Last week a controversial article from the Toronto Star was brought to the attention of many local twitter users. The article was about this journalist’s experience at Yellowknife’s famous Old Town Bistro, Bullocks Bistro. The writer went on about how the service wasn’t that greats, the food wasn’t all that good and how the bill at the end of the night was atrocious. She closed the article by saying the sign going into the bistro should be taken seriously: “Hot Beer, Lousy Food, Bad Service: Welcome. Have a Nice Day.”

This article kind of bent me the wrong way. Obviously, I want to defend our own and tell this writer they are a complete wacko and don’t understand our northern ways, but maybe that would be just adding fuel to the fire. Maybe she’s right, maybe she has been the only one with a backbone to say something. I want to direct you for a second to another local blogger. This local blogger at the time (last summer) was rather knew to town and had a fresh perspective of the place. Well she went to Bullocks to try the place and went home questioning it. She published a blog post about how she was purely surprised at the service and the soggy fries, among other things.

When she published that post about her experience at Bullocks another local blogger (Most of us are friends) had some suggestions about how to dine at Bullocks and even offered to go with her. So they went to Bullocks, expect this time blogger 1 was in the hands a blogger 2, a life long Yellowknifer. Needless to say blogger 1 had a much better time and once again wrote about her experience, this time being a good one.

So lets look at what we have here. Two different people go to Bullocks who know little of the place and town. They both leave with the same experience, somewhat lousy. One goes back with an “experienced” Yellowknifer and has a wonderful time. I guess what I see here is that you need to know what you’re doing at Bullocks to have a good experience. Is this true Yellowknife? I don’t want to think so but…

I have been to Bullocks a couple times over the years, so before you jump down my throat keep that in mind, and quite honestly never found it all that bad, granted I’m a very relaxed customer at restaurants. The place has a real authentic “old town” feel to it, which I much enjoy and I think most others do as well.

That being said, what have your experiences at Bullocks Bistro been like? What would you change or keep the same? Do you think this Toronto Columnist is off her rocker? What advice would you give to a first time goer?

I’m definitely not trying to cut Bullocks down by any means, just trying to figure out where this article in the Toronto Star came from. Maybe she did just have a fluke of a bad time. What I do fear though is if we Yellowknifers have a different perspective on the bistro, than a visitor. Tourism is a big part of our economy and I would hate for an article, like The Star’s one, to be the beginning of the end for our beloved bistro’s reputation for having some of the best fish and chips in Canada.