Asia

I have to admit, I saw a commercial on TV for this place and thought it would be a great spot to try.  It wasn't a fancy commercial or anything like that, it just caught my attention because we had not been here before.  I had never even heard of it.  Off we went.

It was kinda funny trying to find this place.  Google told us it was somewhere other than where it was and we drove around looking for addresses on building... and in typical Spokane fashion it was to no avail.  However, a quick call to the restaurant helped us find it on the other side of the street, around the backside of the Albertson's store.

Over the phone the place sounded really busy, and when we got there, it was but we did get a table.  As a bit of fringe benefit, and to our surprise there was even live music!

It's a cute little spot and the musical entertainment was great fun to listen to.  Mark Lee played guitar and ukulele.  They have live music every Saturday night and on some special occasions too.

We enjoyed a lot of our favorite Asian dishes here.  We tried the Tempura Vegetables and Vietnamese Spring Rolls.  We really liked the tempura, but then tempura is always amazing to me.  there is just something about it that I love. Mostly, I think it is guess what vegetable it is beneath the batter and being surprised at how delicious it all is.

We enjoyed some Thai Tea....

For dinner, we shared an order of their Spicy Beef Noodle Soup called, Bun Bo Hue.  The Thai basil, bean sprouts and Jalapenos were a wonderful addition.

Our other dish was the Spicy Curry Lemongrass Chicken.  It was served with salad and rice.  It was colorful and delicious.

I had to laugh at the cheap-o fast-food-restaurant-like napkins.  These came complete with fast food-restaurant-like napkin dispensers on the tables, but I loved it.  I don't know about you but I like having napkins readily available without having too ask the waitress for them.  It was different, but definitely handy.

















Above:  Mark Lee, (One Match Left) with his guitar and ukulele playing some original music and well known cover songs, particularly Beatles songs, was our entertainment.

Hear a little of what he played here,

You can also listen to his songs on his website.

Morning Sun Bakery

Need a little sunshine?

The Morning Sun, located at 5602 N. Wall St. is a pleasant spot for sure.  I just love this little north side neighborhood it is in, mainly because I think it rather "Rockwell" that the neighborhood itself is like a miniature city with little businesses in it.  On Wall St. one can find many nice little shops.

Street view from the window...

I have seen or visited personally, a couple of restaurants, including pizza, a book store, hair and nail salons, a pet parlor, an optical care shop, a Scottish Highland dance studio, chiropractor offices and most certainly, coffee stops. and that is just south of Francis Avenue!


I like a good latte and pastry once in a while, or a place to meet up with friends... and on my long list of great places to go... this is definitively one!  It's warm and roomy inside, homey even.  I like that.

The people who work here are welcoming and friendly, the music is pleasant, and the signs make me laugh!

The coffee is made to order and the pastries... which along with the coffee might be your reason for coming here... are divine! There are some neat creations!

They are pretty big too, like this cookie, but big is always great and fun to share between friends!

Canaan Buffet

Just when you thought there was enough buffet restaurants in our city..."Whalla!" Another one appears! And it's specialty is Chinese!

Tonight we visited the Canaan Buffet.
It took us a while to find this place and all the while it was right before us.  Maybe it was because it  is located in the same spot where another restaurant of it's kind, (this would be the Black Jack Buffet,)  had closed?   Maybe it was because Geo and I already have so many favorite places to go already?  I do not know for sure, but I sure am glad we tried this one.  It's great!

Canaan Buffet is located in the North Point Shopping Center..  I love the beautifully ornate wood carved decorations in the dividing panels of the booths, and the overall atmosphere... it's a very pretty place with a lovely water feature.  You can count the goldfish and hunt for the turtle while you wait to be seated.

Canaan offers a Mongolian grill, a sushi bar and a vast array of pan Asian and American Cuisine.   The presentation of the food on the buffet was very welcoming.













Our first stop was the sushi bar....
I couldn't even tell you what it was that we ate. Geo just picked out some for us while I got the condiments and we ate it all.  Everything was delicious!  The sushi bar was beautiful, but then, I tend to look at sushi more as a work of art then food.  How great it is to eat such art.

The most spectacular thing for me was these beautiful dumplings...  I have never seen anything like this before.  On the upper left, you can see some kind of banana leaf cooked rice package, and I have only seen that once before.  Geo really liked the banana leaf one.  The rose looking dumpling was similar to a bean ball that I have had before that I really like, and the other one has some kind of meat inside of it.  I thought them both to be amazing!  Another work of edible art!

As you can see, we tried a lot of different dishes, and some Hot and Sour soup.  Geo's is the one with the crunchies....



I am picky about Hot and Sour soup.  This one passed the test.  It was very tasty hot and sour soup, not too hot and not too sour and not too salty, and so, it got our approval.

Little steam coffee cups on
the cappuccino flavored cake

Butterflies on the Black Forrest Cake

 I just had to take a picture of the decorations on these cakes!

We had some tea and dessert too.

For dessert, I had some fruit and Geo has a conglomeration of his favorite things.   Geo fed me a bit of his apple pie... a-la-mode and this resulted in me having a little bit of my own.  Now, for the record, I don't particularly like the idea of self-service hard ice cream at buffet restaurants, but I made an exception.

The pie was still steaming by the way.  Delicious!

We did not see any Kim Chee and that was sad, but I saw that in their selection of food they served rice noodle chow mien.  Also, there is the Mongolian Grill area.   This is where you select your meat, veggies, spices, and they cook it up stir-fry style for you, right on the spot!


There certainly is a lot to like about this place.

Their advertising says, CHILDREN UNDER 5 ARE ALWAYS FREE any time. And on Tuesdays, CHILDREN (12 and Under) EAT FREE with a purchase of two (2) adult meals. They they have take-out (you pay by the pound) and they offer catering as well as a banquet room you can reserve.

Ambrosia Bistro and Wine Bar

This place, Ambrosia, had been on my personal wish list for a long time.  I am intrigued by the building and at the seeming invisibility of the place when driving by.  You have to know it is there, have an address or something; or you kinda have to hunt for their sign on Argonne St.

The address is 9211 E. Montgomery  in Spokane Valley, same shopping center as Yokes and Timber Creek. 

Finally, my wishlist got smaller when we went here for an office party.

Despite some difficulty in finding this little tucked away dining spot, word on the street has been that it was a great little restaurant, so I was very happy to try it, especially as a gift dining-out for the office people over the holidays.

I didn't get very good photos.  I avoid using a flash and it was dark lighting.


 Everyone seemed to like their food, and with a large number of us attending together for dinner, I got to see a lot of the variety of the menu and hear feedback from different people.  Everyone seemed to like it, and there were no complaints about food, except for the person who didn't like horseradish in his mashed potato... It was, he said, "A little too much."
Someone else thought the amount of horseradish was great.  Goes to show ya.... tastebuds can be unique




The Szechuan Green Bean appetizer was a large portion and quite tasty...
I do love green beans.











Here is the Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese...

The Deep Fried Mac was different.  Who would have thought it would be good.  Not me.  I did try it though.  It was good.   Geo liked it.

It came in interesting little square shapes too, served with an avocado and tomatillo sauce. Most definitely, this was a new twist on a traditional comfort food at least for me.




The dinner photos I have are blurry and would not do the dishes justice, so I will not be posting them.  You can look at Ambrosia's menu and prices here, and see what kinds of things they offer.   I will however show you some of our lovely desserts.  There were repeats among us, of course, and we did get to try a few as people shared.

Simply divine!  Perhaps this is why the name of the place is "Ambrosia."