Category Archives: Food Review

Disney, Food Review, Food Review

Crew’s Cup Lounge – January 3, 2018

Crew’s Cup Lounge, located directly beside Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club had been on our list of places we wanted to try, and we decided to finally make it happen.

We arrived just after 4:40pm (it opens at 4:30) and we had no trouble finding a table. The server immediately brought us over menus and a bowl of… snacks? I don’t actually know what to call these, but they were delicious! They were basically fancier bar nuts – I ate them, loved them, but couldn’t actually name what anything was beside peanuts – corn nuts maybe? Other…nuts? (we’ve been back to Crew’s Cup since this, and this was never an option again sadly)

I wasn’t feeling like alcohol, so I ordered a Watermelon Lemonade – Odwalla lemonade and watermelon topped with lemon-lime foam, $4.79

This is available at most table service locations on property, and it’s really good! I love sweet drinks, and this fits that description. I’ve had it multiple times since then, and it’s been good every time.

Luke ordered the Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea – Bacardi Superior Rum, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Hendrick’s Gin, Corazón Blanco Tequila, Cointreau, and Sweet-and-Sour with a splash of Coca-Cola $11.50

Neither one of us remember anything about it, so it clearly wasn’t very special, but Luke did finish it…

Luke immediately knew what he wanted, the item he had come for – the Crew Burger – cheddar cheese, bacon, regatta sauce, shoe string onions on house-made toasted bun served with french fries, $18

The lettuce and tomato came served on the side, so you could add them to the burger yourself (which Luke did). Here’s a picture of it all loaded up –

(Also, Luke apparently got a glass of water at some point).

Luke LOVED this burger, and declared it the best burger he’d ever eaten on Disney property (as of that point, he’s had a few since then that have edged above it).

I couldn’t decide what I wanted to eat, and I felt like being a little piggy – so I ordered two things off the menu. Item #1 was the Yachtsman Signature Bread – sourdough, pull-apart onion rolls, roasted garlic and salted butter, $7

These are the same rolls they serve next door at Yachtsman Steakhouse for free, but we didn’t have any plans to eat there on this trip and I really wanted to try them after hearing great things. I don’t like onions, but I’m ok with onion-flavouring, toasted onions, etc (it’s the texture of a raw/cooked onion that throws me off). These pull-apart rolls were amazing! Especially if you smeared it with a bit of that roasted garlic, which was as soft and spreadable as the salted butter beside it. I love sourdough, and this stuff was good – it just paled in comparison to the onion rolls.

My attention was also drawn to the Baked Cheese Dip – manchego and parmesan, house chorizo, peppers, artichoke hearts, pretzel bread, $13, so I ordered that as my second item.

This was rich! Really great flavours, but I couldn’t even half of it – it’s a lot of cheese, and I do try to watch my dairy intake. The pretzel bread was great, it was served warm and was the perfect density to rip pieces off for dipping into the cheese. I did pack this up to go, and ate it for bed lunch one night in our hotel room!

This lounge does not offer Annual Passholder discounts, but they do accept Tables in Wonderland.

Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this meal: $88.78 Savings this Meal: $10.86 Total Until Breaking Even: $77.92

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)                            Estimated Cost of this meal: $73.49                                                                     Actual Cost: $46.26                                                                                        Over/Under: Under by $27.23                                                                            Remaining: $1965.20

Disney, Food Review, Travel

Charley’s Philly Steaks – May 1, 2019

1 Comment

While we were at the Vineland Outlets, we were hungry and decided to just grab something from the food court there. There isn’t a huge selection, but we each found something. Luke grabbed a burrito from Currito (sorry, no pictures) and I went to Charley’s Philly Steaks because it’s not something we have in Canada.

I ordered a regular Philly Cheesesteak with nothing on it – no onions, mushrooms, green peppers, tomato, pickles, lettuce or mayo. I honestly would have been fine with mayo, but the cashier seemed a bit confused when I was saying what I didn’t want on it, so it was just easier to say nothing except the meat and cheese.

I also made it into a combo with the Ultimate Fries and a drink.

They went a little crazy with the bacon on the fries – I actually had to scrape some off, it was just too much. You can’t really tell, but these also had that weird plastic cheese sauce America loves and ranch dressing.

Total was $14.82. The food was ok, nothing really special(but we didn’t expect spectacular from a food court). It was food, and it held us over until our dining reservation that evening.

Food Review, Travel

Boston Pizza – YEG Airport April 30, 2019

1 Comment

Since we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, we decided to hit up my old-faithful, Boston Pizza. For those non-Canadian readers, this is a Canadian franchise that has almost 350 locations across the country. There’s nothing special about the food, but I’ve never been disappointed. I’m pretty easy to please!

The menu at the airport location is obviously limited compared to a regular location, but that’s fine. My favourite item is still available here: the Cactus Cut Potatoes – spicy thinly sliced fried potatoes served with our signature cactus dip, $12.89 (they cost $10.99 at non-airport locations…)

Luke decided on Thai Bites – your choice of chicken or shrimp tossed in sweet Thai chili sauce served with crunchy Asian noodles, carrots, fresh cilantro, green onions and sesame seeds, $15.39 ($12.99 at non-airport locations). He also ordered a Coors Light, $9.79.

While we were waiting for our food, I ran next door to Starbucks and picked up a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher for myself and a Pike Place coffee for Luke. I used a gift card to pay for our drinks.

I know my plate of potatoes don’t look like much – but it’s all about that dip! From my research, it’s apparently just caesar dressing, sour cream, parmesan, chili flakes and green onions – but it’s one of my favourite things!

This hit the spot, and was enough food to get us through our red-eye flight 🙂

Food Review, Travel

Cheesecake Factory – January 30th, 2017

1 Comment

This was our third trip to Anaheim, and our second time at the Cheesecake Factory – I’m a fan. The food itself is fairly generic – but the menu is huge, there are so many options! My favourite part is the cheesecake display – look how beautiful it is haha.

I’ll apologize now – this restaurant is really dark, which makes it really difficult to get good pictures, especially with my phone (and I don’t want to be that person using my flash).

They started us off with some bread – pumpernickel I believe? I liked it, but I tend to like most things with carbs.

I decided to go for the Chicken Riesling – chicken breast,  mushrooms, bacon, onions, and garlic in a white wine riesling cream sauce. Served with buttered parmesan pasta – $13.95

This was pretty decent! I’m a simpleton who loves nothing but butter on my noodles, so this was perfect for me. I also quite enjoyed the white wine sauce on the chicken – but again, I’m not a food connoisseur, so I’m not always the best one to take food advice from haha.

Luke wanted a cocktail, and ordered the Cucumber Mojito – Hendrick’s and St. Germain with cucumber, basil and fresh mint, $12.25

Luke said this was good, but a drink that costs almost as much as my entire meal?! Seems a little ridiculous.

Luke didn’t feel like a big meal, and ordered an appetizer sized Caesar Salad – the almost traditional recipe with croutons, parmesan cheese, and our special caesar dressing, with chicken added, $13.95.

This was a salad – nothing special, but it was exactly what Luke wanted and it hit the spot.

Of course we had to have cheesecake! Luke ordered the Key Lime Cheesecake – Key Lime Pie in a Cheesecake! Deliciously tart and creamy on a vanilla crumb crust – $7.95. I forgot to take a picture of this – it was our last night and I was tired!

I wasn’t hungry, so I ordered my cheesecake to go and ate it the next day at the airport. I went for the Adam’s Peanut Butter Fudge – creamy cheesecake swirled with caramel, peanut butter, Butterfingers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – $7.95

This is such an odd choice for me, considering I’m not a huge fan of peanut butter, but I love this cheesecake so much. I didn’t take the picture until the next day, so the whipped cream had seen better days haha. It was still delicious, and I would absolutely order this again.

Our total bill came to $60.39.

Food Review

Canucks Bar & Grill – June 9, 2018

We had a lengthy layover at the Vancouver airport, so once we were through customs Luke and I immediately headed to Starbucks for some drinks – a Berry Hibiscus Refresher for me and a coffee for Luke. They asked for a name, and since my name gets butchered at places like that, we gave Luke’s… and naturally they wrote Lou on my drink. Seriously Starbucks?! I feel like they do that on purpose sometimes.

While we were in line for our drinks, Mom and Rhonda had wandered over towards our gate and found the Canucks Bar & Grill. Mom texted me to let me know that they had grabbed a table for four, so we headed over once we had drinks in hand. I personally hate the Canucks (it happens when you’re an Oilers fan), but when in Vancouver, amiright?

It was only about 8:30am at this point, so obviously they were only serving breakfast. The breakfast menu was fairly small, but it is just an airport restaurant.

Luke ordered his most common breakfast item- Eggs Benedict – poached farm fresh eggs, English muffin, Canadian back bacon, hollandaise sauce, $15

All he really said about this is that it was “good, especially for airport food”. He ate it all, so clearly he had no complaints.

I don’t typically eat eggs, but I ordered the Traditional Two Egg Breakfast – two eggs any style, choice of bacon, sausage or Canadian back bacon, breakfast potatoes, toast, $14.50.

This was decent. There was strawberry jam for my toast, the back bacon was tasty and the breakfast potatoes were cooked well. Breakfast is still my least favourite meal of the day, but this hit the spot since I was pretty hungry. I even ate a few bites of the scrambled eggs, and they were pretty good – I’m no expert but they seemed like good eggs – cage free or organic or something.

I didn’t take pictures, but Rhonda ordered the same thing I did, only with over-easy eggs and regular bacon. Mom had the Gameday Breakfast Scramble – egg, bacon, cartelized onion, BC mushrooms, cheddar, breakfast potatoes, $14.50.

The total for Luke and I came to $30.98 – a little pricey, but airport prices were just trying to prepare us for Disney pricing haha.

Food Review

Famoso – December 27, 2017

Since we were leaving for our two week wedding trip on December 30th, we were running a little low on groceries in our house by the 27th. We found a coupon for $10 off an order at Famoso, and it was a Wednesday night so one of my favourite things on the menu was on special, so we decided to head to the South Edmonton Common for supper.

We both ordered a drink – because vacation mode had already set in! Diablo Iced Tea – spiced rum, orange liqueur, lemon Italian soda, cola, apple juice, 1oz $6.95, Italian Greyhound – vodka, vermouth rosso, grapefruit Italian soda, lime ,fresh basil, 1oz $6.95

One of my favourite items on the menu at Famoso are the Prosciutto Wrapped Mozza Balls – Fior-di-latte wrapped with prosciutto, baked in Campania tomato sauce, fresh basil, Grana Padano. Served with garlic flatbread. The typical cost is $19.95 for 6 of these, but on Wednesday nights they are $2/each (so $12 for 6 of them).

You can’t really see them in this bowl, but I promise there are 6 mozza balls in here. These are so good – fresh fior-di-latte cheese wrapped in proscuitto with lots of tomato sauce. I don’t think I could eat many more than 3 of these, it’s a lot of cheese, but they are so good!

We decided to share a pizza, and switched it up from our typical orders and went for the Quattro Fromaggi – Fior-di-latte, smoked mozzarella, gorgonzola, Grana Padano, fresh basil, lemon wedge, $16.95

This was ok, but I’ve realized I’m not a huge fan of white pizzas – I’m a bit of a purist and prefer traditional red sauce. Squeezing the lemon over top of this was nice though. Luke liked this a lot more than I did.

 

Food Review, Travel

The Village Diner – October 1, 2017

On the last day of our Winnipeg trip, we headed to the Village Diner with Luke’s sister and brother in law. This place used to be located in the Osbourne Village Inn, but relocated to it’s current location on Sargent. (**I just googled this place, and apparently it has now closed permanently, which is really too bad!). The location was a bit sketchy, I’m pretty sure I saw a pimp ride by on his bicycle while we ate, but the quality of the food (and the price) more than made up for that.

Luke and I decided to each order something, and share a Turkey Poutine – white and dark turkey meat, mozzarella, turkey gravy, cranberry dijonnaise, $9.50. I’m not a huge cranberry fan, so I asked for that on the side. This was a very large portion, and a really fantastic poutine! The fries were great, the gravy had lots of flavour and they were not cheap with the turkey or the cheese.

I decided to go for the Club Mansion – hot white and dark turkey, cheddar cheese, leaf lettuce, tomato, braised pork belly and cranberry dijonnaise on multigrain $9. I again asked for the cranberry on the side, and asked for no tomato. This was a huge sandwich, I wasn’t expecting three pieces of bread (which is silly – it’s called a club, which traditionally always has three pieces). It was good, but I would have just been happy eating that poutine.

Luke ordered the Elvis – grilled peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwich with hashbrowns and fruit $8.50. Luke loved this – I’m not a big peanut butter fan so I didn’t try it, but I did steal some of those awesome hash browns haha.

I really hope Google is incorrect and that this place is still open, or that it finds a new place to open – the food was great and the price is so reasonable for the amount of food you receive!

Food Review

Cheesecake Factory – November 12, 2017

This is a chain restaurant that is not located in Canada (other than Toronto), so I get very excited to eat here whenever we go to Anaheim. I believe we have now ate at the GardenWalk location on three of our four trips to SoCal…

The menu is gigantic – I believe they claim there are over 250 items on the menu and I wouldn’t be surprised if there actually was. They have just about anything you can think of, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, salads, etc.

They bring a basket of bread to start your meal. I didn’t take a picture of it this time, but it definitely had pumpernickel as one option – I think the other one was a more generic white or whole wheat. I like their bread – it’s really nothing special, but it’s always soft and honestly I just love bread haha.

For some reason, I keep ordering pasta whenever I go here. This trip was no different. I decided to try the Four Cheese Pasta with Chicken – penne pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, romano and parmesan cheese, marinara sauce and fresh basil $19.50

It’s quite dark in the restaurant, so I apologize for the shitty pictures. I enjoyed this, the penne was thinner than most which I actually prefer. The sauce was fairly standard, but I enjoyed it.

Luke has been on a huge Mule phase lately, so he ordered the Pineapple Moscow Mule – Stolichnaya, pineapple, ginger beer and lime, $11.95.

I just asked Luke to tell me his thoughts on this drink – he looked at me with a puzzled look and said “I ordered that?”. So – I’d say this drink was not memorable. I don’t remember him disliking it or saying it was gross, but it was nothing special (kind of the theme of this place haha).

For food, Luke does a much better job than I do of switching it up every time we eat here. On this trip, he went for the Truffle-Honey Chicken – fried chicken breast with truffle-honey, asparagus and mashed potatoes, $16.95.

The plating left a bit to be desired, it looked a little messy/off centre, but it tasted decent. The chicken was breaded nicely and was flakey. The honey was minimal, just enough to give it a nice sweet taste. The mashed potatoes and asparagus were good.

I can’t go to the Cheesecake Factory and not order cheesecake, even though Luke decided he didn’t want one this time. I only ate about half of my pasta in order to have room to enjoy cheesecake, and I ordered the Caramel Pecan Turtle – pecan brownie and caramel-fudge swirl cheesecake topped with Caramel Turtle pecans and chocolate, $7.95. I forgot to take a picture of this, but Luke and I shared it and enjoyed it – is there such a thing as bad cheesecake?

Our total bill came to $60.72. Overall, this restaurant is just standard, basic food but I really like it. Plus they have like 50 different cheesecakes to choose from, so that automatically makes them a winner in my books!

Food Review

The Melting Pot – January 26, 2018

For Luke’s birthday this year, I decided to treat him by taking him to MY favourite restaurant haha. He always enjoys the Melting Pot, so he wasn’t too upset about my choice.

The Melting Pot is a fancy fondue restaurant, with burners set into the tabletops to keep everything warm. You can  choose to do one, two, three or four courses depending on your hunger and budget.

We had just returned from our two week Disney wedding trip, so we were really trying to be budget-friendly with eating out, so we decided to skip the classic 4-course meal we typically get at the Melting Pot. They were offering a promotion called the “Crave” combo, which gave us a choice of a cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue to share, along with a salad for each of us for $25/person.

We started with drinks!

We each drove our own vehicles to the restaurant (Luke met me there from work), so my drink was non-alcoholic (Alberta has a strange thing where there are two levels of Class 5 licenses, I’ve just never gone to get my advanced one, and as such I have a zero tolerance policy for alcohol on my license). Luke enjoyed the Whiskey Thistle – Jameson Irish Whiskey, white peach syrup, raspberries, fresh lemon and Sprite, $11.50. I went with my trusty favourite, the Strawberry Basil Lemonade – a light and tasty blend of fresh strawberries, basil and lemonade, $7.50. I typically have the recommended shot of strawberry vodka added to it, but kept it non-alcoholic this time.

I did have a sip of Luke’s, and it was quite delicious! I still prefer my choice, but it’s also one of my favourite restaurant cocktails anywhere…

Our first course was the cheese fondue. We’ve tried a few different kinds, but always seem to come back to the Spinach Artichoke – featured Cheeses: Butterkäse, Fontina,  Melted with: Fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic.

For those who have never been, they actually melt the cheese in front of you. Your server will turn on the burner on your table once they take your order, and there is usually already an empty pot sitting on there. They come out with a tray containing all of the ingredients required for your requested cheese fondue, and they mix it all at your table. They pour in oil, then add the shredded cheeses, lots of garlic, chopped spinach, artichoke hearts, a few drops of tobasco sauce, etc and stir it all up until the cheese is melted.

The server also brings out the dippers for the cheese at the same time – we’ve had a bit of variation with these items over the years, but for the most part it’s been consistent. On this trip we received two types of bread, granny smith apples, broccoli, cauliflower and cherry tomatoes. On various past visits, we have had baby carrots, tortilla chips and a third type of bread (although this was our first time seeing the tomatoes – it might be based on what’s in season, what’s in stock right now or just the items that came with the Crave promotional package we had chosen).

We always end up asking for more apples, they are so good with the cheese! We typically finish off all the dippers with this course, and today was no exception – we handed back empty dishes to our server 🙂 We are also pretty good at getting every last bit of cheese out of that pot haha.

Next up was the salad course. We were each allowed to pick our own salad – we rarely switch this up, and order the same thing every time…

I love their Caesar Salad – Romaine lettuce, shredded Parmesan cheese, croutons and Parmesan-encrusted pine nuts with Caesar dressing. Their dressing tastes house-made, and it’s elevated even more by sprinkling some of their Wine and Garlic seasoning on top. I’m not a huge pine nut fan (I know, they are really expensive, but I don’t like most nuts), so I usually pick those off and put them on Luke’s salad. Their croutons appear to be house-made as well, and they are very generous with the shredded parmesan!

Luke ordered the Melting Pot House Salad – Romaine and Iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese, fresh tomatoes, croutons, and sliced egg with your choice of peppercorn ranch dressing or our Sweet & Tangy House Dressing.

He opted for the peppercorn ranch dressing. This is his go-to salad every time we go to the Melting Pot, he always finishes it and really enjoys it.

Our third and final course for this meal was the chocolate! Again, we’ve tried a few different kinds but always come back to our favourite, the Flaming Turtle – milk chocolate melted with caramel and candied pecans.

The Flaming part of its name comes from the presentation of it being flambed at the table. The server stirs until the flames have disappeared, and then pours in the candied pecans.

I’m always impressed by the variety on the tray of dippers they bring. This one had cheesecake, pound cake, brownies, blondies, melon, strawberries, bananas, oreo-coated marshmallows and graham-cracker coated marshmallows.

Some of these (the cheesecake especially) don’t work great on your fondue spear, but your server leaves a spoon so you can drizzle the chocolate fondue over top of it. I also find the marshmallows too large to stick in my mouth at one time, so I like to chop them in half before dipping them into chocolate. We always eat everything on this plate, and then ask for more fruit and marshmallows (I seriously can’t get enough of them with those coatings!).

At some point, Luke got a beer and I really wanted a root beer – I didn’t take any pictures.

Overall, it was another successful trip to the Melting Pot, and I left feeling full even without the fourth course.