Rockford again? Did our car break down in front? Or was I in search of the Canadian version of PF Chang's? Neither. After my
original post, I was contacted by Rockford's corporate executive chef Harley Darnel. He was pretty concerned that our large party did not enjoy our food that night. I must give it to him that he stood behind his food and offered his apologies regarding the rice. He assured me that they do indeed know how to make rice and what I had that night was a one-off. He then invited me to come back on their coin. He would be there and the manager on duty would be aware as well. Furthermore, he added there was no pressur
e to blog about it whether it was good or not. As much as the offer was generous, I thought the visit might be a bit too contrived. Hence, I suggested he just send me a gift card (so I could visit randomly) and not only would Viv and I return to give it another shot, we'd bring Costanza and Elaine as well (since they were there for the original visit). A few more opinions and different tastes would make it fair.
So just like last time, we brought the kiddies with us. Despite the snazzy decor and hip atmosphere, the place is kid-friendly believe it or not. They
don't outwardly advertise it, but they have a children's menu. Now for full disclosure, we were given a $100.00 gift card to use on this meal. Since we wanted to try more than just an entree each, we ended up exceeding the gift card by over $60.00 including tip and tax (which we paid for ourselves). Now as for the food itself, we had 3 appies starting with the
Crisp Lettuce Cups. This consisted of minced pork with vegetables, hoisin sauce, crushed peanuts and crispy noodles served with butter lettuce. Personally, I love butter lettuce, yet for this application, iceberg would've prob
ably worked better. The reason for this was twofold. First, iceberg would've been actually crisp unlike the smooth butter lettuce. Second, the filling had far too much moisture. The sauce was thickened, so it wasn't exactly watery, but it easily leaked out of the lettuce wraps we made. It was too bad really because the filling actually tasted quite good. Moreover, the minced pork was moist while the corn added a nice texture and sweetness. Our second appie was the
Palmito Dip consisting of hearts of palm, spinach, soy beans and three cheeses mixed with charred tomato salsa and served with crisp tortilla chips
. For me, this reminded me of Milestone's spinach & artichoke dip to a degree. The dip itself was cheesy and quite pleasant in texture and taste. The freshly fried large tortilla chips were indeed crispy albeit slightly greasy. The
Rock Salt Five Spice Wings served with chipotle mayo was probably the best of our appies. Although they were a touch on the dry side, the flavours were spot-on. There was just enough five spice to create that distinctive flavour without going overboard.
On my previous post on Rockford, I had forgotten a dish which
was had by all the kiddies and by another adult at the table. This time around, the kiddies had it again. The dish in question was the
Fettuccine Alfredo. The picture shown is of the regular-sized portion which curiously was not much larger than the kid's version except for the addition of a grilled chicken breast. We found this to be a very creamy, yet mild dish. The kiddies seemed to like it, so who are we to judge? Onto our mains, Costanza went for the
Kung Pao Chicken, which allowed us to try the steamed rice again. Well, I'll admit it, the rice was better this time. It was slightly chewy, not dry and did not clump together. As for the chicken, it was moist while
the veggies were crisp. The sauce had a bit of a kick and overall, this was a decent North Americanized version of kung pao chicken (if not a tad too saucy). Viv ended up with the
Mongolian Beef Noodles consisting of seared beef, bell peppers, carrots, bean sprouts, bok choy, fresh ginger, green onions and chow mein noodles in a black bean-hoisin sauce. While the individual parts of the dish were prepared correctly, such as the crisp veggies, tender beef and slightly chewy noodles, the sauce was quite salty. A little less seasoning and this would've been alright. Now Elaine's order of
Mushroom Chicken which
was a pan seared double breast topped with a portobello, shiitake and crimini mushroom cream with fresh basil and spinach, wild rice, broccolini and grape tomatoes, was a touch too mild for her liking. On the bright side, the chicken was seared nicely while being tender and the veggies were vibrant. However, there was just a bit too much sauce, it completely drowned the mash potatoes. If I had to draw a parallel here, the Portobello Mushroom Chicken at Milestone's has a much more balanced flavour profile.
For myself, I had to give their
Bacon & Blue 
Cheese Burger a try. Costanza wasn't too impressed last time due to the dry egg bun and dry burger patty. For me, the burger patty was not too bad. It wasn't exactly juicy, yet it wasn't dry either. The bacon was crisp and the blue cheese provided all the sharp flavour. However, the bun was indeed a bit dry. On the other hand, Costanza did concede that if the bun was too soft, it would fall apart. The accompanying
Yam Fries were good though. They were crispy outside and soft inside. Lastly, despite the large number of dishes which had practically made us burst at the seems, I had to get an order of their
Fried Rice. You see, on our last visit, it was one of the worst renditions of restaurant wok-fried rice we've ever had. This time around, it was much better. Now, it will never be confused with fried rice ordered at a Chinese restaurant, but that is not the intention here at Rockford. With that in mind, the rice was chewy, veggies were crisp and it wasn't oily. It was, however, still quite mild. I decided to used some soy sauce and that seemed to help alleviate the problem.
So was our 2nd visit to Rockford better? Well yes. It couldn't have b
een any worse than the first time. The most important thing is that the rice was much improved. To be honest, all of us at the meal were probably not Rockford's intended clientele. We're Asian after all and we do know our Asian food. So were we too critical? Probably. Yet, in a city that boasts some of the best Asian food around, any establishment with even the slightest hint of Asian influences needs to step it up in order to compete. So there is really no choice but to compare even if we didn't want to. In all honestly, even though this visit was better, there wasn't enough here to make me want to return.
The Good:- Service is good, just like last time
- Hip decor and ambiance
- Validated parking
The Bad:- Other than the standard dishes (ie. wings, burger etc...), I still believe food needs some tweaking
- It's not cheap (but not dissimilar to any other chain restaurant)
Posts
Oatmeal and McD's, that really doesn't roll off the tongue does it? Since I can remember, healthy and McDonald's went together like a shoulder check and Richmond. But more recently, we have seen things like salads, grilled chicken and other healthier alternatives at McD's. Are all of them good? Well, let's just say I personally prefer the fried and really artery-clogging versions more. C'mon! It's McD's... A supersized Filet-O-Fish meal please! However, the ad agency representing McDonald's Canada keeps sending me coupons to try their new items. This time, it was their new Fruit and Maple Oatmeal featuring 
Quaker Oats. Long ago, I was into the instant Quaker Oats for Breaky because it was fast and somewhat healthy... until I took a look at the sugar content... Sure, there was "regular" without sugar, but that tasted like wallpaper paste (and I've tried that since some fell in my mouth whilst wallpapering... ewww...).
he brown sugar was served on the side so we could adjust the level of sweetness. Hey, this oatmeal wasn't bad. I'd pay the $1.99 for it if I was at a McD's. However, you can't honestly believe that I was merely satisfied by a cup of oatmeal while there right??? I picked up an Egg McMuffin and one with sausage as the main course too. LOL... For some reason, no matter how hard I try to make it at home, it doesn't quite taste like the original.
of the sweet pancake type bun. There are times I don't mind it and then sometimes I could do without the syrup bursts. My kids like sugar, so it works for them. Let me just throw this out there... The sausage patty at McD's is darn tasty despite the obvious fat content. I've never come across one at any supermarket that really compares. Better leave it that way I suppose. I do want to live. Okay, maybe I'll just stick to the oatmeal next time. Damn conscience!
