Thursday, April 27, 2017

Miss Banh Mi

I loves me a good banh mi. I made a list of banh mi places in Montreal and Miss Banh Mi was next on ma list! Plus, it's on my way to and from work. What did you say? Yes, you're right, it's in the perfect location.
Miss Banh Mi is actually in quite a large space on St-Mathieu, downtown. It came as a surprise because I'm use to restos that serve banh mi to be tiny! Well, except for Vua, but that dson't count, iz a chain! Some techno music was playing? OK, that's not a question, that's a fact. You know when you say that music just dson't fit? This was a big example of that. I really dug the brick walls and the pictures printed in sepia. There were wooden tables and silver chairs, but not enough. I'm the first one to say it when there's no room to move around in a resto, but it equally sucks (for them) when there are not enough tables. You are LOSING money, people.
The Tom Yum soup, although very, wait for it, yum-my (ya, I'm THAT good), was a bit  too sour. Guys, I know it's a hot n' sour soup but this was hot n' sour n' sour. I think the culprit was the piece of lemongrass that was stewing in there. There was some chicken that was very tasty and oozing with flavor, some green onions that, hello, and lime that gave it a nice kick. It was just spicy enough.
Le banh mi. I've eaten banh mi before. Lots and lots of them. I'd like to say I've been to Vietnam to eat them but sadly, that wouldn't be true. I will do it in the future though, I swear to Heysus. I had the traditional banh mi: lots o' meat, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, coriander and some sauce. The whole thing was very fresh and the baguette was just A+ and not stale at all (which would be D-).  The veggies could have been marinated a little while longer to let more liquid seep in for some extra goodness. There wasn't nearly enough cucumber OR daikon. And I LOVES me some daikon in ma banh mi! The sauce was somewhat of a BBQ sauce, which was different than the usual mayo type sauce. A good different. The pâté was BANG on and the cold cuts also. Not too salty, just fatty enough to have lots-o-tastiness. Everything, as I've said, was very fresh.
 
Service was, well, counter service. At first, I didn't get much of a smile from the woman working there. But she did give me water quickly and le food was ready in a flash as well.
And now, the scores!
 
Food: 7.5
Service: 7.5

Well, I have a bunch of other banh mi restos to try. But I have a feeling I'll be back. Oh, imma be back, yo.

Miss Banh Mi Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Chez Victoire

One of my pals at work, Margo, knows someone that works at Chez Victoire, therefore knew about their super awesome Sunday night special: table d'hôte 4 services for 30$ instead of 45$. That's the kind of deal I like. Excuse me, LOVE.
I went with ma gurl Vino, whom, by the by, I don't see nearly enough. On top o that, she's such a fun dining partner! Chez Victoire is located on Mont-Royal near Pap (that's cool talk for 'Papineau'). It's quite a large restaurant, with booths on one side and tables on the other. It has uber high ceilings, like, 3 storeys high. I swear. The place has a nice classic look with moldings on the ceiling, wooden tables, and leather booths. While we were there, I think they played the whole Gorillaz CD, which was much appreciated.

We could choose one dish out of three for every service save for the dessert where it was carrot cake. Just dandy with me!
Cream of butternut squash, shishito, pumpkin seeds, crème fraîche au pimento. Yes, this description is bilingual, deal WIT it. First off, the bowl was hot, which is always a winner in my book. This was good. Like goo-hood. I believe what came out of Vino's mouth was 'mmmmm'. It was soft, sleek, buttery, and all that goodness! The croutons weren't too hard OR too soft and they were also oh so full-o-butta. Mmmmm. Butta. The crème fraîche was right ON and somewhat tasted of smoked salmon which was awesome paired with the cream! All the flavours, although all very distinct, went really well together. This was a WIN.
Veal tataki, grapefruit, fried clams, miso, coriander. The veal was excellent, with just a touch of miso on top, which gave it even more flavor (hello, umami). The fried clams were there for NOTHING. Literally, nada. I was actually a bit angry that they were in there. Why? Why ruin a perfect dish? On top of it, those little balls tasted like nothing. And they didn't fit. AND they were over fried. Basically, all bad things. The grapefruit gave a bit of acidity to the dish and it married well with the meat. The coriander was just, well, hello. All in all, a great dish, but f*cking clams had no reason being there.
Pleurotes with thyme, hazelnut, red onion petals, pain brioche. I loves me a good pleurote. Especially with thyme. Thyme and mushrooms, in ma head, is a match made in food heaven. They could have been warmer though. They were in temperature limbo: they had been somewhat heated up, but just not enough. They'd been sautéed, most likely with butta, so, you know, YUM! I would have liked the bread a bit crispier and more grilled (grillier?). The cute little onion petals could have been more present. Le cheese. I gots to say, usually, I ain't no fan of strong ish type-o-cheese. But this was niiice! It was in a mousse too. I'm a fan of mousses. Yep. That lovely mousse on a bite of bread and mushroom was just T--H--I--S awesome. You may have noticed the long 'this': well, it was THAT good. Sometimes, I conjure perfect bites. And there it was. It was a great mix match of tastes.
La meatball. That was one big meatball! It was big, it was moist (watch out, it's getting sexual), it was full of herbs (end of sexual talk).The crispy chicken skin on top was way too salty on its own but was bearable with other components of the dish. The sauce was a bit too simple for our VERY REFINED palates. Hehehe. But seriously, it just tasted like store-bought tomato sauce, which is not really what you look for when you eat at a restaurant. The polenta was a bit dry but added a certain je ne sais quoi to this. The harissa yogurt (or should I say harrisa-ed yogurt?), was excellent. Just a bit on the spicy side, which is a side that I like. Everything worked, but there were still a bit too many components here. It's like: 'what do we have in the fridge today?'.
Pasta! I rarely eat carbs. Actually, the only place I'll eat pasta or rice or bread is at a restaurant because I don't even have any at home. I actually gave away my toaster recently. Ya, that's how rarely I eat it. Cavatelli with ricotta, duck confit, lardons, sage, butternut squash and parmesan. I'm sure you guessed it but this was a major 'what do we have in our fridge today' kind of dish. Actually it was THE 'what do we have in our fridge today' dish. A blind person could have picked better ingredients. I don't know if this makes sense but I'm stickin' to it. The whole time we were eating it, we were looking at each other like 'waiiiiit, what the hell iiiis this?'. It wasn't totally bad but it wasn't the best thing either. To have some squash puree on top of your pasta is, like, WAY too much. Something else was way too much: having duck AND lardons in there. Again, why? The noodles were perfectly cooked but the whole dish was too salty and the sauce wasn't consistent enough. Needless to say, not our fave dish.
Risotto! I loves me a good risotto! The crab des neiges was, if there was any, broken up in very tiny pieces. I don't think I managed to actually taste it. Vino tasted it a bit, or so she thought. For all I know, there was no crab in there. The mushrooms tasted almost meaty, which is what I like when I eat a mushroom. They were oozing flavor. Getting a weird image here. The rice was a tad on the overcooked side for risotto but I like it that way. The cream on top was too much, I found. A bit less and it would've been perfect. The whole thing tasted of lemon, which was nice and refreshing and gave some lightness to an otherwise heavy dish (when is risotto NOT heavy). There was a bit of pesto which was actually very good mixed with the other flavors but there was too much cheese. Put cheese, yes. Don't put TOO much.
For dessert, it was supposed to be carrot cake, and then they brought us chocolate fondant and I was happier. I LOVE carrot cake, but I have a special place in my heart for fondant. I'm not even going to go into details but that sh*t was GOOD. OH. And there was ice cream on top (as it should be every time fondant is served) and tasted special. We wondered what it was for a good 8 minutes. The waiter came by and he told us it was bay leaf ice cream! What! I have neva eva EVA heard of that. It was very good, and just herbal enough. Awesome ice cream. YES!

Service was OK. I have to say that it was rather slow between courses and it took us a long while to get our first dish. You know when it takes so long that you start turning around to see where your food's at? Ya, that long. We were having soup (obviously ready) and tataki, most likely already cooked... SO. Water was on table and service was very professional. But it was slow. We just didn't understand because when we got there, the resto was almost empty.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 7

I enjoyed going there and getting four dishes for 30$. I will also enjoy other restaurants for the same price. Just sayin'. Not totes against going back but hey, as I've said before, so many restaurants, so little time.

Chez Victoire Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Pho Bac 97

When you're sick, you need a couple things: your mommy, Perrier, lemon and ginger tea and a good soup. This is why, when I was sick as a dsawg last week, I went for some pho. I asked my Asian persuasion friend, Jer, who, coincidentally, is in Vietnam right now, where I should head for some good pho. He mentioned that Pho Bang New York is a fave but HIS fave (in Chinatown) is Pho Bac 97.
Pho Bac 97 is located at the end of Chinatown on St-Laurent. OK, saying it's the end of Chinatown ain't sayin' much; it's so small that it's like pretty much when you get in, you're out again. The place itself is like a lot of Asian restos: lots of tables, a tad crammed, pots on tables with chop sticks/napkins/sauces, no music. Basically, get in and get OUT!
The fillers, as I like to call them. Or... the garnishes? Whatever. That! The essentials, basically. Thai basil, bean sprouts, chilis and lime.
I had the #7, or the beef pho. The broth was just awesome and so damn meaty and oniony. You KNOW how I feel about ma onions! The meat had had too much time to cook in there, damn it! It would have been even better with it being a tad less cooked. The noodles were cooked to perfection: not quite al dente and not soggy either. Oh, and I practiced my noodle slurping technique! I believe Jer would have been oh-so-proud. The coriander was oh-so-fresh, which made it oh-so-yummy. Putting the thai basil, the bean sprouts, the hint of lime in there was just the cherry on top. Oh and don't forget the hint/heat of sriracha. YA BABY! What better thang to help my sickness? NOTHING! I obviously added some sriracha in there to make it spicy and also to sweat out all the sick! And it worked btw.

Service was very quick. It's like, you turn around and BAM, there's tea. BAM, garnishes. BAAAAM, your meal is there. Very efficient. It would have been nice to have water tho. I only thought about it at the end of the meal. I think tea is like water to Asians. And yes, I'm very deep. Totes. Oh I must also mention that when I went to pay, the man at the counter told me they only accepted cash and I was like DANG! He told me I could either take out some money at their ATM with mucho dinero charges OR come back another day! Uh, what? 152 points for niceness right there! Actually, going back tomorrow to pay the nice man. And trust me when I say I'll be giving a GENEROUS tip!

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 7.5

Well, obviously I'm going back. To pay AND to eat some more amazing pho!

Pho Bac 97 Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Sweet Lee's

Last week, I was sick as a dsawg. You know why? Because I hang out with cute-ass kiddies that go to daycare. OK, those kids are my nephews. I just can't stop myself from sharing food, getting/giving kisses or anything else that includes germs. Every time I get serious sicknesses, I know who to blame. Coincidentally, I can always trace it back to a couple days prior, when I saw them last.  Oh, and did I mention I'm almost out of sick days at work because of those cuties? Yep.

After going to the clinic last week, I felt like eating something, but I didn't really know what to put in my mouth. NO, that was not sexual. You never know. So I thought maybe something sweet would make my stomach happy. I googled 'patisseries in Verdun' and the first thing that popped up was Sweet Lee's. Sounds sweet enough!
This cute little place is located pretty much right in front metro de l'Eglise, not far from my second home, le gym. You go in and they have a counter for dem pastries and one for coffee. It's St-Henri coffee so that's AWESOME.... apparently. I dislike coffee to the highest level of hate so I can't say nothin' bout that, but I KNOW peeps go cray for this coffee. What I was looking for were pastries.
The coconut meringue. Coconut? Yes. Meringue? YES! It was soft and flaky although I like my meringue EXTRA flaky! My grand-mother used to make the perfect chocolate chip meringue. Ah, the memories! I have a feeling the coconut made it a bit stale for some reason. Maybe not stale, but at least dry. I mean, it was nice, and y'all know how much I like coconut, but it wasn't my all time fave meringue.
The dark chocolate, maple, cranberry fondant. Imma say yes. Imma say a BIG yes. Imma... you get it. I absolutely LOVE fondants. Love em, love em, love em. Although the girl at the counter warmed it up, it still wasn't hot enough for my liking. But who CARES! OK, I did a little bit, but the flavours more than made up for it. The sweetness of the chocolate and the tartness of the cranberries were a marriage in pastry heaven. A perfect match, one might say. The crust was right on and the maple syrup, not overpowering. It was heavy as shiz but I didn't expect anything less from a fondant.

Service was good. Well, it was counter service. She DID come to my table to bring me my fondant. And for that, I will LOVE HER FOREVER.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 9

Before you ask, yes, I'll totes go back. Perhaps for a different fondant! Who knows!?

Sweet Lee's Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Chez Dallaire

This place was on ma list. Two weeks ago, I was supposed to hit up Chez Victoire and then plans fell through, bla bla bla, and it took me a good 40 minutes to figure out where to go instead. It had to be on my list, not too far, and, the clincher, open on Sunday. Chez Dallaire was the winner. I met Daiz there for dinner and drinks! Because, in life, what's better than dinner and drinks? The answer is NOT MUCH.
The place itself is located buttf*ck nowhere. That's where. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to curse like that. It's on Wellington where no one goes, like, ever. It's on a very sad strip of Wellington between the happy stores and restos in Verdun and the trains and all those container yards. Exciting, right? NO. Basically, a no man's land.
Music was quite loud when I got in and then they calmed down a bit on the base. It was heavy metal music at first but then they started putting classics from the old days (my high school days), which was great! Daiz and I shazamammed all those bad boys. It was nice to hear Matthew Good Band, which, excuse meee, I've seen twice in concert, and Fatboy Slim, which I'd hoped I'd seen twice in concert. It was a cozy space, separated in 3: when you got in there was the bar with a space for dancin', on the right, a space with some tables and on the right another room with some booths and more tables. The look was classic: brick walls, forest green chairs, wooden tables and light brown booths. Wooden floors, some candles and art on the walls completed the décor.
We arrived right before happy hour was done so hello 5$ glass of wine! I believe we ordered at 6h59. It was cutting it a bit close! We were to share the food because SHARING IS CARING... and things like that.
Los nachos: house pork sausage, red peppers, green onions, L'armateur cheese (which I can't find anywhere on the net... whhhheird) with sour cream and salsa. They weren't cheap on the salsa nor the sour cream, I'll tell ya that much! The peppers were grilled very nicely and full of flavour, and the green onions added a nice tang to the dish. Yes, a tang. TANG. Not a thang, a tang! You must get it by now. The sausage was juicy and spicy and I would've wanted more! Speaking of more, the nachos to toppings ratio wasn't awesome. Way too many nachos for the amount of toppings. Or more like not enough toppings for the amount of nachos.
The Dallaire poutine. This was interesting. Instead of fries, it was somewhat of a shredded potato patty which I found great! I believe the word I use was 'wow'. Yep, I went there. I enjoyed this 100% more than regular old fries. The duck was a bit dry (it seems to be a recurring thing recently) and the sauce was a bit too salty. I must say though that it tasted way better than the usual brown sauce. Ugh, brown sauce. The peas were nice and completed the 'hot chicken' look. The cheese
Service was wonderful at first: I got seated in 2 seconds and while I was waiting for Daiz to get her butt there, I got the two boys comin' over, asking me if I wanted anything, bringing me water, bringing me the menus... And then we were ready to order and suddenly, no one was there :/ I MAY be exaggerating... one of them came about 5 minutes later. Five minutes is long when you're starving! They didn't ask us if we liked our meal but the food came in a timely fashion.
And now, the scores!
Food: 6.5
Service: 7

Chez Dallaire Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Agrikol

Disclaimer: I obviously still don't know how to use the camera on my AMAZING phone
Agrikol is Régine Chassagne's baby. If you don't know who this is, I can't talk to you. Haha. Just kidding. But really not. She's only the singer/head girl of Arcade Fire, one of my all time fave bands. You can see why I HAD to try Agrikol. Well, also because I've been dying to eat Haitian food. So, on a Sunday a couple weeks back, i headed there with Dan (the owner of my fave Barcola Bistro) and Vino (one of my faves I hadn't seen in way too long).
This place is located on Amherst, in the village, in this cute little house with a pink neon sign on one of the windows. You get in and its two stories (although the second floor was closed because it wasn't a busy Sunday), with the first floor having about 26 seats I'd say. I didn't count (I usually do), so I may be wrong.
You literally feel like your somewhere else, which is always nice, especially since THIS place was full of snow. What I can only describe as 'island music' was playing and even I felt like dancing (yous that know me KNOW I dsont dance). The place felt very warm and inviting and the hot waitresses helped too :p
The menus were on the table when we got in so we quickly ordered drinks. I started with the Ti Ponch because hey, what sounds more Haitian than that? Lime, Barbancourt blanc and cane syrup. I think I was drunk after two sips, I kid you not. It went from 'Good day sire, I am writing a review for my blog' to 'Bood gay shire, ndasknkshdskhskand mog'. I MAY be exaggerating. But only a tad. Man that drink was strong! I likes me a strong drink but DANG! Apart from the HIGH AMOUNT of alcohol in there, it was very good, very simple, well done. WELL done man. Hey, I'm the first one that says it when a drink should be stronger, so I can't say sh*t about this one!!!

We decided to share plates because what's better in life than sharing? OK, that's a ridiculous question, don't answer that.
Avocado salad. OR 'find-the-avocado salad'. Ha. Hahaha! But seriously. The salad was really good. Very tasty vinaigrette. And there was just enough too. None of that puddle of vinaigrette business. Ugh. AND NONE of that mesclun business either! Score! As previously mentioned, there was wayyyy more lettuce than avocado, which is disappointing when you order an avocado salad. The avocado was perfect of course, just to make me even more mad that there wasn't as much avocado than I would have wanted.
Griot! This was a two parter: griot AND plantain (bananes pezées). Imma say yes to that! I hadn't eaten plantain in what seemed like years! Actually, you know what, it HAD been years. That's just wrong! They had that nice plantain flava but were a tad on the dry side. It's a sad day when food is dry. A sad day indeed. The griot, if you were wondering, is pork. Fried pork!!! Man, that pork was packed with flavour. So much flavour! With those marinated carrots/cabbage that, by the by, were spicy as all hell, it was the perfect add-on. We also had some in little jars on the table and in good ME fashion, I put some on everything.
Mais et légumes. The corn was actually polenta and the veggies had been stewed foreva which brought so much yumminess (technical term, of course) to the dish. The polenta was soft but not too soft and just right on. I could have used more. IN. MA. MOUTH. Just putting my fork through it... it was a pleasant thing. And although those veggies were awesome, both Vino and Dan were convinced they had tasted meat. Which is great, I mean, I can always do more meat, but it was weird to order a vegetarian dish with a meaty surprise.
El goat. It's rare that I eat goat. On a Saturday night, I invite some friends over, we open a nice bottle of wine and we eat... GOAT! No, that does not happen. Like, ever. The meat was very moist (God, that WORD!), although I found that the fat to meat ratio was a bit off. I told someone about this later and they said 'hey, you wanted to eat Haitian food? This is how they do it'. I'm down with that explanation but I also think too much fat is too much fat. Anywhere. Anytime. Nevertheless, we all know what more fat means: more flava flav! And it WAS tasty, but again... the fat!!! It had a certain spiciness to it which appealed even more to me. The beans were perfectly cooked but the rice was a bit dry.
Le Mant: ginger, suze, mint and the pièce de résistance, ruuuum! The kind of drink that, when you take your first sip, your taste buds go all cray cray. Wow! That ginger was nice at first and then became a bit too present. That mint made me think I was drinking one of my all-time fave drinks, a mojito. Oh yes! The suze was there to add some citrus flavour and the rum was... oh-so-present! Hahaaha!!! Another strong drink!
One of the desserts! Les beignets. They were hot and sweet but not toooo sweet. And you know what else they were? They were moist. Moist, god damnit. We ate them in 3.5 seconds. No joke.
The second dessert, the pain patate. Because THAT sounds like a great dessert? Hahaha. I'm kidding. It's just that 'pain patate'... the image that I had in my head was sooo not what we got! I was literally picturing a potato with, hum, a piece of bread?! Ish. Ya, I'm stoopid like that sometimes. This was MUCH better than a potato on a piece of bread :) Made of sweet potato, vanilla and cinnamon, it was topped with some rehydrated raisins that were just so soft and tasty. On top, something that we described more as semifreddo but could have been harder whipped cream... Definitely not ice cream. The important thing is that ma mouth loved it. I'm not one to appreciate fruits in my desserts but this was different. Everything went well together and it was just SPLENDID.

Service was OK. Not great, not bad: OK. We got our first drinks in the nick of time but then when it came to my second drink, she really seemed to have forgotten, and then upon realizing it, she brought it as fast as she could. We were talking and not looking at the menu when we first sat down but after a while, we had obviously stopped pondering and it took a while for our waitress to come to the table. I am resto-difficult, I know this. She explained the specials very well though (8 points right there!) and she checked on us at some point. Water could have been refilled---to be honest, I don't remember if we had a pitcher on our table or not, the point is we were lacking water at some point.

And now, the scores!

Food: 6.5
Service: 7

Not sure I'll go back, really. It was good, and I'd like to try more things on the menu but then again, there are SO MANY restaurants in Montreal. I'm talkin' millions here.


Agrikol Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Monday, April 3, 2017

Taqueria Arturo

Did I ever mention how much I love resto invites? Well, I dso. I doodelidoo. Taqueria Arturo, a little newbie on Prince Arthur's cobblestones, decided they needed some brunch experts. Hello, my name is Marie-Christine, and I am a brunch expert. What is also exciting when I get invited is choosing who to bring. I owe you 10 bucks? I bring you. You made me dinner? I bring you. You took my shift at work when I really needed it? I bring you. I haven't seen you in over a year? I bring Cat. Cat is my oldest friend in the world: when I got to Toronto in grade 4, she's the one that was nice to me on my first day in school and we've been friends ever since. Almost 28 years later.... (F*CK we're old)

Taqueria Arturo has gotten good reviews so far. This is how I see things: if they have good reviews, I'm excited to go and try the food/service and if they have bad reviews, I'm excited to go and try the food/service. The only difference is that one will get a good review and one will get a bad one. I'm never truly disappointed when I eat at a bad/awful resto because it just means that my readers (yes, I have many readers and they are MINE!) will get to know about it.
Maybe it's because the cobblestone part of Prince-Arthur looks like ASS in the winter time, but looking at the restaurant from outside, it could've looked better. From the side, you only see a sign that says 'Taqueria' and then when you're in front, you see their bandito sign with the name on it. Not the BEST marketing! But anyhoot. You get in and it's a two parter: there are about 16 seats on the first floor and then you go up some steps and there's another room. Lots of wood, some colour here and there and high ceilings. And then, there's the music: quite pleasant at first but then it seemed like they were playing around with the base and that got a tad UNpleasant.

When we arrived, I mentioned my name, my blog, and the fact that I was invited and... nada! His face was priceless. And then MY face was priceless, as in, oh shiiiiit, am I in the right place? Hahaha! At the end of our brunch, the chef actually came out and HE knew who I was so at least that was that, but still. Communication, people!
The mimosa. Hibiscus mimosa! I LOVE mimosas! Last year, when I went to the Cayman Islands, we went to an all-you-can-eat/bottomless mimosa brunch and OH.MY.GOD. HOLY shit. I just remember taking a really long nap on the beach after and waking up 3 hours later, hungover as all hell. The mimosa could have been a bit colder and it could have had more bubbles. Anyone who knows me knows I loves me some bubbles. Hence why I was literally addicted to Coca-Cola when I was younger. And then I discovered Perrier, a much healthier alternative :) If I hadn't known it was hibiscus, I could've named a bunch of other fruits it tasted like. It tasted exotic-ish but that's about it. Still, I had two. Duh.
Le plat! I had the Benedicto: buttermilk biscuit, poached eggs, pork belly, chipotle hollandaise and home fries. The biscuit, made in house (YES!), was so buttery and flaky and just damn perfect. I hadn't had a buttermilk biscuit in a while and dsamn! This one, I would have every freaking day. The potatoes were spicy, seasoned just right, and had the exact right amount of cooking: they weren't too hard and they weren't mushy. I hate too hard. I HATE mushy! The eggs were PERFECT. And as ya'll know, I'm egg-difficult. Or eggficult. Mmmmyes. Just runny enough to infiltrate the biscuit. OH YA! The chipotle hollandaise was literally out of this world (OK, not 'literally'. Unless....Alright, I'm diverging here): it was spicy but not overly so and peppery and fit 100% in the dish. I had never tasted hollandaise like this before! I want more. Now. The pork belly. Ah, le belly of le pork. Imma gonna make somethin' clear right now: pork is ALWAYS good. Well, except when it's dry and sh*t but let me make something else clear: pork is ALWAYS good. It was juicy, it was fatty but not too much, it was oh-so-tasty.
When I ordered chorizo, I thought I was going to get the sausage. Instead, I got ground chorizo. It was still good, but a tad disappointing. It was seasoned in all the right ways but too dry for its own good. BTW, when you type 'too dry' in google, you mostly get two words: 'toad' and 'intercourse'. Just thought I'd share this.

Service was good and not that good. It was uneven. Yes, that's would be the perfect word! As mentioned, he didn't know who the f I was. I obviously don't mean 'you should KNOW me', but more like 'I was invited so you should know I'm-a-comin' '. We sat down, we got water (points!), and since Cat and I hadn't seen each other in 8 years (I like to exaggerate), we took some time to order le food. But once ordered, it did take QUITE the time for the food to get to us. You know... there's waiting, and then, there's waiting. It was just long enough for Cat and I to look at each other and say yo I'm hungry! Anyway. Obviously, the food wasn't a problem! The guy wasn't super smily nor super pleasant and forgot more than once to bring more water. Nearing the end of our meal, he was getting friendlier and smilier tho. The service was on the slow side and the waiter never checked if we were enjoying the food. Actually, he asked us if we had liked it, when we were done.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 6

I really liked the food and I might go back for a good benedicto but I'll try other places first.

Taqueria Arturo Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato