Wishbone, Enmore
Missed the fried chicken from Hartsyard? Wishbone just up the road has brought back the famed chicken as well as the most delicious poutine and biscuits!
I have many feels about the newly opened Wishbone in Enmore. When Hartsyard took off their famous fried chicken from the menu I was beyond devastated. And then owners Gregory Llewellyn and Naomi Hart decided their bar up the road, The Gretz would be making way for a new venture meaning their crunchalicious fillet o fish burger would also be bidding adieu. So while I’m sad to see that burg go, I was incredibly happy to hear that the fried chicken would be making a return at Wishbone AND that they would be serving poutine and biscuits!
Gone are the jeans covered stools, instead there’s a communal table running the length of the restaurant with smaller tables against the wall. Co-owners Blair Joscelyne and Marty Mulholland, creators of Mighty Car Mods have added their touch with car suspension parts holding up the tables, tow hooks and repurposed tool boxes scattered around the restaurant. The menu is short and sweet with fried chicken the featured event and a whole bunch of snacks/sides to go with it.
Chicken scratchings ($8) arrives first, the gnarled shards of chicken skin are the perfect bar snack, they’re crispy, salty and oh so satisfying. While kbrly and I liked the honey hot sauce, we would’ve preferred the sauce on the side to dip to control the amount on each piece as they got soggy super fast.
The Buttermilk Fried Chicken (4 pieces/$19) is just as I remembered, the golden batter all knobbly and gloriously crunchy and the meat incredibly juicy and tender. Sauces are a little steep at $3 per tub or 3 for $5 so our group of five order the Wish Bone hot sauce, unicorn ranch and smoked maple sauce. I enjoyed the hot sauce with the chicken (mad props to my taste buds for finally accepting a lil spice into my life!) but definitely preferred the ridiculously addictive smoked maple sauce over the unicorn ranch (not too sure what made this unicorn but I was glad it wasn’t a god awful rainbow colour).
Of course we had to get the poutine too! There’s a vego mushroom poutine that did tempt me because my, how I love mushrooms! But we decided to go for the Home style Poutine ($20), fries with beef gravy and cheese curds instead. The portion for this was so massive kbrly and I barely made it a quarter of the way through! The fries were perfect, golden batons of delicious fried potato soaking up the rich gravy and being the perfect vessels to scoop up globs of melty cheese.
And there were the sides! The Creamed corn with miso ($6) is a must order and is insanely delicious. Sweet corn nublets bursting with juicy sunshine, I love you! It is a touch on the sweet side (is that more honey I detect?) but it’s still bloody delicious and we all know corn is my favourite non digestible food in all the lands.
I’ve been craving for good, proper American biscuits for about 4 years now since my last trip the US. People generally describe biscuits as a savoury scone, and Wishbone absolutely nails them! An individual Biscuit with sausage gravy does sound a bit steep at $6 a pop but let me tell you, IT’S SO WORTH IT! The biscuits are baked to order with a light golden crust and ridiculously light innards and just begging to be used to mop up the slightly peppery sausage gravy.
I wasn’t too sure about the Biscuit with honey butter ($6) mainly because I’m so used to eating biscuits with savoury toppings but this was so damn tasty! Generous amount of creamy butter drenched in sweet sweet honey, perfect for slathering. Or for some people, eating with a spoon coughANGEcough
I probably should’ve ordered a vegetable or something but well, the Mac & Cheese ($6) was calling to me! This was awesome, creamy and cheesy with a delicious buttery breadcrumb crust that I may have swiped more than my fair share of 😛
Aaaand then there was dessert! A deliciously creamy peanut butter soft serve ($8) with caramel popcorn and a swirl of salted fudge in the center.
Wishbone
125 Enmore Road,
Enmore
Trading Hours:
7 days: 5pm to late