Tran Cantine Vietnamienne

Tran, Cantine Vietnamienne is one of the many new little Asian babies in town. I'm just happy this one happens to be on my side of town. Yay, South-West wins again! Or something. Anyhoot, I headed to Tran with my bud Margo on one of MTL's first VERY cold day.

There was no question as to where the resto was: it was lit up like the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Like lightning. Like fireworks. You get it, it was damn bright. You could've seen it from space. Aaaand I'm totes exaggerating again. Very simple décor: white walls, black tables, open kitchen. It was quite cold, and every time someone would open the door, it would be freezing. There are ways to fix this problem. Buy an Abris Tempo :p

We shared everything, because that's how we dso. We started with the spring roll: vermicelli, shrimp, mint. Everything was very fresh and the noodles were perfectly cooked. Obviously, this was awkward to eat, split in two. We should've just taken two. You live and you learn. The peanut sauce was just thick enough and very tasty.

The pho. Margo was worried about msg (I'm more of an msg? No worries! kinda gurl). When Margo asked, the girl who seemed to be the manager/owner, kind of lowered her head and said 'there's a little bit'. Hey, at least she was honest. The noodles were perf (not too soft, not too hard) and the beef was perf too (just bloody enough). Basically, everything was perf. The broth was awesome too. A really good pho. I've read that it's one of the best in town, and although I find this a bit exaggerated, I don't think it's far from it.

Banh mi. I looooves me a good banh mi. Like, LOVE. The bread was soft and ubs  (short for uber of course!) fresh and the grilled chicken was nice and juicy. The veggies were, seriously, some of the best pickled veggies I've had in a banh mi. Dikon and carrot, HELLO! The level of sauce was also right on. Damn it, I want to get another one right NOW!

The beef salad had some great flavours goin. The beef was great and the coriander was, well, duh, it was coriander! They could've added somewhat of a sauce to make things a bit less dry. Also, even though y'all know I'm a huge fan of onions, there were way too many on there. Like a whole onion. A big one. It was a good dish, but it could've been better.

We were totes in to try a good Vietnamese dessert, but they didn't have any. Boo. It's a new resto, so there's always room for improvement :)

Service was just OK. The girl we spoke to at first was great and gave us info on the resto and how she came to open it, etc. The waiter forgot to bring us extra plates about 3 times. Hahaha. But seriously. We did get our food very quickly though, which was much appreciated since we were starving!

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 7

Well, as previously mentioned, I'll be going back for one of those banh mi. For SURE.

Le Red Tiger

I went to Le Red Tiger (Btw, LOVE the name: I just imagine this very french person saying it with an big accent. I loves it) last winter (ugh, winter) for a birthday and loved it. I HAD to go back and write me a review!

I got some peeps together: my awesome gym girl, Vanes, and my awesome work girl, Clo. It was gonna be, wait for it, awesome! I realised that I hadn't eaten anything Asian in at least 3 weeks. Possibly THE longest time I've gone without it. It's like a drug, you know. Dem Asians know how to pull you back in.

We got there for 6h30 pm and it was already getting full damn it! They had a bunch of reservations so we got stuck at the bar, and then we got even MORE stuck because there was a reservation right beside us. This meant that the waiter had to bring us another stool and that one of us (I'm sorry Clo), had to be in the corner, with barely enough room to eat. Nobody puts Baby in a corner. Nobody. Ah, Dirty Dancing! But seriously, that sucked. Nevertheless, the place was happenin' and we could see all the hustling and bustling in the kitchen.

Grilled pork sausage spring roll à la viet! This was very.... leafy! Hoisin sauce accompanying the dish was lovely. I just LOVE that sweetness! That pork sausage was a tad dry but still awesomeballz. I just wished there would've been more of it!

Pork and shrimp Vietnamese crepes. I really loved these! Little bites of loveliness, really! The mix of pork and shrimp was right on and the fact that it tasted like coconut was just right up my alley. My coconut alley. The green onions added a certain tang to it, which I love in any dish. Well, except dessert: I usually don't need green onions in ma dessert.

5 spice pork chops. Yes. AND yes. The meat was falling off the bone and uber tender! I'm a fan of fall-off-the-bone-goodness. I totes dug (yes, I speak like I'm a Cali surfer now) the spices and the addition of peanut made it even better. I love to have a crunch and the peanuts gave me just that!

Pork and shrimp fried wonton. These were super crunchy but did not hold enough stuff. It kind of felt like we were only eating wonton. So basically, I was eating only the fried stuff. Not a fan of just eating a ball of fried shizzle.

Service was alright. In my opinion, we were sitting in a position where we should've had better service. Water wasn't always full and you just KNOW how high on my priority list this is. Water is what you need to live, damn it! The food came at a great pace so that was a plus. Points for YOU!

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 7

I'll go back, but I'll make a reservation next time!