An amazing restaurant experience

(picture from thedivalounge.com)

A local paper around here publishes a list every year of the Best Places to Eat in Vancouver. The list is broken down into regional cuisines, areas, prices and some cool categories like best patio, best places for a date and best places to bring out of town guests. The list came out again a couple months ago and I had it stashed away, knowing that I 'd like to try so many of the restaurants.

Last night we decided to venture into Vancouver and try out the top pick for Indian Cuisine. The place is called "Vij's" and we have actually seen it profiled on the Food Network. It has also been called one of "the finest Indian Restaurants in the world" by the New York Times.

Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I would even go so far as to say it was one of the best meals I have ever had! (Julie have you ever eaten here? How come you never took me????)

This place doesn't take reservations, so we knew we would be in for a bit of a wait. We put our name in and went for a walk down Broadway and Granville while we waited for about and hour and a half. I had the Saag-Peneer with Lentil Curry and Chapti. Basically yummy vegetarian fare. Cory had the Beef Tenderloin with a Fennel Curry. Our dishes were the perfect portions and arrived with rice and naan. AMAZING.

Then, the waitress brought out some Cardamom Chai Tea for us. LIFE CHANGING. I don't know about you, but I'm used to Starbucks style Chai Tea (thick pumpkin pie flavored, uber sweet...) But this Chai was something totally different. The flavors were incredible, it was slightly creamy and FREE! I had two glasses and I can not wait to try it again.

Finally, since we were at a world class restaurant, we thought we should share a dessert. I'm not a huge restaurant dessert person because I cannot stand store bought frozen treats being passed off for the real stuff. But we had a feeling (ok, Cory had a feeling) that we should not pass this up. After much debate, we ended up going with something that was called "Dumplings in a Cardamom Sauce." Sounds weird, I know. But the waitress explained it to us and we had to try it. Basically it was two gently fried? balls of yummy dough (think high class mini doughnuts) served swimming in a slightly sweet and incredible cardamom sauce. I truly think it is the best dessert I have ever tasted.

I wanted to shout my praises all over the street when we left. I was so happy. I love you Vij's.

On a totally different note. I LOVE the show the Shopping Bags (with Anna and Kristina) on W and Diva and Cosmo. I know they live in Vancouver. On the way to the restaurant I was telling Cory how awesome it would be to see them and how I would love to meet them. While we were waiting for our table, Cory went out to refill our parking meter. Guess who was standing right outside the door? Anna Wallner from the Shopping Bags! By the time I went out, she was gone :( I was very sad. It's probably for the best, as I'm sure I would have embarrassed myself with my star-struck antics. Maybe I will meet them one day though, now that I know where they roll. haha.