Berkeley North-West Coast Kitchen

by Melinda Paletta 14 December 2016 Resturants 1

I am always intrigued when I head out for supper in Hamilton Ont. I look around the Steel City and see so many welcomed changes, that it really puts a smile on my face. Berkeley North is the newest neighbour that has decided to reside in Hamilton Ont. Located in the newly renovated area of King William St. & James St. North.
Berkley North is surrounded with warm comforting browns, clean white walls & rustic original brick walls. After all Hamilton Ont. is full of historical buildings so its nice to see that although Berkeley North is Modern, they still respect the old knowledge of their new home.

Berkley North’s specialty is West Coast Kitchen Cuisine. Its a keen spin of locally grown unique fresh flavors, & seasonal healthy ingredients. The focus is on sharable dishes, with Seafood and Vegetarian dishes on the menu. I can’t wait to try some of these very inspired yet unusual dishes. The menu is not overwhelming, which I found brilliant, again only concentrating on what they know best West Coast Cuisine. Husband and wife team Matt Webber & Diane Chetcuti are the owners of Berkeley North. With welcoming smiles, and modest demeanor the owners and staff are ready to make your West Coast Kitchen experience a most memorable one.

Berkeley North is committed to making everything in house, from the homemade bread Chef John brought up to show me right down to the fresh cheese, which I will explain in a moment. As Matt and I head to the kitchen to see what delectable flavors are being prepared for tonight’s features, I get a clear view of the relationship and vision that Matt, his wife, and the kitchen staff want to bring to its patrons. The kitchen staff which is run by Chef John are a jovial bunch, but take their West Coast Cuisine very seriously. I watched each chef meticulously get ingredients together so that service can run as smooth as my New York Sour Cocktail, which is what started my evening off. Canadian Whiskey, Lemon, Red Wine Float. On top of this creative classic cocktail, was a chick pea froth, yes that’s right for my Vegan friends you to can now drink it up. What an ingenious little trick, and a great way to use a chick pea.

The West Coast cuisine is very much alive in this restaurant. As we started with some Spicy Lime Tempura Squash, now my first bite of this dish was “Wow” its kind of salty. Each bite I took became more enjoyable with the spicy lime seasoning, the sea salt, & the sweet squash. That I found my taste buds were awaked by such flavors, and this is the great thing about West Coast cuisine it’s unpredictable so it leaves your senses to do the work by smell, taste, & site.

I continued my West Coast quest next with a dish of Homemade Fresh Cheese & warm Sourdough bread. The fresh cheese pillow curds, drizzled with olive oil & cracked pepper, served with warm toasted sourdough bread. Let me tell you, I was in heaven, this dish on its own is a beautiful thing. The warm sourdough and scrumptious warm cheese compliment each other like a warm beach and a beautiful sunset.

Our Edamame Dumplings with Ricotta bathing in warm brown butter were delicious. Four perfectly stuffed round dumplings stuffed with ricotta cheese & edamame, I sliced down the middle drizzled some brown butter a top, and just a hint of lemon I taste, they were perfect and exceptionally pleasing. Although Berkeley North is about sharing, we had no intention of doing so… let’s just say we could have pulled out a West Side Story fight scene over these Edamame dumplings.

With our taste buds enticed, Alaskan King Crab was the next dish. Freshly made pasta, delicate strands of thick & silky pasta noodles, juicy chucks of Alaskan King Crab all came together in what the menu describes as “good butter”. Anything with butter is great, but this dish was delectable the butter was in good company with garlic, fresh pasta, & Alaskan King Crab all on one fork. Our lips were so moist from the flavors of this dish that we just kept licking them. I really wanted to ask for more of the Sourdough bread just to dunk it in the lobster garlic butter sauce.
By the time dessert came I was most curious to see what was going to be on the menu. I had to put my glasses on to read this item, just to make sure I was reading it right. Cheezcake yes, its spelled correctly.

Tofu Cheezcake and I had to try it. This silky-smooth and mischievous dessert was so rousing that I had to keep looking to see if it was really tofu. It was an exquisite piece of cheezcake with fresh wonderful blueberries and the homemade almond crunch crust, just made this dessert an action-packed way to end my meal.
The Chocolate Cake did not disappoint either, starting with a moist piece of chocolate cake, and then layer after layer of flavor followed. A sweet layer of chocolate icing (ganache)a large dollop of homemade ice cream & homemade peanut brittle. This dessert was luscious just to look at. Enjoying this tower of divine sweetness was worth every mile I’m going to be doing on my treadmill.

Berkeley North has taken the next level of dining and has made it exciting to see how such dishes can be transformed into a culinary experience for your taste buds. Berkeley North has taken West Coast Cuisine and is now instilling it right here in the Hammer.