PaiGu

I went to Crave with my coworkers last night. The night was fun but the food was kind of hit-and-miss.

As usual, the ambience was dark and moody¹, as was our waitress. For a party our size, she really should have been more amicable if she was thinking about her tip. Not only was she cold and unhelpful, she was rather snotty².

The food took a while to come, but that may have been due to the size of our party (but 1 hour for dessert – really?). To start, I had the smoked duck carpaccio, which was quite lovely. The ground pistachios gave the arugala a nutty taste and some texture, making the otherwise bland greens much more interesting. They were quite liberal in dousing the duck meat in orange-ginger sauce, considering that the meat was already very well marinated, but in between mouthfuls of the greens and the duck meat, it didn’t seem to get in the way of the subtle smokey taste. The peppercorns were a bit strong, although they do give the dish a nice dash of colour.

I chose my entree for its interesting description. “Malibu chicken” was a dish of coconut-crusted chicken breast, with a rum mango pina colada sauce, served with basmati rice, sautéed asparagus, red pepper, red onion and baby corn topped with crispy plantain chips. In the end, the dish did not live up to its description. There’s something wrong when the crispy plantain chips, a finishing garnish, has the best taste of the entire entree. The dish failed for several reasons. The chicken breast was not marinated under the batter, the batter was fried for too long, and it was not sticking to the chicken breast at all. The last is an easy problem to solve for anyone who’s ever made fried chicken or pork. All you have to do to get the batter to stick to the meat is dip the meat in eggs before applying the batter! Surely, the chef at Crave should have been capable of such a simple addition to the recipe. The fact that the batter kept coming off meant that most of the time I was eating the (un-marinated) chicken breast and the (over-fried) batter separately. Not all that enjoyable, as you can imagine.

The sauce was also rather strange. The taste of pina colada was too strong, and quite frankly, a weird combination with the fried chicken breast. Maybe if they put more rum into the sauce, I could’ve overlooked the strange taste, but alas, the combination was simply not right. The sauteed vegetables and asparagus were rather bland, although the basmati rice was surprisingly fragrant. A last, saving characteristic for a wholly unimpressive dish.

To compliment the meal, I had a glass of Wolf Blass Riesling, which was on the dry end for a riesling (probably a 1 on the sugar scale) to my disappointment. It ended up working out nicely though, since the sauce on both the appetizer and the main were sweeter than expected.

For dessert, I had the Crav’in chocolate brownie. Dessert is always my favourite course, and this one certainly satisfied my sugar craving! The chocolate-peanut gelato was just superb, and I loved the whole peanuts hidden throughout (I always love a good crunch). The brownie was very rich and dense, so much so that I couldn’t finish it. But overall, a great way to end the night.

Would I come back? $55 (including tax and tip) for a three-course meal doesn’t exactly scream enticing to me, especially when the main was so disappointing, but maybe for a date if I’m craving (haha) over-priced food.

Rating:

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1. What’s with this trend of poorly lit restaurants? Is it like the more expensive a place is, the darker it should be? [↩]
2. When I asked my coworker what was on the side of his appetizer – something that looked like bacon – she interjected with “It’s panchetta.” “Oh, ok… Wait, I know what that is! That’s bacon!” I swear her nose was pointing to the ceiling when she stalked away. [↩]

Late Saturday night, my friend and I found ourselves on the east side of Dundas St. looking for a place to go. I almost didn’t notice the Amici beside Zen Gardens, but when I saw it, I realized it was the Italian place another friend had been raving about. So we decided to give it a shot, and boy am I glad we did.

Before I get into the details, let me just say that the moment I walked in, I felt like I was transported to Italy. The atmosphere of the restaurant could not have been more perfect. There were fake grape vines hanging from the ceiling, the walls were a rich cream colour, and there was a large party happily celebrating someone’s engagement. I could not have asked for a better scene. The restaurant was small so it was hard not to notice the noise of the engagement party next to us, but I didn’t mind at all. Just seeing their laughing faces as they bent towards each other to share some funny anecdote was enough to lift my spirits. The waiter was attentive and friendly to the perfect degree (i.e. not annoying), gave us plenty of time to make our choices, and never interrupted us in the middle of a conversation.

And the food! Oh! It was superb. We started off with the insalata di casa (house salad), which was a unique mix of fresh greens with red onions, mangoes, gorgonzola, pine nuts, and sweet Marsala vinaigrette. The Marsala vinaigrette was amazing. The best vinaigrette I’ve ever had by far. And the pine nuts were a great touch to add that subtle crunch.

Then came the entrees. Oh, my, God. My veal marsala was topped with the most amazing, juicy sauteed mushrooms. There were two pieces of veal, one of which was a little on the thick side, but overall, cooked to perfection.

My friend had a salmon entree:

For dessert, we picked tiramisu. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. A little bit too sloppy and more cream than coffee flavour.

We were the last ones in the restaurant, and the waiter was very patient even though we were there past closing time. Conclusion: I will definitely be going back for more!

Rating:

The Braywick Bistro is a tucked away little restaurant on a sketchy street in London, Ontario. After reading the stellar reviews on Restaurantica, I decided I had to try this place out for myself.

As soon as I walked in, I noticed how dim the interiors were¹, and how the space occupied by the restaurant was very long and narrow. Although they put a lot of mirrors on both sides of the wall to give the illusion of a bigger area, the lack of light made it feel more like a long narrow hole-in-the-wall (literally) than an expansive and mysterious cave. There were candles on the ledges and at each table, as well as ornate frames and coat racks. However, there were strange, post-modern pictures of fire alarms and tubes on the wall, which did not suit the dark and exotic ambiance at all. Moreover, the background music were an assortment of popular trance tracks that really did not fit in with the mood.

When we arrived, there was no one in the restaurant, so the waitress was extremely attentive. We had a hard time deciding what to order, so I asked her for recommendations, and basically, she recommended we try everything on the menu. Not helpful. Although her eagerness to converse was endearing, she was sometimes talkative to the point of annoyance.

I finally decided to get a fishcake appetizer and a herb-crusted pork tenderloin with an apple, jalapeño slaw. My friend decided to get a chicken satay appetizer and a pan-seared salmon with cilantro, corn, and coconut cream.

I will first comment on the appetizers. The Bajan fishcakes were quite obviously on the salty side. The other tastes were not memorable, only that it was too salty. The fish filling was lost in a thick flour batter, and although not dense, still felt heavy. The oil used to fry it did not smell fresh, or was heated for too long. Its only redeeming quality was the sauce that came on the side, which was a creamy pepper sauce.

The chicken satays were an absolute scandal. They were basically pieces of chicken breast stuck on a skewer, without being previously marinated in curry sauce (or any sauce), as is the norm for satay skewers. The peanut sauce, which is usually the highlight of any satay skewer appetizer, was a watery disappointment of melted peanut butter and sad little chunks of peanuts, without any taste of satay or supposed “spice.”

Forty-five minutes after our appetizers were taken away, our entrees finally arrived. Although this time may not seem like a big deal, the fact of the matter is, we were the only ones in the restaurant, and we could see there were two chefs in the kitchen. When we came by later that night (because my friend forgot his umbrella), there were at least 8 customers in the restaurant, and still two chefs. How long do they expect their customers to wait?

My entree was the herb-crusted pork tenderloin, a complete tease. Topped with some variation on coleslaw, there were four pieces of thick pork resting atop three sticks of asparagus and some mini potatoes. To start off, the coleslaw was great. An assortment of cabbage, bean sprouts, apple, jalapeño, and black sesame seeds swimming in olive oil, it was the perfect blend of crisp and tart, with a spicy kick. The tart owing to the apples was a great decision, because the sweetness of the apples toned down the spicy jalapeño. After the slaw however, things went downhill.

The pork tasted like four leftover pieces of meat that had been stewed in plain boiling water. Whatever herbs were used could not be detected in the meat at all. Moreover, the meat was not soft, not juicy, and not tender at all. One side was burnt, the center was still a bit raw, and the cooked parts were hard to chew and tasteless. The entire meat experience was very bland and a disappointment.

The asparagus were fine, the mini potatoes were too salty, and by the end, the pleasant surprise of the slaw was long forgotten.

My friend’s entree, of which I tried a little, was slightly better. The salmon was tender, juicy, and cooked to the right degree. It had been marinated, with what I could not tell, but certainly not enough coconut. We had to double-check with the menu to remind us that there was supposed to be coconut in the dish, because the distinct flavour of coconut could not be detected at all. It may have been covered by the overuse of cilantro, but I’m being biased here because I have a strong preference for coconut and a slight dislike for cilantro.

When we asked for dessert, the waitress informed us that there was no dessert menu and promptly began listing out the names and descriptions of all the desserts. After short discussion, we decided to go somewhere else for dessert because we didn’t catch anything she’d said and really would’ve preferred to see a menu. The fact that we decided not to have dessert there because they didn’t have a dessert menu is an indication that perhaps it would be worthwhile to print one out. Having the waitress ramble out the names and descriptions of the desserts sounded, to us, like nothing more than verbal diarrhea.

Overall, the ambiance was intimate but too dim, the service was good, but the food took a long time to come and was mediocre at best. Kudos on their presentation style, but taste is still what I’m paying for. Also, they may want to reconsider the mood music and the pictures on the walls, and invest in a dessert menu.

Rating:

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1. There are photos of the interior on their website, but the place is much better lit in the photos. Perhaps the lighting was especially dim on the night I visited. [↩]