January 2011

In Bar and Grill

Boathouse (Port Moody)

January 9, 2011

The Family decided to go to Boathouse for a lovely dinner. The have a bar section where patrons can grab a drink and enjoy the game.

On the other side is an open kitchen and high walled dinning room.

The Boathouse locations always have large windows so you can gaze upon the river. Their Lobsterfest always draws a large crowd.

Their dining room was packed and the layout of the restaurant gave people little room to move around.

They also have a kids menu if your kids dont want items from the regular menu. The kids menu is also a coloring book, so they will be occupied!

My sisters and dad all got Shirley temples ($3.79).

My father got the BC Wild Sockeye Salmon & Atlantic Lobster Tail ($32.99). This dish had a fire-grilled fillet and 4 oz. lobster tail. You also get wild rice and green peas and pepper.

All lobster dishes are supposed to come with butter and when we asked our server…she was kinda unsure. You can hear my rant about the service below….

My mother ordered the boathouse bouillabaisse ($28.99). This dish had wild salmon, halibut, prawn, scallop, mussels, alaskan king crab, and fingerling potatoes in a rich tomato broth. There is also bread that comes with it if you want to dip it into the broth.

My mother enjoyed this dish!

My older sister got the Louisiana Lobster Pot ($29.99). There is Carribean Lobster, Manila Clams, BC Wild Sockeye Salmon, mussels, chorizo sausage, tiger prawns, vegetables in a spicy broth.

She enjoyed this dish because it was packed full of seafood.

I ordered the sirloin & seafood grill ($28.99). The seafood skewer had a prawn, a small sea scallop & 2 pieces of wild salmon. It also came with mashed potatoes, green beans, and the sirloin. I did enjoy the dish, but I personally prefer The Keg over Boathouse.

The sirloin was done to medium rare and was perfect. The only bad thing about it was how the scallop that was part of the skewer was really small, it took me a while to figure out where it was because it was between the shrimps head and the tail.

Their mashed potatoes are really good!!

My little sister got the Fire-grilled sirloin ($21.99). Her sirloin was 7oz. It also came with mashed potatoes and green peas and a pepper.

She really liked the dish!

The bread never arrived at our table… we finally asked our server and she forgot to give us bread.

Our service was pretty poor since our waitress was fairly new. She couldn’t explain the new lobsterfest menu, forgot our butter for lobster, forgot the bread, rarely came to our table (we had to flag down other waitresses to get her), gave us the wrong utensils (she gave me a spoon for eating a steak…..)

What made it worse is when we went to the front desk to buy a giftcard for a family friend, our waitress passed by the front desk to check their computers…looked at us…walked past us and said nothing.

I usually don’t complain about service, but I was really upset by the service. Clearly, I will not be returning to this location.

Words of Wisdom:

Hard to get to…so drive and use google maps
Free parking in front
Reservations are suggested
Special Kids Menu
Lobster FEST!!

We rate BoatHouse:

Website: www.boathouserestaurants.ca

Address:

2770 Esplanade Ave
Port Moody, BC

In French

Smoking Dog Bistro

January 8, 2011

This post is long overdue and I totally forgot about it.

Back in October, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy, M and I went to Smoking Dog Bistro. We heard it was good so we tried it out. The Smoking Dog Bistro specializes in french cuisine.

The interior is very nice and dogs can been seen all over the restaurant.

M, Fragileboy and InsecureGirl ordered Heineken Beer ($6.50), while I had the House White Wine ($5)

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Insert the longest waiting time in THE WORLD for our food to come. It took so long that I had to add this little section. We waited 1hr 15mins for our appetizers to arrive. Even while we waited, bread did not arrive until the same time as appetizers.

The waiter just said it was a busy night.

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M ordered the Lobster Bisque ($10), which also had in it cream fraiche and cognac. M and I thought it was way over priced for soup, when it is mostly broth-like. It was really unappetizing and we would never order this again.

I would rather go to Yew in Four Seasons to have Lobster Bisque because they actually have real pieces of lobster in it.

Fragileboy ordered the escargot de bourgogne ($12) It was flavoured with garlic and parsly.

Finally the bread arrived!

I was super full rom a previous dinner, so i got the Goat Cheese appetizer ($13). It is goat cheese wrapped in phyllo pastry and topped off with a portobello mushroom and mixed greens. The cheese was really rich and the mushroom and greens balanced out the strong taste.

InsecureGirl had the Salmon Fillet ($15). It is salmon with a mushroom and oil type of sauce. It comes with fries as well. She said ti was not very good and was on the dry side.

The men both got Steak Frites ($15). This was s Canadian AAA beef – grilled NY steak with bordelaise sauce. Fries on the side. The men said it was good and worth the price. Good size as well.

Words of Wisdom:

Good for drinks
Steak frites
Great $15 entree menu
meter parking on streets
expensive appetizers

We rate the Smoking Dog Bistro:

Website: http://www.thesmokingdog.com/

Address:

1889 W 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Brunch

De Dutch Pannekoek House

January 8, 2011

NotFauna, Jojocake, VideoGameGuy, and Jengay decided to go to De Dutch because Cosmo’s was closed for the holidays.

De Dutch is best know for their Panneloek (pan_ne_koek), which is a Dutch pancake, tasting similar to the traditional North American pancake and is slightly thicker than a crepe.

One you get into the restaurant, the interior is super ugly and outdated. There are no windows… just walls. You feel like you are in a basement…perhaps you might be.

I ordered the BC Benny ($12). It had thinly sliced smoked wild BC salmon on top of dutch rusks with eggs and hollandaise sauce. You also get Special Recipe Hash Browns and our Garden Green Salad. The hash browns were horrible! I think their “special recipe” is just to under fry the hash browns. The garden salad did not seem very fresh at all.

For $12, it was not worth it since you can get much better breakfast at any of the other popular brunch places.

NotFauna ordered the Seafood Benny ($14.5). The benny contained thinly sliced smoked wild BC salmon, and baby shrimp sauteed in lemon butter. Similar to the benny above, it was served on Dutch Rusks with eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, Special Recipe Hash Browns and the Garden Green Salad.

JojoCake ordered the DeSausage & Eggs ($9.5). She had her eggs scrambled. It was served with e Hash Browns, Toast and Garden Green Salad.

VideoGameGuy ordered the Hash Pannekoek ($12). The hash contains Hash Browns, Mushrooms, Green Peppers, Onions and Cheddar Cheese, mixed with DeBakon. Topped with Hollandaise Sauce and all served on top of a Pannekoek.

Jengay ordered the Boer’s (Farmer’s) Pannekoek ($16). This had Hash Browns, Ham, DeBakon, Bratwurst, 2 Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce.

All this served on a pannekoek. If you are a meat eater, this dish should satisfy your meaty desires.

Words of Wisdom:

Entrence in the back
Free parking in the back
Overpriced for what you get
Pannekoek should probably be ordered

We rate De Dutch Pannekoek House:

Website: http://www.dedutch.com/the-de-dutch-story/locations/british-columbia/east-hastings.asp

Address:

6651 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Libra Room

January 7, 2011

InsecureGirl and I had 3 coupons from Goodnews.com to go to Libra Room. We paid $20 for $50 worth of food. For some reason we bought 3 by accident.

Libra Room has live music, drinks, and food.

The interior has a pub-like feel to it. The main feature of the restaurant is their main stage which features performers every night playing live music. The music varies everyday, so you can check online to see who is playing.

We started the night ordering Sangria ($20). They use red wine and have oranges, apples, and cranberries. They sangria was alright, but not as good as Havana’s a few blocks up.

We ordered the Tequila Clamato Mussels ($10). The broth as you can tell by it’s name is made from Tequila and Clamato. The size of the mussels are really big and worth the money. I personally liked the sauce because it did not taste like alcohol at all and it. It tasted really nice. FragileBoy thought it tasted sweet and didn’t like it.

We ordered the Hefeweized Mussels ($10). Our next set of mussels were a bit different even though they look exactly the same. Hefeweized basically means beer. Yes, the mussels were looked in BEER! I didn’t like it, but FragileBoy likes it. M was pretty indifferent about the taste between between both the mussels….and I forgot to ask InsecureGirl.

Next we had the Irish Nachos ($14). It contained fried beans, roasted corn, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, green onions, cheddar and monterey cheese. They also had sour cream and salsa on top. The nachos were good but they were not THE BEST in Vancouver.

Do you know how good nachos are constructed? To ensure most of the nacho chips are covered in cheese, you must layer the ingredients and not pile everything on top or else you won’t get an even coating over the ingredients on the chips on the bottom.

InsecureGirl ordered the Salmon Ravioli ($12) for her main dish. It’s not on the regular menu, but it was one of their featured dishes for the night. InsecureGirl thought it was alright, but not the best she has had either.

M got the Gingerbeef Kababs ($9). M really enjoyed it and the meat was very tender and moist. It was not dry at all. The kebabs came in skewers of 3 and had a asian slaw on the side. This was an appetizer we would get again.

FragileBoy ordered the House Made Lamb Burger ($13). Inside the burger is cheddar, leaf lettuce, tomato & carmelized onions.

It also comes with a salad and fries.

I ordered the Seafood Linguini ($16) with the white wine sauce. The seafood in this dish were mussels, scallops, and prawns. There is also fresh tomato, basil & garlic in it. I found the pasta quite bland. There was hardly any taste. I did enjoy the seafood. The mussels are huge! I just had to take a picture because I have never seen anything so massive.

I would not order this dish again.

If you ordered the mussels as an appetizer, I would suggest not getting this dish…since it has more mussels.

Our bill came out to me about $130…we thought we could use 2 coupons, but we could only use one, so $50 was taken off the bill, so we had to pay $80. We were pretty disappointed, but we didn’t want to argue with management. We will definitely return for some appetizers and drinks.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter Parking on Streets… or free parking in residential areas further away
Mussels and Kebabs are a MUST!
Entrees are pretty average
Goodnews.com Coupons…one per table…NOT one per 2 people

We Rate Libra Room:

Website: www.libraroom.com

Address:

1608 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Market By Jean-Georges (Visit #2)

January 6, 2011

MedicalGiraffe and I had our first meal of 2010 at Market By Jean-Georges. They have amazing set lunch/brunch sets for $32. You get 2 dishes and a dessert!

I went here in August and I loved it, so it wasn’t too difficult making a choice to revisit.

We sat in a different area of the restaurant and it looked super nice! Very modern.

We got our fix of bread and butter and awaited our dishes to arrive!

MedicalGiraffe ordered the Beef Carpaccio Pizza ($16). It has mushrooms, arugula, parmesan, and beef carpaccio on top of crispy pizza dough. I had this last time too and it’s a great appetizer especially for sharing.

I had the Dungeness Crab Cake ($16) as the appetizer. It comes with pink grapefruit, avocados and ginger. The different ingredients may seem very strange at first, but they worked well together. WHen you try the sauce on it own… it is sour…super sour, but when you grab a bit of the crab cake, avocados, and grapefruit IT IS AMAZING.

MedicalGiraffe ordered the Slowly Cooked Atlantic Char ($25) and it comes with mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and truffle vinaigrette. the arctic char was perfectly cooked and full of flavour. All the items on the plate meshed well together.

I ordered the Alberta AAA Hanger Steak ($21) and it came with gingered Mushrooms, sauteed broccoli Rabe and a soy – Caramel Sauce.

I had it medium rare and when it arrive at the table, you know its medium rare by looking at it. I really liked the presentation of the steak sliced up because the color from the inside really pops up and makes your super hungry. The steak was cooked perfectly and the cut of meat looked really good.

The only problem I found with the dish was that the mushrooms underneath the steak was a tad bit salty of my liking.

Lastly, we both had the Chocolate Pudding, which is composed of whipped cream, crystallized violets, chocolate pudding and chocolate cake. This is my all time favorite dessert…and I will probably always order this. The light whipped cream on top really balances out the heavy rich pudding beneath. The hidden chocolate cake in the middle is a plus!

MedicalGiraffe enjoyed this dessert for the first few bites and then found it a bit bland afterwards.

The total of the bill came out to be $71.68. Not bad considering we could have paid way more if it was not a set meal. This is why I love coming here for Brunch and Lunch times!

Words of Wisdom:

Parking on the streets
Having the bunch or lunch set menu and really save $$$ if you want to try out Market
Great for dates or a get together

We Rate The Market:

Check out The Market’s Website: http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/vancouver/shangrila/dining/restaurant/market

Address:

1128 W Georgia St
Vancouver, BC

In Four Beakers

Rodney’s Oysters House (Visit #2)

January 5, 2011

MedicalGiraffe just LOVES Rodney’s Oyster House and just needed to go there before going back to Yale. As per our first visit, we had a blast, so here we are again.

It was a busy day during the holidays, so going for the Low Tide Oysters meant a bit of waiting. By 3:30pm, the place was packed!

We got our bread, but we did notice something interesting this time. I think they ran out of bread, so one of the workers went out to grab some more bread from the grocery store.

We ordered the Pan Fried Oysters ($10), which are freshly shucked oysters, breaded and fried. They also some with tartar sauce and lemons for taste. Delicious as always and the oysters are a good size.

We next had the Garlic Prawns (about $10). They are sauteed in lemon, butter, garlic and chilli peppers. The sauce was really good, we even ate all the sauce with our bread. One thing I wish they had were bigger and plumped pieces of shrimp.

We ordered 6 low tide oysters ($1.50 each). It was a very busy day, so it took us a long long time to get our oysters. It took probably 40 minutes to get these…and we devoured them in about 3 mins.

Overall, the food experience was great. The service was quite poor this time around. Our food took way too long to come, and our server added a few extra things that we did not order onto our bill. Good thing MedicalGiraffe looks at the bill because I would usually not notice.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter Parking on Street
Low Tide Oysters between 3pm and 6pm
Pan fried oysters are popular
Always check your bill because waiters may make mistakes
Go early and sit at the counter

We rate Rodneys Oyster House:

Visit their website: http://www.rodneysoysterhouse.com/

Address:

1228 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

In Dessert

salle de the Tea Room @ 113

January 4, 2011

salle de thé Tea Room is a tea, dessert, and wine place in Richmond.

Insecuregirl and I bought 4 coupons from IndulgeLiving to go to salle de thé Tea Room. We were really glad we got the coupons because our bill turned out to be quite steep. The coupons were $6 for $12 worth of food. We took CanuckGirl, FragileBoy and M with us to a little adventure down to Richmond.

InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I ordered 3 pots of teas. They were $7 each. Their teas are quite unique and they do have a large selection. If you do have a particular taste you like for teas, you can ask them questions and they can show you which teas are good. $7 can be quite expensive for a small pot of tea, but you also get refills.

They also give you a small cup of honey if you like honey in your tea.

M ordered this blueberry and lychee type of drink. I forgot what the name was, but it was quite good and had nice balance of flavour between the blueberries and lychee.

We all shared the match cheesecake. This was really delicious! The green tea taste was amazing and it was not too bitter. Just perfect !

We ordered 2 chocolate fondues and I think they were about $15 each.

The fondue did take sometime to arrive at our table. I really couldn’t figure out why since it can’t be so hard to prepare. One of my friends commented by saying they saw one of the workers go out to buy ingredients. I can not confirm if this was true or not, but if this is so, it’s quite sad.

The items that they give you to dunk are:

marshmallows
pretzels
dried apricots
strawberries
banana
apple

The chocolate sauce for the fondue was done quite poorly. It was really sweet and did not taste like real chocolate at all. It reminded us of chocolate syrup instead and it was not warm. We also looked at the consistency of the chocolate and it did not seem like it was made out of real chocolate since it should eventually harden up.

If you want good fondue, try out Capstone Tea House because it’s cheaper and its all you can eat.

The bill turned out to be $79 and after using the 4 coupons, it ended up to be around $30.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking in plaza
Do not get the fondue
Cakes are good
large selection of teas
Expensive

We rate salle de thé Tea Room:

Wesbite: www.salledethetearoom113.com

Address:

8571 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Brunch

Provence Marinaside Restaurant

January 4, 2011

LAgirl and I were meeting up for Brunch and she suggested we go to Provence in Yaletown. Since it was a Sunday, it was BRUNCH!

We headed over and you guessed it… there was a wait. We waited about 20 mins, but it didn’t feel too long since we went to a Starbucks for a bit.

LAgirl got the Two eggs any style ($14). She chose scrambled eggs with sausages. If you don’t want sausages, you can also choose bacon, smoked salmon or roasted vegetables. This dish also came with roasted potatoes, fruit and toasted baguette.

She said she liked this dish but she was not too fond of the sausage. She really loved the additional fruit to the dish and hasn’t seen this done anywhere else.

I ordered the Croque Monsieur Eggs Benedict ($14). It has poached eggs, black forest ham, gruyère, and sundried tomato butter on foccacia. This has probably been one of my all time favorite eggs benny dishes! The texture of all those ingredients on top of the foccacia were just amazing. The taste of the melted gruyere tasted SO GOOD!

I usually hate potatoes, but their roasted potatoes that came with the dish was really good and well seasoned.

They also give you 4 pieces of fruit as well. I loved it because eating the heavy potatoes and eggs benny, having the fruit there just gave your mouth a great refreshing taste afterwards.

Words of Wisdom:

Good for Brunch
Free 1 hour parking at Urban Fare for Provence Customers
There is also street meter parking

We Rate Provence Marinaside Restaurant:

Website: http://www.provencevancouver.com/marinaside/

Address:

1177 Marinaside Cres
Vancouver,BC

In Gastown

Sea Monstr Sushi

January 2, 2011

Sea Monstr Sushi is located in Gas Town. I have heard much hype about this place and it looked cool, so CandiedZen and I went. They are known for the fresh sashimi and their specialty rolls.

Sea Monstr Sushi has bar seating as well as a small dining room.

The waitress gave us water is a cool Sea Monstr Sushi jug and also some green tea.

When sitting at the bar, you can watch the sushi chefs in action.

We ordered one order of Toro ($2.50) and Salmon Sashimi ($2.50). Each order comes with 2 pieces. The pieces of sashimi ad quite small compared to other places you go, but the taste and the texture are superb.

Daily Special Roll was a spicy ebi roll. It had shrimp, spicy sauce, and greens. CandiedZen and I thought the roll was ok, but it wasn’t amazingly good. The shrimp could have been more plump and tasteful. This was quite mediocre compared to other places and not as well built.

The House Roll ($7) had lettuce, salmon, tuna, tobiko, mayo, and scallops. This roll was pretty good. The lettuce gave this roll a crunchy texture.

Una Tama Maki ($4.50) has BBQ Eel, Japanese Style Egg Omelette, and Daikon Sprout. This roll again was quite mediocre. Rice was a bit loose and not like how other places are held firmly together.

Sea Monstr Sushi is a different type of Japanese restaurant, it is more for hanging out and having a bit to eat. If you think this is like a traditional Japanese Restaurant….don’t expect sushi like Samurai Sushi or Sushi Town. In a way you coud say it a a little bit fusion.

Words of Wisdom: