Burgr – Las Vegas

February 21, 2015February 21, 2015Leave a comment

Our last meal in Vegas was in Planet Hollywood at the talked about Burgr by Gordon Ramsay.

Upon entering, his restaurant has the flames all set up on the glass window. Reminded me of Hell’s Kitchen.

He has a touch screen menu outside which you can scroll through while you wait in line. And yes, there is a line up, but it’s not very long. The funny thing is the restaurant isn’t even filled up when you enter. I guess they want to make it appear like there’s always long waits…

The interior is actually super casual. It’s almost like a sports bar. Burgr is probably one of the most casual and lower end restaurants of Gordon Ramsey’s. Burgers are all mostly under $20, which is pretty good in Vegas. Works for us since we already splurged the days before!

Just noticed that the G and R are in different colours to point out Gordon Ramsey. I guess he threw out the E in burger for a reason. How witty.

Opening up the menu, you get to see Gordon Ramsey’s face!

The server brings you an iPad, which has all the drinks on it.

Angry Orchard Hard Cider

We all went for the Angry Orchard Hard Cider. Light and crisp. Always love apple ciders!

Soba Noodle Chicken Salad

We decided to share a salad to start since we were starving. The Soba Noodle Chicken Salad features siracha chicken skewers, edamame, carrots, cucumber, avocado, sesame seeds, and a cilantro honey peanut dressing. Quite a big portion and could easily be an entree. The skewers brought some heat to the salad and was very delicious.

Fish & Crisp Sandwich

Then our burgers came. SK got the Fish & Crisp Sandwich, which had an awesome presentation. The ale battered cold was literally shaped like a fish and sat in a hot dog type bun. It came with salt & vinegar crisps, which were thinly cut and fresh dill tartar sauce. The fish was moist and delicious.

Hell’s Kitchen Burger

SP and I both got the Hell’s Kitchen Burger. All burgers are grilled over apple & alder wood and you can decide how well you want the meat cooked. The burger came with jalapeno cheese, roasted jalapeno peppers, avocado, and oven roasted tomato.

I chose medium rare for my burger and it was definitely cooked so. Reddish pink meat, although I would have now probably wanted medium for my burger next time. Felt like it was a little raw for a burger. The burger was slightly spicy because of the jalapeno, but I loved the oven roasted tomatoes inside.

Sweet Potato Fries

The burgers don’t come with any sides, so we ordered the Sweet Potato Fries to share. It ended up being such a large portion that we barely made a dent in it. It came with vanilla powdered sugar and a honey jalapeno mayo. I thought the powdered sugar was a little weird, but the fries were still crispy.

Overall, we were quite satisfied with Burgr. Reasonable prices for these gourmet burgers. Service is also friendly and attentive. Cool casual ambiance.

Pros:
– Great portions and reasonable prices
– You can decide on how well the meat is cooked

Cons:
– They make you wait in line even though there are seats
– Food comes out slightly slow

Price Range: $20-30

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Parking: N/A
Overall: 3.5

Wicked Spoon – Las Vegas (revisit)

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015Leave a comment

On Sunday morning, we decided to hit up the Wicked Spoon for some buffet at the Cosmopolitan. I ate here when they first opened and really enjoyed it, and I heard that it has kept up its standards, so it was time to do a revisit.

I heard there are always long line ups, but surprisingly, there was no line and we were seated right away. The buffet for brunch and lunch is around $38USD after tax, which is pretty reasonable for buffets in Las Vegas.

During their lunch buffet, they have a variety of items from different cuisines. Here, there is sushi.

Then they have some Thai curries and Chinese food. I love how everything comes in little pans and they even had Chinese take out boxes!

Then there’s your typical American food. Their pizzas had some pretty good toppings like smoked salmon. There’s also a variety of breakfast foods, a prime rib and other meats section, and a salad bar.

Then, there’s the dessert section. A variety of pastries. Probably one of the better buffets for dessert.

Red velvet cupcakes and cheesecakes were just some of the desserts.

So many choices for cakes!

Cakes are well presented.

My first round included a mix of food. Eggs bennedict, sausauges, bacon, mussels, bone marrow, fried chicken wings, pizza, and even takoyaki. I also liked how they had fresh juice in the salad bar. It was a strawberry kiwi juice and was very refreshing.

Second round included some smoked salmon, fresh fruits, and lamb curry.

S got some baked potatoes, gnocchi, bone marrow, kale salad, and eggs benedict.

Then came the desserts. I got the white chocolate mousse cone, white chocolate and orange mousse cake, pistachio eclair, coffee cake, and blood orange sorbet. They have a huge ice cream bar with a variety of flavours. One of my favourite parts of the buffet.

S got the chocolate dipped strawberries, cheesecake, molten lava cake and passion fruit sorbet. Their cheesecake is so good!

Overall, we were quite happy with Wicked Spoon. The price for lunch is quite reasonable, but if you’re looking for seafood, then it may not be the best for you. Great buffet if you like desserts though. They do a good job in plating everything and the ambiance is very modern.

Pros:
– Good variety of food
– Great dessert section

Cons:
– Some dishes are just average
– May have long waits during peak hours

Price Range: $40-50

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4
Parking: N/A
Overall: 4

Earls Kitchen + Bar (Richmond) – revisit

January 13, 2015January 13, 2015Leave a comment

Fish and Chips

Making reservations on the day of New Year’s Eve proved to be a difficult task. In the end, we resorted to Earls Kitchen and Bar in Richmond since they had more seating compared to other restaurants. A short wait and we were seated. It seemed that people were rushing to their New Year’s Eve parties. S got the Fish and Chips, which came with two pieces of beer battered Icelandic cod, house tartar, coleslaw, and a side of fries. S said the fish was moist and the fries were crispy. He said Earls does fish and chips pretty well and probably better than most places he’s been to.

Fettuccini Alfredo

K got the Fettuccini Alfredo, which came with the classic cream sauce and topped with grana padano parmesan. It looked rather plain, but she said it was pretty good.

Italia Pizza

For myself, I got the Italia Pizza, which was topped with Virginia ham, Genoa salami, chorizo, and Provolone cheese. A 10 inch pizza, this was actually quite a lot and could easily feed two. I liked the thin crust and the chorizo made gave it some heat. Pretty good for a chain restaurant, but also a little on the oily side.

Overall, Earls is your typical chain restaurant, but their food is pretty consistent in quality and flavour. Service was also pretty good. Plus, there’s an abundance of parking at Lansdowne which makes things more convenient.

Pros:
– Food is always consistently decent
– Service and ambiance is nice

Cons:
– Your typical Chain restaurant menu
– No reservations ahead of time for parties with less than 6

Price Range: $15-25

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 3
Service: 4
Ambiance: 3.5
Parking: 4
Overall: 3.5

Old Country Buffet

August 8, 2013Leave a comment

I go to Seattle pretty much every year just to do some shopping. Finally, I got my passport back from applying for a Visa, and I could go down south! On a random weekday, K, E, and I decided to do a day trip just to Bellis Fair. We got there at around lunch time, and wanted to grab some cheap food. We’ve been to Bellis Fair multiple times, and we always pass by Old Country Buffet. Honestly, it reminds me of Uncle Willy on the outside. Never really dared looking in or even checking out the menu. For some reason, we just impulsively decided to just go try it out. Lunch is until 3:30, so make sure to get there before that time, or you will be paying the dinner price. Lunch is around $8 and drinks are an additional $2. Your total comes to around $10 a person for lunch. Honestly, the $2 for drinks is a stretch for me, since I can’t even finish a full cup of soda usually. I definitely should’ve stuck with a glass of water for free.

After you pay, you basically find your own seat wherever you want. Don’t expect any service whatsoever, other than someone coming to take away your dirty plates. I didn’t really get any close ups of any of the food in the warmers, since there were people all around me, and I also didn’t have any hands to hold my camera with a plate in the other hand.

But as you can see, they have multiple bars with different categories, like vegetables, salads, meats, and desserts. They even had an area to make your own taco with everything you would need from salsa to sour cream. They only had hard shell tacos though, which was fine since they were surprisingly crispy. I would’ve loved a soft tortilla though, since it’s not as messy to eat.

The variety of food is quite good for the price you pay. There is also a stir fry section where you can get a server to add the ingredients of your choice to make a stir fry immediately. I didn’t try it out though, since I assumed the stir fry wouldn’t be even comparable to actual Chinese stir fry.

This is my first round. Definitely not very presentable, since I just pile my food on top. I had some ribs, a seafood pancake, sweet and sour pork, some pasta, and caesar salad. Pretty typical food, and I wouldn’t say anything was amazing, but it wasn’t terrible.

K got the freshly baked pizza, which was apparently quite good.

E’s plate.

My round two consisted of more caesar salad. My poorly put together taco is also in the back. I also got some mac and cheese, which was pretty good! It was super cheesy. I also got a piece of fried chicken drumstick, and it was actually fried quite nicely. You could easily get your money’s worth just by eating fried chicken. (I hear that’s what people do at buffets, don’t they?)

I only have two rounds of actual food, and I got excited to move to desserts. However, I was utterly disappointed. Look at the pictures! None of the desserts looked appetizing…

Maybe the cookies or brownies? But they looked really sweet…

The pies and custards also looked overly sweet.

But I found a soft-serve ice cream machine! They had chocolate, vanilla, and even a swirl! I was definitely impressed with the swirl machine they had. Not many buffets have this.

But they also had orange sorbet, so I went for that instead. I can pretty much guarantee you it’s artificial flavouring though. I liked how they also had a variety of toppings and sauces you could add to your sundae. Perfect for the kids.

And last but not least, I was amazed at their slurpee machine. Okay, maybe I get amazed pretty easily. Our buffets in Vancouver don’t have this stuff! Or at least not at such a low price! I tried the blueberry fanta, and it made my tongue blue. Definitely artificial. Tasted sort of weird too… They have a bunch of other soft drinks, coffee, and lemonade as well though.

Overall, I can’t say Old Country Buffet is amazing, but it also isn’t terrible. I guess for the price you pay, it’s decent and you get a wide variety of food. I always feel ripped off at buffets since I can’t eat a lot, but at this price, I feel like I can eat my money’s worth of food. I hear they also offer breakfasts at a really cheap price, but I wonder what they serve.

Wings Restaurants and Pubs (Granville)

May 6, 2013Leave a comment

Last Wednesday, I met with my Pre-Law Society for a wrap-up dinner to a great year! It has definitely been one of my favourite clubs I joined throughout my university time. Tons of fun with a great team and I will surely miss them next year! We settled for Wings Restaurants & Pubs at the Granville location. There was a Canucks game on that night, but suprisingly the place wasn’t that packed. We had made reservations prior to secure seats anyways.

House White Wine & Fusilli with Chicken in Garlic White Wine Sauce

Unlike many pubs and bars, Wings does not offer Wings Wednesdays. The wings are regular priced like on any other day. However, they do have Pasta Wednesdays! I decided to get that since I wasn’t exactly in the mood for wings that night. You get to build your pasta for only $7.98! What a deal. I chose Fussili with the Garlic White Wine Sauce and topped it with Chicken. The portion was not as large as many restaurants, but it was enough to fill me up. And for a little under $8, it is definitely worth it. Don’t expect anything amazing though. It’s literally just cooked pasta, with a simple sauce and some chicken. It was topped with some cheese and also came with a slice of garlic bread, which I found a little flavourless. As for my drink, I got the House White Wine, which I forgot what the name was… A little dry for my liking though.

Overall, my experience was alright at Wings. I don’t expect much at a pub, and I wouldn’t say our waitress was extremely friendly, but she got things done. It’s also a great place to catch the games as they have televisions at almost every corner of the wall.

Burgoo (West 4th)

April 25, 2013April 26, 2013Leave a comment

My 3rd year of school is officially done! For now at least… until summer school begins again. This called for a celebration dinner! Since N and I finished our exams at the same time, we decided to meet up for dinner and J joined along. We went to Burgoo on West 4th since I’ve been craving some comfort food and have been seeing too many of their delicious pictures on Instagram these days. Continue reading →

Moxie’s Classic Grill

March 31, 2013April 27, 2013Leave a comment

Earlier in the month, I went to Moxie’s for M’s birthday. It’s located by the Sandman Hotel, but sadly I took forever trying to find the entrance to the parking lot. Silly me.

Surprisingly, it was my first time going to Moxie’s. I guess it’s because it’s located near all the hotels, and not so much Central Richmond. The service and ambiance reminded me of Earl’s and the prices are reasonable.

Meatballs Stuffed with Bocconcini – over linguine in a classic tomato sauce with fresh basil + grana padano

I couldn’t decide what to get for the longest time, but ended up going for a classic spaghetti and meatball. But with a twist! The Meatballs Stuffed with Bocconcini sounded really interesting since meatballs filled with cheese are always better! It was served over a typical linguini covered in the classic tomato sauce. It also came with two slices of garlic bread, which were really good! Sadly, the meatballs weren’t as good as I had imagined. I was hoping for some real stringy cheese oozing out, but the cheese seemed to be a clump in the middle.

Overall, food was alright. Nothing too special, but will definitely fill you up at a decent price. They also catered to our large table really well with more than 20 people. Definitely a good place to go for birthday dinners if you have a large group.

Earl’s Restaurant & Bar (Richmond)

January 9, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Warm Gingerbread Cake – brown sugar roasted apples, salted caramel sauce, vanilla bean gelato

I realized I’m half a month late on my posts again… Blame the busy holidays and school starting! But anyways, back in December, the staff at work got together for a mini late night dinner, which was supposedly our Christmas party. We ended up at Earl’s since we get off so late that everywhere else is usually closed on a weekday. I had just grabbed dinner with some friends, so I ended up going for drinks and dessert. Service was not bad, since the restaurant was pretty empty at that time.

I got the Warm Gingerbread Cake, which is on their seasonal menu, and it was such a large piece of cake! It was moist and a little sticky, but surprisingly not too sweet after a few bites. The roasted apples on the side complimented the cake well since whenever I felt like it got too sweet, I would take a bite of apple and the sourness would balance it out. It also came with a vanilla bean gelato, but because the cake was so warm, the gelato was already half melted when it was served. Overall, not bad. But it’s definitely a huge piece to finish on your own. So a great dessert to share with a friend.

Every Day is a Food Day

Tag: american

Burgr – Las Vegas

Wicked Spoon – Las Vegas (revisit)

Earls Kitchen + Bar (Richmond) – revisit

Old Country Buffet

Wings Restaurants and Pubs (Granville)

Burgoo (West 4th)

Moxie’s Classic Grill

Earl’s Restaurant & Bar (Richmond)