Nica's 320

First off, I would like to apologize for not having any pictures of the awesome food from Nica's. It was dark in there and my phone doesn't have a flash on it (I know, I know, I know... lame! I know!).

When we walked into Nica's, it was rainy outside and very dark inside. There was a table of pseudo-hipsters at the table next to us. Clowns are being hanged from the ceiling. Then I started worrying that this may be one of THOSE places, where everyone there thinks they are too cool to be there and so on. But Nica's could not be more unlike that! The food was fantastic! The plates were huge! The wait staff could not have been nicer! And the clowns actually just add to the creole feel of the joint.

Nica's is a bit pricey, but you get a ton of food and it is actually a great value for what you get. My wife ordered "The Jerk" salad. The salad was huge and came with a large amount of jerk seasoned steak and chicken. It was drizzled with an awesome "Rasta-vinaigrette", but the best part of the salad was the banana chips.

As for me, the Dr. John had my name on it. This gigantic spicy-creamy risotto (or as it is written on the menu: rissoto. Which I believe is done this way to play up the "crazy" vibe of the restaurant, the menu actually is quite crazy, and the food is crazy good) is a very spicy dish, so beware if you can't handle much heat. The heat comes from candied jalapenos. It is filled with tons of meat (both in quantity and in variety), there is: andouille sausage, crawfish tails, shrimp, and chicken. All of the meats are incredibly seasoned and very spicy. The chicken was so tender that I was able to shred it with just my fork. The accents in this dish only pulled more flavour out of the main ingredients; the green onion, olives, and peanuts (I believe they were peanuts, but it was dark). I would have to say that my first scoop of the dish that had an olive in it was my favorite bite.

A small note about my the salad that came prior to my meal. It was a salad of spring greens with what tasted like a Thai inspired vinaigrette. But it was topped with the coolest little carrot curls. The presentation at Nica's is awesome!

Dessert: We were both super full after dinner, but when we had a dessert menu set in front of us and saw that a made-to-order beignet (pronounced: behn-yay, as our awesome waitress Torie helped me 3 times to get correct, and I am sure I still don't understand 100% how the "g" in there is pronounced) for just $3, we had to try one. We ordered the Cinnamon Apple Beignet, it was incredible, my wife put it on her dessert all-star list.

All in all, Nica's was amazing. There is a great, almost New York-esque, vibe and we will definitely be returning soon. Go check them out for some crazy Cajun fusion flavour.

Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop

My wife loves Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop and I have been meaning to try it ever since she came home raving about it. When my mom told us that she wanted to try something unique from Downtown to eat for Mother's Day, something that she couldn't get in the 'burbs, Lulu's immediately came to mind.

The last time my wife had been to Lulu's, it was in their old location. I was never lucky enough to make it to the old location, so I can only comment on the new location. The decor inside the new location looked like it was intended to appeal to the hipster crowd that longed to live in Bangkok. I mean that in the best possible way. The first thing you feel is the calming Thai ambiance, then you kind of notice the retro items that are inevitably associated with hipster culture. The wishing well pond in the middle of the foyer, as you walk in, is an example of the former. While the Thai Coke machine between the door and the bar is an example of the latter.

Other notable decor were: the wok style pans that had been turned upside down and made into functional lighting fixtures (the can be seen if you look very closely at the overhead lighting fixtures in the photos to the right. The wooden sliding doors was another good touch that was put up presumably to separate the dining room we were sitting in from the bar area if needed.

We started it all of with some steamed dumplings off of the Thai Street Food menu, as I am a huge street food fanatic. The waitress recommended the veggie variety, and now I recommend them, because they were amazing! Grab the chop sticks, dip the dumpling in the soy sauce with green onions and cilantro floating in it, enjoy the fresh veggie taste of awesomeness.

For my dinner, Mallory had the Thai Cashew Chicken, which is essentially regular cashew chicken that you would get at your standard Chinese restaurant just with no MSG and a less rich sauce. Solid option though. My mom got the Green Mango Salad (not pictured) that must have been great because she had already ripped half way through it before I could play paparazzi on it. The green mango is initially semi hard (similar to noodles) but is then softened to what one would think of as normal mango texture as it sits in the fish sauce from the salad.

I had the Khun Ma Pad Thai with tofu. I am not normally a tofu guy, all I know about tofu is that there are two main types (firm and soft). I asked the waitress which type was in this dish she replied "neither", to which I was perplexed and intrigued. She went on to explain that it was somewhere in between, she explained that it was not "fresh tofu", which would have completely turned me off to the option if I were any less adventurous (but I later looked up the term "fresh tofu" online and found that its just another name for non-processed tofu, not a statement of the tofu being spoiled). The tofu was was great, it was most nearly the consistency of french toast in light syrup. I ordered my dish as medium spiciness, and it was QUITE hot, I suggest ordering mild if you like it medium and medium if you like it hot. The flavors were great! The peanut sauce was great. The compliments of the squeezed lime, red cabbage, and eggs was perfect with the Pad Thai noodles. I defineately recommend this. As a health conscious individual, the portion was huge and was enough for dinner and lunch the next day. Another thing to notice is that the chopsticks at Lulu's are a pair of cylindrical chopsticks, unlike the ones found at typical Chinese restaurants that must be broken apart at the top, these are MONEY!

After our meal, my mom was mentioning how the only drawback in the Thai vs. Chinese battle was that Thai does not provide a fortune cookie with the meal, because she is a fortune cookie junkie. Then this little gem arrived with the bill. Well, actually 3 arrived, but who's counting? All in all, Lulu's was an awesome experience and we will be going back soon!