The Owl and Firkin

Sometimes it can be quite difficult to associate great salads coming from a pub or a bar but this was exactly the case when I went to The Owl and Firkin in Markham, just north of Toronto on consecutive weekdays. After being tired of eating the same bar food all the time, I decided to switch gears and try out a couple of salads on their menu. The salads were each from their everyday menu and so on one week I went with the Turkey Cobb Salad ($17.00) while on the following visit I went with their Cider Glazed Chicken Salad. ($15.00)

During the first visit, the Turkey Cobb Salad was the one I ordered first and it was loaded with avocados, sliced up hard boiled eggs, turkey breast and blue cheese.  The salad itself was then doused with a honey lemon vinaigrette giving it a sweet and sour tasting salad.  Appearance wise it looked like there were a lot of items tossed together in one big basket and then dumped onto a large plate.  Taste wise, I thought that the salad was dominated by one particular item, the blue cheese.  I'm not too sure how much blue cheese was in the salad but every bite, the strong taste of the cheese was in your mouth, so much so that it pretty much overwhelmed the taste of anything else that was in the salad.  If you are a huge fan of eggs and blue cheese then this salad is for you.  There were plenty of pieces of white turkey breast meat in the salad, but as mentioned, it was difficult to taste the turkey alone or even the vinaigrette that was used in the salad.  Still, as one can see, it was highly nutritious and very healthy and quite large, so large that after eating the entire plate, one was definitely done and needed not to order any other items for the day.

Turkey Cobb Salad

The Cider Glazed Chicken Salad was loaded with greens and mixed with crispy apples and loaded with bacon and toasted almonds on top.  The chefs certainly did not hold back on the bacon and almonds as much of it was loaded on top of the salad.  There were also plenty of pieces of chicken that were buried in the bottom of the salad.  When mixed together, one could taste all the items in each bite as there was no one overwhelming ingredient. The cider vinaigrette dressing was just perfect, not too sour but not too sweet either where one could still taste the almonds, bacon, or apple in one's mouth.  It's true that this salad was probably not as healthy as the Turkey Cobb Salad with so much bacon in it, however looking at all the ingredients, a little bacon certainly provided more flavour to the salad and despite it, there were plenty of greens and apples to certainly rival the previous salad in the health department.

Cider Glazed Chicken Salad

Truthfully though, the Cider Glazed Chicken Salad was my preferred choice between the two however I know that there are readers of my blog who absolutely love eggs and blue cheese and if you are one of those people then the Turkey Cobb Salad would definitely have been your preferred choice.  At first, the price of the salads almost turned me away however when I saw the proportion sizes, at least one could say that they were of a respectable proportion. The rest of their items are not bad either as I have eaten there and have had a beer or two many times before.  If you are interested in a good salad and would love to have a beer to go with your salad, then the Owl and Firkin is your place to go. The atmosphere is great and they also have a good size patio for those who want to eat or have a drink outdoors. Overall, I would give it a 4.25 out of 5.

The Owl and Firkin
7181 Woodbine Avenue
Marhkam, Ontario

905-513-6611