The New Town & Country

Went to the newly-reopened Town & Country today, thanks to an invitation from my friend Heather. They've re-opened after being closed for about six weeks for renovations by the new owners. The overall structure of the place is still the same, but they have all new lampshades and cuttlery, all proudly from Ikea, according to the waitress. It was good to see that most of the old staff are there including Val and the one of chefs, Jamie.

The prices on all their items are excellent, I didn't see anything on the new menu that was over $10. One thing that's disappointing is that they don't have the all-day breakfast anymore. Now there's no place downtown besides the Seathreat where you can get brakfast any time of day.

The 'favourites' from the old menu are still there, like the house burger and salads and Shish Touk, and then there's the asian items, divided into appetizers like a dish mushrooms and peas and things in a cream saucd and various kind of chicken wings like spicy mustard, and the main course menu wich has a lot of curries and stir fries. The Shawarma stir-fry sounded really good, and sounds like something they invented.. Lebanese-Indonesian fusion, anyone?

I ended up getting the Balinese Chicken, which was chicken and veggies like snow peas and broccoli served with rice that came in a perfectly-shaped blob of sticky rice on another plate which I felt bad about disturbing. Normally I guess you're supposed to put the stuff on top of the rice, but I've always preferred dumping the rice into the stuff, personally. The food was very good, I especially noticed that the vegetables were nice and crips and not over-cooked at all.

One ip: If you're going with a girl you're looking to impress don't order the curries or you'll have a runny nose all through the meal. The spiciness was just about perfect for my taste, which is a little spice-tolerant than the general population I think. If they offered the options of mild to medium to hot that would be a good improvement. The guy whom I guess is the new owner came out of the kitchen to ask how everything was, and if I thought it was too spicy, I told him it was just right. Then the chef came out and asked the same thing. I think they're concerned about our largely wimpy PEI palates.

The portions were also very generous, especdially for what you pay. It's right along the lines of Leo's Thai place where $8 can get you enough rice and whatever to feed two people easily.

I just realized I forgot to eat the irish cream chocolate mint stick thing that came with my coffee. D'oh.

Anyway, definitely check the place out, it's good to see it open again, and the cleaned-up decor is a very nice improvement.

Labels: Charlottetown, Restaurants, Reviews