Fortunate Fox
Fortunate Fox is the English-style all-day pub attached to the Kimpton Saint George hotel.
With dart boards, trivia nights, and drink specials like $4 tequila shots, the motto of this place is “A fox is a wolf that sends flowers.”
The space is full of Instagrammable phrases like this (“Fortune favours the fox” spelled out in neon) and old-timey-looking paintings and bookshelves. Greenery dangles above the curved bar.
Wings go for $15 a pound and are served dry and crispy with your choice of sauce. This is good for those who don’t want to get too messy while still digging into saucy wings, and also allows you to control the amount of sauce per wing.
The Buffalo butter sauce we opt for has an appropriate heat level and tanginess, but gets a twist on a typical Buffalo hot sauce with extra thickness and richness.
Tuna tartare ($14) has a surprising kick thanks to yuzu hot sauce, balanced out with a little creamy avocado and snappy sesame seeds, the fish given a nice even dice that makes it easy to scoop up with chips.
Tikka masala curry ($14) arrives on a bed of basmati rice with naan triangles, raita and a little lime on the side and airy papadum crackers on top. Adding chicken brings this dish to a whopping $19 and it’s relatively mild for a curry, but it certainly has all the elements of a staunch pub dish.
A fried chicken sandwich ($14) is more of a standout, with drippy Buffalo hot sauce and ranch and crispy lettuce, tomato and pickle, all on a soft roll completing the upscale fast food picture.
Spicy pepperoni ($12) is one of a selection of pizzette, oblong flatbread pizzas. Cut into skinny, shareable slices, this one has mozzarella and basil, and other options include asparagus with truffle and parm, and Buffalo chicken with jalapeno, iceberg, jalapeno and ranch.
A list of burgers starts at $14 with the Fox Burger, working its way up to $15 and $16 respectively for the Canadian (peameal, cheese curds and gravy) and a Banquet Burger (bacon, cheese, tomato, lettuce, pickle, onion).
The fried chicken sandwich wins out for me here, but the texture on the patty is good thanks to coarsely ground beef.
Send Flowers ($12) is one of several “contemporary” cocktails with cheeky names like Fox News, Out of Office and Spirit Animal. Send Flowers is a light mix of Dillon’s Rose, prosecco, lemon with a big hit of cucumber.
While still charging what you’d expect from a Yorkville-adjacent restaurant, Fortunate Fox languishes in the middle ground between dusty tavern and overcrowded hotspot: a decent addition to this street playing host mostly to student bars and chains.
Jesse Milns