Armview

Rebecca: We decided to go get us some Armview after having seen it featured on the Food Network Canada's new series entitled "You Gotta Eat Here". According to the episode, the Armview is under new management, a duo of young Greek entrepreneurs who love fresh and healthy food. Our meals at Armview were indeed fresh and healthy (the "healthy" part excludes the two large milkshakes we drank). Looking around the restaurant, the majority of other diners had opted for items from the Armview's expanding Greek menu. These people (most likely faithful Armview regulars) know what's up. The Greek selections were absolutely delicious, and likely contributed to the Armview winning the prestigious title of "Best Diner" in the Coast's 2012 Best of Food survey.

I got the Souvlaki Wrap ($10.50) with marinated chicken, onion, tomato and tzaziki. The wrap was huge and piping hot. It came conveniently wrapped in tin foil, so there was no mess or fallout. The chicken was moist and flavorful; each piece was brushed with a marinade of various seasonings which brought some serious spice to the chicken. But, not to worry: any heat was offset by the creamy tzaziki. As you can see from the photo, I chose french fries as my side. Why, oh why didn't I choose the Greek Salad? Sometimes I lay awake at night regretting this awful decision. The Greek Salad at Armview is the real deal - no lettuce, just tomato, cucumbers, green peppers, red onions, Kalmata olives, and big chunks of feta all drizzled in olive oil. When I was in Greece, it was safe to say that I became very closely acquainted with Greek Salad. For only $2 extra at Armview, you must upgrade your side to Greek Salad.

Wrap: delicious. French fries: I can't even look at you right now.

Ben: I had a lamburger ($10), something I’m always tempted to order at restaurants just for the pleasure of saying the word. It’s a simple sandwich: marinated free-range local lamb on ciabatta topped with lettuce, tomato, onion and tzatziki. This is obviously a more “virtuous” burger than some of the others we’ve reviewed; lamburgers typically are leaner than beef burgers and don’t often come smothered in ketchup and cheese (not that that’s always a bad thing). Despite the drawback of being reasonably healthy, however, this burger was not at all lacking in flavour. The patty was thick and juicy, an important attribute as ground lamb can often be quite dry. In addition, even though it’s little more than yogurt and cucumber, tzatziki is a more-than-adequate substitute for mayo or whatever other artery-clogging sauce you like on your burger. To add to my healthiness, I chose rice as the side to my burger. The only problem I had with the rice was that there was way, way, way too much of it. I have a huge aversion to wasting food, but I was forced to leave some on the plate.

Ben is healthy sometimes.

In case you were worried I was going soft, we balanced out our “virtuous” meals with thick, high-calorie milkshakes ($3.50). The menu gives you the option to spike your shake with a shot from the bar for $4 more, but we thought it was a little too early in the day for that. This milkshake recently placed third in The Coast’s Best of Food contest, falling behind Darrell’s and the Chickenburger.  While the flavours of the milkshakes weren’t as inventive as at Darrell’s, the quality was similar. What you want in a milkshake is uniform consistency; too often milkshakes are just chunks of ice cream floating in a sea of ice cream soup. Our only issue was that they didn’t bring us the extra in the mixing cup, so you don’t get as much bang for your buck as at Darrell’s or the Ardmore. All in all though, this was a great tasting shake from one of the nicest places we’ve eaten so far.

Eating healthy at Armview was fun while it lasted. Mmm, milkshakes!