Good value, good food define both these modestly-priced restaurants. Green Mango, at 730 Yonge Street just south of Bloor in Toronto, features very tasty Thai food. I had lunch there two days this week ($8) and licked my plate clean. They have other locations, and a website at GreenMango.ca
West 88, located in the Mississauga Chinese Centre at 888 Dundas east of Cawthra, features Vietnamese food. The addition of the word 'West' to the name may cause some initial confusion, as previous signage showed it as 'Double 8' and Pho 88; On the Mississauga Chinese Centre web site, it's listed under restaurants as 88 Vietnamese Restaurant Ltd. Whatever you call it, it's all the same, and all good. (Phone 905 897 8899 for info)
The restaurant was closed over the summer for extensive redecorating, and it's newly stunning. Gone the homey arborite tables and kitchen chairs, nicely replaced with oak strip drop ceiling and lighted onyx panels, black leatherette booths and slate-look porcelain floors. The prices went up 50 cents to $1 a dish, but are still a bargain for the very tasty food.
The only thing yet undone is the website. Last week, staff assured me that new photos and information for the redesigned web site was in the offing. Meanwhile, all that's up is a Flash page for www.west88.ca (I can only hope my advice to 'lose the Flash' is taken. For some reason, flash intro pages are the darling of restaurants, as are PDF files for menus, and the bane of web site visitors.
1 comment:
We had lunch here today (the Mississauga Chinese Centre location) and not as good as recalled though the prices haven't increased all that much over the past two years or so.
But like many other businesses trying to 'keep costs down' the amount of food is less, and with less of the expensive protein ingredients.
That is, the amount of beef in a beef dish was about an ounce (less than a McBurger) and the pad thai tasted of ketchup, was not hot when brought to the table, and had precious little chicken in it.
With 3 people sharing entrees and mango salad, for $40 without tip but with a beer and a tea, that's a pretty steep price for the amount of actual food served.
A fine line for all in the food business to be sure. Keep the dishes the same, with high quality ingredients, and price accordingly and the customers won't like it at all.
Or keep the price low and cut out the expensive ingredients, and the customers get precious little food for their money.
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