Shaughnessy Archives

In Fusion

The Rise Eatery: Lunch on South Granville

May 31, 2019

The Rise Eatery is serving up Asian fusion cuisine in the South Granville area. It’s been a while since my last visit to The Rise Eatery and it was about time that I make a revisit to see if they have improved over the last few years.

I came back with my family during lunch to check it out.

Interior

For the lunch rush, this place was dead. No another group was in here when we dined. It was really eerie. There are lot of small and large tables as well as a patio. Reservations can be made on OpenTable too.

Seoul Good

This has Korean fried chicken, wild mushroom cream, truffle oil, grated Parmesan, kimchi fried rice, and house-made pickles. G

Generally Korean Fried Chicken should have some spice or sweetness to it but this has the cream sauce with truffle oil and Parmesan. The kimchi fried rice and chicken were ok.

The set also come with a small dessert with the set. It turns out it was a hazelnut shortbread cookie. A bit anti-climatic.

Heart Attack

This set has schmaltz stir-fried rice pilaf, chicken confit, sous vide free run egg, chicken crackling, and salad du jour.

The salad du jour was a piping hot quinoa and kale salad. The temperature was very off and was better when it cooled down. Salads are generally cold so not sure why it was hot.

The sous vide egg was beautifully done but the pilaf with the chicken and crackling was quite bland and needed some Lousiana hot sauce which we added on.

This is also came with the cookie dessert.

The Fitter BLT

This vegetarian set has house-smoked tofu bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, vegan mayo, ciabatta, and paired with the soup of the day.

A good portion size, the tofu bacon had a good amount of smokiness, but it was still missing something to bind it all together.

Uni-versal Pasta

This has squid ink pasta, sea urchin cream, egg yolk, flying fish roe, and dried seaweed. You can also add $6 for 2 pieces of OceanWise prawns. It is beautiful and it’s the one dish everyone is talking about.

It was pretty expensive to add $6 for the two prawns as they were not that large, but the quality and texture were nice. It would have been nice to see fresh uni as an add-on option.

Final Thoughts

The prices and portions were decent, but the taste really fell flat. All the dishes were missing something that made it shine. It did feel really odd that the whole restaurant was empty during lunch with just our large group.

Sometimes they have their 3 course menus that actually sound really nice and at a great price. If you’re just coming in for the lunch sets, hold off until they have special seasonal menu sets.

Address:
3121 Granville St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://theriseeatery.com

In Fusion

The Rise Eatery: Asian Fusion in Vancouver

July 17, 2017

The Rise Eatery blends the flavours of different regions around the world and say they are a globally-influenced restaurant, but a lot of the dishes feel like it’s an Asian-fusion restaurant. They are located in the South Granville neighbourhood. We were invited for a private event to try a few dishes off their menu.

Interior

The restaurant is split up in half so there is a bar area and then the dining area. They also have a patio in the back. The space has a nice feel and I love the large wooden tables.

Drinks

Geisha-Rita

This drink has sake, lychee, pink lemonade and togarashi. Very cute drink with a pocky stick too, but I really didn’t like the togarashi rim as it overpowered the subtle flavours of the lychee. Also, for the price, you probably want more sake in this.

Rain City Ricky

This has gin, cucumber, mint, lime, lemon grass and soda.

Old Timer, Newly Fashioned

Inside this concoction is maple, orange bourbon, thyme, bitters, and sour cherry.

The Last Strawberry Wit

I am definitely a beer person instead of a cocktail person. They have a good selection of local craft beers on tap. When I heard they had the Last Strawberry Wit from Fuggles and Warlock, I had to get it. You can get it as a pint or a sleeve and I went with a pint.

The Routine

This has ramen fries, cheese curds, miso gravy, kewpie mayo, bonito and furikake. A fun twist on the Canadian classic, but it fell short of expectations. The ramen cubes ended up to a bit soggy, so it didn’t retain it’s crisp texture.

Tuna Mole

There is a stack of spicy albacore tuna tartare, roasted corn guacamole and a side of lotus root chips. Beautiful dish, but the lotus chips were very thin and not crispy enough to enjoy.

Lo Hay Salad

In the salad, there is smoked salmon, cucumber, daikon, carrot, pickled ginger, onions, tomatoes, taro, pea shoots, crisp rice vermicelli, toasted sesame, toasted peanuts, and a apricot and a beet vinaigrette on the bottom. You need to mix and toss this around before eating to incorporate all the items together. It was a good salad but the smoked salmon felt like it didn’t incorporate very well into the concept.

Long n Green

This was a really good dish as the green beans are cooked with wok’d Haricot vert, butter, soya, and the housemade XO sauce. The XO sauce just pulled it all together. We ate every last bit of the sauce.

Shroom

This is a vegan dish as it has wild mushrooms, udon, silken tofu cream and cashew parmesan. It’s a great dish for those with dietary restrictions, great texture but I thought the sauce had a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Heart Attack Rise

There is Schmaltz stir fried rice pilaf, chicken confit, fried tofu curd and then a soft boiled egg on top. Mix in the egg and enjoy. It’s a good dish to share so each person can have a taste without getting a heart attack. I thought it was ok, but didn’t make me want to eat the whole bowl.

Steak Your Claim

On the wooden board, there is grilled 8oz rib eye steak with a streak of chimichurri sauce. The steak was cooked very nicely and was tender. The chimichurri sauce was very bright and fresh compliment to the steak. On the side, there is kennebec fries, shishito peppers, onions, tomato stir fry, chinese donut and a balsamic demi glaze. A nice incorporation of the chinese donut into the dish.

Shio Koji

There is Japanese potato salad and 4 skewers of salted rice malt roasted Maple Hills chicken thighs. An odd combination but it works. The chicken was very tender and flavourful.

Mean n Green

The matcha molten lava cake was very undercooked, so it was more molten than cake inside. On the other side of the plate was adzuki beans and adzuki ice cream. The ice cream was very icy and not smooth.

Final Thoughts

I like what they were trying to do with their Asian-fusion dishes but the execution on some dishes was a total miss. The presentation was beautiful but it didn’t hit the mark. Hopefully in time, they will take the feedback and improve their menu. It seems more like a place I would go for a drink and a few dishes but not a full dinner.

Address:
3135 Granville Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.theriseeatery.com/

In Dessert

Shaughnessy Restaurant: Drink and Dessert

February 27, 2016

Shaughnessy Restaurant is located right outside VanDusen Botanical Garden. I was invited to attend dinner with the Bite BC blogging team, but silly me arrived an hour later. I was super embarrassed since I’m usually pretty early or on time when going places. I made it in time for the end of the entrees, so I was still able to enjoy a drink and some dessert with great company around the table.

There are lots of seat in here and its quite a large space. If you come in the evening when there are special light shows at Van Dusen, it will look really nice by the windows. Since there’s not much going on right now, its not as beautiful.

A round of cocktails were ordered for everyone. I got the Shaughnessy Lemonade with rosemary infused bourbon. It is topped off with a candied lemon and a sprig of rosemary. Quite a strong drink compared to other cocktails but it was still good.

When the dessert arrived, the phones and cameras came out. Dishes were strategically placed so everyone could get a good shot.

Flourless Chocolate Cake has pecan praline and a large scoop of vanilla ice cream covered in caramel. I was quite surprised by this dessert. Dense with a lot of chocolate flavour and the added nuts were great. One of my favourites of the night. I am a chocolate fanatic, so I naturally gravitated to this dessert.

Lemon Shortbread Parfait has lemon curd, shortbread crumble, lemon ice cream, and torched meringue. Others at the table loved it, but I didn’t like it as much because I don’t like lemons. Shocker right? Maybe it was because I drank too much lemonade as a kid.

Apple Crumble is topped with a french vanilla ice cream and a strawberry. It was a solid dessert, but not too unique.

If you have a BiteBC Membership, they have a special deal. When you order 2 entrées and 2 appetizers, you receive 2nd entrée free. This is available all week long. Check out Nosh and Nibble, Pork Ninjas as well as Foodgressing to see what they thought of the appetizers and entrees. They have a 30 day trial for their service to get deals at a few restaurants around town.

Overall, its a nice place to go to after you visited Van Dusen Garden to grab a drink and dessert with a few friends. I found the most of the dishes pretty average, but the location is convenient.

We Rate Shaughnessy Restaurant:

Address:
VanDusen Botanical Gardens, 5251 Oak Street, Vancouver

Website:
www.shaughnessyrestaurant.com

In Dessert

Yogen Fruz: Frozen Yogurt

June 5, 2015

Yogen Fruz has been around as long as I can remember. My parents would take us here for a nice sweet treat only if we behaved. From my young childhood memories, I was always amazed that a solid brick of yogurt and fruit would be a match made in heaven.

Yogen Fruz started off in Toronto in 1986 and now has thousands of franchises all over the world.

I always gravitate towards the frozen yogurt with the fruit flavours. I was never into the chocolate or vanilla flavours. You can’t go wrong with fruit.

Their ‘fresh’ fruit is all frozen, but it needs to be all frozen so it gets all whipped into the frozen yogurt.

Mango Frozen Yogurt is a flavour your can’t go wrong with. Strawberry is pretty good too. What I like about their yogurt is that it has a slightly sparkling soda taste to it. It really just brings me back to my childhood. The texture is consistent and very smooth.

Overall, I still love it after all these years. Before all the other frozen yogurt places popped up in town, this was my go to froyo place.

We Rate Yogen Fruz:

Address:
Oakridge Centre, Food Court,
650 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.yogenfruz.com/

In Deli

Kaplan’s Deli: Smoked Meat in a Jewish Deli

July 4, 2013

I was wandering around Oakridge and needed a place to eat lunch. I don’t come to this area often, so I asked the people of Twitter where I should go. Sherman chimed in and suggested Kaplans or Applause. Since I’ve already been to Applause a few years ago, I decided to head over to Kaplans. There’s always time for a good sandwich full of meat.

Walking through the first part of the restaurant looked like a deli, but in the back there are a bunch of tables and booth seating. The servers were really relaxed and didn’t seem like they were happy.

After a while, we recognized that it was a Jewish deli. It can definitely be seen in the menu with items like matza balls and kosher food.

Lemonade and Root Beer were our choices of beverage to tackle the large sandwiches.

On the table, there are several condiments – ketchup, hot mustard, regular mustard, dijon mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Mega is about $14 .95 and comes with cheese and a pile of meat between house made bread. The tooth pick in the sandwich was definitely necessary or else it would fall apart.

There is also a pickle and coleslaw that comes with it.

Even thought the cross-section of the sandwich is quite thick, it really is just bunched up in the middle. It’s size isn’t even comparable to the ones found in the states.

Norman Norman is chicken pastrami, cheese and sauerkraut sandwiched between 2 slices of buttered bread. It comes with coleslaw and your choice of fries or latkes. M chose the latkes since he loves them.

He thought it tasted ok, but the price was a bit high for what you get.

Overall, the food was ok, and the service was ok. There wasn’t anything that was particularly amazing.

We Rate Kaplan’s Deli:

Address:
5775 Oak St
Vancouver, BC

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In Chinese

Dragon Ball Tea House

December 24, 2010

Dragon Ball Tea House is a popular bubble tea place in Vancouver. They serve milky teas, slushes, real fruit, powder, and many other types of customizable bubble teas. If you are an indecisive person, you will be totally confused when they ask you if you want your drink as a milk or slush, or with pearls. They throw so many options at you, so I totally got lost.

The interior is not very big, so during busy times its hard to fit a large group of people.

Most of the drinks range from $3 – $3.50. If you add pearls or anything extra, it’s $0.50.

What we ordered:

Supreme Milk Tea: Just regular milk tea, nothing too “supreme” about it.
Passionfruit Black Tea w/ pearls: FragileBoy said the pearls were a bit too soft and chewy
Fresh papaya milk: I loved it. It had real papaya, so I was super happy! I hate the powdered stuff.
Green Tea Ice Cream: Had a good taste to it. If you like green tea ice cream, you’d probably like this too.