I was staying in a fairly central part of Dublin centre, but I decided to roam around a bit to explore my surroundings. I ended up walking into a fairly residential and cute part of town, Ranelagh Village. It had a little strip of shops and restaurants and in general, life! I had read about Diep Le Shaker and saw that it had sister restaurants Diep Noodle Bar and Diep At Home so I decided to stop into the noodle version after all that walking. It’s a thai place. They bill themselves as Thai and Vietnamese, but I’m sorry, there’s nothing Vietnamese about this place. It’s straight up thai.
I started with some spring rolls. These were nice and hot, but they were pretty boring. The dipping sauce was straight out of a bottle, and you didn’t quite get enough of it. And for how little the rolls were, even though you got so many, these are expensive. But that’s Dublin for ya, and that’s the Euro.
For my entree I got the bangkok noodles, which was basically thai basil chicken with rice noodles. There was nothing extraordinary about this dish, but it was perfectly fine. It was certainly on par with other ok thai food I’ve had in the past. I haven’t actually eaten that much thai food in my life, so I can’t call myself any kind of connoisseur, but this was just ok. All the ingredients were fresh though, which is really fine by me. Again, this was expensive, if you think about it in dollars. You certainly couldn’t charge $22 for something like this back home.
The service was good and the place itself is very nice. Attractively decorated, just the right amount of mood, and they play amazing music. Again, no problem with the credit card here as well.

The first and last time I went to Wagamama was when I was in London. This was forever and a half ago. I have no idea what I got that last time, but coincidentally enough, this place looked exactly like the last one. It’s in the basement (do they only build restaurants in basements?) and has cafeteria type seating. I actually don’t mind seating like this. I think whatever I ate that time years ago, I was underwhelmed. But I was willing to try it again.
They sell asian-esque food here. The options aren’t that many. But it comes out pretty fast. I went with the spicy chicken ramen bowl. I also got one of their special fruit juices, which was freshly squeezed with various fruits, including apple, orange, and a few other delicious things I can’t remember. I had to keep stirring it so that the apple pulp wouldn’t just be floating at the top.To my shock (because I had extremely low expectations, and remembering my past Dublin meals to be so meh in the past, I was simply being realistic) my bowl of ramen was great. There wasn’t anything fancy or complicated in here, but the broth was fantastic. Super zesty and full of flavor with a hint of spice. The chicken was well cooked and good quality, and the fixins were fresh. It was simple, yet delicious. And I was thankful it was so. I happened to pick something good that I liked, but that doesn’t mean their other dishes are going to be as good. I’m pretty sure I got one of their noodle dishes last time, and it was probably pretty bland.The service is ok. Various people help you. One person takes your order and writes it down on your placemat. Another person might bring out your food. And then someone else may give you your check. But it’s a pretty efficient system.

* A note about credit card usage. In preparation, I found a bunch of articles related to the credit card technology in europe being different than in the US, and that many businesses in europe would no longer take US credit cards since they do not have chip and pin technology. I have not had any issues so far. Everywhere that takes cards, that I’ve tried, has been fine in giving me a receipt to sign. So as of now, I would say no worries. They’ll happily take your money.

On a recent trip to Toronto, I was staying in some outlying suburbs. Whenever I’m somewhere new, I like to consult my trusty friend, yelp. It has treated me very well when travelling to new places. I wanted some japanese food, so that led me to Momiji, in Etobicoke. Try saying that 5 times.
It’s located in a cute little downtown strip type of area. The place is rather unassuming and dark and dank looking from the outside, but the inside is lovely. It’s modern, yet comfortable. Swanky, but not snooty. I really liked the decor. They even had some odd christmas lights hanging down from the ceiling. Rather out of place, but I liked it. And amongst the swank, an oddly placed flatscreen tv, where they played football, soccer, and cage fighting. It was amusing.
I started off with some agedashi tofu. I love me some agedashi tofu. This portion was ginormous. It was practically an entree. There was a giant heap of nori and bonito shavings on top. And a teeny tiny bowl of dipping sauce. Most times when I get agedashi tofu, it gets served within the sauce. So a separate dipping bowl was a first for me. It was ok. My favorite agedashi tofu still remains at Sagami. But this dish was ginormous and quite a bargain. The server even offered to bring me another tiny bowl of the dipping sauce. I appreciated that, as there clearly wasn’t enough.
It is a sushi joint, so I had to at least try something. So I got a spicy california handroll. Man, was this good. I couldn’t quite figure out what made it spicy. I was thinking it was the sauce, but it also seemed like that perhaps there were super thin slices of jalapeno or something else spicy in there too. Whatever it was though, it was good eatin.
I was super hungry, so I got a bowl of the nabe yaki udon. It came in this lovely earthenware bowl with a bunch of seafood and chicken breast and a bunch of veggies and egg. The broth itself was a little bland, but I still enjoyed it. The chicken breast was suprisingly good and grilled. Aside from some dark mushrooms, there wasn’t even anything else offensive in this. It was a nice bowl of udon.

This was a great meal. I would highly recommend it to anyone in the western Toronto burbs looking for some good japanese food. And it was also affordable. It was reasonably priced, even in canadian dollars, so you know it’s even better in US dollars.

The service was also good. It took awhile for my server to come over initially, but after that, it was smooth sailing from there. This place is also run by koreans. You remember me saying this before. There’s probably a 50/50 chance that a sushi place is run by koreans. I think what gave it away was the k-pop playing on the stereo along with bulgogi and “spicy seafood noodle soup” being on the menu.

Oh, and the other thing that gave it away. The majority of the servers were male, all dressed in black, and tall, slim, and attractive, and all looked like they were part of a k-pop boy band. Seriously. They all had extremely trendy and stylish hair (for korean hair) and were extremely well groomed and polite. The styling gel use ratio of these boys was 100%, that’s for damn sure. Later in the evening, when most of the guests had left, the servers all started gathering around. And in my head, they busted into a well-choreographed dance routine and started lip-synching to some good bubblegum k-pop. Like this.

Seriously folks, it was uncanny. Can you imagine getting served sushi by these guys? Maybe they ARE part of the next up and coming k-pop act, and they all happen to work at a sushi restaurant as their day jobs. Because really, I can’t imagine every day regular folk looking like this on a regular basis.

But yes, back to my point… the food and service here are good! Give these boys some love and help them pay for their guyliner!