The new VANEATS.ca package has got me heading back to my old neighborhood once again. Kevin and Billy have teamed up with Siddhartha’s Indian Kitchen to bring us Siddhartha’s Nirvana.
It’s a 7 item dining package that goes for $16. It brings you a taste of some of the restaurants best dishes and one unique item that is only available for VANEATS.ca diners.
The menu they have put together is as follows:
- Monsoon Scallops, seared with mango & coconut – an EXCLUSIVE VANEATS.ca appetizer
- Chicken Tikka Masala, tender chicken pieces marinated in yogurt and spices cooked in our tandoori oven
- Vegetable Pakora, batter fried marinated mixed veggies
- Butter Chicken, the classic favourite – boneless marinated chicken pieces cooked in a rich tomato cream sauce
- Baigan Bharta, smoked, roasted eggplant cooked with tomato, onion, cilantro, spices & a hint of lemon
- Onion and Cilantro Naan, fresh-baked, buttered naan with fresh onion & cilantro
- Ras Malai, a heavenly Indian delicacy in light milky syrup made from the purest form of cottage cheese
The restaurant is a small, cozy place and was totally packed when I made my visit at lunchtime. They offer table seating along with seating at the bar. A big flat screen is on the wall behind the bar and they play the Canucks games when there playing.
I love the appy trios that VANEATS.ca puts together. This one has a couple of standard items along with the exclusive dish. Starting on the left we have the classic Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Pakora’s make up the middle of the plate and the Monsoon Scallops make up the end of the plate. I really enjoyed the chicken tikka and the vegetable pakora’s but I didn’t dig the scallop dish-they were cooked too much and were tough but the seasoning and spices used were tasty. The dish is also served with a cilantro dip and a tamarind dip, the cilantro dip was really good and had a bit of heat but the fresh cilantro used really stood out.
The package comes with a couple different curry’s, basmati rice and naan. You get Butter Chicken and Baigan Bharta as the curry choices. The butter chicken was really good, the dish was loaded with nice chunks of tender chicken, the sauce was more creamy here than the tomato based versions I’ve had lately. The baigan bharta was my favorite item of the package. It’s a smoked eggplant curry that has nice depth of savory flavor, the eggplant is shredded into pretty much a pulp and mixed with spices and stewed on the stove top. The rice in the dish was nicely cooked, the chopped tomato’s and herbs were a nice touch. The naan was good but they were handicapped by one factor on my visit-the tandoori oven stopped working and was just started back up right before I got there so my naan could have been cooked more. Besides that one fact it was tasty and they gave me mine topped with paneer cheese which was a nice touch.
The dessert is something that I have never had before in my Indian cuisine eats, it’s called Ras Malai-a sweet dish found in the Indian subcontinent consisting of sugary cream-colored balls of dough and a creamy sweet liquid, the malai. It’s made from the same cheese curds used to make paneer but it’s soaked in a sweet flavored milk and served with mango’s. I really liked this, it was light and not overly sweet, there was a hint of rose and of cardamom as well in the dessert.
Mango lassi’s were also enjoyed at lunch but aren’t part of the package but I’d recommend trying one, there creamy and tangy-the perfect compliment to an Indian meal.
The VANEATS.ca Siddhartha’s Nirvana dining package goes on sale on April 25th, 2012 at 7AM till June 25th, 2012 if they don’t all sell out before that. The package costs $16 and is a full meal for 1 or perfect to share between 2 people if you’re ordering something else off the menu. You can Get your dining package by clicking here.
**Disclosure-as a featured reviewer I didn’t pay for my dining package but did pay for all drinks in the post. All opinions are completely my own and not influenced by VANEATS.ca**
Next up on the menu is the pasta course, Fettuccine con Gamberi, tiger prawns in a light cream sauce. This was a good pasta, the shrimp were cooked nicely and the fettuccine was al dente. The sauce was creamy but not cheesy so it went with the prawns really well.
The meat course is next up, Pollo Ripieno al Marsala, chicken breast stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes and basil, in the famous sweet Marsala wine sauce and sided with a nice wedge of grilled Radicchio Rosso. This was my favorite item of the night, the chicken was moist and the sauce and filling totally complimented each other, the savouriness of the sauce balanced out sweetness of the sun-dried tomato filling. The radicchio was grilled but still maintained some of the bitterness is known for and it was drizzled with a balsamic reduction that added a sweet touch.
Le Do is doing what good Vietnamese places do right-great pho and other classic Vietnamese dishes at a great price. The seating is tight inside but the table turn over is pretty good so you wont wait long and it’s also closed on Wednesday’s and cash only.
The salad rolls were $5.50 for 2 large rolls cut in half, the filling was roasted pork,shrimp,vermicelli and shredded lettuce and cucumbers. The pork was nice and sliced really thin, they served here with a bowl of hoisin, sriracha and peanuts that you stir all together for dipping.
This is my favorite type of pho-rare beef with beef ball, I don’t like tendons and tripe so this hits the spot quite nicely. The broth here has a great depth of flavor and isn’t heavy or to MSG laden, the noodles were cooked perfectly and for $5.95 for the medium size you can’t go wrong with that deal. The broth was also piping hot which is really important when your dealing with rare beef.
I was dining alone so some portions of the dishes I wanted to try were a bit on the large side so I’m going to have to wait to get back with some friends for a chow down and the fact on this visit it was the day before there 2 week vacation so I couldn’t get any pho.
Food wise I went with a combo plate that consisted of a couple great items like Vietnamese spring rolls, shrimp on sugar cane and a skewer of grilled pepper beef all for $12.
The Vietnamese spring rolls were OK, there filled with veggies and meat. The filling was seasoned nicely and tasted great but they were a bit greasy. At the end of the day I think if they were fresh out of the fryer I would have enjoyed them more.
This is the shrimp on sugar cane, it’s a shrimp mousse formed around a piece of sugar cane and then deep fried. It was a firm texture to it
and wasn’t light and fluffy like I thought it would be but it tasted OK dipped in the spring roll sauce.
The grilled pepper beef skewer was really good and I could eat a plate of them, the thin slices of beef were nice and tender and had a nice grilled flavor, the slices were separated with pieces of onion and red peppers.
