Greg "Grga" S.'s Profile

There is a lot to like about Montgomery's:

First, it's one of the very (and I mean VERY) fish and chips places I've found in North America which even lists mushy peas on the menu. (I know, I know: without mushy peas, it's not even worth calling it "fish and chips", but try telling most places that.)

Second, unlike too many places, which try to get away with serving up nuked frozen fish filets, I could see into the kitchen as one of the cooks picked up a piece of fish and dipped it into the batter after I ordered it. (Not frozen, not preformed, we're talking real actual fish here.)

Third, you get to choose what kind of fish you want: cod, red snapper, or halibut. (Or, if your definition of "fish" isn't limited to kosher choices, you can order clams, oysters, prawns, or scallops instead.)

A couple of gripes from me, though: First, I hate crowds, and having half a dozen people push up to the counter in front of me was irritating. (Not that that's Montgomery's fault, but it makes ordering from them less pleasant. Then again, I should have known better than to go to the Quay on a Sunday.)

Second, and this really surprised me, the fish didn't actually taste that fresh. Granted, I probably could have gone for the cod, which is cheaper, or the halibut, which people obviously consider to be the primo fish, so the red snapper might not get ordered as often, simply because it's neither the cheapest nor the "best" option. Still, I was surprised and disappointed to bite into fish no fresher than I could have gotten in a supermarket. (Right across from the frozen fish filets...)

I tried the bento box, and found a lot of reasons to like it:

First, the pieces of sashimi were more generously sized than in many sushi places I have been. Second, it came with goma ae, which I love, instead of the forgettable green salad most places serve. Third, instead of California rolls (which I call "sushi for wimps") which come in so many bento boxes, this comes with a dynamite roll. Fourth, the teriyaki comes on a bed of bean sprouts instead of rice, which makes the meal a good deal healthier for diabetics like me. (I appreciated the carrot stick and sprig of broccoli, too.)

To counter those positives, I do have to say that, while I have heard that many sushi joints use horseradish with green food colouring instead of wasabi (because real wasabi is so expensive), this is the first place I've eaten where I could actually tell the difference. For those who prefer their sushi wasabi-free, that would make no never-mind, but for somebody like me, for whom nuking your sinuses is an essential part of the sushi experience, this shortcoming is worth taking off a full point. Sorry, Kokoro.

The menu here is the same as any other Red Robin: gourmet burgers, plus a few other options, like salads, fish and chips, or fajitas. (I was pleased to see potato skins back on the menu.) The burgers are definitely a notch above what you'd find at a fast food place, although the price is much higher, too, so you're probably getting just about the same amount of pleasure per dollar.

I will say that the staff here, while just as relentlessly friendly as in other Red Robins, are definitely more on the ball than the staff at the Marine Drive location in North Vancouver.

There are stairs to get up to the restaurant level from the Thurlow Street side, but there is also an elevator, for those who have problems with the stairs.

I was really torn which category to put Wrap Zone under. It's sort of Mexican, in that wraps seem to be descended from Burritos, but Wrap Zone makes no pretence that they are even attempting to be authentically Mexican. Nowadays it's just kind of "whatever works for you, wrapped in a tortilla". Certainly there's a wide choice of options, and if you can't find a filling which appeals to you at a place like this, you should see your doctor.

The time I went there was just after seeing my doctor about my diabetes, so I appreciated the fact that I could choose lots of veggies and brown rice, to lower the glycemic index of my meal somewhat. The server was friendly and helpful in suggesting fillings that would suit my dietary needs. If Wrap Zone were a little closer to my place, I could see myself eating there a lot. (Come to think of it, I need more exercise, so maybe I should be eating there anyway.)

Okay, yeah, so I've never met a cuisine I didn't like, but Vietnamese food is a particular delight for me. When I try to explain it to people who haven't tried it yet, I usually say that it's sort of like a fusion of Chinese and French cooking, but that doesn't really do it justice.

At Vinam, I recommend the combo plate with roll dip, steamed crepes, and brochette. Other stuff is good, too, but those dishes are the ones which are most uniquely Vietnamese to me.

You can dress me up, but you can't take me anywhere. I'm a bit of a klutz (okay, a lot of a klutz), so if I'm enjoying my food, I usually end up decorating my shirt. (I suppose I should really start buying shirts with random splodges of colour, so people can't tell when I mess on myself.)

Now, when I first tried Mexican food, I was nine years old, and it was the first time that I had ever encountered anything even remotely spicy. I could not handle it. My whole family (except for Dad, who was actually enjoying himself) was gulping down whole jugs of water, not yet having learned that water doesn't actually put out this kind of fire.

Fast forward mumbledy-something years, and, while I like Mexican food, it's not exactly a challenge anymore. Still, it's fun, and when I was in need of sustenance, I popped in. (I would have checked it out long ago, except they don't take credit cards, so I had to go to the bank and get some of that funny paper with the little scribbles on it before I could buy any food.)

The menu is deceptively short, because, like Subway or Harvey's, you get to choose what goes into your meal, out of a surprisingly large selection of ingredients. (I think it's the first time ever that I've been asked if I wanted cilantro in my burrito.) I was also kind of surprised to see a couple of those vertical roasters that they use in Middle Eastern restaurants to cook the meat for shawarma or donairs.

The proof is in the eating, and the eating is great. Those vertical roasters add a wonderful sort of barbecue flavour to the chicken, and give it more personality than you normally get in Mexican food. (Or at least, what passes for Mexican food "North of the Border, where the cacti are scarce and thin".) So, when I was about 3/4 of the way through my burrito, and some of the juice ran out onto my lovely new shirt, well, I was too busy enjoying the food to worry about neatness at a time like that.

So, yeah, I am definitely going back. But I should probably take a bib.

Okay, granted, most places in the world don't have an enormous Chinese community to enforce the authenticity of the food offered, and at least they don't put Worcestershire sauce in the food, as I've experienced at some chippies. (You know, the kind of place that has "Tandoori chicken, egg rolls, and chips" as a menu choice.) But still, after being told that the food here is "just like in Hong Kong", I found it a crushing disappointment. It's not actually bad, you understand. It's just not Chinese. More like Advanced Chinese Food Substitute, actually. This place wouldn't last six weeks in Hong Kong. Not even in Disco Bay.

My buddy invited me to stay with him on my vacation, so I could finally get a chance to visit Jolly Olde England. (Up to that point, I had been through Heathrow several times, but never escaped the confines of the airport, because I was always on my way through to somewhere else.)

Shortly after I arrived, I was looking through a map book he had, and was checking out the sites to be seen in Manchester, which was the nearest city. "There's nothing to see in Manchester", he opined.

Just at that moment, my eyes lit upon the magic words, "John Rylands Library", so I retorted, "Oh yes, there is!"

The library is lovely red sandstone building which looks sort of like a church. We went inside, and climbed the stairs to a large room with stained glass windows, statues along the walls, and (one of my all-time favourite fantasies) floor-to-ceiling books.

I went up to a desk, and asked them if it was possible to see a particular document. We had to wait a bit, because a tour group was going through the library at the moment, and being shown the manuscript, but sure enough, they brought it out, encased in glass. After all, 1,880-year-old papyri are fragile. Yes, I saw, with my own two eyes, the fragment of John in the Rylands Library, the oldest New Testament manuscript known to exist. They brought it out and showed it to us, and explained what they knew about it, just because I asked!

(While we were waiting for them to bring out the John manuscript, I noticed a copy of Captain George Vancouver's account of his travels on one shelf.)

This place is a bibliophile's fantasy come true.

One of the very cool things about living near Lonsdale is the sheer variety of cuisines on offer. I could eat a different country's cuisine at every meal, and not repeat myself for days, maybe weeks. One of the dishes of which I am particularly fond is donairs, which seem to be available over most, if not all, of the Middle East, so the abundance of Persian places along Lonsdale gives me the opportunity to satisfy a long-standing addiction.

Kolbeh isn't pretentious (actually, I have yet to enter a Middle Eastern restaurant which was. Except for the menu, and the rather spectacular mosaic on the wall, it might be any number of sandwich shops catering to the lunch crowd pouring out of nearby offices. But the food is SO much more interesting. Sure, they serve burgers, and even hot dogs, but why go for something like that when you could have falafel or a donair? Yum!

There are a couple of reasons why AKA Tom-Bo stands out from the crowd of sushi restaurants in this town:

First, the goma ae. I've been to places, otherwise fairly good, where the goma ae came as a not-quite-thawed-yet cube obviously sawed off a block of frozen spinach, with peanut sauce glopped over it. Okay, granted, all the elements were there, but the presentation is just a little... lacking. But here, the peanut sauce is worked right through the spinach. It may be a small thing, but it's the small things which make the difference between merely acceptable and great.

Second, the bento boxes. In most places, bento boxes offer you a selection of sushi, tempura, a salad, and either beef or chicken teriyaki on rice. Here, the teriyaki comes on a bed of bean sprouts. What's the difference? Well, aside from adding that much more variety to the meal, for a diabetic like me, using bean sprouts instead of rice lowers the carbohydrate level of the meal from nearly toxic to merely unwise. (If they offered sushi made with brown rice, I could afford to eat here more often.)

Oh, yeah. The tea is excellent.

I will say that every time I've eaten here, the service has been excellent. But then again, I always seem to pick times when the restaurant is nearly empty. I couldn't promise you service that good if the place was packed. (Or maybe I could. I don't know.)

I could complain that the price is higher than some other sushi places in town, but the food is good enough to make it worth the difference in price.