It was my brother's birthday yesterday and to celebrate, we all went out for dinner at Apricot Tree Café. I've blogged about the restaurant before (see post here). I absolutely adore this place, it is my favorite restaurant in Mississauga. It is a quaint little café with good food, good service, and very reasonable prices (I included the prices on this post to emphasize my point). Better yet, I was able to use two of my dealfind vouchers at the same time last night as there was 5 of us (the deal was a $60 voucher for $25, can use two coupons for a table of 4 or more). I swear to God if Apricot Tree Café has any deals like that again, I'm going go buy like...10 vouchers.If you want to see pictures of Apricot Tree Café (i.e. their European café decor, open kitchen, dessert display, etc.) go see my first post about it because I'm just going to dive right to the food this time.
Besides their regular menu, Apricot Tree Café has different specials everyday. They always have a special for each of the following: soup, salad, pasta, crepe, entrée.
Appetizers
Smoked Salmon - Smoked salmon served with pita bread, bermuda onions, capers and dill sour cream ($7.95).
Bright, orange smoked salmon with soft pita bread. Yum. The onions were too big though; they could have done a better job on those for sure.
Bruschetta - Focaccia bread, diced tomatoes, garlic, basil, red onions, and asiago cheese ($6.25).
This is the first time I had bruschetta where the toppings are served separately in a bowl like that. I definitely prefer having the toppings served on the bread.
I ordered this for myself. Love that ramekin, so cute! The soup was really tasty; haven't had such good French onion soup in a long time. Although it didn't have that crusty, hard cheese top like a classic French onion soup, I still loved it. I thought everything was very well balanced - it had the perfect amount of cheese, caramelized onions, and croutons. The saltiness was just right as well (I've had way too many overly salty French onion soups).
Mains
Pan Seared Barramundi Fish Fillet - In sweet chili sauce served with brown rice & snow peas & coconut ($18.95)
This was one of the entrée specials and both my brother and my dad ordered this (this was my brother's - he asked for no rice, more veggies). They both love the Barramundi now~ They said the chili sauce was quite spicy, which caught them by surprise. They couldn't really taste the "sweet" part in the "sweet chili sauce" though.
Smoked Salmon Crepe - With arugula, portobello mushrooms, tomato, in dill cream ($13.50)
All their crepes come with a garden salad (which you can upgrade to a Caesar, Greek or Apricot). It's really good to have a side salad with these savoury crepes because they can be quite heavy (especially the ones from Apricot Tree Café, lots of yummy filling!) My sister-in-law, Karena, and my mom both had this crepe; they both had trouble finishing it as it was too big for their little stomachs.
Shrimp & Dill Crepe - Baby shrimps, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach in Rose sauce ($12.75)
My crepe. I really liked the Rose sauce, it had good consistency (not too runny or creamy) and I was able to taste the Rose right away. This sauce is the star of this crepe as it almost didn't matter what was in the crepe itself. Again, huge crepe, but of course I had no problem finishing it (although I did fee pretty full since I had the French onion soup earlier).
We ordered the birthday cake from Apricot Tree Café too. All their desserts are made on premise. We got the tiramisu and it was heavenly~* The cake was layered so beautifully and it was not too sweet (very important in our family). It was also very, very light. The amount of coffee flavor was perfect as well.
Here's my brother, Jason, and Karena. Happy Birthday again ^_^
I cannot wait for Apricot Tree Café's crepe festival in March (check out their 3-course crepe menu from last year). Also, they have recently opened another restaurant in Mississauga, called Bistro Narra, and just this morning, I received an email from them informing me about their 3-course prix-fixe menu for $23! Already thinking of when I should go =D
