[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 ❤ 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: 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