes before someone came to the front.
We looked at the menu and I knew I was going to get something on the Comfort Food 2.0 menu. I ordered the Braised Short Rib Pasta which is “slow roasted boneless Canadian short ribs simmered with our house-made mushroom wine sauce with vine-ripened tomatoes over whole wheat Fusilli pasta. Garlic Panini bread for $15.99″. I added a bowl of Creamy Garlic Tomato Soup for $2. My dad wanted to order the Halibut Fish & Chips, but they weren’t there? 12:30 PM, and no Fish & Chips? Boo! My dad decided to get the Beef Dip and fries so that my mom could have the other half later. OK, now here is where I think the waitress tried to trick us. She said since there were no Fish & Chips, I’ll do something special for you, I’ll give you a bowl of soup for $2. What? Didn’t I just pay $2 for my soup, how is that special? Is this a trick, or is it just not normally offered as an add-on to a lunch? My dad declined, and said he’d only want it if it was free.
So my soup came first with a packag of crackers. It was good. Nice and creamy and tomatoey with a hint of garlic. I think it was worht the $2. There were also little chunks of tomato in there. My food came, and it was not what I was expected. I guess it just doesn’t together. I took my first bite, and it was mushy pasta with watery sauce with some meat. Not very good at all. The pasta seemed like dried store bought pasta and over cooked. It was way too soft and didn’t have much texture. The Braised Short Rib, was good and tender for the most part with some fatty parts. But it seemed like the sauce was just the liquid that the short rib was braised in. It had no thickness to it at all. The sauce wouldn’t coat the noodles at all because it was so thin. There was also some soggy bacon, mushrooms, and tomatoes around. This pasta was not worth $15.99 at all. It was actually kind of gross, and I didn’t want to eat much of it after my first bite, but I forced myself to. My dad said to just pack it up and order something else, but I didn’t want to. I actually didn’t have much of an appetite after that first bite. I ended up eating half and packing the rest. Was pretty good though, and good for dipping into the sauce.
I was sick, and drinking quite a bit of water, and the waitress never came back to refill my cup.
All that being said, I did want to try the Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding, but I wasn’t very hungry. I guess I’ll save it for another time and another location.
White Spot (Whalley)
13580 102 Ave
Surrey, BC
4 Comments on "White Spot Surrey – Comfort Fail 2.0"
No matter how much we “hate” places like White Spot, there are two things you must keep in mind:
1) This is mostly a burger place. Deviate from that and things will go sideways.
2) People like White Spot because they are familiar with the food (read #1 above). Non-burger dishes are for those who, well, do not want a burger and, rather than alienating families (main target), they include these.
If you go back for burgers, things might not necessarily be that bad… Though, of course, that brings the question: would you have burgers in White Spot or somewhere else?
I don’t necessarily hate White Spot. I’ve had a good meal or two there before. The rating is based off my last experience there, which unfortunately wasn’t very good, given that I didn’t order a burger and wanted to see what was up with the new Comfort Food two-point-oh menu that they’ve been advertising so much of. They did recommend the Short Rib sandwich, but I went for the Pasta instead.. I don’t know why. Just didn’t go well together.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure if I’ve had a burger there yet…I still want to try the Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding though, maybe to go along with a burger. I’m happy with burgers from Red Robins to be honest…so I’m probably would enjoy them just as much here.
Try Fresgo’s Inn on King George Highway for better quality food than at WHite Spot and for cheaper prices. One dish ordered there can easily feed 2.
Hi Zoe, thanks for the recommendation. I haven’t been to Fresgo’s recently, maybe 3+ years! But I’ve been there a bunch of times before. I’ve wanted to go back.. and I agree their portions are huge and the price is great.
I did hear some bad things about the kitchen before though…i.e. dropping food and still serving it