Otis Dining Hall Kingston - 11 March 2020

Only four of us this time, John, Jim, Ron, Megan.

A special meal so not much of a write up.

Positives: the food was really good. Some of us were allowed to have the 5 courses, other allowed to have the 3 courses: Jim had the accompanying wines, the rest of us didn't. The desserts were fabulous, the creme caramel very rich.  The sommelier knew his wines and gave Jim the full explanation: Ron raved about the kimchee: the sauce with the steak was fabulous: the potatoes were wonderfully crisp: the gnocchi out of this world.

The negatives:  I was not allowed to have two entrees instead of an entree and a main (go figure...): Jim's glasses of wine kept getting smaller as the meal progressed: the "greens" were just a minuscule plate of mixed lettuce ("what's wrong with that" said Ron).   Ron's quail was a bit tasteless but the kimchee with it was perfect:  Jim doesn't like pinot grigio.  There's no real a la carte, you have to choose from the banquet/degustation menu.

Otherwise the ambience was good, music appropriate and quiet and not too crowded.  We were not rushed, it was a relaxed and pleasant evening.

Propaganda at Erindale 26 February 2020

Present: Karen Kim, Andrew, Ron, John

This is a Vietnamese restaurant in the process of developing its menu and atmosphere.  We think it is trying to be a restaurant come wine bar. As soon as I walked in they turned on the loud music (not appreciated) which I then asked them to turn down, which they kind of did, but then turned up by degrees as the night progressed, despite others in the group asking them to turn it down.

We decided on their banquet menu which looked the best of their otherwise limited menu, which to be fair they said they are developing after a recent trip to Vietnam so I'd assume that it will expand in the next few months.  The banquet menu however was perfectly interesting and different for us.

We started with two types of fried spring rolls which were brilliant and authentic, particularly the lace ones.  The rice paper rolls with pork were particularly yummy.

The mains, we had mixed sprouts with beef, very fresh and healthy, the meat was a bit chewy but very nice with the lemongrass and the touch of chilli.

The egg pancake was the favourite, served with fresh salad and 2 types of vietnamese mint, difficult to eat but very healthy and tasty.

The chicken was like a casseole, not really like a standard curry, almost like a Japanese curry, very light.  It went really well with the bread roll..

The dessert was the perfect finish, it didn't seem like  icecream, frozen banana with frozen coconut icecream with peanuts and toasted coconut on top.

We liked the food and the friendly staff, but the loud music put us off  (there was only one other table there, why bother?).  I know these places that are trying to set themselves up as "bars"  seem to think they need the loud music as part of the "vibe" but when you have only two tables of basically older people wouldn't you tone it down a bit?  We won't go back there for that reason.