During the holidays last year, my parents and relatives went to Little Billy’s Steakhouse on Hastings to celebrate. My mom said good things about it, so I suggested we go for Father’s Day dinner because I wanted to try it too! We’ve also been going to The Keg practically every special occasion so it was nice to change it up.
I made a reservation but unfortunately we still had to wait a bit. The restaurant seemed bigger on the outside, it was actually smaller than I expected due to the layout. We were surprised that the restaurant was completely full on a Tuesday night!
Four course set menu: My parents both decided to get the 4 course set menu for $22, which was a pretty good deal. The offer is only available Monday-Thursday.
Soup: The first course was a creamy chicken soup with risotto. They both noted that it was pretty salty. The soup ended with some sour lemon notes so they probably squeezed some lemon into the soup too.
Salad: The second course was a simple mixed green salad… Almost a bit too simple! It would have been nice to include some nuts or cranberries. The salad came mixed with some olive oil as the dressing.
Lobster and steak: The third course, and main entree! For $22, this was a really good deal. The lobster was fresh and delicious. The steak was good too, although my mom ordered a medium rare and was cooked more to a medium. My dad ordered a medium and his steak was cooked to a medium rare instead… So they ended up just switching their steaks.
Dessert: They finished off with a lacklustre dessert. On the menu, it was described as a “sundae” but it was more like a scoop of cheap, grocery store ice cream with some cheap syrup on top. But the rest of the food was good so they still left satisfied!
Paidaika ribs: The boyfriend was having a tough time deciding between the ribs and moussaka. It was quite funny how indecisive he was being. In the end, he went with the paidaika ribs and it was an excellent choice with no regrets!
The ribs were melt in your mouth tender. They had some sort of “Chef’s seasoning” which were delicious. All of the herbs went well together. To top it off, the fluffy rice pilaf was delicious too. The only thing he didn’t like was the broccoli because it had a strong vinegar taste.
Chicken souvlaki: I absolutely LOVE my chicken souvlaki. The two skewers were so delicious. The chicken breast was grilled perfectly and succulent. The herbs and slightly smoky flavour elevated the skewers. I savoured every bite!
My Greek potatoes were delicious too. I was overloaded on carbs that night! My only small complaint would be that the potato was not fully marinated, as the middle of the potato did not have any of the lemon juice flavour.
We were also given some pita bread, which was delicious. They came nice and hot. The outside was a bit crunchy while the inside was fluffy.
Needless to say, we all left very satisfied with our meal. At some points in the night our server seemed like she was just throwing the dishes down and running away… but I understand because she was also bartending that evening. She seemed very rushed that night but was friendly enough, and we were able to get her attention when needed so it did not sour our visit much.
Little Billy’s is a good option in the area, and has a nice neighborhood vibe to it. It isn’t as upscale as The Keg, more of a family owned-cozy vibe but still delicious! I can see us coming back in the future.
The restaurant was spacious and comfortable. They have live performances on Friday and Saturday nights, which you can see from my photo above!
This is where all of their meats are prepared! After they are cooked, servers will walk around with one of those sticks and go to each table until all the meat is gone (which is pretty fast!)
They also have a self serve buffet bar. Your typical carb dishes, soup, rice, veggies, and some fruit.
Now the part we have all been waiting for: the MEAT! There are many servers walking around, and we didn’t have to wait any more than 5 minutes for someone to be walking around.
Another one of their delicious juicy steaks being served! Please note the boyfriend’s patient hands in the background, LOL.
Maminha: Although smaller than the rest, the tri tip was the favourite among the five of us. It was roasted, so the outside was a bit grilled and crispy.
Calabresa: Perhaps the only meat that we weren’t a fan of that night. We found the pork sausage to be very dry.
Ribs: I don’t normally have ribs, but I’m starting to slowly eat more. After one bite, Cocoa told me I HAD to try it, so I had a bite. The ribs melted right off the bone, and was so tender.
Deep fried platains and cheese balls: Halfway through the meal, our server dropped off some snacks! We didn’t really eat these as we wanted to have more of the meat.
Salad: After all that meat, I decided to go and get a plate of veggies to feel better. The veggies were really fresh and the lettuce was crunchy.
Grilled pineapple with cinnamon: My apologies for the terrible quality of this photo. I forgot to take a photo of it, so this is a screenshot from an Instagram boomerang.
Yay!
After a 30 minute wait, we were finally seated. The restaurant had a warm and inviting feel to it, although it did feel a tiny bit cramped. This is where the ‘good’ ends, although there wasn’t much good to begin with.
Pulled pork burrito: This sounded good on the menu, but it was abysmal. First, it was really small and definitely not a burrito size… more of a snack wrap. Secondly, it was bland and flavourless.
Chicken & sausage platter: So since they didn’t have BBQ ribs and brisket, we opted for our second choice. The sausage was the only decent thing because it’s quite hard to mess up sausage. The chicken was VERY dry.
Bread: Can we just take a moment to look at this sad piece of white bread? The platter came, and we were told that they were out of corn bread as well… ok. So, she said that she could bring us a ‘Southern style white bread’. Well, not like we had any other options if they were out of corn bread.
The entrance to the restaurant is inside the hotel. As well, there is free parking for customers – just make sure you park in stalls that say reserved for Tivoli’s customers.
Mixed salad: The mixed salad was very fresh! I appreciated the decent amount of berries in the salad.
Caesar salad: Again, the salad leaves were fresh and crunchy. Not much to complain about either.
Sweet & spicy beef bites: We really enjoyed these! It tasted like Chinese sweet and sour sauce. The fried Alberta AAA beef cubes were also seasoned with Mediterranean spices. Talk about mix of cultures!
Sauteed garlic prawns: The prawns were fresh and had that nice snap to it. They were also slathered in butter which made it even tastier.
NY Steak: For $5, we could upgrade our Groupon to a NY steak. One of my dad’s favourite things at Western establishments is steak, so naturally we had to get this. It came a perfect medium rare and was nice and juicy.
Veal shank: The veal shank was also cooked excellently. It was tender and full of flavour. It came with a saffron-mushroom risotto, which was creamy and delicious.
Chicken parmigiana: Considering how tasty everything else was, this was everyone’s least favourite. The breaded chicken reminded me of those microwave dinners. It was also quite bland. I guess they’re better at their beef.
Smoked salmon linguine: There was a very generous portion of smoked salmon in this plate! With every forkful, we were met with smoked salmon in our mouth. It was a bit bland but easily fixed with a dash of salt. The boyfriend packed this for lunch the next day, and apparently it was even better since the flavours had soaked in more!
Cheesecake trio: I don’t remember the exact flavours of the cheesecake, but everyone quite enjoyed it. Unfortunately, everyone was too full from the appies and entrees so we couldn’t finish this.
Ice cream parfait: Whoa!! Take a look at this monster! It came with layers of ice cream and fruit. It would have been easier to eat as a sundae since we were all sharing (well, I couldn’t have it so excluding me haha). Normally, this costs $10 without the Groupon so I think the Groupon was pretty worth it.