PaiGu

Jambalaya is a cozy, Bohemian restaurant that stands uniquely apart from its counterparts on Richmond Row in London Ontario. While the rest of the street is lined with such fancy bistros and restaurants as the Black Trumpet, The Tasting Room, and its next-door neighbour, Blue Ginger, Jambalaya has its own style and is not shy to flaunt it. Jambalaya’s menu is a mix of Carribean, Cajun, and Thai, with the three culinary flavours sometimes overlapping in its dishes. For example, their well-known pad thai is also available with jerk sauce.

The outside of the restaurant looks like an old, run-down house from the 60s, with a small elevated porch facing the street. Once inside however, the atmosphere immediately changes. I have never felt so distinctly transported to a different time and place as I have at Jambalaya.

With the late afternoon light streaming through the stained glass windows, the painted walls turned into various shades of gay green-yellow. Although the restaurant is quite small, the quiet conversation of nearby tables did not distract me once. The wall was also sparsely decorated with African crafts, which was a nice touch. They obviously put a lot of thought into the atmosphere, and I’d say they were successful.

I ordered a Mango Loco to drink, which is a cocktail blend of vodka, triple sec, and guava juice. It tasted (and looked) exactly like mango, but there was no mango in it. Intuitively interesting, but if I hadn’t known it, it would’ve just been an ordinary mango and vodka concoction.
To start, I had Carribean fried plantains, which I didn’t take a picture of because I was so hungry when they finally came out that I dug in right away. They were extremely oily, so I kind of wished the chef blotted them with a paper towel before bringing them out, but the oil was fresh so it didn’t feel greasy. There was nothing special about them – I’m quite certain if I fried plantains at home, they would taste exactly the same.
For the main, I settled on their famous chicken pad thai.

At first, I was put off by the presentation – I mean, a metal pot, really? But I suppose it suited the flair of the restaurant, so I quelled my critic and tasted the food. The glass noodles could’ve used a bit more oil so they weren’t sticking together in lumps, and a telling indication was the lumps of burnt noodle. Moreover, the chicken pieces were cut in large chunks instead of strips, and not surprisingly they were overcooked and extremely bland. Despite my reservations about the cooking skill, the pad thai sauce was excellent. Just the right hint of sweetness with a spiciness that increased as I ate more. It’s really a shame that the dish was not cooked better, since the sauce was so good. Such amateur mistakes really, that could’ve been easily remedied with a bit more oil and better timing.

There was no dessert menu, much to my dismay, but I was nonetheless satisfied with the meal. To say that it is the “best pad thai in southwestern Ontario” requires quite a stretch of imagination, but they certainly have a great sauce. I may come back again to try a different entree, but as for pad thai, the best I’ve had in London still comes from my own kitchen.

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After an exhausting shopping marathon, my friend and I decided to visit the Milestones in Masonville Mall. The decor was very elegant and modern, just what you’d expect from Milestones. The lighting was dim but not dark, the atmosphere was intimate but not quite romantic (probably due to the straight edges and black furniture of the modern decor), and the service was impeccable.

As soon as we sat down, we were introduced to the “wish list,” which was filled with imaginative cocktails and mouth-watering desserts. My friend and I immediately knew what we wanted for dessert, and decided to order our entree with that in mind. I had the recommended Milestones Original Bellini, which was a colourful mix of premium white rum, peach liqueur and sparkling white wine, topped with Boone’s sangria. The peach liqueur with sparkling white wine was what drew me to this drink, but the sangria was the real topping on the cake.

I ordered Thai chicken tacos, which were a huge platter of three Indian flatbreads with slaw, three skewers of chicken, and two dipping sauces. One dipping sauce was a mango vinaigrette, which was refreshing and only slightly sour. The other was a peanut satay sauce, which was not very peanut-y at all and not viscous enough. The satays were grilled to perfection, but were not marinaded in the traditional Asian style. The slaw was filled with coriander, which I detest, so I could not have very much, but what I did have was crunchy and fresh. The Indian flatbreads were warm and fluffy, but quite tasteless. I had very little of my entree because everything was covered in coriander, so the platter was still as full when it left as when it arrived.

My friend and I each ordered a dessert and split it (though I’ve now forgotten the names and it’s not on their website). One was a chocolate cake with vanilla gelato and whipped cream on top (I think it was called Ibana), covered in caramel. The caramel tasted in-house, in a good sort of way, and the vanilla gelato tasted amazing with the rich chocolate cake. The other was a dark chocolate pie with a pecan crust. The dark chocolate was an interesting experience, since it was still rather creamy and milky, but it was less sweet with subtle bitter undertones. The pecan crust was the real masterpiece. I’m not a huge fan of pecan but this was quite a treat. Unfortunately, the dessert is not made in-house, so I can’t give Milestones credit for that.

Overall, the experience was relaxing and enjoyable. The entree was memorable only because I could not eat most of it due to the coriander, but the dessert and the bellini more than made up for it.

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