Monday, June 25, 2007

Parkside (June 13, 2007)

http://www.parksiderestaurant.ca/

Three reviewers: ts, js and allu


[allu]
Apparently it was a tough decision, whether to dine at La Buca or Parkside.

JS made the reservation (and decision) for us. The final location was kept a secret...at least I wasn't told where we were going.

Had I known ahead of time, and had this not been my last night in Vancouver, I think I would have dressed up a bit for this dinner. But under the circumstances, I went in my jeans and my "lulu girl" shirt (haha, at least I wasn't in my home clothes...)

We went to Parkside.


[js]
I actually wanted to go to La Buca, but I thought it would be tougher to get a reservation at La Buca. We've been turned away a couple of times already at La Buca and I thought that trying to get a reservation just two days in advance of the date was pushing it.

La Buca has the kind of food that I want to eat everyday. As mentioned before. LOL

[ts]
Well, Parkside was fitting if you wanted something more "special" for your last night, whereas La Buca would've been fitting if you wanted a laid-back approach. I think you melded the 2 when you wore your lulu girl shirt to parkside. Haha.

[allu]
And apparently, *some* of us (no names mentioned) had gone online and studied the menu ahead of time! But the chefs at Parkside most definitely would not let us cheat this easily...the menu we were presented with was a little different from the one online =)

[ts]
I didn't know where we were going until about 1 hr before when JS suddenly went:
"Psst... what items do you think you're ordering?" [while perusing the Parkside menu online]

[allu]
Went for the four course menu:
Well-seasoned steak tartare with pommes gaufrettes
Grilled prawns with potato (?), crisp bacon (?), micro greens, sherry dressing
Crisp skin Cornish hen, herb spaetzle and spring vegetables, sauce

Colbert Parkside Black Forest torte

[js]
I had the 4-course meal, starting with a
sweet onion soup with goatcheese crostini, papardelle (sp?) with lamb ragu, the Copper Riversockeye, and a fromage frais brown sugar cheesecake-type concoction with strawberries and raspberries.

Overall, I would say I was satisfied with what I ordered, but not totally enamoured.



1. FIRST COURSE

[allu]
Well-seasoned steak tartare with pommes gaufrettes

How anyone could resist steak tartare is beyond me. I had to have this course. Loved the pommes gaufrettes, perfectly fried slices of potato chips. If I were Japanese, I might be tempted to say "it's a bit oily"...but I'm not Japanese, and how can you expect there to be no oil if these are fried?!? The steak tartare itself..well, nothing to complain about here. But maybe if there were more capers in there..haha..I love capers.

[ts]
I had this as well. Nothing to complain about. In my head I was comparing it to the tartare w a kick(!) at Bistrot. This also came with some microgreens that were dressed and seasoned really nicely.

[js]
Sweet onion soup -- good.
Soup was spot-on. Perfectly seasoned and the onions were sweet.


2. SECOND COURSE

[allu]
Grilled prawns with potato, crisp bacon, micro greens, sherry dressing

Actually, this is not exactly what i had. They've updated their menu on the website and I can't see our menu from the night of the 13th. So I'm just piecing things together with items on the current menu that resembles what I had on the 13th.

Here's what I remember: there was definitely prawns, potatoes, micro greens, sherry dressing, and a processed meat of some sort...

The sherry dressing complemented the prawns well..though I found that some parts of the prawns were over-grilled (is there such a word?). Could have been better without the occasional "burnt taste".

That being said, I still finished the whole plate..haha...

[ts]
Mushroom Risotto

I forget how it was called, exactly. Anyway, there was a mix of mushrooms: chanterelles, morels, and porcinis, I think. I don't like porcinis. The risotto was nicely done, although it was a bit too "meaty" for me at the time. I guess it's permanent damage, this aversion of mine to "brown" taste.

[js]
I think I made a mistake with the lamb ragu.

See, if there's an option for fresh pasta on the menu, I would go for the fresh pasta --because, really, nothing beats fresh pasta. So it was the papardelle for me.

The pasta was excellent, but the first bite of the lamb ragu didn't do it for me. I thought I was tasting Irish stew out of a can. The menu said it had basil and chilis, but I really didn't taste anyof the basil and the chilis. On the subsequent bites, the lamb ragu did taste a little bit better, but it would have been a lot better ifthey did what was advertised on the menu and hit the lamb with at least some basil and some chilis.



3. THIRD COURSE

[allu]
Crisp skin Cornish hen, herb spaetzle and spring vegetables, sauce Colbert

The spaetzle was surprisingly good! I still don't really know what spaetzles are..but it was good. The spring vegetables included white asparagus, yellow string beans, peas, and pea shoots. The string beans were my favorite. I never really got why white asparagus was such a delicacy...they're not very good, in general...

The crisp skin cornish hen..well....it was good...but.....

Here's what happened, we went to Fisherman's the night before and ordered the Chinese version of the crisp skin chicken. My goodness, this was really "chicken yummy!"....

So when I ordered the cornish hen, I still had that Fisherman chicken in mind..the really really amazing crisp skin, and the juicy yet tender meat underneath....

The Cornish hen, I'm sad to say, came nowhere near as good as the Fisherman chicken...Maybe it's unfair to compare them..but it's what I was looking for and I didn't get it here. The skin of the cornish hen was simply not crispy enough! Maybe it was the sauce Colbert that ruined the crispy-ness....And when I cut into the hen, I was hoping that the skin would stay somewhat attached to the meat so that with each bite, I can experience and taste the crisp skin with the tender white meat...but this didn't happen. The skin came off with every slice. The meat of the hen was okay, but not SPECTACULAR, and without the crisp skin...well....I was disappointed. I wanted Fisherman...

[js]
Well, that Fisherman's Terrace crispy skin chicken really qualifies as "CHICKEN YUMMY, CHICKEN YUMMY!"

With Alice's cornish game hen, it's a bit of a risk. It's so hard to cook small poultry; it's so easy toovercook them to tough-and-dry.

[ts]
Halibut?

A-ya! I don't remember what I had for my main dish!! It was halibut, but I have no idea what its accompaniments were... =(

Had a little help from jowbel re the accompaniments!

There was fennel and pepperonata... oh, and a little cake of some kind. Brandade cake!


The pepperonata was really good. It was surprising that I enjoyed it because there was a time when I was sick of roasted peppers. Basically the accompaniments were good on their own, and also in any combination with each other... and with the fish. Just a little complaint is that the fennel salad was a little too olive-y for me... I don't really *like* olives that much; i like/dislike them on a case by case basis.

I guess that's it. I forget the sauce(s) that came with the dish.


[js]
For the Copper River sockeye, I thought the dish was good.

The brown butter noisette, with the capers and croutons was delicious. The salmon itself was delicious as well.

My only gripe about the salmonwas how crispy the crust was -- it was TOO CRISPY.


See, sockeye is generally not a fatty type of salmon and fillets of salmon are usually not thin. So I think it was over-seared for a second longer than it should have been. Salmon was a tad dry. If they perhaps chose to go with a steak instead of a fillet, then it would have been perfect.

(Perhaps I'm also reliving my experience of grilling a fillet of Copper River sockeye, in which I also ran into the same tough-and-dry problem. If it were just me eating, I would have left it a little bit raw in the middle, but I wasn't the only one eating it.)



4. FOURTH COURSE

[allu]
Parkside Black Forest torte

When JS asked me if I tasted the black forest-ness...I was a bit confused. I must confess that all the black forest cakes that i've tasted before were from Chinese bakeries...so I figured they are all "asia-fied" in one way or another. Sometimes these black forest cakes would have cherries in them, and sometimes not. The only "constant" was the chocolate =)

So I don't think I'm really qualified to answer the question "is this torte black forest-y?", cuz, what do I know about black forest cakes?

So "black forest"-ness aside, this torte was pretty good. I like chocolate, I like cherries, what can possibly go wrong?

Well, maybe more cherries would have been nice. And I did find a little piece of what appeared to be eggshell in my torte (is that bad?)....

But, once again, I finished my torte.

[ts]
Poached apricots with warm brown butter almond cake and cinnamon ice cream

The apricots themselves just tasted like apricots, no biggie. The cinnamon ice cream was pretty good.

BUT! BUT! The cake! The cake!!! That was super good!! It was served warm: nice!

So I think the best part of my meal was the cake!! So rare, that I would think that dessert was
the best, and that somebody can actually make good dessert.

I was taking a risk ordering the ALMOND cake, because i HATE that almond essence taste. I like actual almonds. In this case, they used ground almonds in the cake (thank goodness). None of that pesky essence!! But yeah, that cake is just super good. I could've dispensed with the apricots and ice cream. Teehee.

[js]
Fromage frais brown sugar cheesecake-type concoction with strawberries and raspberries

Dessert was okay, although I can't help comparing it to Thomas Haas' stilton cheesecake which was absolutely delicious. They should have brought back the lemon tart 'cause that was SO YUMMY.

[allu]
Items that I tried and loved:
TS's order of risotto and almond cake with cinnamon ice cream;
JS's order of spring salmon


The almond cake with cinnamon ice cream was heavenly....and i didn't even get to try the apricots!

[allu]
I kind of wish I had ordered the beef tenderloin for my main....

Still, I enjoyed this meal, and wish I can eat here again =)

And am very curious about La Buca.


[ts]
So, I guess not a glowingly glowing review, but still a good one.

Haha,
CSC said she was glad the reviews were not too glowing, because they made her less likely to want to eat there. She said she wants it when the chef (Andrey Durbach) is the one cooking.

So I said, just wait until August!!! Pied-a-Terre!! oooooh.




Sunday, June 10, 2007

Alice's Back-in-Vancouver Party @ chez ts/js (June 9, 2007)

Thank you to everybody for attending Alice's Back-to-Vancouver Party!

A great time was had by all.

Hope you all enjoyed the company and the food. I personally enjoyed all the preparation and the eating and the after-eating.

For the 'mahnyu,' our theme was "party favourites," so I hope everybody had a favourite among these dishes:

CAESAR SALAD
Romaine lettuce, TS's garlicky-anchovy caesar dressing, homemade croutons, and alderwood smoked bacon on the side.

MIXED GREENS WITH HONEY-LIME-PEANUT DRESSING
The salad dressing is the key here.

WHOLE (although HEADLESS) SOCKEYE SALMON grilled on cedar plank
Dressed with lemon-dill vinaigrette, served with tzaziki sauce.

CHAR-ROASTED LEG OF LAMB, served with tzaziki sauce.

ORANGE-GUAVA-SOY PORK TENDERLOIN served with jus.

JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN with PINEAPPLE SALSA

SPAGHETTI VONGOLE
spaghetti with clams in a classic white-wine sauce.

ROASTED ASPARAGUS

For dessert, we had
MANGO SEMI-GELATO

AUNTIE VICKEY'S TIRAMISU
Excellent tiramisu. I must have had 3 servings of this. It was that good.

AUNTIE MERCY'S HEALTHY LECHE FLAN with MAPLE SYRUP.
Light and delicious.

Thank you all again for being there!

We'll do this again sometime soon.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Chow Restaurant (June 6, 2007)

http://www.chow-restaurant.com/

Two reviewers: ts and allu

potato and leek soup 8
crème fraiche tortellini and mustard greens

guinea pepper crusted ahi tuna 15
haricot vert and yellow beet salad, sun-dried tomato ketchup, and pickled vanilla onion

chilled prawn salad 15
avocado, ruby red grapefruit, yellow pepper and lemongrass dressing

dry-aged beef carpaccio 15
baby spinach, shaved fennel, horseradish salsa verde, grana padano cheese and pickled quail egg

“Sloping Hills Farm” organic pork 20
nutmeg gnocchi, organic shimeji mushrooms, mini zucchinis, sweet onion puree and italian parsley salad

[ts]
We actually just finished eating something around 3-ish? Basically we had lunch at around 1pm or so. Then we went to the Riley Park Farmer's Mkt and I ate a SUGAR & BUTTER with Ricotta crepe. (allu had the sugar & butter one.)

Normally, I wouldn't be "full", but then that ricotta just sank like stones, I tell you!!!! They put that whole crepe experience over the top(!), stomach capacity-wise.

Long story short, allu & I were both "not hungry" when we embarked on our culinary adventure. Teehee.

We ordered
allu: Potato Leek Soup; Tuna
ts: Carpaccio; Pork

The guy said that things under $20 would be appetizer-sized; over $20 = entree-sized.

[allu]
Potato and Leek Soup
First thing we noticed was how great the soup smelled! The tortellini was SURPRISINGLY good! I still have no idea what was inside, but whatever it was, it was good! Soup was creamy and flavorful.

[ts]
Carpaccio

This was so good! The beef wasn't really strong-flavored, but that's OK.

EVERYTHING on the plate was good! Individual components were good by themselves and they were good together in ANY combination. The salsa verde was good! The grana padano was good! The pickled quail egg was good! The FENNEL SALAD was SUPER-DUPER GOOD!

Yeah, so satisfying and savory. 10/10 for this dish!

[allu]
Guinea Pepper Crusted Ahi Tuna
I tried the yellow beet first. Usually I'm not a big fan of beets. The yellow beet tasted okay. The haricot vert were essentially string beans. The beans tasted like they were pickled. Not sure if they really were pickled or if it was because they were mixed with the pickled onions. I think I would have preferred for the beans to be not pickled.

The ahi tuna was delicious! The pepper crust was absolutely perfect. I'm not sure if the sun-dried tomato ketchup did anything for the dish (except as garnish).

All in all, I think the ahi tuna was great all on its own. The other stuff on the dish didn't "add" anything to the dish. Eaten separately, all the items were okay, but I'm not sure if they necessarily compliment the tuna, or even go with the tuna at all.

[ts]
Pork

I believe the server was saying that they vary the CUT of the pork. Today, it was pork belly.

Again, the different components of the dish were all very good and nicely cooked. I was just surprised that the baby zucchini were a little bitter; I thought "baby" stuff were sweeter & such.


Anyway, it was still good coz it contrasted with the other components (eg, the sweet onion puree). The gnocchi were nice and pillowy... and so cute too. Teehee. Those mushrooms were also tiny-sized.

The pork belly itself was also very good. At first I was afraid because I usually don't like fat when it's still in its solid form (eg, in pork belly!). But, this was done very well. I believe this rectangular slab of pork belly was slow-cooked in something, then probably fried/deep-fried afterwards. The meat was incredibly tender. The fat was still layered, but it didn't have that jiggly kind of fat texture that I dislike. Of course, the skin part was all nice and crispy!

So yeah, very good.

[allu]
The pork belly was indeed tender.

However, I must say that I didn't quite like how the pork fat tasted. The crusty top was great, and the meaty part was tender and soft, but the fat....tasted weird. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it tasted too fatty, cuz it felt like even though there was only a small portion of pork belly, I wouldn't have been able to finish the whole thing by myself, due to the taste of the fat. But maybe the zucchinis and mushrooms would be able to "neutralize" it.

So, allu and I finished our appys and mains (which in her case, was just another appy-sized dish).

ts: Are you full?
allu: Not really. About 75% to 80% full. You?
ts: Yeah, around there.
Do you want to order that chilled prawn salad?

(note: allu had mentioned during our mains that if she were to order something else, she would order that.)

allu: To share?
ts: No, for yourself. I can get something too.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

So yeah, when the server gave us the menu again for us to order our desserts, we ordered another round of food!

allu's "dessert" = Chilled Prawn Salad
ts' "dessert" = Beef Carpaccio AGAIN!!!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

[ts]
But yeah, that carpaccio was so good! It's so rare that I would repeat a dish given the chance to experience variety. But really! I was still happy after eating that second carpaccio.

[allu]
I tried some of the carpaccio. Just perfect.

[allu]
Chilled Prawn Salad
This dish was delicious! It totally makes up for the craving for something citrus in my lunch sandwich (please see review for Thomas Haas).

Everything went well together. The ruby red grapefruit was the perfect finishing touch.

[ts]
I tasted allu's food too and they were all good.

Just a quick comment about the prawn salad: The grapefruit makes it extra good.

[allu]
I would definitely return to this restaurant...if only to order the fries with FLAVORED mayo.

(Contemplated on ordering this but decided last minute not to; then the people sitting behind us ordered it and i saw the dish when it was served. The fries looked soooooooo good!! They had arranged the fries so that they piled up, like Jenga chips. And the fries SMELLED great!)


Done!
Yes, this was good.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Thomas Haas Sandwiches (June 6, 2007)

http://www.thomashaas.com/

note: This is just about his sandwiches. His chocolates are excellent! =)

Three reviewers: ts, allu and js

[ts]
I have no comment as of yet regarding his chocolates and pastries.

[allu]
We haven't tasted the chocolates yet!

[ts]
Well, the chocolates are good, from what I remember. Someone gave us a box of those for Christmas. I usually don't like those chocolates in boxes (I like the bars better), but they were good.

Patisserie items: still untasted. We bought some to take home.

Chocolate bars: still untasted.

Chocolate Sparkle Cookies: supposedly the "best cookie in the world". Haha.

[ts]
The sandwiches: not that good! =(

Thai Crab Salad w/ avocado, cilantro, lemongrass

[ts]
Basically, the flavors in all 3 sandwiches seemed to be a little watered down.

The Thai Crab Salad gets points for having REAL CRAB... but there was too little cilantro and it needed some citrus, dammit! Teehee.

[allu]
I was disappointed with the sandwiches. They weren't bad, just not as good as I had hoped.

The Thai crab salad sandwich was not "salad-y" at all. It lacked veggies. And I ordered it because of the cilantro and avocado. Though it indeed had avocados, it was lacking in cilantro. I didn't taste cilantro til my very last bite. I could taste the lemongrass in the sandwich, but really, I was craving for anything citrus-y! The whole crab salad (mayo) and avocado and lack of veggies was just weighing the whole sandwich down. It desperately needed something sour/tangy to "perk" it up.

Smoked Turkey & Brie
with red onion marmalade, brie cheese, cranberry & pear chutney (?) on multigrain bread

[js]
Just have to concur with the disappointment vis a vis the sandwiches.

I had the smoked turkey with brie and cranberry+pear chutney. It was on a sourdough-ish brown bread studded with cranberries.

Unfortunately, it really wasn't any good at all. It was quite tasteless. The chutney was non-existent and all I tasted was the brie.

Moroccan Chicken
with Moroccan spiced chicken breast, fuji apples, toasted almonds, watercress, havarti cheese, and mayonnaise on ciabatta

[ts]
The Moroccan Chicken seemed to have garam masala flavors (instead of more "Moroccan" tastes)... but I can't be too sure. But I thought the cheese overpowered the tastes (although, granted, havarti is pretty mild).

[allu]
The moroccan chicken: not that good. well, once again, it's "not the worst". but I've definitely had better. don't really remember much about it. I was just trying to finish it off so that i can walk around the store and buy chocolates.

[ts]
But yeah, sandwiches were disappointing. VIVO! panini are really the best! Teehee.

[allu]
The passionfruit iced tea: I had a sip. Not very passionfruity.

Ok, i'm going to go try the chocolates now!!! so excited!

[ts]
Conclusion: Thomas Haas' MAHND is geared toward chocolates and pastries, haha. (Well, we're not even sure if it's *his* mahnd that came up w the sandwiches.)

Rodney's (June 4, 2007)

Review by allu

I've been looking forward to eating at Rodney's for more than 5 years!

Finally had the chance to go on Monday.

Of course I had the oysters!
2 Kussi
2 Denmans (?)
2 Thetis Flats

Also ordered a Manhattan clam chowder.

I actually didn't know what kind of oysters to order. But I know that I like the middle and small-sized ones, so I specified for those.

The oysters were served with horseradish, lemon wedges and a variety of dressings and sauces (including my all-time favorite: Tabasco!). Our server took some time explaining what each sauce/dressing was...but honestly, I didn't care. I just wanted to dig in and try everything!

To tell you the truth, i can't really tell the difference between the different kinds of oysters. All i know is that they were all very very fresh, and all extremely tasty. I asked for extra lemon wedges, so that I can add a generous amount of lemon juice to each of my oysters. Tabasco was a must (the jalapeno one was especially good!). I mixed and matched my sauces and dressings for each, and ALL COMBINATIONS were delicious!! You just can't go wrong!

I felt like I could have eaten 6 more!

But I'm still somewhat scarred from my bad experiences of oyster eating in Taiwan. So I thought I had better stop at 6.

The Manhattan was good. Hearty and comforting.

I tried some of the crab cakes that my friend ordered. They were delicious as well. Real crab meat (of course), served with a tangy plum sauce.

For dessert, I ordered the chocolate mousse. This was sooooooooooooooooo good. Smooth, not too sweet, just perfect!

If there's anything to complain about, it would probably be the small servings. My friend's entree only had two crab cakes, served with greens, and I think it was $14. The oysters were not that expensive ($2.5 to $3.5 each), but the entree was way too small!

But I would definitely return.

The table next to ours ordered a huge seafood platter, with crabs, shrimps, and oysters. This other table shared a platter of what looked like lobsters. I just HAVE TO return and try these!



Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Sutton Place Hotel High Tea (June 3, 2007)

http://www.vancouver.suttonplace.com/Afternoon_Tea.htm

Traditional English Afternoon Tea

Two reviewers: ts and allu; no reviews by js and csc

[ts]
I had the "Nobo Whole Fruit" tea. I guess this was a tisane, because there were no tea leaves, just the dehydrated fruit bits.

[allu]
I went for the Lavender Earl Grey tea. This was a no-brainer. I knew I wanted Earl Grey even before reading the menu. If it wasn't on the menu, I would have asked if they had it anyways.

However, the lavender kinda threw me off at first. I had doubts about getting it, but then, it's Earl Grey! How can one resist? Turns out the earl grey-ness predominates over the lavender, so the tea was ALL GOOD.

I usually take sugar with my tea, but all the desserts complimented the tea so well that I didn't have to add any sugar, or milk for that matter.

Traditional English Afternoon Tea
• Cucumber & Watercress Sandwich
• Smoked Salmon Pinwheel with Capers
• Black Forest Ham & Camembert Croissant
• Raspberry Chicken Salad Brioche
• Eclairs (w. Raspberry Cream)
• Scones with Devonshire Cream & Preserves
• Lemon Slice
• Chocolate Macaroon
• Chocolate and Strawberry Tart

[ts] In general, I like savory items better than dessert-y items.

[allu]
Cucumber & Watercress Sandwich
I love watercress and cucumber!! But I think I would have liked less cream cheese in my sandwich..once again, my dislike for cheese...

Smoked Salmon Pinwheel with Capers
Capers+salmon..what can possibly go wrong??!?! Of course this was delicious!

Black Forest Ham & Camembert Croissant
I contemplated on whether or not to remove the camembert. I decided to eat the croissant as it was. The taste of the camembert wasn't that overwhelming. The ham was salty enough so that together with the cheese and croissant, all the tastes balanced out nicely.

Raspberry Chicken Salad Brioche
I didn't taste the raspberry... or i don't remember tasting it. But this was pretty good. Nothing to complain about.

Eclairs (w. Raspberry Cream)

I liked this! Of course, chocolate would have been better..but the raspberry cream was pretty good!

Scones with Devonshire Cream & Preserves
The devonshire cream was just ok for me. Kind of too rich. Haha...

And the preserves weren't that good. I don't remember the brand of the jams they used, but it's one of those generic ones that you see everywhere (or that *I* see everywhere...) I don't really like their jams that much, they taste so artificial!

The scone was ok. But really, would have been so much better if they had better preserves!

Lemon slice
This wasn't bad. Like my brother and I would say, "it's not the worst".

Chocolate Macaroon

I didn't find this as tasty as the others. I think I just don't like macaroons in general (even though ts says that these macaroons are not like the ones we had in Paris). The macaroon is too dry and sweet for me. It's almost like eating icing. Too sweet!

Chocolate and Strawberry Tart
Oh!! By far my favorite dessert! This was delicious! The strawberry, the cream, the tart made out of chocolate!! Just simply delicious. And lucky for me that JS doesn't like strawberries, so I got to eat her piece too. Very yummy.

[ts] Yeah, all in all, it was pretty good.

I didn't like the "Lemon Slice" thing (a dessert thing) at all, but csc said she REALLY liked that one. The eclairs would've been good, but I didn't like the raspberry whipped cream.

(Raspberry! All snooty like that!!!)

The chocolate "macaroon" weren't really macaroon-like (they were supposed to be like the "French" macaroons).

The savory items were all OK. The devonshire cream for the scones was really good.

Nice experience all in all.

Riddim & Spice (June 2007)

on Commercial Drive
http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=2161

Two reviewers: ts and allu

We both had the Jamaican Jerk Meal:
Leg & thigh
Rice w/ Beans
iceberg salad

[ts]
The chicken was nicely cooked. The jerk flavor was OK, but not remarkable. Maybe mine is better! HAHAHAHAHA... Well, maybe mine's not authentic, teehee. The place may be more authentic because they had a majority of black customers (from the Carribean, I'm assuming).

[allu]
The chicken was tender and I thought the Jamaican "jerk" was just right! I didn't care much for the beans in the rice though. I think I'm not a "bean" type of a person. The rice by itself would have been much much better.

[ts]
I also ordered a side of fried plantains. They were good. The fried plaintains were good. Basically they're like turon, but without the wrapper.

[allu]
I ate too slow and ts finished off the very last piece of plantains before I could try any. By this I gathered that they were either: really good that she couldn't stop eating them; or really bad that she didn't want to subject me to any of it, so she finished it all herself. Good to know that she liked it.

[ts]
She really was SUPER slow, though! I told her to take some pieces beforehand, but she didn't. Hehe.

[ts]
All in all, pretty decent. Though, I don't think i'll go all the way there for this meal, though. Maybe if one is in the area.

I am pretty curious about the other items. Specifically, the "ackee and saltfish." It's only available during the weekends, they say. I was asking about it but the girl there (Chinese) dissuaded me from ordering it. She said it's an acquired taste and she doesn't like it at all.

[allu]
I would return if I remember where this place is located... haha...

Bistrot Bistro (May 31, 2007)

http://www.bistrotbistro.com/

Two reviewers: allu and ts

[allu]
We went to Bistrot Bistro last Thursday (May 31) for dinner. It was a very hot day, and dinner was at 7pm.

First thing WE ALL noticed: "The HEAT, MY GOD THE HEAT!"

There was no air con. No fans. Nothing. I'm from Taiwan. It's 38 degrees Celsius there. And I found the restaurant hot and stuffy. That should tell you something.

But water was immediately served, so that helped with keeping me relatively cool.

[ts] Yes, it was HOT!!!!

APPYS
Steak Tartare Baguette

[ts]
The server asked me if I wanted the spicy version, so of course I said yes!

And yeah, there was definitely a PUNCH! I usually don't like horseradish, but in this case, it wasn't very horseradish-y. I guess it had the kick but not too much superfluous horseradish taste.

[allu]
My first impression was how big the serving was! The beef tartare appeared pink and fresh. It was served with wedges of baquette and greens.

The tartare was good! Perfectly accentuated by the capers. I love capers. =)

Smoked Duck Caramelized Onion Tart

[ts] This was nice as well. Puff pastry... all flaky and such.

[allu]
The duck was very tender, the tart warm and "flaky".

I can't really remember the caramelized onion. I think maybe it lost its "onion-ness" during the caramelization process, or maybe the natural sweetness of the onion came out so strongly after caramelization that it overtook the natural onion-ness. Either way, I don't have much recollection of the onion.

Still, I enjoyed the dish as a whole. There were no pesky tendons in the duck meat, and it wasn't overseasoned or salty. Perfectly smoked.

[ts]
Other people had the goat cheese w greens. I thought it would be a salad w goat cheese. Turned out it was greens with goat cheese on crostini (or whatever the French term would be for "crostini", hehe.). I didn't get to taste it.

SIDES
Pommes Alumettes Mayo

[allu]
You have to know first that I'm partial to fries. Especially "skinny" fries (or shoestring fries). And these were all cute looking skinny fries!! Even though other people were saying that the fries were too salty, I didn't think so at all! The fries were hot and crispy, as they should be. I didn't really care for the mayo though. Usually I like dipping fries in mayo, but I think in this case I was craving for FLAVOURED mayo...maybe garlic mayo!! That would have been absolutely perfect! But it was just normal mayo, so no real attraction there. The fries were good by themselves.

[ts]
Yehey! Mayo! Fries! And so nice and nice-looking too. Haha. At first they weren't that salty. Besides, the mayo neutralized the salt on those fries. But near the end, I guess because the salt crystals have settled to the bottom, they were really salty. (Oh, they were served in a nice metallic bucket.)

Ratatouille

[allu]
This dish didn't really do anything for me. Not that I hated it... It just didn't do anything. Kind of salty, I think.

[ts]
Yeah, this was "OK", but not good. I don't remember it being salty, just so mushy.

MAINS
Boeuf Bourguignon

[allu]
The beef was so tender! But i was still kinda thrown off by how big the chunks of meat were. I think i would have enjoyed the dish more if it was served with some sort of carbohydrate, like rice, haha. Cuz all that flavour needed to be SOAKED UP by some sort of carbo, I felt. That reminds me, we didn't get any bread! The tables next to ours all got servings of bread. Where was our serving of bread?

[ts]
re bread: They have it as a menu item, so I'm not sure if they would just serve bread "for no reason." The menu item has baguette w tapenade.... maybe the other table(s) ordered that.

[allu]
In the end, I couldn't finish all my chunks of meat, because it felt like it was ALL MEAT, ALL THE TIME...

And it's not like i can dip the fries in the bourguignon, cuz the fries were already salty by themselves. I had to take "breaks" from all that meat by finding the random pieces of mushroom in the bourguinon and eating those (which were good...flavourful).

But all this time, i was still craving for OTHER ITEMS that could possibly accompany the meat... maybe vegetables? But the only veggie available was the ratatouille, which, as I said, didn't do anything for me and was too salty.

[ts]
Other people had
Chicken Lemon Herbs Butter
Lamb White Wine Citrus Spices

Didn't taste. But they seem to have been enjoyed.

[ts]
Pork Tenderloin Island Spices Coconut Banana
(Just an aside:their menu sounds all "stiff" and stilted... words and phrases ONLY... kinda funny.)

The pork was VERY tender! The "island" flavors were not bad. Tasty, but nothing too special. I don't know where the "banana" was, flavor-wise. But yeah. Pretty good.

[allu]
We didn't order any desserts, because it was simply too hot in there!

[allu]
Overall, the dinner was good. Would have been better if we had some bread and if the restaurant was air conditioned.

[ts]
All in all., I guess this would be around 7-ish/7.5-ish out of 10. Returnable.



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