No way I’m cooking.

Haven’t had Ludica in a while!

Just as good as ever!

One bite review

9.1

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There’s at least 4 Mexican restaurants in our tiny city with a pub I know that serves Mexican as well.

To me The Taco Factory is hands down the best Mexican food in New West. Honorable mentions to the others but this is my go to.

And while it’s not as good as Bordertown Mexican Grill in Blaine, you don’t have to cross the border.

Today as usual I’m just sticking with tacos.

Pescado, Carnitas and Al Pastor.

The fish ones were good. I prefer grilled fish over deep fried but that’s becoming harder and harder to find. I guess everybody likes that Baja style.

The Pastor was a bit dry today. Yea the pineapple helps. A bit bland as well. The salsa Verde fixed it up nicely though.

The winner today was the Carnitas. So full of flavour. Really moist and juicy. A little touch of heat an that might be the perfect taco.

Wash it all down with some Hibiscus and I’m happy.

You want real Mexican try the Taco Factory.

Bueno!

8/10

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As good as the patio is the Interior sucks. This place used to be part of the prison and they didn’t do enough to make it look otherwise.

We started with a beer and a Caesar.

The beer was beer. As long as it’s cold it’s fine.

The Caesar though put me off. I’m pretty sure it had pickle juice. The flavour of dill was very evident a d it had some little chunks floating In the drink Great way to ruin a Caesar in my opinion.

It wasn’t spicy enough either but you can always add it right? So not the biggest problem. I think from the bartenders point of view serve the drink less spicy and the customer can add more if they want.

Rosemary pork bites for a snack.

Okay I do prefer these over a dry ribs. Unfortunately the breading was a bit too salty and I got zero Rosemary flavour. They were okay, but I never need to have them again.

I was a little put off by the server when we arrived. Okay it’s not a five-star restaurant I don’t expect a gushing welcome like I’m the king of England. But at minimum a smile would be nice.

As long as the beer is cold and there’s a table on the patio for me I’m happy to come back here.

I should probably eat dinner at home first though.

5/10

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We haven’t been for sushi in forever.

So now the question as to where to go. I’ve been hearing very good things about Sushi Well but she doesn’t like it there. They have purple rice?

I suggested Hyack Sushi. I haven’t been there.

Nope. She wants Ki. So that’s that.

I have been here before and it was very good.

We started with the Mango Roll special. It looked so good we dove in before I got a pic.I

t’s a California roll with mango and what I assume is masago on top. It was really good.

We next had the prawn tempura.

Very yummy. Though I wouldn’t have minded it being fried a touch longer to crisp it up a bit more. Still very delicious.

Then came the gyoza.

I’m not sure why exactly but somehow I prefer these over Chinese pot stickers. Pretty much a must for me when I have sushi. It’s a pork dumpling steamed first and then pan-fried for that great crispy exterior.

And lastly the nigiri.

Tai (Red Snapper), Red Tuna, Kani (snow crab), Tuna, Toro (Tuna belly) and Hamachi (Yellowtail).

The best was the snow crab, what flavour! My least favorite was the Red tuna. It was a little too chewy.  I enjoyed them all though.

They also have good sushi rice here. Some restaurants it’s too sticky but not here. 

To me you can’t go wrong at Ki Sushi.

Is it the best I’ve ever had?

No. Definitely not.

But for a little town like New West it’s great.

7/10

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Having heard all the talk about how great Dragon Bowl is we finally were able to pop in and try it.

Nice little shop with a few tables inside for dine-in. It’s a clean and modern interior.

The idea is quite simple. You pick your protein. You pick your noodle/rice. You pick your additions. You pick your soup base.

I had chicken with chow mein noodles, the non spicy additions, egg and Dragon soup.

Overall I liked it.

It’s decent value for what you get. Quality ingredients properly prepared.

The Dragon soup is on the mild side. Next time I’m going to try something with a little more kick. As this was my first visit though I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. The black bean pepper one will be my next choice.

There are vegan options here for those who are so inclined.

Overall decent value and decent food

7/10

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There’s not a lot of good Pub grub in New West.

I have visited most of the pubs here and have usually been very disappointed.

I’m not going to get into listing what’s what but if you live in New West you know what I’m talking about.

But the Terminal Pub is a different story.

This is my second visit here. Our first time last year proved to be quite good.

Today I went with the beef dip and onion rings.

For fear they have a pretty nice selection on top here but since we are about a block away from a great local brewery, the beer I had was Steel and Oak Hazy IPA. There’s a hint of citrus and it’s not overly bitter. Don’t ask me what the IBUs are.

After I got rid of that pickle, the sandwich was excellent.

A very freshly baked bun with a good amount of lean shaved beef. The jus was really flavorful and a little viscous and it’s soaked into the bread nicely.

The only problem with onion rings is how few there were.

I really love a thinly battered onion ring and these were just right. And and they were out of the fryer very very recently. Still piping hard on my plate. Love a good onion ring.

$37 for a beer and a sandwich (tip and taxes) is probably a little more than I’d like to spend for lunch. But on the positive side it was quality food and so I don’t mind the cost as much.

All three of us in our party enjoyed our meals.

It’s a little bit more of an upscale pub atmosphere here and it’s quite pleasant. There’s enough TVs here to watch the game and lots of seating of different types to please everyone. 

So as far as I’m concerned if you’re looking for good pub type food in New West the Terminal is going to be your best bet.

8/10

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It’s been a few years since I’ve had Noodlebox.

Too bad my memory is bad.

Should have been a few more.

This is the King Pao bowl with chicken.

I really had a hard time eating any of this. The noodles were soggy, the flavour very one note. I think we each had two bites and the mongrol got the rest

I guess I should know better and not expect too much from fast food.

It was so unappealing we ended up getting proper Chinese.

Read about that here.

2/10

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We’ve been meaning to go here for probably the last year and for one reason or another we haven’t been able to make it.

Today was finally the day we made it to The Thirsty duck.

First thoughts?

“I’m not sure about this”

Second thoughts?

“We should probably leave. But she wanted to try it. So here we go.”

As I look over the menu a quote from The Big Bang Theory ‘s Sheldon Cooper comes to mind regarding the plethora of selections availble.

Sheldon: “What’s good here?”

Penny: “Everything’s good here!”

Sheldon: “Statistically unlikely”

This .enu is large, and picking through it to get the better dishes is challenging.

Now as I have been researching New West’s best breakfast and The Thirsty Duck was on my list the places to go I decided to continue that research and went with the Chorizo Eggs Benedict.

This was A tale of two dishes.

The Eggs Benny was actually rather good. The eggs were perfect. Soft and gooey..the chorizo had a little kick. The Hollandaise could have used a bit more lemon, well maybe any lemon at all. But overall a pretty decent representation of the dish.

The Potatoes? OMFG. Putting this shite on the plate was an insult to the Benny.

The flavour of weeks of multiple deep fried foods came through in every bite. Well all three that I could manage to get down. Come on chef, this is just being lazy. You did a pretty decent Benny and you add this crap? Disappointing to say the least.

Merilynn went with the fajitas.

Personally this is something I would never order. So good to try it now and again, to refresh my memory.

And it was about as average as I expected.

We eat tenderloin at home, so chewing on this flank steak was a little more difficult than I’m used to. Though the flavour was good. That dish, while cute, is deceiving. You can’t get more than 3 or 4 wraps out that. I think that as far as fajitas go though these are just fine.

My final thoughts?

If your used to eating at higher end restaurants you probably won’t be thrilled eating here. But if you are a regular at your pub The Thirsty Duck will suit you just fine.

Food 5/10

Atmosphere 6/10

Value Can’t really decide

Overall 5/10

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Lovely evening for a stroll with the mutt up the hill to one of New West’s best pizzas.

Tucked away in Victoria Hills is L’onore pizza.

This is traditional Neopolitan style.

Each pizza is fired in a traditional pizza oven and have sourdough hand stretched crusts.

I usually like the Sunrise (in paradise) but tonight I decided on the Peparani.

Pepperoni, basil, Fior di latte and hot honey.

It was magnificent!

Would I mind a bit more pepperoni? Sure. But otherwise it was excellent.

Just the right amount of flop, with that great charred crust and a great undercarriage.

What really elevated it is the hint of sweetness from the honey. It’s not present in every bite, just gives you a nice little tease every now and then.

And at $22 it’s decent value for the quality your getting.

For me it doesn’t get much better than L’onore.

One bite review 9.2

It’s one week later and we are back.

For the same pizza.

And it’s just as good.

One bite review.

9.2

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Popped in to get myself another of the Vancouver area’s better doughnuts.

My favorite wasn’t available today, the Lemon Zinger. It is brilliant. That post is here

Some good choices today though. We ended up with the Strawberry Vanilla and the Raspberry Custard.

Of the two I definitely preferred the strawberry vanilla. That’s a dollop of real cream with a bit of real strawberry on a ring donut. It’s light and not overly sweet.

I personally found that while delicious, the Raspberry Custard donut was a bit much. The custard was excellent, you can really taste the raspberry. But I found there was just a bit too much cream inside. You can’t eat it without making a huge mess.

Now I know complaining about too much cream is a first world problem. For me it just made the doughnut overwhelming.

But that’s my personal preference. I’m sure there are lots of you out there that would say put more cream in it.

Regardless both donuts were excellent.

I haven’t had a sample from every doughnut shop in Vancouver, but of the places I’ve tried Yum is close to the best doughnut in Vancouver.

9/10

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