Meiji Sushi

Mmmmm.... Sushi... I love it so hard and it's been awhile since I've written about it. Maybe there's 'better' sushi out there, I don't know, but this is pretty much my go-to. Meiji Sushi has all the choice both with the food and, due to the attached G Martini Bar, beverages that it would be pretty surprising if you couldn't find something you love. Something about it being all dim and downstairs makes it feel cozy to me which is counter-intuitive, I know, but just accept it. Since it's cold these days and I need excuses to get out and about, I felt that it was time to head over and reevaluate some favourites of mine.

The Nutini, in all it's almond-y goodness. The
cloth napkins and superb waitresses will make
you feel classy as you drink alone

Since the air outside is cold enough to kill people right now, I felt it would be in everyone's best interest if I started off with some hot foods. Miso soup is, of course, a standard, so I'll skip ahead to some others. The agadashi tofu is deliciously crispy (and no, no matter what your conspiracy-theory wielding friend says, it will not mess with your hormones or secondary sex characteristics)  although the pieces were a little unwieldy for my chopstick-handling skills. This is a good thing, by the way, the pieces are rather large so there's more to enjoy. Gyoza is something that is often overlooked at sushi places, I find, taking a backseat to tempura and, well, sushi. Do yourself a favour and order some at Meiji; the garlicky-onion flavoured pork is so amazing that, despite the pain (they arrive nuclearly hot), you won't be able to wait to crush these amazing dumpling.

The chef's creation in all its glory
(The roll behind it is the Golden
Roll. The others are just random
nigiri)

Now, that's a lot of 'appetizer' before sushi, so let's take a drink break. The martini menu ranges from almost literal dessert to something slightly sweet that your super-masculine, tofu-fearing buddy might admit to liking. I went with an Amaretto-heavy Nutini although my favouritest sugary drink here is the Millennium; raspberry liqueur with vodka and champagne, poured over an actual sugar cube. Fortunately diabetes does not run in my family.  Something that I think gets overlooked in favour of the fancier drinks is the sort of 'build-your-own' feature with classic martinis. there are a nice variety of gins, vodkas, and garnishes to let you assemble your perfect martini (for those of you who like to be more of a Bond and less like a woman on her 18th birthday). I'm an olive girl myself, but there was also the option of a citrus twist, pearl onions, or chocolate, if you still want your sweets.

As far as sushi goes, Meiji has all the standards and then some. My personal recommendations are the Golden Roll; a solid 'cheap roll with tuna and avocado, and the chef creation with avocado and quail egg; the texture is amazing and it's something reasonably unique to get at this particular location.

Rating: **½

Price: $$

Thermëa

Alright, it's winter. There's no denying it and it sucks. However, when the weather is at it's worst, it is actually a great time to head to one of my super favourite solo-dates. Thermëa is certainly not without its flaws (many of which I think might be due to its own success) but it is definitely the best thing that I can think of to do alone on a cold, crappy day. Also, considering you can spend as much time there as you wish, it's a pretty economical staycation in an hourly sense, particularly if you can make it out on a weekday when the rates are reduced.

So, the cons of this one are oft-cited, so I'll just confirm that some of the legends are true: be prepared to wait forever to check in. Even the so-called 'fast lane' for those of us who book massage appointments and such are entitled too moves at a snail's pace and, if you need your receipt for insurance purposes, be prepared to wait again (for some reason) after your appointment. All this, of course, is a best-case scenario; if you try to go on a holiday or particularly nice weekend and they are at capacity, the wait-list is literally four hours long. Since I mentioned massage appointments, I'll just mention here that such services are not required to enjoy the spa and in fact I wouldn't even recommend it, to keep your costs down. The discount they offer on the 'thermal experience' is comical considering the cost of their services. But my back is what professionals refer to as 'permanently f*cked' so I opt to get a deep-tissue massage whenever one is available.

Come prepared with your own bathrobe and sandals since these are not provided and renting/purchasing them is just further raising your costs unnecessarily. The towels are also stupid tiny, so you might want to bring one of your own if you want to wrap yourself up in it. Maybe bring an extra bathrobe if you've got it since yours will inevitable get wet and that's not super comfortable all the time. Final pro-tip: memorize your locker number; the sharpie they use to write it on your wrist band will wear off approximately 36 seconds after you enter the spa. It's almost useless that they do it.

Now, back to the reasons why, despite the minor annoyances listed above, I think Thermëa is the greatest solo-date: you move through at your own pace and (when they're actually enforcing) the silence policy means that conversation isn't even an option. Basically, in my opinion, it's designed to be done on your own. I mean, I suppose if you've got a partner that you don't mind snuggling in public, this could be a place to do that, but apart from that I can't think of any other reason that going alone is not the optimal experience.

Silly Thermëa, Vegan Farmers are called 'gardeners.'

If you do use the restaurant, be prepared once again for some signature, Thermëa-style waiting. Seating can take forever, especially since the entry to the restaurant is in an awkward spot for staff to see who's waiting for service. While there are no pants required in the restaurant, it can be a bit chilly in a thin, wet robe, so you might want to bring a change of clothes or that extra, dry towel I recommended earlier. The slow service once seated isn't super noticeable since the staff is supremely friendly and you really shouldn't be rushing off anywhere anyhow. If you did book a spa service, maybe do that before visiting the restaurant so you done have to sprint off. The menu is alright, but I feel it could use more nibbles; I'm not really looking for a full meal after spending all day in a steam-room.

I got soup because it's the thing to have in the winter. It was nothing special but I am never really super moved by tomato-based soups, so maybe that was it; I find them boring. Cheese was the only really snacky-thing that appealed to me, so I went with that. There were two smoked cheeses out of three, which I thought was a poor choice, but it smoked Gorgonzola was pretty awesome, so it made up for the lack of variety. The baked brie was tasty but could have been hotter; it wasn't gooey all the way through as one might have hoped.

They don't allow phones in the spa,
so you'll just have to be content with
this pic full of chocolate.

Desserts aren't usually my thing, but if you're going to be here all day, you might find the time to try a couple. The rhubarb platz was super delicious ans super huge, so my super kind server boxed it for me and kept it in the fridge until I was ready to go *hearts and flowers*. The lockers are pretty tiny here, so that was appreciated. A much less portable but definitely more fun choice is the chocolate fondue; how much fun is it to have your own little burner at the table? Speaking of fun, they used to offer sippy cups so that you could take a cocktail outside. But when I asked about this, the server informed me that you can't take them to the pools or pavilions so... I don't really know what the point is. I'm 80% sure you could take them to the hot tubs in the recent past. I assume things got irresponsible and now it's been ruined for the rest of us. I can't imagine walking around in the cold in a robe drinking a mimosa would be fun, but that's just me.

So yes, it's true, there are a few things about this place that are less than perfect BUT if you actually want to do something by yourself for the day, as opposed to just sitting around a restaurant lounge, this is your best potion in the city. That I have found so far. I'm totally open to suggestions.

Rating: ** ½
Price: $$

Cordova

Picture from the bar seating to the super
pleasant window seats that are also suitable
for one. If the brightness intimidates you,
don't wory; the super chic dim mood
lighting is what you get when the sun goes
down.

Another new place I checked out during Winnipeg Fringe was Cordova. It's at the old Across the Board location on Albert Street and is nominally a tapas place. Although it has a more limited selection than, say, Segovia, the small plates are extremely reasonably priced. There is a pretty tiny cocktail menu which, when I was there, was 2/3 based on bubbly; it is clearly more of a beer/wine place. I had a French 75 which was lovely and flavorful and not sweet in a 'cheap girly teen drink' kind of way.

There's loads of solo seating both at the bar and at the window, if you'd like to watch the Exchange District walk by. I ordered a cheese plate since the last place I'd been too had charcuterie but no cheese and I was dying for some schmancy cheeses. Speaking of charcuterie, Cordova also has a half-and-half cheese/charcuterie plate, which is super nice for indecisive types who like eating both animals and dairy fat. The cheese plate was perfect; a bunch of different textures and a mix of North American and European varieties. I am loving loving what seems to be a trend in smoked blue in this city (I've had a couple on different cheese plates in town); the smoke cuts that sharp salty sulfur taste that often overwhelms me and is a major turnoff to a lot of people. I've started to appreciate blues a little since having the smoked version because they no longer make me feel like I'm being punched in the face by a 15-year-old's gym bag.

There were a couple of 'meh' dishes that I can't remember because they were neither amazing nor terrible and also because there is no website for this new-ish place and their Facebook page doesn't list the menu but in general, everything was what I wanted it to be. They had some nice small plates, decent drinks, and a place where I could sit and watch the Fringe happen, by myself, and at a bit of a distance.

Price: $$½

Rating: **½

Smith & Riverstone Spa

If you heard my rambling CBC interview on the weekend morning show a couple of weeks ago, then you know that I plugged Thermëa  as one of my favourite places to take myself on a date. I'll write about that one eventually but that spot, to me, is a wintertime date and not a mid-July one, so you'll have to wait. Anyway, I realized that in addition to blogging, spas are a thing I do now; I have a pretty screwed-up back so I often go for massage. Since I don't have insurance anyway, I decided that I'd spend my money seeing a RMT at schmancy spa places and make an event out of it. My most recent excursion like this took me to Riverstone which is adjacent to Smith, so I'll tell y'all a little about the spa-ing before we go into cocktails, etc.

One thing I really dig about Riverstone is that the spa/sauna stuff is included in the price, so when I go in for a deep tissue massage, which is pretty pricey anywhere, spa or no spa, I get all the extras and don't have to shell out extra. It's a pretty decent place; all inclusive in that there are no BS fees for robes or anything like that, the towels are full sized and not these tiny pool-towel things you get sometimes, flip-flops are included. The saunas are small-ish but good; there's a steam room and a dry sauna as well as super fancy showers. It's gender segregated because the spa stuff is in the changing areas, so that might be a good thing if you feel weird about being alone in a swimsuit in a co-ed environment. However, there isn't really a silence policy, so you will hear all about Janine's new house, which Stephanie thinks is a great investment, although it's really too bad that the counter-tops aren't granite like her last one. Just as an example. There are also small snacks in the waiting are for the massage and other services, so that's a pretty cool touch.

As a huge history nerd, the HBC theme in Smith does it for
me so hard.

After the spa, I headed over to Smith. You can order drinks and such from there to Riverstone, but for some reason the receptionists didn't want to have me drink before my massage, so I had to put some pants on to go get my food and booze. I was there on the weekend during the day, so the menu was specific to weekend brunch. Often I find day menus a little disappointing, but this one had a 'mimosa bar' which was pretty cool. I tried all three which were fun spin-offs of the typical OJ and bubbly. They also have an extensive beer/wine/scotch menu but I prefer to drink things that I can't make myself (e.g. too many ingredients) when I'm out and about and on a super classy date with myself.

Smith has a HUGE sit-in bar, so there is plenty of solo seating; I imagine this has something to do with it being in a hotel. There are also TVs mounted about, so you really shouldn't feel weird if you're here by yourself. In fact, there is a good chance you won't be the only one. They have a great variety of small plates on the menu, so I got myself a Ploughman's Lunch. I wish the server had described the plate as she set it down; without the menu, I had forgotten what kind of cheese it was and that the white stuff was aioli. It was kind of annoying that there was no salt or pepper at the bar, so I had to eat my boiled egg plain. The olives were WAY better than the last time I had them here; they are scotch smoked and I found both those flavours so overwhelming on the batch I had ordered previously that I actually didn't finish them. Perhaps I am not the only one who prefers to taste at least a little bit of the olives that they ordered.

Anyway, there have been folks who've informed me that they'll feel a little out of place going out alone. This will probably be one of the most comfortable solo-dates I can recommend to you.

Price: $$$
Rating: **½

Saperavi

Om nom nom, why do not more people
sit on this patio and eat these amazing
things?

Ok, moment of truth: sometimes I write a review for my blog and don't post it right away. I have it so I can roll these things out in a consistent way. Sometimes I have a page of notes and don't write the review until I'm bored or procrastinating, or haven't gone out recently. This is not one of those cases; I could not freaking WAIT to tell y'all about this place and Jesus H. Christ, you get yourself there while you can. I get the feeling that Saperavi doesn't get as much business as it should and, as I understand it, it takes quite a bit of cash to run a restaurant so, seriously, patronize this place before it's too late.

Soup was great but could stand to
lose the ice cubes; how chill do we
really need to be?

I genuinely don't understand why this place isn't hopping; it's got a choice patio right on Corydon and amazing food. Maybe people are hesitant to try Georgian cuisine for some reason? Maybe they figure the Georgia in question is the state and not the country (which might be good too, I don't know what American Georgians eat traditionally)? Do they confuse it with other businesses that share the building? Who the hell knows, but when you walk by these days, they've got a table with their menu, business cards, and a freaking free sample to try to show you how delicious this stuff is. The sample was this amazing baked cheese flaky pita thing called Khachapuri Imeruli served with a delightful tomato cilantro sauce that they don't name in the menu, but is available either mild or spicy. Since I tried the cheese one from the sample, I ordered a meat one for dinner (Kubdari). Dumplings also seemed to be the food to get. They were out of meat ones but the server suggested the mushroom and I do love mushroom, so we were cool. I kind of wish there was more filling in it, but they came with sour cream which made the extra dough delicious anyhow. 

Suppers for large group. *Sigh*
Wish I had a family that loved me
and/or would eat out with me at
cool places.

It was stupid hot, as it has been the past few days, so I figured I'd start off my meal with some chilled cucumber soup and sangria. The soup was refreshing and I really dug the walnuts on top, but the fact that it had ice cubes in it made it kind of hard to navigate; I get that you want it to be cold, but eating around ice cubes with a spoon is a little tough. The sangria was solid, available white or red, and the bartender came out to see if I liked it since she said she didn't make white sangria all that often. It was great but it was nice that she checked in. For the most part this is a beer/wine place, nothing special on the cocktail side. I was a little disappointed that the Georgina wines were only available by the bottle. I'm not going to pretend that, as a solo diner, I have never consumed the equivalent of a bottle of wine, but it seems a little much to order a bottle of wine for one. I'm not even sure if that's legal in this province.

Over all, I would definitely say this is a hot, comfort food kind of establishment although it's certainly worth the visit on a hot day for the patio if for nothing else than beverages. The menu was a little overwhelming for going solo; there was a lot of choice and large-ish portions made it hard to have a variety but the food kept well enough for a take-home container. If you're thinking of making it out here with others, it looks like they have a set dinner for x number of people, which looks like it might be fun to try if I wasn't so very, very alone.

Price: $$
Rating: **½

Deer + Almond

Hello Winnipeg.

I've been taking myself on dates for awhile because there are cool restaurants in this city that I want to go to but don't always have the energy to wait around for people to scrape together the time and cash to join me. It turns out I am not the only person who does this. I was chatting with my friendly neighbourhood bartender at Deer + Almond, where I'd ducked in because it was raining and a Friday and I wanted to do something cool, and bam, inspiration struck. Forgive the shoddy pictures. These will get better now that I know this is a thing I want to do.

The main thing I look at is some variant of how awkward it is to eat at a place alone (seating, do I need resos, is there Wi-Fi, do the servers look at you funny). Then I'm going to tell you how much I liked a place out of 3 and the priceiness. Keep in mind that since I'm making these as dates to myself as opposed to, say, grabbing something at a drive-through, a 1/3 for price is still going to be expensive. Dining alone is not cheap, especially if you drink, so don't call me out on that one. I got it.

The best popcorn is
complimentary popcorn

So, back to Deer + Almond then. This was my very first time going here and the staff made it super easy to grab a seat by myself. They had a sit-in bar, which I always appreciate, because then I don't feel like I'm taking away space from bigger parties as the place starts to fill. Mr. Bartender was totally on board with my eating out alone, as I mentioned before, and was great at recommending cocktails and getting me started there. The ones I tried were super strong and well-made. I'd say you'd be into them if you are more into stereotypically 'manly' alcohol. I like the girliness myself, so I'd recommend the Strawberrykin if that's what you're into. Also, they gave me popcorn as an appetizer while waiting for my... appetizers. Which was pretty rad.

If you can't read through the blur,
it says 'congratulations,
your dining choices
helped others today'

I'm a fiend for raw meats, so I ordered the deer tartare and omg, holy sh**, that is one awesome dish. Instead of just egg yolk, they use hollandaise my friends, hollandaise sauce. The texture was perfect and clearly, I thought it tasted great. It was served with plain salted chips which were too thin to support the weight of the tartare if you like doing that (I do) but it paired super well anyway. And, AND, just so you can feel even better about eating this thing, they donate $1 to the St. Amant Centre each time they sell one.

Everybody wins.

If I'd stopped there we'd be looking at 3/3 but I decided I should probably eat something else. I ordered a halloumi dish. To be fair, the menu did say it came with lentils and such, but I would describe it more as a lentil dish with halloumi rather than a halloumi dish with lentils. It was fine, but maybe my standards were too high after that tartare.

Anyway, I'm glad it rained on Friday and I'm glad I stopped in on my way home. It was a great place to dine solo, had some Wi-Fi for me to use and cool staff. The major downside for me was it was crazy expensive for one, even by my generous solo-dining standards.

Price: $$$
Rating: **½