The most impressive Winnipeg restaurant

EAT! Bistro
274 Garry Street
Closed Sundays and Mondays
www.eatbistro.ca

EAT! bistro is one of the most impressive Winnipeg restaurants.

It’s the place you want to ride your bike to for a light snack in the summer and the place you go to to find summer in the winter.

The brightly coloured flower-power theme and eclectic mix of vintage tables and chairs makes EAT’s décor refreshing, energetic and fun. However, I will warn any potential clients of EAT! to choose their chair wisely as I’m pretty sure I chose a child’s chair.

The coolest thing about EAT! is that they’re a completely nut free restaurant and have wildly popular gluten free nights. Which other Winnipeg restaurant goes out of their way to cater to allergenic people? I think this feature makes EAT’s business model pure genius.

The experience at EAT! is great too. The service is quick, enthusiastic and knowledgeable of the menu. Being a first-time visitor I had no clue what sort of ordering strategy I should take – order my own dish; share several; were they big; were they small? I wanted to know. The server had answers. And he made my guest and I feel like he wanted to answer our questions rather than rush away to his next awaiting table.


(Turns out if you’re there for the first time you may want to share, but most of the dishes (excluding the dips) are big enough for one person.)

In terms of the food, it’s very inexpensive – no more than $12, unless you order a platter. The most unique dish I tried was the black bean cakes with guacamole and salsa ($8). It has a quick pinch-your-tongue spice that lasts about three seconds and then disappears completely, which feels odd but nice. The chicken feta dips with wonton crackers ($8) make a nice starter snack for the table for those who can’t wait for the main course. The wonton crackers are like a soft taco chip that you dip into a creamy puréed (yes, even the chicken) sauce. Other tantalizing dishes range between deep-fried and health conscious and are your typical lunch or light dinner items.


Plan on going for lunch? Expect a rush around noon. But not to worry, despite what might look like a 20 minute wait will take about 5 minutes thanks to the extremely efficient and quick service. They do not take reservations during lunch hours.


As for dinner EAT! prefers you make a reservation, especially if there’s an event in Aqua Books (the store attached to EAT!) or at the MTS Centre.

Overall, EAT! bistro has innovative business ideas, a creative and freshly made menu, invigorating décor and quick service. I would go back in a heart beat.

Vancouver 2010: Best Olympics ever

'Will Vancouver Games be ‘worst’ ever?’

That’s Stephanie Levitz’ headline in today’s Winnipeg Free Press.

And really? The worst games ever?

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we’re having the worst Olympics ever. The only thing that makes that statement true is the fact that an athlete died. And yes, that’s a pretty big fact that will forever ruin our reputation. But we can assume the luge track that killed Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia is safe as there’s no investigation going into the track's conditions.

Negative, and a pretty big one, aside, I think the Vancouver 2010 Olympics might be the best ever.

Vancouver’s biggest problem so far with the Olympics has been the weather which is causing event delays, poor track conditions and an uncomfortable environment for spectators who’re watching events in the rain or being blinded by the fog, particularly on Cypress Mountain. But I think the unusually warm weather, is what’s making the Olympics so great. It’s testing the athletes’ true technical and mental abilities making us spectators aknowledge their strength so much more and hopefully making the athletes feel more proud of what they can do.

I watched the women’s snowboard cross yesterday and was literally sitting on the edge of my couch with my fingers crossed praying Maëlle Ricker and Dominique Maltais made it down the hill. The event was ugly, at least three quarters of the women wiped out once over the course of the day. The fog was so heavy I could hardly see the snowboarders going down on my TV so I can’t imagine being one of the riders having to locate a 60 foot jump in the midst of it. To top things off for the athletes, it rained yesterday morning making the slope extremely icy.

By the time the finals rolled around the fog rolled away, but still the course was icy. Both the spectators and athletes knew the final run was going to be a matter of who could make it down the slope without falling. As a spectator that challenge alone made the event ten times more exciting and made me respect the winner’s abilities ten times more – thankfully that winner was Maëlle Ricker, a Canadian.

So I find it disappointing that so much of the Olympics, in any city for that matter, is qualified as a success based on the smooth running of the events when really the Olympics is about the competition between athletes. To me what would make the Vancouver 2010 Olympics the worst ever would be if a bunch of the athletes were caught cheating. In no way do the Olympics become poor when a few glitches occur, as there will always be glitches.

I’ve been at home for the past five days on the couch with a raging headache, a stuffed up nasal passage and a cough so bad I could blow the snow from Russia to Cypress Mountain and still I find myself on the edge of my seat cheering on the athletes. So don’t tell me the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are the worst ever – I’m not even a sports fan and I’m sick and I’m watching so it must be good.

(See Ricker's gold medal run at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oRBEtG030o.)

Crepe Expectations

It has been less than a month since Kawaii Crepe has opened, but people are already packing in to this Osborne Village crêperie like migratory birds relieved to escape from the slushy winter snow. And for good reason too. Kawaii Crepe is affordable, quick, convenient and the food selection is large enough to kick whatever craving one may have.

Kawaii, a Japanese word meaning cute, is exactly what this place is. Every time I think of it the Chordettes’ Lollipop song plays through my head and I picture a 10 year-old boy and girl sitting in a colourful diner gazing into each others eyes sharing a milkshake, only at Kawaii Crepe it would be bubble tea, with two straws – just like the movies.

This diner style restaurant feels like you’re in a candy world. The baby blue walls with red, green, yellow and pink dripping gumball shapes combined with the sweet smell of melting marshmallows, chocolate and honey literally has you panting upon your entrance.

But sweet isn’t the only tooth Kawaii Crepe caters to. If you prefer a savoury dinner, you're in luck. The ‘ninja’ crepe ($ 6.95), one of their most popular crepes, has a sweet peanut flavour that fills your mouth with a soft crunch and a slightly spicy kick. It is a definite favourite. The ‘Osborne branch’ ($6.50), is basically a sweeter version of a chicken, bacon and ranch wrap. It’s rich and creamy but nevertheless tasty.

But then came ‘the hurricane’ ($6.75), literally. Something was off – it was too sharp. The creamy mushroom dill sauce tasted like a too-strong vinaigrette. Like every hurricane, I just wanted it to be over.

Dessert, however, brought back the sunshine following the storm. The ‘it’s-a-smore’
($5.25) is the smore that doesn’t crumble. The pillowy melted marshmallows and chocolate soaked the graham wafers just enough, for optimum chewiness. It’s-a-smore is sure to kick whatever sweet craving you may have – and for a long time as it’s huge.

If you’re seeking a lighter finish to top off your savoury meal the ‘divine brown’
($3.25), melted butter and brown sugar, and the ‘lovely pear’ ($4.25), almonds, pear and honey, and ‘and everything nice’ ($2.95), brown sugar and cinnamon will do just that for you.

The best part (well, nearly as nice as the 'it's a smore' crepe) is that these lovely crepes are quick. It takes no longer than five minutes to receive your crepes and the craving can be kicked six days a week from ten to ten (midnight on Friday's and Saturday's). Choosing one will be your only obstacle as there are just over 30 crepes on the menu.

Overall, the place provides a nice escape into a fantasy world amidst winter's harsh realities.
Note: This article can also be found in The Projector, Red River College's student newspaper.

Why restaurants need a website

Johnny’s stressed out and nervous. His friend Clara (and secret crush of four years) is coming to town to visit from Vancouver and she’s agreed to meet Johnny for dinner. He knows this is his big shot to impress her so he wants to take her somewhere nice.

But the problem is Johnny doesn’t eat at fancy restaurants because they’re too expensive for his student budget and he’s pretty sure Clara has an extensive list of allergies. The occasion to meet Clara is too important to mess up by thinking his restaurant of choice is a good one only to find out it’s too expensive, not the menu he’s looking for or worse doesn’t accommodate to Clara’s allergies. So what’s a guy to do?

Johnny’s not the only one who faces this dilemma; I think many of us can agree that there’ve been occasions where we just can’t choose a restaurant. Case in point, my sister and I do a dinner club once a month and being the hungry students we are we toss around dozens of potential spots to go – what helps us decide? Checking out each restaurants’ menu. What’s the quickest way to do that? Online. My point? It’s absolutely critical in today’s web-based society for a restaurant to have its own website with their menu posted on it.

We’re a busy society. People don’t have time to jump restaurants because they don’t like the menu.

Also, allergies are a huge deal and still many restaurants don’t accommodate to such parties. For example, 529 Wellington (not that we’re all going there once a week) cooks all of its dishes in peanut oil – now that is something you need to know before going if one of your guests has a nut allergy. Luckily, however, 529 does have its menu posted online.

Furthermore, a restaurants website will indicate the prices of their dishes. I know I sure want to spare myself the embarrassment of making my reservation, opening up my menu and realizing I can’t even afford the soup du jour. Or perhaps worse, what if I open up my menu and realize I hate the soup du hour along with every other foreign-seeming item on the menu? No thanks, I’ll do my research before I go. Websites solve these issues for me.

Needless to say I think I’m beginning to exhaust my point. But allow me to point out one more. That is, depending on the time of day one is going to eat he or she may be time constrained. Perhaps they only have a one hour lunch break and want to grab something to eat. Well by just by looking at the types of dishes on the menu one can guess how long it may take to prepare the dishes and whether or not a reservation may be required. Both are things that a restaurant’s website can tell a potential guest.

Remember those things with phone numbers running down the pages called a phone book? The outdated use of them is like comparing talk radio to its original days of the Morse code. And the Morse code is exactly what filtering through a phone book feels like – Google is my preferred option.

Therefore I think restaurants should be including room in its budget to have a website set up for itself. Websites bring awareness to a restaurants existence, sell the potential guest on going there and avoid any hassles with the managers over misunderstandings with the menu selection, hours of operation, payment options or reservation requirements.

I know I rarely go to a restaurant without checking out its menu before. And if they think I’m going to walk around this big city checking out the menu on the outside of their business, they’re dead wrong. It’s February…in Winnipeg…it’s minus 7 million degrees. Instead I will type that magical website called Google into my laptop in my cozy warm house and see if the restaurant in question interests me. If there’s no website, I can almost guarantee that that restaurant is off my list.

Ron Brown, executive director for the Manitoba Cycling Association, agrees. When he goes for lunch with work, he says he always checks out the restaurant’s website before.

“If there’s no website,” he says, “we almost always don’t go.”