SPiN

In case you missed The Londoner's recent post, here's the latest and greatest in themed bars: ping pong.

London's Ping hit the scene with a splash late summer last year and I was surprised to find that Toronto had its very own ping pong bar! SPiN opened late in 2011 as the Toronto installment of SPiNGalactic - there's three other North American locations. [Their website boasts plans for SPiN on the Moon in 2022!]

The walls are adorned with a gorgeous array of artwork from local artists - all original and all available for purchase.

As if the atmosphere and ping pong wasn't enough, their menu completely blew me away. The group I was with ordered a small array of appetizers and sandwiches and I struggled with the urge to order way more than I could possibly ever eat.

The 5 Step Fries were amazing. Potato wedges gone hulk. They were thick, skin-on, crispy-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside deliciousness. So far from healthy and best eaten hot or warm - I splurged for the last wedge at the end of the night and ended up with all of the grease that had pooled in the bottom of the dish. Ick. Their take on a simple grilled cheese was refreshing! A sharp mix of Swiss, Monterey and Cheddar cheeses along with fresh tomato slices, crispy pork belly and sprouts. These were sliced for sharing, devoured, and a back-up tray was quickly ordered.

I love creative remakes of simple, basic dishes. SPiN's "Chips and Dip" was just that: warm deep-friend tortilla chips [no pretense of healthiness in this joint!] with three dips. One was a basic tzatzki, another was a sweet tomato salsa, and the last was [as far as I could tell] yam or sweet potato with caradamom. All delicious, but none of them held a candle to the dip that came along with the grilled cheese.

Looks like ketchup, tastes like heaven. I schmeared this sauce on everything. baked tortillas, potato wedges, grilled cheese... all got healthy dunks in this sinfully sweet sauce. A magic blend of tomato paste and honey that I can't for the life of me understand why it was so delicious. I would never have thought to combine the two but I suppose, in the end, that's what ketchup is! Tomato paste and sugar and vinegar, right? My not-so-seasoned tastebuds loved the sweet hit of honey in this sauce. I'll definitely be trying to make my own version of this sometime soon.

The veggie chips were a brilliant palate cleanser, and definitely helped me to mentally offset the obvious grease-factor in the wedges and chips. Long, thin slices of heirloom carrots and coloured beets were crisp and surprisingly flavourful. I too-often find that raw veggies in restaurants are bland and either dried out or way too watery. These were neither! This is the first time I've seen raw veggies presented in such a creative and eye-catching manner. It almost made the $8 price tag worth it.

We had a birthday in our little group, but forgot about it until the bitter end and had missed our dessert-ordering window! This happened instead. Cheese dip beats cake any day of the week, anyway.

I'll definitely be grabbing some girlfriends and heading back into the city for a proper night at SPiN! Just too much fun.

They book up fast, and are usually slammed on weekends and Thursday/Friday evenings, so make a reservation! 461 King Street West [don't be fooled by the enormous Firkin on King Street proudly proclaiming itself as 461. Sneak around the side of the building, through the little iron gateways and you'll see the glow of ping pong not too far down!] 416.599.7746