T.O.bites | Toronto Food & Restaurant Blog

When most of us think of Queen West, we tend to think of hipsters with a sprinkling of yuppies.  With it’s abstract photographic art on the walls and skeleton butterfly paintings on the back patio, Shanghai Cowgirl’s ambiance embraces the area’s distinct flavour but within a 1940′s diner like setting.

Skeleton butterflies on the patio

From what I’ve been hearing from friends, the dish to try at Shanghai Cowgirl would have to be the grilled cheese.  Yes, the grilled cheese is the usual bland dish Ashley and I sometimes have when we’re stumped on what else to order, but the cowgirl apparently does the triple-decker-cheesiness really well.  Unfortunately, I decided to be a little bit more adventurous and stray slightly off of the well beaten path this time.  So I went with the tuna melt (okay, maybe not that far off the path).

Tuna melt with home fries

The tuna melt, which was just shy of $9 bucks, came with a choice of fries or mixed greens.  I went with home fries over french fries, but I have to point out that these guys do make sweet potatoe fries (yum!).  They were an excellent choice too.  They were soft and buttery in the middle, but contained just enough crisp around the edges to make each bite a wonderful combination of crunch and ‘mmm’.  As you can see from the picture above, they were the excellent hand made home fries, and not the frozen toss-in-the-oven-and-bake kind that you usually get from most breakfast diners.

The tuna melt itself wasn’t too bad.  The tuna was not too wet with mayonnaise, and not to dry either.  The tuna, which was covered in melted cheddar, sat on top of a piece of lettuce, all of which was contained neatly on top of a bagel half.  Each half of the tuna melt was garnished with some sprouts on top.  It’s a bit too large to be a eaten like a sandwhich, so that made utensils mandatory for this meal.

Sara went with the perogies stued with garlic, chilli, ginger, onions, and BBQ pork, all for $12 bucks.  She felt that for the price, there wasn’t a lot of food, but the quality was decent.  The perogies were a little too doughy, but the touch of chilli, ginger, garlic, and onions added a nice burst of flavor.  One interesting thing to note is that the BBQ pork is the same BBQ pork you’d get in Chinatown, from the pigs hanging in the windows — the traditional Chinese BBQ pork.  It was a little on the dry side but wasn’t too bad overall.

Perogies with BBQ pork

I do plan on coming back here some day to try out the triple decker grilled cheese, or their famous cheeseburgers I’ve also been hearing so much.  Overall though, we felt the food was great, but the price was just a tad bit steep.  Then again, this is Queen West.  I highly recommend you do sit out on the back patio if the weather is great.  Hopefully though, there won’t be too many smokers out there as there were a few when we went.

Average Price: $9 – $12 per entree
Hours: Sun-Mon: 10:30am – Midnight, Tue-Thur: 10:30am-1:00am, Fri-Sat: 10:30am-4:00am
TTC Directions: Hop onto the Queen Streetcar and get off just east of Bathurst
Website: http://shanghaicowgirl.com