The Tipper

Now that we're in the neighborhood, we decided to try out the brunch places around here. Urbanspoon had high ratings for The Tipper, so we decided to make the visit - turns out we'd been here before. We don't remember much about it aside from the good potatoes - and they're still good!

First off, the service is friendly enough, and the place is charming. We sat ourselves and were greeted within 3 minutes. After we ordered, we were promptly brought a variety of hot sauces for our meal. That was a nice touch.

The only down side to the service, wasn't exactly the servers themselves but the lack of coffee spoons for coffee. What am I supposed to stir my coffee with? My finger? Also, our cutlery kept slipping into the plate - there are some cutlery that have lips at the end of the handle so it doesn't do that, or maybe a different type of plate. But it was annoying to have to keep wiping hollandaise sauce off our knife handle.

We both ordered benedicts. I had the TAB (tomato, avocado salsa, and bacon) Benny. The eggs were cooked to a perfect medium, nice and runny. I like the addition of the avocado salsa, which cut through the creaminess of the hollandaise sauce with a bit of tartness. The bacon was nice and crispy despite being smothered in sauce. You will notice in the picture that they're not served on English muffins but on bread, which is nice because it gives you more starch to work with and soak up the sauce.

B had the pull pork Benny, recommended by the server who had it for breakfast. I think it's a great sign for a restaurant when the employees are also willing to eat there - I certainly never did at the restaurants I used to work at - except Crave (I miss your omelets, Wayne).

The pulled pork Benny was well done. The sauce was smoky, sweet and tangy, but not too sweet. Some places, like Joe's, often have overwhelmingly sweet sauces for their pulled pork bennies, but this was perfectly balanced. The pork was nice and tender. It was a good recommendation.

Urbanspoon users were right, this is a great spot for breakfast. We will definitely recommend and return.

Now, we just need to try out the place on a Friday night and see what the bar atmosphere is like.

Kawa Sushi

Decided to drop by for dinner since we were in the area.

We had the assorted sashimi, gyoza, unaten roll, and love roll.

The sashimi was good value for the price. We had approximately 16 pieces decent sized sashimi slices for $12.95. Though the slices weren't as big and fresh as Bella, they were decent enough.

The gyozas tasted fine, but they weren't crispy on all sides.

The love roll sounded great on paper, but the flavour of the smoked salmon overpowered everything else. We couldn't taste the crab or the salmon sashimi at all.

Lastly the unaten roll was pretty good. I'm a sucker for avocado, so anything with lots of avocado is good for me. I think the unagi could've been barbecued or marinated a little longer, but I was able to taste it among the avocado.

The server was attentive and the chef was friendly. All in all, good value for our money and we will definitely return. We will have to try different restaurants in the area to determine whether we'd recommend it.

Ask For Luigi

We went to Ask For Luigi because it was in the dine out list but we never ended up going.

We'd called earlier for a table at 6pm, but were told reservations were full and if we arrived at 6pm, we'd probably just need to wait 15-30 minutes. We arrived when they opened at 5:30pm, and pretty much got seated right away. Not really anyone waiting at all the entire time we were there and wasn't actually full.

The restaurant was HOT! Apparently, new windows are getting installed next week (week of July 20, 2014), so visit after then.

We had the marrow escargot as appetizer. They were okay, didn't really have as much flavour or as good of a mouth feel as the ones from The Keg - which is odd since it was cooked on marrow.

Then we had the pappardelle duck ragu as main course. The pasta was perfectly cooked to an al dente, the sauce was a balanced tartness, and the duck was well distributed. All in all a good dish, and big enough to share.

Unfortunately, one of our friends found a strand of hair in her dish - though I suspect it could be hers since everyone in the kitchen had their hair tied up and you can see their kitchen is very clean. Nonetheless, the host (owner?) took the dish off the bill - which was very nice of him since my friend had pretty much finished her plate by then.

We didn't stay for dessert because it was just too hot.

All in all, it was a pleasant experience - the service was professional and quick and the food was well prepared. I'm not sure if I will return as the dishes were a little overpriced for what it is - i.e. Compared to Quattro, and there's not a lot of choices for your main dish aside from pasta. We also didn't like the location. There's nothing there! And the streets smelled of urine the whole time we were walking towards the building. Would probably recommend other italian restaurants before Luigi, and would probably visit something else if I were in the area. Take from that what you will.

Twisted Fork Bistro

Finally had a chance to try out Twisted Fork for brunch - we had heard good things but never had a chance to try it without having to wait in line. Today was the day. We arrived just in time to snag one of three remaining tables.

We ordered the banana stuffed brioche French Toast. It was a little disappointing. The crust was so burnt it was rock hard. The bananas weren't evenly spread, so not every bite had bananas in it. It just didn't stand out. We prefer the banana French toast from Jethros over this any day, however long the line.

We also had the Eggs Benny with avocado filler. It came with sautéed spinache, rosti, and baked beans. The baked beans were okay - for the first two bites, then it tasted overly sweet and nauseating. Maybe the portion size of the beans and the rosti could've been switched. The rosti was crispy, but could've had more seasoning. What could also have had more seasoning were the spinach and the hollandaise sauce. The spinach was overcooked and dry, and there were no taste to the sauce at all.

The Benny at Quatro was the same price, but served with delicious potatoes. I felt like it was cheap when I ordered it. Here, I felt like I was being robbed - it's a wonder what the quality of food can do to legitimize the price.

To add insult to injury, there were fruit flies everywhere. This corner of a piece of artwork behind has almost 20 flies - and it's just one-sixth of the panel. A little disgusting.

Overhyped, overpriced, underwhelmed. Will not return nor recommend.

Trafalgars Bistro

When we came to Trafalgars Bistro for the first time, we promised not to return unless it was a special occasion - since then I've been suggesting it for every special occasion but always got banned. Finally, it was my special day so I chose to return.

Some may say the service is a bit snotty, but my rule is to never let bad service deter me from delicious food.

As an appetizer, I shared the pistachio pate with a friend, which was part of their regular menu. Unfortunately, I was too hungry and the pate was too delicious so I forgot to take a picture. It tasted very strongly of liver, but despite its green colour, had very little pistachio taste.

As my entree, I had a quail dish from their rotating seasonal menu. I wasn't really paying attention to the menu and forgot what it was stuffed with, but it was really good. Bonus, it was deboned.

As dessert, my friends and I shared two desserts: Peanut butter & chocolate mousse (regular menu) and chocolate and raspberry tart (special of the day).

The peanut butter & chocolate mousse was really rich - luckily it was served with some whipped cream to make it less rich.

The tart was definitely the winner. From the moment we heard it being described, to the taste explosion in our mouth. The richness of the chocolate mousse mixing with the tartness of the raspberries were very perfectly balanced. We finished the very last crumb of both desserts.

Here's hoping there's another special occasion coming up so I can return. Recommend for week nights when it's not too busy.

Kalvin's Szechuen Restaurant

We went to Kalvin's for my birthday.

I always like going with a bunch of people because that means we can order more food and try a variety of dishes - granted, we always order the same dishes.

We always order the 鹽酥雞 (salted crispy chicken) for the kids as it's not spicy. It's just as the name says - crispy and salty, yet tender and juicy. One of my favourites.

Of course, we couldn't do without some internal organs: 五更腸旺 (pork blood and intestines). This dish is served on a candle-lit plate that kind of resembles a tea warmer. You get the choice of mild, medium, or very spicy and it contains pork lung (red bits) and intestines (white bits).

I have no idea why, but we decided to order the spicy version of the 竹筍炒肉絲 (bamboo and pork stir fry). This was so spicy my mouth was on fire - but I couldn't stop eating it. Even my other half, who enjoys his spice, thought it was spicy - though it didn't bother him.

The 熏鴨脖 (smoked duck necks) aren't on the menu. It's something the owner makes for his staff with leftover necks from the 熏鴨 (smoked duck). As you know, it's not always something that looks appetizing on a dish for regular customers. Once you become friends with Kalvin, you'll find out there's lots of things he makes that aren't on the menu, but are amazingly delicious.

This is a special Taiwanese dish (the owner's from Taiwan): 豆酥魚 (steamed cod fish with fried soybean crisp) The fish was so soft, it was like eating butter. And the soybeans, they had to be minced and then fried and dried in a wok - there's no other way to make it dry and crispy like this. Kalvin was very proud of this dish and how the soybeans turned out.

One last dish as we were getting a bit rowdy, was another internal organ dish. The 豬大腸 (pork intestine) was marinated in some soy, I think, and fried to a perfection. It was not too rich and I even made room for it instead of the two cakes.

We return often and recommend reservations.

Tap and Barrel

Stopped by before a wedding next door.

We ordered the steak frites and ice cream sandwich. My friend ordered the chipotle chicken sandwich.

The steak frites were delicious. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare. It was well seasoned, and so tender and juicy. The side salad was a little bitter - should've used a different lettuce. Fries were solid. Our server even had our plate split for us.

The cookie sandwich was very good too. I liked the vanilla bean ice cream. Wish the cookie was a little softer, but overall solid.

My friend's chicken sandwich was very good according to her. It was well seasoned - a little spicy for her - and tender.

The rest of our table also enjoyed their tuna sandwiches and mussels. Apparently the Mac n' Cheese was very bland and dry. One of the diners ordered the pretzel hummus and said the Mac n' Cheese would be better if he poured the hummus over it.

Overall, we would return and recommend it - maybe not the Mac n' Cheese.

Brown Bridge Pub

Stopped here on out way home - figured we were safe with some pub food.

We ordered the chicken fajitas and a tea for me. The food was as expected - pub food: store bought shredded cheese, store bought tortillas, and probably frozen chicken and vegetables. It's hard to mess up fajitas.

The tea arrived with the food.

If you're in Princeton during meal time, it's safe to stop in. If you have time to stop somewhere else, do.

Watermark Wine & Tapas Bar

With the lack of choices around, we stopped at Watermark both nights for dinner.

We weren't that hungry the first night so we just ordered the Queso Fundido, which is just a dip made with a bunch of cheese and peppers, served with bread and tortilla chips.

This was delicious but very rich. The pepper added a nice kick to it, but you definitely have to share it to really enjoy it.

Tonight we had the house special rack of ribs. They were served with corn bread.

The BBQ sauce was likeable and they were decently prepared. The meat didn't fall off the bone, which was unfortunate, but the corn bread was extremely delicious.

Then we had the Prosciutto Wrapped Pacific Ling Cod. This was served with brown butter, sage and white bean purée and white wine and butter sautéed organic kale.

We thought that each element by itself was lacking - the prosciutto ling cod was too salty and the white bean purée was too bland. Turns out, all you have to do is to take a leaf of kale and wrap the cod and bean in it and then eat it in one bite. Once you do that, it was really well balanced. One thing we thought was unnecessary and could probably be replaced by portobello mushroom or something more flavourful.

As dessert we had the hazelnut chocolate torte. It was served warm, with raspberry sauce and fresh strawberries.

This was absolutely delicious. It had a pronounced hazelnut flavour and the fresh strawberries really help balance the richness of the cake.

Overall, we were impressed. Our server recognized us from our first night and was very professional. We would definitely recommend and obviously return.

The Sonora Room at Burrowing Owl Winery

We were biking around the golden mile wineries and happened to visit the Burrowing Owl Restaurant during lunch.

We had the pulled pork sandwich with a side of carrot soup.

The sandwich was very flavourful and tender. As I cut into the sandwich to split it in half, all the juices just came squirting out. It was also complimented with a subtle slaw.

The carrot soup was well seasoned and fresh. It was creamy and rich, with a nice touch of creme fraiche on the top.

Would recommend and would return.