May and I were late to the party. After most of the city’s food critics jumped to review Skinny Legs and Cowgirls (9008 Jasper Avenue) in the spring, we tried valiantly to secure reservations to this “sort of bistro”, but the timing was never right. On Tuesday, we finally made it.

Pulling into the parking lot just after five, we more than beat any rush the restaurant might have seen later that night. The dining room was tiny, a total of seven tables occupying the small space. The decor was undoubtedly charming, with a cozy, autumn-perfect color scheme of orange and red running up the walls, continued on the place settings, and in the Chinese lantern stem on each table. However, the room itself was virtually unlit and seemingly unheated, forcing us rely on the tabletop candle as not only the light, but the main heating source as well.

The menu reminded me very much of Bacon (which I visited in June, but have yet to post about) – organic, sparse, and without many dishes that appealed much to my personal taste. Our server explained that all of their plates were built to be shared. Their piece de resistance was the “mixed grill”, a platter with several different kinds of meat, including rack of lamb and striploin steak, but priced at a staggering $73, it was something we couldn’t stomach on that particular evening.

Instead, we ordered the Chorizo Plate (chorizo sausage sauteed with onions, tomato, cilantro and finished with red wine), and the Franco Pollo (chicken sauteed with spices, onions, tomato, lemon juice and finished with fresh cream). In hindsight, we should have also selected an accompanying carb of some kind, but as the prices of the polenta and rice plates equalled that of the chorizo and chicken items ($15!), we didn’t think we would get our money’s worth.

With a cool, unobtrusive Sirius Radio station on in the background, dim lighting, and an intimate setting, I could see how Skinny Legs and Cowgirls would make a good date venue. The service was all right, but erred on the side of giving us too much space.

Our food arrived on very stylish rectangular plates, coupled with serving utensils that allowed for easy sharing. Our favorite was the chorizo dish – the sweet tomatoes complemented the savoury sausage slices nicely. The Franco Pollo wasn’t bad, but with a thick orange sauce, I had trouble convincing my eyes that I wasn’t eating some variation of butter chicken.

While we didn’t have a bad experience, May and I agreed that Skinny Legs and Cowgirls wasn’t appealing enough to add to our short list of restaurants. Still, I wouldn’t mind giving their mixed grill a go some time in the future…just to see what haute meat really tastes like.

Exterior

Dining room

Choizo Plate

Franco Pollo

I have mentioned Dine Alberta a few times this month, it being a September program that promotes the use of local ingredients at select restaurants across the province. I finally got around to arranging for dinner at Sorrentino’s, a much-loved local Italian chain that seems to be something of an institution in Edmonton (beyond Sorrentino’s proper, the purveyors also maintain That’s Aroma!, Oliveto Trattoria, Caffe Sorrentino, a sports bar, and a pub). I poked around the website and was looking forward to trying something off of their featured Mushroom Harvest menu – specifically, the porcini mushroom risotto.

With Dickson at the wheel (though that phrase is a bit redundant…), we headed for the downtown location. Count me embarrassed when we were confronted with a closed sign. Vowing better research before future outings, we checked to make sure the southside location was open before driving there.

Arriving around 8:30pm, we were given the “S-Bar” menu, a condensed selection of dishes meant for late diners. I inquired about the Mushroom Harvest menu, but to my disappointment, was told that it wasn’t offered on Sundays. The website failed me – nowhere on their otherwise comprehensive webpage was it written that the specials were only served Monday to Saturday. So not only were we deprived of sampling the regular fare (of which a chef’s daily risotto is a part of), but I also wasn’t able to get my Dine Alberta fix.

That said, the after-9 menu isn’t bad; there were quite a few comfort dishes that were tempting. I settled on a margherita pizza, while Dickson opted for Mamma’s lasagna. The food arrived after a bit of a wait (the main dining room had been fully booked for a private function), though Dickson would have been appeased had they simply brought more baskets of their salted baguette. The pizza wasn’t great, and tasted very much like the fare I had at Three Bananas Cafe, and easily loses up against the phenomenal slices at Leva. Dickson’s pasta was quite good, but he was left wanting more because of the small portion.

When the bill was presented, we were surprised to see we had been charged full price. Checking the time our plates were entered, we realized that had we waited twenty minutes to order, we could have saved $6. Sure, that isn’t a lot of cash, but after the mushroom menu mix-up, it was another instance of our bad timing that night.

I’ll have to return to Sorrentino’s for a full, triple fact-checked dinner to see if it really can live up to the hype.

Margherita pizza

Mamma’s Lasagna

After a valid but ultimately failed attempt at catching a play at the Arts Alive! Festival in the afternoon (there’s always next year), Mack and I killed time in the downtown core, and ended up at Wok Box (10119 Jasper Avenue) for dinner.

I’ve been to the franchised takeout restaurant twice before, and after finding the fare extremely overpriced, I vowed not to return unless equipped with a coupon. Luckily, I just purchased an Entertainment Book containing a Wok Box coupon, so with a 2-for-1 mentality in mind, we saddled up to the counter to order.

But rebuffed, we were. The employee mentioned something about the store not being consulted before the address was printed on the back of the coupon, and couldn’t accept it. Because we had a show to get to in less than an hour, Mack and I sucked it up and ordered the teriyaki chicken stir fry and butter chicken (Violet’s recommendation). The bill was over $21.

Thankfully, our wait wasn’t too long (unlike my other experiences), and though the novelty of eating out of a “Chinese” take-out box still tickles me somewhat, I recognize the inflated cost of fanciful packaging. In the end, my butter chicken was all right (the sauce was rich and tasted great with the rice), but without a side of vegetables, was a fairly dense meal, and was not worth what we paid for it.

Take-out boxes are cute, but cannot make-up for the restaurant’s small portions and mistaken advertising. I’d choose a Chinatown establishment over Wok Box any day.

Mack “smiles” with his Wok Box order

Teriyaki chicken, butter chicken and “naan bread” (looking pretty unappetizing)

I finally made my way down to the south side Tropika (6004 104 Street) on Wednesday with Dickson, spurred on by a coupon I had on hand. I had heard that the food was good but pricey, so a discounted meal was a definite encouragement to try their version of Malaysian cuisine. pricey

As opposed to many Asian restaurants, the purveyors of Tropika attempted to cobble together an actual decor scheme. Unfortunately, the unfinished wood panelling on the ceiling reminded me more of the plywood Contiki village cabins than a “rustic” South Asian establishment.

Upon being seated, I showed the coupon I had clipped from a local flyer to our waitress, as the print on the slip indicated that it had to be surrendered before ordering. She asked if I had the rest of the flyer, but I did not, and even though the address and phone number of the restaurant was apparent, without the word “Tropika” on it, she was hesitant to accept it without asking her manager first. Though this wasn’t a major inconvenience (they accepted it in the end), it didn’t exactly start off our meal on the best note.

Service aside, I was extremely impressed with the full-color, coil-bound menus. The pictures were gorgeous (especially compared with the out-of-focus, yellowed photos on the menus at Kyoto), and for those who are not familiar with Malaysian dishes, provide a visual trial to encourage gastronomic experimentation. We opted for an order of Roti Canai (a thin, pan-fried bread) to start, and for the heart of the meal, Nasi Goreng (a type of fried rice), Sayur Lemak Hot Pot (a seafood curry) and Pad Thai.

We ended up with a lot more food than the two of us could eat, and really, most of it was too spicy for us to eat (at no fault of the chef). I was pleasantly surprised at the liberal amount of seafood that presented itself in each dish. The Nasi Goreng was my favorite by far, if not only because it was the mildest of the three, but the Roti was quite tasty as well, and worked well with the curry sauce from the hot pot. Service was spotty throughout the night (I wished for more water on more than one instance), but improved once the frugal waitress was replaced by another server.

Even with the coupon, the meal worked out to about $18 per person, still rather expensive for Asian food in general. But with leftovers that served me well for lunch the next day, I couldn’t complain much.

Menu!

Roti Canai

Nasi Goreng (a lot better than the photo makes the dish look)

Sayur Lemak

Pad Thai