Hanging out in Halifax

Everyone knows McDonald's. You come to expect a certain level of service, cleanliness, and food quality from one McDonald's to the next. You expect to be served quickly and politely, you expect the food to be exactly the same at every restaurant, you expect the washrooms to be usable and the restaurant area to be tidied regularly.

Today, however, we discovered the unexpected. We discovered the best time ever to visit a McDonald's is when the corporate big wigs are visiting.

I went to McDonald's for breakfast at 9 this morning. My mother, the baby and I met up with two friends who arrived a few minutes before we did.

As soon as I walked in the door with the baby I was approached by a friendly staff member, who asked if I needed a high chair. When I replied yes, she brought one right over before we even ordered.

At the cash, I ordered a blueberry muffin, and a coffee for Mom, and a bacon and egg McMuffin meal for myself. After the order was rung through, the cashier discovered that they were out of blueberry muffins, but quickly offered to find out when the next batch was due from the oven. Since they were due in 2 minutes, I decided to wait for one. The muffin was delivered hot and fresh from the oven. While I waited, another cashier gave me several promotional packages of gum to take home to the big kids.

While we were enjoying our breakfast and conversation, the same lady who greeted us came over and offered us a newspaper. A few minutes later she came and offered to take a coffee cup up for a refill. We were of course eager to take her up on it, and asked for some extra sugar while she was up.

We got a cup of water and a spoon to make the baby some cereal. The next thing we knew, the greeter was back giving us bicycle safety books for the big kids. I went back to ask her for a few more to give out at the soon to be 4-year-olds birthday party as she was coming with some other items for the kids. She went back into the kitchen and came out with a dozen more of each item. A few minutes later she arrived with a plastic bag to carry it all in.

The restaurant was spotless, the service exemplary, and I am eager to find the corporate schedule so I can follow the big wigs across the country. It would so be worth it.

The Colby Ale House has become one of our favourite spots. We head there every Tuesday night for "Quiz Night". (Note: It does not run during the summer.)

Each week there are about 8 teams (max 6 per team) competing in 5 rounds of trivia: General Knowledge, Entertainment, Music, Science, and Geography usually, but there are occasional variations.

It's free to get in because they expect you will buy food, and the food is well worth the trip, even when it's not Quiz Night. The fare is mainly German and American. The fries are delicious, but so is the sauerkraut soup.

We are usually there in a group of 3 to 5 people. The guys usually order a cheeseburger platter or a German sausage platter. Their bills run around $11 to 12 for their meal and a drink, taxes included.

I usually just get fries (plenty to share) and a soda, which comes to $7 taxes in.

We have become quite fond of the Bratwurst, but this is the first place we've tried it so we can't compare it to anything. It comes with a generous helping of sauerkraut. The first time one of my friends tried the sauerkraut he was not impressed, but when he learned to eat it with the sausage, (instead of pretending it was coleslaw) he liked it much better.

The soda comes in plastic bottles with a glass of ice on the side. One of my friends usually gets milk, which also comes in a carton with a glass on the side. There are several kinds of beer on tap as well as a full bar, but I'm always a designated driver. My mother has come a couple of times and ordered the tomato juice. We're not sure what's wrong with it, but it tastes like watered down ketchup, so she won't order it again. She also doesn't like the diet soda they have so she just steals the rest that's in my plastic bottle :)

Our server is friendly and remembers us from week to week. She does call everyone "sweetie," which doesn't bother me, but it bugs one of my teammates.

The only problem we've really encountered though is that it is a pub, so the baby gets kicked out at 9pm. Darn those laws to keep children from drinking -- at least it's something for the baby book :)BR>
There is also a weekly 50-50 draw, where half the ticket sales goes to the IWK Children's Hospital and the other half to the lucky ticket holder. Tickets cost $1 each, $2 for 3, or $5 for an "arm's length" (usually around 15 tickets). We haven't won yet, but do recommend that you buy tickets right after we do.

The prize for winning the trivia is a $20 gift certificate and a sticker for the team name card. We've won once, and were quite eager to make good use of our winnings. Now we want to collect more stickers for our sign.

Back we went to Jungle Jim's today—it was the 4-year-old's turn to pick.

After examining the oversized goldfish in the pond, we were taken to a booth. The booth had lots of room for the two big kids and me on one side, and my mom and hubby on the other with the baby in a high chair on the end.

We ordered the kids meals when we ordered the drinks because one of them had to rush off early. The 8 year old had Super Slurpy Jungle Juice (basically a Shirley Temple). The 4 year old thought she wanted one too, until I reminded her that all she really wanted was the little umbrella. She had cranberry juice. I had a soda, mother and hubby both had just water.

The kids meals came quickly. One had a Bambino Taco (a taco in a red shell) with the veggies and dip on the side. Only he doesn't like celery, so we asked for extra carrots instead ($5). The 4 year old had pasta with garlic bread ($4).

Mother and I decided to share the "Bathroom Sink," and a chicken with veggies dish. The bathroom sink is an assortment of appetizers all on one plate, and includes fries, onion rings, 1 mozarella stick, 1 chicken finger, 1 taquito, 3 chicken wings, and a couple of kinds of sauce ($10—also available in the "kitchen sink" with more food for $20). The chicken dish includes a side of veggies (in this case corn mostly with some peppers) and rice (quite nicely chicken flavoured) for $20.

Hubby had a greek salad hold the feta cheese and then he removed the onions. No wonder he was looking for snacks when he got home.

We were quite happy that the kids ordered early because the rest of our meal took forever to get out of the kitchen. The kids had completely eaten before we saw anything. The salad and chicken dish arrived first. We had it all divided up and were eating away when the plate of appetizers arrived. Oh well, the kids wanted to help eat those anyway.

Dessert is included with the kids meals, and they always have smartie pants sundaes, but the kid who needed to leave early decided to get a pudding to go instead. It turned out that the pudding they serve is actually jello pudding in the little cups that are great for school lunches, so we could "to go" it a lot easier than ice cream.

The kids also get a trip to the treasure chest which is filled with dollar store type toys. They both selected a velcro ball and catcher set.

The service was really slow, as usual; the kids spent the whole meal asking to go look at the goldfish, as usual. The seats near the windows were out of service, as usual. We did discover today that they offer a 10% discout for CAA members.

Could have been worse, but I wish we'd had a coupon.

We went to Steak and Stein on a Monday evening. The Monday special is hamburger steak with onions and gravy. I had it once and decided although it was OK, it wasn't my favourite ($8) so I went for the Tuesday special, Derby Tips ($8 on Tuesday, $9 other days), instead. Derby Tips are little bite size pieces of steak, in a bowl with gravy, onions and peppers. It is much more delicious than I would have thought. It came with some garlic toast and I decided to be adventurous and get the 'Frips' as my choice of sides. According to the menu, Frips are not quite a fry, not quite a chip, which is an accurate description. They are nice and crunchy, but not as hot as fries. (Other options include potatoes, rice, fries, salad, homemade baked beans). I also had a coke ($1.79, free refills)

Mom had the pork chop special. It came with 2 good sized pork chops, applesauce, a bowl of seasoned rice, coleslaw, and a roll. ($10) She enjoyed her meal, and she and the 4-year-old shared back-and-forth quite a bit.

We had a hard time deciding what to order the 4 year old. She wanted red (cranberry) juice and fries. Fries are $2, juice is $1.79, and a kids hamburger meal is $4. We got her the hamburger meal. Other kids meals are $5-plus (pasta, fish, etc). She did not get her red juice though because the only cranberry juice they had was in bottles that cost an extra $2.25. She could have had Fruitopia, soda, kool-aid, etc., but those have too much sugar for her (when she was getting dessert too) and she was too disappointed about the cranberry juice to pick milk or apple juice. So, she was happy with a glass of water. For dessert she had some green jell-o with whipped cream.

The baby was not offered anything (even a spoon!), but we had brought food from home to keep him happy.

We got to the restaurant at about 5:15pm, so there were lots of empty tables, but we did have to wait a few minutes because a party of 7 arrived just before we did. We also had to wait for the high-chair for a few minutes.

The food was really good and we all enjoyed trying the frips. I would definitely get this meal again. The sauce that came with the frips was a sour-cream chip dip that I didn't like, but mom did. I found they tasted much better in the Derby Tips gravy.

I used to order the Delmonico steaks every time I came to this restaurant, but I decided that I always get the worst cuts. Other people at the table can always eat every bite, and mine is full of gristle and fat, so I was happy to discover the derby tips. It's also great because I don't have to try to cut the meat with one hand while balancing the baby with the other.

We had been craving Chinese food for several days when we suddenly had an opportunity to go out for dinner. We immediately made plans to head to the Garden View.

We arrived just before 5pm and noticed that the patio was open. It was perfect patio weather so we asked if we could sit outside. The noise of the rush-hour traffic was a bit of a deterrent, so we were the only ones out there, but it was also quite early and the restaurant was by no means full.

The waitress brought a highchair out for the baby and several menus. They serve many common Chinese food items and have special sections on the menu with Canadian food, a kids menu, low carb, vegetarian and gluten free options. The whole menu is available on their website at http://www.gardenviewrestaurant.com/index.html

We skip the egg rolls for the most part (except the 8 year old) because they are Nova Scotia egg rolls and having grown up in a different province, they never taste quite right to us. They are fine by Nova Scotia standards though and only 99¢ each. Instead of ordering kids meals, we go family-style and order four dishes to share. We opted for chicken fried rice($6.59), chicken fried macaroni ($6.59), lemon chicken ($10.59), and almond chicken guy ding ($9). The kids had small drinks.

The waitress had suggested we try the house rice, which seems to be a collection of all the rice add-ins including chicken, beef, mushrooms, shrimp, and egg. She also said they could leave out any of those we didn't want. We decided to just go with our old standard instead.

The waitress also suggested we get chicken balls when we were looking for a fourth item, because she knew they were kid-favourites. When we said that the lemon chicken was really close to that she offered to bring some red chicken ball sauce for the kids. We decided that sounded like a good idea and the kids enjoyed it.

We really like the almond chicken guy ding. Mom and the kids love water chestnuts so they are very happy with this dish. I skip those but love the almonds. They are nice and crunchy and obviously toasted.

The fried macaroni was our "new dish" of the day. We always like to try something new at Chinese restaurants, and usually end up enjoying it. Definitely the case here. The macaroni was like a fried rice dish only with big pieces of vegetables and chicken mixed in. It has a fried rice flavour, but the texture was quite different. We would get this again.

At the end of the meal, the kids got a toy from the treasure chest. Nice that they did that even though we didn't order kids meals.

We finished off with out fortune cookies for dessert at home later.

We all had all the food we wanted and there was enough left for the 8 year old to have lunch the next day. And he didn't want to go there!

Freeman's Little New York is an institution in Halifax. The sign says they are the second oldest restaurant in Halifax. For years they have been the go-to place for a bite after a night of partying (they are open until 5:00am). So, it seems like a strange place to take the family, but hey...we're a strange family.

The parking lot is behind the building and a bit hard to get to, as you have to navigate narrow alleys and find a place that isn't reserved for another business. There are only about 10 spots for all the businesses in the 3 adjacent buildings.

We got there at about 5:00pm, and it was quite empty.

Inside, it is definitely a bar atmosphere. There is a patio with chairs outside, and some tall tables with bar stools inside. My kids of course wanted to sit there, but they could not accommodate the baby, so we found a long booth instead. They brought a booster seat for the baby, but it could not fasten to the chair or to the baby, so it was not great for us. Luckily the baby felt like sitting, otherwise he would have been better off on my lap.

The booths are all labeled, things like "60's Student Booth", "Basketball Champions Booth", "Newlywed's Booth" and the very back one is "Cheater's Booth". Down the middle are street signs depicting famous New York City streets. We were sitting in Central Park.

We had a coupon for buy one get one free pizza, so we ordered 2 medium pizzas, one donair pizza and one New York pizza. The New York pizza came with pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions. The donair pizza has donair sauce, donair meat, tomatoes and onions. Donairs are a strange Maritime food, sort of like gyros. They are made from seasoned ground beef that is slow cooked, then sliced thin and fried. The sauce is very thick and sweet (made of thickened evaporated milk and sugar more-or-less). Each pizza was priced at $15.95 on the menu.

We did not have any baby food with us, but we asked the waiter to bring us a slice of toast, which he did no problem.

Both of the pizzas were delicious, much better than some we've eaten for sure. We finished off the donair pizza and had two slices of the traditional pizza left, which I had for lunch the next day. Not quite as good, but still tasty.

We stuck with water to drink, so the total bill was under $20 for the lot of us.

When I went to college, I lived in an apartment directly across the street from Freeman's so we used to eat there frequently. In fact, there was one month that I either ate there, or ate leftovers every single day. We live farther, and it's not great for the kids, but we still go once a year or so.

The Kermesse is an annual fundraiser for the IWK Children's Hospital. This year, for the first time in 40 years, it was held on the hospital grounds, and it was like it was meant to be.

The last time I went to the Kermesse was 2 years ago, at the Halifax Forum hockey rink. This year it was held around and in the IWK hospital.

Most of the outdoor activities required tickets which cost $1 each. The Kermesse was open from 10am to 3pm, and since we got there around noon, our first stop was the barbecue tent. Hot dogs, drinks, chips were all $1, or one ticket, hamburgers $2. So, the 4-year-old and I ate for $5—not bad. I had bought $10 in tickets and I let the kid buy her lunch with those, but I used cash.

We used the rest of the tickets on the carnival stuff. There were those inflatable bouncing things (two tickets) which kids love, but three of the four were unsuitable for the 4-year-old.

Another key stop was the petting zoo (one ticket), which had lambs, chicks, ducklings, and rabbits.

Being 4, food is very important, so the kid used two tickets for cotton candy and one to decorate a cookie. Two tickets for the fishing game. All of the games were pretty much guaranteed wins for the kids which is nice.

Considering it took place at a hospital, the choices seemed a bit odd to me. They had hot dogs for the kids to eat...major choking hazard, and those bounce houses are just accidents waiting to happen (there is always someone getting a good bonk), but at least we would not be far from help if it was needed I guess.

There was also a plant sale, salmon (which I heard about as we were leaving), a craft sale, a silent auction, and a balloon stand all by the main doors. The 4-year-old wanted a balloon and they were lovely, but there was no way I would pay $7.50 for one.

In the cafeteria there was a chowder lunch ($6) and an interesting idea...challenge the chess players for $5.

Across the street from the hospital at Gorsbrook Junior High was the flea market/book sale. We cleverly arrived here after everything was marked down. We bought a few little books at the sale for $.50 a bag and a few more books for me at the book sale for $1 each. Kids books were $.25. The plants were also marked down, but I didn't see any tomato plants this year so I didn't get any.

On the way back from the gym we passed the model railway display, which is a very elaborate permanent display and which has lots of buttons for the kids to press.

One of the nicest things was that the parkade had free parking for the day, which was nice because most of the people there were there to 'donate' money anyway.