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South Burnaby

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Teapressu is one of our favourite bubble tea shops on wheels, but recently we found out they have open a storefront in Burnaby on Kingsway. We were very excited, so we decided to give them a visit. Their hours are limited as they are in a very soft opening phase to work out any kinks.

They are known of their teas created using an espresso machine. It extracts great flavours from the tea, making each cup very strong and aromatic.

Their menu has a variety of bubble teas and even vegan options. Plus, soft serve too.

Menu

Pearl Milk Tea Soft Serve

I got the twist where it has the milk tea and vanilla together. Then I also added pearls to it based off their suggestion. It was really good and a nice treat, but it got quite messy when it melted. As the cup in tall and narrow, it would drip down the sides of the cup.

Pearl Iron Milk Tea

This is their number 1 best selling drink on the menu.

I got it at 100% sweetness, but it was a bit too sweet for me. Next time, I would do 50% or even 30%. Nonetheless, the pearls were nice and chewy. The tea was very fragrant too.

Apple Awakening

They have fruity beverages on the menu and my husband tried their Apple Awakening. It was very refreshing especially on a hot Summer’s day.

Final Thoughts

Teapressu is a great addition to the neighbourhood, but they do face tough competition as Chatime is just a shop away. Nonetheless, I do prefer Teapressu for their superior quality and affordable price. Support local as much as possible.

I highly recommend Teapressu, so if you’re in the Burnaby area, check them out.

Address:
5242 Kingsway, Burnaby BC

Website:
https://teapressu.com/

There was high anticipation for the opening of Queen’s Cafe by Eighteen Chefs, a new Singaporean restaurant in Burnaby that was taken over by new management of the previous Hong Kong style – Queen’s Cafe. Not exactly sure why they kept part of the old restaurant’s name.

Either way, we were very curious about what they had to offer. My friends and I decided to come here for a quick dinner.

Interior

The whole interior has been redone, so it is much brighter and specious than the previous restaurant. There are even high chairs for kids if you need it.

Menu

Salted Egg Yolk Fries

We ordered this to share among the group and we couldn’t say no to salted egg yolk. The fried came in a tin and it comes with salted egg yolk dip on the side. Not exactly what I imagined. The fried were salty on their own, so dipping them into the salted egg yolk sauce made it even saltier. The fries were an ok texture, but could be a bit more crisp.

Beef Bolognese Cheese Baked Rice

This is more of a Hong Kong style dish. It took a while to arrive at the table as it needs to be baked in the oven. It has rice on the bottom, the beef bolognese sauce and topped with cheese. It was a decent baked rice dish but not the best.

Roti Prata with Curry

The Roti was very crispy and definitely needed more delicate and buttery layers. The curry was also super super salty. This was our least favourite dish and we could barely finish it.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

The Hainanese Chicken rice was very interesting. The rice was very soggy and moist. It was ok, but still had many flaws in execution.

Singapore Laksa

The Singapre Laksa was our favourite dish. Even though it was mild, it had a good kick of spice. The broth had a good depth of flavour. There is eggs, tofu puffs, fish cakes, and prawns in the laksa. We would order this again.

Final Thoughts

There were definitely hits and misses to the menu and there was only one dish that we enjoy and that was the laksa. Also, service is non-existent. On a weekend, we were one of the only people here, so it was pretty awkward.

Address:
7090 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Website:
https://www.eighteenchefs.ca/

I always look around Metro Vancouver for some good local hidden gems and most of the time I am disappointing. So, when I finally find something worth raving about, I get really excited. Adam’s Crepes is located on Rumble Street in Burnaby near Metrotown and there are raving reviews online. I’ve had a lot of crepes in Vancouver and none of them really stood out to me, so I’ve always been on the look out.

It’s been on my list to visit for some time now and I had to check it out with my friend and Baby E when we were looking for an afternoon dessert.

Interior

There are seats along the left side of the cafe and there is a booster seat and high chair available.

Menu

Nutella/Banana/Strawberry/Whipped Cream

This is a classic combination of flavours. They go through a lot of Nutella, this why there are so many Nutella jars in the store. The ratio of all the ingredients were great.

Cheesecake/Strawberry/Whipped Cream

They suggested that a lot of people add a syrup topping to this, so we decided to go with salted caramel. They make the salted caramel in-house, so you can really taste the difference.

When we cut the crepe, we were pleasantly surprised that it had a crunchy texture and it was nice and thin. Usually the crepes are pretty limp everywhere else, but it really worked to give the crepe a nice texture.

The creme is stunning when it comes out and I’ve never seen one so thick and lush. The cheesecake is beautifully cut and had the right amount of strawberries and whipped cream. The salted caramel was nice, but we found there was a touch too much of it inside the crepe. Nonetheless, it was still delicious.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed it and it’s definitely a hidden gem in Burnaby for authentic French crepes. I’ll definitely be back for some.

Address:
5217 Rumble St, Burnaby, BC

Website:
https://www.adamscrepes.com/

Tsujiri has opened their Metropolis at Metrotown Pop-up location near Superstore and Saint Germain Bakery. There has been much anticipation over the opening as it took over the previous Sweet Jesus retail spot. Now we don’t have to travel all the way to Richmond for Tsujiri.

When speaking to staff about this temporary pop-up, they will be around for at least 6 months as they find another larger permanent location.

We heard they were open for soft-opening, so we decided to come right when they opened today. I never thought I would get dessert at 10am, but why not? I really wanted to share their menu with you all.

Grand opening is set for February 1, 2020 and will have the same hours as the mall.

Interior

There isn’t much here except standing counter space. Its all to go so you can walk around the mall and enjoy your desserts and drinks.

Menu

Yuzu Citron Float

This has a base of the yuzu citron and then topped with your choice of matcha, hojicha, or mix. My husband loved this drink as you get a little taste of everything.

Hojicha Float

I got the hojicha float which has the hojicha frappe on the bottom and then topped with the mix option of matcha and hojicha. Very good deep flavour of hojicha.

Shiratama Parfait

The parfait has matcha warabi mochi, azuki red beans, matcha soft serve, sweet chestnut, shiratama mochi, syrup and a dusting of kinako powder.

It’s a pretty good size parfait to have a taste of what they have to offer. All the components of the parfait were good.

Brown Sugar Jelly Parfait

I haven’t seen this Brown Sugar Jelly Parfait being served anywhere else. It has brown sugar jelly, which are like denser pearls, matcha warabi mochi, matcha soft serve, syrup, sweet chestnut, shiratama mochi, and tea box monaka. It is sweeter than the other parfait bit the Brown Sugar Jelly was really good. It was a nice contrasting texture to the soft serve.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s a great addition to Metropolis at Metrotown even though it is temporary. Hopefully they decided to keep it around for longer. If you stop by for a quick drink or dessert, it’s good. It is a bit pricey but where else are you going to get this in Burnaby? They staff are very quick, so you don’t have to wait too long for your order.

I’d definitely go back as it’s so close to us.

Address:
4700 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://tsujiri.ca

Marutama Ramen is finally open in Burnaby on Kingsway just minutes away from Metropolis at Metrotown. I absolutely adore their delicious creamy chicken broth and I can’t get enough. Even Jason Momoa agree as he’s a regular at the Downtown location.

I would actually come here a lot to their Downtown location when they first opened. As I spend more time at home in Burnaby, I was super stoked to hear that it opened so close by. It’s actually a great spot as there definitely needs more good ramen shops in the area.

Line Up

As Marutama in Burnaby is just a few weeks old, it is drawing crowds for lunch and dinner. They open at 11:30am for lunch, so we ended up getting there at 11:45am because it’s hard to be on time anywhere with a baby.

We missed the first seating, but we were the 3rd in line asking for a table of 4. They asked us if we wanted to split up, but we said no, so the wait was around 10 minutes. The turnover is pretty quick and we noticed that people in groups of 2s got in and out very quickly.

Interior

There is one big communal table, and then a bunch of seats for 2s. It’s a decent size inside but it’ll be hard to get a big group in quickly unless you’re the first people there.

Kid Friendly

The space is cramped but they are kid friendly in a sense. I know I was nervous taking Baby E as its a busy place with limited space. Where we were seated, they provided a high chair, sippy cup, and kid friendly cutlery and scissors. It was a nice touch.

We left the stroller and car seat in the car. Normally I would attempt to take it in, but at 7 months, she’s fairing well with high chairs even though she looks like a tiny little nugget.

I did notice other families at the communal table with a stroller for a small baby and a high chair for their toddler. Just arrive early before the lunch hour to make sure they can seat you in a good spot.

Menu

Tamago Ramen

This is their signature item on the menu and I highly recommend it if it’s your first time here. It’s a great introduction to Marutama with their great chicken broth and marinated ramen egg. You also get two pieces of chashu, and AOSA sea lettuce. You can get this mild or spicy.

I’ve had both before and spicy gives you a nice kick of heat. On a regular day, I would go with the mild.

Also, don’t forget to add these beautiful garlic chips into your ramen. It’s pretty damn good.

Aosa Ramen [Add Egg]

This is my go to ramen since I love the AOSA, which is sea lettuce. Unlike seaweed, it has a great flavour and texture. Usually you don’t see this in ramen, but it pairs so well with their broth.

I added the ramen egg to it since it’ so good. The chashu was very dry when I went, so not as enjoyable.

Gyoza

The gyoza are hand made and then pan-fried. They come to the table with a crisp exterior and stuffed with pork and vegetables. There are 5 pieces to an order.

Cha Shu Gohan

The hot rice is topped with cha shu, pickled daikon, and green onions. It’s a nice side item to add to the meal. Or even a small dish to order if you’re not too hungry.

Final Thoughts

I really like Marutama and I would highly recommend it. The downside is that it is just terribly busy on weekends and also evenings. Weekday lunch is better as the wait is minimal.

Address:
5278 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC 

Website:
https://marutama.ca

I’ve been living in Burnaby since I was born and the food scene is always very diverse and I just love family owned businesses. Pizza Art opened up in Burnaby 3 months ago replacing Grano Pizza.

The family that owns it now is Turkish and they have added a few unique items on the menu – Lahmajoun and Turkish Kofte. Of course they have regular pizza options and some more fun flavours too like Mac & Cheese, Roast Beef, and alfredo sauce pizza too.

They source their meats from Alberta and they use quality ingredients. Their dough has a nice chew and it isn’t greasy at all.

Interior

It is a small shop with a few seats inside. You can get pizza by the slice for $2.15, which is popular. You can also get delivery through their website or order through delivery apps like Skip the Dishes or Door Dash.

Menu

Lahmajoun

Lahmajoun is essentially a meat pizza, sometimes even known as a Turkish Pizza. Pizza Art’s version has ground meat, veggies, pizza, and spces spread thinly on a thin piece of dough. It is meant to be wrapped with the toppings which can include lettuce, parsley, pickled onions, tomato, and lemon.

All you do is wrap it up and enjoy. It’s pretty unique and you definitely don’t see this at many places around town. Our friend loved it so much, he’s probably been back for this 3 times already.

Turkish Kofte

This is a type of kebab made of ground beef and they serve it with onions and tomatoes. It is wrapped around their pizza dough and it becomes like a sandwich. The Kofte was very soft and juicy.

Salmon Mist

This was one of our favourites! It has a lot of fresh and fragrant dill, paired with salty capers, tomato sauce, and red onions. They use BC wild salmon for this pizza.

Tuna Mild

The other side of that Salmon Mist pizza is the Tuna Mild. This has tomato sauce, tuna with mayonnaise, red onion, corn, and lemon. This was one of our favourites too and the combination of mayo with tuna wasn’t fishy at all.

Garden Rocket Funghi

This has alfredo sauce, mozzarella, Fior Di Latte, grana padano, mushrooms, red onion, and topped with fresh arugula. One of our top favourites too. How can you go wrong with mushroom and cheese. The arugula added a nice peppery finish.

Margherita

A classic pizza to order and it has tomato sauce, mozzarella, Fior Di Latte, and then topped with fresh basil, tomato, and olive oil. They pick the basil leaves off their basil plants, so it is very fresh.

Shrimp Bianco

This seafood pizza has alfredo sauce, mozzarella, shrimp, spinach, chopped garlic, and red onion. It’s a simple pizza and the ingredients work in harmony so nothing overpowers each other. It might even need a kick of spice to really enhance the flavours.

Shrimp Club

They don’t just have one shrimp pizza, they have two. This has Thousand Island sauce, mozzarella, wild pink shrimp, parmesan, and parsley flakes. We found this very odd to have Thousand Island sauce as the base, but apparently they did some market research and found it popular among Asian countries.

Butter Chicken

This butter chicken pizza has a butter chicken sauce as the base, mozzarella, cheddar, spicy chicken, red pepper, and red onions. It has a little kick of heat to this, which is nice.

BBQ Chicken

The BBQ Chicken pizza has BBQ sauce, mozzarella, grilled chicken, red peppers, red onions, and a BBQ drizzle on top. This is good if you like BBQ sauce. The grilled chicken was decent.

Meat Lovers

It’s not everyday you see roast beef on a pizza. It has tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, roast beef, ground beef, and cheddar. It is delicious.

Nutella Pizza

The Nutella Pizza only comes in medium size with Nutella, banana, strawberries, chocolate chip, chocolate drizzle, blueberries, and icing sugar.

Definitely a dessert pizza and great for kids or those with a sweet tooth. It’s a good combination with their chewy dough. The whole pizza sounds super sweet, but it wasn’t because of their dough, so the ratio of it balances out.

Final Thoughts

There are definitely a lot of pizza shops in Burnaby, but if you love supporting local family businesses and finding something unique with creative pizzas, definitely check out Pizza Art.

Our favourite items was the Lahmajoun, Salmon Mist Pizza, Tuna Mild Pizza, and Garden Rocket Funghi.

Address:
7239 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Website:
https://www.pizzaart.ca

Jinya Ramen Bar has quietly launched their new vegan menu items. Even though I’m not a vegan, their Spicy Creamy Vegan ramen is incredibly delicious. Once I had that broth, I was hooked. I honestly order it every time, sometimes with a side of chachu. I really appreciate the work that goes into crafting the ramen.

A few new item have been launched on the menu to give vegans and vegetarians more options. The vegan taco, vegan bun, and vegan rice bowl have been added.

Vegan Taco

This has soy meat, guacamole, and cilantro on a crispy taco shell made of wonton skin. It was really good and if you didn’t tell me what it was, I would think it was ground pork. I like the use of the wonton skin shell as its very crispy and didn’t seem to get soggy.

Vegan Bun

This has a steamed bun stuffed with pea protein patty (Beyond Meat), avocado, cucumber, and vegan mayo. When I took the first bite, I instantly knew it was Beyond Meat. I was very impressed that Jinya is on board with offering Beyond Meat on the menu. The patty has a good texture.

Vegan Rice Bowl

This is their plant-based rice bowl with soy meat, corn, atsuage tofu, cilantro, pickled red onion, and fried broccolini over steamed rice.

It’s a pretty sizeable portion and you’ll definitely get full. The tofu is served cold and most of the items are more room temperature. They did note that it’s supposed to be served this way. We did find that it needed more sauce as there was a good amount of rice.

Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen

It uses a vegetable broth, tofu, onion, crispy onion, spinach, garlic chips, garlic oil, chilli oil, sesame seeds, and served with thick noodle.

The broth is really amazing and the addition of the garlic oil and chili oil were delicious. They give you a good amount of tofu too, so you will be full after eating this ramen.

You can also add sides to the ramen like their egg, bamboo shoots or Brussels sprouts to make the meal more filling.

Drink Pairings

Jinya Ramen has a fully stocked bar with bartenders, so if you are looking for something to pair with the vegan dishes. Here they are.

Yuzu Fizu

Yuzu Fizu is their selection to pair with the vegan tacos. They use simple syrup, yuzu, carbonated water, and topped with 1908 Empress Gin. The yuzu gives an added sweetness that mellows out the gin. It was very refreshing.

Asahi Dry Black

This is the pairing to go with the Vegan Bun. This is one of my favourite beers too as there are notes of liquorice, chocolate, coffee, and nuts. It is easy to drink.

Sake

They have a variety of sake on the menu that pairs with their regular items and vegan items.

Oku No Matsu: Yusa Junmai Ginjo was what they highly recommended to have with the vegan rice bowl. It is well balanced and textured, soft sweet flavours, and has a clean finish.

Houou Biden – Akaban Junmai Daiginjo was their suggestion to go with the Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen. This is served in a wine glass to amplify the deep melon flavours and smooth textures.

Suutsu Fashion

Whisky based drink and it was like an Old Fashioned. I liked how they use one large ice cube to keep the drink cool. It had a good balance of the bitters and the garnish of the orange peel and cherry opened up the flavours.

Final Thoughts

I am a regular at Jinya Ramen Bar and their vegan options are very good, but the ramen is definitely pricey. Nonetheless, it is one of the best vegan ramen I’ve had so far. If you want to indulge and treat yourself, this is definitely it.

The vegan rice bowl is a good option too if you don’t want anything soupy. The vegan bun and vegan taco are good accompaniments too if you are super hungry.

Website:
https://jinya-ramenbar.com/

Weekend Tea is the latest cafe to open up in South Burnaby. They specialize in fruit-based drinks that are unique to this cafe.

There are a lot of bubble tea shops that have opened up on Kingsway recently, but they hone their craft of brewing fresh fruit teas.

Interior

The seating area is gorgeous with their garden wall and makes for great photos. There are a few seats for small groups but you can always push seats and tables together if you have more people.

Menu

Lychee Fruit Tea

There are bits of lychee, jelly, and the tea. The lychee and jelly bits added great texture. Very refreshing for the summer weather. Not too sweet either. We haven’t has lychee in a long time, so having this really brought us back to our childhoods.

Grape Yogurt

This was our favourite item! It has layers of grape slush with yogurt and then jelly bits inside. Surprisingly very good and the flavour of the grape really shined through. Remember to mix this drink so you incorporate the layers.

Yuan Yang (Coffee Milk Tea)

You can see the layer of milk tea and the coffee on top. Mix this up and then enjoy. The coffee was nice, strong and paired well with the milk tea. The coffee is more of the dominant flavour unlike the coffee milk tea you would find at Hong Kong style cafes.

Zang Mango

The Zang Mango has mango jam, mango bits, fresh milk, and cheese foam. Mix this up really well to incorporate the flavours. At first, it seemed like the weirdest combination, but we couldn’t stop sipping at it. The sweetness from the mango, and the salt from the cheese foam worked.

Golden Kiwi Fruit Tea

They use a whole golden kiwi in this drink as well as lime to balance the sweetness. It’s great that they use these kiwis rather than the green kiwi. The golden kiwi is sweeter and not as tart, which goes well in a fruit tea.

Pineapple Passionfruit Fruit Tea

This one is topped with salty cheese foam to compliment the sweetness of the fruits. I personally felt this was sweeter than the other drinks as pineapple and passionfruit are generally more sweet compared to other fruits.

Grapefruit Fruit Tea

The grapefruit fruit tea was very refreshing and loved the bits of grapefruit. Grapefruit and tea go very well together.

Assorted Fruit Tea

This is a drink you can find at other bubble tea shops in town and I just had to see how it stacks with the competition. It was well balanced and at regular sweetness, it wasn’t too sweet at all.

Honey Dew Yogurt

There are the layers of honey dew slush, yogurt and bits of jelly in the drink. Who knew honey dew and yogurt would go well together? Yet again, I was intrigued. If you love honey dew, you’ll enjoy this.

Brown Sugar Milk

There are pearls, brown sugar and fresh milk. After we mixed this drink up, we felt like it was too sweet. Not a fan of this one.

Final Thoughts

Overall, their fruit drinks are good for the hot summer weather. They don’t specialize in milk teas here, but the fruit teas are good especially the ones with yogurt. You can add pearls to your drink, but they suggest having it normal so you can get the true flavour of the drink that they intended it to taste. Some of the drinks do take some time to make, so when it’s busy, you might be waiting a bit.

Our favourites were the grape yogurt, zang mango, lychee fruit tea and coffee milk tea.

Address:
#101-5021, Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Hiel Cafe in Burnaby is a hidden gem that serves up coffee, sandwiches, poké, brunch, and soufflé pancakes. Located right at a very busy intersection, where most people pass by and don’t give this cafe a visit. I saw online that they have soufflé pancakes, so I had to come with my friend to give it a try.

Interior

The interior is very spacious and has lots of space especially if you have kids and strollers. Very family friendly, which is always appreciated. I usually lug around a stroller, so very happy to see a lot of space.

They also have a small area for meetings or large groups in this enclosed room, which is a nice touch.

If you have kids, I think you’ll appreciate this adorable tiny picnic table.

Menu

Einspänner

This is a Viennese coffee with 2 shots of espresso and a thick sweet cream on top. It’s actually really hard to find this in Vancouver since barely any cafe makes this nor does anyone really know about this. I really enjoyed it as it brought me back to the days in Vienna.

Latte

They also have another espresso based drinks like lattes. This is what my friend ordered. Very cute latte art on top.

Salmon Poké

I’m surprised they serve up poké. This has rice, seaweed, salad, tomato, cucumber, ginger, vinegar cured onions, sweet peas, corn, sesame oil, avocado, soy sauce, lettuce, and the raw salmon mixed with a house sweet mayo. There were large chunks of salmon but I wish it was wild salmon instead of this kind. I didn’t like the house sweet mayo either, but my personal preference would be more of the marinated salmon like other places.

Brunch Waffle

This comes with egg, smoked sausage, avocado, maple syrup, and butter with the pieces of waffle. A good hearty brunch.

Original Soufflé Pancake

This is a stack of 2 fluffy soufflé pancakes, sweet cream and berries. The pancakes are very airy and fluffy. Ones of the best I’ve had in Vancouver so far. Highly recommend it. If you had to go to one place in Vancouver, this would be the place.

It takes about 20 minutes to prepare, but its so worth it. They take a lot of care and effort to make this and it shows.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m very impressed by Hiel Cafe. I would skip the poké, but their other items are solid like the coffee, brunch and soufflé pancakes. It’s very family friendly and you don’t have to worry about cramped tables or it being too loud and busy. The parking is limited in the area as it’s a busy complex. You may need to make a few blocks over during busy times.

Address:
7885 6th St, Burnaby, BC

Old Street 老街小吃 is a restaurant located across from Metropolis at Metrotown specializing in Chinese Crepes and Taiwanese beef noodle soup. There’s more and more new restaurants in the area and it’s good to see plenty of options.

We were invited to give a few of their menu items a try, so I came with a few friends to see how it is.

Interior

There are a good amount of tables for groups of 2’s and 4’s but if you have a larger group, you can easily combine the tables to make it larger.

Menu

Old Street Fresh Fruit Tea

One of their signature drinks on the menu is their fresh fruit tea. You can choose it with green tea or red tea with the option of having it hot or cold. We went with cold and there was a good amount of citrus and berry fruits inside.

Milky Tea Series

They have a few different milk teas on the menu. We went with Honey Milk Tea and Matcha Milk tea. You can add toppings like pearls, coconut jelly or grass jelly. You can have it as a regular milk tea or green milk tea.

It’s good you can customize it with different tea options, but the menu doesn’t give you the option for ice levels or sweetness levels, but you can inquire with the staff.

Old Street Chinese Crepe

They are known for their Chinese Crepes and it’s hard to find them in this area of Burnaby. These are highly customizable. Each crepe is made with an egg, green onion, cilantro, sesame, and whatever else you want to customize it with.

We had it with green bean flour, spiced beef, dried pork flakes, pickled mustard, crisp fritter, and with a touch of spiciness. With the added spiced beef, this crepe was huge! It tasted pretty good and I love the crisp fritter to give it a nice crunchy texture inside.

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice

Our favourite item here was the Taiwanese meat sauce on rice. It has a good ratio of the meat sauce and rice, so all that sauce soaks into the rice. It also has half an egg with it too.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

In each bowl is marinated beef shank, veggies, pickled greens, green onions, cilantro and you can customize your noodle thickness and add any additional meats. We added in beef tripe and braised beef brisket to ours for an extra charge. The beef shank was a good size and tender. Broth was good with a good amount of spice as we asked for a little spice. The noodle soup was average but nothing really stood out too much.

Szechuan Style Chicken

Also known as saliva chicken but there is no saliva in this at all if you’re wondering. It’s a good size dish and the chicken is very tender and flavourful. A good amount of spice too.

Final Thoughts

It’s good to finally have a restaurant specializing in Chinese Crepes in the area. Even though it is a traditional breakfast item, that doesn’t stop you from having this for lunch or dinner. Some dishes are so-so but definitely stop by to see what Chinese Crepes are like.

Address:
4729 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC 

Colour See See is a new Shanghainese Dumpling shop located in Burnaby right across from Metropolis at Metrotown. I heard from a few people that I have to check this place out, so a few of us decided to come here on the weekend for lunch. Do be warned that service is also very slow. There is paid parking on the street and it is cash only under $30.

The name Colour See See sounds like a name suited for a hair salon, but it is in fact a play on a Chinese saying meaning “I’ll show you, just watch”.

Interior

The space is pretty small with just a few tables and the rest of the space is for their kitchen, storage, and washrooms. It can get pretty busy on a weekend.

Menu

Cold Soy Milk

This was a pretty standard soy milk. Nothing special about this.

Mini Wonton Soup

There are 10 mini wontons with pork filling in this soup. It also has green onions, parsley, egg, shrimp and seaweed. The mini wontons were really tiny, but there is another option on the menu for their regular wonton soup.

Pan Fried Buns

There are 4 buns to an order. Crisp on the bottom, a good thickness of the bun and the filling inside. We got the crab and pork filling and it was good to see the pieces of shrimp inside too.

Pan Fried Dumplings

There are 4 pieces to an order and we got it with crab meat and pork filling. The filling was nice and tasty. It was a small dish for $7.95 at almost $2 per dumpling which is a bit much, but then again its the crab that makes it cost so much.

Steamed Soup Buns

These come 6 to an order. The dumplings has a thin delicate skin with hot soup as well as the pork filling inside. Of all the dumplings, this was the favourite, but it’s hard to not like xiao long bao.

Final Thoughts

The experience overall was very subpar because it did take 1.5 hours for all the dumplings to come out for such small dishes. I understand it is all made to order by hand but other places are the same too, but it’s strange that the execution is so slow. Other restaurants in the area are much better. I wanted to like this place, but I won’t be back anytime soon.

Address:
4689 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Cafe Sweet & Beans is located in South Burnaby right under Sushi Oyama. They are a full-service restaurant offering a delicious menu with drinks, savoury and sweet dishes, as well as desserts.

We were invited to check out a few of their specials and enjoy brunch during the long weekend.

Interior

The interior is a good size and we did observe families having brunch here as well as lots of people on their laptops studying. A good mix of both I suppose, but either way, it’s pretty bumping in here.

You order at the counter and then find a seat to sit down.

Chicken Tower

The leaning tower is made of chicken wings of at least 6 pieces and they were pretty big as well. It’s a popular item to order and is coated with their spices with a tiny hint of spice.

They have this on special for Wing Wednesdays for $9.99 with purchase of a beverage. It’s originally on the menu for $13.

Belly Benny

This isn’t your typical eggs benedict. It’s more open-faced and kinda deconstructed around the plate. There are big cubes of pork belly, onion jam, raisin jam, hollandaise, sourdough bread, poached egg, arugula, cauliflower puree, and parmigiano cheese.

There’s definitely a lot going on in this plate, so it was hard to figure out where to start. Just dig in! Nonetheless, the dish was very delicious and the flavours did go well together.

Strawberry and Mango Lava Bread

There are a few different versions of the Lava bread like banana and Injeolmi. Injeolmi seemed to be pretty popular compared to all the flavours, but we went with Strawberry and Mango. The dessert is filling and can easily be shared among the table. We found it was a little heavy on the syrup on the bread but other than that, the fruits had a tasty glaze on it.

Mango Smoothie

The mango smoothie was half sweet and it’s a nice option for those who want their beverages less sugary. It was good and refreshing.

Matcha Latte

We got this in a large size with half sweet and it was a decent standard matcha latte. Nothing fancy.

Final Thoughts

Cafe Sweet & Beans has a lot of items on the menu that will cater to those who want a full meal or just want a drink to hang out with friends. It’s a good space to just chill, study, or have a meeting. It’s a much needed addition in this neighbourhood.

Address:
5152 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.cafesweetsnbeans.com

Stem Japanese Eatery opened in South Burnaby in 2017 and we finally made a visit by going to try their Chef’s Omakase set menu. We assumed its the best way to try the variety on the menu while utilizing seasonal ingredients.

The Chef’s Omakase

The Chef’s Omakase has around 9 courses and changes daily. They only do 8 servings a day and you need to reserved at least 24 hours in advanced. It costs $88 per person and will take about 2.5 hours.

This menu does not include tea or dessert in the price, it’s extra.

Uni with dashi broth starts the meal to cleanse the palate. The uni is really fresh and goes well with the dashi broth.

The second item has a golden iced snapper steamed with sea salt on top. It was an odd nigiri as I’ve never experienced steamed fish on rice in nigiri form.

The third items is an appetizer platter with 6 small dishes. The dishes varied in tastes and were about 2 bites. Very clean flavours but the flavours weren’t very deep or complex.

Baby Anchovies on Rice

Steamed monk fish on seaweed

Salad of kiwi and asparagus

Firefly squid with miso, bamboo, seaweed, and cucumber

Grated mountain radish with uni and tuna

Rapini and tofu in dashi broth

Sake soup with tempura, white miso, Saba, and bok choy. This was the fourth item in the omakase. It tasted predominantly of miso and it didn’t tie any of the ingredients together.

The fifth item is 5 pieces of sashimi with flounder, blue fin chu toro, and amberjack. It is served with yuzu sauce. These 3 types were ok but wasn’t that impressive. I was looking forward to the chutoro but it wasn’t melt in your mouth.

This has curry tofu, Hokkaido Scallop, uni sauce, and their seaweed dashi broth. This was a pretty good dish and the seaweed dashi broth was more gelatinous in texture but went well with the tofu and scallop.

Chawan Mushi is a savoury egg custard and its made with free-range eggs, mussels, soy bean, bamboo, and ikura on top. It was an ok dish but the egg custard was more on the bland side.

This dish has a few pieces of maple soy meadows duck, celerac puree, and a crisp kombocha pumpkin. The duck as delicious! The celerac puree didn’t pair so well with the duck.

Rice pot with oysters, mushrooms, and pork. It is also served with miso soup and veggies on the side. This was one of the more filling dishes but yet again needed a bit more salt or something more to tie all the items together.

Dessert

We added $5 for dessert as I wanted to see how it would be like. We opted for just 1 of them. We asked the waitress what it was prior but she didn’t have an idea so we were left in suspense.

When it arrived, there was apple tempura, a cheese foam with a waffle and fruits. Then some sort of ice cream which didn’t have a pleasant taste.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we thought the omakase for 2 people wasn’t worth the price nor were there any dishes that wow’d us. We would have much preferred to order off the regular menu and spent considerably less money. Even some people who sat beside us wasn’t impressed with the omakase as they did issues with a few dishes.

We’ve had some better omakase at a lower price point. They do use premium ingredients in their dishes like OceanWise seafood, fish from Japan, organic ingredients where possible, but the taste really falls flat. Perhaps it’s their traditional Kappo cuisine, the Japanese culinary art of cutting and cooking with seasonal ingredients that just didn’t translate well to the dishes we had.

Address:
5205 Rumble Street, Burnaby, BC

Website:
https://stemjapanese.ca

Alvin Garden is located in South Burnaby just behind Metropolis at Metrotown. They have been around for many years specializing in Szechuan cuisine. They have been recipients of the Chinese Restaurant Awards and Vancouver Magazine restaurant Awards for many years and is quite reputable. It’s actually located close to our home but we never came here until now. I wanted to take my family somewhere we havn’t been before so this was a perfect opportunity.

Scroll to the bottom of the article for the whole menu. (All 23 pages hahaha).

Interior

The interior isn’t that special but the space did fill up quite quickly, so I was glad I made reservations ahead of time. If you’re coming in on a weekend, doesn’t hurt to have a reservation.

Soup

We started with a large soup containing lettuce and taro. Surprisingly very flavourful and delicious. A large size for 7 of us was perfect so everyone can try it and get seconds if they like it.

Stir Fried Beef and Onion

This was also a very flavourful dish. Remember to get a bucket of rice on the side to soak up the juices. Very good portions too.

Mouth Watering Chicken

This is a must order dish and highly recommend. It is delicious and tender cooked chicken with chili oil and peppers. Even though it looks spicy, it has a good amount of fragrant peppers that isn’t mouth numbingly spicy. Those who can’t tolerate too much spice also enjoyed this dish.

Tea Smoked Duck

You can get this as a half duck or a whole duck. For the 7 of us, we opted for the half as we had quite a few dishes ordered. It was a good size as there are a lot of pieces.

Good flavour of the tea and smokey flavours penetrating the meat. Very enjoyable.

Stir-fried Garlic Bolt with Hunan Smoked Pork

Another popular dish on the menu, I love the garlic bolts as its like a mild green onion and garlic combination. Pairs well with the pork slices very nicely.

Cumin Lamb

This is a very popular dish and I love the cumin spices with lamb. So good! It also has red peppers and green onions. The lamb is tender too.

Dongting Broiled Fish in Chili Soup

Even though you see all the chili oil and red peppers, it’s not too spicy at all. Very good amount of fragrant spice that won’t numb or sting your mouth badly. Highly recommended as the dish is very moist and tasty.

Cauliflower with Hunan Chili and Pork

This was the last dish to arrive and it looked like most tables ordered this too. It has cauliflower, thin slices of pork belly in their Hunan Chili oil.

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed Alvin Garden for their Szechuan cuisine. The prices are very fair and the food is well executed. All the dishes were a hit and none of them were disappointing. Even with all the peppers, its still a good place to have spice and non-spicy eaters all at one table.

Address:
4850 Imperial St, Burnaby, BC

Menu

YiFang Taiwan Fruit Tea is now open on Kingsway near Boundary. They are best known for their fruit teas as well as brown sugar pearl latte, which is only available during certain times during the day.

They only accept cash and debit.

YiFeng Fruit Tea

It is made with Taiwan pineapple sauce, fresh passion fruit, apple, orange and jade tea. I got it with 30% ice and 30% sugar. One of their most popular drinks and it doesn’t disappoint at all. I love the passion fruit seeds as they are crunchy when you bite down on them.

Black Sugar Soft Pearl Latte

Chewy black sugar peals in sun moon lake black tea and fresh local organic milk. You can’t change the sweetness level or ice levels with this drink. The pearls and the brown sugar come warm while the milk and tea are cold on top. Make sure to give it a nice mix when you’re about to drink it.

It was ok, but there was a bit too much brown sugar to milk tea ratio, so it was sweeter than other places.

Black Tea Latte

This has sun moon lake black tea and fresh local organic milk. M order this with 50% sweetness and 70% ice. It was ok compared to the other places around town.

Final Thoughts

It’s a good addition to the neighbourhood even though there are a lot of other bubble tea shops in the area. It just gives people more choices.

Address:
 3612 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC

Website:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/YifangCanada

MYST Asian Fusion in Burnaby is a Taiwanese restaurant and they have recently revamped their menu to add even more dishes. We came to try a few of these new dishes. Since they have opened, this restaurant has been very busy at peak hours attracting people in the Lower Mainland.

Golden Sand Prawns with Salted Egg Yolk

This dish was delicious. The salty yolk is coated on the exterior, so its pretty yummy sucking on it.

Marinated Combo

Pork intestines, beef tripe, and beef tendon were the items my friend chose for this trio. I didn’t particularly like it since I’m not always a fan of organs.

Chinese Style Tea Smoked Duck

I love tea smoked duck and I still enjoyed it even if it was slightly over cooked. The smoked aroma just gets me every time.

MYST Deluxe Fried Rice

This fried rice is topped with pork floss, egg and a skewer of prawns. Delicious and easily shareable among the table or have it all to yourself.

Preserved cabbage, bamboo, green soy beans and sliced fish

I really enjoyed this dish since it has delicate dish, chew of the bean, and crunch of the bamboo. Healthy too. One of the favourite dishes of the night.

Sichuan dan dan noodle with spicy peanut sauce

This dish was so good. It had a little kick to the dish which was good as it pulled the dish together. I would order this again.

Assorted seafood spicy hot pot

This was really spicy. Because of the heat, it really numbs your mouth after a few bites. The fragrant aroma was there but it was a touch too spicy for me.. and everyone else at the table.

Steamed sliced fish with diced hot red peppers

It’s not as hot as it seems. The fish was very moist and delicious.

Myst assorted deep fried basket

If you like a diverse amount of fried item in one basket, this has squid tentacles, green beans, salt peppery chicken and black rice cake on top of shrimp crackers. Great item to share with a large group.

Myst deluxe feast platter

This is a bit different than the fried basket and it has fries, prawn chips, tiger prawn skewers, pineapple and sausage wrapped in bacon, and deep fried prawns.

Three Spice Chicken

I enjoyed this for the excessive amount of fried ginger and chicken. It would taste really good with a bowl of rice.

House special fried sliced noodle with beef

This is a very classic dish of any Chinese restaurant and it was good. The beef was tender and the noodles had a good bite to it.

Mango Shaved Ice

This mystical dessert was an exciting end to the meal. When the water hits the fdry ice, it’s quite a show. You’ll want to take pictures or even a video. When we went, it wasn’t mango season, so the mango wasn’t fresh. Now that it is in season, it will be super fresh.

Condensed milk thick toast

This was the last item to arrive at the table and it’s not as exciting as the shaved ice.

Final Thoughts

Myst continually adds new items to their menu and its good to see the variety especially if you come with a group with differing tastes. There’s always something for everyone here. Sometimes Myst can get very busy and parking can be a bit tough, but there is parking on the main road.

Address:
6400 Kingsway, Burnaby

Website:
http://www.myst6400.com/

Fresh Ideas Start Here is a great local store to get fresh sustainable seafood in Burnaby and Kitsilano. They recently launched their sustainable poké bar with 6 different poke bowls or your can build your own. There isn’t space to eat in here, so it is all for take-out. I bought mine and headed home and has it for lunch.

The prices are higher, but you definitely get quality items in your bowl. All the fish is Oceanwise certified, which is really nice. I preferred to build my own bowl since I like to keep my poke as simple as possible.

Step 1: Pick your base
Japanese White Rice, Brown Rice, or Salad Mix

Step 2: Pick your fish
Wild BC Sockeye Salmon
Cooked West Coat Octopus
Pacific Yellowfin Tuna
Pacific Yellowfin Negitoro

Step 3: Pick your toppings
Salsa, cucumbers, seaweed salad, pickled red onion, Oshinko (pickled radish), kimchi, pickled ginger, imitation crab meat, sweet inari, masago, edamame, or Squid Salad.

Sauces:
Classic, spicy mayo, Korean Chili, or Thai style

Step 4: Pick your finish
Green onion, Furikake, fried onion or toasted sesame seeds.

All the ingredients looked really fresh and I couldn’t wait to dig in at home. I got a regular bowl and then a snack sized bowl.

Pacific Yellowfin Tuna

For the snack-sized bowl, it comes with one type of fish, 2 toppings and a finisher. I got the Pacific Yellowfin Tuna, seaweed salad, cucumber, furikake and the classic sauce on mixed greens.

Wild BC Sockeye Salmon and Pacific Yellowtail Negitoro

A regular bowl gets you 2 types of fish, 3 toppings and a finisher. I got the  Wild BC Sockeye Salmon, Pacific Yellowtail Negitoro, edamame, seaweed salad, tobiko, toasted sesame, brown rice and the classic sauce.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the poké bowls and the toppings are simple and complimented the fish well so it still stands out. The best part about coming here for poké bowls is that you can also go shopping for good other seafood items if you want to make dinner.

We Rate FISH

Address:
#180 -7515 Market Crossing, Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.eatfish.ca/

The Pie Hole opened their new location in Burnaby this weekend. Their first location is on Fraser Street and since it was a hit, they opened this one in Burnaby. Great for me since I live in Burnaby. Jenell Parsons is the owner of The Pie Hole. She spends countless hours in the kitchen baking, creating new recipes and delivering pie delicious pies to those in the Lower Mainland. I remember way back in 2011 when they first started out at the Baker’s Market in Vancouver. They have come a long way in 7 years.

Interior

The space in the Burnaby location is pretty large. There are 3 large refrigerators that have ready to cook pies and ice cream. Pie and ice cream go great together.

Near the counter are the pies that you can buy by slice or the whole pie. You can find sweet and savoury varieties.

You never know what pies they will have, so you might want to order the pies that you want online and then pick it up. We wanted some banana cream pie, but it wasn’t ready when we were there.

Hand Pies

Since it was early on in the day, we picked up some savoury hand pies to enjoy for lunch. We took them home and reheated them at 350F for 10 minutes.

Chicken Carbonara

Chicken Carbonara pie sounded pretty unique and is made with chicken, cream, parmesan cheese, bacon, flour, butter, peas, onions, mozzarella, garlic, sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, water, and free run eggs. Delicious flakey exterior and meaty pieces of chicken inside.

Bacon Cheeseburger

Bacon Cheeseburger pie is made with ground beef, cheddar cheese, milk, flour, butter, mozzarella, bacon, pickles, mustard, onions, salt, sugar, pepper, water, sesame seeds, vinegar, and free run eggs. One of the popular flavours and it was moist with good flavour.

Mini Pies

They were giving way 100 mini pies to their first 100 customer when the store opened, so, the hubby and made sure we were the fist people to get there. I got the Butter Pecan and he got the Buttermilk Apple Crumble.

Buttermilk Apple Crumble

In this delicious mix are Granny Smith apples and Gala apples mixed with that butter brown sugar crumble. Nice flaky crust with the crunch of the crumble.

Butter Pecan

This is my ultimate weakness. Ooey gooey and  has a good amount of pecans. My favourite kind of pie.

Chocolate Cream Pie

This slice was beautiful as it has dark chocolate ganache, chocolate silky layer, fresh whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle.

Final Thoughts

About time for a pie shop to open in Burnaby. I enjoyed their sweet pies over their savoury pies but maybe thats because I have a little sweet tooth. Either way, it’s good to have more pie options in the subburbs.

We Rate the Pie Hole

Address:
7832 6th St, Burnaby

Website:
https://www.thepiehole.com/