British Columbia Archives - Page 108 of 138

In Downtown

Bay Sushi Cafe: Quick and Fast Lunch

April 15, 2012

Another lunch with TaiwaneseGirl and we are slowly running out of Sushi restaurants downtown. Flo recommended Bay Sushi Cafe. Since it is super close to my office, I headed down for some lunch.

Bay Sushi Cafe sells rolls, bento boxes and even Korean food. I found that it was a bit strange that they were selling Korean food, but I saw people ordering it.

There are lots of space to sit, but it can get very busy during lunch hours. A lot of people were doing take out.

There is also self-serve tea and water available, but the cups are quite tiny.I guzzle tea like crazy, so multiple trips to the tea machine was needed.

Chicken Teriyaki and Sashimi Bento ($12.95) has miso soup, 3 salmon sashimi, 3 tuna sashimi, 2 gyozas, chicken teriyaki and a salad.

Miso Soup tasted quite average as most miso soup is made the same way.

Sashimi was tasted fresh, but its cut a bit differently than other places. It’s more long and thin.

Gyozas were quite mediocre and the sauce was already poured over them.

Chicken teriyaki sits over a bed of rice and tasted quite average too. Nothing amazing about it.

Overall, it’s not the most amazing bento boxes, but it will get you full. The wait for food isn’t too long, so if you need something quick and satisfying, then this is your place.

Words of Wisdom:

Order online and pick up to avoid the lunch rush
Pretty average
Japanese and Korean food available
A bit expensive depending on what you order

We Rate Bay Sushi Cafe:

Address:
678 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.baysushicafe.com/

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In Seafood

Rodney’s Oyster House: Low Tide Oyster Specials

April 14, 2012

Rodney’s Oyster House is always a hit with locals for delicious seafood. Monday to Saturday from 3pm to 6pm, they have their low tide specials, which is equivalent to happy hour. They have oysters specials at $1.50 per piece and some other seafood items as well. Such as their mussels, clams, prawns, etc.

I had an extra hour of parking, so FoodPunk, KoreanGirl and Mandu headed to Rodneys to catch their low tide menu. It is always busy around the low tide specials, so it’s good to make reservations or go early.

The restaurant has 2 levels, so if you are at the top, you can watch everyone below. The best experience is at the bar where you can watch the oysters shuckers at work, it’s fun to watch, plus sometimes they give you some free oysters to sample.

Unfortunately, this time we were seated upstairs, so the experience was a lot different that being on the first floor.

Bread (complementary) is quite huge. If you do order the garlic prawns or mussels, save this bread to dip into the sauce.

Fanny Bay Oysters ($1.50) were the special for that day. The other oysters like kushi oysters aren’t part of the low tide price, so you do need to pay more for the other oysters. The oysters varied in size, some were quite large, some were a bit smaller. The shuckers shucking ability is really good since there was no sand or shell debris in the oyster!

The oysters some with a bunch of sauce that vary from sour to spicy. My personal favorite sauce to use is the Shallot Vinaigrette and tabasco sauce.

Overall, Rodney’s is great for seafood during their low tide special. Service is a bit slow, but if you have the patience, you will be alright.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter Parking on Street
Low Tide Oysters between 3pm and 6pm
Pan fried oysters + mussels are popular
Always check your bill because waiters may make mistakes
Go early and sit at the counter

We rate Rodney’s Oyster House:

Visit their website: http://www.rodneysoysterhouse.com/

Address:

1228 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

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In Bakery

French Made Baking: Chocolate Almond Croissants!

April 13, 2012

Since I was in the area, I decided to stop off to grab some treats for myself at French Made Baking. It was a nice day, so I felt like I needed to spoil myself. I initially wanted to get a pack of macarons, but I found some other delicious goodies too!

French Made Baking is near Broadway and Kingsway and they sell some delicious pastries! They have caneles, macarons, croissants, tarts, and other items.

Box of 6 assorted macarons ($10) looked scrumptious and it came in all the different flavours like earl grey, pistachio, lemon, vanilla bean.

The macarons were not all uniform in size, some were a bit thinner, some had a bit more filling. The consistency differed slightly, some crumbled easily and some had a good texture. Each macaron still had its own distinct subtle flavour. My favorites are earl grey and pistachio.

Chocolate Almond Croissant was friggin delicious! It has a stick of chocolate in the center and biting into the croissant revealed a very crisp texture with the delicious taste of the almond. It wasn’t too sweet and the flavours of the chocolate, almonds, butter and powdered sugar just went so well together.

Just looking at it, you know it’ll be super delicious. I’d come back for this!

Overall, the croissant blew my mind.

Words of Wisdom:

Must get the croissants!
Consistency of macarons could be a bit better
Some items can be a hit and a miss
Under $10
Limited seats

We Rate French Made Baking:

Address:
81 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC
Website:
http://frenchmadebaking.com/
Twitter:
@FrMadeBaking

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In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Palki Passion Dining Package Review

April 12, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: VANEATS.ca approached me to try out there “Palki” dinning package and write a review about it. I got a complementary package for myself and I brought along Abbytizer to keep the review as unbiased as I could. The review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from the restaurant.

Hello Internet! Abbytizer and I reviewed VANEATS latest dining package for “Palki Passion”. Palki serves up traditional Indian cuisine on Commercial Drive.

The dining package consist of a sample platter of various appetizers and main course meal.

Sample Platter consists of:

“Vegetable Samosa”, spiced vegetables stuffed in a savoury pastry.
“Lamb Barrah Kebob”, rack of lamb marinated with garlic, ginger and spices.
“Chicken Tikka”, tender piece of boneless chicken marinated with our special ingredients and grilled in the Tandoor.
“Tandoori Prawn”, jumbo prawn marinated and cooked in the Tandoor
“Murg Malai Tikka”, tender chicken marinated in sour cream and fresh spices from Tandoor.

Main Course consist of:

“Butter Chicken”, boneless chicken first broiled in the Tandoor and then cooked in a butter and cream sauce.
“Onion and Cilantro Naan”, Indian style onion and cilantro.

You can purchase the dinning package at VANEATS.ca for only $14 from April 11 to June 11, 2012.

The interior of the restaurant has a very nice modern look with Indian inspired decor. Upon walking into the restaurant, you are welcomed with the wonderful aroma of spices.

Lentil Wafer with Black Pepper Seeds. We found this mini appetizer to be delicious. The Lentil wafer is very crispy and after a while of eating, you definitely will taste the presence of the black pepper.

The sample platter comes on very hot sizzling hot plate.

Vegetable Samosa has spiced vegetables stuffed in a savoury pastry.
One samosa is cut into two halves. The samosa is well seasoned, is crispy and isn’t greasy like other samosas we’ve had.

Lamb Barrah Kebob is a rack of lamb marinated with garlic, ginger and spices then roasted in the Tandoor. The lamb was delicious. It was nicely grilled and juicy. The lamb does have a bit more spice compared to the other samplers.

Chicken Tikka has tender piece of boneless chicken marinated with Palki’s special ingredients and grilled in the Tandoor. Abbytizer enjoyed how juicy the chicken was. The tandoori seasoning was not overwhelming and the chicken had a nice char grilled flavour to them.

Tandoori Prawn has jumbo prawn marinated and cooked in the Tandoor. Abbytizer describes it to be perfectly cooked as the prawns were tender. The seasoning complemented the sweetness of the prawns.

Murg Malai Tikka has tender chicken marinated in sour cream and fresh spices from Tandoor. Abbytizer enjoyed the chicken, as it was moist and tasty. The grill and char on the chicken added to the overall flavour of this dish.

Along the side of the hot plate are grilled green bell peppers, which were delicious. The peppers have the taste of tandoori from the other dishes beside them.

Butter Chicken has boneless chicken first broiled in the Tandoor and then cooked in a butter and cream sauce. Abbytizer and I both agree that the butter chicken was delicious. Each piece of chicken was very tender. The sauce was delicious. Abbytizer thought that the sauce permeated the chicken so well. Palki’s butter chicken sauce is slightly different from other butter chicken sauces because it had a hint of sweet smokiness. The butter chicken was so delicious that Abbytizer cleaned out the serving dish with the onion and cilantro naan!

Onion and Cilantro Naan has Indian style onion and cilantro. Abbytizer describes it to be a great vehicle for carrying the butter chicken sauce. The naan was tasty in its own right, as it had onions and cilantro, which added little bursts of flavour with every bite.

Granvilla Island Pale Ale Beer ($3.75) The beer is quite refreshing on a sunny day.

The Peacock ($8.00) is made of kiwi, lime, lemon, blue curacao, melon liqueur and soda. Abbytizer describes to be a very refreshing cocktail. She enjoyed the sweetness of the kiwi and questioned if it truly was alcoholic! It was such a good drink she sipped on 2 Peacocks during our dining experience.

Spiked Mango Lassi ($6.75) is made up of mango, special yogurt with rum. Abbytizer describes it to be another great cocktail, especially if you like something that is creamy. The restaurant makes its own yogurt, which is used in this drink. They use fresh mango and mango pulp, and toss all the ingredients, including the rum, in a blender. The ends result is a fruity and enjoyable drink.

Mango Kulfi ($4.25) this is two scopes of rich Indian Mango Ice-cream. I found this dessert to be delicious; there is some sort of seasoning added to the ice cream, which gives it a chewy texture.

Gulab Jamon ($4.25) round sponge like cake in a honey syrup. Abbytizer describe it to be the dessert of choice, especially if you have a big sweet tooth like she does! The sponge cake balls were warm and soft. She especially enjoyed how they soaked up the honey syrup! The addition of toasted nuts gave the dessert a crunchy textural contrast.

Overall, Abbytizer and I both agree that the VANEATs dinning package of “Palki Passion” is worth the $14 dollars. The package is a wonderful way for anyone to get introduced to Indian cuisine. The servers were very friendly and answered any curious questions we had about the dishes. Abbytizer intends to return to Palki when she craves Indian food. When redeeming your package at the restaurant you can choose the degree of heat, ranging from very mild, to very spicy.

Words of Wisdom:

Drink Specials
Nice atmosphere with friendly servers
Can choose level of heat

We Rate Palki Indian Restaurant:

Address:
1130 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
Website:
palkirestaurant.com
Twitter:
@PalkiRestaurant

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In Bubble Tea

Pearl Castle: Shaved Ice Dessert and Bubble Tea

April 12, 2012

Sometimes after a large dinner, you need more food! For the #604insomnia crew, they are always hungry! After consuming king crab, we headed over to Pearl Castle to eat some more. We’re young and adventurous! Pearl Castle is a great after- dinner spot as it sells bubble tea and a few snacks.

The interior is quite nice and modern! Unfortunately, the service is really bad here. We sat there for a while waiting for a server to take our orders. It took a long while and I’m not crazy at all. We had to wave our hands several times to get their attention and sometimes they glance at us and then walk away again.

Shaved Ice an awesome after dinner treat. you get a pile of shaved ice delivered to the table. There is condensed milk on top and underneath are pearls and pudding. You can choose any 3 types of toppings for shaved ice and additional toppings cost a bit extra too. It’s fun dessert to share with everyone at the table.

Avocado Yogurt Juice was surprisingly good. The combination of the two flavours made it a bit tangy and sweet. I’d probably get this again! I only ordered it because it sounded cool and they ran out of another drink.

Overall, drink and desserts are good, but you do have to put up with the bad service.

Words of Wisdom:

Bubble Tea + Shaved Ice… or any deep-fried item
Lots of parking in parking lot
Horrible service
nice interior

We Rate Pearl Castle:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Bakery

Footo Delights: Did Someone Say Bacon?

April 11, 2012

Footo Delights specializes in croissants and everything is made in-store with no artificial ingredients. Since I was on my lunch break, I saw their Twitter saying they had the maple bacon croissant available. It’s not too far from my office, so I headed down in search of their croissant.

There is always a good selection of croissant. They also have a baking schedule, I made it just in time for a new batch of croissants. If you’re lucky, they may have some of their specialty croissants available too – garlic, maple bacon or apple cheddar. They also have their regular flavours too – almond, chocolate, spinach+feta, white chocolate pistachio and other ones.

Turkey Pesto Croissant Sandwich ($5.49) was freshly made and has lettuce, tomatoes, turkey, pesto and cheese in a regular butter croissant. It could have used a tad more pesto, but other than that, it was a good simple sandwich.

Maple Bacon Croissant ($2.75) is filled with maple cream with bits of bacon inside. On the outside, there is a maple syrup glaze and more bacon. I loved the large bacon chunks on top and went really well with the croissant. It wasn’t too sweet and I think it’s my 2nd favorite croissant. My favorite is still the white chocolate pistachio croissant.

Brenda was also kind enough give to a box of assorted goodies to my coworkers back at the office. There’s scottish scones, mini croissants and a few of the regular sized croissants. Let just say, at the end of the day…this box is empty.

Overall, pretty good croissants and it also makes for a quick snack.

Words of Wisdom:

Made with natural ingredients
Small, local and independently owned
Highly recommend the white chocolate pistachio croissant, maple bacon croissant and Turkey Pesto Croissant Sandwich
Closest Skytrain: Stadium or Granville

We Rate Footo Delights:

Address:
820 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:
www.footodelights.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FootoDelights

Twitter: @FootoDelights

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In 24 hours

Denny’s: Breakfast for Dinner, Dinner for Breakfast

April 10, 2012

At some point in your University career, you may go hours and hours fixated on a large assignment. TaiwaneseGirl and I experienced that last week as we spent the whole day at SFU trying to do some data modeling. We worked so hard but out model just didn’t look right at all. Eventually we gave up and headed down from SFU and ate at Denny’s.

Denny’s is open 24 hours so, you can have breakfast for dinner, or even dinner for breakfast. They have quite a large menu, so you will find something that will tickle your taste buds.

Bacon Avocado Burrito has crispy bacon, avocado, scrambled egg, hash browns, cheese, pico de gallo and a spicy sauce wrapped in a large flour tortilla. It is grilled and served with crispy hash browns.

I actually quite like this dish since it has bacon and avocados. Having it all hashed up in the burrito mixed very well. It’s not your traditional burrito, but it was good after a long day of work! I asked for some tabasco sauce to add a bit of kick to this dish.

Slow Cooked Pot Roast has creamy whipped potatoes and herb-roasted carrots, celery, mushrooms and onions atop grilled ciabatta bread and covered in rich gravy. TaiwaneseGirl was more into a dinner meal for dinner rather than a late night breakfast craving. She liked it and was surprised at the quality.

Overall, Denny’s is a great place for late night food especially when you are a University student. When you are desperate for something edible at night, you know Denny’s is always open. The food is probably not healthy for you, but at least you are fed.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in their lot
Food can be a hit or miss
Quite greasy

We rate Dennys:

Address:

500 Austin Ave
Coquitlam, BC

Website:
www.dennys.com/en/

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In Cafe

Cafe Artigiano: Latte, Yogurt and Sandwiches

April 9, 2012

There are days in the office when I really don’t want to venture far for some breakfast or lunch. Downstairs from my office is a Caffe Artigiano, so it’s quite convenient to just grab and go. Even though there are lots of other cheaper coffee places around – Tim Hortons and Starbucks don’t even compare.

I found their lattes a bit of a hit and miss depending on who is there making the drinks. Sometimes I will get some amazing latte art and sometimes the art will be very very sloppy. I am not an expert on coffee tastes, but I know it was good enough to give me a jump-start for the day.

For breakfast, I just had some mango peach yogurt and a latte for breakfast.

Mango Peach Yogurt with Granola ($3.49) looks promising, but there really wasn’t enough mango and peach compote inside. Once I mixed everything around, it still tasted like the normal yogurt.

Then, I came back for lunch since their sandwiches did look quite good, but that means I didn’t have to walk far for lunch either. Clearly, I was having a very lazy day.

I grabbed a Green Tea and it comes in one size when you dine-in. If you need more tea, you can ask them to fill it up with more water.

Chicken & Brie Panini Sandwich ($8.59) has roast chicken breast, brie cheese, spinach, ﬁg jam, roasted garlic mayo served on a ciabatta bun. It is then grilled in their panini machine. You also get a side of salad too.

The sandwich was very warm and melted to perfection. The brie cheese complimented the chicken well and make it a very gooey cheesy experience.

Overall, Caffe Artigiano is a great place to have a chat with someone over coffee or lunch. It’s not great for studying as there is no wifi. The food is pretty good and makes for a quick lunch. They have tons of locations in Downtown

Words of Wisdom:

Quite busy during peak hours
No wifi

We rate Cafe Artigiano:

Address:

574 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.caffeartigiano.com

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In Chinese

Prince Chinese Seafood: Alaskan King Crab

April 8, 2012

The Prince Chinese Seafood is quite popular for dim sum, but today the family came here to feast on some Alaskan King Crab.

It was my fathers birthday, so he really wanted to eat some King Crab. The prices are a bit higher now, but only by a few dollars. We didn’t do any set meals, but we had the usual dishes plus a few extra items. In addition to the weight of the crab, we had to add around $10 – $15 per dish, so our bill did end up to be quite expensive. They don’t explicitly tell you how much extra they charge per item, so we did get a bit of a surprise at the end of the meal. It took my parents a while to figure out what was what on the bill since they don’t exactly make the bill easy to read.

For dinner time, the restaurant had a good amount of people even at 8pm. Theres also a private room that you can book for larger parties too.

The Alaskan King Crab that we picked out was 10 pounds and it looked quite freaky since one set of its legs were raised. It looked like he wanted to attack.

Shredded chicken sesame salad is a cold appetizer. The flavour of sesame was combined well with the vegetables and chicken. They even add crispy wonton strips into the dish to add a crunchy texture. It was highly addictive!

Steamed Garlic Alaskan King Crab Legs was very fragrant as it arrived to the table. 2 large plates of crab legs, who could resist? The legs had a lot of aromatic flavour from the garlic infusing into the crab meat. Very very delicious.

The meat was very tender as well.

Deep Fried Garlic Alaskan King Crab Knuckles with Eggplant was very savory and I was very surprised the eggplant blended so nicely into the dish. I think I enjoyed the eggplant more than the knuckles.

Baked Alaskan King Crab Fried Rice was originally in the crab head shell, but the waiter put them into bowls for us before I could get a photo. In a sense, it’s like fried rice with crab and a curry type of sauce. I actually quite like this because the crab just gives it the additional layer of great seafood taste.

Braised Bean Curd with Pea Shoots complimented the meal well as the crab is quite high in cholesterol. My little sister enjoyed the bean curd and I couldn’t help liking the broth that it came with.

Alaskan King Crab Broth with Noodles was very very fragrant! It is made from the sauce of the crab leg dish. I could eat this all day!

At the end of the meal, complementary sweets arrived at the table. There were almond cookies and mango custard roll with shredded coconut. The almond cookie were crunchy and not too sweet.

Mango Custard Roll with Shredded Coconut was not my favorite dessert since I really dislike the sweet shredded coconut.

Taro and Tapioca Dessert was the last item to arrive and everyone was too full to really enjoy this item. I thought it tasted ok, but I didn’t like the texture and grittiness of the taro.

Overall, the King Crab dinner was very delicious, but it did come out to be quite pricey. The service was good, but we were seated in a very strange area where there would be smells of cigarette smoke lingering in the air at random parts of the meal. We were not sitting close to the door either, which was very strange.

Words of Wisdom

Close to Renfrew Skytrain
Free parking in front and rear
Double check bill for mistakes (it does happen)
Decent service
Hit and Miss dishes especially during Dim Sum

We rate Prince Chinese Seafood:

They are located at:

2881 Grandview Hwy
Vancouver, BC V5M

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In Chinese

Empire Chinese Cuisine: King Crab + Duck + Tapioca Pudding

April 7, 2012

It’s the time of year for Alaskan King Crab! The 604insomnia crew decided to head down to Empire Chinese Cuisine for one of the King Crab Dinner sets. We chose this place since it was a decent price and has good food.

Since it is in Richmond on Alexandra Road, the parking is quite packed even though they have their own parking lot. I had to park all the way at Lansdowne for free parking.

We went at around 7:30pm and it was packed inside. Not everyone was eating King Crab, but a majority of people were.

This was about 9 lbs. Most places show you the crab before preparing it in the kitchen. You can pose with it too if you want.

Seafood in broth soup was pretty good! It had lots of different seafood inside and it’s one of my favorite types of soups.

Peking Duck Wraps comes with some cucumbers, onions, hoisin sauce, slices of duck and the wrappers.

The duck slice was very juicy and had lots of meat content to them. They lay it on the plate on top of fried shrimp crackers.

All you do is put a little bit of everything together, wrap it up and munch away. It was yummy!

The main part of the feast arrived! This is the steamed garlic Alaskan King Crab legs. All the legs are cut in half so it’s really easy to eat.

There’s a lot of minced garlic on top, so the taste really infuses into the meat.

You can get them to turn the head into a baked fried rice for a few dollars extra, but we didn’t do that.

Deep Fried Alaskan King Crab Knuckles is another favorite dish! It is seasoned with salt, chillies, and garlic. Super yummy and kickass!

Duck Lettuce Wraps incorporates the rest of the duck in a type of meat mixture. You take the lettuce leaves and a few scoops of the duck mixture, wrap it up and eat it.

Alaskan King Crab Broth with Noodles has a nice fragrant taste and cooked well.

Braised Bean Curd with Bok Choy was quite yummy and you kinda need vegetables to accompany the meal since everything else is kinda fatty.

Baked Tapioca Pudding was something we had to order. We actually forgot to pre-order this ahead of time, but they had one more left so we grabbed it up! It’s really delicious and has a very nice crust on top. Kinda like the pineapple bun thing.

You can see all the little tapioca balls. It’s one of the best baked tapioca puddings I’ve had, so it’s highly recommended to pre-order this!

Overall, the food was pretty solid and it costs $43 after tax and tip per person. We had 8 people at the table. We were all pretty stuff after this.

Words of Wisdom:

Can be hard to find parking at peak hours
Reservations are recommended
Decent service
Pre-order the Baked tapioca pudding

We Rate Empire Chinese Cuisine:

Address:

8251 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Chinese

Pelican Seafood Restaurant: Dim Sum + Hello Kitty Mango Pudding

April 6, 2012

Pelican Seafood Restaurant is located on Victoria Drive and Hastings Street. It’s a favorite amongst people in the neighbourhood for dim sum. I came with the Vancouver Gastronomical Brouhaha group to just chow down on some dim sum. It’s always better to eat with great company!

By 10:30am, this place was packed! Unlike traditional Dim Sum restaurants, they do not use carts to push around the food. Instead, you just order it off a piece of paper and it comes to your table. For some people, they may like it, some don’t. It’s just personal preference.

Durian Pastry cane give a lot of people mixed feelings. Some people love durian, some people hate it. Durian is the fruit with all the spikes.

I personally don’t mind durian at all. The pastry was flakey, but the durian was a bit small, so the flavour wasn’t as great as it could be.

Egg Yolk Bun are just the chinese steam buns but filled with custard-like filling.

I didn’t like the texture of the interior because it was pretty gritty. You could taste a lot of the clumps.

Radish Cake is lightly fried on the outside and has a lot of pieces. Good taste too.

Eggplant with prawn puree is one of my favorite dishes.They make it great here! The eggplant is slightly mushy with the savory prawn puree on top. The sauce accompanied the dish nicely too.

Egg Tarts comes with 3 pieces per order. Sometimes if you order multiples of a dish, they combine it together. I’ve never really been a fan of egg tarts.

Rice Rolls with Beef and Parsley is just the steamed rice roll wrapped around a mixture of beef and parsley. It’s another one of those dishes you must order.

Meat Dumpling is crispy on the outside and has a savory meat filling.

Beef Meatballs is one of my favorite items. Who can turn down meat? I sure can’t. hahaha I like dunking the meatballs in worcheshire sauce.

Sticky Rice is wrapped up in leaves and is quite fragrant.

Pan Fried Rice Flour Roll were ok, but I wish it had more stuff to it.

Spring rolls comes in 4 pieces per order, but the picture has 2 orders.I liked them because they had shrimp inside.

Prawn Dumplings (har gau) are my favorites! Or anything with shrimp is my favorite.

Taro Dumpling (wu gok) is super crispy on the outside with soft taro on the inside.

Steam Pork Bun (Xiao long bao) were not very good. The skin was quite thick so it did take away from the flavour of the meat.

Mango Pudding comes in really cute shapes.

Our second order of mango pudding was quite cute too! They really know how to impress the kids. I thought the taste was ok, but it could have had more of a mango fragrance to it.

Overall, the food was good with a few hit and miss items. The service was ok, but there were times where one of the managers or servers were quite rude.

Words of Wisdom:

Decent prices
Rude service
Parking lot in front but usually full at peak hours
Lots of MSG or salt in food

We Rate Pelican Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
1895 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

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In Coquitlam

Cineplex VIP Theatre: In-Seat Food & Beverage Service

April 5, 2012

M and I only go watch movies on Tuesday since that’s when there are cheaper tickets. M wanted to watch 21 Jump Street and really hates going early to grab tickets, so we reserved tickets online and saw that we could reserve seats in the VIP Cinemas. He was pretty excited and said to me “Di, you can go review food”. I was like “oh, but no one wants to read about overpriced popcorn”. After reading the description, I really had no idea how the VIP Cinemas worked.

VIP Cinemas really give you an “upgraded” experience different from AVX or the regular movies. It’s not just about the movie, but the quality and service. It will cost you $13.99 on a Tuesday ( $19.50 normally) compared to the usual $6.99 for a regular movie on Tuesday. It is only available to the Coquitlam Cineplex location. For the VIP Theatre experience you get:

19+ (Yeah! No annoying kids!)
Over-sized Premium Seats
Large lounge area with bar
In-Seat Food and Beverage Service
Specialty food options

You walk into the VIP Cinema area near the entrance to the theatres. You walk thought the sliding doors and you will see what lies inside.

There’s a bar with beer on tap and any other drinks you want. If you go early, you can grab a drink with a friend prior to the movie. They don’t allow you to bring any alcoholic beverages into the theatres.

In the lounge, there is also plenty of seating, a fireplace and a few TVs. This is movie watching at a new level! You can chill before the movie! Great for a group of girls to drink and chat and then go for a good ol chick flick.

The seats are much larger than the regular theatres or the AVX seats. There’s lots of leg space and an arm rest that swivels out into a table that can make eating much easier. There is also a little space between seats for your purse! As a woman, that is quite important! It was great knowing my purse wasn’t touching sticky floors.

The arm rest is awesome too since its soft and spongy so your elbow will feel comfortable.

The screen is a good size and quite clear. I couldn’t take a photo of the movie because well…they would kick me out so I took a photo of the Cineplex gadget guy.

As you are waiting for the movie or in the process of watching the movie, you can order food from the servers. They walk around with tablets to take your order. The servers are really nice and friendly. During the middle of the movie, the servers light from their tablets can get a bit bright and can annoy some people. Nonetheless, it’s a great service and you have access to much better food.

When we ordered, the movie already started and the lights went out… so it was quite difficult to take pictures without flashing everyone in the theatre.

Brownie Explosion ($5.99) has a slab of brownie with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Eating this in the dark was definitely quite difficult as I didn’t know if I was scooping up ice cream or brownie. The quality was ok, but nothing too amazing. It’s still a good treat to have at night when you watch a movie.

Strawberry Smoothie ($4.99) comes in a tall glass. M liked it but I felt it was a tad sweet.

Overall, it was a great experience except you do have to pay a bit more. If you want to impress a special someone, definitely take them here. Have a few drinks in the lounge and then head over to the theatre and order some desserts! I don’t think it’s worth the regular price, but on a Tuesday, I would definitely go again.

In Gastown

Chronic Taco Cantina: Introduction Of A New Menu

April 4, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited to try out their new menu, 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.

Chronic Taco Cantina is located in Gastown and has introduced a new menu to better cater to the people in the area. Their new menu has more variety of California-Style Mexican food as well as appetizers. They still serve their signature tacos and burritos.

I came with GastroFork, FoodPunk, PetitFoodie and CandiedZen to try it out.

There are tons of TVs on the walls so it’s easy to catch the game. Also they have some crazy artwork on their walls. Taco life anyone? They have also installed more booth seating!

Coke! The days when I go without tea or coffee, I go with coke!

Chips and Salsa (complementary) I liked the crunchy chips but I wish there was more salsa. The salsa was good and chunky but the container is a bit small to dip the chips into. I would suggest ordering a side of guacamole to go along with this.

Baja Ceviche ($7.49) has wahoo fish, lime, mango, pears & plantain chips. This is not your traditional ceviche, but I did enjoy the hints of fruity and acidic tastes. We did not have enough plantain chips to use with the ceviche, so we started using the chips.

Taco Platter ($8.49-$11.49) comes with your choice of two tacos and side of rice and beans. The price varies depending if you want soft or crispy shell, or vegetarian. I am not a big fan of rice or beans, so I thought they were alright.

You can choose from these tacos:

Carne Asada – marinated grilled steak
Pollo Asado – marinated grilled chicken
Carnitas – slow cooked pork
Al Pastor – spicy marinated pork with pineapple & onions
Fish – wahoo tecate beer battered or spicy baja style
Shrimp – tecate beer battered or grilled

There’s also other types of rice and beans that you can add. The tacos were quite large too.

The tacos that were really good were the beer battered fish and the shrimp.

Al Pastor Taco has the spicy marinated pork with pineapple & onion. It was indeed large and quite spicy. I usually can take spice, but I had to resort to grabbing a glass of water. The pork was nicely spiced and tender.

Carnitas Taco has slow cooked pork and comes with veggies, salsa and guacamole. The meat was a tad dry.

Jalapeno Poppers ($9.49) are breaded jalapeno peppers with cream cheese & a side of baja sauce. It’s a good item to order when watching the game when you need some finger food. Its a bit spicier than usual places, but I did enjoy the amount of heat.

Beer Battered Prawns ($9.49) are drunk prawns with baja sauce & cilantro sauce. I loved this appetizer! The prawns were of good size and tasted good. It had a crunchy exterior and the succulent prawn inside. YUM!

Flank Steak Fajitas ($15) comes on a sizzling hot plate with flank steak, peppers, and onions. There is also rice & pico de gallo that comes with it. You wrap them all up in a flour tortilla.

The steak tastes good when it comes right off the sizzling plate. If you wait too long, the meat isn’t as tender or flavourful.

This is a fun dish since you can do it yourself, but it is a bit expensive. In the end, we didn’t put it together since we were more interested in eating the meat.

Southwest Stuffed Peppers ($15) contains tofu, spinach, rice, jack cheese & mole.

It is a very unique dish and I’ve never had anything like it. You would expect it to be savory, but with the mole, it just tastes like sweet chocolate.

Deep Fried Ice Cream Sandwiches ($6) has 2 ice cream sandwiches battered and deep-fried with caramel drizzle. You definitely want to share this with another person.

The deep-fried ice cream sandwiches had a good fragrant cinnamon taste to it, which I enjoyed. On the downside, it wasn’t cold in the center as the ice cream just melted from the heat. It ended up more mushy than solid.

Churros Con Sorbete ($6) has fresh churros, cinnamon sugar, caramel sauce, and vanilla bean ice cream.

I like the pairing of the 2 items and the cinnamon and sugar is just heavenly. Unfortunately, I felt like the churro was a bit overcooked. It still had the nice crispy exterior and softer center.

Overall, don’t expect Chronic Taco Cantina to serve traditional Mexican food. It’s a bit different. The food is great to go with games and just chilling with friends. They have a very large interior, so they can accommodate large groups.

Words of Wisdom:

Decent eats
Around $10
Lots of space to watch the game
Beer battered anything is yummy
Burritos are huge!

We Rate Chronic Tacos Cantina:

Address:
102 Water Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.chronictacos.ca/

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In Three Beakers

Red Fish, Blue Fish: Awesome Tacones

April 3, 2012

Hello Internet! Roman J here with another review! I went to Victoria with Will, Maku, and Ralph. Any trip to Victoria isn’t complete without seafood. We tried the popular Fish and Chips joint called Red Fish, Blue Fish located in the harbor of Victoria.

When we arrived at Red Fish, Blue Fish the line was ridiculously long. My friends and I waited 45 minutes just to order, then we waited another 10 minute for our order to come out.

There is seating along the pier. People sit on top of upside-down plant pots. Further along the pier, there are stools to sit on and enjoy your meal.

BBQ wild Salmon Ravines Tacones ($5) has sweet smoked chili adobo, pea shoots, and lemon pickled onion. The tacones are delicious. The wild salmon is perfectly seasoned and the flavor just pours out of the fish. Also, the cabbage mixed with lemon-pickled onion adds a refreshing taste.

Chipotle Shrimp Ravines ($5) has million island dressing, pea shoots and lemon-pickled onions. The tacones are packed with shrimp and blends well with the cabbage. Due to the sauce there is a slight of kick of spice.

One Piece Salmon ($10). Maku had the salmon he described it to be juicy. The batter on the salmon is really thin and crispy.

Fish Poutine Add On ($2.50) This is worth it’s value, the fish poutine is huge and comes fully loaded with fries and a chowder chipotle sauce with a mayo base. The sauce has bits and pieces of fish. This sauce is really rich and makes this poutine very filling. I would recommend getting this dish, if you like mayo.

Overall, Red Fish, Blue Fish has a lot to offer in terms of Tacones. They have a large number of Seafood Tacones to choose from. The tacones I had here are probably the best I’ve ever had. I would recommend this place if you have the time to wait and stand in line, if not try another restaurant around the harbor.

Words of Wisdom

Long lines
Daily specials
Good portions sizes

We Rate Red Fish, Blue Fish:

Website:
http://www.redfish-bluefish.com/

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In Downtown

Miyako Sushi: Soft Shell Crab of Disappointment

April 1, 2012

Miyako Sushi is located Downtown on Pender and brings in a large crowd during lunch time. They are proudly Japanese owned and you will see that in the front of the restaurant.

This place was very busy and the servers seems a bit “cold” and rude when we got a table.

Low Carb Box ($11.95) it come with sunomono, miso soup, dynamite roll, salmon & tuna sashimi, chicken teriyaki salad and fruit.

The sunomono was ok, but could be better as the noodle seemed like they were sitting there for a while. The sashimi tasted alright too, but MeatLover found a bone in her salmon. Thats a bit scary. The chicken teriyaki had so much oil that the whole salad was just very warm and slimy. The dynamite roll was good! The fruit…was super disappointing since it was just a piece of orange when the menu had grapes and apples.

The bento box will get you full, but the execution of the items could be better.

The miso soup was ok and nothing special.

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab ($7.95) was so disappointing. This crab was very very tiny and not worth the money at all! It wasn’t very crunchy and the inside was very juicy, so when you bite into it, a lot of juice would come out. Avoid this at all costs!

Overall, the sushi is good but everything else is disappointing. Sure, they do use wild salmon rather than farmed salmon, but it wasn’t enough to love this restaurant. The items can be a hit and miss, but if you stick with a bento for lunch, you’ll be alright.

Words of Wisdom:

Misleading menu pictures
Good rolls
Can be a bit pricey compared to other restaurants in the area.
Some items poorly executed
poor service

We Rate Miyako Sushi:

Address:
829 West Pender St.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://miyakosushi.ca/

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In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Palki Indian Restaurant: Mmm….Peacock, Pakora and Paneer

March 31, 2012

Palki Indian Restaurant is located on Commercial Drive and serves traditional Indian food. It’s a bit hard to find since it’s further up Commercial past the other popular restaurants.

I took AdventureTimeGirl and M here since we were way too lazy to drive elsewhere for Indian food. I’ve been here before and I thought the food was pretty solid. The interior is very nice and looks very different that the outside of the restaurant. The service is good too!

The Peacock is made of kiwi, lime, lemon, blue curacao, melon liqueur and soda. It was sweet and quite enjoyable with a good dominant flavour of the kiwi. I love kiwis.

Mango Lassi is a drink you should be ordering. It’s a yogurt based drink with mangoes.

Palki’s Mixed Platter ($11) has vegetable samosa, chicken pakora, and vegetable pakora. I love the chicken pakora and the vegetable pakora. It crispy on the outside and very savory on the inside.

The vegetable samosa was good, but since I’m not a fan of potatoes, I did not enjoy it as much as AdventureTimeGirl.

Saag Paneer ($11.50) has pureed spinach and paneer cooked with ground spices. The sauce was very smooth and had a good amount of delicious paneer. Even though it is vegetarian, it was delicious.

Butter Chicken ($11.50) has boneless chicken in a butter and cream sauce. It came a bit slower than the saag paneer, so they did provide this complementary. The sauce was quite delicious, but I did find that the chicken was a bit on the dry side. It’s a strange thing since the sauce is so delicious but the chicken just disappointed.

Garlic Naan ($3) has garlic and basil on top. Its good on its own, but with the curries we ordered, it overpowered the spices of the curry. Nonetheless, still good naan.

Lacchedar ($4) is a Multi-layered flaky bread with butter. I really enjoyed this! Good flavour from the butter that paired well with the curry!

Overall, I the food is pretty solid. Lot of choices on their menu and its a nice place to dine at with decent prices.

Words of Wisdom:

Large amount of curries and Naan
Best to stick with the original Naan or jasmine rice
Some parking available in the residential areas or pay parking in front
Good prices and good atmosphere
The Peacock and mango lassi for drinks!
Onion Bhajia, Chicken Pakora, veggie pakora and Kofta Dil Bahar are highly recommended

We Rate Palki Indian Restaurant:

Address:
1130 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
Website:
palkirestaurant.com
Twitter:
@PalkiRestaurant

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In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Mui Garden: Curry Beef Brisket

March 29, 2012

Mui Garden has 4 locations in the Lower Mainland and serve up Chinese food. M and I come here once in a while when we want to just get some cheap eats without traveling far. We like to be lazy like that.

From past experiences, they have some decent food here and we’ve had some bad foor here. It’s always good to know what are the better items to avoid the horrible ones.

Sauces at your table. Its kinda gross how all the amounts in these jars are quite low.

Tea! Gotta love tea and gotta have tea everywhere I go.

Curry Beef Brisket ($10.50) is something that M always orders. It’s more Hong Kong Cafe – Style rather than what you would find in an Indian restaurant.

It has a good taste and it’s quite large! This is off the regular menu, but there is also a lunch set that you can get too.

Wonton Noodle Soup ($5.50) was very disgusting. It was quite salty or had lots of MSG. The wontons seemed pre-made or something that you can get frozen at T&T. Definitely avoid from here.

Overall, I would still say the dishes are a hit and miss. You can’t go wrong with the curry beef brisket.

Words of Wisdom:

Baked Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Curry Beef Brisket
Great for large groups
Cash or Debt
Hit or miss food
Free parking
Decent prices

We Rate Mui Garden:

Address:
4327 North Rd
Burnaby, BC V3N

Website:
http://www.muigarden.com/

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In Dim Sum

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant: Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) Is Addictive

March 29, 2012

Dinesty is a Chinese restaurant in Richmond best known for the Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork Dumplings). They have been know to have amazing food and great prices.

Since the last dinner didn’t go so well at Po King with my parents, I decided it was time for me to decide where to eat. After luring them with delicious internet photos, they agreed to take me here.

Once you enter the restaurant, you’ll see a wall of teapot and little dim sum toys. They are glued to the shelf, so don’t think about stealing them.

Told you there were mini dimsum toys.

For a Tuesday dinner, this place was packed. My mom was super surprised and excited at the same time. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. I’m pretty sure the weekends are crazy to get a table.

The best part about the interior is their open kitchen. You can see everyone cooking in the kitchen. It reminded me of watching a reality show on Food Network or something.

Look at them making the Xiao Long Bao. I was excited.

All your utensils and plates already at the table.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) comes in 8 pieces. The skin has a nice thin layer, but still keeps the juice locked up inside. They were pretty good! My little sister couldn’t get enough of these.

Comes with a vingar and ginger dip for the dumplings. I love dunking it in this sauce.

Marinated beef with soy-sauce wrapped in pancake ($5.50) is crispy on the outside and has a great flavour overall.

Cold Wined Chicken ($7.50) was good, but it did have a bit of a strange taste with the wine. If you are into the whole cold chicken type of thing, this may just be for you.

Stewed Chicken Leg in Brown Sauce ($6.50) was good, but most of the meat was closest to the drumstick. The meat was quite tender too.

Noodles Topped with home-made Meat Sauce ($6.50) is similar to the Korean Jajangmyeon. You mix everything together really well and just eat it. The dish was ok, but the sauce was a tad bit salty and needed to be more thick and chunky.

Fried rice with scallop and egg whites ($9.95) I liked it. It had a good mixture of ingredients and it wasn’t too oily.

Steamed shrimp scallop and pork dumpling ($7.50) was definitely not as good as the XLB. Even though I really like seafood, the taste didn’t wow me. It just tasted so fishy. It also comes with 8 dumplings.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) we also got more of these because we really really liked them!

Almond Tofu ($2.75) was good, but the picture on the menu was pretty misleading…it had more fruit and when this name out…it seemed like there were only a few pieces.

Overall, the food was great and at good prices. The service was really good as well. I love their menu since it’s so easy to read and has PICTURES! I’ll definitely ba back to eat more steamed pork dumplings!

Words of Wisdom: