Wa's sushi

When I go to Calgary, I usually visit Towa or El's for the biggest and best maki rolls.  On a recent trip, I decided to hit up Urbanspoon to see what was close by me.  Wa's popped up and the promise of authentic sushi drew me in.

Wa's is a cute little sushi place that has a strange sun room where there's additional seating.  It's far away from the sushi bar but it's well lit with natural lighting.  Since I was there early, I didn't have to worry about reservations but the restaurant was already close to full.

I realize that when you're hungry, going for sushi will lead to uncontrolled ordering!  Wa's has a lot to choose from and definitely, a lot of traditional eats that you normally wouldn't find in a sushi restaurant (think natto!)

Spicy tuna with avocado

Baked scallop

Scallop sushi, Salmon sushi, Negitoro roll, Dynamite roll

Chirashi - we were going to order the special Chirashi (which comes with sweet shrimp) but because they did not have sweet shrimp that day, the waitress helpfully suggested that we go with the regular chirashi - because it was a 'better deal' :)

Chawanmushi

I think this was a special tuna roll - which red tuna, tuna, and negitoro

Ikura don

Price wise - it wasn't cheap but it doesn't cost too much.  Probably average price for going out for sushi.  Budget around $25-$30 per person.

Service - really attentive and helpful.

Taste - fresh fish, delicious appetizers, and great selection on the menu.

If you're in Calgary and need a new sushi place to try out, go to Wa's!

Wa's Japanese Restaurant 

1721 Centre Street North, Calgary, AB

BCD Tofu House

Great food doesn't necessarily need to come at a great cost. In LA, food comes fast and cheap if you know where to look. BCD Tofu house on Wilshire (K-town) serves up hot bubbling soon tofu (Sundubu jjigae) with sizzling pots of steamed rice (scooped in mere seconds right before your eyes) and a dizzying array of banchan. Another bonus? The restaurant is opened 24hours!

Right after you order, the waiter efficiently puts down 4 bowls, banchan (most interestingly, a whole fried fish)

Assortment of Banchan

There's no need to scoop your own rice ~ the waiters there are super quick in spinning the hot stone pot and perfectly scooping out your bowl of rice.

freshly steamed rice, still moist!

Immediately afterwards, the waiter returns with some hot water and pours it into the remaining rice that's still cooking in the stone pot.

hot water poured into the hot stone bowl ~ will later turn into a bowl of porridge

When your soon tofu arrives, it almost looks like a bubbling pot of lava! It's super hot (which is the perfect time to crack to egg in) The texture oof the tofu is amazingly soft and silky and blends so well with the spicy kbroth and the sticky rice.

bubbling pot of soon tofu

You have a choice of ordering an assortment of different Korean dishes but dthe spicy pork is worth a try. You can also get Bibimbap, Bulgogi, and for the more adventurous, raw crab!

Spicy bbq pork

don't forget to crack an egg into your soon tofu!

At lunch, the portions are a bit smaller but the prices are beyond reasonable ~ between $8-$11 for a set meal that includes rice, soon tofu, and your main dish. If you are a small eater, you can always just opt for a soon tofu with rice.

For supper, the prices go up to around $15-$16, which is still incredibly reasonable for the amount of food that you get!

There are multiple BCD tofu house locations in SoCal but definitely drop by the one in K-town for better food and better service!

5 minute Reviews on the Run ~ Bistecca

When - Thursday night, mussels & martini night. $8 mussels, $5 martinis

Food - huge portions for pasta dishes - $13 for half portion, $18 for full. You will have trouble finishing a full portion if you are not a big eater.

Service - excellent, attentive. Your water glass never goes empty.

Price - $$ to $$$ depending on whether you indulge in wine, drinks, or main courses.

Birds Nest of Beijing restaurant

When I was young, I had a huge aversion to spicy food. I couldn't even handle siracha or wasabi! I don't really remember when I started to eat spicy but there was this one time, I was eating a freshly pan fried beef bun and I had dipped it into some chili bean paste. The taste was incredible. Salty, fragrant, and spicy. I was hooked. I started to add chili oil into my wonton noodles... pho. Eventually, I built up enough tolerance (or ruined my tastebuds) to eat spicy thai food, curries, and eventually, authentic Sichuan food.

I normally frequent Old Szechuan for traditional Chinese spicy eats but I decided to give Birds Nest of Beijing a try. It was recommended to me by a family friend in Calgary so I figured it should be decent.

BNofB is located in the main floor of the Comfort inn and suites in downtown Edmonton. When you walk into the restaurant, you can't help but notice that this might have once been an Italian eatery. Random decor such as a lamp post?! and brick tiles seem to point to a different era.

They serve a buffet at lunch but I was there to try some authentic Sichuan eats. We looked over the menu and realized that the English translations didn't exactly match the Chinese descriptions. We asked the waitress for some suggestions and she assured us that the 'Eggplant in sweet and sour sauce' really meant to say... "spicy eggplant" She also mentioned that the chef was from Beijing so we needn't worry about the dishes not being authentic.

We ended ordering the eggplant, a spicy pork dish, and the "saliva chicken" for an appetizer. Ok, I know what you're thinking..."saliva chicken"?!! sounds pretty gross right? Well, it's actually a literal translation of the dish (and no, the menu did not say that) It's a cold dish of steamed chicken that's marinated in a special blend of spices, peanuts, HOT chilis, chili oil, cilantro, and a really fragant spice that I can't put a name to.

"Sichuan saliva" chicken (四川口水雞 in Chinese)

When the chicken came, I was a bit... put off. It looked nothing like what had expected. Usually, the sauce is sitting on the bottom. This chicken was covered, no dunked, in the sauce. When I tried a bite, I was overwhelmed with this indescribable spiciness. My tongue and lips started to PULSE... omg, it was the weirdest feeling ever. Was I suffering from poisoning? I decided to stop because it did not taste good at all :(

Luckily, the next dish arrived - the spicy eggplant. It looked really good and was a relatively 'dry' dish. In my experience, spicy eggplant is usually quite oily and saucy but BNofB seemed to have lightly coated their eggplant in some flour and deep fried it. It was delicious. After that horribly spicy chicken, this dish was a welcome treat and went really well with rice.

spicy eggplant

The final dish was the spicy pork. It came covered in peanuts. I'm not a fan of peanuts in dishes so I picked around this dish. It had a very 'local Chinese dish' - feel to it. It looked and tasted like something I had before in Beijing. It was quite spicy so only order it if you can handle the heat!

spicy pork

This place was a 'nice to try' for me but if I'm craving some spicy food, I think I will go back to Old Szechuan. The service was great though, so I do give them points for that.

Price ~ $$ - Dinner for 2 (with tea, rice, and 3 dishes) came to $45 with tax and tip

Service ~ ****/5 - the waiter looked no older than 18 but he was professional and attentive. He doled out some house soup and asked if he could bring us some dessert 'sweet soup' at the end of the meal. He was always appearing at the right times to refill our water as well.

Meguro Ramen

Edmonton has a new Ramen joint in Chinatown called Meguro Ramen (10626-97 St). It's always exciting to see new restaurants pop up and compete with the old faves. I think we are all developing a more international palate thanks to cheap flights to exotic locales :D

Anyway, I made it out last week on Friday (their 2nd day in business) and had a quick lunch with my partner in crime. The menu is simple with the following types of ramen:

Shio, Shoyu, Miso, Spicy Miso, Veggie, and Tan Tan (I might have missed something...) They also have a few appies in the back - chicken karage, gyozas, kimchi, to name a few.

I settled on the Shio Ramen and my P.I.C. ordered the Miso Ramen. It took a while for the bowls to come out but we were not disappointed. The noodles had a really good chew to them and the broth was hearty. The pork were slices of rolled up goodness with a nice balance of fat and flavour. Lots of goodies topped the ramen like bamboo, seaweed, half of a soft boiled egg, and fresh scallions.

Shio Ramen

I actually re-visited the following day and tried the spicy miso ramen and the chicken karage. The chicken karage came in a very generous portion and tasted really great. Not greasy and had an almost peanut-y taste to it. Was it peanut oil? Ground peanuts? I have no idea but it's worth a try. My spicy miso ramen came and the broth was awesome. It wasn't actually very spicy - a mild kick to the normal miso broth, but it was also very rich and tasty.

chicken karage


My overall impression of the restaurant? The layout is a bit odd as there are no 2-person tables. All tables seat 4 so it makes it hard to maximize the space. We watched the line grow on Saturday as many people only wanted a table for 2. I felt really selfish for taking up a table for 4 - unfortunately, it's not really customary to split tables here with strangers - unlike HK :P Maybe they'll change it up, maybe not. It could also be a way to control the crowd of hungry diners as it did take them a while to produce the noodles.

Taste - probably the best bowl of ramen I've had in Edmonton... I would rank them higher than Nomiya.

Anyway, if you're in the 'hood (Chinatown) try it out! It definitely is a welcome change from all the pho houses :)

Price ~ $ (about $8-10 for a bowl of ramen, currently 10% off too!)
Service ~ 4/5 (great service, not overbearing)

McCafe

McCafe's are finally coming to town! The first *I think* incarnation of a free-ish standing McCafe can be found in Commerce Place, upper level across from the Sunterra. They have separate counters now for 'regular' McD grub and their McCafe fare. There is a pastry display case that currently holds their muffins (can't beat $1.39 for a muffin and coffee) as well as cheesecake ($1.99), chocolate croissants(79 cents each or 2 for $1.59), and cookies(59 cents each)!

With these prices, it's really going to ramp up the competition between Starbucks/Timmies.

Taste - so far, their espresso based drinks are pretty darn good. The mocha is really well done and their americano's are smooth and fragrant.

The pastries - I've only tried their chocolate croissant and cookie - the croissant is a lovely serving size and very tasty. The usual buttery/flakey/chocolately goodness you come to expect. The cookie was alright - probably something you would order if you had a sudden craving for a cookie.

If you're trolling around downtown and need a pick me up, consider McCafe! It'll be much kinder to your wallet so you can save your hard earned cash on something else :D

Bistro Praha

When Bistro Praha reopened in their new location, I was excited. I tried getting a table with no reservations on a Thursday evening but was sadly turned away. Undeterred, we made reservations and ended up having a very delightful summertime date at Bistro Praha.

I've never eaten at their old location but have heard so many good things about this place. Sitting down, I notice the old-school feel of the decor and loved how 'homey' it felt.

The menu is quite simple and not overwhelming with choices. We selected their specialties:

Steak a la Tartare
Raw filet mignon scraped, exquisitely spiced, garnished, served with rye bread toast. A dish of true gourmet.

Wiener Schnitzel "Cordon Bleu"
Selected cut filled with shaved ham and Edam cheese; an unforgettable experience, served with potato salad, lemon and Small Green or Tomato Onion salad

I must say... the wiener schnitzel was good but the steak tartare was amazing. If you have no qualms about eating raw meat, then you MUST order this dish. The rye bread was crunchy and slightly chewy and complimented the steak SO well. You get a salad with your meal (simple green salad - romaine lettuce, shaved mozza, and vinaigrette or a tomato/onion salad)

The service could be better (we waited until the end of the dinner for them to finally refill our water) but the food came out quickly.

I would go back, but most likely for a glass of wine and the steak tartare!

Price ~ $$$ closer to the pricier side if you start ordering more items

Service ~ **/***** - the waiters could have been more attentive

Ambience ~ warm, cozy, cute place to dine.