Earth To Table: Bread Bar

I had the Meat Mountain pizza, and it was fantastic! Also tried the calamari and it was also very tasty. I finished off this wonderful meal with a dessert of the «really, really fudgy brownie» and it was phenomenal. This decadent combination of fudge, caramel, and toffee topped with ice cream was wonderful :).

The food here is pretty tasty. I’ve gotten the calamari which was really tender and crispy but VERY salty. I’m not too upset though as that is just a one time kind of issue. The garlic slayer is really yummy, and the crust is perfectly cooked with a nice charred flavour. I wasn’t too impressed with their bread plate, as the romesco and cheeses lacked flavour. Overall I will definitely come back!

2.5÷5
We stopped in at Bread Bar for a quick lunch to celebrate TGIF (woo!). I’ve been before for coffee and snacks at the bar, so we were excited to try some more complex items from the menu.
We arrived during a lull in the lunch rush, so we didn’t have a wait but our seating area in the back corner of the restaurant was pretty packed.
We started out with the bread plate ($ 9), which featured three styles of bread and toast with romesco, whipped ricotta, and hummus. Our opinion on the bread plate was split — I enjoyed the romesco, which my partner hated, and I thought the hummus tasted flat and had too much oil, but he loved it. The bread with goat cheese and onions was probably the highlight of the plate for me, but at least we each found something we enjoyed.
For lunch we ordered the seasonal MVP Pizza ($ 15 for a small), which was made with a tomato sauce base, lemon ricotta, andouille sausage, jalapeño pesto, and honey drizzle — and the Veggie Quinoa Burger ($ 16) made of, well, quinoa — and topped with hummus, carrot & cumin slaw, and arugula. I also ordered the soup of the day, which was a squash (?) curry style soup.
Our bread plate arrived fairly quickly after our order, but the rest of our food must have been on a lunch break itself because a table came and went while we waited. There was a wall separating us from the rest of the restaurant, but I can only assume that there was a late lunch rush which kept our order from coming out. Our waitress was nice about it though, and even stopped in a couple of times to check in and tell us that it would be along.
When lunch did arrive, we both were surprised by the amount of spice happening in our pizza and soup — and we like spicy! We love spicy, actually — but WOW this food was spicy in a totally unexpected way. I ended up adding some of the leftover lemon ricotta to my soup to try and add some balance to it, but the epic battle of girl v. cayenne was impossible to win.
It turned out that the pizza wasn’t actually as spicy as the first bite had made it seem, but the jalapeño pesto collected in big clumps so that one bite would be all sweet honey and the next entirely hot pesto. Surprise!
The pizza crust was good, but also somewhat sweet, as was the andouille sausage. I don’t know how you make andouille sausage taste like maple syrup, but this pizza somehow accomplished it.
The Quinoa Veggie Burger was the biggest disappointment of the day. It was basically a dense ball of quinoa packed into a baseball shape and then speared between two pieces of bread. At $ 16, I was definitely expecting something a little better than a quinoa ball that changed states from «veggie burger» to «pile of quinoa» immediately upon biting. However, the bun was good (like all the bread at Bread Bar), so I ended up eating some of that with the leftover romesco.
Despite our less-​than-​great experience at Bread Bar, there are definitely things to love about this place. I added one star for the following: Our server was friendly even though the service was slow, the décor is trendy but casual, they use fresh and local ingredients, serve fried chicken on Fridays (which looked great), and donate $ 1 from every purchase to their monthly MVP employees. All very cool stuff which kept this review above the two-​star mark for me. I really wanted to love it here! Promise!
After our meal, we resolved to come back and try again — but with some different items on the menu next time. I think we’ll play it safer with a simple pizza and a glass of wine or two for the atmosphere, but I don’t see us attempting their more «adventurous» dishes again.

This is by far, the best place to eat in Guelph.
The atmosphere is casual and fancy at the same time, so it’s a great place to go with friends or on a date. Either way, you won’t be disappointed. You can close your eyes, point to something on the menu, order it, and it will be phenomenal.
I’ve had fish, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and the quinoa burger, all of which were spectacular. The mac and cheese especially really hits a good place. I’ve had about 4 different kinds of their pizza as well and it has all been superb.
Yes, it is on the pricey side, but it is WELL worth it. Also worth noting that the service is slow but again, it is more than worth it for the unbelievably good food at this place.
You also can’t leave without something from their little baked goods section. The salted caramel brownie is UNREAL and their cookies are out of this world good.
.

WOW! Bread bar is great! Reminds me of a restaurant in Austin, Texas with the atmosphere. Well, Guelph as a whole kind of does too. progressive, clean and artsy! They have awesome sandwiches and pizzas on their lunch menu, each and every one I have tried was great! Price point is fair, and their new outdoor patio is great for a summer night.

Well, I went back again. Was not disappointed again with the food.
Furthermore, I’d like to thank them for their generosity. I was with a coworker in uniform (military). We asked for the bill and our server came back and told us that it was on them and they wanted to thank us for our service. While I’ve never been overseas, my friend has twice and I really appreciate their recognition of his real sacrifices.
Thank you.

Me and my sister visited this location when it first opened.
The inside looks really welcoming with a nice rustic look and wooden furniture with nice light fixtures.
We ordered the calamari and bread and toast appetizer, the wise-​guy pizza, taco salad with cream of broccoli soup.
We waited about 30 minutes for our appetizers to come. When they got here, the presentation was really nice. The calamari was cooked pretty well, but was EXTREMELY salty. The fried lemon bits were burnt which made everything taste bitter.
The bread platter was really fresh. Bread was nice and crusty. The platter also came with whipped ricotta and a red pepper remesco. I’ve never had whipped ricotta before, but if it’s supposed to taste like this, I hate whipped ricotta. It tasted like unsalted butter. Imagine that.
Wise-​guy pizza was average tasting. The sausage tasted like a no name grocery brand of sausage.
Soup was extremely grainy and salty. The taco salad was decent.
All in all I think they just over seasoned my calamari while under seasoning the ricotta. But I am willing to give this place another chance.

First visit on Sunday Aug 2 to the Guelph location. Restaurant was not busy, we sat outside on the patio which was lovely. Server brought warm water to the table. We ordered pizza, grilled cheese and an appetizer. Unfortunately we never tasted any of the food since it never came to the table. We had to get the servers attention as to where the food was which she assured us it was coming, and we had to ask for more water. Three tables came in after us which all had received their food. We waited for 50 minutes and walked out. Very disappointed with the service, we were looking so forward to trying this restaurant.

The place has a very nice décor that makes for a great atmosphere to just sit and chat over drinks. The food, however is less to be desired.
We started off with the calamaris which I found to be too salty. The mayo was squeezed on one side of the dish instead of on the side. The chef made a mistake of placing the lemon on the bed of condiments as well. The chorizos were deep fried along with what I am assuming is thyme and lemon. All of those were pretty much charred so does not leave much for taste. I do not suggest to squeeze the provided lemon on as that created an undesirable bitterness.
Next was the avocado and chicken sandwich. We ordered a multi grain but it came out on a white one. For the price, it was a very tiny bread that was the size of my tiny palm. Both my partner and I found the sandwich to be pretty bland as there was no seasoning on the chicken. The highlight for this was the accompanied fries.
Finally came the pizza. We ordered the small Original Wise Guy to share. I didn’t eat it as I felt bloated, but my partner did and the dough was not thoroughly cooked. We packed it home and it sat at the back of the fridge until garbage collection day.
Drinks were also ordered. One raspberry green tea mojito and one lavender lemonade. I thought the lemonade was decent. Refreshing for a hot summer day. The mojito was expensive, filled with ¾ glass full of ice and lacking.
Décor-​wise, Bread Bar is very nice with a modern lounge feel and I do enjoy the patio. Initially my partner said he would give this place another try; just for the patio, I have already decided to cross it off my list. He soon agreed with me when his body started to tell him otherwise half an hour after leaving the place.

My boyfriend and I headed here for dinner after a long day. Looking at the two reviews this new restaurant had I was a bit skeptical going into this experience. One bad review, one great review… We did not know what to expect.
We started off with a couple of drinks, my boyfriend had a beer and I had the Pommies cider. Given the fact that we had recently played a 90 minute soccer game beforehand I was really looking for a refreshing drink. Pommies cider fulfilled that splendidly for me. It was a nice, cool start to my meal, which was perfect. We also ordered the calamari as a starter before our meals to split. The calamari was well seasoned and it was well cooked. Half of the bowl was smothered in mayo, however, and since I’m not a fan of mayo I was a bit displeased by the fact that it was not served on the side, which is what I was expecting.
For my main meal I had the Quinoa Superstar Burger that came with guacamole, red pepper aioli (which came on the side), and arugula. The burger was flavourful and the combination of arugula and guacamole especially came together well. The dish also came with a side of fries, which were also seasoned well and were a nice addition to my meal.
The night finished off with my boyfriend and I splitting a vanilla cheesecake with seasonal syrup that was comprised of strawberry and lime, paired with real whipped cream. This dessert was nothing short of exceptional.
The only downside to this restaurant was that it took quite a while to receive our food, and when the server brought out our cheesecake she did not bring forks for us to eat with; we had to resort to unrolling two more sets of cutlery that were placed on our table at the beginning of the night (kind of strange seeing as there were only two of us dining out and not a party of four).
Will be returning to this restaurant in the future.