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Tooloulou’s Restaurant – Banff, AB

Banff is one of my most favourite places to go to! I especially love this place for the different types of delicious food and stumbling into Tooloulou’s Restaurant was no exception. This place has Louisiana style food which was a nice treat from other cuisines around town. Located right on Caribou Street, just off Banff Avenue is this little gem.

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We sat down and ordered some Alligator Bites which was a plate of alligator peices fried to a nice crisp with some dipping sauce. These were really good and quite amazing, we didn’t even need the sauce.

We also shared a Seafood Gumbo which was seafood stew with shrimp, clams, scallops, sausage and vegetables served over Cajun dirty rice. It was a delicious stew and it even came with some cornbread on the side.

Then, we shared their Shrimp Quesadilla which wasn’t anything too unusal, but it was a really good quesadilla as it’s not the normal protein suspect. I do love shrimp and I love quesadilla’s.. so, you put it together – I’m in love!

As everything tasted so delicious, we figured we’ll stuff ourselves to the max and order some dessert. We tried their Southern Pecan Pie and unfortunately this was the one thing we could have done without. It wasn’t very fresh and the pecans were soft and chewy as though it has been in the fridge too long. We actually didn’t finish off the dessert which was too bad.

Overall, we loved this place! We would be back for meals, and probably just wouldn’t end it with a dessert from here. There were other options, but the waiter did recommend this pie to us. We definitely enjoyed the alligator bites and gumbo though!

Tooloulou's Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Tooloulou’s Restaurant

204 Caribou Street
Banff, AB
(403) 762-2633

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Brewster’s Mountain Lodge – Banff, AB

I love getting out of the city and just going to a small town or something like that. I know Banff has become a place with more tourists so the streets and roads are super busy. I still love going there and enjoying a night just to slow down the pace we have here in the city. We stayed twice now at Brewster’s Mountain Lodge and the location is ideal! Almost at the center of the busy streets, yet a street off Banff Ave – you can walk everywhere!

Parking is limited here, but it’s the least of my concerns as we typically just park the car and then go about on feet anyway. The rooms are quite rustic decorated with wood and arrows throughout the room, it’s quite a unique experience. The hotel offers a few amenities such as a hot tub and a lounge area complete with a computer, board games and books.

The room itself is a fair size. The beds are a little worn but it’s a bed! The bedsheets and blankets are quite comfortable as you definitely get a cabin feel when you’re in this room.

The bathroom and bathroom amenities were quite nice. It’s a great hotel and like mentioned we have stayed there twice already. I’m sure we’ll be back. It’s even got complimentary breakfast! Overall, it’s a wonderful stay and I look forward to my next stay here!

Brewster’s Mountain Lodge

208 Caribou Street
Banff, Alberta
403-762-2900

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Aspen Village – Waterton Park, Alberta

Waterton Park has always been a place I wanted to go and explore and we finally did! We loved it here and we stayed overnight at the Aspen Village, but in their hotel, not cabins. It was really a neat place as you’re mixed in with the wild animals.

It was an older hotel for sure as they used keys for the room and it was just an old style room. It was clean and that’s what was most important to me. We were quite tired as we started our drive here after work, so we didn’t even get into town until 9pm but we were just too excited so everything was great! Our room had 2 double beds and your basic room amenities.

The room wasn’t anything special, but it was fine for where we were as it really fit the scene. There was a TV, desk, seating area and a chair!

The bathroom seemed the most run down, but like I said, it works and it’s clean – so never any complaints there!

Overall a great experience, waking up to elks outside our door – it was quite an adventure! We’ll be back to Waterton Parks for sure!

Aspen Village

P.O. Box 100
111 Windflower Avenue
Waterton Park, Alberta

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The Bison Restaurant – Banff, Alberta

Banff has always been my favourite go to place, and I am always out there for whatever reason! This time, I was out there for Bon Appetite Banff which is their 3rd annual event, and we ventured out even with a snowfall warning! I made reservations at The Bison since it has been a place I’ve been meaning to go to, and this is the perfect time to try new places as they put out special 3 course meals at a set price. This restaurant is located on Bear Street, just off of Banff Avenue and it’s upstairs of The Bear Street Tavern.

We sat down and I ordered my usual drink of choice right now, I seem to have phased into a Virgin Cesars lately, I know, it’s just Spicy Clamato juice in a pretty cup – but who cares! I like it. It was still a tasty drink.

Once we got comfortable, a bread basket came and it was neat as the basket was tree bark! The bread wasn’t anything special, but I guess the butter was… she called it Butter with Olive Oil and Organic Sea Salt. I don’t have an opinion on it as it was kind of like greasy butter? I do appreciate flavoured butter, but I guess I don’t understand this one.

For starters, we had 2. The Bon Appetite menu offers a starter, a main and a dessert for each person… so we just ordered different things to share to get more variety. We had a bowl of Sweet Potato Soup which was absolutely fantastic, with roasted marshmallows on top and a strip of bacon! Everything is better with bacon and this soup needed the salt from the bacon as it’s a sweeter soup! I loved it and I think I will try to make something along the lines of this one day!

The other starter we got was their Seared Sea Scallops which was seared to perfection. It was as though they had one giant scallop and cut it in half on the plate, or they only seared the visual side. It was bare on the underside. Regardless, it was quite delicious and not over cooked or anything like that! It also had a strip of bacon!

Now that we’ve devoured the appetizers our main courses came out! I love seafood so I ordered their Maple Sake Seared Monkfish and it was a nice portioned sized monkfish perfectly cooked and seasoned on a bed of risotto. I love fish, so needless to say, I ate it all up!

The other entree we ordered, more for the husband was the Braised Bison Gnocchi and it had a TON of delicious braised bison on the dish. We weren’t use to the size of the gnocchi, but it was still delicious light pillows of soft potatoes, even though they were “king sized pillows”! This was a fantastic entree!

Now that we’re full and stuffed, we made room for dessert! I ordered their Milkshake with Cookie and it was good! I love any sorts of cookies and this one was pretty good! It was a cookie milkshake but it was quite runny of a shake with cookie crumbs in the bottom. It wasn’t my favourite milkshake as I like them thick and creamy!

The other dessert ordered was their creme Brulee which was a chai tea spiced creme brulee with a shortbread cookie. It was kind of funny as it looked like someone ate half of it! I guess I just would’ve used a shallower dish if I was going to only give the amount given. It was tasty, but I actually thought it was a pumpkin pie flavour, not chai!

Overall, we loved this place! The meal was delicious, the service was fantastic and we had a great window seat table where we over looked the parking lot across the street! It was very entertaining! It was a night to remember and hopefully we’ll be back for more dinners to come! This Bon Appetite dinner was $45 per person, but it was 3 courses – so it was quite alright! This dinner was worth the venture out during the snow storm for sure!

The Bison on Urbanspoon

The Bison

211 Bear St
Banff, AB
(403) 762-5550

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Melissa’s Missteak Restaurant – Banff, AB

Finding breakfast isn’t hard in Banff, but choosing one is tougher because there’s quite a bit of options. We picked Melissa’s Missteak Restaurant located right on Lynx Street with tons of street parking (but it fills up fast!).

I love smoked salmon with bagel, and when I see it on a menu, that’s usually what I go for, and on this menu, it’s called Lox and Bagel which is an opened faced smoked salmon bagel topped with capers, red onions and cream cheese! They are extremely generous with the cream cheese – in fact, I think they were too generous with that!

My other half ordered their Mixed Grill which was a plate of hashbrowns, Two eggs, Two sausages, Two strips of bacon and toast. This breakfast is definitely for those who love breakfasts or is very hungry! I think in this case, it was a little of both! 🙂

We really enjoyed our breakfast experience here! The service is wonderful, fast and efficinet. The food tastes wonderful and their prices are well within reason! This place is also opened for lunch and dinner – so I’m sure we will be back to give it a shot!

Melissa’s Missteak Restaurant

218 Lynx Street
Banff, AB
(403) 762-5511