Zellers Family Restaurant – Sundridge Mall

We got up early and we drove to Sunridge Mall just go to go to the Zellers diner which I was told it was the last one in the city that was opened now. When I was young, my mom use to take me to the exact same location for breakfast – so it was neat going back to the original diner I tried years ago. We actually got there right when they take the breakfast menu away, so I ordered Z’s Mile High burger with fries.

The burger was made of juicy beef burger topped with bacon, cheddar and swiss cheese, bbq sauce, onion right, with veggies. The burger was really tasty as the patty was actually really juicy – slathered with BBQ sauce. Then, as you can see in the picture, the burger was topped with a mile high of the condiments and the difference of texture of the onion right has taken this burger over the top! I love eating burgers and this one is one of the better ones. Too bad eventually this restaurant will be closing. On a happier note, my husband ordered a plate of Breaded Pork Cutlet which he enjoyed thoroughly!

This plate of food was a pork cutlet crusted with savoury schnitzel breading, with a side of mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. The pork cutlet breading was packed with tons of flavour, and even though it was a thin piece of pork, it wasn’t dry at all! It was quite enjoyable! Then, there is nothing I love more than mashed potatoes and gravy – so that was a plus on the plate. The mixed vegetables was cooked until the life was taken from the vegetables, as the didn’t even hold their shape anymore and the colours was completely pale. It was the only thing left on both of our plates at the end of our meal! Not bad!

Open Sesame

I was looking for a special place to go for my husband birthday. We’ve been hearing great things about the Smugglers Group chain, and we didn’t know which restaurant to try. We ended up settling for Open Sesame, for no particular reason really! Eventually, we will try it all! 🙂

Parking was in the back, and there wasn’t too many in the parking lot, but there are street parking available, which seemed like there was plenty! I really felt like something sweet to drink, but non-alcoholic – so I ordered a delicious Aladdin’s Passion. This drink, it says it’s made with Passion fruit sorbet, Orange, Mango juices, slash of Green Tea. It was refreshing, even though the chunks of ice was kind of made it hard to drink until during the dinner entree when the ice started melting.

We started off with a plate of Potstickers as it’s one of my all time favourite foods! I like them even when they’re not good! But, no problem here at Open Sesame, it tasted great! It was stuffed with Ginger Chicken & Shrimp, but for 4 pieces at $7.45, I felt like it was a tad costly! But, that’s probably because I’m use to it being quite cheap from actual Chinese restaurants! Besides, it turned out to be the right amount anyway as the entrees are pretty big!

Now, for the hard part – the actual dinner! I couldn’t choose what I wanted to eat, as a lot of items on the menu sounded so good! From creating your own dinner with an “ingredient” bar to different areas of inspirations on the menu! I finally decided on having Malaysian Blazin’ Noodles which was a huge plate of delicious white, wide rice noodles tossed with Malaysian spices, and then stir fried with chicken and vegetables!

Then, the birthday boy ordered a sizzling plate, which came out steaming and making the area smelling wonderful! It splashed oil/sauce as it was put down, but it was so worth it! It was a very comforting plate of food as we have meals like that in Chinese restaurants. He ordered the Chicken Katsu, made chicken breast that was breaded and made super crispy. Served with this amazing chicken had a bowl of rice and a bunch of vegetables. There was a sauce that was placed on top of the chicken, and it was really good!

At the end of dinner, to be honest, I was way to stuffed for dessert. I even had the rest of my dinner packed to take home! It was really good, and I loved the ambiance of Open Sesame! I loved that a lot of their customers at least try to use chopsticks as they put it on the table with the normal eating utensils! I had fun here, and I’m sure I’ll return one day – but probably after I try the entire group of restaurants as they’re so well known in the city!

Open Sesame on Urbanspoon

Open Sesame

6920 Macleod Trail South
Calgary, AB T2H0L3
(403) 259-0123

Namskar Cuisine of India

I love Indian cuisine, and when I heard I was going to go to Namskar – Cuisine of India, I was really happy! Apparently I’ve been there once, but it must’ve been so long ago, I don’t remember it at all! Nothing in there rings a bell, so I will consider it my first time there! This little Indian restaurant is located right on 16th avenue, and it’s a corner location. It offers a few spots in the back which I found it was easiest to park on the streets. Once you walk up to the restaurant, you can smell the Indian spices and curries – you know you’re in for a real treat!

We got in, and instead of ordering my usual mango lassi, I decided to have a nice cup of Chai Tea which has always been one of my favourites. Unfortunately here, their chai wasn’t as strong as I would have hoped for. I like it when it’s creamy and full of spices – but that’s a personal preference. Luckily, their food is really good here!

My pictures didn’t really turn out, but we ordered a bunch of curries, rice and naan. We started with Butter Chicken which was a delicious dish with chunks of chicken pieces in a tomato and cashew sauce. The sauce was really thick, creamy and a hint of sweetness to the spice! For the first time, we also went ahead a tried some Fish Curry which was chunks of Basa fish cooked with fresh vegetables. It was a medium heat dish but came out to be one of my favourites of the evening.

For the spice dishes, we ordered Lamb Vindaloo which of course was lamb. Vindaloo has always been the killer dish for me but they made this sauce really nice – infused with so much flavour and fragrant, the spice was really nice with the lamb. We also had a order of Goat, which I don’t really remember what kind of curry it was in. It didn’t have as much sauce to it, and it was cooked with a lot of vegetables. Regardless, it was a great dish, and I ate a lot of it!

To end the night, we actually took a different spin… we ended with a plate of appeitzers instead of dessert. We had the Namskar Mix Platter which was a great idea to start with. For us, it was too much food as it came with pieces of Veggie Pakoras, paneer pakoras, Fish pakoras, onion bhajia, Veggie samosa, and a piece of lamb samosa. It came on 2 plates, which was great as we had a relatively large group and it made it easy to share.

This was a wonderful place to go for dinner. The service was really good, and they kept filling up our glasses with water – as we needed it. This would be a location I would return to for Indian food because I really enjoyed my experience here! This time, I will remember I’ve been here!

Namskar Cuisine of India on Urbanspoon

Namskar Cuisine of India

202 16 Ave NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 230-4447

Timbers Food Company – Banff

We went for a quick hike the other day to start the off our hiking season – we went to Tunnel Mountain. After the hike, we came back down to Banff townsite and we wanted to eat a late lunch/early dinner. We found ourselves walking straight into Timbers Food Company, and found a seat right on the patio. It was such a nice afternoon that shortly after we placed our order, it started to rain – badly! They were really nice about everyone relocating themselves indoors, and that’s where we spent the rest of our lunch hour.

I wanted a sweet/sugary drink, so I ordered myself a Tropical Colada, which was a mocktail made of coconut, pineapple and wildberry mix. It was really refreshing, and it looked really pretty too!

We ordered some appetizers for this meal/snack, and we had some Baked Garlic Prawns, which was some giant prawns over a warm lentil salad, topped with garlic butter. It was actually really good, and the prawns was big and fresh! The lentil salad seemed really big, so we didn’t finish that part of the dish.

For this meal, which I honestly considered it a snack, I ordered the Crab Cakes which actually was a very generous sized crab cake portion! I enjoyed the crab cakes as it was without the relish, even though the relish was really delicious on it’s own.

The last thing we ordered was the Timbers Steak Sandwich, which was just under $12, which is quite reasonable, considering it was a 6oz premium sirloin steak topped with sautéed mushrooms, onions on garlic toast with a choice of side – where we picked french fries! The steak was actually very tender – even though they over cooked it, as we asked for rare and probably got a medium. We didn’t have the need or desire to send it back as it was still very tasty!

Overall, I really enjoyed my time here at Timbers, and I think I would find myself back! The food was excellent, and at reasonable prices – in a tourist townsite, with good service! I really have nothing to complain about and wouldn’t mind returning!

Timbers Food Company on Urbanspoon

Timbers Food Company

224 Wolf St.
Banff, AB
(403) 762-8987

Aglio E Olio Food Truck – Calgary

As you can all tell now, I really like food trucks, and when they’re at Deerfoot Meadows on Saturdays, I’m most likely going to visit them. This one particular Saturday, Aglio E Olio was there, and it was my first time seeing them! They offer pasta from a truck, and the portion sizes are huge for only $10! It is a little more costly than other food trucks, but the amount of pasta you get, it’s incredible!

From this truck, we didn’t know how big the portions were until after we received our order. We actually got a pasta each, which was fine – we just had a smaller dinner! 🙂 I love Gnocchi when they’re done right, as they transform potatoes into pillows of light and softness! So, I ordered their Gnocchi Bolognese which was of course gnocchi with a spicy pomodoro meat sauce!! It was a wonderful and filling lunch, and I was satisfied to no end! On top of the great gnocchi, it had a huge piece of garlic toast, and I have been in love with garlic toast since I was really young!

The other plate of pasta that we ordered was their Penne Arrabiata, which was a plate of penne – which we love!! It is topped with with sausage and pomodoro sauce which in a way is similiar to the gnocchi, but the use of sausages instead of the ground meat changes everything!

This was a great truck to visit! I really enjoyed the Gnocchi with the Meat sauce – so if you’re looking for some starch, and some delicious topping, nothing really beats their Gnocchi Bolognese! I hope it’s there next time I run into this food truck!

Aglio E Olio on Urbanspoon