Kenko Niwa

* Not to be confused with Kenko (the original)

Cuisine: Japanese (Sushi)
Area: Confusion Corner
Address: 631 Corydon Avenue 
Number: (204) 452-3656
Hours: Usually opens daily around 11:30 AM and closes pretty late. Don't quote me though; hours
are a bit hit and miss here.
Price range: ($$1/2) out of ($$$$$)
Star rating? uh.... 3.5 out of 5


Special Interest: They have really good lunch and dinner box specials where you can pick and choose your own meal for a decent price. The seafood and fish come from Gimli Market so it's semi-local (har-de-har-har).


Sushi is definitely one of my all time favourite areas of cuisine, so just a fair warning that my opinion may be a bit biased in this area. I really lean towards picking sushi if everyone else doesn't know what they want but at the same time, I'm pretty picky with where we get it from.


Kenki Niwa is one of three places in the city that I love when considering where to get sushi (I'll be covering those in later posts). It branched off of the original Kenko (which is just a heartbeat away on the same street) but is not entirely the same restaurant; similar menu (but not quite the same) and different owners. Contrary to the norm in Winnipeg, the sushi here comes in delicately packaged bundles that are perfect bite-sized morsels packed full of flavor. My personal fave: the T.N.T roll. There's a picture on the menu if you're curious what it's all about but it essentially is a glamorized dynamite roll. There's also a good version of the roll in shrimp tempura form (or tofu tempura for all my vegetarian friends). 


A roll that is really delicious and is not on the menu anymore is the Cherry Blossom. I can't remember what is in it exactly but it is delicious; you'll have to ask the waitresses for it. Some special items that I enjoy are the Gyu Tataki (Japanese-marinated steak; seared rare and served with ginger and onion and special dipping sauces) and Ika Tataki (tender, simple, char-grilled cuttlefish that is only there seasonally). For drinks, the restaurant carries some basic house spirits but does carry Sojo which according to a friend of mine who has spent quite some time living in Korea, is the best (yet overly priced here) Saki.


Environment:
The staff here is usually pretty friendly; and by staff I mean the waitresses because the sushi chefs are just geared up to work-- they won't talk much except to say 'bye!'. Not that that's a highly important factor but I do like to converse with the chefs sometimes to get their input and recommendations for my meal. The food comes out pretty quickly but during rushes, your order can sometimes be pushed to the back if you don't ask about it. Lunches get pretty packed because of the specials and Saturday night is pretty crazy too.

The restaurant is dimly lit and has a semi-modern feel to it -- just enough that it's still a bit cozy. There's a hidden room in the back for larger parties which has much more accommodating washrooms. In the summer, the restaurant opens up to a really lovely patio but it is adorned cheap plastic patio decor; and the season really does dictate the use -- in August, there are way too many wasps to sit outside with your meal.






End post.

Emerald Palace

Cuisine: Cantonese-chinese; not to be mistaken for American/Northern chinese
Area: West End
Address: 704 Sargent Avenue (and Toronto St.)
Number: 204-7884573
Open daily but closed on Tuesdays
Special interest: As with most chinese restaurants, vegetarian is always an option by replacing the meat content with tofu. Emerald usually has daily specials for different chinese vegetables that could be asked for specifically. 


What can I say about the restaurant that I grew up with? I really did grow up with this restaurant; for almost every Sunday that I could remember in my childhood, we had dinner right here in this little restaurant that's full of familiar faces.

Menu:
For those who are more familiar with the restaurant, I don't think you'd disagree that the Butter Chicken has got to be one of the restaurant's best dishes. This butter chicken does not have anything to do at all with Indian Butter Chicken (as deadly but delicious as it is). This is a dish that will probably sadly die with the chef who holds it's recipe. Butter chicken at Emerald Palace is deep fried chicken in a light and rich batter that's been sauteed with a special blend of spices and tossed with pan fried onions. Sound unhealthy? Yeah, the name pretty much tells you all you need to know about the health content of this dish but really, a little indulgence should never be neglected. The only critique I have for this dish is that it hasn't really met expectations as of late. Not to say that it's not good, it is, but maybe I'm just too familiar with the taste and have higher than normal expectations.

Anyhow, beyond the butter chicken, there's a full menu of good food for you to explore. Some of my favourites are: Spicy-salt pan fried pork chops, satay shrimp hotplate, and the seafood soup. Oh, and last but definitely not least, the Cantonese fried rice is fantastic! Just to make sure they know what you mean, always reassure the waitress that you want the WHITE fried rice (no soy sauce).

I won't always post pictures but here's a picture of the Spicy-salt pork chops:

Service/Facility
Service here is on par. It definitely isn't full service but for a chinese restaurant, it's great. The food comes out really fast and most of the staff are very fluent in English (accents aside). The owner and his wife are there all the time and have been since opening more than 25 years ago. He has a habit of calling young customers 'Queen' and 'King'. The restaurant does pack up quite a bit on the weekends so I suggest calling ahead for reservations. It's small but big enough for a small gathering. The only thing that's bad about the place is the outdated bathroom stalls/utility closets; very clean none-the-less.

That's it! Enjoy folks!
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Hmm..this is my first post... should I do a star-rated system of sorts? What do you think? Feedback would be greatly appreciated on this topic folks.

introductions needed.

During a recent conversation with a friend, I mentioned that I wanted to attempt to eat at every single restaurant in our little city. Considering our city's small population that is only wavering at about 750,000 people, that shouldn't be such a daunting task should it? Well, I suppose it isn't that easy considering we do have the title for having the most restaurants per capita in Canada. Almost to solidify the difficult nature of this goal, my friend turns and says to me, and I quote: "if you're going to put so much effort into something like that, you might as well blog about it." (Sir M.M. esq, 2012)

And here is where I'd like to say I got my inspiration from but... my light bulb wasn't fully lit yet. Flash forward a couple of weeks when I received a text message asking me which place was the best for Vietnamese in the city and rewind back to the time that Ben and I had talked about writing a book full of reviews of the places we've been to, and you have my inspiration for this blog.


Long story short: I'm just a girl, with a love for food, who's always looking to keep herself in good company.