South Burnaby Archives - Page 5 of 6

In Chinese

Fortune House Seafood Restaurant: Most Rude Service!

November 14, 2011

BusanGirl really wanted some Dim Sum, so I took her to Fortune House Seafood since it’s in Metrotown. I’ve been there before and I’ve never had any problems here. This visit was quite different and I was pretty annoyed by the horrible service they gave us.

We arrived just in time for last call at 2:30pm since they close their lunch service at 3pm. The hostess was quite rude and told us to order what we wanted as we waited for our table. We shrugged it off since it was a very busy day for them.

When we arrived at the table, we gave the server our order right away. The dim sum took a long time to arrive and the manager kept pressuring us to pay before our orders even arrived. He didn’t say anything, but he kept opening the little receipt folder to check if we paid it. Just to keep things interesting, we did not pay till the end of our meal. He kept making gestures to make us pay faster before we finished our meal.

They even started rearranging their table set up during the lunch service to prepare for their dinner service. A majority of the diners were still eating and seeing the servers move walls and tables around were super distracting. We heard the managers apologizing to other tables but when they approached our table, they told us to pay the bill. Rude much?

Tea ($1/per head) is charged on your bill without them informing you. They have a good selection of tea as well. If you are really really against paying the tea fee, I’ve heard you can just argue with the manager to remove it. I’ve never paid the tea fee when I go with my family…but this time I was charged. We were kinda mad, but just let it go.

Jumbo Shrimp Dumplings ($5.75) were quite large and tasted good. What I like to do is ask them for some hot sauce since I like a little heat.

Fried Mixed Meat Dumpling ($4.25) is not as big as other places I’ve been too. The sticky dumpling skin is not as thick as other places. Also, their filling is very little compared to other places too. What BusanGirl liked about this was that there was little “meat smell”, which she liked.

Steamed Beef Rice Roll ($5.25) is one of the classic items to get. It has nice minced beef in the middle wrapped with a rice roll with soy sauce on top.

Deep Fried Squid ($7.50) made me quite disappointed. For the price, it was small and lacked flavour. It also looked unappetizing too. It tasted alright, but needed some more salt.

Fortune House Seafood is a very popular Dim Sum restaurant to go to but it can get really really busy and LOUD. Make reservations ahead of time.The price is a bit expensive compared to other chinese restaurants in Vancouver. I think it’s really popular due to the location since it is in Metrotown.

Words of Wisdom:

Make reservations if going for Dim Sum
If you can’t read Chinese, there is an english menu
Lots of parking, closest parking is to park near Urban Behaviour/Zara area.
Pretty expensive compared to other places
Rude and rushed service
Avoid going near 2pm

We rate Fortune Seafood House:

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

In Bubble Tea

The One: Decent Food, Decent Prices

November 13, 2011

Since my mechanic is right beside The One, I needed somewhere to kill time. The closest thing was The One for some Taiwanese food. Since I was starving from a long day of school already, I was ready to chow down with my sister. They are known for their HUGE slush drinks that are super tall.

Preserved Egg With Tofu ($3.25) is definitely not for everyone. It has 2 slices of tofu with preserved egg on top with a sweet sesame sauce. I really liked it but I found that their yolk could have a be more creamy.

Meat Sauce on Steam Rice with Vegetable ($6.50) comes with side dishes too. Really good value since you get the bowl of rice and meat in addition to the 4 side dishes. Good price.

The One Wonton Soup with Noodle ($7.95) was quite horrible this time around. The bowl was HUGE and had so much noodle that I found it a very hard challange to finish it all. The wontons tasted so-so and bland. Also, the soup tasted like it had a lot of MSG inside.

Overall, I think a few dishes are a hit and a miss, but the pricing is very good.

Words of Wisdom:

Large portions
Under $10
Fried Chicken Nuggets!
Free parking in the front lot

We Rate The One:

Address:

5908 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
theonerestaurant.ca

In Cafe

Accord Food House: Amazing Taiwanese Noodles + Desserts

November 11, 2011

M and I were at Metrotown and we wanted to eat something delicious during the cold cold night. I really wanted noodles since the weather calls for it. My sister kept telling me to go to Accord since they have really good taiwanese food. We decided to take a visit. We almost walked past it since it really did not look nice from the outside.

If you have the same feeling too, just go inside since you will discover some delicious food.

The interior is quite small and homey. The interior is so-so, but at least it’s much better looking on the inside. Most tables are in 4’s, so best to come in 4’s.

Their menu is written on 2 large chalk boards. Left board is drinks and desserts and on the right it’s their food.

Italian Soda ($4.95) is something to set your eyes upon. I don’t know whats in it, but it tasted really good! Definitely worth a try!

Royal Milk Tea ($4.25) was super hot. Since it’s in a double-walled cup, it doesn’t get cold easily. The milk tea had a good taste, but it burned the heck out of my tongue. So, make sure it cools down before you drink it….or you can always get the cold version.

Tomato Beef Noodle ($8.95) has the most tender beef, with fresh veggies, tomatoes and a super yummy broth! One of the BEST Beef Noodles I have ever had!! Highly recommended!

My Grandpa Chinese Pasta ($7.95) has fresh vegetables, tomatoes with a yummy meat sauce. M thought it was alright.

Dark Chocolate Custard ($5.95) is topped off with berries, currants and oranges. I found that the fruit took away from the dessert. The chocolate custard tasted good, but it seemed a bit small for the price.

Parfait ($7.95) was pretty epic. It had loads of fruit, whipped cream, ice cream and wafers. It’s a super fun dessert to share! I got my hands kinda sticky from picking at all the fruit.

Overall, really good assortment of items that they offer. We noticed that it can be easy to spend a little….but in our case we did end up spending a lot trying everything.

Words of Wisdom:

Super ugly exterior, but don’t be afraid to go inside
Italian Soda, Parfait, Tomato Beef Noodle are highly recommended
Best to come in 4’s
Pay parking on street

We Rate Accord Food House:

Address:

4611 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H

Vancouver

In Bakery

Manzano European Bakery: All About The Cookie

October 23, 2011

Manzano European Bakery relocated at Metrotown closer to The Bay. They have bee in Metrotown for a long long time. They have lots of baked goods, cakes, and sandwiches. What is good about this bakery is that they have gluten-free items as well!

Chocolate Croissant was not very crispy on the outside, it was pretty limp and doughy. I left the croissant in the bag for a while, so the chocolate drizzle on the top broke off. When I was biting into it, the chocolate drizzle kept cracking off, so it would end up all over my shirt.

The inside has a decent amount of chocolate. Some places but in one chocolate stick, but they have two! Overall, I thought it was alright, but nothing mind-blowing.

Chocolate Chip Cookie ($1.49) is the best thing to get here! At least in my opinion because I’ve been buying these cookies since I was a little kid. It was always a treat to get these since it’s so huge and the chocolate center is always the last thing I eat. Theres lots of chocolate chips in the whole cookie and then the huge one in the middle.

Words of Wisdom:

Just get the cookie…
Lots of parking at Metrotown!

We Rate Manzano:

Address:

4820 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H

In Portuguese

Nando’s Flame Grilled Chicken: Good chicken, but everything else sucks

October 19, 2011

I keep having bad experiences at Nando’s, so I decided to give it one last shot. I’ve been to the other Kingsway location, but I thought the mall location couldn’t be too bad. They specialize in peri peri chicken, which is their flame grilled chicken.

Since it was just me, myself and I. I decided to look towards the “Classic Meals for One”, how depressing! I actually don’t mind since no one needs to watch me chow down. their prices are alright, but can get pricy if you keep adding stuff onto your meal.

Quarter chicken theight meal with Greek salad ($9 +$1). When you upgrade to the greek salad, you gotta pay a dollar more. The salad did not look like it was worth $1 more, the leaves were not fresh and started to change colors. I was scared…but since I’m asian I ate it anyways. The onions didn’t look fresh either, it seemed like it was cut a while ago and just refrigerated for a long time. Best to stay away from the salad.

The chicken on the other hand was pretty good! I got their medium peri peri sauce to give it a kick. What is very disappointing is that their sauce is just smothered on top. I kinda wanted more sauce since the flavour does not seep all the way down into the meat. The thing I like about the chicken is the nice smokey flavour, but I don’t think it’s worth the money you pay.

I think by now I’ve given Nando’s enough chances, so it’s time to say goodbye and keep on eating Church’s Chicken instead.

Words of Wisdom:

Wilted and unfresh salads
Slightly expensive for what you pay for
Decent chicken

We Rate Nando’s Flame Grilled Chicken:
Address:
4820 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
Website:
nandoscanada.com

In Chinese

Tai Wan Restaurant: Amazing Korean Style Chinese Food

August 28, 2011

I was at Metropolis Comics & Toys near Metrotown buying some KidRobot Figurines, when M wanted to get some food close by. He didn’t want to walk far to find food, so we stayed on the same block to find something. I was so surprised at the restaurants on the block! I always thought it was super sketch.

Turns out there is a restaurant called Tai Won specializing in Korean-Style Chinese food. If you have never had Korean Style Chinese food, you must have some! It might even be better than authentic Chinese food. At one point, the restaurant was pretty packed for dinner time.

The tea is complementary like most restaurant and comes in a tea pot.

Their menu is quite simple and does not offer a large array of choices. Nonetheless, the items are good.

Like most Korean restauants, they provide you with complementary side dishes called banchan. Instead of the usual spicy sides such as kimchi, they have pickled radish and cabbage. It is pickled in vinegar and sugar. These are some of my favorite side dishes … and I ate all of them by myself. I didn’t want to share with M. hehehe.

Koon Man Doo / Deep Fried Dumplings ($6.99) has choppped pork and veggies inside. It is perfectly deep fried and has a nice crunch when you bite into it. One of my favorite dumplings ever. Definitely recommended.

Since you want some dipping sauce for the dumplings. Mix these 3 ingredients together. I think it’s vinegar, soysauce and chili powder. Mix these all together and you will get the perfect sauce to go with your fried dumplings.

Bo Keum Bab ($7.99) has fried rice with veggies, shrimp and ham. It is them topped off with the traditional korean black bean sauce. M really liked the dish.

Yoo San Seul Bab ($8.99) has rice with assorted veggies, pork and seafood on top. There’s a lot of sauce, so when you mix it around you will have plenty of sauce and taste of the rice. It kinda reminded me of the chinese egg swirl with rice, but with no egg. Still very delicious.

Overall, very good place despite the somewhat sketchy location.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in rear
Under $10
Deep Fried Dumplings, Bo Keum Bab and Yoo San Seul Bab recommended
Closest Skytrain: Metrotown

We Rate Tai Wan (태원) Restaurant:

Address:

4727 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H

In Japanese

Nao Sushi: Disappointing Food and Service

August 11, 2011

It was another sushi adventure with M and Fabo. After our final exam, we wanted some sushi in the Metrotown area and found Nao Sushi. People in the area rave about this place and their good food, so I wanted to see if it is really as good as people say. They sell similar items to other restaurants like Sushi Town, Sushi California and Sushi Garden.

At first glance this place looked really large and all the seats were filled so it must be a popular place.

Indeed, the inside was full of people. It took the servers a while to get us a seat, even though there was an empty table right in front of us. Throughout the night, the service was not that great and our tea cups grew empty.

Sashimi salad ($7.95) has mixed greens, salmon, seared tuna, ebi, and tako with citrus sauce and crispy wonton crisps on top. The top half of the salad was good, but the rest of it was very soggy at the bottom. There was a lot of liquid and it probably came from the excess water from washing the vegetables.

A plus is that there is a good amount of sashimi with this salad.

Gyoza ($3.50) comes with 5 pieces and was very plain. It seems like this was just pre-frozen and just boiled in water. It’s really not worth what you pay and you can get the same quality by buying the frozen gyozas from T&T.

Veggie tempura ($4.20) was disappointing. It wasn’t cooked well enough so some of the vegetables were very tough to eat… especially for the carrots and yams.

Salmon Sashimi ($9.80) has 7 pieces and was uniformly cut. Nothing wrong with this. The salmon sashimi was slightly more expensive than usual places.

Chopped Scallop Roll ($4.25) was alright, nothing too special at all.

Spicy Tuna Roll ($3.25) was a big disappointment, it has a bit of cucumber and tuna, but it lacked the spicy flavour that makes it a spicy tuna roll.

Sound Trap Roll ($8.50) was delicious. M really liked the sesame on top of the roll and it gives it a nice texture. The inside was deep fried eel and cream cheese, since he is a fan of cream cheese, he loved it. I had a few of them and it was really good!

The prices of some items were reasonable. For the dinner time, the bento boxes seemed very very expensive. I wasn’t too impressed by Nao Sushi and we all didn’t have a good impression either.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on adjacent streets
Well priced
Some items poorly executed
Slow mediocre service
Good Sashimi

We Rate Nao Sushi:

Address:

7060 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.naosushi.com

In Japanese

Makoto Japanese Restaurant: South Burnaby Sushi Joint

July 31, 2011

Makoto is a Japanese restaurant in the Burnaby South area on Royal Oak and Rumble. I don’t normally go close to this area, but M wanted a short dinner meeting with ScarFace, ChinaHat and AwkwardGirl.

They are one of the top Japanese restaurants in the Burnaby South area, so I wanted to see if it was as good as people say. They sell the usual Japanese dishes you would see at any other restaurant.

The interior is not too big but they can configure the tables so they can sit 10 people. If you are doing this, you probably want to call ahead of time.

They have sashimi, nigiri, rice, soup salads, donburi, noodles, agemono, teriyaki, rolls and other combos.

M ordered the Chicken Yakisoba ($8.50). Yakisoba is fried Japanese noodles and their version includes snap peas, eggs, carrots, and onions. Topped with pickled red ginger and dried seaweed.

ScarFace ordered the Beef Yakisoba ($8.50), which is exactly the same but with different meat. They came way way later than all our meals. Tasted really good, but took way too long to arrive at the table.

AwkwardGirl and I shared the Dinner Combo A ($25.95) It comes with tempura, california roll, salmon roll, nigiri and beef teriyaki. You also get 2 of sunomono, miso soup and rice.

The miso soup is just the regular you would find at other places, they don’t add much to it.

The Sunomono has plenty of shrimp, which I like! Otherwise, nothing else is different about this dish.

The Tempura, which is the appetizer size was really good. It has the usual vegetables and 2 ebi and had a good amount of batter and crispiness.

The salmon and the california rolls were pretty good and well put together.

The 4 pieces of nigiri – salmon, tuna, ebi and tamago. They were quite decent, but the pieces on top are not as large as other places such as Sushi Town.

The beef teriyaki was really really good! It was thinly sized and has a very delicious sauce. The downside is that it was pretty small. The green salad on the side had a nice light citrus sauce and it was also good.

Overall, the food was pretty good. We found that the service was a bit slow and it would have been better if some peoples dishes arrived closer together rather than 10 or even 15 minutes apart.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash Only
Slow and mediocre service
Yakisoba is good!

We Rate Makoto Japanese Restaurant:

Address:

5213 Rumble St
Burnaby, BC

In Japanese

Hi Genki: Dining In An Old Folks Home

July 30, 2011

Located inside the Nikkei Home near Middlegate Mall on Kingsway is an assisted living home for seniors. Of all places, I would not have expected a Japanese restaurant would be inside here. Hi Genki is owned by Fujiya and operated within the Nikkei Home. They sell traditional Japanese food to the public as well as their senior residences.

M took ConsultingGirl and I here since he heard the food was really good.

Trying to figure out how to park your car is a bit confusing at first. Just drive into their underground parking lot, which has complementary parking. Follow the signs in the parkade and walk up the stairs till you see the front of the Nikkei Home. Then walk through the main entrance beside the receptionist to get to Hi Genki. It’s not too complicated, so you won’t get lost.

Their hours are a bit strange, so they are not always open all the time. Not exactly sure if “Sun-Sat” means the whole week or just Sunday and Saturday for lunch, so just call them to make sure.

They have a few special dishes that are layed out at the entrance. Don’t forget to grab a peak at all the dishes just in case something catches your eye. Plus, you will know what you are ordering before hand!

Their regular menu is in a booklet and their specials are on a hand written menu.

The Salmon Sashimi ($4.95) are the normal ones you would find at any sushi joint but was really nicely sliced. It’s not very large, but it is something light and refreshing.

Tonkatsu Donburi ($6.95) is deep fried breaded pork cutlet with egg. This was pretty large and had a lot of rice, you will get full. M really liked it.

Satsuma Curry ($8.95). has fish cake with curry sauce. The fish cake looked super cool and is embedded with carrots and other thin vegetables.

Deluxe Genki Box ($12.50) has salmon sashimi, assorted tempura, chicken teriyaki, rice and miso soup.

The salmon sashimi is the same as the one above. I really like sashimi because its very clean tasting compared to cooked salmon. The assorted tempura had the usual vegetables, but it was not the crispiest we have had. We found the chicken teriyaki to be a bit sweet for our liking. Plus, the size of the teriyaki was quite small and not as tender and moist as other places. Looked a bit burnt too.

The bento box was just ok, but nothing amazing.

Green Tea Ice Cream ($2.95) was yummy and it had a subtle green tea taste. This is probably the usual green tea ice cream of any other restaurant, I doubt they make it themselves.

The Mango Ice Cream ($2.95) was good as well, but it was more sweet than the green tea. I had a bit of both of the ice creams and after eating the mango, the green tea was over powered but the mango. The green tea was hard to taste.

M ordered the Ice Cream Cake ($2.95). It is basically not the “ice cream cake” you usually think of, but a roll cake with ice cream on top.

Overall, the food was good and quite affordable. It was quite interesting dining in such an unusual location.

Words of Wisdom:

Salmon Sashimi is good!
Very Affordable
Free Underground Parking

We Rate Hi Genki:

Address:

6680 Southoaks Cres
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.fujiya.ca/aboutFujiya/hiGenkiRestaurant.asp

In Fast Food

M’s Food Court Corner: The Return of the KFC Double Down

June 15, 2011

Welcome to another M’s Food Court Corner! Today I tried the Double Down from KFC at Brentwood Mall. Yep, they just had to bring this heart attack in a box back for a limited time. For those who never heard of this infamous creation of gluttony, the Double Down is 2 chicken breasts put together with Swiss Cheese, a sort of an aioli sauce, and bacon in the middle. No bread; the chicken is the bread!

I tried taking down the Double Down when it came to Canada late last year. However, the three attempts I tried it, I couldn’t finish more than half of it. The reason was that the 2 chicken breasts were unbearably salty. Like literally eating rock salt with bacon and cheese. I asked the KFC workers on the third attempt to make the chicken breasts less salty, but they said they couldn’t change anything! I should’ve said, “Screw you guys, I’m going home” but nope, had to bite a block of salt that is the Double Down again.

I wouldn’t have taken the Double Down ever again, even if it came back, but a recent commercial on TV from KFC said that the chicken breasts were the Colonel’s Original Recipe. I decided to do another plunge of faith and I’m happy to announce I was not disappointed. First the price is of course ridiculous, $6.99 for the Double Down by itself and $8.99 for the combo. Might as well get the combo. I guess if it was any less expensive, Canadians might get as fat as Americans. They said it would take 5 minutes to prepare so we just sipped on the Pepsi for 10 minutes. 15 minutes later, our Double Down’s were done! I actually saw them dunk breaded chicken breasts in the deep fryer so I was pleasantly surprised KFC’s commercials wasn’t all lies.

The return of Double Down comes with less salty original recipe chicken breasts, so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Still a little bit salty, but what do you expect with bacon, cheese, and fried chicken? The chicken was delicious, and the cheese was plentiful. The bacon was not that great however. Definitely worth shaving a few minutes from your life span to try.

M’s Words of Food Court Wisdom:

Paying $6.99 for just the Double Down isn’t worth it, just get the combo for the drink.
Double Down is very hot! No bread to save your fingers from hot meats!
If you tried the Double Down last year and didn’t like it, give this new one a try.

M’s Food Court Corner Rating: (Not to be compared with Design Girl’s “real” restaurant rating.)

KFC Locations:

All Major Malls

In Bubble Tea

Big Orange: Fresh Fruit BBT at Metro

June 14, 2011

Just before watching the movie at Metrotown, M and I decided to get a drink at Big Orange. Big Orange has been in Metrotown for a while selling bubble tea. A few years ago, their shop was shaped like a big orange too.

Their bubble teas come in so many different flavours! They have the regular powdered bubble teas, fresh fruit bubble teas, smoothies, juice, slushies and ice cream. They are all around $3 – $5 per drink.

M ordered the Pineapple smoothie. The smoothie was milky and did not go well with the sourness of pineapple, according to M. It was good that it didn’t have ice chunk left overs that you get from poorly slushed drinks.

I ordered the fresh mango bubble tea. The drink was pretty good. Nice and smooth with no large icy chunks. It kinda reminded me of a smooth instead. I thought bubble teas were supposed to be milky, but this drink was not milky at all. Very ironic since M found it weird his smoothie was milky.

I always love looking at the image on the lid. Makes me feel super lucky when it’s a horoscope and its the right astrological sign. Too bad I’m not a gemini.

OH! Also, I love poking the cartoon figures in the face with my straw! Serial killer in the making.

Overall, it’s a convenient place to grab bubble tea at Metrotown before the movie. If you want to take it into the movie with you, make sure you hide it because they won’t let you take it inside. It’s best to stuff it in your bag and start drinking it inside the movie theatre.

Words of Wisdom:

Fresh Fruit all the way!
Under $10
Bubble tea and desserts
One of the better places at Metro for Fresh Fruit BBT

We Rate Big Orange:

Address:

4700 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.bigorange.ca

In Chinese

Mr. Ho’s Wonton House: Came for Noodles, Got Rice Instead

June 3, 2011

It’s no surprise to you that I like to go out to eat during game days to avoid the crazy Canucks madness. I am a horrible Vancouverite, but my love of eating is stronger than suffering from anxiety of watching the Canucks games.

M and I went out to Mr. Ho’s Wonton House on Kingsway after watching a movie at Metrotown. I have not been here in years and I do love Chinese food. On the ride from Metrotown, he wanted to go to all these fast food places and I shut down all of his suggestions until we go to Mr. Ho’s. KFC and Subway are not good dinner choices….*sigh.* men…..

I really wanted to get noodles since Kung Fu Panda 2 since it just seemed right to do so. Unfortunately, if I was going to a ramen place, I would have gotten noodles. I saw some of the rice items on Mr. Ho’s menu and that drew my attention… plus noodle at Mr. Ho’s can’t be that amazing.

I think I am a sucker when it comes to Asian themed things such as interior décor. I loved their walls.

Like any Chinese place, you get tea! I also love tea.

M and I started off with the Fried Wontons (6pieces -$4.25). These were huge! We expected the tiny fried wontons…but these were like UFOs. These were so crispy and the best part is the wonton skin…the filling was tiny and very tough to chew, which I found odd.

I ate the whole wonton and I kept asking M why there wasn’t any meat inside. Apparently there was, but I didn’t notice I ate it. Hahaha.

Then he had the Sweet and sour pork with pineapple on rice ($7.25). M loved this sweet and sour pork. One thing that I found this dish was suffering from was the gigantic size of the vegetables. One slice of onion is bigger than the piece of pork. Nonetheless, M still enjoyed it and ate it all.

I had the Prawns with swirl egg on rice ($8.75). Did I ever tell you I love Love LOVE prawns? Ya, that’s why I got this dish. What I usually worry about saucy dishes with rice is the ratio between the sauce and the rice. If there is not enough sauce to go along with the rice, this just makes me sad. My perfect dish would have more sauce than is needed to eat with the rice.

I loved this dish because I had more sauce and the sauce was pretty good. The prawns and the peas were quite decent.

We also go fortune cookies!

Overall, we had a good dinner here. It wasn’t the best chinese food I have ever ate, but it was decent. There were a few people dining here even though it was a game day. They even brought out a TV since some customers wanted to see the game.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Free parking on adjacent roads
Good for large groups

We Rate Mr. Ho’s Wonton House:

Address:

6731 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.mrhowontonhouse.com

In Dessert

Qoola: Do It Yourself Frozen Yogurt

May 24, 2011

I was just at Metrotown and I had a little sweet tooth craving. I really didn’t want anything unhealthy or anything super sweet and chocolately. As I strolled around, I decided to go to Qoola. They have ‘do it yourself’ frozen yogurt, so I could get as little or as much as I wanted.

Qoola is located near the Skytrain entrance to the Mall. You can’t miss it. Everything is self serve, so you just go around first by grabbing a cup and fill it up with your flavours of frozen yogurt.

Once you have that desired amount, you can begin the fun part by putting on all the toppings. You can choose from cereal, sprinkles, and all those other sweet toppings.

I love my fresh fruit, so I gravitated towards the counter with the containers of fresh fruit. I loaded on the Strawberries, kiwis and pineapples. I honestly find that is the best combination. It’s very fresh, simple and real.

This came to $4.15! Pretty good price and under $5. I got the plain frozen yogurt with a few scoops of strawberries, kiwi and mango. All the fruits were fresh and it did not seem like it was sitting there for a long time.

Overall, I like the ‘Do It Yourself’ concept. You can choose how much you want and you can choose your own combinations of toppings.

Words of Wisdom:

Steps from Metrotown Skytrain station
Under $5
Do it yourself

We Rate Qoola:

Address:

2250 4700 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Address:
www.qoola.com

In Bubble Tea

The One: Good Alternative to Bubble World

May 23, 2011

SkinnyBones was back in town after 1.5 years of exchange to Korea. Flo and I decided to meet up with her to catch up over some food near Kingsway.

Since The One on Kingsway looks super cool, we decided to check it out. They serve the usual type of Taiwanese food found in places like Bubble Word and Beef Noodle House.

The menu was fairly large and it took a while for us to see what we wanted. So, the waiter kept coming back to check up on us about 3 times, up to the point where they stopped approaching our table. Eventually we had to flag them down to take our order.

I ordered the Pineapple and Banana Milk ($6.75). The taste of the drink was really fresh and had a lot of banana inside. It was great but it was lacking one thing – pineapple. I tried really hard to distinguish the tastes from each other, but in the end I concluded that they left out the pineapple or just put in one small piece. I didn’t bother asking the waiter because it was still pretty good and I didn’t feel like complaining.

I ordered the Chicken nuggets with Noodle in Soup ($9.50). This meal is pretty huge and it comes to you to the table on the huge tray. The large bowl of noodles has the vegetables already cut up, which is good because you don’t have to be that weirdo at the table spending forever trying to chew through you vegetables. If you have kids, it’s a good dish to share with them.

The chicken nuggets live up to their expectations and were really good! The meat was nice and tender. The batter was quite light and enjoyable. It took me a while to figure out what was on top, and it was fried basil. It was a nice touch because all the nuggets that would be sitting under the basil left had a slight hint of basil to it.

SkinnyBones ordered the Beef Curry with Rice ($8.50). Since she just came back, she was not use to such large portions. You will probably get stuffed from this. You get your curry and the rice, and on top of that, you get 4 side dishes. These vary on every visit. She did like it but it was just way too big for her.

Overall, this is not a bad place to go. It’s a good alternative to the usual places near Kingsway like Bubble Word, Estea and Beef Noodle House. Don’t expect this place to be perfect either since service is a bit lacking.

Words of Wisdom:

Large portions
Under $10
Fried Chicken Nuggets!
Free parking in the front lot

We Rate The One:

Address:

5908 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
theonerestaurant.ca

In Dessert

Beard Papa’s: Good Desserts For a Bad Day

May 3, 2011

M was feeling a bit down, so I surprised him with some Beard Papa’s. He loves chocolate, so I thought I would get him one of their cool cakes. I love cream puffs and since Beard Papa’s is in Metrotown, I thought it would be convenient.

There wasn’t much of a line but there was a bunch of people just staring at the lady making cream puffs. I found this rather annoying because I just wanted to order. I stood behind a few people for a while and they weren’t moving in the line or talking to the people taking the orders. Turns out they were just looking.

I ordered and I was on my way with my little paper bag. I also saw the nutrition information and yikes….I was scared for my health.

They have a few more products since I came a year ago. They had this thing called ‘Paris Brest’. It sounded a bit scary at first, but it’s just a donut looking pastry with custard. If you want to be more technical, it is a Choux pastry shell with fluffy custard filling. It is a commemoration of Paris Brest et Tour, the worlds oldest existing bicycling event. This should not be mistaken with Tour de France.

It was pretty good and it reminded me of the original cream puff but in a different form.

The other item I got was the Fondant Au Chocolate. It is their version of a chocolate lava cake. It has a very nice oozing chocolate center when you break the cake with your spoon.

This is probably my favorite item from Bearded Papa since I love chocolate lava cakes. Yum! It is usually best served warm, so stick it into the microwave for a few minutes and it should taste amazing.

We rate Beard Papas:

Address:

4700 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.beardpapascanada.com

In Cafe

Curry King: HK Style Cafe

April 22, 2011

M and I were near Metrotown and we do what we do best – eat. After many failed attempts of going to other restaurants, we stuck with Curry King – HK Style Cafe. M wanted to go to Oscars and I just wanted to review a new restaurant…so we drove around and around and decided this was the place.

Curry King is located on Kingsway close to Saffron and Bubble World. Lots of space inside for groups of 4 or 5. Like most HK Style cafes, they have set menus and the usual items.

M and I started off with Lemon Coke and Cold Milk tea. Pretty usual and nothing cool about it. I prefer my cold milk tea to come with liquified sugar to add however less or more I want, but oh well. M’s Lemon Coke had a strong Lemon taste due to the 4-5 slices of lemon found inside it.

The set mini meals come with soup and today their daily soup was a cream soup with ham, corn and fish. Decent soup but the fish had a very odd texture. It wasn’t flaky like a fish, but more of a solid block. Very odd.

I ordered the Chicken Steak with Rice Mini Meal (~$8). This is probably the best chicken steak I’ve had at any HK style Cafe. The chicken was nice and juicy on the inside. The outer part was sightly crispy and the black pepper sauce went well with it.

There were more vegetables! I love vegetables.

M ordered the Meat sauce with rice in a Stone Bowl ($8.95). It has meat sauce, raw egg, and peas on top of rice. At first it looks like a large amount of sauce and meat, but when you begin mixing it all together, there really isn’t that much meat. M was a bit disappointed. No meat to be found for the carnivore. Even with the amount of sauce, he said it lacked flavour.

He even stole a bit of my black pepper sauce for his rice….then he asked the waitress for hot sauce… and then even considered asking for MSG or soy sauce.

I took a few bites out of his dish and it wasn’t too bad. It still had a good flavour, but I guess it wasn’t his type of thing. This meal does have a lot of rice, so you will get full.

Words of Wisdom:

Free rear parking
Under $10
I <3 Beef steak or Chicken Steak
M’s wisdom is if you get any kind of rice Stone Bowl, press the rice against the sides to get them crispy!

We Rate Curry King:

Address:

4250 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Brunch

Fraser Park Restaurant: Truly Hole in the Wall

April 14, 2011

After reading Food For Buddha food blog, they seem to have fallen in love with Fraser Park Restaurant. Since Fraser Park Restaurant is basically in the middle of nowhere, its always hard to find the time to make the trek there. Google Map tells me it would take 30 minutes from my house. Always was a turn off. Since M and I planned to watch Source Code at Metro, I thought it would be perfect to take a trip here.

M drove to Fraser Park in record time, made it there in 15 mins ( beat that google maps! boooya!). On the drive down there, M did not believe there would be any restaurant down in this area. Mostly construction companies and huge warehouses. We got a little bit lost and M got frustrated with me. Once we did arrive, we were super turned off by the exterior….restaurant in the middle of nowhere with lost of construction items everywhere. M had the pissed off Korean look and that basically ruined the mood.

Walking in grumpily, we quickly decided on what to order – beef dip and the deluxe German breakfast.

As we waited patiently waited for our food to arrive, we looked at the decor and was surprised at the amount of people in the restaurant for a weekday lunch. I can’t imagine the weekend, must be super busy.

M’s Deluxe German Breakfast ($9.95) arrived and his eyes lit up by the large portions and piles of meat. As you can tell there are A LOT of items in this meal. His mood immediately lit up once he devoured all the meat.

Tis meal contains:

Cured Ham
3 egg omelet
breakfast sausages
Potato fritter
Potato wedges
Bacon
Schnitzel
Toast
Gravy

Such a long list of items, but M was very very happy. $9.95 for this massive breakfast. No wonder the Germans are so tall and handsome. 😉

I ordered the Beef Dip. I ordered it with salad on the side with italian dressing. The italian dressing comes in little kraft packages, so it is not house made. The salad was nice and fresh and no sign of wilted leaves.

The beef in the beef dip sandwiches were a bit dry, but since you are dunking it into the Gravy anyways, the dryness did not impact the overall taste. The bun is quite soft, so it does clench onto the sauce very well.

M and I both loved the food here. It fulfills al the requirements of being a “hole in the wall” restaurant. a) Crappy exterior b) amazing food c) cheap prices.

I will definitely be visiting again! Anyone want to join me?

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of construction around, so be careful
Do not let the exterior to deter you from going inside
Free Parking
Under $10
Large portions

We Rate Fraser Park Restaurant:

Address:

4663 Byrne Road,
Burnaby, BC

Vancouver

In Cafe

Libo Cafe

April 4, 2011

M wanted to go to Crystal Mall to buy some cheap cables for his TV/computer monitor since his HDMI cord was malfunctioning.

Since we were both a bit hungry, we went to Libo Cafe at the Crystal Mall food court. We’ve been here many times and the food is decent and cheap.

Their lunch combo menu is quite straight forward. Choose an item labeled number 1 -9, and then you also get a free drink and soup!

M ordered combo #5, which is Ham, pork cutlet, egg with curry and rice ($7.25). He chose the russian Borscht and cold milk tea. The ham was very thinly sliced and nothing special. Its basically the ones that are from the grocery stores. The Egg was also normal. The pork cutlet had lot’s of bones. M doesn’t like bones… He HATES them! The Russian Borscht was the worst one M tasted. M’s favorite soup from Chinese places is the Russian Borscht, but this one tasted pretty bland and rather disgusting.

The only best thing about this meal was the curry! Libo curry sauce is incredibly spicy, but very delicious. So good, M wanted to by a bowl full to take home.

I ordered the black pepper sauce Chicken and beef steak with spaghetti ($7.25).

I thought the beef steak was cooked nicely since it was pink in the middle and not tough. The chicken steak was also good, slightly crispy on the inside and juicy in the middle. The black pepper sauce was very peppery and super strong. Decent sauce since I do like it super peppery. One thing I wished they had was more sauce since there was a lot of spaghetti.

On the side I got the potato bacon soup and lemon tea. Lemon tea was good as usual.

The Potato Bacon Soup was alright. It did have a potato texture to the soup and had real bacon bits in the soup. Decent but not my favorite soup from this place.

Words of Wisdom: