As I once worked as a server at an Olive Garden, I will still keep an open mind to Saskatoon’s replacement version of an Olive Garden, East Side Mario’s.

There is no question about what you get at East Side Mario’s, it is a pasta place. The decor tries to give a sense of an Italian place, but it falls a bit short. If you remember Poverino’s in the good days (before they moved into the old Pizza Hut), East Side Mario’s would fall below their atmosphere.

As far as pasta goes, East Side does O.K. I enjoyed my spaghetti and meatballs. Not the best ever, but enough flavour that I felt like I was eating something worth while. Most pasta places charge more than they are worth, but I made the most by eating two plates of salad from all you can eat salad option.

Our server did a good job of keeping drinks filled, getting our food to us in an appropriate amount of time and pretended to like the kids just enough to be polite.

Overall, it was a good place to eat, but would not make it a regular place to visit every week.

TAPS – 13

Taste – 3.5

Atmosphere – 3

Price – 3

Service 3.5

East Side Mario’s Saskatoon

This is how real BBQ is done in my opinion. You first drive through a neighbourhood where your wife locks the doors as you are driving 60 km. A place like East St.Louis in Missouri comes to mind. Then you find some overweight guy that hasn’t showered in the last 3 days cooking a rack of ribs on a 20 gallon barrel cut in half. That is BBQ, but for Saskatoon, Schryer’s does a good job.

Taste was great. Lots of sauce and a good portion of ribs, so I rate the taste above average at 4. The corn bread was good, but the slaw is forgettable. Atmosphere again is good for Saskatoon, so I will give it a 3.5. I didn’t really think too much about the price, which means it must be acceptable. I will give it a 3. Service was fine too, so I will give it a 3.5 to round out the TAPS.

TAPS – 14

2830 Millar Ave

www.smokedbbq.ca

Here is how things went last night. We all ordered our food much like any other place. Things went downhill from there. Actually, I should back up for a moment as they do have a salad bar. They call it a salad wagon though, as it is in a back of a wagon, which is a bit weird if you think about it.

Anyway, back to the order. They did a horrific job on the steaks. Several medium rare became medium to almost well done. Yet, I was the lucky one to get the wrong order all together. I ordered the blackstrap chicken but received the blackened ribs. By the time I got my chicken, everyone else was done eating. It tasted fine, but how could a chicken breast coated in melted cheese and a bacon not taste fine? The sides are very boring though, so the taste evens out at a very average 3.

The atmosphere is nothing great, but not horrible either, so I am going to give it an average rating of 3 again. The price was typical and average at 3 as well.

So, the big disappointment of the night was the service. I am going to give the service a 1 out of 5. The server rarely stopped by to fill up drinks, messed up the steak orders, which could be blamed on the kitchen. Yet, getting my order wrong is an unfortunate reflection on their TAPS score.

The Granary needs to beef up their menu, but mostly needs to shape up their servers.

TAPS – 10

Taste – 3

Atmosphere – 3

Price – 3

Service – 1

http://www.thegranary.ca/

I stopped by Bliss the other day for lunch.  They do have a limited lunch menu and it doesn’t help when one of their lunch items was sold out (Bison Burger).  I am not a soup and salad kind of guy which limited me to 2 pasta options, 2 sandwich options, and quiche.   I went with my second choice, the Bliss Club and potato bacon soup.  It turned out to be a tasty choice.

13 TAPS

I give the taste a 4.  It was above average but not anything to write home about. 

The atmosphere was a 3.5, average.  Basically what I expected.  

3 for the price.  I am not a quantity over quality type person, but I thought it was slightly overpriced for the experience. 

Our service was nothing out of the ordinary.  If anything a little below average which gives it a 2.5.

http://www.blissfinefoods.com/

If you are a fan of cupcakes, you must try this spot. Unless you are are cheapskate. At $2.50 a cupcake, they are not expensive, but start to add up when you buy them by the dozen. You will want to buy a dozen. Taking them to your co-workers will make you popular.

The taste is great. Compared to other cupcakes, these easily have the advantage which gives them above average at 4.

The atmosphere is perfect for this business. Almost imagine  you are stepping off the streets of SoHo, so they get a 4.5.

The price is on par with any other good cupcake establishment, so they get a 3.5.

The service was expected. You can not expect too much when simply picking out cupcakes, so they get a 4.

TAPS – 16

http://www.thecupcakeconspiracy.ca/

There are a few staples that I think Earl’s does very well. The wings, Kung Pao and sticky toffee pudding are always respectable when I go. My wife thought her salmon was as good as a chain restaurant could provide.

The atmosphere might be one of the best in Saskatoon. A few years back, they really changed the style including a new lounge and bar area. There is more than enough room on most nights.

Since it is a chain, the price is reasonable while the service remains decent. I would recommend trying Earl’s if you have never been before. If you haven’t been in a while, nothing much changes as it is quite consistent with service and value.

For taste, I give it a 3.5 as it slightly better than average.

Atmosphere, better than most at a 4.

Price is average with most chains, 3

Service, again average with most other chain restaurants, 3.5.

TAPS -14

610 2nd Avenue North, Saskatoon

www.earls.ca

Avocado, which surprisingly has very bland guacamole, does not do a lot that will impress you. The service is average, the atmosphere is average and the price is more than what I wanted to pay for the meal.

Again, I just was disappointed that a place named Avocado would have such boring guacamole. Anyway, I will move on. I ordered the beef burrito and sweet potato fries. The burrito itself was average, but it was good enough to eat most of it. The sweet potato fries were average. The Spadina Free House has much better fries.

Avocado is not a bad place to eat, but just at the bottom of “south of the border” (well, south of two borders for us) restaurants in Saskatoon. On an unrelated note, I don’t really like Avocado’s website.

TAPS -11 (a score of 12 = completely average)

Taste – 3

Atmosphere – 2.5

Price – 2.5

Service – 3

2921 8th Street East
Saskatoon, SK S7H 0V4
(306) 979-9588

The restaurant was small, but clean and welcoming. It was quite busy for lunch and according to other people that have visited Wok Box, the place is often busy during the lunch hour.

The menu offers a variety even though quite expected for an Asian menu. I decided to go with the one dish that I can compare with all other Asian places, the ginger beef. The presentation was nothing special, just the ginger beef with a scoop of sticky white rice. The ginger beef did have a few chives sprinkled on, but I always pick the chives off anyway.

Even though the presentation was quite average, the taste of the ginger beef was surprisingly good. The sticky white rice tasted like I would expect sticky white rice to taste like, which is nothing. The other dishes around the table such as the Black Bean Stir Fry and the Veggie Shanghai Noodles looked much more presentable.

The price for the semi-fast food was quite reasonable. Although the price is more than a meal at McDonald’s, the value for the quality of food is reasonable.

I did not expect much from the service aspect as it is almost serve yourself. You simply order, sit down and wait for them to call your number. Although we waited 10 minutes for our order, considering it was prepared fresh, I did not mind the short wait.

TAPS -14

Taste – 3.5

Atmosphere – 3.5

Price – 3.5

Service – 3.5

Location of Wok Box

www.wokbox.ca

The Kabab King serves Pakistani and Indian cuisine and what great cuisine it was.

I had curry chicken, rice, and garlic naan.  I am not overly familiar with Indian or Pakistani cuisine but this was pretty, pretty tasty.

The one downfall was how long we waited for our food.  I think it was close to the 45 minute point.  On a good note we did notice that they made the garlic naan bread from scratch so I am assuming the rest of the meal was also made fresh.

They do have a take out menu if you don’t want the wait,  but definitely give Kabab King a try.

TAPS – 12.5

T – 4

A – 3

P – 3

S – 2.5

1A-705 Central Ave Saskatoon