The Tipper

Returned to the Tipper with a friend today. I'm not sure if they just opened or not because they didn't seem "ready". On the one hand they had dirty tables they had to clear, on the other hand, they weren't ready to serve (i.e. one of the servers was busy cleaning up the bar).

Anyway, we were seated after a minute or so. Our server never came to ask if we wanted anything to drink. After what felt like forever, our server finally came over and noticed we were missing the extra breakfast menu.

I ordered the Samble Benny because I didn't know what a samble was. It's basically scrambled eggs with salsa-like veggies. Served on focacia and drizzled with hollandaise. The dish tasted fine; nothing special. If I return, I will most likely order a normal benny.

My friend ordered the cheddar mushroom omelet. It was nice and cheesy. The omelet was a nice surprise because of the lack of oil. Oftentimes, restaurants screw up a normal omelet by deep frying it in oil. This was perfectly fried. I also get turned off by the vegetable sweat if chefs don't pre-fry the vegetables. There were no such sweat in this omelet. Overall, a well cooked omelet.

Of course, the potatoes were great as usual.

One thing to note this time: There were coffee spoons at every table! I finally have something to stir my coffee with. I wonder if the owner / manager read our blog and decided it was a good idea, because it certainly made my coffee experience much better.

Bun Cha Ca Hoang Yen (皇燕)

The first place we saw when we turned the corner, so we visited Hoang Yen.

Typical Vietnamese setup; though I like the special touch of individually packaged chopsticks. You never know who's dirty hand has grazed the chopsticks if it's not, right?

As usual, a dish of bean sprouts and fresh herbs were delivered right after we ordered. As usual, I don't touch it: had a bad experience at Pho Hoang (Main & 18th) where a server took a dish from another table and served it to a new table.

I ordered the #7 House Special, and added a side of a salad roll.

The noodle soup itself is okay. The broth is not as flavourful as Pho Tan, but it has decent flavour. The meat wasn't raw enough when served, but not overcooked either. A little heavy on the tripe and not enough brisket, but filling none the less.

I expected the salad roll to come before the soup, or at least with the soup. It came a while after the soup, but at least I know it's freshly made. The rice paper was nice a moist. The only thing I wished for was more meat spread out, instead of a clump of pork and 1 shrimp. The peanut sauce was also lacking. I've made more flavourful peanut sauces than this. It was like watered down peanut butter. A little Sriracha can make a big difference.

B ordered the #16 Hot & Sour soup. It was not "hot" and he had to add more spice. The seafood was well cooked mostly (except for the squid) and actually pretty good after the addition of a spoonful of chili. There's lots of seafood in this bowl.

Service was friendly. Place was clean. There was a TV playing, but it was at a comfortable volume where it provided some sound but was not blasting. Decent prices.

We may come back after we try out all the other Vietnamese restaurants in the area.

Cuchillo

Dropped by at Cuchillo after going to Belgrad Kitchen and finding out we have to wait 1 hour because other people called ahead to be placed on the wait list even though they don't take reservations. How does that work?

Anyway, we sat down at Cuchillo twenty minutes later and got a call from Belgrad. No thanks. You can't run a establishment well enough, your food won't taste as good to me.

Anyway, we all started with some Taquerias. B and I ordered the Pulled Duck y Crackling. It was really well flavoured; a good balance of salty and sweet. The crackling was a nice touch.

My friends ordered the Baja Styled Battered Rockfish and the Mole Lamb Albondigas. According to my friends they were both good.

As our main course, we had the Char Grilled Flat Iron Steak. The steak was cooked perfectly; it was so tender. The chorizo buttermilk Kennebec mash and the lettuce really helped balance the flavours.

My friends both ordered the pork belly confit. It was sooooo flavourful. The fat was so thick and soft, your fork just goes right through it.

A great experience. A little pricier that other places, like La Mezcaleria, but still a good place to go. Will recommend and return.

New Spicy Chili Restaurant

Came for my aunt's birthday. Similar dishes to Kalvin's.

My uncle ordered everything so I don't know what they are. Somewhere in there is a smoked duck neck, spicy fish hot pot, and chicken.

The food was only mildly spicy, not overpowering. Mostly well seasoned. A little on the oily side, but in general a good experience - probably due to the company. My favourite would be the smoked duck while B liked the fish hot pot. Wish they made the chili chicken with whole chicken pieces instead of bone (ligament?).

Decent enough experience, but would go to Kalvin's over this any day - there was just no "wow" factor. Our service was good because apparently my uncle knew the servers. The table next to us had a greasy table and the chopsticks had greasy fingerprints all over them. Probably won't recommend nor return.

Adelitas

Checked out Adelitas tonight for dinner.

We were greeted promptly as the place was empty. I wouldn't say the place was filthy, but it wasn't clean either. As soon as we sat down, the server asked us if we wanted anything to drink. There was no drink menu to order from and the server didn't seem to know what they had either and had to keep running to the fridge to check.

Then she asked us if we wanted any appetizers while we check out the menu. I don't know how I feel about that as I didn't even have a chance to read the menu. Luckily there were only three appetizers. We ordered the guacamole.

The guacamole was okay. Good portion. Good balance of flavour - of lime and cilantro.

They had three (home made?) salsas. The spiciest one had a weird taste to it, and not as spicy as the medium one, which tastes a little strange too. The best one was the "non-spicy" one, which tasted like like and cilantro. The containers could be better, they were hard to pour.

We ordered three soft tacos each. I had the tongue, which was cooked well. It was tender and not chewy at all. Good mouth feel. Heavy on the cilantro side.

B had the carnitas (shredded pork). They actually taste the same. A little on the oily side. But flavoured well. The portions were good, as they double up on the taco shells, which end up giving you six instead of three tacos each.

We probably would come back for some cheap tacos. The service and the blasting tv kind of dampened the mood. Don't get me wrong, the server was nice, but just wasn't professional enough. If I wanted quality food and ambiance, however, I would probably return to La Mezcaleria on Commercial.

Amay's House

Went to Amay's House because we've never had Burmese food before.

The place was clean, one of the cleaner washrooms I've been to.

We ordered the Burmese style samosas, spicy button mushroom curry, lamb satay, and roti.

The samosas were good. I like that the vegetables inside aren't mushy like Indian samosas. You can see and taste the texture of each vegetable, chopped into perfect squares. It came with a great tart sauce. Very well balanced dish.

The button mushroom curry wasn't spicy. At all. It LOOKS like it should be, but it's not. It tasted like salty broth to me and tomato soup to B. It left something lacking, which is why we ordered two more dishes.

The lamb satay was decent. At first I thought the meat was over seasoned, but then dipping it into the sweet and creamy peanut sauce really helped balance the taste. The meat was cooked well and tender.

The roti was good by itself. It came with some kind of chicken dipping sauce. The sauce tasted like the oil run off from when you bake chicken, and the chicken itself tasted like chicken from a can of chicken or chicken soup.

Overall, it was a pleasurable experience. After a 15% tip, the bill was still under $30 and we were both extremely full. Good value, just needs flavour. And  although the service is a little on the slow side, they were friendly enough not to sour the experience. We may return, but we still have a lot of places to try first.