Hilltop Diner – Langley, British Columbia

On our drive to Vancouver, we’ve heard amazing stories and reviews about Hilltop Diner and also watched Food Networks You Gotta Eat Here come by this location – so we HAD to make a stop and visit this lovely establishment!

Once we got a seat after a long wait as they’re very popular (and well worth the wait), we got our menus. After we ordered, I think the waitresses realized I was taking pictures of everything and shared their scrapbook with us. This amazing scrapbook is filled with memorabilia of films/movies and shows that used this restaurant! If you’re interested, I’d recommend asking to see it! Shortly after we started flipping through this scrapbook, our order of the soup of the day came, which was Turkey Dumpling soup. This soup was really amazing and I’ve actually have had nothing like it before!

I ordered their Classic Burger which I figured if it’s “classic”, it’s probably pretty awesome and popular! This amazing burger had a 5oz patty with fried onions and the classic toppings of lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. The thing that really stood out was the sauce they used on the burger, it was very tasty!

My husband ordered their Mushroom Mozza Burger which was another super delectable burger! This burger had a 5oz patty with mushrooms under melted mozza cheese, and also topped with their classic toppings of lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. Instead of fries, we got onion rings with this burger, and I love onion rings, and they did a good batter and fry here!

You would think after eating burgers the size of our heads, we would be so stuffed and call it a day. However, this diner is known for their homemade pies, so there was no way I was going to leave without getting a slice. We ordered a rustic pie, which not many people know about, it’s the Flapper Pie and secretly it’s a pie I hope becomes as popular as Apple Pies! This pie had the perfect graham crust with a perfectly creamy custard filling – just the way it’s suppose to be (not with jello custard)!

Overall, this place was amazing! If it wasn’t so far out of the way, I wish I could visit here more often and try other selections on their menu!

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Hilltop Diner

23904 Fraser Highway
Langley, BC
604-514-9424

A&W – Salmon Arm, British Columbia

During one of our drives out to Vancouver, we had breakfast in Salmon Arm, and the only thing opened at our crazy hour was A&W which isn’t normally a fast food breakfast place we’d pick, but it was the only thing opened.

We both ordered the same delicious breakfast combo, their Sausage N’Egger Combo on their regular Sesame seed bun. The food was fresh and it tasted fantastic. The hashbrown was presented in the cutest fryer basket and it was crispy without being too greasy! They really mastered this combo!

We’re so glad we went in, the service was awesome, the food was fantastic, and the location and hours was ideal for us! We’ll be sure to think about A&W more often for breakfast!

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A&W Salmon Arm

350 Lakeshore Dr NW
Salmon Arm, BC
(250) 832-0502

Sidewalk Citizen Bakery – Calgary, Alberta

I love bakeries and cafes, and when I heard about Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, I knew it was a place where I needed to go. We ventured to Sidewalk Citizen Bakery on a weekend, and they had a lot of people in line, ordering from loaves to pastries, and even sandwiches!

We were just stopping by basically just for a quick snack on our way to lunch. I love Pain au Chocolat, so naturally, it was something I got. The pastry was flaky, the chocolate wasn’t too sweet or too bitter.

We also go something different, a Cheese Croissant which was amazing. The cheese was in the croissant, and it was crispy and awesome! It wasn’t as greasy as you would imagine it to be, so it was still very light and fluffy!

Overall, it as an amazing experience here at Sidewalk Citizen Bakery! We decided next time we drop by, it will be for an actual sandwich, and for lunch – instead of a snack! I’m sure that will make my picnic perfect!

Sidewalk Citizen Bakery

2-5524 1A St. SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 457-2245

Pho Huong Viet Noodle House – Calgary, Alberta

I’ve been told by more than just friends and co-workers to try Pho Huong Viet Noodle House on numerous occassions as they all recommend this Vietnamese restaurant location to us. We made an effort to try it as we were craving some good Vietnemese food. The nice thing about this restaurant is there is lots of parking, hoewever, it’s very popular as we watched families needing to wait for quite some time during our visit.

Once we sat down, service was really quick as they knew that there’s people waiting for our table. We decided we would start with Salad Rolls and they were pretty tasty here! Even though they came out quick, it seemed like it was made fresh to order!

We decided to eat order some Chicken Wings and the wings were really nicely fried, and the pieces were larger than usual chicken wings. It was really tasty with their salt and pepper seasoning.

I wasn’t feeling the greatest during this visit so I opt’ed for something a little less strong in flavour. I got the Chicken Pho Noodle Soup which was fantastic. There was so much chicken in the soup, and the soup was really delicious. The texture of the noodles was perfect as it wasn’t hard or soggy!

The other noodle dish that we ordered was their Huong Viet Special Sate Beef Noodle Soup and this was really quite delicious. The soup base was loaded with amazing flavours and the beef was still tender and juicy.

Our overall experience here was amazing! Everyone was right – the food was great! The location was good too! There’s a reason why this little place is so busy

Pho Huong Viet Noodle House

3855 17 Ave SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 686-3799

Bamboo Garden – Banff, Alberta

We went for a winter hike and it was freezing this one afternoon. We figured we deserved to warm up with some spice and found ourselves at Bamboo Garden, a restaurant on second floor right on Banff Avenue.

Once upstairs, it was kind of worn down, but it wasn’t too bad. We got to sit near their employee table and figured out that they weren’t Thai, they’re Mandarin Chinese. So, that would explain the huge variety of “Asian” cuisines on the menu.

We decided we would start with a medium order of Tom Yum Soup as nothing really warms you up than hot, spicy soup. The soup was decent, it wasn’t too spicy of flavourful but it was still quite tasty.

Sticking with the Thai, we ordered one of their curries, we picked the Red Curry with Beef and we got an order of Coconut Rice with this. The dish was actually fantastic! The curry was spicy yet flavourful, the beef was tender and the portions were generous.

I rarely go to a Thai place without ordering my favourite, the Pad See-Ew and this one we got it with chicken as that’s how I like it. This plate was fantastic and they cooked it with high heat which was perfect. The noodles were seasoned great. This was definitely my favourite dish of the evening!

As the main courses tasted fantastic, we decided we would order Mango Sticky Rice and that was kind of a mistake. The mango was so rare it was hard and it tasted like it stings! The sticky rice and coconut milk was good. Overall, this was not something we enjoyed.

So, overall, the main course was pretty awesome and the soup was good. However, the dessert wasn’t favourable – and if it was something we ordered because it wasn’t in season, they should have said something. The prices are reasonable, especially for the portion. Not a bad place to eat, especially for winter!

Bamboo Garden

211 Banff St 2nd Floor
Banff, AB
(403) 985-6688