Dining out with Geo, volume 1: The Golden Pagoda

Having gone to a wonderful local restaurant yesterday for a birthday meal, I was so impressed, I feel the need to tell you all about the place, so if you are ever in Saskatoon you can check it out. Now the birthday meal extravaganza was narrowed down to a few of my favorite places, Amigos (a local mexican place with live bands - fantastic food), Truffles (a local restaurant with amazing food, first class chef and even creme brule on the dessert menu), Red Pepper (a great local Vietnamese place) and the Golden Pagoda (where I've always wanted to go but have not yet tried).

We decided on the Golden Pagoda. It is a Burmese/Asian restaurant, with food that was a mix of Asian, Thai and Indian cooking flavours and styles. The menu was very diverse: soups, salads, appetisers with curries and burmese style main courses along with with a large list of tasty desserts. The atmosphere was quiet and cosy - nothing too fancy, just nice and friendly. The service was friendly and very good. Our appetisers of Burmese samosas with tamarind sauce were fresh and crispy, and the tamarind sauce was delicious. I've never had anything quite like it - nutty and hot at the same time, with just a hint of coriander. In fact, all the food was fresh and amazing. For the meal, Jay had spicy noodles with chicken & veggies, and I had chicken and onion in garlic oil with egg noodles. Both were delicious...subtle spices we've never quite tasted the combination of before and all very yummy and very fresh.
Believe it or not, we had room for dessert, and I am so glad, as it was the best part of the meal. Jay had warm tapioca cooked in coconut sauce - fantastic (and I'm not even a real fan of coconut). I had tempura bananas...they were crunchy, with a soft yummy banana middle and a spicy honey dip sauce that wasn't too sweet and left a hot tingle in your mouth afterwards with the banana flavour. Quite possibly one of the best desserts I've ever had. Better than creme brule...and that's saying a lot.

Overall, I think the Golden Pagoda is vying for my new favorite place. If you're ever in Saskatoon, call me - well go for tempura bananas.
I give it 4 1/2 stars.