I actually like eating here, and when I asked the owner today if it'd been 11 years, she said, "no, 13!" And then we joked about how we were both in our 30s, and it was a fun moment. I don't go all the time, but it's tasty.
I am told that the soup they use is beef-based, but I'm pretending not to hear that (I don't eat mammal), much as a vegan friend, a long time ago, pretended not to hear me when I told him that Ethiopian food is cooked with clarified butter.
I wish it were a little quieter in the restaurant; it's one of the ones where I consider wearing earplugs. But I guess there's not much to be done: they do make blender drinks.
I don't like bubble tea, but they also do serve regular tea (though too hot), and so I'm always happy with that.
This isn't exactly a seasonal meal, as it's 30C outside and I had a large bowl of soup for lunch. But I'm certainly happier with it than with any of the other four I've so far blogged here.
I had: spicy ramen with fish balls and veggie dumplings, a cup of jasmine tea.
I paid: $6.77 + tip
Verdict:
Speed: Not super fast, and this is sometimes the biggest problem with Sweet Dreams. Today was fine.
Quality: It's not earth-shattering, but the soup is tasty. There's a sameness, and the only vegetable in it is the bok choy. But I've had much worse. This week, even.
Value: Pretty good, actually. I'm quite full, and I carried most of my cup of tea back to the office with me to nurse through the afternoon.
Would go back: Yes, unless someone shows me the beef bones they're using to make the soup broth. Hint: please don't.
Friday 31 August 2012
Thursday 30 August 2012
Subway
I don't know why I just went there. The dude in front of me in line was practicing his martial arts. (Seriously.) It smells like Subway, that not-really-yeasty-but-still-kind-of-bready smell. I don't like that smell.
My sub. Um, did I just actually eat something, aside from the bag of Sun Chips? (Why are Sun Chips "better for you" than regular chips? I mean, yes, they're tasty, featuring both salt and "autolyzed yeast extract" ~ MSG, but still...)
Um, I think it had turkey in it, and some random mayonnaise-chipotle-y sauce. I guess it's mildly fusion-tastic to have that on the parmesan-oregano bread, but I've seen someone else get a chicken teriyaki sub there with similar saucing and bread, so I'm a piker by comparison.
Meh.
I had: a turkey sub with a bag of chips.
I paid: $5.90; it was the $4 sub-of-the-day, which means I would've paid just $4.20 if that'd been all I got, thanks to the lower rate of tax on such purchases. I'm not sure the chips were worth that much more...though they were more flavourful than my sandwich.
Verdict:
Speed: fast. Sensible workflow. Why are all of the other sandwich shops so bad at this?! Is it intellectual property of Subway?
Quality: meh. Yes, this is the standard vote here already. Welcome to the U Plaza.
Value: I guess it's okay? I mean, I already have largely forgotten the sub existed. As fleeting moments go, it was pretty damn ephemeral. But it was cheap.
Would go back: I haven't been to a Subway outside an airport or roadside rest stop in years, and I can't see why I would change that.
My sub. Um, did I just actually eat something, aside from the bag of Sun Chips? (Why are Sun Chips "better for you" than regular chips? I mean, yes, they're tasty, featuring both salt and "autolyzed yeast extract" ~ MSG, but still...)
Um, I think it had turkey in it, and some random mayonnaise-chipotle-y sauce. I guess it's mildly fusion-tastic to have that on the parmesan-oregano bread, but I've seen someone else get a chicken teriyaki sub there with similar saucing and bread, so I'm a piker by comparison.
Meh.
I had: a turkey sub with a bag of chips.
I paid: $5.90; it was the $4 sub-of-the-day, which means I would've paid just $4.20 if that'd been all I got, thanks to the lower rate of tax on such purchases. I'm not sure the chips were worth that much more...though they were more flavourful than my sandwich.
Verdict:
Speed: fast. Sensible workflow. Why are all of the other sandwich shops so bad at this?! Is it intellectual property of Subway?
Quality: meh. Yes, this is the standard vote here already. Welcome to the U Plaza.
Value: I guess it's okay? I mean, I already have largely forgotten the sub existed. As fleeting moments go, it was pretty damn ephemeral. But it was cheap.
Would go back: I haven't been to a Subway outside an airport or roadside rest stop in years, and I can't see why I would change that.
Phat Cat
The last time I was here was...2004? Not too long after they opened, actually. I was on campus in the evening because I needed to proctor a final exam, and they gave me a Greek salad with moldy feta. I never went back: it's not as though I don't have alternatives.
This is one of the zillions (5? more) of pita-shawarma-falafel-... places in the plaza, which do provide the useful service of feeding our students enough cheap food that they'll want to have a nap during afternoon classes.
In service of you, Gentle Reader, I got a chicken souvlaki yesterday. Hooray. They allow up to 4 toppings and 2 sauces: I had mine with onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, tzatziki and hot sauce.
It was fine. The pita was actually tasty (probably because of its having been grilled?); the chicken banal, and the hot sauce a bit too prevalent. It was badly assembled, and wanted to fall out of its wrapper.
I got: a chicken souvlaki
I paid: $4.50+tax
Verdict:
Speed: Quite fast. This place has bad workflow (you come in, and immediately are at the "receive your pita" end of the line, not the "order your pita" end). But it's certainly better than a couple of other places which will wind up on this blog in due course.
Quality: Meh. Nothing to write home about.
Value: Pretty decent. You can get two souvlakis for $8+tax, which would be a good cheap lunch for two people. I think they're a fair sight more at the franchise places elsewhere in the plaza, and at Just N Pita, which I think has better food.
Would go back: Probably not, but I could understand if someone who wanted cheaper lunches than me did.
This is one of the zillions (5? more) of pita-shawarma-falafel-... places in the plaza, which do provide the useful service of feeding our students enough cheap food that they'll want to have a nap during afternoon classes.
In service of you, Gentle Reader, I got a chicken souvlaki yesterday. Hooray. They allow up to 4 toppings and 2 sauces: I had mine with onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, tzatziki and hot sauce.
It was fine. The pita was actually tasty (probably because of its having been grilled?); the chicken banal, and the hot sauce a bit too prevalent. It was badly assembled, and wanted to fall out of its wrapper.
I got: a chicken souvlaki
I paid: $4.50+tax
Verdict:
Speed: Quite fast. This place has bad workflow (you come in, and immediately are at the "receive your pita" end of the line, not the "order your pita" end). But it's certainly better than a couple of other places which will wind up on this blog in due course.
Quality: Meh. Nothing to write home about.
Value: Pretty decent. You can get two souvlakis for $8+tax, which would be a good cheap lunch for two people. I think they're a fair sight more at the franchise places elsewhere in the plaza, and at Just N Pita, which I think has better food.
Would go back: Probably not, but I could understand if someone who wanted cheaper lunches than me did.
Mongolian Grill
This wasn't lunch: a friend is leaving Canada and so we went there for a going-away. I like the friend, even though I don't like Mongolian Grill, so we went there for dinner.
So, the deal with this place is that you "pick your own meal", which is to say, you take a bowl, fill it with random raw ingredients or cooked noodles, and then they grill/stirfry it on a giant flat griddle. You eat it with rice or tortillas. You go back for as many bowls as you want, for $16-$18 at dinner time.
For lunch, you can get the "lunch quickie", which is one bowl (I think they're smaller than they once were) for something like $9+tax+tip. This isn't...too bad? It'd be around as much food as the lunch pastas at ESM, I guess, given that they do give you rice and tortillas.
But the problem is that the actual supplied food is so...meh. There are lots of meats, but they're all the second-order meats: teeny shrimp, dark-meat chicken, squid, beef and pork (I don't eat these), unidentified white fish. All of them quite often still have ice on them, since they're straight from the freezer. There are lots of starches (because, hey, if you eat wheat or rice noodles as part of your all-you-can-eat "feast", so much the better for them!), and random fresh veggies, though "seasonal" would be something of a joke. If, in the best August for tomatoes in recent memory, tomatoes look like the ones we get in January, then You're Doing It Wrong. There is fresh garlic.
Then you add oily sauces and random dried spices, and they grill them. The spices are "Thai" or "Lemon" or "Soya" or the like. I vaguely thought they once had one I liked that was gingery, but, um, not anymore.
This means that getting tasty food is not easy. I once upon a time would make garlic/ginger/spicy squid with broccoli as my only dish there, but nowadays, I can't even do that. I tried to make something vaguely Thai, but they don't have curry paste or coconut milk.
I don't get the appeal, honestly. I mean, I get how they make money (they stuff people full of salty carbs with some cheap meat or veg), but going there never really did it for me.
I had: dinner "feast", which for me was two bowls of food: one was garlic squid with broccoli, the other rice noodles with chicken and garlic and "lemon" sauce. A pint of, um, some IPA.
I paid: I think around $27? The "feast" is $16+tax+tip on Tuesdays.
Verdict:
Speed: They were slammed the night we went there, so getting bowls, or refills, or tortillas, was slow. Once the host realized our waitress had gotten monopolized by another table, he took good care of us.
Quality: I think it's gone down, and I was never a fan.
Value: Lousy for dinner. For lunch, I guess it's okay. I mean, you get what you "want". I just don't want what was on offer.
Would go back: I'm sure I will, but I try to keep it infrequent.
So, the deal with this place is that you "pick your own meal", which is to say, you take a bowl, fill it with random raw ingredients or cooked noodles, and then they grill/stirfry it on a giant flat griddle. You eat it with rice or tortillas. You go back for as many bowls as you want, for $16-$18 at dinner time.
For lunch, you can get the "lunch quickie", which is one bowl (I think they're smaller than they once were) for something like $9+tax+tip. This isn't...too bad? It'd be around as much food as the lunch pastas at ESM, I guess, given that they do give you rice and tortillas.
But the problem is that the actual supplied food is so...meh. There are lots of meats, but they're all the second-order meats: teeny shrimp, dark-meat chicken, squid, beef and pork (I don't eat these), unidentified white fish. All of them quite often still have ice on them, since they're straight from the freezer. There are lots of starches (because, hey, if you eat wheat or rice noodles as part of your all-you-can-eat "feast", so much the better for them!), and random fresh veggies, though "seasonal" would be something of a joke. If, in the best August for tomatoes in recent memory, tomatoes look like the ones we get in January, then You're Doing It Wrong. There is fresh garlic.
Then you add oily sauces and random dried spices, and they grill them. The spices are "Thai" or "Lemon" or "Soya" or the like. I vaguely thought they once had one I liked that was gingery, but, um, not anymore.
This means that getting tasty food is not easy. I once upon a time would make garlic/ginger/spicy squid with broccoli as my only dish there, but nowadays, I can't even do that. I tried to make something vaguely Thai, but they don't have curry paste or coconut milk.
I don't get the appeal, honestly. I mean, I get how they make money (they stuff people full of salty carbs with some cheap meat or veg), but going there never really did it for me.
I had: dinner "feast", which for me was two bowls of food: one was garlic squid with broccoli, the other rice noodles with chicken and garlic and "lemon" sauce. A pint of, um, some IPA.
I paid: I think around $27? The "feast" is $16+tax+tip on Tuesdays.
Verdict:
Speed: They were slammed the night we went there, so getting bowls, or refills, or tortillas, was slow. Once the host realized our waitress had gotten monopolized by another table, he took good care of us.
Quality: I think it's gone down, and I was never a fan.
Value: Lousy for dinner. For lunch, I guess it's okay. I mean, you get what you "want". I just don't want what was on offer.
Would go back: I'm sure I will, but I try to keep it infrequent.
East Side Mario's
East Side Mario's, of course, is Canada's answer to the Olive Garden, so it's not as though I can realistically expect them to make brilliant food. But a lunch pasta there is not much food, comes with a single small loaf of salty, slightly garlicky, over-buttered bread, and costs $15 with tax and tip, even with just water to drink.
We go there with co-ops because it's affordable, if not cheap, and inoffensive. They let us order in advance. They cope just fine with having a dozen guests at once.
But I still don't quite get why I pay as much as I do. Last year, they had a cancer fundraiser where you could buy a box of pasta from them for $5 and they'd give the rest to a breast cancer charity, and it turns out they use De Cecco pasta. Which is great (and is the kind I use at home), but, well, I still don't see why my little bowl of pasta with 4 mussels and a couple shrimp or scallops is worth $11.50+tax+tip.
I had: seafood linguine lunch special, water to drink.
I paid: $15 with tax and tip.
Verdict:
Speed: neither fast nor slow. Pretty fast given that we order in advance
Quality: okay? Kind of generic. High on the salt. Fish not bad, decent tomato flavour. Mostly, just banal.
Value: Not really good. Did I eat more than $2 worth of food? Why is this a $15 lunch?
Would go back: I will, but not because I wanted to.
We go there with co-ops because it's affordable, if not cheap, and inoffensive. They let us order in advance. They cope just fine with having a dozen guests at once.
But I still don't quite get why I pay as much as I do. Last year, they had a cancer fundraiser where you could buy a box of pasta from them for $5 and they'd give the rest to a breast cancer charity, and it turns out they use De Cecco pasta. Which is great (and is the kind I use at home), but, well, I still don't see why my little bowl of pasta with 4 mussels and a couple shrimp or scallops is worth $11.50+tax+tip.
I had: seafood linguine lunch special, water to drink.
I paid: $15 with tax and tip.
Verdict:
Speed: neither fast nor slow. Pretty fast given that we order in advance
Quality: okay? Kind of generic. High on the salt. Fish not bad, decent tomato flavour. Mostly, just banal.
Value: Not really good. Did I eat more than $2 worth of food? Why is this a $15 lunch?
Would go back: I will, but not because I wanted to.
Goal for this blog
I'm dan brown; I'm a professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.
Summer 2012 has been a really challenging summer for having good food here at lunchtime, because my usual place for getting lunch, the Grad House, has been closed for renovations.
I've been eating in Uptown Waterloo more than usual, particularly having zoup! at Zoup!. This is fine, but I wish I could just enjoy eating in the University Plaza, the bunch of stores and restaurants adjacent to our campus.
But the reality is that, well, I don't. There are places I'm okay with there, but it's certainly not Collegetown in Ithaca, or Baldwin St. in Toronto, or anything that wonderful. My favourite restaurants that have opened for lunch in the last two years are all not there: the Burrito Boyz and Fratburger are both by Laurier, and the German Bakery and Zoup! are both in Uptown Waterloo.
Still, last week, because of a going-away party for a friend and the lunch we throw for our co-ops at the end of their term, I wound up at both Mongolian Grill and East Side Mario's. And while I was on my way to ESM, I realized I'd not eaten at Curry in a Hurry in more than half a decade. Maybe this time is different!
(Probably not.)
So, I have resolved to eat lunch at every single restaurant in the plazas, over the next few months: the ones I do eat at, the ones I don't eat at, the ones I swore I'd never return to, all of them.
Welcome.
Summer 2012 has been a really challenging summer for having good food here at lunchtime, because my usual place for getting lunch, the Grad House, has been closed for renovations.
I've been eating in Uptown Waterloo more than usual, particularly having zoup! at Zoup!. This is fine, but I wish I could just enjoy eating in the University Plaza, the bunch of stores and restaurants adjacent to our campus.
But the reality is that, well, I don't. There are places I'm okay with there, but it's certainly not Collegetown in Ithaca, or Baldwin St. in Toronto, or anything that wonderful. My favourite restaurants that have opened for lunch in the last two years are all not there: the Burrito Boyz and Fratburger are both by Laurier, and the German Bakery and Zoup! are both in Uptown Waterloo.
Still, last week, because of a going-away party for a friend and the lunch we throw for our co-ops at the end of their term, I wound up at both Mongolian Grill and East Side Mario's. And while I was on my way to ESM, I realized I'd not eaten at Curry in a Hurry in more than half a decade. Maybe this time is different!
(Probably not.)
So, I have resolved to eat lunch at every single restaurant in the plazas, over the next few months: the ones I do eat at, the ones I don't eat at, the ones I swore I'd never return to, all of them.
Welcome.
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