January 2011

In Korean

Jang Mo Jib (Robson)

January 18, 2011

NotFauna, Mandu, BusanGirl and KoreanGirl were out at Tunnel for Girls Night to get free cover and free bottle of champaign. We were aso craving Jang Mo Jib, so we left early to get some soju and hot pot. When we arrive, we found out they close at 5am…..5AM! Intense!

The inside is quite big as it has another room in the back. It’s good for large groups of people as well.

They give you tea, but apparently, they have hot and/or cold tea! If you get cold tea, it’s not a mistake.

Since it was nearing 1am, we wanted to order all our alcohol before then. We got 2 bottles of soju ($15 each). It was a bit expensive since you can get it at the alcohol store for less.

They also have deals on Soju on Thursdays for cheaper.

Since I drove, I opted for a less potent drink. Blueberry Soju Cocktail. One part blueberry juice, one part sprite, one part soju.

It came in a tea pot which seemed a bit odd at first. The others wanted it to be strong, so they did half soju and half cocktail.

With anything you order, you get complementary sweet potatoes, seaweed, kimchi and kimchi radishes. Free refills too. Apparently, these dishes are suppose to be eaten with the meal…but since half of us were Chinese…we just ate the like pigs!

Our main item was Gam Ja Tahng + extra 1 person ($27.65 +$15). This is a great meal! My favorite! This has pork back, pork neck, green onion, various vegetables, potatoes in a traditional korean broth. You can have it mild, little spicy, or spicy.

I find it can fill 4 girls pretty well without adding the extra $15.

Since we left the table a mess, it was a good night.

Words of Wisdom:

Amazing korean hot pot
Open SUPER late – 2am and 5am

We rate Jang Mo Jib:

Website: www.jangmojib.ca

Address:

1719 Robson St
Vancouver, B

In Japanese

Zipang Sushi

January 17, 2011

ConsultingGirl was craving for some Japanese food, so I suggested we try this place out. PinappleBun is always talking about it too, raving how amazing this little Japanese Restaurant.

The interior is really cozy. Not the best place for big groups, unless you call ahead of time.

Tea in cool cup!

We started off with the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($3.95). It has 4 pieces of deep fried tofu with green onions and spicy sauce.

Next we ordered the Assorted Deep Panko Fry ($7.95). This is essentially tempura, but instead of tempura batter, it has japanese bread crumbs coating the items to give them a crunchier texture. In the assorted dish were 2 prawns, 2 oysters and one croquette.

As in most our Japanese restaurant reviews, we always order the Ebi Mayo ($5.95). When it arrived at our table, we really had no idea what we were looking at. It was greens with mayo slop. Presentation quite horrible. When you stick your chop sticks and pull and ebi out, the delicious fried ebi is revealed. The ebi was quite average and it was not extraordinary but still well made despite it’s appearance.

In the future, you can ask for the mayo to be on the side to avoid mass amounts of mayo.

Up next in our food adventures was Beef tataki ($7.95). It has a sweet citrus soy sauce with green onions, and other little items to eat the tataki with. The beef tataki was a little bit thick for what we usually enjoyed eating, so it didn’t really hold too much of the sauce.

We also ordered the Zipang Roll ($5.95). Rolls that are named after the restaurant is usually really good and popular. In the cause with the Zipang Roll, yet it was! The zipang roll has scallop, salmon, radish sprouts and has tofu skin around the rice.

We also ordered the negitoro roll ($2.95). It is a mixture of tuna belly and green onions. Pretty standard amongst Japanese restaurants. it was good, but who doesn’t like tuna belly right? Delicious!

ConsultantGirl ordered the scallop nigiri ($1.25) and I had the Toro Nigiri ($2).

We next ordered the six piece sockeye salmon sashimi ($8.50). This was a different than the usual orange salmon you get at other places. If you want the orange ones, you won’t find it here.

The flavour of the sockeye salmon tasted fresh and yummy. I never usually eat this with soy sauce. I find that the soy sauce over powers the natural taste of the salmon. Personal preference I suppose.

The second to last item we got was Spider Roll ($7.25). No spiders were harmed in the making of the roll, but I can tell you a soft shell crab did die.

Man, we ordered a lot of food! This is the Kairan Roll ($6.25). It is a scallop roll with avacado and salmon on the top. Very enjoyable!

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking near residential areas
Low prices, great quality
Large Variety in menu

We Rate Zipang:

Address:

3710 Main St
Vancouver, BC

In Brunch

Cafe Medina (Visit #2)

January 16, 2011

To celebrate a bunch of us working in Downtown, Mandu, NotFauna and I went to Cafe Medina. We went in the middle of the day at 1pm to get some lunch. Since we had 3 people, it was hard to sit us down because of the busy lunch rush. After 40 minutes of waiting, a table cleared up. If you have a lunch time limit of 1 hour, it’s probably best to come alone or in 2s.Caf Much much faster.

Cafe Medina has drinks (right side of menu) and Breakfast/Lunch (right side of menu).

I had a pot of green tea ($3.00). It came in a kettle and a cute little cup and saucer. The tea was very light and refreshing, so it was a perfect pick-me-up for the middle of the day. I’m trying to stray off of coffee because having too much coffee doesn’t work well for my digestive system.

Mandu ordered the Cappuccino.

NotFauna saw that Lavender Lattes ($3.60) were popular, so she decided to get one as well. The Lavender taste is very subtle in the latte. It took her a while to figure out if it was a regular latte or a lavender latte.

Mandu ordered the Fricasse ($16), which has 2 fried eggs, braised short ribs, roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, arugula, applewood cheddar and a side of grilled foccacia. If you are looking for a light lunch/breakfast, this may not be the dish for you. Under the arugula and eggs lie the heavy potatoes and short ribs. Mandu was very satisfied with this dish because she was really hungry and wanted a dish that had a lot of food.

NotFauna ordered the Les Merguez ($15), which is flat bread wrapped roasted merguez sausage, baba ganoush, haloumi cheese, grilled eggplant, and tabbouleh. We tried asking the waiter how to pronounce this dish, but we epically failed and looked like fools.

I ordered the La Salade de Crevette ($14). This salad has Crisp romaine lettuce, wild shrimp, aji parmesan dressing, croutons and lime. I was looking for a light lunch, so the salad was perfect. I really liked the parmesan dressing, it gave a little bit of saltiness to the dish which was yummy.

I also ordered the Waffle ($3.15) + Milk Chocolate Lavender Topping (+$1). The waffles are well made and they come with a variety of topping to choose from.

Words of Wisdom:

2 hour free parking at Tinsel Town (I know its for patrons…but FREE parking! I break rules)
Waffles and lavender lattes are popular
Best to go in 2s for quick seating

We rated Cafe Media:

Check out their website: http://www.medinacafe.com/

Address:

556 Beatty St
Vancouver, BC

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Havanas (Visit #3)

January 15, 2011

Did you know, I really love Havana’s? My go to place for days when I can’t decide where to eat. My goal is to eat through their menu.

Check out my past posts on Havana’s: Visit #1, Visit #2

I came here hungry and ready to eat their AMAZING Tuna Burger, but alas they discontinued it 2 months ago since they could not get fresh tuna from their suppliers. They didn’t want to serve their customers a dish that is not fantastic.

Since I was craving Tuna, I ordered the Tuna Ceviche ($12). This is a fresh tuna crudo house cured ceviche with warm corn tortilla chips. The tuna is amazingly seasoned and the tortilla chips were really crispy yet warm.

One thing I felt was very off about this dish was how largely the green onions were cut p to be sprinkled on top. If i ate it with the Tuna, it would have overpowered the dish. So, I scraped off the onion from the top.

I am and always will be a fan of their burgers, so I ordered The Burger ($14). It contains a beef patty, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, mayo, mustard, all on a toasted ciabatta bread. The burger was quite good and had a lot of fixings on the inside. Well made burger, but if you need something meaty and to DIE FOR, try out the Latin Burger because its MASSIVE!

For my sides, I ordered half salad and half fries. Best of both words! Their fries are thin cut and seasoned with salt and pepper. I really like their fries because of the cut.

M decided to make it a healthy day, so he ordered the Jerk Chicken Wrap ($15). It has grilled chicken breast, spicy mayo, salsa, lettuce, fetta cheese, and jalapenos wrapped in a cheese tortilla. I think this was M’s most favorite chicken wrap ever. All the ingredients blended well and is worth the $15 you pay!

Instead of fries and a salad, M got the daily soup for a few bucks more. The soup was a vegetable based soup.

We rate Havana’s:

Visit Havana’s Website: www.havanarestaurant.ca

Address:

1212 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

In Japanese

Kura Japanese Restaurant

January 15, 2011

Since I go to Bubble Word often at Night, I always pass by Kura and it is always closed. Their ornate Japanese doors have always made me curious about this place. This curiosity made me look up every single Urbanspoon review about Kura – Chow Times, Parker Pages, The Friday Lunch, and Deeeelish.

This place seemed legit and has a long history. They have this location in Burnaby for about 14 years and another one in Japan for 25 years. They even have specials to celebrate their long legacies with both locations.

M and I decided to head over here after class for a night afternoon lunch.

The interior had very high ceilings and tables that are sectioned off with high walls. You and your friends really reel like you have lots of privacy. They also have a bar were you can sit and watch the chefs prepare your dishes.

They really emphasize their dedication to fresh daily sashimi by having a Chef feature on all their special sashimi for the day. Certain types of sashimi sell really fast.

At first glace of this picture, is this kimchi?

This is certainly not! This is Spicy Tuna Sashimi ($6.95). No kimchi ever made its way to this dish, even though it does look like kimchi.

You get a lot of sashimi for the price. The special Kura spicy sauce they have in this dish is sesame oil and hot sauce I think. It was really well made and we would get this again.

The next dish we ordered was a Small Beef Sashimi ($5.95). It came with ponzu sauce, green onions and radish. The biggest problem we had with this dish was that it was still frozen. They didn’t give it enough time to defrost, so the first piece we had were crunchy and icy.

We did wait till we finished the rest of our dishes to finish off this dish. Once the beef fully defrosted, it was really good.

M didn’t have a big stomach for the day, so he ordered Unagi ($7.95). You get 2 slabs of unagi. It came in a nice sweet glaze to flavour the eel.

M and I are still on the search for the best Ebi Mayo, so we always have to order it at a Japanese Restaurant. Kura’s Ebi Mayo ($7.95), was nicely prepared and perfectly butterflied to remove the “vein” and it made enough surface area for the mayo to adhere to the ebi.

Nothing was wrong with this dish, but Toratatsu’s Ebi Mayo is still superior.

I generally like to try a bit of everything, so I ordered the Combo D ($8.95).

This combo included:

Assorted sushi
Salad
Udon
Tempura

The assorted sushi was quite average. I really did not like how the california roll had so much rice surrounding the ingredients.

The salad had citrus sauce on top of the salad which gave it a really nice bite to the salad. I find that most japanese people like to either add ponzu sauce or citrus sauce over salad.

The tempura that came with the combo was very crisp on the outside and still remained quite firm when dipped in the tempura sauce. The vegetables are sweet potato, yam and zucchini. You get a prawn too.

The last part of the Combo D was the udon. I’m not a fan of udon, but the udon was quite normal and nothing was bad about it.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter parking on street or free parking near residential area close to Waves.
Large assortment of sashimi
Large menu (really! The menu was like a book)
Great prices, most items under $10

We rate Kura Japanese Restaurant:

Address:

4300 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Leisure Tea & Coffee (Visit #2)

January 14, 2011

Last time I visited here for just tea. This time I went with InsecureGirl and KoreanGirl to revist this place to check out more of what they had to offer.

We got one of the Oriental Style Combo for 2 ( $21.95). We got to choose from 1 coffee, 1 tea, 2 desserts, and a fry combo. We weren’t in a coffee mood, so we paid an additional $1 for another tea.

For our first tea, we got Jasmine Green Tea.

We got their Leisure Fruit Tea. It was really sour for our first cup. All 3 of us were not use to fruity teas since we only have the usual chinese teas at home. If you like fruity teas, you will probably like it because it has real fruits inside – kiwis, pineapples, apples, etc.

What we did after the tea was done, was eat the fruit!

We got the fruit crepe. It had canned peaches,whipped cream and maple syrup. all this was wrapped up in a nice thin crepe.

The crepe was pretty good but one thing we all didn’t like about it was the additional maple syrup. This made it really sweet and didn’t really mesh well with the whipped cream.

The fry combo we got had tofu, fish cake, and chicken. THere is also some spicy sauce on the side to dip. This was an average dish.

Lastly, we had the blueberry pie. This was a very disappointing dessert. It was in a little pie tart with cooked and sugared blueberries and a bit of whipped cream. I use to bake a lot and I can tell this tart shell was from the store frozen. If you look carefully, the tart is even burned.

Overall, this was a bad dessert, everything pre-made and slapped together. It looked nothing like the image on the menu.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of variety of teas
Dessert are a hit or a miss
Parking in the back

We rate Leisure Tea & Coffee:

Address:

1110-8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Leisure Tea & Coffee

January 14, 2011

After eating massive amounts with FinanceGirl and SFUPretender, we decided we needed a break from all the food to have some tea. The first place in mind to just chill and have tea was Leisure Cafe on Alexandra Road.

The interior is very awkward. The walls are covered in old photographs of European landmarks.

They mainly sell drinks, snacks and desserts.

SFUPretender ordered the Jasmine Tea.

I ordered Oolong Tea.

FinanceGirl ordered the Earl Grey Tea.

The teas taste like normal teas, so there not much to explain. Each drink was about $4 or $5. I can’t remember exactly. You could probably get it for way cheaper if you were just at home.

Another review will be put up soon about their desserts.

Words of Wisdom:

Free Parking in back (usually full)
Large variety of sweet and chinese tea

We rate Leisure Cafe:

Address:

1110-8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Cattle Cafe

January 14, 2011

Cattle Cafe may sound familiar if you have been to Cattle Hot Pot in Richmond on Alexandra Road. Same company, different style of food.

Cattle Cafe is a Hk style cafe serving up delicious meal…and are famous for their noodles.

They are usually packed during peak hours, they have limited seating, so big groups may have to wait.

Tea comes in this cute cup.

I ordered a cold milk tea ($2.50) to be simple. It tasted fine as usual.

M ordered the Banana Chocolate Milkshake ($4.95). You can really taste the banana and chocolate in it. It was good.

M got the Curry Deep Fried Pork Chop on Rice ($8.75). Comes with 2 pieces of pork chop, rice, curry sauce and a few bits of vegetables. he liked it.

I ordered the Unagi (eel) sandwich with fries ($5.75).The presentation looked normal for an HK Cafe. What puzzeled me was how could they offere an unagi sandwich for only $5. So, I opened up the sandwich and the eel does not cover 1/3 of the sandwich. I was sad because always like eating every bite with all the ingredients…especially the part with protein.

It is quite obvious their unagi was frozen and just heated up…the fries probably were too. But, this is a cafe, so we can’t expect everything to be fresh or else prices would be higher.

The overall tast was fine. Simple sandwich and it had taste.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking Underground, street parking
Decently priced food
Noodles are their specialty and items on rice.
Limited seating, best to come in 2 or 4

We Rate Cattle Cafe:

Address:

4885 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Brunch

Knight and Day

January 13, 2011

M and I couldn’t decide where to go to for a quick late lunch. He had an idea and wouldn’t tell me…I thought it would be an exciting place…but it turns out it was just Knight & Day. Sad date, but I didn’t mind because I haven’t been here since 2005.

Knight and Day serves a variety of different food items from breakfast to greek to burgers to pasta. They are open 24 hours, so you can be a kid again and have breakfast for dinner. Muhahaha….

The interior is quite dated and have booth style seatings. Nothing has really changed in many years. The waitresses are really nice.

I good the green tea. Nothing fancy, just a tea bag in a pot.

M got the Truckers Breakfast Platter ($10.79). It has three eggs, two strips of bacon, two sausage links, three buttermilk pancakes and pan fries with thick-cut toast. M loved it because it has so much meat and made fairly well compared to places like Denny’s. ( Denny’s is good too).

They also give you ketchup for your eggs and hash. You get a selection of 4 types of jam for your toast. Lastly, syrup for your pancakes.

I was not really hungry, so instead of getting a calamari dinner, I got the Klassic Kalamari appetizer ($8.99). It has their marinated kalamari rings served with tzatziki, fresh pita bread and lemon. The size of the kalamari rings were massive. It looked like onion rings rather than kalamari. These were pretty average. I was pretty full eating the kalamari that I didn’t even bother eating the pita bread.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of parking outside
Open 24 hours

We rate Knight & Day:

Website: http://www.knightandday.com/

Address:

3684 Lougheed Hwy
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Bubble World

January 13, 2011

Bubble World on Kingsway is a popular location for tons of university students to hang out and have a BBT or a light meal.

I know I come here when I am bored and have nothing to do for the night. Occasionally, I come here after clubbing when the night really sucks. It is usually fairly busy at night.

I was hanging out with the Nocturnal Vancouver crew having some bubble teas discussing food and social media.

I got the Jasmine Green Tea ($3.50). I really don’t like anything overly sweet or slushy … so i opted for this option. It tasted like the bottled teas you would find at a grocery store. Not bad at all, but sometimes I wish they could serve straight up tea in tea pots.

We ordered Salt and Peppery Chicken ($4.95).

I ordered the wonton soup (Around $5). I didn’t particularly like the wonton soup, it was a bit salty and the wontons did not taste fresh. I much prefer No 1 Beef Noodle House‘s Wonton Soup.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking on side streets
Salt and Peppery chicken is good
If you don’t like sweet drinks, ask for less sweet option

We Rate Bubble World:

Address:

4300 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

No 1 Beef Noodle House (Visit #2)

January 13, 2011

Since M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to get some Bubble tea and quick snacks… we decided to go to No 1 Beef Noodle House.

As usual, we always get the Salt and Peppery Chicken. This time we asked for spicy sauce to go along with it. It makes it 10x better (only if you enjoy spicy). We also noticed we got less Salt and Peppery Chicken compared to the last time we came here. Click here to read our past review.

InsecureGirl ordered the Guava Red Tea. I don’t think she really enjoyed it.

FragileBoy ordered the Red Bean Slush.

I ordered the Apple Milk Tea. I had this strange fascination with flavoured Milk Teas after getting some at T&T. It was good and was not overly sweet.

Words of Wisdom:

Shanghai Dumplings are a major disappointment
Good late night hangout
Cash Only
Parking is hard to find
If you get bored, you can spot all the typos in their menu

We rate No. 1 Beef Noodle House:

They are located at:

4741 Willingdon Ave
Burnaby, BC

In Fast Food

A&W: Sirloin Uncle Burger and Onion Rings

January 12, 2011

I love getting A&W in the middle of the night. What sets them apart from places like McDonalds is their commitment to fresh and in-store made items. I actually never knew this until TaiwaneseGirl told me. At first I was a total skeptic and does not believe in such things. Fast Food = all frozen and BAD.

The only thing I really love about A&W are the Onion Rings. Best out of all the Fast Food chains! After seeing TaiwaneseGirl constantly drinking their Orange Juice and Chubby Chickens….I started to believe her.

It doesn’t seem like A&W has good locations to sit in and eat….plus it’s kinda sketchy if you go inside at 12am. Drive through it is!

I was in a super hungry mode, so i ordered the Sirloin Uncle Burger w/ cheddar and bacon Combo ($8). I originally wanted the Spicy Mama Burger, but apparently it was only available for a limited time. Darn…

At an astonishing 710 calories, this burger contains lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar, bacon, onion, and meat patty.

Delicious! the tomatoes and lettuce look decent and not like the crap vegetables Mc Donalds gives you.

Oh, onion rings how much i love thee. But too bad you are horrible for me. 470 calories on top of a 710 calorie burger………plus a regular coke…… 1000+ calories. If I was a health nut, perhaps I would care. I am a starving woman, so I will eat whatever I desire.

The onion rings are made in house and it’s always piping hot and fresh. Best onion rings ever!

In Chinese

Bubble Fruity

January 12, 2011

Bubble Fruity is an authentic HK dessert shop in Richmond. I have always been craving for good Mango sago cream, but I could never find it in BC… until now.

They are quite popular. We asked the owners if they would ever consider opening a shop in Burnaby or in Vancouver, they said they were way too busy. Bubble Fruity is a mom and pop store, so only the owners run this place.

They serve snack and are most famous for their authentic Sago cream desserts.

PinappleBun ordered the Durian Sago Cream ($4). This had basil seeds and sago. The black bacteria looking things are te basil seeds, they may seem scary, but it’s delicious.

PinappleBun said it has a very fresh durian taste and smell. She loved it!

If you are not a durian fan, I suggest you stay away from this. If you ARE a durian fan, you MUST get this.

VWboy and I both had the Mango Flavour Sago Cream ($4). It has a really strong favour of mango, which is <3 ! It is also served with sago and basil seed.

When I visited Hong Kong a few years ago, I would love to go out to have dessert just like this. It’s amazing that a place in Richmond can have such authentic HK Desserts!

Of course this was SO good that we had to bring it back home for our parents to try.

We ordered:

Green Bean Soup
Sago Cream with coconut milk
Black Sesame Paste
Red Bean Soup
Durian Sago Cream
Mango Sago Cream
Papaya almond soup

Glutinous Purple Rice Soup

Mango Sago Cream

Papaya Almond Soup

Green Bean Soup

When we took out the items, they were not as good as having it in the store. You get much less and the temperature changes as well. We live in Burnaby and the restaurant is in Richmond. So, we basically left it in the car for about 45 mins.

Overall, the desserts were amazing and very cheap!

Words of Wisdom:

Mango Sago Cream and Durian Sago Cream are highly popular
Limited free street parking, mostly pay parking
Cheap

We Rate Bubble Fruity:

Address:

180-8188 Saba Road
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant

January 12, 2011

Golden Oscars has been around since as long as I could remember. My parents would always take my sisters here for some lunch on the weekends. Golden Oscars is HK style Cafe serving up dishes from pork cutlet to baked seafood. They have been around for well over 2 decades.

The theme of the restaurant is “The Oscars”. All the walls are decorated with Oscar winning movies.

The interior of the restaurant is very typical for a chinese restaurant. Mostly booth style seating that fits about 4 or 5 people.

I usually order anything from their Set Dinner or Set Lunch Menu. Comes with choice of dish + soup and a hot drink (+$0.50 for cold drinks).

M and I both <3 milk tea, so we both got cold milk tea in our set dinner. They give you your own canister of liquid syrup to adjust the sweetness of your drink. I would not advise pouring it all into your drink because it’ll just become the nastiest thing you have ever tasted. Pour it gradually and taste it till you get the right amount.

Our set menu came with the daily soup which was a cream corn soup.

M ordered the Grilled Chicken Steak and Pork Chop on Rice ($8.99). We order this dish quite often and it never disappoints. You get one chicken steak and pork chop which is still tender and delicious. It is topped off with a gravy and garlic sauce. You also get rice to go with the dish. You get a wee bit of vegetables – corn, carrots, broccoli.

Since I am a big lover of seafood, I decided to get the Prawn with Egg Swirl on Rice ($8.99). This is massive…especially for dinner. It seemed like it was supposed to be shared amongst a few people (But I ate most of it). On the bottom, you have white rice and it is topped with eggs, green onions, and prawns. I’m sure there is more to this dish, but I am not smart enough to know what exactly is in it.

What I like about this is how the ration between sauce and rice were perfect, so you don’t end up with a section of bland rice. Also, the prawns are HUGE. Very big and plump. If you do decide to get this dish, you probably want to share with someone.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in parking lot or residential areas
Large Portions at decent prices
Very busy during peak hours

We rate Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant:

Address:

3868 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC

In Coquitlam

Man Ri Sung Korean Restaurant

January 11, 2011

Man Ri Sung is an amazing Korean Restaurant located on North Road. I always went here with my sister and they have the most amazing BBQ duck special. It seems like thats the only item we ever order.

Today, PinappleBun, MandaPanda, and Officialmaglee decided we should go for the oh so yummy duck!

THe interior has many wooden tables and chairs. Sometimes the decor is very mismatched…like the chairs we had. Don’t expect too much from the decor since it’s all about the taste of the food here.

They have lunch specials and other traditional korean dishes.

For their duck special, for $49.99 you get side dishes, Crispy duck wings, DIY duck wraps, hot pot, and your choice of Japchae or dumplings. This set feed about 4 – 5 people. We had a group of 4 girls eat this and we were all full!

They first start off by giving you a few korean side dishes – bean sprouts, kimchi, sweet potato and cucumber/tofu.

This time the chef did not come out into the dining room to slice the duck infront of us. They gave us the wings of the duck first and they were very crispy. Some parts of it was really good, but we did not have the teeth to eat through it.

The main feature of the set menu is the tofu duck wrap. You are presented with various slices of duck meat.

You also get tofu skins, green onions and sauce to wrap it all together.

I like to put the sauce on first, and then the green onions and then the duck. Fold it over, and BAM you put it in your mouth and enjoy.

The next dish we had was the JapChae. JapChae is a traditional korean dish made out of sweet potato noodles. It is stir fried with sesame oil and various vegetables and beef. It was good.

The last dish made out of the duck remains were a hot pot. The soup and the noodles in this soup made this a very hearty dish. It is not spicy like other types of korean hot pots. Very delicious, but by the time we got to this dish… all 4 of us wished we had stretchy pants.

FYI, we all gathered enough strength and stomach space to finish it off!

One thing I found super creepy was how the washroom was located in the basement…you must walk down these creepy stairs to get there.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking in back
Lunch Specials
Call ahead to order BBQ Duck special. PS it’s AMAZING!

We rate Man Ri Sung:

Website: www.manrisung.com

Address:

609 Clarke Road
Coquitlam, BC

In Four Beakers

Gohan Japanese Sushi (Visit #2)

January 11, 2011

M and I spent our last meal of 2010 at Gohan Sushi. Gohan is close to our hood and we love their food, so we like to go here often. This is probably our 2nd favorite sushi place to eat at. Quality is good, and decently priced!

You can take a look at our previous post by clicking this.

Without hesitation, we dove into the menu to try some more items that we have no tried yet. they always have specials!

I ordered the Garlic Tuna Tataki ($6.95). The tuna is pan seared on the outside and then topped off with a vinagarette and garlic chips.

The tuna and garlic by itself were delicious but I did not like the vinaigrette sauce. It tasted a bit salty and heavy for such a clean tasting fish.

I also ordered 2 pieces of toro nigiri ($1.85 each). This will always be my favorite place for toro because it is very fatty and just melts in your mouth.

I also ordered the spicy scallop cone ($3.75). Inside is cucumber, scallops, spicy sauce, lettuce, rice and wrapped in seaweed. Delicious cone!

M and I both shared the Garlic Chicken Karaage ($5.95). The chicken in marinated in sake and garlic, then it is deep fried. TO accompany this dish is a side of light honey cream sauce.

It was probably one of the most unique sauces I have ever tasted. It wasn’t super good or super bad but ok.

M got a plate of toro Sashimi ($9.95). After a disappointing time at Sushi Mori, he really craved the toro at Gohan Sushi. Bigger pieces and more quantity! This dish always makes his day better!

Words of Wisdom:

Great fast service
Food came very fast
High quality ingredients
The best toro you will ever eat!
Reasonably priced.
Closed on Sundays

We really enjoyed Gohan and it has become our favorite place to go to in Burnaby to get sushi!

We rate Gohan:

They are located at:

Burnaby
1815 Rosser Ave S
Burnaby, BC V5C

In Fairview

SAWA Tea Lounge & Gallery

January 11, 2011

CandiedZen is now my weekly eating buddy! She suggested we go here since she heard it was unique and very good.

Sawa Tea Lounge & Gallery is located right outside Granville Island close to the Afkghan Horsemen. Sawa sells a variety of specialty teas, and green healthy lunches.

The top floor of the restaurant is where you order and pay, but as you walk further into the restaurant, you can walk down into the gallery AKA seating area. There are a few art pieces you can buy off the wall. This area can fit about 20 people. The main table is really cool and has a tea pot in the middle.

CandiedZen started off with a pot of Kyoto Cherry Tea ($2.90). This flavour was Chinese Sencha with rose petal. The tea tasted very relaxing and had an after tast of rose. It was not overly sweet, it was almost subtle.

I just ordered the Salmon SAWA Donburi ($7.50). This is SAWA’s special rice bowl, topped with green mix salad and meat or tofu. Seasoned with SAWA’s original dressing and you get to choose from salmon, beef, chicken or tofu.

It may seem weird to have salad with rice and some type of protein topping. Surprisingly it was REALLY GOOD! I think it is the secret SAWA salad dressing that is really tasty.

How I ate this was just mixing all the ingredients together.

CandiedZen also ordered the Onigiri Set ($7). You can choose from two onigiri (rice balls) filled with plum, salmon or seaweed. Comes with miso soup and salad.

She ordered the plum and salmon. She commented saying the dish was very simple and delicious. She would come again because the food was great and the atmosphere is really nice and calming. The nice tea was a plus as well.

Here are close ups of the salad and onigiri. The salad has the special SAWA dressing (YUM). The onigiri were made in a mould and thats why it is shaped so perfectly.

Overall it was a great experience. Come here for nice light lunch and some relaxing tea. If you arn’t into heavy meals, this is your place!!

Words of Wisdom:

Paid Parking Lot – $4 / hr
Large variety of teas
Lots of light organic meals
Relaxing atmosphere

We Rate Sawa Tea Lounge & Gallery:

Website: http://www.sawatea.com/

Address:

1538 W 2nd Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Coquitlam

Sushi Mori

January 10, 2011

Fabo comes back and M, FragileBoy, NotFauna, JojoCake, and I met up at Sushi Mori!

Sushi Mori is a Japanese restaurant in Coquitlam. Like many Japanese restaurants in Vancouver… this is also Korean owned.

When you walk inside, you will be amazed by a bunch of Sakura Trees (Cherry Blossom). Begin inside this restaurant makes you feel like you are in the great outdoors.

We all drank tea which came in a SUPER SUPER heavy tea pot.

We got complementary edamame, apple/corn/peas salad, and some onion type of thing. We also all got complementary miso soup too.

The miso soup is pretty good.

M started off his meal getting Chicken Yakitori ($4.95). It came with 2 pieces. He really liked it.

M also got a plate of Toro Sashimi ($14.95). It only came with 7 pieces which M was really surprised over because Gohan Sushi has way more for $9. He ate it all, but the price and the size of it left a bad feeling inside.

FragileBoy ordered the Dinner Bento A Combo ($13.95). This came with Chicken Teriyaki, 6 pieces of Sashimi, 3 pieces of sushi, and 4 pieces of tempura.

This bento is served with miso soup and rice sunomono.

I ordered the Deluxe Sashimi & Sushi Bento ($15.95). Instead of just taking on picture, I did a close up of everything, so it looks super odd.

It came with a green salad, 3 pieces of calamari, 4 pieces of tempura, 2 salmon sashimi, 2 red tuna sashimi, 3 tako sashimi, 1 tako nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 1 red tuna nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, and 1 amaebi nigiri.

I was ok with everything, but the sashimi and nigiri seemed a bit small.

Fabo, JojoCake and NotFauna shared a few different dishes.

They first had the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($4.95).

Then they had the Spicy Tuna Sashimi ($9.95).

Then they had the Crunch Roll ($11.95).

Then they had the Dragon Roll ($11.95).

Lastly they had the Oi-Chee Roll ($11.95).

This was the damage of our bill. $112.62 for 6 people.

The service was pretty bad. We were waiting at the door trying to figure out how many people in total were coming, so when the whole party arrived, the servers did not show us to a table, so we had to find our own. Once we did sit down, no servers came to give us menu’s or any indication that we were even there.

Words of Wisdom: