Viet Express

I was walking along Wellington Street in Verdun the other day, you know, shoppin'. And by shoppin', y'all KNOW I mean looking for restaurants. I don't necessarily want/need to go to the most popular/talked about restaurants. Actually, most of the times, I just want to do they opposite! Hey, I became the number TWO blogger by going to random restaurants and not by going to the newest places or the ones with celebrity chefs. That's just the way I dso shiz.

Viet Express is one of the new babies on Wellington, a very bustling and ever-developing street in Verdun (ps: Verdun rocks). It's almost like Notre-Dame West where there's a new restaurant every freaking week (ya, that's a fact). Anyhoot, I found this tiny place and, being half-Asian and all, I was automatically drawn to it. Tiny: 4 seats and very narrow. They have a tiny altar for Buddha and his friends on the ground, that is actually embedded in the counter. Wow, Buddha be special. They sell other things like Pocky (yes!) and Pringles (what?).

I knew exactly what I was having: something I had many times before at marché Hung Phat (oh how I love thee): grilled chicken with vermicelli + veggies with some nuoc mâm (a fermented fish based sauce). YES. For me this is some kind of heaven. I gotta say it was not nearly as good here. Don't get me wrong, it was aight, but the meat, although nicely grilled and tender, lacked in flavor and seemed a couple hours too old. The vermicelli, a tad on the overcooked side. The veggies were nice and crunchy and slightly marinated which was AWESOME in ma mouth. The green onions, like the chicken, seemed a bit on the old side. I loved all the different textures though. I just love putting everything together and mixin' it up. THAT is what I like. And then, drizzling that lovely sauce on top. YES!

Service was good. I had it as take out because of 2 reasons: a: I was in a hurry and b: I think I would've taken up the whole sitting space with my gym stuff. Took about 10 minutes to get my food. I just kept on looking at the girl preparing it, with her long black hair dangling over my food. Ugh. Trust me when I say I looked for hair while I was eating.

And now, le score!

Food: 6.5

Lots of places to try. Yep.

Chef on Call

I got an invite to try Chef on Call and of course I had to take it!!! It seemed like a great place to order from especially when you're a student working all hours of the night! These guys are opened till 4 am most nights and serve good homemade kinda food. Just what you need after a night of studying! 

So, Gabriel Malbogat, one of the co-founders of Chef on Call came to my door one day last week with a plathora of food :) I had chosen the vegetarian meal so I had five different dips, a spinach, cranberry and goat cheese salad, a grilled veggie wrap, the vegetarian burger and fries, sweet potato fries and onion rings. Oh, and a freaking huge chocolate chip cookie. So basically, I had food for 3 meals :)

Let's talk about the service. Well, it was wonderful! Gabriel was very courteous and told me about what I had in front of me, gave me the press release and a bunch of Chef on Call stuff. I tried to give him tip for the delivery but he refused many times. He finally took it when I told him he could just give it to the cooks.

Alright, let's get to the food! First off, the different sauces.

Before the unwrapping

1- Chef on call: Very nice even if on the thick side. It was actually a bit sweet. Paprika was very present but welcomed. Our favorite.

2- Spicy mayo:  Very spicy but very good.

3- Garlic mayo: Isa found it too garlicy but if you know me, you know I loves my garlic. So I liked it although I felt that the mayo was way too thick.

4- Garlic dill: I'm not much of a dill girl but Isa who liked dill more than me, found it OK. The dill was a bit overpowering. Our least favorite.

5- Honey dijon: Unctuous but a tad too thick. 

...and after! Yum!

And now, the salad. We found it to be a great mix: the cranberries were great in there and we all know cranberries go well with goat cheese! And, well, what's healthier than spinach? :) The leaves were HUGE though; we almost had to cut them. But it was a pretty salad. The vinaigrette, I thought, was a bit overpowering, but Isa liked it. It was pretty much olive oil and some herbs.

Ze burger now. Mmmm, this was very tasty. It was a vegetable and legume based patty which was so dsamn good, some greens, onions, tomato and garlic sauce. Ah, garlic sauce. Obviously, Isa found that they could have picked a different sauce but I loved it. I did smell like garlic until the next day though. But the patty was very tender, well seasoned, moist and lovely. I'd order that again.

The wrap. As soon as you unwrap,,, the wrap, your nostrils are filled with yummy smells. I love grilled vegetables and this was right up my alley. The goat cheese made the wrap what it was by tying all the flavors together and making it creamy and silky. Oh, there was also a nice balsamic glaze that gave the whole thing a nice kick.

The fries and the sweet potato fries were good and well seasoned but not crunchy. Isa didn't seem to mind but for me, fries need some kind of crispiness. We both agreed that the onion rings could have been crispier as well.

Now, the cookie. WOW, what a cookie! It was soft and was actually a bit raw in the middle which I loved. We're talking about a girl who used to eat raw cookie dough. Although not healthy, it was damn good! The cookie also had a lot of chocolate chips. It's rare that I actually eat cookies so when I do, I want it to be worth it.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 10

All I have to say is that back when I was a student and all my peeps went to McGill, we ordered from Alto's (haha, remember that place?) many nights a week and that if Chef on Call would have been there, we might possibly would have prefered that!!!

ps: They use biodegradable  packaging AND electric scooters!

Sushiman

I was a tad disapointed when my dad suggested we eat in PVM today. I would have rather been able to write a review on a real restaurant. Anyway, I told him I felt like eating sushi. Before he responded, I said 'but not Sushi Shop'. Having worked there for 2 years really turned me off sushi for a long time and REALLY turned me off Sushi Shop... I will NEVER go back there!

Anyhoot, I said ok to Sushiman. I shouldn't have. OK, I didn't bother taking pictures because, well, I didn't think I was going to write about Sushiman. But I just gotta. Don't worry, this'll be short and sweet.

SO, first off, the rolls were not well rolled. Shiz fell from everywhere and it was just unpleasant to try and eat them. Then, the tempura was weird, like too hard. That's never pleasant. Also, the rice was hard, as if they'd been made the day before (and btw, there's no date on the sticker which means, yes, they probably WERE made the day before). And to top it off, there was an overabundance of peppers. First off, I'm not a big fan of sushi with red peppers in it. But I'm certainly not a fan of sushi with a shit load of peppers.

Food: a generous 5

Don't go there... you'll be disapointed. Actually, pff, what the hell, go to Sushi Shop instead :p

Café Vasco da Gama

This place is right beside my job, like RIGHT beside it... so I was bound to go at one point or another. I guess I was a bit scared to go in what with all the serious business people coming in and out of the café.

For those of you who don't know, Vasco da Gama (or DE Gama), was a count and a Portugese explorer. One day, my dad and I made a lunch date and since we'd been to pretty much all the restos around my job, we decided to go there. It was quite nice. Quite nice indeed! Anyhoot, the place itself is quite long and narrow and has about 40 seats, most of them, very low... which is a tad weird at first but you get used to it. There was some spanish-y portugese-y music playing...  ;) Oh and I loved the tiles on the floor! Reminded me of Portugal :) The whole place was really pretty.

Basically, you go up to the counter, you pick what you want and then you sit and wait for your meal. People that work there are friendly, quick and efficient. They have to be because there are lots and lots of people eating there and getting food to go. The choices: there weren't as many salads as I'd wanted and the paninis were really overpriced. I will NOT pay 13$ for a panini, even if it has duck in it.

I ended up having three salads: beet salad, lentil salad and somekind of niçoise salad. All quite tasty I'd say. Tastier than they looked anyway. This was served in a long plate with 2 pieces of bread with some olive oil. A nice addition to the plate, I found.  I didn't write down all the little details about the three salads. I just know that the beets were a tad undercooked (I HATE that!). The niçoise: lots of green beans, not much tuna. The lentils were actually very tasty, with somewhat of a citrus sauce. Quite tasty indeed! It was a very nice mix of flavors: the earthy-ish taste of the lentils and the punch of the citrus sauce.

I have nothing to say about the service. It was good and it was quick. They're used to the table turnover, you can tell. I also took the rest of my lunch in a doggy bag and the waitress came back with it in 2.5 seconds (I swear!).

And now, the scores.

Food: 7/10 I mean, we're talking salads here
Service: 8/10

A good place to go for a quick lunch or if you want to take something to go.

ps: They also cater small and big parties!

Mavi

Ze wife and I had been meaning to eat there for a loooong time and we finally ate there on Saturday. Correction: we ordered to take out, therefore in this review I will only be scoring the food and not the service. It had been a long time coming and it's about a block away so we were long overdue.

I was the one to go get the food---the wife was comfy on the couch---but in her defense, she hadn't slept much that night! Anyhoot, as soon as you open the door, the smells enter your nostrils and you're in Portugal. Ah, Portugal, how I miss thee! You immediately see the 'kitchen' which is out in the open and maybe shouldn't: stuff haphazardly stored everywhere, NO SINK (oh goodness, my profs would have a fit!), and a garbage bag left on the floor, in the middle of it all. Oh god! As I tried to take this out of my mind, I looked at the menu. It's been photocopied and put into this binder type thing and is not user friendly at all. As I tried to decode this menu, I noticed that Virgin Radio was blasting and I was a tad disappointed that it wasn't Portuguese music :(

I chose the sardines (with rice) and the chicken (with fries). I also took a sumol because let's face it, I just HAD to remind myself even more of our Portugal trip! The whole thing cost about 34$. This restaurant was once in the 'Cheap thrills' book (a book of restaurants that offer a meal for 15$ and under) and I found that it was juuust making it (I guess the sumol was not part of this) and restomontreal.ca mentions that you can get a meal for 25 to 30$. A bit too much for this restaurant. I think they should review their... reviews!

FOOD! I was told it was going to take about 30 minutes for the sardines and the rice which was fine, I just went back home and came back. When I arrived home, and we ate, it was like we were back in Lisboa, in this tavern type restaurant with only 2 choices on the menu (fish or meat) and there was this one dude in this enclosed grill 'cabana' type thing. Point is it was really good!!! The chicken had nice spices, although the breast was a tad dry but the juicy wings made up for it. The sardines were delicious, not too salty, with a little gremolata (garlic and herbs) on top and with perfectly crisped skin. Obviously the bones were still in there so be careful with that!!! Wouldn't be too pleasant to swallow those!

The salad that came with our meal had really REALLY long pieces of lettuce which made it hard for us to eat. Would have been nice if they'd think of cutting it! I also think there was too much salad (ratio was poor) but ze wife ate it all and didn't think like me. The rice was well cooked, with some veggies in there, but again, there was a bit too much of it. Lastly, the fries. They were damn good, if I may say so! Very crispy and delicious.

Here's the score!

Food: 8/10

Obviously, the fact that just a month ago, we were eating this in Portugal helped the experience but this is a great little restaurant!