After countless flights out of Pearson
International Airport in Toronto, there’s been one restaurant that has caught
my eye for quite some time – Red Rocket 192 Grill. Designed as a streetcar inspired retro café,
the Red Rocket is a diner that I usually only ever see when flying back to
Toronto on the second level of Terminal 1.
With my flight to Dallas scheduled to depart out of Gate 34, I had about an hour to try to this place out.
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| Red Rocket 192 Grill |
As you enter Red Rocket 192 Grill, you will see
a sign above the entrance with a street car logo on it. The entrance is also lit up with red lights,
although I am not really sure if that really adds to the mood of the
environment or makes you question if you are walking into another type of “establishment”
instead. Once inside, I grabbed a spot
at the bar as I usually do. There was
nothing really special about the bar (i.e. it did not have a retro countertop),
but it was spacious and clean. There
were also a handful of patrons inside the restaurant, but I had the entire bar
to myself.
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| Photos of Toronto's iconic sites adorn the walls at Red Rocket |
Behind me were bright red walls adorned with photos
of Toronto’s iconic points along the Toronto Transit Commission’s various
street car stops. Right in front of me
past the bottles of liquor, I could peer into the kitchen. And to the left of the bar was a huge window
peering into Gate 51 where the plane arrives to either drops off or pick up
passengers. Red Rocket is one of the few
restaurants within Pearson that give you this opportunity to see this transfer
of passengers.
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| Looking out onto the tarmac at Pearson International Airport |
With about an hour to spare before boarding, I
had time to eat a full breakfast and decided to order the Big Red – Omega 3
eggs, peameal and smoked bacon, potatoes and toast. This sizable breakfast cost $12 CDN. I decided to go with poached eggs with this
one. They were good, but slightly
watery. I also ordered a coffee to go
along with my breakfast as I had hardly slept the night before, but wanted to have
enough energy to explore Fort Worth in the afternoon once I arrived.
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| Big Red Breakfast – Poached eggs with toast, smoked bacon & peameal bacon |
For dessert – if you can even call it that
during breakfast – I ordered a Vanilla Almond milkshake. My waitress warned me that it wasn’t an
authentic Almond milkshake, but Almond milk mixed with vanilla ice cream
instead. For $6 CDN, that is an
expensive artificial Almond milkshake.
Nevertheless, I wanted to get the full diner experience and ordered one anyway. It is very rare to find diners
nowadays, so when I do find myself in one, I have to order a milkshake like
people did back in the 1950s.
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| Vanilla Almond Milkshake |
Overall, I found the food to be average. The real highlight for me was the window view
onto the tarmac of Gate 51 as you can watch the planes load and unload passengers. By the time I had arrived,
the sun had already risen. But my
waitress said that you can watch some pretty amazing sunrises and sunsets here
at the bar – something for me to keep in mind for the future. Speaking of my waitress, she was also the
second highlight of my dining experience here at Red Rocket – friendly, attentive,
full of knowledge, and concerned about my customer experience (e.g. warning me
about the Vanilla Almond milkshake).
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| Peaking into the kitchen at Red Rocket 192 Grill |
For most people, this might not mean much as
you would expect this from your servers.
But for me, it is important to point this out whenever I eat at an
airport restaurant as they are consistently busy throughout the year with
passengers coming and going to all parts of the world – either for business or
pleasure – and typically have little patience or are in a rush to get to
wherever they are going. I can’t imagine
working at an airport restaurant can be an “easy experience” for the servers. So kudos to the wonderful staff here at Red
Rocket!
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| Red Rocket even has a Snack Counter for those on the go! |
Red Rocket 192 Grill
Pearson International Airport
Terminal 1 – After-Security (USA) – Level 2
Gates, Near Gate D51/F51
Hours of Operation: 7 days/week from 5am – 11pm
EST
Phone: (416) 776-3100, Ext. 1
