Calgary Food, coffee, etc. - Page 242

WIGS · #**4821** Posted: **Jun 23, 2012, 9:49 PM**

Rusty, I'm looking forward to you trying El Charrito and giving a review as imho you are the Unofficial SSP Calgarian restaurant (and coffee) reviewer!

WIGS · #**4822** Posted: **Jun 23, 2012, 9:55 PM**

My roommate treated me to ice cream today at Village Ice Cream http://www.villageicecream.com/ 431, 10th Avenue SE

Today is their retail opening with buy 1 get 1 ice cream cones!
I spied a brochure or menu that said they are open til 11pm!
I highly recommend it. had samples of Chile Chocolate (amazing!), Huckleberry (nice), and Salted Caramel (yum). My roommate got a 2 scoop cone of Chile Chocolate/Salted Caramel and I had Huckleberry/Chile Chocolate. http://twitter.com/Villageicecream/s.../photo/1/large

check it out guys and gals!

fusili · #**4823** Posted: **Jun 23, 2012, 11:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wooster

Count me in as a fan of Holy Grill - excellent breakfast. Had the regular eggs benny. The hollandaise was lighter than most. Tasted delicious.

Get the South Beach Benny or the Bacon Avocado Crisp. Both excellent.

Jimby · #**4824** Posted: **Jun 24, 2012, 4:28 AM**

I have been wanting to try Calabro so tonight I persuaded a friend to go with me. They didn't answer the phone so I couldn't make reservations and when we got over there it became apparent they are closed.
We ended up at Chop in Chinook. Chop is owned by the people who own Moxies and Denny's (in western Canada).
The food was good, we had a rib eye and prime rib, but the service wasn't very polished. 4sure OMG dude, I'd go back for the prime rib.

mwalker_mw · #**4825** Posted: **Jun 24, 2012, 4:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by WIGS

I went to El Charrito last week and got 3 tacos @$2.25/taco and a Mexican pop for takeout. Of the 3 I tried I'd rank chicken the best, followed by pork and the steak taco at the bottom (I'd gladly pay $4-5 for a better cut-the steak was pretty bad and tough). That being said I'm super happy I have a Mexican option just down the street from me!
what food did you try?
and I agree about signage/visual presence and interior (both desperately need improvement as do menu design-looks like printed via inkjet from 1993)

criticism aside I really hope they succeed!

I've done a shredded beef and shredded pork burrito and both shredded beef and chicken tacos. I prefer shreded for that type of food so can't comment on the quality of the steak. The shredded options are your standard slow cooked (i.e. pulled pork) style meats, nicely flavored. The key to these tacos standing out over standard Calgary taco fare is all the garnishes and veggies. Nice vibrant flavor - not just a bunch of lettuce and tomato.

Urban Spoon has some good pics of the options.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/15/168...taurant-photos

mersar · #**4826** Posted: **Jun 24, 2012, 8:25 PM**

Going to have to try El Charrito then.

Wife and I wanted to do a breakfast buffet this morning and after some searching last night found out that Nick's Steakhouse by McMahon does one (we've usually gone to the Glenmore Inn for buffet on Sunday mornings if we've been down in that area of the city or to Cora's if we are just not wanting to cook at home that morning and are near one).

Nick's was pretty good overall, $24/person so it is a more pricey meal but that included steak cooked to your liking and a decent selection of food (normal breakfast stuff, salads, roast beef and a good desert selection including an amazingly good cheesecake). Steaks were cooked exactly as asked, and were juicy and tender and had amazing flavour. Definitely somewhere we will go again in the future.

WIGS · #**4827** Posted: **Jun 24, 2012, 9:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwalker_mw

I've done a shredded beef and shredded pork burrito and both shredded beef and chicken tacos. I prefer shreded for that type of food so can't comment on the quality of the steak. The shredded options are your standard slow cooked (i.e. pulled pork) style meats, nicely flavored. The key to these tacos standing out over standard Calgary taco fare is all the garnishes and veggies. Nice vibrant flavor - not just a bunch of lettuce and tomato.

Urban Spoon has some good pics of the options.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/15/168...taurant-photos

agreed! but I'd be apprehensive to serve my (non existent) dog the steak taco

ok maybe I'm exaggerating a bit!

stophs · #**4828** Posted: **Jun 25, 2012, 6:52 PM**

I believe the new restaurant, 80th and Ivy, on 17th at 10a street (next to Wild Wing) is open today.

Rusty van Reddick · #**4829** Posted: **Jun 25, 2012, 10:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by stophs

I believe the new restaurant, 80th and Ivy, on 17th at 10a street (next to Wild Wing) is open today.

You got it. I'd already had lunch but stopped in. It's GORGEOUS. Menu strikes me as pricey but I'll judge it by what's on my plate when I actually eat there. Until then- amazing reuse of what had been an Adult Source once upon a time.

Here's the "upstairs" (in the rear up a few steps) dining area:

And the "lower" more casual bar area in front:

The lights are very interesting- lots of thought went into design here.

You Need A Thneed · #**4830** Posted: **Jun 25, 2012, 10:58 PM**

Ate at Paloma on Friday evening with my family. I thought the food was good. However, they call themselves a family restaurant, and no kids menu was given to us. We will try it again, for sure.

earl69 · #**4831** Posted: **Jun 26, 2012, 12:49 AM**

Thanks for the photos of 80th/Ivy - looks very nice. Can't wait to sample their eats.

eggbert · #**4832** Posted: **Jun 26, 2012, 4:46 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by WIGS

My roommate treated me to ice cream today at Village Ice Cream http://www.villageicecream.com/ 431, 10th Avenue SE

Today is their retail opening with buy 1 get 1 ice cream cones!
I spied a brochure or menu that said they are open til 11pm!
I highly recommend it. had samples of Chile Chocolate (amazing!), Huckleberry (nice), and Salted Caramel (yum). My roommate got a 2 scoop cone of Chile Chocolate/Salted Caramel and I had Huckleberry/Chile Chocolate. http://twitter.com/Villageicecream/s.../photo/1/large

check it out guys and gals!

THANKS FOR YOUR RECOMMENDATION WIGS! Went there with my fiancee tonight. Had a good chat with one of the owners, he let us try pretty much every flavour they had. He said since the Saturday opening they've already become pretty busy as word is spreading. I dropped the SSP name as he asked how I found out about them.

I decided to go with a Chile Chocolate and Toasted Coconut in one of the homemade waffle cone. My fiancee has pretty much the same thing but decided to go with Village Vanilla Bean instead of the coconut. All we both could say is wow! The Chile Chocolate has to be one of the best flavours we've ever tasted. Plus that waffle cone was outstanding, super crunchy and tons of flavour.

They even have small tins of ice cream so you can enjoy it at home. Unfortunately, they didn't have the Chili Chocolate in that format as of yet. The owner told me it has turned far more popular than they thought it would be. So, everyone, go there and demand the Chile Chocolate!

Innersoul1 · #**4833** Posted: **Jun 26, 2012, 2:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by earl69

Thanks for the photos of 80th/Ivy - looks very nice. Can't wait to sample their eats.

LOVE what they have doen with the lighting!

WIGS · #**4834** Posted: **Jun 27, 2012, 3:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by eggbert

THANKS FOR YOUR RECOMMENDATION WIGS...

no problem, eggbert! glad to hear you're a fan of Village Icecream as well

mersar · #**4835** Posted: **Jun 27, 2012, 6:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by eggbert

THANKS FOR YOUR RECOMMENDATION WIGS! Went there with my fiancee tonight. Had a good chat with one of the owners, he let us try pretty much every flavour they had. He said since the Saturday opening they've already become pretty busy as word is spreading. I dropped the SSP name as he asked how I found out about them.

...

Yep. I took my wife there on Sunday, she had the toasted coconut and I had the strawberry after much deliberation. Definitely a nice addition to the area.

Rusty van Reddick · #**4836** Posted: **Jul 2, 2012, 6:23 PM**

We checked out Village Ice Cream last week. The sweet spot for me was once scoop each of vanilla and salted caramel. Just outstanding.

There is a new Thai- proper Thai, not Viet "Thai", with a Thai chef who has worked at both Thai Sa On and Thai Boat- place opening in the former Jaro Blue space. It's called Khaosan Thai Kitchen. Website is up, no content yet: http://www.khaosanthaikitchen.ca/

There's also a new fast-food Thai option that replaces the not all that great Touch of Ginger in the Eau Claire food court. It's called Jackie's Thai, Jackie being the cook and yes she's actually Thai as are most of the staff. They opened yesterday. I had a penang curry (beef, sauce with lots of ground peanut) and a chicken green curry. Portion was HUGE for $9.95. I preferred the penang but both were good; not the best I've ever had but the best fast-food Thai I've had probably since Green Mango in Toronto. MUCH better curries than Thai Express (which I love for some things but not their watery curries) and they intend to change the menu around every day.

stophs · #**4837** Posted: **Jul 3, 2012, 1:57 AM**

I was in Olympic Plaza for the Canada Day festivities and noticed a new place called Carne Street Meat, which opened in the tiny space just east of Teatro that was nothing for the longest time. Looks like it's owned by the Teatro group.

A few other things I noticed in the new version of City Palate that I think haven't been mentioned here yet:
- Teatro group will be opening a place in EAP called cucina
- CRMR is opening a place called C, I believe where Avocado used to be on 17th

WIGS · #**4838** Posted: **Jul 3, 2012, 4:48 AM**

My roommate again treated me to Village Ice Cream today as we went on a long walk of East Village, St. Patrick's Island and Bridgeland/Renfrew. She rocks!

I had a scoop of Bolivian Coffee bean. delicious!

Also had pizza from Roma's in Bridgeland. Prosciutto, Artichoke heart and mushroom. mmmm really good! only downside is they raised their prices recently but they haven't printed updated menus to reflect that. #updateyourfreakinmenus!

fusili · #**4839** Posted: **Jul 9, 2012, 4:06 PM**

I checked out Clive Burger on Saturday night. I know others already commented, but that place is freaking amazing. Not only are the burgers fantastic, they are only $6 a piece (w/o cheese). The custard shakes are to die for as well. Great place for a cheap burger. That place will be a keeper. I think it will be there for a long time.

kw5150 · #**4840** Posted: **Jul 9, 2012, 4:25 PM**

Seriously, this is one of the best resources for good food. Thanks everyone.