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Edmonton Hotel and Convention Centre

Edmonton isn’t a place where we go, unless we truly have to. Lately, my other half has been going to Edmonton once in awhile for business, and he’s been staying at the Edmonton Hotel & Convention Centre which was formerly a Holiday Inn hotel. This hotel has just gone through some updating and renovations making the interior much more modern. This review is of the Executive King Suite which offers a lot of amenities in a hotel room. The room itself is fairly large and it offers a kitchenette, seating area and a glass divider to separate the room for the business side to the personal side. This glass sliding divider isn’t frosted to ensure privacy like the website leads you to think. But, I think they did this as the room offers 1 TV, and it’s in the “bedroom” part of the suite – so when you’re sitting in the sitting area, you can see the TV.

The bathroom is quite a beauty, the shower is modern and offers some body jets. The pressure and temperatures of the shower is very reasonable, making a nice home away from home feel,with a clean, sleek, modern design. The bathroom is large/spacious and offers yours standard bathroom amenities.

The actual room itself is large, and very comfortable. As mentioned, there is a kitchenette, which includes a small fridge and microwave making longer stays much more comfortable – or even left over meals, or packed lunches for the following day. There is even a little dining area as well, which is really neat! This suite has more than enough seating area for guests and visitors.

Here is a quick walk-through of the room that was used during the visit to Edmonton.

Edmonton Hotel & Convention Centre

4520 – 76 Avenue NW
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
T6B 0A5

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Chili’s Texas Grill (Southcentre Mall)

I’ve never been to Chili’s and to be honest, we went there because we heard about a fantastic promotion they have going on… it’s the 2 for $25 which was one appetizer to share and 2 full sized entrees! Even if they didn’t do a full size entree, it’s still a fantastic deal! We visit the Chili’s location at South Centre mall, which is located outside of the mall, towards SportsChek. We went during mid-week evening, and thinking there wouldn’t be a line up, there was! It was exciting to see so many guests, it makes me think the place is always good!

We got inside and they took our name and they advised us it would be about 45 minute wait for a table. We said that’s fine and we sat down to wait. Not long after we sat down, they came out with some appetizers for their waiting guest – which was a really nice touch! They were bringing out Jalapeno Cheese Bites which was a delicious jalapeno cheddar that is breaded in panko and deep fried to perfection!

When we sat down, we flipped through the menu, and figured we wanted to upgrade our dinner to the other special 2 for $30 special, which is the same deal, but the food sounded more appetizing for us! We ordered a Texas Dry Ribs for our appetizer to share. It was a huge portion and it was delicious whether we took it as is, or splashed some lemon juice on it!

I ordered the Classic Chicken Fajita which is something I really like! I love eating with my hands, and with fajitas coming out on a sizzling plate with caramelized veggies, this was a fun meal for me! The chicken was delicious and it was truly a full sized entree. There was only 3 tortilla wraps, but it’s alright, I just ate the entire thing off the sizzling with the condiments poured on top! It was really enjoyable and memorable!

The other entree that we ordered was the Chicken Enchilada Pasta which is a huge bowl of penne with some grilled chicken, corn, mushrooms and onions in a rich enchilada sauce with melted mixed cheese. It was a hearty meal and cheesy too!

We really enjoyed our time at Chili’s and we’ve been thinking about returning – especially during the spring/summer months and enjoy their patio too! Regular meals are reasonably priced, and the service was exceptional. To top it off, the food was spectacular and very pleasant to eat! We’ve just selected Chili’s as a location we will add to our circulation of places to go for dinner now!

Chili's Texas Grill (Southcentre Mall) on Urbanspoon

Chili’s Texas Grill

282 100 Anderson Rd SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 225-2150

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Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine

I love eating Vietnamese food, especially during cold winter evenings when I don’t want to cook. This usually happens during weekends, and my favourite Vietnamese restaurant doesn’t open on Sundays, so I was out on a hunt looking for a new Vietnamese cuisine that was opened! I found one, and I like it! It’s Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine which is opened daily from 11:00 to 9:00PM. This business is located on 24th Street SE just off Deerfoot Trail and Douglasdale Blvd/24th Street exit. It’s at the same area as Sobeys plaza, but further west. It is a stand-alone building.

We started our meal with their Prawn Salad Rolls which came on a plate with 4 salad rolls, which was decent in size, for $6.50, I wouldn’t expect it to be small. The shrimp was quite fresh, which is always a delight! The worse thing is having soggy shrimp with a fishy smell/taste! But, thankfully this little restaurant doesn’t server stuff like that!

We wanted a good satay noodle, as the last time we had one, it was nothing but chili oil in the soup – which isn’t “satay” flavour. So, we ordered a bowl of Satay Beef Noodle Soup, and we love it! It was actually a bit spicy and it offered some great satay flavour! There was a lot of noodles and beef in the bowl, and for a price of $9.50, it ranks in on the high end of regular Vietnamese noodle prices. I really like the portion sizes that justifies the price tag!

As the temperatures get colder and colder, all I want is spice! So, I ordered a bowl of Bun Bo Hue which is something I order a lot, but with caution since a lot of times, it just turns into a bowl of SUPER spicy noodles with again, no taste. I am happy to say it was really good here, and the texture of their noodles was perfect! It was just a great bowl of Bun Bo Hue – and now I’m thinking about ordering another bowl for take-out tonight!

Overall, I really like this place. The service is great, fast and friendly. The cost is really decent for the amount of food you get (even though it’s Asian food), and it’s not too far from home! I’m sure I’ll be back, and I know I would love to thy their Vietnamese submarines, as I haven’t had a delicious one in a long time!

Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine on Urbanspoon

Saigon Annam Vietnamese Cuisine

11566 24 St SE
Calgary, AB T2Z3J3
(403) 457-3885

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The Teahouse in Stanley Park

We were in Vancouver visiting family and we took a day off to just do a bit of sight-seeing at Stanley Park, where we went to visit the Aquarium, and then found ourselves a little hungry for an early dinner. We ventured off a few sight seeing stops after the Aquarium, where we found The Teahouse at Stanley Park where we decided to have an early dinner – or a late snack!

We decided to sit outside on the patio to soak up the view, even though it was chilly. They did have heaters which really helped! What a gorgeous place – and apparently both tourists and locals visit this restaurant. I thought it would be specifically aimed for tourists, but it’s always nice to see restaurants like this have lots of locals too! I ordered a Hot Tea and it was a much needed hot tea to warm me up from the inside out!

We weren’t sure what to order since it was an odd time to eat. It was around 4PM, and the waitress recommended we try their Happy Hour special with Fresh Mussels & a Stanley Park Beer, so of course, we did! We definitely wanted to try the Stanley Park Beer and it was a nice beer! It wasn’t too light, but it wasn’t very bitter either. The plate of mussels that came to the table was huge and it even had a side of fries with it! It was delicious and seafood is just not the same when you’re near a large body of water!

Right away, after we ordered, a large basket of bread and butter came to our table! This was great, it’s like we’ve suddenly turned this strange late night snack to dinner all by itself! The bread was really fresh, and it was great to use to soak up all the juices from the mussels!

Okay, now after we got all the starters out, we still ordered some appetizers! We really wanted to try their Salt & Pepper Squid, and we got an order of it. It was really good, fried till it was crispy, but the squid was still tender and soft. It sat on some lime aioli, and topped with some jalapeno peppers! It was a delicious take on the “salt & pepper” I’m use to!

Now that we’ve had so much food, we decided to not order a full entree… and we opted out for some side instead. We’re still on a seafood mission/tread, so we got a side of Grilled 4oz Salmon and Albacore Tuna which made a great sample platter! The grilled salmon was my favourite, but the tuna was delicious! I loved them both and if I was to return, I would get the same thing again!

Overall, the experience here was top notch! The waitress was fantastic, the scene was divine, and the food was perfect! The best part about the Teahouse was the the prices are so reasonable, you weren’t paying a premium to have this great location!

The Teahouse on Urbanspoon

The Teahouse

Ferguson Point
Vancouver, BC V6G3E2
(604) 669-3281

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Le’s Pho – Heritage Meadows

Sundays are tricky for me – my favourite southeast Vietnamese restaurant is closed on that day, and sometimes, all I want is a nice bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup. So, we decided to venture off – but not too far to find some. We went to Heritage Meadows and found Le’s Pho Vietnamese Cuisine and Grill where I knew I had to try it.

Once we were inside, there was a sign that says “Please Wait to be Seated”, and it seems like it took forever to get seated, even though there wasn’t that many customers there at that odd time when I went (it as around 2 or 3pm). Once we sat down, probably another 5 minutes, a waiter came by to see what we wanted to drink. We just ordered some tea, since that’s what we like with our “Asian” meals. I quickly ordered the Spring Rolls and it came quite quickly. They looked pretty good, and it tasted good too! We’re off to a good start! Sure, it’s not the texture I was use to, but the flavours were all there, so I enjoyed them thoroughly! It’s hard to not like something deep fried, unless it’s soggy and not even a tad crispy!

I wanted something with a bit more flavour, so I tried their Satay chicken Pho which when it came out, it didn’t taste like satay at all! There was no other flavours besides a ton of spice… as though I ordered a super spicy chicken pho! There was no taste or texture of what you would expect from satay. Besides the spice though, the soup was very flavourless… a tad of fish sauce, and soy sauce didn’t help.

We also ordered a bowl of Pho Tai which is essentially rare beef with pho. This one is hard to goof usually, but the beef was fine, and the broth was really watered down. It tasted like nothing, so we were kind of disappointed with Le’s Pho!

The portion sizes are fairly large and the prices are within reason, but we didn’t like the watered down soups and just the overall lack in flavour of the pho. The noodles wasn’t too bad – just a tad on the soggy side, which I can’t blame them… sometimes I take too long trying to take a picture… but, I can say that taking long doesn’t make the flavours of the soup wash away. Overall, not my new favourite place for sure… but if I had to go back and give them a second shot (like I do with some places), I just might!

Le's Pho (Heritage Meadows) on Urbanspoon

Le’s Pho (Heritage Meadows)
8180 11 St SE
Calgary, AB T2H
(403) 259-3883