I know that I have been delinquent in posting of late – I’ve been busy and away on a few trips in the past 6 weeks. I haven’t stopped eating or taking pictures of my food – just slow on posting! Here is the first of this week’s series of “on the road” meals!
I was visiting Alberta for a friend’s wedding and stopped in Red Deer for a few days. Where’s Red Deer you ask? It’s pretty much right between Edmonton and Calgary, right on Highway 2. While Red Deer wasn’t exactly a booming metropolis, it has grown a lot in the last 3 years.
Near Downtown, at 48th and 48th
Momo Sushi rated highly on the Red Deer version of Urbanspoon. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but it was quite nice inside. I was there a bit later for lunch, but the place was still quite busy with folks on their lunch breaks.
One of their waitresses greeted me, and gave me what was probably the worst table in the joint (oh the joys of eating alone). I got a tall table right be the entrance of the kitchen, near the cash. I don’t know why they sat me there, clearly there were several other tables around. Anyways, I looked over the rather extensive menu, but balked at the prices. I’ve been spoiled by Vancouver! I asked for tea, and was shocked when not only wasn’t it complimentary – they charged me $1.95 (and never refilled it)!
Miso soup (part of the Bento lunch)
First up came miso soup that was part of the Bento lunch; nothing special here.
Soft Shelled Crab ($8.50)
I had ordered an appetizer to go with my lunch, and was surprised by how big and how pretty the Soft Shelled Crab was. With a cute salad (including dill cucumbers that were a neat alternative to full-sized cucumbers), this was a large appetizer. The crab itself was good and crispy, but a bit hard to eat given the way it was served, despite being given a knife. I also felt the dipping sauce (not pictured) missed some citrus or ginger components.
Bento lunch (chicken teriyaki) ($9.50)
The Bento Lunch pictured above was listed as having Chicken Teriyaki, California roll, Gyoza, salad and rice. Instead of gyoza, that is clearly a spring roll (which was gross), and while there sure is the promised sushi, chicken and salad, that thimble of rice was ridiculous. Honestly, it was smaller then a shot glass! The sushi was okay, as was the chicken, but I was so incensed by the rice, I couldn’t enjoy any of my lunch.
I guess the generally good quality at Momo and the availability of authentic items has been what has given this restaurant its good reputation, but making sure that value is there, and that substitutions are of equal quality definitely need to be addressed.
Eating alone is an art. Believe me, I do it the whole time!
I have done such sushi comparison in other cities and, yup, we are a bit spoiled by the abundance of sushi offerings (though that does not necessarily mean they are good the whole time!). But, I have also learned that, as long as people enjoy it!
I am sorry that the lunch wasn’t great, but I am impressed that you can get sushi in Red Deer. I grew up in that area and didn’t try sushi until I moved to Vancouver in my 20s!