Review of WURST Restaurant & Beer Hall

Summary: Looking like it could be a great overall addition to the YYC food scene, Wurst deftly navigates the line between classy and casual while bringing a classic alternative to the traditional watering-holes in Calgary.

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Despite the rain a couple of weekends ago, Kent and I decided to join up with Kiran and head on over to Wurst, the questionably-named, German-inspired restaurant/beer hall that has taken the place of Wildwood in the district of Mission.  I had been meaning to check this place out for some time, though I had mistakenly thought that it had opened in April when it, in fact, was opening the same weekend as Craft – it was like two Hollywood blockbusters going at it for the opening weekend box-office title!

Much like Wildwood, Wurst has both a main floor and a basement with different styling and demeanour – the upper floor is classier with tablecloths and lighted trees (putting the garten into biergarten), while the lower floor is a boisterous beer hall with benches, barrels, and boots of booze.  No joke – for the price of $25 (though the website says $30?), you can have a 2L boot of beer, just like in Beerfest!  As we walked in without a reservation, we were relegated to sitting around a barrel in the basement – not the most comfortable of situations – but we were at least promptly served with some beer!  The waitresses were dressed in mock-Bavarian-beer-girl outfits (they were actually T-shirts), and while the service was quite average, it was a vast improvement over Craft that day (I personally thought it was excellent considering how how packed the place was –Kiran).  Unfortunately, Wurst had the same problems as Craft: of the 20 draft beers that they have on the menu, only three were available!  It was as though there was a mini-prohibition going on in the city or something (good social media marketing, poor planning, or are Calgarians just getting ready for Stampede? –Kiran).

Given the storied history of its chefs (the executive chef has worked at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, the Drake Hotel, and Bison in Banff amongst other places), I had high expectations for the food at Wurst.  The schweinshaxen (pork knuckle) immediately caught my eye, as it was one of the dishes I associate most with beer halls in Europe.  As Kent had already settled on the knuckle, my aversion to ordering the same dish as someone else at the table caused me to order the pile of bratwurst instead.  The food came out in sizzling cast-iron pans – quite a striking presentation! – and definitely looked delicious (especially the pork knuckle… mmmm, 80% fat!).  Just as our food arrived, a table opened up. However, the table that we moved to was in utter darkness – the light bulb above us emanated only the faint glow of a dying ember (to be fair though, they turned the lights down in the entire beer hall in some misguided attempt to generate ambiance and mystique –Kiran) .  As such, I wasn’t able to see what I was eating – though given that it was just a pan full of bratwurst and beets floating in some sort of potato-ey substance, that wasn’t a huge problem.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the bratwurst, actually – I thought it was too dry and didn’t pack much flavour.  Wurst’s website boldly proclaims “We’re bringing mustard back”, but I could barely taste any on my dish, despite the picture clearly showing it.  Perhaps my taste buds were just numb from the couple pints of beer.  I did try some of Kent’s pork knuckle, though, and it was all I imagined and more!

Kiran’s Observations

I was actually feeling sick that day, but still opted to check out WURST as I was pretty jazzed about the positive reviews it was getting in twitter verse. Twitter was abuzz with mentions of CRAFT and WURST, and it was quite clear from the tweets that most people were pretty unhappy with the level of service at CRAFT. Indeed, @300rwhp confirmed that he had, in fact, been so unimpressed by the poor service at CRAFT that he left 15 min. after he got there.

Walking into WURST, I was pretty taken by the expansive space that the classy main floor took up. This was clearly the restaurant part of the establishment full of families and groups of friends. I quite liked the ambiance and felt the like the designers did a pretty good job of utilizing the existing space and incorporating it into WURST’s vision to be both a restaurant and a beer-hall.

Walking in to the basement, I was immediately struck by the row upon row of beer steins. I didn’t realize it at the time, but according to Calgary Foodies, the steins are for sale for a low $250/year that goes to charity. Although long sold out, this is definitely one of those “cool factors” about WURST that adds to its buzz. Imagine walking into a restaurant and getting served beer in your customized stein! Pretty freakin’ cool…

The basement level is definitely where the debauchery takes place. I was immediately struck by how similar the beer hall was to the ones at Oktoberfest in Munich (there were even people breaking out into random bouts of singing –Richard). The long tables force people in smaller groups to mingle with each other, which can only be a good thing in a conservative city like Calgary where people are generally reserved. I definitely caught myself wishing that we had come in here sooner so we could sit at one of these tables and meet interesting new Calgarians. This place is definitely going to be an absolute gold mine during Stampede…!

I ordered a litre of the only German-sounding beer on the menu that night: Kolsch. It was an alright beer, nothing to get excited about. What I was really excited about was the side of egg noodles (spätzle, $7.99) that I had ordered. It was also pretty much the only vegetarian option on the menu. Digging in, the first thing I noticed was how goddamn salty it was. Having never had a spatzle before, I cannot ascertain whether this is intentional or just a misstep on part of the line cook. Either way, it was nice to have a liter of beer to down what was essentially a German-style macaroni and cheese. The menu items looked expensive at the outset, but once I saw the portions, I was a bit placated – they sure do not skimp out on portion sizes in Germany!

I had the chance to shoot the shit with one of the owner’s of WURST regarding the drastic differences in service quality between the latter and CRAFT. It just seemed like the WURST staff were trained better and had their shit together. I can understand running out of beer, but poor service just reflects badly on any establishment. Research shows that people are more likely to tell their friends of the bad experience or service they received than about a positive experience. I am pretty sure that CRAFT will bounce back from it’s rocky start, but at the same time, why take the chance? Why bother opening and have people turned off by poor service when you can take the time to get your shit together? Maybe, just maybe, this was a soft opening for the Stampede week and the CRAFT management wanted to iron out any kinks before The Greatest Show on Earth began. Let us hope so…

Summary

Wurst is a great alternative to the generic pubs around the city that serve the traditional mainstream brews. While the basement level definitely caters to the rowdy young crowd, older people and families will feel right at home on the classy-yet-casual main level. Wurst made a better first impression on us than Craft, though it wasn’t without troubles itself – the selection of both seating and beer could be improved over what existed during the opening weekend.  If you don’t mind dying early of heart disease, I recommend trying the schweinshaxen. For those who value their health a bit more, there is a good variety of other German-inspired fare as well .

-Richard

Ranking

	Kiran	Richard
Ambiance	5/6	5.5/6
Service	5/6	4/6
Plating	3.5/6	5.5/6
Authenticity	5/6	4/6
Taste	3.5/6	4.5/6
Value	5/6	4.5/6
Overall	27/36 = 75%	27/36 = 75%

First Impressions: CRAFT Beer Market

Update on July 5: Notes from our guest writer, Rachel Clark!  See below.

Nothing rewards a gruelling long week of work like sitting down for a nice cold beer (or several) – so naturally, last weekend, we were inclined to get our beer on.  Having heard about not one, but TWO beer-focused restaurants opening over the past weekend, we had to investigate.  After an eventful day at the Calgary Comic Expo, Kent and I (along with our friend Steve) decided to head on over to the Craft Beer Market, which boasts over 100 beers on tap!  There had been a lot of hype surrounding this place prior to opening, so we were eager to see what all the fuss was about.  Unfortunately we missed the VIP/media opening (though my friend Tiff went – see her thoughts) so we we relegated to seeing it a few days later.

Upon entering Craft, I was immediately struck by the slick styling and vaulted ceiling, replete with polished pipelines that provided a clean yet industrial feel to the place.  Being opening weekend, it was pretty packed, but we were still able to get a table immediately.  Sadly, the upper floor beer hall was closed so we weren’t able to see what that was like, but I am imagining Oktoberfest-style benches and wenches in my mind.

The beer list is indeed very expansive, and impressively, all the beer is on tap (as opposed to in bottles or cans).  There aren’t too many outrageously unique beers on the menu – you can actually find many, if not most of these beers on tap at various places around the city – but Craft must certainly have the most comprehensive compilation in YYC.   Unfortunately, the actual selection of beers available on opening weekend was nowhere near what was shown on the menus – we were told that they were out of 46 of them, though judging by the hand-written lists that the waitresses were carrying around, they were probably out of more than that.  Of course, it’s really no surprise – after all, Bottlescrew Bill’s is often out of many of their beers, and they only have to order bottles, not kegs! – but nevertheless I felt a little let down given the prominent proliferation of “OVER 100 BEERS ON TAP” advertisements.

In general, I got the feeling that Craft was off to a rocky start – exemplified especially in the service.  Sadly, the service was rather atrocious – our waitress had to come back multiple times to take our first (and it turned out, last) beer order, and it took quite a while for our beers to come out on top of that.  Given how long it took us to get our beers, we opted against ordering any food or additional drinks and decided to relocated to Wurst after downing our pints.  Turns out, though, that you don’t need to order food to receive it, as servers delivered food to our table, TWICE! (unfortunately, it turns out that the dishes belonged to other tables, they weren’t just giving us free food).

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Special Guest Blogger: Rachel Clark!

The Craft Beer Market took social media by storm – Twitter and FB were updated on a regular basis, building a fantastic enthusiasm in the Calgary community about the newest addition to our small collection of beer-centric venues.  I was very excited to see the CBM – I like beer, and love the idea of a bar with great selection, paired menu items, and the opportunity to try new brews.

Opening night there was a line outside the door, and the people were queued up had actually RSVP’d.  But since invitations were offered to anyone who subscribed to the newsletter, I’m not surprised there was some overflow.  Once we got in, the first impression was big, bright, and shiny.  The draught lines run across the ceiling down to the bar, making the 104 beers on tap the focus of the space.  The room is huge, divided into separate levels for restaurant and bar; high ceilings emphasize the open floor plan and dark wood furnishings, so overall the place has a very strong impact.  It’s not quite as cozy as I might have hoped, but it’s probably perfect for being sandwiched between Tantra (now Mansion) and The Whiskey.

Ordering at the bar was an adventure, since the bartenders were as new to the beer and payment systems as the guests; but opening nights are NEVER perfect operations, and no one looked too stressed out.  Ranging from 6-10 dollars for .25L – .5L – around 12-16oz – the beer is not the cheapest pint you can find in the city (a true pint is actually 20oz, for the record), but not much worse than any other downtown bar.

I had the House Rye Ale, and my friend had the Mill St. Lemon Tea Beer.  The House Rye has the same ‘house flavour’ as Big Rock beers, but apart from that I had to keep sipping just to remind myself what it tasted like – very forgettable.  The Lemon Tea was a compromise after they didn’t have the first two brews we asked about, but I’m sure they’ll have the full beer list stocked before Stampede!  The selection doesn’t have anything too radical on tap, with familiar names and labels from bottled beer selection at several liquor stores in town.  But Craft has almost every single branded glass appropriate to each beer they serve, which shows a fantastic attention to detail.

It was so busy, we actually left after our first drink, but the complimentary ‘Free Appetizer’ card on the way out will ensure another visit at a later date.  Again, because of the crowds, we chose not to order any food or snacks, so unfortunately I can’t say anything about the kitchen’s prowess from this visit.

As a beer aficionado, I’ll admit my biggest concern about the place is actually those big shiny lines themselves.  The Brewer’s Association recommends cleaning draught lines no less than every 14 days – but considering that every clean you lose 3-6 pints per line, it’s a common money-saving measure to push back the schedule just a bit.  The only problem is that after two weeks of not cleaning lines, beer starts to go off.  Also, many craft beers have higher concentrations of protein and yeast debris, which means that lines get ‘dirty’ faster.  For reference, CBM’s website claims 150L of beer in the lines – that’s over 300 glasses for every time they clean, translating to a minimum loss of ~$2,625 (retail price) worth of beer every cleaning. So the question becomes, does your bar spend the extra cash on keeping things clean, or do they leave the beer a little longer than ideal to save you some money at the till?

A second problem is the actual shelf life of a tapped keg of beer – it’s usually no more than 30 days, and often much less for craft unpasteurised products.  There are usually 30-90 servings of beer in a keg, depending on the volume of the glasses and the volume of the keg.  So with 100 beers, they’ll need to sell around 6.000 glasses of beer in a month just to make sure that the turnover is high enough to keep things fresh.  That’s working under the assumption of equal opportunity consumption; that every beer is ordered just as often as their neighbour.  As opposed to having your reliable Guinness, Keith’s, and Sam Adam’s drinkers whom will not likely be chugging down Delerium or Fruli anytime soon.  To be fair though, Craft has a capacity of something like 300-350 people, so they might not have that much difficulty finishing kegs.

I hope that the Craft Beer Market experiences great success.  I’d love to have a place in the city that has beer pairing nights, a weekly cask ale, and a focus on craft products and beer education. However, I have this sinking feeling that the whole place has been set up by some very talented marketing individuals (refer to their twitter activity for examples), instead of beer enthusiasts.  As for me, I will hope for the best, and probably visit again soon to taste the food – but any beer I drink will be coming from a bottle (though one of their mottos is that they don’t carry bottles – everything is on tap! –Richard).

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Summary

It’s unfortunate that things didn’t go too smoothly on our first visit, but the extensiveness of the beer menu and the call of the beer hall make it likely that I’ll go back in the future (hopefully after they iron out the wrinkles).  It should also be noted that the beer here is not cheap – there’s a premium to be paid to have some of these beers on tap vs. bottled, though the glasses/pints are slightly larger than your typical bottle so perhaps it isn’t as bad as it looks on a dollar per volume basis.

-Richard

Recipe Improv: Apple-Mint-Walnut Stuffed Pork Loin

Kiran held some sort of event that resembled a pot luck not too long ago, and the theme ingredients for the dishes were tequila and mint.  Rather than trying to find a pre-packaged recipe that incorporated these, I decided to experiment, and this was the result:

The recipe is roughly as follows:

1/2 cup tequila (I used Aha Toro)
1 cup apple juice
2 tbsp yellow mustard
2-4 tsp kosher salt
white pepper
black pepper
2-3 lb pork loin (I used centre loin roast, 2 pieces)
1 medium semi-sweet apple (I used Braeburn)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped mint leaves
2 large cloves garlic
4 tbsp olive oil

Roll-cut pork loin so that you have a 1/2" thick slab of meat.  Salt and pepper both sides of the meat, applying yellow mustard to the "inside" of the roast.  Mince garlic and spread on the meat.  Place meat in a marinating container and add tequila and apple juice.  Allow to marinate for 30mins-1hr at room temperature (2-4 hrs in the fridge?).  Mince 1/2 of the apple and add to a bowl with chopped walnuts and mint leaves.

Once the pork is finished marinating, scrape the garlic off and add to the bowl with apple/walnuts/mint. Add a couple tablespoons of marinade liquid to the bowl and mix thoroughly.  Spread the stuffing on the "inside" of the roast, leaving a 1/2" border on all sides.  Roll up and wrap with butcher’s string.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a skillet.  Coat the pork loin in oil and grind pepper onto it to taste.  Fry the pork loin until is is nicely browned on all sides.  Slice remaining apple thinly and fry in remaining oil. Top pork loin with apple slices and put in the oven, roasting for ~45-60 minutes or until meat temperature is ~150 degrees F. Remove from the oven and allow it to rest foil-covered for 15-20 minutes.

I got the techniques from this series of videos (or you can read this if you prefer something more brief), but essentially freestyled the ingredients – it turned out surprisingly well, as even though I overcooked the meat slighty it was still quite juicy.  The main problem I found was that the stuffing didn’t stick together too well and the meat had the tendency to unroll – if you have any tips on stuffing (or any other ideas as to what might go well with this recipe), feel free to leave a comment!

Maru Review

Short Take: Coming from a non-expert, this place seems like the real deal for Korean food and liquor – if you want to try more than just BBQ (though they have that too), check this place out!

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I’ve spent a fair amount of time on 11th Ave in the past, and often wondered what lay behind the wall of green bottles in the little place kitty-corner to the Keg and District (which you probably all already know is amazing).  Turns out it is Maru, a Korean restaurant/soju watering hole.  I haven’t had a lot of Korean food in the past (mostly the stereotypical Korean BBQ and kimchi), so I was interested in trying something different.

Stepping into the joint, I was impressed by the clean style and earthy features – trendy, but humble (how Asian!).  I also noticed that the TV was showing Korean music videos, the speakers were playing K-pop and the place was pretty much filled with Koreans (or paraphrasing Kiran, "Koreanese people").  Now if only they would broadcast games of Starcraft on the TV…

We were seated by a server who didn’t seem to speak too much English and were immediately served cold green tea to start.  Kiran marvelled at the metal chopsticks, which I thought were a nice touch even though there didn’t seem to be BBQ grills directly at the table.  A cursory glance through the menu revealed a host of foods that I had never seen before (pork spine? wtf). Most of them seemed none too cheap – until the server informed us that several of the items were meant to be split between two people.  Turned out that it was even happy-hour, and that large hot-pots could be had for $20 per person!  As the big dishes all had meat and Kiran is a vegetarian for no good reason other than habit (bitch, I got principles –Kiran), we ended up getting separate meals and did not take advantage of the happy-hour for our food.  We did, however, take advantage of their happy-hour soju pricing (I think it was $10-12 for a bottle, vs $17 normally).

When the soju first came out, we were rather unimpressed by its size ($17 for just a beer bottle?) – that is, until we noticed that it was 20% alcohol.  It tasted like a grassy, watered-down vodka – inconspicuous enough that you could probably easily get f*cked up drinking it without even realizing it.  Good stuff!

Our server brought out several complimentary appetizers to start – all of them were fresh and delicious, and just enough to get the tastebuds going.  As we nibbled on the tasters, I watched several fantastic-looking dishes pass by on their way to other customers – amongst them sizzling hot plates and steaming hot-pots piled with mountains of meat and vegetables.  I could barely wait until our main dishes came out!

I had ordered sundae to start (a sausage, not an ice cream dish, sadly), as the menu had described it as a "traditional Korean sausage."  Little did I know it was actually a blood sausage!  It was quite an interesting dish – the sausage being filled with cellophane noodles in addition to blood and with pink seasoning salt on the side – but since I’m not a huge fan of blood sausage, I could only finish half of it.

My main course was the beef-and-mushroom "rock bowl" hot pot, served with white rice.  The beef was pull-apart tender, though there was still a fair amount of gristle (typical for the type of beef they use I think), while the broth was very tasty.

Kiran had ordered spicy noodles – "Not white-person spicy – brown-person spicy" – which he confirmed at the time of ordering to be vegetarian.  However, it was apparent that there was something lost in translation when the server brought out his meal and asked "do you eat fish?"  Turns out the dish was loaded with fish patties and dumplings.  Luckily, they were able to quickly whip up a new batch of noodles with only vegetables and rice cakes.

Kiran’s Thoughts

I generally enjoyed our outing at Maru. I was pretty impressed by the decor inside the restaurant, especially as it s a pretty plain-looking establishment from the outside. I remember feeling soothed once I was inside. The floor-to-ceiling windows also let plenty of natural light in. Whoever planned in the interior did a pretty good job.

Surprisingly enough, there was a pretty decent variety of vegetarian options – so many, in fact, that I had a hard time choosing. I was flip-flopping between a couple, but finally settled on the spicy noodles. As Richard alluded to earlier, even though I had mentioned that I was a vegetarian, my dish came out with a whole bunch of sea food in it. In retrospect, I should have remembered that in Southeast and Eastern Asian cuisines, the concept of “vegetarianism” doesn’t really exist like the way Indian/Western cultures understand it. I have been burned on several occasions before in a similar fashion during my days in Brunei and Singapore.

The dish was certainly worth the wait, however. It was spicy as fuck! The only way I could finish this dish was downing every bite with water – I think I went through a couple of litres! Being the cocky muthafuckah I am when it comes to spicy food, I boldly proclaimed to the server to ramp up the spice factor on this dish. The kitchen did not disappoint. And as my ego was on the line, it wasn’t like I could leave the dish unfinished, especially after I had specifically asked for it to be as spicy as possible!

The very surprising thing about the noodles was that there was despite the overwhelming spiciness, there was a great flavour to the whole dish. I personally thought it was an amazing achievement to bring that level of flavour to the dish despite the overwhelming spiciness. The rice cakes were my favourite part as each bite was chewy and full of kick-ass flavour. Definitely something that I would order again, but probably scaled back on the spiciness.

Despite the confusion, I thought the service was pretty good. A quick scan through Urbanspoon yielded the usual reviews complaining about the service level. I take these with a grain of salt as typically the reviewers over-inflate their bad experience and don’t take into account the language and cultural barriers that lead to the confusion.

I would definitely recommend this place to someone looking for some authentic Korean food.

Summary

Overall, I’m not sure if Maru has much broad appeal (other reviews on Urbanspoon suggest that it doesn’t), but its vast unexplored menu and wall of soju has me itching to go back again.

-Richard

	Richard	Kiran
Ambiance	5/6	5/6
Service	3/6	3/6
Plating	5/6	4/6
Authenticity	5.5/6	6/6
Taste	4.5/6	5/6
Value	5/6	4/6
Overall	28/36 = 78%	27/36 = 77%

An In-Depth Look at Jelly Modern

A couple weekends ago was pretty exciting in This Sh*t’s Delicious’ brief but action-packed history. Rita, who is one of the founding partners of JM, wanted us to come over and have a chat with her. She was so pleased with our detailed and thorough review of JM that she wanted to meet us in person and talk about some of the issues that we had brought up in our previous blog post.

Yeah, shit just got real, cckskrs.

Richard and I couldn’t say no to such an offer (to say the least), so we headed on down there bright and early on Saturday morning at 11 am. It was a busy morning as usual for Rita who immediately spotted us and introduced us to her husband, Murray, who is the other business partner.

Rita and Murray are a very interesting couple. Both are former teachers turned lawyers turned entrepreneurs (Murray is still a lawyer by day).  In my previous entry, I had mentioned that they have no formal culinary training, but I realized that it is a moot point considering the impressive resume they boast. For instance, they founded the Opa! chain of Greek fast food before selling it off in 1999 (?) to focus on other endeavours. They also apparently wholly own Original Joe’s and St. Germain and partly own the Calgary institution known as Peter’s Drive-in (WTF!). To say that this power couple knows a little bit about the food industry is an understatement.

We had some interesting discussions surrounding the ordering system. The current system involves ordering to the left of the doughnut counter and paying for it later to the right of the doughnut counter. The orders are synced between the two different sides via iPads, which is pretty novel. We thought this system is pretty efficient as it prevents customers already in line from waiting for the eponymous douchebag to enter his debit card pin five times before finally giving up (you know you have been there). The only suggestion for improvement I had was to perhaps give the patrons numbers. The JM staff would then announce the numbers so the patrons wouldn’t have to hang around the counters waiting for their orders to be filled and called out (though to be fair they already take your name, which adds a personal touch -Richard). This would reduce the chaos and clutter somewhat.

Another thing that Richard had noticed was the use of wax cardboard boxes to serve doughnuts regardless whether one was staying in or not. Turns out that the boxes were for take-away and that the bamboo serving trays that had been originally ordered had been delayed. Now that they were here, all stay-in doughnut lovers get their orders served on these bamboo trays.

But…we weren’t there to just chit chat. We actually managed to try out the Chef’s Creation for that day which was inspired by Eton Mess (a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue, and cream). Murray was also kind enough to make us both a cup of what he called a high-test – a shot of espresso topped up with drip coffee.

The doughnut itself was extremely light and melted in your mouth with every bite. The cream, which reminded be of the cream in a Boston Cream, was light, fluffy, and fresh. All in all, the different elements of the doughnut combined perfectly to give you an explosion of taste in your mouth.

I took my time savouring each bite of the doughnut and downing it with the coffee/espresso combination. The latter was bold, but balanced, without too much acidity. Murray takes pride in his coffee creations, and although he wouldn’t outright admit it, we could tell he was a slightly affronted when I reported the espresso as being “unmemorable” in our first review of JM.

Richard’s Recollections

It was pretty cool to sit down and get a glimpse of the minds behind Jelly Modern. Both Rita and Murray seemed pretty easygoing, but you could also tell that they were passionate about the business and were always looking for ways to make it even better.  They’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that they make a quality doughnut, from soliciting the expertise of doughnut experts from the USA to poaching the chef of St. Germain to head their kitchen (who apparently took the opportunity to be more creative and get back to his pastry-chef roots).  They’ve done a lot to make the business progressive on the environmental and societal fronts – from selecting their fruit for filling from environmentally-friendly sources to donating their unsold product at the end of the day to local establishments feeding the needy.  They really put the Modern into Jelly Modern (as well as the Jelly, of course!).

On to the doughnuts – we were able to sample the mini doughnuts (Stampede-style, but even more delicious) as well as the Saturday special (the Eton Mess), which was absolutely divine.  The chef also let us know about the various creations that he has in store for the future – doughnut sandwiches, shortcakes, fan creations, and future chef specials (I hope I didn’t miss Pineapple upside-down cake week!).

Summary

It was an awesome start to an awesome weekend for Richard and myself. JM has been hot since day one and the buzz shows no signs of abating. Apparently, Breakfast Television (BT) has already broadcast an airing from the JM store. They have already been covered by the big media outlets, so it was humbling to to be invited by JM owners personally to their store. It’s good to see that they care about the little guys too and pay attention to the local blogosphere.

-Kiran

Review of The Himalayan (Nepalese Cuisine)

Summary: A great date place / family restaurant for those looking to try a fusion of Indian/Chinese cuisines, friendly service, and more importantly, good food.

Calgary has a dearth of Nepalese cuisine, so when Kent found a Groupon for this restaurant, it was a no-brainer.The Himalayan is tucked away in a tiny strip mall in the west end of 17th Ave, but don’t let the location and outer facade fool you. It felt like we had stepped into another world as soon as we had walked in – the interior is in complete contrast to the exterior. The owners have clearly put a lot of thought and effort into tastefully decorating the place. The mood lighting, in addition to enhancing the ambiance, accentuates the Nepalese inspired artwork on the walls. Definitely a great date place, if you don’t mind the families.

Upon seating, we were immediately greeted by our very friendly server. While shooting the shit with him, we found out out that his father was a former part-owner of the other Nepalese restaurant in town: Everest Kitchen. However, due to irreconcilable differences, they had decided to part ways. It will be interesting to cover Everest Kitchen as part of our next outing and compare the differences between the two establishments.

Nepali cuisine is a very interesting mix of Indian/Chinese fare and is reflective of Nepal’s geographic location nestled between the two Asian giants. The intermingling of these two ancient cuisines is clearly evident in their offerings and reminded me of Hakka cuisine, which is Indian/Chinese cuisine hailing from the East Bengal region of India. Our server, being related to the owners, was very knowledgeable about the menu and was able to steer us through the vast offerings.

Kent and I didn’t order anything to drink but decided to get the mouth-watering momos ($6) as appetizers (while waiting for the perennially late Richard). The latter are a traditional Nepali dumpling made from a mixture of vegetables, mozzarella cheese, and “Himalayan spices and herbs” all wrapped and steamed in shell made from flour dough. That is a lot of words to describe a delicious little appetizer – I could eat this sh*t all day and not feel satiated. The outer shell was moist but not too sticky. The vegetable filling was delicious but a tad salty. The tomato sauce was milder than I would have liked as the momo filling definitely overwhelmed the sauce. Overall though, highly recommended. Definitely, a “must try.’

I ordered the Himalayan Roasted Eggplant ($13) tarkari as my main course. Tarkari, of course, is the Nepali version of curry, but not as liquid-y. Richard ordered a thuk-pa and Kent went with an old standby dish, dal (lentils).The tarkari dishes came with a side of naan and rice. Our dishes took a long time to arrive so we were comp’d with a side of papad served with sweet yogurt and mango dipping sauces. The sauces were sweet and tangy and provided a great contrast to the savoury papad.

Kiran’s Thoughts

Given the vastness of the vegetarian offerings at The Himalayan, I was hard-pressed to select just one dish to order. Now I know what most people feel like when they go to a restaurant. Ordering something off a menu is typically a simple affair for me, given that I usually have only one or two options. I was sorely tempted to order something I knew would taste good, but in the interests of expanding my mind and palate, decided to go with the roasted eggplant tarkari. It turned out to be not such a good call. The dish was flavourful with a sweet and sour finish, but in general, too salty. The eggplant was also unevenly cooked as some pieces were tough when chewing. The salad accompaniment was just a filler with the ingredients not being very fresh. In fact, I seem to have been so disappointed with this dish that I didn’t even bother to take any photos.

The dal, on the other hand, was an excellent call on Kent’s part. It was a perfect dish for a cold, rainy day like it was that particular evening. It was perfectly spiced, with just the right amount of salt and spices. You could tell it was clearly home-made from a family recipe. The combination of dal and naan, although not typical, was what I needed on that cold, clammy day.

The Himalayan didn’t seem to have much in the offering for desserts, but Kent and I decided to go with server-recommended cassava root cake. This turned out to be a delicious choice. The cake itself had the texture of oatmeal, but was spongy like, well, sponge cake. The drizzle of chocolate and raspberry sauces only served to enhance the dish overall. My only complaint was it was a bit too small: Kent and I managed to destroy the dish in two seconds. But it was worth it.

Richard’s Ruminations

Namaste, b*tches. I wasn’t too sure what to expect from their place after seeing the questionable aesthetics of their website,(yeah, it’s pretty fucking terrible; crashed my browser once – Kiran) but it turned out to be quite a pleasant venue. After ordering drinks, I perused the menu looking to see if they served yak. Sadly (or happily?) no, but they did offer quite a large variety of Nepali dishes, including several with shrimp (which I found slightly amusing considering Nepal is rather landlocked). I had originally intended to try the mis-mas rice (a mixture of rice, saffron, raisins, and meat), however the waiter rather vehemently turned me away from it, stating that they were working on removing that from the menu (yikes!). Instead, I settled for a mutton thuk-pa, a noodle soup with carrots, cabbage, parsley, onions, chilli, and small chunks of mutton.

The starters were pretty good in general, with the papad standing out in my mind as being particularly tantalizing. To me, it tasted like a mix of Indian-style lentil crackers and Chinese-style fried puffed-rice crackers. My main course (thuk-pa) was simple but decent, though the flavours/textures evoked thoughts of cheaper fare – the meat reminded me of cha siew (Chinese BBQ pork) and the vegetables in the soup made me think of instant-noodle ramen packs (though I imagine the vegetables in this soup were actually fresh and not reconstituted from dehydrated husks ). I also had a pineapple-coconut juice, which is a tropical-paradise-dream of a drink – I would definitely recommend this drink, and I’m not even much of a fan of coconut.

I was greatly impressed with the service and speed that the food came out, though we did arrive before it really got busy -  I’m not sure if they would have been quite as attentive with twice the crowd.

Kent’s Two Cents

I really enjoyed the Himalayan, and its a shame there aren’t more of these Nepali restaurants in the city. The service is exceptional in this family run restaurant, mostly staffed by native Nepali who can explain what’s on the menu. Ever since eating dal bhat (lentils & rice) everyday for a month in Nepal, I have considered it to be healthy and hearty comfort food. The Himalayan makes a good dal, but it wasn’t what I originally expected. Its consistency is on the watery side like a soup. I always thought it was supposed to be like a stew or porridge. Not really a bad thing, it still tasted great. Now if only I could make this stuff properly at home.

Summary

I am glad to see another ethnic eatery getting its sh*t together and share its culinary offerings with the rest of Calgary. Although I was disappointed with my own dish, I really enjoyed the two vegetarian options that Kent had ordered. There are far too many options to choose from to visit this place only once. Although this is contrary to my own personal philosophy, the Himalayan might just be the one place that I could see myself visiting again. The friendly and knowledgeable server also helped. In short, this is a great date or family outing place that shouldn’t be missed.

Peace out.

-Kiran

Ranking

	Kiran	Kent	Richard
Ambiance	4.5/6	5/6	5/6
Service	4.5/6	5/6	5.5/6
Plating	4/6	4.5/6	5/6
Authenticity	6/6	5.5/6	5/6
Taste	5/6	5.5/6	4.5/6
Value	5/6	4.5/6	4/6
Overall	29/36 = 80.5%	30/36 = 83.3%	29/36 = 80.5%

Review – Franca’s Perfect Gift & Cafe Italia

Franca’s Perfect Gift & Cafe Italia is a new cafe in the NE serving some really good coffee, paninis, and fresh Italian pastries. Interested? Read on.
Photos coming soon mofos…

I’ll get this out of the way first, signage is quite poor. If you were to look up Franca’s Perfect Gift & Cafe Italia on Google Maps, it would probably direct you to its original location, which now doesn’t exist. It is still on Edmonton Trail, but has been moved north closer to the Kal Tire on 37 Ave NE (actually a block away from my office, no stalkers, k thx). Franca’s Perfect Gift & Cafe Italia has been in it’s new location for just over a month now and not enough people know it exists. Hipster talk: Its too underground for you to know that its there. Driving along Edmonton Trail, you wouldn’t think that a restaurant is in that building. Most of the clientele are friends of the owner or regulars from the previous location, and I’m pretty sure even surrounding businesses (including my coworkers, a 10 second walk away) yet have had the chance to try it out. More people should try it out.

Franca’s presents itself as a gift store slash cafe. Inside is a very modern looking restaurant with everything literally brand spankin new. It doesn’t get any newer or cleaner than this. As soon as you walk in, you are presented with their gift store section, a bunch of French press’s, mugs, and gift baskets. I don’t think they have ironed out their ordering system yet for food, its all very improvised. The few times I have visited, they were busy and understaffed, so no one was really greeting me and taking me to a table. No one really indicates how to order take out, where to pay, etc. Once they get consistent and more customers, I suggest they get organized a bit, it will help in the long run and make things efficient.

On the menu are mostly panini’s and soup for hot food. For dessert are a wide variety of pastries made fresh in house. (Their online menu is outdated, and they currently have more variety for paninis and dessert) The owner said that all of the meat is imported directly from Italy. And despite my criticisms of the service and its location/signage, the food is really delicious. The Mario’s panini consists of a bunch of Italian cold cuts, provolone cheese and roasted red peppers. The bread is a bit on the oily side, but when served hot comes out crispy. It is savory but not that salty. The tiramisu is fresh and might be one of the best I have tried in the city. Prices aren’t necessarily cheap, paninis go for $8-9 and pastries are in the $3-5 range. Its a slight premium worth paying for some fresh and authentic food. I don’t have a refined palate for coffee, but I do know its better than any franchise or chain.

I worry a bit about how well Franca’s can survive in the location its in. Some good marketing can go a long way. And if they take advantage of the buttload of businesses in the Greenview industrial area and everything along Edmonton trail, they will be able to get a really good client base for morning coffee and lunch hours. The area is pretty old and most of the food establishments there are although good, they are aging. So it is nice to see a new food place in this area that doesn’t have decor from 1988. Not the cheapest lunch you can get on Edmonton Trail, but well worth it for food that had effort and quality put into it. I’ll be coming here often. If not for their paninis, but for their pastries so I can get my dose of sugar to stave off sleeping at the desk every afternoon. (If I work with you, I’m totally kidding, I don’t sleep at work)

Ranking

	Kent
Ambiance	5/6
Service	3/6
Plating	5/6
Taste	5.5/6
Authenticity	5/6
Value	4/6
Overall	27.5/36 = 76%