Pepper Lunch

And thus, this post marks the beginning of the blogging that is to come of all the meals I enjoyed and want to share with you all in San Francisco and its neighbouring cities ^_^.


We arrived at San Jose Airport right at lunch time. Our first itinerary activity was to go outlet shopping at the Gilroy Premium Outlet, so I made sure to plan a quick lunch somewhere near the airport to save time, and also to prevent us from wasting a good meal opportunity (since it is a known fact that the food court at Premium Outlets are never good).

Pepper Lunch is a known Japanese fast food restaurant that is found vastly throughout Asia. I've heard about it many times but never had the chance to try it out, so I knew I had to check this place out with such a perfect opportunity!

Some of the things that I love to have knowledge on in regards to the restaurants that I plan to visit when I'm on vacation is the exterior appearance of the restaurant and its surrounding vicinity. This helps make finding it so much easier, especially when you're in a foreign place to begin with. For our first meal, Pepper Lunch is found in a large strip mall with mainly Asian restaurants, stores and services

Nash Restaurant & Off Cut Bar

For weeks prior to their opening, I have been overhearing conversations amongst my coworkers and even strangers in the elevators, all of whom were looking forward to Chef Michael Noble's new restaurant, in anticipation for another NOTaBLE success. I was lucky enough to score a reservation this past Tuesday night at 5:30pm.

One thing I absolutely love about visiting a new restaurant is to feel the ambiance that is set from the carefully chosen decor. From the outside, Nash can easily be missed as it turns off from 9th avenue and is found peeking from behind the corner-spot that is Starbucks. Luckily, their red rustic sign glows in the dark.

DaDeO New Orleans Diner and Bar

Do not be scared off by the "No minors allowed" sign found on their entrance door (my friend told me she wasn't sure what this place was when she walked by on a previous visit, so she strayed away).

I love the decor of this diner. It has so much character and personality.

Pagolac Restaurant

To be honest, this wasn't going to be a place that I was going to blog about; it was just going to be a quick bite prior to the Usher concert that was picked due to its convenient location (hence the missing venue pictures). When we arrived at the restaurant, it looked rather sketchy and slightly out of place, being the only opened restaurant in a quiet industrial area. Regardless, we walked in, and the interior decoration confirmed that this place was rather old - it reminded me of my grandparents' house back in the 1970's.

But you know what they say about sketchy Vietnamese restaurants - the sketchier they look, the more delicious their food is. And Pagolac proved this statement to be true! As a result, here I am writing about this place because I want to share this hidden gem with other fellow food lovers :)

Diner Deluxe

The perks about having a random day off in the middle of the week is skipping the queue of popular brunch restaurants. This is exactly what happened today - I have never seen a brunch place this empty, but it worked out to my favour because I didn't have to wait in line, despite arriving just a bit past noon.

Bouchon Bakery

To complete our trip in Las Vegas, we made sure to grab some last minute goodies from Bouchon Bakery before boarding our flight. Bouchon Bakery is a bakery opened by the famous Chef Thomas Keller, an American chef who is widely known for opening The French Laundry. After having come home, I did some further research on Keller and a couple things stood out to me that I thought would be neat to share. The first is this interesting fact: the first Bouchon Bakery was opened within walking distance of The French Laundry, with the original purpose to provide Keller's restaurants with his own homemade unique breads.

The second item I'd like to share is a tidbit of Keller's philosophy "A great meal is not one that just fills you up. A great meal is a journey that returns you to sources of pleasure you have may have forgotten and takes you to places you haven't been before." I really cannot agree more. Of course, having a full belly is satisfying, but a meal isn't just merely the act of filling up one's belly but also comes with it many other layers of fulfillment. Whether it is to be in a new restaurant with a special ambiance, thus allowing you to experience that foreign and new sensation that is often missed, or to be able to taste a familiar dish that you'd never thought you'd be able to find again, or even the simple pleasure of sharing a special moment with a close friend.


Enough about Thomas Keller and onto Bouchon Bakery! (If you wish to learn more about Keller and his achievements, you can do so at www.thomaskeller.com)

Bacchanal Buffet

What's Las Vegas without going to at least one buffet? And that's what we did, except we made sure to do some research ahead of time. And what we discovered was that while lots of articles ranked the top 10 buffets to eat in Las Vegas, they seldom had pictures. So lo and behold, this post will contain tons of photos!

Gordon Ramsay Steak

What better way to deal with my post-Vegas depression than by writing about one of the most highly regarded restaurants in Las Vegas. One of my girlfriends made sure to make reservations ahead of time. We had a table at 7:45pm, and were promptly seated at our arrival.

Walking in, I immediately felt the energetic vibe of the restaurant

My girls and I were in heels, but luckily there was an elevator from this shot's viewpoint that took us up to the second floor

We were brought into a private room that was shared with two other parties, so this made our dining experience a lot more intimate and personal. This was much preferred as it allowed us to enjoy each other's company throughout the night. As well, we were not disturbed by the high level of noise that many other reviews seemed to have mentioned.

Regular Menu

Hell's Kitchen Limited Edition Tasting Menu

Priced at $145 per person for a 5 course meal - must be ordered by everyone in the party

Different steak and their cuts presented on a wheel stand

Starting our night off with a glass of sparkling wine, which leaned towards a more citrus taste 

Then continued with a bottle of white wine to share. This wine had a subtle sweet finishing taste at the end of each sip.

Complimentary Bread Plate.  From top to bottom: Baguette with blue cheese and walnut, one porchetta layered roll (already consumed thus the missing status), two mushroom and white truffle layered rolls,  lemon zest and thyme focaccia. This was served with a perfectly salted and smooth butter.

Gnocchi (Blistered heirloom cherry tomatoes, royal trumpet mushrooms, iberico jamon, mushroom cream)

Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras (Herbed goat cheese pop overs, gooseberry jus, pickled ramps). My friend who had this said it was amazing!!! (yes, that many exclamation marks from her!). The foie gras was crisply seared on the outside and super soft, almost jelly like on the inside. It had a super strong duck flavoured taste which she loved but warned that others might find it to be too strong.

Potato and Octopus Salad (Charred octopus, mustard vinaigrette, remoulade, pumpernickel soil, marbled fingerling potatoes). My first dish of the night was highly influenced on it being found in the Hell Kitchen's menu. I found the combination of the octopus and potato bites not only innovative, but the two items really complimented each other. This combination was paired extremely well with the plentiful pumpernickel soil. I made sure each bite had a dash of pumpernickel soil with it.

Break inbetween appetizers! We asked our server if we could be taken on a kitchen tour and he was nice enough to oblige. This is a view of the open kitchen/prep table.

Sides Station

View of the front entrance tunnel

Kurobuta Pork Belly (Cheesy grits, tomato jam, onion pork jus). My second appetizer of the night, the pork belly was so tender I barely had to chew. The tomato jam was a interesting addition to the flavourful meat.

Smoked Beef Tartare (Lemon zest, red onion, capers, white anchovy aioli, cured egg yolks)

Yukon Gold Herb Chips that accompanied the Smoked Beef Tartare

The long awaited (at least 45 minutes prep time as warned on the menu) Beef Wellington. Unfortunately, my stomach was filled to the rim at this point and I must not have taken any more than 5 bites - darn appetizers! I have to be honest and admit that I was merely eating for the sake of eating it, so I didn't taste anything to give this dish a fair judgement. I did, however, ask my friend her thoughts on it. She thought that the meat was tender from being cooked to a medium rare, but she personally thought that the beef was missing some flavour due to lack of fat. The pastry was nice and thin, not soggy but could have been more flaky.

Roasted Bone Marrow

The takeout bag that contained my leftover beef wellington. /ashamed.

Dessert Menu

 Sticky Toffee Pudding (Sweet pudding cake, brown sugar toffee, brown butter ice cream). The entire table ordered this to share just so we could each have one bite of the dessert found in the Hell's Kitchen menu. I'm personally not a fan of sticky toffee pudding because I often find it to be too sweet, but this toffee pudding delivered the right amount of sweetness without it being too sickly. We were all big fans of the brown butter ice cream

In terms of service, I must say that while it was attentive and politely delivered, it was not an out of the world experience. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't proportional to the notion that is Gordon Ramsay's food. I've probably received similar service from a ordinary dine out in Calgary. All servers was friendly and answered all our questions (heck, one even answered our question about their breads three times because we kept forgetting), but it didn't seem like they were thoroughly enjoying their job since none really smiled often.

That being said, I may return in the future just so I could get a proper try of the beef wellington. But aside from that factor, although all was good, I probably wouldn't come back and spend another $150 on one meal. It was definitely a good experience, so I would recommend if you've never been.

And to end this post off, cheers to the best dining companions a girl could ever ask for!

Shiki Menya

What better way to acknowledge the arrival of winter than by getting a fresh bowl of hot ramen. That was exactly what I did today on my day off. I was a little unsure if the cold weather would bring about a line full of ramen fanatics or if it would've helped ward off the crowd. Luckily, it wasn't crazy busy - we only waited outside for 5 minutes before we were seated (sorry, but unfortunately you cannot stand inside the little box found between Shiki Menya and Black Pig Bistro - fire hazard rules).

It is a small and modern looking ramen shop inside. This place gives off a hipster vibe and makes me feel like I'm in a hidden ramen shop found in New York.

Yum Yum Chicken & BBQ Korean Cuisine

I decided to order take out the other day because my aunt who is visiting from out of town wanted to try Calgary's take on Korean fried Chicken. I decided on trying a new place for fried chicken, Yum Yum Chicken.

I was debating on how much to order for five people, because in the past, I've shared a whole chicken with a friend, and ate everything without any remains. As well, I knew some members in my family have a larger than your average appetite. When I called, I asked the young girl how many people three whole chickens could feed, and she replied "It depends on how much the person eats, but there are about 36 pieces for three whole chicken".... That's nearly 7 pieces per person! So I chickened out and decided to go with two whole order, and was I glad I went with the two whole orders! We had leftovers enough to last for another full meal!

Half order of the Shallot Chicken

Anju Restaurant

I've gotten the chance to visit the renewed Anju a few times since its reopening. I returned again this past Saturday with my family in celebration of my mom's birthday. To ensure that we wouldn't be placed on a insanely long wait list, I made a reservation nearly two weeks in advance. We arrived and was promptly seated in the booths found at the back. This was a different experience for me - the previous times I've came, I was always placed at the high top counters facing the street of 17th ave. I love those window seats because it gave my dining companions and myself the entertainment of people watching (whether it be those passing by or the bustling staff found in the kitchen). This time, we were placed in the "den", and while the seats were comfortable, the noise level was a bit too high for my party's liking.

Wow Chicken

Of all the places I've ate at (and not posted) for the past year, Wow Chicken is one of the places that I really wanted to do a returning blog post on. Korean Fried Chicken (KFC 2.0 in my terms) has been on the rise in terms of popularity in Calgary for the past couple of years. New shops are opening left and right, from the first Korean fried chicken shop Olive Chicken to the third franchised Yum Yum BBQ Chicken that is yet to be open.