June 2011

In Four Beakers

Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant: Amazing Hole in the Wall

June 8, 2011

M has discovered that Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant has one of the best Mexican foods in Vancouver. A few months ago, M wanted to take me here, but then as the girl I am, I scolded him for taking me to a crappy looking place. We made it to the parking lot, but went elsewhere. It’s my human nature to deter away from scary looking places. After actually trying this place out, I think we have fell in love with their food.

A small family owns Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant and they cook all their foods in house. They don’t make a large amount of their items, so when it’s gone… you won’t be able to get it till the next day. I tried ordering the Camaron Burrito and the Horchata, but nope… sold out.

Looking at their menu, there were lots of mouth-watering items. Most of the items are between $8 and $10, which can be seen as slightly expensive, but their portions are really large!

We started our meal off with Jarritos Soda ($2.50). This is a popular soft drink in Mexico. This was my first time trying it and man….if American pop can taste like this…I would be one fat girl right now. It’s so good and makes you want more!

We tried the Pineapple Jarritos and Grapefruit Jarritos. Both are great choices!

M ordered the Carnitas Burrito ($10.99). It has pork, rice, beans, onions and cilantro wrapped in a flour tortilla. It is covered in cheese and red sauce. This is not your small taco from Taco Time. Taco Time cannot even compare to the amazing taste of this burrito. It is large and you will be full. The pork is beautifully roasted and is very flavorful and tender. Totally worth the price!!

I ordered the Cheese Quesadilla ($8.99). I really was not expecting much since Cheese Quesadilla sounded very small. When it arrived, it was pretty large! They even had a lot of cheese inside the tortilla! Adding the sour cream and the salsa made this SO good! Never knew such a thing could taste so good.

They also have hot sauce if you want to add a kick to your meal.

Overall, great place for Mexican food. If all Mexican food tasted like this, it would be my next favorite cuisine. Too bad I have a hatred for beans. Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant has a good deal for what you get. Try not to be like me and judge this place based on their décor.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in front
Large portions of yummy food
Suggested – Caritas Burrito, Chicken Fajita Burrito
Decent prices

We Rate Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant:

Address:

2891 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Junsei River Japanese Restaurant: Horrible Bento Boxes

June 6, 2011

I went to Junsei River Japanese Restaurant for lunch since it was on Robson St. and I was craving a good ol’ bento box.

The restaurant is a bit narrow but it still has enough room.

Junsei River Japanese restaurant sells the usual items you would find in any Japanese Restaurant. My eyes were immediately drawn to the menu! One full page of Bento box choices! It took me a while to decide what I wanted to get, but eventually I settled on Bento Box F.

As I waited, some tea and miso soup arrived.

The Bento Box F ($10.95) has unagi, salmon roll, tuna & salmon sashimi, green salad & fruit. At first glance, the bento box looked appetizing, but at a closer glance, I was very very disappointed!

The unagi pictured on the menu had a large chunk of unagi, but when it arrived, you get 4 small thin slices of eel, it was not even comparable to the picture. The taste was ok, but you know this was probably frozen and thawed.

The salmon roll, was poorly put together and still contained some tough connective tissue. As you can tell from the image, one roll was about to come undone.

The salad was very very watery and the citrus dressing had a strong ginger taste to it.

The fruit that is part of the bento was a slice of apple. It was cut very poorly and the core was still part of the apple. Doesn’t the seed just look so appetizing?

The tuna and salmon sashimi were decent but not great. The tuna was still a bit icy since it’s been thawing.

The bill came and I was actually glad I could leave. I put my money down and waited for the waitress to come grab it. I waited… then I waited some more…3 waitresses passed by and none of them even picked it up. I even tried raising my hand but no one acknowledged me. It just sat there looking very lonely.

During the time I was waiting, the table next to me was complaining to the waitress about how she got their order wrong. After they talked to 2 waitresses, the waitresses wanted them to pay extra for what they wanted. They were indeed mad and just ate their incorrect order.

I was pretty fed up by now, so I just went up to pay. I grabbed my changed, didn’t tip and went back to work. With so many great restaurants Downtown, this sushi joint really does not compare.

Words of Wisdom:

Do not get their bento boxes
Cheap and of low quality

We Rate Junsei River Japanese Restaurant :

Address:
570 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

In Bubble Tea

Bubble World: Good to chill but BBT is mediocre

June 6, 2011

Bubble World is a great place to just chill with friends. TaxMan was back in town, so it just seemed right to catch up with him, M and Scarface.

We decided to go to the North Road Bubble Word location because it’s closer than all the other locations. They have lots of space to sit and talk. It’s best for groups of 4 -6 people. This location does not serve food nor does it serve the drinks in nice cups. It is mostly to go in the plastic cups.

I’ve never loved the bubble tea here for these reasons:

Most drinks made from powder
No healthy options like – real milk or fresh fruit

Granted that they do have a few fresh fruit options like Watermelon Slush but its doused in lots of sugary syrup. Bubble World is a chain, so I guess we can’t expect too much.

I usually stick with the hot Milk Tea or the Hot Milky Malt Tea. I find that they use less malt or whatever those crispy little bits in the drink. They use quite a bit of coffee mate in this drink.

M had the chocolate milky tea. He usually gets sick when he has the powdered coffee mate, so he had to talk to the owner for a bit to get real milk into his bubble tea.

The bubble tea here is decent, but it’s pretty standard. Very minimal service since you have to go up to the counter to order and pay.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of seats, group of 4 – 6 is best
Most drinks made with powder
Can special request milk instead of powdered milk
under $10
Closest Skytrain: Lougheed Town Center

We Rate Bubble World:

Address:

555 North Road
Coquitlam, BC

In Downtown

Guu Garden: Amazing Dinner with the Girls

June 5, 2011

Nothing says fun like heading to dinner after a long day of work and school.

Mandu, KoreanGirl and I decided to head over to Guu Garden to check out their dinner menu.

The interior is nice!

We started with a huge Sapporo Pitcher ($18).

Mandu likes mixing her beer and sake, so we ordered the Large Cold Sake ($6.50). I don’t like the taste of sake, so I just stuck to the beer…until they sneakily poured some sake into my beer.

We started off with the Tuna Tataku ($6.50). It has lightly seared tuna sashimi on sliced onions dressed with ponzu sauce, topped with scallion and garlic chips. The garlic chips and the sliced onion make this dish so much better! I usually eat this by putting a bit of everything on top of the tuna, roll it up and eat it.

Mandy loves her saba, so we got the Saba Grill ($6.50). It is a Grilled mackerel on sliced onions, herbs and garlic. I’ve never had this before, but I found it to be a alright. The sauce on the bottom was a bit too salty for me.

Not trip to any Izakaya restaurant can be with out ebi, so we ordered His Ebi Mayo ($7.80). It is Deep-fried prawns served w/ chili mayo and cilantro. Not really sure why it was called His Ebi Mayo, but I wonder if they ever have Her Ebi Mayo. (Ok, sorry lame joke).

I love fried chicken, so we ordered the Chicken Karrage (5.80), which is deep fried chicken thigh with garlic mayo. It was really good since it was boneless! Very moist inside and well seasoned!

We then had the Cream Korokke ($6.50). This is deep-fried panko breaded cream korokke topped with bisque mousse and tonkatsu sauce. This was SO good! SO GOOD!

At this point, the beer was getting to me, so we ordered the Green Tea ($1.50). Ya, tea isn’t free. Since we still had more sake, we ordered a Mega Sapporo ($9.00). It’s just a HUGE cup of beer.

To be a bit healthy from all the fried food, we got the Prawn & Avocado Salad with Wasabi Dressing ($6.80). This was really good as well! The wasabi dressing added a little kick to the salad which we all loved.

We got the Sea Salt Grilled Pork Cheek with Yuzu Ponzu($5.80). Very delicious tender meat with amazing flavour!

Mandu loves oden, so we first had the Assorted Oden ($6.80). It came with daikon radish, fried tofu, mocha tofu bag, taro jelly and chikuwa fish cake. The broth that we chose with this is Kanto -daki oden soup base. Mandu dubbed this the BEST oden she has ever eaten in her life. The wasabi-like paste that comes with it is SPICY. Adding it to the oden is a must, just make sure you don’t add too much.

Since we carved way more oden, we got an extra on with Fried tofu ($1.50) and Mochi Tofu Bag ($2). The mocha tofu bag has a really cool texture…similar to the gluten balls for hot pot. So addictive!

Overall, we had an amazing time at Guu Garden. This is probably my favorite branch of their chain. We ate and drank so much but after looking at the bill, it was a bit steep, but we thought it was worth it.

Words of Wisdom:

Great place to go with friends for small bites and drinks
Amazing Oden
Decent prices

We Rate Guu Garden:

Address:

M101-888 Nelson Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com

In Three Beakers

Glowbal Grill Steaks and Satay: Steak Tartare is so good!

June 5, 2011

ConsultingGirl, Fabo, CanuckGirl and I took a trip to Glowbal for the Telus Taste of Tuesday. I don’t normally go to such high priced restaurants because as a student…well…I don’t have that much money to splurge. Plus, who could resist getting a free dessert and appetizer with a purchase of an entrée. There are always tons of great deals for the higher priced restaurants, so you just got to look out for them.

I got off of class and didn’t get the chance to change before coming here, so I was in t-shirt, jeans and a huge backpack. I felt so embarrassing going here, but the waitresses were really nice and didn’t look at me too funny.

The menus that they have are HUGE! So huge that you could play hide and seek at the dinner table.

After we ordered, some rosemary bread arrived. The bread was very soft and had hints of the rosemary herb.

The next thing that arrived at the table was the amuse-bouche, which featured their wild mushroom soup. This was so flavorful and had a very distinct mushroom flavour. It was really really good!!!

ConsultingGirl started with the Caprese (13.95). It has 2 types of vine ripened tomatoes, mozzarella and greens. She thought the dish was all right, but she did not like the mush texture of the tomatoes. She refers more of the firm tomatoes.

CanuckGirl and Fabo both ordered the Waygu carpaccio (18.95). Waygu beef has a large amount of marbling … its basically like kobe beef. The dish has 8 thin slices of the waygu beef with truffled aioli and frisee salad on top. They really liked the flavour of the beef with the greens on top.

I ordered the Steak Tartare ($18.50). This has grounded 5oz prime beef tenderloin mixed with a bunch of aromatic ingredients with a yolk on top. It is served with focaccia chips on the side. What I loved about the presentation is how there was dry ice under the dish, so when the dish arrives, it has a cool smoking presentation. I really loved the flavours of it and I would order this again and again!! Even though price is a bit steep, its pretty damn tasty.

Fabo had the Mushroom Risotto entree ($18.95). The dish has wild mushrooms, and an intense amount of truffle oil in the dish. It also has shaved parmagiano-reggiano on top. The smell is so fragrant and strong.

Consultinggirl ordered the Spaghetti & kobe meatballs (25.95). The dish has truffle cream, tomato garlic confit, tete de moine (Swiss Chese), and 4 huge kobe beef meat balls. She did not take a liking to the dish. She found it was quite mediocre for the price and it was not spectacularly intriguing.

CanuckGirl and I both ordered the Lamb shank (24.95). The roasted lamb shank sits on top of mushroom risotto, beans and pinot noir jus. The lamb shank was very nice and tender. The same mushroom risotto was underneath and it did also have a very strong mushroom taste and smell due to the truffle oil.

The Crème Brulee Trio ($8.95) has 3 different flavours- hazelnut, white chocolate and vanilla. I was not particularly impressed by the crème brulee. Once you break into the hard sugary surface, it was a tad on the watery side. I was really not a fan.

The Frosted beignets and apple fritters ($8.95) comes with 3 apple fritters in a steel martini cup. This reminded ConsultingGirl of the mini donuts at PNE. You also have 3 frosted beignets. There is some vanilla custard and strawberries on the side as well for the beignets and apple fritters. This desserts is pretty sugary.

This is the Warm Brazilian chocolate cake ($8.95). This is similar to a lava cake with espresso gelato and fresh berries on top. If you are a chocolate lover, this is the dessert for you.

Overall, the food was pretty good, but if there wasn’t the special, this dinner price would have been pretty steep. One thing we also didn’t expect was that the water would cost $3 per person. We probably should have just asked for tap water.

Words of Wisdom:

Steak Tartare, lamb shank and Brazilian chocolate cake were pretty good
A bit pricey, so best to come here on special occasions
Some items can be a hit or a miss

We Rate Glowbal:

Address:

1079 Mainland St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.glowbalgrill.com

In North Burnaby

The Ladle: Vegetarian + Vegan +Gluten-Free Options

June 3, 2011

One good thing about SFU is that they have a shop that offers vegan and healthy vegetarian cuisine at decent prices. They have soups, salads, wraps and other random things.

They are located in the Maggie Benson Center near Convocation Mall. Its a good place to go if you want a healthy alternative to the other items on campus.

Just so you know…I’m not a vegetarian…I just end up coming to these places by random chances.

All of us ordered the Mac & Cheese. This Mac & Cheese tasted worse than Kraft Dinner. It was crunchy at the top and mushy under neither. It lacked any taste and felt like a chore eating it. I could go on exaggerating, but plain and simple – it was just bad. The only way to have it somewhat edible was to mix in some salt and pepper. Perhaps they forgot to add salt to their batch of Mac & Cheese?

If you do happen to get the Mac & Cheese, do gram a few packages of salt and pepper just in case the same thing happens for you.

I also had the Small Minestrone soup. I was expecting to be the other type of minestrone soup with herbs and more yellow. The soup still tasted fine, but I guess it has more of the dominant tomato taste.

Overall, it’s a good alternative but food isn’t that great. My 2 favorite items here are the shepherd’s pie, creamy mushroom soup and the grilled cheese. Everything else here is pretty meh. It’s safe to say the SFU really does not have great food. Natures Garden might be a good alternative if you want other vegetarian food.

Words of Wisdom:

Grilled Cheese, Creamy Mushroom Soup, or shepards pie are my Favs
Under $10
Vegetarian/Vegan/Gluten-Free Friendly

We Rate Ladle:

Address:

8888 University High St
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

Mr. Ho’s Wonton House: Came for Noodles, Got Rice Instead

June 3, 2011

It’s no surprise to you that I like to go out to eat during game days to avoid the crazy Canucks madness. I am a horrible Vancouverite, but my love of eating is stronger than suffering from anxiety of watching the Canucks games.

M and I went out to Mr. Ho’s Wonton House on Kingsway after watching a movie at Metrotown. I have not been here in years and I do love Chinese food. On the ride from Metrotown, he wanted to go to all these fast food places and I shut down all of his suggestions until we go to Mr. Ho’s. KFC and Subway are not good dinner choices….*sigh.* men…..

I really wanted to get noodles since Kung Fu Panda 2 since it just seemed right to do so. Unfortunately, if I was going to a ramen place, I would have gotten noodles. I saw some of the rice items on Mr. Ho’s menu and that drew my attention… plus noodle at Mr. Ho’s can’t be that amazing.

I think I am a sucker when it comes to Asian themed things such as interior décor. I loved their walls.

Like any Chinese place, you get tea! I also love tea.

M and I started off with the Fried Wontons (6pieces -$4.25). These were huge! We expected the tiny fried wontons…but these were like UFOs. These were so crispy and the best part is the wonton skin…the filling was tiny and very tough to chew, which I found odd.

I ate the whole wonton and I kept asking M why there wasn’t any meat inside. Apparently there was, but I didn’t notice I ate it. Hahaha.

Then he had the Sweet and sour pork with pineapple on rice ($7.25). M loved this sweet and sour pork. One thing that I found this dish was suffering from was the gigantic size of the vegetables. One slice of onion is bigger than the piece of pork. Nonetheless, M still enjoyed it and ate it all.

I had the Prawns with swirl egg on rice ($8.75). Did I ever tell you I love Love LOVE prawns? Ya, that’s why I got this dish. What I usually worry about saucy dishes with rice is the ratio between the sauce and the rice. If there is not enough sauce to go along with the rice, this just makes me sad. My perfect dish would have more sauce than is needed to eat with the rice.

I loved this dish because I had more sauce and the sauce was pretty good. The prawns and the peas were quite decent.

We also go fortune cookies!

Overall, we had a good dinner here. It wasn’t the best chinese food I have ever ate, but it was decent. There were a few people dining here even though it was a game day. They even brought out a TV since some customers wanted to see the game.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Free parking on adjacent roads
Good for large groups

We Rate Mr. Ho’s Wonton House:

Address:

6731 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.mrhowontonhouse.com

In Downtown

Gorilla Food: For Vegans + Gluten-Free Foods

June 2, 2011

I am slowly running out of places for lunch near my work area, but then I found this little place – Gorilla Food. They are a restaurant serving vegetarian and organic food. I thought their entire look of their store seemed super cool, so I decided to take my coworker here.

Walking inside, it felt more like a jungle than a restaurant. I have probably passed by this place a few times and it seemed quite popular. Their menu was so foreign to us. We really had no idea what to choose! If you are a meat eater, you probably do not want to step into this place since it’s ALL VEGGIE.

My coworker started with the Main Street Monkey Sandwich ($7.75). Inside this sandwich are avocados, zucchini type of hummus, olive tapenade, sprouts, tomato slices and cucumber in veggie flax bread. She found this to be quite interesting and very earthy. I don’t think she was super keen on the veggie flax bread.

I ordered the GO Veggie Burger ($8). It is made of 2 veggie burger patties, guacamole, tomatoes, cucumber, veggies, and a ginger tomato ketchup sauce served between two lettuce leaves. It’s so cool when a burger is served with lettuce instead of bread. It’s not a new thing, but it’s always fun.

The burger was quite small; it was probably slightly bigger than my fist. If you look at the picture carefully, you can guesstimate the size. It tasted alright, but was not my type of food.

I also ordered the Strawberry Zing Smoothie ($6). It has strawberries, bananas, orange juice, hemp seeds, and ginger. Yes…it had hemp seeds. I did not even go into a psychedelic state or anything crazy like that. The dominant taste was of the strawberries and orange juice. It tasted pretty good. Apparently, it ‘s their most popular smoothie. It’s quite big, so you will get pretty full from a burger and smoothie.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash Only
Great for Vegans or people with gluten allergies
Under $10

We Rate Gorilla Food:

Address:

436 Richards St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.gorillafood.com

In Cafe

WE. Coffee: Waffles + Dessert

June 1, 2011

WE Coffee opened up a few months ago and I have always wanted to try it out. I love waffles, so I am always on the look out!

It doesn’t look like there is a lot of seats inside when you first walk in, but you just need to walk further in and you can find seats for up to 6 or 8 people.

Their menu has coffee, tea, sandwiches, and desserts.

I ordered the London Fog (Medium – $3.59). It’s not on the menu, but I just asked if they could make it and they did! It tasted like a normal London fog, but on two occasions I found it to be very inconsistent. The first time I had it, I uncovered a huge tea bag underneath the foam…then the second time there was no tea bag inside. Not a bad thing at all, but I thought it was interesting.

The Al’ Opera Special Blend Tea ($5.99) is a special type of green tea but enhanced with red berries and spices. The tea was ok, but it was quite steep in price (no pun intended :P) at $6 a pot. You really need to be a tea expert to really appreciate it.

One cool thing about their teapot is that there is a metal shield that covers the pot. Not really sure what it’s purpose but we assume it was either to prevent the lid from falling off or to give the pot a sleek look.

KoreanGirl ordered the Iced Americano (Large -$2.75). It looks super cool and tall!

KoreanGirl ordered the one topping Waffle Sandwich with strawberry ice cream ($5.29). This was not very impressive at all. This was hardly a sandwich at all. Nothing sandwiched in the middle. Not worth the price.

I ordered the Strawberry Trifle ($7.99) and it had custard, cake, strawberries, whipped cream and almonds on top. The image on the menu was slightly misleading since there are no Pocky sticks in it. It still tasted pretty good.

CanuckGirl ordered the Waffle with Banana and Ice cream (Half-$6.99). It comes with a scoop of chocolate ice cream, custard, 3 pieces of banana, 2 quarters of a waffle and whipped cream. She thought it was alright but yet its not super impressive for the price.

I came back on another occasion and ate some more. This time, I ordered the Brownie and Ice Cream ($7.99). This looked so delicious! It is a very rich brownie with walnuts inside. It has vanilla ice cream on top and it topped with chocolate sauce, caramel, almonds and a few blueberries.

The brownie was very very good! One of the better brownies I have had.

AuditGirl and Eevaa both ordered the Strawberries and ice cream (Half- $7.99). It has the 2 quarters of a waffle, fresh cut strawberries. Custard and strawberry ice cream. They both thought that it was just average and yet again nothing special.

Overall, both groups that I came here with said it was just ok and nothing special. The items are a bit overpriced for what you get. Hands down, Michi Waffle house is still better. Even though this is so…I would still return just to chill and grab a coffee.

Words of Wisdom: