Birthday Part 1

My parents are divorced so for the past few years I've celebrated my birthday twice each year.

This year with my mother, we went to the restaurant. D., my brother and his girlfriend came with us the Thursday night (July 21st, actual birthday was July 22nd).

Usually I picked an Asian restaurant to go to but this year I wanted to make it a little different, so I went for a French restaurant I had been to the year before and had been really wanting to go back. For the occasion I decided to wear the orange dress I got for super cheap a month earlier.

I also curled my hair with the curling iron, but it was so hot and humid that they didn't stay put very well...

I had light make-up, I figured it wouldn't matter with the heat it would likely melt away.

The restaurant...

Maison Chaloin http://www.maisonchaloin.com/

The inside is cozy and seats about 20-30 customers at most. There were a few people when we came in, but they had all left by the time we ordered. A few other customers came in later.



Is a small restaurant slash chocolate shop/factory owned by two French gentlemen that moved to Canada in 2008. Every single thing they make is made from scratch at the restaurant. They sell chocolates, macaroons, cakes and gelatos. Half of is it the shop, and the other half is the restaurant. And as I've said, every thing is made from scratch, by hand, home made, including everything on the menu. They specialize in crepes, sweet and salty ones. But they also have pizza, pasta, salads and desserts of course.

And now... Onto pictures of FOOD!

My plate... Chicken, mushroom and creamy cheese crepe with salad and tomato soup.
This was "Table d'Hote" so it included a drink and a dessert.

My brother's dish. 4 cheese pizza with salad and tomato soup.

I didn't get a chance to photograph everyone else's dishes, they were already stuffing their faces. But who can blame them! The food there is AMAZING! My mother had a smoked salmon and maple syrup crepe. D has duck and date crepe. And my bro's girlfriend had pasta which looked SO delicious! I'll definitely be having a pasta dish next time.

My dessert!
Small cake with chocolate, raspberries, whipped cream and lime gelato (my favorite!)

While everyone was choosing their dessert (because you get to choose from a wide variety in a display window, I snapped pictures of everything (or almost) they had.

Cake display...

Macaroons, in the display on the other side...

Chocolates display...


A lot of their chocolates are made out of flowers! I had the chance to taste some of them last year and they're delicious! Everything you can order to eat there, or take out. They put everything in super cute boxes which makes it all perfect for gifts too.

All in all it was a great dinner and I'm definitely going back again! Any next occasion or even just for a nice coffee break and snack. The service has been impecable every time, I definitely recommend Maison Chaloin, if you are in the area. They are located in Hull on St-Joseph Blvd. Check out their website for more info, they also recently opened a chocolate store (no restaurant) in Ottawa!

Part 2 of birthday coming up soon...

What do you think of all these sweets?
Which one would you have picked for your dessert?

Koreana

A few weeks ago, I was out in our city's little China Town and FINALLY got to try out this tiny restaurant I've been wanting to try for a long time... Koreana!

A mix of korean and japanese food. It's descently price and the service was excellent. I definitely recommend it! Some shots for you all~

The front of the menu. I thought it was very pretty!

Have you tried a new restaurant recently?
Have you ever had Korean?

Bambu

A few weeks ago, some co-workers and I decided to try out a new restaurant that recently opened. It's called Bambu! It's on Hunt Club, right next to the T&T Market (where I bought the yummy custard puffs).

It looks small from the outside but when you walk in it's actually quite big. I was surprised! The ceiling is very high also. The color theme of the restaurant is dark brown, beige, black and orange. It wasn't very busy when we walked it, but more and more customers walked in as the lunch hour went by.

Their menu is very big! They have a lot of variety, mostly a mix of Thai, chinese and japanese food. They have a website, you can check it out here: http://www.restobambu.com/




I ordered some pork and veggies spring rolls for appetizer. I was surprised there were three, usually it just comes with two. The sauce tasted like a mix of sweet mustard and your typical sweet & sour sauce (personally I prefer to eat my spring rolls with fish sauce though). I've had better spring roles before, but for the price they were pretty good.


For my lunch I ordered a bento box. It came with a miso soup, as usual.


I'm going to sound really picky here, but this is a review so I'll just give my honest opinion. The miso soup, tasted like every other miso soup I've had before. Except for the tofu cubes, they were HUGE and I didn't really like that, I'm used to smaller or at least medium sized ones and I like that better. Plus the fact that it was served in a square bowl was a little weird. Square isn't a good shape for soup bowl (have you ever tried usuing a round spoon in a corner?) and it's awkward to hold in your hands when drinking the last bit of it too.


Then the bento box. It was SO big! The biggest one I've had so far! It was california rolls, general tsao chicken, green salad, steamed rice and gyoza (I think that's what they're called?). Everything was very good. It was my first time trying out the gyoza and I personally didn't really like them. I ate them, so they weren't disgusting, but for my personal taste I wouldn't eat some again.

All in all, it was a good restaurant. Except I found the service was a bit slow, we got back to work and were late (we have 1 hour lunch). But the waitress was very nice and she seemed to know the menu very well. The prices were reasonable and the food was good.

If I had to pick, I'd go back to Pho Thi Fusion (which I reviewed a little while back). But I'd like to go back to Bambu at least once more to try something else on their menu.

Do give it a try if you happen to be in the area~


Have any of you guys tried a new restaurant lately?
Have you ever tasted gyoza? Did you like it?