Bad Accent

I have a fond memory of eating my first Turducken at Southern Accent. So when I saw that this venerable restaurant has set up shop at College and Ossington, after the Honest Ed's building is slated for razing, I wanted to drop by. On Tuesday, I finally made a visit after a yoga class.

Though the Summerlicious festival was over for this year, they still offered the $28 prix fixe. Since it was a few bucks cheaper than the items separately, I gave in to the sales pitch. In a nutshell, the 3-course meal was the worse I've had in quite a while. It was an edible and filling dinner. But in no way would I describe this as restaurant-quality food.

Least offensive was the chilled soup. Essentially, it was bland tomato soup. Given that something like a watermelon gazpacho with herbs isn't hard to make, this was just lazy cooking. The Cajun jambalaya was a mess. The rice was mushy and heavy, with tasteless shrimp and grassy collard greens. In contrast, the tomato-based sauce was so overpowering you can't taste the sausage or anything else. Even the root-beer float was a joke. The vanilla scoop tasted like the $5 2-gallon no-name ice cream you buy at No Frills. Even then, I wouldn't serve it still embedded with solid chunks of ice.