Restaurant Reviews - Food Court Favourites
Mention shopping mall food courts and everyone has a
different perception on what kind of food you expect. Personally, I rarely stop at food courts, but
on the occasions where you need a fast bite, the options aren’t limited to
A&W or Tim Horton’s. We have some
unique food court kiosks and some downright tasty options. The following offers a caption of my personal
favourites at the various shopping centres.
201 Portage Ave
(former TD Centre & CanWest Global Centre)
Il Pranzo Italian Eatery
Pranzo rotates their pastas but there’s always at least one
crowd-friendly white sauce and one red sauce pasta. Today’s white sauce is a creamy and thick
seafood selection that comes with bits of shrimp and pollock. This huge portion sits atop perfectly made al
dente noodles. The pasta comes with a
side of garlic toast; you can get a side salad for an extra $1.49.
Pranzo offers several types of side salads, including a
variety of cold pastas, all of which come perfectly al dente as well. The chicken pasta comes in a very herbaceous
sauce and has generous chunks of chicken but I find the sauce a little too
thick for a cold pasta.
The leafy salads come with the usual dressings. The vegetable leafs are fresh and crisp, with
lettuce being the only exception, wilted and browning.
Leaf & Loaf Corporation
204-942-2820
The Leaf & Loaf offer so many combinations of dressings
and vegetables, I don’t know where to begin.
Let’s just say that every option of vegetable I tried is off-the-shelf
fresh, and the dressings taste meticulously created. If you want to stray from the salads, the
Loaf also offers Rice Bowls, brown rice with various ingredients with dressings. While dressings enhance vegetables nicely, I
don’t find them hearty enough to support rice.
Even the curry vinaigrette in the Chicken Curry dish is hard to discern
within the rice. I guess I expect Indian
curry sauce, rather than a curry dressing.
I’d stick with the delicious salads.
Other choices include:
City Submarine
Dee’s Chicken
Mmmarvelous Muffins
CityPlace
Samosa Hut
One of the fundamental faults of counter foods lies in the
presentation. Sitting under heat lamps
or over boiling units dries out most foods and leaves a desiccated wake of
cardboard. Because many Indian dishes
come with rich sauces, prolonged heating has little detrimental effect on the
integrity of the food. Couple the
longevity of the food with the high quality of the preparation and you have a
downright delicious meal. The servings
from Samosa Hut don’t take a backseat to the servings from any sit-down Indian
restaurant buffet. Avoid the CityPlace
line-ups at McDonald’s and grab yourself a delicious serving from the Hut. The popular dishes—butter chicken, veggie
Korma and a meat curry—are always available, and other favs rotate.
Other choices include:
A&W
Gyro Sensations
Koya Japan
Little Bangkok
Thai
Manchu Wok
McDonald’s
MMMarvelous Muffins
Mrs. Vanelli’s
Subway
Sushi June
Thai Plaza
Garden City
Casarap
When someone pointed towards a fast food kiosk named
Casarap, I came with the expectations of having some kind of wrap or sandwich;
I couldn't be more wrong. Casarap is a
Filipino based food stand that serves a number of the South Asian standards,
most of which share Chinese origins.
Essentially a rice porridge, congee dishes include boiled
rice with options for meats. The watery
rice takes on the flavours of the meat and offers a complete and healthy
meal. Casarap's chicken congee includes
fall-off-the-bone chicken wings, topped off with chopped scallions and crunchy
bits for texture.
Pansit (noodles) Malabon is another Filipino dish of Chinese
origin, named after a Filipino city known for its seafood. The udon-style (although a bit thinner) rice
noodles are covered with a bright orange coloured, shrimp sauce. Don't let this scare you away; the sauce
doesn't taste fishy at all. The sauce
just adds a touch of saltiness to the noodles.
The dish comes with two shrimps, which are quite forgettable. Both the congee dishes and the noodle dishes
come with a hard-boiled egg.
Among the ubiquity of Chinese fast food restaurants, I'm
very surprised there aren't more Filipino counterparts. If Casarap is any indicator, I would take
their food over the Canadianised Chinese slop any day.
Other choices include:
A&W
Bake Shop
Koya Japan
Little Vietnam
Manchu Wok
Mini Donuts and More
Pita Express
Taco Time
Grant Park
Koya Japan
Koya fries their meals on order, although the rice and
noodles are already pre-cooked. Because
the meals are “cooked” (reheated is a more accurate term), the food avoids the
dryness of the heating elements. The
dishes don’t have anything special to offer, but at least they’re fresh.
The rice rolls have a wonderful combination of vermicelli
noodles with fresh lettuce and a cucumber slice, as well as your choice of
meats to add a nice complement. The
peanut sauce is just sweet enough and very peanutty, making a lovely dip.
The Gyozas come with fried vegetables (broccoli, carrots,
bean sprouts and cabbage strips), which taste bland, bland, bland. Even with the sweet and tart dipping sauce
poured all over the veggies, tastes empty.
As well, the gyozas taste a little greasy and could use some more
stuffing. What’s there has a nice taste
with crunchy texture but this shouldn’t be your first choice.
Other choices include:
A&W
McDonald’s
Tim Hortons
Kildonan Place
Vanelli’s or Mrs Vanelli’s
Vanelli also keeps precooked pasta on hand, waiting to be
stir-fry reheated with fresh vegetables and meats on demand. Because the pasta was precooked, there isn’t
any ad dente left but the freshly cooked vegetables come crispy and
delicious. The sauces lack any real
depth but the so-so food tastes fresher than most fast food counters.
Other choices include:
A&W
Arby’s
Koya Japan
New York Fries
Sizzling Wok
Subway
Taco Time
Tim Hortons
Polo Park
Cultures
Most of the mains that Cultures offers comes in the form of
sandwiches and wraps. All of the wraps
look fresh and just-made. The tuna salad
wrap comes with lots of fresh, crisp lettuce (a little too much). The fresh tasting tuna salad is among the
best you can find, but alas, you don’t get very much of it. If they shrink the amount of lettuce and
doubled the scoop of tuna, you would have a nearly perfect wrap.
You get two sides with your wrap. The farfalle in pesto comes with tons of
basil and nice chunks of green and red peppers for texture and zing. The oil tastes fresh and good quality but
more garlic would further improve this pesto sauce. The tri-colour fusilli comes in amayo
dressing that tastes deliciously sweet, without being too creamy. The florets of broccoli add nice texture but
there’s a bit too much of it. The display
counter shows off a generous sprinkling of cheese—too bad it’s not more evenly
spread out as my serving barely had any.
I also want to give mention to Kimchi, although my
experience left me in a fit.
Kimchi Korea
Delight
I love trying new foods and often, the best finds come from
ethnic corners. Occasionally, I stumble
onto something distasteful and being of Asian heritage, I’ve encountered more
than my share of distasteful dishes through my childhood. Today, I rarely come across anything as
revolting as some of the things my dear mother made me eat. Without intending to offend anyone, I put
kimchi in the same category as ginseng, salted fish and beef brains that came
from my family’s kitchen. Although 20
years have elapsed since I last tasted it, I remember the Korean fermented
vegetable dish well—and not fondly.
Seeing the Kimchi outlet at the food court, I know that I need to give
it another chance.
Kimchi offers nine tempting options but only two include
kimchi: the kimchi fried rice and the
kimchi fried noodles, both available with your choice of a main
ingredient. I choose the fried rice with
beef.
The back room hands out pre-portioned servings to the wok
chefs, who stir-fry your order as you wait.
The chefs put on a good show as the flames fly and flicker
furiously. Oil causes flames and more
oil you use, the higher the flames.
While the show looks impressive, the dish ends up on the greasy
side. Although the oily rice has been nicely
flambéed, a fair amount of the grains taste crunchy, which happens when the
rice is undercooked.
You get a lot of rice and most people will feel quite full
after finishing this meal; however, among the abundance of rice is a scarcity
of eggs, vegetables and even beef.
Through the entire plate, I only find one shred of fried egg, three
cubes of carrots and a handful of meat.
The dish also comes with only a few shards of kimchi, which is a perfect
amount to include. The pungent nature of
kimchi can easily (very easily) overpower everything and the minute amount of
kimchi that Kimchi puts into their rice is just enough to give a taste without
taking over. If you have the urge to try
kimchi, definitely try it through this rendition before going to the
unadulterated version.
Kimchi’s kimchi comes in different spiciness levels: mild, medium, spicy, very spice or
fiery. When asked, I ordered mine “as
hot as you can make it—hotter than you’ve ever made it before.” I get the response,
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, make it spicier than you’ve ever made it before. Then when you think it’s so stupid hot that
no one in the world can eat it, make it even hotter,” I exclaim.
“I’ll give you level three—that should be hot enough for
you.”
“Please make it as hot as you can,” I insist.
“You can’t take it.
I’ll give you triple spicy and if you don’t think it’s hot enough, then
come back and we’ll add more.”
“I’m getting takeout; I can’t come back. Just make it as I order please,” I
implore. The attendant then walks away
and I’m left with a level three spicy rice.
Granted, this is a spicy dish but it comes nowhere close to the
expectation of a person who orders it “hotter than you’ve ever made it.”
The kimchi fried rice tastes good despite the lack of ingredients. At $8, the price is a little high for food
court but not unreasonable. However,
neither the food nor the price will stick to my mind. I will remember this experience solely
through the eyes of a person judged by an arrogant cashier based on appearances. Whenever someone asks me what I think of
Kimchi the restaurant, I will relate that it took every bit of restraint I had
not to reply, “who the hell do you think you are?!”
Finally, I also want to mention Brioni’s.
Brioni’s
Located just on the outskirts of the dining area, I’m not
sure that I can exactly call this a “fast food joint.” Brioni’s has its own dining area with benches
and padded seating. Tucked away in its
own corner, the seating area isolates itself from the hustle and bustle of the
main court area. Considerably larger
than all the other kiosks, the ordering counter offers pizza and a fair
assortment of pastas. The (extra) thin
crust pizzas look heat lamp dried and shrivelled so I go after the pasta
instead. Today’s special is Italian
sausage with your choice of pasta; I choose the baked ziti.
The dish comes with a small, dense bun, resembling a
miniature cinnamon bun—you can choose between multigrain or garlic. The multigrain tastes quite moist, despite
being densely hard.
The pasta looks fresh and nicely arranged behind the
counter. The melted cheese protects the
pasta from being fried by the warmers, leaving the ziti firm and almost al
dente. The nice pesto sauce tastes very
basilly and herbaceous. You can ask for
extra sauce over the noodles, which tastes richly like ripe tomatoes. With the pasta, you receive three segments of
sausages, which a fairly generous amount.
The sausages come boiled, which is one of my least preferred methods of
cooking. Grilling or broiling would have
added another dimension to the sausages but as is, the juicy meat has a spicy
bite. Fried peppers (green and red) and
onions cover the sausages, added a lovely extra dimension.
Brioni’s serves good food—reaching full-service restaurant
quality. Despite how they look, maybe
next time I’ll try the pizzas.
Other choices include:
A&W
Arby’s
Bento Sushi Express
Famous Wok
Kentucky Fried
Chicken
Koya Japan
New York Fries
Opa Souvlaki
Orange Julius
Subway
Taco Time
Thai Express
Portage Place
Bento Sushi Express
Bento Sushi is a mass-production sushi chain that supplies
kiosks, retail counters and supermarkets across Canada
and parts of the U.S. You can hardly walk through any kind of
shopping destination without seeing some Bento products. I always use the California
roll as an initial quality indicator. As
expect ed , there’s no crab to be found here; the Bento version glaringly
features the bright pink pollock, sticking out from the center of the roll.
As with most takeout sushi, if you can get it fresh from the
chefs’ hands, you can find some perfectly acceptable items. The longer the food sits in the plastic
container, the staler the fish gets, and the drier the rice gets. If you go during lunch or dinner rushes, you
can find freshly made items but don’t expect the same in the middle of the
afternoon.
Thai Express
I love Thai food—and with a Thai Express at almost every
shopping outlet, I would always have something good to eat if they can deliver
good Thai. Sadly, their food is not great; it’s not
bad, but it’s not great.
The spring roll looks and tastes heat lamp dried and has too
much cabbage. A little bit of meat or a
combo with some bean sprouts would make it less one-dimensional. As well, the moisture of the bean sprouts
would help to maintain the integrity of the roll under the searing heat.
Thai food is known for their noodle dishes and the Pad Sew
is essentially the same thing as the Chinese chow fan. This version comes with just broccoli
(although the sign advertises Chinese broccoli); it also could use some variety
in vegetables. The beef is a little bland
but otherwise, the dish is very well made.
The noodles are fried perfectly and seasoned well. Chinese chow fan often comes very greasy,
glistening with oil; the Express’s version shimmers from the noodles themselves
(and not from the oil), thus providing a clean and concise taste.
Other choices include:
A&W
Chester Fried
Chicken
City Submarine
Joey’s Only Seafood
Manchu Wok
Mrs. Vanelli’s
Pita Pit
Taco Time
Teriyaki Experience
Tim Hortons
St. Vital Centre
Bourbon Street
Grill
Being a fanatic of Cajun/Creole, I just about jumped out of
my pants when I saw a restaurant called the Bourbon Street Grill. The first sign of disappointment came when I
realised that Bourbon Grill is a fast food kiosk but the major let down came
when I peered into the counter and saw Chinese food. The only semblance of Bourbon
Street comes in the form of Blackened Chicken and
Bourbon Street Chicken. The remainder of
the food is Canadianised Chinese, including the chicken balls with fluorescent
pink sauce, fried rice and fried noodles.
The Asian servers definitely did not remind me of any of the citizens in
New Orleans .
The fried rice and noodles taste exactly as I expect. The heating lamp does a nice job desiccating
the dishes and results in dry and flavourless slop. The blackened chicken has a nice grilled
flavour but the “blackened” aspect tastes more burnt than blackened. The Bourbon Street
chicken tastes like a candied chicken, perhaps sporting a honeyed glaze. This dish has a nice taste combination and is
by far the hit of the counter. I would
go for the Bourbon Street
chicken but skip the rest.
Other choices include:
A&W
Cultures
Dairy Queen / Orange Julius
Jimmy the Greek
Kentucky Fried
Chicken
Koya Japan
New York Fries
Sizzling Wok
Subway
Sushi Gozen
Taco Time
Thai Express
Time Hortons
Vanelli’s
Winnipeg Square
Pizza and Pasta Della Piazza
22 – 360 Main St
(204) 943-1338
Tucked away in the corner of Winnipeg
Square , Pizza and Pasta Della Piazza shows off
some fresh-looking pizza and a generous (for fast food) variety of pastas in
their showcase. They rotate the options
and one of today’s specials includes a dish of penne noodles with assorted
meats in a tomato sauce. The rich and
sweet tomato sauce tastes like it might easily have come out of your own
kitchen, made from your own garden tomatoes.
The pasta tastes slightly overcooked, but perfectly acceptable for heat
lamp stock. I can’t begin to count the
number of different meats in here—but I can identify a few, including
pepperoni, ham, salami and smokies-type sausage. A bit of gooey cheese holds this dish
together so imagine taking a meat-lover’s pizza, scrapping all the toppings off
and using it as the sauce for your pasta.
That is what we have here—and it tastes delicious. Pizza and Pasta Della Piazza definitely puts
out sit-down restaurant quality food, but they also charge restaurant
prices. This special comes to $10, plus
a seldom-seen Interac transaction fee.
It’s a little pricy for food court, but I guess you get what you pay
for.
Other choices include:
A&W
Booster Juice
City Submarine
Cookies by George
Koya Japan
Pizza & Pasta Della Piazza
Rodos Greek & French Eatery
Starbucks
Taco Time
Taste of Sri Lanka
Vinh Long Vietnamese
The Forks
Bindy’s Caribbean Delights
151 – One Forks Market Rd
(204) 942-8409
Bindy’s Caribbean Delights has a long reputation for serving
good West Indian food in Winnipeg. Here, you find some of the finest roti wraps
in the city with tasty stuffings. The
roti with jerk chicken and vegetables is a frequent special but I prefer the
regular roti with rice. The vegetable
version has too much veggies and not enough delicious jerk for my
preferences. Even though Bindy’s pre-portions
their stuffings, you can’t help but feel good to watch the owner put it
together for you. In the preparation,
she asks if you want the hot sauce—be prepared if you nod yes! I’m a severe chilli-head and I find this
sauce smouldering hot, just the way I like my Caribbean
food.
Fergies Fish ‘n Chips
142 – One Forks Market Rd
(204) 942-9444
info@fergiesfishandchips.ca
As the name implies, Fergies prides itself on its fish and
chips. You have the option of three
fishes: cod, pickerel (walleye) or
halibut. The firm meat of the halibut
stands up nicely to the cooking process but I prefer the local favourite
(pickerel). The perfectly cooked fish
flakes out from its batter shell and tastes fresh but not fishy. Although the fish comes deep fried, Fergie
describes the cooking process as poaching the fish inside the batter, thus
locking in the vitamins. The batter
tastes deliciously light, even though the coating is considerable. The fish tastes a little overcooked but the
whole package tastes delicious. The
chips (fries) have the rustic home-cut look and taste crisp and crunchy without
being greasy.
The seafood chowder comes in a hearty bread bowl, guaranteed
to fill you up if you consume the entire thing.
I love seafood chowder but I prefer mine with a clam base and oozing
with shellfish. While there’s a little
bit of scallops and tiny shrimps, fish meat primarily makes up the soup
body. Fish fanatics will love the broth
but I find it a little fishy.
Dragon Express
Dragon Express specialises in Chinese and Vietnamese foods
but looking into the display counter, you see the usual selections you expect
out of Chinese takeout. The deep fried
pork has a bulky plate of armour surrounding a slight sliver of meat. The server first dips the batter ball into a
sweetish sauce, then finishes it with a dip into sesame seeds. The seeds provide a nice finish to the deep
fried dough.
Chinese dishes—especially from fast food kiosks—often come
glistening with grease and dripping with fat.
Stir-frying in a wok can be a healthy way to prepare foods but hardly
when you drench it with oil.
Surprisingly, the Dragon’s chow mein (fried thin noodles) has very
little grease and tastes flavourful. The
standard veggie noodles have onions for body, with strips of celery, cabbage
and carrots for texture. Just a touch of
soy gives flavour without over-salting.
Other choices include:
Caramel Crêpe
Chilean Corner
Country Submarine
Danny's All Day Breakfast
MK Asian Cuisine
Tall Grass Prairie Bread Co. & Deli
Taste of Sri Lanka
Yudyta's Ukrainian Food
Zorba's Pizza
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Taste of Sri Lanka is great! Always try it when I am visiting WPG.
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