Category Archives: NotWeasel For Lunch!

These are the posts from the old NotWeasel For Lunch blog, mostly about my adventures in trying everything I could find in the food courts near my work.

The Teriyaki Experience

Today we went to Markel Place and on my way to Saute's, the girl behind the counter at the Teriyaki Experience right beside it called me over and suggested I try some.

Since frankly, I wasn't sure what I was going to order anyway, I figured it was as good an option as any.

Really, it wasn't. I should have stuck to Saute's. It was a good healthy lunch though. I had the chicken teriyaki dinner with a cup of water and it was under $6 for a full plate of food.

It just wasn't especially tasty. It was good, but not great.

It was suggested that I should have asked for extra sauce poured over it. I think that would have made it better and I may go back to try it.

Next time I'm at Markel though, I'm going to Saute's and ordering the chicken parm with alfredo sauce instead of the tomato sauce they usually use. That looked really good!

Pumpernickel's

Yesterday, I ended up drawn into a lunchtime meeting and they served crackers and cheese, some fruit bits, and some cake so that served as lunch. I wouldn't go back… but it was free so I can't complain.

Today, on seeing what my cohorts were eating, I headed over to Pumpernickel's at First Canadian Place and ordered a schnizel sandwich with cheese.

That's what I was told to order, though I didn't realize I'd have my choice of cheeses. I took marble cheddar, though apparently I should have taken the Swiss. I'll try that next time.

It was wonderful. Pumpernickel's is run out of the same food court spot as Soley's is, where I've always enjoyed a burger and phenomenal onion rings. I was expecting it to be good, and it was. It was a good size, very fresh, and completely delicious. With a can of diet coke, it came to a dime over $8, which I suppose is reasonable.

Now I can't wait to try it with the Swiss!

Yummy Sushi.

I don't even know what the place was called, but it's on the NW corner of Queen/John and the sushi is pretty good for fair prices.

Today we were just in the mood for sushi so off we went. Other than an issue with some dirty sauce dishes, all went well. The tempuri was delicious as always and the sushi was as good as you could want for the price.

There was one nigiri piece I called "wasabi surprise" as it held a much bigger chunk of wasabi than you'd normally find hidden under the red tuna… but that's all just part of the fun.

We'll keep going back here as we have in the past. Now that it's noted here though, I don't suppose I'll be ordering the 10 piece sushi combo again. I'll probably miss it. It was a good combo.

The sashimi combo one of my cohorts had is a tempting dish to try next.

Ultimate Chicken Fries Meal

I had another KFC value box today and was far more satisfied than I was with the last one.

That one with the couple of snacker sandwiches just didn't cut the mustard.

This one, with the chicken fries (they're fingers to anyone not involved with KFC's marketing dept.) and a piece of chicken…

AW CRAP!!!

As I'm typing out what's in it, I've just realized that I tossed out the apple pie instead of eating it.

Stupid pie. They shouldn't hide it in a fry envelope. 🙁

Now I'm not even interested in writing my critique anymore. I just want pie.

Stupid pie.

Bean Burrito and Mc Crispy Chicken

Yesterday we were back at Burrito Boyz and I finally bit the bullet and had the bean and cheese burrito.

I'd been dreading running out of delicious meat-enhanced items on the menu and having to try the veggie ones.

I have to say… I really enjoyed it! I asked for some extra cheese when they were making it. It turned out pretty amazing.

Curiously though, it went through me like it was stuffed with Castor oil or something. By the time I got back to work, it was ready to come out. It was like living a stereotype.

Today was different. Plans got mucked up and by 1:20 or so I was just starving and looking for something… anything… to eat.

I headed down to get a vendor dog and again, the cart wasn't there. Then I figured I might as well get the McChicken I was intending to try on Monday.

I got to McD's and decided on the grilled chicken sandwich.

Curiously though, if you want to order the grilled chicken sandwich combo, #8 on the menu, you have to say "number eight combo please". As it turns out, if you instead say "number seven combo please" they then give you something entirely different.

What I ended up with was a crispy chicken sandwich. I can't even remember what it was officially called. McCrispyChickenSandwich I suppose.

My only lasting impression of it was that is should probably cost less. It tasted ok for a quick lunch. I think the most exciting flavour in it was the mayo. I couldn't help but think of how much better a Spicy Big Crunch was. McD's needs some spicy mayo or something to jazz things up.

Also, apparently "4 packets" qualifies as "lots of ketchup" in the McDonalds lexicon. Cheap buggers.

MegaWraps

Today I actually ended up sidetracked by colourful posters on my way to McD's.

I was getting ready to try the grilled chicken burger thing when I turned toward the big array of posters in front of MegaWraps and they looked far more appealing.

I ended up with a Chili Chicken Wrap which was pretty good. For $8 I got that and a bottle of water.

As said, it was pretty good. That's about it. A bit too much hot sauce and maybe too much lettuce and not quite enough chicken but all in all, not bad.

Not nearly as good as the chicken caesar wrap I usually get there though. I'll have to have that next time…

HAL Burgers

Today on the way to Burrito Boyz, we looked around and figured getting sidetracked wouldn't be such a bad idea.

First we checked out the menu of a Mexican place along the way and decided we just didn't feel like spending that much on lunch.

Besides, half the menu seemed to be in Spanish so I couldn't even figure out whether a burrito was going to be too expensive or not.

We continued on our way toward BB when we came across HAL Burgers. The prices looked reasonable and it seemed interesting so we went in.

The place was rather different. It's all very bright green and the chairs are molded plastic, probably from Ikea. It all seemed a bit too playful to be good but it wasn't long before that changed.

Shortly after ordering our drinks, the waitress dropped off a little tray with three bowls in it and some little spoons. These were the house condiments, which was some sort of home made ketchup, mustard-that-looks-like-yellow-caviar, and some sort of peppery mayo. Suddenly things were feeling upscale.

The burger I had was most excellent, though tough to really consider a burger. It was a big chunk of chicken patty with slices of genuine brie (with the skin and all), some sort of apple sauce, and smoked ham that made a great substitute for peameal bacon. It was all on a sort of sliced loaf rather than a burger bun and it was delicious!

With it was a pile of fries that were a bit too thin for my liking but a forkfull of them did a good job of scooping up the house ketchup. I was happy to have them instead of the salad, which certainly wouldn't have scooped ketchup quite the same.

While this place was definitely a bit too costly to be a regular lunch haunt, at roughly double what I normally pay for lunch, it was definitely worth checking out. If you're just going out with someone for a nice sit-down meal for a reasonable price, give it a shot and I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Be forewarned though… the Philly Cheese Steak is not going down without a fight.

KFC Snackers are crap.

*sigh*

KFC. It's still overpriced and I've just had the Snacker sandwiches for the first time. I had some "value" meal that came with two of them. I think the highlight of the meal was the macaroni salad, which is good, but should never be the highlight of a meal.

The Snackers are just way too much crunchy breading and not nearly enough chicken. I'd much rather have one Big Crunch than two of the Snackers.

Add to that the mediocre fries and the tasty but entirely unappetizing looking apple pie thing and you have a lunch that just doesn't measure up.

I think I made mention of not going to KFC anymore last time I went there. I really should listen to myself now and then.

Hero Certified Burgers: Peameal!

As a follow up to December 4th's lunch, I went back to Hero Certified Burgers today and had the 6oz Peameal Bacon Burger and it was much better than the plain one I had last time around.

Of course, for $10.09 it had better be.

While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I can't help but note that I could have had a large burrito from Burrito Boyz with a can of pop for less than this.

Great taste here, but not terribly good value.