Open Sesame Does It For Me

With Open Sesame you need to have some patience getting from the "Please Wait To Be Seated" sign to actually sitting down at a table...because this place is popular...and finding a parking space can be challenging on a busy Friday night.

The "Fresh Asian" menu is pretty extensive and the value is fair to good, plus you can make your own Asian rice or noodle bowl with a myriad of choices from fresh veggies to sauces to herbs, nuts and other goodies. All you have to do is choose your carbohydrate of choice, your meat and then pile a bowl as high as you can with options. Beware though of getting too complicated. I suggest keeping it simple, adding some salty nuts or sunflower seeds and adding three scoops of sauce.  The bowls are not priced by weight; starting at $8.95 and your meat choice add-on ranges from $3.50 to $4.50.

With the restaurant being so busy service was slow but our server was nice and very helpful. I highly recommend reservations.

Open Sesame
6920 Macleod Trail South
Calgary, AB
(403) 259-0123

Dinner Club Friday, May 14th - Open Sesame

So after being slack the past couple Dinner Clubs - 1600 World Bier Haus on March 19th and Charlie Chan's on April 16th, I thought we should get the blog going again.

The May 14th Dinner Club will be at:

Open Sesame
6920 Macleod Trail South
Calgary, AB T2H 0L3
(403) 259-0123‎
http://www.open-sesame.ca/

"Fresh Asian cooking with a twist."

See you there!

Los Mariachi's

I completely agree with Nicole. Although my food was pretty tasty (I had the chimichangas and a chi chi to drink), the service was terrible. The poor service would have been understandable if the restaurant had been really busy or short staffed or something, but it wasn’t. Definitely don’t go to Los Mariachi’s if you’re in any sort of hurry. It took ages to just get water and we asked multiple times. I'm fairly certain our server hated her job and us. Sorry Mariachis, your food may be good, but not worth the pain of the service. I hope someone picks El Sombrero! 2 Shazzams. Yes only 2.

Los Mariachis - February 19, 2010

7400 MacLeod Trail Southeast
Calgary, Alberta
(403) 253-5692

Blink and you will miss it, the tiny restaurant Los Mariachis comes across as trying to be authentic but is more kitch than anything else. I would recommend the nachos but majority of the food came out cold from the comments of the Shazam Dinner Club members...my Beef Burritos (the last picture) came out piping hot (too hot?) and were quite tasty actually...but the service was unfortunately very poor and really a downer on the evening. We didn't even get dessert!  I need to erase this experience with a visit to El Sombrero.

Los Mariachis Restaurant

Nachos

Black Bean Soup

This this was chicken tacos or soft tortillas.

Chimichangas

Chicken Quesadillas

Salad (Avocados, Eggs, Tomatoes, Olives, Onions, Lettuce)

Beef Burritos

January 2010 Dinner Club

A new year of Dinner Club has arrived! I was bummed to miss out on what looks like some good eats and tasty treats...

Cattle Baron - October Dinner Club

Reminder that our next Dinner Club get together is at the Cattle Baron in North Calgary Friday, October 16 at 7:00 PM. See you there!

3340 - 26 Street N.E.
403-250-2595

Kulinary Kids

Wow, I must say that Kulinary Kids was a blast, we got to make most of our own food, and I must say we did a fabulous job!

I learned how to make yams tolerable, woohoo! The tenderloin was seasoned just right and I enjoyed every bite! The blueberry reduction was outstanding and simply the best I've ever had! Everything was amazing...we are truly great cooks!!! Chef Stephanie and Kim did a great job with our menu, thank you, thank you! I enjoyed it so much I have booked my step daughters birthday party there!

We are still waiting for the recipes, I have spoken with Chef Stephanie and apparently the recipes were emailed to Canda a while back! HINT HINT Canda, please pass them along!

I give Kulinary Kids 5 Shazams!

Kulinary Kids

We had a blast at Kulinary Kids!! Everyone was relaxed and having fun and enjoying the experience. For all the food and the educational aspects I thought $30 plus tip was very reasonable. Of course eating earlier would have been preferable but the wine helped with the hunger pains.

Chef Stephanie planned a menu of beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes and yams, sauteed zucchini and roasted carrots and parsnips served with a blueberry reduction sauce. Dessert was a no bake pumpkin pie (baked crust). The food was simple yet tasted divine...I do admit I had a second helping of potatoes and I would have taken home all the leftover spuds if it would not have made me look greedy. Although we did not leave with recipes in hand I believe they are to be forwarded to us soon.

Chef Stephanie is a big fan of sushi, Vietnamese and Indian food. Her favourite restaurants in Calgary and area are Inn on the Lake Bonavista, the Banff Springs Sunday Brunch, Sushi Kinjo, Glory of India and the Oriental Phoenix.

A big thank you to owner and former teacher Kim and Chef Stephanie for the great evening and all their hard work.

Kulinary Kids - September Dinner Club

This should be a fun one. Instead of our regular routine picking a restaurant to eat at, we will be making our own dinner and dessert at Kulinary Kids. Hope we don't get into a food fight!!!

224 - 12100 Macleod Trail SE
Calgary, AB T2J7G9, Canada
(403) 276-2433

Sans Fungi for this Fun Girl!

Escoba was my favourite dinner club yet! Maybe it was the fact that we started an hour early with a wine tasting where we sampled the Ruffino Ducale Chianti.... or perhaps it was the oh so cheesy Three Cheese Chick Pea Dip we shared! Then again, it may have been the Linguini Fresca pasta that I ordered. Can we say D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! Linguini, spinach, baby roma tomatoes, olives, artichokes, white wine and garlic! The linguini was supposed to also have mushrooms, but it was "sans fungi for this fun girl"! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I shared the Chocolate Mousse (whipped with rhum and citrus creme fraiche) with Crystal and it was to die for! Great wine, great food, great friends make it a 5 out of 5 Shazams for me!!!

Good Pizza, Good Wine, Good Fun!

I give Escoba 4 ½ Shazzams. I had the Carne flatbread which was basically their version of a meat lovers pizza (awesome for us O-blood types!). It was fabulous. I traded a slice of mine for a slice of Allison’s (Eon? Flatbread). It was equally yummy with goat cheese and artichokes. A few of us were there at 6pm for the complimentary wine tasting, which was really fun. The Wine Guy (or the Sommelier if you’re being all fancy) was very informative. We liked the Chianti he served so much, we split a bottle 4 ways and shared an appetizer (Chickpea dip) before the rest of the gang joined us at 7pm. It’s true that the menu is limited and some items were pricey, but this is a Wine Bar after all. I loved the service, the food and the wine. Escoba is pretty great! I can’t wait to go back again sometime.

Escoba

Escoba was excellent. I had the Linguini Fresca pasta along with Debbie and Joc (sans mushrooms). A nice fresh vegetarian pasta with a hint of heat that filled me up and left no room for dessert. Glad I came early for the wine tasting as I enjoyed the Ruffino Chianti (sangiovese) provided by Darren the sommelier (not sure if was actually a sommelier but he gave a nice run down on the wine and the region where grown). The service was good and our waitress was spunky and had a great personality.

The hand painted artwork was a nice touch, as were the antique architectural pieces hanging on the walls.

Allison was prepared bringing her over large calculator...but did it get used? Nope, not necessary, as the restaurant divided the bills up individually. My meal was very economical coming in at around $22.00 including 18% gratuity. Wine was free as we had a pre-arranged wine tasting before dinner. I would definitely come again and try more of the appies. I noticed the menu was not extensive (its all about the wine) and there were not a lot of dairy-free options. Even the pasta I choose, which I thought would be dairy-free as per the description, came topped with parmesan. I wish the server would have come around asking if you wanted parmesan on top and then freshly grate it for you, like they came around with the pepper, so I could have avoided the cheese.