[Dine-Out] Calgary: Ox & Angela (Big Taste 2012) August 23, 2012

Ok…I’m pretty sure this is the last of my Big Taste posts. A Big Taste lunch @ Ox & Angela. I absolutely adore this restaurant, I’ve been to a dinner with a group of friends here once. The food was to die for. Big Taste 2012 marked the first time that Ox & Angela was offering a lunch menu.

The meal started off to a great start, bread, olive oil, and two delicious type of salts.

Olive Oil + Bread = Addictive

I take back what I said in my last post, this is the best. salad. ever. Look at all that glorious cheese:

Om nom nom nom

This simple salad consisted only of 3 ingredients: frisee, cabrales, and toasted walnuts. I never thought something so simple would be so good. It was dressed with the perfect amount of sherry vinegar, not too saucy at all.

The bf got the soup:

Anything with a poached egg = thumbs up

The soup was good too, but personally I liked my salad more. The bf definitely liked his soup more though. It’s a garbanzo beans, spinach, and a perfectly cooked poached egg. When you break the egg, the creamy goodness of the yolk just makes the soup that much better.

For the main course, the bf got the Bocadillio:

A Super Fancy Grilled Cheese

A traditional bocadillio isn’t made with sliced bread, so this is pretty much a just an awesome grilled sandwich with chorizo, arugula, dried tomato, aioli, and manchego cheese. I love the presentation, very rustic! The bf loved his sandwich, the only complaint was = not enough meat.

I got the trout:

I <3 Fish

The perfectly seared trout (look at how crispy that skin looks) came with another fresh, refreshing salad. The citrus and fried capers were a wonderful addition in terms of taste AND texture.

The main course came with patatas bravas for the table:

Delicious Fried Potatoes Covered in a Smoked Paprika Ketchup

I can eat a entire pot of these.

The dessert was Tarta Santiago:

Cake of Saint James

This is a traditional Spanish cake made with ground almonds, eggs, and sugar. This particular one had a hint of orange in it and was dusted with powdered sugar. This was okay, I personally don’t like almond flavours or orange flavours….so…Tarta Santiago is not my thing.

OX & ANGELA
528 17th Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2S 0A9
(403) 457-1432

[Dine-Out] Calgary: The King & I January 13, 2012

So, I usually don’t post a blog right away after I eat but…I had such a bad experience at The King & I that I just…can’t wait to post…

This place is so ridiculously expensive for the calibre of food they are serving. I seriously felt so ripped off by this place.

The only thing that was remotely enjoyable was the Phuket Fisherman Soup. It’s a spicy fish broth soup that comes with some protein in it. We ordered one order for $8.50 and they split it into two dinky little bowls for us…each of us got one piece of squid, one shrimp, and one clam. The broth was okay and the seafood was okay but nothing spectacular. It definitely was not indicative of the quality of food we were about to get served though.

$8.50

We also got an order of chicken puffs. They were described as thin pancakes stuffed with ground chicken, potatoes, carrots, and peas. I thought they would be kind of like samosas but…they were definitely not as good as samosas. First of all, there was definitely no chicken in this, it was ALL potato. False advertising. The sweet and sour chili sauce was sickly sweet.

$11.00 - soooo expensive, I can get samosas for $0.50 each in the NW that taste like heaven in my mouth

This Neua Nam Dang was the most disappointing dish of my life. I compare this meal to the time I went to Sushi Tokyo and got served super vinegary rice (worst meal ever). The menu described this as “beef stir-fried with specially prepared house chili sauce served on a bed of tempura vegetables”.

THIS WAS TWENTY DOLLARS!!! We were so hungry by this point that we started eating, this is probably 75% of the dish.

I can’t believe I paid $20 for this plate of tasteless crap. The “specially prepared house chili sauce” tasted and looked exactly like the sauce that came with the chicken puffs. And that tasted like that sweet and sour sauce you can buy in a jar from Superstore. The beef was overcooked, the “bed” of tempura vegetables consisted of MAX 8 pieces, and those were cut to the size of a nickel.

I don’t usually ever order any type of “stir-fry” at restaurants besides Chinese restaurants. First of all, any other type of asian cuisine is super expensive where compared to Chinese restaurants, and if I wanted a crappy Chinese stir-fry, I would just go to a Chinese restaurant. I would be paying like $6-8 dollar less for a bigger portion, better made stir-fry. I still can’t believe I had to pay $20 for that plate of junk.

I’ve decided on a couple of things that will help me gauge how good a restaurant’s food will be. First of all, it’s highly unlikely that you will get phenomenal food in a very large restaurant. I’m pretty sure that The King & I could fit like 50 tables in their space. That’s waaaayy too big, they’re just trying to cater to volume, not quality.

Second, if you’re in a ethnic restaurant and you see ZERO customers of that ethnicity…it’s probably not very authentic. The King & I was just serving waves and waves of elderly, non-Thai people…should have clued in…

I definitely would not recommend this place. Rose Garden Thai on Stephen Ave and Delicious Thai in Kensington is far, far, far better. Like, no competition, in quality AND price. But most importantly, quality.

THE KING & I
822 11 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2R 0E5
(403) 264-7241

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Brasserie Kensington July 18, 2011

Brasserie Kensington opened a while ago down in (obviously) Kensington. This is great news for me because it’s another reasonably priced restaurant with food I actually want to try near where I live! I don’t even remember what was in that space before hand…hmmm….nope, can’t remember. Brasserie Kensington is a cute little place on top of Winebar Kensington - a place which I have still not been to, definitely need to fix that soon!

I love the atmosphere of the place:

Very Modern with a Semi-Open Kitchen

The bf ordered the Wild Boar Burger for $16.75:

"Hog Wild"

The burger came topped with gruyère, arugula aioli, and a grainy mustard. He loved this burger. The patty was cooked to perfection, and the boar taste was very prominent. For an additional $3.00 he got his fries upgraded to the parmesan pomme frites with white truffle oil. I wonder how much extra it would be to upgrade to their foie gras poutine (a definite must-try)?

Fries = Perfection; I <3 Skinny Fries

I got the Tempura Soft Shell Crab with Summer Apple Slaw for $14.50:

Soft Shell Crab

This was good, the apple slaw complemented the fried crab perfectly. And the aioli that comes with the dish was absolutely delicious, they’re a little skimpy on it though. I’m sure I could’ve gotten more if I asked though.

The food is fantastic here, and there are many things on their menu that I want to try so I will definitely come back.

However, there was something that irked me this particular time and it kind of diminished the dining experience for me. If you look on their menu – the soft shell crab is listed under the “SHELLS” section:

Screen-Cap

And the menu in the restaurant is exactly the same as this. It says that – all shells are served with pomme frites. The soft shell crab is listed under shells – so you would think that it would also come with fries. There’s nothing that indicates otherwise. I realize that some people might say that it says it comes with a slaw – but it never clearly says that it’s served with a slaw instead of fries. There’s no space before the crab that would indicate that the above “all served with pomme frites” statement does not apply to the crab. So, the menu in itself is confusing. When I inquired about the fries, the server replied in a very snobby manner that only the shells come with fries. Ummm…last time I checked, a crab is a shellfish. It has a shell, a pretty damn big one in fact.

The point is, I didn’t mind that my meal didn’t come with fries (I really didn’t need the carbs for my dinner), but the way the server chose to deal with my question was very off-putting. There’s  no need to make your customer feel uncomfortable about asking questions regarding your menu. Not only that, she answered in a way that made it seem it was stupid for asking the question. Her attitude was completely unnecessary since it’s their menu that was obviously misleading.

It’s a good thing that the food is good here, because shitty server attitude is the kind of thing that I would not return to a lesser restaurant for.

BRASSERIE KENSINGTON
1131 Kensington Rd NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4P4
(403) 457-4148

[Dine-Out] Calgary: El Sombrero Restaurante Mexicano July 8, 2011

First of all, can anyone explain to me why Mexican food is so damn expensive in Calgary? You’d think it’d be one of the cheaper cuisines…

I personally think it’s quite ridiculous to be paying around ~$20.00 for Mexican food, but, the bf wanted it really bad. Sigh, what can you do? I’m sure if I actually liked Mexican food (like the bf), I wouldn’t mind paying so much for it. But it’s pretty expensive for a meal that I don’t actually want.

Ok, enough complaining, I’ll move on.

I got the Filete de Huachinango Veracruzano, which is a red snapper fillet cooked Veracruz style. El Sombrero’s Veracruzano sauce is made up of dried pepper, spices, and white wine. Other Veracruzano sauces I found on the internet consists of olives and capers. It came with a choice of two sides. I choose salad and vegetables. The only upside of this meal was that it had cauliflower (love), the rest was…meh…

It’s kind of off-putting when you get served a plate of food in a restaurant that has baby carrots in it. The kind where you can buy from a supermarket and eat straight from the bag. I mean, I have a giant bag of that stuff at home right now, I can throw it in a pot of boiling water and then eat that.

It’s obvious that not much thought was put into this plate. I mean, I know I’m not a fancy-shmancy restaurant or anything like that, BUT my plate just looked like the chef took 2 seconds and threw it together. Here, let me throw some bland, probably boiled or steamed, vegetables on a plate, then let me throw other raw, coarsely chopped vegetable next to it and call it a salad, AND THEN I’ll just shove the fish onto the half of the plate that isn’t preoccupied by bland, under-seasoned vegetables.

Soooo not worth $17.00

The sides aside (hahaha), the fish was pretty mediocre, I feel like I could easily make the fish at home myself. There is nothing particular exciting about it, and seriously not worth spending $17.00 on it.

The bf got the Pechuga de Pollo con Mole. It features a grilled boneless chicken breast covered in the spicy chocolate sauce. I guess the only Mexican part of plate is the mole sauce. I know, I know, we could’ve choose beans as sides, and that probably would’ve felt more like we were eating Mexican food.

Mole mole mole

The bf was quite disappointed with this dish as well. Never mind that he got the same bland sides as me, but he asked the waitress what the spiciest dish on the menu is, and she said this one. AND IT WASN’T SPICY AT ALL. I mean, when you think Mexican, you think spice right? Wellllllll…where was it? Flavour seemed to have skipped our dishes. He basically poured half a bottle of hot sauce on his chicken before it was spicy enough for him. That’s beside the point anyways, when you go out to eat Mexican food, you expect Mexican flavours. This is a cuisine that’s known for its spices and flavour, and you’re expecting it to be the star of your dish, sadly it just wasn’t here at El Sombrero.

EL SOMBRERO RESTAURANTE MEXICANO
520 17 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2S 0B1
(403) 228-0332