Donut Monster - 246 Locke Street South, Hamilton

You have to try Donut Monster!!

Donut Monster has a newly opened storefront on Locke Street.  They are still supplying local coffee shops and businesses with their donuts.  The line up was long but moved quickly.  You can enjoy your donut(s) with a coffee while dining in or take them to go, like we did.  6 donuts cost us $17 but it was well worth it!

So many donuts to choose from!

Orange Cashew Donut - pictured centre

From left to right - top row - London Fog, Classic Apple Fritter, Sarsaparilla

                                                   Bottom row - Sugar donut, Orange Cashew, Chocolate

33 Bowen - 33 Bowen Street, Hamilton Ontario

33 Bowen

33 Bowen is a new restaurant in Hamilton located in a historical building that has been home to a few businesses over the years.  More recently, it was the location of The Keg up until 1995 and then Slainte Irish Pub until 2015.  This new restaurant is part of the Unique Restaurant Group that also owns The Powerhouse, Pheasant Plucker and The Augusta House.

The building itself is beautiful and inside there is a large stone fireplace, which is exactly where our table was for our visit here.  I was happy to be sitting next to the fireplace at first, but it did get a little too warm as the night went on.  They have removed the old bar and replaced it with a more modern looking design.  The menu had a good selection of starters and entrees but that night the starters and choice of salads appealed to us the most.  As we were leaving, the entertainment was just getting started with a singer and keyboardist that sounded good.

Instead of ordering an entree, we selected three starters to share and ordered a small salad each.  We also ordered a draft beer.  There wasn't a huge selection of craft beers but this was their first week being open and we did find one to try.  I started with the Bowen salad (small for $6) with arugula, pecans and parmesan and my husband tried the small Brussels and Bacon salad ($7).  Both salads were delicious and a good size as well.  If I was having lunch, I could easily see myself ordering the large size salad and being totally satisfied with that.

For our three starters, we tried the Pan Seared Calamari ($15), Naan Flatbread ($15) and the Tempura Vegetables ($12).  The calamari was good, but a bit plain tasting and maybe a deep fried calamari might have appealed to us more.  We did enjoy the flat bread which was served like mini pizza slices and tasted nice with the apples, bacon and carmelized onions.  The tempura veggies were also quite tasty.

We would definitely go back to 33 Bowen but next time try one of the entrees.  As we watched the entrees being delivered to other tables, they looked like nice size portions.  The prices were good and so was the service.  I hope they do well in this location as it is away from the main hub of restaurants in downtown Hamilton but it is such a beautiful historical spot.

Pan Seared Calamari

Tempura Vegetables

Naan Flatbread

Brussels and Bacon - small salad

Bowen Salad - small size

The Diplomat - 43 King William Street, Hamilton Ontario

The Diplomat:  web site  http://thediplomat.ca/

Planning to head to The Mule for tacos, we spotted a new restaurant open on King William Street.  King William from John to James Street has so many choices for restaurants.  The Diplomat is actually in the location where The Baltimore House used to be and you would not recognize it after all the renovations. 

The Diplomat is open concept with lots of seating but not crowded.  We ended up sitting at a high top table looking out the front window of the restaurant.  There are roll up windows on both sides of the restaurant that will open up to the street in the summer.  They will also be having a patio available in the summer months.

We didn't really look over the drink menu in detail but ordered a few craft beers.  They had a shareable sides menu and the main menu.  It was a difficult decision on our appetizer choice but went with the Crab Rangoon Dip with wonton chips ($12), which was excellent.  There were large pieces of crab meat in the dip and definitely enough dip for the number of chips.

Main course selections were the Wellington County Beef ($29) and the Ricotta Gnudi ($20).  I wanted to try the Chili Crab and Sticky Pork but the waitress let me know that this was a very spicy dish, so I switched to the Ricotta Gnudi, as I did not feel like spicy.  My husband said that the Wellington County Beef was his favorite dish out of many of the dishes we have tried at similar restaurants.  The beef was done to perfection and there were whole roasted baby onions on the plate.  He had the brussel sprouts as his side which he loved.

My daughter and I had the Ricotta Gnudi which to us compared to extra larger gnocchi filled with ricotta cheese and served with brussell sprouts topped with pumpkin seeds and a pesto sauce.  So delicious!!

We would definitely return to this restaurant and highly recommend to others.  Quality food and service in a really nice atmosphere.  We liked our seats at the front because it was quieter and would be the perfect spot with the front windows open to the street.  The prices were definitely comparable and we found out that this restaurant is owned by the restaurant group, Equal Parts Inc. which own the Aberdeen Tavern and The French.  In comparing to Aberdeen Tavern and The French, we would say that we enjoyed or meal at The Diplomat just as much or even more.

Wellington County Beef with side of Brussel Sprouts

Ricotta Gnudi

Dinner Menu

The Diplomat