Joe & Josephine Shmoe Amature Mystery Restaurant Critics

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Trafalgar Cognac Aged Porter

Went by the local beer store this evening looking for some thing new to try out. I came across this, and I have to say I was a little intrigued so I thought I would give it a shot. What I found was Trafalgar Porter, what caught my eye the most was the centre of the label that says "Cognac Aged". This porter is brewed at the Trafalgar Ales and Meads Craft Brewery located in Oakville Ontario. I don't normally go in for Craft Breweries, but this brew appears to be a little different, thats what got me to pick up the bottle. It sells in the LCBO for around eight bucks, and is in a vintage style re sealable bottle. Personally I think all beer should come in a bottle like this, but thats just me.

For me my first impression was that it had similarities to Guinnes but, with a distinctly unique finish. That is where hints of Cognac come out. The aroma, or bouquet if you will, of the Porter is very pleasant and hints at what you will find in your glass, a wonderfully brewed Porter with a distinct flavour that made this beverage a pleasure to drink.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Our first Review–The Mandarin, St. Catharines

English: Mandarin Restaurant Buffet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We arrived at The Mandarin at around 5:30 pm and as always the restaurant was neat, tidy and clean. The Family and I have been to this location on a number of different occasions and I don't ever recall a time that there has ever been any significant cleanliness problems. The hostesses were pleasant as always and took our information and had us take a seat so that we could wait for another hostess to take us to our table.
While I was in my seat, I took the opportunity to check out the bar that is directly across from waiting area. The bar is reasonably well stocked for the type of restaurant that The Mandarin is. It appears that most of the Liquors that were on hand are excellent for creating a wide array of specialty cocktails. After a few minutes we were escorted to our table and by a pleasant Hostess. She took the time to show us which part of the restaurant were in and which table. I took a look around at the dining room paying special attention to the floor and the ceiling. Once again I found the Dining room to be neat and clean with no out standing problems that I could see.
Around this time of year at the Mandarin they have a Chinese New Year promotion. During this time they have a number of specialty dishes that do not appear on their buffet at any other time of the year. One of the items that I tried was the Basil Mussels. I have always liked Smoked Mussels so I thought I would give these a try. They appeared to be roasted and were prepared with olive oil and a combination of Basil and Hot Peppers to give them just the right amount of flavour and heat. They were very tasty. I began the meal with some dumplings, sushi and seafood, I love shrimp clams and mussels, so The Mandarin is the perfect place for me. I carried on with some Spicy Mango Salad. I didn’t know what to expect from this. I have been eating mangoes ever since I was kid and never even considered spicy mango anything. The Mangos that were used for the salad were still not totally ripe, but that just added to the tart flavour of the salad. It was quite good and was a pleasant surprise to me.
As always the serving and wait staff were all very attentive and maintained a pleasant demeanour.One new position that I noticed was the Buffet Attendant. I noticed he was quietly standing to the side keeping a close eye on the buffet and keeping buffet items topped up if they began to run low.
One thing that made this visit to the Mandarin stand out from the others was that one of the Managing Partners Paul Si, was at the location and paid a visit to each and every table and handed out his business cared to the guests of his restaurant. He appeared to be genuinly interested in what you had to say and it showed in the way that he spoke to his guests. This was a nice touch and greatly appreciated.
I have always had good experiences at The Mandarin, If you are looking for a restaurant with a wide range of items then The Mandarin is your kind of place. Tis was my first kick at the can for a review so it is not as polished as I would like it to be, but like I said it is the first one

Chow for Now,
Joe

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

First Amateur Review–The Mandarin, St Catharines

English: Mandarin Restaurant Buffet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome back every one !

For our first review Josephine and I thought that we should stick to something simple and not go crazy our first time out of the gate.The establishment for tonight is going to be our local Mandarin Restaurant.

The Occasion for this evenings dinner is that my daughter has done well in her first semester of High School and we gave her the choice of where to have a celebratory dinner. She pegged the Mandarin as the restaurant of choice. So, by virtue of a teenage fickle finger of fate the Mandarin will have the privilege of being number one .

In our first review we will be looking at a few things that are consistent among all restaurants but also with the understanding that The Mandarin is not your typical restaurant. The Mandarin falls under the Buffet category and there for has a few differences compared to your average place.

So, Stay tuned for our first review and let me know what you think !!

Chow for now !!

Joe & Josephine

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Welcome to the Blog

English: Food in a restaurant Deutsch: Essen in einem Restaurant (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yup you found it, the electronic home of Joe & Josephine Schmoe the amateur restaurant and food critics. You may be asking yourself, why write a blog, and why restaurant and food critics?

Well I guess the best place to start would be to say that my wife and I enjoy food. we like eating it and cooking it, but we also enjoy going out to a nice place for dinner from time to time. When my wife and I go out to a restaurant we like to have good service, as most people do, from the people that serve us. My wife and I work hard for our money and when we spend it we expect that we get value and quality for the money that we are spending.

I suppose “value” is relative to the individual, and how much money they want to spend and on what they want to spend it. For my wife and I, value in a dining experience includes a lot of different things. It includes everything from the menus to the attitude of the servers, from how clean the restrooms are to the presentation of the food and dinner plates. So having said that, I thought to myself it would be kind of fun to write about our restaurant exploits and experiences.

My wife and I have often said to each other we would make excellent food and restaurant critics. So I thought lets give it a go. So here it is, our Amateur Restaurant Critic blog. However just keep in mind that neither my wife or I have any formal culinary training or anything like that. We just have a simple philosophy, we just want good food for the money that we earn, to pay for it.

So if you want the lowdown on local eateries in the Niagara Region from regular people, then this is the place for you. Come back often and tell your friends about Joe & Josephine Schmoe the Amateur Food and Restaurant Critics.

Chow for Now,

Joe

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