Bicycle Ride

This is going to be tough. i am extremely full at the moment, bordering on comatose but you deserve to know that truth and I will only remember this meal for a few minutes before I descend into a meat haze.
Ok, Pat and I went out to the Pink Bicycle today. I have been avoiding this place because all the hipsters seem to love it and i just can't be bothered with that kind of hype. Same reason I waveband hit up Foo yet, waiting for the buzz to die down. Today we went.

• Atmosphere: Surprising actually. I really expected something more akin to Ferris'. It had a pretty high class feel to it. The clientele were all business attire clad and that would come as a surprise when i got my food and saw how messy it could be. The decor was lovely, an artist i love but can never remember then name of. good lighting, not too loud.
• Service: Really good. We were greeted and seated promptly, brought menus, drink orders taken. They cut our food for us and the waited even suggested a dip when we ummed for a few moments too long. Bill came as we finished and we were out of there in good time for a lunch break.
• Food: Ok, so Pat and I spilt our two burgers so that we could both form various opinions about yumminess. here is the breakdown:

• Pink Bicycle Burger with bacon. This was awesome. Everything a Burger should be. The pink bike sauce was not something i would order as a side because it is simply the perfect beef burger topper.
• Fries. I have heard many complaints about the fires at this place. Pat explained to me that while he has had bad fries he has also had amazing fries so you always order the fries just in case. These fries were fine, nothing offensive about them in the least. We had the lemon dill mayo and the roasted garlic mayo. I barely tried the lemon dill because I was enamoured with the roasted garlic and it was one thing I wasn't about to share (Sorry Pat!, how was the lemon dill?).
• Blue Cheese Lamb Burger with caramelized Onions. Ok, the name should have tipped us off. Not lamb burger with blue cheese, They put blue cheese first. We should have taken that as an indication about the seriousness of the blue cheese situation. You really couldn't taste ANYTHING else. There was supposed to be some kind of apricot something or other on it too, but I have no idea if it or the onions even existed. the only reason I know the meat was there was from texture alone. maybe if you love blue cheese this burger would be great, but for me (and I think Pat too) it was too much. There was no delicate play between the sweet and savory and smelly. Too bad, won't go near that one again.

We also ordered two Sodas. So two burgers with fires and two sodas. wanna bet how much it cost? Over $40 plus tip! Oh right, that's why I avoid these fucking hipster places! Maybe as a date night for me and my love, this would be a great place but for a work lunch? hardly. The food is good and local, and I am sure the market for food at this price is there, but at the end of the day, these are burgers. They are simple comfort food. I am happy to pay for that, but not this much.

Santiago's at the Gatsby

Ah, Mexican food in Victoria. What a tough time you have. I will start this by saying that i hate Cafe Mexico. Not a fan at all. The way they treat the meat they are serving should be considered a crime. It's exactly like meat on the street in Mexico but the difference is that they have the means to use higher quality food (that's what they charge for) and they have the means to prepare it well ( a kitchen, not a cart). Still they suck more then most sucky places in Victoria suck.

But this isn't about them, it's about Santiago's. I am a little torn about Santiago's to be honest. I've gone twice now and feel like maybe I'm just not a huge Mexican fan. Everyone else likes it so i feel a little in the dark over my lack of enthusiasm. Not that i haven't enjoyed my food. I actually enjoy a few things about this place:

• It's toddler friendly. That means paper table cloths, crayons for everyone, suitable children's menu (Plain Cheese Pizza!) and no nasty looks from the servers when your child is camping out under the table. Even is a large group, which is how i seem to roll to this restaurant, my little one is well taken care of and i can't express enough how appreciated that is.
• The menu does nothing for me. It's one of those places where it takes you forever to order because nothing really gets you excited. Most people i have gone with have the thing that they always have but those thing all seem to have beans in them ( i hate beans) so i can't really go with their verdict. Also, this is a Mexican place that also has curry... very strange. In the burger section they say with each listing that the buns is buttered, making me wonder if this is De rigour in Mexico.
• On my first visit I had the Ceviche. That's right, this pregnant chick lives on the edge! The ceviche is not just fish, but also includes shrimp and scallops. Surprisingly, my favorite part of this dish was the scallops since they were "cooked' to perfection. I think the issue is that all of the different fishes take different times to properly "cook" so the shrimp and halibut were a little past done but the scallops were perfect. It's was served on greens with some taco chips and guacamole. I also ordered some sour cream and i was glad I did. This time around I had a simple Cesar salad with shrimp. There were tons of shrimp on it and they were fresh enough (ie. possibly died this week) but the dressing was pretty meh. Nothing offensive or anything but just meh.

I guess my whole deal with this place is that it seems to have some kind of identity crisis. It's a Mexican place that serves curries and sangria? How do you do that? A mexican Place that doesn't serve Tacos? everyone seems to be into the quesadillas but I'm not a fan in general. Also, they feature mussels pretty prominently but being preggo, shellfish can get iffy. If it's not uber fresh, I will puke. that is a promise and a warning.
So, Santiago's You are confusing. Nothing more, nothing less.
If you wnt mexican, head over to Hernandez or the Los Amigos Cart. They'll fix you up good!

The Hunt for better Sushi - Japanese Village Edition

As the second part of our three part journey to find Better Sushi in Victoria, Sara, Nathan and I headed over to Japanese Village. Now, this post is really hard to write because I am extremely full, but i will try to push through it.
So we all agreed that this place was awesome. Great decor for one thing. the place is really big so it didn't feel too busy or overly decorated. The sushi bar was clean and well lit. I also promised Sara that i would mention the cups that the tea came in. You see, it is very cold out today and these cups were made to wrap your chilly hands around. We all kinda coveted them a little i think.
So first, Food:

• Well all had the rice with sauce because that is one thing we are basing our rating on. This may be the sauce that started the rice with sauce trend in Victoria. They call it sesame sauce and it even had some black sesame seeds in it as proof. This was the best sauce we have had so far. Well played Japanese Village!
• The sushi was pretty great. The tempura for the prawn tempura roll and the sweet potato rool were both made fresh when we ordered which is not something either ebizo or azuma do. The spicy tuna was nicely spicy but without the mayonais overload that many places go for. They also use cucumber in the spicy tuna roll which i enjoy way more than avocado.  The tempura roll had something sweet in it that really set off the prawn nicely. The cucmber roll has sesame seeds rolled into which actually acentuated the cucumber really nicely. The sweet potatos tempura roll was full of sweet potato, no filler at all. The prawn and salmon sashimi was fresh and the salmon tasted wild according to Nathan. the only issue with the Sushi was that it had a lot of rice, making it a little heavy. We would have been satisfied with smaller rolls and would happily have paid the same amount.

• Nathan had a bento box and Sara had the vegetarian tempura. The amount of food that Nathan ended up getting was pretty awe inspiring. Both Sara and Nathan had tempura and they both expressed that, although it wasn't in any way bad and the veggies and prawns were all fresh, they found the tempura itself laking in seasoning.

And now, Service:

• We were asked where we wanted to sit (sushi or teppan) and given our choice of seats in the sushi section.I love it when they let me choose!
• The lunch menu was small. Nothing I wanted was actually on it. Didn't matter, ordered it any way and they got me everything I wanted. Same for Sara. We both order and received what we wanted without issue.
• The service was fast, and the server was sweet without interfering with the actual lunch. Our tea was refilled, our cheques were brought when we finished and we were not hurried out as we lingered over out tea.
• They have two debit machines. This may sound silly, but when i want to pay I want to pay. Two debit machines ensures that i Get to pay and get back to work faster and i really appreciate that.
• Nathan pointed out that they didn't offer or bring us water but they did bring us free tea so whatever.

Sorry Ebizo, this place just kicked your ass! The only real issue is that it's more of a go to place instead of a pick up place. Maybe Shiki will be better for take out. Also, Japanese Village is a little pricey but that is also depending on how hungry you are. We spent more but we got tons. Too much, really
So yes, Japanese Village, you are awesome!

The Hunt for better Sushi - Ebizo Edition

So, as you may have noted, I have given up on Azuma as my go to sushi place. It has been sucking and I just don't have anymore patience for it. Some of my coworkers (the lovely Sara and Nathan)agreed to help me in my search. Our first stop: Ebizo.
Ebizo gets points for being the closest to our actual office but that was really all i knew about it. Nathan joined me for a lunch test.
We decided that we should order the kind of things we always get when out for Japanese so that we could rate it consistently against other places.One of the main points i asked our served about was if they had the "rice with sauce" that i loved so much at Azuma. She said that the sauce was actually their salad dressing but lots of people order it on the rice. Fine by me! nathan had a bento with a miso soup and i had a spicy tune, Dynamite roll and a cucumber roll as well as the above mentioned rice with sauce.
now, i won't rate nathans food as he pointed out to me that he always enjoys food that he doesn't have to make fro himself.
But here are My feelings on the meal:

• Service: Sucked. that's all. It just sucked. Things came out at the wrong time, we had to wait forever for our bill. I get the feeling that if you are a regular than it works a lot more smoothly...
• Sushi: I will preface this by saying that i am not an avocado fan. That being said, i know that most people are so i think they would enjoy the sushi i ordered. The dynamite roll was tempura prawn, cucumber and avocado. The Spicy Tuna was thick tuna and big slices of avocado. i prefer cucumber with my spicy tuna because I fine that the crunch is a nice balance for the silkiness of the fish. The rolls were well proportioned, not sliced too thick to get in your mouth (i hate that) and not filled with rice. The ingredients were high quality, though the spicy sauce wasn't much of a stand out. My issue would be that they should list what is in each roll. I simply assumed that a spicy tuna would be cucumber. 
• The rice with sauce: Why would you put this sauce on a salad. it is really think and rich and the thought of it on a salad makes me a little ill. The sauce is very similar to the one at Azume but a little more oily (since it is a dressing?) and it has a hint of garlic i think. Since it was more oily, i found it a little bland but a little soy sauce seemed to do the trick. It was only $1 so it was a great deal but not as good as Azuma used to be.

So is this the best that the City has to offer? I suppose it's possible. It's better than Azuma is now, but not nearly as good as it used to be (am i living in the past?). Oh well, onward in our hunt for Victoria's best sushi!