northwest – Page 4

May 23, 2012December 31, 2018

Crepe Avenue

Kensington is not a place I normally go, but one afternoon after I got a rock chip filled, I decided that Crepe Avenue was the place I wanted to go for lunch! I’ve heard great things about this small crepe house, and I went!

Parking is the toughest part as it is in Kensington, which is one of the reasons why I’m not there a lot. There’s basically only street parking available, and not a whole lot of it either! Regardless, we got a spot and made it to Crepe Avenue!

I loved their menu, it had your usual suspects as well as new flavours of crepes for both sweet and savoury! As this was lunch, we had a savoury crepe each, and we decided if we still had room for dessert, we’d split a sweet crepe! Well, their standard crepes are massive and stuffed generously with filling! You’re definitely getting what you pay for! I ordered the Smoked Salmon Crepe which was a delicious combination of smoked salmon, cheese, teriyaki sauce and mayonnaise with some fresh lettuce and tomatoes!

We also tried something from the Thai menu, which was the Phad Thai Crepe, which was very delicious with the balance flavours of sweet, savoury and spicy! This crepe was stuffed with bean sprouts, peanuts, egg, shrimp, tofu and phad thai sauce.

The texture of the crepes itself wasn’t the soft crepes, so it does seem like it doesn’t wrap as nicely. But, the texture is really good as it adds a slight crunch factor – especially during the first few bites when you haven’t quite gotten into the part of the crepe where all the goodness hides.

We also enjoyed a unique twist on the Hong Kong Style Milk Tea, which is their Thai Iced Milk Tea which was really good actually! I believe they use the Red Rose teas to make this, with evaporated milk. It works well, and tastes awesome! One of the few milk tea’s I really enjoy in the city!

Overall, this was a really fun place to go! It was a great kick start to a weekend! I love it here, the food is great, the service was pretty good, and as long as there’s parking, I would be back!

Crepe Avenue

#103,330-10th Street NW
Calgary, AB T2N
(403) 452-6160

January 1, 2012March 15, 2019

Ten Ren’s Tea Time

I really enjoy drinking Chinese teas, and when we figured out there was a little sit down place with Chinese teas, we knew it was a place on our “to go” list. The only Ten Ren’s Tea Time location in Calgary with a sit down dining would be this one, where all the others are just drinks. The place is in an interesting location as it’s kind of tucked into residential area, but isn’t far off the ring road – so I can see it being an ideal location once the road is completed and further development is completed.

We arrived on a weeknight evening, and it was really quiet. The entire time we were there, we were the only table. This was during the dinner hour too, but we didn’t mind as it’s nice to sit down in a quiet dining room once in awhile!

We first sat down and ordered some drink, and I ordered the Almond Milk Tea with no Pearls, as I still don’t like pearls in my drink. However, when the drink got to me, it was the Almond Black Tea, but I had nothing against the black tea, so I just kept it. It was quite good actually – full of almond flavour in the drink. Some places try to dilute the almond so they can use less, and I’m happy to say they didn’t do that with my drink!

For dinner, I had a bowl of Beef Stew Noodle Soup, and what really caught my eye was in the picture on the menu – the noodles was green! When my bowl of noodles came, it was only a slight hint of green colour.

We also ordered a plate of Special Salty Sliced Pork Belly on Steamed Rice, and oddly, it took a long time for it to come. The pork belly was really nicely done as the skin was really crispy and salty! It went perfect with the steamed rice.

As much as we eat, we really wanted to give their wings a try, so we ordered some Deep Fried Chicken Wings and it was fried really crispy! Ten Ren is really good at frying their food as it’s all coming out great!

I do say their deep fried food looks great because our friends ordered some dishes with deep fried chicken over steamed rice, and it looked really tasty! I can hear the crunch of the crust as they bite into their dinners which really is quite impressive!

I quite enjoy this little location, and I can see it being a popular evening place to grab a bit to eat as they are opened quite late. The prices are quite reasonable, especially for it’s portion size. The food tasted good, so there’s nothing I can complain about! I can’t wait to return and have some more goodies!

Ten Ren’s Tea Time

1110 Panatella Blvd NW
Calgary, AB T3K 0S6
(403) 269-6088

Hours:
Sunday~Thursday: 12PM to 11PM
Friday & Saturday: 12PM to 1AM

November 18, 2011January 10, 2012

Ajisai Japanese Cuisine

So, this one afternoon, we were in the Northwest – just out and about, until we realized that we haven’t had lunch yet. We wanted some sushi, and didn’t really feel like having the ones from T&T, so we stumbled upon Ajisai Sushi hidden in a commercial building, around a lot of residential housing. We actually needed our GPS to find the location, as it was off the main roads.

This place was really nice, clean, large, open and bright (from both lighting and windows) and what I love most about it is the open concept. The decorations was warm and elegant, and it’s truly a place for the local businesses to grab a quick sushi lunch.

Ajisai does offer great lunch menu – both for take out and eat in! We got to eat in and started off with a few goodies. We got our Plain Miso Soup which was as it’s called “plain” miso soup. It wasn’t anything spectacular about it – yet there was nothing wrong with it! I just like starting with miso soup and this did the trick!

Recently, I’ve started to enjoy trying Spicy Agedashi Tofu which basically is deep fried Tofu with spicy sauce – usually the sauce they use on spicy sushi/rolls. This one was deep fried really nicely – with a crispy outside, hot and soft tofu on the inside. I think the batter could have used a little seasoning though – that would enhance the dish to a million levels, even if it was just salt. I did dip my agedashi into my soy sauce, and it didn’t do the trick as it softened the deep fried crispiness.

My favourite starter of the day was definitely the Chicken Karaage which means deep fried marinated chicken, and this was also deep fried to perfection like the agedashi. The sauce tasted great, and I think it’s almost like a honey mayonnaise – or something to that nature. I would highly recommend the chicken karaage if you’re looking for a great starter!

Now, after our starters and appetizers, we ordered our lunch specials – which are great set lunch combos which come in a set of stuff. The first one we had was Assorted Sushi Tuna, Salmon, Ebi, Tamago, Snapper & California Maki. The sushi wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t anything special to it. At least it didn’t taste bad, even though I think the texture was a little off. Perhaps it was still a little frozen or something, but it definitely felt different when chewing on the fish. The ebi sushi was really nicely done, and was probably my favourite on the plate. I normally really like tamago (egg sushi), but I wasn’t really turned on by this one as it had a layer of gray in the egg. I didn’t eat this piece and I gave it to my husband to try. He said it tasted fine, but again, nothing special.

Following that, we also ordered the Sashimi Lunch which came with a selection of sashimi, a bowl of white rice, and a few pieces of honey glazed yams. The sashimi like the sushi, they tasted alright with an odd texture. The yams was probably my favourite part of this set lunch, and that’s pretty sad. But, the tuna and salmon wasn’t a far second – then the rest of the sashimi with the strange texture.

I really like the convenience of having a set lunch, and it would really come handy if I worked or lived around there. There are lots of options on the menu whether or not you choose to eat from the set lunch menus. I am not sure if they have set dinner menu as well, but the idea is wonderful and convenient. This restaurant seems to me like the majority of their business is weekday lunch take-away, which is nice! I may be back for a dinner to see the difference too – if I’m in the area! I guess there are a lot of other sushi places I’d try too, so I may not be returning as I can’t decided whether I enjoyed Ajisai or not.

Ajisai Japanese Cuisine

750 1110 Panatella Blvd. NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 457-3802

June 5, 2011March 17, 2019

Spoon Me – Calgary, Alberta

If you love frozen yogurt, then this is a pretty neat place to go. If you’re looking for a nice creamy soft ice cream, this is not where to go! But, Spoon Me is quite a lot of fun as you get to choose which type of frozen yogurt you like, and as much as you like… then you get to put all sorts of toppings on to top it off!!

Each bowl of ice cream is weighted and that will determine how much your frozen yogurt will cost! I think this is a great place to bring kids, where they can get their frozen yogurt and lots of neat toppings — even gummy worms!

I tried the Green Tea Yogurt and I only put on coconut shreds and some milk chocolate chips and it was pretty neat!! I’m sure I could have made my cup of frozen yogurt really gross — really fast! The green tea yogurt was really quite odd, it’s not “green tea ice cream” flavour, it was like actual green tea made into a yogurt! It isn’t a flavour you can have a lot of in one sitting for me!

We also had a bowl of Mango Orange Yogurt and for the toppings, we had dark chocolate chips and walnuts and it was good also! The yogurt taste was really refreshing — great for a hot summer day! It wasn’t expensive — depending on how much yogurt and toppings you choose. It’s $1.79/100g and for me, as I didn’t take a lot of either, I thought it was very reasonable.

Spoon Me

#100 1130 Kensington Road NW
Calgary, AB

May 28, 2011May 31, 2011

Kim Chi Korean Delight

Food courts don’t need to be ordinary anymore! Market mall has added the Kim Chi Korea Delight, and it is indeed quite delightful! I normally get stuck with the regular food court franchises, and it’s quite refreshing to see something new!! So, of course I went to try it. When I went, I want to say it was still quite new, so it’s not as good as can be.

I’ve ordered Japchae (Stir-fry potato glass noodle with vegetables with beef), and you can choose between beef, chicken, shrimp, vegetarian. It was a great dish, and I really enjoyed the flavour, and the texture of the glass noodles.

We also ordered the special at the time with beef and chicken Bulgogi. Normally, the bulgogi is vegetable and meat stir-fry with Bulgogi sauce with rice and a choice of beef, chicken, shrimp, vegetarian. The special tasted really good, however the beef was a little tough.

Kim Chi Korean delight will definitely be in a the running next time I need to eat at Market Mall food court, as it was a great option when I didn’t want the ordinary!

Kim Chi Korean Delight

3625 Shaganappi Trail NW
Food court in Market Mall
Calgary, AB T3A