Red Robin (Burnaby) - not a burger this time

Back to Red Robin! Again! This time for my friend's birthday. She's got a soft spot for Red Robin even though her last burger on my birthday burger outing wasn't that great. In fact she said her cheeseburger this time was strangely very salty but because it was a free birthday burger, she didn't say anything about it at all.

This time since I wasn't choosing a birthday burger, I decided to order Fish and Chips.

Yeah, who goes to Red Robin for fish and chips right?

But that's why I ordered it. For science!

Arctic Cod Fish & Chips ($15.99) Premium hand-battered cod fillets, fried to crispy perfection, with our Bottomless Steak Fries. Served with Dill'd & Pickl'd tartar sauce.

Terrible. Do not order this. Price for fish portion is atrocious plus it's pretty basic.
A bit overcooked so it came out on the dry side, sadly.
Came piping hot and definitely nicely crunchy-crispy on the outside. There was some issue with their usual tempura batter so they used a very thin batter here. Which also means you didn't have to guess exactly how much fish you got.
But the worst part -- and which actually might not be repeated on your visit, if they end up changing the batter -- was the bitterness. The manager checked on the fish and confirmed it wasn't freezer burnt or bad or anything, so it came down to the batter. Since my meal had been served and also probably for Covid reasons, she couldn't sample my particular plate to verify, but I isolated some of the batter from the fish, and it was strangely bitter. Bizarre and it seemed the manager also hadn't expected that issue from the batter.
The manager took my word for it, apologized for the experience, and took it off my bill (and I wasn't trying to cheat the restaurant at all of course). I really appreciated the immediate and no-excuses action taken to uphold a good dining experience.

Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Wrap (13.99) Chicken breast, Whiskey River BBQ Sauce, cheddar, lettuce, tortilla strips and ranch in a wrap. Comes with bottomless fries.

$1 less than the in-a-bun version AND you don't get crispy onion straws, but instead crispy tortilla strips. Which were mostly at the ends of the wrap (yeah, I totally opened up one half wrap to have a look), which was maybe practical but a bit disappointing that you couldn't get a bit of crunch with every bite.
Tasty BBQ sauce flavour.
Good large chunks of chicken that were actually pretty tender.
Chicken felt hot but the rest of the wrap was cold, so the whole thing was lukewarm and of course the cheese wasn't melted. So it's a different experience from the burger.
Overall, I think I like this better than a burger!
Price for portion is solid especially if you include the bottomless side.

Chocolate Fruffles ($6.99) Chilled, dark-chocolate-dipped fudge brownies with French sea salt, sugar crystals, and (rasp?)berry sauce.

This I felt was actually a good portion for three persons, not just two.
Simple and delicious. Fudge coated in chocolate and accented by sea salt was on its own tasty. A bit of berry sauce jazzed it up even more without interfering with that foundational flavour.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en...

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin...

Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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