Pagolac
9642 54 Avenue NW
10566 97 Street NW (Location visited)
Edmonton, AB
Another Vietnamese restaurant post of Edmonton? Well, in a way I couldn’t help it. Their Chinatown seems to be more on the lines of Viet Nam Town! So, why not try another restaurant? In this case, I went for dinner for a Vietnamese style set menu: Bo 7 Mon or “beef seven styles”. This isn’t the first time I have encountered this set menu: Previously, I had it in Thai Hang along with fellow bloggers Karl and Sherman. However, with so many Vietnamese restaurants here, I couldn’t help myself try this one as well.
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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Vietnamese
Corso 32
10345 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, AB
In a way, food bloggers are seldom restricted by boundaries. For those of us who are lucky enough to travel, chances are we will contact local ones for suggestions and what not. For example, last year, Phyllis of me Hungry! visited us in Vancouver and we were happy to be her host for some local eats (despite she is originally from Vancouver). And while none of us where local, something similar happened when Sherman, Mijune and I visited San Francisco for FoodBuzz Food Blogger’s festival (here and here), where we ended up meeting with Naomi who writes The Gastrognome at Incanto. And, of course, Chris in Edmonton who writes Eating is the Hard Part, whom, along with Sarah, I met personally when I visited Edmonton last year (restaurant visit here). Since I was back in town, I though I should check with him again for dinner! Of course, me being the one visiting, I thought I should let the locals decide. And Chris’ suggestion? Corso 32 in Downtown Edmonton.
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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Italian
Delux Burger Bar
9682 142 Street NW
West Edmonton Mall (Location visited)
Edmonton, AB
I have an issue with restaurants which takes something “simple” and, for the heck of it, they complicate it by changing its name. Such is the case of gastropub. What is wrong with pub fare? OK, if you want a fancier environment, fine, just call it a “restaurant” instead of a pub. Of course, that’s my line of thought and it hasn’t stopped anybody from opening fancier versions of regular fare. In this case a “burger bar”. So, while in Alberta, which produces tons of beef, well, why not give this a try? And that’s how I ended up going to Delux Burger Bar.
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Edmonton,
Lunch
Tau Bay Restaurant
10660 98 Street NW
Edmonton, AB
To most of us, pho appears to be that quintessential Vietnamese dish, along with banh mi. It is can appeal to almost everybody and can easily be adjusted to even neophytes to this cuisine. After all, if we break it down to basics, it is noodles, broth and some meat. Toppings in the form of bean sprouts, Thai basil, ngo gai (sawleaf herb), jalapeño, et al, plus some lime are on the side for the dinner to adjust to suit his/her taste. However, because a lot of people haven’t been to Viet Nam, myself included, I have no yardstick; instead, I can only make assessments base on what I like. However, there are also times where you have fanatics, people who deem that a restaurant has a certain je ne sais quoi… That is the case of Tau Bay Restaurant. How popular is this place? How about it not being open year round and, as a result, people have even created a site just to confirm it is open/closed… At that point, well, you simply can’t help to find out why people has reached that point. I guess the only way for me to find out is to visit it.
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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Lunch,
Pho
Pho Century (Kingsway and Sperling)
6701 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on Pho Century. Almost in no time, Karl of The Friday Lunch wrote back a comment about his subpar experience, not to mention they were opening a second location. Curiosity got the best out of me and let’s just say I had to visit it…
Update: Due to some interesting coincidences in life Sherman shokutsu of Foodosophy, wrote a post of this location as well! Check it here.
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Pho,
Vietnamese
Elephant & Castle
Chain restaurant, several locations
385 Burrard Street (location visited)
Vancouver, BC
A small reminder from 11 months ago: During the Winter Olympic Games, due to what was perceived as “difference in culture”, some restaurants imposed a mandatory gratuities to the final bill. As a result of that, I banned myself from some restaurants. Whether I will continue not supporting them, well, that might be up in the air; however, for this post, I ended up with PO in Elephant & Castle, one of those restaurants in that said list, for convenience purposes out of all things. Damn me…
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Lunch,
pub,
Vancouver
Havana Cafe
1212 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
On my University years, my schedule was the usual crazy one for those who were working and studying. In my case, my latest class was 10:30 p.m. and, a lot of times, it mean grabbing something to eat. There were some “usual” 24 hours places and, in one of such places, I always went for one thing: a Cuban sandwich. What I liked about that sandwich was that combination of savoury, sweet (*), sour/acidic and gooey cheesy. While there are great sandwiches here in Vancouver, I haven’t been able to find anything that resembles it yet. Now, it isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing, as I have learned to “appreciate” the other sandwich types. Instead, well, I miss it. When Sherman went to Havana Cafe and mentioned they make this sandwich, I was all up for it. Alas, it partially fell off the radar but, on one night, I was near Brittania Community Centre and that gave me a good excuse to drop by for that Cuban sandwich.
(*) This might due to the use of a braided bread, rather than the traditional Cuban bread.
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Tagged as:
Commercial Drive,
Latin America,
Sandwich,
Soup,
Vancouver
