Tony Roma's

This was an interesting adventure. We ordered steak dinners (I know it is a rib place) and we had to send them both back. One of the steaks had to go back twice and it still was not done right. April ordered hers medium well, which came back that way the second time. I ordered mine well done (I also know that some people are against this but I will discuss it in a later post). The first time mine came back it was bleeding all over my plate, as well as the second time. The third time it came back it was medium well so I kept it, I was getting hungry. I gave up on my vegetables which were soaked in blood. I was also upset with them about the vegetables. The hostess told us that for the vegetable there was corn on the cob. We knew it probably wasn't Taber Corn (though it is a marketing scheme based off of Taber Corn) but we thought that it would be fun to have with our dinner. When the waiter brought us our dinner it was the usual cut waxed beans and carrots. You could tell they were frozen by the rubbery texture. When we asked him about the corn he told us we had to ask for it. We thought that strange since we were told the corn was the vegetable. We didn't make a big deal about it though because of the ordeal over the steaks.

Oh and the washrooms were a mess.

The Keg

The keg has to be one of my favorite restaurants in Lethbridge right now. I was first impressed with the decor and the art on the walls. We had to wait for a few minutes but it wasn't a long time, besides it was a pleasant atmosphere so I didn't mind as much. The Keg is probably near the top, if not at the top, of the price range for restaurants in Lethbridge. If you order a water you have a choice of getting it in a glass or a bottle. The bottle of water is Evian, but comes in a glass Evian bottle which costs about $7. We ordered a drink based off of an obscure description and they made it for us. The food was perfect, and our waiter was great. I really had no complaints.

It has been a long time I know.

I am going to continue with this though I have had a long break. There has been a lot happening with me that has kept me busy but I have attended several restaurants in during my hiatus. I will mention one that stood out and then I will continue with current visits.

Montana's

We went to Montana's last night for dinner. I am not particularily fond of restaraunts like this but some people are. This restaraunt tries to have the decor of a rough mountain cabin, but they also have the brown paper table cloth that many other "hip" restaraunts, like Jack Asstors have. You can colour on it if you like, which is good for kids. This restaraunt is also one where the servers will come out and put giant hats with horns or antlers on your head and loudly sing a "unique" version of a happy birthday song.

The food was good though. I ordered the 8 oz. bacon wrapped steak, with the sides of garlic mashed potatoes, and mixed vegtables plus the "dusted onions". Normaly it comes with baked beans (but they were out) as well as "dusted onions", which are the same thing as a piece of onion loaf or onion rings, and one choice of a side. I was pleasantly surprised by the steak. It was quite delicious. The bacon added just a hint of flavour to the steaks own flavour. The garlic mashed potatoes were quite delicious as well, they came with gravy even though i did not ask for it, buti would have. I only mention that for those of you who would not like gravy so that you know to mention you don't. The vegtables were typical.

My wife ordered a different steak meal that I don't recall the name of. She too was pleased with the meal. She also ordered the Montana Smashers, which are three scoops of mashed potatoes with cheese melted on them ans chives (i think) sprinkled on the top. There may have been more seasonings as well, I didn't try it. She liked it very much though. We also ordered a skillet of fried mushrroms, which were good but the skillet was so hot, that when they brought it out to us it was still cooking the mushrooms. Some of them had burnt sides from sitting in the skillet. The "toast" that it comes with is more like a lightly baked piece of focatia bread with butter, garlic salt, and parmeson cheese on it. It was good.

Overall the food is quite good, but i am not a fan of the atmosphere.

My Mom's House

I have a limited budget as I am a student with a small family. As Christmas and the end of last semester drew near my budget for going out to restaurants was low. I also found myself quite busy making preparations for the holidays and wrapping up my school responsibilities which resulted in little time at the computer for blogging.

I did have an amazing Christmas dinner at my mother’s house. I know that her house is not a restaurant but I thought I would write a bit about her to give her a little fame.

Unfortunately very few of the readers of this blog will have the opportunity to partake in my mothers delicious cooking. She loves to cook and is quite skilled. My parent’s house was designed to entertain, with a massive kitchen including two ovens, a six foot restaurant style stainless steel dual sink with high faucets, and so much cupboard and counter space that it would be impossible to fill. The entertaining area consists of a large dining room, with a long banquet table large enough to comfortably and properly seat thirty people, a music room and a large room for relaxing and conversing. This area was designed to be sort of separate from the rest of the house so that the entertaining would not interfere with daily living. It was especially important when I was a child and would have homework to do or friends over while my parents had dinner guests. The three entertaining rooms are connected to each other by three large door/walking ways that encourage movement throughout the spaces. Each room is connected to the other two with one entrance to the kitchen off the dining room (the kitchen also has an entrance to the rest of the house and breakfast area.) My mother’s dinner as always was fantastic; we had a number of dishes including such items as turkey (of course), sweat potatoes, potatoes, ham, fresh rolls, numerous salads, pies, cakes, jelabi, home made chocolates and more. I love holidays at my mother’s house, it is a huge change from the student lifestyle I normally live.

Moxie's

On Saturday the 28th my wife and I went for dinner at Moxies restaurant. I like that this restaurant has the menu posted outside the door. Very few restaurants in Lethbridge do this. When we first arrived there was a line up to get in but there was only a few minutes wait and you could see that it was actually because all the tables were full, not because they have insufficient staff or want to look busy. We were seated and had prompt service. I was surprised though by the prices of their steaks. They were not high for a restaurant in general, by no means. The steak prices were high though for a restaurant that crams as many tables as possible into such a small space, and in which you can see into the lounge from the dinning room and view sports on the TV. I didn’t order a steak, I plan to next time, but I hope that they are as good as their price appears to claim they are.
For an appetizer we ordered the Three Dip Med Bread. I was a little disappointed. The bread was just a pita brushed with butter and then sprinkled with seasoning (I thing oregano and thyme) and then baked. It was then sliced into strips and stacked in a poor attempt at gourmet presentation with the three dipping bowls holding the stack up. The dips were garlic and sour cream, an herb (I couldn’t make it out) and sour cream, and diced tomatoes with cilantro topped with parmesan cheese. I though it was funny they thought that last one was a dip. It had to be scooped with a fork and then placed on the bread strip. It was un-dippable. When we got close to the bottom of the stack we noticed the plate looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned. It looked as though someone just wiped it around the edges. You could see the oily rag smears across the plate. And there was the definite print of a hand in the smear marks (you could make out all the finger prints down each finger) directly under the stack of bread. I was far from impressed.
For my meal I ordered the Madras Penne. My wife ordered a chicken shanghai noodle dish. The Madras Penne was amazing. I was surprised to find a meal like this at a restaurant like this. It was a combination of mango chutney, penne noodles, chicken, pineapple, red bell peppers and curry topped with coconut shavings. The combination was phenomenal. This meal was not for those unable to handle the spice as the curry was quite strong, but not too strong for my liking (I was once fed a curry dish that had so much curry it tasted dirty and gritty, that was too much). It was served with lightly curried flatbread. My wife was a fan of her meal. She too claims that it was not for those unable to handle the spice. She ordered a mild dish and claimed it was still quite spicy but good.
Overall the experience was okay. If it were not for the surprisingly incredible dish I ordered and the great waitress it may not have been a very good experience. The waitress did very well. I was impressed that she did not make us ask for refills for our drinks but rather brought them to us, then took our empty glasses. Many restaurants in Lethbridge make you ask for the refill and they also take your glass and leave you without a beverage while they go to fill it up. She even brought refills for my wife’s Jolly Rancher. Many restaurants in town will not give free refills on specialty drinks. It didn’t really matter but I was again surprised and liked the gesture. Those were just a few of the things that impressed me about the service.
A few things that did not impress me would be the crowded space, the dirty pate, and the cold air that seemed to be constantly blowing through our area. It felt as though they had the air conditioning on directly beside us. I am not sure what that was about.
Like I said, overall it was okay.

Pizza Hut

I had it delivered (see story below). After my disapointment with Dominoes i tried Pizza Hut. I was pleased to find that they are currently having their "Five Bucks" deal. The first pizza is regular price then the next three are only five dollars each. So I ordered four. Their pizza is pretty good. There is a lot of flavour which is nice, my only concern about the food is it is pretty greassy. That may not necesarily be a turn off though to some customers. Pizza Hut's pizza is also especially good for cold or re-heated pizza, I would have to say that they win top prize for the leftover pizza category.
I did not like the wait time though for the delivery. It took an hour to get the pizza. I guess that is standard too. I was told during the phone call that it would take half an hour to forty five minutes to send it out, then the driving time (which due to the neverending construction could take hours itself).

Dominoes Pizza

Okay, this isn't a visit, Dominoes is take out or delivery only. On Saturday I was working on one of the many project cars I have going on, while my wife and her family were preparing for my sister-in-laws wedding. Since everyone was hungry, and that is a lot of mouths to feed I decided to order pizza. I called Dominoes only to find that they don't open till four in the afternoon. I just thought that was bizarre that on a Saturday that they would not be trying to get the lunch market.

Yo-Yo's

By the way, the food is not like this!

Ok I know it isn't in the same category as the last restaurant, but it is still a restaurant. Today my wife and I were going to a movie and wanted to get some food before the show. We didn’t have time for a nice sit down restaurant, but were also not in the mood for speedy greasers (fast food). I then remembered seeing the Yo-Yo’s across from the mall and thought crepes would be good. Breakfast for dinner is always fun. So we walked in and I was immediately a little disappointed. The little business feels much like being in a pita shack, but i don't know what I was expecting.

The girls who were working there even reminded me of the pita shacks which is fine. The employees were high school girls wearing uniforms that don’t look like they have been washed in weeks (this was not fine). The restaraunt was also quite messy and the girls did not seem happy to be working there. I was tempted to leave but I thought if I was going to make a judgment, I better at least try their food.

The crepes are very large which was nice, (they also have a huge sandwich but I didn’t try it tonight) and they have a large selection of fillings. You can choose to put anything from fruit and whip cream to chicken or egg in your crepe. They fold the crepe in the triangular style instead of rolling it. I was then surprised when they threw it in a brown paper bag and handed it to me. I was a little confused because i have never had crepes like this. I looked around for a fork and there wasn’t any. So I sat on a stool and proceeded to try and figure out how I was going to eat this thing out of the bag.

I peeled the bag back and tried to take a bite. A problem with eating a crepe out of a bag is that it is very floppy. It doesn’t hold together well either. It was a mess. Perhaps there is a trick to it. I got better at it closer to the end but it is still not my thing. They would probably be easier to eat out of the bag if they were the rolled style, but I still would think it is weird. I think that crepes should come on a plate with a fork. Maybe other people are more comfortable with this.

Cheesecake Cafe

This visit is to The Cheesecake Café. The hostess sat us immediately. In the past few visits it seems that they are very good at this, unlike many other restaurants in the city. The waiter came quickly and took our order for drinks, and returned with them very soon. We were already to order but he dropped off our drinks and then went to another table to take their order. I thought this was fine since the other table was their first, but they were not ready to order. He waited at that table until they had made up their minds. I found this a little strange. Usually a waiter will ask if you are ready to order and if you are not they will say something like “I’ll just give you few more minutes to think it over,” and then go to the next table. For this visit we just ordered appetizers. We tried the bacon cheddar potato skins and the deep fried mushrooms. I am aware it wasn’t the healthiest of choices. The sharing size of potato skins was much more than you can get at other places like Boston Pizza for instance (who’s servings seem to be getting smaller all the time). The only thing I found odd was the mass amount of cheese on them; it was like one giant glob of cheese with some potatoes hiding underneath. But I guess this would be appreciated by the sports watching and beer-drinking crowd that would frequent their lounge.

Overall for this visit I would give the Cheesecake Café four stars.