Food Friday: Dining out at the Bicycle Thief

There are a number of reasons why I attempt to eat at home 9 times out of 10. Cost efficiency and the ability to make healthier decisions are obvious reasons, while opportunities to take photos for Food Friday and the need to be wearing sweat pants by 5pm sharp, are a little more unconventional. Sometimes though, life gets nutty and you just don't have the choice. Rational reasoning or not, there's just no time for cooking. No time for grocery shopping. No time to defrost, saute, and broil. No time to eat. But eat we must. And last night, I ate at one of the best eateries Halifax has to offer. I went to the Bicycle Thief!

The Bicycle Thief opened its doors Spring 2011 and has been impressing haligonians, and Pierce Brosnan, ever since. I have been lucky enough to stop in three or four times since its inception, and am continuously searching for my next opportunity. This opportunity presented itself in the form of dinner with a new friend from out of town.

We met at 6:15 and settled in for the long haul. I began the evening with a glass of Valpolicella Superiore Ripassa, Zenato ’08. It was fantastic. To be honest, I’m not in-the-know of how to describe wine so delicious, and oh-so-sippable is where my commentary will rest.

To start, I chose the Tuna Tartare, followed by  the Shaved Fennel salad with zesty orange vinaigrette as my main. I was a genius; I would have never been able to eat both an appetizer to myself and a main! The Tuna Tartare was amazing. I was blown away. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be this Tuna Tartare and I would be in heaven. The salad was also delicious, fresh and the perfect amount of sweet, however I couldn’t really offer it the attention it deserved since I was still head over heels for the Tuna Tartare. As all refined ladies do, we finished our evening with dessert and tea. I pounced on the lemon brown sugar meringue pie with the graham crust, while my friend had the carrot cake. No complaints, the Bicycle Thief does sweet as well as it does savoury. In fact, I continued to polish off my pie long after my too-full tummy begged me to stop. My only saving grace was that I ignored my no salad-as-a-main rule foreseeing dessert as a probability.

Unfortunately, the new friend aspect kept my manners in check and I refrained from pulling out Jack's Canon T2i and getting all paparazzo on my Tuna Tartare. Not going to lie, it was tough. Really tough. Likely, it was the hardest thing I'll ever have to do. Something I still regret to a ridiculous degree. HOWEVER, it was SO beyond amazing that I can PROMISE you that the next time I go back I will have NO shame, snap photos and post them for you all to devour eye-style. In the meantime, I hope these snap shots I found on the restaurants main page and other corners of the pub will get your mouth watering.