Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is not known for being a cultural hotbed within Canada. It's Irish pubs are distinctly not that Irish. It's British pub is okay but lacking in the food department. There is no Szechuan here. No Korean food. No shabu-shabu. Italian restaurants are noticeably absent. Ethiopian Food? Nope. (Actually yes - Geo) Shawarma/Donair places? Not that I have seen. In fact, there isn't even a pizza by the slice anywhere in the downtown area that I can think of. Four, maybe five pubs/clubs in a short radius and NO PIZZA BY THE SLICE! Now that is an indication of something dire.
However, what Saskatoon lacks in the finer and blessedly vulgar things in life it makes for with a little out of the way place called the Golden Pagoda. This has become my favourite place in town, a small Burmese restaurant that can be impossible to get in to without a reservation. (Geo posted about it in her other blog back in 2006) Burmese food is best explained as a fusion of Indian, Southern Chinese and Thai flavours and ingredients. I wish I had a menu handy, but the picture below is a lemongrass curry chicken dish that I ate with the best coconut rice have ever had. I also had the pickled mustard leaf soup in chicken stock. Have Burmese food. Have it soon.
I agree :) Geo
6 comments:
There's a donair place downtown in the basement of an office building too. We do have greek food out the wahoo...
And we have one of the top 10 Indian restaurants in Canada...
and one sushi place - which I hope to go to soon - review to come :)
Hade to pop in for my 2 cents. And to confirm that yes...the Golden Pagoda rocks.
Sadly, around here mennonite food rules - large portions of fried blandly seasoned food. We've had many amazing restaurants not last...sad
And they love McD's too.
*sigh*
I shouldn't imply that Saskatoon is a cultural wasteland, it isn't. Try as you might, it is very hard to find places that offer perogies, borscht and kolbassa in either Vancouver or Montreal. (Orthodox church halls once a month are the only places that come to mind) Saskatoon is just different.
Calories offers some tasty, sophisticated fare and The Yard Flagon serves up good pub food. However, neither of them are in the downtown core - which is a sort of wasteland. I know there are some other restaurants in town worth checking out, but I cannot remember their names. I still have to try the Noodle and Ice Cream bar.
But I find the whole downtown wasteland thing a bit odd for a major city.
There's lots of great places downtown...a lot of them are more high end tho.
Saskatoon has SO many restaurants. Unfortunately, a lot of them are the same...
A bit defensive aren't I? Hmmm...
Yup. Damn outsiders coming in voicing their opinions...
And I don't mean to be like those Torontonians/Ontarians and Albertans that moved to BC and drove me insane with their constant complaining about who Vancouver and BC was nothing like home.
I do see a lot of room for growth here though. Even a Russian/Ukranian/Polish restuarant would be an interesting move. Or a Milk Bar like they had in the Eatern Block. Potential is what I see here.
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