Aki Sushi - Piedmont, Oakland

Nicht so gut!

I think the cook has changed or something because this place wasn't as good as the last two times. I think the place is run by Koreans and this was a Japanese restaurant.

I had the Saba. It was too oily and wasn't done right the way the Japanese cook it.

David had two sushi rolls. Not so great. The rice wasn't perfect for sushi rolling.

David's mom had udon. That was pretty good but any noodle soup you can't really get great ones other than in Japan.

Cesar in Piedmont, Oakland

Too much sweet stuff!

We never get a chance to order the other dessert selections because we always go for the bread pudding. Bread pudding was yummy as always.

This time since we went to Cesar just for dessert we ordered 2 more, the sundae and the pan de chocolate. The sundae ice cream was really sweet with the Churio fried too much. Nice presentation, but that all. The pan de chocolate was okay. The hazelnut ice cream was nice but the chocolate was stuck to the roof of your mouth.

Elk and Oarsman Restaurant - Banff

We finally found some decent priced food when we were driving thru Banff on the way back to the airport. We had time to kill and it was lunch time so we stopped at a sports bar kind of restaurant with your average fair of burgers, pizza and fried food.

I ordered a coke. I don't think I've had a coke in 2007. Ahh it was sweet and refreshing. For lunch I got the fish and chips and David got the bison burger. The fish and Chips had too much batter on it but the cole slaw was really nice. David's burger was nice, and geeze one pound of meat I think. The sweet potato fries were a nice treat and the soup was a nice touch too.

Deer Lodge - Deer Lodge Lake Louise

Game animals heads stuck on the wall and log cabin atmosphere, I really never aspire to have a place like this. So to eat in a restaurant like this is not really quaint. Anyway, we went here because we wanted to eat away from the Hotel that night, so we took poor advice from the concierge and at the Deer lodge next door.
The prices were just as expensive as the Fairmont. We had pork yet again and lamb. The pork wasn't great and it was served with spatzel. The spatzel was too mushy, they didn't get the consistency right. The meat was okay. The lamb was pretty good. The portions are really small, but they give you bread and a huge chunk of butter if you want to make sure your not hungry afterwards.


For dessert we had the chocolate molten cake. It said soufflé, but it was a wet cake really. It was okay, it had a coffee flavored smear on the side which was nice. Also a few raspberries. . .wow where do they get fresh fruit out here?

I wouldn't go back to a place like this. Next time, when you step into a place and think "Whoa time warp to the 70's and people are staring at you". . .maybe best to turn around.

Wallister Stube - Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

Our second night we ate at another one of the Hotel restaurants. Wallister Stube which I had a hard time pronouncing. We sat up stairs and there wasn't anyone else around. This was a much more relaxing atmosphere as we had a corner nook all to ourselves and it was perfect since we were tired from skiing all day. The waiter was nice too and laved back.
We only had two entrees. The pork tenderloin and truffle fondue. David really like the tenderloin. They put blueberries in the center. I thought it wasn't that special, but it was slightly better than the one the night before.


The fondue didn't taste like truffle, just a huge pot of cheese. We didn't' finish all the cheese, it was like 2 pounds of melted cheese. But it was kind of nice and relaxing to dip the bread and eat off the warm cheese.

We didn't have dessert although the chocolate fondue sounded like it would have been nice. David had a cappuccino which was served with this candy stick instead of sugar. We thought that was really novel.

Fairview Dining Room - Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

So the first night we got into Lake Louise we stayed at the hotel restaurant. Okay, I know over priced, mediocre food, but there was no yelp so I didn't know any better. The food was decent, but nothing more than mediocre. Not to mention the restaurant wasn't even crowded but the service was very slow and I was getting tipsy on the wine because the food wasn't coming fast enough.

The little appetizer was a bite of chopped of salmon. Amuse buche they call it, but it was more like, okay I'm hungry now, I want my food. We ate up the whole basket of bread and butter before my soup came. I got a glass of prosecco (or something like it).
I ordered the tasting menu with 6 courses and David got the beef tenderloin.
The artichoke soup was really good. The best wine was served with it, very dry Riesling.


Next was a fish course. I can't remember which fish it was but it was a white fish over some kind of mash. Was good. . .still hungry more food!
Next we both got a little dollop of cranberry something sorbet, cute, but give me some food please!

Ah finally meat courses! My pork tenderloin was okay. David like his beef tenderloin. I can't think of anything more to say, but at least I wasn't hungry anymore. The only thing I remember was frozen beans on the beef tenderloin place. What! frozen vegetables, now for the price I'm paying that's just uncalled for.

The dessert was pretty good. Three little sweets. White chocolate shooter with raspberry. . . sweet and thick stuff. A cake, which was dry. But the best thing was the chocolate gnash. I could have just eaten 10 of those melt in your mouth little balls.

All an all yeah, the dished looked pretty like generic designer styles you see in a magazine but I would have rather had just a big steak cooked well. I guess we are very spoiled by the California cuisine and it's hard to eat sub-par food.

Bistro Luneta

Filipino food is the new yummy, at least for us. I mean, Chinese, Japanese and Thai even in the best of restaurant is the same flavors you expect, but Filipino food has a new flavor for our tastebuds. Growing up in Hawaii I only thought of Filipino food as Adobo and Lumpia so I didn’t try it out that much because those foods didn’t entice me. But now that David has gone to a few Filopino restaurants with his co-workers we have tried larger variety of foods.

We went to Bistro Luneta with an appetite since we only ate spam musubis for breakfast that day and ran errands the remainder of the day. The restaurant is in San Mateo in a not so posh neighborhood, meaning that jack in the box and Mexican taco place is right next door, but inside the restaurant is much more pleasant. The décor is quite nice. I noticed the glass for the candle holders was really clean . .nice detail.

Picture of Me below - I finally cut my hair since I was procrastinating too long.

For appetizer the tuna tartar and the milk-fish maki looked interesting. From the reviews everything on the menu was good so we picked the dishes that perked our interest. The tuna tartar was really excellent. I don’t know what all the flavors were but it was like having finely chopped pickled mango with cilantro and chili peper mixed up with tuna chunks. The bangus(milk fish) maki role was good. If I were to compare with Japanese sushi, it’s not as great because the rice wasn’t perfect. But rice aside, you could taste the bangus and citrus flavor, with tomato and onion. It was deep fried, which was a nice touch because it made it warm and topped with a sort of teriyaki sauce. I could imagine this little roll had the componets of a nice meal, rice and fish, so it was sort of comforting to eat.



We had the “Salpicao” described as the ribeye sautéed in olive oil and special sauce. What the hell was the special sauce? Who knows but it was good is all I can remember. On the side were neat little fried shoe string purple potatoes as a garnish.

For dinner we had the “pato sa gata” which was duck breast in coconut sauce. Now don’t think of the coconut sauce like a thai coconut sauce. . .think more like coconut gravy with pork fat (total guess) as the base. Okay, I know that sounds gross, but it’s really good. The duck breast was prepared perfectly.

We ordered garlic rice on the side for good measure since I like my rice with my meat dishes. That’s tasty stuff.

For dessert, the coffee crème brule was OO-SO-good. Perfect consistency, light and creamy, not too heavy, with the nice sugar coating on top. There was a touch of milk froth on top which was cute. You could definitely taste the coffee but it was not overpowering.


This is one of those restaurants you have to come again so you can try the other dishes you were thinking about but didn’t order this time around. We’re pretty happy with this find it’s been a while since we have found a good restaurant to get excited over, food, atmosphere and service were great.

Tabla

We had higher hopes for this restaurant because the reviews gave the impression it was a sort of hidden gem. But that expectation resulted in slight disappointment. We still compare the food the Tandor Kitchen in Berkeley which serves the best Palak Paneer.

We ordered, Lamb dish, Palak Paneer with rice and Naan and a Dosa. At first when I looked at the little portion I thought, what? . . is that it. However, it must have been packed with some high calories that it was pretty filling. The naan is better than the rice, so I'd stick to that. The Lab was pretty tasty but the Palak Paneer was not that much better than the stuff I get from Trader Joe's that I squeeze out of a laminate package.

The dosa however (pictured) was pretty neat. It's a pretty large thing when they get it to your table. It comes with three dipping sauces. The 4 Indians at the other table all order one each themselves.

www.tablaflavors.com

The food was okay, but we'll opt to try a different place out next time.

Vung Tau

We made reservations which was a good idea as we got there and were soon escorted to our table under the watching eyes of other folk who appeared to have been waiting.The food is good and sort of tastes like home cooked Chinese food. Sorry I'm not a Vietnamese expert, so that's my impression.We had the papaya salad. It was good, but the shredded beef was like beef jerky. Next we had the pork chop/shredded pork/ and egg pie plate. the pork chop was very tasty.Last was the chicken cooked in clay pot with fried rice. It had a better description but this is my best description. This was the best dish, lots of flavor.

It was crowded but the service was good. A bit sporadic though. Our food came super quick but they left us alone for the rest of the time, but that was quite nice.


The papaya salad. Not as good as I expected. The sauce was heavy and think, almost like molasses was added. It was a little too sweet and I would have preferred a more thinner vinegar sauce. The shredded beef on top was literally like beef jerky. Only positive, it was a lot and came to our table quickly.



Pork chop, shreded pork and Egg pie.
The pork chops was done well. I could have had a simple dinner with just that and rice and some vegetables. It was marinated and tasted like the same marinate as the chicken pot dish below. The shredded pork didn't have much flavor. The egg pie was mixed with some beef and mushroom fungus and long rice. It came with some cut up raw vegetables and sweet vinegar sauce. I don't know what I was supposed to do with that portion of it.


Yummy chicken in Claypot. Wasn't that comlicated but tasted good. The rice had lapchrong (bad spelling), ginger, lemon grass and some other flavors. The chicken tasted like it had been marniated and grilled. I didn't get a whole melting pot of flavors though, like it had all been cooked in that one pot. Tasted like fried rice and grilled chicken, placed ina pot.



Weird Dessert. Thought it was going to come in a bowl because it said "shaved ice". So I thought it would be shaved ice with seaweed, mung beans, lychee. . . but instead it was an aquariumn in a glass with a straw. What the??