Earls

Let me tell you the short list of big chain restaurants (that serve dinner/late night) within 10 minutes of where I live: Moxies, Earls, Boston Pizza. Now you know why I come here quite often.. 

Dungeness Crab and Asparagus Linguini $19.75. Im usually leaning towards the homestyle, extra meat extra sauce when it comes to pasta. This is the total opposite but I made sure to come back for it the next time i was at Earls, and the time after that. This is one of the few things I have ordered with the word crab on the menu and the plate.

Cajin Blackened Chicken $20.00. Does anyone believe me when I say this was my very first time having their warm potato salad? I couldn't get enough (which resulted in a very high carb dinner for me)! As for the chicken, just your standard blackened chicken, slightly over-salty and dry but nothing to complain about.

As for dessert, I am sad to say they have discontinued their cheesecake. I was too heartbroken to try a new dessert.



Website: earls.ca
Address:
10160 152 Street
Surrey, BC

Society

I had heard so many bad reviews about this place but, as a food blogger, decided to try it out anyways. All my friends that have already been to Society told me that the place was nice, girly and loungy. This was true. They also told me that the food here sucks. Also true.

I called this a good start to a bad night.. Buffalo Jumbo Prawns. They have taken this off the menu.. too bad because they were very good and fresh! The chef probably doesn't like to have tasty things on the menu.

Hawaiian Pizza for one. I did not like this at all. I'd pick Pizza Hut over this any day. The dough was undercooked and burnt at the same time. The crust was dry and hard, and there wasn't enough sauce.

Spaghetti and Kobe Meatballs. I don't understand how Italian Kitchen and Society are the both part of Glowbal, but can have completely opposite Kobe meatballs. How hard is it to make Kobe meatballs!? Let me tell you how these tasted: like over processed ground beef. The pasta was well over done, the goat cheese was watery and the bread was inedible.

All in all, this is more of a drinking after a real dinner place, NOT a place to have a good meal. I do not recommend Society for their food what so ever. However, I am willing to give it another shot so look out for my second post on this restaurant


Address:
1257 Hamilton Street
Vancouver, BC
Website: http://www.glowbalgroup.com/society

Quails Gate: Old Vines

This restaurant is located at the Quail's Gate winery. Even in the dark this place is beautiful. I especially wanted to come here because the chefs that cook here are not just your typical chefs, but they specialize in cooking with wine.

My first thought was that this reminds me of the Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver.

The restaurant was very empty since we came on a Tuesday night at 9 pm and the drive out here is a pretty long and dark.

The complimentary bread was fresh and crunchy.

Pan Seared Scallops $16. These were cooked perfectly with a very deeply seasoned sauce which was calmed with the citrus from the fennel leaves.

Side of sauteed beets $7.50.

Braised Wild Boar Gargenelli $25. I loved this one. Perfect seasoning, braised perfectly, with lots of mushrooms. The portion was also huge.

Ling Cod $26. This was not on the menu and was a special for the week. It came out so beautifully plated. The cod was a little dry but that puree made up for it.

Address:

3303 Boucherie Road
West Kelowna, BC


Website:
http://quailsgate.com/restaurant/

Wild Apple

The same place we went for breakfast, earlier that week. We couldn't help but to come back and try the dinner menu.

Risotto Croquette $14. With 3 dips: tomato compote, lemon basil aioli, red onion jam. I liked the lemon basil the most. I just love any aioli dip. The croquettes were okay but a tad bit dry. My boyfriend loved them though!

Duck Ala Confit $26. The sauce that came with this was A AMAZING. The duck was a little dry and tough but very forgiving with the sauce.

I ordered the Red Wine Braised Shredded Short-Rib Rigatoni $26. How can you NOT order that!? It didn't look very good coming out but lift the blanket of rigaoni and ....

....you get THIS! The short-rib was cooked to perfection and you can really taste the red wine in it. OH SO flavorful. I also love anything with lots of tomatoes.

One of my new favourite chardonnays: Red Rooster from our very own province.

Chocolate Cake $8. How delicious does this look? It reminds me of something you would see on the food network, on that "sweet genius" show. There were so many different elements on this plate that combined together to be amazing.

Blueberry Crepe $8. This one was okay but was definitely NOT fresh. The only thing I liked about it was the fresh whipped cream topping.. and ice cream of course.

You already know I ordered ice cream but I took this to show you they're edible chocolate label. Yes, its chocolate! Never seen that before.

Homemade Macaroni

I LOVE cooking pasta. Its the easiest thing to make and conveniently, in Canada, almost everything is pre packaged, ready to make. I try to make things as close to "from scratch" as I can. This is one of my favourites. Bacon, mushroom, and chicken macaroni in mushroom-garlic alfredo sauce! Yes I am aware this needs a better name.

Fry up LOTS of bacon. I pre-cut them in small pieces before throwing them in the pan. Mind you, the bacon does shrink lots after its cooked and crispy so don't make em too small. I just used my scissors.. no need for exactly equal shapes.
After the bacon is cooked to my liking, I would add the chicken and mushrooms. The bacon fat sort of deep frys the chicken and adds saltiness so not need for extra seasoning!

After everything is cooked, strain all that extra bacon fat out. Then, I add some powdered garlic alfredo pasta sauce (about 1/4 package), canned cream of mushroom (also 1/4 can) and a couple splashes of milk. You'll get the hang of it once you start cooking this more often. If it's too thick, add more milk. Too thin, add more powder or soup. My trick to adding texture and last minute thickness is to add parmesan cheese. This evens everything out and gives the dish some cheesiness! Don't forget to mix the pasta in well. You want the sauce to be inside the macaroni, not just around it.

AAND viola! I like to add lots of dry parsley.. or fresh if you have it!

I used the same technique for this one using ground pork and lots of mushrooms.

Italian Kitchen: Late Night Menu

I have been wanting to come here for a while. My plan is to try all the Glowbal Restaurants within the next year. I haven't read any reviews on Italian Kitchen but I just LOVE pasta! So my 2 girlfriends and I came by for their late night menu. Honestly we didn't even realize they had a late night menu. Obviously, we would've preferred the regular menu (It looks huge on their website) but this one had to do for that night. 

Beets & Arugula Salad $12. A great start to the night. This thing had like 3 different kinds of beets, all delicious of course. I couldn't get enough of that cheese! If you've been reading this blog for a while you will very well know I am a fan of goat cheese. A very well made salad and very recommended.

Linguine with Jumbo Prawns $23. This one was mine. For some reason, it wasn't very photogenic but it tasted like heaven.. well not really, but very close! This entrée included 4 perfectly cooked jumbo prawns that actually look jumbo! The sauce looks a littler watery but as I can remember, it was the perfect consistency as well. The capers and olives added a nice and salty "zing" to this dish. I definitely got what I paid for.

Lobster Tagliatelle $25. Before arriving, we had looked up their menu online and were so hungry that we sort of picked out what we wanted already. This wasn't on the late night menu but B really wanted some lobster pasta! The chefs made an exception. This one looked the best out of the three but tasted the worst in our opinion. If you can't tell from the photo, the "pasta" in this dish was rice noodles. This basically ruins the whole dish. We obviously didn't realize what Tagliatelle meant. Anyway, aside from the rice noodles, everything else was awesome. This had so much lobster and the tomato mascarpone sauce was delish! I just might order this with a different pasta type the next time I visit. Probably linguine.

Spaghetti with Spicy Kobe Meatballs $25. This one was my favorite. Pretend all that parmesan isn't there. I forgot to take the picture pre-cheesed. I really liked how this one had a white truffle cream sauce for the spaghetti and a marinara for the meatballs. The 2 went very well together. I probably don't even need to tell you how good, soft, and moist those Kobe meatballs are! Ironically, Kobe was right across from Italian Kitchen! These meatballs were HUGE! She couldn't even finish them all. Oh yeah, and the whole thing was topped with a big chunk of goat cheese, which is hidden under the huge layer of parmesan.

Tiramisu $8. I really liked this one. The mascarpone mousse was awesome. I really like it when the lady fingers are still moist when served and whoever made this, nailed it! 

Overall, my experience here was very good. 9/10. The servers were very kind and welcoming till almost the end because they wanted to close. We were the last ones there so I really don't blame them. I will be returning soon. Hope you guys get to try this place!

Address:

1037 Alberni Street

Vancouver, BC 

Website:

www.glowbalgroup.com/italiankitchen

Reb Robin: Their Mac and Cheese is to DIE for!

I was still full from Nando's but the boy was hungry so we headed out to Red Robin for dinner! I been here probably 30 times and 10/30 times, I've ordered the Mac and Cheese.

 But not this time! T loves this too! I think they up'd the prices cause this used to be $10.99 and its $12.50 now. Well, it doesn't matter cause I would still pay up to $20 for this shhh. Its cause it reminds me of my childhood fav, Michellina's Mac and Cheese. This is obviously better with the cheese on top and stuff.. I don't care what anyone says, I will keep ordering this even when I can get Michellina's for $2!

This is new on the menu, Chicken and Mushroom Linguine $14. This came out HUGE. I thought it would be the size of the mac and cheese. It obviously isn't. I was already still full so I only ate half. It was a little bland and sort of tasted like mushroom soup and pasta, something I could make at home in 10 minutes but its all goood, comfort food is always the way to go.

Lava cake $7 is probably one of the best things every invented. Partially because I don't gotta order my ice cream on the side when I get this. I liked how they had the strawberry stuff at the bottom and the perfect amount of ice cream.

The Mudd Pie $7. It tasted like DQ's icecream cake, end of story.

Joe Fortes: Dine Out Vancouver #2

So for round 2, we ended up at Joe Fortes downtown. This place feels very welcoming and their style is old French which T and I both like. We made reservations only 30 mins prior to arrival but they still gave us a really nice booth in the corner away from all the crazyness. The restaurant was still crazy busy at 10:00.

 Jumbo Prawn Cocktail. SO GOOD. I want more.

 Caesar Salad. I really liked their dressing. It was really garlic-ey but the lemon soothed it down and made a delicious dressing! Yay!

 Scallop and Prawn Pasta. No complaints. Im a little on the fence about whether I like it or not. As much as I loved those little peas, I don't think they went well with this dish. Feels like something I could've made at home. Not that it was bad though, cause I gobbled this thing up in minutes!

 New York Steak. This sauce was AH-mazing! So were the mashed potatoes. I would've preferred a tenderloin but this was still awesome and well made.

 Don't you love the plating of this? Other than the fact that it looked nice, it was equally yummy! I would order this again, with extra ice cream.

This is almost as comparable to the Tiramisu at the Sicillian in Emonton. Not AS good, but still awesome. I also gobbled this thing up.

Both 3 course dinners were $38. I think it was an okay deal. Obviously $28 would be better but what can you really say. I would come here again for their regular menu. Overall a great dinner.

White Spot

Usually we would only come here for breakfast for their Eggs Benedict. Mostly cause they serve it all day and we are late risers. This time, their new comfort food menu caught my eye. And when I have no idea what to choose on the menu, I go for spaghetti.. Cause how can you mess that up right? WELL apparently you can..

Spaghetti and Meatballs - $12.99. It DID NOT look like what it did in the picture. The sauce tasted like salsa.. literally, I was eating spaghetti noodles with salsa! And yes I mean the one you use to dip your tortilla chips in. It was bad. Ill give it to them for the meatballs though. I could never make them like that.

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture. The Smokey BBQ Burger was deeeeeelish. We subbed the fries with sweet potato fries - $2. Those things are addicting.