Sunday, September 29, 2013

Steak frite St-Paul

After spending around 3 hours at the hospital for a 30 minute appointment, Isa and I were starving. Like, STARVING. Then Isa turns to me all dramatically and shiz and says 'I WANT  a steak'. Don't mess with a girl that wants her steak! Turns out, I felt like a steak as well :)

We decided to go to Steak frites St-Paul in the Village because a: it was bring your own wine, b: it was affordable steak and c: it was close to my friend's where I had left my bike that I wanted to pick up. This place is in a prime spot, right on Ste-Catherine in the middle of the Village.
No testament to the hugeness of the place!
This place is HUGE, with I'd say, roughly, at least 150 seats. At LEAST. And we were pretty much the first ones there, at 5PM (What? We hadn't eaten lunch and waiting forever makes a girl hungry!) so we got to choose our spot, which is always great. As per usual, Isa took the banquette. She loves them banquettes :) 

We got water as soon as we sat down and we knew what were going to have! STEEEEEAAAKKK (in case you hadn't clued in). We also got some nice [hot] bread which is always appreciated. 

Alright, so the steak came with salad as an appetizer. Meh. The salad consisted of big ass boston leaves, many onions (even for me) and this creamy vinaigrette. I did NOT waste my time on this. One should not have to cut their lettuce. Sheesh people!


It is now time to talk about long-awaited steak. Well, first off, the beans were obviously frozen and then thawed so that did not appeal to me that much. Isa ate them because she is a strong believer in always having veggies on your plate, which is a good thing, obviously! The fries were all-you-can-eat so this girl would pass by and ask you if you wanted more fries. I am proud to say I only refilled once. They were crunchy and tasty. The steak was moist (oh how I hate the way that word sounds but hey... you gotta use it sometimes!) and cooked to our liking. The waiter suggested he bring us 3 smaller sized sauces (instead of one big one) so we could try them all. Hells yes. My fave was the dijon one. It went really well with the fries. But again, they were obviously frozen a couple hours before.

What's fun is that for the desert, you have the option to have it tapas style, i.e cheaper and smaller. Of course Isa liked the fact that she could have more than one desert! She had the crème brûlée and the profiterol. They were OK but not great. The crust on the crème brûlée lacked...crustiness (ew :p) and the profiterol was just alright.




The service throughout the meal was OK. Should have been splendid since there were just a couple other groups by the time we left.

And now, the scores!

Service: 7,5
Food: 7,5

If you want a good not-very-expensive steak, dso it, go to Steak Frites St-Paul!



Steak Frites St Paul on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Chez Frida

Things you notice when you enter Chez Frida: first, a broken fridge with plastic wrap instead of a door AND second, instead of two little mexican women welcoming you, it's two asian women! Weird? Maybe a tad! But hey, if I can cook asian, they can cook mexican! Anyhoot, this place is tiny, with about 12 usable seats (apparently, according to the article on the wall, it can seat up to 30!). Fun fact: while you wait [a good 30 minutes] for your order, they give you some corn chips and salsa verde!
On the right, broken fridge
We ordered enchiladas de mole and chicken quesadillas. It was actually (and don't laugh at me!) my first time eating mole. I said DON'T laugh! :) You know what? Chocolate and onions: good! Chocolate and coriander: goo-hood! Would have loved it if it would have been spicier like it was
mentioned on the menu. Rice and salad came with both plates: the rice was surprisingly tasty and
mixed with salsa verde, it was even tastier. The salad, although very simple, had coriander in it which made it way better (note: I loves me some coriander). The bread in both the enchiladas and quesadillas was dry and the chicken in the quesadillas was dry as well. Come to think of it, the quesadillas did not taste like much: you had to dip them in either the sour cream or the salsa verde to get anything out of them.

And now, the score:

Food: 6 :( I was really hoping to give a better score here but the bread was dry, the quesadillas did not taste much and the mole could have been spicier.

An OK mexican eatery: it's cheap and will only set you back about 13$ including taxes and tip!

Chez Frida on Urbanspoon

Moe's diner

Isa and I wanted to find a breakfast spot to eat at before going to an early movie at the Forum. Well, Moe's was an easy (and cheap) choice! This place is located about 3 steps away from the cinema and 10 steps away from Concordia (oh and 20 steps away from McGill).... I MAY be exaggerating :)

I'd safe to say this place is more like a good dive. At first glance, it seems run down and dirty. Hopefully, it's not all that dirty.  This restaurant is in a basement, with many hockey related posters on the wall, broken jukeboxes and around 30 seats. But the important part is that it's opened 24/7, since, like, forever.

The waitress came to give us some water and the menus in between chats with regulars sitting at the bar area. We both had the same thing, except I, as per usual, had to make my breakfast bigger. So I added sausages and an egg :p

I don't order milkshakes often but I can tell you this one was good! It was thick chocolaty goodness. It was ice cream in a glass!!! Isa thought it was fine but that the ice cream stayed at the bottom and there was nothing left but foam and bubbles on top.

I had 2 eggs, bacon, sausages and potatoes. No fuss, no veggies, no fruits. The sausages were regular breakfast sausages: they were very nice and moist (mooooiiiissst, I HATE that word). The eggs could have been seasoned but other than that, they were fine. The bacon was tasty and crispy, just the way one should like their bacon. The potatoes were a tad too mushy for me. It was nothing special but it was good.

Service was very fast. The food came fast, the milshakes came fast. It was appreciated. It even came TOO fast because Isa was out trying to find an ATM while the food arrived: they only take cash. And yes, we then stupidly made the obvious discovery that there was a machine right behind us.

And now, the scores!

Food: 6,5
Service: 7 Efficient but a smile would have been nice!

Great place to go to for a cheap breakfast or a late late night after-you're-done-studying eat!



Moe's Diner on Urbanspoon

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pub Sir Joseph

My friend Cat gave me an idea: the flash review. It'll be short and sweet! The reason is that I had just eaten dinner so I basically had only one bite of everything.

This place is a new little gem right at the corner of St-Laurent and, you guessed it, St-Joseph! It has a nice ambiance with people laughing and talking about (AND #1 Crush from Garbage playing!)! We were a little group celebrating my friend T's birthday and since he lives close, we decided to go there! What a great choice! On top of having great service by knowledgeable and always smiling staff, they serve good wine and good food! Actually, it's chef Martin Juneau from La Montée de lait that leads the kitchen!

1. Bhajis d'oignons avec mayonnaise au cari.
-Mayo good and quite intense
-Nice and crunchy
-Cute presentation
-Onion could have been cut smaller: long pieces in my mouth!

2. Huitres de Lucille's.
-Salty and briny. No surprise there!
-Getting used to those slowly but surely :p

3. Saumon fumé.
-Full of flavour
-Turnips still crispy and well marinated

4. Plateau de charcuterie
-Reminds me of the great charcuterie of Corsica
-Fresh and delicious
-Mousse de foie soft, onctious and freaking delicious
-Came with soft bread and some pickled veggies that I didn't care
 for that much

 

5. Grosses frites et mayo
-Mayo nice and silky
-Fries well seasoned but could have been a tad crispier
-2nd sauce nicely chunky and tomato-y

On top of all this, Cat and I shared a bottle of white wine that was de-licious! Not too strong, not too weak... just right :p Oh...AND the prices are just right, most plates coming in at under 10$ :) Me likes!

Service: 9 (note that in the end, the waitress had to separate a shiz load of bills and kept her smile!)
Food: 7,5

BAM! Flash review!


Pub Sir Joseph on Urbanspoon

A little somethin...

I feel like I have to reiterate, because of recent comments, that I don't think I'm an expert on any type of food. I love eating it and that's what this blog is about. If you see that I don't 'get' your food, kindly tell me about, I'll be happy to learn more!

Mmmmthank you

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

GaNaDaRa

The first letters of the Korean alphabet! That's kinda cool :) Anyhoot, I'd been meaning to go there for at least one year. Yes, one year!!! So, I invited Lea and we went there today!

I loves me good Korean food! Love, love , love! And so I was looking forward to this experience! We got there early because I knew it was going to get full, and fast. It's a tiny place of around 40 seats and cute little drawings on the walls. It's rather popular so 5PM was a good time! It actually got full by around 5h30PM.

As soon as we got in, we sat and got a pitcher of water right away. There was a tv playing Korean music videos in the corner [that were actually quite entertaining!]. 

kimchi
Bibimbap!
The menu showed no prices... but I knew it would be cheap, according to people that I know that have been there and also according to my trusty urbanspoon! I had to have the Bibimbap, if not just to compare it to the one I had while I was in Koreatown in Toronto. It came with a little bowl of Kimchi and another one of, it seemed, the opposite of Kimchi, basic cabbage with veggies. The kimchi, I thought, was great. Just the right amount of spices and fermentedness (what? it's a new word!) and well, I didn't like the other thang much... just seemed so meh and blah compared to the kimchi. My bibimbap was great. Mmmm! Just mix the egg in there, oh ya, dso it! I found that it lacked a bit of salty flavour but by adding some hot sauce, the flavours came right back! The whole thing was boiling hot because of the, well, extremely hot bowl! You could actually hear it sizzling. The mushrooms were a tad chewy, which I always find annoying... but the rest was great and tasty! The trick is to mix everything together and you get a good result!
Bokkeumbap


Lea had the Bokkeumbap: rice with kimchi and pork. Actually it was more like slices of pork fat. Kinda weird and squishy. The flavours were ok and just spicy enough but the cabbage was too vinegary. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't the best.





Service was fast and efficient, like in most asian restaurants. We got a table quickly, got water quickly and got our food really fast as well. On the other hand, she didn't come and check how we were doing or how we were enjoying our meal.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7,5 (damn vinegar! damn mushrooms!)
Service: 7 efficient but not customer oriented, if y'all know what I mean

A great place all in all to try Korean food. If you like Bibimbap, by all means, try this place!


GaNaDaRa on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Barroso

When you live in Lachine and you plan on eating...IN Lachine, you have few options. OK, few good options. My sister was in town and she's a freak of walking so we decided to walk to around the 32nd avenue and check out 'the resto scene'. Well there were a couple Italian restos and this Portugese one. And since I'm in forever search of the food I ate when I was in Portugal last year, I said OH YES to this resto. (ps: there are 3 Barrosos in the 514)

It was a nice day and they have a cute little [but quite narrow] terrasse so we obviously chose that option! On top of it you get a partial view (yes, partial because there's a building hiding half of it) of the water. There was some portugese music playing in the background.

Sardines
Chicken
Shrimp
We had to wait quite a while to order because there was only one waiter and there were other clients on the terrasse. Anyhoot, we all had the table d'hôte: started off with a very plain salad with three olives and too many onions (and for me to say that...). I had the sardines because that's one of the many things I loved to eat in Portugal (it's actually there that I started liking the little ones). There were four huge sardines, almost exceeding the surface of my plate. They were very tasty and with just a tad of lemon, were perfect. The only thing was that, well, I didn't remember that sardines had that many bones. I'm serious, I think I swallowed a pound of bones while eating lunch. I COULD have died. Could have. The rice was minute maid. Minute maid man! Geez. The chips were homemade, crispy and a tad tasteless; lots of ketchup went on those babies! My mom had the shrimp and they were DE-licious. Well seasoned and well cooked. I despise overcooked shrimp (and usually, the people that cook them... just... kidding). She thought they were spicy but they were just perfect, really!My sister had the chicken breast that was too dry, but the bread that came with it was fluffy, at least!

The service was as good as the rice (ok, that's just being mean!). It took the waiter a good 10 to 15 minutes to come back to our table and take our orders and our water glasses were empty half the time. Oh, and my mom had ordered the place and not the table d'hôte but she got the latter...

And now, the scores!

Food: 6,5
Service: a generous 6

If you miss Portugal, don't go there but if you want to eat a simple dish that resembles it a tad, this is the place.


Le Grill Barroso on Urbanspoon

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Burger Week!!!

I got an email from a promo girl telling me Burger Week was coming up. Burger week avec fromage to be exact! Yay! I started planning immediately! Me? Burgers? Pretty much a match made in heaven. On top of it, most were priced at a generous 10$ (with fries). Some were 15$ and I think one or two were at 6,99$ but I stuck to the 10$. I planned  to go to four places with Lea. Of course, we were to SHARE the burgers, I mean, come on, we're not pigs :)


First was Tazah. I missed this place during Poutine week so I wasn't going to miss it during Burger week! We were extremely hungry when we got there but after ordering the burger, it took at least 20 minutes to get to our table. AND we were the only customers. 

Anyhoot, the burger itself was made of lamb and oh-so-juicy. The flavours were just right. There was parsley and cinnamon in there which made it even better! The onions added a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole thang. The bun was somewhat of a pita and one half was folded over with cheese in there. Actually, it seemed to be Kraft Singles cheese. Weird and nart you'll say but it actually worked! The whole thing was kind of hard to eat though with it falling apart even more each bite we had. And even the whole thing was pretty moist and lovely, at least a quarter of the bread remained dry.

The service was OK. As soon as we said we were sharing a burger, the guy kind of gave us some attitude. It was not as bad though as we got water quickly and the waitress came to see us later on and she was really nice.

The scores!
Burger: 8
Service: 6,5
Tazah on Urbanspoon


The second place we chose was Lola Rosa. Again, a resto I missed during poutine week. First off, I've been to the Lola Rosa in the McGill ghetto and this place is much bigger and cuter. And it has this huge terrasse! Also, fun fact, your table has drawers. Look in them and you'll find notes from previous clients! So much fun :)


Alright so since Lola Rosa is a veggie place, of course the burger had to be. Apart from the portobello one,  I'm always somewhat reticent to eat a veggie burger. But this one turned out to be wonderful! The mix of flavors was great, with the lentils in there, the BBQ sauce making it taste meaty, the pickle adding a crunch, the tomato adding freshness and the soft guacamole. Yum, yum, YUM! The cheddar added just a touch of saltiness and the tofu... well... didn't taste like tofu :p I'm not that big of a tofu fan. And I need to mention the sweet potato fries. They were DE-licious with somewhat of a lemony mayo.


Service was great. Everyone was welcoming, smily and nice. We got water quickly and the waitress came to ask us how our meal was. That's all I ask :p

The scores!
Burger: 8,5
Service: 9,5

Our third and final spot (no, sadly we did not make it to Les Enfants Terribles because of the lack of room in our stomach) was Art:BRGR. I always pass by this place and had been meaning to try it so this was my chance! This place was FULL and we were lucky to get a table! It was quite happenin', especially for a Wednesday night! 

We waited for what seemed like an eternity for our burger. But we finally got... a HUGE burger. We didn't even know how cutting it in half would keep it all together. It was messy. The meatball was stuffed with penne mac n' cheese was a tad too much for a third burger. Although the meat was nicely cooked to my liking, the excess of pasta in there was 'trop cochon', even for me. There was a fried chip at the bottom which wasn't crispy anymore because of the moistness of it all and there was a tad too much cheese. It seemed very American. 

The service was meh. The little girl that brought us water and everything was very chipper but our waitress seemed annoyed and had quite the attitude. Right before leaving, we had what seemed like the manager talking to the girls behind us and being all nice and friendly because he knew they had a blog. AH, I should've said something :p But I rather not say anything, because I get the true experience, you know?

The scores!
Burger: 7
Service: 6.5
ART:brgr on Urbanspoon


Thursday, September 12, 2013

Maison Indian Curry

Isa and I wanted to try a new indian resto after getting our eyebrows did on Jean-Talon. We always go to Bombay Mahal so it was time. Oh, it was time. So we decided on Maison Indian Curry, just a tad east of Bombay Mahal.

It's quite a big restaurant but it was pretty much already full at 7PM and got even more full after that with a big line up even going passed the front doors. They have huge tables and they don't even bother separating them so you end up eating beside other people which, I guess is an experience on its own. The place feels a tad retro with a multicoloured waterfall thang on the wall. Man, I should have smoked a good one before! Ha...haha...just kidding.

So, we were dying to compare this place to Bombay Mahal. Therefore, we ordered what we would normally order at the other resto: 1 vegetarian thali and one non-veg thali please! But since we were starving, we also ordered two samosas to start off with. Yum! They were soft, spicy and had two sauces to go along. One was prune-y and one was minty. they were excellent. AND huge!
Samosas!
The veg thali had cheese cubes in butter sauce. It was excellent and tender. Seriously and surprisingly, I think it was my fave out of the two plates. The veggies were spicy but not TOO spicy for Isa :p The nan breads were really good and soft. On the non-veg side, the chicken tandoori was really moist and tasty with just the right amount of spices. The butter chicken was, I thought, more tender than the one at Bombay Mahal but according to Isa, the sauce didn't taste like butter as much and wasn't thick enough. Then, on both thalis, there was this tapioca thang. I think we missed the point of that and pretty much left it all in the plate.

As for the service, well, they were really, REALLY busy... all running around! Good thing was that they gave us a pitcher of water from the get go so at least we did not have to bug them for that! Apart from that, they didn't really come and check if we liked our meal and were too busy running around.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5 (I think with all the elements, it's equal to Bombay Mahal)
Service: 6.5

A nice cheap dinner (cost me, with taxes and tip, about 13$), but don't bring a date there! The guy beside us had brought his and it was so loud, they had to repeat every sentence!
Maison Indian Curry on Urbanspoon