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Dynasty Century Palace – Edmonton, Alberta

Recently, we traveled for a day trip to Edmonton in search of a good dim sum place where we kind of stumbled upon Dynasty Century Palace which was located on the second floor of a large building right on 105th Avenue. In fact, it’s quite hard to miss! The location is large with lots of parking – which makes it quite an ideal location (although the parking lot it is attached to is a pay lot).

We got seated and the service here is really speedy! They definitely know turning tables means they’re making money – so they work hard and I’m sure they rewarded! They are the traditional style dim sum experience with the carts which is fantastic! We started by ordering everything, and everything was quite delicious and fresh. The prices were also very reasonable!

We got our standard orders which would consist of Chicken Feet which the flavours were really good, the texture was nice and the size of them was quite large and they were not tough or over cooked! They’ve mastered chicken feet for sure!

Usually we don’t order sweets or if we do, we wait until the end. But when the waitress comes by sayings she’s got fresh Egg Tart on her cart, we’re going to get it and eat it right away! These were really good, quite a buttery tart and the filling was good!

Everyone eats Ha Gaw or shrimp dumplings and this almost is the standard of this generation for dim sum. Since it’s a common dish, we ordered it. The shrimp inside was quite large, cleaned out properly and has an excellent shrimp texture. The skin was thin yet it did not break. Not a bad ha gow at all!

Then, something a little different, we got an order of steamed Beef Short Ribs which we don’t usually get as it’s often tough and full of fat, marinated in a black peppered sauce. Although this dish wasn’t as fatty as they normally come, it was just a tad on the tough side. The flavours was spot on – just like how I remembered it to taste! Overall, not bad as the flavour was just amazing.

I don’t often order rice for dim sum either as they’re really filling – then you don’t get to try as much options, especially when it’s just the 2 of us. However, the Lo Mei Fan or sticky rice was something I have been craving for awhile, so we ordered some. It didn’t come in the standard glass bowl, but it was just kind of dumped into a bamboo steam basket. The flavours and texture and taste was perfect! This really made me want to go home and make some – but I don’t as it’s pretty time consuming.

There’s nothing my husband likes more than Lo Bak Go or turnip cake, so when he saw that go by – guess what, we ordered it! It didn’t have much filling to it but instead it had more rice flour – so it didn’t taste as good as it could have. Still quite tasty and we all know I make this at home, and I must say, he likes mine the best!

Overall, we had a fantastic time here. It was fun, the service was great and the food was really tasty! We wouldn’t mind bringing people here or to come back ourselves as they have a huge selection of food/dim sum!

Dynasty Century Palace

200-9700 105 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
(780) 428-3388

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Wendy’s Macleod Trail South – Calgary, Alberta

A random day before we were goign to meet up with some friends I figured I was hungry and it will be awhile before we eat again, so we decided to pre-eat dinner and grab a burger! While driving closer towards where we were going to meet up, we saw Wendy’s and decided to take a quick detour.

This Wendy’s is quite new looking as though they recently did some renovations – from the inside and outside. Wendy’s was having their annual Cod Fillet Sandwich promotion on again, so we took their North Pacific Cod Meal to share!

The meal was really good and the fish burger was fantastic! It was flaky, tender, and quite delicious! Not too much condiments which helps bring out the fish in the burger instead of masking it! The burger was topped with dill tartar sauce and crunchy dill pickles. The light panko batter was light and crispy. All on a warm buttered bun. It was amazing!

Overall, this was quite a wonderful stop! We really thought the parking lot was a little weird, but everything else here was quite amazing. I did find it a tad strange there was a slice of cheese on it – and I’m not sure if it was suppose to be there… but it was ok.

Wendy's on Urbanspoon

Wendy’s

7109 Macleod Trial South
Calgary, AB
(403) 253-5333

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Red Lobster – Lobsterfest

For many years, I’ve seen TV commercials for Red Lobster’s Lobsterfest and I’ve never had the chance to go. This year, I said “we’re going!” and we did make it to Lobsterfest while the promotion was still on! We went to the location in Calgary on Macleod Trail – which is a location where I’ve been to a few times already. The place seems to be newly renovated inside and it seems more spacious and brighter – which is nice. It still has an intimate feel to it too!

We started with an appetizer, and decided to have an order of their White Wine and Roasted Garlic Mussels which is a big bowl of steamed mussels with white wine and roasted garlic and tomatoes. There was also some really nice bread to soak up the sauce, and both the bread and sauce was excellent!

When you order a meal, it comes with soup or salad to start, and I actually upgraded my soup to their Lobster Bisque which is something I love. Here, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t my favourite cup of lobster bisque.

For the other meal, we decided to just stick with their Garden Salad with dressing. It was very typical but it’s nice to have the greens in a meal such like this one!

My main order was their Dueling Lobster Tails which was a generous portion of 2 lobster tails. Once was a crab-and-seafood stuffed Maritime lobster tail, and a Maritime lobster tail topped with creamy roasted-garlic shrimp. Both the tails were excellent in taste and texture and although they are the same type of lobster tail, it was nice to see the difference in preparation!

The other main entree we had was their Lobster Lover’s Dream which was a dream – a lobster dream! This plate had a succulent rock lobster tail and sweet split Maritime lobster tail, roasted and served with lobster-and-shrimp linguini Alfredo. The Rock Lobster tail was not only beautiful to look at, it was the best lobster this evening. Plain, simple, and perfect!

The size of the lobster tails was surprisingly large in size considering an entree has 2 of them! They were cooked really well, and seasoned well. This was an amazing experience at lobsterfest! I’m sure we’ll be back again!

Red Lobster

100-6100 Macleod Trail SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 252-8818

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Sushi Boat – Calgary, Alberta

Recently, I decided to go back to Sushi Boat as I was in the area, and love this place! I use to come here a LOT when I lived in the NW. It was a Friday night and the place was full, but you didn’t need to wait long for a table either at any section.

Once we were seated, we looked onto the boats and they were actually quite empty. We waited for all the boats to go around a few times thinking they will replenish the boats – but they remained the same or even got eaten. We grabbed a few items that are standard and watched/waited as we ate. We started with their Salmon Roll and they were decent. It wasn’t the same as it use to be, but I was just thinking I got the “older” plate.

Then, we grabbed what we thought was Chicken Karaage, but it turned out to be Fish Karaage and we were really disappointed with that. It was cold, and not very good at all. The fish was dry while the batter was soggy. It wasn’t the sushi boat quality I remembered it to be.

Then, I saw one of my “go-to” sushi’s, the Spicy Tuna Roll and this has always been something that was pretty much fail proof, and it was! This plate was excellent, the spicy mayo was excellent as well.

Then, we decided to order off the menu and put in our orders as we haven’t been that pleased so far. We got a bowl of their Miso Soup and that was a nice salty treat! It did taste good but I thought it was a little too salty.

We got a plate of their Spicy Tempura Sushi which was really good! I think I just enjoy their spicy sauce, but the tempura was really crispy and not overly greasy! It was fresh and nice!

We had their 2 piece Pacific Roll, and that just came out as a giant modified California Roll stuffed with tons of imitation crab meat – which was fine as I love imitation crab meat! I definitely couldn’t put the entire piece in my mouth – although I did not try.

We got 2 orders of my favourite, the Hokkigai, as I’ve always loved surf clams. They were fine here, nothing bad yet nothing special.

We got an order of Inari as I like to call them pillow cases. My sister first called them that – and that name stuck! These are always delightful although I will never call it “sushi”. I just like the sweetness of the bean curd with rice packed in them! It was delicious!

And finally the last thing we decided to order, again as it’s more fail proof was their Crab Stick as I just buy packs of crab sticks eat eat on a daily basis. I love this stuff! It’s good as a sushi here as well!

Overall, Sushi Boat seems to have dropped in their quality a bit. Although the food is still good, it’s nothing like how it use to be. It seems like an average place with actual boats that go around for you to get your sushi! It’s still decent, but not what I was expecting.

Sushi Boat on Urbanspoon

Sushi Boat

806 Crowfoot Crescent NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 239-1818

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Masala – Banff, Alberta

We were in Banff for a cold early spring evening and figured curry would be the perfect cuisine to eat on a day like that! We went into the Wolf and Bear Mall to Masala which is an Indian restaurant.

Once we were seated, I knew I wanted their Chai Tea as it was so cold outside! I was unsure how large the serving would be, or anything, but it was so nice, it came in a tea pot with sugar on the side! It was perfect! The chai tasted wonderful, and it was a good start!

My husband is more into Mango Lassi and so he ordered a glass. The glass was a good size and the texture of the lassi was really good! It’s not so thick you can’t enjoy it and at the same time, it was creamy and fully of mango flavours! This was another great drink – and it’s starting to set the bar really high for our dinner!

We wanted to try new items on the menu as there were a few things we’ve never heard of. So we went ahead and ordered their Bison Korma. Although we’ve had korma, we’ve never had it with bision! This delicious korma was perfect with a good amount of both sauce and bison. This korma is a thick and creamy tomato sauce topped with pistachios!

The other dish we had was a chicken one, but one we’ve never tried. It was their Chicken Himachali which was chicken cooked with garam masala cuisine of the state of Himachai. The flavours were a little spicier than other garam masalas, but it was really fragrant and quite enjoyable!

With our curries, we ordered an order of Garlic Naan and Coconut Rice and everything got placed on the table at the same time for us to dig in family style! The portions were really generous as we were able to bring some home an enjoy the following day!

Overall, Masala has made it onto our top 5 list of Indian restaurants for sure! The staff was really friendly, the food was amazing and the prices actually was really fair! For the amount of food for 2, and some to take home, a bill over $50 seems very reasonable!

Masala

Wolf and Bear Mall
229 Bear St
Banff, AB
(403) 760-6612