Another Ciao Winnipeg "Dine About" experience with a couple friends, this time a fairly new restaurant on Corydon (at Wilton) called Bamboo. Fantastic!
Rating: 1 Poor - 5 Great
Atmosphere................4.5
Music .......................N/A
Food............................5
Service........................5
Menu Selection..........5 (see note)
Wine Selection ..........4.5 (see note)
Price............................5
*price is based on quality of food
note - Menu was limited given the Ciao Winnipeg promotion
This restaurant used to be a casual ma & pa type place, so when the owners of Bamboo started renovating, I got curious. I was greeted and seated promptly to await my fellow diners, who I'm pretty sure appreciate great food and wine as much as myself.
The decor has certainly changed, and for the better. Warm chocolate brown walls with touches of green and sketches of bamboo here and there - I really liked it. I don't recall music, but the ambience was still very good, even though you were close to other diners the mood was still relaxed and voices were kept low.
Due to the promotion currently available, the menu is a limited $25/person (plus wine) choice of one of three appetizers, one of three entrees and one of two desserts. Generally a meat, seafood and vegetarian dish are the offerings.
The wine menu was paired with the individual menu selections and we went with a trusty Wolf Blass yellow label. Our server was very knowledgable and professional. Went through the menu describing each dish before ordering, then quickly returned with our wine choice.
My first course was a warm beet noodle salad with sunchokes, goat cheese and mint - very tasty, the mint leaves really added a great punch to the dish.
All three of us went for the Bison rib-eye steak. Delicious! Served with asparagus, cooked to perfection, and some amazingly prepared yams, we couldn't stop talking about the yams. I'm pretty sure we all cleared the plates with ease it was so good.
Dessert was a tough choice: raspberry infused nanaimo bar or Shiraz poached pears. I went with the nanaimo bar, it too was very good, very rich, but good. One of my friends who had the pears was equally impressed.
Throughout the night one thing that really stood out and impressed me, and you're starting to not see this much anymore, was when I lifted the wine bottle to pour my friend a touch more wine, our server was quick to appear and request that we allow her to serve us. Call me a snob, but that is service I look for and appreciate! Bravo Bamboo!
I can't wait to take my husband here, so delicious!
Overall rating has to be an easy 4.75 - can anyone really be perfect?
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Dessert Sinsations - Feb '08
Me and my girlfriends ventured to Dessert Sinsations for a little get together last week. We wanted to try the Ciao Winnipeg "Dine About" menu and of course try a new to us restaurant. Fairly pleased with this choice.
http://www.dessertsinsations.com/
Rating: 1 Poor - 5 Great
Atmosphere................4.5
Music .......................N/A
Food............................3 (Dessert....5)
Service........................2.5
Menu Selection..........4
Wine Selection ........N/A
Price...........................3*
*price is based on quality of food
Finally, I was the not first to show up and arrived on time, not my usual 10 minutes too early (something I'm working on). The atmosphere I really liked. Very modern and warm. High ceilings, bright colours and the smells of cakes and pastries in the air - what's not to love about that??
The 'Dine About' menu looked fantastic and we each opted for the chicken, salmon was the other offering. Soup was some sort of chowder and apparently good, I opted for the salad but was rather disappointed with it. It was supposed to be mixed greens with potato, bacon and sundried tomato. I did not see any tomatos and searched high and low for a dressing.
Our next course was the chicken with mixed veg, rice pilaf and a creamy dijon sauce. Basically it was chicken cordon bleu. Not much flavour here, aside from the lump of pepper the server dumped on my plate without me requesting it - and no apology for doing so.
Finally dessert came. mmmm! This place is called Dessert Sinsations for a reason. Three of us chose the cheesecake with warm apple compote, and our 4th guest decided on the chocolate parfait. Both equally delicious, although mine was better the next day, a little less frozen.
I can't/won't comment on the wine as I just had coffee and didn't even look at the list.
I wasn't overly impressed with our server. She appeared to be either pre-occupied or really not excited about her job. And this reflected on the service.
I will return to try a different dish, will definately return for the desserts and will give them another shot on the service.
I think my overall rating would have to be 3.5.
http://www.dessertsinsations.com/
Rating: 1 Poor - 5 Great
Atmosphere................4.5
Music .......................N/A
Food............................3 (Dessert....5)
Service........................2.5
Menu Selection..........4
Wine Selection ........N/A
Price...........................3*
*price is based on quality of food
Finally, I was the not first to show up and arrived on time, not my usual 10 minutes too early (something I'm working on). The atmosphere I really liked. Very modern and warm. High ceilings, bright colours and the smells of cakes and pastries in the air - what's not to love about that??
The 'Dine About' menu looked fantastic and we each opted for the chicken, salmon was the other offering. Soup was some sort of chowder and apparently good, I opted for the salad but was rather disappointed with it. It was supposed to be mixed greens with potato, bacon and sundried tomato. I did not see any tomatos and searched high and low for a dressing.
Our next course was the chicken with mixed veg, rice pilaf and a creamy dijon sauce. Basically it was chicken cordon bleu. Not much flavour here, aside from the lump of pepper the server dumped on my plate without me requesting it - and no apology for doing so.
Finally dessert came. mmmm! This place is called Dessert Sinsations for a reason. Three of us chose the cheesecake with warm apple compote, and our 4th guest decided on the chocolate parfait. Both equally delicious, although mine was better the next day, a little less frozen.
I can't/won't comment on the wine as I just had coffee and didn't even look at the list.
I wasn't overly impressed with our server. She appeared to be either pre-occupied or really not excited about her job. And this reflected on the service.
I will return to try a different dish, will definately return for the desserts and will give them another shot on the service.
I think my overall rating would have to be 3.5.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Dalat - Chinese/Vietnamese
Saturday night we felt as though some Asian food was needed. We were planning on skating on the river later on and weren't really in the mood to make a mess of our kitchen. So we headed to Dalat, on Taylor...meh.
Rating: 1 Poor - 5 Great
Atmosphere................3
Music .......................N/A
Food............................3
Service........................1
Menu Selection..........3
Wine Selection ..........1
Price...........................3*
*price is based on quality of food
I'll start with the atmosphere. It's quite modern looking, basic and for the most part clean. We didn't enjoy starring at the multiple dirty, empty tables. We were there for over an hour and not one table was cleaned during this time, despite the numerous staff who appeared to be working.
The service...hmm, what service. We were promptly seated then for about 15 minutes sat with our menus closed as the servers huddled at the till or walked passed us.
We ordered the house wine which was okay, weren't expecting spectacular wine, and the price was decent. Server didn't know the name of it and failed to pour us glasses - we don't like that.
Dishes came quickly and were plentyful. Shrimp in black bean sauce was good. Chow Mein didn't have much flavour, but the vegetables were fresh and lots of them. We also ordered a spicy chicken/lemon grass dish - we don't think we got it. It tasted more like a sweet ginger sauce, but alright.
Not sure I'd go to this restaurant again, might order take out if they deliver and try a few different things to better judge. Most dishes seemed to be in the $8-12 range depending on meat choice.
Overall rating = 2.5
Rating: 1 Poor - 5 Great
Atmosphere................3
Music .......................N/A
Food............................3
Service........................1
Menu Selection..........3
Wine Selection ..........1
Price...........................3*
*price is based on quality of food
I'll start with the atmosphere. It's quite modern looking, basic and for the most part clean. We didn't enjoy starring at the multiple dirty, empty tables. We were there for over an hour and not one table was cleaned during this time, despite the numerous staff who appeared to be working.
The service...hmm, what service. We were promptly seated then for about 15 minutes sat with our menus closed as the servers huddled at the till or walked passed us.
We ordered the house wine which was okay, weren't expecting spectacular wine, and the price was decent. Server didn't know the name of it and failed to pour us glasses - we don't like that.
Dishes came quickly and were plentyful. Shrimp in black bean sauce was good. Chow Mein didn't have much flavour, but the vegetables were fresh and lots of them. We also ordered a spicy chicken/lemon grass dish - we don't think we got it. It tasted more like a sweet ginger sauce, but alright.
Not sure I'd go to this restaurant again, might order take out if they deliver and try a few different things to better judge. Most dishes seemed to be in the $8-12 range depending on meat choice.
Overall rating = 2.5
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