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Robson Street/West End

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Joe Fortes has happy hour from 4pm till 6pm daily, where select items are 50% off. InsecureGirl and I decided to come here after work to indulge ourselves in some oysters and other items. They don’t take reservations for this and you can only have the happy hour items in their bar seating area. It’s first come first serve, so you will have to be lucky enough to find open spots if you come in a group. Since it was just the two of us, it was easy to find open seats.

They have been open for more than 25 years and known for their seafood.

Joe Fortes Happy Hour

Basket of complimentary bread arrives and it comes with a lobster oil and balsamic vinegar dip. A good nibble before your food arrives.

Joe Fortes Happy Hour

Truffle Parmesan Frites  (Reg $9.95 | Happy Hour $5) is seasoned with grana padano, herbs, and sea salt. It comes with a side of ketchup. It comes in a cute presentation on a skillet. The skillet is piled full of fries and is definitely enough for 2 people to share. There is a strong douce of truffle oil and it smelled amazing.

Joe Fortes Happy Hour

Jumbo Tempura Prawns (Reg $14.95 | Happy Hour $7.50) comes with 3 pieces  and accompanied with togarashi mayo and a wedge of lemon. These prawns were massive!

Joe Fortes Happy Hour

Buck a Shuck (Happy Hour $1) are the bomb. They shuck them very cleanly and the size of the oysters are massive. It comes with a few sauces and lemon wedges. Of all the happy hour places I’ve been to in Vancouver, they probably have the best.

I do love happy hour since all the prices are great! You can’t beat 50% off. Downside of this great deal is the limited seating by the bar. You must get the oysters.

We rate Joe Fortes: 

Address:
777 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC

Website: http://www.joefortes.ca/

Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House on Urbanspoon

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Chui Restaurant

I’ve never heard of Chui Restaurant until my friend decided to have dinner here. It’s a relatively new restaurant on Robson across from Whole Foods. They serve Korean fusion food.

Chui Restaurant

The space is pretty cool. It’s divided up so there is an upper floor and a lower flood. It’s separated by bricks and fake cherry blossoms.

Chui Restaurant

Complementary side dishes consist of kimchi, tofu and edamame beans. It was a nice variety of items, but if you are a large group waiting for your order to arrive, this will be eaten quite quickly. We had to ask for several refills of this.

Chui Restaurant

Beef Yaki Udon was the first item that arrived at the table. It tasted pretty good but had a strong sesame taste to it.

Chui Restaurant

Seafood Paella was a very interesting item to see in a Korean restaurant, but I guess its one of those dishes that make it “fusion”. It has a ample amount of mussels, prawns, squid, and a larger spot prawn in the centre.

Chui Restaurant

Seafood Pancake was large and tasted good. Decent amount of seafood inside too.

Chui Restaurant

Pork Belly with fried vegetables. I’m sure there is a real name for this dish, but sometimes my memory fails me. The fried vegetable can be eaten together with the pork. They definitely compliment each other as you have the crispy vegetable with the savory pork.

Overall the food isn’t bad but some items aren’t that great for Korean fusion food. The service for the food can be a bit slow, so make sure you have some drinks in hand. It gets pretty busy on Friday and weekends as it attracts a young crowd.

We Rate Chui Restaurant

Address:
1660 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Chui Restaurant on Urbanspoon

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Forage

Forage is located inside the Listel Hotel in Downtown Vancouver. They pride themselves of being very sustainable, meaning zero waste and using local sustainable ingredients. After seeing tons and tons of people instagramming photos from Dine Out Vancouver, this was on my ‘to eat’ list. When TaiwaneseGirl was thinking of a venue for her birthday party, I suggested we come here. Making a reservation for a large group was easy and not a hassle. They don’t allow outside desserts, but they were nice enough to make something special for the birthday girl.

Forage

Instead of candles, they have a jar of fake moss and an electronic candle. Very cute.

Forage

Since it was a celebration, we decided to order a bottle of Riesling. We know we’re getting a bit older when we order a bottle of wine for the table.

Forage

Fresh Shucked Oyster ($2.50 each) were small, but they were packed full of flavour. I can’t remember what type of oysters they were but they were good.

Forage

Fanny Bay clams ($12) with merguez, sea cider, and romesco.

Forage

Squash Pierogies ($12) has a birch syrup vinegar reduction, smokey potatoes, and scallion crème fraîche. Highly recommended.

Forage

Pacific Provider salmon ($16) with Pemberton potatoes, “bread n butter” sea asparagus, and pickled huckleberries.

Forage

Smoked albacore tuna ($22) with blackberry and fir jelly, chantarelle, brown butter gnocchi, hazelnuts, and squash.

Forage

Spiced grains and wheat berries ($12) with quinoa, autumn vegetables, handmade roti, and raita.

Forage

Double-fried pork cutlet ($14) with green cabbage, bull kelp, and pickled cipollini’s.

Forage

BC spot prawn and seafood chowder ($12) with soft-poached egg, smoked chicharrón, and pork hock.

Forage

The smoked chicharron had a texture like puffed rice crackers and it soaks up the favour of the chowder. This item was everyone’s favorite. The chowder is famous since it won the Chowder Chowdown from the Vancouver Aquarium. Highly recommended!

Forage

Rangeland game burger ($16), caramelized onion preserve, house-cured bacon, Golden Ears cheddar, and fries.

Forage

The burger had some pretty cool ingredients inside since it wasn’t beef. The patty is bison, elk and venison.

Forage

Pain Perdu ($8) has autumn spice brioche, hazelnut caramel, and brie Anglaise.

Forage

Carrot cake ($8) has a Neufchåtel frosting, candied walnut, and cranberry sorbet.

Overall, the food was a tad expensive, but its understandable since the place uses sustainable ingredients and the calibre of restaurant that it is. All the dishes were carefully put together and the service was phenomenal! Our server was so humble and shared his stories of when he was in Brazil. Everything he said left a smile on our faces.

We Rate Forage

Address:
1300 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.foragevancouver.com/

Forage on Urbanspoon

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Dinesty on Robson

Dinesty is finally open on Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver. Dinesty took over the previous location of Jang Mo Jib and completely renovated the location.

Their menu is similar but there are a few new additions. The menu now has all pictures too!

Dinesty on Robson

The interior is pretty nice and has lots of space. It’s been quite popular even though it’s only been open for a very very short amount of time. It’s best to make reservations.

Dinesty on Robson

Their kitchen is quite large as well. You can watch them all at work. They definitely have less staff than the Richmond location, so when its a full house, service is slower.

Dinesty on Robson

Dinesty on Robson

Xiao Long Bao ($5.95) tasted the same and fantastic as usual. It’s a must have item!

Dinesty on Robson

Steamed Kimchi and Pork Dumpling ($5.95) made me very intrigued so we ordered them. The waitress warmed us that this would be quite spicy. It wasn’t spicy at all! Not quite sure what she was warning us about. This dumpling didn’t taste very good at all. Best to stick with the original XLB.

Dinesty on Robson

Pork and Prawn Potstickers ($4.75) comes with 6 pieces and has a piece of shrimp and minced pork inside each roll. I saw this on a few other tables as well. Seemed like a popular item.

Dinesty on Robson

Pan Fried Chive Dumpling tasted ok, but I prefer the pan fried beef dumpling.

Dinesty on Robson

Chinese Green Onion Pancake ($2.50) was crispy on the outside. You probably want some vinegar as a dip to accompany this.

Dinesty on Robson

Deep Fried Chicken roll comes in 2 rolls and has about 10 pieces. Pretty delicious and it comes with a dish of mayo to go along with it.

Dinesty on Robson

Beef Noodles soup with Pickled Vegetables pretty solid bowl of noodles and it’s a quick and cheap item to order if it’s for one person.

Overall, pretty good items overall. With this location downtown, it is bound to be very popular! Lost of people were doing take out orders too. I’d definitely come again! The service varies depending on how many other customers are there. When this place got packed, it was so difficult to order a can of coke. We had to ask 5 different waitresses before we got it.

We Rate Dinesty on Robson

Address:
1719 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Dinesty On Robson 聚 on Urbanspoon

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Kingyo is a Japanese Izakaya restaurant that is located on Denman Street. It’s a great place to chill at night over some drinks and dishes. The environment is lively and they have a variety of different of dishes.

Vaneats is offering a 4 course dining package for $22 that includes the following:

  • Tomato Kimchi Tofu Salad
  • Tuna Tataki
  • Stone Grilled Kobe Beef
  • Clam Ramen

Tomato Kimchi Tofu Salad has kimchi marinated tomatoes, greens, tofu, ginger and a sesame soy dressing. The salad was very refreshing and was a good start of the meal.

Tuna Tataki is a lightly seared tuna with ponzu & ponzu jelly. The size is half the size of a regular order, so it has only 3 pieces. The taste was good as usual and the ponzu jelly and the garlic chips really make it awesome.

Stone Grilled Kobe Beef comes with super hot stone grilled marinated kobe beef with 2 sauces. The size is also half the original size too. It’s a fun interactive dish, so you can watch your beef sizzle until you feel its ready to eat.

Clam Ramen has ramen noodles in a soy based clam soup with shrimp oil, garlic onion oil & fish powder. You have 4 pieces of clams which was pretty good and the broth had a very nice fragrant flavour.

With this package, I felt that most of the dishes were very small, so it will be hard to completely satisfy 2 people. You probably need to order more dishes on the side to be full. I didn’t feel like this package was as good of the value as their last package.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Make reservations on the busy nights
  • Have lunch and dinner
  • Good variety of items on the menu
  • Good place to bring a date

We Rate Kingyo Japanese Izakaya:

Address:
871 Denman St
Vancouver, BC V6G

Website:
http://www.kingyo-izakaya.ca

Kingyo Izakaya 金魚居酒屋 on Urbanspoon

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The Pork Belly Beer House is a Korean restaurant just off of Robson Street close to Safeway. It looks shady on the inside and outside, but it quite popular with Koreans. It gets quite packed in the evening since you can eat all the pork belly and side dishes for under $20.

The last time I was at Pork Belly Beer House, we had a mediocre all you can eat pork belly. We decided to come back to celebrate new jobs with friends and eat meat. For $16, you get pork belly, bulgogi, salad, rice, soup, kimchi, pop and sauces.

One of the biggest changes was that you can’t cook your own meat anymore. 🙁 Due to fire regulations and their inability to provide proper ventilation in the restaurant, the meat comes to you already cooked.

This was very disappointing because the point of Korean BBQ is cooking your own meat to your liking. We were not impressed because I like my Pork Belly crispy. We asked them to bring a few other dishes on the crispier side, but that never happened.

The pork belly is poor in quality and there is more fat than meat. What I hated the most about this pre-cooked option is that when you are half way done the plate of meat, it all goes cold.

The bulgogi was just lightly seasoned beef and grilled. Nothing amazing about it.

The food is just passable, but is only a good place for people who want a lot of food and drink. The meat is quite fatty, so make sure you don’t come here too often! Make sure you have a Korean with you since it’s easier to communicate with the servers to ensure you get what you order.

We rate Pork Belly Beer House:

Address:
Robson Street/West End
841 Bidwell Street
Vancouver, BC V6G

Pork Belly Beer House on Urbanspoon

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Guu Garlic is one of my favorite Guu locations as they serve tapas with a theme of garlic. Since there are so many Guus in Vancouver now, there are only 2 that I adore going to … Guu Garden and Guu Garlic. The menus are slightly similar, but it’s about the atmosphere and company that makes dining at Guu great. It’s a very noisy place since the servers are always shouting out order across the room.

The new executives of the Social Media Network at SFU decided to head out here for night of eating! Getting enough space for about 10 people is quite hard especially during the weekend at dinnertime. We waited for about an hour and twenty minutes for seats. Since we were determined to have Guu, we waited patiently. Gmoney and I shared a few dishes.

Glass of Sapporo ($5) is needed especially on a weekend. It’s a light beer and one of my favorites.

Beef Carpaccio has ponzu sauce, mayo and pea shoots on top. The cuts of beef were thin and tender. Anything with ponzu sauce is delicious!

Tuna Tataki ($6.80) has several pieces of thin seared tuna with onions, green onions, garlic chips and a container on ponzu sauce. This was also delicious! Plus, the garlic chips are awesome! I’m a sucker for raw fish.

Chicken Karaage ($5.40) comes with a lemon and a side of mayo. The picture above is 2 orders rather than one. It was crispy on the outside and very juicy on the inside.

Yaki Udon ($7.80) has pan-fried udon with beef, mushroom, green onion, soy sauce and butter. Its delicious as usual.

Scallop and Cheese Pizza was ordered by M and he said it was good. It’s small in size, but there is at least a small scallop on each slice.

Overall, we all had a great time! The dishes are fairly consistent each time I come here and I’m usually not disappointed, but Japanese izakaya is my favorite type of food. I could eat it over and over and over again.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Hard to find parking
  • All tapas below $10 and well priced
  • Great place to casually eat and drink

We Rate Guu with Garlic:

Address:

1698 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com
Guu With Garlic on Urbanspoon


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Nook is a traditional Italian restaurant on the West End that is known for the pizza and pasta. They do not take any reservations at all, so sometimes you will need to avoid the peak dining hours.

FoodPunk took me here to eat some delicious Italian food. I usually don’t go to the West End, but I can’t say no since she was paying and driving. It’s a good exchange since I give her a bit of web work and she buys me dinner.

The interior is narrow and does have limited seating. Sometimes there can be a line of customers forming outside. The interior is very dark and lit by red lights. It’s very romantic and it a good spot for a date.

The menu doesn’t have too many items, so decision making shouldn’t be too difficult.

Prosciutto with buffalo mozzarella ($16) is also drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper. The mozzarella was creamy and soft, which paired well with the salty prosciutto. Yum.

Gnocchi with Baby Meatballs ($17) was delicious. The gnocchi were like little soft pillows. Great taste and texture that meshed well with the meatballs and sauce.

Italian Sausage with chilis and sweet onion ($17) is thin and topped with the savory items. The chilis and sweet onion went well with the bits of sausage and cooked in a wood oven. You do get a bit of char on the crust and the bottom.

Affogato ($6) is a traditional italian dessert that consists of vanilla ice cream doused in hot espresso. I’ve never had this before, but I was glad I tried it out! If you are a coffee lover, go try this.

Pannacotta ($6) was creamy and topped off with a berry compote.

Overall, the food was good, but it can be seen as a bit expensive. The interior is small, so some of the tables were put a bit close together. Coming in large groups can be a bit difficult, so its best to come in 2’s or 4’s.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Affogato and gnocchi is a must
  • No reservations
  • Dimly lit inside
  • Street pay parking, but can be hard to find

We Rate Nook

Address:
781 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://nookrestaurant.ca/

Nook on Urbanspoon


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Damso Modern Korean Cuisine is located on Denman street and they serve up some delicious Korean dishes with a modern twist.

Jay of Coma Food Truck invited a few of his loyal customers that supported his food truck to Damso to say thank you. It’s sad to see Coma Food Truck go, but I see a great future for Jay and in his future ventures.

You start off with a trio of little items – spinach, bean sprouts and radish kimchi.

Seafood Waffle ($8.25) has prawns, scallop, squid, bacon, and scallion. This was so good! Imagine the traditional Korean Seafood pancake, but in pancake form. It was really good and probably the best I’ve had so far. Yum! It’s a must order!

Ddok-Kalbee ($6.85) are beef meatballs with king oyster mushroom, scallion salad and jalapeno pickles. The meatballs were really delicious with great flavour and a slightly sweet sauce. I could definitely eat these all day.

Chicken Gizzard contains stir-fried chicken gizzard, roasted garlic, scallion salad, with mustard vinaigrette. Surprisingly the gizzards were not tough at all, but a bit chewy. It can be a strange thing to eat, but it tasted good.

Pork Skin ($6.75) has sautéed with chive, onion and spicy Korean chili sauce. It wasn’t too spicy, but I really didn’t like the texture of the pork skin. It was limp and tasted like fatty jelly. I much prefer my pork skin crispy.

Kalbee – Korean BBQ Short Ribs ($15.95) is their signature dish. It has grilled AAA beef ribs marinated in housemade Korean BBQ sauce. It comes with rice too. This is an amazing dish! The meat is so tender and just falls off the bone. Wongers just wanted to steal this sauce since it was so good. Highly recommended!

Chicken Kalbee Ddok-Bokki has sautéed chicken, rice cake, and sweet Gochujang sauce. It was a bit spicy, but not my favorite dish. It was still a bit traditional.

Meat Party Platter ($34.95) comes with 24 hr slow cooked pork & medium rare grilled marinated AAA beef steak. I wasn’t a fan of the slow cooked pork, but the medium rare beef was so delicious. Meat!

Yuzu Snowman Sorbet is super cute and tastes really good. It tasted like citrus. It was a great way to end the meal. We felt kinda bad eating this little guy.

Overall, I was quite impressed by the quality of the dishes. I never expected to see modern Korean cuisine done well until now.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Seafood Waffle, Korean BBQ Short Ribs and Yuzu Snowman Sorbet
  • Free parking on street after 6pm but super limited
  • Multigrain rice options

We Rate Damso Modern Korean Cuisine

Address:
867 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.damso.ca/
Damso Modern Korean Cuisine on Urbanspoon


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Motomachi Shokudo is another ramen restaurant on Denman Street. It’s related to Kintaro, but they do offer a different style of ramen….plus the wait is much much shorter. I love how the restaurant sign has french “Nouilles du ramen japonaises”. I am sure you can tell what that means. Japanese Ramen Noodles! M and I came with PikachuGirl since it was one of her favorite ramen places.

Even with a bit of a wait, we got seated in about 10 minutes.

The interior is very rustic with lots of wood and concrete textures. It’s quite small, but the turnover rate of each table is quite fast. The food comes out quite fast too and the staff seemed very efficient! I was impressed.

Green Tea ($1). It was not free unlike most Japanese Restaurants and it was just a tea bag. I would have expected something nicer, but it didn’t bother me too much since I just wanted green tea to accompany the meal. You know me, I need tea!

Butchigiri Gyoza ($3.75) was longer than usual gyozas, but it was packed with pork and chives. Delicious!

Petit BBQ Pork Rice Bowl ($2.95) it was small, but it was very good. It was a good size before the ramen comes. It doesn’t get you full but if you are in a super hungry mood, it’ll keep you occupied before the ramen comes.

Shio Ramen ($8.95) comes with an egg, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, green onions, and large slice of pork. What is great about their ramen is that you get all those toppings without paying extra.

Extra BBQ Pork Ramen with Extra noodles ($10.95 + $1) has bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, egg, greens, seaweed and lots of pork! M really liked it because there really was a lot of meat and so much food. He was so full he couldn’t finish all the noodles. Perhaps the extra serving of noodles wasn’t necessary.

If you look at the pork, it was bit fatty, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Its up to personal preference.

Bamboo Charcoal Dark Miso Ramen ($9.75) is one of their specialties and it was an interesting experience since I’ve never had such dark broth before. The broth has a nice flavour to it, but was a tad salty and rich. The slice of pork was very tender and not super fatty, which I liked. I wish they had one more extra slice of pork. The noodles have a good texture too.

It was a good experience, but try not to eat too messy because the bamboo charcoal may ruin your clothes.

If you want to tweak the taste of your ramen, there are a few spices you can put in.

Overall, the prices are decent and you get lots to eat without paying extra. We all got super full and walked out happy.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Good broth and noodles
  • No much parking around
  • Under $10

We Rate Motomachi Shokudo:

Address:
740 Denman St
Vancouver, BC
Motomachi Shokudo 元町食堂 on Urbanspoon

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Foodology Disclaimer: VANEATS.ca approached me to try out their “Ebisu flair” dining package and write a review about it. I got a complementary dining package for myself and I brought along Flo (she’s a picky eater) to keep the review as unbiased as I could. This review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.


I’ve been to Ebisu several times and I see it more as a place for large birthday parties since I only come here for that. For Flo, she sees it more as a place to drink and have appetizers. Essentially its a restaurant lounge.

With the VANEATS Ebisu Flair Dining package, it can either make 1 person really full or for 2 people. The package doesn’t say how many it can feed. Flo and I just shared a package and then ordered an item off the menu. It worked out pretty well.

The Ebisu Flair Dining Package comes with 5 items:

  • Aigamo Duck Salad
  • Salmon Carpaccio
  • Tiger Mayo
  • Crunch & Munch Roll
  • Mars Attack

The interior is a good size, but some seating is a bit tight if you’re not sitting in a booth. The package doesn’t seem like its meant for a large group type of setting, but more for a date type of thing.

Tiger Mayo has deep fried Black Tiger prawns with a sweet chilli mayonnaise sauce.

The tiger mayo did not have very much flavour on it’s own. The batter and chilli mayo adds a little bit of a kick since there are bit of spice in it. The batter is coated quite thin, so you can tell the tiger prawns are a nice plump size.

Salmon Carpaccio has Atlantic salmon marinated in olive oil topped with citrus white wine mayo &  garlic chips

This dish was good, but I felt that with the mayo and the bundle of sprouts covered up the salmon carpaccio. You kinda have to dig to find the salmon. It’s just a personal preference of mine.

Aigamo Duck Salad is made of roasted duck and sauteed button mushrooms served on greens and peppers in a citrus infused ginger dressing.

The salad was quite good and the duck was nice and tender. I thought the orange slices added a dash of color to the dish. The dressing went well with the salad.

Crunch & Munch Roll is made of prawn tempura, cucumber, tobiko wrapped with unagi & avocado. Its served with unagi & wasabi cream sauce on top.

It’s good to eat this when it arrives before the tempura gets a bit soggy. You wouldn’t want the crunch to disappear. This roll was alright, but it wasn’t too amazing or anything.

Mars Attack is made with a deep fried Mars Bar served with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream on corn flakes.

When this arrived at the table, the atmosphere got way too romantic between Flo and I hahaha. This dessert is perfect for dates since its a fun kind of dessert. I really liked the deep fried mars bar since the chocolate and caramel is a bit melted. The ice cream does cut a bit of the fried taste.

Stamina Beef Don ($10.50) has slices of medium rare beef on rice with yakiniku sauce. Flo and I didn’t like this dish at all. The meat was cut quite large and it was very tough to eat. It was very hard to eat.

Overall, we found the the dining package was worth the $20, if you split it between 2 people all you need to do is add an extra dish to get full. The service can be a hit or a miss. In the past I’ve had good and bad service here. The only thing that I really didn’t like was how they charge $3 for tea when most places don’t charge, plus the waitress never said anything.

You can purchase the Ebisu flair Dining Package at VANEATS.ca for $20 beginning on February 9th. Its a good way to see their variety of dishes that they offer without breaking your wallet.

All the items are on their regular menu too! Seeing the Crunch & Munch roll on its own is already about $11, you definitely are getting a good deal.

Words of Wisdom:

  • $3 charge on tea 🙁
  • Some dishes are a hit or a miss
  • Pay parking in the rear
  • Reservations highly recommended!

We Rate Ebisu:

Address:

827 Bute St.
Vancouver, BC

Ebisu on Robson on Urbanspoon


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Soirette Macarons & Tea is a new little cafe that opened up near Pender and Broughton St. Flo bought me here since she really wanted to try out their macarons. She heard about them from an article in the Vancouver Sun and then bought a few Social Shopper deals.

We came too early to use the deal, but since we were there anyways, we decided to grab some macarons without the coupons. Since we heard good things from this place, we kinda knew we would be back in the near future.

The interior is very cute and cozy with mostly white and clear interior decor with a blue wall at the back. It’s definitely a place for the girls to just kick back and relax with the macarons.

There is very limited seating, so most people we saw just did take out. Definitely not a place for large groups.

They also have a large selection of specialty teas and drinks. I didn’t get a chance to get one, but tea does sounds like a good pairing with tea.

We came an hour before closing, so they were running out of macarons. We didn’t mind since there were still some great flavours.
Don’t let this picture discourage you from going since Flo and I just came late after work.

Macarons ($2 each, 6 for $11.50 or 12 for $22). Flo and I just got 6 macarons to snack on. We got the raspberry, cappuccino, matcha, Salted Caramel, Chocolate and pistachio.

All of them were equality as good as the next one. They are well made and had great texture and flavours.

Overall, one of the better macaron places in town! It seems to be the new fad, which everyone loves.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great as gifts!
  • Priced similar to other places with macarons
  • Beautiful decor

We rate Soirette Macarons & Tea:

Address:
1433 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6G
Website:
http://www.soirette.com/
Soirette Macarons & Tea on Urbanspoon


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Foodology Disclaimer: VANEATS.ca approached me to try out their “Kingyo Craze” dining package and write a review about it. I got a complementary dining package for myself and bought an additional one for a friend to keep the review as unbiased as I could. This review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.


Kingyo Japanese Izakaya is one of the better Izakaya restaurants in Downtown (according to this article from Vancouver Sun). I’ve been here in the Summer with CandiedZen and we had a great time…except it kinda broke our wallets since we are both students.

This time around, I came with CandiedZen again to try the Kingyo Craze Dining from VANEATS.ca . Seemed like a good deal since the dining package for one person is $19 for 5 courses.

The interior is quite nice. It’s not a super large place, so it’s always good to make reservations.

Fresh Housemade Ginger Ale, which I have forgotten the price was quite refreshing! It’s a good drink if you feel like not drinking anything alcoholic.

Fresh Melon White Wine Sangria ($7.50) has fresh melon, calpico, white wine, melon liqueur, soda and lime.

Sashimi Salad – three kinds of sashimi (changes daily) on a bed of organic springs dressed with soy based vinaigrette and garlic oil

On the day we arrived, we had salmon, scallop and tuna I think. They had the right amount of dressing over it and the yuzu jelly on top and the crispy lotus room complemented nicely.

Chicken Breast Tender & Cod Roe Spring Roll served with a side of mayo & special soy sauce

This was probably my favorite dish out of the entire meal. The chicken was super tender and it complimented the code roe and the filling nicely. Having that in the crispy spring roll shell …then dunking it into the mayo +soy sauce = nom nom nom nom.

One of the dishes came a bit later than the first one and the consistency was a bit off. The color of the spring rolls as you can tell are much different too.

Despite this little issue, it still tasted super good! Something about the savory filling with the crispy shell dipped into the mayo and soy sauce just lit up our palettes. If you don’t end up getting the dining package, just order it off their menu because this dish is AMAZING!

Deep fried tofu and mushrooms served in a sizzling stone bowl

The waiter comes to the table with a two bowls – one with the hot stone bowl with the tofu and another bowl with the mushroom and sauce. It’s a good dish for the winter time. Even though it’s all vegetables, it will fill you up.

No, its not spicy and those green things aren’t jalapenos, but it’s Okra. Okra is delicious FYI.

CandiedZen really loved the stickiness of the tofu skin, but she felt the sauce reminded her of Chinese food rather than Japanese.

I thought the taste was very familiar but I really couldn’t put my finger on it. I loved the tofu and the mushrooms, but I found the sauce a bit salty for my taste.

Seared Negitoro Sushi – chopped tuna & green onions with seaweed paste and Kingyo’s original sauce

This totally reminded me of the Negitoro Battera from Suika, but except they have the seared top. This item is not on the original menu, but CandizedZen and I tried to push them to add it onto the main menu. (Lets hope they do because it was good).

We liked this because they held together firmly and was quite light. The 2 sauces on top complimented the negitoro nicely. Hidden inside the rice is a small piece of avocado. It was quite interesting to discover.

Petit Almond Tofu – Kingyo’s famous super smooth and refreshing almond tofu with persimmon sauce

I don’t think we had the persimmon sauce on top. Not sure why it wasn’t there. Regardless, we enjoyed the plain almond tofu. It comes is a really cute small dish with a wooden spoon.  I love almond pudding, so this is good! It’s a good ending to this meal since it’s not too heavy.

Frozen Grapes finish off the meal! This is always my favorite part of the meal, I know it’s silly but I always anticipate the grapes.

Overall, CandiedZen and I thought this package was worth the price of $19. On a regular day, you could probably spend $30ish per person… I think once we spent almost $100 here. Good amount of food and you can really see the variety in their menu.

If you haven’t been here before, it would be a good way to see what Kingyo can offer. You can grab this package from VANEATS.ca

Words of Wisdom:

  • Make reservations on the busy nights
  • Have lunch and dinner
  • Good variety of items on the menu
  • Good place to bring a date

We Rate Kingyo Japanese Izakaya: 
Address:
871 Denman St
Vancouver, BC V6G
Website:
http://www.kingyo-izakaya.ca
Kingyo Izakaya 金魚居酒屋 on Urbanspoon

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After going to Aki Japanese twice for lunch and once for dinner…I have to say I really enjoy their lunches much more than their dinners. Even though they have been around for a long time, I find their lunch is the best. With so many other Japanese restaurants surrounding the area, their dinners are not as good as others.

I came to lunch with my coworker that had a so-so experience here for dinner. Sometimes places require a second chance to discover how amazing they can be.

Lunch Box A ($10.75). This combo has miso soup, sunomono, short ribs, tuna and salmon sashimi, chicken karrage, pickled vegetables and rice.

She liked it since it has a little bit of everything. By the end of the meal, she was full!

Sushi Combo (~$11) has 4 pieces of nigiri, tuna and salmon sashimi, california roll and a few maki rolls. I was feeling like sushi, so this combo filled up my cravings. The quality of the fish is really good. The rolls were well built too.

Overall, we really enjoyed our lunch here! If you want a good experience and not kill your wallet, best to come here for lunch.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Closest Skytrain: Burrard
  • Decent pricing
  • Good quality
  • Lunch Boxes best for lunch

We Rate Aki Japanese Restaurant: 

Address:

745 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC
Aki Japanese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

 

 

A bunch of the SFU Food Bloggers – FoodQueen, ImBusyEating and GoodEat decided to get together and have dinner at Aki Japanese Restaurant. It’s one of the oldest and most authentic Japanese restaurant in Vancouver. Since none of the other bloggers have visited here, I thought it would be a great place to go.

There’s lots of space inside the restaurant, but it usually gets packed during peak hours. It’s definitely more busy during lunch on the weekdays.

Steamed clams in sake sauce ($8.50). It has a very nice broth and it does not taste alcoholic at all.

Assorted sashimi (3 kinds – $13.50). It has snapper, tuna and salmon. They tasted really fresh, but I found that it was quite expensive for just 9 pieces.

Chicken Karrage ($8.95) is Japanese fried chicken. It is nicely battered and has a nice crunch when you bite into it. The chicken was also quite moist.

Black Cod ($11.50) was alright. I didn’t find it as “melt in your mouth deliciousness” compared to other places I’ve been too. There were also bones, which kinda confused me a bit.

Yakitori ($4.25) was really good! delicious!

Spicy Tuna ($4.50) has minced tuna with a good amount of spice.

Yakisoba was not on the menu, which I found super strange since it’s one of those items that are usually on the menu. It was good, but not as good as Guu.

Overall, we really enjoyed our experience! I still find that going here at lunch is still a better bang for your buck.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Closest Skytrain: Burrard
  • Decent pricing
  • Good quality
  • Reservations are recommended since it can get busy
  • Lunch Boxes best for lunch

We Rate Aki Japanese Restaurant: 

Address:

745 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC
Aki Japanese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Foodology Disclaimer: VANEATS.ca approached me to try out their “Cheers Ebisu” dining package and write a review about it. I got a complementary dining package for myself and I brought along 2 of my friends to keep the review as unbiased as I could. This review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.


Ebisu is a great place for drinks and tapas. I remember going here a lot before when people would hold birthday parties here. It’s actually a very popular place for people to dine at before they head off to the club.

There is lots of room in the restaurant. Good for large groups or small groups. The weekdays are not that busy, but when it’s Friday and Saturday, it does get busy, so best to make reservations.

When you arrive at the table you are given the hot towels to wipe your hands. Great idea since it’s cold and flu season!

For the Cheers Ebisu dining package ($25) from VANEATS.ca , you get:

  • 4 pcs of Chikuwa Cheese
  • 2 Cajun Tuna Tacos
  • 2 pcs of Tiger Mayo
  • 2 Kansai Steak Sliders
  • 5 pcs of Chicken Karaage
  • Thunder Fries
  • 1 pitcher of Sapporo

Pitcher of Sapporo

It’s really good to drink beer with the whole meal since there is quite a bit of fried foods with the meal. In the pitcher, you can get about 4 glasses from the pitcher.

Thunder Fries, fresh house-cut fried sweet potato sticks served with our popular house cajun dip

We were quite impressed by the thunder fries since they seemed like fries with steroids. They were really big and thick and had a good taste of the sweet potato. The cajun dip went well with this nicely!

Chikuwa Cheese, deep fried fish cake stuffed with melted mozzarella cheese

I’ve never had anything like this fish cake with cheese?! It had a chewy texture and then the ooey gooeyness. Yum.

Chicken Karaage, deep fried boneless chicken

I also liked the chicken karaage, there are no bones, so you don’t need to get your hands dirty. It was moist and had a good flavour.

Kansai Steak Sliders, sauteed sliced beef marinated in yakiniku sauce sandwiched with avocado, onions, mushrooms & mayo

I didn’t really like the sliders since they were on the salty side. There could have been a bit more avocado to cut through the saltiness. M had no problems with it, but maybe thats because he’s a man. I don’t know, probably a thing of personal preference.

Tiger Mayo, deep fried Black Tiger prawns complete with our chefs sweet chili mayonnaise dip

The tiger mayo did not have very much flavour on it’s own. I also think we didn’t get the sweet chili mayo dip, so we just dipped it the thunder fries sauce.

Cajun Tuna Tacos, seared fresh tuna & shredded mixed salad dressed with our tantalizing house ginger sauce

The tuna taco was good, but it was very hard to eat without the shell breaking. I’ve had this years ago and it’s still tasty, but make sure you have a plate in front of you to catch everything when it breaks.

Take sake ($9.50) comes in a cool bamboo container. M didn’t want any of the beer since it makes him full, so he decided to get himself the sake. He dubbed this sake, the sake that kept on giving because it seemed pretty endless. Until…well it ended after many many shots. He liked the crisp taste too.

Jalapeno Shrimp ($6.95) is shrimp seasoned with jalapeno flakes, battered and fries. It sits on a bed of fries too. We thought it would have been spicier, but it’s not too bad. everything was nice and crispy.

They also give you ketchup and hot sauce so it went well with the Jalapeno shrimp.

Overall, we found the the dining package was worth the $25 since a pitcher of beer can come to $15. There is quite a bit of fried foods, but the beer will cut right through all of that. I grabbed 2 other friends to eat this with me and it filled us up. This package is supposed to feed 2 people, but I think it can be feed 3 if you add an extra dish to it.

You can purchase the Cheers Ebisu Dining Package at VANEATS.ca for $25, there’s only 150 available, so get it fast! Starts November 1st and is redeemable till the end of the month!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Pay parking in the rear end
  • Reservations highly recommended!

We Rate Ebisu: 

Address:

827 Bute St.
Vancouver, BC

Ebisu on Robson on Urbanspoon

 

CanuckGirl and I decided we should go to the Pride Parade since we have never ever been to one. Living here for all my life and never going there…shame. Before lining up on the streets, we thought we would grab a bite to eat. I heard Joe’s Grill was pretty popular, so we decided to grab a quick bite here.

They are located on Davie and near Burrard.

The place was packed by 10am, but luckily there were seats on their patio.

  

You can find the usual breakfast and lunch items on their menu. Sandwiches, Pasta, Bennys, Eggs, omelettes, etc….

The service was quite slow and we were really confused by other customers that ordered after us got their meal before us. After seeing dish after dish not land at our table, I asked the waitress and she went to the kitchen to check. After awhile, she came back and told us the kitchen prepared all the tickets backwards and ours would be coming up soon. As others were half way done their meal, we finally got ours.

Eggs Florentine Benny ($8.55) has spinach, hollandaise and poached eggs on top of toasted english muffins with side of panfried potatoes and an orange slice. CanuckGirl thougt this dish was alright, but it wasn’t the most amazing benny she has ever had. She much preferred Subeez.

Corned Beef Hash ($8.25) has diced corned beef, fried onions, green peppers with potatoes and 2 eggs. They used real corned beef in this dish. I was kinda expecting the canned corned beef for this since I love the salty salty taste. Having it the other way wasn’t too bad. The potatoes, green peppers and the onions made to be a delicious combination of flavours. I am not a potato eater, but with this dish I could eat all the potatoes without hesitation. Not a very pretty dish, but the flavours make up for it. I also douse my food in tabasco too. Early morning kick in the face of spiciness.

After we headed off to the parade. Instead of watching the parade like everyone else, I took my time staring across the street as 2 security guards were yelling at some guys to stop sitting on an “under construction” structure. I find strange things amusing.

Overall, Joe’s Grill wasn’t as good as we expected. Slow service with some decent food, but there are plenty of brunch places in the area.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Pay Parking on street
  • Poor and slow Service
  • Busy during peak hours (especially brunch)
  • Good low prices
We Rate Joes Grill: 

Address:

Robson Street/West End
1031 Davie St
Vancouver, BC
Joe's Grill on Urbanspoon

@floyvr organized an impromptu EatUp with @wongers, @kcclaveria@alexglee and @crazyut . Since I am a Guu fanatic, I really really wanted to see their “No Regular Menu” concept. We arrived quite early since the @GuuIzakaya account told us to show up early. Since all openings are not perfect, there were a bit behind on opening at 5:30pm. We just chilled outside till we got in at 6pm.

Guu Kobachi is located at the old Toratatsu near Denman and Robson. They serve up fresh sheets, so the menu will change quite often depending on what ingredients are in season.

 

The interior is quite small and has the same layout as the old restaurant. It is very simple and wooden. The staff are energetic like the other Guu locations. They don’t have a lot of seating, so going at 7pm with a large group will not be best for you. They won’t be taking reservations till August, but they do have a large table that seats a lot of people if you wanted to have a b-day party dinner here. Just something to note in the future.

This is the setting you will get. They even have the chopstick thing that you see at Chinese restaurant.

Marinated Red Tuna Sashimi ($6.80) was the first dish that arrived at our table and we thought it has the cutest presentation ever! @crazyut enjoyed it and said the tuna had a good flavour and was very fresh.

Marinated Red Tuna Marinated ($6.80) is similar to the one above, but it is marinated to soy sauce or ponzu sauce. We found it was not too bad, but the sauce realy over powered the delicate texture of the tuna.

The first kobashi dish to arrive was the Miso Kakuni ($3.80).  It is a slowly stewed pork belly pieces with quail egg in miso and soy sauce soup. This was an amazing dish! The pork belly was very tender and just full of flavour. They are in small pieces, so you will not feel guilty consuming so much fat. ** Must get dish**

Long Green Pepper ($3.80). It is boiled long green pepper marinated in a sweet sesame sauce, topped with bonito flakes. It is like a gomae but with green peppers.  The peppers were not spicy at all.

 Marinated Eggplant ($3.80). It has rectangular chopped cubes of eggplant with peppers, chili oil and bonito flakes. I liked eggplants, so I liked the pairing of the spicy chili oil and egg plant. I know some people at the table were not keen about eggplant.

Cold Tomato Curry ($3.80). Yes, this is a tomato! I didn’t get a lot of curry taste, it just tasted like a cold salted tomato.

Whole Onion ($3.80). Yes strange right? A whole onion.  The onion was stewed in chicken stock and I really enjoyed the taste.  Since it has been cooking for a long time, there is no sharp stinging taste.

 

Vege Chips ($3.80). These are assorted vegetable deep fried. Imagine super healthy chips. There were green peppers, potato skins, lotus roots, and other unidentifiable vegetables. Pretty unique dish and it would go great with beer.

Pork Ginger Spring Roll ($3.80). It has pan-fried pork ginger and cabbage inside. You can really taste the ginger in the pork filling. I didn’t really love this dish, but it was alright.

Chicken Gizzard ($3.80). This is chicken gizzard marinated in cili oil. This is an digestive organ of chickens. I’ve never had gizzard before and it had a very strange texture. When you bite into it, it is tough and hard.

Sweet and sour pork ($3.80). One of THE BEST I have ever had in my life! Very minimal breading so you can really taste the texture of the meat with the amazing sauce. ** Highly recommended**

Rolled Chinese Cabbage ($3.80). It is a stewed meat mixture wrapped in nappa cabbage in a tomatoey fish broth. This was a very unique dish and the meat they used for the dish was pretty good quality.

Marinated Conchi ($3.80). This is the meat from conch shells. It is marinated in garlic soy sauce. We found as we kept chewing on the conch that, it was quite salty. Very interesting to try.

Saba in Curry Sauce ($3.80). This is saba (mackerel) in a a curry sauce with potatoes. The saba tasted really good especially with the combination with the curry.

Beef tenderloin Tataki ($8.90). This is mid-well broiled beef tenderloin tataki style. SO GOOD! THis is the most tender beef I have ever had! ** Highly Recommended** 

Kara-age-regular ($6.00). Its a  simple japanese deep-fried chicken. It has no bones and comes with a side of mayo for dipping. Meat was very moist and had a light coating.

Squid ink calamari ($6.80) was quite different! It’s purple/black! We found that the deep fried calamari with squid ink just tasted like normal calamari. If you really focus on the taste of it, it has a very subtle taste, but it hard to pick up the flavour.

Ebi Mayo’s sister ($6.00) has ebi mayo coated in shredded potato batter. They add a whole new level to crunchiness! I really liked it since it looks like a sea urchin, but hidden inside is a very tasty piece of shrimp! **highly recommended**

Oyster Chazuke ($6.80). This has seared oyster on rice in fish broth soup. The oyster flavour is quite prominent and infused nicely with the fish broth. If you are an oyster lover, you will enjoy this dish.

Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio ($6.80). Was very good!! You can really taste the freshness of their salmon and their light sauces allow for the fresh taste to really since throught! ** highly recommended**

This came near the end of our meal. I think the chef gave it to us because we waiting outside for them to open. I think this was the Assorted Vege Salad ($4.80). It has long strands of carrots, radish, bonito flakes, greens in a ponzu sauce (i think). The stands of the radish were very very long!! It’s like those times when you are trying to split a bowl of noodles but it’s difficult because its just so long.

This isn’t a regular salad. It still has a good refreshing taste and it’s quite large.

Sapporo (Pint-$5.50). This is definitely needed every time you go to Guu!

Overall, we all had a great time and then menu items are quite unique compared to the other Guu chains. Since it just opened, they do have a few issues such as leaky pipes and missing orders. Do give the waitress patience as well since their english is not very good. They are trying their best, but none of us got mad or anything. Do check your bill before you pay because sometimes they might get an order wrong or something hasn’t arrived yet.

I am sure in a few weeks they will improve on a few of their flaws. For an opening day, it went pretty well and the place was packed. We racked up quite a bill of $130, but we did order a lot! It was well worth it.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Recommended: Miso Kakuni, Sweet + Sour Pork, Beef tenderloin Tataki, Ebi Mayo Sister, and Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio
  • Well priced items
  • Good atmosphere
  • Free parking after 6 at rear ( best not to drive, very limited parking)
  • Best to get off Burrard and take the bus down Robson
  • Super busy at peak hours
We Rate Guu Kobashi:

Address:

735 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com/kobachi/

Twitter: @GuuIzakaya

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KitanoyaGuuIzakayaOfficial
Guu Kobachi on Urbanspoon