By Richard Fine
Tootsies is spacious and sparsely-decorated; while aesthetically pleasing, unfortunately this made it feel much emptier than it actually was when I arrived with my girlfriend on Friday lunchtime. By the time we left an hour later, five or six tables had been filled, but we were left hoping for Tootsies’ sake that the place is more popular in the evenings or at the weekends. Was the menu just as sparse? The choice of starters was disappointingly limited, but it offered many mains to choose from. Tootsies bills itself as "the chargrill place," and accordingly the menu is largely populated by steak and chicken – vegetarians will have to content themselves with salads or the lentil burger.
While waiting for our food we ordered milkshakes to fill the hole, which were pleasant but quite thin and a tad on the small side.
The food arrived promptly and was well presented. My girlfriend’s salad was generously proportioned and the lettuce fresh and moist; the chicken was nicely flavoured (if a little dry), but we suspected that the Caesar dressing had come from a bottle. That’s not a cardinal sin, of course – some of the best salads in living memory have been bottled for our convenience, but there’s always a frisson of outrage to the discovery.
I had the Tootsies Classic burger, a 6oz beef burger with bacon and Monterey Jack cheese: tall to the extent that it was impossible to eat without dismantling it first, which is unfortunate as it made it harder to appreciate the combination of flavours. The patty itself was tasty, and the bacon pink and chewy, though it seemed they’d been a bit conservative with the cheese. The lack of oil from the cheese, the saltiness of the bacon, and the dryness of the beef (all their burgers are cooked medium-well) resulted in my reaching for my milkshake quite often.
The bowl of chips that came with my burger was just the right size, and the chips themselves were very successful, being soft on the inside without being soggy, and crispy on the outside without being oily.
For dessert we shared a hot waffle, served with vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries, and lots of maple syrup. Delicious and sweet, the waffle had absorbed much of the maple syrup, but there were still a few crispier parts keeping the texture varied.
Overall, I wouldn’t place Tootsies on my ‘must visit’ list, but they provide large portions of above-average quality food. It’s not a connoisseur’s choice, but if you like your meat it won’t let you down.
