Canada Trip Day 23: 7 Looking for a place to eat - La Brasserie

5 July 2010 - After we settled our things in the hotel, we headed out to the Whistler town centre for some food. We eventually decided on La Brasserie after checking out also La Bocca's menu. I cannot seem to get enough of these tasty chicken wings when I was in Canada.


Walking past La Bocca

An elderly couple sitting under a La Brasserie parasol

Bar at La Brasserie

Guy serving us in checkered shirt, busy at the till.

Burger with chips at La Brasserie

Wings with barbarque sauce

We ordered pizza as well. It's been more than a year now that I am still blogging about my Canada trip that I cannot remember what pizza we ordered. It looked like some sort of pepperoni pizza.

Wall mural in the restaurant

A little announcement in the toilet

Canada Trip Day 22: Lunch at Hillcrest Resort & Visit to Last Spike

4 July 2010 -We had a nice lunch at a quiet resort in Revelstoke. There was just the tour group and no one else. We sat at a table with our guide, some British and New Zealand tourists. Everyone was getting to know everyone, which was nice. I chose the salmon dish for lunch and it was wonderful. Loved the salad starter as well.We had an after-lunch stroll to the back of the resort. It was a lovely view of a neatly kept garden with the mountains behind. I liked the wooden artwork of the hanging lamps.

Not far from Craigellachie is a historical site of "The Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway". It is here that the last spike was driven into the tracks. According to Wikipedia, the actual spike is now kept under someone's possession for fear of souvenir hunters. The Canadian Pacific Railway has a very profound history in Canada  because it is the pinnacle of the industrial boom in the country where the railway was very much depended on as mode of communication and transport. The railway has been in operation since the 18th century. Originally, it was a trans-Canadian railway stretching from eastern Canada to the western province. Today, it has rail lines connected to several big American cities.




The lovely lunch menu

Salad with yummy cranberry vinaigrette

Baked salmon with steamed Jasmine rice and cucumber salsa

Foyer of the resort

Wooden artsy chandelier

Neat garden with a view of the mountains

Jacuzzi pool covered

A patio behind the hotel

Caravan campsite

Memorial plaque noting the """iron ribbon" across Canada

Memorial plaque explaining the origin of the name for Eagle Pass

An 18th century Canadian Pacific Railway train

A memorial structure at the exact spot where the spike was driven

An illustrated account of the Last Spike

Gift shop at the Last Spike

A barn

First Nation's tepee

Canada Trip Day 21: Seoul Restaurant, Banff

3 July 2010 - Located at Banff Avenue, somewhat hidden at one end of an alley is this amazing Korean restaurant. We never thought we'd had such a Korean feast in a place like Banff! We had the spicy seafood hot pot and stir-fried beef dish. Both were unimaginably marvelous, yet my sister was saying the one she had in Korea was better. The one in Korea will have to wait for now.

The spicy hotpot was ideal for the chilly mountain weather. It worked up a healthy sweat, which somehow added to a greater satisfaction of the meal.

Not only was the food tremendous, so was the service. Impressively, the service was not compromised even when the place was quickly filled up with customers. The staff members were courteous and helpful. We had our tea cups refilled, side dishes replenished and bill sorted efficiently.

[Photos by Sakana]


Walking along the alley, we saw the sign board of Seoul Restaurant, Banff

Here we are, with the staff members making preparations to receive a tour group. Luckily, there was a table for us.

Korean Masks

A couple enjoying Korean food

Spicy seafood hotpot (Haemul Jungol), YUM!!

This was the tough part, watching and waiting for this large wok of delicious-looking seafood in spicy soup to boil

Savoury stir-fried beef - Bulgogi

Canada Trip Day 20: Thai & Tai - Ultimate Vietnamese Subs N' Grill

2 July 2010 - As the restaurants were closing along Stephen Ave, we got recommendations from a waiter packing up to dine at Murrieta's. When we found it, we were both excited and frightened. It looked expensive and we agreed on a no after scanning through the menu. Thus, continued our search for the "right" restaurant. There is a time and mood for different types of restaurants. And right then, we wanted something fast, simple, cheap and definitely, nice. We found a small restaurant named Thai & Tai which had menu that appealed to all aforementioned aspects. Unexpectedly, the meal turned out to be really good for a really good price! What I like about the restaurant are these beautiful photographs in black and white of ethnic scenes in rural areas of Thailand. It's a pretty amazing feeling, munching my food while marveling these photos and secretly envious of the photographer's travels.

Photos by Sakana

The restaurant counter

Thai & Tai signage at the entrance

Beautiful black and white photographs lined along one wall in the restaurant

I love this photograph! My favourite out of all.

Mango Juice with Pearl, absolutely delicious and refreshing

Menu Combo Three: Lemongrass Chicken, Tiger Prawns and Spring Roll over rice

The menu board

Canada Trip Day 19: A terrible experience at Sushi Crescent, Montreal

1 July 2010 - After the parade, we were walking along Rue Sainte Catherine looking for Subway to have lunch at. A lady overheard us and tried to help even though she was not quite sure where exactly it is. After giving us some possible directions, she took off. She came back to us a few minutes later with more definite directions. We turned into Rue Crescent and got tempted by the menu posted outside Sushi Crescent for an all-you-can-eat buffet. We enjoyed the meal for the first hour but after that, everything went terribly wrong. The tempura prawns we had did not come with sauce and the service became horrible. The waitresses were rude, wearing looks of unhappiness and contempt, carelessly flinging dishes on the table when they served us. When we wanted to make more orders, the waitress was giving us attitude. We were being asked for the bill when we were still eating. The management seemed to want to shoo us away. The green tea ice cream tasted horrible. Overall, the food was not great. The ambiance would have been nice if not for the horrid manners of the staff.

While I was paying the bill, the manager punched in an additional 15% charge. When asked, he explained it was the tip and that the usual charge is 10%. I asked why was it 15% and had it changed to 10% since he too was awfully rude. He spoke rudely and shoved the bill at the counter. When I asked for the 10% change, his showed a scowl. In the end, we left the restaurant feeling cheated and extremely dissatisfied.

I got the impression that Sushi Crescent serves a fake all-you-can-eat buffet to attract customers by offering lower cost. You do not serve an all-you-can-eat buffet and expect your customer not to eat all they can, just because you are worried of making a loss. Back at a similar type of restaurant in Surrey, we had the utmost enjoyment of staying as long as we wish, making as many orders we like for a price a little higher than Sushi Crescent. Not to mention, they had many more choices including different sashimis which was offered none in Sushi Crescent's menu.  I would rather pay more to avoid such a terrible experience of the worst service in a restaurant than be cheated into thinking this restaurant is genuinely offering such a buffet for that price. And charging their customer tips at any rates they decide without consulting them is so wrong. Apparently, we were not the only unhappy customers.

My experience at Sushi Crescent was the worst ever in my trip to Canada, and in my whole life of going to any eateries, food stalls included. There are plenty of nice all-you-can-eat Japanese buffets in Canada to help anyone interested with their choices. Sushi Crescent should not be considered a choice at all.

The entrance to Sushi Crescent at Rue Crescent. Any pretty food pictures can fool a famished passerby

Canada Trip Day 18: Montreal's Chinatown, Chuan Xiang Qing Restaurant & Complexe Desjardins

30 June 2010 - After our refreshing visit at the Mont Royal Park, we decided to head next to the Chinatown for some nice Chinese lunch. Mum was not particularly keen about museum visits and had prompted us to go on ahead without her. With a destination in her mind, we thought we'd just stop museum visits for now and stick with the Chinatown idea.

Little did I realise Chinatown was actually pretty far! It felt really far because the walking just seemed endless as we passed blocks after blocks of streets. Google Maps gauged a walking distance of 4.9km! It was drizzling, so we were out walking in our Maid of the Mist blue, plastic poncho raincoats.

Chinatown was a busy place. The streets and shops were crowded. We surveyed the area wandering from one gate tower to the opposite one along Rue Clark, watching people set about their personal tasks. We were also looking for a nice restaurant to have lunch in. We saw a Mongolian restaurant and got excited after skimming through a newspaper clipping pasted on its front door. Unfortunately, it was getting ready to close and was no longer entertaining orders. We found another restaurant with nice food pictures right across it. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the food at Chuan Xiang Qing Restaurant was absolutely fantastic! We had a great meal, one that kept us happily reminiscing during our way back to McKay Street where the hostel is located. The duck in a heating wok was most delicious and unique! Along the way, we stopped by Complexe Desjardins for some shopping and also to get out of the rain for a while.

Some photos are taken by Sakana






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Buffet restaurant in Chinatown

Gate tower and a busy Chinatown street

Newspaper clipping of the Mongolian Restaurant with mouth-watering hotpot menu

Me walking up the stairs of Mongolian restaurant only to find it closing in about 15 minutes.

Chinatown of Montreal

People sitting by at the square in Montreal's Chinatown

There are some nice Chinese art carvings on the stone walls

Entrance of Restaurant Chuan Xiang Qing, which takes us to a staircase leading to the basement

The extremely, extremely delicious and succulent duck dish with assorted vegetables, served in a heating wok

Absolutely fabulous egg plant dish. Mind you, not many places cook egg plant extremely well.

This tofu dish was also very delicious.

Spicy Szechuan soup, also delicious!

Complexe Desjardins' entrance

Just walking in to Complexe Desjardins

Main hall of Complexe Desjardins

Us walking in our plastic poncho raincoats

Shopping street