Pattaya Thai

*Restaurant is now closed*

After winning our first game in the hockey tournament on Friday, today was the day to show our mettle. The objective was clear. Win both games and we'd make the finals. Lose even one of them and so long farewell. With the lure of more eating if we did make it to the Sunday final game, my goal was clear. Win! The first game today was relatively easy as we won 5-1. After a short break, we went into our second game of the day. Nothing better than putting on wet equipment... Well, at least its our own sweat. I guess we were a bit too happy with ourselves as we started the game since we were down 2-0 by the 3 minute mark. I guess my mind was elsewhere (guess where it was?). We had already made reservations at Pattaya Thai the night before as we walked past it after we finished up at King Sushi. My mind was wandering... However, we re-focused and ended up coming back to win 4-2. Woohoo! We made the finals! More importantly, we'd eat again tomorrow!!! Woohoo!

Odd as it may be, Kim joined us for dinner tonight. No, he's not part of our team. In fact, he doesn't even play hockey. But it was on our "to try" list and I thought that it would be a good opportunity for him to experience it with us. The rest of "us" were Gadget Girl, Mr. Blueberry, Boss Woman, Emilicious, Milhouse and Lionel Hutz. We started with the Larb Moo, which is a salad consisting of minced pork, onions, mint, roasted rice powder and lime juice. This was a relatively decent dish. Only thing I would have like to see was a bit more lime. Since Pattaya Thai is famous for their Prawn & Crab Rolls, we were obliged to order them. We actually got 2 orders since there are only 4 rolls per dish. They are famous because Vancouver Magazine named it the #1 food item in the GVRD for their Best Things to Eat and Drink edition. That is indeed a bold statement. This is where it gets interesting. We had 8 people at the table and none of them thought it deserved that distinction. However, I personally didn't mind it. In terms of being a spring roll, it was pretty solid. Crunchy, non-oily exterior and crisp veggies on the inside. Not really sure about the cream cheese though. I thought it hid what little crab there was. For $9.99, there really needs to be more crab and prawn in these spring rolls. Definitely not #1 in my books, especially in the GVRD. Now while I was okay with it, Gadget Girl and Emilicious really didn't care for it. The combination of cream cheese and other ingredients didn't work for them.

Next up was the Pad Gra Prao which, in this case, was chicken with garlic, onions, Thai chilis and sweet basil. I'm guessing that the dish was on the bland side due to us asking for everything to be mild (not everyone can stand the heat at the table). Thus, it's a bit difficult to assess the "real" flavour of any dish really. However, many people do choose mild, so it's not a stretch. If we look at the individual components, the veggies were still crisp and the chicken was not overcooked (sauce was slightly sweet with some basil aromatics). As for the Pineapple Fried Rice, it was curiously thick. Was it the egg? Was it too much sauce? The texture was a little off in terms of fried rice since it was soggy. Tastewise, it was predominantly sweet with extremely minor hints of fish sauce and chilis. Despite this, I didn't mind eating it for some reason or another. We were really hungry from our 2 games, maybe increase hunger results in lessen expectations?

We ended up with 2 curries with the first being the Chicken Green Curry. Once again, for a mild curry, it was decent. Within the coconut curry, there were nice pieces of eggplant, peppers, peas and basil. What was missing was the chicken. Well, there was chicken, just not a whole lot of it. The Beef Red Curry suffered from the same problem. Plenty of bamboo shoots, basil and peppers. Not much in the way of beef (which was decently tender). It's too bad that it was not spicier, which is our own fault. Had it been, it would've been much more flavourful. Rather, it became a smooth coconut curry once again.

Strategically, I think we made a mistake when we ordered both the pad gra prao and the Pad Cashew Nuts. They were quite similar. Other than a slightly darker sauce (probably due to more oyster sauce), it tasted practically the same as the pad gra prao, except with cashew nuts. Hey, don't get me wrong here, it wasn't bad. Definitely pleasant to eat again with crisp veggies and slightly dry chicken. In another episode of "a dish that everyone orders" is the Pad Thai. Yes, I know it's over-represented as a Thai dish; but we all like and ended up ordered 2 plates of it. As you can see, it is a decent portion with nice big shrimp. However, to me, it was bordering on the bland side. Despite the colour, it wasn't afflicted with the "ketchup" sauce problem. Rather, it looked more flavourful that it turned out to be. Not terrible in any stretch of the imagination, it just need a bit more flavour.

Where the pad Thai was lacking in flavour, the Pad See-iew definitely didn't have that problem. Well-seasoned with soy sauce, this was a well-executed dish. Noodles were still a bit chewy while mixed well with crisp broccoli, carrots and cabbage. This was probably my favourite dish of the meal. Several people concurred with that sentiment. Our last dish for the meal was the Garlic Pork and I kinda liked it as well. The pork was tender and cooked nicely with a sauce consisting of garlic and black pepper resting on a bed of cabbage and carrots. The flavourful sauce went well with a bite consisting of both a piece of pork and some veggies. If we look at the meal as a whole, it was actually alright. If we had requested spicy, I'm sure the food would've had more pop. With that being said, it was sorely lacking flavour despite this. Now if we focus purely on the spring rolls, I'm a bit torn. I really didn't mind them; but for the price, it's not worth it. If this is the claim to fame according to Vancouver Magazine, there is a certain level of expectations. I expected crab and prawn in the spring roll, as per the description. But honestly, there was not much of that at all, especially at $2.50 each. For others at the table, they just plain didn't like it, period. And you really can't argue with 8 individuals with different tastes who actually agreed on one thing.

The Good:
- Decent portions
- Friendly service
- Reasonably-priced (except for the spring rolls)

The Bad:
- As a consensus, the spring rolls are not worthy of the hype
- Food is generally quite bland (and that's taking into account the lack of spiciness which was our choice)

King Sushi

After our first game victory of the Easter hockey tourney, we were in need of eats. Actually, I was in need of eats before the game, it only served as a conduit. Yah, I'll admit it. I often daydream while playing hockey, softball and golf. The thoughts of a bakudanyaki often replace a softball, a crab cake doubles as a puck and a juicy meatball for a golf ball. What can I say, I have a one-track mind! It probably explains the crappy goal I let in through the 5-hole in the last half of the game. Oh whatever, we won 5-1, now time to eat! We tossed a few ideas around and it always seemed to come back to Japanese. The question was where? Being in Coquitlam right next to the Port Mann bridge presented many options; yet none of them exactly close. Finally, Lionel Hutz suggested an ol' New West favourite - King Sushi.

Yah, sushi and New West doesn't elicit much promise, other than Ki Sushi and if you prefer AYCE, Top Gun. Everyone thought it was a good idea, especially Groundskeeper Willy, since he lives only a few blocks away. I liked the idea too since I'd never eaten there before and it is on my very long list of "to visit" places. We were given an interesting table that had a built-in leaf which essentially could be expanded into one large table. However, no need for that since half of the people wanted to share and half didn't. Guess which side I was on??? So we exiled the non-sharers (Gadget Girl, Silent Bob, Holmes & Groundskeeper Willy) from our delightful sharing table of me, Lionel Hutz, Picachu, Milhouse and Emilicious. Strangely, we had to make sure we ordered some cooked items since Picachu doesn't really prefer Japanese food, particularly the raw items. Not exactly a weird situation, other than the fact that Picachu is Japanese! LOL... Anyways, we went ahead and ordered a whack load of items and started with Wakame Salad. It is a type of seaweed that has a slightly chewy, snappy texture much like jellyfish. And similar to the preparation of jellyfish, sesame oil and soy are primary flavouring agents (in addition to rice vinegar in this case). The wakame salad here exhibited the aforementioned qualities and we tried to share it amongst the 5 of us. LOL...

If that was hard to do, try sharing a Spinach Gomaae as well! Not a problem because it was terrible. First, look at it. Way too much sweet sesame dressing, you can't even see the spinach! Furthermore, what you can't see is the huge pool of water underneath. Definitely a turnoff. I much prefer the type of Gomaae with a simple shoyu dressing and toasted sesame seeds. Fortunately our meal got back on track with the Agedashi Tofu. A crispy exterior revealed silky tofu which rested on a light tentsuyu sauce which consists of dashi, mirin and shoyu. Too bad Picachu doesn't eat raw fish because the order of Deluxe Assorted Sashimi was quite visually appealing and fresh. By its appearance alone, it's quite evident that the fish is fresh (well as fresh as flash frozen can get). On the plate was wild salmon, salmon, hamachi, tai, ebi, tako, uni, tuna, ika with tobiko, toro and hokkigai. Nothing that could be mushy was mushy except for the tuna. That was a bit mushy. To my surprise, the uni was quite fresh and sweet. Viv thinks it tastes like garbage. I'm not sure where she gets that idea from...

"Hey, who ordered the chicken nuggets?" was the initial question when the Chicken Karaage arrived. Well, unlike its AYCE version, chicken karaage is not necessarily fried chicken wings. More often than not, it'll be pieces of leg meat. These were pretty good (green salad on the side) with juicy meat and a crispy exterior. We got more raw stuff in the form of the Chef's Choice Assorted Nigiri. Luckily there was one item that Picachu could eat - the unagi. Also on the plate was tako, tobiko, scallop & tobiko, tuna, salmon, toro, ika, wild salmon and ebi (with 2 pieces of tamago). Once again, everything was quite fresh and neatly presented. The sushi rice was actually quite good exhibiting a nice chewiness without being undercooked.

Exclusively for Picachu (well, not really, we ate some too), we got the Teriyaki Beef Donburi. When it arrived, I was a little concerned. Look at it, there seems to be quite a lot of sauce. Mind you, there is a generous amount of beef as well. After a couple of scoops, it was indeed too saucy and thus overly sweet & salty. That's really too bad since the beef was quite good while the rice was properly prepared (being slightly chewy). The sauce also counteracted the rice by softening it up. And what is a visit to a Japanese restaurant without a few rolls? Well, we all agreed to not order anything remotely close to a California Roll. No offense to the CaliRoll, in fact, I don't mind it; but we just want something a bit different. So we got a Red Dragon Roll and a Spider Roll. The red dragon is essentially a BC Roll topped with smoked salmon, tobiko, unagi sauce and sesame seeds. Nothing Earth-shattering here; but a solid roll nonetheless. What I particularly liked was that the smoked salmon didn't overwhelm all the other flavours. As for the spider roll, it is not a bunch of creepy crawlers from the corner of your basement. Rather, it is a roll consisting of fried soft shell crab, avocado and cucumber topped with mayo, special sauce and tobiko. Once again, a solid roll with plenty of filling and minimal amount of rice. I would've preferred the crab to be a bit crispier; but that is a minor issue.

To fulfill our deep fried quota, we got both the Vegetable Tempura and the Prawn Tempura. It would've probably been more cost efficient to get the assorted tempura; but there would've been only 2 pieces of prawn to split among 5 people. Thus, we had to order both to get a bit of everything. Normally, I'm not a big promoter of AYCE Japanese; but if you prefer items like prawn tempura (since 6 pieces already costs us $7.25), it is a good value (assuming it's good). And about that tempura, it was pretty decent. It was crispy, not very oily with properly cooked veggies and prawn. Possibly, the batter could've been a bit lighter; but again, not a major issue. The non-sharers also enjoyed their meals and as a consensus, King Sushi is a decent choice in New West. Once again, if it was located in Vancouver, it would be hard-pressed to compete. As we were dining, we noticed that the staff were not Japanese, which leads me to believe it's not Japanese-run. No real biggie since it didn't make a big difference in food execution (well, except for the Gomaae and Beef Don).

The Good:
- Good for large groups
- Items generally fresh
- Service is efficient, if not a bit stoic

The Bad:
- Decent food; but some misses
- Good for New West, average for the GVRD

Tong's

*Restaurant is now closed*

With the Olympics over, the ice rink at Brit is once again open for rec hockey. As much as I love sleep, I should take any hockey that is available. After all, with so much eating, I need exercise to balance it out. So tonight we resume our 11:30pm hockey on Wednesday night. Throughout the entire game, all I could think of was a nice hot bowl of Pho. Yah, it's not exactly uncommon for me to think of food, especially during a sporting event I'm directly involved in. It doesn't make for good performances... So my thoughts were to try out Pho English out on Broadway despite all the negative votes on Urbanspoon. Somehow, I must've misread the late night hours and assumed it applied to every day when it really was only for Fridays and Saturdays. Ah zut! Plan B. Wait, I had no plan B! That's when Polka King suggested we merely drive up Kingsway in search for late night eats. Sounds like a plan. Traveling East on 12th towards Kingsway, I noticed a restaurant open on Main called Tong's. It used to be another Chinese restaurant; but the name escapes me.

I wasn't planning on turning left onto Main, especially in the right lane; however, at 1:30am in the morning, there is not much you cannot do with not a car in sight. When we walked in, there were a few diners scattered at various tables with not a server in sight. Seems like the entire staff (including the kitchen staff) were playing Mah Jong at a back table. Our presence seemed to have interrupted their game. We were quickly seated and since I was completely famished at this point, we decided to split a dinner for 3. Relax, I planned to take home leftovers for Viv since she didn't have a lunch for the next day. With the set dinners, there is a choice of soup (wonton, cream of corn or hot and sour), choice of 3 dishes and spring rolls. Feeling adventurous, Polka King suggested we try the Wonton Soup. That MJ game must've been important because the food came out lightening fast and all at once. Everyone resumed their MJ game after that.

The wonton soup was both good and bad. I really liked the whole shrimp; but the pork was a bit soft and basically ruined a good wonton. The soup was curiously dark, it tasted strange. As for the Spring Rolls, they were crunchy spring rolls filled with veggies. They were a bit oily on the bottom. I thought the BBQ Pork and Shrimp fried Rice was done quite nicely. The rice was firm (albeit with a few clumps), shrimp was just cooked and pork not too fatty. However, I specifically asked for no green onions and it was ignored. I guess someone was going to "sic gai woo" in the MJ game... The Broccoli Beef was decent with crisp florets and tender beef. However, the Szechuan Chicken was a bust. I didn't realize that black bean sauce with a few chili flakes constituted Szechuan cooking. I know we shouldn't expect too much at 1:30am in the morning; but overall the food was mediocre. And in Vancouver, mediocre Chinese food doesn't cut it.

The Good:
- Good portions
- Friendly server, when not busy playing MJ
- Okay prices

The Bad:
- Some of the flavours were a bit off...
- For freshly made food, it was lukewarm

The Dogfather

As you know, I love playing hockey, even if it means that I don't get any sleep. However, after 6 games in 8 nights the previous week, I think it may be catching up with me. Late night Brit hockey has started up again since the Olympics are over. We were chatting with the maintenance technician and he said that Team Canada had practiced here. Wow, I might've been sitting in the same seat at Crosby, Luongo or Iginla. That's when Polka King exclaimed that they might've farted in that exact spot. That's a pleasant thought... Anyways, I played like crap tonight. I don't think my body is able to survive playing so many games in so few nights. But with eating as a by-product, it is very hard to resist!

Knowing that I had to play 3 more games in 4 nights after this one, I knew going out to eat at 2:00am on a weekday was not really a good idea. But, but... food... I can't miss that! I had to think of a quick bite to eat. Okay, it struck me that we could just go grab a hot dog. Remembering Kim's post on The Dogfather, we made our way into Downtown. Essentially, a hot dog is a tube of who-knows- what sandwiched between a bun. However, there are 3 major components (bun, wiener and toppings) make or break a tube steak.

Although there are a few choices of dogs here, don't expect to find a "Japadog"- type hot dog. Rather, you'll find only the classics. For me, nothing is more classic than a Chili Dog. When I got the darn thing, it was smokin' hot (temperature-wise). It's quite apparent that there is no absence of toppings, I somehow managed to keep everything in the bun as I finished it off. The dog was pretty decent; but it didn't make me do the "mmm" face. You know, that face. The one that looks like you're having an orgasm eating food. Oh, like the word coined by Kevin - "foodgasm". No, I didn't get one of those. Although it is a interesting thought... foodgasm from eating a sausage... Anyways, Polka King got the Pizza Dog and his thoughts were the same. Decent; but nothing special. He did like the bun though, pillowy soft from being grilled/steamed. But let's be serious here. It's a hot dog joint. It's open late. It is decently-priced. The food doesn't suck. It did the job. End of story.

The Good:
- Big hot dog with lotsa toppings
- Soft bun
- Open late

The Bad:
- Nothing special, they were hot dogs
- Relatively small selection

Kamal Sweets & Tandoori

Alright, the first time I visited Kamal Sweets and Tandoori, my mission was to get a whole whack of samosas. I make the drive out there, get out of the car, take my camera out, turn it on and *click*... Hey, WTH? For the love of... I forgot to put the battery pack in! The horror! Fine, my bad. I still got the samosas and they were pretty darn good. You know what made them even better? The veggie ones are only 2 for $1.00. Yes, this is not a misprint. For the price of a Snickers bar, you can have 2 freshly made samosas!

Since they also are a sweets shop and restaurant, I made my way out there once again to try some of their food. I was there at the start of lunch; but apparently, the cook wasn't in yet and thus, no lunch! Ack! No battery last time and no lunch this time. Fine, I inquired about getting samosas once again and yes, they have someone who could operate the deep-fryer. Approximately 10 minutes later, I was presented with my order of 20 veggie samosas. It only cost me $10.00! Relax, they weren't all for me. I was sharing them! One particular individual who was lucky enough to get some of these tasty treats is Indian and confirms their authenticity and deliciousness.

What makes them so good? Well obviously the price first of all. Moreover, as you can see, they have a nice colour to them and are not overly oily. Also helping the cause is that the pastry is quite thin, making it easy to eat. Inside, there is plenty of potato and peas spiced up by curry. Not packed too tight, otherwise it would be a clumpy mess. Dipped into the provided tamarind sauce and you have so darn good eats.

The Good:
- Cheap samosas
- And those samosas are good

The Bad:
- No chef to make lunch?

Koto Izakaya

That's it. Rich Guy is heading back to Asia. It's a sad, sad day... I have lost a willing eating companion! It's not often you have someone who is willing to eat anytime, anywhere (well, almost) and at any cost. Talk about a foodie's dream come true. Fine, so be it. He'll be back. He always comes back. Then the eating begins once again! But to take advantage of his eating prowess one last time, I offered to drive him to the airport. Being a 10:00pm flight, I suggested we go eat first. And yes, he was all up for that. For some reason or another, every time I have dined with him, we've ended up at an Izakaya. There was Guu with Garlic, Nan Chuu then finally Guu Garden. So to keep the streak going, I suggested we try Manzo. So after checking in at the airport, we headed off to Alexandra Road to find that Manzo was not open! Luckily for us, while we were turning onto Alexandra from Hazelbridge, we noticed another Izakaya on the corner. We ended up going to Koto Izakaya as a result.

Honestly, we knew nothing of the place and took a chance. Upon entering the place, it sure looked nice and Japanese. However, I did notice the owners speaking in Cantonese. No matter, again, it's not important who makes the food, as long as it tastes good. At the suggestion of the owner lady(?), we started with the Ankimo (or Monkfish Liver). I've had it once before and in this particular case, the colour was a very dark orange (rather than the pale foie gras colour). I'm not exactly sure why that is, possibly due to the cooking process? It was topped off with cavier and bathed in a dark ponzu. Rich Guy was a bit nervous to try it; but he ended up liking it. Having similar properties as foie gras, there is a certain creaminess and slight hint of the sea that sets it apart. We really enjoyed eating this dish.

Next up was the Jellyfish Shark's Fin Salad. Both the jellyfish and "shark's fin" had the snap texture that makes it a joy to eat. Lightly seasoned with sesame oil and soy, this was pretty good, if not exhibiting a "Chinese" flavour. Of course Rich Guy chose the Salmon Carpaccio again. This particular version is a bit different since there is no ponzu; rather it's a vinaigrette with mayo, onions and fried taro. The salmon was fresh and the flavours worked (a bit sweet, tart and some saltiness); but we felt that it could've been sliced a tad thinner.

Another recommendation was the Pork Belly with lettuce and raw garlic slices. Tender slices of pork belly were grilled with some nice colour and charring. We couldn't help but noticed that it tasted a whole lot like Korean BBQ being a bit sweet and tad salty. Whatever the case, once wrapped in the crisp lettuce and accompanied by the sharp taste of raw garlic, this was quite tasty. Since Koto is not exactly a true Izakaya (they offer sushi too), we decided to try 2 of their many specialty rolls. The first being one of the most expensive - the Black Dragon. Essentially a dynamite/California roll with unagi, avocado, tobiko, mayo, unagi sauce and black sesame seeds on the outside, the roll was pretty good. We would've liked to see more bite in the sushi rice (on the softer side); but all-in-all, a tasty combination of textures and flavours (it was pricey though at $12.95). Another roll that caught our eye was the Volcano Roll. Another California roll topped with real crab mixed with sweet mayo then baked. Although we suspect only the mayo topping was baked, not the roll itself. The best way to describe this roll would be a California roll topped with motoyaki sauce full of crab meat. I was a bit nervous at first since motoyaki sauce is quite rich and overwhelming (in terms of fattiness). However, it was actually alright. I think the plethora of crab meat helped cut the greasiness. Not an outstanding roll by any stretch of the imagination; yet it was interesting and didn't offend.

Despite the fact that Rich Guy was nervous once again, I went ahead and ordered the Salmon Yuuke anyways. He wasn't that keen on the raw quail's egg on top. I explained once mixed in, he wouldn't even notice it. I have to say that the presentation of this dish is one of the nicest I've ever seen. It made for a great picture! The portion was also very good with lots of fresh salmon, avocado and tobiko on top. Nori was served on the side as eating vessels. In this particular case, I wished it were shrimp chips since they provide a nicer texture contrast to the soft ingredients. When the Beef Carpaccio arrived, we were a bit confused. It resembled Beef Tataki with it's slightly cooked sides. Topped with the same ingredients as the Salmon Carpaccio, this was an okay dish. Again, a ponzu type dressing would've probably provided more zing and impact than the vinaigrette. The beef itself was fairly tender, if not a tad stiff.

Interesting, despite our initial concerns that Koto was not an authentic Japanese Izakaya, the food turned out to be pretty good. Sure, some of the flavours were not the familiar ones we'd expect from a Guu or Gyoza King; but they mostly worked. If we look at it from a purely dining enjoyment point of view, we liked our meal, especially with the decent portion sizes and reasonable prices. The friendly lady made it even more enjoyable.

The Good:
- Reasonably-priced (except for some of the specialty rolls)
- Decent portions
- Food is actually quite good

The Bad:
- Some of the flavours are a bit different
- Some of the specialty rolls can be pricey
- Not a true Izakaya

East Side Mario's (Coquitlam)

*This location is now closed*

The good ol' family restaurant... So often, we look at these places as only the last resort to appease the kids while still eating acceptable food (most of the time at least). Within this category of restaurants, you have the decent, bad and ugly. Yah, I guess it's really hard to find excellent food at a chain restaurant. I'm not being biased, it's just difficult to get away from generic food when the whole premise behind a chain restaurant is consistency. Of course consistency among these restaurants are in theory only. Let's just assume that consistency is a virtue in this argument. And that alone makes it attractive to families. Hey, everyone knows what to expect, right down to the kiddies (who might be picky, like mine). As such, there is a formula that the kitchen staff follow to replicate the same dishes consistently throughout the whole chain. So, for those who argue that chain restaurants lack creativity, uniqueness and overall "good" food, I think they are missing the mark. With that being said, there are better choices among the many chain restaurants.

If you know me, I just don't have a great love for ABC Country Restaurant. Yes, I'm picking on them and some might say that it is unfair, particularly my friend Pomegranate. However, from a personal point of view, I just don't like the place. It's quite possible the food is just too "home cooking" for me, albeit pretty bad home cooking. So, the family chain restaurant discussion has brought us to East Side Mario's. Yes, I know, it's not authentic Italian food. Tell me a chain restaurant that serves truly authentic food and I'll tell you that Showgirls is a good movie. Before we had any locations of ESM here in BC, I had already heard about their locations in Ontario. Strangely enough, it was on Redflagdeals' hot deals forum where people would post about ESM. There were people who loved it and those who loathe it. For me, it seemed like another version of the Olive Garden.

I have to admit, the first time I visited ESM, I didn't mind it. Subsequent visits made me realize it wasn't really all that cheap eating there despite the unlimited soup, salad and garlic loaf. But there I was again, visiting ESM in Kelowna on our road trip 2 years ago. It was convenient and good for the kiddies. Today, the whole family including the grandparents stopped by ESM for lunch. Being that it was a Wednesday, the kiddies got to eat for free assuming for each, we order a full dinner entree. So, instead of their inexpensive lunch specials, I ordered a Spaghetti con Funghi for $14.99 (more on that later). Yah, some might argue that I essentially paid for the kids meal right there; but whatever, by virtue of ordering a dinner entree, I got unlimited salad or soup and garlic loaf. And about that Garlic Loaf, it is pretty darn good. Hot out of the oven, it's crusty on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. I decided to have the Italian Wedding Soup and despite its oily appearance, I like this soup with its tiny meatballs, orzo and greens.

Viv had the 1/2 Mariboli Wrap which consists of chicken breast, lettuce, peppers, bruschetta, cheese and pesto mayo in a grilled sun dried tomato wrap. Nothing Earth-shattering by any stretch of the imagination. The bottom line is that Viv liked it. It included a full-sized salad and a cup of soup. Not bad for $10.50. My dad had the Half Rotisserie Chicken with roast potatoes. I've had this countless times in the past and it can be hit and miss. It really depends on your luck. Sometimes it turns our tender and other times, dry and not-so-good. It could possibly depend how long the chicken has been sitting around for I suppose. Fortunately, this time around, it was moist and flavourful. Since this was a full-sized dinner entree, he had the choice of unlimited soup or salad. He decided on the Minestrone which in my mind is passable. I've had much better, albeit in a real Italian restaurant and that's not a fair comparison.

For my main, I had the aforementioned Spaghetti con Funghi which, as the name implies, consists of mushrooms (portobello and white) sauteed with roasted tomatoes, arugula and basil then tossed with Parmesan, Romano and olive oil. When I often mention the trendy, oilier pastas, this would be a prime example. With little to no sauce at all, this is essentially pasta tossed in olive oil and ingredients which include tomato, not tomato sauce per se. I personally like this type of pasta and this one was okay. I would've wished that the pasta was a bit more al dente and maybe a bit less oil. However, given where I was eating, it was fine. Plenty of flavours abound including the mushrooms, herbs in the olive oil and tangy tomatoes. Again, for those who will want to flame me for not bashing the pasta at East Side Mario's, I must reiterate that my expectations are tempered. I'm not expecting the same type of pasta that I would find at a real pasta house.

Something that isn't remotely Italian is the 1/2 Chicken Club which also included a full-sized salad and cup of soup. I know, it's not a real Italian restaurant, so a good chicken club was not really a stretch. In fact, it not was bad (even though they used deli turkey meat). Look at it, it looks good to me at least. Now for the real reason we were here in the first place, the free kid's meals! Seeing that there is no grilled cheese on the menu, my son opted for his second "go to" food - Cheese Pizza. I gotta hand it to ESM, the kid's portions are pretty big. The day that my son can finish that pizza is the day he gets his driver's license. Nothing special about the pizza really. It's got a relatively thin crust, sauce and lots of cheese. Pretty standard. The meal includes choice of beverage and ice cream for dessert. My daughter really didn't decide on her order, we just picked something for her which was the Cheese Cappalletti. I have to say this is almost as big as the actual entree size version. Actually, I'm not a big fan of this particular pasta. No, it's not because there is too much sauce (LOL...). I just find the cappalletti too doughy.

So really, ESM is a family restaurant, plain and simple. With that being said, I don't mind the food here despite what others think. Sure, it's not going to strike any fear into authentic Italian eateries and it's quite reasonable for me to visit one over ESM. However, if I want to just go out with the family, with the kids eating free and have reasonable expectations, then ESM fits the bill.

The Good:
- Good for families
- If you like unlimited bread, soup and salad
- It's safe food

The Bad:
- Of course it's not authentic Italian...
- Some items are a bit pricey even with unlimited bread, soup and salad