♥ Valentine Adventures ♥ (White Tower and r. tl CLOSED)

***Update: Please see end of post for SocialShopper’s reply***

We had quite an interesting Valentine’s celebration last weekend, with a few mishaps along the way…so to bring you guys the juicy (no, not that juicy) details we decided to collaborate on this one in the spirit of V-day.  I’ll go first:

So for our dinner, Hitman and I had purchased a voucher through SocialShopper for $40 worth of food and drinks at Regional Tasting Lounge, also swankily known as r.tl.  Before the purchase we had looked at their menu online to see what they had to offer.  It turns out on their regular menu they had what they called {“La Formule” for Two} which is basically a set menu for two, so we decided on that.

However, when we settled at the restaurant and ordered it, we were informed that the voucher was not valid for the “La Formule”.

We checked the voucher. It clearly says that it’s for “$40 Worth of Food and Drinks at Regional Tasting Lounge” and that it “Can’t be combined with other offers”.  We asked for clarification as the set menu was offered in their regular menu and not off of a special offers menu.

Felicos Greek Restaurant

Happy New Year, y’all!  I hope everyone had a fantastic time during the crossover to the 2010.  I had the opportunity to visit Felicos on the last day of 2009.  It was a small gathering my family and a couple of family friends.  We did not know where to go until my mom brought it up during midday.  Since I have not been there before (despite driving past it a million times), I thought “heck, why not?!”

The first thing I liked about the place was that it had sufficient parking in the back.  It was a chilly, drizzling night and entering the ‘tavern’ was warm and welcoming.  We made reservations and were quickly escorted to our seats.  Being that the lighting is relative low in the restaurant, I only managed to take a picture of three separate entrees.   We did, however, order some Bellini’s and Virgin Cocktails to start off but no appies.

My father ordered the Seafood Sautee.  The sauce had a strong aroma which gave life to the rather ordinary selections of seafood and rice.  The seafood ‘collection’ included some fish, scallops and crab meat.  I think it was alright but probably would not order again.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures.  It was pretty dim, Wendy wasn’t there and I had to use my dad’s iPhone.  Anyways, my mother tried the Rack of Lamb.  It had about 7 ‘racks’ of lamb served along with the usual asparagus, carrot and mashed potatoes (same as my dad and myself, btw).  The lamb was roasted and had a nice seasoning cover the seared skin.  It was done ‘medium-rare’, so it was very juicy and carried quite a bit of taste as I chewed through it (yes, I took some!).  Great stuff!

Spiro’s Gyros @ Coronado Island, San Diego

Just returned from my trip to San Diego with a bunch of girlfriends, which explains the delay in posting (Boyfriend’s laziness while I was away accounted for that too).  But now I’m back and am armed with a bunch of pictures to show the world!!!

Our trip to San Diego was quite jam-packed and hectic.  Weather was REALLY nice so I got a nice tan (and minor burns!!).  Their beaches were AWESOME.  Fine, soft, white sand and beautiful people.  But maybe more on that later.

Our first day we took a ferry over to Coronado Island.  It was a very touristy place but very picturesque.  The main attraction here is the Hotel Del Coronado.

It is now a historical landmark as it’s been here since 1888.  It was indeed very grand.  I just realized I didn’t really take good pictures of the outside but my friends did so once I get their pictures maybe I’ll repost them again.

The big thing about this hotel was that Marilyn Monroe filmed parts of the movie “Some Like It Hot” here.  They even have a gift shop inside dedicated to all things Marilyn Monroe.

Greek Food Festival 2008…and Loukoumades…

This is the second time we’ve been to the Greek Food Festival at the Hellenic Community of Vancouver.  This is something they hold every year around mid-October.  This year marks the 31st anniversary and it’s held from Oct 17-19.

There’s really not much to see inside, we’re here for the food obviously.  The east side of the hall houses the bakery and a small assortment of Greek jewelry, books, fragrances, etc.

The west side is the Taverna, Bar, and dining area.

Upstairs houses the Kafenion, which translates to “Cafe”.  Here they serve the same assortment of sweets from the bakery downstairs, plus Greek or regular coffee, pop, and here’s where you get the ticket for the scrumptious Loukoumades.  I will tell you more about that later.