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Hastings-Sunrise

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Like many Chinese restaurants, dining rooms are close and have to rely on delivery and take out. Chef James on Hastings is only during take out at the moment and we saw an ad in the Chinese paper for a great promotion when you order. I’ve never dined at Chef James on Hastings, but only heard raving reviews from customers. It was my dad’s birthday and we would normally go out to a Chinese restaurant to have dinner, that isn’t possible because of Covid-19. We opted to order take out.

It’s a pretty good promotion. No indication when it ends, but when you call to make you order, just say you saw it on the paper and on their Instagram.

  • Order $35+ and get free Hai Nam Chicken on Rice
  • Order $60+ and get a free Half Hai Nam Chicken
  • Order $80+ and get a free Curry Beef Brisket

It’s definitely a difficult time for all restaurants, so we try to do take out a few times a week to support local restaurants.

We ordered the items below:

  • Daily Soup
  • Deep Fried Crispy Whole Chicken
  • Peking-style Pork Chop
  • Pan-Fried Pea Leaves with Garlic sauce
  • Tofu and Rock Cod Hot Pot
  • Gai-Lan with Beef
  • Curry Beef Brisket

All the items were pretty good and we ordered enough for 7 adults. As this was takeout, the Deep Fried Crispy Whole Chicken wasn’t crispy anymore by the time it arrived, but it’s bound to happen. None the less, we loved everything else that we ordered. It was nice to have a Chinese meal together where we didn’t have to cook it.

Plus, the Curry Beef Brisket was definitely a highlight.

Final Thoughts

They only do online orders for pick up and delivery for a certain area. As we are outside of the area, we decided to pick up.

Hopefully once the pandemic is over, we can go dine inside Chef James on Hastings to experience what it is like inside the restaurant.

Address:
2683 E Hastings St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
https://jamesonhastings.ca/

Looking for something fun to do with friends this Summer? Hastings Racecourse is open for horse racing with a great backdrop of the North Shore mountains and the Burrard Inlet. There is more to this place than just betting of horse races and the nice view.

There are special events throughout the Summer, so you can catch some pretty interesting things here like Corgi Races, Paint Nite, and Buffets.

We came here during industry night to check out the space and experience the races since it’s been a long time.

Craft Cocktails

On this particular day, Vancouver’s best bars came together to create exclusive cocktails.

There were a lot of local bartenders serving up tasty cocktails like the Furlong by Granville Room. It has Bacardi 8, lime, grapefruit, simple syrup, ginger beer, pepper and mint.

The Boxcar crafted up a Dill Spritz made with dill-infused cazadores blanco tequila, luxardo bitter blanco, lemon, honey, lem-marrakech bitters, soda and bubbly.

The Diamond, a popular bar in Gastown created The Front Runner. It is made with a mixture of Bombay Gin, Bianco Vermouth, Strawberry bell pepper syrup, lavender bitters and soda.

Mamie Taylors created the Wild Horses cocktail, which is the best name for this event. It is made with buffalo trace bourbon, peach, mint and bitters.

If you’re not into cocktails, they have Good Company Lager, Lonetree Cider and Nude Vodka Sodas. What better way to enjoy the races than with a drink in hand to cool off from the hot sunny weather.

Eats

Depending on the event that you go to, you could have a wonderful buffet full of finger food like us.

Pretty great to have a drink and chow down on snacks as the races played out in front of us.

There are also food trucks around if you want a few different options. Some other places to eat at the racecourse are Jerome’s Silks Buffet, and Furlong’s Eatery.

Final Thoughts

Whether you are new to hourseracing or an expert, Hastings Racecourse makes a fun activity for the Summer. You can dress casual or be glammed up. Sip some drinks and have a few bites with friends and try your hand at betting on horses.

Address:
188 N Renfrew St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.hastingsracecourse.com/

Riz Sushi and Poké is located in a small plaza on Renfrew and Broadway in Vancouver. Their main business is catering, but they serve up lunch and dinner at their shop. You can find sushi combos, poké, udon, teriyaki and appetizers on their menu. We were invited to check out their poké bowls.

Interior

They have this epic mural on the wall of iconic artists. Even Kanye kissing Kanye can be seen.

Order up front and then you can find a seat and wait till your order is ready.

Onsen Egg

The onsen egg is delicious as it’s a egg cooked in a low temperature and then it sits in a soy broth with some green onions and tempura bits. We slurped it up and was tempted to get another.

Poké

We got one bowl with salmon and then another with tuna. I like the simplicity of the topping choices as you don’t really need too many toppings to over shadow the rest of the bowl. I personally found that there was too much sauce added to the bowl that you can barely taste the fish or the ingredients in the bowl. You probably want to tell them to go light on the sauce. As the tuna seems to be marinated in advanced, it created a gummy texture that I didn’t really enjoy.

On the other hand, my husband did enjoy their poké bowl with all the sauce. It all comes down to personal preferences. I’m a purist when it comes to poké so clean crisp flavours and my husband likes it saucy.

Final Thoughts

Both of us couldn’t come to a consensus so we agreed to disagree. Their hours of operation is 12pm – 8pm during weekdays. They are closed during the weekends.

We Rate Riz Sushi and Poké

Address:
2887 E Broadway, Vancouver

Website:
https://www.rizsushi.com/

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Duotian Fish Noodles Restaurant is a mix of Hong Kong Style Cafe and Taiwanese Cafe. They are located in the plaza on 1st Avenue where T&T is located. They specialize in fish soup noodles, rice hot pots, Western dishes and hot pot meals.

I was invited to attend as part of ChineseBites to try a variety of items off their menu.

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The seats inside have large booth and smaller tables.

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Complimentary tea arrives in these metal cups. The handle seems to be made of plastic since the color has rubbed off.

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One of their popular options is creating your own noodle soup with all these customizable options.’

You can choose your soup base, toppings, type of noodles, drinks and any extra items on the side.

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One the reverse side, you can customize your congee or rice hot pots.

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Laksa with rice noodles, BBQ pork and sliced beef brisket. Not bad at all, but there are a few other places in town that do customizable laksa a lot better, but if you don’t want to travel far, this will do.

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For our customizable Rice Hot Pot, we got salty fish with pork and chicken with octopus. It is topped with bok choy to give it a bit of color.

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When we dug in, it was pretty good. The combination of the meat and the salty fish worked really well.

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Grabbing an Iced Milk Tea or Ice Coffee Tea mix is classic for Hong Kong style cafes. Both very good! We asked them to make it with less sugar. You will need to stir it a bit more to incorporate all the ingredients.

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Iced Lemon Tea is another popular choice too. You have to take your straw and spoon to crush up the lemon slices to get more flavour out of it.

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The bubble tea on the other hand wasn’t as good. The pearls were hard and could have used more time cooking.

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Baked Spaghetti with meat sauce is one of my go to dishes at these types of cafes. All that meat sauce and cheese covering each strand of spaghetti.

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Butter Biscuit toast was ok, but I felt the topping was too sweet. I wouldn’t be able to eat an entire slice by myself. Each of us had a quarter of the toast and it was enough to quell our sweet tooth.

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Deep fried fish cake was ok. It had a slight sweetness to them.

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Baked pork chop on rice with tomatoes bacon sauce was delicious. You can’t go wrong with pork chops and cheesy sauce.

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Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets is a classic item to order. Crisp on the outside and a good amount of salt and pepper.

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Yang Chow Fried Rice was a bit bland and sub par. The rice was hard and the texture was off.

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Congee with sliced beef and fish balls. We wanted the BBQ quick but it was already sold out.

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The first few tastes of the congee, it tasted burnt and there really isn’t a way to mask it.

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It also comes with a pan-fried green onion cake as part of the congee combo.

Overall, the dishes were definitely a hit and miss. The most basic dishes weren’t executed well like congee and fried rice. The baked Western dishes and noodle soup dishes were decent.

We Rate Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant25rating

Address:
#212 – 2800 E. 1st Ave.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://duotian.ca/

Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Hopewell Chinese Kitchen is located on the top floor of the 1st Avenue Marketplace. They are known for their high quality BBQ meats that are made fresh daily. The owners have been perfecting their craft for over 15 years.

I was invited by ChineseBites to try a few of their BBQ meats. I actually never realized there was this place here until recently. It’s been over 10+ years since I’ve been to the top floor of the plaza. Last time, this used to be a grocery store.

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The prices are a bit higher than other BBQ joints, but it is better quality. It is slightly cheaper than HK BBQ Master in Richmond.

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Hanging meat at a BBQ shop is an awesome sight.

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To others, it might be a gruesome sight to see, but you can’t deny the taste…unless you’re a vegetarian.

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Seriously, all I need is Chinese BBQ meats and rice and I am good to go.

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Mmm I was seriously drooling before the meat made it to my plate.

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You also need a huge cleaver to be able to swiftly shop up the meats. Music to my ears.

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We made sure to have a can of pop with the plates of meat to wash down all the grease. A beer would definitely work as well, but coke is a classic in any asian household.

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Soy Chicken was ok, some pieces weren’t as succulent as others. The white meat is more meaty, but the dark meat was more flavourful.

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BBQ Duck is so good. Perhaps I have a duck obsession, but You can’t go wrong with this. I especially like the darker burnt bits.

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BBQ Pork was quite thick and not too fatty or sweet. Very good.

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Roast Pork is essentially roasted pork belly. It has crisp crunchy skin and juicy tender meat. I love the seasoning by the bones.

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You can also ask for fatty or lean cuts if they have it available. This was quite fatty, so it was hard to eat a lot of it.

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Whole Roasted Suckling Pork is a reservation-only item that you must order one week in advance for $200. Most people order these for special occasions or large gatherings. It’s a piglet and once we dug in, the texture of the meat is quite different than the Roast Pork as its from an older pig. I preferred the meat from the suckling pig as it was a big more lean and flavourful.

Overall, a good alternative for Chinese BBQ. I am glad I finally came here because I would come back for more.

We Rate Hopewell Chinese Kitchen:35rating

Address:
1st Avenue Marketplace, 213-2800 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.hopewellchinesekitchen.ca

Hopewell Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

bai-bua-thai-1

Bai Bua Thai Cuisine is a family owned business in the Hastings-Sunrise area and has authentic Thai cuisine. Since I’ve never been to Thailand, I can’t really comment on the authenticity, but a few friends have said its pretty close. There is pay parking at the front of the restaurant, but it can be tricky to find a spot since there is a bit of traffic near the intersection. Luckily we were able to find a large space out front since it was pouring outside.

The restaurant has a good amount of space. We made reservations just in case this place filled out, but when we went around 6pm, it wasn’t too busy. Later in the evening, it did get very busy.

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We started off with the Thai Ice Tea with Milk and omg it’s so darn good. I can not express how amazing and delicious this drink is. It was like milk tea but a lot better. If they made this into an ice cream, it would be awesome. Highly recommended item to order.

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Laab is a warm salad that is North-Eastern Thai Style. You can choose to have it with ground chicken or pork. It also has lime, fish sauce, onion, green onion, coriander, ground chili and ground roasted rice.

It was like a warm meat salad.  Good flavours, but I wish I had some rice with it.

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Chicken Wings comes with 8 pieces. They are marinated in spices and garlic before being deep-fried. It came piping hot to the table and was very enjoyable. The batter reminded me a little bit like Church’s Chicken.

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Khao Pad Pring Poo is their spicy fried rice. You have the choice of having it with chicken, beef,  or pork. We went with the pork. The dish also has rice, chili, egg, green onion and carrots.

When first tasting this dish it wasn’t very spicy at all. It could have been a bit more spicy.

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Green Curry comes with your choice of chicken, beef or tofu. We went with tofu. The dish also has green curry paste, thai herbs, coconut milk, eggplant, green beans, thai basil and bamboo shoots.

It was really good. We ordered a large coconut rice to go with it too, which was great.

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Pad Thai Chicken comes with thin rice noodles, tamarind sauce, sugar, salted radish, egg, chives, bean sprouts and ground peanuts.

It was ok, but the sugar really threw me off. Didn’t like the slightly sweet taste to it.

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One item that I was really looking forward to is the mango sticky rice dessert in the shape of a rose. It’s just so beautiful!

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It is served warm with some coconut milk drizzles on top. I’ve never had this before, so it was a nice treat.

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The 3 of us had a great meal but some dishes were definitely a hit and a miss.

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At the end of the meal, they give you the bill with some apple hard candies.

We Rate Bai Bua Thai Cuisine3rated

Address:
2443 East Hastings Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.baibuathaicuisine.com/

Bai Bua Thai Cuisine Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Pho Don

M dragged me to a new Vietnamese Restaurant he found near the PNE. There’s so many Vietnamese restaurants on this block that there are so many options. We usually go to Bao Chau and their spring rolls are addictive.

Pho Don is a family run business and you can see the owners children helping out at the restaurant. It’s quite cute.

Pho Don

The interior is clean compared to the other Vietnamese restaurants in town. There are lots of seats if you want to come in a group. As its new, it’s not too busy, so great place to go during the day or night. They are also open till 2am!

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Ice Vietnamese Coffee is a must. M and I always seem to order this to keep us awake.

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Complimentary Spring Rolls came with the order of meals. It’s one of their current promotions. We were delightfully surprised since we were going to order them anyways. They were good but I had a feeling they might be frozen beforehand. It was crispy but a bit soft.

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Rare beef and beef brisket slices was good but by the time it got to the table, most of the meat was cooked. Not a big problem, but I hate when its not like the pictures on the menu.

The broth was great and tasted super clean and full of flavour.

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Bean Sprouts, Bail, lime and jalapeno on the side. I added it all to the pho and it was gooood.

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Lemongrass Chicken on Vermicelli Noodles is what M ordered. He thought it was ok but would rather go to Bao Chau to order this.

They definitely have great pho and is open for long hours. There is also free parking in front and lots of buses close by.

We rate Pho Don: 

Address:
2838 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=2838+East+Hastings+Street+Vancouver,+BC&t=m&hnear=2838+E+Hastings+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5K+1Z9&z=16″]

Tacofino Commissary

We went to Tacofino Commissary on a weekend to catch their brunch. Tacofino has come a long way since their days of running a food truck in Tofino, BC. I can remember having my first bite of Tacofino Cantina and Tacofino Blue. When I discovered they finally had a restaurant on Hastings, I had to go.

M, Scarface and I came just in time for brunch and were super excited. The restaurant was hard to spot as the outside doesn’t look very unique.

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When you look at their ceiling, they have a really cool light installation. It’s a jumble of copper and lights with plants inside some of them. Pretty cool!

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They also play records! It adds a nice touch since it matches the restaurant. Plus, it’s so rare to see people play records these days.

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The back of the restaurant looked pretty cool. All the bottles lined up on the shelves looked very unique.

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Tortilla Soup ($9) has bits of chicken, ancho chile, avocado, queso fresco, and slow cooked egg to top things off.

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Burrito ($10) is filled with chorizo verde, egg, potato, and cheese. It’s grilled on the outside, topped with salsa and stabbed with a knife.

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Inside, you can see all those ingredients. M liked the burrito!

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Gringas ($11) contains pork al pastor, cheddar, kimchi, sunny side egg, and kimchi hollandaise.  You eat this with a knife and fork or else it’ll be awkwardly messy. Scarface said it was really good.

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Torta ($9) has grilled skirt steak, pickled vegetables, cilantro, egg, and black garlic mayo. The bun was soft and went well with the ingredients. When you bite into the sandwich, the egg pops, so it coats whole sandwich with the ooey gooey yolk that adds flavours. It can get messy, so make sure you aren’t eating it over your lap. I found the grilled skirt steak could have been a bit more tender since it was a little bit tough to chew through.

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Banana Churros ($8) comes with 3 pieces and 2 sauces – dulce de leche and spicy chocolate. We loved this item! The sauces paired perfectly and the churros was so fresh! Highly Recommended!

Overall, the food is good but can be a bit pricey. There is still one item I’ll come back for and it’s their amazing banana churros! SO GOOD.

Word of Wisdom:

  • Free parking around the corner
  • Churros are amazing
  • Most items just under $10 for brunch

We Rate Tacofino Commissary

Address:
2327 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.tacofinocommissary.com/

Tacofino Commissary on Urbanspoon

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=2327+E+Hastings+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=2327+E+Hastings+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5L+1V6&gl=ca&t=m&z=14 “]

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Cindy’s Palace’s signature dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.


Cindy's Palace

Cindy’s Palace is located on Nanaimo and 2nd and they invited a few bloggers to try their signature dishes. I’ve passed by several times when driving, but never thought too much about dining here. I actually don’t dine out at Chinese restaurants very often since I know I can get some at home. It was an adventure to see what else is out there.

Cindy's Palace

The interior has many round tables and is busy on the weekend but week day is pretty empty.

Dim Sum Dishes:

Cindy's Palace

Deep Fried Shrimp Cakes are filled with shrimp and breaded. It comes with 3 pieces and is one of their dim sum items. I don’t think it’s available during dinner time. It was packed full of shrimp and comes with 2 different sauces.

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Pork Dumplings (Sui Mai) is very plump, so definitely filling and one of those items that are popular.

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Shrimp Spring Roll with Wasabi comes with 6 pieces and loaded with shrimp inside. You couldn’t taste the wasabi, which was fine since it would have tasted weird. I really liked this item! Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

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Crispy Tofu Stuffed with Vegetables in Thai Sauce was not one of my favorite items. The combination of the Thai sauce and the crispy tofu tasted a bit strange.

Dinner Dishes:

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Stewed Spareribs in Whole Pumpkin you really need to scrape at the pumpkin to get some of its flesh. The spare ribs were nice but I don’t think the pumpkin added much flavour to the overall taste. Just a nicer presentation.

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Pork Toro with Vegetables in housed in a fried wonton-like shell. Not a bad dish at all, you have the tender slices of pork with the vegetables, the sauce it a tad spicy, but isn’t too much to create a fire in your mouth.

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Pan Fried Vermicelli with Beef in Black Pepper Sauce has the pieces of fried vermicelli on top and the beef, black pepper sauce, and softer noodles on the bottom. The black pepper is a bit overwhelming.

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Lamb & Fish in Hot Pot was kinda like a hazard waiting to happen. There are lots of bones, so it’s really not good for little kids. I had to be like a detective to pick out the bones from my fish. Nonetheless, the soup was very flavourful.

Cindy's Palace

Cindy’s Special Fried Rice was decent. It’s a good item to have at the table since it will fill you up and you can’t go wrong with it.

Cindy's Palace

Braised Pork Hock with Special Preserved Plum Sauce had lots of bone and fat, which I guess is normal for the pork hock. It’s not my favorite dish.

Cindy's Palace

Steamed Chinese Melon with Vegetables was a good veggie dish for a Chinese meal. You always need a veggie dish for sure. I like how it’s served in the melon bowl.

Cindy's Palace

Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms on Rice in Lotus Leaf, I didn’t enjoy this dish. It was a bit dry and the flavours didn’t really pop out.

Cindy's Palace

Stir Fried Prawns with Special Tea Leaves has a cool presentation, kinda like a cornucopia, but with prawns and tea leaves. I enjoyed this dish. But then again, I enjoy most prawn dishes anyways. The tea leaves added a subtle flavour to the prawns but not a large amount.

Cindy's Palace

Deep Fried Squid with Salt & Pepper was sub par, it really needed more salt, garlic and spice to enhance the flavour.

Cindy's Palace

Baked Pumpkin Pastries tasted really weird as a dessert but did look cute.

Cindy's Palace

Glutinous Rice Balls with Sesame Paste was crispy on the outside and had the gooey sesame paste on the inside. I did enjoy this item.

The dishes at Cindy’s Palace can be a hit or miss, but pretty good offerings for dim sum or dinner. It’s in a strange place, but not bad.

We Rate Cindy’s Palace

Address:
1796 Nanaimo St
Vancouver, BC

Cindy's Palace 頭啖湯美食專家 on Urbanspoon

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1796+Nanaimo+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=1796+Nanaimo+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5N+5B9&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

Bao Chau Vietnamese is located on Hastings near Playland, they sell the usual dishes like pho, rice and vermicelli noodle dishes. They are best known for their cheap prices and good eats. Simple Vietnamese food.

After my last final exam at SFU, TaiwaneseGirl and BusanGirl decided to head here to grab some food. After a 3 hour exam full of stress, food is needed to make life happier again.

Spring rolls, tiger prawn and grilled pork hash on rice vermicelli was delicious but the tiger prawn was very strange tasting. It was like a beef meatball with a small shrimp inside. Not my favorite item, but the spring roll and the pork hash was yummy.

House Special Beef Noodle (Small- $6.50) was loaded with a variety of beef and the garnishes looked fresh. BusanGirl really enjoyed it because it was cheap and filled her up.

Rice Vermicelli with BBQ Pork Chop and Spring Roll comes with a side of fish sauce to flavour the noodles. We like how there are lots of toppings to the noodles, so the ratio is perfect.

Overall, the food is good for the price, but it won’t be the most sexy looking restaurant out there. It’s quite popular because of their food, so if you can stand some really outdated decor, you’ll be alright!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking in rear
  • Cash Only
  • Under $10
  • Any of the pho with rare beef tastes pretty good

We Rate Bao Chau Vietnamese:

Address:
2717 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC
Bao Chau Vietnamese on Urbanspoon


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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

Song Huong (Vancouver) on Urbanspoon


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Bo Laksa King’s Bubble & Bits serves up Malaysian food! I heard their Laksa is really good, so I took a few friends here to try it out.

They are cash only, so you are outta luck, if you don’t have any….there should be a bank close by.

Their interior is not very large, but can fit a few groups of 4’s and 2’s.

Roti Canai (Large -$5.99) is like a asian pancake with a curry chicken dipping sauce. It was very fresh and crispy. It was probably one of the best Roti Canai I have had! The sauce was really really good too. The 4 of us fought over this dish since it was so good! Highly recommended.

Beef Rendang ($8.75) is marinated beef slowly cooked in coconut gravy plus a special sauce served with rice. M really liked it because it was very flavourful and the meat was really tender.

Mee Goreng ($7.75) is spicy stir fried noodle with veggies, chicken with a sweet and spicy sauce. I really did not like this dish because of the sauce they used. I much prefer the instant mee goreng from the store.

Laksa ($7.50) has vermicelli or yellow noodles, prawns, fish balls, tofu puffs, eggs, chicken and a nice coconut curry broth. Scarface and TaiwaneseGirl both liked it.

Overall, the food is pretty good if you go for the usual items. Too bad I lucked out and chose a dish I didn’t like.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Cash Only
  • Parking on Street
  • Laksa and Roti Canai Higly recommended

We Rate Bo Laksa King’s Bubbles & Bits:

Address:
2546 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC V5K

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Blowfish Japanese Restaurant is located a few blocks away from PNE/Playland on Hastings. This small little Japanese restaurant is a favourite amongst the residents in the area. They have amazing priced Japanese food that won’t break your wallet.

Seating is quite limited they have about 6 tables that seat either 4 or 2 people. Most people who come in do take out especially during the peak hours.

I started with the House Salad ($4). It is a very simple salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, crispy wonton-like topping with ponzu sauce. It was good a refreshing like how a salad should be.

I’ve been to other japanese restaurants with horrible salads, but this one is good!

Crazy Buster Roll ($11) has crunchy tuna stick wrapped with tuna sashimi and avocado, drizzled with spicy mayo and tobiko. It’s a bit expensive for just a roll.

The roll was pretty good, but I really could not feel the “crunchy” texture of the roll from the tuna. It was probably masked by the rice. The tuna felt a bit dry and it might have been better if it they lightly seared the tuna instead. The spicy mango sauce was nice and it was very subtle and it won’t hurt you. Good roll, but expensive!

Dragon Roll ($12) has 2 prawn tempura & daikon sprouts wrapped with slices of grilled eel & avocado. Yet again, the specialty rolls are expensive!

The taste was also very good! Delicious combination of the eel and tempura. I really like the little tobiko on top since it reminds me of mini dragon balls. They also make crunchy noises when you bite down on them.

Deluxe Bento Box ($12.95) comes with your choice of Chicken, Beef, Salmon or Tofu Teriyaki. Also Ebi, Tako or Vegetable Sunomono Soup with Tempura, Chicken Karaage, California Roll, Green Salad.

This box is super cheap and it worth every penny! It’s equivalent to the specialty rolls, which I found very funny.

The Miso Soup is nothing special. It’s the same stuff you would get anywhere else.

The sunomono we chose was the tako sunomono. It has 2 thick slices of tako, which is octopus. Very good like the ones you would find else where. I like how they give you many choices so you are not just stuck with the ebi sunomono like most restaurants.

The california roll was nicely put together and it did not fall apart. It has imitation crab and avocado inside.

The chicken karrage  was good as well. Moist inside and not over cooked. I love this fatty addition to any bento box!

The green salad is different than the house salad. It is mostly lettuce with a citrus sauce.

We chose the salmon teriyaki since its different than the usual chicken or beef. M did not take a liking to this since it was very very salty. Perhaps it was just the way they cooked it..or they accidentally added too much salt.

The tempura was assorted, so you get a few vegetables and ebi.

Overall, pretty good items and large selection on their menu. The best deal from Blowfish are the bento boxes! All the ingredients seem pretty fresh and we were quite impressed by our visit.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Take Out + Delivery
  • Very affordable Bento boxes
  • Expensive specialty sushi rolls
  • Free parking in parking lot of adjacent roads

We Rate Blowfish: 

Address:

Suite 107-2828 E. Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.blowfish101.com
Blowfish Sushi & Japanese Food on Urbanspoon

ConsultingGirl was craving for some pho, but wanted to avoid a few of the horrible places in Burnaby, so we drove a bit further to go to Bao Chau. Since it was another game day, everyone was out Downtown or glued to their screen at home. This is my favorite time to head out since there are no lines and the restaurants are empty.

This place was indeed empty. Only a few tables were occupied. The decor is quite dated, so don’t expect too much from their interior.

I started with the Bao Chau House Special Beef Noodle (Smaill – $6.50). I chose this because it has a little bit of everything. Tendon, tripe, beef balls, and other slices of beef. This is one of the better pho I have had. The broth is quite clear and it’s not too murky.

ConsultingGirl had the Pho Tai Bo Vien – Rare Beef and Beef balls noodle (Small – $6.00). The beef is indeed rare and you can tell when it arrives at the table. What people usually do is to let it sit in their hot soup so it cooks.

The sides of basil and bean sprout were very fresh and it did not look like it was reused or old. I am very picky when it comes to these things because some pho places do like to reuse old customers bean sprouts and basil. This scares me.

We also ordered the 2 Spring Rolls ($3.50).  The spring rolls have vermicelli, carrots, a bit of beef and mushrooms. We found the spring rolls to be a bit under cooked. The outside was nice and crunchy, but the inside was a bit doughy. The wrapping was a bit different from other spring rolls and also it is sprinkled with salt and pepper on the outside.

We thought this would be the best spring rolls, but it fell a bit short. In the past, these were spot on, but I guess the quality isn’t too consistant.

Overall, we did like the pho, but spring rolls were a bit of a disappointment.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking in rear
  • Under $10
  • Any of the pho with rare beef tastes pretty good

We Rate Bao Chau:

Address:

2717 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC
Bao Chau Vietnamese on Urbanspoon

M was super lazy and super sick, so instead of going out to eat, we went to Yummy Web to order something delivered. Looking at the top 10 restaurants on their website, we decided to go with Tentatsu since I always see it passing Hastings.

We ordered through their online form fairly easily. We didn’t have to use a credit card, so you don’t get your information leaked. All you need to do is sign up for an account, choose a restaurant, pick your items, and confirm your order. The restaurant will call you to confirm you order and you are set!

Tentatsu delivered the food and it was very painless!

M ordered Shrimp Tempura ($6.95). More on this below.

M also ordered the Oyako Don ($4.95). This is also known as the “parent child donburi”. The reason for this is because it has both chicken and eggs. Get it? I thought thats super cute.

Tentatsu’s version of the oyako don has rice, breaded chicken, egg, caramelized onions, green onions and soy sauce.

M was super full from the tempura, so he only at 1/4th of it. He liked the dish but it was really filling and they do give you your moneys worth.

I had the Yokohama Combo ($12.95). This is a MASSIVE meal, it comes with Salmon, Tuna & Tai Sashimi, Tempura, California roll , Tuna roll & House Roll Sushi, Chicken Teriyaki & Salad.

I kept wondering why there were so many containers….container after container I was just amazed at how much food there was. It was enough for 2 people…but I ate it all by myself.

The miso soup had a lot of seaweed and tofu inside, so I was not disappointed. The sunomono was quite average, pretty similar to most other restaurants.

Then there was the assorted tempura, I think it had shrimp, zucchini, and sweet potatoes. The first few bites were delicious with the super crunchy batter, but as I kept eating, there was really too much batter. You taste more of the batter than the actually ingredient itself. M agreed since he also got stuffed from his tempura.

The tuna, salmon and tai sashimi… I was quite disappointed with. It really did not taste as fresh as it could be. It was really hard to eat for some reason.

The main portion of the Yokohama combo was also huge. The salad was just a regular green salad with citrus sauce on top, not bad. The tuna roll, california roll and house roll were decently made. The chicken teriyaki was also quite average.

There was really nothing too special about the quality and the taste. For $12.95 for that many dishes is a steal! Quality is decent but it is not over the top. Do keep in mind all of this is take out, so perhaps the quality is better when you eat in.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great value for the price
  • Taste is average
  • Offers delivery and take out options

We Rate Tentatsu:

Address:

2430 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Tentatsu on Urbanspoon

 

InsecureGirl hasn’t eaten out in a few days and she basically went a bit insane and really really wanted to eat out. We all didn’t want to waste too much money so FragileBoy suggested we go to Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant for some good cheap chinese food. He recommended it because its a place which his parents love.

We came and parked from the back, so it does look a bit ghetto, but I assure you it’s not that bad. If you are a big fan of engrish, “Dr1ver no no hit to fence”, will surely crack you up. I was so entertained that I had to take a picture of it.

Once we parked our car, we entered through their ghetto door…yes ghetto but not creepy at all. You just walk past the kitchen into their dining area. You get to glance at the cleanliness of their kitchen and judge for yourself.

The dining room is very colorful and has tons of seating. It looks nothing like their back, so don’t start judging. I know you probably have judged them up to this point. No worries, i did too until I saw the dining area and their menu.

All the dishes we ordered comes with a complementary soup. We could choose from vegetable soup or cream soup. We all just decided to have cream soup. It was ok, mostly corn and ham inside.

We ordered the fried rice (yan su ji fan). This is M’s favorite dish…like seriously …probably the only item he can order in Mandarin. It’s a normal fried rice with the usual vegetables and meat. It was good and cheap!

This was their chicken chow mein with black bean sauce. The noodles were nice and super crispy! You know it’s a good dish when the noodles are crisp and not soggy.

Then we got the stir fried flat noodle with beef and soy sauce. Good tender slices of beef. We loved this dish because it did not contain as much oil as other restaurants.

For dessert we could choose our desserts to be mango pudding. It was very good but what would make this dessert even better is if they had mango bits inside. Mmmm.

I couldn’t find anything bad about the food, it’s good for the price and does fill you up. All this came out to be $29 in total after taxes. 4 people, so it came out to less than $10. We shared all the dishes and we got super full!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking in rear
  • Cheap prices, good food
  • They use less oil in their cooking
  • Set meals
  • Complementary soup and dessert

We rate Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant:

Address:

2128 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Sun Yee Cafe on Urbanspoon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words of Wisdom:

  • Lots of parking outside
  • Open 24 hours

We rate Knight & Day:

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

Address:

3684 Lougheed Hwy
Vancouver, BC
Knight & Day (Boundary) on Urbanspoon