Dining Out for Life at Thai Away Home

Last night was Dining Out For Life, an annual fundraiser taking place across North America where participating restaurants donate 25% of their profits from the evening to AIDS and HIV service organizations. I thought this would be the perfect guilt-free opportunity to enjoy a night out on my limited budget. Thai Away Home is one of my go-to local Thai restaurants because you get a good amount of food for your money.

I ordered the Pad Thai Combo, which came with tom yum soup, spring roll, and a salad for $10.69.  It’s a lot of food and I always have leftovers. The soup is good, a little oily but the flavour is okay. I love the house salad dressing, it’s sweet and acidic and they give you a heaping pile of lettuce. Also, I love their spring rolls dipped in the plum sauce. It’s the totally unhealthy for you fried spring roll, but whatever, once in a while you have to throw caution to the wind.

 Last night the pad thai was sweeter and saucier than usual. I couldn’t help thinking, is this made with ketchup? Generally, the Pad Thai here is not the most authentic tasting recipe in town, but it’s quick and they give you a lot of food. I’ve eaten here countless time, sometimes the food is spot on, other times it’s just okay.  The yellow curry is another favourite of mine. They have good lunch specials and if you’re in the area don’t hesitate to give them a try.

Slickity Jim’s Chat ‘n’ Chew

This was an impromptu lunch at Slickity Jim’s on Monday after an impromptu night of drinking on Sunday. It is a cute little joint with a quirky interior and unique menu titles. There was only one – but very friendly - waitress working and one cook. The food took as long to come out with only one person cooking it all.

Our waitress informed us that they had a very busy weekend, and were out of the pulled pork. THE HORROR and disappointment in Phil’s eyes was almost too much to handle on an empty stomach. He settled for his second choice, a grilled chicken and brie sandwich called Watching The Angels Fall, $10.50. It came with his choice of soup, roasted potatoes, salad, or coleslaw.

The chicken was extremely tender, despite how lack luster the sandwich looks. But overall I thought it was just okay, kind of missed the mark somewhere.

When I asked Emilie what she liked about her Artichoke Heart Brie Burger, $11.50, she said “What didn’t I like. It was brie.” Well said Emilie, well said.

But in all seriousness, she said eating this burger didn’t feel unhealthy. The bun was quite substantial, and the vegetables fresh. It was like a homemade burger, filling without being unfulfilled. She opted for a lean ground beef patty but you could also choose from turkey, chicken, or a house made veggie patty.

I had The Breakfast of Broken Dreams for $9.50. Two easy poached eggs over an English muffin with caramelized onions, spinach, and warm gorgonzola sauce. I found it very satisfactory and only somewhat broken, as the “warm” gorgonzola sauce was actually stone cold. Like, ugggghhh, really?

Caramelized onions harmonized in TRIUMPH with the gorgonzola sauce, which despite being luke-warm at best actually tasted good. I was surprised by the uncooked spinach; it was interesting, definitely not bad but I assumed based on the menu description that it would be steamed or something.

Phil also ordered a mocha milkshake which took for-ever to arrive (granted the ice cream had been frozen like a rock according to our server) but when it arrived it was good. And topped with whipped cream. So worth the wait. However, I didn’t think it was as good as my fresh fruit smoothie!

Will I go back? Yes. Why? Because I’m just too damn hungry not to, and the dishes were intriguing enough to warrant a second sitting. Also, Slickity Jim’s has really cute plates. Oh, and Phil wants to try the pulled pork. And I hear they have a good dinner menu with chicken pot pie. And a fried egg and cheddar burger, one of my Bucket List meals. Ugh, I’m so hungry.

Brunching it at Milestones

Milestones Grill and Bar
2966 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC V6K
(604) 734-8616

Working in the service industry rarely affords me with the opportunity of actually being a customer instead of  just serving one. That all changed last Saturday when my manager called to tell me not to come into work, and to instead go out and enjoy the sunshine ( her actual words!). With a skip to my step and a ridiculous smile on my face I set about my glorious day off. We gathered some of the besties and decided to try Milestones for brunch.

The first thing I noticed was the architecture of the restaurant: the sunlight streaming through the solarium seating area was very cool. We got there at 1pm and the place wasn’t too busy. Immediately we ordered caesars and alcoholic coffees (Hey man, this was a celebration).

The first of only two complaints was that the waiter seemed, at times, to be in LaLa Land. Phil asked for a coffee with no whipped cream, and mango sauce on the side of his french toast. The coffee arrived with whipped cream and the french toast drizzled in mango sauce. We’re a pretty easy-going bunch so we didn’t make a fuss about it. It just seemed odd since our waiter was overly competent with everything else. Then again, maybe he just didn’t like Phil!

My ex-vegetarian gluten-intolerant friend ordered off the comprehensive gluten-free menu: A burger with bacon, and a side salad with lemon chardonnay vinaigrette for $12.99. She said it was amazing to eat a real hamburger again and that it tasted great. Glad you enjoyed it, and welcome back to the club!

Phil had the Strawberry French Toast for $12.99

Thick cut cinnamon vanilla French toast, fresh strawberries, agave syrup and mango cream garnish.

Phil is Mango-phobic, and avoids dishes that come with the exotic fruit. Despite asking for the mango cream garnish on the side  (to dip each bite into, he claimed),it came drizzled all over the plate. But Phil found it surprisingly delicious! I’m happy he enjoyed this breakfast treat, and it looks just as good as it tasted. Using baguette slices instead of bread was a heartier and unique twist on a classic breakfast item.

He also ordered a side of bacon for us to share (thanks Phil!).

Torn between choices, I asked our waiter’s opinion and he suggested I try the Grilled Shrimp California Benedict for $13.99. This was not my first choice, – it sounded kinda weird, and honestly I was hoping he would recommend the Pear and Coconut Pancakes. Alas, his opinion was one of conviction, and I tend to trust staff recommendations.

THE BENNIES WERE AMAZING!

Grilled Shrimp, double-smoked bacon, and house-made avocado salsa over English muffin slices

The shrimps were big and juicy, and they gave you a fair deal of them. The avocado salsa was not over bearing and really complimented the dish. What really rounded out the meal was the Mediterranean salsa served over the breakfast potatoes. It was especially good with a mouthful of the avocado in the Bennie. The hollandaise was alright, not too thick and didn’t overpower the other flavours.

Our other friend ordered the classic Eggs Benedict for $10.99, it looked exactly like mine but less filling. Even if I had wanted to take a photo of it he had devoured half the plate before I got around to taking a picture.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:

The prices were reasonable but we all complained about still being hungry. The dishes were beautifully presented and everything tasted great, but we wanted more food! I mean, how much do breakfast potatoes cost to make, really? And only two pieces of fruit per plate? Unimpressed.

The thing about brunch is, you’re hungry enough for lunch but craving breakfast food. You want breakfast priced options but with lunch sized portions, and that was our second complaint about Milestones: tiny portions. Everyone felt this way except Phil, but he has the appetite of a small child, and we were ravenous bears just waking from hibernation.

Taste: 4.5/5
Portion: 3/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambiance: 4/5

Dine Out Vancouver: The Smoking Dog Bistro

So it was my first time participating in Dine Out Vancouver (yay!) and my friends and I decided to check out Smoking Dog Bistro as none of us had eaten here before and the $28.00 menu was unique and appealing. Our waitress was helpful, friendly, and  forthcoming about what her favourite dishes were and what we could expect. The whole process happened so fast, I would have liked to have sat, digested, and savoured the experience a little before the next dish was brought out.

I ordered the Smoked Salmon Terrine. I loved the red onion jam, as it really rounded out the saltines of the terrine. With the grilled baguette this was very satisfying for an appetizer.

Smoked Salmon Terrine with house made red onion jam, grilled french baguette and pickled golden beets

My friends ordered the Flank Steak with Ratatouille. The steak was tender and perfectly cooked, and I especially liked the slight char. The ratatouille was “flavoured perfectly”.  The portion was really small however.

Thinly sliced Flank steak with ratatouille and red wine glace de viand

We debated which entrée to order, each option sounded delicious, however we craved something hearty and ended up all ordering the lamb shank. I did see the salmon leaving the kitchen and felt a pang of regret because it looked very good – however, I was not disappointed with the lamb.

Braised Lamb Shank with sun-dried tomato soft polenta and sautéed haricot verts

The meat fell off the bone it was so succulent, and I loved the creamy polenta/sun-dried tomato flavour combo – that sauce was so good it could have been it’s own dish, I wish there had been more of it! I ordered a glass of the Sandhill Cabernet-Franc, the suggested pairing, and thought it went very well together.

We ordered all three desserts and decided unanimously that the French lemon pie with raspberry coulis and hazelnut whipped cream was the best. It had a tart, fresh (you can almost taste the individual lemons) citrus flavour which was refreshing after the richness of the lamb shank.

I’ve never had bacon in a dessert, so the candied bacon chocolate fudge cake (an important distinction, since the online menu states that this is a fudge, not a cake) sounded like something I should try. The chocolate fudge and hazelnut cream were great. However, I felt the bacon cooked into the cake, although tasty, was underwhelming overall. The pieces were a little too big, so you’d be left chewing on chunks of bacon in the end.

The wild berry parfait with raspberry coulis and white chocolate whipped cream was mediocre, and as my friend pointed out it’s still “just a parfait”. It was a really small portion, despite probably being the cheapest to produce, and only had a scant scattering of berries. It didn’t help that they put such a small portion into such a large cup. At the level of their other fare, if you are going to serve a fruit and yoghurt dessert, it better be amazing.

All in all this was a very enjoyable meal. I will definitely return to The Smoking Dog Bistro as I was impressed with the ambiance and most of the food.