Mrs_Zutterbug

Had dinner at Bistrot Bistro last night. Started with a huge, freshly baked baguette with a teeny tiny serving of olive tapenade. Then Jitka had some seafood in a lobster saffron broth. I had halibut w/ a watercress emulsion, and Dan had pork medallions in a mustard sauce. We shared Alumettes pommes, glazed carrots, and ratatouille as sides. Overall the food had good flavour, and big portions (1 main between 2 plus 2 sides is plenty). Most dishes were nicely presented in little le creuset dishes. Dan felt the carrots lacked flavour and were mushy. He also felt all the dishes were too buttery, even for a French restaurant. I think the bread and alumettes were the highlights. Overall, good restaurant, worth a visit, but not overly memorable.

When I’ve got time to wait, Vij’s is always a great meal. Tonight was cassava fries and pakoras in the waiting room, spicy red lentil pate to start, and saag paneer, pomegranate curry w/ red lentil dumplings. Washed all down with a delicious mocking bird hill basket press syrah. Yum. For two, the price was $100 w/ tax & tip.

The Tomato Cafe is definitely one of the regular resaurants I visit. I go mainly for brunch, which is fantastic. Fresh juices & smoothies, free range eggs, back bacon, turkey sausage. They make everything from scratch, no fake ingredients. I was there today and Dan ordered a banana milkshake – yummy.

The food is good enough for me to keep going back despite a few drawbacks:
- I’m sad they left Cambie St, and the new Kits location is not as nice – VERY noisy.
- Service is spotty. Often very good, but I’ve definitely has surly servers and been forgotten about for 10+ minutes

Still, there really isn’t anything like the Tomato, so I’m thankful we have it.

Had lunch at Burgoo on West 10th today. They have the whole comfort angle down. Wood tables, cozy fireplace, and comforting menu. We went intending to eat brunch, but instead went for the “usual” fare. Oatmeal Stout and Mac&Cheese for Dan, and gooey grilled cheese w/ butternut squash soup for me. Good quality cheese made both these dishes excellent. Perfect food for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I’ve been to Aurora several times, most recently today (Nov 10/07) for Brunch, which they’ve just started serving.

Brunch was outstanding. I had a smoked sablefish hash w/ 2 poached eggs and a buttery hollandaise. Dan had a oyama salami panini w/ these thick cut and crispy pomme frites. We splurged and also had dessert – 5-spice cake donuts drizzled with maple syrup. Yum. Were the portions huge? No. Were they enough? Yes.

My dinners at Aurora have ranged from okay to great, but I can’t say much beyond that. I do recommend Aurora – they pride themselves on using fresh, local and canadian ingredients. They also like to serve only sustainable seafood, which I respect.

I took a cooking class with Aurora’s head chef Jef van Geest last month and the man can cook. I will definitely return to his restaurant.

This is actually 3.5 stars, but I can’t figure out this “half star” business. Pied-à-Terre is from the same people that gave us Parkside and La Buca. How I love Parkside.

I also love French food and jumped when I heard this French Bistro was open.

The room: Simple, black & white theme, nice lighting. I wish I could design my apartment to look so simple, yet so elegant.

The food: Very bistro menu. They also have a set menu for lunch, which sounds nice. But I was there for dinner, and we did the 3-course Table d’hote for $29.95. That gave us the soup du jour – a celery root and cauliflower soup, steak frites (8 oz onglet – hangar steak…the reason I came!), and a chocolate mousse.

Soup – lovely and smooth flavours. A little rich for me, but this is a French bistro.
Steak Frites – you get to choose between 4 different sauces for your steak, which comes medium-rare and thickly sliced for you. They use AAA organic Alberta beef and is it tasty. I chose the marchand du vin sauce, a rich red wine sauce that was awesome with the steak. Melt in your mouth perfection. The husband took the au poivre sauce, which actually needed more pepper, I thought. His steak was good, but not quite as meltingly delicious as mine. While the meat was good, the frites need some work. Not crispy enough, not salty enough. Bland. Disappointing, but I’ll always have The Smoking Dog and the ultimate place for frites…Bistro Pastis.

The chocolate mousse was rich chocolate happiness, topped with creme fraiche and a mint leaf. Huge portion!

I sadly cannot remember the wine we drank. This is tragic, as it was one of the best dry reds! French, of course. A blend. That’s all I have.

Overall, Cambie is lucky to have a lovely, well-priced bistro. This place will do well, and we will be back.

Good vegetarian restaurant. I must admit, it has been 2 years since I’ve eaten at the Foundation, and we went today because Aurora Bistro was already closed for brunch. The food is tasty, but my first time I had this black bean and banana dish that was delicious, but “beaned” me out!

Food was tasty this time again, and I’m glad I rediscovered the place. Started with “mingling yams,” a sweet yam dip with flat bread and tortilla chips. Then, the hubby had the Foundation veggie burger (good, but filling he says) and I had the satay salad – greens, tofu, quinoa, and blanched broccoli all slathered with a warm peanut sauce. Yum. Service was friendly, though a little slow.

Prices – cheap. Good food, good prices. You don’t need meat for every meal – give this place a try.

Oh, but watch out at night. It gets busy, and line-ups are the norm. I wouldn’t line up, but if you catch them during a slow time give it try.

*Note: this is a review from a non-vegetarian, so it biases me a little.

Dropped by Wild Rice last week for a pre-theatre dinner with friends. I find the food at wild rice good, competent, and tasty. That said, some dishes are hits, and other dishes are often misses (mussel potstickers – not good. Thankfully, they are off the menu).

Dinner tonight was good. Between the four of us, we shared several plates.

Shrimp wonton soup. Nice broth, but a little bland. The wontons had nice shrimp, but also seemed bland.

The daily potstickers were halibut & fennel. Nice texture with the halibut. I thought they tasted fine, but everyone else loved them.

Pan friend chili squid with crab noodles. Tender and flavourful squid on a bed of nicely done noodles. Not much crab, but great dish.

Wild mushroom sweep, aka chow mein. Great mushrooms and nice flavour, but a very “wet” noodle dish. I would have preferred less sauce and a drier style chow mein.

Lamb Shank crispy wontons. Awesome. Crispy outside, tender, rich lamb inside. The best dish of the night.

Braised lamb shank noodle. Probably the least fave of the night. Strong lamb flavour, but the actual lamb was nowhere to be found. Way more noodle than lamb or broth.

Cashew long beans. Tasty, but I found the cashew flavour too strong, and again – too saucy. Less sauce, more searing and flavour please!

No time for dessert this time. It’s off the menu now, but I once had their mixed sorbets with this red bean spring roll and it was amazing. I hope they bring it back.

With a bottle of wine, everything came to about $130 for the four of us. Good price for the quantity of food.

I believe Wild Rice also has a 2 for 1 in the Entertainment book, which makes it an even better deal.

Overall, I like Wild Rice for a nice Asian bite to eat when I’m in the area. Good food, good service, good room. It’s all good.