March 2012

In Brunch

EBO Restaurant and Lounge: Sunday Brunch Buffet

March 13, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited to taste their Brunch Buffet, but I tried to keep the review as unbiased as I could. The review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.

EBO Restaurant is located in the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre.The restaurant is led by internationally trained and award-winning Chef Daniel Craig who brings his love of local ingredients and simple, yet elegant food. They have won several awards in the Province and within Canada.

Every Sunday, EBO offers up an amazing brunch buffet for $30.95. It includes over 70 items and their signature mimosa! The items listed in this post may change a bit, but the quality is still there.

You can start off with tea, coffee, juice, water and whatever thirst quencher you need.

Breakfast Basket

Chef’s selection of Baked Breads and Rolls with Butter
Assorted Danishes, Croissants, Breakfast Loaves, Fruit and Fiber Muffins, Scones

This section has different pastries, bread, fruit, muffin and scones.

Out of this section, I just ate the fruit since I didn’t want to fill my belly with unnecessary carbs. I do love carbs, but when it comes to buffets…I have to think strategically what I want to eat most. I had my eye on …lots of prime ribs and meat!

Breakfast Classics

Grilled Farmer Sausages and Smoked Bacon
Eggs Benedict
Designer Omelet Bar
Cinnamon and Orange French Toast

Designer Omelet Bar is available and you can create your own omelette with the choice of smoked ham, shrimp, mushrooms, spring onions, or tomatoes. Once you choose these ingredients, they will make your omelette for you with free run eggs and aged cheddar.

Fresh Hand-made Roti with Curry sauce was amazing to watch them make it. The roti was fresh and delicious!

The omelette comes out really amazing and tastes just as good! I threw in mostly mushrooms, shrimp and green onions. Even though it was a bit watery, the taste of the egg was really good and it had such a nice color.

Eggs Benedict has ham, egg and hollandaise sauce.

I was very impressed by the eggs benedict because the yolk was still quite gooey! Even though it was in the warmer, the quality of the eggs benny was so good.

French Toast looked quite too and it was in small bite size pieces, but I avoided it since I wanted to eat more bacon and sausages.

Grilled Farmer Sausages and Smoked Bacon were awesome. Anything with sausages and bacon can’t be denied…unless you are a vegetarian.

Salad

Medley of Baby Salad Leaves, Seasonal Fresh Vegetables, and Assorted Vinaigrettes
Traditional Caesar Salad
Traditional Greek Style Salad
Roma Tomato Salad
Marinated Potato Salad

They have lots of salads to choose from. Maybe a bit too much hahaha…I’m just teasing. They do have a great selection if you don’t want the usual salad.

Baby Salad Leaves, fresh vegetables with a bunch of optional vinaigrettes.
Caesar Salad has Grana Padano and Brioche Croutons

Greek Style Salad has kalamata olives, feta, red wine and oregano dressing.

Roma Tomato Salad was my favorite. It also has a basil pesto, marinated boconccini, and artichokes . I just love anything with artichokes.

Marinated Potato Salad has lemon, tarragon, and roasted red pepper.

Platter

Charcuterie, Pates, Smoked and Cured Meats
Domestic and International Cheeses with Crackers
Assorted Sushi and Maki Rolls
Poached Prawns

Assorted Sushi and Maki Rolls was alright. I thought it was a bit strange they would have this here, but the quality of the rolls were pretty average.

Liver Pate with brioche bun I wasn’t a fan of that item, but at least you can be cool and tell people you are eating liver.

Smoked and Cured Meats is always yummy. Too bad they didn’t have prosciutto.

Domestic and International Cheeses with Crackers! I wasn’t a fan of all the cheeses, but they did have some delicious brie.

Smoked Salmon was good and yummy.

Poached Prawns are only good with the cocktail sauce. I was fixated on getting prawns, I totally forgot about the sauce.

Entree

Carved Slow Roast Beef
Penne Pasta
Assorted Dim Sum, Har Gau, Su Mai, Springrolls
BC Seafood Stew with Crispy Puff Pastry
Roast Baby Potatoes
Local Vegetables

On the cutting board was prime rib and roasted pork! There was also deep-fried shrimp wontons, and chicken skewers.

Prime Rib was perfect at medium rare with some gravy! It was so good, I could have sat there all day eating this if I had an unlimited stomach!!!

Roasted Pork reminded me of Chinese BBQ Pork, which I guess are the same thing. Nonetheless, it was good, but I felt like I needed a bowl of rice to go along with this. hahaha.

Chicken Skewers were also pretty awesome. SO tender and flavourful!

Assorted Dim Sum – Har Gau, Sui Mai, and some meatball looking things.

I thought the dim sum was a bit random for this buffet, but some people like their brunch with dim sum. I wasn’t feeling in the whole asian mood, so the taste to me was just ok.

Steelhead Salmon with lobster sauce was so good! If you see this, go eat it! The salmon was perfectly cooked with an incredible flavour from the sauce. Yum!!

There was also rice, but I didn’t have any since .. I needed to save room for all that prime rib.

Roasted Baby Potatoes and an assortment of vegetables. These looked good too, but I skipped this since there was too much to try at the buffet.

Dessert

Assorted Cakes, Pies and Mousses
Custard (Vegan, Dairy, Gluten Free)

Desserts galore! Theres really a lot of different items to choose from. I had a hard time paying attention at this table. The desserts were literally everywhere.

They also had a good amount of eclairs to choose from.

More nom nom nom yumminess.

If you are not a chocolate lover, there are other items that may appeal to you.

This dessert has almond pudding in a really cute little glass.

They even had mini macarons! I wasn’t particularly crazy about the cream puff, but I did enjoy the chocolate desserts.

The buffet is perfect for kids since they have a good selection of cereal, desserts, donuts and jello. It’s meant to be fun and they do pull that off.

The hand-made donuts were really good! It wasn’t too dense, but had a good texture!

I really couldn’t resist and I had to grab a jello just for fun.

Overall, I think this brunch buffet is worth the $30.95. It’s probably one of the better priced buffets. I’ll definitely be coming back.

All the items were well executed and I was not disappointed. They don’t put too much food out at once to keep the quality and freshness in their items. The servers are really prompt on refilling items that run out.

Words of Wisdom:

Make Reservations
Tons of items to choose from
Kid Friendly
Lots of Parking in parkade

We Rate EBO Restaurant and Lounge:

Address:
4331 Dominion St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.eborestaurant.com/

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Vancouver

In Filipino

Little Ongpin Restaurant: Filipino Food in Richmond

March 13, 2012

Little Ongpin Restaurant serves up Filipino – Chinese cuisine. It’s located in Richmond on No. 5 Road. I came here with M and Scarface for a Balut eating contest. I was in the contest but I didn’t win.

Before the contest, M, Scarface and I order some dishes. Since I have zero clue about Filipino food, Scarface did all the ordering.

Java Rice is essentially garlic rice. It tasted good and went well with the food, but it was intensely oily. At the bottom, there was a lot of oil.

Pork Sisig is marinated meat on a hot plate. What I found strange was that the hot plate wasn’t actually very hot. Scarface said the dish wasn’t very good and isn’t how it is in the Philippines.

Beef Salpicao is like stir fried garlic beef. The meat wasn’t very tender at all but the flavour was ok.

Pork and tofu was completely different that what we were expecting. Usually it would be pork meat instead of the pig skin. All of us didn’t like the dish.

Overall, M, Scarface and I were disappointed with the meal despite the great reviews online. Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes, but it wasn’t for us. It was a busy night at the restaurant, so perhaps that’s where the quality declined a bit.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of spaces in parking lot
Decent prices
Good lunch deals
They don’t serve beer 🙁
Dishes are hit or miss

We Rate Little Ongpin Restaurant:

Address:
4093 No 5 Road
Richmond, BC

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In BBQ

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ: $7.95 Lunch Combo and Happy Hour

March 11, 2012

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ is a new Japanese restaurant that opened up Downtown. It’s located beside Relish Gastopub and below Guu Garden.

They have a lot of good lunch combos and even a Happy Hour special. They sell Japanese BBQ grill dishes, noodles, rice and other dishes. You can have a good lunch for under $10 after tax.

The interior is really quite nice and there’s lots of space. Perfect for games too since they have a projector.

Fried Chicken Karrage (Reg. $5.50 | Happy Hr. $3.50) this was really delicious! I’ve had a lot of chicken karrage in the past and this is my favorite Karrage at the moment. The chicken meat is very moist and the fried exterior is crispy and perfectly flavoured. There is also mayo and lemon if you need extra taste.

Spicy Tuna Volcano (Reg. $6.95 | Happy hr. $3.95) comes with 4 pieces. The rice is deep fried with tuna and a wasabi sauce on top.

The rice inside was actually moist looking normal rice. The tuna was tender and had a good texture. The thing that some of us didn’t like was the wasabi sauce. If you aren’t a wasabi person, ask for the sauce to be removed.

BiBimBap (Reg. $7.95 | Happy Hr. $5.95) was not very good. Unlike typical Korean BiBimBap, there wasn’t much oil in the stone bowl, so a lot of the items just burned. MeatLover really didn’t like this dish.

If you order some lunch combos, you will get an additional salad or miso soup.

The salad was good and refreshing with egg, cucumbers, greens, pepper, radish and a mild sauce.

The miso soup was quite standard. Nothing too special

Chicken Karaage Bowl Combo ($7.95) comes with miso soup and salad. The chicken karaage is similar to the appetizer but with seaweed, mayo and green onions over rice.

Kuppa ($7.95) comes with salad. Don’t get this confused with Koopa from Mario. It has a rich broth soup with rice, beef, egg, and some other items. I liked it because I have this weird fascination for soup and rice.

Overall, price-wise was good and affordable for lunch. The Happy Hour deals were a bit confusing since it says you need a minimum of $15 spent per person. For all of our appetizers, we expected to pay the regular price, but to our surprise the happy hour price was applied even though we did not spend $15 per person.

Words of Wisdom:

$9.99 pitchers of beer of Canucks game day
Some items are a hit and miss
Under $10 lunch specials
Happy Hour Lunch deals

We Rate Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ:

Address:

888 Nelson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.gyu-kaku.com/

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In American

Pourhouse Restaurant: Sandwich + Side + Beer = $14

March 10, 2012

Pourhouse Restaurant in Gastown has a good lunch deal for $14, where you get a sandwich, a beer and a side. Since it does come with beer, the price isn’t too bad.

Mandu, KoreanGirl and Jojocake came here for lunch on a weekday, but once we sat down, we really didn’t want beer since we will had some work to do in the afternoon. It would have been awkward smelling like beer in the office. Pourhouse gives you the option of having other drinks instead.

Cappuccino was just what Jojocake needed. She thought it was alright, but the temperature definitely could have been hotter.

Macchiato is what Mandu needed. Similar to Jojocake, her coffee was just lukewarm and not hot.

Tea is what KoreanGirl and I needed. The tea was a good temperature and the tea cups came warmed too.

Pulled Pork Sandwich with Cream of Cauliflower Soup. This is what everyone else at the table ordered. The pulled pork sandwich has pulled pork, BBQ sauce, aged cheddar and slaw. They thought it was bit small at first, but when they had everything, they were all full.

Portobello Sandwich with Cream of Cauliflower Soup. It has bits of portobello mushroom, garlic aioli, and asiago. It was #meatlessmonday, so I had to choose this option.

I thought the soup was a bit rich, but it did have a good strong flavour of the cauliflower.

Since I do love mushrooms, I did enjoy this sandwich a lot. The portobello mushroom had a great taste that went well with the other ingredients.

Overall, it was a good lunch deal since it came with beer, but the service was very slow. If you are short on time for lunch, best not to dine here since you will be late. It took us about 1.5 hrs to dine here. If you do have a bit more time, it’s a good option if you are craving some beer.

Words of Wisdom:

Slow service
Luke warm coffee isn’t good…ask for hotter
Good sandwiches
Good lunch deal

We Rate Pourhouse Restaurant:

Address:
162 Water St
Vancouver, BC
Website:
http://www.pourhousevancouver.com/

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In Cafe

Thierry Patisserie: Chit Chats & Desserts

March 9, 2012

Thierry Patisserie is located near Alberni and Thurlow and sells some unique treats! From croissants to cakes… they have the tasty treats you want. It’s a great place that is open late and perfect to chill with friends.

The tables are very cramped together inside, but it’s usually hard to find places like this that are open late. I usually come here with friends when we just want a coffee and a snack to talk. Girls like to talk.. sometimes too much, but that’s what we do.

Latte was good as usual, but sometimes it can be a bit more milky than it should be. But, it’s up to your personal

Chocolate Succe Cake was quite hard to eat. It has hazelnut meringue, chocolate mousse and 70% chocolate ganache. The chocolate covering the cake was very thick and was hard to break through it to get into the ganache later inside. It still tasted good, but it was frustrating to eat it.

Chocolate trio was my favorite! It has white, milk and dark chocolate mousse and chocolate sponge. For a chocolate lover, this was my favorite item. It is very easy to eat and is filled with soft creamy deliciousness.

Lemon Tart was really good and best for those who like something more sweet and tangy. AdventureTimeGirl said this was her favorite out of the bunch of pastries.

Overall, Thierry Patisserie is a good place to chill with your friends over coffee/tea and pastries. Spiked Tea is good too if you like something new and different. It is a bit pricey than usual, so do be aware that it might cost you a bit.

Words of Wisdom:

Large variety of pastries
Can be a bit pricey, $5+ per dessert
Lots of tables
Beautiful decor

We Rate Thierry Patisserie:

Address
1059 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:
thierrychocolates.com

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In Downtown

Hapa Izakaya Coal Harbour: New Beginnings

March 8, 2012

Hapa Umi was the higher-end restaurant of the Hapa Izakaya chain. From hearing much feedback from the customers, they decided to change Hapa Umi into Hapa Izakaya Coal Harbour. The prices are much lower and you will be having similar items to the other Hapa Izakaya restaurants.

Flo heard about the Grand Opening and how the first 40 people to make a reservation gets 30% off through Twitter. Since we like deals we quickly made a reservation online and came here after work. I also forgot my memory card at home, so I’m sorry the pictures aren’t as good.

The interior is the same and has a nice modern vibe. The hostess and the service was really good.

Kakuni ($10.99) is braised pork belly green pepper sauce and grilled garlic bread. This was my favorite dish. The pork belly literally just melts in your mouth and the green pepper sauce accompanies it very well. Definitely something you need to try!

Just look at that pork belly! If you are afraid of fat, just eat it! Sometimes fat is good for you. Flo and I just gobbled this whole dish quite quickly. YUMMM.

Seafood Rissotto Ishiyaki ($11.49) has scallops, squid, halibut, mushrooms, parmesan, shiso leaves and yuzu zest. It’s like a soupy rice in a stone bowl. It was good, but we both didn’t like the addition of the shiso leaves. It just has a minty taste to it. Just a personal preference.

Trout carpaccio ($10.99) has salmon style steel head trout with potato wedges, grainy mustard, vinaigrette and wasabi sour cream. This dish was quite different from any other carpaccio dish I’ve seen. The trout really looked like salmon, but was very delicious. At times I found that the potatoes were a weird pairing with the salmon. But… that’s just me since I’m not a potato person. Regardless, it was something new that no other izakaya place has created.

Ebi mayo ($8.99) is tempura wild shrimp and spicy mayo sauce. This was a disappointing dish since we both felt the tempura of the shrimp became very mushy because of the sauce. Flo said she preferred the mayo on the side.

A good thing about this dish is that the shrimp is quite large!

Banana Chocolate Cake was good, but different for a place like Hapa Izakaya. The banana bread has lots of chocolate chips inside but I felt like the cake could be much warmer. This dessert was just so-so.

Overall, it was great to see the change in their menu be similar to their other locations. If you like the other Hapa Izakaya locations, you’ll like this one too.

Words of Wisdom:

Great taste
Order their Fresh Sheet items
Can get a bit expensive
More higher end compared to other Japanese Izakaya Restaurants
Great place for special occasions

We Rate Hapa Izakaya Coal Harbour:
Address:
909 W Cordova St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://hapaizakaya.com/

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In Hastings-Sunrise

Song Huong: Beef Seven Ways

March 7, 2012

Song Huong ia a Vietnamese Restaurant near Nanaimo and 1st ave. KoreanGirl wanted to try out their Beef Seven Ways (Bo 7 Mon).It was about $26 and it serves 2 – 3 people. It’s a good item to order since you get a sense of the other Vietnamese dishes besides Pho and the rice dishes.

After we made the order, a few dishes came flying back to our table. There was no explanation into what we were supposed to do and what items went with which item. So.. good thing KoreanGirl and Mandu have common sense.

The first dish is a do-it-yourself rice wrap. You are given a hot-pot, raw beef, dehydrated rice wraps, vegetables, noodles, and sauce to create them. The waitress will turn on the stove and just wait for the broth to get hot enough to dunk your meat into it.

The raw beef looks pretty amazing for any meat eaters to set their eyes upon. Since the slices are so thin, you only need to dunk your meat into the hot-pot for a few seconds.

The other items to include in your rice wraps are the noodles and a plate of vegetables.

The plate has a large amount of herbs, pickled vegetables, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and bananas.

You also get some hot sauce, peanuts and onions. If you are allergic to certain things, best to let them know ahead of time.

The rice wraps are dehydrated so you need to soak them first before putting your wrap together.

You just throw it in the bowl with hot water.

Then you take it our and begin assembling your roll.

Mine turned out quite ugly, but at least it ended up in my belly. It can get a bit messy if you can’t roll it up tight enough.

Beef Congee was ok, but not as good as Chinese restaurants. I found it was a bit bland and needed something to it.

Grilled beef slices on pickled cabbage was good. There wasn’t a lot of meat, but I really like pickled vegetables.

This dish has 3 types of meat sausages. I initially didn’t know there was a difference since they kinda all look the same. A few of them had different subtle tastes to them. This dish was particularly everyone’s favorite.

Beef Meatball was a mixture of mushrooms, noodles and other items. It was already cut up in quarters and you can just share it around the table. All of us didn’t particularly like this since it was a bit bland and tough.

It’s not exactly 7 dishes, but it’s 7 varieties of beef. The meal was good for the price and made us 3 full. Now we know there is more to Vietnamese cuisine than just pho.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of space inside and good for large groups
Free parking on the side
Ok service, but not great
Good affordable prices

We Rate Song Huong:

Address:
1613 Nanaimo St
Vancouver, BC

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In Brunch

Slickity Jim’s Chat n’ Chew: The Breakfast of Broken Dreams

March 6, 2012

Slickity Jim’s used to be located on Broadway and Main, but due to a bad fire, their business was destroyed. They did reopen on Main and 19th serving brunch, lunch and dinner. It’s a popular place to have brunch on the weekend. I came down here with the YVRBreakfastClub! They have a few tables in the back that can accommodate large groups, so it was perfect. We did have to wait a while.

The interior is very ornate with a bunch of strange items on the walls and ledges. This is the main dining area, but there is another room at the rear of the restaurant with additional seating.

Their menu is the best! They have some very appealing dishes with unconventional names. It’s not everyday that you can have the breakfast of broken dreams or the Revolution Eggs.

It’s a fun menu to explore, but I found the titles distracting since you can be so concentrated on the unique names rather than the description of the dishes.

All the items are quite affordable and are mostly around $10.

Coffee is needed when eating any breakfast… or at least for me since I always manage to only get 4 hrs of sleep.

They also have soy instead of milk or cream!

Breakfast of Broken Dreams ($9.50) comes with poached eggs served on top of english muffins, spinach, caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese sauce. Also side of potatoes.

KC Dilla and Sunshine Salsa ($9.25) has roasted chicken with brie in a grilled tortilla with mango salsa and a salad.

Sweet Fancy Moses Benedictions ($11) has prosciutto, brie and artichoke on top of english muffins. It also comes with a side of potatoes.

The Morning Yearning ($9.75) has 2 eggs with bacon, chorizo, tomato, with rye bread and potatoes. You can have any style of eggs you want and for the toast you can choose from rye, sourdough or multigrain.

A Woman In A flowing Dressing Kissing her Lover Omelette ($9.75) has prosciutto, spinach, and asiago cheese in the omelette with potatoes and rye bread. Seriously this was the name of the omelette! No joke! I was a tad embarrassed to order this, but it had to be done. The taste of the dish was ok, but the food wasn’t outstanding. Nothing really stood out too much.

The side of potatoes were not very good, nor were they very hot when you bite into them.

Side of bacon ($2.50) was very disappointing, unless you like limp bacon. I like mine cooked a bit more so you get the crunchiness.

Overall, all the dishes were decent, but not outstanding. They have a great sounding menu but the expectations fell a but short. The service was mediocre as well. It took a while for our meals to arrive.

Words of Wisdom:

Unique menu items, but don’t be lured by the titles…read descriptions
Around $10
No reservations
Busy during brunch times

We Rate Slickity Jim’s Chat n’ Chew:

Address:
3475 Main St
Vancouver, BC V5V
Website:
http://www.slickityjims.com/

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In Fast Food

A&W: New Buddy Burgers with Grilled Onions

March 5, 2012

Last week, A&W introduced their new line of burgers called the “Buddy Burgers“. These are smaller burgers that are under $3. Pretty good prices and good for people who don’t wanna eat so much. Their images look really good, but in reality they don’t look very appealing. I think A&W is starting to run out of names.

They have 4 different burgers, but the variations don’t really vary too much.

Little Buddy Burger ($1.75) they messed up my order…imagine this without the cheese. It has one patty, mayo, and caramelized onions between the toasted buns.

Little Buddy Burger with Cheese ($2.25) is similar to the one above but WITH cheese.

Buddy Burger ($2.45) has 2 patties with mayo and the caramelized onions between toasted buns.

Buddy Burger with Cheese ($2.95) is the same above but with the cheese.

You can make any of the above a combo by adding $3 for fries and a drink. If you are wondering if I ate all 4 of these with a combo…yes I did…I was way too full afterwards. A normal person will be ok with just 2 burgers to get full.

The burgers were ok, but I did like the addition of the grilled onions. The 4 burgers don’t vary much except for the extra patty and cheese. Even though these are cheap, I probably wouldn’t order them again.

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Bandidas Taqueria: Vegetarian Mexican Brunch

March 4, 2012

When AdventureTimeGirl was in town, I took her to Banditas Taqueria since it is a very popular vegetarian restaurant for bunch. We actually went twice in one weekend since she enjoyed it so much. The prices are quite fair and they just serve good vegetarian food.

Horchata is a traditional Mexican rice beverage. It’s refreshing, sweet, milky, nutty and has a nice cinnamon taste. M enjoyed it and I also stole a few sips from him.

2 Wolf and Goat Taco with Rice + Beans ($5.25 +$2.25) has fresh guacamole, purple cabbage, pinto beans, roasted salsa, cheese and cour cream. Delicious tacos and I really enjoy their guacamole and the purple cabbage. The beans and the rice were ok, but it was still a decent side since it fills you up.

Baked Breakfast Burrito ($7.50 + $2.25) has scrambled eggs, roasted salsa, pinto beans, sour cream and cheese in the whole wheat tortilla. The burrito was quite large and will really get you full. M enjoyed it!

Breakfast Burrito ($7.50) not baked, but it is still nice and large!

It’s packed with lots of eggs and beans! It’s a very hearty breakfast indeed.

Morgan Taylor ($8.50) is a new burrito they are serving at the restaurant. It has roasted potatoes, scrambled eggs, roasted salsa, cheese and sour cream. AdventureTimeGirl really enjoyed it and was the perfect size.

Baked Morgan Taylor ($8.50 +$2.25) is the same thing as above, but with the added sauce and cheese. M actually liked this more than the breakfast burrito because of the texture from the potatoes.

Becky’s Omelette ($11) is another new item on their menu. It has roasted red pepper sauce, spinach, caramelized onions, cheese, hash, beans and purple cabbage. ScarFace enjoyed it and didn’t mind too much that it was meatless.

Egg Muffins with Veggie Sausage ($8.5 + $2.25) has 2 cornbread muffin tops, topped with guacamole, cheese, fried eggs with a tangy tomatillo sauce. I also really loved this dish because of the crispy cornbread and the taste of the tomatillo sauce. Definitely recommended!

Lemmy ($11) is also a new dish. It’s a poblano baked with pinto beans, cheese and sauce. It is also topped off with 2 poached eggs. On the side there is tortillas, purple cabbage and hashbrowns. AdventureTimeGirl also enjoyed this dish.

All the dishes were quite good and the picky boys also enjoyed their meatless meals, so it was quite a success.

Words of Wisdom:

Breakfast items are good!
No reservations
All Vegetarian food
Service is mediocre
Good quality ingredients
Closest Skytrain: Commercial/Broadway stn

We rate Bandidas Taqueria:

Address:

2781 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.bandidastaqueria.com

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Vancouver

In Brunch

Jimmy’s Place Restaurant: Epic Hash Browns

March 3, 2012

Jimmys Place Restaurant is super hidden near North Road and they serve of breakfasts and lunch. WIth my last experience here, I wasn’t eager to come back, but M kept on insisting we have their eggs benedict and hash browns.

The interior seems a bit dated and has a diner feel to it. It’s cash only, but the food is quite cheap and affordable. It’s known as a neighbourhood favorite for their breakfast.

Pop ($1.95). It’s the classic bottles! In my opinion, it tastes the best from the bottles compared to the plastic bottles or fountain drinks.

Jimmy’s special burger ($8.95) comes with bacon and cheese as well as a side of fries.The bun was nicely toasted on the outside, but the patty wasn’t good at all. The fries were alright too. I probably wouldn’t get the burger again.

Black Stone Benedict ($8.95) is M’s Favorite items from Jimmy’s Place. This is all he will ever order. The eggs are nicely poached with lots of hollandaise sauce on top with bacon, green onions and tomatoes. The hash browns are also super crispy on the outside. After I tried a bit of this, I totally wanted to steal his whole dish away from him.

Overall, the food is ok, but the only item that is super good are the eggs benedict! The hash browns are super amazing too. Whatever you decided to get, you must have the side of hash browns!

Words of Wisdom:

Cash only
Some items are hit and miss
Eggs benny with hashbrowns are the best items
Lots of parking
Lots to choose from in their menu
Cheap and affordable

We Rate Jimmys Place Restaurant:

Address:
435 North Road
Coquitlam, BC

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In Downtown

Nuba on Hastings: Sharing is Caring

March 2, 2012

Nuba serves up authentic Lebanese cuisine which cater to both vegetarians and meat eaters. It’s quite popular and even AdventureTimeGirl heard about it from half way across the world. When she came to town, I knew it was a place that M and I had to take her. I haven’t been disappointed by this location yet. With their 4 locations, some items are a bit different, but I like this one the most.

Since the place is usually packed for lunch and dinner, it always good to make reservations for larger groups. We arrived 10 minutes earlier, but they wouldn’t seat us even though our table was clean and unoccupied. We thought this was pretty weird.

La Feast ($30) is a shared platter and comes with hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj, pickles, fattoush salad, najibs special (Baked Cauliflower), vegan stew, falafel, mjadra, macedonian feta, avocado and marinated olives.

The hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj, pickles and the pita bread (aka Le Petit Feast ($12)) comes first. Each person had their own personal favorite item of the first dish, but the hummus was really good!

Next, the rest of the items of La Feast arrived. There are more pickles, fattoush salad, najibs special (Baked Cauliflower), vegan stew, falafel, mjadra, macedonian feta, avocado and marinated olives. It’s really great for sharing if you want to try an array of items. Everything in La Feast is vegetarian! The taste of everything was really good and the nijibs special was the most popular item…so we ordered an extra order of it. Yum!

La Grande Feast ($50) is another shared platter that’s NOT vegetarian. It comes with hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj, pickles, fattoush salad, najibs special, roasted potatoes, lamb skewers, prawns with eggplant relish and chicken skewers.

The hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj, pickles and the pita bread came first too and its the exact same as the La Feast.

Then the rest of the items arrived. The fattoush salad, najibs special, roasted potatoes, lamb skewers, prawns with eggplant relish and chicken skewers! The meat eaters gobbled up all the skewers right away. There wasn’t a lot of meat, but the quality of the skewers were really amazing. The lamb skewers were so tender and medium rare. The prawns were ok, but not too amazing. The chicken skewers were good size, but a tad dry. It comes with a few dips too, so it will counter act the dry texture.

Overall, the food was good. 2 platters + an extra order of najibs special were good for 5 people.

Words of Wisdom:

Platters are good for sharing
Make reservations
Hummas + tabouleh is so good!
Vegetarian friendly

We Rate Nuba:

Address:

207 W Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
nuba.ca

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In Four Beakers

Nicli Antica Pizzeria: Neapolitan Pizza

March 1, 2012

Nicili Antica Pizzeria is a very popular for their Neapolitan pizza! Since there is always a long line up, we came around 2pm to avoid any lineups. Surprisingly it was packed even at that hour! We left our phone number and they texted us a cool link so we could walk around the neighbourhood and be notified how long the wait is and how many other parties are ahead of us.

AdventureTimeGirl, M, Scarface and I just wandered around to Gastown till we got a text saying our table was ready. It was about a 20 minute wait.

The seating for mostly groups of 2 or 4. If you have any larger parties, your wait may be a while. The interior has a simple white look accented with red chairs by the bar.

The menu is mostly appetizers and different pizzas.

You get 2 types of oil to use on your pizza – Rosemary Oil and Chili Oil. Maybe I’m crazy, but I didn’t get much taste from either oils. The taste is quite subtle.

Capocollo Pizza ($15) has pomodoro tomatoes, grana padano, garlic, marjoram cured pork shoulder, and chili oil.

Margherita Pizza ($12) has pomodoro tomato, grana padano, fior di latte, and basil. Good for the vegetarians!

The Bunch Pizza with Bacon ($20) M really liked it because of the bacon and eggs. It’s really cool since it’s not usual to see a brunch type of pizza.

Funghi Pizza ($16) has pomodoro tomatoes, grana padano, fior di latte, wild and cultivated mushrooms. I thought this pizza was alright. The mushrooms reminded me of the chinese mushrooms. I wish there were more mushrooms since I am a mushroom addict.

All the pizzas had a thin crust with the right amount of toppings. The middle was a tad soggy, but didn’t take away too much from the pizza. They use fresh ingredients that shine through.

Overall, the pizzas are well made and you can easily split a pizza between two people if you don’t want to get super full. Even though the pizza was good, I am very deterred by the long line ups, plus they don’t do reservations.

Words of Wisdom: