stephen avenue – Page 2

October 16, 2012October 16, 2012

Crepe Delicious

I was wandering around the mall at The Core downtown, when I found myself craving a little treat! So, I walked around the food court near Holt Renfrew, and found myself inline for a crepe at Crepe De Licious! It’s an unusual treat for myself, but why not I figured!

This crepe location also sells frozen yoghurt as well, and there was a long line for them on that side. But, on the crepe side, there was just one lady taking her sweet time making the crepes. It took about 5 minutes before she even bothered looking up to see what I would like, and it took even longer to wait for the crepe to make it into my hands. So, already, I was hoping that despite the service, it would still be a great crepe!

I ordered the Chipotle Beef Savoury Crepe which doesn’t seem to be on their menu anymore… but it was a crepe with beef, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese topped with chipotle sauce. It wasn’t a bad tasting crepe at all actually, and it was worth the wait!! The best part was the last few bites when the sauce has started absorbing into the crepe, and all the deliciousness has dropped to the end! I really loved this crepe, and I think I will be back! I’m hardly even in downtown, so maybe I’ll give the one in Cross Iron Mills a try!

Crepe Delicious

751 3 St SW
Calgary, AB T2P0B2
(403) 457-2425

September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Double Zero Pizza

I’ve been on a pizza craze lately, and so we met up with some friends downtown to try Double Zero Pizza which is located across the street from Holt Renfrew. The environment of this restaurant is really warm, inviting and romantic. I really enjoy this pizza place, as everything we ordered tasted fantastic! The cost is on the upper end, but it’s decent for the quality and the location of this this restaurant.

Once we were seated, we were greeted really friendly and a bottle of water came to the table. The bottle looks spectacular and it tasted pretty good too! It’s a neat touch – creative and memorable!

We ordered a bunch of appetizers to share and we really enjoyed, and we ordered 2 appetizers! We tried their Tuna Crudo fennel crusted ahi tuna, roasted tomato relish, arugula. This was an excellent appetizer, and the tuna was perfectly seared, and the perfect balance of the tomato relish! This appetizer is a great sign of what’s to come!

The other appetizer the table ordered is their famous Double “00” Meatballs made with a house blend of natural pork and beef, tomato gravy

We tried 2 pizzas from Double Zero, and the first one was spectacular! It’s their Speck Pizza which is a pizza made with smoked speck, mozzarella, arugula. This pizza is really interesting as it doesn’t seem like there’s anything holding the arugula down on the pizza – so it’s the first thing to fall off! It’s simple to pick it up and place it back on the pizza though! The speck was amazing – with a hint of smokiness, and a texture much like prosciutto, it was a perfectly made pizza that is unlike any other!

The other pizza we had was on the bottom of the pizza stand, so the picture was taken in the shadows – but it’s the Margherita Pizza which definitely wasn’t a lousy pizza! It was simple and perfect! This pizza is made of fiore di latte, basil, tomato sauce! Fiore di Latte is essentially delicious and fresh mozzarella!

At the end of the night, it was so much food that we were too full to order dessert!! It was a fantastic dinner which I loved, and I would probably need to return to eat their pastas and desserts!

Double Zero Pizza

751 4 St SW
Calgary, AB T2P1E3
(403) 265-9559

July 11, 2011May 14, 2019

deVille Luxury Coffee & Pastries – Calgary, Alberta

I was wanting a nice cup of coffee, and I’ve always recalled seeing a sign for Krups Cup of Excellence, and when I looked it up, deVille Luxury Coffee & Pastries was the 2010 recipient of this award! Knowing just that information alone, I knew I would have to go and try their coffees, and enjoy my favourite – foam art!

Located right at the intersection of 7th Ave, SW and Centre Street on the second floor gave this location really quite spectacular of a view! Depending where you sit, you can get a great view of the new Bow Building and the Calgary Tower! The hours for deVille claims they open from 7am to 7pm on weekdays. We went there after work one evening, and got there around 6:15pm. It was all fine and dandy, until I looked over at around 6:30pm, and the gates were already pulled. The barista actually closed the door on over 8 guests early!! Some potential customers even tried to ask her where would be the next closest coffee shop – and she actually sent them away! I was really disappointed in that type of customer service. For poor customer service, it made me not enjoy myself, so I do not think I will be back – as I don’t know if I travel all the way there to see the “CLOSED” sign up early.

Regardless, we did order our lattes before this early closing. I enjoyed a cup of Nutella Latte, which actually was quite delicious! The coffee wasn’t burnt or anything, and it did have a subtle taste of nutella. I did put in a pack of sugar into my coffee, and to my excitement, they use Cane Sugar instead of the usual. I really enjoyed my cup of nutella latte!

We also had a cup of Chocolate Latte and my better half really enjoyed it! He loves his coffee dark, and his chocolate dark, and this was a perfect marriage of the 2 for him! It was thick, yet creamy – so the coffees from deVille did satisfy us!

The prices of the coffee from deVille was very reasonable as well. For a downtown location, I would expect it to be much higher, and it’s setting is such an ideal location, it’s very modern and comfortable. It is quite a spectacular location for sure! I do recommend trying, but go early!

deVille Luxury Coffee & Pastries

807 1 St SW
Calgary, AB T2P1N3
(403) 263-0884

June 20, 2011June 20, 2011

Milestones – Stephen Avenue

We found ourselves at another Milestones, even though it’s not our favourite chain of restaurants. We arrived to Milestone to try the featured menu inspired from Top Chef Canada! As we watch this show on Food Network Canada, we want to try everything we can!!

Connie Desousa is a contestant on this show, as she works at Charcut – we went there and loved it! She won her appetizers of Pork Croquettes, and really wanted to try it! So, we did! The pork croquettes were really good, it was a pulled pork meatball, deep fried in crumbs — which made it really crispy on the outside, and tender & juicy inside! The plate of appetizers comes with 4 croquettes, and I must say, one of them were much smaller than the other 3 – but the taste was there! These croquettes also sat on top of an onion ring which was a smart way to hoist it up! The onion rings weren’t perfect, they weren’t crispy, but they are onion rings, and I like them!

Milestone’s is also known for their steaks, and with that said, we had to try that also! We ordered Certified Angus Beef – Top Sirloin with black peppercorn sauce. The steak was really good, however, the side of garlic mashed potatoes was terrible. It was a giant mountain of dry and hard potatoes, as though it has been sitting there all day… The steak was perfectly cooked, but the piece of meat wasn’t the best as it was rather tough. It was edible, and quite flavourful regardless!

I stuck to the Top chef inspired menu, so I ordered Roasted Sablefish with Seaweed Gnocchi which is white fish marinated in a sake, soy and honey glaze, and then grilled. It was paired with seaweed and Yukon gold potato gnocchi. In the pool of gnocchi, there were green beans, tamarind, lemon grass and ginger broth. The sablefish was perfectly cooked, and I enjoyed it greatly! The gnocci wasn’t soft and fluffy, but it was better than the garlic mashed potatoes! It was a nicely balanced dish.

Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Whipped Cream is a shortcake in a muffin form, topped with a sweet lemon curd and piled with fresh strawberries. Finished off with a vanilla infused whipped cream! I love home made whipped cream, so that was immediately in the top running of my favourite course just reading! This was a really creative dessert as the shortcake muffin was split between top and bottom, and they placed the top on the bottom creating a base. The lemon curd was quite tart, but was wonderful with the vanilla whipped cream! It was a dessert that tasted quite light, even though the shortcake was over baked and dry.

Milestones

107 8 Ave SE
Calgary, AB

May 31, 2011March 24, 2019

CHARCUT Roast House – Calgary, Alberta

I love food, and I love watching Food Network. I was so excited to see on Top Chef Canada that we had chefs that represent Calgary on the show! Connie DeSousa who is the Co-Executive Chef and Co-Owner of CHARCUT Roast House in Calgary, who was 1 of 16 chefs that go to compete in this season of Top Chef, then watching her success on the show really gave me a lot of interest to try CHARCUT.

I went on my birthday, and it’s definitely a place you need to make reservations before you go. We went on a Tuesday evening, and the place was full! Our waiter advised us that they do a showing of the Top Chef on Mondays and the place is packed then, as it sparked so much local interest. I can totally see why! I am definitely planning to make reservations to join in the fun on a Monday evening.

We started my birthday dinner with Kielbasa “Spragg Farm’s pork sausage flavoured with mustard and black pepper” which was an item prepared by Connie on Top Chef. It is also a house-made sausage, and CHARCUT which was something I really wanted to try.

My main dish was Spring Creek Butcher Steak – Chimichurri, arugula, fried matchstick potatoes.

We also had Spragg Farms’ Roasted Pork Belly – Mascarpone polenta, stinging nettle pistou, fava beans.

For dessert, which was the highlight of the meal, I had an preserved pink lady apple in a jar – cheesecake layered with graham crackers and preserves.

We didn’t stop there, we also ordered the chocolate and peanut trifle – peanut butter mousse layered valrhona chocolate cake and chantilly cream.

CHARCUT Roast House

899 Centre St S
Calgary, AB
(403) 984-2180