See ya later alligator

Ted's Range Road Diner

As part of my Christmas eat until you're stuffed food tour, I found myself at a restaurant some where near Owen Sound. As it was dark, and some of the roads were closed due to snow and flooding, and that James was driving I had no idea where we were. At least not on a road intersection kind of way. I did manage to get the GPS location coming out of the restaurant.

North 44.633952, West 80.662562

It's Ted's Range Road Diner.

What makes this restaurant interesting is that they have things like alligator and elk on the menu. They also have more "normal" meats like chicken, bison, an assortment of fish, and lobster to name a few. Your friends who might be less adventurous can eat without worrying about having something odd being digested in their system.

As soon as I saw the menu on the wall I knew I had to try the gator as an appetizer. It's rare these days to be able to eat something new and different without travelling to far off places. Eating gator in Owen Sound Ontario seems odd, kind of like eating a burger at a seafood house. It's not like there are gators crawling around in snow boots around these parts.



Gator nugget

The gator came to our table looking a lot like a chicken nugget or more accurately a tiny schnitzel. The meat was pretty lean and tasty. It was difficult to get a full on taste as it was surrounded by fried batter but it wasn't so off putting that I wouldn't try it again should the chance arise. Also it was yummy enough that the appetizer didn't last long. See ya later alligator.


Elk loin, the special special

As a main dish I ordered the Elk. Specifically the Elk loin special special. There were the specials then there were the specials of the specials known by the waitress as the special specials. The elk was covered in a nice meaty gravy and tasted like beef steak mixed with a hint of liver. As I'm not a huge fan of liver I wasn't really that impressed with the taste of Elk. However the one thing that was really good that came with the Elk steak was the homemade horseradish sauce. Not too hot, where you can feel tears running down from your eyes, but far from being bland. It was great stuff.

In the summer I'll have to return to try the food again.