Queens Cross Pub: No one was cross after this meal!

Last day of clinical of the year! To celebrate both our clinical groups gathered at a nearby pub for some grub, good times, and bittersweet farewells. Everyone want a few drinks to celebrate the end of the term, and they offered a good selection of alcoholic drinks =)











Restaurant: Queens Cross Pub (visit their website here)

Location: 2899 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver
Cuisine: Pub food, American
Price range: $15-$ 20 for food, drinks not included




Date of visit: November 28, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

I must say, their menu was not the most extensive, but their drinks menu WAS. Everyone got a good few drinks in as I scarfed down food instead =D We were seated upstairs and it was a cute place-- very British and old, homey feeling. Besides the sun reflecting into our eyes and blinding us, it was spacious and comfortable for a group like ours. Sun Bean ordered their Queens Deluxe Beef Burger ($16.00) and look at the size of that monster! I believe she said it was quite tasty. The fries had everyone mesmerized though, because they had a bit of batter on them which made them extra crispy?

I ordered a Seafood Linguine ($16.00) which came with garlic bread. It was delicious, crispy, moist, chewy garlic bread. Or I was really hungry. Either way, the highlight was the pasta. It was a bit on the oily side, but pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce stuck to the pasta perfectly. Seasoned well, I found the flavors complimented each other well with the sunflower seed pesto and sundried tomatoes. It contained cod, salmon, mussels, and prawns. The cod was probably frozen for too long, it was quite tough. Salmon was scattered here and there. Two mussels and two prawns. The prawns were the best =) Crunchy and fresh. Mussels were fresh too, however, one was undercooked =(

They also have a special, if you check in on Yelp, you get a free dessert! I took advantage of this opportunity of course, being the glutton I am xD Sadly, they didn't have the Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake ($7.00) because the cheesecake was apparently too frozen. It sounded succulent. I settled for their Ice Cream Sandwich ($6.00) instead. This was vanilla ice cream nestled between two freshly baked cookies, topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Sun Bean had 1/6 of it and thought it was way too sweet and rich. I finished the rest, all the while wishing there was more ice cream between the cookies. The cookies were soft and moist, a bit messy with the chocolate sauce. I felt the chocolate chips were a nuisance though because they were so hard.

Overall I enjoyed my visit here, the food prices are reasonable for the quantity and quality you get. The waitress was also very helpful and friendly. Spacious but homey feeling-- they even had an old video game machine =D JW had their Yorkshire pudding, it was gigantic and looked delicious! Might try it if I'm in the area again!

Milestones @ High Street: High level of disappointment

All the way in Abbotsford for ChelleShocks' birthday festivities! After some fun times at Castle Fun Park, we arrived at this relatively new Milestones location for dinner! Seemed to bode well considering we couldn't get a booking until 7:30pm!

Restaurant: Milestones Grill and Bar (visit their website here)

Location: 3122 Mount Lehman Road, Abbotsford
Cuisine: American, Western
Price range: $20-50 per person





Date of visit: November 8, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

We were seated cozily (and by that I mean quite squished) into a 7-person booth. There were 9 of us. At least we didn't have to wait in line for a table! Sadly, it seems they don't honor reservations at all. Shame. Anyways, the layout is beautiful here and the atmosphere is quite nice. For my appetizer (I had a coupon), I ordered their Sicilian Mussels ($14.00). I shared this with ChelleShocks and there were quite a lot on the plate. The sauce was delicious and the mussels were very fresh. However, many of them were undercooked and not edible (I ate a super undercooked one but survived, hence why I concluded they were very fresh haha). It was a wine cream sauce and I could taste a hint of the wine, which enhanced the mussel flavors.

For my entree, I ordered their Cajun Seafood Fettuccine ($19.00). It sounded delicious with prawns, mussels, salmon, and calamari in a Cajun cream sauce. Irony is when it arrived differently than advertised. It had no prawns and the pasta was dry and salty. Super strong Cajun flavor and no cream whatsoever. Pasta was al dente and the only thing right about this dish. I couldn't eat more than 1/3 of it because it was so salty and strong. Considered returning it, but considering the slow service and my irrational fear of them adding "extras" to my dish, I just packed it home. Sad I never got to see those prawns. I think this is the first Milestones that I've had this dish with missing ingredients and overseasoned. Utterly disappointed. Did I mention the calamari felt like fishcake and tasted more like octopus? It was like eating softened rubber. I imagined calamari to be rings... =/

Lastly, after asking to split a birthday dessert between three people's bills and having much confusion around that, our waitress got the idea and ended up making it on the house for ChelleShocks' birthday. Many thanks to her, but the confusion was quite... unnecessary. Either way, we ordered her The Cookie ($7.99) and she quite enjoyed it. The warm soft double chocolate cookie with vanilla gelato to cool it off was a beautiful combination.

Overall, it wasn't a great experience, but the waitress was helpful when she was available. I guess there were some expectations around service at restaurants like these, but it was definitely lacking here. I felt she tried to be attentive but wasn't around most of the time when I wanted to ask her a question. Anyways, after everything was sorted out, she was lovely and we enjoyed our dinner. Probably won't ever be back until they improve... don't want to risk dying from undercooked food or incorrect orders. They sure have an abundant amount of room for improvement.

Hog Shack Cook House: Why are my ribs so dry?!

Craving some MEAT today, and Adorables managed to find a coupon, so here we are!! =)

Restaurant: Hog Shack Cook House (visit their website here)

Location: 160-3900 Bayview Street, Richmond
Cuisine: American, Barbecue
Price range: $20-25





Date of visit: October 18, 2013
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

A very family-cozy-feel establishment, we were at first ignored by the waitress, but eventually were seated. Their menu selection was limited and we just looked for items recommended by online reviewers. Since I'm staying away from beef, we decided on the Hog Shack St. Louis Style Side Ribs- Half Rack ($17.00). They noted that it was meatier than the back ribs, so I'm glad we got this. The flavors were smokey, BBQ sauce, and meat. I found it rather dry though, not very juicy-- perhaps that's how it's made St. Louis Style? Anyways, the sides were good though. Veggies were varied and cooked properly. And YAM FRIES. They were pretty amazing-- very fresh, crisp, soft and fluffy on the inside.

We also ordered 2-Piece Fish and Chips ($14.00), where the pieces of fish were decently sized, should have just got one (but it was a $3 difference I believe). Anyways, this was really fresh and your typical good fried fish. The fries on the other hand were mediocre, sorta dead and old =/

Of course, we couldn't finish all this food, but either way, it was an enjoyable visit-- will I be back? Maybe. The waitresses were very friendly though!

Munchie Adventure: Boston Pizza, Coquitlam

$5 coupon off of a $25 or more ^-^ (We ended up eating way over that of course haha) Came here with the family, and possibly because it was a Tuesday, so it was pretty empty when we entered. Didn't know it was Pasta Tuesday, so all their pastas were $10.99 =D

Restaurant: Boston Pizza (visit their website here)
Location: 3025 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Western, Pizza, Pasta, American, Drinks, Dessert, Burgers
Price range: $10-15 per entree




Date of visit: October 23, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 4.5/5
Food quality: 2.5/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

They didn't notice at first when we walked in, but after about 1 minute she saw us, and quickly seated us. Personally, I don't like my server staring at me eat, so having her check on us about four times for our whole visit was nice (instead of the normal "How's everything?" every 10 minutes).

Of course, we gotta get the pasta! My brother, likes to choose from the pictures, so we got a Baked Chipotle Bacon Penne ($10.99, normally $15.50). Sounded good in the description-- cuz there was BACON =D Looked really good when it arrived too, full of cheese on top and nicely browned. However, the sauce was mediocre. It felt slimy =/ Like that gooey feel you get when eating okra (if you know what that is. . . )

And we also tried their Jambalaya Fettuccine ($10.99, normally $18.75). It's listed as spicy, but I found it was only the spicy italian sausage that was spicy, the rest was fine =) This was too salty for my liking, but maybe it's because of the tomato sauce's tangy nature. Sauce and pasta didn't work well together, as I had some pasta with no sauce, since it didn't "stick" at all, so it was a tasteless mouthful. Display was nice though, full of shrimp, but the chicken breast were in tiny chunks that were barely present.

And the last item!! We finally got to try their pizza, which they are so famous for! (I've come here before, but never thought of getting pizza haha) We looked at their menu, and decided on a large (15") Boston Royal ($29.95). The pizza came on a stand, looking all high and mighty =P The crust was really crispy and the ingredients were good quality. A bit on the burnt side for the onions, but that was fine, just too them off and the rest was good. Family really liked it cuz it wasn't salty, like many of the other pizza places. However, I'm not sure if it's worthy of $30 . . .

I know Western food is more expensive than our average meal, so even with out $5 coupon, it was over what I would want to pay for lunch. Not for this quality at least. I might be back, but there's other restaurants in the nearby area with similar food, so maybe I'll give those a try first =P