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April 2011

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I’ve wanted to try Suika out after my coworker highly recommended this place. Since M, ConsultingGirl, and LabRat wanted to have dinner, I decided to make a reservation and drive down.

We originally wanted to get here by 6pm to get a seat at the tables rather than the bar, but ConsultingGirl’s phone went crazy and did not wake her up. As we waited for her to put on her face, I called the restaurant to see if they could still hold our table, but since it was fully booked, they would only offer us seats at the bar at 6:30pm.

We were not very happy since sitting at the bar for 4 people is quite hard to converse. Since our belly’s were rumbling, we still went ahead with the plan and made our way there.

Suika is a Japanese Snack Bar on Broadway. They are similar to the other Izakaya restaurants in Vancouver. What we found super cool about Suika was their open kitchen. You can look into their whole kitchen and see the chefs busy at work.

The interior decor is super super cool as well. Their main chandelier is made out of sake bottles. At their bar, you can see they made use of industrial materials like pipes and cement blocks to give it a nice asian flair.

2 things which we enjoyed looking at were the cool handles for their Sapporo on tap; it’s a samurai sword! Also above the bar, they show old episodes of Kamen Rider. Since there is no sound, you get to read the most outrageous subtitles. We didn’t exactly understand the show, but it was hilarious watching the weird costumes.

We started off the night getting a pot of Genmai Cha ($1.80). This is one of their more popular teas.

ConsultingGirl and I both shared the Deluxe “Suika” Box ($10). It comes with 9 little appetizers served in little sake cups. It is very cute and has nice presentation. I’ll try to explain them row by row. Tomatoes, lotus root, pickled vegetables, chicken, tuna tataki, chawan mushi, spicy tofu, crackers with spread, and beef tongue. If you intend to share this box, it is best with 2 people.

We both found the tastes pretty average, some really good, some ok, but overall great concept and you do get a chance to try a bit of everything.

M, ConsultingGirl and I got 2 orders of the Ebi Mayo ($7.80). It comes with about 6 pieces of battered tiger prawns with chilli mayo sauce. These were ok, but it still does not beat the ones we had at Toratatsu.  When you first take a bite of it, there is a bit too much mayo near the head of the ebi.

LabRat ordered the Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio. Raw pieces of sockeye salmon garnished with garlic chips, scallions, onions and lemon.

We got the Gyu Yukke Don ($8.80), this has marinated beef sashimi, garlic, and sesame seeds on steamed rice. It is also topped off with sweet pea shoots and a raw egg.

A cool thing about this dish is that you get to grind up your own sesame seeds with a rod and a textured bowl. ConsultingGirl had a fun time grinding it all up. As she did that, I proceeded to mix up the ingredients with the rice. Fun!

I thought this dish was just ok since it felt very strange eating the beef sashimi warm. ConsultingGirl on the other hand loved it. The flavours nonetheless were very well combined!

M ordered the Tuna and Miso Pizza. This is a thin pizza with tuna, miso, tomato and cheese. M couldn’t make up his mind about what he thought about the pizza. The pizza was well prepared, but he felt the cooked tuna was super weird on pizza. It was just something he was not use to.

LabRat ordered the Tokyo Oxtail Ramen ($9.80). This has braised oxtail in a soy sauce broth. It is topped with fish flakes and scallions. She did not take a particular liking to the ramen. It was ok, but I think the ramen at the ramen shops are way better.

Next, ConsultingGirl and I shared the Lightly Smoked Tuna Tataki ($6.00). It had a semi mild chili sauce sauce covering the tuna tataki. The tuna tataki rested on top of onions and scallions. Very good twist to the usual tuna tataki.

Then ConsultingGirl and I had the Sashimi “Shake” Salad ($7.80).

The reason why it has the word “shake” because they come up to your tables with this jar full of salad and start shaking it infront of you, then pour it all into a large bowl. It makes for a little show. The salad is composed of mixed greens, sashimi, tobiko and shrimp +sesame oil dressing.

It was a large salad for a good price. Very fresh and clean salad to end the meal.

At the end of the meal, you are given frozen grapes. They are perfect at the end of the meal since they also act as pallet cleansers to rid your mouth of the old tastes.

Overall, good experience, good ambiance, and great food. What I found interesting was how all 4 of us had different thoughts on Suika. ConsultingGirl loved it, LabRat thought it was ok and M was indifferent.

I would probably go again! Next time, we will probably make  reservations a few days before to get a table rather than sit at the bar.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Pay parking on Street
  • Reservations highly recommended

We Rate Suika: 

Address:

1626 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC
Suika on Urbanspoon

CandiedZen and I went on another one of our food adventures to Bin 942. They are a tapas parlour on Broadway and Granville.

The restaurant is very narrow and there is not a lot of room for a large amount of guests. We went around 7pm and it was PACKED! We were told we would have to wait approximately 1 hour till a seat would clear up. For just 2 people, we thought it was a bit excessive, but we were there already and paid for the parking, so we stayed. We eventually got  seated at the bar.

We only waited in total for 30 mins since people did clear out a bit. It was a busy night so, there wasn’t a lot of room to move around; it felt really cramped. It was also pretty loud inside.

The menu is quite simple and they have a variety of different tapas to stimulate your palette.

We first ordered the Fresh Dungeness Crab Arancini with thai coconut curry sauce ($13).  It was really really good! Very nice and crispy on the outside and very nice and savory on the inside. This dish reminded me of something liked fried risotto.

We then ordered the Pomme Frites ($7). This is a tower of skinny fries drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I like how this dish is so huge and fun to eat. You can either attempt to eat this with your hands or your fork. There is quite a bit of fries, so for 2 people, it might be a bit hard to finish if you have other dishes coming as well.

Next we had the Steamed Cortez Island Mussels($15). There are 3 flavours of broths to choose from, but we stuck with the classic french, which has tomatoes, herbs, garlic, white wine and butter. This dish came with 2 pieces of grilled foccacia.

The pieces of mussels were very pump and went well with the Classic French broth. Remember to dip the foccacia into the broth so the bread soaks up the yummy flavours.

We finished off with the Spinach Salad ($11). This salad has baby beets, avocados, mushrooms, sherry vinaigrette, spinach, and fried saganaki. CandiedZen really wanted to try this dish out because of the fried saganaki. She wanted to see how they would combine the ingredients together.

This salad was very good and the flavours mixed perfectly. The saganaki was a treat to bite into.

Overall, these are not cheap tapas. The flavours in their dishes are really good, but the ambiance of the restaurant was too busy for our liking. Best to come early or late but just not at the peak dinner hours.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Very busy during peak hours
  • If you don’t want to wait, go before 6pm
  • No reserving tables
  • Pomme Frites and mussels are a must

We Rate Bin 942:

Address:

1521 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.bin941.com
Bin 942 on Urbanspoon

La Casa Gelato is a tourist destination and is very famous for their 518 + flavours and 218 choices on site. They have been in business for a very long time and I have been going there since I was a little kid. It was always a treat when my parents would take me here. They offer some of the most absurd flavours like – Wasabi, Balsamic Vinegar, Chocolate Chili, and gorgonzola cheese.

With the 218 flavours to choose from, you might spend a bit of time trying out a few flavours until you finally decide what you really want. Since there is usually a lot of traffic, there are no seats.

They have tons of cones in various styles.Their prices of gelato has also increased quite a bit over the years.

You need to get a token before you start ordering your gelato or else they will not serve you.

M ordered the Chocolate Peanut butter Gelato ($4.50). He decided to have it in a cup because he hates the messiness from the cones.

ConsultingGirl ordered the DragonFruit Gelato ($4.50). The flavour is good but she did not like how all our scoops were different sizes. She liked the size and shape of my scoop but was a bit jealous cause mine was bigger. (Look below).

Whats cool about La Casa Gelato is their amount of  asian style gelato such as green tea, durian, mango, sour sop, la dua and the list goes on.

I ordered the Bubblegum Gelato ($4.50). I usually order this because it just reminds me of when I was a kid. It is a bright vibrant blue and has a subtle flavour of fruity bubble gum. It tastes great but one of the biggest downsides of this gelato is the abundance of food coloring in this gelato. Your tongue and lips immediately turn blue. Since there is so much food color…..what goes in must come out…if you know what I mean. If you don’t want remnants of blue lips the next day, avoid this.

Overall, after many years, I have found the quality has decreased, prices have risen, and the amount of flavours keep climbing. With their booming success, it is not a surprise. Since there is a large amount of traffic, the staff are not always the most friendly looking. They just seem to have a grumpy look on their faces.

One thing I can say is that it’s a cool novelty in Vancouver.When do you ever get to tell your friends you tried eating garlic gelato or some other crazy concoction.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Chocolate Chili is insane! Taste like chocolate and BAM spicy!
  • Always fun to try the most messed up flavours
  • Usually packed with locals and tourists
  • Parking lot usually full at peak hours

We Rate La Casa Gelato:

Address:

1033 Venables St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.lacasagelato.com
La Casa Gelato on Urbanspoon

When I heard there was a French Baguette Restaurant in Burnaby, I had to go here. It has been on my “To Do” list for a long time, but I just never had the chance to go because of school and work. See, they close at 3pm, so I never get there on time.

Today, I was working at home and could stray off to finally grab lunch at Chez Meme Baguette Bistro! M was working on his essay at my house, so we took a little break/ adventure.

They serve up breakfast and lunch, but they specialize in baguettes.

I ordered the Cordon Bleu Baguette ($9.25). Inside this baguette is chicken and emmenthal cheese wrapped in blackforest ham. You get a side of dijon mustard to accompany your sandwich.  You get your choice of soup salad or fries, but I stuck with the green salad with balsamic dressing.

The Cordon Bleu had a decent taste, but when you add the dijon into it, it adds a really nice flavour. The baguette was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Fresh! The salad was fresh as well with a little bit of tomato. The Balsamic dressing is not the usual black sauce, but more of a creamy dressing. It still have a good acidic taste but I felt like there was a bit too much dressing on the salad. Hurt my lips a tiny bit. If you are picky about the amount of dressing on your salad, perhaps ask for the dressing on the side.

M ordered the Bourguignon Baguette ($10.25). It has a bunch of beef short rib, carmelized onions and horseradish. He loved this sandwich! Full of great tasting meat and no vegetable fillers. Why do men dislike vegetables?

The Bourguignon sandwich has considerably more filling than the Cordon Bleu. The meat was very tender and packed a bot of savory juices. The horseradish added a really nice kick to the sandwich! Perfect accompaniment,

M substituted his Soup Du Jour for the French Onion soup for an additional $3. He’s always been on the hunt for some amazing French Onion Soup. Clearly, the Tim Hortons version does not cut it for him.

The top of the soup has a thick layer of melted cheese, so you need to break through it in order to get to the center. Breaking the cheese layer gives you a exciting feeling as all the onion soup gushes out. M had a great time digging around it trying to see what was inside. Under the cheese layer, there’s the savory soup, onions and mushy croutons. He gobbled the soup right up and said “Now I know why the french love to smoke”. In my head I was like, WTH… Something I will never understand. Men….

Some people cannot finish both their baguettes, so you can take it to go! They wrap it up nicely for you as well.

Overall, good food but the hours of operations are quite limited.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Amazing French Onion Soup
  • Free Parking on adjacent streets
  • Busy during lunch hours
  • Slow service
  • Under $10

We Rate Chez Meme Baguette Bistro:

Address:

4016 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC
Chez Meme Baguette Bistro on Urbanspoon

It was another Wednesday night and a bunch of us have “Korean Night” where we eating through all the Korean Restaurants on North Road one week at a time. This makes my life easier going with Koreans because Fabo, BusanGirl and M do all the ordering for me. All I do is eat!

Wang Ga Ma is located right across from H Mart, the Korean grocery store on the East Side of North Road. ConsultingGirl got lost and ended up at the other Korean Grocery store – Han Nam. Before you venture out here, make sure you know where you are going.

On the inside there are large booths situated all over the restaurant. With the tall walls, you get a private feeling when you are eating. Sometimes this is an issue because the servers can’t see you.

You get utensils – chopsticks and spoons. What I love about Korean restaurants is how they have the paper covering on the spoons. It prevents contamination. You also get tea, but do be warned, the waitresses aren’t always the best at refilling your tea. You probably want to wave them down or ask for a pot instead.

The menu at Wang Ga Ma is quite simple – Noodles, Pancakes, soups, mains, Hot pots and a few special dishes. It is all on a letter sized piece of paper, so it’s quite simple. For me it was quite difficult because I really did not know what was good … or what they looked like, so the Koreans did all the deciding for me!

As you wait for your order,the usual complementary side dishes arrive – Kimchi, Kimchi Radish, and another version of kimchi with thinly sliced radishes. Lots of kimchi! If you are not keen on spicy things, try a little piece and then figure out for yourself if you can handle the heat. I usually find the larger radish Kimchi is not as hot.

You do get scissors to cut up the kimchi because as you can tell, it would be hard to eat the kimchi and radish whole.

Since we all craved Pork Belly (Bossom), we ordered their special dish – Steamed pork with kimchi ($15.95 Large size) This is another one of those put it together wraps. You are given steamed pork belly, lettuce, and thinly sliced radish kimchi.

You are also given this salty shrimp mixture to dip your pork belly to add more taste, as well as jalapeno and soybean paste.

You first take the letture leaf, then add the pork belly, and the other toppings! Voila! Fold it up and stick it in your mouth and munch!

I love being involved with my food! It’s exciting putting it all together and  the devouring it! Even though it was exciting, the quality of the meat was not very good. It was below average as the meat was a bit tasteless. Also, for the price you are paying, it is not worth it. It would be way cheaper making it at home.

BusanGirl ordered the BibimBap ($8.95). This is rice, mixed vegetables, egg and beef served in a hot stone bowl. To eat this, you mix up all the ingredients together. If you like a spicy taste, you can ask for some hot sauce to add to this.

M and I ordered the Beef Rib Soup ($8.95). You get a super hot pot of rice (VERY HOT!) and the beef rib soup. Inside the soup are beef ribs, green onions, radish, egg and a bit of noodles. Fabo suggested this dish for people who are new to all the different types of soups. Apparently it’s Wang Ga Ma’s specialty.

The broth was very nicely flavoured, but when you begin eating the beef, it was rather bland and tough.

TaxMan, Fabo and ConsultingGirl ordered the beef broth soup with beef ($8.95).

You have to add your own amount of salt into the dish, which makes this super confusing. If you are new to the dish, you really don’t know if you have added too little or too much salt. TaxMan and ConsultingGirl were very disappointed by what they got and did not finish their meals.Fabo finished all of hers with no problem.

M, BusanGirl, TaxMan and Fabo all agreed this is the type of place people in Korea would go to eat after drinking. You would think this is more of a dinner type of restaurant, but thats how it is in Korea.

Overall, we were not impressed with the quality of their food and will probably not be returning. With so many other Korean restaurants around serving similar items, there is bound to be better.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Tons of Parking
  • Under $10
  • Unlimited kimchi and kimchi radish
  • Poor service
  • Limited Menu
  • Bibimbap is good to order

We Rate Wang Ga Ma:

Address:

329 North Rd
Coquitlam, BC

Wang Ga Ma on Urbanspoon

Mandu and I wanted to grab some lunch, so I gave her a list of random restaurants and she chose Peckinpah because it was close to the office and wouldn’t break our wallets. Peckinpah is a BBQ house located in the heart of Gastown. They specialize in Carolina style BBQ and offer a wide selection of beer and alcoholic drinks.

The service was quite slow during their lunch hour and less than half the restaurant was full. We probably spent 30 minutes waiting when our lunch break isn’t really that long. 15 mins to order + 30 min waiting – 1 hr lunch = 15 mins of eating. We ate fast! Mandu ate so fast that she got stomach pains after.

Mandu ordered the Jalapeno Pork Sausage Sandwich ($ 8.50). It is a Pork sausage with roast peppers and onions in a french style bun.

She didn’t expect it to be basically a hot dog. Having the combination of the bun and the sausage posed problems for Mandu. She suggested that this would be better if they sliced up the sausage and then put it onto the bun. She did enjoy the taste of the sausage, very meaty and had a good kick of heat from the jalapeno.

We did also get a choice of a side and she chose the hush puppies. These are not shoes but rather deep fried cornbread balls. Embedded inside the ball were also bits of corn. We both liked the hush puppies and it seemed like it was a very popular dish since everyone else close to us ordered it too.

I ordered the Oyster Po’boy ($11.50). It is a sandwich with deep-fried oysters on french bread with lettuce,  tomato, and mayo. I remember my first time having an Oyster Po’boy at The Kaboom Box (AKA Fresh Local Wild) Food Cart and I enjoyed it!

I did not love this version of oyster Po’boy at Peckinpah, the bun was difficult to eat, so the filling would fall out, so I used my knife and fork. I really wanted to go down and dirty with the sandwich but it was way too messy. The oysters were a bit on the small side so it was hard to enjoy their full flavour and the texture of the oyster.

For my side I ordered creamed corn. Pretty average and nothing special.

Overall, I would not go back to pay those prices since there are better alternatives in the neighbourhood. The french style bread did not work very well with the sandwiches and made the eating process very difficult.

I would come back if I was in the area late at night. They have really good deals from 12am to 2am on Fri and Sat. This either means you gotta be living close by or partying it up in a nearby club/ bar (Fabric, Post Modern, Lamplights, Blarney….etc)

Words of Wisdom:

  • Overpriced for what you order
  • Lots of alcohol choices
  • Slow service
  • Interesting Southern Decor
  • Amazing late night deals (12am – 2am) on Fri and  Sat
  • Online ordering service

We Rate Peckinpah:

Address:

2 Water Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.peckinpahbbq.com
Peckinpah on Urbanspoon

Hello Internet! RomanJ here.This time I went to one of my favorite restaurants in Vancouver with Abbytizer. Clubhouse Sushi is a family owned restaurant located in an industrial area close to the Olympic Village.

Abbytizer and I were hungry so we ordered a lot of food.

We ordered the Holy Dynamite Roll. The holy dynamite roll is a deep-fried roll with their house special sauce on the side. The house special sauce is a spicy, sweet, peanut looking sauce which adds that extra kick to the roll. The roll is extremely good and fresh.

Next on the list is the Club House Cream Cheese Roll, the roll consists of cream cheese, tempura, red pepper and cucumber. These ingredients give the roll a fresh crunch when you eat it.

Tuna Steak Ponzu was perfectly seared and it contrasted well with the lettuce, which provides that nice crunch to go along with the sour ponzu taste. This dish is delicious. The tuna just melts with the ponzu sauce in your mouth.

Marinate Salmon sashimi is marinated nicely with the spices. I can’t put the name of the spices, however both Abbytizer and I enjoyed this dish.

Abbytizer ordered a medium size Seafood Okonomiyaki.  Okonomiyaki dish took a long time for it to come our table but it is definitely worth the wait. The Seafood Okonomiyaki is composed of bite size pieces of salmon, tuna, prawn, squid; all mixed together in the cooked batter with Okonomi sauce on top. Each bite you can taste the distinct seafood blend with the Okonomi sauce.

To top off the night, we ordered the mango slushy drinks. The drinks were a good with that distinctive  mango taste, a good way to end the feast.

Abyytizer and I come often to this restaurant. The owner and waitresses are really nice and friendly. We both love the flavors that each dish has and the portions are really satisfying.

Words of the Advice

  • Seafood Okonomiyaki takes a while for it to come out
  • Open late on weekdays till 11pm, and closes at 12am on Friday & Saturday
  • Walking distance to Canada Line

We Rate Clubhouse Sushi:  

Address:

255 W 2nd Ave
Vancouver, BC V5Y

Website:
www.clubhouserestaurant.com
Clubhouse on Urbanspoon

After reading Food For Buddha food blog, they seem to have fallen in love with Fraser Park Restaurant. Since Fraser Park Restaurant is basically in the middle of nowhere, its always hard to find the time to make the trek there. Google Map tells me it would take 30 minutes from my house. Always was a turn off. Since M and I planned to watch Source Code at Metro, I thought it would be perfect to take a trip here.

M drove to Fraser Park in record time, made it there in 15 mins ( beat that google maps! boooya!). On the drive down there, M did not believe there would be any restaurant down in this area. Mostly construction companies and huge warehouses. We got a little bit lost and M got frustrated with me. Once we did arrive, we were super turned off by the exterior….restaurant in the middle of nowhere with lost of construction items everywhere. M had the pissed off Korean look and that basically ruined the mood.

Walking in grumpily, we quickly decided on what to order – beef dip and the deluxe German breakfast.

As we waited patiently waited for our food to arrive, we looked at the decor and was surprised at the amount of people in the restaurant for a weekday lunch.  I can’t imagine the weekend, must be super busy.

M’s Deluxe German Breakfast ($9.95) arrived and his eyes lit up by the large portions and piles of meat.  As you can tell there are A LOT of items in this meal. His mood immediately lit up once he devoured all the meat.

Tis meal contains:

  • Cured Ham
  • 3 egg omelet
  • breakfast sausages
  • Potato fritter
  • Potato wedges
  • Bacon
  • Schnitzel
  • Toast
  • Gravy

Such a long list of items, but M was very very happy. $9.95 for this massive breakfast. No wonder the Germans are so tall and handsome. 😉

I ordered the Beef Dip. I ordered it with salad on the side with italian dressing. The italian dressing comes in little kraft packages, so it is not house made. The salad was nice and fresh and no sign of wilted leaves.

The beef in the beef dip sandwiches were a bit dry, but since you are dunking it into the Gravy anyways, the dryness did not impact the overall taste. The bun is quite soft, so it does clench onto the sauce very well.

M and I both loved the food here. It fulfills al the requirements of being a “hole in the wall” restaurant. a) Crappy exterior b) amazing food c) cheap prices.

I will definitely be visiting again! Anyone want to join me?

Words of Wisdom:

  • Lots of construction around, so be careful
  • Do not let the exterior to deter you from going inside
  • Free Parking
  • Under $10
  • Large portions

We Rate Fraser Park Restaurant:

Address:

4663 Byrne Road,
Burnaby, BC

Fraser Park Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Since Ursu Food Truck was not open yet, I thought I would take a stroll down to La Brasserie Street (Food Truck, not an actual “street”. They are in the location where Kimono Koi Crepes use to be.

The cart is brought to you by none other than La Brasserie. The name says it all doesn’t it? I’ve actually never been to the restaurant before but I’ve heard good things. The picture of the sandwich does look amazing!

When you arrive, you are greeted by 2 friendly men. Wait a minute one of those guys look familiar (looks through old photos). Hey! He use to run the Kimono Koi Crepes truck! Interesting yes?

Their menu is super simple with one item – their Brass Chicken Sandwich ($6.25). You basically have no choice, which is not necessarily a bad thing! That means the quality should be good!

At first glace, I was disappointed by what I saw. Large bun, little meat and fried onion things. Seriously it does not look like the advertised picture.

Inside this Brass Chicken Sandwich is beer brined rotisserie chicken in gravy, with fried onions on a buttermilk bun. I didn’t have high hopes for this sandwich until I took the first bite out of the sandwich. Wow. This reminded me of thanksgiving dinner in a sandwich, without the cranberry and the stuffing.

Tender chicken meat doused in savory delicious gravy complemented with crispy sweet taste of the onions. Oh! I’m in love describing it again. The bun is quite soft and squishy, it was perfect with the delicate meat.

One thing to be aware of is that there is a bit of flour still on the top and bottom of the bun, so if you are wearing black clothes, check your chest if you left any crumbs there.  ( You never know!). Also, remember to grab a napkin too because if you are just digging into the sandwich, you may get gravy on your face. (I did and it was delicious!).

Overall, great sandwich for $6.25. Definitely worth it in my opinion.

Words of wisdom:

  • Must go to Food Cart!
  • Cash Only
  • Under $10
  • Closest Skytain – City Centre (Canada Line) , Granville (Expo Line)

We Rate La Brasserie Street:

Located at

West Georgia St. and Granville St.

Facebook:

http://zh-cn.facebook.com/people/La-Brasserie-Street/100002228837049

Twitter:

@LaBrasserieSt
La Brasserie Street on Urbanspoon

I go off tangent sometimes at work and play with the food apps on my phone. As you can tell I was really anticipating lunch. Since there are 19 new street carts in Vancouver, I have to eat though all of them =)

There is Ursu – a Korean Food Cart near my work and there was n0 information about them on any website. I assume they are fairly new and have not had a lot of time to start setting up their social media. They are Korean owned and serve up Korean Tacos (~$2) (Chicken, Bulgogi or tofu), Bulgogi Dogs (~$5), and Questadillas ($6.99) (Bulgogi, spicy chicken, and tofu). I tried taking a picture of the menu but my iphone lagged and it took a picture of the ground .

The Vancouver Street Food App indicated they open at 11am, but they were not set up and ready to go till noon. So, do be aware things may happen and Food Cart vendors aren’t there on time or delayed in setting up.

After walking around the block, it was open! You can tell they are quite new in the food cart business since they were a bit slow at getting the food out, and had very little or even no publicity. They are quite popular with the Korean crowd, lots of international students were going up to them and conversing in Korean. I like to ease drop, but I overheard they are going to start having a Facebook Fan page and Twitter in the near future.

I ordered the Spicy Chicken Quesadilla ($6.99). It has cheese, peppers, hot sauce, onions, tomatoes, chicken and lettuce.

I can kinda handle a medium level of spiciness and this was decently spicy but not painful, just subtle. With the addition of the tomatoes, it did make this quesadilla a bit runny, so the juice will leak out. It is very hard to to eat it in one hand on the go. You need a bit of a strategy to make sure it all does not spill out. Your best bet would be getting a fork and knife if you have difficulty eating cleanly.

The quesadilla was just average and was not spectacular. The chicken itself had a very nice flavour, you can tell they use a sweet sesame sauce to cook the chicken. They probably used sesame oil, which is common in korean food.

I’ll probably go back to try their Bulgogi soon and let you know if it’s any good.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Close to Granvill Skytrain
  • Cash Only
  • Open late for Canucks Game days
  • Usual hours 11am – 7pm

We Rate Ursa Food Cart:

Located at:

West Georgia St. and Richards Street

 
Ursu Korean BBQ Food Cart on Urbanspoon

After studying, ConsultingGirl and I were hungry, so we headed over to Milestones. ConsultingGirl wanted something healthy, M didn’t want sushi and I didn’t want to revisit any restaurants in the Brentwood area. Somehow a long conversation in the car led to a decision to go to Milestones.

ConsultingGirl stayed true to her healthy path and ordered the grilled chicken salad ($12.99). It contains chicken, tortilla chips, cilantro, mixed greens and drizzled with a type of honey lime peanut sauce.

ConsultingGirl was happy with the size of the salad and thought the sauce used in the sauce was killer. (Maybe not enough to kill someone).  She had no complaints.

M ordered the KobeStyle Classic Meatloaf ($19.99). I don’t know if there was kobe beef in this, but I doubt it because kobe “style” doesn’t necessarily mean it is.  On top of the meat loaf are fried onions and it sits on top of garlic mashed potatoes and mushrooms. There is also brocollini on the side.

The size of the meatloaf was quite small for the price. M kept saying I tricked him into ordering this but he still ate everything. The meat was moist and tender but the fried onions give an illusion that the dish is bigger than it really is.

I ordered the Portobello Mushroom chicken ($18.99). This has  double breasts of chicken, portobello mushrooms and a cream sauce over capellini pasta. There was also brocollini on the side.

I did not like this dish too much. The chicken seemed a bit over done and the cream sauce was a bit too salty. On the menu it said double breast of chicken which is supposed to be a full breast of chicken. The chicken pieces were also small in my opinion and at first glance, it seems like the chicken breast is a pretty big size, but once you remove the mushrooms, the chicken is quite small. Either I got gipped or their chickens got small breasts. I still got full from my meal, but not too happy about the quality.

Overall, we had a decent time. With so many other restaurants that are somewhat similar in the area, I wouldn’t return unless there was a good special going on. Joeys, Cactus Club, and Browns Social House are all across the street.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Large parking lot
  • Items are a bit pricey

We Rate Milestones:

Address:

4420 Lougheed Hwy
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.milestonesrestaurants.com
Milestones Grill and Bar (Brentwood) on Urbanspoon

ConsultingGirl suggested we go to Little Nest for Saturday brunch. I’ve never heard of it before, so I just imagined a place with birds nest everywhere. I really didn’t question her opinions. We drove down all the the way to commercial.

Little Nest is not on Commercial, its off of Commercial on Charles Street. It was pretty packed around 12:30 when we arrived, but soon it got less busy around 1:00 /1:30pm.

After observing the people who were at the restaurant, everyone seemed pretty young but I kept hearing children, LOTS of CHILDREN! Little Nest = Kid Friendly Cafe. I finally made the connection. I know you can’t see it through the picture, but there is a small play area in the back with kids playing but I didn’t want to be a pedo. Little Nest is a place for young parents to hang out with other parents and not worry about their kids. Since I will not have kids for many many many many many many many years from now, this was not my favorite place to be. You will witness kids running around, crying and screaming. BUT there are a few super cute kids.

The menu is all on the board, so you must stare at it, and then go up to the counter to order.

Once you order, you can go grab your table and you are given block letters instead of numbers. Do be aware, children tried stealing our blocks…and we let them until their mother gave it back to us. Not our place to take stuff away from them and make them sad.

On the large communal table, there are chalk boards and chalk! You can be a kids again and draw yourself a nice picture. We didn’t want to get chalk near our food, so we left it there.

ConsultingGirl and I both had the freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. The juice was very fresh but it was a bit frothy near the top. Not too sweet either. It comes in a small glass, so if you are a very thirsty person, you may run out fast.

M ordered the organic GingerAle since his stomach was not feeling very well. This is different from your Canadian Dry, you can taste the flavour of the ginger. Really good.

M and ConsultingGirl both had the Eggs of the Day ($12) has scrambled eggs with pulled pork, appel fennel, fried beans and a toasted baguette.

The eggs were pretty good. It was nice and cheesy, a bit runny, but could have used a bit more seasoning. The pulled pork and beans were also good but nothing special.

M said the portion was not worth the $12. You mainly get full off the baguette.

I ordered the Little Nest Breakfast ($12). It has scrambled eggs with baked polenta, roasted portobello mushrooms, caramelized pearl onions, spinach pesto, cheese and a toasted baguette.

At first I was super disappointed in the size because paying $12 to get a small plate hardly seemed worth the price. As I devoured the polenta and the mushrooms, it was really really good! Polenta was nice a firm and had a good corn flavour.

Overall, decent food and overpriced. We also did not dig the atmosphere because I think all of us were a bit too young to go here.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Overpriced
  • Small portions
  • Kid friendly
  • hard to find parking

We Rate Little Nest:

Address:

1716 Charles St
Vancouver, BC

Website:

www.littlenest.ca

Little Nest on Urbanspoon

Arriving here after work around 4:30pm on a hot sunny day, Prado Cafe was packed! Every single seat occupied…and most people are either studying or surfing away on their laptop.

Since I saw a few people about to leave, I thought it would be a good idea to get a drink first. Looking at the menu, theres a lot of the usual coffee choices, but for someone who has lent coffee, I really could not break my promise to a friend (ConsultingGirl lent coffee and I decided to join her for support).

The menu is not a good indication of what they can make. After talking to the barista, they can indeed make most tea lattes. I decided to go with the London Fog (~$3).

I grabbed the first seat available and set up my laptop before meeting the professor. I connected to the internet that was unprotected. I am not a big fan of unprotected wifi because of that whole firesheep plug-in for Firefox. Since I did have it installed (curiosity), I wanted to see if it would work. Sure enough, I was able to capture a few peoples Facebook. I was super scared so I closed Firefox and did not tamper with their Facebook. Do keep in mind, people who are more evil that I am, could hack your computer.

Back to the story, as I was waiting for my drink to be ready…I was wondering for the longest time if my drink was done. Apparently it was done a while ago, but the barista does not call out any drinks. She just makes it and leaves it there. Very poor service. I did enjoy their london fog, nice and frothy with a subtle hint of vanilla syrup.

People who usually come here just grab a drink and start surfing on the internet. The staff do not seem very happy or excited by customers ( or at least to me).

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free Wireless
  • Lots of natural light
  • Poor Service
  • Hipster

We rate Prado Cafe:

Address:

1938 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.pradocafe.com
Prado Cafe on Urbanspoon

I went to class and realized I did not have my wallet. All I had on me was a credit card. I called my mom to find my wallet but it wasn’t at home. When I pack to go to school, I usually do it all blindly. I have no idea whats in my bag except my laptop, paper and pens. I vaguely remember holding my wallet, but it was not with me. Since I had to be at school for over 6 hours, I really needed some form of currency to get food to eat. I went into my car and successfully found my wallet! BUT I left all my cards and cash in another jacket! Oh I was so sad!!

There are very limited places to get food at SFU with a credit card. Most places take debt and cash. I also did not want to walk all the way to Cornerstone for food, so I just went to the Maggie Benson Centre for Mr. Sub.

I got the small Cheddar Club on Multigrain bread with a combo. I chose a coke and Jalapeno & Cheddar chips.

It is no Subway, but it’s decent enough.

Obviously, the sub is not very pretty looking. When they were making it, it didn’t seem this ugly. But looking at this photo, it’s quite ugly. Since you can’t see what is inside, there is roast beef, bacon, ham, turkey, lettuce, tomato,tzatziki sauce, ranch sauce, olives, onions, cucumber, mushrooms, peppers, pineapples, salt & pepper.

I’m not a picky person, so I just asked for all the ingredients to be on it. Even though it had everything on it, it still seemed a bit small. The people who work there are students, so they don’t really care to too much about the quality. The sandwich was decent, it wasn’t toasted long enough, so there really isn’t too much purpose to grilling it if its not going be crisp on the outside. This meal did fill me up, but it wasn’t the best.

If you ask me if I prefer Subway or Mr. Sub, I am indifferent about both. There are really pro and cons of each.

What do you prefer? Mr. Sub or Subway?

We Rate Mr. Sub: 

Address:
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.mrsub.ca

Mr. Sub (SFU) on Urbanspoon

My coworker and I wanted to grab some food at T&T for cheap! So, during our lunchbreak, we headed over to grab a few things to go. We hoped onto the Granville Skytrain and got off at Stadium Skytrain.

My goal yet again was to keep everything under $10. Surprisingly I got a lot of food for under $10. I didn’t get the hot food again, but I wanted to try to be healthy as well.

I grabbed a pack of 2 rice rolls. One of them had marinated pig ear and the other had shrimp. Some people are disgusted by pig ear, but some people like me love it. Just be warned, even though the packaging says “pork”, you are not getting the usual pork meat. It is the pig ear.

The rice rolls were not very large like the ones you would find in restaurants. Perhaps half the size. It’s not necessarily a bad thing because you get to taste both kind of rice rolls without being stuffed.

Next, I got the Negituna (~$2). This is not Negitoro, it uses the usual tuna sashimi and not the meat from the belly.

Since these were the small sushi rolls, I really didn’t noticed much of a difference. There is the tuna and the green onions wrapped up in the rice and seaweed.

Usual, I had to balance this meal with fruit. T&T has a lot of cut fruit, but I noticed that most of them do not look very appetizing. You need to look through all of them to find the fresh ones that are made in the morning. The ones that have noticeable moisture like the one above is not very fresh.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Lots of Hot and cold food items
  • Under $10
  • Limited seating
  • Do grocery shopping as the same time as eating lunch
  • Free Parking at Tinsel Town

We Rate T&T:

Address:

179 Keefer Place
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.tnt-supermarket.com/en/
T & T Supermarket on Urbanspoon

 

Mandu and I met up during our lunch breaks. I had a “foodie block” and had no idea where to go for lunch. I really didn’t want to revisit a restaurant nor did I want to spend over $10. Eating is an expensive hobby, so I am trying to cut down my expensive. You should have seen my credit card bill last month.. WOW.

Since Mandu was craving pho, she suggested we go to The Best Pho House. At first I was thinking in my head, how on earth is there such a place that has “the best” pho. Quickly I realized that was just the name of the restaurant.

As we met up and walked to the restaurant, The Best Pho House did not look impressive at all.

We were scared out of our mind, so we decided to find the next closest pho place.

We stumbled upon Fumiyoshi. I have visited this place for the sushi and did not have the best experience. But, I was always curious how the pho would taste. Mandu didn’t really care too much as long as the place looked legit and was edible.

Looking through their extensive list of menu items, we just flipped to the back for pho. They do not have many choices and the only one that seemed somewhat decent was the House special pho ($7.50).

It comes with beef balls, beef brisket and some other type of beef. The pho came with the usual bean sprouts, jalapeno and lemon.

The pho does not live up to the usual pho restaurants in Vancouver. The noodles were clumped together, so when you pick up noodles, you pick up the entire bunch of noodles.The meat was decent, but it would take a while for some of the meat to cook fully since it was bunched up, you could tell it was frozen before hand. The broth had a lot of MSG and after the meal. I found myself chugging down a lot of water back in the office.

The size of the Pho was more like a medium if you compare it to the other pho places. Most larges at other places are $7ish, while Fumiyoshi costs a bit more.

After trying their Japanese dishes and Vietnamese dishes, I don’t think I will be returning. For decent pho, I think I will stick with going to the real Vietnamese Pho Restaurants.

If you know any killer pho places downtown, let me know! Mandu is always on the hunt for pho.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Large menu
  • Most items under $15
  • Mediocre Pho
  • Has Japanese and Vietnamese items on their menu

We rate Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi

Address:

538 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi on Urbanspoon

 

 

Yesterday I was at Safeway looking for some Ice Cream to accompany me during this weekend. When walking up and down the frozen foods aisle, I stumbled upon a new product Safeway is selling.

Mini Ice cream tubs!! To be exact, it is one serving of ice cream.  I was super excited because my fridge does not fit many things… well it does but my parents like to shove all the fishballs, meats, and everything in the freezer to be used later. This really doesn’t leave much room for tubs of ice cream.

I don’t eat much ice cream either, so buying a large tub would just end up sitting in the freezer for …a month… or two.. or six… or even a year. I just like to taste things and not have too much.

Even though the new smaller tubs are convenient to people like me, they do come at a price of about $2 a tub. Each one has about 120 – 150 calories.

I got myself and my sister these to share since they were just SO cute! If you can compare the size of the iphone 4, you know these are quite small.

We got 2 flavours of the Skinny Cow brand of Ice Cream – Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Cookies n’ Cream. They did have mini Häagen-Dazs but I did not like the flavours that they had in the mini size.

We both thought the cookies n cream was a bit too sweet. I loved the cookies component of this but not the cream. ( I probably should have bought a box of cookies instead… told you i’m not an ice cream person).  Then we dug into the chocolate fudge brownie. This was yummy! Good amount of brownies in it. Who doesn’t love good ol’ chocolate ice cream?

I know the mini tubs are probably just new in Canada since I saw them in Europe a few years back.

Do you like their new mini ice cream tubs? Or do you think it’s a waste of money?

 

McDonalds is continuing to crank out ‘premium’ style burgers. This week, M visited the Mc Donalds across the street and saw they were advertising their third pounder sandwiches. These are burgers that weight 1/3 a pound. So, if you eat 3, that is +1 pound to your belly.

The Angus Third Pounder burgers some in 3 styles – the Angus Deluxe, Angus Mushroom and Swiss, and Angus Bacon and Cheese.

In general, the sandwiches are way better than their regular burgers. The patties were noticeably thicker and larger, shows some nice exterior searing, had some noticeable juiciness, and were augmented with some nice-looking, good-tasting, fresh and crisp toppings. The pickles, lettuce and tomatoes are 213945843293 times better than on the usual burger.

All these items are housed in a new bun! They are larger and softer sesame seed buns. These burgers are not new to the States, but is new in Canada. After a year or so of delays, it is finally here!

These burgers put all the other ones to shame! But, this does some at a price about $5.50 a pop.

Since I wanted to give you guys a full review on each new burger, M and I both chowed down on all 3. As I write this, we are still digesting.

The Mushroom and Swiss Third Pounder comes with swiss cheese, the angus patty, mushrooms, and McChicken Sauce.

In this version at the location that we got, there was way too much McChicken Sauce and it was not spread around, so you would get a mouthful of sauce. The mushroom quality was quite low. Very thinly sliced and did not seem fresh at all. There is supposed to be 2 slices of swiss cheese, but our burgers only had one. M had this at another location and the quality was way better than the one today.

Next we had the Bacon and Cheddar Third Pounder. This is by far the BEST one of the their pounders. It has red onions, 2 slices of cheddar cheese, the patty, bacon strips, romaine lettuce, and pickles.

You get the crispness of the bacon with the ooey gooey ness of the cheese. This version beats the old version of the angus burger with bacon and cheddar (the one on the ciabatta bun). Bacon has improved a lot but it still can not beat Wendy’s Baconator!

Lastly, they also had the Deluxe Third Pounder. This was exactly like the bacon and cheddar pounder but without the bacon and one slice of cheddar.

Since they are the same price….M and I agreed that we would just get the bacon and cheddar since it has 2 extra ingredients.

On the side note, don’t you hate it when they forget your straws? M and I had to use the ones that were in my kitchen. It’s kinda cute but strange at the same time.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Expensive for a McDonalds Burger
  • Bacon and Cheddar third pounder is the best
  • Fresher ingredients
  • Tastier thicker patty

Have you tried this yet? Or will you ever try this new burger?