Au Petit Cafe and Bon Cafe: Gaga for Banh Mi

During exams season, I pretty much locked myself up in the library, slaving away from morn to night trying to cram as much as I could. I find it incredibly distracting to study in my bedroom, as it is too comfortable and the temptations of social media is too high. That’s why I find going to the library a much more productive use of my time because it is a quiet environment that sets the mood for studying with facilities that help you. The problem, however, is that you have to come prepared because there usually isn’t food nearby so you can’t just buy lunch or a study snack when you get hungry.

On 2 occasions I dropped by 2 different Vietnamese restaurants near my local library to buy a banh mi to accompany my studies. The first day, I planned on dropping by Au Petit Cafe for a delicious banh mi. I’ve frequented Au Petit Cafe before as their banh mi are considered some of the best in town. I’d have to agree. However, good thing I checked Urbanspoon before leaving the house because turns out, they are closed on Wednesdays! It was SUCH a disappointment because I was craving a banh mi so bad. In the end, I settled for another Vietnamese restaurant, Bon Cafe, that also serves banh mi.

At Bon Cafe, I ordered a Banh Mi Dat Biet (around $4, CASH ONLY). The banh mi includes ham, pate, and the usual various veggies.

I didn’t feel like they skimped out on the fillings, and the ingredients all tasted delicious! However, the meat inside had a lot of fat. I normally don’t mind fat if it is well proportioned to the meat but here I found big globs of it randomly in the banh mi which I had to pick out… gross. Unfortunately, the French bread was not nearly as good as the one from Au Petit Cafe. The bread here was perhaps toasted for too long or not as fresh as it was crunchy to the point where it was too hard. (LOL) After a while, the top of my mouth hurt from having the bread scraping against it.

Overall, the banh mi is quite good, but if they could improve their bread then all the better. I would definitely come again if Au Petit Cafe is not open or the lines are too long.

 

The next day, I went to Au Petit Cafe since they were open and I couldn’t help but crave a better banh mi than the one I had yesterday at Bon Cafe.

I ordered #1, the French Bread with Home Made Ham, House Meat Ball, Vegetable, and Hot Pepper ($4.50). I was also given the option to not have the hot pepper, which I appreciated since not everyone can stand the heat. While I believe the banh mi at Au Petit Cafe is slightly more expensive, I’d gladly pay the extra $0.50 for a more scrumptious banh mi.

Upon first bite you can tell that the french bread here was fresh, aromatic, and toasted perfectly so that the outside was nice and crunchy but the inside remained warm and soft. The meats are all house made and oh-so-flavourful. In comparison, the fat in the meats were well distributed and enhanced the flavours of the meat, rather than accumulating into a blob and grossing me out.

Overall, I’d say perfection nicely describes this banh mi. My stomach is literally growling as I type!

I think it’s safe to say that banh mi in general is delicious, but the crown winner here is Au Petit Cafe. The key to a perfect banh mi is in the bread and boy did Au Petit Cafe get that spot on. While not bad, the banh mi at Bon Cafe clearly still has some work to go. I’d love to try some of their phos next time as well. Readers, have you guys tried banh mi before?

Thanks for reading!

- Jess

La Taqueria: Going Crazy Over Tacos!

Happy almost end of exams! I apologize for the lack of posts this month, but that’s exam season for you. I’m lucky enough to be finished already, but best of luck to all of those still fighting. It’s no surprise here that I like tacos but it seems like recently I’ve gotten a craze over Mexican food in general. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no taco connoisseur and I sure as hell don’t pretend that I know what authentic Mexican food tastes like. All I can say is that I enjoy all the tastes and the flavours, especially the chipotle sauces!

It was VivienAvenue‘s last day in Vancouver before leaving for Taiwan for a GCDP internship through AIESEC UBC, so we thought we would have a little food date  before she left VivienAvenue and I had also just finished final exams, so a celebration was in order. PerfectPitch and AwkwardTurtle still had another exam left, but YOLO We had originally planned to go to Fairmont Hotel for their high tea, along with PerfectPitch, but when we called to reserve a table, they were already booked full. In a last minute decision, I decided we go to La Taqueria on Cambie after realizing that Phnom Penh would probably be packed full at 6:30pm on a Saturday night.

Let’s just say that heading out on 420, the smell of weed was everywhere and stoners walking out and about, it was all incredibly interesting and entertaining. La Taqueria is a little tiny eat-in or take-out shop located within a 2 minute walk from the Broadway-City Hall station on the Canada Line. The place had a lot of spunk, humour, and attitude, all the makings of an awesome food shop.

I ordered a soda to start while waiting for VivienAvenue to arrive.

I’ve read alot about the Mexican Jarritos Sodas ($2.00) so I figured I’d get one. I got the Mandarin flavoured one. It was just like orange pop… nothing special, and super sweet. I’d gladly pass next time for water.

I ordered a total of 4 tacos: de Cachete (braised beef cheeks), de Lengua (braised beef tongue), Al Pastor (pork marinated in achiote chilli and pineapple), and Pescado (grilled seasonal fish with pico de gallo).

Meat tacos are $2.50 each or $9.50 for 4, but veggie tacos go for cheaper. Each taco is made with two fragrant corn tortillas topped with the fillings with a slice of lime on the side. I know some people prefer their hard and crunchy taco shells, but I love my soft tacos. The extra tortilla makes the taco easier to hold as well because since the oil from all the delicious meat fillings will soak through the first one, you won’t have to touch it with the second tortilla.

Although they call your name for every order, I think they may have gotten the wrong order for me since the tacos were completely different from what I ordered. I can’t really tell between the meat tacos, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t get my fish taco, which was a bummer. Every taco I ate was delicious though. A added a dab of chipotle sauce and squeeze some lime juice on top of every taco. The meats were juicy and packed with flavour, each taco a joy to devour.

We headed over to Menchies on cambie for dessert afterwards, only a few minutes walk. I love frozen yogurt but I swear the toppings will be the end of me, I can’t get enough of my toppings! I got a swirl of cheesecake frozen yogurt with a dabble of blueberry, topped with a million toppings. Needless to say it was delicious.

Menchies is also having a contest where you can win free frozen yogurt for an entire year! Click here for more information.

Overall, the tacos from La Taqueria were absolutely delicious and I can honestly say I’m addicted, I can’t wait for my next visit! I’d love to try more tacos from them and hopefully this time I’ll get my Pescado =P

Thanks for reading,

Jess

Midam Rice Cake House: Delicious Desserts!

As promised, here’s part 2 from my day at Suika. After dinner, we headed back to the Lougheed area for desserts. To everyone’s disbelief, I have never been to Midam Rice Cake House before. SushiGirl, LeggingLover, and FitnessFreak all decided that they had to take my “Midam Virginity.”

Midam is a traditional Korean style restaurant hidden within the same complex as Bikram Yoga Burnaby. While there is a variety of drinks, traditional Korean food, and desserts, it is most popular for its desserts. While the restaurant isn’t exactly small, it is located on the ground floor and tucked away in a corner, making it very hard to find. I’ve been told by others before that this is a restaurant where you should take a Korean with you, as the waitresses don’t speak fluent English and the menu is hard to understand. However, perhaps the menu has changed because when we looked at the menu, it was full of pictures with fine English translations, which made ordering very simple and easy. They even had a call button at every table for people to request the waitress, which is very common in restaurants in Korea.

After much deliberation, we finally decided on 2 dishes and a drink. We ordered a bottle of Yoghurt Soju to share first.

This tasted delicious! Nice and cool, just like the Yakult Yoghurt drinks that I used to drink when I was little. There wasn’t a harsh alcoholic taste to it as well, so it’s perfect for girls.

We also got some waffles with fruit and ice-cream which looks absolutely scrumptious!

The waffles were great! They were nice and warm, slightly crispy on the outside while soft on the inside. Maple syrup was sparingly poured on top, and powdered sugar was dusted on top as well. To the left, there were some cut up pieces of banana and strawberry and 3 scoops of ice-cream: vanilla, chocolate, and green tea. Some chocolate syrup was also squirted on top. These were all simple ingredients, just done very well with excellent presentation that just made the dish incredibly enjoyable. We would definitely order this again!

We also ordered a fish stock soup with clams.

The fish stock soup is a common starter at most Korean alcohol establishes, which we’ve tried and loved before. This dish here is a step up from that with the inclusion of spring onions and clams. There were definitely plenty of clams for us all to share, and I personally LOVE spring onions, so that’s definitely a plus. Even though the soup is basically all MSG, it still tasted great, and the clams were tasty as well.

On another visit to Midam with NiceGirl and AvocadoHater, we ordered some desserts to chat with each other since NiceGirl was having some relationship problems. While we continued our girl talk, the desserts were the perfect dishes to share.

We ordered the green tea ice-cream with red bean shaved ice. This was a mind-blowing dish. There were red beans, along with some rice cake cubes coated with green tea powder, topped with a scoop of green tea ice-cream. Everything sat nicely on top of the shaved ice, and sprinkled with some almond bits. Everything tasted amazing together. The chewy textures of the rice cakes with the soft textures of the red bean and the crunchy texture of the shaved ice was a great mishmash of textures which worked great together.

We also ordered the strawberry yoghurt parfait with mochi. This parfait came with plain yoghurt, strawberry yoghurt, strawberries, mochi, and cornflakes. Again, the chewiness of the mochi contrasted very well with the great crunch of the cornflakes, which made for an excellent bite. Altogether a good parfait.

Midam Rice Cake House is an exceptional place for desserts and long chats. They have a extensive drink menu as well. However, I haven’t tried any of their actual lunch or dinner dishes so I can’t really comment on those. Although the desserts are somewhat over-priced, most Japanese and Korean dessert places are  as well, and they are still affordable for the quality and the quantity. I apologize for the lack of actual dish names and prices though. I forgot the actual names and prices, and I can’t find them online since they don’t have a website and I can’t find a newer version of their menu. Hopefully my descriptions were helpful enough. Overall, this restaurant is definitely worth the hype. Just remember to look up the location before hand and have it on your phone because it is hard to find.

Thanks for reading!

- Jess

Original Joe’s – Eating with the Sun

Near the beginning of the month, I had a wonderful time planning a fun and educational event with my fellow team members: the AIESEC UBC March General Assembly . While there were a few sleepless nights, it was completely worth it in the end when multiple people came up to me and told me it was one of the best general assemblies that they’ve been to. I was so glad that everyone found the day fun and exciting. After some awesome but tiring dancing at the end, we were all very hungry. We headed over to Original Joe’s for an early dinner as part of the dinner social afterwards.

We arrived at around 4:30pm, and were seated at a large booth corner as we reserved previously for 20 people. Everyone was happy that it was finally a sunny and bright day in raincover, so the happiness spread on and everyone was quite chirpy the entire afternoon. At my table, most people ordered some drinks to start. I didn’t feel like ordering any drinks, but my awesome vice-president JudgingYou ordered a margaritas that looked cool and delicious.

 

XLB was super generous and ordered the Calamari ($10.50) for the entire table to share.

The calamari wasn’t as crispy as I would’ve liked, and quite dry as well. You definitely need to dip the tzatziki and squeeze some lemon juice on top to add flavour to the calamari as it is nearly flavourless as well. There was plenty of calamari though, and it is a great starter to share with large groups.

 

The Red Tractor Nachos ($16.50) was also ordered and shared with everyone at our table.

Let’s just say nachos are almost always a hit… especially with all those delicious toppings! There were olives, onions, jalapeños, tomatoes, and lots of melted cheesy goodness. There was also 3 dips, guacamole (my fav!), salsa, and sour cream, but I am not sure if there was an extra charge involved. This is just ol’ good comfort food, and super tasty with the cheese, toppings, and dips combined. Very pricey, but there is a lot of nachos.

 

Finally, I ordered the Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich ($12.75) for myself.

For the sandwich, you had the choice of choosing 2 sides with it – I got some fries with gravy and a bacon-egg salad. The bacon-egg salad was alright… the bacon bits weren’t really crispy and the salad itself was nothing to write home about. The fries were average, but the thick cut was nice. Now onto the sandwich itself, the pulled pork was marinated beautifully. It was nicely seasoned and slightly  sweet, oozing with peppered BBQ sauce and topped with honey slaw. This was a huge sandwich and it took great effort to eat it while making a big mess as well. The taste was great though, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, the portion was just too large and I only ate about two-thirds of the sandwich, a bit of the fries, and a bite of the salad before feeling completely full and bloated. 

 

After we received our dishes, everyone continued chatting while eating. Even after we finished eating, everyone just stayed continued to talk. The sun was still high in the sky when we began and as we progressed with our meal, the sun continued to set. When we finally left the restaurant, the sky was completely dark. We basically ate along with the sunset, which was an awesome experience since our the restaurant was on the second floor with enormous glass windows, so the view was spectacular.

Overall,  the food was fine, and the meal was made better with great service and great view along with great company. Although Original Joe’s is a chain restaurant, the food here wasn’t bad at all since usually the food at chain restaurants are not the best as quality control is not always guaranteed. The food wasn’t the best, especially for the price, but I definitely enjoyed my meal here. 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

- Jess

Being the minority in a Chinese restaurant…

A few weeks ago, VivienAvenue won 2 tickets to see the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean at the UBC Arts Last Lecture. As the former Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada as well as the current UNESCO Special Envoy for Haiti, I was very surprised when hardly anyone I talked to knew who she was. I was originally very interested to attend the Arts Last Lecture to hear her speak, but was put off by the highly priced tickets. Two days before the lecture, VivienAvenue generously asked if I wanted to be her plus-one. Here’s just another “thank you” to you, Viv!

 

VivienAvenue had  a meeting after classes that day, but we decided to go eat together, along with LCP and XLB, after her meeting since we still had some time to kill before the event started. LCP is Filipino, and has shockingly never had Chinese dumplings before! VivienAvenue and I made it our mission to go to a Chinese restaurant so that he could try some delicious dumplings. However, as most of the good Chinese restaurants that we knew of were located in Richmond, we had to pick a Chinese restaurant in down town so that we could make it back to campus on time. We finally decided on Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House due to its proximity and good ratings on Urbanspoon.

 

VivienAvenue, I, XLB, and LCP =]

We were thankful that LCP drove us to the restaurant since it was raining really hard that day. Upon being seated in the restaurant, we realized one thing… the entire restaurant was filled with Caucasians and non-Asians! I’m not trying to be racist or discriminate others, but how often do you find Chinese or even Asians as the minority in a Chinese restaurant? We were all getting a kick out of this, but also realized that the Chinese food here might not be the most authentic due to their location as the main clientèle were Westerners and the food would most likely cater best to Westerners.

 

They were unfortunately out of dumplings at the moment, so we just ordered the xiaolongbaos to hopefully satisfy LCP for the time being. We received the xiaolongbaos ($4.99) first. These were alright, not the best by far, just average. The skin was dry on the outside and tore very easily. The art of getting the thinnest skin whilst not breaking is a hard skill for any chef to master. The soup inside wasn’t as hot as I’d like it to be either. Despite the critique, it was still a good comforting dish, although I may be biased since I love xiaolongbaos, even the frozen kind where you just steam them at home by yourself =P

 

Next up is the beef sesame cake ($4.99). My mother had bought these once for me, and they’d tasted dry, cold, and greasy in general. However, these ones were completely different. The pastry part was crispy and flakey, while the inside beef filling was hot, moist, and full of flavours. These were pretty delicious.

 

 We also got the beef with green onion ($13.99), which came piping hot in a big pot. I personally love green onions, so I thoroughly enjoyed this dish. The beef was extremely tender (probably due to lots of starch) and the sauce was a great pairing. However, this dish was quite oily, which is my only complaint.

 

 

For the shanghai style rice cake ($9.99), I would say once again it was quite average. The rice cakes are nice and carby, so we ordered this basically as a filler dish. The sauce went very well with everything, but once again, the dish was way too oily.

 

Last but not least is the house special fried rice ($10.99). XLB was still not completely full at this point, so we ordered this dish hoping everyone would be full. The fried rice was again average, but overly oily.

 

In the end, we all left with full and satisfied tummies with the 5 dishes that we ordered. The service was quite nice and friendly, but I expected it to be so, due to the Westerner clientèle. These dishes weren’t the best Chinese food I’ve ever eaten, but they weren’t the worse as well. Expect westernised Chinese food, but definitely better than the fast food kinds like Manchu Wok. Overall, the food here was satisfying, but average and oily. Being with great company definitely enhanced my experience here though. Read VivienAvenue’s post on the same meal here.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

- Jess

Suika: Amazing food, long chats, and the best friends forever

This is a very, very delayed post, but I think it’s still important to get this out to you readers anyways. A few months ago in celebration for my birthday (I know, it’s been a while >_<), I had a great night out with my best girls. As a food blogger and an avid Japanese food lover in general, I’ve been dying to eat at Suika Snackbar. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will probably have heard of Suika, the more casual and trendy sister restaurant to Kingyo. After spending literally weeks stalking all the blog posts and salivating over pictures, I knew I had to eat at Suika for my big day. Besties SushiGirl, FitnessFreak, and LeggingLover thankfully agreed!

Suika literally means “watermelon” in Japanese, so the entire restaurant was decorated with nifty watermelon things. The second we walked in, a friendly and enthusiastic waitress seated us to a table. Despite it being a busy Saturday night, the waitress was attentive and we did not feel neglected at all. I was given the golden opportunity to just order what I wanted, and while it may be slightly dangerous, I tried to keep my excitement to a mere squeak and limit my order.

 

First off, we ordered the famous “Deluxe Appetizer Box” ($10) which is basically a box that holds 9 different kinds of delicious appetizers. It was a great appetizer to share with many friends as there is plenty of food for every to try at least a bit of. From what I could remember, there were some lotus roots, crackers with lobster cream cheese mixture, cold tofu, tomatoes, octopus, tuna tataki, cucumbers, and neitoro tarter. I can’t really remember the other items that this dish came with, but rest assured this was a good signiture appy that is a must order!

 

Next off, we ordered the “Sashimi Salad” ($7.80). I had originally wanted their signature Sashimi Shake Salad, but was disappointed when the waitress said they don’t make them anymore. However, she assured me that the sashimi salad was essentially the same thing, just without the shaking process. I hesitantly ordered it.

And I’m glad I did! While it might not look like it, the salad actually contains a lot of sashimi! I was so surprised to find piece after piece of sashimi, and they were all fresh and delicious. The salad itself was alright, nothing special really. This is really a good bang for your buck, and I highly recommend this dish.

 

Next up is the “Negitoro Battera” ($9.80).  This sucker was quite expensive, ten bucks for just 6 pieces. This received many raves and recommendations in various blogs, so I was very excited to try it out. The battera is a pressed sushi, and it was so creamy it literally melted in my mouth.  The sauce on top was a perfect pairing as well, slightly sweet and tangy. However, while it was quite tasty, it really wasn’t anything fantastic that I would rave about. Especially with the slightly high price, I felt it was not worth it.

 

Again with all the raves, I knew I just had to order the “Corn Kakiage” ($4.80). After one bite, I fell in love. This is such a simple, yet innovative dish. Everyone has had chicken karrage, or ebi mayo, or just any old tempura, but who has heard of corn kakiage? No? I didn’t think so.

The bits of corn were deep fried together. They were perfectly crunchy and crispy, well flavoured and salted, but as you bit into the actual corn pieces, a burst of sweetness and juicy corn flavour exploded into your mouth. It’s slightly overpriced for deep fried pieces of corn, but just order it. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

 

Another signature item that we ordered was the “Tokyo Oxtail Ramen” ($9.80). This was a fine dish at a reasonable price. The broth was nice and rich, full of flavour. The ramen was perfect as well, cooked just right. I know that oxtail is expensive stuff. However, we all still felt that a little bit more meat wouldn’t be that much of a hassle, as there was hardly any!

 

Finally, the last dish is the “Kakuni Bibimbap” ($8.80). This was a last minute add-on since we were afraid that the previous dishes wouldn’t fill us up. Thanks to FitnessFreak, we agreed on the Kakuni Bibimbap.

Let’s just say thank goodness for FitnessFreak because it would be a terrible tragedy to not have tasted this wonderful Bibimbap. Unfortunately, I took the picture after the waitress mixed it up. But despite the appearance, this dish was positively amazing. The rice was packed full of flavour and everything was well tenderized by the fatty pork belly. Although it was a bit oily, my only real complaint here is that I wish there was more pork belly! Other than that, another well recommended dish that’s well worth the price as well.

 

For dessert, we ordered their infamous “Matcha Brûlée” ($4.80). First off, crème brûlée is one of my favourite desserts of all time, so I just knew that I had to try the matcha green tea version. Second, the price is excellent for the 2 slices we got. The dessert itself tasted great, albeit slightly icy, but nothing I couldn’t forgive for the amazing matcha flavour.

 

Finally, I couldn’t help but to take a photo of their signature beer bottle chandelier. As the name suggests, it’s a chandelier made out of Japanese beer bottles! How crazy and amazing is that!?!

 

Overall, Suika is an amazing restaurant, and is a top contender in the izakaya business in Vancouver. All Japanese food lovers should try this place out. I had the most wonderful time eating and chatting with my friends. SushiGirl, FitnessFreak, and LeggingLover even paid for my bill, on top of a wonderful present – I was so moved and happy, their gestures really meant a lot to me. Stay tuned for part 2 of our day, where we went to another restaurant for round two! (We couldn’t help it, we’re fatties >_<)

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

- Jess

A DineOut Vancouver Meal at Joe Fortes

Hey readers! As all of you know (unless you’ve been living under a rock >=o) the Vancouver fine dining scene has been in a frenzy. Everyone has been trying out new fine dining (aka EXPENSIVE) restaurants through the Dine Out Vancouver 2013 festival going on right now. I’ve been to 2 dine outs so far this year: Maria’s Taverna and Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House. Unfortunately I went the last few days of dine out, so by the time these posts go up dine out will be over already. Still I hope you guys enjoy the posts! Let’s get started first with my visit to Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House.

I went on a Friday night, with my best girlfriends FitnessFreak, LeggingLover, and SushiGirl. Kudos to FitnessFreak for making a reservation online the minute the dine out menus came out. We’ve been planning this date for weeks since we were celebrating SushiGirl’s birthday, and it was the perfect excuse to go try out a high end restaurant.

                                                
We were given some complimentary bread first off and let’s just say, this is NOT your average complimentary bread. The bread was freshly toasted and was served with a lobster oil and balsamic vinegar, which went with the bread perfectly. It was an amazing pairing and all 4 of us just couldn’t stop eating the bread!

Alright so first up, appies! There was a choice of 3 appetizers: New England clam chowder, classic Caesar salad, and jumbo prawn cocktail. SushiGirl, FitnessFreak, and I all chose the jumbo prawn cocktail.

 

The prawns were amazing! They really were jumbo sized, and each bite gave way to a nice springy crunch. You could tell the prawns were fresh and they paired perfectly with the cocktail sauce and a spritz of lemon.

 

LeggingLover ordered the New England clam chowder, and she said it tasted great!

 

Next up are oysters! All of us decided that since Joe Fortes is famous for their oysters, we should order some to try as it was unlikely that we would come back anytime soon (due to the high price). We each ordered the Kumamoto Olympic Peninsula from Washington ($3.60). These were small sized oysters that tasted sweet. I also ordered the Kusshi Bayne Sound ($3.60) which was a small yet plump and juicy oyster that tasted buttery smooth. I enjoyed them both, as I like my oysters smaller so that they can be downed easily like shooters. However, my companions did prefer the larger sized oysters better. SushiGirl in particular liked the Joe’s Gold Reid Island.

 

After our oysters, the stars of our meal came. Here, I was the oddball and ordered the Sautéed Prawns & Scallops w/ artichoke ravioli, roasted red pepper, tomato cream. These were amazing. The sauce was a little unexpected as I didn’t realize that it came with a creamy sauce, but paired with everything, delicious nonetheless. The prawns were large and fresh, again with a nice snap to each bite. The scallops were a bit on the smaller side, but weren’t the frozen kind for sure, and they still tasted great; scallops are my favourite so I loved them anyways. Finally I was a bit taken back with the artichoke ravioli. There wasn’t a lot of ravioli, but that’s because each piece of ravioli was huge! I found myself needing to cut each piece of ravioli into 4-6 pieces for easier bites. The raviolis tasted great, with the artichoke flavour really coming through.

 

Everyone else ordered the New York Steak w/ garlic mashed potatoes, market vegetables. FitnessFreak generously offered me a slice of her steak, and it tasted great! We all enjoyed our entrees.

 

Finally, we have our desserts. FitnessFreak, SushiGirl, and I all ordered the Tahitian Vanilla Crème Brulee w/ cinnamon biscotti. Crème brulee is my favourite dessert, so I had high hopes. First off, the dish was huge! It was definitely a large dessert, and I had trouble finishing it off. The custard was nice, slightly too sweet, but nothing unbearable. The hardest part, however, was getting the caramel top burnt just right. This one was just slightly over burnt, which was a bummer. The crème brulee wasn’t excellent, but a solid effort.

 

LeggingLover ordered the Chocolate Lava Cake w/ brandied cherries, vanilla gelato. She loved it, but it was way too sweet for my liking.

 

Overall, our meal at Joe Fortes was one to remember. Everyone was thoroughly satisfied with our meals, and the service was top notch. The atmosphere was classy and sophisticated, with live music and elegant decorations. A must visit indeed, at least once, for that extra special occasion.

 

 

Thanks for reading!
-Jess