Since I was at the Bombay Sapphire Speakeasy event, I had to miss softball. I must admit it was a difficult decision to make since that meant missing out on eating out afterwards. However, Boss Woman wondered why I couldn't attend both the event
and join the team for eats. Great Scott! How come I didn't think of that??? Eating back-to-back is not a foreign concept for me. In fact, let's bring Mijune along as well! She's the queen of eating over and over again. Well... and she was a bit tipsy from the event as well. So, instead of getting in her car, she tagged along with my team for dinner. At first, our original
choice was the
Red Wagon; but it was closed. Fine, we'll try the Brave Bull. Nada. With people becoming annoyed at driving from one location to the next, we finally settled on Zawa on The Drive.
I've always wonder about this place. By the looks of outside, it's hard to predict what type of food Zawa serves. A peek at the menu and there is a Greek/Italian slant to it along with standard bar-type food items. In the end, this worked for us since we had a big group with varying tastes. Silent Bob was the first to receive his order which was the
Lemon & Garlic Chicken. Visually, it
was messily plated while looking appetizing at the same time. He thought the chicken was a bit overcooked since he could not cut into it without shredding the meat. On the other hand, the veggies and potato were cooked perfectly. Furthermore, the lemon & garlic sauce was flavourful which in turn made all of the components on the plate tasty. Silent Bob also brought along his significant other who we will refer to as Bumpkin. She ended up with the
Garden Burger. She enjoyed it; but thought the edges of the bun were too hard. She ended up picking those parts off.
Milhouse also went for a burger in the
Santa Fe Chicken Burger. Similarly to Silent Bob, he thought the chicken was dry; but he didn't mind it much. In the end he liked the burger. He substituted onion rings for fries and fried perfectly. They were crispy and rigid; but not overcooked. Mijune went for something a bit different in the
Zawa Vegan Burger. Honestly, I was a bit shocked, since we are both meat lovers. Well, we all know Mijune loves her meat... Ahem... Her reasoning was that The Drive has a lot of good vegetarian options, so this burger had to be good. And y
ou know what, she was absolutely right. At first, it looked like a big piece of fried dough. However, hidden inside was a delightful mix of chickpeas, green onions, parsley, dill, basil and garlic. The contrasting crunch of the exterior was a perfect balance for the surprisingly airy filling. For someone who loves meat, I really liked this burger. It had texture and flavour while being substantial as well.
Miss Y had the obligatory pasta dish which was
Z's Lasagna. Reminiscent of the type you'd find at places such as
Neighbours and
Gigi's, this was a solid offering
. No, it ain't gonna compete with more authentic Italian eateries; but it was cheesy, meaty and not wet. For myself, I had the
Roast Lamb. Frankly, I wasn't expecting too much to tell you the truth. Imagine my surprise when the lamb was super juicy and moist. Practically the whole piece of lamb was uniformly tender. I am not afraid to say that this is one of the better roast lambs I've had in awhile. Now, that only refers to the texture. The one issue I had was the lack of seasoning. Sure, I could taste the rich roasted lamb flavour; but I could not detect enough garlic, salt, rosemary, lemon or anything else
. If they could just be more aggressive with the seasoning, this would be almost perfect. With that in mind, the tzatziki was bland as well. It need much more garlic and lemon. On the topic of bland, I had a big issue with the rice. It was plain white rice which was hard and chewy. Fail. And that was the same for Judes'
Prawn Souvlaki. She couldn't of cared less for the Minute Rice. The first prawn she ate was a little overcooked and almost rubbery with the rest being okay. The Greek salad was meh. It was basically washed and dumped onto the plate with barely any olive oil or spices. She liked the
potato and was more accepting of the tzatziki than myself. In the end, she didn't think the dish was worth $16.00.
While I was ordering my lamb, I initially had the idea of adding a side of
Poutine just to try. I didn't end up doing so because Bear got it instead. According to him, the poutine was very good, perhaps not authentic, but much to his liking. The waitress sold him on it by saying the fries were fresh cut and the gravy was "probably homemade". He couldn't verify the gravy was homemade, but he didn't get any allergic reaction
to it as he would for pre-packaged powdered gravy full of artificial colour and thickeners. The poutine was a little light on the gravy, but it turned out to be good as the fries stayed crispy. He'd go back just for this. For me, I tried it as well and basically agree with his thoughts; however, I would've preferred the "cheese curds" to be less melted. Bear also had a burger and I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. Fortunately, Boss Woman got the
Deluxe Burger too and it was more or less the same - which was woefully overcooked. Boss Woman needed to add copious amounts of ketchup to eat the darn thing. As a
public service announcement of sorts, be warned that the pop here is NOT refillable. The waitress asked us if we wanted refills without informing us that there was a charge. Not cool in my books. In fact, Judes was so choked, she vowed never to return. Now, despite some sub-par items, there were some surprises as well. So if you have a large group, this place can offer up a wide variety of food. However, there are many better options on The Drive.
The Good:- Unlike many restaurants nearby, Zawa is large and spacious
- Inexpensive drinks (unless u want a refill with pop)
The Bad:- Not informed of refill charge
- Food is mostly miss with some hits
- A bit pricey
Posts
Once again, I was attempting to track down some more food carts to try - specifically the new hot dog cart offered up by Chef Wolfe from Kaboom Box. As I was pulling up to their location on Hastings at Hornby, I heard a few loud thuds on the room of my car. WTF? What happened??? Totally distracted by the fact, I drove past Burrard and parked on Hastings to check it out. For the love of... The whole car was covered in birdsh*t! It looked as if a whole flock of seagulls ate the contents of a Stagg delivery truck. I was so rattled at this development that I didn't end up going for a hot dog (especially a chili dog). 
Hence, I walked up to the first thing I saw which was the Slinger's Food Truck. Much like the Roaming Dragon and Coma, Slingers changes location regularly and I was lucky to catch them.
hey should've call it "moderately annoyed" mac 'n cheese instead. For my second item, I tried their Veal Parmigiana Sandwich. At almost $8.00, this is slightly more expensive than some of the other sandwich offerings from many food carts. However, the sandwich itself is decently filling. It consists of a crispy fried veal cutlet topped with tomato sauce, cheese, jalapenos and sauteed mushrooms and onions. For me, I thought the jalapenos added a necessary kick and tartness to the sandwich. I found the veal to be relatively tender with a pleasing crunch. I was a bit indifferent with the bun though.
Either it could've been a little less chewy or they could've toasted it a bit more. With that being said, it held up to the ingredients, which is most important. It is worth noting that they use biodegradable packaging which I give them the thumbs up. For the 2 items I did try, the food is generally acceptable and generally well-priced. I probably won't go in search of Slingers around town; but I wouldn't necessarily avoid them either if they were nearby.
