Empanada Hut

Restaurant: Empanada Hut
Cuisine: Spanish/South American/Latin

Last visited: November 10, 09

Area: Richmond, BC

5300 No 3 Road (In Lansdowne Mall food court)

Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4

Service: 4

Ambiance: n/a

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• Family owned and operated
• Authentic
• Specializes in Empanadas
• Homemade pastry/filling
• Very professional
• Baked empanadas
• Limited menu
• Combo Empanda deals
  
• Best eaten hot and upon order
• Could have better ratio of ingredients
• Solid choice for Lansdowne Mall food court

**Recommendation: Chicken Empanda, Beef Empanada (didn't try, but must be comparable to chicken)

Every country has their version of an Empanada or stuffed pastry/bread. There's a Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, and the list goes on, versions of the Empanada. The family that runs Empanada Hut are from South America and their version of the Empanada comes from Chile. They really focus on making the best Empandas because it's basically the only thing they sell. From the pastry to the stuffing everything is homemade and baked daily. Unlike Mexican Empandas, which are perhaps more available in North America, these aren't stuffed with potatoes, peas and carrots etc. It was a nice change and for food court standards it's a great choice.

One of my concerns (this might be a bit picky since it is a food court place) is that the Empanadas do sit under heat lamps throughout the day. Even under heat lamps they still tasted great, and they are definitely best eaten hot. Nothing was burnt, soggy, or dry so in that sense the heat lamp doesn't bother me. I can only imagine how good they are hot and fresh out of the oven.

On the table:

• **Chicken Empanada 4/6
• Baked homemade pastry stuffed with chicken onions, corn and olives.
• I liked this one the best. It was almost like a Latin-style chicken pot pie.
• It was stuffed quite decently and saucy, but not so saucy that it was dripping or making the pastry soggy. The sauce is a house mix of what tastes like taco seasonings. There was tons of sautee onions which they kind of used as a filler and only a few corn kernels.
• There was also one random black olive in each Empanada. I almost thought it was a mistake. I think they should have chopped up the black olives and dispersed it more evenly throughout the filling. You can tell they stuff the Empanada and tuck a single olive in last minute.
• The pastry is really soft, almost like puff pastry, but it's not flaky. It's made with butter, flour and probably shortening. It's the perfect thickness to hold all the filling without breaking. The edges are a little thick, but it's because of the folding which is understandable.

• Seafood Empanada 3.5/6
  
• Baked homemade pastry stuffed with baby clams, baby shrimp, chopped scallop, onions and olives.
  
• Again it was only one olive... that started to get annoying because I liked eating it with the olive. But since there was only one I only got one bite with olive in it with each Empanada.
• This was good, but not as good as the chicken one. I think it could have been much better, but they used a lot of onions as filler to replace the seafood.
  I'm sure when they make it at home it's a 100 times better. All the seafood was kind of minced up to the size of the onions so I lost a lot of the texture.
• Spinach and Feta 2.5/6
• This was definitely the most stuffed Empanada out of the 3.
  
• It was packed with tons and tons of spinach. There was hardly any Feta in it though which was kind of disappointing. I missed that salty creaminess Feta brings to the table. It was actually kind of wet, yet the pastry still wasn't soggy. If they hadn't skimped on the Feta this could have been a 4/6. Even better would be if they mixed in some chopped olives!

Opus Bar & Restaurant

Restaurant: Opus Bar & Restaurant

Cuisine: Tapas/Global/Contemporary

Last visited: November 10, 09
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/Yaletown)
350 Davie Street
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 1.5 (for the 2 things I tried)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 2
Additional comments:

• The Opus Hotel Bar/Lounge
• Offers gourmet bar food/tapas
• Savoury and Sweet small bites
• Trendy
• Very nice, but pretentious atmosphere
• Offers bigger tapas/smaller tapas
• Banks on the name to carry the food
• Go for drinks/atmosphere

**Recommendation: n/a

Opus Bar & Restaurant is more for drinks and atmosphere than food. I came here for one of their parties and we decided to order some small bites. The restaurant is kind of split into thirds - a section for the bar, a smaller and more private room for dining (the restaurant), and then half the space is for their the lounge. I find Opus more of a lounge than anything else though.

It definitely has that Yaletown feel and attracts the yuppies that live in the area. With its impressive interior and upscale decor you would expect the food to match to some degree...but it didn't and I was so disappointed. The food came across as "you don't really order food at Opus Lounge". Does that make sense? I felt like they used the Opus name to carry them and the food did not come up to standards of what they aim for.

On the table:

• Empanadas De Mole 1/6
• Corn tortilla stuffed with chicken, corn and mole served with guacamole and salsa $8
• It was pretty much a battered corn tortilla. They were so small! Maybe the size of a gyoza. Empandas can either be deep-fried or baked...depending on what kind of Empanada you are making. These ones were deep-fried and not authentic at all. They were "American" Empanadas - not Spanish, not Latin, not Chilean, Portuguese or anything.
• Even if Opus was going for a fusion thing rather than an authentic thing they did a poor job. There was barely any stuffing. No chicken, maybe only a couple shreds that were dry and no sauce inside. No mole, nothing. Maybe 2 corn kernels, and I couldn't even taste any sauteed onions, which is a must in any type of Empanada. I was shocked that they would serve these.
• The only good thing was the sauce underneath it. I guess it was their twist on guacamole. It tasted like a thick yogurt dip made with pureed green peas, jalapeno, and avocado. It was really interesting and I would have enjoyed that with a bowl of tortilla chips 100 times more than the Empanadas.
  

• "O" Pizza 2/6
• Daily creation $10
• The positive: thin crust and a decent size, I expected smaller.
• It was a thin crust pizza with housemade marinara sauce, salami, cheddar cheese an chopped fresh basil.
• This was one of the oiliest pizza's I've ever had. No joke. I don't know if the salami made it extra oily. It wasn't even necessarily greasy or heavy, but just oily. Literally oil everywhere. My whole plate was oily, my lips were slippery and that's hard to do with a thin crust pizza. They needed to let the oil absorb on something before plating it. It was really gross.
• They also need to adjust their oven temperature because the pizza crust was and tasted a bit burnt. The marinara was just pureed tomatoes. They didn't flavour it much, but they didn't really need to. At least I could taste the fresh tomatoes.

Firefly Tapas Kitchen & Bar

Restaurant: Firefly Tapas Kitchen & Bar

Cuisine: Mexican/Spanish/Tapas/Fusion

Last visited: August 26, 09

Area: Las Vegas

3900 Paradise Road

Price Range: $20-30 (average bill per person)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very Good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5

Service: 4

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• Casual atmosphere
• Busy, late night crowd
• Mexican servers/kitchen/staff
• Mexican and Spanish style
  
• Comfort food tapas
  
• Tapas style - so everything is meant to be shared
• Generous portions for tapas style
• Reasonably priced (around $7usd on average per tapa)
  
• Famous for stuffed dates and Sangria
• Very popular to locals - off the strip

**Recommendation: Stuffed Dates, Tuna Tartare, Stuffed Peppers, Veggie Empanada, Manchego Mac n' Cheese, Baby Back Ribs, Lamb Skewers, Sangria

My friend who lived in Vegas for 2 months brought us to this restaurant. Very familiar to locals, this place shouldn't be missed. It's casual, enjoyable, and full of energy. The decor is nothing special, and the food is nothing fancy, it's simple and down right tasty. Typical Mexican comfort food style tapas that are very reasonably priced. I went with 6 people so we made quite a dent in the menu. Everything was extra tasty becuase it's all bite sized finger food so it leaves you craving more. It's all too heavy to have a plate to yourself - so almost everything tastes good, and even if it doesn't you don't really notice because you only had a bite. This review will be done a bit differently because we tried so much stuff I won't go into too much detail. I also didn't get any pictures because it was too dark inside. You'll spend about $20-30USD per person including tax and tip.

On the table:

• Boquerones 2/6
• Spanish white anchovies on toasts with roasted red pepper, yellow pepper vin
• These were nice and salty - not fishy tasting and really typical ingredient from Spain. It kinda tastes like a quick appetizer you can throw together at home, but it's still good. One of those easy/simple/quick appetizers.
  
• **Tuna Tartare 5/6
• Layers of mango, marinated ahi tuna, avocado and taro chips.
• One of the favourites. I liked the taro chips - it was a nice twist, better than serving them with the usual tortilla chips. You get quite a bit of tartare too.
• Ceviche of Shrimp 4/5
  
• Tiger shrimp, avocado and crispy corn tortilla chips.
  
• I liked the tuna tartare better. A bit more expensive, $8.50 for a cup full, but they are relatively big pieces of shrimp so it's ok - it was quite heavy on the lime flavour. Very fresh tasting and tangy. Simple flavours that are easy to pick out.
  
• **Stuffed Dates 6/6
  
• By far THE favourite! This is what they're famous for! And they should be, and I know why. They're pretty delicious. It's a date stuffed with an almond and blue cheese, then wrapped with bacon and served with a red wine reduction sauce.
• These dates are nice and sticky and the combination of flavours merry together so well. I'm not even a fan of bacon or blue cheese and these were still amazing! No ingredient was more powerful than the other. They are bite size and just perfect. A little savoury (bacon), sweet (date), tangy (sauce), creamy (cheese), crunch (almond) and crispy (bacon) - it hits all my taste buds in the right way! You bite into a date and it oozes out warm and creamy blue cheese...then you get the crunch of the almond and the salty crispiness of the bacon and the sticky moist date - oh my god...it's amazing. Perfect in flavours and in textures - these are real treats.
• **Veggie Empanada 5/6
  
• Deep fried pastry pockets stuffed with spinach, mushroom, artichoke, and herb cream cheese and red pepper aioli.
• This is yummy! Really creamy and rich. Meant for sharing - one to yourself would be a bit much.
  
• Roasted eggplant cannelloni 3/6
  
• These "cannellonis" are rolled up roasted eggplant slices. They are stuffed with a lot of goat's cheese and marinara sauce. The goat's cheese overpowered the eggplant and it kind of felt like eating warm goat's cheese and that's it. It needed to be spread on a cracker or crostini or something.
• **Stuffed Peppers 6/6
  
• Spanish piquillo red peppers, mozzarella, garlic cream cheese and tomato sauce.
  
• These are really cheesy and really rich. But they're so small so 1-2 per person is perfect. These little red peppers are nicely marinated and really sweet so they go so well with the savoury cheeses and tangy tomato sauce.
• Mushroom Tart 4/6
  
• Puff pastry covered with mushrooms and a boursin cheesy cream sauce.
  
• This was delicious and it was a generous portion. It's actually quite big and it comes loaded with mushrooms and a bechemel type white cream sauce. I mean the puff pastry is your standard puff pastry and it tastes exactly like the description. Simple recipe and still good.
• **Manchego Mac n' Cheese 5/6
  
• This mac n' cheese was homemade and you could tell. Really cheesy, creamy just like grandma would make. Really hearty and rich yet thoroughly enjoyable.
  
• **Lamb skewers 5/6
  
• Marinated chunks of lamb with tomato and red wine sauce. It's served on a bed of lentils which I really liked. I'm not a fan of lamb, but my friends are and they all loved it so I put it as a recommendation.
  
• Crispy duck rolls 2/6
  
• It's served with a cherry hoisin sauce which is nice and creative. The duck was ground up duck though - so it tasted like sweet ground beef or something. It was crumbly and dry and bitty - I think they mixed the duck with some ground beef to save costs. I'd pass on these next time, but the sauce was nice.
• **Baby Back Ribs 6/6
• Steamed - falling off the bone ribs with a mango BBQ sauce.
  
• These taste like they're slow baked! The meat slips right off the bone and they're smothered in this sweet and tangy BBQ sauce. You get 4 big ribs for $9.50USD - A bit more expensive, but still worth it. They're really tender!
• Firefly Fish Sticks 2/6
  
• A fish stick is a fish stick. It has a panko batter though and a spicy tartar sauce.
  
• Steamed mussels 4/6
• A huge bowl of mussels served in a red curry, white wine and coconut cream sauce.
  
• This is a deal for $8USD - we got about 10 mussels. The sauce is amazing, our mussels were a bit undercooked though. 6/6 for the sauce though!
• Big Bowl Pasta 3/6
  
• I could have done without this. I would rather have tried other stuff on the menu - since marinara pasta is kind of blah. We had 6 people though so we wanted to order a filler. My favourite part of this was the big chunks of roasted and marinated artichoke hearts.
• Paella
  
• I did not order this and I probably won't because a restaurant with this type of volume won't be able to make a paella very well. I'm almost certain it will be a frozen paella. I wouldn't bother.

Dessert

• Lemon-berry Tarts 2/6
  
• Four bite sized lemon tarts with fresh berries and whipped cream.
  
• These are probably frozen too - don't taste homemade at all. But they were cheap and worth it if you need something sweet at the end of your meal...which I always do =)