Jojosan

I've been a member of egullet for a number of years, and rarely post. Today I went for brunch at Little Nest with some friends and their wee daughter and was moved to send in my comments. I was really excited about trying Little Nest, the concept is really great. Unfortunately, our experience was so bad I don't think any of us will be going back. First of all, I was disappointed by the fact that there's no table service. Frankly, for the price of the food, there should be. Also, it seems that restaurants without table service do so to save on staff costs. There were 7 people working at the restaurant this morning, with about 3 tables eating. The staff spent most of their time standing around talking behind the counter. We ordered our breakfasts and each dish came out with at least 5 minutes in between. This included getting the "soldiers" for soft boiled eggs about 8 minutes before actually getting the eggs, so the toast was pretty cold by the time the eggs arrived. Add to that the 5 more minutes before the next person received their breakfast, and 5 more after that and you'll get the picture. Oh wait - I forgot about the additional 3 minutes to get cutlery after the food arrived. This was extra frustrating given the number of staff standing around behind the counter. The food was pretty tasty and while I could complain about some of the details, I won't bother. Portions were on the small side and my husband had to get something to eat on the way home after breakfast. My friend's husband actually ordered two entrees because he was concerned the portions might be small. Our friend's daughter liked the play area and hanging out with the other kids. Though I find it ironic that this restaurant says it's kid friendly but has the front door wide open. In the time we were there we saw three different kids make a bee-line out the door and run down the sidewalk - some of them did it over and over. If it's supposed to be kid friendly they should have some kind of a dutch door, screen door or baby gate if they want to keep the door open for fresh air. Overall a great concept but poor execution.

When travelling past Kamloops, one of the first exits (sorry, don't know which one) will take you to a Petro-Canada/Restaurant - you can see it from the highway. It's a proper truck stop, complete with tons of big rigs and a separate dining area marked for truckers' use only. I usually have a soup and a sandwich or something along those lines - always fresh, fast and filling. And, they have a huge convenience store as part of the gas station, so all sorts of goodies to grab for the journey.

I've been to Stella's a few times now - a friend and I have a standing Friday lunch date and it often happens late in the day (3:30ish). We like Stella's because it's open all afternoon so there's no feeling of being rushed. Plus she lives on the drive, so, it's a really convenient location. So far we've tried: frites - dee-lish Tosino - pork on noodles with a yummy cilantro/ginger type of jus - this is so good that we considered getting a second order Thai shrimp - really great, perfectly cooked Duck duo - I don't really like duck, but I enjoy the duck sausage that comes as one half of the duo, and it comes with this really yummy white bean puree that I'd like to be able to order just a side of We had the tandoori beef skewers, which were a bit disappointing, but as everyone else has already said, they are still fine tuning. Service has been friendly and efficient, and I find when there have been some minor mistakes, the servers are quick to remedy.

Hi there, I've got to chime in on this one. I LOVE Incendio pizza, but much prefer the gastown location with the real wood burning fire. Their food is always fresh, yummy, reasonable and unpretentious service. I find the location on Burrard a bit too busy with the movie crowd. I've had pizza at all of the places mentioned here and think Incendio can give any of them a run for their money.