Leva Cappucino Bar

So it's been quite a while since I've updated.  It doesn't mean I haven't been eating out, just that I haven't had time to update because of school and exams.  I am now OFFICIALLY done my undergrad degree and am ecstatic to get more food blogs up!


One of the places we went to multiple times within the last month (amidst our long 12 hour studying days) was a little place called Leva Cappucino Bar.  It's about a 30 second walk from Hudson's on campus and has delicious food!


This neat little cafe serves specialty coffees, delicious pizzas, gelato and different feature salads everyday!  I can't believe we haven't been here before considering how close it is and how many years I've been in school (it's quite sad actually...).


Joanne ordered their feature salad that day (don't remember the price - she ordered it with a panini):

Warm watermelon salad with crushed pistachios drizzled with an aged balsamic vinegar

We all shared the delicious hummus ($9):

Fresh pita, olives and hummus

And Johnny and I shared the best pizza mushroom pizza we've ever had ($10-$14):

porcini cream, Cambozola, mozzarella, potato, mushrooms

Sorry for the terrible quality of pictures.  I had to resort to taking them with my iPhone since I don't usually bring my camera when I'm studying!  We also had pistachio gelato and pear gelato, but I forgot to take pictures of those two.  The pistachio one was super strong in flavour and Johnny enjoyed it, but I found it to be too much.  The pear gelato tasted like bananas for some strange reason and I'm not a big fan, so it was only ok for me.  The first time we went, I ordered blackberry gelato and Joanne got blackberry and lemon gelato, which was delicious!


We returned another day, but the pizza wasn't as flavourful as this first day we had it, but it was still really good.  I am going to miss the convenience of being able to stroll over for a pizza in the middle of the day as I'll be starting my full time job on Monday!  I'll make sure I still come back at least once in a while!


Overall?  I love this place and although the quality of the pizza varies depending on the cook, it's still definitely worth a try.  In the summer, they have seating outside on the patio where you can people watch and just relax.  I highly suggest you give a try if you can!  The only downside to this restaurant is limited parking.  You might be able to find a spot or two in the residential area around the restaurant, but otherwise, you may have to park on campus.


Leva Cappucino Bar
11053 86 Avenue Northwest

(780) 479-5382‎

http://www.levabar.com/index.html

Sabor Divino

This is the continuation of good food for Johnny's birthday.  On Saturday, we went to Sabor Divino for dinner.  We had been there before for my birthday in November and everyone had loved the food, so we decided to give it another try.


I made our reservations online through OpenTable originally for 7pm, but we realized Edmonton is lame on Saturday nights and nothing opens past 5pm, so we phoned in advance and asked if we could show up an hour early and they happily agreed. 


The service was great and we made our decisions quickly (although our final orders differed from what we were initially going to order when we read the menus online).


Before the appetizer came, they started us off with some olives and bread.  They gave us some balsamic vinegar, olive oil and butter for the bread:

Next was our Broiled Eggplant Package ($9) appetizer.  It was very flavourful and I have a love for pine nuts, so it definitely added to the dish. 

Fresh tomato, goat cheese, basil, wrapped in eggplant, balsamic vinaigrette and pine nuts

Johnny ordered the Bacalhau - Almost Divine Cod ($32).  This was my favorite dish the entire night.  Neither of us really ever order fish at restaurants, but because we heard so much about this dish, Johnny decided he would give it a try and neither of us regretted it one little bit.  It came with mashed potatoes and was definitely to die for.

Salt cod baked in cream, olive oil, white wine, leek, carrot, and pureed potato

Lastly, I ordered their Margret de Canard ($25).  This was not originally on the menu and intrigued me to order it when I saw it listed.  The meat was tender and flavour was perfect, but I did not enjoy the fat that lined the meat as much.

Pan seared duck breast, black trumpet mushroom, shallots, licor Beirao 

Overall?  I LOVE this restaurant and would definitely return in a heartbeat.  My goal is to try everything on the menu at least once because I know it will all be amazing.  I highly suggest this restaurant if you ever get a chance!  It's great for parties and romantic dinners and have piano players performing on certain evenings creating a wonderful atmosphere.

Sabor Divino
10220-103 St.
(780) 757-1114

http://www.sabordivino.ca/?sabor-divino-restaurant,1

Whimsical Cake Studio

Johnny's birthday was this past Friday and to celebrate, we ate tons of great food starting with some cupcakes from a cute little place called Whimsical Cake Studio.


I first heard about this store from Michelle who bought mini cupcakes for her birthday, so I decided it would be great to buy some for Johnny's big day.  They just opened a new location in the Garneau area close to the University, so I went to check it out.  Stepping into the store was like heaven with the wonderful smells wafting towards you and drawing you in and if that weren't enough, the pink walls and rows of cupcakes on display would definitely seal the deal.


The service was fast and friendly and in no time, I emerged from the store with twelve delicious looking cupcakes ($30):

The cupcakes are just as good as they look and Whimsical Cake Studio also makes specialty birthday cakes and wedding cakes, which I hope are just as good as these cupcakes were!

Overall?  Delicious and definitely worth trying.  The cake is moist, but the icing can get a little sweet, so if you're not much of a sweet person, sharing one cupcake between two people is probably more than enough.  I highly recommend the red velvet (the three on the top left corner in the picture) or the chocolate (bottom right corner) cupcakes.  The only downside is the price (it can be quite expensive for such a little cupcake).

Whimsical Cake Studio Inc.

8716-109 St
(780) 988-CAKE

http://www.whimsicalcupcakes.ca/index.html

Samurai Bistro

As promised before, I went to Samurai Bistro today for lunch.  We got to the restaurant a bit after noon, but luckily it wasn't too busy.  We were able to be seated right away and made our decisions pretty fast.

Johnny and I both ordered the Japanese Style BBQ Pork Ramen - $9.50:

My mom ordered the Spicy Chicken Ramen - $9.50:

Each ramen bowl comes with a crab leg, but I could have done without mine because I definitely didn't touch it. 

After slurping away at our ramen, we concluded that the service was good and the noodles were cooked well with the right amount of chewiness, but the soup base was the most disappointing.  It was not flavourful at all and tasted extremely bland.  I know I eat abnormally salty, but we all agreed it wasn't salty enough, so I know it wasn't just me this time.

Johnny and I decided that the quality of the soup is just as important as, if not more than, the quality of the noodles and this soup was just not satisfying enough.

Overall?  It is passable considering we live in Edmonton and ramen places do not come by very often, but it wouldn't be my number one choice.  I would probably choose to go for Pho over this purely due to the flavour factor, but try it out and let me know what you think!


Samurai Bistro
10632-100 Street
(780) 756-0834

Japanese Ramen

My boyfriend and I travelled to Japan this past summer and discovered that the one thing we can't get over is their delicious ramen.  We've tried a couple of places since we've returned, but nothing is the same.  The picture at the top of this blog (and shown below) was our favorite Yokohama style ramen.  It was about a 5-10 minute walk from our Oomori train station (where we stayed).

Below is another ramen place that Johnny quite enjoyed and I found to be ok.  It served pork bone soup ramen as well and we were intrigued to go in because of the long line ups outside.  This popular ramen shop was located in Shibuya.

This next place is Ichiran Ramen.  Our friends told us about it and it's a neat little place, but the ramen wasn't our favorite.  The set up was cool because the workers give you your food through this hole in front of you and you never see their faces.  They pull down the mini curtain to give you privacy once your food is delivered!  We found this by Ueno (after our little trip to Ueno Zoo).

There was also a ramen museum in one of the malls in Tokyo.  The first one had a clear Tonkatsu broth, which we didn't enjoy as much, but the second one was delicious and is shown below.  The pork you see lining the bowl on the right was the best pork I had in Japan because they grilled the outside with a seasoning.  Delicious!

There were many other places we tried, but we forgot to take pictures of alot of them!  My personal third favorite was a Miso broth ramen, but Johnny did not like it as much and that's when we discovered what's meant by a "girl" and "guy" ramen.  I guess we all do have different tastes!


So why did I decide to make my first blog about Japanese Ramen?  My friend told me about a new place that opened up in Chinatown called Samurai Bistro which will be serving Japanese style ramen.  She said they have pork based soup and miso based soup.  I'm going to go try it today so I'll update on how it is!