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I’ve never liked Ceili’s. Something about it being on the old Penny Lane next to Cowboys and always being chockful of busty barely-clad women and the drunken chauvinists who tend to flock around them.

Well, lucky for them they’ve given me a few (sort of) less subjective reasons to dislike them.

1. I sat at a table for probably a good 20 minutes before a server came over. I was worried that I was in a portion of the pub not covered till later, but who was I kidding? It was dinner/beer time downtown – someone just needs to be quicker on the pickup. Especially when the business advertises “dedicated staff committed to providing exceptional customer service.”
2. The comment of the night: “Is she brewing the beer in the back or what?”
3. I was still hungry enough after that sad excuse for tuna, rice and steamed veggies to polish off yam fries and a third of a plate of nachos at the pub we ended up moving to.

And no, I’m not going to allow “It’s an Irish pub” as an excuse to screw up rice. If you’re going to put it on your menu, at least make it palatable!

Ceili’s may be less of a stumbling distance to/from the office and a taxi, but clearly a longer walk is worthwhile.

Ceili’s Irish Pub is located at 803 8th Ave SW. The 4th St location was torn down a while ago.

Ah Stampede. Good for two things: a relaxed attitude towards work and scoping out hot cowboys.

At least, my girlfriends do. For the latter item, of course. I am all for relaxed attitudes about work!

As it turns out, for those who work downtown, the place to go for the cowboy eye candy is The Metropolitan Grill, between 1st and 2nd Street W on Stephen Avenue.

Well, it is if you’re smart enough to request seats in the lounge. The ladies and I ended up in the family-friendly table seating in the back.

Since I was not distracted by cowboys, I tried to stay focused on the timing and delivery The Met had to offer.

Scantily clad servers who don’t quite look quite old enough to serve your martini? Check.

Fusion cuisine that comes out speedily but is kind of like every other mid-range lounge + restaurant on the block in taste and quality? Check.

People-watching opportunities? Check and check.

I wouldn’t say The Met is anywhere special. The service wasn’t bad, but it doesn’t stand out in my mind either. To their credit they do have a fantastic patio for what warm weather Calgary gets, and it is a nice change of pace for those who frequent Earl’s, Moxie’s, and the plethora of downtown pubs for lunch or after-work drinks.

I’ll even put my feminist sensibilities aside to say this: if the eye candy (for the girls, and the guys) will get you business, then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

In my mind, there is a shadow of mystery shrouding Sushi Bar Zipang. Rumors of the chefs’ elitist attitude, the astounding quality of fish served there, the slightly random, out-of-the-way-unless-you-live-there Bridgeland location (1010 1 Ave NE, to be exact).

But again, this is all in my mind. Your opinions are your own. But how about we tackle these mysteries one by one?

1. Elitism and favoritism

The source of this rumor is my cousin, who loves sushi. Not this cousin, but another one. We’re Filipino, so there’s a lot of us and we like fish. It can get confusing.

But anyway, my cousin used to come to Zipang a lot, to the point where he was well-recognized by the staff and at which point they started to give him big servings of sashimi. Since the sashimi pieces are quite large already at Zipang, this is saying a lot.

Now, is this rumor well-founded? Perhaps. When the quality of your seafood in a land-locked province is as good as it is at this establishment, it’s bound to create some loyal repeat customers that a business owner is apt to get to know.

2. Quality

WOW. Of the sushi snobs I know, across the board they rate Zipang with two HUGE thumbs up. As do I. You pay a hefty premium, but it’s worth it and you get so much for it. The first time I ever went I didn’t think about price, only about the size of my stomach (being large), spent about $100 and didn’t get anywhere near finishing it. I think I went home with a party tray and a half of sushi. The last time I went I spent about $40 and still didn’t finish it. Granted, my stomach isn’t as large nowadays, but Zipang still makes hefty portions so be ready.

The sashimi is phenomenal here. Melts in your mouth. If you are a sashimi lover and want to taste high quality, GO HERE.

3. Location

Ok, so Bridgeland is not really that out of the way. I mean, it’s right outside downtown, which means that now that Sushi Bar Zipang is open for lunch, it’s easy to head here for Friday lunch hour (or any other day of the week).

It is a small establishment, and is – as expected – very popular, so make reservations or get takeout.

A good thing about takeout: when you realize how good (and filling!) the food is, it’s easy to pawn it off on your co-workers.

Word of warning: service is kind of slow. But some things are worth waiting for.

I am on a mad hunt for sunglasses.

Given how many pairs of glasses I own, you can expect that this can be a tedious exercise, and possibly a redundant one. But I would like a shiny new pair of sunnies to go with my shiny new mountain bike because fogging and salt are not fun when you’re zipping down a mountain.

Anyway, since I was looking for sunglasses suited to my adrenaline junkie lifestyle, I decided to head off to Mountain Bike City on the semi-far west end of 17th Avenue (2707 17th Avenue SW, to be exact) to see if they carried a pair of Smith’s that got gold stars in the latest Outside Magazine Buyer’s Guide.

They didn’t, but the guys in the shop that Sunday were fun anyway. They weren’t super helpful with the glasses (although, I didn’t really ask any questions); they just opened the case and let me have at her. The one guy did bring over a helmet for me to test glasses with (nothing like a glasses-helmet-mish-mash to ruin your ride) but the helmet was too small.

Fellow T&D blogger Jamie did get some questions about bike tunage answered, which is always good, and although we walked away without any new shiny, I will say that Mountain Bike City has a more laid-back attitude compared to my beloved Ridley’s. This attitude suits the West Coast origin of their motto: “Calgary’s original freeride shop” and it’s definitely a nice change from the hardcore, technical attitude of Ridley’s and MEC.

It’s definitely worth another visit to see if Mountain Bike City carries any other equipment to help this Energizer Bunny in her quest for more adrenaline. Like body armor.

And apparently, my second-hand Gary Fisher is originally from MBC. Bonus points!

Does having an accent contribute to the quality of your service?

That was certainly up for debate one clear Friday evening as we hung out in Brewsters. Key points in the argument included:

• how good Jill’s, our server, drink and dessert recommendations are (excellent)
• how fast the food shows up in comparison to Moxie’s on 7th (orders showed up in under an hour)
• toting an Aussie in your posse

Apparently, that last point makes quite a difference, especially if he’s a charmer, but we won’t hold any of that against Brewster’s. I was sold on the quality of their menu alone (two vegetarian entrees? Win), but the quality of their service is pretty winsome, too. Jill remembered that she hadn’t remembered my water, she replaced my friend’s seemingly non-alcoholic gin and ginger with a very much alcoholic one without flinching, and she was there when we needed her, and not there when we didn’t.

Hovering near the charming Aussie would definitely have been minus points.

Clearly, using Moxie’s as a standard was highly underestimating the Canadian-born brew pub, but you’ve got to set the bar somewhere. Luckily for Brewster’s, Jill, the brewery and the kitchen have bumped it pretty high.

By the way, the benefit of the Aussie is still up for debate.

Off the top of my head I count 5 restaurants within a block of my office that serve Vietnames (or Vietnamese-ish) cuisine. It tends to result in confusion when deciding where to go for lunch. But when Pho Viet Noodle House was found deserving of repeat business, replete with a – albeit debatedly – “romantic” atmosphere, my curiosity was piqued.

My enthusiasm was piqued when I saw “Vegetarian Dishes” announced on the front windows. Tofu FTW!

Pho Viet’s interior is slick, similar to that of Bagolac Saigon although the TV screens and small booths in the back made me wonder if Pho Viet had a Clark Kent/Superman persona going on, fronting as a restaurant by day but transforming into a bumping club at night. In spite of the mystery,  the atmosphere is laid-back, kind of surprising for a downtown restaurant on a Friday lunch hour. And while the service is polite and sneaky-ninja-quiet, it’s a little bit too laid-back in terms of speed.

BUT (!!!) bonus points for a wide variety of dishes and drinks, and for putting tofu in the vegetarian rice/egg noodle soup and the vegetarian spring rolls. I like me some carbs, but I really like me some balanced meals, too.

The wallet and the stomach definitely deem Pho Viet worthy of repeat business, but the watch finds it a little lacking.

And no, the atmosphere is not “romantic”.

Seeing as how it was Father’s Day last weekend, I thought I’d do something special for me pops and take my parents out for a celebratory dinner. Always eager to try something new (and with a discount voucher to boot,) we went to Oceana Seafood, Steakhouse & Bar to enjoy some nice seafood.

Located near Eau Claire and a stone’s throw away from the Bow River, Oceana has a modern décor, with neutral color, and comfortable seating. They also have patio dining, and window viewing. It’s well decorated and it presents itself as an upscale dining experience. 

They primarily specialize in seafood but they also have meat dishes, which we didn’t order.  I had the crab cakes ($12), which came out as four patties with a bowl of house mayo. The crab cakes were dry, bland, and didn’t taste any better with the mayo. There was also a portioning issue because the mayo:crab cake ratio was way off; too much mayo and it was just wasted away. My mom had the Manhattan seafood chowder ($7.50), which was meaty and delicious. The soup was too watery for my liking ,but it was flavorful. Not bad.

For main course I had the Arctic Char ($29), which came with some grilled veggies and rice pilaf. Seriously, I need to find out who thought of portions here because my plate had 80% fish, 20% sides. It’s great for the price, but why have sides if you’re going to have so little? The Char was grilled just right, albeit underseasoned; I need to ask for the salt shaker for this. The skin underneath was crispy and packed a punch; it complemented one another. Now I understand. My mom had the Fisherman’s Platter ($24), which was a smorgasbord of battered fish with fries. You get a lot of food and tasted alright, but was underseasoned. My dad had the bouillabaisse ($26), which had more soup than meat; the mussels were tiny, the shrimp was lacking in numbers, and it was disproportioned. Seriously, what is the deal with the portions here?

Our server was nice, but the food took a while to get to our table. It was meh, so nothing big to write about here. However, the next part is everything to write about; it was quite pricey. The bill came to $115, which was a lot to take. The main dishes justified their cost, but their apps lack the punch, and they don’t have free refills. Tsk tsk.

All in all, I wouldn’t normally go here if I didn’t have a discount voucher for this place. There are better places for less but hey, it’s all part of the experience; you win some, you lose some.

I have another voucher so maybe next time, it’ll be a better experience.

An epiphany: customer service is measured by the degree to which it positively or negatively affects your day, or sometimes even your life.

Enter spud!, short for Small Potatoes Urban Delivery, an originally Vancouver-ite grocer that delivers local and/or organic food and green products to your door. I was sold purely on the “delivers to your door” part.

But spud! also touts the title of being “North America’s greenest grocer”. They buy carbon offsets to make every delivery to and from their warehouse carbon neutral, they carry WAY more local and organic produce than your regular grocery store, and they even keep track of how every customer is saving the environment with every order (my current standings since January 6: 10.4 kg of CO2 saved from avoided car trips, 1.9 kg of CO2 saved from buying local, 7.4 kg of food waste reduced, 798 pages of grocery store flyers not printed, and 50 bags avoided by using a reusable bin).

When I signed up, the website carried a banner stating that the average family spent 90 minutes shopping for groceries per week, but it only took spud! customers 9 minutes to complete their shopping. Was I, the unstoppable Energizer bunny, going to feel that 81 minute difference?

You bet I did.

Instead of worrying about when I’m going to slide in a trip to the grocery store, I’m worrying about how to effectively use (and not waste!) all the beautiful produce in my fridge. I’m pretty much forced to eat better by not buying fast food at work, but you know what: I am totally ok with that. I feel way better, not only because I am putting good food in my body, but because I am reducing my impact on the environment and making better use of my time. Although I do miss jamming to The Clash’s “Lost in the Supermarket” while wandering the cavernous warehouses of Costco and Superstore.

Did I mention that they keep sending me free stuff? Well, thankfully they’ve stopped (for now…), or else I would have been totally head-over-heels in love and my standards for customer service would have been way too high for the rest of the world, but here’s some freebies and complimentary items I’ve received so far:

• three $5 off coupons
• a sample of Nature’s Path cereal
• a spud! bag made of recycled plastic
• a personally addressed letter from the Calgary General Manager

Sure, they might carry everything you need for that moussaka you’re making for family dinner, but maybe eggplants aren’t in season. Or maybe you didn’t quite order enough so you’re going to have make a trip to the grocery store anyway. And maybe Wednesday deliveries messes up your routine of cooking Sunday evenings after that grocery run so now you have to totally readjust your weekly schedule.

But change is good, right?

spud! serves mainland B.C., Greater Victoria, Vancouver Island, Calgary, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and L.A.

Note: since I am as of yet car-less, I am posting this review on behalf of a friend. I am inclined to think it is better she remain nameless.

Why Stadium Nissan sucks:
They sold my friend a Volkswagen with a falsified inspection – they checked things off as okay, when they were clearly and visibly broken.  Clearly, off to a great start. She took it to a VW dealer to get inspected and it wasn’t road worthy. Some of the unworthy items:

• clutch was so worn out it could have gone at any second
• one of the shocks was shot
• tire rod was snapped
• lights were missing a component and so did not function properly
• something else was missing and with a few other not so safe things

It gets better. When she went to return the car one of the managers was a total d**k and kicked her and her mother out. He said “Look, you take this card and you get out of here, because I’m about to get angry, and you don’t want to see me when I’m angry.” Apparently he was quite angry by that point, but managed to Hulk out a bit more, making comments trying to wear down my friend’s integrity and character as well as her mother’s. Did I mention this girl organized an entire group volunteer trip to Africa? Clearly, not lacking in the integrity and character department.

The car salesman who actually sold her the car tried to say he didn’t see anything unsafe about the situation. You thought they were sneaky before…

She threatened to sue and call Amvic; the next day, the owner/manager called and wanted to refund her for the car;  said to just come in the next day. And subsequently ignored her calls the whole morning and afternoon the next day until the evening.

When she went to pick up her cheque, they wanted her to rip up the bill of sale and pretend the whole thing didn’t happen. Well, so much for that because now it’s on the interwebs.

Unfortunately (although I can’t really blame her, I would want to take my money and jet!) she left her plates on the car, and they turned around and sold it the very next day, plates and all. Who wants to guess whether they managed to fix all those problems mentioned earlier in that time span? Luckily, she managed to get the plates back. Wonder if the car is back at the dealership too…

Like I noted above, I don’t have a car (yet?), but I know where I’m not going to find one.

Stadium Nissan is located at 2420 Crowchild Trail NW, across from McMahon Stadium.

Situated in a little complex near Singapore Sam’s and a Mac’s, Chili Club Thai House is apparently one of the top Thai restaurants in town. Always looking for a challenge (my friend also had a hankering for hotness as if I wasn’t enough), we ventured on to this quaint place in downtown Calgary.

There’s two locations of Chili Club in Calgary: one in downtown and one along 17th Ave. I did my research and since the downtown one was established first, you have to go to the source (but just to paint you a picture, the 17th Ave. location was FULLY booked for that night.)

We enter to be greeted with dimly-lit, very small dining space which explains why they were fully booked till 8:30PM that night. There was accents of Thai all over the restaurants; gold, presence of Buddha… It’s just the little things that add to the authenticity a little bit.

I’m not used to the dimly-lit restaurant deal, but I think I know why; thai food is known for its spiciness and I think the lighting is set-up to balance the prominent redness in their dishes so that you don’t freak out with the color. That’s just my theory so don’t quote me on that.

The place is small, tight but comfortable enough for two people. I can’t see hosting a party without closing the whole place down just for me.

We looked at the menu and was immediately intimidated by the chili pepper indicators that flooded the entire thing:

Nevertheless, we ventured on and ordered a soup, a beef dish, fried rice, and pad thai.

The soup (#14) tasted great but nothing to celebrate about. It actually reminded me of those thai ramen noodles you can buy for $0.30/pack; it smelled exactly like that, I swear!

Next up was the Pad Thai (#61), which as my friend called it, “it’s sweet, sour, and spicy; it’s balanced and it’s great!” The noodles were cooked just right and seasoned perfectly. I thought the soup was spicier than the Pad Thai but it was delicious nonetheless.

The Chili Club Fried Rice (#55), was soft, plentiful and blended with our other dishes. One gripe I had was even though they list pineapple as a major ingredient in the menu, I only saw 4. And I love pineapple so this broke my heart a little.

Last but certainly not least, was the Crying Tiger Beef (#22) which was hands down, the greatest thing we had all night. The beef was buttery soft and cooked perfectly. That pink in the middle made me squeal in delight. The sauce was a perfect complement to the fried rice and it was fantastic.

I’ll be honest with you; I got #22 purely because of the name. Crying Tiger!? C’MON!

To cap off a great evening, our server surprised us with vanilla ice cream with fruit and a coconut cracker-esque… thing. It’s a cylindrical wafer with coconut wrapped around it. You can buy it at T&T. So good.

The ice cream was a great way to smooth out the fireballs in our mouth and whoever thought of that is a genius.

Our server was polite, served us quickly and with a smile. The food came out perfectly on time when we finished and the portions were done with ultimate precision; no wasted food = no wasted money. Their staff did not drop the ball on this one and I respect what they did here.

When people mention that this place is the Thai place to go to, they weren’t kidding.

The bill came to ~$59, excluding drinks so for four dishes it was a bit on the pricey side but I’ve paid more for worse, and we also enjoyed ourselves.

Long story short, Chili Club Thai House lives up to the hype. This is probably one of my new faves in Calgary and the feeling I had was like finding a $20 while walking down the street.

Until then folks, eat on!

It did not start off well.

Granted, I’m a pretty stand-off-ish customer regardless of what store I walk into. I like to peruse, do my own thing…sometimes pretend like I know what I’m doing. But I got left by myself for a good 15 minutes, and even passed over for a customer who walked in after I did. To add insult to injury, I got apologized to, and then passed over by a girl who had heard the apology from her co-worker!

Like I said, it did not start off well.

But, good things come to those who wait, and I ended up getting the best optician I have ever laid eyes on (haha) – ok, ok, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole, but she was freakin’ awesome and her quality service more than made up for the poor start.

First of all, Melissa actually picked out frames similar to the Persol’s I have been ogling for the better part of the year. I’ve been to other eyewear stores, and even other LensCrafters and tried to find similar frames, and the people there weren’t as quick on the pick-up as Melissa is.

On top of that, she had a good sense of fashion but she was empathetic, able to pick up on what I wanted. She complemented my sense of style with her knowledge to produce epic nerd-tastical results!

Yes, I ended up spending a gross amount of money on new glasses. But that’s ok because I am, as LensCrafters’ guarantees, totally in love with my glasses for the first time in a long time, and I’ve been rocking the four eyes for a decade now.

South Indian cuisine is tough to find in Calgary, and apparently in Canada at large (so says my Indian roomie). So when I felt a sudden onslaught of dosa craving, I almost jumped out of my chair when I found Southern Spice.

If the only thing you cared about when you ate out was the quality of the food, then my friend, you would dig this joint. Even for the last two tables of the night, the food came out beautiful in color and aroma and presentation (you know you’re a foodie when you love good presentation).

Why is that important? Because real Indian food takes FOREVER to make. Trust me, I know: I’ve got a fantastic cook for a roommate.

Oh, and did I mention it tasted awesome. There’s that, too.

But, if you want some service with your sambar, Southern Spice has that too, in polite and humble teaspoon-fulls. And I mean that in a good way. The people at Southern Spice are seriously polite and respectful, and they like talking about what they’re serving. Which is helpful when it’s been too long to remember how to eat dosas, or if you even know how to pronounce half the dishes.

Ok, so they forgot our samosas and never gave us a reason. But I’ll let that slide because we were, in addition to the reasoning previously given, stuffed to the gills, and conclude that Southern Spice is definitely a repeat. Especially ’cause I know that dosa craving is really just an insatiable beast that likes to take long naps.

I’m gonna bring Captain Obvious to the party and start this off with a simple truth: with air travel, you get what you pay for.

I recently went on a volunteer trip to Tanzania and had the opportunity to travel with Africa’s #3 air service provider, Ethiopian Airlines. Being a volunteer trip, we had to find the cheapest flights – hence, the byline above.  Now, I’ve traveled to a fair share of the world on some pretty sketchy airplanes, but when I heard the horror stories of how “Africa’s World Class Airline” treats its passengers, I was worried.

Turns out, it wasn’t too bad. But then, I’ve flown from Kazakhstan to Dubai in a Soviet-era Anatov a la the now defunct Air Kazakstan. I don’t remember if there was service; I was too busy trying to make sure my seat didn’t fall apart with me in it.

A quick scour through the interwebs will reveal some extremely bad reviews of Ethiopian. A lot of them have to do with how timely the flights are. And I am happy to say that every time we took off late (that would be every time we took off), we managed to arrive on time. So they seem to have fixed that problem. What the interwebs don’t reveal is that Ethiopian’s flight attendants have ATTITUDE.

Trust me, you do NOT want to be the ubiquitous unhappy passenger with these ladies. From the encounters I’ve seen (and heard of), you don’t even want to be a little unsatisfied. Just take that cold, unrecognizable airplane food, sit down and shut up.

Obviously, it could be worse (trust me, it could be a lot worse). But if they want to live up to their motto of being “Africa’s World Class Airline”, Ethiopian Airlines has a lot of work ahead.

As for me, I’m just going to be glad that what felt like a draft on that London-Addis Ababa leg was not a draft at all.

PS: If you ever decide to travel through Bole International Airport, bring cold hard cash if you want to live…or drink water after your long ass flight. You can’t get anything edible there without some lovely Western cash to turn into Ethiopian birr.

I used to walk by Eighth and Eighth every day on my way to a previous job, and the big pictures of Indian cuisine in the windows drew a lingering gaze and cut a swath through my tummy.

Luckily, my new job is two blocks away. No packed lunch on Friday? I think so!

The downside of Eighth and Eighth: the pictures on the outside may constitute false advertising. The menu board shows pretty standard Calgarian deli fare – sandwiches, bagels, fries, etc.

The upside: the staff are super friendly. Granted, my co-workers and I showed up at about 11:30 am, well before the usual lunch rush, but I’d like to think it’s tough to hide a genuine smile. And they were really good about letting us substitute and add things and generally act like we’d never been out to lunch before. They even brought our food out to our table. Hopefully they extend this quality of service to all of their patrons.

The food was tasty, the people friendly, the location convenient (particularly for the west end of downtown) – definitely warrants a repeat visit.

Also, best samosas this side of the Atlantic…at least so far on my adventures.

Not to be confused with Don’s post about his traffic experiences, this review is about the restaurant in Chinatown (I think it’s more like China-3×3-blocks), the one at 119 2nd Avenue SE.

The service at Calgary Court is pretty hit-and-miss…some days you’ll wish you had brought your Cantonese speaking friends with you, other days you luck out and get a server that speaks English. Regardless of the language barrier, though, you definitely wouldn’t go to Calgary Court for their excellent service.

You go for the food.

I’ve been told by my HK friends that Calgary Court’s offerings are very typical of Hong Kong-ese cuisine: a blend of classic Cantonese and European cooking. That’s the casserole type dishes you see on the menu. And it’s good eating. You know it’s real good when the ethnic restaurant is frequented by people of that ethnicity.

While there isn’t a whole lot of meat-free dishes available, the food isn’t five-star but it is what you want if you’re driving around late at night: greasy, salty, probably loaded with MSG but so satisfying.

I highly recommend the crispy dough with peanut sauce. Crazy texture and salty-sweet combo. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

It may have been pretty chilly out there today, but I’ll let you in on a little secret….

I know everyone wants to go to the zoo when it’s warm out (+5 or more if you’re from Calgary), but when the temperature is a little lower the animals actually do things.

things I’ve seen while at the zoo on a cold day include:

• snow leopards playing
• gorillas sun-bathing
• elephants being washed and cleaned outside
• and oh yeah… a TIGER climbing a tree!

Also, on the days when you need  to bring a sweater or a scarf, there are fewer people to wade through to actually see the animals, and the zoo has even offered a discounted price when the weather is inclement during the summer.

There are enough indoor enclosures to make your trip great even when being outside is less than desirable and the Kitamba cafe is a great place to warm up and chill out. Trust me  when I say that the thrill of seeing something as magnificent as a tiger climb a tree is worth putting on an extra layer.

The indoor exhibits include: giraffes, hippos, gorillas, the “creatures of the night”, Komodo dragons, elephants, aardvarks, monkeys of all manner and many other small animals just waiting to be discovered (its the perfect excuse to check out those buildings you usually walk by!) So check out the zoo on your own terms – and if the weather isn’t great, wait 20 minutes!

You’ve probably seen the construction in the middle of the zoo if you went there in the last 6 months. (its the barren wasteland where the Dorothy Harvey Gardens used to be).

The good news is, the wait is over. The new & improved Gardens are open to the public, and are better than ever.

The new gardens feature:

· A “living tree”, home to many small plants and flowers that live in harmony on it

· Solar power

· Open, inviting space to walk through and enjoy the exotic plants at home in the zoo

· Interactive displays designed to encourage learning about energy conservation

· A warm place to go on those unseasonably cold days

If you haven’t been to the zoo in a while, this is a good time to check it out! So walk, jump or leap frog your way to 1300 Zoo Road NE for a zoo-rific time!

One good thing to know: the gardens are in the middle of the zoo – this makes it the perfect rest stop, and gives you a chance to relax and enjoy some nature that would not survive our cold Canadian winter.

(Now don’t mind me… I’m off to my next great adventure)

If you’re looking for some amazing Italian food then walk through il giardino’s front door and be prepared to discover simple, yet remarkable dishes.

Seated right on 17^th ave. it’s the perfect spot for lunch away from the office – our entire experience lasted about an hour (with a healthy dose of chit-chat) and the lunch menu offers a quick and easy selection of time-conscious dishes.

Lunch is offered from 11am – 4pm Monday through Saturday and served by a professional and experienced staff in a quiet, intimate atmosphere.

I had the Salsicce al Forno, an Italian sausage dish that’s served with penne pomodoro on the side – not only was it amazing, but it was served piping hot. This was one dish that didn’t sit under a warming light for 15 minutes.

Il Giardino is located at 344 17th Avenue S.W. and beyond lunch, is also open for dinner starting at 4 until they close at 11pm nightly. (Which I’m going to try as soon as possible because if lunch was that good – I can’t wait for the next course!)

My favorite ice cream shoppe isn’t this one. I’ve seen ghost towns with more oomph to them… okay, maybe I’m not being fair – the temperature being a balmy -1 and all – but when you enter an ice cream shop in the off season the first words out of the servers mouth shouldn’t be “you pay first”.

Although, I had enough time to peruse their 72 flavours before he even ended his phone call to serve me, so maybe I was supposed to assume that we had automatically progressed past the point of greetings… oh well.

I had several difficulties during my ice cream adventure:

• It was dark (like, this place is closed, dark)
• The garbage was nearly impossible to find – hidden in a countertop (why didn’t I think of that?!)
• The napkins were also difficult to find – and only in one place
• And finally… 72 flavours made it very difficult to make up my mind while the ice cream scooper hovered (finally) attentively on the other side of the counter

Some good things about my ice cream adventure:

• 72 flavours of ice cream!!! (yeah, it can be a pro and a con.)
• It was conveniently located in Garrison Woods on the route 7 transit line
• No matter what temperature it is black forest ice cream is a win

My Favorite Ice Cream Shoppe’s located at 2048 – 42 Avenue S.W. if you want to go on your own ice cream journey (but beware – you may feel rushed into a hasty ice cream decision…)

As I walk in to Los Chilitos, it feels like walking in to the home of a friend you haven’t seen in a while. The restaurant itself has been remodeled from an old house, which works to its advantage.

I was immediately greeted by a friendly guy who ended up being my waiter for the evening, and seated with a great view of the only TV in the place, which was showing the hockey game.

Let me just say – the tortilla chips here are the best hockey food I’ve been treated to in a long time.

The staff all worked well together to provide a real and authentic experience right down to the up beat Spanish music playing in the background.

The dishes are presented simply and are full of flavour: the quality of the food speaks for itself: my waiter described the flan as “crème brulée, but more tender”.

Los Chilitos left me wanting more; more of the real mixed berries pureed into my drink, and more of the welcoming atmosphere that pervades the entire restaurant.

1309 17 Ave SW is the address of this hidden treasure nestled in between the monolithic 17th ave Moxies and the popular Rustic Sourdough Bakery & Deli (a good place for fresh baked goodies).

My hat (well, toque) is off to the staff of Los Chilitos – cheers!