Vlad's Gonzo Food Blog

Taste Restaurant Freebie

2011-03-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Taste Restaurant
http://taste-restaurant.com/
403.233.7730 (no reservations)
1210 1st Street SW

Today (6 days later): After a week of thinking about them I couldn't stand it any more. I trudged down to Taste Restaurant around the corner from my apartment in the beltline craving those delicious tuna tartare morcels sitting on their adorable little sweet tuile cookie strips. Sadly it was Sunday. Taste was closed.

Rewind to last Monday: I and a bunch of other food writer/blogger types were invited to sample some dishes and wine at Taste Restaurant in the beltline. Free food you say? Naturally I was there! Days later thoughts and images continued to swirl around in my head. I can't imagine any better compliment for a restaurant than that.

We were offered a very nice variety of small dishes accompanied by a couple of bright and cheerful white and red wines. They were refreshing and fairly dry, and went with the meal; I have to admit I am not much of a wine snob, so I can't say anything more useful than that. When it comes to wine, I am a quantity over quality kind of guy. The wine director, Brad, did go on about them, so I assume they were the right wines for the job! :) Here's a quick run-down of the meal:

The Organic Heirloom Tomato salad was colorful, with an unexpected but tasty dollop of mascarpone cream cheese. It was good, but here I have to admit I'm not sure I'd order it for $9.

Next was a tiny skillet with 4 scallops topped with a strip of crisp bacon - quite yummy but also a bit on the expensive side for $15.

The 6 perfectly cooked pistachio-crusted lamb chops were mouthwatering and not a bad deal for $15.

The baked mac-n-cheese with aged cheddar and parmesan was simple but tasty at $10-12.

My favourite dish by far was the aforementioned Tuna Tartare, spicy and tangy, and sitting atop these perfect little soft, sweet cookies of tuile batter. Terrific for $15!

Then there were the crispy Beef Tataki Tacos. Very delicate rare beef cradled in fried wonton wrappers. A wonderful marriage of delicate and crisp. Also $15.

The meal ended with exquisite tiny espresso cupcakes - which are apparently offered free at the end of every meal. I heartily recommend ordering an espresso or latte to go with these heavenly, light, little confections.

Oddly enough, I hadn't ever tried Taste in the two and a half or so years that I'd lived in the neighborhood. With its glossy facade, Taste does give off that corporate-bistro vibe. That's not really my type of place. I'm much more comfortable in a modest hole-in-the-wall. I do have some mixed feelings about a restaurant like Taste, so sleek and elitist-looking, and with this whole tapas concept, promoting tiny appetizers to full entree prices. As far as this sort of thing goes, I have to admit Taste does it well. I suppose it's true that Taste isn't going to show up on a list of cheap eats. At something in the neighborhood of $30 per person (not including drinks) it's neither cheap nor is it quite over the top either. The take home message is that the dishes are special enough, the service friendly enough (Quintina and the chefs were warm and nice), and there is an integrity that comes through in the food that it's definitely worth saving up for the occasional lunch or after work outing even for someone like me who isn't necessarily the target clientele: I'm picturing people in suits here, or at the very least hipsters waving around their brand new iPads. :) The Taste Tuesdays advertised on their site with 3 dishes for $30 seems like a great opportunity for anyone, even the riff-raff like me, to give it a try!

For more details and mouth-watering photos, see Vincci's review!

Chris Mills James Beard Experience

2010-10-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get an invitation to experience an amazing 5 course dinner (plus appetizers!), complete with wine pairings for each course, at the Salt Lik on Stephen Avenue last week. It was put together by Joey restaurants and their celebrity super-chef Chris Mills, as a kind of trial run for the dinner he and his team will be presenting at the prestigious James Beard House in NYC. Joey used to be Joey Tomato's, but with Chris' help, they are shedding their pasta and Chianti roots and going a bit more upscale.

The evening was amazing, with great food partaken and much wine I probably can't normally afford quaffed. Most of the ingredients were locally sourced in BC and quite a few were harvested by Chris himself. He picked the masutake mushrooms from his own secret mountain patch; he caught three 20 pound Haida Gwaii salmon for the citrus-cured salmon dishes; he canned the Lapin cherries from Kelowna; and personally wrestled a steer to the ground with a 14 inch carving knife between his teeth for the 45 Day-aged Beef Ribeye. I made up that last one, but you get the idea. What's entirely true is that it really was a rather sublime dinner experience with beautiful quality ingredients and imaginative execution. The menu as a whole was an exuberant medley of pacific rim flavours. Voici a link to the full menu. Here I'll simply highlight the dishes that I felt were particularly inspired, though every single one was rather special:

Among the 4 appetizer treats, the chicken tacos struck me as transcendent. They were tiny little finger foods bursting with flavour, delicately wrapped in a miniscule soft shell. I loved them so.
The bread basket contained amazing little cornbread balls, soft and addictive, each individually stuffed with a slightly sweet, spritely jalapeno. I asked for more.
My favourite of the four entrees was the Licorice Lacquered Duck Breast, Summer Cherry Conserve, with Hazelnut-Crusted Korean Duck Roll. The steamed bun wrap, somewhat thick on the tongue, really did a remarkable job of complementing the duck.
Of the wines, the La Crema "Sonoma" Pinot Noir from California was amazingly delicate and indeed, almost creamy. It retails for over $40 a bottle here in Calgary, damnit.

It's always a bit tough to highlight one's favourite dishes because it does a bit of a disservice to the others. This was definitely a situation where the dinner was more than the sum of its parts. For example, the subtle Vietnamese Banana Cake for dessert didn't inspire me to any superlatives, but it was a very nice, slightly subdued, way of ending the meal. The overall texture of the meal, with transitions from one flavour to another, kept surprising and delighting. It's wonderful when a meal that's as fancy as this one genuinely pleases. A lot of restaurants these days seem to spend more time coming up with overblown names for their dishes rather than concentrating on the quality of the dishes themselves. That was certainly not the case here.

Despite the name change and the more upscale image, as far as I can tell only one of the dishes we had will be available at Joey restaurants: the Vietnamese Banana Cake dessert. That's somewhat understandable I suppose given that Joey isn't quite aiming for top of the line haute cuisine and $200 a plate dinners (not to mention the wine!).While I realize not everything can be included, I do think that the effervescent taco appetizers and the wee cornbread balls would be a terrific, and inexpensive, addition to the Joey menu.As for everything else, well, what can I say? I felt incredibly lucky to get such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. All in all I think it's pretty cool for Joey to have the services of a talented chef like Chris to inject some unique imagination into their dishes. So... What's on for next week? :)

Yetenbi Kitfo (Calgary): 4 Stars

2010-10-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

1010 1 St SW, Calgary, AB T2R 0V1

I saw this little hole-in-the-wall place on 1st Street a few blocks from where I live and I couldn't resist checking it out with a friend. It turns out it's an Ethiopian restaurant. It seems to be a really authentic place frequented mostly by black guys who seem to know the owner. The owner seemed rather surprised to see me, a white fellow, and my Asian buddy. With any kind of foreign food, it's always nice to find a place with a lot of people from wherever the food happens to be from. You figure it's the real deal, and indeed the food we tried was tasty. We shared a dish called Tibis, consisting of small squares of a beef in a sort of ragu served over Ethiopian bread (injera). It was $15 and there was enough for both of us to have a nice lunch and feel reasonably full. My buddy had some black coffee, and was impressed by what appeared to be a very nice espresso. I am trying to wean myself away from drinking coffee so I stayed away; therefore I'll have to take his word for it! There are also a number of other dishes with lamb, chicken, raw beef, and others. If you seek something a bit different, definitely give Yetenbi a try!

Red's Diner (Calgary): 3 Stars

2010-07-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

Red's Diner
403-266-3448
1415 4 St SW, Calgary AB

I went out with a friend for "breakfast" on a sunny Friday afternoon. We had the Prairie Breakfast Plate (2 eggs, potato cheddar perogies, kielbasa suasage, sour cream on the side), the Waffle Wedges with a nice berry compote, and a pancake, all shared between the two of us. The diner itself looks really cute and friendly with bright colors inside. The food also tasted and looked good, and the service was also very good.I can't say there was any "wow" factor to any of this food though. I had heard good things about the pancakes, and while they weren't bad, I didn't think they had anything special either. The total price of this meal was just about $30, and since I shared it with my friend, that works out to about $15 each. We both felt comfortably full, so it's not a bad deal for a home-made breakfast in a nice environment. I suppose all in all I would recommend Red's, but don't expect fireworks - and I certainly can't fathom anyone waiting in line on a weekend! :)

Free Booze and Appetizers at Baton Rouge

2010-07-21T01:40:00.000-07:00

163 Quarry Park Blvd. SE
Calgary, AB, T2C 5E1
403-984-4044

I was invited to a free event to check out the new restaurant Baton Rouge in the almost equally new community of Quarry Park in SE Calgary, just off 18th Street SE. This latest scion from a chain started in Laval, Quebec sits in an attractive, brand new strip mall. My friend and I arrived a bit late, but we still got to have a few tasty treats, namely: A Molson microbrew clone called Creemore (it's a dark lager); a spicy Caesar; a skewer of Santa Fe chicken breast; a few servings of their delicious ribs; and for dessert a small sample of their apple cobbler a la mode as well as a soft and sweet chocolate walnut brownie.

The place looks very nice, with a fairly upscale dining lounge decor. The service was really excellent - some of the best service I'd experienced in a while - surprisingly so considering the place is just about to open. The ribs were very tasty indeed, succulent and fall-off-the-bone soft. The desserts were satisfactory, but I must admit, not quite extraordinary - about what you'd expect at Earls or Moxies. The Caesar was very good, but as spicy as it gets, so if you don't want the extra spice, you may want to ask for them to tone it down! All their beers are from the Molson family, which I am not sure I love - some more variety and some local brews would be welcomed. Baton Rouge takes pride in preparing everything fresh, including the soups and salad dressings, but sadly, none of these was available for us to sample. Ah well!

I do think this chain originating from Laval Quebec ought to find itself comfortably a notch above in quality with respect to the Earls and Tony Romas in this town. I briefly checked out the menu, and it is somewhat pricey, but probably about right for its category. Most of the entrees were close to $20, but that did include a couple of side dishes.As an overall experience, I was impressed with Baton Rouge and felt I'd go there again, though it is out of the way for those not actually living in this deep South East community.

For more detail and some pictures (I predictably forgot my camera!), check out Jen's review at the Chocolate And Ginger blog. It was fun accidentally running into her and her "boy" at the event!

Spoon Me (Calgary): 4 Stars

2010-07-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

Spoon Me
1510 6 Street Southwest, Calgary, AB
(403) 452-6760
http://spoonme.com/

Spoon me is a funky little frozen yogurt shop on 6th street just off 17th ave SW (across the street and down a bit from the Blockbuster Video). It's got a kind of 60s mod look - bright white with colorful designs and furniture, including one of those spherical pod chairs! There are lots of sassy and suggestive eco slogans printed about the shop and they also sell t-shirts (for e.g. "use me, re-use me!" worn by the server behind the counter). Indeed there is a bit of a green, hippy vibe here. The spoons and cups are biodegradable and the tips go to charity. The service is friendly and the yogurt is very nice and smooth, noticeably above average. You can also get 4 toppings to go with your yogurt and there is a selection of fresh fruit, nuts, as well as various crushed cookies. The quality is good, but the prices are high, as one would expect in this trendy part of town. My medium-size yogurt was an even $6 after gst. It's a decent, satisfying size, but of course one can certainly make a whole batch of frozen yogurt at home at such prices! My main complaint is that they always seem to be out of certain flavours. Today they were even out of chocolate! It remains a myster for me to understand how such shops can survive in Calgary outside of shopping malls. Sure, in the dog days of summer, it's wonderfully refreshing to stop in for a frozen treat, then take a nice walk about in this area of town full of gardens and green spaces (walk a few blocks south and you'll find the Lougheed House on 13th ave - see image below!). But during our long, dark, cold and bitter winters, I just can't see myself wanting to step out of the cold for a frozen dessert! Well, time will tell if this little shop will last. In the meantime, if you're walking about in the neighbourhood and are in the mood, I do recommend you stop in at Spoon Me!

Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale (Update)

2010-06-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday the 19th was the first day of the food blogger bake sale that Vincci from Not A Food Blog set up. She did an amazing job and there were so many bloggers who came out of the woodwork and cooked up all kinds of tantalizing sugary temptations. It was incredible! Many of the offerings were professionally packaged and prepared. Below is my haul - and that's less than half of the different goodies there were in total (some of the things were not from our booth, like the Jenn Chic Cooks L'il Chocolate Chippers and the Verde Teas (organic and fair trade)! I took the picture below when I got home. It's too bad I didn't bring my camera to the sale itself!

All in all everything I tried was lovely! I award my gold medal from the bake sale (admitting I didn't try everything!) to Chocolate And Ginger and her amazing Applewood Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies! I was astounded by the professional packaging and was sure this must be some kind of business - but no, she did it all for love (and charity)! The applewood bacon is one of the ingredients in the $10 Vosges Bacon Bars she used for the chocolate chunks (available at Savour Fine Foods in Inglewood, and sometimes at CookBook Cooks in the Beltline). The result was both beautiful and tasty. Notably I couldn't really taste the bacon but I did enjoy the hard-to-pin-down subtle salty aftertaste of the Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt (this is already in the Vosges bar but a bit more was sprinkled on top of each cookie mound too - you can get the salt at Co-op).

PS: I apologize to the other bloggers who's delicious treats I picked up. I went through a careful run-through of everything I purchased at the bake sale - it was a ll wonderful! Somehow that draft got replaced by an earlier draft! I just wasn't prepared to do it all again! :(

Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale

2010-06-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

Several Calgary food bloggers are applying their talents to a good cause at this weekend’s Market Collective. Organized by Vincci at Ceci n’est pas un food blog, the food blogger bake sale will feature goodies from Dinner with Julie and Kitchenscraps as well as gluten-free goodies from Lauren and The Celiac Husband. I am also trying my hand out and baking some cookies for the sale:

Chewy (er, hopefully!) Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F
Cream butter, sugars, and peanut butter until smooth
Beat in eggs one at a time and vanilla
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir into peanut butter mixture
Add oats and chocolate chips
Drop rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (form rounded balls using tbsp and flatten to form cookies)
Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are golden
Cool on tray then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling (cookies may appear to be too soft, but in fact they will become more solid as they cool and the end result will be nice soft, chewy cookies)

Proceeds go to Calgary Meals on Wheels, which provides nutritious meals to people in need, including seniors, children and the working homeless.

Here’s a full list of all the bloggers who are participating. Drop by their table and say hi.
Market Collective is celebrating its second anniversary too. It’s a great place to check out for unique art, gifts, jewelry, clothes, accessories and also listen to live Calgary bands and musicians.

Market Collective, 148-10th Ave N.W.
Saturday, June 19: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Sunday, June 20: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Admission is $2 or a food bank donation.

District: 4 Stars

2010-06-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.enjoydistrict.com
607 11 Avenue SouthwestCalgary, AB T2R 0E1
(403) 233-2433

District has a kind of cool steampunk look.I went there for Green Drinks in May and was surprised by the great mushroom burger I had. They also brew their own beer, and it's good! I didn't realize it had such a reputation for for being "the foodies" bar until I read Vincci's review. It's always nice to appreciate a place for its food without knowing anything about its reputation ahead of time. Thus I am happy to report that I can vouch for the quality at District! See a more detailed review from Vincci.

Oysters: The Catch and Embarcadero: 3 Stars

2010-05-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

It all started when I got an e-mail from a rep at Brookline PR. She was writing to push (or to put it a bit more nicely to "introduce me to") a new promotion The Catch was doing - $20 for 6 oysters and 2 drinks, either bubbly wine or Steam Whistle beer. I find this trend of using bloggers to try to promote products interesting... Besides, it's spring and the weather is nice out here in Calgary. After a 2010 that has been rough on me so far it felt like just the thing; however I figured I'd throw in a bit of a twist: I would pit The Catch and Embarcadero against each other. My friend and fellow blogger Vincci at Ceci N'est Pas un Food Blog and Calgary Is Awesome joined me for our little oyster escapade. Update: Here's Vincci's review!

We went to The Catch first, located on the corner at Centre St. on Stephen Ave Mall (8th Ave) SW. We found out there was no room - everything was reserved. It was only because I noticed a couple of seats at the bar that we were even able to sit down! It seems the hostess was prepared, albeit politely, to just let us leave. Another disappointment was that the special I was told about wasn't available. It turns out that you have to show up before 6 PM (we got there around 6:40 or so). We weren't too impressed, but decided okay we're here, let's just try some food anyway. We wound up ordering some oysters, a couple of pints of beer, and Vincci also decided to have octopus tacos! The oysters were nice and fresh and we both enjoyed them. They came with a couple of sauces and some freshly grated horseradish along with lemon and lime wedges. We both agreed that the sharp flavour of the Royal Miyaki from BC's Sunshine Coast was our favourite. It's a small round little oyster. Generally speaking I think the small oysters from the east coast are tastier than the big hulking monsters that tend to characterize the west coast. However, this one is indeed from BC, so I wouldn't dismiss west coast oysters automatically. We ended up spending just over $55 total for 8 oysters, 2 beers, and one order of octopus tacos; the latter were good, served up in a spicy sauce with a touch of paprika and sour cream, and a bit of hummus, but I didn't think they were particularly extraordinary. If you can manage to get the special, I think that's a much better deal: At regular prices The Catch is indeed rather pricey. The regular price for all of their oysters is $3.50/oyster! All in all, The Catch gets about 3 stars from me.

Next we shuffled on to Embarcadero. It's located in a charming old two story house off of 1st (Macleod Tr) on 17th Ave SE. The overall impression I got was of a more laid-back, friendly environment. Here the prices for oysters were more reasonable and varied depending on the particular type of oyster. They also have a daily featured oyster for $1.50. We ordered 8 oysters to share (2 of each), I had one more beer, and we also got a couple of appetizers - Asiago and herb-roasted mushroom risotto balls and seared scallops. For dessert we shared a slice of cheesecake with chcolate and rasberry sauce. Everything was good. One quibble was that both Vincci and I thought the spicy sauce reminiscent of kim chee was a bit too overpowering. The oysters also came with an assortment of bottled Tabasco sauces. I didn't notice a difference in quality between The Catch and Embarcadero. In fact everything we had was very nice and enjoyable. Here again we spent just over $50!

You can see that the prices Embarcadero are much better than at The Catch. If you just want some oysters and you like the ones that are $1.50 you can get 6 oysters for $9. Most of the others are $1.67 and the most expensive one $3.28. Add 2 beers and you're easily under the $20 mark. Also I prefer the ambiance at Embarcadero to The Catch: I like the more casual atmosphere vs. the kind of stand-offish, unhelpful attitude you get at The Catch. The oysters are about even too (but the sauces at The Catch are slightly superior). For me the sauces don't matter too much. All I want is a tiny touch of heat and little hit of lemon juice. Beyond that I'm not so fussy. All in all I'd give Embarcadero about 3 stars also - but closer to 4 than The Catch. Beyond numbers, what matters more is that I simply can't see myself going back to The Catch again whereas I will probably go back to Embarcadero for oysters and a couple of beers this summer.

I enjoy oysters but they're a treat I tend to indulge in fairly rarely and I am not very knowledgeable about them. This was fun and I'd say both oyster bars are very good and about even in terms of quality. Price-wise Embarcadero is much better and in my opinion the atmosphere and service at Embarcadero are also superior.

Jacqueline and Suzanne's (Calgary): 4 Stars

2009-11-17T22:26:00.000-08:00

Jacqueline Suzanne's Bistro & Antiquities
1219 9 Avenue SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0S9
403-266-1005
http://www.jacquelinesuzannes.ca

Jacqueline and Suzanne's is one of those totally unique places we need more of in Calgary. It's in my favourite neighbourhood in Calgary, Inglewood, known for its character and great little shops (especially furniture). Jacqueline and Suzanne's is packed with an offbeat, quirky sensibility. As soon as you walk in you see antique tables and chairs as well as all kinds of funny nick nacks, like a full-sized mannequin, placed around the restaurant. If you order a latte or a cappuccino it will come in a wine glass! Their Eggs Benedict are a wee bit expensive (just a wee bit, hehe!) at $15 but they're usually quite good. I've had the seafood eggs benny twice now. The first time they were amazing, the second a bit too salty. The wait staff are friendly and attentive. Over all, this is one of my favourite places in Calgary to enjoy a nice quiet breakfast. My only objection is the price, which prevents me from coming here as often as I might like (here's the menu). It's more of a treat than something to do all the time. Still, there's no place like it in Calgary, so I think it's worth visiting if you haven't been there before - hence the 4 stars.

Buttermilk Pancakes: Success At Last!

2009-10-31T14:40:00.000-07:00

In the last few months I decided to learn to make my own pancakes. My first attempt was an unmitigated disaster. Lesson 1: If, like me, you have a bit of an anti-authority streak, don't make the mistake of substituting baking soda for the baking powder the recipe calls for. Sure, you might scoff, "these recipes, they're always sooo precise; don't they realize cooking is all about improvising? Liberty or death!" Well, perhaps so, but unless you really enjoy pancakes with a most atrocious bitter aftertaste that kicks in a fraction of a second after you bite into them, you might get your death wish. In this instance you have to bow to conventional wisdom: Get the baking powder (you can make your own I suppose).

Lesson 2: The second time I tried making pancakes I didn't have buttermilk, so I used regular milk. The recipe also called for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, along with the baking powder, but once bitten twice shy goes the old Guns and Roses song (I have a sneaking suspicion GNR were singing about Gonorrhea though)! Indeed, I replaced that with an additional teaspoon of baking powder. This time the pancakes were edible, but they were too thin, not fluffy the way I had hoped they would be.

Lesson 3: On my third attempt, I finally succeeded! This time I used buttermilk, which apparently is a key ingredient for making the pancakes fluffy. Once again I eschewed baking soda (I may be permanently traumatized), but this time I looked up the conversion online. It turns out that if you want to replace baking soda with baking powder, you may be able to, with the caveat that the alkaline (aka basic) baking soda must be getting neutralized by some acidic ingredient in the recipe, so since baking powder is neutral, your end result may wind up being too acidic. Yay chemistry! Anyhow, as far as leavening power alone goes, you apparently need 4 times as much baking powder as baking soda. Since I was still suspicious about the baking soda, I used 5 teaspoons of baking powder in this wonderful recipe from the Canadian Living Test Kitchen. The first few pancakes were not great: I used too much oil on the pan and set the heat too high so the pancake batter tended to slide around instead of spreading out on the pan. Thus it was very hard to flip over the pancakes without creating a big mess. After a few botched attempts however, I began to get the hang of it. My heat was set to a firm 4 and I used a minimum of oil, only adding a teaspoon or so and brushing it evenly across the pan after every few pancakes once the pan started to become too sticky.

I waited briefly for the small bubbles to start appearing on the surface (in my case this took less than I minute I'd warrant - not sure about the 3 minutes the recipe calls for). At this point I wedged my spatula underneath the pancake to loosen it from the grill, then slid it around for another few seconds, and finally flipped it over. I allowed it to cook again for 30 seconds to a minute, again making sure it wasn't getting stuck. The result was one beautiful little pancake after another. I don't know if they were perfect by professional standards, but like a proud parent looking on his firstborn baby, no other chubby little cuties could have pleased me more! The final result: Delicious! Airy and mildly sweet, they absorbed the maple syrup beautifully and went so well with the raspberries I'd got from Safeway on special!

Concluding remarks: While using the extra baking powder seems to have worked, next time I think I will try using the baking soda the recipe calls for. I suspect the (acidic) buttermilk is meant to neutralize the baking soda and prevent that awful taste. Also, if you have a pancake recipe with buttermilk that calls for baking soda, that's fine, but if you decide to use regular milk instead, it probably is a good idea to replace the baking soda with 4x baking powder instead. Otherwise without the buttermilk the baking soda might not be neutralized.

LoungeBurger (Calgary): 3 Stars

2009-10-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

270-1331 MacLeod Trail SE, Calgary
403-250-2747‎
http://www.loungeburger.com/

LoungeBurger appears to be a new higher-end burger joint started right here in Calgary with the first, and so far only, location in Victoria Crossing. It's on 14th Avenue just off MacLeod Trail (in between the south and north routes) in a midrise commercial building, just east of the smaller Sasso highrise condo. It's a great location for the Saddledome crowd and it is also set up nicely to serve the growing population of condo-dwellers in the beltline. The decor is attractive and subdued reminiscent, as others have pointed out, of nicer chain restaurants like Earl's and Milestone's. It's very much a casual but classy sports bar/lounge type of place. I particularly like the sandstone pillars.

Along with some foodie friends and fellow food bloggers we decided to strike early and check this new restaurant out (it's been around for less than a month!). We had a large group of 7 people and we tried to share the burgers to get an overall sense of the taste and quality. We tried the Sausage Burger, the AAA burger, the Kobe Burger, the Lamb Burger, a sampler platter of little slider-style mini-burgers, and the Ahi Burger (which was more of a panini). LoungeBurger prides itself on the huge variety of burgers on offer (and other things as well, though the burgers are the main focus. Here's the menu). You can also create your own burger by making your choice of bun, patty, and toppings. They have all kinds of different fries to choose from too, as well as onion rings and salads.

In terms of taste, some people preferred the AAA Burger, which is a pretty good deal at only about $10 for the burger and a side, whereas I concur with Andree of UGonnaEatThat that the $18 Kobe Burger (made with ablend of special American and Japanese Wagyu beef) was the best - very juicy and with a noticeably richer flavour! The consensus about the other burgers seemed to be that they weren't bad, but no one appeared to be particularly excited about any of them. For example, the Lamb Burger tasted much like a Greek lamb souvlaki, only with the meat ground up. It was interesting, and if you want something different it's cool, but it wasn't something I'd come back for again and again. Andree and I had a dispute about her review of LoungeBurger wherein I , very gently in my usual humble fashion (hehe), protested that the best burgers in Calgary were offered at Buchanan's. In order to resolve this wee disagreement, I also tried a $19 sirloin burger at Buchanan's the next day for dinner. While my recollection of a couple of earlier experiences was of a succulent burger that melted in my mouth, this time I had to agree the Buchanan's burger was okay, but not as good as the Kobe Burger. So I have to concede, Andree was right, and I was wrong! I wonder what happened though!

All in all I liked LoungeBurger quite a bit. The burgers are very good, the service is friendly, and the decor is pleasant. The prices are a bit on the high end though: I wouldn't order a Kobe burger very often. If the prices were lower I might even give LoungeBurger 4 stars; as it is I think it's a good restaurant that I'd go back to, but it's not outstanding. The prices seem too high, especially when you compare with restaurants like Earl's. For me to give a place a 4 or 5 star review, it has to have that special quality that makes me approach complete strangers on the street and cry out "Hey you! You have to try this place it's awesome! Come back here! Don't run away from meeee! Awwww" None the less, I'd say it's a strong 3 stars; if you're looking for a new burger joint to explore or want a place to hang out before/during a Flames game, I don't think you'd go wrong with LoungeBurger!

As usual Vincci who was hanging out with us on this occasion has done another great job of reviewing LoungeBurger that kind of puts my blog to shame.

Rush (Calgary): 3 Stars

2009-10-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Rush Restaurant
100, 207 9 Ave SW Calgary
403-271-7874
www.rushrestaurant.com

A friend of mine invited me for drinks at Rush on Friday night. I didn't expect to eat anything so I chose to forgo the camera. Rush is a high end martini lounge and restaurant located on the ground floor of the new office building on the South side of 9th Ave SW close to 1st St, a bit east of Banker's Hall. Needless to say once we were there neither of us could resist pecking away at some of their menu items. First, as to the decor: High ceilings, check.; fancy lighting, check; discrete dark colours, check; custom-made semi-circular lounge pods, check; a lady tinkling away at a baby grand piano, check. Yup, you have no doubt you're at a high-end, expensive big city-style lounge!

Next, drinks: We had a few cocktails and none of them really rose to our expectations. There was one with ginger beer, one called a Hollywood Long Island Ice Tea with a citrus flavour, and another one called the Bitumen Martini that was kind of burgundy in colour, and according to the menu was to include a fancy stuffed olive that never showed up. They're supposed to be doubles and the prices are in the $14 range, though they have a few that are $10. For a place that is supposed to be known for its drinks I was rather disappointed. The drinks were just average, and I think you can get that quality at any lounge/martini bar in town. They also seemed to be a bit weak for doubles. My friend, who's had drinks at Rush once before, said that the first time around she'd noticed an intense attention to detail, with sprigs of fresh mint and so forth, whereas there was a clear decline in quality this time around.

Now the food: We shared the crab beignets as appetizers. You get two wee crispy dumplings, one each in our case. They're quite good, but they're so small you can hardly taste them. We also shared the burger ($18!). The beef is ground on site, and it's a delicious, juicy burger, one of the better ones I've had in Calgary. Finally, for dessert we shared the mysteriously labeled 'chocolate', which turned out to be a chocolate sponge cake with cherry consommee and a dollop of ice cream on the side. It was pretty good, but again, not amazing and the portions are so small at Rush!

Finally as to the service: The wait staff we got appeared simultaneously inexperienced and tentative as well as somewhat snooty and excessively formal - not a good combination. Also their servers apparently "work as a team" as they put it; in other words you seem randomly to get one of two servers showing up at your table, often repeating themselves. How this helps, I don't know, but it's certainly confusing and a bit annoying. I suppose the idea is to make sure patrons aren't being neglected, but at a high-end place like Rush, I expect a more integrated and attentive experience. Plus it wasn't even a busy night at all. In my opinion Rush should have enough servers so that each table can receive proper attention from a single waiter/waitress.

Oh, one more thing, the price of our little adventure: over $90 total for 1 appetizer, 4 drinks, 1 burger, and 1 dessert. It's a good thing I got treated as part of a belated birthday present and didn't have to pay! On the whole I can't give rush 2 stars because it's a decent restaurant: It looks good and the burger in particular was excellent. However, one of thethings I've come to really appreciate about Calgary is that you usually getfriendly, down-to-earth service at even the fanciest restaurants, butRush must be trying to be NYC or something. To me a place as expensive and somewhat pretentious as Rush had better live up to the attitude, and it just doesn't. I won't be back.

Highwood @ Sait (Calgary): 2 Stars

2009-10-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

1301 - 16th Avenue Northwest
Calgary, AB T2M 0L4
(403) 284-8615
http://www.sait.ca/highwood

Some friends and I went to the Highwood restaurant at the Sait campus last Tuesday night. Now, the Highwood is the teaching restaurant for the Sait cooking programme. Young chefs and hospitality/tourism workers in training get a chance to practice their skills in a realistic restaurant environment. I'd heard about the Highwood for a number of years, always in the context of glowing praise. Given that it is just young students rather than professional chefs making the dishes I should have been a bit more circumspect, but I have to admit, after hearing all those rave reviews, I went in with somewhat inflated expectations.

The Highwood is a handsome, fairly large, dining hall. It's neat and well appointed, and while it isn't luxurious, it doesn't particularly stand out as a training environment. It could just as well be a real restaurant. The sleek and modern wood-paneled lobby is particularly impressive. The menu (this is the Fall dinner menu; I believe they change the menu a couple of times during the school year) is also surprisingly extensive, again belying the academic nature of the enterprise. The way it works is that you pay about $40/person for dinner, and you get a 5 course meal. You can choose one item from each of the courses on the menu: Appetizer, salad, soup, entree, and dessert. Beverages are extra. It seems like a pretty darn good deal!

The trouble (at least on this occasion) is that the food is not particularly good. It's ok. It's edible. But it's distinctly below average, even by the standards of a chain restaurant like Earls or Moxies. This dissonance between the food quality and the high-class aspirations of the menu (Escargot Mushroom Stew! Green Pea and Garlic Veloute!) does not lend itself to a truly satisfying experience. Among the 7 of us at dinner, we tried most of the items on the menu.

Appetizers: The Roasted Butternul Squash and Ricotta Ravioli was by all accounts ok, but the presentation was off. Why does it look like salmon? The Blue Crab Cakes were quite decent, though not extraordinary. The Escargot and Mushroom Stew was bland.

photo by vincci

Soups: The Green Pea and Garlic Veloute soup was not bad. The Roasted Chicken and Barley Broth soup apparently disappointed.

photo by vincci

Salads: The Caesar Salad was okay; The Roasted Root Vegetable Salad was worthy of a hospital cafeteria in its tastelessness (read awful).

Entrees: The Grilled Beef Striploin Medallion was overcooked and bland (how hard can steak be to pull off?). The Herb Crusted Alberta Lamb Rack Chops were, I'm told, not bad. They definitely seemed more tender than the beef medallion. The person at our table who had the Lightly Smoked Fillet of Pacific Salmon really liked it! I would have thought fish would be much harder to get right, but apparently the smoking in the gas-fired oven did some good. There was a Chateaubriand (beef tenderloin steak) special which apparently turned out reasonably well.

Desserts: Of all the courses, the dessert was the only one that didn't disappoint. All in all the desserts were really quite well made. I tried some of my friend's chocolate mousse, which had a nice light texture but was still rich and flavourful. I myself had the pumpkin brulee, which, as someone at the table pointed out, tasted kind of like pumpkin pie filling. I agree, but it was still tasty.

Back when I was in University, a friend of mine was in the Sait cooking programme and participated in some international cooking competitions. One thing he said at the time that has stuck with me was that appearance played a much greater role in the judging of these competitions than taste. With the exception of the ravioli, I'd say maybe the cooking programme at Sait places too much emphasis on aesthetics. I believe it should always be the other way around: Ambiance and aesthetics are nice to haves. Taste and quality are essential! In other words, worry first about the palate, then the plate!

Another big issue with the Highwood is that it's not consistent - and that makes sense: It's a student-run restaurant after all! Since we came as a large group and collectively ordered almost all of the dishes, it occurs to me that it's possible to navigate through the menu (betwen the Scylla of the chicken soup and the Charybdis of the roasted root salad!) so as to order only the items that turned out well! If I'd been lucky enough to do that in the first place, maybe my assessment would have been different. If you, dear reader, are going to try out the Highwood, you may as well benefit from our experience! Here then is a list of items that the group collectively endorsed:

Highlights
Appetizer	Blue Crab Cakes
Soup	Green Pea and Garlic Veloute
Salad	Caesar Salad
Entree	Herb Crusted Alberta Rack Lamb Chops; Lightly Smoked Fillet of Pacific Salmon; Chateaubriand (French Service, for two people)
Dessert	Brownie Lemon Cheesecake; Apple Caramel Tartlett; Tiramisu; Chocolate Mousse

Given all of the positive things I've heard over the years about the Highwood, I wonder if our experience was an aberration or if these folks just need to get out more! Given the prices, I won't be back to find out any time soon. Don't get me wrong, I don't particularly enjoy ragging on students, but the truth is the truth. I should also mention that getting reservations at the Highwood is a chore, so that's yet another reason to pass - unless you are in an expansive mood and are willing to go out of your way to contribute to the education of our next generation of cooks! But if you do go, hopefully following my advice about ordering will help!

Seoul Korean Restaurant (Calgary): 4 Stars

2009-09-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

4336 MacLeod Trail SW
Calgary, AB T2G 0A4
403-243-7970

This is a fantastic Korean place on Mcleoud Trail South at 43 Ave (right next to the World Health Club). It's not a glamorous location by any means, but the food is great. We had a big group this time around so I had a chance to sample more dishes than the last few times I've been there.

You get a variety of bowls of little appetizers with every meal - Kim Chee (Korean sauerkraut) of course and a nice variety of other little goodies. Needless to say I ordered my two favourite dishes here: The stone bowl and the spicy soup with beef and clear noodles (Yook Gae Jang) are a must (I think they are #'s 67 and 68 respectively). The stone bowl consists of a variety of different toppings (including a fried egg!) over rice served in a piping hot - you guessed it! - stone bowl. You mix everything together prior to eating. For me this dish works perfectly with the Yook gae Jang - the former is nice and starchy, the latter hot and spicy! the stone bowl softens and heat from the soup in a perfect balance of flavours.

The oxtail and potato soup was also not bad, but a bit bland; it's never been my favourite. We tried korean-style fried "pancakes" also. The kim chee-flavoured ones were fantastic - not too spicy and absolutely delicious. We also tried the seafood pancakes. These were not bad, but a little bit bland for my taste, though I combined them with a bit of kim chee on top! :D

Seoul is always a great experience. I highly recommend it! Next time: The do-it-yourself Korean BBQ!

Pho Pasteur Saigon (Calgary): 5 Stars

2009-08-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

207 1 Street Se
Calgary, AB T2G 2G3
(403) 233-0477

What can I say about Pho Pasteur? It was my very first Vietnamese noodle restaurant, and like any first love, it holds a special place in my heart. ;) The very first time I had Pho there must have been in 1992 or 1993. That was before the explosion of interest in Pho occurred in Calgary. Since then these aromatic broths with their rich textured flavours have become all the rage and downtown noodle shops are crammed full every day for lunch. Pho Pasteur hasn't changed at all since the early 90s. Still located along McLeod Tr on the eastern edge of downtown, just across from the Harry Hayes building, and not far from Eau Claire, it's still run by the same family and it's still the same simple, unassuming space livened up a bit with a kind of wood frame gazebo surrounding the tables. The menu is also very simple. It consists primarily of Pho (noodle soups) with different combinations of ingredients (e.g. steak, meatballs, as well as more exotic items such as tendon or tripe) and Bun, which is a dry (no soup) rice noodle dish served with BBQ meat (chicken, beef, or pork usually) and cut-up spring rolls. Bun is served with a small tub of fish sauce on the side that you can drizzle over the bowl as you eat to moisten the rice noodles and to release additional flavour from the BBQ. In spite of the fact that vietnamese restaurants have sprouted everywhere like mushrooms, to this day the Pho at Pho Pasteur remains my favourite vietnamese restaurant, and my friends and I continue to return there year after year. There's something about the flavour of the broth that distinguishes it from every other restaurant I tried, somehow it seems a little bit richer, the flavour deeper. If some of the ingredients in the Pho soups on the menu make you nervous, start with something simple like item #16. It's the one my friends and I order the most, and it just has thin cuts of steak - nothing weird. Oh, and don't forget to order a delicious Vietnamese Ice Coffee (Cafe Sua Da) while you're at it! While the prices have steadily climbed since the early 90s, Pho Pasteur is still a good deal too. You can have a satisfying lunch for two for well under $20.

Nawab (Calgary): 3 Stars

2009-08-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

www.nawabrestaurant.ca
137 5 Avenue SE
Calgary, AB T2G 0E3
(403) 282-1002

Nawab is situated in a bit of a no man's land on the eastern edge of downtown Calgary, just across the street from the Telus tower on 5th Ave and 1st SE. While it must obviously draw people in from the office tower for lunch, it seems to be out of the way for general foot traffic. The ongoing construction of the huge Bow tower on the same block doesn't help at all, though I'm sure it will be an boon once it's been completed. Inside, the decor is pretty simple. The space is quite huge with very high ceilings, and that creates a problem. You can see the pipes and vents on the ceiling, and that establishes a cold, industrial effect instead of the desired warm and cozy ambiance. That's probably the biggest problem with Nawab, because the food is quite good. My date and I shared lamb samosas as appetizers and for our entrees we ordered eggplant bartha and chicken masala, along with some rice and naan bread. It was all fresh and tasty. I felt it wasn't quite as good as my current favourite indian restaurant, Moti Mahal on 17th ave. Still, I can't complain about the food. If you want to take a large group out to eat, this place would be a fantastic choice because they definitely have the room; but for a more intimate dinner, I can't help but feel there are more suitable choices out there. Our dinner for two, which also included a half-litre of wine and chai ran up a total of about $70. That's no bad considering we had a pretty complete meal.

Convergence Cafe (Calgary): 4 Stars

2009-08-21T22:54:00.001-07:00

http://www.convergencecafe.com
100-1011 1 Street Sw
Calgary, AB T2R 1J2
(403) 206-1564

I've recently moved to Victoria Crossing near downtown Calgary. It used to be the demesne of druggies and prostitutes, but times have changed, and with the advent of the high rise condos it's coming into its own as an increasingly trendy neighbourhood full of restaurants, shops, pubs and night clubs. This review of the Convergence Cafe is the first in what I hope will be a series in which I systematically go through everything my new stomping grounds have to offer in the way of gastronomical delight.

Convergence Cafe is located next door to the Vicious Circle on 1st and 11th Ave SW. I reviewed it back when it was called Koi - way back in 2006. At the time I remember thinking the decor just didn't quite work. Well, along with changing the name to Convergence Cafe, the same owners have renovated the interior and they've also enhanced the menu a bit. The Convergence Cafe has been transformed into a really smart and elegant bistro. The space is small, but modern, elegant, understated, and very cozy. When you walk in, you immediately feel comfortable. There's nothing really fancy about it, but it's just very balanced and well put-together. I went for dinner on a Thursday night with my friend Beth. They have open mic Jazz nights on Thursdays and I thought it would be fun to check that out. The place was busy and the atmosphere felt friendly and convivial. There was definitely a good crowd of hip young people in attendance and the overall effect was refreshing and enjoyable. I loved the roasted yam wedges at the old Koi, and happily they're still on the menu, and still delicious, served with a wonderful ginger miso dip. Most of the entrees at convergence have an asian fusion motif, and while they have a va riety of salads and sandwiches, the main focus is on the rice or noodle bowls. For our entrees, Beth ordered a noodle dish, the Seoul Beef Noodle bowl. Fat Shanghai noodles are served with thick slices of sirloin steak on top. It's quite spicy, so be forewarned. I had the Warrior Bowl with slices of chicken apple sausage in a chili maple sauce served over rice. We each tried the other person's dish, and they were both very nice - fresh, and full of flavour. For dessert, we decided to try the butter tart filo crisp, served with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. It was totally decadent and delicious, airy and hot and crispy. I also had a Jade Dragon martini - melon, vodka, pineapple juice and lemon soda. The lemon soda gave it a really nice finish: First you taste the slighty bitter vodka and melon flavour and them your palate picks up the subtle fizziness of the soda. I really liked how delicate the effect was - it wasn't a bubbly drink at all but there was just enough of the soda to really enhance the experience.

Over all I thought the food at Convergence was very well put together. I would't say it's fancy food, but it's done just right, and together with the great ambiance and attentive staff I think this place really stands out. It's not super cheap, but it's not totally unreasonable either. The prices for the rice and noodle bowls are in the $15-$17 range for example. You can find the full menu online on their web site. I expect to return to again and again, and to make it a regular hangout. Bring a date for a nice intimate evening or go with a group of friends for a fun night out. Either way, I do highly recommend the new Convergence Cafe.

PS: The musicians for the open mic were clearly amateurs - there were certainly no great performances and some people seemd to get paired up to play together for the first time, but it was still fun to listen to them. I was happy to see people working to improve their craft, so as long as you go in with the right attitude I think you'll have a good time if you go on an open mic night.

Breakfast Buffet at the Pradera Cafe And Lounge (Edmonton): 2 Stars

2007-04-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Pradera Cafe and Lounge
10135 – 100 St, Westin Edmonton, Edmonton, AB T5J 0N7 · 780-493-8994

Lauren and I tried out the Pradera Cafe and Lounge at the Westin Hotel for breakfast on Sunday. We didn't expect it to cost $28! However, since we were already there and we were hungry, we figured what the heck, let's try it. The buffet isn't terrible; in fact it's pretty decent. There's a nice selection of the usual kinds of things - eggs benedict, bacon and sausage, salads, dessert, a design-your-own omelette station... They even had steak, which is not exactly something I'd have for breakfast, but I suppose it's meant to justify the cost. That's the big problem with this buffet. Did I mention it was $28 per person? The combination of ambiance - Lauren described it as a "hotel lobby atmosphere" - and the cost just doesn't make it worthwhile. You can get a perfectly decent breakfast elsewhere for less than half the price. If you want to really treat yourself, go to the Harvest Room at the Hotel MacDonald instead. It too is very expensive (although actually a bit cheaper I believe) , but in the case of the Hotel Macdonald breakfast buffet everything - the food, the beautiful room with its vaulted ceilings, the incredibly attentive service - makes it worthwhile to indulge every so often.

New Asian Village [Buffet] (Edmonton): 4 Stars

2007-04-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

New Asian Village
9308 34 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T6E 5X8
(780) 463-9997

Lauren and I went out to New Asian Village for a buffet lunch today in the south-east Edmonton community of Mill Woods. By virtue of the name, I thought it would be a chinese restaurant, but it turned out to be indian food, and very good at that. It's located in an unassuming strip mall, but the decor inside is quite nice, with some elaborately carved wood tables and chairs. The buffet was better than most I've seen, with the usual naan bread, butter chicken and tandoori chicken favourites, but also with various other masalas and curries and so on, as well as a few puddings and fresh melon and honeydew for dessert and some salads. All in all it was a good spread. We ordered some Chai tea, which really wasn't especially great, too bitter for me which I would pass on next time. Still, I would certainly go there again and recommend you try it out next time you're in the neighbourhood.

Louisiana Purchase (Edmonton): 5 Stars

2007-02-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

10320 111th Street NW, Edmonton AB
780-420-6779
http://www.louisianapurchase.ca/index.html

I've tried cajun food only a few times prior to visiting the Louisiana Purchase, on the corner of 111th Street and 103rd Avenue, just north of Jasper, and up to this point I had never been particularly impressed. It always seemed to involve some kind of rubbery, tasteless, over-spiced mishmash of barely-recognizable ingredients. However, some good reviews of this place popped up online and Lauren and I thought we'd give it a try. This place has a most charming atmosphere. The jazz music playing in the background isn't too loud, unlike so many restaurants where the goal seems to be to drown out any possibility of conversation in favour of outright shouting matches, either that or sullen silent capitulation. The decor is simple but very pleasant with two red-brick walls and otherwise a surprisingly attractive look - the remaining walls are painted a deep purple with lime-green accents. There are the obligatory jazz/new orleans posters on the walls as well as a niche lined with shelves full of exotic hot sauces. I don't know if one can just come up and partake of them at will though. Lauren ordered the Shrimp Etoufee, which as the name implies is a skewer of shrimp on a bed of noodles covered up (or strangled as it were) with a thick cilantro and lime butter sauce. I had the Chicken Lafitte, a grilled chicken breast topped with a delicious herb cream cheese and a slice of smoked salmon and drizzled with a red roasted bell better sauce over saffron rice. You can choose your sides - there's the saffron rice and pasta, and I think one more option that I can't recall. Our dishes were quite expensive at $17.95, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we could order half-sizes for a much more reasonable $9 each and still have a filling meal. Since we were in the mood to indulge a bit, we also tried the chicoree coffee and latte. The coffee was ok, and the latte was really great. I hadn't had chicoree since I'd lived in Europe as a teenager and it was so good that I plan to try to find some for home. It was tastier than a coffee latte! We also shared a slice of pecan pie for dessert. Now usually pecan pie is a somewhat dry and austere concoction and I was somewhat reluctant to try it, but Lauren is a big fan so I gave in, and it was a good thing I did. It was delicious! It was fresh and moist with lots of fresh pecans on top. It was one of the best pies I had ever had. The plate was drizzled with some delicious sauces. I detected a bit of lime in one of them and the other one appeared to be mainly cranberry. All in all Louisiana Purchase was a hit and I think it will become a regular hangout which is about the biggest compliment I can make.

Edmonton Breakfast

2007-01-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

I love going out for breakfast and I've recently discovered that Edmonton has some fantastic breakfast places. My favourites so far are as follows:

Urban Diner (12427-102 Ave. 780 488-7274 ): Located in Glenora, a cool and trendy little neighbourhood West of downtown just north of Jasper at 124th Street, the Urban diner offers a cozy and pleasant breakfast experience. The French Toast is warm, and tasty. The egg and bacon breakfast is very fresh and enjoyable, and the coffee is quite good. The space is open and friendly, but not too loud. After breakfast, this is my favourite neighbourhood to explore on foot. There are lots of interesting shops and nice houses to look at.
Blue Plate Diner(10145 104 Street NW. 780 429-0740): Located right in the heart of downtown in Edmonton's old warehouse district, the Blue Plate Diner probably has the highest quality food of all of the breakfast places I've tried out so far.
It's housed in one of the historic warehouses that line 104th street, with a large wide-open dining room and brick walls. It gets a bit noisy, but otherwise it's one of my top places to enjoy breakfast in Edmonton.
Hotel MacDonald (Harvest Room, 10065 100 Street NW 780 424-5181): The Fairmont Hotel MacDonald is one of those grand old CPR hotels. It looks like a castle from the outside, with a beautiful location overlooking the river valley. There are two dining rooms as far as I can tell. The main dining room hosts the lavish and very expensive Sunday brunch, whereas the Harvest room hosts a smaller and more intimate buffet breakfast that is actually somewhat afforable at $17 per person. That includes a great spread of cereals, including a soft muesli porridge, lots of fresh fruit, pancakes, the best scrambled eggs I've ever had, fritatas, bacon, sausage, delectable little croissants as well as some desserts, various cold cuts, and as much coffee and orange juice as you like. This more modest of the two dining rooms still has high ceilings, archways, and your breakfast is accompanied by the soft tinckling of classical piano. For a truly indulgent and utterly relaxing weekend breakfast, this is definitely the place.
Silk Hat (10251 Jasper Avenue NW 870 425-1920): Silk Hat is an old fashioned 1950's-style diner. There's a long row of booths running along the restaurant. The staff are friendly and the portions are huge. It's not quite the same quality of food as some of the other places I've written about, but it's still good, and the coffee is the best! It's also quite cheap.

Yiannis on Whyte (Edmonton): 4 Stars

2006-10-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

10444 82 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T6E 2A2
(780) 433-6768

Lauren and I went out to Yannis on her first weekend living in Edmonton. I had driven by Whyte Av on my way to her place and I thought it looked like a great place to relax and hang out on a sunny late summer afternoon. We wandered around Whyte av for a while jsu enjoying the liveliness of the street, then we passed this loud restaurant with a belly dancer undulating her way from table to table. The place looked like a lot of fun, so we sauntered in. We ordered the Saganaki, which is my favourite greek appetizer. It's a hot plate with cheese on it that they pour a bit of ouzo on and light on fire briefly before blowing it out and serving. It's hot and salty and really good! The waitress did not perform the obligatory exclamation of Opa! when she served it though, which was too bad. Still, the Sakanaki was great. We also ordered a plate of typical greek appertizers to share. The were fantastic. Once the belly dancer had finished making her rounds from table to table, the place settled down a bit, and we were able to talk. Yiannis is a fantastic restaurant on Whyte av. It's lively, the food is good, and it's easy to make it part of an evening on Whyte av - maybe watch a movie, or just walk around and people-watch.

Sawmill (Edmonton): 2 Stars

2006-10-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

11560 104 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5K 2S5
(780) 429-2816
http://www.sawmillrestaurant.com/

I took Lauren out to the Sawmill restaurant to celebrate her finishing her masters thesis after a quick Web search for good steak restaurants in Edmonton. We were thinking of just going to the Keg, but figured we'd try a place we'd never been to before. There was supposed to be a large salad buffet which also included oysters and shrimp. The first big mistake we made was just ordering that buffet, for about $10 each, without having a look at it first. I piled up my plate with oysters which were inedible. The shrimp were whole with their heads still attached and their beady little black eyeballs (?) poking out from their antenna. The cheese wasn't very good either, and there was no soup, not different kinds of bread buns as you might find at the Smuggler's Inn in Calgary, which is kind of the restaurant I was using as a comparison. The salads were rather limp, and while they weren't awful, they weren't great either.

As entrees we ordered streak. I think I had a 7 ounce sirloin and Lauren had an 8 ounce striploin. The steak was pretty good, and so was the baked potato (they have other choices for sides, but really, why would you pick something over a baked potato!). There were anemic microwaved vegetables from a bag of frozen vegetables on the side as well. All in all the prices are not cheap at the Sawmill, the decor is slightly below average, and the salad bar is awful, so I'd suggest going to the Keg, or Earl's or some place like instead of the Sawmill. I certainly won't be going there again, that's for sure.

Tropika (Edmonton): 4 Stars

2006-10-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

6004 104 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6H 2K3
(780) 439-6699

I visited Tropika in Edmonton a few weeks ago. It's on Calgary Trail at 60th ave. Generally I've found the food in Calgary to be better than Edmonton, but Tropika is really great. There appear to be menu items from all over asia - Chinese, Malaysian, Thai... We ordered Malaysian-style fried chicken, grilled eggplant, and singapore noodles, together with some steamed rice. All of the food was fresh and excellent. So far this is my favourite place to eat in Edmonton.

Hy's Steakhouse: 2 Stars

2006-09-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

316 - 4th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2P 0H8
Ph: (403) 263-2222 Fax: (403) 264-3539

Hy's is one of those venerable steak places in Calgary that's been here forever, along with Ceazar's. I finally tried it out toward the end of July with my friend Beth. I had a striploin steak, and Beth had the same thing with Hy's sauce. Beth said the sauce wasn't so great, too ketchupy, and the cuts of steak were just un-inspired. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly didn't justify the high price. And the decor at Hy's is just not my thing, with its British men's club look and stained glass windows. It struck me as being kind of stuffy and strange. I wouldn't have cared if the food were amazing, but it wasn't, and the overall experience was a bit disappointing. Mind you, it was the day after the Stampede was over, so it's possible that their supplies of good beef were running low and that the staff was exhausted, so I'll go back some day and perhaps revise this review then.

Coyote's Deli and Grill, Banff: 4 Stars

2006-09-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Coyote's Deli & Grill. 206 Caribou Street. (403) 762-3963, Banff

It's been a while since I've posted any reviews, and I don't have time for anything elaborate, but about a month ago or so I went to the Coyote's Deli and Grill for breakfast. It was one of the very best breakfast's I've had! Breakfast places tend to always be kind of the same (for example, Mellissa's in Banff is just average), but this place really stands out. The eggs and chorizo sausage breakfast I had was great. The juice is fresh-squeezed, and the pancakes were really nice, much better than at most other breakfast joints.

Atomic: 4 Stars

2006-07-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.atomicexperience.com/
623 1st Street SW, Calgary, AB

My friend Jess has been running her own Bubble Tea/Juice place for over a year now! After promising to come by for a long time, I finally paid her a visit. Nhon and I stopped by after our outing to the Tribune. My objectivity is somewhat limited here, but we really did enjoy our drinks. I had a lychee slushy and nhon had taro. Jessica is very generous. Unlike most other asian drink places, you can have as many jelly flavours or tapioca beans (she calls them pearls) as you like without having to pay more. She also has some interesting hot teas which I definitely plan to try out next time around. They're supposed to be delicious. Also, there are some interesting desserts from different parts of Asia that she discovered during her travels. She runs the place with her brother and her mum, so it's absolutely a family run operation. I certainly suggest you drop by and ask her for a recommendation!

Tribune: 3 Stars

2006-07-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

118 - 8 Ave SW, Calgary, AB

Nhon and I went out for lunch to the ultra-fancy Tribune on the Stephen Ave. Mall. What can I say about a restuarant that has one of those gothic T's that looks like a harp as its logo? The menu is quite unusual. I'd never had frog legs before, so we tried them! The frog legs were lightly breaded and turned out to have very little taste of their own. In terms of size and consistency of the meat, they really did remind me of chicken wings. I guess the French like frog legs because it's really all about the sauce and flavourings you add. The bechamel sauce that came with the frog legs was amazing, one of the very best sauces I've ever tasted. We both had the Croque Madame, a strange concoction reminiscent of a towering ham-and-egger drenched in cream sauce. They cure the ham themselves at the Tribune and the sandwich was flavourful and interesting, but I thought it was more of a breakfast item than something for the lunch menu. While I enjoyed it, I don't know if I'd go out of my way to have again soon. It was more of a curiosity. Over all I get the feeling that Tribune goes out of its way to be interesting, and while everything is prepared with care, this place didn't blow me away. It's certainly not cheap either. Our lunch, togethr with the frog legs appetizer tallied up to a total of $50, or about $25/person!

Amin Donair: 4 Stars

2006-07-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

I've lived in Calgary for a long time now, since the early 90's, and when I was younger, I often used to play pinball at the Southern Fun arcade on 7th avenue downtown, along the c-train tracks. Still, throughout all those years I never thought to walk into Amin Donair, just next door. It's located next to a pawn shop just west of centre street on 7th avenue. There are always suspicious looking people lurking around that area, and Amin's place, wedged in next to a pawn shop does not necessarily come across as inviting. I would have imagined it was just another cheap donair place, nothing special. I was very lucky therefore, when Hussein, the newest guy at work suggested we go there. It's the best Donair place in Calgary, he proudly told us. So, off we went during lunch. Inside, Amin Donair is extremely narrow, white walls, functional, with just room for a couple of tables. Otherwise, most of the room is taken up by a counter where they make the Donairs, and other assorted middle-eastern snacks. Behind the counter, there is an enormous rack of cigarettes for sale. Nothing else mind you, just cigarettes rolling paper, and stuff like that. Amin himself is there to cheerfully make the Donairs for you. We all followed Hussein's suggestion and ordered a regular donair with a white bread wrap - not healhy perhaps, but more delicious. The fillings are pretty standard - meat and veggies, but the meat seems to be of much higher quality than usual. Also, the sauces that Amin puts into his donairs are what really stands out. The white sweet sauce blends perfectly with the spicy green chutney to produce a totally mouth watering flavour. You can also add the crazy red hot sauce, but we didn't try it. I'm not a fan of ultra-hot. Everyone agreed that Amin Donair was the best donair in Calgary, myself included. It's now on my list of places to go for lunch in downtown Calgary - or to have as a snack on a weekend or after work. Very highly recommended.

Vancouver And Seattle

2006-07-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

My pal Nhon suggested a road trip to Seattle and Vancouver over the Canada day long weekend. Since Nhon and I are both rather gluttonous, we concentrated on the food, so everything worked out well! We landed in Vancouver after a quick 1 hour flight. I've never had such a quick plance journey before so it was quite refreshing. We then got a rental car to drive to Seattle. Nhon found a good price at a joint called Discount. Don't use it is all the advice I have. They didn't have any cars and stuck us with a bloody minivan. Also, they don't fill up the gas tank, and they don't have an office at the airport, so we had to take a shuttle and wasted up to 40 minutes on the whole affair. Live and learn. We drove down the I5 to Seattle. It was a beautiful sunny morning. The drive takes over two hours, about 3 if you include the wait at the border. The scenery was gorgeous, very lush and green with views of mountains. We arrived in Seattle in time for lunch and tried out a place Nhon had read about online called Tamarind Tree. It's in the so-called International District, not far from downtown. The area is a bit of dive, but inside the restaurant was quite pleasant. The food also look amazing. We ordered the online reviewer's suggestions, Tumeric Coconut Rice Cakes, Tamarind Tree Rolls, and a dish of Steamed Baguettes with Chopped Beef. I also ordered a vietnamese ice coffee. Unfortunately the food turned out to be quite bland. It's true that I haven't had vietnamese food like that before, so it was original, but just not very good. I'd give the place maybe 2 stars. The online review we'd looked at was very effusive, so perhaps it's a matter of taste.

In the evening we walked around a bit and ended up walking into a cool chinese tea place near the market called Vital Leaf Tea. There was a counter where they were serving samples in small cups. The host, Paul, who's family apparently runs the stores in San Fransisco was friendly and we had a good time chatting for over an hour. We even got to try several cups of some kind of green tea that was $800/lb! It tasted like grass to me, but that's my crass Western palette... The Siberian Rose and the Milk Oolong were amazing though. I bought some of the Siberian Rose even though it was very expensive. I'm a big fan of rose petal jelly, which I acquired a taste for growing up in Switzerland, so the aroma was pleasant and familiar. I met a couple from Calgary there, which was fun! 4 Stars!

Friday night we got back to the hotel late and realized that in all the excitement we had forgotten to actually eat! We were staying at the Hilton in Bellevue because Seattle itself was too expensive. It's a pretty nice hotel, and I decided to order room service, my very first time ever ordering room service! It took close to an hour, but our seafood chowder and sausage and salami pizza were actually amazingly good. I have to hand it to those guys, they make a mean pizza, though maybe it just tasted so good because I was famished!

Saturday morning we walked around the Pike Place market area a bit. It was packed with people and very busy. All in all, nice. I had a petit pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) at a french bakery, which was quite good, but unspectacular and Nhon and I stopped into Lowell's right in the market for breakfast. It's a busy diner with a view of the harbor. We both ordered a dish called Seattle's Best Corned Beef Hash, served underneath eggs over easy with hash browns on the side. It was ok, but honestly, not as big a deal as promised. I'll give them about 3 stars. Before we left Seattle, I cajoled Nhon into following me into a Gellateria that spotted my eye called Gelatiamo in the downtown core (3rd Ave I believe). It was the best Gelato I've had outside of Europe, 5 stars! Of course Nhon had to visit the very first Starbucks, which he has some kinf of unhealthy obsession with. Here's a picture of it with Nhon. Look, he's like, smiling!

In the afternoon on Saturday, we drove all the way back to Vancouver. It took us bloody close to 5 hours! We spent 2 hours just waiting at the border in a long queue of cars. The traffic was horrid, it being the July long weekend and all. We finally made to Vancouver, close to 10 PM and checked into our hotel, the sweetly appointed Hyatt in downtown Vancouver which Nhon had somehow snagged on priceline.com for less than $100 a night! We headed out and walked around downtown for a while. It was July 1st, Canada's birthday and people were staggering around drunkenly calling our Happy Birthday to one another. The vibe was awesome. Vancouver is an amazing city - the mountains, the ocean, the beautiful skyline. We got lost looking for Korean restaurants on Robson, but somehow found this out of the way hole in the wall called Dan Sung Sa on Thurlow St. We ordered a couple of dishes to share - a spicy seafood soup and BBQ chicken. The food was amazing. I so love Kim Chee! Extremely spicy though! I totally recommend this place. It's just a hangout for young korean kids who appear to go there to chat, eat, and drink copious amounts of rice wine. There are album covers all over the walls. It's dark. All sorts of little messages are scrawled in marker on the wood panel walls - everything from desperate pleas for a girlfriend to party announcements. 5 Stars! Sunday morning, on Nhon's suggestion, we went South of downtown on Main street to a chinese restaurant called Sun Sui Wah for dim sum. I am a great fan of Dim Sum, so I was excited about Vancouver's reputation for chinese food. They had the carts, but they were really slow, so I rattled off about 5 or 6 dishes in chinese at the waiter that Brian and Julia had taught me the names of (there's no Dim Sum menu). I was very pleased with myself! Honestly, the Dim Sum was just OK, not extraordinary. I'll give this place about 3 stars. We joined Nhon's parents for dinner on Sunday night, and it turned out to be at the same place! The dinner was quite good, much better than the Dim Sum, although I was completely stuffed at that point and could barely eat. The red bean drink/broth/soupy thing they offered for dessert was the best I've every had. We met up with my good pal Mariusz and his friends Aaron and Anna in the afternoon and hung out at the Blue Water Cafe, where Aaron promised me the very best of Vancouver's seafood. I had a plate of Oysters and tried a few items the group ordered from this huge tower of seafood. It was all fresh and amazing. A fantastic place in the yuppy but also yummy Yaletown neighbourhood of Vancouver. I guess I can't end this blog posting without mentioning Cafe Crepe. It's a Crepe franchise that has outlets all over Vancouver's downtown, and it's truly fantastic. Make sure you get them to make the crepe from scratch right in front of you (sometimes they use pre-prepared ones). It's rich and smooth and just unbelievably good. The only way to have a crepe, at least a sweet one, is simply with Nutella. I don't know why they bother distracting people with other flavours. Take it from me, if you like chocolate, order their crepe with nutella. I am craving one right now! 5 Stars! On Monday, Nhon, Mariusz and I went out for lunch to a place called Wun Tun for, well you guessed it, Won Ton soup. It's a pretty basic eatery in a very large space. We had some pretty good soup and a vegetarian dish with large juicy chinese mushrooms and fried tofu skins. I'll give it 3 stars. It was a good trip. I definitely left my heart in Vancouver.

Chicago Chophouse: 5 Stars!

2006-06-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.chophousecalgary.com/
604 8th Ave SW
(403) 265-3000

Now, I had gone to the Chophouse once before, when it first opened. At the time the service was very formal, the food overpriced, and not particularly great. At the time I wasn't impressed and until recently had not gone back. How things have changed! I was planning to watch a movie at the Uptown with a friend and we decided to stop in for dinner since the chophouse is right there, less than a block away. I asked if they could have us out of there within an hour, and the hostess said it shoulnd't be a problem.

The place looks like, well, a fancy restaurant. There are two levels. It's spacious with high ceilings. Everything looks elegant and nice. It was a bit jarring when, in this classy atmosphere, the waiter brought out a large plate of raw meat to our table. He proceeded to describe the various cuts they had using the raw meat as a visual aid. I can't say it was the most appetizing sight, but it was entertaining!

I ordered the Dry Aged Cowboy Ribeye steak (10 oz), and Lauren ordered the Center Cut Tenderloin (8oz). Since the chophouse is a la carte (read, you have to order your side dishes separately because that's just the kind of rich fatcat you are), we also ordered a few sides: Truffled Lobster Mac and Cheese; Grilled Asparagus; and "Shrooms."

Wow, is just about all I can say. The ribeye steak, medium rare, was done to perfection. It was so juicy, so rich with flavour, just so perfect. I love a steak that has a thick, slightly chewy, texture. The kind of steak that really sticks to your ribs. This was the best steak I've ever had, no doubt about it. Just thinking about it now is making me drool. I tried a bit of Lauren't tenderloin. It reminded me of prime rib: Very soft and melts in your mouth. Personally, that's not my idea of a steak, so I'm glad I didn't order it, but she loved it, so everything worked out great. The side dishes were amazing too. Everything we were served clearly bespoke the high quality of the ingredients and the preparation. It was nice to be able to share he various side dishes. I have never heard of "truffled lobster mac and cheese" before, but it was terrific. The chunks of lobster were really flavourful. We didn't finish our sides, but I had them next day as my lunch and that was fantastic!

What can I say about this place? The service is prompt and friendly and the food is amazing. I'm not sure why they serve silly things like fish and chicken. I think you'd have to be crazy to order anything but steak here. Along with our two glasses of wine, this meal came to about $130. Not exactly cheap. That's the only problem. Otherwise I'd be there every other night! Still, it's nice to find a restaurant where the high price is at least justified by the food rather than just being an indication of the snobbery of the patrons. If you can afford it, go there. Heck, if you can't afford it, sell your kids xbox (or your kids) and go anyway!

Chef Studio Japan, Canmore: 3 Stars

2006-06-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

http://chefsstudiojapan.com/
#108, 709 Main Street, Canmore
Phone No. 403.609.8383

For Julia's birthday, we we out to banff for a hike to the ink pots from Johnston Canyon. It was a perfect day for a hike. Not too cold, and not too warm either. Afterward, we all went to Chef Studio Japan for Sushi in Canmore. Because we had such a large group, they asked us to order ahead of time, so we went to a lot of trouble bringing the menu from the Web site with us so we could call them and order after the hike. The restaurant looks nice and cozy and is located on the main drag (main street, aka 8th street) in downtown Canmore on the East side of the highway. You have to be a bit careful looking for it because it does not have a sign or store-front opening directly onto the street. Instead, you have to walk through a small passageway behind the building to reach the entrance. I guess one might say technically it is not on 8th street but on 9th. There's also a spacious parking lot there, so you don't need to attempt a 10 minute multi-attempt parallel parking jobbie on the busy main drag. It turned out that the place was mostly empty except for our group, probably because of the hockey game going on in Edmonton at the same time. Damn, that game sounds as though it was pretty exciting and I'm sorry I missed it. Anyhow, I ordered a Seaworld platter to share with Beth, along with a few other items a la carte. We added some seaweed salad (a favourite of mine), spicy salmon rolls, regular salmon rolls, and also the caterpillar roll - with some kind of tuna or crab filling (not sure) and a thick layer of avocado on the outside.

All in all, the food was ok. There are a few Sushi places in Calgary that I go to regularly because I can really tell the quality of the fish is superior. For example, Sushi Ginza in Willow Park is excellent for basic sushi. Chopsticks on Memorial Dr and 36St. East has the most beautiful Sushi Rolls. This place wasn't terrible by any means, but the sushi and sashimi were not mouth-watering fresh either. If you're familiar with sushi, I'd say this place was simply dull average. If you haven't had sushi before, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a first time attempt.

Verve (In Kensington): 2 Stars

2006-06-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

Verve Restaurant
283-2009
102 10 Street NW

We went out for a team lunch at the Verve restaurant in Kensington last week. I had a look at the menu online and I was shocked at the priced. A sirloin steak sandwich, 6oz, for $22? What? Upon arrival, we were greeted by a subdued chocolaty decor, and a kind of bistro atmosphere. I ordered the lobrster ravioli. A few people ordered the jabolaya, and a couple of people ordered the wraps. A few in our group ordered the fish lover's soup too. There were quite a few of us so that's all I remember. I don't there was anything terribly wrong with the food, but I also don't think that anyone found it to be orgasmically good either. My lobster ravioli was especially disappointing. For $18, I got a small bowl of ravioli - about 6 or 7 pieces. Most of them were almost completely flat, and when I plopped a piece of ravioli in my mouth and started chewing, I really couldn't taste the lobster at all. It might as well have been filled with bread. The tomato sauce the ravioli was in seemed ok, but nothing special.

If this were a modestly priced bistro where one could have the same meal for at least $10 less a dish, I would have given it 3 stars. I consider that to be "good but not great." In other words, by all means go there and you'll do ok, but on the other hand I wasn't able to find anything that would have me yammering on about the place ad infinitum to anyone who would listen. However, at the prices the Verve is charging, they'd better have more to offer than the meals we had. I wouldn't go there again, and I won't recommend it to anyone else either.

(403) 283-2009102 10 Street NW
Calgary, AB T2N 1V3

Sobaten: 4 Stars

2006-03-20T10:16:00.000-08:00

SobaTen
http://www.sobaten.com/menu.html

Catherine, Nhon and I got together on a Saturday afternoon at Soba 10, in downtown Calgary, kitty corner to the Keg on 11th ave and 5th street SW. It's been there for quite a while but I had never been there. This place is known for its noodle soups, so we tried 3 different noodle bowls. We had a veggie Sansai noodle bowl with spinach, shitaki muchrooms, fried tofu and rice cakes as well as bamboo shoots. That was Catherine's veggie selection. It was excellent! We also had a beef udon bowl and a chicken curry udon, which was served in more of a sauce than a broth. We also ordered some sashimi - salmon and yellow Tail, and finally goma ae, a spinach appetizer. This one was quite unusual, mixed with a sesame paste (often called tahini). Ususally this dish seems to have more of a asian flavour elsewhere. The soup bowls overall were quite good, and the sashimi was adequate, while the Goma Ae was not to my taste. I'd definitely recommend this place for their Soba and Udon noodle dishes. One of the highlights of Sobaten is that the menu is very vegetarian-friendly, and almost all of the non-veggie dishes are highlighted as having a vegetarian counterpart. If you're hankering for a nice hot japanese noodle soup, this is the place to go!

Cafe Koi: 3 Stars

2006-03-20T10:12:00.000-08:00

Cafe Koi
http://www.cafekoi.com/

Catherine read about Cafe Koi in Fast Forward magazine so we decided to try it out. We headed out on Wednesday evening. Cafe Koi is on 1st SW just north of 11th ave SW, almost next door to the Vicious Circle. I guess the decor is supposed to evoke the serenity of a Koi pond. There is a bit of a marine motif to the place, with very low lighting and a combination of individual tables and one larger cafeteria-style table in the middle of the restaurant with wood stumps as stools. There are also soft sort of foamy couches for the individual tables. We orderd four dishes: Baked yam slices served with a gentle yellow curry sauce on the side; a yellow coconut curry rice bowl with roasted salmon; momma's chicken apple sausage fried rice; and the chilled organic soba noodle salad. The food was really quite good. I especially liked the yam slices with that delicious curry sauce. Catherine's favourite dish was the rice bowl, although she would get the tofu and mushrooms this time instead of salmon to go with it. The ambiance was nice, and there was a live DJ spinning tracks, which is apparently becoming an obligatory touch for the new breed of youthful, yuppy-ish, new-fusion cuisine establishments muchrooming around Calgary. I wouldn't
say this kind of place absolutely drives me wild, but it wasn't bad at all.

Moti Mahal: 3 Stars

2006-02-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

Moti Mahal

Catherine, Nhon and I went to Moti Mahal for a nice quiet dinner on Sunday night, just off 17th Avenue on 14 St. SW. The place looks great, with a subdued decor, nice accents, and a very welcoming quality. We started our dinner off with a vegetarian appetizer platter of deep fried dishes consisting of some samosas, vegetable pakoras
(a vegetable fritter), fried paneer (a white Indian homemade cheese), potato and onion balls. The appetizers were quite good, but perhaps a bit plain, and we definitely needed the chutneys to spice them up.

For our main dishes we selected the Eggplant Bartha, Vegetable Korma, and the Moti Mahal Special Plate to share. Catherine was very excited about the Korma, a creamy dish with raisins in nuts, as it was one of her favourite dishes, but it was a bit of a disappointment, and it seemed as though the beans and carrots were from a bag of frozen vegetables. Catherine also got a Mango Lassi, a drink with yogurt and blended Mango but it wasn't sweet enough. The Eggplant Bartha was nice, but again I thought it was a little bland. The Special Plate wasn't bad. It was a sizzling hot plate with lamb, chicken, prawns, onions. My favourite dish by far was the lamb samosa. It was so delicious with a hot outer crust and a wonderful filling of peas and steaming ground lamb.

For dessert we all had some chai tea and a great rice pudding with flakes of ccocolate sprinkled over top. All in all, the food was a bit inconsistent, with some great dishes and a few mediocre ones. Of the dishes we tried, I'd recommend the eggplant Bartha, the Vegetarian appetizer platter, the Lamb Samosas most of all, as well as the the rice pudding. On the other hand, the Korma, the Mango Lassi, the Chai Tea, and the Special Plate were just all right. Moti Mahal is pretty good, but it's too bad because I think it could be great.

PS: A Special Thanks goes to Catherine who kindly remembered what the heck we actually ate (not to mention makes a mean Chilean Sea Bass). If I don't take notes, I amcompletely useless!

Sushi Ginza: 4 Stars

2005-12-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

Sushi Ginza (Willow Park Village, 10816 Macleod Tr S): 4/5. Catherine had told me about how great Sushi Ginza in Willow Park Village was. I had been there before for lunch over the years, and never had though much of it. With the proliferation of sushi restaurants in Calgary, I had figured Ginza, a venerable old timer on the scene, no longer had what it took to compete. However, Catherine, convinced me to try it out, and, lured by the promise of enormous pieces of sashimi, we ventured into the deep south of Calgary. I was amazed at how much better the food was than I remembered. Do they have different chefs at dinner time? The decor is nice and tranquil, and the restaurant is very clean. There's a pond with japanese carp swimming in it. It's not a high end or trendy kind of place, but it's very comfortable. As promised, the sashimi pieces were indeed huge and delicious. We also had two kinds of seaweed salad: One kind served on a rice patty and sprinkled with sesame seeds and the other the more traditional salad with fresh, cold, tendrils of seaweed in a delicious sauce. We had a variety of sushi, and it was all amazingly good and fresh, and the portions were generous. The first time we went there, the miso soup was a bit too lukewarm, so we asked them to heat it up more the second time around, and it was just superbe. It just goes to show you should always ask for what you want at a restaurant rather than just keeping quiet. Despite the enormous surge in options for eating Sushi in Calgary, after my recent experiences, this is now one of the first places I'd recommend!

Korean Vilage: 3 Stars

2005-12-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

Korean Village (101 10 Avenue SE): 3/5. I went out to eat with Nhon at Korean Village in downtown Calgary, not far from the Calgary Tower. It's one of those places that's been in Calgary forever, but I somehow had managed to avoid it all these years. I'm glad I came out. We had some really tasty korean appetizers. I just love fresh kim chee, a kind of sharply flavoured pickled cabbage, sauerkraut's korean cousin if you will. We also ordered chicken and beef bbq, which comes raw on a platter, and you cook it yourself in a shallow pan filled with a vinegary sauce (rice wine?), and rings of fresh onion. It was quite a nice meal. Recommended.

Sorrentino's: 2 Stars

2005-12-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

Sorrentinos (Unit #308, 1919 Sirocco Drive SW): 2/5. I went out for dinner with Catherine, Julia, and Brian last week. Brian and Julia chose this sedate italian restaurant in their neighbourhood. I had a vegetarian calzone and a tomato and chevre salad that I shared with Catherine. Catherine had a pizza. I can't seem to recall what Brian and Julia chose, but I think Julia had pasta. Brian and Julia seemed to enjoy their food more than Catherine and I did: All in all, I personally thought it was fairly bland and uninteresting. The service was ok. It's a nice enough restaurant, but it's a bit pricy, and I can't see anything that stands out or particularly recommends this place above others.

Web site: http://www.sorrentinos.com/locations_calgary.htm

The Coup: 4 Stars

2005-12-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

The Coup (924B - 17 Ave SW): 4/5. A hip little vegetarian restaurant on 17th ave. I've gone there a few times in the past couple of months. They have nice fresh vegetarian dishes. I recall trying the Dragon Bowl and the Balsamic Portobello Burger. The atmosphere is cozy, the music is good-not too loud-and the staff are friendly. I'd definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a comfortable, good place to eat.

Web site: http://www.thecoup.ca/

Jack Kerouac's San Fransisco

2005-08-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

"In the window I smelled all the food of San Fransisco. There were seafood places out there where the buns where hot, and the baskets were good enough to eat too; where the menus themselves were soft with foody esculence as though dipped in hot broths and roasted dry and good enough to eat too. Just show me the bluefish on a seafood menu and I'd eat it; let me smell the drawn butter and lobster claws. There were places where they specialized in thick red roast beef au jus, or roast chicken basted in wine. There were places where the hamburgs sizzled on grills and the coffee was only a nickel. And oh, that pan-fried chow mein flavoured air that blew into my room from Chinatown, vying with the spaghetti sauces of North Beach, the soft-shell crab of Fisherman's Wharf--nay, the ribs of Fillmore turning on spits! Throw in the Market Street chili beans, redhot and french-fried potatoes of the Embarcadero wino night, and steamed clams from Sausalito across the bay, and that's my ah-dream of San Fransisco. Add fog, hunger-making raw fog, and the throb of neons in the soft night, the clack of high-heeled beauties, white doves in a Chinese grocery window..."

-- Jack Kerouac, On The Road

Vietnamese Village: 3 Stars

2005-08-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Behold and be in awe of our nerdly eating powers!

Wahoo! Photos! Nhon invited me and a couple of other guys to have the "7 course beef" dish at the Vietnamese Village on Memorial Dr. and 52nd St. N. Always in search of new culinary experiences, I drove out to the hood last Thursday night to check it out. The dish is, well, seven courses of beef! We ordered two dishes for the four of us. The meal started out with thin slices of raw beef that we boiled on a portable gas cooker with a pan of water mixed with vinegar and onions. We then added the usual vietnamese ingrediends, rice vermicelli, cilantro and bean sprouts, and made rolls using the supplied rice paper crepes. The next courses came on a single plate, with bbq'd beef, a kind of beef sausage, and spicy "fingers" made from what appeared to be ground beef and rice, among other things. We were also served very tender and delicious beef squares along with a tangy sauce, which I tried wrapping in lettuce leaves. The last dish was steaming congee with bits of beef in it. Congee is a kind of boiled rice porridge served in many parts of asia. This stuff was very rich and tasted great. It's a lot of beef, and I don't know if I could handle it on a regular basis, but I definitely recommend checking out Vietnamese Village for the "7 course beef dish."

U & Me: 4 Stars

2005-07-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeff from University, having returned from a trip to Dawson City, called me up last night with a craving for Dim Sum. I suggested we try out U & Me on Centre Street and 3 Ave South. It's an unassuming restaurant that shares the second floor with a hair salon. I'd eaten Hong Kong-style fare there in the past for dinner, and it was decent enough, but my friends had told me that in the last few months U & Me had stolen the dim sum chef from Forbidden City, and was now the best place in town for dim sum! I don't know about the chef story, but the fact is that this place has indeed instantly become my favourite for dim sum! Lloyd, another buddy from University, joined us. Dim sum, by the way, consists of many different kinds of dishes, usually served in round bamboo steamers with two or three items per serving. It's usually steamed or fried, and incorporates a lot of shrimp and pork. The most typical dim sum dish is Ha Gao, which is a translucent rice noodle dumpling containing juicy shrimp. Siu Mai is similar, but contains pork instead. We tried some of my favourite dishes, and they were all very rich with flavour and quite wonderful. Usually dim sum is pushed along on little carts, and you decide whether you want to order a particular item when it comes along. At U & Me however, this traditional approach is replaced by a menu, which I think is altogether more practical. You don't have to worry about missing out because you were the last one on the trolley circuit, and the food is always nice and fresh! So you look at the menu and you fill out the numbers you want to order. The order form is all in chinese, but luckily one gets a menu with english descriptions too! I would recommend the following for someone new to dim sum: Number 3 on the menu is a pan fried square called a turnip cake (Lo Bak Go). It has a nice full texture with bits of pork inside. We also had number 10, the aforementioned Ha Gao shrimp dumplings. Number 43 is crispy deep-fried shrimp served in a rich majonnaise sauce: In a word, delicious! For those willing to be a bit more adventurous, I would also recommend numbers 46 and 52, which are rice crepes stuffed with pork and shrimp, and served in a few different sauces. There are a bunch of rice crepe dishes on the menu, but those two are my personal favourites. They're very fresh here! One of my favourite dim sum dishes is number 17, but it's not for everyone: Beef tripe served in an incredibly tasty ginger-flavoured sauce. The tripe really doesn't have much taste, but I love the texture, and the zesty and aromatic broth absolutely makes this dish outstanding. Most people who have dared to try it seem to like it. Some remain unwilling to go near it though... but the great thing about chinese cuisine is how many unusual items can be turned into wonderful delicacies. It's definitely worthwhile to go out of your comfort zone and try some new things every so often. You'll be surprised! I have to admit, I'm still not very fond of bbq'd chicken feet though! Now Dim Sum is definitely the kind of thing you want to do in a group. The more people there are, the more dishes you can try out. The dishes we ordered were perfect for our group of three people, and the final bill was just over $20! It's an amazing value! Another great bonus is that the service is prompt, friendly, and courteous, which is not exactly standard at chinese restaurants. On a weekend, I suggest getting there before 11 AM as it gets quite busy quickly. Since this place caters mainly to chinese people, it might be a bit intimidating if you don't know what to order, but mark down the items I've suggested and I think you won't go wrong!

Tazza: 3 Stars

2005-07-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Tazza is a small family-run cafe in bridgeland, on 1st ave and 10th street NE. Bridgeland is a really nice old fashioned italian neighbourhood, near the site of the old general hospital. The city has plans to build a dense yuppy ghetto in this area, and it will probably be a pretty cool place -- heck I've even looked into buying a condo there -- but hopefully its quiet charm won't disappear entirely! Tazza appears to be run by a lebanese family (or turkish perhaps?), and they serve fairly typical mediterranean-style fare. I had a funky Broylan sugar cane cola in a black glass bottle (it looked cool, but tasted kind of bitter!) and a chicken shawarma -- a wrap made with meat that's cut, in the turkish tradition, from a big slab turning on a vertical spit. The shawarma was packed with various veggies, lettuce, and banana peppers. The wrap was thicker than the tortillas that tend to be used at many places serving this kind of food. I must say this was the best shawarma I've had in a long time, warm and juicy, and genuinely robust. For "fast food," It was expensive though. A large wrap and the cola cost me about $8 total. Tazza is located in a charming neighbourhood and serves tasty meditteranean food. At a glance, they have several kinds of baklava, sweet honey-flavoured squares made with filo pastry; some calzone-like sandwiches stuffed with various kinds of meat; finger foods wrapped in spinach leaves; and an assortment of wraps, in addition to coffee and tea, etc. There's a nice patio outside, and you can go for ice cream across the street. Eating there on a warm saturday afternoon, I experienced a relaxed, old-fashioned feeling. Very enjoyable.

The Catch (Oyster Bar): 4 Stars

2005-07-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Catch is located on the now scenic and trendy Stephen Avenue Mall (8th ave and Centre St.) in downtown Calgary. Ah, nostalgia... I remember when this place was the domain of video arcades and head shops, and while there are still a few cheesy t-shirt and postcard stores around, over the past few years Stephen Ave. has become gentrified and has witnessed an invasion of higher-end restaurants and bistros. Even so, The Catch stands out with its prominent corner location in the imposing sandstone building that used to house the imperial bank. It's a very nice location indeed, with a small patio out front, great for people watching on a sunny summer afternoon. There's also a casual dining oyster bar downstairs and a formal dining room upstairs. My friend Irina and I decided to check out the oyster bar this time around. We started off sharing a plate of 12 oysters -- two of each kind. The oyster bar at the catch is definitely its outstanding feature. I love oysters, and these are just right, So fresh and plump and flavourful! They are served with a side of horseradish and two sauces, a sort of orangy-colored tangy sauce and a rasberry-flavoured one, kind of like a vinaigrette, and of course the obligatory lemon wedges. Let's face it though, it's really all about the oysters! I prefer mine with just a bit of lemon juice and possibly a pinch of horseradish so that I can really savour the actual oyster meat itself. Besides the fact that I like them, I don't know a great deal about oysters, but it appears as though the ones with the smooth shells tend to be from the west coast of BC while the ones with the rougher, more convoluted shells are from atlantic canada. The atlantic oysters also have a more pungent flavour and a salty marine smell. I've come to appreciate these more textured fellows and now prefer them over their bland western cousins! Besides oysters, Irina had a bowl of clam chowder which I gathered she enjoyed. She sure wolfed it down quickly enough! We also had lightly bbq'd steamed crab legs, which were very soft and quite delicious, served attractively in a large, shallow dim sum steamer. Finally we had a bowl of mussels stewing in a light yellow curry broth. We were warned the curry could be a bit spicy, but it actually was quite mild and very nice. I guess it all depends on one's tolerance and I had just had Thai food recently! The catch is expensive, no question about it. I think our food came out to about $80 for the two of us (including two drinks) -- and we didn't even have any entrees! It's probably the best seafood place in Calgary so it's worth it! I'm looking forward to trying out the dining room, which has a separate menu.

Thai NongKhai: 3 Stars

2005-06-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

Nhon had mentioned a new Thai restaurant in south Calgary, so yesterday we gave it a try. Thai NhongKhai is located in a small strip mall at 74th ave in the rather dreary wasteland of strip malls that line macleoud trail. We started with my favourite Thai dish, the tom yum soup (item 11). I had the soup with shrimp and Nhon had chicken. Now, really tom yum should only be had with shrimp. I'm not sure what that chicken business was all about, but anyhow, the soup was quite delicious! Light and spicy, an excellent appetizer! We then ordered 3 dishes to share between the two of us along with some coconut rice. We had items 24, 44, and 87, respectively sauteed pork with roasted chili paste; stir-fried beef with cashews, celery, carrots, and onions along with roasted chili paste; and finally green curry shrimp in coconum milk with zucchini, green pepper and basil. Thai dishes can be a bit deceptive. They come on small plates and I was wondering whether the three we had ordered would be remotely sufficient, but the food must be packed rather densely on those little plates! Either that or it's the spice, because we were hard pressed to finish, and just barely managed to eat everthing on our plates! At the end of the meal, we were absolutely stuffed!

Probably the best known Thai place in Calgary is Thai Saon on 10th ave in downtown Calgary, and the food at this place, apparently run by the same family, runs very much along the same lines, which is not a bad thing at all. The location is not so great, but the decor inside is clean and simple with a creamy yellow motif -- the walls are painted yellow and the fabric covering the seats on the bamboo chairs is yellow too. Like Thai Saon, there's a bar at one end of the restaurant fashioned like a wicker/bamboo hut, and just as with Thai Saon, I'm not convinced it really works! The food was fresh and generally high quality though, maybe not quite as good as Thai Saon, but very close. The dish I liked the best was the shrimp bathed in a tasty broth of coconut milk, with fresh chunks of veggies mixed in. The pork dish was very good, but the beef dish seemed a bit dry. If only someone could combine the chic decor of The King and I with the tastiness and quality of a Thai Saon or Thai NongKhai, I'd be a happy guy!

Thai NonKhai is a simple, modest and friendly family restaurant that serves good food. It's perhaps a bit pricey -- Our total bill came out to about $50, but thai food always delivers a rush of colors spices, flavours and aromas, and all in all I am pleased to have found another Thai restaurant to recommend.

Gruman's Deli: 3 Stars

2005-06-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

I had been meaning to try out Gruman's Deli for a while, ever since I read a review in FFWD magazine when they first opened up, and finally managed to go there for lunch today with a few coworkers. It's located on 7th. avenue and 9th street SW, on the western edge of downtown. I ordered the eggplant as an appetizer, which turned out to be smooth and delicious, with crispy ultra thin slices of bagels dried into a kind of cracker and sprinkled with a bit of rock salt. Alan ordered the Gazpacho, a cold tomato-flavoured soup accented with chunks of vegetables and shrimp. I tried a bit of it, and I thought it was refreshing and quite good. I believe we all wound up ordering the ground chuck hamburgers with green salad on the side. It was a good burger, not huge, but flavourful. We had it well-done, which was probably a mistake. These burgers are much leaner and have a more robust, almost gamey, flavour than their fatty ground-beef cousins. Having experienced authentic Jewish Deli cuisine in Los Angeles, I'd say this much more of a fusiony, higher-end sort of thing, but it was still a good experience, and I'm looking forward to trying more of their fare.

Milestone's: 2 Stars

2005-06-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a great deal of time for this blog lately, so for the time being I'll keep the entries a bit short. What the heck, it's a blog after all! In my quest to try out new restaurants (at least ones that are new to me anyway), I ventured out to Milestone's on 1st street and 8th avenue (Stephen Avenue Mall) SE with Jill, Brent, and Lyhn. It's across from The Catch (which will appear in an entry shortly, I promise!). Jill and I ordered the potato chowder as an appetizer. It turned out to be a bit different from what we expected. Instead of being white and creamly, it was red, perhaps due to the presence of Serrano pepper and also had sour cream, black beans, and corn topped off with corn chip shavings. It wasn't bad and sort of reminded Jill of a thinner variation on chili. I ordered the prime rib which came highly recommended by our waiter. There was a choice of 6, 8, and 14 ounces I believe. I had the 8 ounce. The prime rib came with mashed potatoes and some veggies, as well as a tub of white horseradish. It was definitely a juicy and perfectly serviceable prime rib, but there wasn't anything astonishing about it either. Personally, if you like prime rib, I recommend the perennial Smuggler's Inn. Jill had a sirloin steak served over a spicy peppercorn sauce and topped off with some blue cheese. She complained a bit about the steak being too salty and wished for more blue cheese. Brent ordered the Chicken Cordon Blue burger with curly fries, and Lyhn had the hawaiian sirloin, which came with the biggest tiger prawn I'd ever seen, a 3 1/2 ounce monster. She had baby roasted potatoes on the side. For dessert, Jill and I shared a slice of Chocolate Ganache cake. I thought it was far too sweet and heavy, but then I generally prefer my desserts on the lighter side. I have to admit both Jill and I felt that it didn't seem especially fresh, like something out of a frozen dessert box that was just defrosted and served. Brent and Lyhn had a White Vanilla Gelato, which everyone agreed simply tasted like decent ice cream, but not really like italian gelato.

While the service was good, I thought the food was merely average, as was the decor. Given the choice, I would rather go to Earl's or Moxie's which is roughly the gastronomical space that Milestone's presumably aims to wedge itself into. Well, I suppose I wish them luck, but I do think some improvements will have to be made if they are to really gain a foothold in Calgary.

Imperial palace: 3 Stars

2005-05-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

I was invited to a family dinner with Nhon's parents and sister at the Imperial Palace. Despite the name, a rather simple and modest establishment on Centre St. and 11th Ave. NE. Far too much food to write about in detail, but all in all the meal was quite good. The place is frequented mainly by chinese people. We had a tasty set dinner consisting of the following:

Lobster in cream sauce on crispy noodles
Fish soup (looks and rather tasted like egg drop soup)
Chicken with zesty ginger sauce
Sweet and sour pork
Deep fried shrimp
Vegetables and shitake mushrooms
Red bean drink for dessert with tapioca

River Cafe: 4 Stars

2005-05-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

Due to a class I'm teaching on Saturdays I've had some trouble keeping this blog updated every week as promised, but hopefully things will be running more smoothly soon! Anyhow, today I went out with my old pal from University, Danny. It was a beautiful sunny day and I figured we might as well make our way to the River Cafe in Eau Clair. I had been planning to check it out for years, but somehow an actual visit had never materialized. From the Eau Clair Market right along the river in downtown Calgary you walk across the bridge to Prince's Island, and there it is, this golden cottage-style restaurant almost glowing in the late afternoon sunshine amid the greenery of the park. Inside it's all about a rustic fishing lodge look, with canoes hanging from the wood beams of the roof. Outside, there is a wonderful patio surrounded by trees and a beautiful view of the river. This must by far be the most scenic restaurant in Calgary! For starters, we ordered mussels, which were served in a sauce made with ground lamb sausage, leeks, some vegetable soup base, topped of with a bit of creme fresh and baked in a forno oven. This was the most original approach to mussels I've ever experienced, and it was genuinely delicious accompanied with some Stella Artois. I don't now what it is, but I seem to have become a real Stella aficionado lately. It just seems like a perfectly balanced light beer. For our entrees, I ordered the special du jour, a lamb dish with two bone chops, one braised rolled up lamb breast, and several small round cuts of loin. The meat was served over baby potatoes, green beans and zesty marinated cauliflower. I can't say the dish was disappointing as it was good, but nothing about it really grabbed me. Perhaps my expectations had been inflated by the mussels. Danny ordered a pickerel fillet that came with some deep-fried battered carrot fingers. Only in the interest of serving the faithful readers of this blog, I had to try some of his dish too! It was n't bad either, but I thought it was a bit on the bland side. His dish was $33 and mine was $35. All told, including our beverages, the bill came out to about $100 for the two of us, not bad after all for a restaurant that has a reputation as one of the higher priced places in Calgary. Judging by the menu, many of the dinner entrees are more expensive however, reaching the $40-$50 range. It's certainly an upscale fishing lodge-themed restaurant, no doubt about that! The service was prompt and of high quality and the ambiance, as I said, was just excellent. I really can't think of a much better way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon so I do recommend this place, although I have to say that I would be more likely to return for some appetizers and a few drinks than for a full meal.

Siding Cafe: 4 Stars

2005-05-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went to the Siding Cafe, in the newly renovated building downtown on 7th ave. and 1st st. SW now called Art Central (across the street from the convention centre). It's a gleaming new diner on the ground floor, with good light and pictures of the old-time railway on the walls. The most notable visual accent is the very cool shiny chrome-panelled arched ceiling reminiscent of a train station. There are individual tables, a few "communal" tables, and room on the stools at the counter. I ordered A torn-chicken sandwich, which arrived with french fries cut long and thin, and a green salad with vinaigrette. The chicken sandwich was basically a slightly westernized vietnamese sub, amply filled with cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded carrots and garnished with parsely and mint and a zesty sauce in the vietnamese style. It was very fresh indeed, nice and big, and totally delicious! The home-made fries were good too, but the salad had too much dressing for my taste and I just nibbled at it a bit. My buddy Nhon had a burger, which was equally loaded, and which he said was quite tasty. The waiters were efficient and affable, but not outright friendly. Their uniform was kind of interesting - they were wearing a white shirt, jeans, and aprons. I suppose that's supposed to reflect a kind of laid-back western look. Anyway, they did a fine job and I was pleased with the service. The siding cafe is an interesting establishment. They serve a diner-style breakfast menu similar to what you might see at Galaxy or Nellies and they have sandwiches, and then there's a bit of a fancier dinner menu, with rather classy incarnations of western favourites that appear to belie their humble origins. For example, "Frank and Beans" is white beans served with braised elk and sausage. The name "art central" applies nicely to the building. The rest of the rather gorgeously renovated two-story space is occupied by a variety of art studios and jewelry shops. As you go around the staircase in the centre of the building you can see two beautiful golden sculptures, of a man and woman respectively, plummeting to earth like icarus, hung from high ceiling. There's a coffee shop upstairs called Palette, with funky brightly-coloured furniture and matching art on the walls. The black and white silent movie version of Phantom Of The Opera was playing on the big-screen TV. This is a rather strange movie with people dancing around inexplicably in the opera hall in between scenes. Anyway, I asked for a steamer and the barista suggested her own invention, a combination of mint and hazelnut which turned out to be great. I wouldn't say the Siding Cafe is an amazing revelation, but is a nice spot in a cool location and in my opinion it's worth a visit.

Bonterra: 5 Stars!

2005-04-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've decided to make a habit of visiting one new restaurant every Saturday before my workout at the gym. That way I'll have plenty of fodder for this blog! Today my workout buddy Nhon and I went to Bonterra. It's a lovely italian restaurant on 10th ave. and 8th st. SW, just south of th Mountain Equipment Coop. Inside, the decor has a nice subdued quality with the walls painted a kind of textured olive colour and huge canvases of pastoral italian landscapes mounted on the walls. The real gem here however is an absolutely amazing little courtyard patio in the back that mutes the downtown noises and makes one feel refreshed almost as though one is out in the country somewhere in Italy. It's too bad the signs posted indicate Rome over 10,000 kms away! Ah well, so much for that illusion! The patio has got two outdoor fireplaces as well as heating lamps spread out around the tables -- un-necessary on such a beautiful late afternoon. The sun was warming my face as I waited for my friend to arrive and I began to seriously question the wisdom of working out after this dinner. Damned lower body workout. I dread it all week long! The idea of just spending an evening drinking on this wonderful "secret garden" patio was definitely gaining momentum! But I persevered so this time around I haven't got anything to say about the wine list. Still, the dish I ordered was really fantastic. A salmon steak wrapped in seared prociutto ham, then baked in the oven, with fennel and pine nuts sprinkled over top and a side of flavourful seasoned mashed potatos and slices of zucchini! I imagine this must be one of their signature dishes. It definitely stood out from the other rather more prosaic menu options. The meals here are actually fairly afforable for an upscale restaurant, with the entrees ranging from about $15 to $25. I believe mine lived near the top of that scale. Oh, and I am ashamed to admit that I could not resist going over to an empty table to steal some more breadsticks. The breadsticks here are long and thin with large crystals of salt stuck to them and while they act as decorations on each table,they're also absolutely delicious!

Whether you go out to enjoy the courtyard and pretend for a short while that you're actually in Italy, or just decide to stay inside in the dining room, this is a wonderful restaurant, and absolutely a top pick! I'm sure I'll be posting something about the wines here before too long -- if I'm able to write at all or remember anything afterward that is! (I suppose it wasn't such a good idea for me to watch Sideways!)

Piato: 3 Stars

2005-04-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

I friend had asked to meet me for dinner at Lombardo's on Edmonton Trail and 11th ave NE, and when we got there, we realized it was no more! In its place was a new Greek restaurant, Piato. It turns out it's been there for about a year. We figured we'd try it out. The interior is charmingly appointed: Hard wood floor with a very nice stone wall and fireplace as well as wood beam frames around the entrance between the two sections of the restaurant. It was late afternoon, and the sun produced a beautiful glow through the frosted west-facing windows. There were subtle references to greece, such as some stone vases placed in the window niches, but nothing overpowering. Overall, the decor was elegant and understated. I ordered the Taramasalata made from trout caviar as an appetizer, which turned out to be a mousse, quite tasty spread over fresh bread. My entree was Cornish Hen Breasts with Truffled Polenta. The portion was surprsingly small, but flavourful. I really wish they had provided more polenta! Finally, for dessert I had this pistachio ganache thing with a cappucino. It was very hard and very sweet and heavy. Personally, I didn't particularly enjoy it. I was expecting something more delicate. I found this upscale approach to greek cuisine interesting, but ultimately less than satisfying. Also, the meal was fairly expensive. I think it worked out to about $30-$35 per person, and that's not including wine. I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to eat there again, but I really did enjoy the rustic interior and the gorgeous light coming through the windows. Piato does have a romantic appeal, and I think it would be a nice place to take a date.

Kinjo: 5 Stars! [Update: 2 stars now!]

2005-04-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Update (August, 2009): Kinjo seems to have really gone downhill and is no longer recommended. That's the trouble with stale reviews - things change! Apologies to anyone who's gone there recently because of this review!

Kinjo is located at around 70th Avenue and Macleoud Trail SW, just past Chinook Mall. The location, a former Tim Horton's on the side of a busy road sharing a parking lot with a Wendy's, isn't much to look at. I wound up going there after working out at the Talisman Centre because a friend of mine had read a brief review in the Herald, but I wasn't particularly optimistic. Inside, the decor is clean and simple, nothing fancy. Most of the space is occupied by a long sushi boat bar. The chefs make sushi there and place it on small trays which float around the bar on plastic boats. There are also regular tables occupying the rest of the space. We arrived at about 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday. They had just opened and still didn't have their liquor license yet and the place was more or less empty. We ordered steak in magic sauce, a variety of sushi, some tempura, and these delicious fried squid tentacles in a spicy sauce. All of the food was amazingly fresh and crisp. The tempura wasn't choked with batter the way it is in most japanese restaurants. The hot food was delightful and the sushi absolutely fresh and tasty; the sashimi was just the right temperature. I actually found out on a second outing some weeks later that this place was run by Peter (last name Kinjo), the wild and entertaining guy who was a chef (and part owner I believe) at Sakana grill for a long time. This second time the place was packed and people were happily eating and drinking. Peter was running around entertaining each table, either on his own, or dragging his wait staff around singing the birthday songs anyone who's been to Sakana would be familiar with.

It may not be a super cool trendy spot on 17th ave with fancy decor and mood lighting, but this place has never the less quickly become my favourite sushi restaurant in Calgary! Kampai!

Update: I've gone to Kinjo a few more times since this review, and one thing I should add is that the sushi appears to be much more fresh if you order it rather picking up the trays from the sushi boats.