Downtown St. Catharines (and Niagara in general) is home to a great many excellent independent restaurants. Pow Wow is one of the first that we tried during our year off of chain restaurants. PW is right across the street from my office.
According to their site, they’ve been in business for nearly 15 years. They also have a second restaurant/bar on James Street. It’s called the Office. We’ve been there as well but prefer Pow Wow, by and large.
The lunch menu is really where they shine. We typically go there in the early evening and if one asks nicely, one can order some things from the lunch menu during what is technically dinner time.
We’ve only tried one of the appetizers. Meze for Two is several small dips and breads. The portion size is such that we usually order an appetizer platter to split and then a main course to split. I say ‘platter’ but it is 3-4 plates full of food.
We’ve gone to PW with a group of friends and split several pizzas. They are approximately six-slice jobbies on what I believe to be hand made dough. The Chicken Club is fantastic but the others are worth trying as well. The only pasta I’ve had there is the Angry Chicken which was good but rather spicy.
My favourite thing to order at PW is a sandwich. They have combined meat with pears or apples for a really interesting flavour mix (one that we have stolen and used at home. Mmmmm grlled pears). Last time we were there, we split a Chicken Apple and a Turkey, Pear & Brie. They are served with a several-different-lettuces salad under a light vinaigrette (spelled that right on the first try!) and a sort of pastry shell thing that I’m not even sure what it is. It’s very light and crunchy but has sort of an odd flavour and consistency. Not bad just not for everybody.
As far as I can recall, we have yet to sample their dessert offerings as we are typically too full of whatever else to even think about it. Some day we plan to do a progressive dinner through downtown and I wouldn’t be opposed to ending up at Pow Wow come dessert time.