Restaurant #92 - L'ydille - June 14th

We went to eat at L'ydille.

It is known as a snooty French restaurant in Dieppe. However, they are closing their doors on June 22nd and are planning on re-opening early August as a French Bistro. What that entails, I'm not quite sure, but I'm guessing that they will probably have a more varied menu and things might be a little cheaper.

This was going to be our #100 restaurant, going to a snooty one to finish off the challenge, but as they are changing their menu, we decided to go earlier as to enjoy the restaurant as it's been know for the past 7 years.

First few things about the restaurant, you need a reservation as they can only seat 35 people. Also, as far as the menu goes, they have 2 menus, either a Table d'Hôte or a Degustation Menu. The Table d'Hôte gives you a couple choices, while the Degustation Menu gives you all the options. If you want the Degustation Menu, the whole table has to take it. We were told that it had to be that way because it makes serving all the dishes easier on the Chef and the Waitress.

We ended up all taking the Table d'Hôte.

From memory, they started us off with a little Salmon tart probably the size of a loonie. I remember people saying it was good. After that, there was a soup course, then our appetizer (I got the Poutine - Acadian style, not Quebec), main (Steak in vanilla sauce), dessert (I got the chocolate 3 ways, but the fruit dessert tasted a lot better) and a final little thumb-sized cup of rice pudding.

Now, I'm leaving out all the little extras that the waitress was talking about, such as the Liang-Liang infused something that was in a couple parts of our meal as well as the vanilla coming from Guadeloupe and all those little details that make a place snotty.

Overall impressions from everyone was that the food was mostly good (some people enjoyed it more than others), a lot of us found the food to not be very flavourful, (comparing it to Little Louie's here) and most of us were in agreement that we preferred Little Louie's. The thing that got me was that I had looked at their website and I seemed to remember the same menu. For diversity's sake, I do hope that they change up the menu or that there is some sort of Summer/Winter menu, because after having that once, I didn't find the food amazing enough that I'd be willing to go back and enjoy the exact same meal (but I did at other restaurants).

I'm not sure how much of the fact that we've been hearing about L'ydille for years and how it was the top of French food for the Moncton area, blah, blah blah.

I just want to finish up that I actually did really enjoy the food that I got and they prepare their meal exquisitely, I think I was just expecting that little bit extra for something that I have been hearing such good things about for years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Restaurant #91 - Oh Samosa - June 7th 2013

The gang eats samosas.

Darren, Stephane and I went to Oh Samosa. It was all our first time there. The people that own it also have a stand at the Moncton and Dieppe Farmer's Market where they sell their samosas.

Darren and I both had a platter, it came with hummus, tabouleh salad a chicken brochette and rice. Darren's also came with 2 samosas. Stephane got a donair. We all found that the food tasted good and while we were eating there was a steady flow of people coming in for food. They only have a little counter inside, but their terrace was nice with 3-4 tables outside. What's also nice is that it's not on a very busy street, so it's actually quiet outside and you don't hear cars outside as you do when you're sitting outside on Main St.

 

 

 

 

Restaurant #90 - The Pizza Mill - May 31st 2013

The gang went to Salisbury.

Pierre, Stephane, Darren and I went to Salisbury to a pizzeria. It was called the Pizza Mill. We all got a different flavour of pizza, all 9". The pizzas took about 10-15 minutes to make, which was fine, because as wallpaper, the restaurant has old Moncton newspapers from the 30's and 40's, so we enjoyed ourselves reading the headlines and the ads and such.

The place seems to be a lot more popular for take-out than eat-in, but there were still a few tables and booths, so it still meets the criteria. As for the pizza, we all enjoyed it, it tasted delicious, the crust tasted great (tastes homemade, not frozen like other restaurants we've been to). The only complaint made was by Darren and it was that his pizza didn't feel greasy enough. It almost made you feel like you were eating something healthy because it wasn't dripping in grease. However, they do have a double pepperoni and double cheese pizza, and in the picture that one looked like it would be greasy, so if you want an extra grease factor, it might be right there.

 

 

Restaurant #89 - Lily's - May 24th 2013

The gang went to Lily's.

The food was ok. The Novinscak Index was very low (for the chicken balls). I don't recall seeing the mushrooms that Stephan had enjoyed at a few of the other buffets, and when I had their Kung Pao Pork, it was extremely mild, almost bordering on sweet, which is not what a Kung Pao is supposed to taste like, but in a weird way, I liked it.

Besides that, everything was very similar to all the other Chinese buffets that we did.