Milestones – Top Chef Inspired Menu – Calgary

Last year, we watched Top Chef Canada which is a featured program on Food Network Canada. Last year when it was on, they had a competition throughout the series where some of the winning chefs dishes get features at Milestones. This year, we did the same and it was great!

The menu for the Top Chef Canada feature this year wasn’t really a “choice” option. It featured 1 appetizer, 1 main course and 1 dessert. Me being me, I ordered the entire meal, and started off with Tomato Gazpacho served with mini bacon, cucumber and tomato sandwich. It was pretty refreshing as it’s a chilled soup with a mini sandwich!

The main course was a European Seabass, which wasn’t bad. It was a piece of seabass that sat on a bed or rice, with roasted fennel and orange glazed radish. The lemon slices was really refreshing. Overall, this was a good dish, except for the rice on the bottom. It was really hard, and gooey rice, which isn’t the best rice.

Finally, the dessert that I enjoyed was the Apple Bacon Tart which was a warm apple tart with crispy bacon in walnut crust – topped with blue cream cheese and basil

Overall, the meal was a decent one. I can’t say I loved it, but it was still quite delicious!

Milestones (Southcentre Mall) on Urbanspoon

Milestones – SouthCentre

90 Anderson Rd SE
Calgary, AB T2J
(403) 225-1150

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 - Stephen Avenue, Calgary
  • Milestones - Top Chef Inspired Menu
  • Milestones - Pork Croquettes
  • Milestones - Pork Croquettes
  • Milestones - Roasted Sablefish with Seaweed Gnocchi
  • Milestone - Top Sirloin with Peppercorn Sauce
  • Milestones - Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Whipped Cream

Milestone's on Urbanspoon

Milestones

107 8 Ave SE
Calgary, AB

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