North Burnaby Archives - Page 3 of 7

In North Burnaby

Whole Foods Market Burnaby: Sneak Peek

January 27, 2016

Whole Foods Market will open their newest BC store in Burnaby on Thursday January 28th, 2016 at 8:30am with a bread-breaking ceremony with Mayor Derek Corrigan.

The new market is located in the Solo District right at Brentwood Town Centre. The new store serves as a gathering place for local residents and provide high-quality natural and organic goods, as well as locally-sourced products and dining options.

I’ve been waiting for a long time for Whole Foods to come to Burnaby for a very long time. I’ve always adored their spacious store with a large variety of foods. SO beautiful. When I was asked to come for a sneak peek of their store, how could I say no?

More than 230 new team members have been hired for this store, which many are residents of Burnaby.

Each Whole Foods Market is a reflection of the unique community it’s part of its history and heritage, its personal style, and the people who will shape and define its future. When you walk into the store you will see the core values spelled out on the wall as well as a beautiful metal crow art pieces created with a local elementary school.

If you live in Burnaby, you will always notice the huge murder of crows that pass by BCIT every night.

To help make your life easier while shopping, they have their concierge service to help you.

Vega Juice Bar

A juice bar is created in partnership with Burnaby-based Vega. If you need smoothies, juices or shots to perk up your day, it’ll be here.

They also have a pretty cool light fixture.

If you are an avid runner, you can plot your favourite route on the chalk board.

Bulk Section

Cheese

Their cheese department has a lot of different cheeses, plus if you ask their staff, you can try it all before you buy it.

It’s really great service if you have no idea what type of cheese you want to get for your meal.

Butcher Shop

Their full service meat department come from animals raised without antibiotics or added growth hormones. This location offers beef from BC ranchers and local chicken sourced from Thomas Reed and Maple Hill Farms. I love the extra mile they put into selecting their produce and it makes their employees proud of what they are selling to customers.

Seafood

The seafood department has awesome complimentary services like marinating your seafood, preparing your seafood, ice, and cooking advice.

All of the wild-caught seafood is certified sustainable by Marine Stewardship Council or by SeaChoice.

Prepared Meals

There will be a wide range of grab and go meals including pizza, sandwiches, burritos, salad, etc.

Theres also a sushi area to order sushi by the roll.

Black Bird Street Food

At the Black Bird Street Food area, it will be an Indian dosa bar where you will find a variety of curry, wrapped in a South Indian, sour lentil pancake.

Bakery

The delectable bakery department features a throwback menu of comfort classics like pudding by the gram, and icebox cheesecake.

They also have a warm dessert section station with piping hot cookies, cinnamon rolls and brownies. When was the last time you had fresh out of the oven treats?

Allegro Coffee Bar

Artisan Soap By Weight

They have this area where you can purchase artisan soap by weight. It actually spells pretty nice if you want something unique in your washroom.

Interior

Just looking around the store, I was super excited to see so many local producers of amazing products like Hagensborg Chocolates a few minutes away from the store. They have some pretty amazing chocolates.

That display is so beautiful!

When I came here, the staff were slowly putting together their produce displays up.

Overall

It’s a great alternative to have Whole Foods in Burnaby as there are no other large market that will be so transparent with what you’re buying, plus they have high standards of selecting what they carry.

Of course it is more expensive that your average grocery store, but the alternative is there. Especially with the weak Canadian dollar and skyrocketing produce prices, it will be interesting to see how the community responds.

Store details

Hours:
Open daily from 7am – 10pm

Address:
4420 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby BC

Telephone:
604 205 5032

Website:
https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

In Kid Friendly

White Spot: New Comfort Foods Menu

January 20, 2016

Once in a while, I will let M choose a restaurant he wants to go for dinner and I’m not allowed to veto his decision. He wanted to go to White Spot to try their Macaroni & Cheese Bigger Burger. I didn’t mind since it was so close to home and you can’t go wrong with burgers.

Macaroni & Cheese Fritters is made with aged white Cheddar macaroni & cheese. Each plate has 5 crispy panko breaded fritters with Sriracha ketchup. There could have been more Sriracha ketchup for the dish, but it really just tasted like ketchup. The server even gave us a whole bottle of extra ketchup.

The inside of the fritter was nice and gooey. No complaints here.

Macaroni & Cheese Bigger Burger with Island Farms Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream ($15.99) has a 6 oz beef burger with macaroni & cheese, a slice of crispy cheddar cheese, sautéed onions, bacon, Sriracha ketchup, and mayo. Island Farms Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream for dessert.

M substituted the fries/salad with zoosticks. The ice cream also never arrived with this dish.

The burger is magnificent and the crispy slice of cheddar is awesome with the bacon. We just wished there was some more mac and cheese inside it. It’s not comfort unless the mac and cheese falls out of the burger.

Chipotle Mango Pork Chop ($15.99) has a tender chargrilled bone-in pork chop served with sweet potato mash, roasted broccoli & chipotle mango sauce. The sauce was drenched over the pork chop, so all you can see is the bone. I have no idea how chared it was. It was tender, which was good. The sweet potato mash was pretty sweet, so I wish I substituted it for something else. Perhaps normal mashed potatoes.

When we got the bill, we realized they forgot to give us ice cream that accompanied the mac and cheese bigger burger, so we reminded the server about it and asked for it to go. He then took our bill away and gave us a new one with the ice cream.

Afterwards, we realized they charged us extra for the ice cream. It was pretty annoying, but I didn’t realized this until we left the restaurant. If I knew it would cost us extra, I wouldn’t have wanted it.
Overall, there’s really nothing comforting about the comfort menu. If you were to come here, just stick with the burgers.

We Rate White Spot:

Address:
6500 Hastings Street, Burnaby

Website:
https://www.whitespot.ca/menu/promo/comfort

In All You Can Eat

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips: All You Can Eat

August 16, 2015

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips in North Burnaby has been here forever! They also have another location in New Westminster. I remember in High School, everyone would come here for cheap all you can eat from Monday to Wednesday and stuff their faces. It never really appealed to me.

M wanted to give it a try since he heard it was good from his friends, so after 14 years of avoiding this place, I saw what Cockney Kings is all about.

We came on a Tuesday, so this place was packed for dinner.

You can also get take-out to avoid the line up inside. We did see a lot of people ordering take out.

All You Can Eat Pollock Fish and Chips ($9.99) is only available Monday to Wednesday. They use pollock, which is a cheaper variety of fish, thus the great price. You can only order this if you dine in.

My plate came with 3 pieces and I found with all them was that the pollock was quite small and its encrusted with so much batter that all you taste is the batter. The pollock is quite bland and not juicy at all.

The all you can eat also comes with pop. A good way to wash down all that batter and chips.

M on the other hand opted to get the regular fish and chips items off the menu. 1 piece halibut and 1 piece salmon. It comes with coleslaw and a soft bun.

It’s part of the combo dinner and it was $16.25 as M wanted to upgrade a piece to halibut. It comes with a bun and coleslaw on the side.

The bun was quite large and has 2 pieces of butter on the side.

The halibut was flakey and juicy. 1000x better than the pollock! The batter is quite thin so you can really taste the fish.

The salmon is also very nice! Cooked well so its still juicy. The batter is also thin.

Having had both all you can eat and the regular menu, I would stick with the regular menu and pay a bit more.

We Rate Cockney Kings Fish & Chips:

Address:
Kensington Square
6574 Hastings Street, Burnaby

Website:
http://cockneykings.ca/

In Canadian

White Spot: Burger Guest Stars

May 24, 2015

Having a White Spot so close to our place is awesome when I need a quick and no-frills type of meal. For a chain restaurant, it’s not bad and I always find something I want on the menu. One item I can never go wrong with are their burgers. They have been making them since the very beginning with 100% fresh Canadian Beef.

Currently they have a “Burger Guest Stars” menu at White Spot for a limited time until May 31st. They have a line up of premium burgers:

Truffled Mushroom Bigger Burger
Steakhouse Supreme Bigger Burger
Crispy Almond Chicken Burger
Johnstone Strait Salmon Burger
Sriracha Goat Cheese Turkey Burger

Some of these are completely new to the menu and some are past guest favourites that they have brought back.

M and I came to grab lunch on the weekend and give them a try.

Truffled Mushroom Bigger Burger ($14.99) is a twist on their Monty Mushroom Bigger Burger. It has 6 oz. of 100% fresh Canadian beef burger with truffled mushrooms, Provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato ,and Triple “O” sauce.

M really liked the patty as it was just screaming with flavour.

Baked Potato Poutine (+$3.49) has cheese curds and gravy loaded with classic baked potato toppings – bacon, sour cream and green onion. By upgrading to the poutine, we had so much food! We could barely make a dent into poutines. Tastes good when you reheat it at home and crack an egg on top. Mmmmmm.

Sriracha Goat Cheese Turkey Burger ($14.99) is a new item they have introduced. It has a chargrilled BC Turkey patty topped with Happy Days Goat Cheese mixed with Sriracha sauce, bacon, apple relish, arugula, tomato and mayo. It is served with coleslaw and a side. Surprisingly it was really good! I never normally order a turkey burger, but they sauce and the bacon make this more flavourful.

I decided to upgrade my side to have the Monty Mushroom Macon Poutine (+$3.99).

Of course, we always wash it down with a glass of Coca Cola.

Overall, good place for a burger and I can see why they had this campaign. Good food done right. They are currently giving away a bunch of prizes as well as free burgers for a year. To enter, just snap a photo on instagram and tag it #BCsBurger.

More info: https://www.whitespot.ca/menu/bc/promo/burgergueststars
Contest ends on May 31st, so you only have a week left.

We Rate White Spot:

Address:
6500 Hastings Street
Burnaby BC

Website:
https://www.whitespot.ca/

In Fast Food

TacoTime: Mexi-Fries Poutine

January 26, 2015

I love going to food courts and having a quick meal. I love it even more when a fast food joint is offering up limited time offer menu items. When I was at TacoTime, I saw they were selling the Mexi-Fries Poutine. I love their classic Mexi-Fries with their signature hot sauce, but I wasn’t quite sure how it would taste with cheese and gravy.

Mexi-Fries Poutine ($3.99) is basically mexi-fries, cheese curds and gravy. At first inspection, the mexi-fries look very crunchy like as if they were double fried. I got a forkful of the poutine and the mexi-fries were stale. It wasn’t fresh at all.

If I wasn’t focused on the mexi-fries, the cheese curds and gravy were decent. It is a fast food poutine, so it kinda reminded me of the McDonalds Poutines but with larger cheese chunks.

Would I order it again? I would be open to it, but I will avoid the Lougheed Mall location.

Website: http://www.tacotimecanada.com/

In Four Beakers

Kazu Japanese Restaurant: New Japanese Restaurant in Burnaby

January 10, 2015

Kazu Japanese Restaurant opened in 2014 and they are serving delicious sushi in North Burnaby. It’s on Madison and Hastings to be exact. M and I were looking for dinner after work and decided to pop in here.

There have been a bunch of Japanese Restaurants opening on Hastings like wild fire, but none of them are really good until now. Kazu Japanese Restaurant is run by really nice and friendly people and the food is just back to the basics yum. Japanese owned too!

Their menu is quite limited and you will find the usual items on the menu, but they make it right. Simple but so delicious.

Tuna and Salmon Sashimi ($7.25) came in small pieces but the quality was definitely there. M just loved this and couldn’t stop eating it.

Toro Nigiri ($2 each) is one of our favourite items to order and the quality again was very good! Delicious and fatty. M put this into his mouth and instantly started smiling because it was so good.

Unagi Nigiri ($2.75) is BBQ eel on top of rice. Really delicious too!

Chicken Karaage ($5.50) was simple and delicious served with a slice of lemon. It is deep-fried boneless chicken.

Gyozas ($3.75) comes with 5 pieces and they are pork and veggie dumplings.

Special Scallop Roll with Tobiko ($4.50) also has mayo, masago and cucumbers.

Tamago Nigiri ($1.25) was delicious according to M.

Tuna Tataki ($9.50) comes with 7 pieces. The tuna is lightly seared on the outside and dressed with ponzu sauce, shiso leaves, and sprouts. Very delicious.

Overall, M and I enjoyed our experience at Kazu Japanese restaurant. It’s getting quite popular, so try to make it here early or on a weekday. The food is back to the basics simple and tastes authentic. Staff are really friendly too.

We rate Kazu Japanese Restaurant:

Address:
4332 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

In Brunch

White Spot: Brunch Time

October 3, 2014

Sometimes you want brunch, but you don’t need to go to a fancy place. Our closest restaurant that offers brunch is White Spot. Sometimes we get really lazy and don’t want to travel far. It’s never occurred to me to go to White Spot for brunch, but when we went, it was packed!

It’s a good place for families especially if you have kids.

Classic Benedict has English muffin topped with back bacon, two poached eggs & hollandaise. It is served with smashbrown potatoes. The smashbrowns were good, especially the pieces with crispy skin. The bennies were pretty basic.

I always get sad if a restaurant makes my eggs wrong, it always should be soft or medium poached eggs. The true way of an eggs benny.

Santa Fe Breakfast Burrito has chicken breast, scrambled eggs, cheese, sautéed tomatoes and green peppers wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla. Served with our trio of sauces – avocado salsa, tomato salsa, cilantro sour cream and red nugget Smashbrowns. I really enjoyed the burrito it was hearty and everything in the burrito tasted great for brunch.

Overall, M and I had a good time at White Spot, but the service was quite slow for some reason. The manager apologized to our table and a few others and offered complimentary dessert. It was a nice touch, but M and I were too full, so we took the dessert home.

We Rate White Spot:

Address:
6500 Hastings Street
Burnaby BC

Website:
https://www.whitespot.ca/

In Italian

The Rolling Dough: New Pizza Place in Burnaby

September 21, 2014

The Rolling Dough is a new pizza place in North Burnaby, which opened on August 2014. I often go to Gaya Sushi next door, so I was quite curious to try this place out when it opened. M and I came here to grab takeout for lunch as we noticed they had a few promotional deals going on. We ordered 2 medium pizzas and it took about 20 minutes to be completed. We called ahead of time so we didn’t have to wait.

Inside the store is their large stone pizza oven that they use to make all their pizza.

Making lots of pizza all day everyday, except on Sundays.

They have 3 sizes of pizzas – 8″, 12″ and 14″. They roll our their dough everyday and try to use local produce where possible. Nothing is frozen or premade.

There are a few seats inside and outside, but most people do takeout.

M and I did a pick up order since we wanted to eat it at home. Too bad they don’t deliver.

The Rolling Dough Chicken (12″ – $18) has roasted chicken breast, monterey jack cheese, salsa verde, cilantro, and Feta Cheese on the thin crust.

Meat Lovers (12″ – $17.50) comes with ham, pepperoni and spicy Italian sausage on top of the thin crust.

Both pizzas were quite thin and did stay crispy after we took it home.

The toppings held together nicely and did not fall apart.

Taking a few bites of each pizza, it’s very different from Panago or Dominos. It’s much thinner crust and not as oily. The pizzas were average, but didn’t feel like they were worth the price because of their thin crust and you won’t get as full. Do keep an eye out for promos on their website as they do have some good deals. When we got 2 medium pizzas, the second one was 30% off.

If you are looking for a late night pizza joint, their hours are short and only open till 9pm.

We Rate The Rolling Dough:

Address:
2900 Bainbridge Ave
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://rollingdough.ca/

In American

The Keg: Steakhouse in Vancouver

August 12, 2014

When I’m not cooking steak at home, we head out to The Keg Steakhouse and Bar. There are multiple locations throughout Canada. We went to the Burnaby location as always as it is the closest one to our home.

They of course have a variety of meat and seafood to choose from, plus they do have salads for vegetarians. The prices are fair and they always have consistent service and food quality.

Since we had a large group, we decided to make a reservation a few days ahead of time so we don’t have to wait in line.

Filet Mignon (7oz – $32) is the cut I recommended to my in-laws. Since it is their first time in Canada, they really need to try how tender and delicious our Canadian beef really is. This dish has the tenderloin wrapped in applewood smoked bacon and served with some veggies and a side of your choice.

They chose roasted garlic mashed potatoes.

Blue Cheese Filet (7oz – $33) is their filet mignon wrapped in applewood smoked bacon, covered
with a blue cheese crust, and finished with roasted garlic cloves. I got roasted vegetables on the side.

It is best to choose it done medium rare and you can really taste the flavours of it.

New York striploin (12oz – $31) is what M ordered. It is tender and full of flavour too. He only gets his steaks done medium rare.

Overall, everything tasted great! No complaints at all.

We Rate the Keg Steakhouse:

Address:
4510 Still Creek Ave
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.kegsteakhouse.com/en/locations/BC/burnaby/burnaby-keg/

In North Burnaby

Clancy’s Meat Co: Easy Dinner

June 14, 2014

Clancy’s Meat Co. is located in the Kensington Plaza in North Burnaby. M and I are always disappointed when going to Safeway a few doors down for meat. So, we decided to go see what Clancy’s Meat Co had to offer. Imagine it like M&M Meat Shop but different. They sell fresh and frozen meat products, and ready-to-eat meals in stores. Everything is organic and preservative-free.

There’s no butcher shop close to our place that opens after 6pm, so it’s hard to find good meat products after work.

The store has a simple layout with the fresh item in the counters and the frozen stuff in the fridges.

A lot of the steaks are pre-marinated, so you don’t have to do any of the thinking at home. They do have a few selections than are left unseasoned.

Same thing with the chicken breasts. You will find a lot of different flavours. My favourite is the Out of Control chicken breast, which is the yellow one in the photo.

One of our favourite items are the stuffed mushrooms. So good.

The rest of the food and a majority of the seafood products are frozen. I guess if you are looking for a quick dinner with little preparation, this might be for you.

They also sell sauce to go with the meal.

Two Can Dine ($19.99) comes with 2 sirloin steals, 2 shrimp skewers, 2 stuffed mushroom caps and 2 stuffed potatoes. Since it’s just M and I , we thought it would be good to give it a try.

All the items come with cooking instructions. You can find it online or get the staff to let you know the best way to prepare the items.

The stuffed potatoes are all frozen. There are many flavours to choose from but we got the Bacon Cheddar Stuffed Potato and the Parm, Herb and Garlic Stuffed Potatoes. We stuck them into the oven at 350’F for 50 minutes.

Voila, dinner is served. We made a simple salad just to add some more vegetables to the meal. The baked potatoes were surprisingly good, mushrooms were so good, steak was tender and full of flavour. The shrimp was ok, but not the best.

It was an easily meal to make since most of the items we just threw into the oven. It’s kinda like a full proof plan if you don’t know how to cook.

We do go to Clancy’s quite often because it’s convenient and still cheaper than eating out. On another night we got Greek marinated Chicken Breast ($3.98) and a bacon wrapped chicken breast with asparagus, ham and cheese.

‘Out of Control’ marinated Chicken Breast ($3.98) and a bacon wrapped chicken breast with asparagus ham and cheese.

Surprisingly, the marinade was not spicy at all.

3 Pepper New York Steak ($4.98) and a few of the stuffed mushrooms ($1.98 each).The best stuffed mushroom is the Thermador Stuffed mushroom has the white mushroom caps are stuffed with lobster, cream cheese and some spices.

Another time we got the stuffed Zuchinni, Out of Control Chicken Breast and the tilapia stuffed with lobster and cream cheese.

Overall, it’s a decent place to go if you want something easy to make for dinner. For M and I, this a quick meal to create after work. The shop is convenient and the prices are reasonable. I just wish there were more variety of fresh items.

We Rate Clancy’s Meat Co:

Address:
6556 Hastings St. Burnaby BC

Website:
http://www.clancysmeatco.com/

In Bubble Tea

Blossom Teas: Hidden in North Burnaby

May 21, 2014

There’s a new cafe in town! North Burnaby finally has another cafe that offers bubble tea and desserts. It’s right beside Mountain Shadow Pub. Years ago, this used to be a parking lots, but they have since built town homes and retail spaces.

Blossom Teas opened last year and they serve up Chinese style desserts. It’s quite unexpected here, but it’s a nice surprise because you would never expect this place to be here.

The interior is a bit small, so there really isn’t a lot of space for large groups. I did notice a lot of people were doing take out.

This is the drink menu and they have hot drinks, cold drinks, coffee, tea, etc.

Here are a few more dessert items. There’s a lot more, but I didn’t take photos of.

A cool feature is the darts area! Imagine sipping on bubble tea and watching your friend duke it out at darts.

New York style Cheesecake with a berry compote ($4.99) has the graham cracker crust with the cheesecake filling. Delicious and smooth.

Egg Pudding ($1.90) comes in a small container, but it was just the right amount.

Matcha Shake with mochi ($5.50) was quite large! The mochi on top was very soft. Pretty good matcha shake.

Large Super Mango Shaved Ice ($7.85) tasted pretty average. The mango chunks were room temperature, so it really clashed with the temperature of this dish since the shaved ice and ice cream were really cold.

Condensed Milk Toast ($5) was dripping with condensed milk and also came with more condensed milk on the side. It tasted ok.

Overall, pretty good desserts, bubble tea and snacks. My family just shared all of this. It’s always better to share to try a bit of everything.

We Rate Blossom Teas:

Address:
23-7198 Barnet Road
Burnaby BC

Website:
http://www.blossomteas.com/

In Kid Friendly

The Keg Steakhouse: Filet Mignon and Prime Rib

May 13, 2014

M and I have a ritual of going The Keg on our anniversary. It started a few years ago when we opted to go to The Keg rather than Gothams. The Burnaby location is our favourite as it is closest to our house, but driving there is always a pain because you can only get there by going northbound on Willingdon.

Complimentary bread arrived and they have a different type of bread now. It used to be more round and soft. Now it’s a bit harder and square in shape. Still tastes good with the whipped butter.

Filet Mignon (7oz – $32 | 10oz – $37) has the tenderloin wrapped in applewood smoked bacon. You get your choice to a side and he chose roasted vegetables. It is very tender! M got his medium rare and it was spot on.

He always gets this now because it’s really flavourful and the perfect cut of meat for a man.

Prime Rib (10oz – $25) is aged for extra flavour and tenderness, rubbed with our unique blend of spices and slow roasted. Hand-carved and served with horseradish and red wine herb au jus. For my side, I ordered roasted vegetables as well.

Overall, it’s a pretty solid place to go for steaks without breaking the bank. The quality is consistent.

We Rate the Keg Steakhouse:

Address:
4510 Still Creek Ave
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.kegsteakhouse.com/en/locations/BC/burnaby/burnaby-keg/

In American

Panago: Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza

December 22, 2013

Panago Pizza recently introduced their new Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza. As Panago pizza is very close to our place, M decided to order some for lunch. Best lazy meal ever. We both love spicy food, so we really wanted to see if it would really set our taste buds on fire. The basic pepperoni pizza is awesome and you can’t go wrong. When you add a bit of spice into the picture, it should taste good.

We ordered a Large Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza for $15. It is made of Italian tomato sauce, spicy pepperoni, and mozzarella. There’s so much pepperoni that you can’t even see the pepperoni slices underneath.

It wasn’t very spicy and had a bit of a spicy tingle. If you want some extra spice to it, add some tabasco sauce or Franks Red Hots sauce.

To balance out the greasy pizza, I ordered the Chicken Garden Salad that comes with grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, green peppers, grape tomatoes, and red onions. It comes with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The salad was alright. The chicken pieces tasted ok, but it wasn’t great.

Overall, the Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza is a good item to order when people are over.

Website: http://panago.com/

In American

White Spot: New Location in North Burnaby

November 17, 2013

The old ABC Country Restaurant in Kensington Plaza finally closed down after years of horrible service and food. When we passed by and saw White Spot opening up, we were ecstatic. Anything was better than ABC.

M and I decided to head over as it was very close in the neighbourhood and we were too lazy to cook.

The interior has had a complete makeover that matches their other restaurants. It was bright and welcoming. Lots of booth seating and it was pretty busy on the weekend.

The White Spot Club has turkey breast, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo & chili sauce on sourdough bread. I substituted my fries for their Spot Salad. The spot salad has dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, toasted almonds, greens and arugula with a honey sherry dressing.

I didn’t like the sourdough bread for this particular sandwich because the crust was quite hard and would cut my mouth, but other than that, it tasted good. There was a lot of bacon, so it made me happy.

Bacon Cheddar Bigger Burger has a 6 oz beef burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce & tomato with Triple O sauce. M substituted his fries with the Zoo sticks, which as zucchini fries. The zoo stick were very thick, so you definitely get a lot of zucchini.

There was also some coleslaw on the side. The burger was pretty decent.

The Spot’s Salad with Chicken also has artisan greens and arugula with honey sherry dressing, cranberries, sunflower seeds & toasted almonds. It supposed to come with garlic panini bread, but I don’t know why I didn’t get any.

Either way, I still really like the salad.

B.C. Chicken Burger has chargrilled BC chicken breast, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion and the Triple “O” sauce. M also got the Zoo sticks substitute this time too.

Overall, the food isn’t too bad. We left feeling satisfied with all this comfort food. It’s nothing fancy but its good and simple.

We Rate White Spot:

Address:
6500 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC

Website:
https://www.whitespot.ca/

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In Cafe

Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie: Chocolates Galore

July 5, 2013

Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie is located on Hastings Street in North Burnaby. It’s pretty awesome to see that The Heights is starting to get some amazing shops in the area. Over the past few years, I’ve always complained about how few dessert places we have. My go-to place was always Cumpari’s on North Road.

The interior of Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie is quite small with a few high tables near the windows. Not a great place for large groups, but it s a nice quiet setting for a few friends to catch up over some cakes.

M was intrigued by all the chocolate, so he decided to get one of each. I think he didn’t know which ones to choose, so he got them all. Each piece is $1.40 and is a bit pricey, but they look very pretty.

Noix de Coco et Passion
Praline Amande
Citron et Thym
Pistachie
Mango
Gianduja Dark
Tanka Amande
Kalamansi Framboise
Noix de Coco
Caramel
Gianduja Milk
70% Ganache

He ate them all quite quickly. All those in one sitting. He didn’t even leave me a piece. He said they were pretty awesome.

Besides chocolate they also have a variety of cakes and tarts. We came near the end of the day so most of the goodies were gone. All their treats looked quite cute.

Trio de Chocolate ($4.50) has layers of dark, milk and white chocolate mousse. It’s quite small and it can be easily gobbled up in a few bites, but did taste pretty good.

Box of Macarons ($9.95) comes with 6 flavours. The different flavours that they had were caramel, chocolate, coconut, lime basil, limoncello, maple syrup, passion fruit and pistachio. I have no idea which flavours were in the box since I got it as a gift for MedicalGiraffe. She did say they were tasty.

They also have bars of chocolates too.

It’s a nice change to have such a delectable pastry shop in the area. If you are passing by this area, definitely stop and go inside. Parking is a little bit tricky but there should be some on Beta Street.

We Rate Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie:

Address:
4712 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.christophe-chocolat.com/

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In Four Beakers

Chad Thai: Thai Food in North Burnaby

June 2, 2013

Chad Thai Restaurant is located in North Burnaby on Hastings street. M and I were looking for some place to eat on Hastings and when we passed by, we began craving Thai food. Since we don’t have Thai food that often, we thought we would give it a try.

The interior isn’t large, so there is limited seating. We came at around 2pm, so there was plenty of seats available. The service was nice and friendly.

They are the winners of the best Thai restaurant according to the readers of the Burnaby Now.

Their lunch menu comes with complementary appetizers. There were fried wontons and a salad. We weren’t expecting this but it was definitely a nice start to the meal. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was delicious.

Khao Soi Gai ($10.99) has egg noodles with sliced chicken breast in curry sauce, topped with crispy egg noodles, green beans and coriander. It is served with red onions, lime and chili oil on the side.

The portion wasn’t too large, but it was a decent size for lunch. It had a lot of intricate flavours and we were not disappointed at all.

Khao Moo Kratiem Kai dao ($9.99) has stir fried of pork, ground garlic on rice with a fried egg. It was simple, but it was really good.

Overall, the food was pretty good and worth the price. M and I loved it and would come back again. I am not an expert at Thai food, but all I know is that the flavours tasted great.

We Rate Chad Thai:

Address:
4010 E Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.chadthai.ca/

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In Japanese

Yo Sushi: I Had a Feeling

May 27, 2013

Since Yo Sushi opened up on Hastings, I was always curious to see how their sushi would be. It resides in the old Bombay Behl. It is completely different inside and has lots of booth seating. The first thing I noticed when I went inside was a foosball table and a mini air hockey table. Pretty cool to have if you’re young at heart or dining with kids.

I came with M on a weekday night and this place was completely empty. There were a few takeout orders but besides that, we basically had the restaurant to ourselves, I had a feeling something wasn’t right. Yo Sushi was voted by Burnaby Now as the best sushi restaurant in Burnaby, but its something I have to strongly disagree with.

We sat down they gave us tea. When we proceeded to order our food, we asked the waitress what was something good on the menu that we must try. She told us that she hasn’t tried anything on the menu. This seemed a bit odd, so I rephrased to as her what is popular on the menu.

Red Dragon Roll ($9.95) has prawn tempura, crab meat, cucumber, and then it’s topped with spicy tuna, bread crumbs, and a spicy sauce. The roll had way too much sauce. It really drowned out most of the taste of the roll. The roll itself was poorly put together and the temperature was very strange. The roll and the spicy tuna on top were slightly warm.

Hawaiian Passion Roll ($9.95) has pineapple, avocado, and mango wrapped in soy bean paper. It sounded unique and we thought it would be an adventurous roll to order. We were very wrong. In short, fruit should not be in sushi.

Sweetheart Roll ($11.95) has cucumber, prawn, and tuna wrapped with salmon. It is also topped off with a maraschino cherry. Cute concept but it was nasty. All the raw items were slightly warm and it was a very basic roll that has been shaped into a heart. Not worth the price.

Magic Sushi Pizza ($10.95) has crispy rice on the bottom topped with onions, crab meat, scallops, tuna, salmon, and tai with a special sauce. It looked beautiful when it came out, but the crispy rice on the bottom was more stale and hard as a rock. The sashimi on top was also slightly warm.

By this point of the meal, we were pretty disappointed. Having spent $49.45 on these 4 items that were well below average. The service was sparse even though we were the only customers. The staff mostly congregated near the sushi chefs to chat. There is definitely lots of opportunity for the restaurant to grow, but the quality wasn’t there.

We Rate Yo Sushi:

Address:
4266 Hastings St.
Burnaby, BC

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In Japanese

Hakkaku Ramen: Ramen in North Burnaby

April 18, 2013

I’ve passed by this place for about a year and a half, so I thought it was about time I try this place out. A friend of ours told us it had great ramen, so M really wanted to try it out. There really isn’t any other close ramen shops in the area, so we wanted to give Hakkaku Ramen a shot.

It’s located near Hastings and Willingdon in North Burnaby. There’s a lot of new restaurants popping up in this area.

As the bus stops right outside, there is a good flow of customers eating here.

Chashu Burger with a steamed bun ($3.95). It’s quite a fluffy bun and I chose to have the fatty pork belly meat instead of lean shoulder meat. Everything is a bit more delicious when its fatter. The bun was very thick, but it was very hard to hold and keep together when you bite into it. The burger was ok, but not worth $4.

Miso Ramen ($7.95) has chashu, bean sprouts, onions, corn, green onion, seaweed and bamboo shoots. You can choose from a regular or rich broth and type of chashu (fatty or lean). Scarface chose to have his rich broth and lean chashu. THe broth is rich and flavourful.

Shio Ramen ($7.45) has chashu, bean sprouts, onions, corn, green onion, boiled egg and bamboo shoots. M ordered is ramen with Rich broth and fatty chashu. The soup is smooth and light.

Hot Miso Ramen ($8.25) has chashu, bean sprouts, onion, corn, bamboo shoots, green onions, boiled egg, and spicy garlic. I got the rich broth and fatty chashu. I felt this was too oily as I got the most fatty options. The broth could have had a bit more depth.

Overall, the ramen here was ok for the price. It’s not the best ramen in town, but the closest one in North Burnaby. The portions are large, so you will get full.

We Rate Hakkaki Ramen:

Address:
4530 E Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

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