Archive for March, 2008
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
It was team lunch time at work so we all headed to La Piazza Dario down at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver. I never knew about this restaurant until recently but several of my co-workers have raved about this and even said it was better than some of the restaurants they went to in Italy. Because there were so many of us, I was only able to review and take pictures of my own dishes and Chris’s because he sat next to me.
I started with the Caprese salad, which had sliced tomatoes and boccocini cheese. The pesto on top of the boccocini and tomatoes added a nice punch of flavour. My tomatoes were also a bit on the crunchy side, which I prefer and think it makes a nice contrast with the creamy and soft cheese.
Chris had a Caesar salad, which he enjoyed quite a bit. There seemed to be a healthy amount of dressing, but it was not too overwhelming.
The Linguini al Pesto was a popular choice that day as Chris, Allison, and I all picked it for our main course. I also asked for a little bit of extra Parmesan cheese to be sprinkled over top. The linguini was full of great pesto flavour and not too heavy, despite it probably accounting for one’s entire carbs requirements for the day. :) It was simple but very tasty and I ended up polishing off the whole plate. 
It was my first time at Dario’s but probably not the last. We came for lunch and the prices were quite reasonable with most pastas coming in around $13-14 and the meat mains coming in at about $13-15. Even though we were there at 11:30 for lunch on a Monday afternoon, the restaurant was actually quite full and it was a good thing we made reservations.
Details:
3075 Slocan St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-430-2195
Summary:
Food: 
Service: 
Price: $$
Posted in Italian, Reviews | No Comments »
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Samantha, Lucy, and I went to Szechuan Chongqing one day after work for dinner. It is one of Samantha’s favourite Chinese restaurants and she frequents this place quite a bit with her family. We went to the one on Commercial in Vancouver; there’s also one located on W. Broadway but I’m not sure if they are owned by the same people.
The three of us decided to share a few dishes, as that’s the best way to eat food in a Chinese restaurant. Because most of the items here are Szechuan style, they tend to be a bit spicy but of course, you can specify the level of spicyness when you place your order.
One of Szechuan Chongqing’s specialties is their Tan Tan noodles. Occasionally when Samantha and I come here, this is all we’ll order and we are perfectly fine with that. The egg noodles come in a spicy peanut soup that you really can’t get enough of.
We also ordered some lettuce wraps with duck. You have the choice of duck, chicken, or beef but we decided to go traditional with the duck. The duck filling came on a bed of fried vermicelli noodles and was mixed with a variety of crunchy veggies, including celery, carrots, and edamame.
The mound of lettuce was fresh and big. One thing that I don’t like about the lettuce wrap at some restaurants is that they never give you enough so you always have to ask for more. My one complaint about the lettuce was that it wasn’t dried properly so was quite wet and made eating the dish extra messy. Be sure to have a stack of napkins to wipe your drippy hands!
Lastly, we ordered the spinach with chicken dices in fish sauce. The spinach was really crunchy, which I’m not really used to but was really tasty. The chicken was also slightly spicy, not too spicy, and went great with rice. This was a bit on the oily side though so towards the end of the dish, we stopped eating because all the oil had collected at the bottom.
Szechuan Chongqing is always consistent and the food is different from the regular Cantonese food most people eat when they go for Chinese. Most dishes come in around $10-13 and are of a healthy portion size. We asked for our dishes to be of medium spicyness, which suited us just fine.
Details:
2808 Commercial Dr, Vancouver
Tel: 604-254-7434
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Edmonton is pretty neat in that in most major buildings downtown, there are food courts set up for people to quickly order lunch from. I suppose because it is so cold there in the winter, it is way easier to grab lunch downstairs as opposed to braving the elements. Mabel, Dallas, and some others had been telling me about Chicken For Lunch, a Chinese fast food eatery in the Scotiabank food court. This place seemed to be famous for its good food, a lady who remembered everyone’s orders and names, and a huge lineup that circles around the food court at lunch. Mabel and I got there just after 12pm and there was already a long line formed.
Both Mabel and I ordered the medium size lunch for $6.50. For this price, you get rice, noodles, veggies, two types of chicken, and a spring roll. The price was more than reasonable and the portion sizes are pretty huge.
I settled on the lemon chicken and the hot and dry. Hot and dry is a bit spicy but is also the one that came most recommended when I was trying to decide on what to order. The lemon chicken was pretty tasty and had a nice lemony flavour. There was also quite a bit of sauce so it went nicely with my rice. As for the hot and dry, it was pretty good but I’m not much of a fried chicken lover so I wasn’t completely sold on it. It was very crispy though and was spicy without being overwhelmingly so.
Chicken for Lunch was not bad although I have to say I am surprised that people are willing to lineup so long to eat it…sometimes every day! I suppose I am probably spoiled by the great food in Vancouver so it takes a bit more to really wow me. The food was a great deal though and there was a lot of variety in the types of items you could order.
Details:
10060 Jasper Ave, Edmonton, Alberta
Tel: 780-425-9614
Summary:
Food:
Service: n/a
Price: $
Posted in Other Cities, Edmonton, Fast Food, Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
Both Mabel and I were in work for Edmonton for a few days. Luckily for me, Mabel is from Edmonton so she offered to take me somewhere for dinner on the night I arrived. We ended up at Cheesecake Cafe, which she noted was known for their excellent cheesecakes. This place is actually a smaller scale version of Cheesecake Factory, which is prevalent in most big US cities.
To start, Mabel and I shared the spinach and artichoke dip. The chips seemed to be freshly fried because we could still see some oil sitting on some chips. The dip itself was not bad although it was a bit watery towards the bottom and there was definitely more spinach than artichoke.
Since I was in Alberta, I decided to go with the honey garlic sirloin, which came with some veggies. I also had a choice of a baked potato or salad to go along with my dish and I chose the salad with a honey dressing. Even though I asked for medium rare, I found my steak to be a bit overcooked and kind of tough. I also couldn’t taste the honey or garlic, which theoretically should have kept the steak nice and moist. The vegetables appeared to have been boiled and were overcooked although the salad was pretty tasty.
Cheesecakes are definitely the specialty here so Mabel and I ordered a key lime cheesecake and an Oreo cheesecake. Some of the cheesecakes are seasonal and are available during certain times of the year. The key lime cheesecake was a nice shade of green and had the slightest hint of lime flavour. I liked the graham cracker crust although I wished it was thicker.
Of the two cheesecakes, I actually preferred the Oreo one more. It was not too sweet and also had chunks of Oreo cookies in it. Both the cheesecakes were very dense and we ended up eating only half of each flavour. Although the cheesecakes were good, I do like my cheesecakes to be creamier and the flavours here were too subtle for my liking.
I definitely preferred the cheesecakes here over my main dish and appetizer. If I were to come back again, I would probably just come for dessert and pick one cheesecake to share between two people…unless you are feeling really hungry.
Details:
17011 - 100 Ave, Edmonton, Alberta
Tel: 780-486-0440
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$
Posted in Canadian, Edmonton, Other Cities, Reviews | No Comments »
Posts (RSS)