Monday, October 31, 2011

Our Milestones Adventure

Milestones, The Boardwalk Plaza, Ira Needles Blvd Kitchener, Ontario


Always eager for a new dining adventure, our monthly dinner companions Bob and Arlene, joined my husband, Scootor, and I to try out the new Milestones Restaurant. Unfortunately, the evening did not start well. When we arrived promptly for our 5:30 pm reservation, our table wasn't ready and there were no other tables available. So we waited. The hostess was so embarrassed she gave me one free starter coupon (a lovely gesture), but still we sat, and sat and sat.


I was getting tired of waiting so I went up to the hostess and upon finding out our table still was not ready, I requested three more free starter coupon cards. She was more than gracious as she gave them to me; however, we continued to sit. The waiting area was very warm and even Arlene, who is ALWAYS cold, said it was warm. After one full hour, Arlene and I both returned to find out the status of our table, and as we approached, she told us they finally had a table ready for us. It was not the table that we had reserved, but another close by.


When we sat down, our wonderful server, Julie, said that an appetizer had been ordered for the table. It arrived as we were choosing our four freebies. It was a lovely little loaf of bread with Bocconcini (little balls of fresh Mozzarella) sitting on some sort of a sundried tomato pesto sauce. It was very nice and took the edge off.


The appetizers we chose were Yam Frites, Risotto Balls, Spicy Asian Chicken Bites, Honey Phyllo Shrimp, and a Naan (more like a pita than naan) bread with Goat's Cheese and two chutney-like small dishes — fig jam and a cranberry relish — that came with only one little spoon. The fig jam was very tasty, sort of a savory sweetness, and the cranberry relish was the tartest thing I'd ever tasted.


The shrimp were wonderful, plump and moist on the inside and crunchy and non-greasy on the outside. The spicy Asian chicken bites were yummy. They tasted a lot like the General Tso’s chicken you can get at most Chinese food restaurants. It had a nice spicy sweet sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. The Yam Frites (my choice) were good. They could go face to face with any others around. We figured they must be fresh-cut as some of them were still a bit crunchy in the middle. The three Risotto Balls were interesting. I've had rice balls before but the risotto made them a completely different texture. They were OK. They sat on a little puddle of a tomato-based salsa that I wasn't crazy about. I'm a sauce on the side kinda girl.


The mains listed on the menu are all over the place; they have something for every one. They will accommodate any food issues you have if they can and even have Gluten Free and Vegetarian choices. Kudos to them for this!


I ordered the Hamburger. It was good; not my favorite rare in the middle juicy yummy burger, but it was OK. The toppings were fresh and flavorful and the avocado salsa was divine. What was NOT divine were the roasted potatoes that I chose for my side. They were way over-cooked and sadly wrinkled. They really should have never left the kitchen like that.


Scootor ordered the Shanghai noodles with chicken, and he said the chicken was delicious but the noodles had a taste he couldn't recognize and didn't like much. He did, however, bring his leftovers home to have for lunch at work. Arlene was satisfied with the appetizers and chose not to order a main. Bob, the last member of our jolly crew, had the prime rib. He's a pink-in-the-middle kind of guy, and this came to the table without a hint of pink in it swimming in jus.


Now, I will admit that a major pet peeve of mine is the whole "au jus" thing. The stuff your French Dip Sammy comes with is JUS just jus. Au jus means with jus. So to say it comes with au jus is saying it comes with "with jus". Like Pizza pie, Pizza means pie, so repeating the word pie is redundant. Whew, I feel better for having set that straight.


Anyway, Bob said it was OK; but he is a very accommodating guy, who doesn’t enjoy making a fuss. I’m sure he almost had a stroke every time Arlene and me weighed in with our comments.


So to sum it all up, they have just opened up and are ironing the kinks out. We had several people stop by to apologize for our wait which was lovely the first few times, but grew tedious the fourth, fifth and sixth time. You'd have thought we were going to sue them or something to make them keep coming back.


The place was packed, so make your reservations early. I give the place a solid "B" and will probably be back.


Bon appetit!
Meg