Bistro Steakhouse Salad at Porta Via

My friend Steph and I had the chance to catch up over some grub at Porta Via.  This small eatery features the tagline “real food from real ingredients” and serves a good variety of salads, paninis, and soups to go or to enjoy in their cafeteria-style shop.  They have a number of locations all across the GTA.

Porta Via at 8372 Woodbine Ave. in Markham

We were the one to arrive on a wintry day and were welcomed with a sampling of their sweet potato puree soup and vegan roasted tomato soup.  Both tasted homemade and simple, but hearty.  They definitely adhere to the fact that they don’t use any preservatives or MSG (not even creams, gluten, or enhancers); you could taste the natural flavours in the soups.  We both loved the sweet potato puree.  We also both settled on one of the entree house salads, their “Bistro Steakhouse” salad.

lots of balsamic vinegar & olive oil on display

some of the freshest ingredients I’ve seen on display at a salad bar

The Bistro Steakhouse salad was quite massive and came in a white bowl with plastic knives and forks that look like real metal cutlery.  It contained a lot of romaine hearts, flakes of jalapeno harvarti cheese, and cherry tomatoes.  My favourite part were the yummy portobello mushrooms.  The roast beef was a little chewier and rough than I would have liked.  Although I had asked for medium balsamic vinaigrette to be drizzled over the salad, I actually didn’t taste too much of it in the actual salad.  It was still not bad though, and definitely very healthy.

Bistro Steakhouse Salad & Sweet Potato Puree soup. $11~
romaine hearts, medium roast beef, cherry tomatoes, roasted onions
soya beans, roasted portobellos, jalapeno havarti with balsamic vinaigrette

Next time if I visit this joint for a wholesome meal, I’m going to try out their paninis since they also look really good!