On October 22nd I received an email from Urban Mommies that I had won a contest I had entered a few weeks prior. The email only said that I had won a book, so I scoured their website trying to find what book I had won. Finally I found it and the book I had won was ‘the Family book‘ which is similar to the ‘Entertainment book’ of coupons everyone is familiar with. Obviously this little book is centered around parents and activities/clothing/baby needs for their little ones. I had never heard of the book before but I was glad it came! The book arrived by mail on October 30th and I leafed through the pages to find a lot of baby stores I had never heard of all around the lower mainland and some places I was a customer of. The book expires in Sept 2010 and so I better get crackin’ at using these coupons. I also put the word out on FB that I had this book and that if any of my friends in the area wanted to have any of the coupons I don’t want, they are welcome to them! As there are so many retailers that are new to me, I thought I’d start at coupon #1 (out of 151) and blog about each experience, whether the store is online or the start of an adventure outing or a service. This will encourage me to get out more with Mason (we do only have 4 months left before I go back to work) and I can update the rest of my Mommy friends of my opinions of their store/service/restaurant.
I’ve also decided to keep track of how much money I’ve spent at each place!
So here we go…
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- Munch Restaurant – $42.70
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COUPON #1 - BOBO Baby
Save $1.00 on any TWO BOBO Baby or BOBO Kids organic food.
Looks like an online vendor who offers their products in grocery stores across Canada.
The food they offer is:
6 Months Carrot, Pear, Squash, Apple
7 Months Lentils & Mixed Veggies, Apples & Oats, Quinoa & Mixed Veggies
9 Months Chick Peas & Tomato Provence, Vegetable Medley, Blueberry Banana Risotto, Brown Rice Mango & Banana, Pear w/Quinoa and Ginger
It took me a while to purchase this product as I couldn't find it the first time I went to Save on Foods. Many months later, I started a search again and found only one product in the frozen food section (with the other organics). I picked up the 6+ months Apple Frozen Pureed Baby Food. It was in a small box that offered 12 portions at 10oz/300ml package. Upon opening the box, the saran wrap came off all the little sections exposing some freezer burn. There are two dates on the package, one for Nov 2009 (possibly a package date?) and May 2010 (possibly an expiry). The retail price was $5.99. The box also includes a cute little Bobo baby spoon.
I have contacted the company to find out where I can purchase their other products, I left a msg on the wall of their Facebook page but got a retarded response:
Their website lists Save on Foods and London Drugs. I've never seen their products at LD.
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50% off 2nd entree with purchase of one regular priced entree.
REVIEW:
Visited on – Wednesday, November 11th
Despite writing the address down and looking at the instructions on how to get to their restaurant, I still had difficulty locating it. It is located on Lynn Valley Road, in a new complex that houses the library. You cannot see the restaurant from the street (it’s inside the courtyard). Parking is underground and located on Mtn Hwy (before the Chevron station). We finally located the door (there are two, it’s on the left) and were amazed to see a fairly big restaurant which had a mini store at the front full of children’s items for sale (toys, books & clothing). There was an electric gate to prevent little kiddies from escaping. The concept is a hip family restaurant where you can eat and the children can run amok in the playyard in the middle of the room. There are ample toys to play with (mostly wooden) with a huge playhouse complete with kitchen and accessories. Books littered the floor as did little munchkins running around. Upon being greeted we were told they were not serving food for another 15 mins due to an overload of customers? earlier in the day. This didn’t make me too happy since we went their specifically to eat and I wasn’t in the mood to find another restaurant. I was assured that food would be ready in 15 mins. Okay. So we tried to find a table amidst booths and highchairs (which there were a ton of). We located a table right beside the entrance to the playyard (there are 3). The chairs are low and there was no place to hang my coat so the seating wasn’t the most comfortable. Mason came in sleeping so he didn’t get a chance to play until much later. We ordered two smoothies for drinks and I was disappointed to see them so small (or maybe the glass was a funny size?) and they did not offer iced tea. Boo. My smoothie (strawberry banana) was yummy but it was warm. Clayton ordered the four berry which was also good, cold but had a lot of seeds. (I don’t like seeds in my drinks). We ordered a hummus appetizer and for food Clayton got a sandwich with salad and I also wanted a salad but after ordering our waitress came back to announce all the food they ran out of. I wasn’t impressed. They seemed busy, is this not always the case? How do you run out of food? Especially with Save On Foods down the street. They seem to have 4 or 5 staff working so there was no lack of service. I ordered a curry instead. The lunch menu seemed decent and offered a lot of healthy options including food for children and babies. I found the menu to be a tad pricey but had to remember I was in North Van. Our appy arrived as I was playing inside the play area with Mason. I looked around and was sure every toy was covered in kiddie germs, which I soon put out of my mind and prayed that no one had H1N1 in the restaurant. I wondered if they wiped down their toys? Probably not. Guess that’s the chance we take as parents. The hummus was good but I was disappointed to see that the ‘bread’ was paninni’d and flattened it to paper. Cheap. The price of the dish wasn’t. So I wouldn’t order this again. After a little while the food came, presentation was good, food looked fresh and tasted good. I enjoyed my curry with chicken and Clayton rated his sandwich ‘okay’. It came with a fresh salad. Obviously you wouldn’t dine at Munch if you wanted some peace and quiet, it was loud. Kids were running all over the place and eachother and there were toys strewn about. Wasn’t a great area for little dudes under one and Mason got stepped on which brought on tears. Finally we finished up and I went to pay. After the discount (which was about $6.00) two smoothies, two entrees and the appy + taxes, the total was 39.xx. Wow. A bit more than I expected. The smoothies were a whopping $4.50 each which is the norm but I swear it was half a glass. Time to use the washroom before we head home and I’m disappointed to see that there is only one stall in their huge Ladies restroom (disabled enabled) which offers two comfy chairs (probably for bfeeding) a kid seat and change tables (obviously). I got tired of waiting and left with my full bladder. I perused their items for sale and found them a bit pricey (of course) and we left.
- Great
- Good
- Okay
- Disappointing
- Awful
My ratings:
- Service – 2
- Food – 3
- Ambiance – 3 (noisy)
- Location – 2
- Price – 4
In summary, it was nice to try out one of the coupons but based on my experience I can’t say I would return unless they dropped their prices.
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