Get dining news including restaurant closures and qualify for giveaways.
(2.6)
(3)
(2.6) (2.4)
(2.1)Why do we love Victoria Sushi? Let me count the ways.
The rolls are done just right: the rice is perfectly cooked, rolled tight with the right amount of fillings – no more, no less. The fish is fresh and always delicious. I usually get Bento Box C for lunch, which comes with chicken or beef teriyaki on a bed of bean sprouts, 5 pieces of Dynamite roll, veggie and prawn tempura, 5 pieces of sashimi, panko crusted fried fish, miso soup and a salad – for $12.95 this is an unbeatable deal. My wife gets the House roll and the Futomaki roll, which resembles kimbap (Korean equivalent of a veggie roll). We have also tried the BC roll, Unagi roll, California roll and various other kinds of sashimi and nigiri sushi – all good. However, the Chicken Karage and other fried chicken bits are very bland, this is a shame because I do love my fried chicken bits! We just don’t get them anymore and instead immerse ourselves in the sushi / sashimi / teriyaki goodness.
The restaurant itself is clean and cozy. The washrooms are a bit cramped: after I do my thing I just turn around to wash my hands and then turn around again to walk out. The service is very polite, but not friendly. I don’t think I have ever seen them smile, and I think they tend to be more friendly to the people who live in the complex. However, this should NOT be the reason not to try this place. They are accommodating as well – one time my wife’s Unagi roll tasted off, and the chef was more than happy to replace it. Plus let’s face it, the food is perfect and it’s a 5 minute drive from our home.
We are very snobby, no wait…particular (yes, that’s a better word) about our sushi – the Rice is overcooked: FAIL! Rolls falling apart in our hands: NO! Fish smells fishy: NEXT! Therefore we have tried many sushi restaurants before finding this place and I can say without any reservation that Victoria Sushi is the only sushi place for us. I know I sound like a paid spokesperson, but they have not paid me in sushi to write this. However, just to set the record straight – I have no problems with accepting food based bribes.
I am quite crooked like that.
We usually go to Taste of Punjab for our Indian fix, but last Saturday I got a craving for Indian buffet and really didn't feel like shelling out $40 for 2 entrees, naan and rice at T.O.P. So I googled "Indian Buffet Surrey, BC" and Mehfil's name popped up first. After reading mixed reviews, we decided to go for it.
Tons of parking, and lots of room inside with bright natural light coming in through the windows. Reasonably clean, and complete with standard Indian style tacky decor. Atrocious Indian music howling on the speakers, playing the same beat over and over and over again. Little did I know that the beat would get stuck in my wife's head and she would hum it over and over and over again in the car on our way back home. Brrrrr.
That was the ambience, now the food.
Not a lot of selection for a buffet. Three different meat dishes - curry chicken, curry goat and butter chicken. They were all pretty decent. The butter chicken was too sweet and watered down, but I have had much worse. There were two different rice dishes and one really weird pasta dish (looked too scary and too out of place to try). The naan was pretty good, but they kept bringing it out a little at a time. So you really had to watch the naan tray like a hungry hawk. There were only two veggie dishes: eggplant and Palak Paneer and two different kinds of daal (lentil) - not too good. Oh, also store bought and restaurant fried egg rolls. There, I just gave you their entire offering. That's it! I was very disappointed to see that they didn't have Tandoori chicken or veggie pakora. I have never been to an Indian buffet where they didn't have those two. Dessert was pretty all right – kheer (rice cooked in milk), custard and Jell-O. On the plus side, all the ingredients were fresh, nothing tasted stale or recycled.
That was the food, now the service and value.
Service was nil - surly and "what the hell happened to my life?" man showed us our booth at the beginning and took our money at the end. The bill came to aboot $11 per person. Not bad if you're just there to stuff yourself with pedestrian and limited number of Indian dishes with fresh ingredients. Will we be going back? Not anytime soon, I really missed having Tandoori chicken.
Oh I have a theory why they were playing such awful music - it's so you won't linger and keep eating. You just eat, pay, cover your ears and run like hell.
So finally weighing the pros and cons, the word that really comes to mind when describing Mehfil is:
Meh.
We went here for lunch. This is not a "real" restaurant, just a cafe which also sells Indian/Singaporean groceries.
We had beef satay, mee goreng, nasi biryani and beef rendang. The food came out in about 10 minutes. Clearly some things had been made fresh and some had been reheated (we could hear the microwave beeping in the kitchen).
Satay was not the traditional grilled strips of meat, it was more like kebab (ground beef on a skewer). It was OK but very dry. Served with squares of onions - not very appetizing. The peanut sauce was good. Well one of us liked it anyway - my husband didn't like it because it was too spicy and should have been more sweet and mild.
Mee goreng was better than some we've had, but still not the best (Tamarind Hill has the best on our opinion). It was spicy with tofu and chinese vegetables. Unfortunately it did not have fresh chicken (looked like bits of deep fried chicken).
Beef rendang was good - nice coconut flavour and the beef was tender - but the dish was very dry - we would have preferred more sauce.
Nasi biryani was awful. The rice was very oily and sweet - biryani is not supposed to be sweet at all. The chicken was obviously fried chicken from the day before, it was pretty hard. Also there were no meaty parts, just wings and the backbone. Real biryani is supposed to have fresh chicken sauteed on the stovetop and then layered with rice - never deep fried chicken.
Overall this place is very unappealing. The half cafe/half grocery store ambiance was distracting and we could smell the packaged Indian spices from across the room. The food was edible but not worth going back for at all. Service was ok, waitress was a 15 year old girl who was obviously trying to give good service, but - 15 year olds should not be waiting tables.
So we went to this place for our usual Saturday morning breakfast. We haven't been here in a few years, so we couldn't remember if it was good or not. The reviews on this site are mixed. Safe to say we will never forget our horrible breakfast today.
We had Strawberry waffle with whipped cream and turkey bacon on the side, the 2 eggs combo with hash brown and toast and 2 coffees.
The waffle itself was fine but the strawberries were so cold that they were almost frozen. They ruined the waffle. The eggs were supposed to be over easy, but they were medium. The hash brown was burnt on the top and raw on the bottom. The coffee was weak and watered down.
The 2 eggs combo was $6.95! In most breakfast places you can get everything in that combo plus meat for less than $4.00. The coffee was $2.25 per cup - same price as Starbucks! Overall it was a terrible value.
The bus boy who seated us and filled our coffee was especially polite and well-mannered. However, our waitress was a domineering cow, who splashed coffee in the cups without asking and grabbed our plates off the table before we were finished with them. Our meal was punctuated by the sound of her bossing the other service staff around the entire time. We were not impressed.
Terrible value, we could have gotten better food and better service at many other restaurants in town. We will not be back. Ever.
We went here for lunch after waiting in line at Hi Genki for 15 mins - would have waited longer if we did not have an appointment to get to.
Fresh Box definitely fits the bill for fresh and fast. We had 5 maki rolls (California, Dynamite, BC, Unagi and Philidelphia) and miso soup. The soup was the packaged variety - but edible.
The rolls were big and stuffed with lots of fresh fillings. They definitely did not skimp on the size. The tempura in the Dynamite roll was especially nice and crisp and the smoked salmon on the Philly roll was very fresh and not fishy-smelling.
The prices were good, around $2.50 - $4.75 for rolls.
Unfortunately there is very limited seating at this place as it is mostly take-out oriented. Also you must order from the menu on the counter which is a little awkward since it is pretty extensive - especially if you are there for the first time.
Service is polite and friendly and the girl at the counter cleared a table for us when the one we wanted had some dishes on it from someone who had just left.
The sushi came in record time, 5 mins from the time we ordered - but nothing tasted pre-made and nothing looked sloppy or rushed. They have two chefs behind the counter so that probably is why it was so fast.
The only negative thing we can really think of is that most of our sushi was served on a bamboo tray which was not lacquered, so the rice would stick to it and it was hard to pull off some of the rolls.
We would definitely stop by here again for a quick sushi lunch, next time we will try some items with fresh (raw) fish to see how they do in that area.
Yummy Wonton, I wanted to like you. I really did. You're only a few minutes drive away from my house. You're always open when I come by. You have a large and diverse menu. But the love just isn't there.
I've been seeing you on-and-off over the last 6 months. I've been to see you on different days, tried different things on the menu, but I always leave wanting more. Your staff are unpredictable - either pestering me constantly or running around ignoring me when I need attention. Your decor is tacky and the giant TV in the corner is distracting. But I could forgive all of that.. it's your food that really broke my heart.
Greasy spring rolls. Lumpy, sticky noodles. Painfully dry roast duck. Chewy, slimy beef. Half the time, you can't even give me what I order, you just send your staff back to tell me you don't have it.
I wanted to give you one last try, so I came by today to see if we could work things out. So I showed up and you gave me soup broth that tasted like it had been strained through a cardboard box and a side of cooked lettuce. Cooked lettuce! I had no idea you could be so heartless.
It's over, Yummy Wonton.. It's over and I'm not coming back.
I had a craving for pancakes this morning and my wife suggested this place. We had previously been to the similarly-named "Amelia Cafe" on 6th Street in New West and we were not impressed. Safe to say, they have nothing in common but the name.
We had two orders of banana pancakes, coffee and the "two egg w/ toast & pan fries" combo. The pancakes were the star of the show - fluffy, sweet and moist with mashed banana inside and bananas on top. They totally fulfilled my pancake craving and I was smacking my lips with satisfaction till the last bite. Everything else was great, typical diner-style fare and the pan fries were nicely browned and crispy.
Service was friendly and prompt and we had plenty of coffee refills and table checks. Overall the ambiance is the typical hole-in-the wall with 80's pink and blue paint and plastic plants but it was clean and homey and there is a nice window to sit next to. Washrooms were clean and well-stocked as well.
There is no parking, you have to park on the street with meters ($1 for an hour) and bring cash because they are a cash only establishment.
We'll be back!
I lived in Singapore for a couple of years, so while I don’t consider myself to be an expert on Singaporean / Malay cuisine, I can usually tell when dishes claiming to be from those two countries don’t jive. Of course, I will not compare Kelong’s dishes to the ones I had in Singapore, because that wouldn’t be fair. However, I will compare them to the ones I have eaten in other Singaporean / Malay restaurants in the lower mainland. Restaurants such as Prima Taste in Downtown, Banana Leaf(s) on Broadway, Tamarind Hill in New West and even Prata-Man on Capstan Way in Richmond. They are all much better than what you get at Kelong.
I want to get service, value and ambiance out of the way before I delve into food. Service is more or less polite, but not attentive. The ambiance is what you can expect from a restaurant of this caliber: Not much. One of our plates was chipped and my fork had some crusty bits on it. The restaurant is spacious though, with quite a bit of natural light. The prices are ok. Since we ordered from the lunch menu, all the dishes were $6.95 each. This was our only consolation, as the way I figure: If you are going to eat bad food, might as well eat it for free, or if not, at least for cheap.
We ordered the Nasi Goreng (fried rice), Mee Goreng (fried noodles), Egg Sambal, and Chicken Sambal. Few minutes later the waitress informed us that the restaurant has run out of chicken. This was a first for me. At restaurants I have had many things run out on me, never chicken. Anyway, so we ordered the Fish Sambal instead.
After a while the Egg Sambal and Nasi Goreng arrived. Now if you are familiar with Nasi Goreng or Mee Goreng, you will know that they both have a very distinct aroma. These did not have that aroma at all. They looked and tasted like brown sticky fried rice and noodles, and did not any have beef in it. Instead, they had two things I have never seen in these dishes: Hard, rubbery squid circles and chunks of potatoes! The Egg Sambal was more sour than spicy, the eggs were cut in half with broken yolks all over the place. Traditional Sambal Egg is not cut. The so called “Sambal” taste was just not there.
When the Fish Sambal arrived, we cut into it and found that the fish was still raw in the middle. It was sent back and arrived (spit-free, hopefully) almost at the end of our meal, but this time it was deep fried and was edible.
Not going back to Kelong. Cheap as it maybe, the food is just not worth driving all the way to Richmond. As I mentioned, there are far better places to go.
This is our go-to place whenever we want a guaranteed delicious Indian meal. Sure, it is a little out of the way if you don't live in Surrey, but it is well worth it. I think we've been here at least 5 or 6 times and we will keep coming back.
Everything we have tried on the menu has been good. Last time we had the Lamb Korma and the Chicken Karhai. Both were fantastic. The Chicken Karhai is tandoor-roasted and then fried with green and red peppers and a spicy tomato-based sauce. It had a really unique flavour.
Portions are very generous here, not those tiny flat serving dishes you get at a lot of Indian restaurants. The serving dishes for curries are fat little pots and the Tandoori platters are always piled high. They don't give you a pot full of sauce with your curries, either.. there's always plenty of meat. 2 entrees for 2 people with naan and rice is usually too much for us to finish so we have to take some back. Also, despite the rising cost of rice, it's always free with the entrees here, and good quality.
Ambiance is nice, it's clear they have put a lot of effort into making it look classy. I don't like the booths because if some kids sit on the other side you can feel them bouncing around, but the tables are just fine. The giant chandelier is a little ostentatious but you will be too busy stuffing your face to spend much time caring about such things.
Service is good, not outstanding but not lacking either. Sometimes they can get a bit behind if it's busy, but it's usually not that busy when we go there.
Overall a great value, and a solid, reliable restaurant. Consider us regulars!
We go here for breakfast most weekends, coffee and egg and cheese sandwiches. I guess their sandwiches must be better now than when the previous reviewer went, we have had them many times and they are always hot and fresh. The donuts could be better, but I don't think they have enough people coming in the door on a daily basis to keep fresh ones coming out of the kitchen all the time.
Customers are mostly truckers and other blue collar folks having breakfast, and a few people with kids and some seniors. No bums or weirdos. Plenty of places to sit, washrooms are decent, trash is removed from the tables frequently. What more could you ask for?
I wrote a review previously where I questioned whether or not this place was going downhill. Just went here for lunch today, and clearly it is not.
I had the Mee Goreng which, I have to say, is my favourite. I love this dish and I've had it at almost every Malaysian restaurant in the lower mainland. The one here has the most balanced flavour and unique taste and aroma. Unlike some other Mee Gorengs that I've tried, the noodles here are never sticky or pasty, they are always fresh and loose like a good noodle dish should be. Last time I was here they skimped on the shrimp and meat, this time the amount was fine so perhaps it was a temporary shortage. :)
Service is good, the server was friendly and laughed when I ordered my noodles right when I walked in to the door (rather than getting an attitude about it). Service was fast and courteous, and my food came in about 10 minutes.
The ambiance is still pretty poor - as I said before, the paint colour is really dark and gloomy. Although they have big windows, with our rainy weather you rarely have the sun shining in, so it would do some good if they repainted at least one wall. Also there are still far too many tables and chairs for the space.
Overall a great value, only $7 for the Mee Goreg (a huge portion which I could barely finish), and of course I left a good tip. I think I might "forget" my bag lunch at home more often just so I can go here.
We live in Queensborough so we have been ordering from this restaurant for years, mostly out of desperation (few restaurants deliver to Queensborough).
Overall it's usually a disappointment. The pizzas are thin and greasy, they smell good when you open the box but once you eat a slice the taste just isn't there. The sauce is bland and they skimp on the toppings.
Delivery service is reliable, although occasionally they will give you the wrong pizza.
The only thing we get from here now is the chicken wings. My husband likes the hot wings because they are really, really cooked (some places don't cook them enough) and very spicy. Make sure you pick them up, though, because they will charge you $2 for delivery if you just get the wings (even if you order a lot of them).
I had pizza from this restaurant in January. It was my birthday so I wanted to have a pizza party at work. I ordered 3 or 4 large pizzas, I can't remember everything I ordered but they were all good. I know I ordered one of "The Flame" which was quite spicy as advertised.
The pizza was really fantastic. Thick chewy crust with nice sauce and tons of cheese and fresh toppings. Not greasy at all. If you like thin crust, wimpy pizza this is not the place for you. It is definitely substantial. Almost a year later and I am still thinking about this pizza, that should tell you something.
I can't comment on the ambiance or the in-house service as I never dined in. I am not even sure if they have a dining room. I have driven by there a few times and it looks pretty small. But the delivery guy was on time so no problems there.
They don't have a website but I found an online menu, probably it is outdated but you can get an idea of what they have. Check it out!
I would like to start off by saying that this is the first time we have had Ethiopian food. However, we're pretty adventurous when it comes to food and I can't think of any other country's cuisine that we haven't tried and enjoyed.
We went here today (a Saturday) for lunch. The place was deserted, although we kind of expected that. The dining room ambiance is ok. It was very dark due to the fact that two of the florescent lights were burned out. Also, the air conditioning was turned on high, so even though I was wearing a sweater I was very cold.
The service was good, I believe it was the owner who was waiting on us. He was very gracious and friendly. Even though he left the restaurant halfway through our meal, he did check on us before he left and the other waitress took care of us after that. One thing to note is that even though there were napkin holders on every table, there were no napkins in any of them and we had to ask for some. In a restaurant where you eat with your hands, you might need some napkins.
Having never tried this type of food before, we ordered the Lalibela Platter which is a sampler featuring both vegetarian and meat curries. It comes with the flat bread (which is more like a crepe than a bread). We asked for it to be made mild but we were told that the heat level was "set" and couldn't be changed. I thought this was surprising because at most restaurants you have an option of adjusting the heat.
The food took about 20 minutes to come. That wasn't surprising, I think it's typical for mom n' pop type places like this.
When the food came, it was on a big platter, first covered with a large piece of the bread and then decorated with the mounds of different curries, with another piece of bread folded on the side. I think the presentation was very nice, almost like an artist's palette, but the taste was another story.
Everything we ate, with the exception of one spinach-based vegetable dish, tasted like it had been made the previous day (or a few days back) and reheated. It was so obvious, especially when I bit into the chicken leg and it was stone cold inside. The platter that the food came on was also cold, so as we ate, the food cooled far too quickly.
As for the spice level, it was non-existent. Not just lacking in heat, but lacking in aroma or distinctive flavour. Each dish tasted just like the next one, and they all tasted bland. When the owner said the spice level was "set" I expected it to be spicy, as he seemed apologetic when he told us that he could not change it when we asked for mild.
All of these things were tolerable, but the thing which we couldn't stand was the bread. It was sour. I don't know what they make it with, perhaps buttermilk or yogurt, but it was distinctively sour and everything we ate tasted sour because of it. Also, the texture of the bread was very ineffective for scooping the food. I have eaten other curries with naan, roti, chapati, etc. many times and I can usually manage just fine, but this bread was too flimsy and soft to offer a good grasp on the food, it just fell apart in my hand.
There is no rice or any other option offered on the menu. If the owners are reading I would definitely suggest to add that to the menu, if we could have ordered rice I think our experience would have been better.
Overall the food was unappetizing and we just couldn't finish it. We were still hungry when we left.
One good thing I have to say about this restaurant was that it was sparkling clean, the floors in the dining room looked freshly mopped and the washrooms were also clean with hot water, soap and paper towels.
Since it seems that so many people love this restaurant and think that they serve good Ethiopian food, I feel that perhaps Ethiopian food is not for us. We certainly wouldn't be coming back here.
Oh God, I almost forgot about this place until now. I think my subconscious was trying to block it out.
Went here with my husband for lunch a few weeks back. Service was fine, ambiance was typical of most Indian restaurants (complete with shrill, high-speed Bollywood dance music blaring from the speakers). Location is weird - in a semi-industrial complex with no other restaurants or shops nearby, just offices.
We had two dosas, veggie pakora and the eggplant curry. Dosas were sour, with bland filling. The veggies in the pakora were so old that I believe they were most likely harvested during the Cretaceous period.
The eggplant curry was the worst. It was not an eggplant stuffed with onions and nuts as the previous reviewer mentioned, rather it was just chopped eggplant with tomatoes and onions. I know my South Asian spices, and there was no cumin, turmeric, or other traditional spices in this dish, just chili powder. I don't even think they put salt in it. And greasy like you wouldn't believe. I think we ate about 1/4 of it and gave up in disgust.
The one sparkling note was the red chutney served with the pakora. It was truly the best red chutney I have had. If I had drank a cup of that stuff, rather than try to eat the rest of the food, I would have been happier. The chapati served with the eggplant was also good.
I might go back, but only to collect a sample of the pakora for carbon dating. :)
The service was fine, and the barley tea was good. There, I wanted to say something good about this place before I rip them to shreds.
First things first. This place needs a serious makeover. There are paper screens all along the windows, and I think every single one of them has been broken by people sticking their fingers through the paper. How hard is it to replace paper, or just get rid of those things entirely? Really tacky.
After we sat down the next thing that we noticed is that they had the radio on to the local talk station and BLARING loudly the whole time we were there. Yes, I really need to know what the traffic report is while I'm eating dinner!! Ugh. Plus, the table was sticky. The whole place just didn't seem clean or well kept.
At this point we were just doing our best to ignore these things and make the best of it. We ordered the Chicken Karaage, and four rolls - Philadelphia, Spicy Tuna, California & their house special "Newton" roll.
The Chicken Karaage was fine, if a little bland. It was of the "lump of deep fried chicken" variety rather than the chicken wing variety, and served on a bed of styrofoamy shrimp noodles. There were about 3 x more shrimp noodles than chicken.. I really don't see the point.
The rolls were really and truly heartbreaking. The Philly roll had really poor quality smoked salmon in it, way too much cream cheese, and for the high price ($6.25, people!) it was very small. The Spicy Tuna tasted overly fishy, sour and mushy. The Newton roll was just bland and oily. The California was ok - kind of hard to screw that up!
The worst thing of all was the rice that was used to make the rolls. It was totally overcooked, like mushy oatmeal mixed with glue paste. I honestly couldn't believe how bad the rice was! How can you run a sushi restaurant and not know how to make good rice? I have had better rice on sushi from the food court in the mall.
I'll never come back to this place.
My husband and I went here on a Saturday night around 8pm, with my mother-in-law. The place was packed to the brim but we were seated within moments.
Service was good. The server was a little theatrical but I think that was his way of trying to communicate clearly in a very loud and distracting environment. It was loud from the number of people there, but I'd rather be in a loud happy restaurant than a pathetic empty one any day!
We ordered a small soup (I think it was the Tom Yum), the red curry chicken with bamboo shoots and the fried cod with house sauce. The food came in no time flat, and we were happy to see that all the items came to the table at the same time.
The soup wasn't that great, too sour and it had too many mushrooms in it.
The curry was awesome. A generous portion of classic coconut red curry with lots of nice tender chicken and bamboo shoots. The fish was even better.. a huge plate of delicious, perfectly fried fish on a bed of spinach, covered with a great tomato/peanut sauce and red and green bell peppers. So tasty.
Prices are a little higher than the average Chinese place, but the quality is great and the portions are very generous. You get what you pay for - no giant chunks of celery or chewy mystery meat.
We couldn't finish everything and ended up taking some home. Amazingly, we were in and out in 45 minutes. We did not feel rushed at all, the food was just really fast getting out of that kitchen and the bill came as soon as we asked for it.
I know we'll be back to try more! The only bad thing I can say about this place was the parking situation. Every parking space in the lot is assigned, and of course the ones for this restaurant were full. I ended up parking in front of a closed salon, but I would have felt much more comfortable if I had been able to find a spot in front of that restaurant.
While taking a trip to White Rock on Easter weekend, we decided to try out this place after reading all the good reviews. The French waiter who greeted us seemed very hyper-active, yet quite pleasant and welcoming. He kept pin-balling from table to table bringing water, suggesting specials, taking orders and serving. When he was telling us about the specials, he did the "it's superb!" gesture by touching his fingers to his lips and blowing a kiss in the air. Theatrics aside, he was right!
My wife ordered the Char-Grilled Vietnamese Steak Sandwich, while I went with the Panko Crusted Halibut Burger. The lunch specials come with a choice of soup, salad or fries. The soup was Roasted Butter Nut Squash and it was AMAZING! The flavor was complex, tantalizing and a pure joy. Along with the squash, I could taste potato purée and an infusion of coconut cream in the soup.
We decided to split our entrees. The Halibut burger filet was fried with Panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and was served on a toasty warm bun with Wasabi mayo. My wife found the fish to be somewhat dry, but I thought it was perfect. After all, it's difficult for fish to remain moist after being fried. The steak sandwich was a pure delight. The beef was tender and succulent, topped off with pickled cucumber, carrot, spring onion and cilantro on a crusty French baguette. This steak sandwich is a perfect example of French and Vietnamese fusion cuisine.
The ambience was very pleasant and the décor tasteful. I especially enjoyed the woodwork on the railing that reminded me of ancient Hun helmets. The view of the ocean was the cherry on top. The prices are also pretty reasonable, considering the large portion sizes and the touristy location. We are definitely going back.
We tried this restaurant on a whim after viewing the unsavoury offerings available from the mall food court vendors. Definitely worth taking a chance on, as it has come to be one of our favourite restaurants!
We have only had one item on the menu and that is because it is so delicious that we simply don't want anything else. The Korean BBQ Meat Lover's platter for 2. Oh, my goodness.
It comes with spicy tofu soup, rice and a condiment sampler with kimchee, daikon, spinach salad and pickled ginger.
The nice thing about this meal is that it is served in courses, with the soup first and everything else following after. With the soup you have a choice of beef, pork or seafood. It's very spicy with lots of tofu, and it definitely stimulates the appetite.
At this restaurant you have the choice of grilling the meats yourself on the tabletop grill or having the chef prepare it for you. We have always had the chef cook ours (what's the fun in eating out if you have to cook?) and it's always perfect.
The platter is ridiculously huge and has a variety of meats including beef, chicken, pork, and chicken wings. We don't eat pork and they have always been willing to substitute that item for something else. The meats are accompanied by a generous portion of grilled onions and peppers.
The taste is just delectable! The meats are grilled to perfection with a slightly sweet Korean BBQ glaze, and the smoky flavour is perfect. The beef is also very tender, which is a bonus.
The only complaint I would have is that they could be a little bit more generous with the condiments (kimchee, etc). Really, that is the only thing we have to complain about - everything else is awesome.
The service is consistently good, with polite servers who will take the time to explain things to you if you are not familiar with Korean food. Also, they do dish out the soup for you at the table which is a nice touch.
The ambiance is very subdued and classy with a nice view of Science World and the surrounding area. The washrooms are also very clean if you pay attention to that sort of thing. :)
All in all it is a great place to try, especially for anyone who is new to Korean food. You'll be back!
Chutney Villa serves South Indian Cuisine, which is different from what most people think of Indian food around these parts. Instead of Butter Chicken, Naan and Tandoori platters, you get broth based chicken, lamb and fish curries, and Dosa (savory vegetarian crepe).
Everything is obscenely expensive, for dishes that you can whip up at home with a decent recipe from the Internet. All the Dosa are over 9 dollars and are listed under the category: Tiffin – which
means a snack, not a meal.
The lunch specials are $9.99 and come with a choice of chicken, lamb or fish entrée, rice (the grains were large enough to plug your ears to block out the terrible music) on the side, lentil soup and a Papadam. The actual entrées are all $15 or more a la carte, and $18 or more with a dessert and something else that I can’t remember.
There was no way we were going to blow $60 at this place, so we decided to go with the lunch specials. I had the fish curry, which was very sour with 2 pieces of overcooked fish, resembling the bottom part of my shoes. My wife and sister had the chicken, which was bland. My sister requested that her curry be extra spicy, but it was not. My mom had the Egg Dosa, which was decent. All the portions were on the small side.
Service was ho hum, the drinking water was lukewarm, the overhead speakers howled annoying Indian songs (mentioned earlier) and the door that leads to the washrooms had those bead curtains that messed up my hair (twice) – that was the last straw.
The only thing I found to be slightly amusing with this place was that there was an accountant at one of the tables, tapping away at her laptop, surrounded by a pile of receipts. It’s tax season after all, and for her sake, I hope they are not paying her with the food.
Bah! Rubbish!
