Stooley's Café

Tonia, Todd, Samer and I ventured to Stooley's Café for this week's chapter of the adventure. On the corner of Division and Johnson Streets, Stooley's is situated in the hub of Queen's University student traffic and offers affordable dining options for the patrons that stop in. While it was a quiet night when we visited, based on location and word of mouth, I have no doubt that a packed house is not a rare occurrence at Stooley's. 

While I have been to Stooley's before, it was close to 15 years ago, so I don't remember much about my visit and I was keen to go again. Established in 1985, Stooley's is described on their own website (found here) as "not just a restaurant, but a way of life". Boasting that "you're at home when you're at Stooley's", the website gives you a brief history of the establishment of the restaurant as well as a list of all of their menu options. A quick look at the website or stop in to the restaurant, and you know that this isn't a "classy joint", but I don't think that that's what the operators are going for, anyway. Caricatures of 3 men (Groucho Marx being one of them...?) adorn not only the pages of the menu, but also the wall inside. Also included in the decor are a good number of paintings and pictures that are alcohol themed - including a VERY large painting of a... *ahem*... "well-endowed" woman in a very short skirt serving beer to some very happy military men. The tables are simple wood-tops, and the booths, while having somewhat of an artistic element on the backs, are a little "squishy" - especially with winter coats in tow. 

The menu itself is actually quite huge. Appetizers, salads, wraps, burgers, sandwiches, omelettes, "finger foods and other stuff", pasta, specials... it could take you some time to go through it all (lucky for me, my friend Will gave some suggestions before we went - thanks, Will!). Something a little confusing about the menu that we discovered once our food arrived is that meals come with fries and a salad. A nice surprise (outside of what I will describe later on...), but it certainly would have been nice to know as we tend to order starters first - in this case, Todd ordered a salad to start and wasn't given any heads up from the server that his meal would come with one. An added cost that was unnecessary in the end. 

So, perhaps with that, I will give you a run-down of what we ordered. 

Carrie: As usual, I like to make sure that we have some appetizers for the table, so I ordered deep fried pickles and bruschetta to start, and then I had the California Club Sandwich - served with fries and salad.

Tonia: California Club Sandwich

Todd: Caesar salad to start, California Club Sandwich (it was a trend...)

Samer: Chicken Dinner: boneless, skinless chicken breast with BBQ sauce, served with salad and fries.

As we waited for our food, we had time to chat and look around. To be very honest, I was pretty surprised at what we noticed. As Samer said, it was almost like a scene out of CSI once you got looking more closely. At our booth, there were splatters of sauces on the wall that hadn't been wiped clean. I reached the ketchup bottle to find that the lid was covered in old gooey ketchup (kind of a pet peeve of mine... yuck). And a trip to use the restroom... well... that was an interesting experience in itself. The toilet is in such a tight space that if you're taller than 5'8", you'd better be comfortable sitting/squatting sideways... and while you're there - keep an eye out for the black mould that is growing on the wood of the floor boards in the corners of the space. Ultimately, I think that if Gordon Ramsay was to take a walk through during an episode of one of his shows, he would have very clear opinions of what he was seeing; and he would express them with a number of expletives. Now, I may not have been so frustrated with the lack of cleanliness if it wasn't for the fact that while we were there, there was only one other table, and the staff had lots of time to stand at the bar and talk to a friend or be on their cell phone... So to me, they certainly had time to pick up a cleaning rag. 

All of that said, we weren't there for the space - we were there for the food, so we stuck around to give it a try. Ultimately, I could have done without.

Here are our scores for the evening:

Carrie: 1.5 forks. Everything that arrived to the table except for the deep fried pickles was cold. Everything tasted bland and boring.  The bruschetta... on top of being cold, the bread wasn't toasted, the cheese was hardly melted and the diced tomatoes on top didn't have any seasoning. And then my club sandwich came... Interestingly, the fries look exactly like the ones from Copper Penny, but weren't as flavourful... and because they weren't hot, they weren't very appetizing. The club sandwich was somewhat warm and boring. The description called it "proudly assembled and world famous"... I'm not sure who the judge of that was. Maybe this was an off-night, though - I've certainly heard people rave about it. I am also a tough judge of a club sandwich - I love them and eat them a lot... but the reason for that is often because I believe that if I'm going to eat somewhere and I want to be sure to be happy, a club is pretty hard to screw up. And then there was the salad. One thing I never expect to see at a restaurant is a salad that obviously came from a bag - this one was not only a bagged grocery store salad with iceberg lettuce and carrot shavings, but it was also brown and wilted. In the end, I only ate the sandwich and a few fries. I was too hungry to wait for a fix or turn it all away.

Tonia: 2 forks. Tonia liked the pickles, but thought that the bruschetta "sucked huge". Tonia said that "you could go to Loblaws and get a baguette and PC bruschetta mix and do it a lot better for yourself". I agree. The sandwich was good - but not the best in town, and the fries were a bad copy of something done better elsewhere. Tonia didn't even try the salad - "I don't like bagged salad". 

Samer: 2.5 forks. In Samer's opinion, the fries were good and the chicken was edible. Samer tried deep fried pickles for the first time - and while all he had to say was that they were "crispy", I did notice that he said he would only try half of one, but went back for the other half. Samer also didn't touch the salad. He said it was obviously from a bag... and "I would almost rather get bagged than eat a bagged salad". Yikes.

Todd: With a score of 3 forks, Todd was the most satisfied customer. He thought that the club sandwich was well done and delicious, but added that everything else was pretty generic and he ate it, but didn't care for it. 

Overall score: 2.25 forks. 

I know that we have been to a number of restaurants to this point in our adventure... and perhaps, a result of that is that our standards and tastes change... But isn't that a good thing? I think that I have an obligation to be honest, which is sometimes hard to do, but I have promised myself to be honest from beginning to end. Am I an expert? Heck no. But I do like getting my money's worth. That said, as disappointed as I was, there is obviously a market that is happy with Stooley's - they have been open since 1985, after all. That fact in itself means that I'm not 100% opposed to the idea of venturing in again one day... 

 Next week, we will try out the Wok-In Restaurant. I'm hopeful we'll have a better result.

Curry Original

Hello readers! Well, this was week #20 of our adventure - THE HALF WAY POINT! I can't believe that we have been at this for 20 weeks already... and part of me can't believe that we are still lucky enough to have 20 weeks worth of what will (hopefully) be great food left. Cheers to all of you who have been along for the ride so far. Hopefully you'll tag along for the rest of the journey.

When you Google search "Curry Original", the first link listed states "Best Indian Restaurant in Kingston, Ontario". Click on it, and you're directed straight to the official website of Curry Original, which you can check out here. Had I not visited Curry Original this week, I probably would have thought that that was quite a bold statement. Now that I have been to Curry Original (shockingly, for the first time since I've come to Kingston...), I don't believe that the statement is bold so much as it is just plain honest. 

I started this adventure having been to Indian restaurants only a handful of times. Until I got to know Tonia and Todd, I was convinced that I wouldn't like the flavours of Indian food; that it was probably "too spicy". But in time, we visited a few places, and sure enough, I realized that I was wrong. Really wrong. Not only could I find things that I liked at Indian restaurants, I could find things that I would want to go back for.

I'm not sure how, exactly, it turned out that in all of this time, none of my restaurant visits have included Curry Original... Let's just say that that is a mistake I'm glad to have corrected. 

Curry Original sits on Ontario Street in downtown Kingston - beside the Lone Star and close to pretty much everything: Market Square, the K-Rock Centre, shops, other restaurants. The door to the restaurant is tucked away a little bit off of the street, but the sign is easily recognizable from the sidewalk, and, like the inside of the restaurant, is absolutely beautiful to look at. When you enter the front door, you walk down a short hallway that is accented by a limestone wall that extends into the restaurant. Once inside, gorgeous wood beams line the ceiling and accents created by pieces of art, woodwork and lighting highlight the restaurant's heritage. It is absolutely stunning (so much so that I would be quite happy to go and just sit... and stare...), and then the food comes. That, my friends, just adds to the beauty.

We were down to our original four adventurers this week, but we still seemed to have enough food to feed a large group. What did we order? Delicious food. You're probably looking for more information, so here it is: 

Carrie & Tonia: Onion Bhaji, Naan, Garlic Naan, Bhoona Chicken, Chicken Curry, Palao Rice.

Todd & Samer: Onion Bhaji, Garlic Naan, Saag Chicken, Vegetable Curry, Palao Rice.

From what I hear, the traditions behind Indian food involve having plates and platters to share at the table, and we certainly weren't shy. In no time at all, servers were politely filling our glasses and setting beautiful and aromatic dishes in front of us. I looked around the restaurant a number of times to notice people of a wide variety of ages (my guess would be 5 to 50+ years old) filling the tables, and, no matter the age, everyone seemed to have the same sentiment that we did: smiles galore after each bite. Offering "creative dishes from various regions of India" for the last 25 years (again, check out their website... or better yet, just visit!), owners Weais and Ali Afzal are definitely doing a lot of things right.

So right, in fact, that we gave the following scores:

Carrie: 5 forks. Call me officially converted. For every time that I told myself that I wouldn't like Indian food, I am now officially kicking myself. I have enjoyed other Indian restaurants, but nothing has been this satisfying. Curry Original was absolutely fantastic. I LOVED every bite. Oh - and the cool thing here for me: the Bhoona Chicken was probably spicier than I would have ever ventured to try in the past, and I still loved it. Seriously loved. Did I say loved?

Tonia: 5 forks. Tonia stated very clearly that "everything was super flavourful and delicious". She thought that the spices were perfect and shared that she enjoyed the Bhoona Chicken the most because of the additional vegetables. Tonia also thought that the garlic was a nice addition to the traditional naan that she has had many times before.

Samer: 4.5 forks. Another week where Samer was happy! The only thing that dropped this score for Samer was the chicken - he wasn't a huge fan of the flavour; but he admitted that it was most likely because it is something that he isn't familiar with. Other than that, Samer thought that the food was all absolutely amazing!

Todd: 4.5 forks. For Todd, it was all very good. Todd's score suffered more due to the fact that he was second-guessing himself since he couldn't decide what to get, ordered the Saag and then thought maybe he would have enjoyed something else a little more. My suggestion in the future will probably be to order it all. Problem solved.

Overall Score: 4.75 forks! 

Absolutely amazing. 

Final words? You should go. 

Oh - and for the nights you want the joys of Curry Original at home? You can buy a "Curry Original Cookbook". Check it out on their website. 

Thanks to my Coun'y ladies for another gift card! Also... I feel like I was less verbose this time...? This is for no reason other than I was absolutely impressed. Nothing more to say! :)

Why this week was a special week... THANKS, SIPPS!

Okay, so there are a number of reasons why I've decided this blog adventure is such a great thing...

One: I love to eat, and this adventure gives me a chance to do just that. I think that I've made that apparent by now; but it is certainly deserving of the number one spot, just in case anyone has missed it... Oh - and if you've really missed it, then I'll introduce you some time to my new friend, Treadmill.

Two: I love to try new food. And more than that, I like to know that I'm not missing out on somewhere really good just because I lean to much on the "tried and true". 

Three: I like being social. Eating brings people together. You do the "math".

Four: My food tastes have changed significantly (look for more details on this in the upcoming blog from our visit to Curry Original).  

Five: I love the idea of supporting local businesses. I certainly love money in my wallet, but if it has to go somewhere else, I would much rather it be in the hands of a local entrepreneur. If I can help other people decide where to put their hard-earned-cash, all the better.

And that brings me to the special thing about this week. In a round about way, I found out that my blog got a bit of a "shout out" on Facebook from one local business - Sipps Coffee and Dessert Bar (one of those "a friend follows such and such who shared the blah-di-blah and tagged me..." kind of stories...). To be honest, I had to go back to read what I had written because while I could remember my original visit being absolutely unplanned but delightful (you can find the original blog using the navigation on the right of this page), I couldn't remember specific details other than "I love cheesecake" or "I ate too much cheesecake" or "I can't believe I ate so much cheesecake". 

Long story short, through the wondrous world of Facebook, Sipps let me know that not only have they started making more delicious treats "in-house", but they are also having a Thursday cake sale.  Let me paint that picture for you in other words: fresher product, cheaper ($4.95!!!) on Thursdays. 

The result? Well, they must have read my original blog to know that I would be tempted - and I certainly didn't hesitate to get my cheesecake-lovin'-butt down there to take advantage. Luckily (or unluckily?!) for me, I didn't have to be (or get to be?!) gluttonous completely on my own since I had pot-luck plans with my fellow blog adventurers... and I left with a PILE of desserts to (sigh) share. 

So, what happens when you put a bunch of food-lovers together to eat treats from Sipps? They get VERY happy... And slightly chubby... but most importantly VERY happy (you, too, can have a good friend, Treadmill!). Food lover or not, I can GUARANTEE that eating in or taking out, Sipps is well worth a stop. 

Why, you may ask, were we so happy? This stuff just rocks. Carrot cake, triple chocolate cheesecake, peanut butter cheesecake, cookies... I remember things being awesome during our last visit, but since then, Sipps has started making more treats in-house; which has resulted in desserts that are... well, what's better then awesome? Phenomenal? Super-fantastic? Outta-sight? Yeah - it's resulted in all of those things and more. Even by the time we got to eating those slices of deliciousness from their take-out containers after dinner, it all tasted fresh and wonderful. 

If you knew me as recently as a couple of years ago, you would know that I was never a huge dessert fan; but it's places like this that have made me change my mind over the last while. Even more than that, they allow me to understand why my Mom used to say that she was "craving" sweets from time to time when I was a kid. Now I believe that when desserts are done well, they are worth craving... So here I sit, having stuffed myself with a delicious pot-luck dinner and a FANTASTIC dessert made by Sipps, wondering when I will be lucky enough to go back for more.

Don't be a skeptic; be a believer. And if you "don't like desserts" like I didn't... well, convert. It's worth it. And don't worry - I'll introduce you to my other friends, Running Shoes. They are really good at helping with the guilt.

Akira

Well, March Break has begun, which means that I finally have some time to write - just in time to head out on another dining adventure. That means that I will more than likely have 2 posts within this week. Here's the first...

For our week #19 adventure, we were honoured to be celebrating with Jordan for his birthday at Akira - a Japanese restaurant that is slightly "off the beaten path", and certainly not anywhere near the path we've been walking for the last few weeks. I decided that I should include a map this week for a few reasons... First, it's a heck of a lot easier than me describing how to get there (I'm slightly directionally challenged). Second, it will certainly help get you there if you're looking for a Japanese restaurant... and ultimately, because you SHOULD find your way there. Akira is definitely worth a stop. 

Akira is another restaurant that doesn't have a website that I could find, so the history of the restaurant is beyond me... I did find reviews, however, and a couple of interesting trends "popped up": a good number of people seem to think that Akira is run by staff with Korean backgrounds because of the amount of Korean options on the menu (I have no clue what is Korean or any other origin... so I won't guess), and most importantly - everyone talks about how good the sushi is. There is a lot of "online chatter" about sushi options in Kingston being less than enjoyable. There is also quite a bit of talk about "rice to fish" ratios, quality and cost... Ultimately, this is another area where I am not a competent judge, so I won't pretend; but just reading what people had to say, it sounds like this is the place to be if you want sushi. What did my fellow adventurers think? Keep reading... I'll get there.

Cozy slippers :)

When you drive up to Akira... well, don't drive away because of what you see. Appearances aren't everything - and trust me, once inside, the appearances improve 110% from the sketchy looking strip mall on the outside. The restaurant is a decent size - a few booths around the exterior walls, a few tables on the interior... And one really special spot - the booth where we were lucky enough to sit on this visit - an enclosed booth that gives the appearance of sitting on the floor at a low table (traditional in Japan), while the floor under the table is actually cut out, allowing you to sit upright as you are used to. There are chairs without legs provided, which allow you to lean back from the table as you'd like, and slippers are also provided so that you can remove your shoes (another tradition) and still have comfy feet. On the walls, lights are used to highlight gorgeous pieces of art, and screens and wood accents beautifully divide spaces so that each dining experience is private and comfortable. 

The things around you and on the walls aren't the only pieces of art at Akira, though. That fact became very apparent when plates started arriving to our table. Each and every dish looked absolutely spectacularly gorgeous. If I was a completely conceited person (which I'm not, for the record) who only focussed on looks (which I don't) and I could date food (although I already think that sometimes I'm in a relationship with food...), I'd be proud to be considered a tramp, walking around town with this stuff "on my arm". 

Here's the run-down of what we ordered:

Carrie: I'm no fan of sushi, but lucky for me, there are other options here. Tonia and I split Harumaki (Japanese spring roll), and then I had the Chicken Teriyaki dinner, which included miso soup and salad.

Tonia: Chicken Teriyaki dinner


Samer: Bento Box D - 5 pieces of salmon sashimi, 4 pieces of sushi, California rolls and shrimp tempura.

Jason: (a big welcome to Jason - a friend of Samer's, who is now a friend of ours! It is always nice to have new adventurers!) Bento Box D.

Todd: house salad, miso soup, Kamakazi roll, spicy tuna.

Benoit: Tempura Udon - Japanese style thick noodle with tempura.

Kendra and Jordan: Get ready for this... These sushi lovers decided share Harumaki to start, and then also ordered a number of rolls to share: Kamakaze roll, Unagi roll, Alaska roll, Dynamite roll, California roll and the Red Dragon roll. I will leave it to you to look up the ingredients of each. Let's be honest... that would take me a while to write out, and I'm verbose enough in other ways. Now, I get to be a little lazy. 

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

Perhaps the only down-side of this visit was the speed of service... while we were lucky enough to have good company (as always) and to be "rocking out" to a wide variety of music from Whitney Houston to Bryan Adams to the Backstreet Boys coming from the speakers; the amount of time we waited even just for drinks was frustrating. The only saviour for the restaurant in that respect was that there seemed to only be one server and the restaurant was fairly busy... However, there also seemed to be other friends or family at one booth that could have helped out? Or - could another staff member have been called in? Either way, I think things should have been more timely. That said, once she got to us for the first time, server was absolutely lovely and attentive from then on.

So, how did Akira fair on our fork-rating-system? Check it out:

Carrie: 4 forks.  The rolls were good - a little "fishier" than I was ready for or prefer, but I certainly still happily ate them. The miso soup was... well... not my "fave". I've heard that miso soup is really good for you, though, so I struggled through it. The salad was delicious - the dressing was absolutely awesome, and the components of the salad were crisp and fresh. As for the chicken teriyaki, it was amazing. The chicken was tender, the bed of veggies were fresh, and the flavour was awesome. Even love the citrus fruit that is offered at the end of the meal. Everything was beautiful.

Tonia: 3 forks. The chicken teriyaki saved it for Tonia. She thought the salad was good and flavourful, too, but the other stuff just wasn't her style of food. Tonia said "I'm sure it would be good if you like those tastes".

Jason: 4 forks. Jason thought that the food was really good, but he said that for his first time out with us, that he needed to stay a "tough marker"!

Samer: 5 forks!!!! It's about time we went somewhere that offered Samer something that he really, really enjoyed. All Samer had to say was that "everything was really, really good!"

Benoit: 4 forks. Benoit wasn't expecting a whole lot, but was certainly happy with his dish.

Todd: 5 forks. Todd was rendered relatively speechless after this meal. "Everything was awesome. The Kamakaze roll was amazing". 

Kendra: 5 forks. Kendra is a big fan of sushi, and for her, these were the best sushi rolls she has had so far in Kingston.

Jordan: 5 forks. Jordan flashed a "high-5" on his hand faster than I could ask out loud what his score was. He loved the beautiful presentation and the fact that the rolls were "hefty" and filling.  Jordan said that there were complex flavours and textures that all added to the experience. It was "the best birthday meal". 

Overall Score: 4.4 forks

Phenomenal. Overall lesson: if you want sushi, Akira's the place to be. 

BIG NEWS: Next week is our half-way point!!!! We will be off to Curry Original to enjoy this momentous occasion!