Now the day has come! FREE BURGER DAY at Rodeo Burger!

As mentioned in my post about Burrito Libre, Rodeo Burger is doing an event today in support of the Salvation Army. In order to get a free burger, you had to bring in a non-perishable food donation, or just $1. Good deal if you ask me :)

This week, Lisa and I met up with Crystal to get our burger on! Unfortunately, with a longer line came a longer wait time. It was quite cold early this morning, but with the sun shining, the weather wasn't too bad.

Free Burger Day Pass!

Stepping into the restaurant (after our 30 minute wait!) revealed a small, cozy establishment, full of patrons. We were told that we had a choice of the Lonestar (single patty) or the Western (veggie patty), with all the free toppings available. Anything extra, like cheese, bacon, and guacamole would be charged for. I opted for the lonestar, topped with mustard, ketchup, mayo, rodeo relish, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, caramelized onions, banana peppers, and pickles. Talk about getting my "moneys worth", haha.

Just as it was at Burrito Libre, there was a big assembly line of employees, many of which were from Burrito Libre, lending a helping hand. This also confirmed for me that Burrito Libre & Rodeo Burger are owned by the same people. Burgers were freshly made to order, and it took a little over 3 minutes to have the brown paper wrapped burger in my hands, warm and ready to be eaten!


Assembly Line

Sitting down at the table, there was a small sign telling the story of this burger joint. It was really interesting to read about all the things that they make from scratch in their own kitchen! They make their own relish, burger patties, french fries, veggies, and condiments! Pretty impressive from my point of view!


Fun facts

The burger was delicious! The bun was toasted, and crisp on the outside, while the inside was warm and soft. The ingredients that I chose to have put in my burger complimented one another well, and my favourite would have to be the caramelized onions. The burger was juicy, tender, and not too salty, and the amount of sauce wasn't too much that it was dripping out of the bun.


Free Burger Day Pass!

All in all, it was a great burger! My parents had gone earlier in the day, and brought their order home to eat. They didn't find the burger to be all that great since it was cold. I would recommend to eat it right after ordering, or you won't be able to see how great this burger happens to be!

Rodeo Burger
8525B 112 Street NW
Edmonton AB

I always like watching people make the food I eat, and the new Freshii located at West Edmonton Mall lets you see it all! They prepare the food right when you order before your eyes, and you can see the unique way that they put it all together.

I believe they opened early September, because I remember my coworkers and I gushing over the new place and their interesting concept. Their little space in the food court is brightly lit, with green and white decor, bringing lots of life to the dull, old food court.

Freshii

At this place, they have a preset menu to choose from, or you can grab a little clip board, take a seat, and plan out exactly what you want them to make for you, using their fresh ingredients. Basically what they do is take the ingredients you want, toss them together with the sauces you choose, and turn it into a wrap, burrito, rice/noodle bowl, soup or salad. It's pretty interesting and I really like watching them do their job.


Short & Simple Menu

Once they receive your order, they scoop up all the ingredients into a bag, add sauce, tie a knot, and SHAKE! They shake it all up for a good while, to coat the ingredients and make them taste delicious. Afterwards, they pour it into a box for you to take & enjoy.


Warrior Chicken!

This would be the second time I've been here, and I ordered the Warrior Chicken to try out. This is it's description: brown rice, cajun chicken, sweet corn, red onions, diced tomatoes, carrots, and ranch dressing. Think it sounds gross? So did I, until I took a bite of it! The ranch dressing they use is very mild, and the brown rice is cooked perfectly - not soggy, not hard, but just in the middle where the rice almost has a bit of elasticity to it. I don't know how to describe it, but I think of it like al dente pasta. Al dente brown rice! Yum! The cajun chicken is seasoned well, and when combined with the corn and other vegetables, its a slightly sweet and salty mixture that tastes oh so good in your tummy.

Big change compared to the first time I went - they had just opened and the place was hectic! The workers were frantic and seemed like they had no idea what was going on - they were getting orders wrong, food wasn't cooked properly, and it just wasn't a good time. But after being open for over a month, they now have things under control and I can almost disregard my first visit. My first time I had chosen to go with a noodle bowl, but my rice noodles were so undercooked. They were hard and so gross, I could taste the starch! They also ran out of their lemongrass sauce so mine barely had any flavour. I'm not so sure I want to try the noodles again though, just in case.

I would definitely recommend trying out anything other than their noodle bowls, or even customizing something! It's cool to see how they make their foods, and they really do stick to their motto - "FRESH FOOD. CUSTOM BUILT. FAST."

Freshii
1586 West Edmonton Mall
Edmonton AB

Seems like Vince & I are starting up a trend.. we have to go out and eat every Friday after school for dinner before we head to work for the night! But that's a good thing for us.. we get to check out different restaurants & I get to post up more reviews! Hah :)

But first off, lets start with lunch before talking about dinner. Today Lisa and I decided to hit up Hub Mall here on campus and try out different foods that we have yet to try. You would think that in the two years I've been here already, I would have tried out most of the food there is to offer.. but that's a negative. There's a handful of places I have yet to try!

Today we headed over to La Pasta Trattoria, an Italian establishment inside the building. There are two levels to this little restaurant, in which the top floor serves beverages, sandwiches and panini's, while the bottom floor is responsible for making fresh pasta, salads, and delicious sauces to serve the pasta with.

In the downstairs portion, the walls are very white, making you feel like you almost aren't inside of a restaurant. Honestly, it gives me a bit of a eerie feeling. Like you're in a prison cafeteria or something, hahaa. I don't really know why I feel this way, but the guys that work down there are very friendly which offsets the feelings I get. The menu is written on a white board hanging on the wall, so maybe they change it up once in a while.

Downstairs sitting in the heated pans are about 4 different pasta choices, with 3 different sauce options on the side. You can choose whichever pasta you would like and pair it with any of the available sauces and see if your creation is good or not. Likely it will be, cause who can really mess up pasta and sauce?

Does this look appetizing to you? :)

I tried their baked pasta with alfredo sauce, served with a side of caesar salad. The total came out to $7 I believe? I also had a coupon for a free drink, so this place is very affordable as the portions are big and will definitely fill you up. My only complaints really would be the consistency of the salad dressing. The dressing was like water, so liquidy that it wouldn't stick to anything! It basically just pooled underneath my vegetables, and got mixed into my pasta which decided to absorb it all up! Not too happy, but the baked pasta was much better. The pasta is quite soft - likely because it is freshly made and baked, making the cooking time much longer than what you would cook pasta for to make it al dente. The pasta was cooked with tomato sauce and cheese, and what I believe was little bits of beef here and there. The beef was hardly noticeable, and in it's ground form so it was hard to tell whether or not it was meat. The server gave me a heaping spoonful of alfredo sauce, which was perfect to cover up my pasta and make it a good lunch in the end. I will be back in the future just to try out their other pastas - I want to see what the non-baked pasta is like!

Now that lunch is out of the way, let's talk dinner. So once again Vince & I found ourselves wondering what exactly we should get for dinner, and we settled on our closeby Ga Ya restaurant. It's good & nearby, so why not?

Being a fan of soup noodles, I ordered the Jjam Pong to warm up my tummy & Vince picked the kim bap on my recommendation.


Jjam Pong at Ga Ya :)

The Jjam Pong was good as usual, loaded with seafood and vegetables! I always order this soup mild, and go from there to adjust the soup to my liking. I do prefer the Jjam Pong at Lee House to the one here at Ga Ya, because the noodles here do not have the elasticity of the noodles used at Lee House. The ones here are softer, but the difference obviously isn't enough for me to stop ordering this dish!


Korean Sushi!

When the kim bap arrived, it was so cute and neatly arranged. Kim bap is basically the korean version of sushi, in which the rice encases bulgogi beef, egg, carrots, cucumbers, and picked radish. It can be eaten alone or served with different banchan dishes, but I find that by itself, it's already sufficiently flavoured. This dish is very affordable and filling - the one pictured above is $6 I believe. Go check it out, I love it!

La Pasta Trattoria
9008 112 St.
Edmonton AB

Ga Ya Korean Restaurant
11147 87 Avenue NW
Edmonton AB