MMMMilestones!

And we don’t mean the restaurant! We decided when we hit 5000 views/clicks we would indulge in either an old favourite we hadn’t had in awhile, or a new place we had been meaning to get to.  Oldest kiddo got a gleam in her eye when she heard this, and she was instantly instructed to not artificially inflate our numbers (though the unspoken offer of acceleration was appealing haha).

A couple of weeks ago we hit that number! (… as always, thanks for viewing!). We had already written the names of the places on pieces of paper, folded them up, and put them in a tupperware bowl, awaiting the draw.  L got to choose… well, he held the container and my younger kiddo plucked one out… which was quickly unfolded, and the winner was: SINATRAS!!!! a small Italian sandwich shop making a classic veal sandwich that we had not tried, but had heard a lot about.

L made a trip there while I waited at home.  I gave some input as to what I was looking for, but since he was picking it up, he had the final say. I will add that I was pretty sure what would be his input.  He returned with a sandwich-filled heavy brown bag full of delicious promise.  As I suspected, although the sandwich is already a monster, he still got double meat, and also had every topping available added as well.  I wanted an order of the spicy olives and they did not disappoint: firm, with a light oil and perfect level of spice.  Will be going back for those at the very least. He also got the soup of the day, pasta fagioli, which was good, but not the highlight.

So onto the sandwich.  It was huge and delicious, the veal was quite tender, the toppings were tasty, the only thing we would do if ordered again was get more sauce on it, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. We will Sinatras again another day, but not for awhile… it is a heavy hitting sandwich that needs pacing on it’s consumption intervals.  The name did not go back in the container, the rest still await, and we will draw again when we hit 6000 so click away 🙂 and of course “try the veal!”

K&L 😀

Well Hellooooooooooo Dolly!

Welcome to our first “You Gotta Eat Here!” restaurant post! Back in the summer, which with the chill in the air seems soooo long ago now, we headed off to Ottawa for a visit with oldest kiddo and some good eats (and drinks of course). Besides a mandatory trip to Alirang as seen in a previous post, the other definite on the list was Stoneface Dolly’s.

The decor was clean and modern, with an open kitchen and we were quickly greeted and shown to our table. The service was excellent, my memory is slightly murky recalling our servers name, but she was a pro at her job for sure (she previously owned her own restaurant and hmm, I think her name was Deb??? So sorry for forgetting, I think it’s time for superfoodies to start taking notes!)

We started with some ravioli, a sun dried tomato goat cheese dip, and a couple of pieces of corn bread… that only L and I were interested in (oh well, more for us!) All worth having again, especially the dip. Then on to dinner.

Two of us had a dish called Veal Birds… I can’t tell you why they are called that… but they are incredibly rich, delicious solid meat wraps/logs (not a good idea to use “log” to describe food, but look at the pictures, it fits!) and tasted like nothing I’d had before! Everyone loved them, and they are still kind of haunting my tastebuds, whispering for me to come back. Rounded out the choices with a black bean pasta dish, and Jambalaya.  All well made, tasty, but not the very best Jambalaya I’ve ever tasted, but would order again. I was totally captivated by the veal though.

Now here is an above and beyond moment: we mentioned to the server that we were there specifically due to the tv show.  She asked why we didn’t order the “bobotie”??, which was a big feature. Told her that many reviews kept talking about how sweet it was, and I wasn’t liking that part.  She said we should come back and try it, but I mentioned that it would be months till we were back.  She disappeared and came back with a mini sample of it and 4 spoons! Now THAT’S service! It was great to get to try it, as I had regrets that we had made the call to leave it out.  Annnd, it was sweet.  A little too sweet maybe for my taste, others liked it, I would still order a full size one to try it again with all of the added bits on the plate that we may have missed, but I was right about the sweet.

So all that being said… do “you gotta eat here!”? I would say a big yes! Have those Veal Birds if nothing else, just make sure you live close by so you can feed your addiction to them after the first taste! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya…

K&L 😀