Boxwood
340 13th Avenue SW
Opened only a month ago in Central Memorial Park along 12th ave and 4th street SW, Boxwood serves up meals made from local, seasonal and sustainable ingredients. From the outside, one would not even imagine it was a restaurant; It looks like a shed. Or washroom building, a nice washroom building that is (I should have gotten a picture). Had there not been the patio, I would not have even noticed.
It was an amazing patio. Beautiful view of the park and the downtown skyline. Except it was cold out. So there was like 3 idiots sitting outside. Including me. Because all the seats were taken. Boxwood isn't a typical restaurant. They are a fast casual style restaurant, similar to Famoso, where you order at the counter and they bring the food to you. Interesting setup. I don't know if I'm a big fan of it.
To start, I had the tomato and chickpea stew. Loaded with lots of carrots, celery, onion and chickpeas and topped with house made ricotta cheese. It was really hearty and a little spicy to keep me warm as I sat frozen on the patio.
The sandwich, by comparison, was cold with thick chunks of ribeye steak sandwiched between a ciabatta bun. The meat is cut from cows raised at Diamond Willow ranch and are certified organic, which means it's fed with pure organic feed and the use of hormones is restricted. But... I honestly couldn't taste the difference. It wasn't more tender than that steak you've been eyeing at the grocery store. Very flavourful but I think it's more the chipotle butter than the beefy flavour of the meat.
It was decent overall. 6 stars out of 10. I definitely enjoyed the soup more than the sandwich. Had the sandwich been served hot (or warm even), that would have been better. Maybe I should ask next time since I'm a member of their sandwich club now. 7 more till a freebie. Nice! Atmosphere was amazing. If it was 20 degrees warmer out. Very lively inside though. But I'm anti-social. So... yeah.
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