Burgundy Lion

This pub, being a 10 minute walk from my place was on my must eat list, but after 1 year and a half of living in close proximity, I still hadn't gone. Damn it! So, a couple weekends ago, it was time. I mean, when I go out to drink in my neighborhood, it's either there or at La Drinkerie but this is brunch we're talking about. Brunch people! English brunch :)

This place runs like there's no tomorrow; a must go in Griffintown with two stories, a terrasse on Notre-Dame, an interior courtyard and lots of cleavage. LOTS and lots of it. Ok, some times too much, even for gay ol' me! But that's neither here nor there. Let's talk boobs. Shiz, I mean brunch!

I knew what I was getting, duh. This is what happens when I get really excited about a place. I wanted the whole English breakfast experience. I wanted the whole shabang. I wanted...blood sausage!

But first, a morning drink shall we? Oh, we shall! Recently my brunch drink is a good Bloody Caesar instead of a mimosa. I believe the spices and all that jazz is better for one's hangover. So I had two :)

Alright, so, y'all know my number one rule: always get the biggest breakfast. Oh and I did. Let's begin. The beans were a little piece (or tiny pieces...) of heaven IN my mouth. Heaven in my mouth I say. And I know my beans. They were amazing: just salty enough, well cooked but not mushy, great tasting overall. The eggs were good and again, well seasoned, but a tad cold. The tomato was the disappointment of the plate. It tasted as if they took an old tomato and cooked it with lots of spices. Which is probably exactly what they must do. Meh. Didn't taste fresh at all. The potatoes were yummy and crispy with a nice moist interior. Ps, you guys know I HATE the 'm' word so it's a big deal if I describe something by it. The ham was nice and maple-y but sadly, a tad on the dry side. The pièce de résistance, the boudin noir, was amazing. A-mazing. It was onion-y (hello is it me you're looking for?) and well seasoned and lovely and had a great texture. So basically, perfect. Oh, and the bacon was so thick and fatty that I felt like I gained 300 calories only by tasting it. But that too was oh-so-good! Mmmmmmm....faaaaaaat!

Service was great. Quick and efficient as any good service in any good pub should be! We had our water glasses refilled and were asked if we were satisfied with our food. Plus, I got a boob or two near my face...I was a happy camper. ;) The only thing that was kinda meh is that it took a while to get my second drink. It's ok, I forgive you.

And now, the scores!!!

Food: 7.5

Service: 8

Well, let's do the math: 1 huge breakfast and 2 caesars cost me 35$ including tip. Yes, yes I'll be going back.

 

Terrasses Bonsecours

I was invited to attend the Summer opening of Les Terrasses Bonsecours in the Old Port a couple weeks back. It was beautiful and sunny and rather hot, basically the opposite of the crap we've been having in the passed couple days (read: weeks). It was hosted by Jillian Zrihen, the grand master of huge openings. Oh and it was. Huge.

I was going with my friend Jer and obviously we got there at 4h55 for 5 o'clock. You know me, I hate being late. Anyhoot, we were given selfie sticks... whatever those are... We never really were able to take an actual pic. Maybe we're just retarded. Or maybe they just work on IPhones.

First off, we could not have asked for a better day: it was warm, like, only wear-a-t-shirt-warm and even as the evening got colder, we just got drunker so it equaled itself out. This was to be a 5 à 7 with free booze (hello!) and free bouchées (well hello!). There was a lot.... a LOT of free booze, but the food was practically nonexistent or just really bad. I'm sorry, but when you are serving obviously-straight-from-Costco-frozen food, it ain't restaurant food. Therefore, this will be short and sweet.

I would like to give a shout out to all (and I think there were about 8000 of them) the girls that were working in super high heels (I do not know how no falling occurred) and super high skirts. I mean thanks but oh poor you! I just felt like petting them and telling them it would be ok. Hahaha. No but I'm pretty darn sure they got good tips out of it. 

Anyhoot, we started off with rum and cokes or, you know, vodka cranberry. And then we discovered that we could just take these...

Shots! Oh. God. Vodka anyone? Best and worst decision of that week. THIS is the reason why I was hungover the next day...although in my defense, the hangover wasn't AS bad as I thought it was going to be. Anyhoot, we had many of these. Many. And when the 5 à 7 was done, I heard Jer say to the waitress: 'open a tab with this card'. And then, it was over. Donzo. 

I won't speak of food because in my opinion, there wasn't any: dry chicken on skewers, bruschetta on a cracker or tasteless meatball on a stick.... it was all bad food. Kinda just there to say 'hey, we have food' (but not really).

Service was obviously good. I say 'obviously' because, well, I likes the ladies. And there were a lot of them. In short skirts. And quite tall. Yes. Seriously, they were very attentive to our demands and drunken orders... and drank lots of shots with us. Which we all know is very important.

The venue itself was wonderful. This picture was taken when we arrived (the first ones) but when it was full, people looked oh-so-comfy on those couches. We were sitting at a more modest table ;) Seriously, the outside portion could easily sit at least 100 people and I don't even want to venture a guess about the inside which boasts two stories. The view was nice all around: Old MTL, Old Port, the St-Laurent. This is the real deal, guys. THE partay place. Seriously, if I had the money, I would bring my friends there every Friday evening to have 2 or 8 drinks. And ps, they did have a menu... we just were too cheap to actually BUY food from it. Ha. Ya, joke's on us.

And now, the scores!

Food: 11 for drinks (but really, 9)

Service: 8000 for short skirts :p (but really, 9)

As I said, once I win some kind of amount of money OR I become a jet setter, I'm there!

 

Branzino

Recently, I was invited to try Branzino, the restaurant located in l'Hôtel Méridien in Downtown MTL. Actually, it was one of my old ITHQ peeps, who is now the manager, that invited me. Let me paint you a picture: when I started at ITHQ in restaurant management, we were around 65 in our class, about 35 or so graduated, half of which have left the business and I'd say about 3 or 4 have managed to get jobs as manager/boss. The rest are like me, fools! No, I didn't mean that. We are either in the kitchen or in the dining room. Ps: although I would love to be ZE boss (cause y'all know I can be bossy!), I do love my job :) I must also mention that this restaurant is at least 50 % ITHQ: the manager, the chef, the sous, the waiter. Talk about surrounding yourself with family!

Getting off track here. P-F invited me to try their new menu before the soft opening (which was taking place this week). How special am I? Yep! 

The place itself is located right at the corner of St-Mathieu and Sherbrooke. There's a huge sign in front of it so it's hard to miss. Let's just say if you miss it, you should get your eyes checked, seriously. It seats over 100 people, including the terrasse and has somewhat of a dark décor which actually fits really well.

Aight, so I started off with a nice drink, as every dinner should. P-F just read out the names of their cocktails and I chose the one I liked the most: Torreador! Good for me cause it turned out to be a sangria! I loves me some sangria! It was white wine, vodka, basil and watermelon. Hello refreshing! The basil wasn't too present which was a shame but the watermelon was just a burst of loveliness. Mmmmm, I can just taste it now! But not really. DAMN IT!

I asked the chef to decide what I would eat since, well, A:he was sitting right beside me and B:he knows what's good.

First off, the scallop. Wonderfully, wonderfully done to perfection. Crispy and tender and seared and raw. Basically, just what you want when you cook a scallop. You could just see that lovely char on it just begging to be eaten. Oh and I did! Accompanied by an edamame puree that was nice and smooth and some corn that added a great texture. And a lardon emulsion. AND a maple-y sauce that tasted almost fruity and paired really well with the dish. Hello! Basically, the perfect appetizer. I just might be biased because this is one of my fave things to eat, like, eva.

Second appetizer (that's right, I'm special so I get two) was the grilled octopus and pork flank. There were also root veggies which just scream out 'garden' or 'hello it ain't winter anymore'. The pork flank was the best damn pork flank I've eaten yet, in my long long life ;) It basically just melted in your mouth. No need for a knife there! Ah man and it tasted so good! Seasoned just right. The octopus was not as satisfying. I love octopus when it's well cooked but I have such a hard time eating octopus when it's not. It just became really tough to cut and although it had a very tasty charred flavour, the fact that it was so hard and chewy was really what mattered at that point. The radishes were awesome and fresh but the potatoes were just a tad undercooked. There are some things you could eat if undercooked OR overcooked but octopus and potatoes are not in that gang. 

The main course! Man, as soon as this was in front of me, my mouth started watering. Hake (think cod or haddock) was the main part but the star of the dish was surely the Israeli couscous. I think I had only eaten Israeli couscous once in my life. ONCE! I now think my life has been a waste. To live without eating this is just...SACRILEGE! It was like having little balls of goodness in my mouth. Mmmkay, I realise how that sounds, but still. It was like an explosion of flavor! The morels on and around the fish had a great texture (not much I like less than squishy mushrooms) and had pockets full of that lovely jus that was swimming on the plate. Asparagus were not shaved but were thin enough and perfectly cooked. Oh and there was this perfectly silky sweet potato puree. And then, there was the fish. Sadly, it wasn't the star of the dish and it should have been. It was a tad too flaky for my liking and quite dry. Tears ensued.

Oh, I must mention the bread! Deeeeelicious, home made by the sous chef who was inspired by one of my teachers at ITHQ, Julie Faucher (whom we all feared and loved) who made everything herself including tofu and taught spinning at 5 am and walked her dogs at 3 am.

Dessert. I was asked if I was too full and I responded by 'yes but I'll still have it please'. Spoken like a true pig :) This was damn didely good. Just looking at that picture...On the left, a lemon panacotta. Holy crap. I took only a couple bites and it was like I had a lemon in my mouth but not the sour kind. It was a tad on the thick side but I still enjoyed most of it before taking a bite of the next dessert. Ah yes, they called it the chocolate log. And man, if there would be a competition for the most chocolaty dessert, this one would definitely be amongst the top contenders. A crunchy base and a soft middle plus some Chantilly on top just made me see stars. I SO wanted to finish it but just couldn't. And last but certainly not least, a chocolate macaroon. Crunchy enough, soft enough, just like it should be. It was scrumptious.

Service was great, duh. I was sitting at the bar the whole time, chatting with some good peeps I went to school with a couple years ago. Twas nice.

And now, the much awaited scores!

Food: 8.5

Service: 10

I was highly surprised by my meal at Branzino. Highly. Don't know when I'll go back but if I have the chance, I shall!

T & T Tacos and Tortas

I was invited, a couple weeks back, for a 'blogger event' at T & T Tacos and Tortas on Rachel in Le Plateau. I think they've been opened for about a year and I guess they wanted some good publicity from us bloggers. I just have to say that I'm always in for that. Hint hint.

I went with of my favorite people, my little cousin, who it so happens is only about 7 months younger than I am. Oh and she's taller. Little cousin my arse!

I've been to big openings and smaller openings but never a blogger event. Basically, we got there and I wondered if I had misread the date. There were maybe 2 other tables and that was it. Usually I have to force my way in... kinda :) Turned out great in the end: more time to talk to my cuz and my fellow blogger Val (from Juliette et Choco)! Plus, hello, more attention from the super cute waitress!

Gen had been there a couple times since her office is about 3 steps away and knew what she liked. I, on the other hand, know I love tacos but didn't know what to pick on the menu. Actually, I must admit that in the end, we totally forgot about the tortas! Bad blogger, BAD! 

But I obviously didn't forget about my drink! We could order one and then pay for the rest: good deal! I had me a mojito. But it wasn't just any mojito, it was the BEST mojito I've had... EVER. Ever, people! You know, minty but not too minty, sweet but not too sweet, perfect but oh-so-perfect? Ya, that was it. Good God I'd want one of those right about now!

We wanted to get an order of every taco on the menu (there are 6 kinds and 4 tacos per order) but the waitress strongly suggested that we calm the f*ck down. SO, what we did was narrow it down to 4 and got 2 of each instead of crazy 4. But first, there was the tortilla sopa!

This was a tad watery but it was the only bad thing about it. The flavors were great, the avocado was oh-so-good and creamy and there were little islands of sour cream that just popped in your mouth! Coriander was also present and as always, appreciated. I just LOVE coriander. I remember, when I was in my 'Découverte des aliments' class at ITHQ, we had to make something and present it in front of the class and then the students would eat it. I made coriander pesto. Because I love it that much. The tortilla itself was ok but could have tasted more.

Beef with grilled cactus taco was a tad disappointing. Basically it was thin sliced marinated beef with some onions, and grilled cactus. The cactus was special, cause seriously, when does one eat cactus, but the meat was dry. So dry that we needed to add some lime juice but to our very dismay, the lime wasn't juicy! *Sniff* There were some great salsas on the table that helped out: salsa verde, and two salsas rojas including one hot one that y'all KNOW I was licking off by the end of dinner.

The other tacos on this plate were the chorizo ones. You can add cheese for 1$ but when it's free you don't even need to think about it--just add the damn cheese! Unfortunately, they weren't much better than the beef tacos (enter sad face). The meat was also a tad dry--although not as dry as the beef. The coriander saved the dish-ish but again, we needed to put lots-o-salsa on it for it to taste good. Hey, at least the tortillas were good: crunchy but not too much, and flavorful!

Tacos el pastor should be renamed 'tacos al Maria'. Mmmkay, I see how that makes no sense but they are my fave. Just having pineapple on a taco makes my mouth water. This one was very nice: the juiciness of the pineapple and the tang of the onions made it heavenly. The pork was nicely cooked and well, you know, the coriander :) This was our fave by far. The last pair of tacos were the carnitas: pork belly, onions and coriander. The meat itself was a bit tough and chewy and lacked in spices. I love pork belly but this was a bit of a let down.

Churros!!!! The tacos may not have been up to par but the churros were riiiiiight up there! A set with chocolate and the other with dulce de leche, they were cinnamony, crunchy, yummy goodness. I was suddenly back in Spain.

Again, food may not have been extraordinary that evening but the service surely was! First off, there was the hotness of the waitress, of course. But apart from that, we always had water, we got our drinks in no time and she explained the menu to us and what we should order.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5 (those churros and drinks saved the day)
Service: 9.5

I think I'm gonna be bold here and say that I'd go back. I feel like this place has a lot to offer and that maybe, just maybe, it was a bad night.


 

Kazu

My bro's bestie, Erik, loves this place and swears by it and assured me it was THE best Japanese resto in MTL (that doesn't serve sushi). You have to believe him because he lived in Japan, goes back whenever he has time off, pretty much exclusively goes out with Japanese girls and well, lives and breathes Japan. Just like I live and breathe everything Asian.

I believe I'd been wanting to eat at Kazu for years. YEARS people. Do you know how long years are? OK, that's an easy question. How would you feel if you didn't have to just wait 5 minutes or 5 days for something, but freaking years! Mmmkay, you get the point. And it's my fault really: the thought of waiting in line to eat doesn't usually please me. A couple weeks ago, I made that leap with Lea! She went to Tokyo last year so she really wanted to try Kazu and since I'm almost half Asian (work at a sushi place, hang out in Chinatown ALL the time-it's basically my second home, buy all these Asian produce and make Asian food at home), we went for it.

Kazu is this tiny restaurant with around 20 to 25 seats MAX. Now you know why there is always a line up. Don't even think about going there early; there WILL be a line outside the restaurant. The menu is pretty much written on the wall... somewhere :) But they do bring you either the lunch or dinner menu... hand written... WITH corrections....which are stuck on with scotch tape. Love it.

I had my heart set on the Japanese Bibimbap (uh, hello!), but when the time came to order, I was told this was a dinner special. Noooooo! I didn't feel like ramen or a salad so I chose the 48 hour pork bowl. Pork? Good. 48 hours? Good. 48 hour pork? Hells good. Lea had the Tuna and Salmon salad bowl. Oh and we also had a tiny soup and an even tinier salad to start with. When I say tiny, I do mean it; two bites and donzo!

The salad. The crispy noodles on top made the plate look oh-so-good! I mean come on, look at it! And they were actually tasty; I've had my share of non-tasting crispy noodles. A big ass portion I would call it! There was rice in there, some veggies, dem noodles, and lots of flavors! Thing is I didn't taste the fish as much as I wanted to and it needed a bit of spice. Either that or I'm just a spice whore now; seriously, I put sriracha on everything, even my cereal. AND I'm kidding. Sheesh, I ain't that crazy.

The pork. Basically, pork with onions, green onions, and ginger. The flavors were there but they weren't necessarily in every bite. I dunno, I felt like one bite was better than the other and vice versa. What I have to say was that the onions were abundant and y'all know I loves me some onions. They tasted great too: perfectly caramelized to the power of 1000. The green onions gave a little kick to it and the ginger was nice too. The rice was unfortunately a tad overcooked. It was a sad moment for me. Japanese resto hailed for being one of the best (or THE best) in MTL and they f*ck up their rice. Mmmmkay, I'll stop it with the anger. What I really appreciated was the fact that even if there was still fat on the pork (not usually a big fan of fat), it wasn't squishy like it usually seems to be and it was full of flavor. Let's just say I gained 5 pounds of actual pork fat that day. Again, I could have used some kind of hot sauce to make everything pop a bit more. 

For dessert, we could choose out of many flavors of ice cream: basic vanilla + syrup. I had the wasabi one! Oh ya! This was exciting! And it tasted just the way I pictured it in my mouth ;) Wasn't too hot but in the end, with the melted ice cream left in my bowl, it reminded me of a little shot of wasabi. It wasn't too much and it was cool to try something different!

The service was, well, Asian ;) It's actually a good thing people: they know what they have to do and they are super focused. Plus, you know you'll get your food 10 times faster in an Asian resto than in any other type of cuisine in the city. Bam bam bam. Done. Sit, menu, drink, order, food in seriously, and I'm not even kidding, 2 minutes. Out. You don't really need to talk to your waitress cause you have no time. Ps, everyone that works there is straight from Japan, which is actually kinda great. Do me a favor and go on their FB page, you'll see what I mean! They write cute stuff like this: 'We'll closed 2.3.4.5 to the staff meeting. It's to ensure the feelings don't forget forever when we began the restaurant.' How cute is that? 

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5

Service: 8

I'm going back fosho. But next time I'm going for dinner, I'm ordering the bibimbap AND I'm going with Erik so that we can be Japanese together.
  

Fortune

I swear, this is the place! Don't you see 'Fortune' in between the cars? Hehehe. So, I had heard great things about this new taco place close to Little Italy and you know me: new? tacos? I was in fosho.

We had a 'business' meeting, Val, Shar and I and what better way to business it up than while eating? Don't think about it, there IS no better way.

Alright so this place is tiny with about 12 seats and some at the bar. The music was nice and jumpy (without being a number one hit on Virgin kinda thang) but then turned into some type of Snoop Dog type thang so that got annoying quite fast. There were a couple girls workin' hard in the kitchen with tuques on. No, it wasn't because they were cold dumbie, it was for style. Sheesh! Dunno how I felt about that; it was kinda half hot half too much with a big side of hipster.

We got the new waitress because when does this not happen to me? Nah, I'm only kidding, she was really nice and when she didn't know, she would ask her boss.

We obviously started off with some drinks. Duh. Shar had a beer and Val and I went for the margaritas. Hello! And damn we did NOT regret that choice! They were quite strong but the tequila was actually lovely and with that lime, oh it was great! Val says it's the BEST she's ever had. I say she was totally hammered (note: Val, our driver, was NOT hammered. That was a joke).

We were quite excited to share everything: pork el pastor (spécial du jour), cauliflower, chicken, and fish tacos plus a shrimp guédille (why not!).

Fish tacos (upper two): the fish was not the best, a tad tasteless. I would have a loved some more seasoning. Like Emeril Lagasse would say: BAM! But no, there was no BAM. Not even a little bam. I had to put a bunch of hot sauce on it and it still remained 'meh. Next up, pork el pastor! Wait, nope... that's chicken. Hold up. Oh, they switched it up... let's call it chicken el pastor. The marinated radish was really nice and brought a needed kick to the dish. Unfortunately there was some fat on the meat and although a bit of fat here and there isn't the worst thing (some even like it... it adds more flavor), it was a bit overwhelming. But hey, the pineapple was great and sweet and the coriander added a little somethin' somethin' that I loved. I have to say though that the bread wasn't the best. It was kinda hard to cut and it tasted next to nada (what, I'm practicing my Spanish!).

Cauliflower tacos (the ones on the left): I love cauliflower! I also really appreciate the fact that I fart them out as quickly as I ate them. But in other news...The cauliflower was tasty and grilled (yum!) and I even liked the fennel seeds (I ain't a fennel kinda girl). The pickled veggies were excellent (I'm a sucker for pickled stuff...pickled beets, pickled cucumbers, pickled carrots, pickled onions, pickled you get the point) but the whole thing was on the cold side which was a tad disappointing. The pork tacos were alright. Btw, this means they weren't alright. The avocados were great and just the right amount of ripeness and the green onions were appreciated (y'all know I love ALL onions, I ain't no onionist!).

The shrimp guédille! For you none guédilleurs, it's basically a hot dog bun filled with lots-o-goodness. And this one was full to the brim baby! The shrimp were cooked to perfection (hello!), the cucumbers gave a nice crunch and I believe there were some grilled pickled radishes in there which was really nice! The onions were lovely too, of course. The whole thing was actually really nice and liked by the three of us.

Aight, let's talk about the service! We were warmly welcomed and even if we had 'the new girl', it was still good. We got water pretty quickly and even though our drinks took a while, the fact that they were amazeballzzz made up for it.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7

Service: 7,5

I gotta say that I was expecting a magical taco experience and I didn't get it. I'd probably go back for a guédille though!

 

Chez Bong

I had been meaning to go back to Chez Bong for a while--I went about 5 or 6 years ago mostly because it was in the book 'Cheap Thrills' (they tell you where you can eat for cheap in MTL). Obviously I had loved it AND I love Korean food AND it's in Chinatown (because here, if it's anythin' Asian, it's in Chinatown...which we will henceforth call Asiatown).

Anyhoot, went a couple weeks back with my homie Lea with a sole purpose: to eat a good bibimbap! Oh how I love thee!If you don't like bibimbap (for shaaaaaaaaame!), you have about 27 choices on the menu. Dem Asians don't do shiz half assed I tells you.

Aight, so when you get into this resto, there is, you didn't guess it, techno music! What the what? The place looks nice and out of the ordinary with wood everywhere including the walls. The ceiling though is made of panels... with some mold. I tried not to concentrate on that.

We started off with some pork dumplings. The looked great but turned out to be a bit on the doughy side and even though there was a nice, vinegary sauce to go with, it couldn't save the dish. They were still alright though, por favor don't get me wrong (that's right, I use Spanish only when I'm serious about somethin').

They also brought us some boiled potato cubes and my fave by 8000 units (it's a thing!---remind me to tell you about that time in the tent when my friend Jadster said I was taking up 8000 units, just do it!), the BEST thing ever to come out of Korea, kimchi. Ps: I tried my hand at making kimchi last summer and it was quite good indeed (if you don't know what kimchi is, for the love of little baby Jesus, look it up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi).

The potatoes were a tad overcooked and although they weren't necessarily bad per se, they didn't taste like much. Obviously the kimchi was wonderful. Oh God, I want some now! That fermented cabbage, in my mouth, RIGHT NOW. OK, I shall calm down.

Bibimbap actually means mixed rice, did you know that? Well, I didn't either until about 3 seconds ago :) The egg is kind of supposed to be raw but I was happy with this one; raw egg is a thing I not-so-much appreciate. Traditionally the rice is served with veggies, some meat and chili paste. I had all sorts of goodness in my bowl (which is scalding by the way---which is why I had to blow on my food throughout the meal!). There were some pickled veggies that had just a hint of vinegar and went well with the rice, the meat and the egg and well, everything. There were even some fiddleheads which was quite surprising! A damn nice surprise! They were cooked to perfection. And I ain't used to eating warm cucumber but you know what, it's pretty damn darn tootin' good!

Service was alright: we got water quickly and he came to take our order in a timely fashion. He didn't come check once if we liked our meal or to serve us water so that's -23 points right there. He did, however, bring us hot sauce 3 seconds after asking.


And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 6.5

If I ever get the bibimbap craving again, I'm going back! Oh, wait, ya, it's here :) You know where to find me!


 

Hoang Oanh

I don't know why but I had been craving a banh mi (uber vietnamese treat) for about a month. Well, that craving was satisfied at Hoang Oanh last Sunday! Called up Lea, told her about my banh mi dreams and set to meet up in Chinatown (I just want to mention how much I appreciate the fact that when I go to Chinatown, I can eat chinese food, korean food, vietnamese food, japanese food etc! Now if it could only be a tad bigger!). Half an hour later, we were there baby!

The place is tiny and has no room to sit, which kind of sucks for people like us who had not planned on eating this loveliness at home. Iz ok, don't cry for me Argentina, we hopped over to the Palais des Congrès and found a comfy sofa to drop our crumbs on :)

Anyhoot, we practically were in and out in 3 minutes! These banh mi girls are fast I tells ya! We didn't want to eat the same sandwich so Lea got the veggie one and I got the beef one. Oh and a big ass ps here, it only cost 4$. Yes I say.

This is the veggie one (and the only good picture---the other ones, they just look like 'well I see some ingredients but it doesn't look like anythin'). Lea had the choice between tofu marinated in curry or marinated in soya sauce. Great choice with the curry; I hardly ever tasted tofu that tasted this good. Ok, rarely. Alright, never. My beef was really tasty too; they apparently really got their proteins right :) Seriously, it was kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic (thanks Rachel) but in a good way. The bread in both sandwiches was a tad stale though which was not that super. Plus, you know, all the crumbs. When we got up, we actually saw a reverse body-shaped crumb infested area on the couch. The veggies were so darn good: just a tad pickled and oh-so-fresh! Carrots, daikon, coriander and a hint of hot peppers; so basically all the right stuff. Oh and there was a little bit of yummy yummy sauce that just made everything better. I's gotta say that the veggies were cut a bit too big but in the end, who gives a crap when it tastes this good? Precisely no one! Oh and the hint of really hot peppers was a good choice on our part; it just gave it a nice little kick.

Although I won't be grading the service because of the super duper short time we were in there, it was great! Fast, efficient, nice. 

And now, the score!

Food: 8

I'll be back every day I can. Now THAT is a promise!

 

Pho Bang New York

My friend Val and I LOVE restauranting (oh ya... btw I invent verbs now) together: she doesn't care that I spend a third of the time taking notes and pictures and I don't mind if she talks on the phone. Anyhoot, Val and I decided that, since we are uber poor right now, Chinatown will be our new hang out spot. Many restaurants, some of them good, most of them cheap!

That evening, we decided on a place that had gotten mostly great reviews; Pho Bang New York. Well, for me, any place with 'Bang' in its name is a done deal. So we're about to walk in and notice that it's full, overly lit and cafeteria style, meaning there are long tables and many dining groups sitting beside one another. I know it's not going to be a long dinner so cafeteria style sitting is ok by me.

We were seated quite quickly and as soon as we hit the chair, some tea was on our table. Thank the little baby Jesus (or as I like to call him, Heysus) for that hot tea 'cause I believe it was nearing the minus 8000 Celsius outside. Not cool man, not cool. We looked at the menu but knew what we were going to have, we were there for some Pho (more on pho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho). I really needed something hot to thaw my insides (insert picture here).

We decided to share a spring roll entree and both ordered the grilled chicken pho.

The spring roll. I LOVE spring rolls. This one, unfortunately, did not live up to our expectations.  I was dry and quite hard. Plus, I did not even taste the shrimp. And y'all know how much I loves me some shrimp.

Grilled chicken pho. Not the best decision ever made by either of us. The broth didn't taste like much; let's just say we added a lot of sriracha and hoisin to make it taste like somethin'. The chicken was good, thank Heysus, and the charred taste really came through. The choice of veggies... I mean, who wants what I call 'carottes d'avion' (you know, those tiny stooopid carrots) or cauliflower in pho? It smelled amazing when it was placed in front of us but even the yummy thai basil, the lime, nor the sprouts could save it.

Service was lacking, as it is in a lot of Asian restaurants that serve a shiz load of people per meal. Water was on the table quickly and we got the food really fast too but our waiter was looking around while taking our order and that just pisses me off. 

And now, the scores!

Food: 6

Service: 6

I'm not sure I'd go back, even for another kind of pho. Pho sho (hahaha, get it? mmmmya).