[Dine-Out] Calgary: Ric’s Grill {Big Taste 2013} March 4, 2013

I’ve been having a great time with the Big Taste. Always excited for this event.

Thought I’d post this before the event ends. DON’T BOTHER WITH RIC’S GRILL.

Such a mediocre restaurant. There are so many better participating restaurants to try that this one is definitely not worth your time, money, or stomach room.

I really should’ve listened to my gut (hahaha) and not bothered with this place. I always look at the menu and think about going for dinner. And every time I would decide that it wasn’t worth going to. The prices aren’t great and the menu isn’t even that exciting. But I thought, hey, for $35 – why not give it a try?

I mean, the quantity of food isn’t bad for $35, but the quality? That’s another story. And, man, the servers there do not dress appropriately. Also, service wasn’t the greatest. We had to wait upwards of 20 minutes to even get our bill, pay, and leave.

First – the bread. It totally reminds me of the bread you get when you go to Old Spaghetti Factory. Where they charge you $10 for a 3 course pasta meal. Yeah. That one.

Bah

These weren’t half bad. Toasted coconut prawns. After eating the first one did it occur to me that I don’t like coconut on my food. Haha, oops.

Toasted Coconut Prawns

The escargot weren’t half bad either. Canned variety? They came out super hot. Super greasy and cheesy. Again, reminds me of something you could get at Old Spaghetti…

Escargot Stuffed Mushrooms

For his main, the bf got the Salmon Florentine. “Grilled wild salmon topped with prawns, tomatoes and fresh basil in brandy cream sauce. Served with basmati rice pilaf & seasonal vegetables”. Shocking – no fresh basil anywhere. Instead of the rice pilaf, he got a double serving of vegetables.

Salmon Florentine

I got the 6 oz Sterling Silver Filet Mignon served with chef’s roasted potatoes, seasonal vegetables & cognac cream sauce. The beef wasn’t good. You would like it’d be good since Ric’s is a steakhouse. And, it was wrapped in bacon. Buuuut, not good beef. It had a not pleasing texture. Also, I got the chef’s roasted potatoes, which the server described as “covered in an artichoke cream sauce”. Nope. No sauce. No hint of artichoke. No hint of cream. Pretty much I just got a side of potato hash that you could get anywhere at brunch. Also the bok choy was bitter. Like super bitter. Bitter to the point that I complained and got a new side of veggies.

Filet Mignon Wrapped in Bacon

For dessert I got the vanilla bean creme brûlée. Pretty sure it was just vanilla extract. There was none of the vanilla specks you would expect to get from actual vanilla bean. Also the texture of the brûlée was more of an egg custard texture. I didn’t mind it.

Vanilla Bean Creme Brûlée

The bf got the goat cheese cheesecake with fresh berry compote.

Goooat

Pretty much this was the reason that swayed me to come. I mean I <3 goat cheese cheesecake. I had an awesome one at Open Range over the holiday and thought I’d see if this one would stack up. Not much goat cheese flavour, but overall not too too bad.

Again, the food isn’t bad per se…but it’s not good either. Very run of the mil. Nothing fancy. Pretty much like a more expensive Moxie’s but even less exciting. If that’s possible.

RIC’S GRILL
1436 8th Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2R 1R7
(403) 269-7427

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Manuel Latruwe Belgian Patisserie & Bread Shop February 18, 2013

First thing first: I NEED to go back and have some of the baked goodies. I can’t believe I didn’t order any when I was there…what was I thinking?

Ok, on to lunch:

What could be hiding under all the greens?!

I got the ham and spinach quiche with a side of fresh garden salad.

Small Quiche $11.50

I don’t think I like quiches. The foamy eggy texture just doesn’t do it for me. Not that this one was bad or anything, I just don’t think I enjoy consuming quiches…

The bf got a baguette sandwich, which, by the way, is a way better deal than the quiche.

Baguette Sandwich $7.62

He got the Sourdough Baguette, which comes with Calabrese salami, aged Gruyere cheese, tomato confit, and black olives. Pretty decent sized sandwich for eight bucks, also, fresh baked bread!

Lovely salads though.

MANUEL LATRUWE BELGIAN PATISSERIE AND BREAD SHOP
1333 1 Street Southeast
Calgary, AB T2G 5L1
(403) 261-1092

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Escoba Bistro & Wine Bar February 17, 2013

I think Escoba has one of the better value charcuterie boards in Calgary. I love coming here just for a light meal. The bf and I usually share a charcuterie plate and a cheese plate, have some drinks, and have a relaxing night out. I also love the window seating the restaurants offer. In the summer time (or whenever its nice out), the windows are open and it’s just a great feeling!

Cheese Plate $18

For the cheese plate, $18 gets you a selection of five cheeses or $14 for three cheeses. In hindsight, since the charcuterie board also comes with some cheeses, the selection of three would’ve been sufficient. If you’re getting both boards, make sure to ask the server not to double up on the cheeses (unless you want to, of course). So making sure whatever cheeses come on the charcuterie board aren’t the same ones on your cheese board.

I’m awesome with cheeses (I pretty much only eat brie), so I can’t tell you what they are. But I think they usually have the same selection of 5 anyways. One will be a blue, one will be a brie, one will be a cheddar…so on, so on. I love the fruit preserve it comes with. I slathered it all over my garlic baguette.

Charcuterie Plate  $24

This is probably one of the most reasonably priced charcuterie boards ever. I love all the variety that comes on it and for not that expensive either! In the back right is a grilled chorizo sausage, going clockwise, there are some olives, prosciutto, pickled green beans, some sort of veined cheese, garlic flatbread. Going on the inside, the yellow-y mound in the middle is hummus, to its left - smoked duck and to its right – salmon gravlax. I think I’m especially enamoured with the grilled chorizo sausage – it’s nice to have something warm on what’s usually a cold appetizer.

ESCOBA BISTRO AND WINE BAR
624 8 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 1G4
(403) 543-8911

[Quick Bite] Calgary: Sidewalk Citizen Bakery February 16, 2013

Oh. My. God. Just had the best sandwich of my life. I usually ignore all things that says “Veggie” or “Vegetarian”, because, damn it, I like meat. BUT the veggie sandwich today at SCB had egg, and that’s protein, so not veggie (according to me).

So I bought it.

And it was delicious.

Glorious glorious sandwich

It was such a fantastic day when I found out that SCB was opening a location in Kensington. Fresh baked goodies? Walking distance from my house? OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD YESSSSS!

I’ve been in about 4 times now and each time they’ve had different sandwiches for sale. Definitely lots of delicious delicious variety.

Today’s veggie sandwich was an egg salad sandwich of sorts. It had perfect medium poached eggs, goat cheese, roasted organic mushrooms, purple kale, and, I believe, a pesto mayo. All sandwiched between a baguette. The baguette was probably the size of my forearm.

I ate these baby on the way home and I dropped a hunk of goat cheese…or maybe…poached egg. Sad. I don’t know what I’d be more sad about. Losing goat cheese or losing egg…ah well…it’s gone, and next to a curb in Kensington. Maybe some bird got a tasty lunch.

Anyways, the only thing I wish SCB would have would be like half a sandwich for $5.00. I would totally buy that instead of a full sandwich for $8.50.

I ate too much.

SIDEWALK CITIZEN BAKERY
#10, 338 10 Street Northwest
Calgary, AB T2N 1V8
(403) 457-2245

[Dine-Out] Canmore: Mountain Mercato February 16, 2013

Mountain Mercato is probably one of the best places in Canmore to grab a quick bite to eat. There are lots of pubs and more expensive restaurants in Calgary, so MM is a nice option for someone that doesn’t want greasy pub food but also don’t want to fork out an arm and a leg.

For my main, I got a large portion of its feature soup for $7.25:

Crazy big portions!

This was such a HUGE bowl of soup. It was some sort of chunky chicken and tomato soup.  I love me some tomato soup, but I definitely could not finish this. The bowl was probably the size of my head (and I have a huge head). Next time, I would definitely get the small portion…

The bf got the Italiano panini for $10:

Who doesn’t love a panini?

The Italiano comes stuffed with salumi, provolone, and balsamic peppers. Bf said it was delicious.

We also got an aperitivo to share:

Salumi and Olives $11

This was such a great portion for the price. I wish there was somewhere to get quality meat boards for this price in Calgary…

Can’t quite recall what all the meats were, but there is some housemade pate and a variety of salumi in there…just some yummy cured meats is all you need to know!

Mmm…this makes me want to go back to Canmore. Maybe a weekend hike is in order.

MOUNTAIN MERCATO
817 8 Street
Canmore, AB T1W 2B3
(403) 609-6631

[Quick Bite] Calgary: Alley Burger February 14, 2013

Ah – the one that started it all. Alley Burger. Of the CHARCUT Fame. Garlic-y, delicious goodness.

After waiting in a crazy long line. Finally:

The goods.

We got the original alley burgers:

Regular ($8)

Local natural pork and roasted garlic sausage patty, Quebec cheese curds, and Piri Piri Aioli. I love that you can get most toppings for free (onions, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, ketchup, pickles, jalapeños). Some toppings are extra (egg, bacon, cheese curds are $1 each).

“Spiced Your Way” Fries – $3.95

I loaded the fries with all three of the delicious salts sitting outside the van. I love gourmet salts.

DISCLAIMER: These burgers are garlic-y. Have a full pack of gum at your disposal.

ALLEY BURGER
Roaming Food Truck

[Quick Bite] Calgary: That Schnitzel Place February 9, 2013

Ok, being the awful blogger that I am. This place is officially closed. Although I don’t understand why. The schnitzels were frigging delicious. And with the downtown crowd, I would’ve thought they were doing quite well. Shittier places downtown have stayed open just because of the shear volume of office workers looking for a bite to eat.

Odd.

Anyways.

I feel for whoever did not get to try these schnitzels. So, here are some pictures to ease your pain:

The Luau

I got the Luau. It had pineapple chutney, roasted red peppers, ham, swiss, and coconut slaw with Serrano peppers. Pork Sirloin.

The Silk Road

This had sweet Thai chili sauce, pomegranate infused shallots, sautéed portobello mushrooms, and fresh pea sprouts. Top-end Sirloin.

Great sandwiches. I’m pretty upset that it’s no longer in business.

THAT SCHNITZEL PLACE
821 4 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 0K4
(403) 452-3737

[Quick Bite] Calgary: UBU Theatre + Lounge February 7, 2013

This was a while back when UBU had its daily specials, I’m not sure if it’s still offering any of these specials. This was its $5 wine and $1 oyster Wednesday special, I believe…

$5 for a baby glass of wine

Accompaniments for the oysters

From left to right: some sort of Asian spicy soy sauce, horseradish, and some sort of thick spicy salsa-type sauce. Really helpful, I know.

$1 OYSTERS

Yum, I love raw oysters. I especially love them when they’re one dolla. Ubu’s oysters were fresh and briny. I’m pretty sure they’re shucked to order!

UBU THEATRE + LOUNGE
608 1st Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 4E2
(403) 265-6440

[Quick Bite] Calgary: Milestones Grill + Bar December 30, 2012

Every time. I get sucked in to the stupid hype. And end up wasting money, time, and meals at crappy, mediocre restaurants like Milestones…

Every frigging time.

Because of Top Chef Canada, I decided I really wanted to go try the Top Chef desserts at Milestones. The apple bacon tart with walnut crust and blue cheese cream sounded so delicious. Should have known better than to think that a chain restaurant like Milestones could even remotely come close to replicating anything that those chefs can do on the show.

Le sigh.

At least I had an alcoholic beverage to ease the pain.

Lavender Rain

I wanted to try its Lavender Rain because I love mint, and it has mint in it. I am easily persuaded. The drink consists of Tanqueray Gin, Blue Curaçao, lavender syrup, fresh lime juice, POM juice, and mint.

It was okay…mostly just tasted of lavender, very florally.

In addition to the Top Chef dessert, we also ordered its Caramel Gingered Apple Crisp. Meh, mediocrity.

Vanilla gelato, caramel, and walnut crumble served atop of slivered apples stewed in brown sugar, ginger, and spices. Expensive. Not spectacular. Grocery store bought pie would have satisfied in the same way that this did.

The mint leave is a nice touch though

Annnd the reason we were here…Trevor’s apple bacon tart:

Awful

Oh. My. God. Was this ever bad. The tart was obviously pre-made and shipped in (no surprise there) BUT was Milestones so lazy that it couldn’t be bothered to even heat the damn tart up? Yes, yes it is. Straight from whatever box it was shipped in onto the plate. Couldn’t even bother to stick it in the microwave like it does with everything else. Soggy dried apple rings, cold tart filling with greasy, slick wee little pieces of bacon.

Just…not…good.

Like, at all.

I will try so hard to not get suckered into the stupid Milestones/Top Chef collaboration next year. Someone remind me to never step foot in a Milestones ever again. Please.

MILESTONES GRILL + BAR
107 8 Avenue Southeast
Calgary, AB T2G 0K7
(403) 410-9521

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Black Betty Burger & Winebar December 29, 2012

The bf and I made a trip down to Black Betty to try out its grilled cheeses. We really didn’t plan on having alcoholic drinks that night, but BACON & SMOKED SALMON CAESARS? Ok, definitely have to give them a try.

The drinks were $8 each. Which, is…reasonable…

You know you live in Calgary when $8 is considered reasonable for a drink.

I got the “Bakon Caesar” which came with stripes of bacon actually in the drink. Fantastic. The bf got the Smoked Salmon one, no bacon so obviously, not as awesome. But still good.

I <3 Caesars

The bf got “The Betty”. He was intrigued by the house blend brisket patty. It was so-so. Nothing spectacular, but for $15, can’t complain too much. The burger came with mozzarella, maple peppered bacon, frizzled onion, vine-ripened tomato, butter leaf lettuce, and honey truffle Dijon.

Not too shabby

Fries were yucky though – too limp and soggy.

I got the “New Classic”, which is a brie, poached apple, maple pepper bacon, and applewood cheddar grilled cheese. Quite yummy. I love the combination of brie and apple. Plus the addition of bacon = bliss.

I got a side of the feature soup, which was a Thai soup of some sort. There was actually a couple shrimps in it, which was a welcomed surprise.

Grilled Cheese & Soup. Classic.

The restaurant itself was quite loud though. There was a live band upstairs, which, don’t get me wrong, I love live music, but it was really really LOUD. We sat downstairs right near the staircase so the sound just travelled straight down. We could barely have a conversation without shouting at each other. Probably would’ve been more enjoyable were we sat a little further in.

But all in all = pretty good, would definitely go back.

BLACK BETTY BURGER AND WINEBAR
606 1 Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 3B1
(403) 265-4230