MISS MOOX: 
Search results for food

  • REVIEW: Sake Japanese

    The Round-up:

    • Food - 3.5 out of 5
    • Decor - 2.5 out of 5
    • Service - 3 out of 5
    • Total - 9 out of 15
    2135 Albert Street, Regina SK.306-565-8894
    ___________________________________________
    Those who follow the blog will recall the news that Café Orange (in the Cathedral area) shut down a couple of months ago amid rumours that it will reopen as a sushi café.
    This is all fine and well, except it seems that just about every month a new sushi restaurant pops up in this city. At some point, sushi just isn’t going to sell enough to make a profit at each one of these places. At least that’s my opinion.
    So when Sake Japanese opened on Albert Street (near 13th Avenue) in February, I was only a little bit excited. On one hand, it is fantastic to see a vacant storefront turn into a thriving restaurant. There were too many empty buildings on that side of Albert Street not so very long ago.
    On the other hand, do we really need more sushi?
    Judging by the crowd at Sake on a recent Wednesday lunch hour, we do. The place was packed with groups and couples, likely from the office buildings nearby.
    To Sake’s credit, the restaurant is clean and decorated tastefully – nothing out of the ordinary, just a typical Japanese restaurant décor. Sake offers a mix of traditional tables, along with a number of “tatami” tables, where guests sit on cushions on top of bamboo mats. Lucky for us non-Japanese, the floor is sunken beneath the tables, making for a much more comfortable sit.
    As for the menu, be prepared to pig out. It’s an all-you-can-eat feast at Sake. You’re provided with a paper menu and a couple of pencils. Then you go to town marking off all the dishes you’d like to try. And there are plenty to taste.
    Sake offers at least 15 types of sushi rolls. Each roll consists of eight well-portioned pieces, far more than your average all-you-can-eat sushi joint. The Salmon Roll, California Roll, and Rainbow Roll that my dad and I shared were fresh – so much so that the sushi rice was moist and just a tad warm (meaning it was cooked only minutes before the rolls hit the table). Score!
    We also tried the crispy tempura, which comes with one jumbo shrimp per order; the fried fish; the edamame (whole soybeans); and the wonton soup. We cut ourselves off at that point, not wanting to overdo things and then go back to work in a food-induced coma. (Note: Sake, like every Japanese all-you-can-eat, will charge for food wastage, if need be.)
    Ice-cream fans, listen here: Sake also offers an unlimited amount of serve-yourself ice cream for dessert. Another classy touch. On offer were Tiger Tiger, Raspberry, and Pistachio the day we were there. Big Poppa and I both dug into the Tiger Tiger. Like father, like son as they say.
    So far, we’ve established that the food is great and the décor is good enough. That leaves the service. It was what I would call friendly, but not overly attentive. Our waiter neglected to bring one item we ordered (a rice bowl with chicken) and never came back to check if we wanted to order more food after the first round. Given that you pay a flat rate for lunch, missing an item wasn’t a big deal. Let’s just hope it isn’t a regular habit.
    I went in a skeptic, and I came out a believer (in the food anyway). Sake is on the right road to success.

  • REVIEW: Mercury Cafe and Grill

    The Round-up:

    • Food - 3 out of 5
    • Decor - 3.5 out of 5
    • Service - 3 out of 5
    • Overall - 9.5 out of 15
    2936 13th Avenue
    Regina, SK
    306-522-4423

    ________________________________________________

    Several months ago a food-loving group was created on Facebook. Its name was the "Cathedral Village Needs a Cheap Breakfast Place", or something like that. It seems that the Village just hadn't been the same since the Quality Tea Room shut down several years back.

    I quickly joined the group, as did several hundred other Regina folks (What did we ever do before Facebook groups became the new face of activism, by the way?).
    The Facebook fan page continued to grow, many of its members calling for a cheap plate of hash browns and bacon . . . like now.

    Well, some wishes do come true.

    The Mercury Cafe and Grill opened its doors in April. The place seemed to spring up overnight on the corner of 13th and Robinson streets in a spot that has housed numerous other restaurants.

    The Mercury is a diner, no doubt about that. From the bright red vinyl booths to the formica and chrome tables, stepping into The Mercury is like stepping back 50 or 60 years in time. The Mercury is also under the same ownership as Regina's well-loved Novia Cafe, another all-out diner. This is a good thing -- who better to start a new diner than the folks who run one of the city's oldest and best?

    I've been to The Mercury twice now, once for breakfast and once for supper. It's hard to find the right word to describe both experiences. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't horrible either. Perhaps satisfactory is the right word.

    Weekend breakfast bustles and hustles in The Mercury. If you're not there by 11 on a Sunday, you're going to wait in line for awhile. Granted, The Mercury could easily jam a few more tables into the dining room in order to shave some time off the waiting game.

    Your choices for breakfast are classic standbys: bacon and eggs; hash browns; pancakes; an omelette. You get the picture. Now, is it cheap? That depends on your definition of cheap. Most items run around the $8-9 mark, plus the cost of coffee and/or juice. I've had cheaper, but I've also had more expensive.

    Service can be a little disorganized, but hopefully the servers work that out amongst themselves as the restaurant irons out the operating wrinkles. We had to wait 30 minutes for any food to hit the table at breakfast, almost enough to push us to the breaking point, but not quite. Fortunately, our waitress took good care of us in the meantime.

    Now let's talk about supper for a moment. Once again, there are few surprises on the evening menu. Nachos; chicken wings; chicken fingers; burgers; clubhouse sandwiches; and grilled cheese are a few of the choices.

    We ordered up a plate of nachos to get things started. With a $10 price tag, we pictured a nice platter of cheesy chips and veggies. We couldn't have been more wrong. A dinner plate with a puny pile of nachos on it was what we got. Even worse: the scarce bits of cheese on the chips were overcooked and rubbery. Epic fail, my friends. Epic fail.

    Next up: the burgers. Now this is where the action is at. Tender homemade beef patties are smooshed between fresh buns with all the fixins. I went for the Mushroom Swiss. Big Willie had The Mercury Burger (two patties with fried onions, mushrooms, shaved ham, Swiss and cheddar cheese). All burgers come with a side. We went for the french fries and they were done to perfection.

    Big Poppa (my dad) went for the open-faced Hot Turkey Sandwich . . . which came with hot chicken, oddly enough. But he got past that.

    All in all, The Mercury offers up decent food in a comfortable room. The motto seems to be: come as you are, eat what you will. Now if they'd only fine-tune the nachos and up the portion size for most of the breakfast menu, we might have a sure-fire winner on our hands.

    (no website)

  • UPDATE: Cafe Orange - Where's the food?

    A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the fantastic makeover given to Cafe Orange on Robinson Street, near the 13th Avenue Safeway.

    The place has been all dolled up and looks like it's ready to roll. The problem? They're only serving coffee and some rather lackluster desserts at the moment.

    When I stopped in on June 25 to order a coffee (which was very good, I might add), the woman working the till told me that food service would be a reality by Canada Day, or perhaps a day or so later.

    I went by Cafe Orange again earlier today (July 7, for the record) just to see what the situation was. Once more, I was told that food service is coming soon. Hopefully by Friday . . . maybe Monday.

    This strikes me as more than a little strange. Customers have been looking forward to the new Cafe Orange for months. A little suspense can be a good thing. But keep people waiting for too long and they'll eventually lose interest.

    Cafe Orange, it's time to fire up the ovens, take off the training wheels, and become a full-fledged restaurant. You reopened a month ago. You have the potential to be one of the city's best restaurants.

    Now please serve us some food so that we can judge for ourselves.

  • Beebles

    There has been a little drama last night and this morning surrounding one of the most unpleasant aspects of living on the farm: the slaughter of animals raised for meat.

    Let me explain at the outset that I am not against this per se: I fully believe that eating meat and killing animals is ethical and allowable. Personally, I dislike it. I rarely eat meat and never would given my own choice. My love for animals and fierce instinct for the preservation of life mean that I could never be a farmer. Last night at the dinner table when everybody was discussing the joys of the various cuts of meat that resulted from the recent slaughter of the pigs, all I could think about was those hilarious four gamboling up and down their outdoor pen in the gentle evening sunlight, snorting and whirling and kicking up their heels. Not for me, this life: too raw, bloody, and realistic.

    The particular discussion that arose last night surrounded one of the turkeys. Several months before, a brood of about seventeen wee fuzzy peeping things arrived in a small ventilated box, via US mail. The box was stamped with all the appropriate warnings about containing live animals and This Way Up. Who would have thought that chicks could be transported in the post? But when we opened the box, there they were. Most of them had survived their harrowing two-day journey from somewhere out west, sans food and water. Sadly a few had died and, weakened by the trauma, a few more followed them in the succeeding days. Finally, we were left with only twelve.

    It soon became apparent that one of them was different. A couple of the babies had been blind and visibly weak, but had quickly died. This one somehow survived. But as it grew it became more and more obvious that it would never be like the others. It was about half the size they were, and never caught up. One eye bulged out surrealistically from its head in a translucent globe; the other was small and shrunken into its skull, giving it a comically old-man appearance. The whole head had a slightly cockeyed look, as if it had been squashed in the shell. When it looked at you, it looked with its head pulled to one side, peering at you out of the shrunken eye. From observation we learned that this eye was only partially sighted. The large eye was completely blind.

    But somehow that made this turkey endearing. As the others grew large and bold and fat and sassy, this one was left behind. It wandered feebly around its pen to get food and water, and in the large group of vigorous and curious birds, always looked lost. It seemed to be in its own little world which only incidentally interacted with the others. When poles were inserted into the walls for the turkeys to roost at night, this little one didn't stand a chance of hopping up with the others. Once, I put it onto the roost and its feet tenuously and then firmly gripped the pole. But soon I came back and it was back on the ground: its sightless eyes could not cope with being that far off the ground, with that much uncertainty.

    When it was held, it "peep-peeped" in the gentle, burbling, querulous, half-alarmed way that young turkeys have. Stroked, it would gradually doze off: head drooping more and more till it finally fell fast asleep. Put back down on the sawdust, its legs would collapse and it would nap. It loved its neck stroked: it would extend its head high in the air, eyes closed ecstatically.

    I suppose it was my fault getting attached to it. But something in me is drawn to the weak and the outcast. My landlady asked me today if I identified with it. I didn't know what to answer.

    So, we are currently trying to find a home for it. My landlady knows of a refuge for handicapped birds, and of another farm which has taken animals from her before. So I hope poor Beebles (for that is what I christened it, after the noise it makes) will survive to live yet many more happy turkey years scratching for its food and turning around and around in the bewildered little circles it does when it is trying to get away from something. Yes, I suppose I do identify with it. And much as I know it is foolish, I can't bear to have its life cut short.

    Update: Beebles, Part 2

  • TRAVEL: Le Grain de Sel

    THE ROUND-UP:

    Food - 4.5 out of 5
    Service - 4.5 out of 5
    Decor - 4.5 out of 5
    Total - 13.5 out of 15

    2375 Sainte-Catherine est
    Montreal, Quebec
    514-522-5105
    restolegraindesel.ca
    ____________________________________________________________

    If you're anything like me, TripAdvisor has become a trusted travel companion before, during, and after a trip takes you out on the road.

    TripAdvisor offers more information about hotels, restaurants, and activities in almost any city than you could probably ever read. And more often than not, the information is reliable and straight-up honest.

    Until recently, it had been more than seven years since the last time I visited Montreal. I was at a total loss as to where to eat, especially in a city with as many options as Montreal. So, I took the web's advice.

    Do a search for restaurants in Montreal on TripAdvisor, and the number 1 result is a little bistro by the name of Le Grain de Sel (at least at the time of writing in September 2010).

    Thank you yet again, TripAdvisor, for an amazing night out.

    While no one visits Montreal without strolling down Sainte-Catherine Street at least once, Le Grain de Sel is on a stretch of the street that sees little traffic (about five blocks east of the Papineau subway stop).

    The main dining room out front is cozy. White linens dress each table with darker colours on the bar and walls.

    Staff were immediately welcoming and friendly, offering us a choice of available tables. The menu is completely in French, but our waiter took the time to explain almost every item, mostly without even being prompted.

    I think Le Grain de Sel's total lack of pretension is one of its best qualities. The head chef even came out to our table to ask how the food was at one point in the meal. And he looked like he genuinely wanted to make sure we were having a good time.

    We ordered the Escargots en Croute and a pair of fresh Quebec Scallops for appetizers. Both dishes were delicious. The escargots came served in a piping hot bowl covered by a thin crust of glazed phyllo dough. Beneath the doughy dome were our escargots, buttery and mixed with wild mushrooms. Mwa!

    The scallops were seasoned perfectly with oil, salt, and pepper, and served with a side of corn and red pepper. Not your usual sides, but they were a perfect match for the scallops.

    As for main courses, we ventured for the halibut and a duo of haddock and pork belly. The fish was truly delicious and makes me wish that I lived nearer to the ocean.

    The pork, on the other hand, was extraordinarily fatty. So much so that once the fat was cut away, just a few morsels of meat were left. When our lovely waitress asked how I liked my meal, I had to confess that I wasn't nuts about the pork. But she made a good point: the fatty pork was intentionally paired with the ultra-lean haddock as a contrast. I still can't say that I enjoyed the pork, but at least the kitchen is thinking seriously about the food it serves.

    For dessert, we gorged on a homemade cheesecake, and a cold raspberry and balsamic vinegar soup with fresh doughnuts on top. It was all too, too delicious.

    If I had to give Le Grain de Sel a grade, it would be an F++.

    Hold on now, that stands for Fresh, Friendly, and Fantastic.

    When in Montreal go to Le Grain de Sel. Just go.

  • Flip Eatery

    THE ROUND-UP:

    Food - 3.5 out of 5
    Service - 4.0 out of 5
    Decor - 3.0 out of 5
    Total - 10.5 out of 15

    1970 Hamilton Street
    Regina, SK
    306-205-8345
    fliprestaurant.ca
    ___________________________________________________________

    Flip Eatery opened its doors in November 2011 on a slushy mid-fall day just before Remembrance Day. The timing isn't likely the most common for a restaurant opening, but from Day 1 folks flocked to Flip in droves.

    Tucked into a new addition to the Avord Tower just behind Atlantis coffee shop on Hamilton Street, Flip is all windows, wood, clean lines, and simple modernism. It's one part Ikea, one part EQ3, and a pinch of boho chic as far as style goes.
    While it might not have the glam factor some people look for in a downtown restaurant, Flip has plenty of good going for it. The huge, unobstructed windows onto Hamilton Street are a big contrast from almost any other restaurant downtown, most notably Golf's, the Diplomat, Crave, and Memories (all within a couple of blocks of Flip). It's as though we're finally celebrating downtown Regina and not covering it up with drapes and heavy velvet in order to pretend we're somewhere else.
    Flip's menu is classic comfort food for the very large part - several sandwiches, a couple of burgers, a risotto, a bit of seafood, wings, salads, and, of course, soups make up the majority. And there's a deadly poutine that comes with the option to add in shortribs or pulled chicken as a bonus. (Try either or both, you won't regret it, and the portion sizes are heart-friendly, for poutine that is).
    Prices fall in the mid-range. You're looking at roughly $15 for lunch (with a drink) and $25 for supper (with an appetizer and a drink). It's not cheap, exactly, but Flip definitely won't break the bank.
    An informal survey of my friends regarding the restaurant resulted in everything from, "Love it!" to "It's good but not quite great." Some were less excited about the decor, and others feel the menu could use some pizzazz. From my perspective, Flip could add some variety to the lunch versus supper menus (right now they're the same). While I understand the benefits of having one menu for a chef and owner as far as minimizing food wastage and cutting down on prep time and ordering, the supper menu still feels a bit too "lunchey". I'm more likely to stay home if a sandwich is what I'm craving for supper.
    That being said, Flip deserves huge credit for turning a non-descript piece of land into a happening downtown hangout. As Regina grows, more people are seeing downtown as a place to live, not just to work. Places like Flip make our downtown core even more attractive, and that's always a good thing.

  • REVIEW: Tangerine: The Food Bar

    REVIEW: Tangerine: The Food Bar
  • UPDATE: Orange Izakaya starts serving food

  • Most Wanted

    Most Wanted
  • REVIEW: Bitten Appetizer and Dessert Bistro

  • NEWS: Tangerine, Opening Soon

  • Warm horses in barn on a cool autumn evening

  • Update 3: Beebles Rehomed

    Update 3: Beebles Rehomed
  • McDonalds

  • Here Comes Cousin Eddie

    Here Comes Cousin Eddie
  • Decorganizing Wednesday: Kitchen Pantry

    Decorganizing Wednesday: Kitchen Pantry
  • Leaving

  • RECENT WORK: CEREAL MAGAZINE

    RECENT WORK: CEREAL MAGAZINE
  • Holiday

    Holiday
  • Chipmunk dying