Sweet Revenge Patisserie, 4160 Main Street

Sweet Revenge was introduced to me by a dear friend of mine. Gator tried going there recently but there is always a large crowd of people waiting for a table. We took the chance to go there one evening and thankfully, the waiting time wasn't that bad.

What I really like about Sweet Revenge is the ambiance. I really love the red walls and the tea set. The only drawback - Sweet Revenge is only open in the evenings till late at night. So, if you go there after dinner, you might have difficulties getting a table, particularly since the place is really small with less than 10 tables. Even if you go get a table, it can be stressful at times seeing the huge line-up and at least for me, I feel pressured not to dilly-dally, pay up and go.

The quaint table setting - it matches with Gator's hat

Everything matches here - it is pleasing to Gator's senses

Each corner of the wall has some unique pictures - its an eclectic mix.. Since its Halloween, Sweet Revenge has taken an effort to include some unique decorations - I spotted a head inside a fishbowl and a portrait of Mona Lisa morping into some skeleton.  Our side of the table seemed pretty normal and uneventful.

There were small picture frames on our side of the wall.

A little skeleton head overlooks our meal

Now, comes the yummy bits. We ordered two types of desert - creme brulee with blackberries and Sweet Revenge with vanilla ice-cream on the side. I liked the creme brulee, although Gator must confess that I prefer a classic flavour. Unfortunately, they only had 2 seasonal flavours - blueberries or raspberries. The Sweet Revenge was a pretty little cake but I much prefer my cake with a bit more sponge - still, it went very well with the vanilla ice-cream on the side.

I must say that this creme burlee does not look appetising - looks like with blueberry chickenpox. But it sure is yummy

One lonely raspberry on top

The Sweet Revenge cake - with its acronym, SR

It has a crumbly texture - Gator prefers a smoother feeling to my cake

Slowly devouring the SR

Of course, nothing completes desert with a cup of tea. Gator is fussy about tea and Gator totally approves of the tea at Sweet Revenge. We ordered a lavender rosehip - it had a nice scent and was quite calming. The temperature of the brew was perfect. Also, I love the teacups. Probably from Royal Albert - I did not check. It was a daintier version of Gator's own tea set.

Pretty tea cup and saucer

Gator loves the gold coloured rim

Lovely little rim

The large pot of tea - love the rosehip bits

Overall Experience:

Deco: 4/5 - lovely place. A bit cramp though
Quality of food: 3.5/5 - cakes are great but not excellent
Value for $$: $$$/5
Overall Experience: 4/5 - service was pretty efficient but I felt so pressured to leave, seeing the line-up forming just in front of me

Hawker's Delight - 4127 Main Street

The word "hawker" usually denotes a person who goes from place to place selling food. And that basically is the origin of the phase hawker food in Southeast Asia and Asia. In the early colonial days, many of these itinerant hawkers were unlicensed and over time, strict controls were implemented to ensure food safety and for better controls in sanitary conditions. The term hawkers eventually evolved from an itinerant trader to one which became settled into a fixed place - where people usually congregate to eat cheap and good street food. The hawker centers are now an ubiquitous feature in many parts of Asia and its a great way to savor a variety of street food.

I was thus very excited to try out the hawkers delight at main street. Actually, the place is pretty gritty itself - small and hole in the wall place and where one can see the chefs frantically stir-frying food in huge iron woks over the hot stove.

For appetizers, we ordered vegetable fritters. I have to say that the dough was pretty light and bouncy and it was so crunchy. Gator loves her fritters.

Crunch veggie fritters

The inside of the veggie fritters

For main course, we ordered two dishes. The mee pok noodles were a HUGE disappointment for me. It came choke full of ingredients - bbq pork, prawns and vegetables. But the brown sauce was weird. The sauce was salty and came with minced meat.Traditionally, the sauce should come with a bit of spicy chilli sauce, mixed with soya sauce and vinegar - it should be spicy, salty and a bit tangy. The sauce served unfortunately was just salty and lacks the oomph factor .Mee pok refers to the type of noodles and can be served with wanton or even with fish balls, fish cakes or minced meat.

Mountain of mee pok noodles

Gator loves her shrimp but the sauce wasn't nice at all :(

View of meat in noodles

The second main course - nasi goreng (in Malay) which means fried rice  was much better. Even then, I found it pretty ordinary - it was fried with onions, tomatoes, shrimp and some pieces of fish cake and tofu. Nothing much to rave about.

My fried rice paradise wasn't much of a paradise :(

Close up shot of the nasi goreng

Overall Experience:
Deco: 2/5 - this is a no fuss, eat and go place. No problems for me in that aspect
Quality of food: 2/5 - except for the veggie fritters, the 2 main dishes were a thumbs down for Gator. Quite disappointing
Value for $$: $$/5 - price is cheap - between CAN$5.25-CAN$9 bucks. But the quality of food is below average
Overall Experience: 2/5

It was an overall disappointing experience for Gator. Hopefully, the other dishes like the laksa will be much better.

Thai Son Vietnamese Restaurant

Here is another backdated food post of Thai Son. I was kinda swarmed by some sort of fruit fries entering and departing the restuarant which was not a totally pleasant experience for Gator - it was late spring then. Overall, the food was so-so.

I was looking forward to having some Bun Bo Hue noodles. But it was not a totally good experience for me. It was not what I expected. The broth was really very greasy. I had to pour away like 1/4 bowl of this oily mixture before I cook commence eating.

I know this doesn't look greasy - but it really is. It had this huge pork knuckle inside.

I was not too enamoured with the pork knuckle - it was kinda big and made eating difficult. But I did like the meat balls and also the slices of meat.

The broth came with a healthy serving of onions

Bun Bo Hue came accompanied with a healthy serving of meat leaves and bean sprouts

 I added quite a bit of mint leaves and bean sprouts to hopefully absorb the grease from the broth. But it did not really work. A thumbs down from Gator for this dish.

We also ordered a grilled pork chop with a side order of meat loaf. The portions were pretty generous. I like the meat loaf - thought it was better than Pho Hoa Hong actually.

I really like the grilled pork chop - done quite nicely.

My favourite part of the dish was the burnt bits from the pork chop and the meat loaf.

Overall Experience:

Deco: 2/5 - you basically want to eat fast and leave. A no fuss place.
Quality of food: 3/5 - I liked the grilled pork chops but the bun bo huy was a disappointment for me
Value for $$: $$$/5 - its reasonable and portions are generous. But overall, I had better food elsewhere.
Overall Experience: 3/5 - it was so-so for Gator. I want to try their Pho next time.