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In American

Canyon Creek Chophouse: Lunch at Niagara Falls

August 23, 2014

The main reason for our trip to Toronto was to see the Niagara Falls with my in-laws. So funny how they thought it was close to Vancouver. After the 4.5 hour flight, they realized it’s quite a distance away. Plus, not even close to downtown Toronto. They sure are silly, but since I knew this ahead of time, I made sure we still got here to cross one more item off their bucket list.

We even rode on the Maid of the Mist, which has now been renamed to The Hornblower. It’s still the same great experience.

After looking around the Niagara Falls area, it was time to hunt for lunch before heading back to the bus for Toronto. Somehow we ended up at Canyon Creek Chophouse as it supposedly has a nice view of the falls. Unfortunately, the view was obstructed by trees. We didn’t mind since we already got a great view of the falls on the boat.

Canyon Creek Chophouse is inside the Fallsview Casino and they are a steakhouse, but they also has a variety of items like burgers, salads, pasta and seafood. We came in the late afternoon, so this place was empty.

We started with bread, which was nice and warm and came with a side of butter.

Grilled Chicken Caesar ($16.95) has chicken breast, applewood smoked bacon, chopped romaine, sourdough croutons, shaved Parmesan, with house made garlic dressing. The salad was pretty plain for the price you pay. The chicken was also quite dry.

BBQ Baby Back Ribs (Half: $21.95) has the slow braised ribs, grilled and brushed in a smoky glaze, with skinny fries and slaw on the side. The ribs were very tender and about to fall off the bones. Each portion was quite meaty. The fries were extra crispy, which made them really enjoyable.

Kimchi Quesadilla comes cut into 4 pieces and served with sour cream and a pico de gallo salsa, but the server dropped it on the floor. The kimchi quesadilla was very good and had the perfect combinations of flavours inside.

Overall, the food was alright, but you are definitely paying more since you are in a tourist destination. I would definitely prefer to go to The Keg instead. I also found the service quite poor and it was very hard to get anyone’s attention when we wanted to order and getting the bill. Perhaps it was because we were one of two people dining here that there were not a lot of servers around.

We Rate Canyon Creek Chophouse:

Address:
6380 Fallsview Boulevard
Niagara Falls, ON

Website:
http://canyoncreekrestaurant.ca/

In American

Holy Chuck: Best Burger in Toronto

August 17, 2014

During my visit to Toronto, there was one place I was dying to try out – Holy Chuck Burgers. I tried going on my trip to Toronto earlier in the year but it was closed due to the long weekend.

This time, I made it a mission to come here and I am glad I did. They opened in 2011 and have been serving quality burgers ever since. They hand roll their patties every hour, which are made of aged high quality steak. Their most popular burger – Holy Chuck burger was named the best burger in Toronto by a few celebrity chefs. Plus, have been rated one of the Top 100 restaurants in Toronto for 2014.

Looking at the menu, there are a lot of choices and everything looks pretty good. You’ll be staring at this board for a while trying to figure out what to get.

Holy Chuck Burger ($9.99) is a double cheese burger with bacon and caramelized onions. Everyone at the table ordered this and you can get it cooked to any wellness level. Fabo got her burger patty done to Medium.

Everyone loved this burger and you can tell the patties were so juicy and full of flavour!

Mmmm everyone was so addicted to this burger. Yum! I would highly recommend this. It’s quite a simple burger with a few ingredients, but it all works together really well.

Grind n’ Shine Burger ($10.99) with hand cut crispy fries ($3.49).

The Grind n’ Shine Burger is a double cheeseburger with bacon, caramelized onions, topped with crispy potato chips and a fried egg. Oh boy, was this delicious!

The fries were ok, but it wasn’t all the crispy. Some were limp and some were crispy.

Just take a look, it look amazzzzing! The differing textures works well, especially the egg, potato ships and the onions.

Overall, this place does have delicious burgers and oh man, the patties are juicy and dripping with flavour! I’ll definitely be back for more.

We Rate Holy Chuck Burgers:

Address:
1450 Yonge St,
Toronto, ON

Website:
http://holychuckburgers.com/

In American

Tap and Barrel: Burgers in Olympic Village

August 16, 2014

Tap and Barrel has their first location in the Olympic Village. The second one is near Coal Harbour. I met M and the relatives for lunch at Tap and Barrel. It was a nice day, so we sat outside on the patio enjoying the sun and the view.

They are known for their selection of beer on tap and their pub-style food.

PB&J Burger ($15.45) has a 7oz 100% CAB chuck burger patty, chipotle peanut butter, bacon jam, mayo, lettuce and tomato. M also substituted with Yam Fries for an extra $1.75.

It’s a strange combination with the PB&J, but it’s not bad at all! Yam fries were a good upgrade!

Roasted Portobello Sandwich ($13.95) with sea salted fries. The sandwich has goat cheese, sprouts, avocado, lettuce, tomato, hummus, and red onion. The sandwich was ok, but it wasn’t amazing. It was like bitting into a garden. There could have been more portobello mushroom in it.

The sea salt fries were not crispy and pretty limp.

Overall, it’s pretty average when it comes to food. With CRAFT Beer Market down the street,

We Rate Tap and Barrel:

Address:
1 Athletes Way
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.tapandbarrel.com/

In American

The Keg: Steakhouse in Vancouver

August 12, 2014

When I’m not cooking steak at home, we head out to The Keg Steakhouse and Bar. There are multiple locations throughout Canada. We went to the Burnaby location as always as it is the closest one to our home.

They of course have a variety of meat and seafood to choose from, plus they do have salads for vegetarians. The prices are fair and they always have consistent service and food quality.

Since we had a large group, we decided to make a reservation a few days ahead of time so we don’t have to wait in line.

Filet Mignon (7oz – $32) is the cut I recommended to my in-laws. Since it is their first time in Canada, they really need to try how tender and delicious our Canadian beef really is. This dish has the tenderloin wrapped in applewood smoked bacon and served with some veggies and a side of your choice.

They chose roasted garlic mashed potatoes.

Blue Cheese Filet (7oz – $33) is their filet mignon wrapped in applewood smoked bacon, covered
with a blue cheese crust, and finished with roasted garlic cloves. I got roasted vegetables on the side.

It is best to choose it done medium rare and you can really taste the flavours of it.

New York striploin (12oz – $31) is what M ordered. It is tender and full of flavour too. He only gets his steaks done medium rare.

Overall, everything tasted great! No complaints at all.

We Rate the Keg Steakhouse:

Address:
4510 Still Creek Ave
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.kegsteakhouse.com/en/locations/BC/burnaby/burnaby-keg/

In American

Taco Bell Canada: Doritos Locos Tacos

August 9, 2014

Taco Bell Canada finally introduces the Doritos Locos Tacos permanently on their menus. When my relatives were here, they really wanted to go to Taco Bell. I was surprised that they wanted Taco Bell, but it was on their list of places they really wanted to eat at. So I agreed to go.

When we were there, we saw they had two Doritos Locos Taco meals they were offering:

Doritos Locos Tacos Big Box ($8.99)
Doritos Locos Tacos Crunch Combo ($6.99)

With these combo’s you can choose if you want the Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco flavours.

M and I like to try everything so we got each of the combos.

Just as a note, I’m not exactly sure what happened here, but it seems that the described combo and what came out for our order were inaccurate. I didn’t realize this till after our visit. The person that took our order barely knew how to use their POS system and seemed super confused about everything. SO, our order was all jumbled up.

It all came and clearly we have a lot to eat among 4 people. hahaha.

Doritos Locos Tacos Big Box ($8.99) came with 2 Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, 1 beef burrito, 1 Doritos Nacho Supreme and a soda. There’s a lot of food in this box.

Somehow M managed to finish everything.

Instead of the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos for the Nacho Supreme, M got the Nacho Cheese Doritos shells for it. Not a bad combination. The Nacho cheese of the Doritos definitely enhanced the taste a bit.

Doritos Locos Tacos Crunch Combo ($6.99) comes with a Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, fries, a cheesey gordita crunch and a drink.

Even though me tacos were labeled the Nacho cheese Doritos shells, it was actually the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco.
Also, I never got my cheesy gordita crunch, but I got the two tacos instead. This was kinda annoying.

The taco is the same as their usual tacos but the shell just taste like Doritos Nachos.

We somehow got this too and it didn’t come with my combo since it was supposed to be regular fries, but I didn’t mind. It’s basically the Fries Supreme with the meat, sour cream, cheese, tomato and chives on top. It definitely tastes better than regular fries.

All the food is pretty standard for a Fast Food restaurant. The Doritos Locos Taco and Taco Bell teaming up together to spice up their taco shells was pretty neat, but it didn’t really add any alluring taste to the food.

Of the two flavours – Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch, the Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco was far more tastier. The Cool Ranch taste was too subtle. The only thing different about these tacos is just the shell. All the ingredients are the same.

Address:
2991 Lougheed Hwy Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://www.tacobell.ca/

In American

Prohibition Tasting Bar: New Restaurant in Yaletown

July 14, 2014

Prohibition Tasting Bar is owned by their parent company – Prohibition Brewing Company, which is located in an old distillery on the outskirts of Kelowna in British Columbia’s Okanagan Region. They are 100% B.C. owned and operated and strive to bring clean, crisp and refreshing traditional beers while supporting local suppliers and communities.

They feature five different Prohibition beers, cocktails and small pairing menu. It’s a fantastic spot for lunch or after work drinks.

The interior is quite beautiful with their elegant black and red colour scheme. It’s a great place that can handle large groups.

The 5 beer they feature are:

Bootlegger Amber Ale
Lawless IPA
Getaway Lager
Smuggler Scotch Ale
Hideout Honey Lager

They also have a cider that is off the menu.

Flight of Four ($8) is a great way to sample most of their beers. I loved all the beers except for the Lawless IPA, but I never really liked IPAs anyways.

Moonshine Sour ($9.50) is served as a double and has moonshine, walnut butters, citrus and whites. The drink was sweet and refreshing.

Charcuterie Board ($16) has a selection of their market meat and cheese. It is served with some nuts, crostini, mustard, dipping sauce, and pickles. It’s a good dish to pick at while having drinks.

Duck Wings ($11) has a pound of the wings and you can get them hot, lemon pepper or BBQ. We got the lemon pepper and it was delicious! Highly recommended. TaiwaneseGirl and I couldn’t stop raving about these. It’s easy to eat and theres so much flavour.

Prosciutto Sandwich with Chips ($9 +$6) the chips are very addictive! It’s thick cut and super crunchy. Great flavour too.

Look at that meat.

The proscuitto sandwich contains tomato, balsamic, brie, lettuce, and proscuitto inside the bread. It tasted ok, but I wasn’t too impressed.

Pretzel Knots ($8) has ale cheese, dijon and pickles on the side.

You must dip the pretzel into the cheese and make it taste really good. Can’t go wrong with cheese right?

Overall, the drink selection is great and the food that accompanies it is also yummy. I would definitely bring my coworkers here after work for a few drinks. The staff were also very knowledgeable on all their drinks, so I definitely learned a lot. Great service!

We Rate Prohibition Tasting Bar:

Address:
1269 Hamilton St
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.prohibitionbrewingco.com/

In American

Mamie Taylors: Food and Taxidermy

June 29, 2014

Mamie Taylor’s is one of the newer restaurants to open up in Chinatown across from Phnom Penh. It’s usually busy in the evenings and there is pay parking in the streets. They serve up modern American food on their menu and have a wide selection of drinks and cocktail. A perfect place to go after work with coworkers.

The inside is very nice, but it’s creepy when you start looking at all the taxidermy on the walls. It definitely gives this restaurant character.

Sapporo ($6) was my choice as usual. I’ve always liked it’s light crisp taste.

Japanese Whiskey Flight ($20) has nikka super, nikka from the barrel and nikka black. My coworkers enjoyed trying the different types and how their taste differed from one another.

Corn Bread & Biscuit ($4) comes with a jalapeño bourbon butter. These two items were very delicious! Full of flavour and quite enjoyable.

Fried Olives ($4) has blue cheese, currants, and sherry. I do love olives surprisingly and it was a nice way to add some crunch to an olive. It is a small dish, so these olives can go quickly if you are a quick snacker.

Pimento Cheese ($5) comes with cannoli, espellete, and salad o’ celery. This was yummy! The delicious cheese paired with the crunchy cannoli was perfect. I could eat a few of these.

Tuna Melt ($6) the tuna is cured & smoked, has potato salad, and cheddar. There’s some small onion on the side too. This was a yummy tuna melt.

Turducken ($6) has scotch egg in the centre. It is accompanied with tomatillo sauce and a garlic mayo. It’s not exactly what I imagined for a turducken but it’s their fun twist to it. It tasted alright.

Overall, we ordered all their snacks but didn’t stick around for dinner since we all had alternate plans after drinks. I’ll definitely be back for dinner since their entrees looked pretty damn awesome.

We Rate Mamie Taylors:

Address:
251 East Georgia St.
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://mamietaylors.ca/

In American

KFC Select: First in Canada

May 14, 2014

KFC Select is a new concept restaurant to attract younger customers. This location close to Younge and Bloor is the first location to pop up in Canada. They are still sticking with what they do best … making chicken. Except, you won’t find any big buckets of chicken here.

The location opened last December and the exterior is mostly black to give it a modern look.

You can even find images of Colonel Sanders inside.

The interior reminds me of Chipotle. It’s very very similar.

They have 5 main items:

Chicken Burgers
Burritos
Bowls
Salads
Chicken Strips

Then you can choose to make it a combo or add any extra desserts. Interesting desserts – Kream Ball and Strawberry Cheesecake. I would have thought they would have chosen something more healthy.

You order like an assembly line, similarly to Chipotle.

Double Decker ($4.99) has two hand-breaded crispy chicken fillets with their special sauce and pickles between toasted sesame seed bun. Double crunchiness and M did enjoy it. Who can say no to fried chicken? I sure can’t.

Fresh Deluxe ($4.99) has one hand-breaded crispy chicken fillet with cilantro mayo, salsa roja, mild cheddar and crisp lettuce, freshly stacked on a toasted sesame seed bun. It is the same price as the double decker sandwich, but this one just has a single fillet.

To make it a combo, just add $3. You get a drink and a side. The sides you can choose from are:

Waffle Fries
Coleslaw
Side salad

Waffles fries was the side we got and it was pretty darn good. So addictive too. I like it crunchy.

California Chicken Bowl ($5.99) you get grilled chicken over cilantro rice topped with Guacamole, cilantro mayo, sour cream, and pico de gallo.

The bowl was ok, but it just contained so much sauce. It didn’t have a very healthy look to it.

They have a pretty awesome beverage fountain. I haven’t seen this in Vancouver yet, but it’s SO cool.

The pop dispenses through a touch pad. You will find all different Pepsi products like 7 Up, Brisk , Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper and Dole.

When you select pepsi, you can have regular, cherry, lime, vanilla, lime or strawberry. M really loved this machine!

Overall, KFC Select is great because they know they need to evolve to suit their consumers tastes. Unfortunately, there were so many ways of making their food healthier, but I just didn’t see it. It seemed like a weird mishmash of KFC and Chipotle. I would have loved to see some grilled chicken in their burgers rather than the crispy fried ones.

We Rate KFC Select:

Address:
730 Yonge St
Toronto ON

Website:
http://www.kfcselect.ca/

In 24 hours

Hash House A Go Go: Huge Portions for Breakfast in Vegas

April 15, 2014

Hash House A Go Go is a 24 hour restaurant in The Quad. They are known for their breakfast in amazing large portions. It’s been featured a lot on Food Network and it was recently featured on Man vs Food for their Andy’s Sage Fried Chicken Benedict.

We got there at 10am and there was already a line up. We waited about 45 minutes for a seat. If you hate lines, it always best to come at non-peak hours.

There’s a lot of seats inside but not all of them were occupied.

Ground turkey, mushroom & broccoli Farm Scramble is served with mashed potato, fresh fruit and biscuit.

House smoked salmon benedict with asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, chili cream and two basted eggs.

It’s huge and tastes decent. This isn’t any normal eggs benny. My mom commented that the salmon was dry.

HH Famous Meatloaf House Hash has roasted red peppers, spinach and smoked mozzarella. It is tossed with crispy potatoes & topped with 2 eggs, served with fruit and biscuit.

Its served in a huge pan too.

Roasted Chicken House Hash has garlic, onions, asparagus and rosemary. Then tossed with crispy potatoes and topped with 2 eggs, served with fruit and biscuit. My dad enjoyed it.

Andy’s sage fried chicken benedict with fresh spinach, hardwood smoked bacon, market tomato, griddled mozzarella, chipotle cream and scrambled eggs.

They threw a knife in there to hold it all together.

The knife was huge and this was just oozing with calories. I didn’t mind, so i just dug in to enjoy all its flavours.

It has everything but my favourite part was the bacon and scrambled eggs on top. The chicken was dry.

Overall, the only thing it has going for them are the huge portions. Tastewise, it was ok. It’s not a place for everyone.

We Rate Hash House A Go Go:

Address:
3535 Las Vegas Boulevard S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Website:
http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/vegas/menu/

In American

Burgoo: Amazing Comfort Food

March 28, 2014

I’m so glad I work so close to Burgoo. Burgoo is the ultimate place for addictive comfort food. Sometimes, we have to put diets aside and just indulge in delicious food. Their location is on Main street and have others in Kitsilano, North Vancouver, and Point Grey areas.

They have Mac and Cheese, Grilled Cheese, fondue, soups, stews and a bunch of other satisfying items. They don’t take reservations on Fridays/Saturdays, but they only do reservations for large groups (8-12 ppl) on other days. The wait time can fluctuate. One time I had no wait and another time, it was an hour.

After School Special ($16.50) give you the choice of any sandwich and soup on the menu. To keep it classic, M chose Gooey Cheese Grillers which includes two grilled, angle cut, house baguette sandwiches with melted Mozzarella, Gruyere, Emmenthal and white Cheddar. For his soup, he chose Straight Up Tomato Soup with red wine simmered tomato and garlic, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

This is the ultimate comfort food! Best grilled cheese I’ve ever had. You can’t go wrong with this choice. They don’t skimp on the cheese.

Mussels Cocotte ($18) has fresh mussels cooked with white wine, cream, herbs and bacon, served with house bread. Its an appetizer that is supposed to be shared, but I had it all to myself. This is my version of comfort food. There was a lot of mussels and the size was definitely worth the price.

There was so much sauce too! Great for dipping the bread into. There was also large chunks of bacon. MMMMmmmmmm BACON.

Overall, M and I were impressed. The price is fair and if you make the right choices of your dish, you’ll be in heaven.

We Rate Burgoo:

Address:
3096 Main St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://burgoo.ca/

In American

Cheesecake Factory: Chowing Down in Seattle

February 20, 2014

Can you believe it? I’ve NEVER been to a Cheesecake Factory till now. It’s taken me 25 years to make a visit and taste their cheesecake. I’ve never seen the allure of huge slices of cheese cake and horribly prepared food. I’ve always just had that impression in my mind.

On our recent trip to Seattle, we stopped by Cheesecake factory for an early dinner. It was really early…it was so early, they still had their lunch menu. What can I say? We had a schedule to keep if we wanted to go shopping.

The place was huge, but there always seem to be a line up near the door. It’s super packed during lunch and dinner.

Complimentary bread arrives and you have brown and white. We actually didn’t touch the bread since we had to save our tummies for our meal and dessert. No need to waste space for plain bread.

M ordered himself a coke. Free refills!

Koreangirl got herself a lemonade. Free refills too!

Tomato, basil and cheese pizza ($11.95) from their lunch menu is pretty crappy. There’s no tomato sauce, so it’s just the 3 basic ingredients over the pizza dough. I will not order the pizza again.

The pizza did come with a salad. The salad was pretty good. No complaints. It had a balsamic vinegar dressing. I definitely enjoyed the salad a lot more than the pizza.

Famous Factory Meatloaf ($11.95) comes with 2 sides. M chose corn and mashed potatoes with gravy. The lunch size was still huge but the dinner size is even larger. M likes the portion for lunch as he could actually finish it.

Renee’s Special ($10.95) comes with half a turkey sandwich, a cup of soup and a green salad. You definitely get a little bit of everything. The portion is large for lunch and its very filling.

Fettuccini with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes ($11.95) was ordered by Scarface and looked good.

30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake has layers of their original cheesecake, fudge cake and chocolate truffle cream. M gets this every time he comes here.

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake ($6.95) has chocolate cheesecake with a layer of Belgian chocolate mousse and whipped cream.

Fresh Strawberry ($6.95) has the original cheese cake topped with glazed strawberries and whipped cream. It’s been their top seller for 30 years. The strawberries were huge and fresh. I really liked it and its a good cake to share. The classics are always the best.

Overall, cheesecake factory is ok. It’s a good price for their huge portions. I wouldn’t come back for the food but cheesecake is worth it.

We Rate The Cheesecake Factory:

Address:
700 Pike St
Seattle, WA

Website:
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/

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In American

A&W: Teen Burger at YVR Airport

February 19, 2014

After checking in and going through security at the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), M and I were pretty hungry. There’s not a lot of choices before boarding international flights.

We had to choose from:

Milestones
Starbucks
Tim Hortons
Euro Cafe
A&W
Burger King
Subway
Hanami Express

It’s all fast food and it’s definitely hard to choose what your last meal before the plane will be.

I actually quite like A&W for the burgers and you can really notice their fresh ingredients. It doesn’t come close to McDonalds. All their beef is 100% pure and contains no hormones or steroids. Also no additives or preservatives.

Their quality has gotten a lot better over the years and I prefer it over the other fast food options.

We got 2 teen burger meals, onion rings, yam fries and cokes.

My favourite sides are the onion rings. The batter is fried till its crispy and the onion is large. I wasn’t a fan of the yam fries, but I never liked yam fries in the first place. M did enjoy the yam fries.

Teen Burger is my favourite and it has lettuce, tomato, bacon, cheese, ketchup, onion, pickles and the burger patty between the two buns. Even looking at the burger, the ingredients look fresh. I ate it all and enjoyed it! Yum.

All the other burger at A&W are pretty good, but you can’t beat the teen burger.

Website: www.aw.ca

In American

Rachel’s Ginger Beer: A Treat at Pike Place

February 9, 2014

Rachel’s Ginger Beer is the newest place in Pike Place in Seattle. We were wandering around the area after lunch and needed something fizzy to settle our stomachs after eating at Pike Place Chowder.

They started selling their signature Ginger Beer at Seattle’s Farmers Market and with great success, they opened up their shop in Pike Place during the summer of 2013.

When you walk inside, you’ll be mesmerized by all their drinks. These are the larger jugs that are to go.

Don’t be fooled by their name, they have more than just soda. They have boozy cocktails and ice cream. Some of the drinks can be made warm too instead of cold.

When you order a cup of the ginger beer, it comes right from the tap. I think it’s a really cute touch even though it is non-alcoholic.

Mango Tangerine ($5) , Pink Guava ($5) , Original ($4), and Blueberry ($5) were ordered and it has a very distinctive aftertaste of ginger. You can feel the drink slide down your throat and heating up your body. It can really shock the sickness out of you if you aren’t feeling too well. Good combination is all the soda’s but I liked the original to stay true to ginger beer.

It’s not a drink for everyone. If you don’t like ginger, you probably won’t have a keen liking to the drinks.

We were glad we stumbled upon this cute little shop. I would have never expected a ginger beer shop to exist.

We Rate Rachel’s Ginger Beer:

Address:
1530 Post Alley
Seattle, WA

Website:
http://rachelsgingerbeer.com/pages/pike-place-market

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In American

Memphis Blues Barbeque House: Meat Sweats with Elvis

December 27, 2013

Where do you go where you can eat enormous amount of meat like you just don’t care? Memphis Blues of course! After a heartbreaking meeting, the 11 of us decided to drown our sorrows in meat.

I went Memphis Blue’s other location on Commercial drive about 5 years ago and I remember it was pretty good. This time around, we went to their newest location on Robson Street.

The space isn’t that large, but can accommodate large groups if you make a reservation ahead of time. The staff was nice and was able to split the bills without hassle.

Anchor Steam Beer is light refreshing beer with a sweet finish. I’ve never ordered this before, but I liked it.

They also do a lot of different cocktails.

Elvis Platter was massive and around $70. It’s a good size for 5 – 7 people. I shared it with 5 women, and we devoured the ribs and rib ends, but we still had a lot of the other things left. We filled up 2 take out containers.

It comes with:

Smoked Chicken
Pulled Pork
Sliced Beef Brisket
Smoked Sausage
Rib Ends
Corn Bread
Potato salad
Coleslaw
Fries
BBQ Sauce
BBQ Pit Beans

The Elvis platter was fun to eat, but a lot of the meat was dry. We had to smother the meat with BBQ sauce and vinegar to give it more moisture. Memphis Blues is great for group meals since the platter is very convenient and comes with most of the stuff on the menu.

We Rate Memphis Blues:

Address:
430 Robson St.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.memphisbluesbbq.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=430+Robson+St.+Vancouver,+BC&t=m&hnear=430+Robson+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6B+2B7&z=16 “]

In American

The Rumpus Room: Monday $10 Burger + Beer Special

December 26, 2013

My coworkers wanted a place to grab a drink and enjoy some nibbles. We settled on the Rumpus Room as it was close by the office and seemed like a great after work place to chill. The space is a bit small, but it makes up for it if you were a 80s kid. The menu is in a duotang and theres some cool memorabilia on the walls. Plus, in the Summer their patio is open and there’s a bunch of plastic pink flamingos.

As it was a Monday, we were surprised to hear they had a special! I love specials! A burger and beer for $10. A pretty awesome deal considering the price of a burger is $7 to $15.

Red Racer IPA is a local beer brewed right in BC at Central CIty Brewing. It has a strong taste of hops that lingers till the after taste. It’s not my type of beer because I don’t really like the hops flavour.

Peanut Butter Burger is made with a hormone-free 6oz beef burger patty, bacon, cheddar, lettuce, apple cranberry chutney, tomato, and creamy peanut butter on a brioche bun. I found that the ingredients went well together, but the beef patty was a bit overcooked so it because quite dry.

You also get a side to choose from. The options are fries, yam fries, veggie chili, soup, coleslaw, salad, side wedge salad, mashed potatoes, a waffle or ants on a long. I went with the salad. It was pretty decent as it had beets and sunflower seeds.

Overall, the price of the food is great for large portions. The quality of the food is alright but not too impressive. The servers are nice, but with only 2 people serving, they can tend to forget things…like… our bill. We had to ask twice for our bill, but we weren’t in a rush so we didn’t really bug them.

We Rate Rumpus Room:

Address:
2689 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.rumpusroom.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=2689+Main+Street+Vancouver,+BC&t=m&hnear=2689+Main+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5T+3E7&z=16 “]

In American

Panago: Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza

December 22, 2013

Panago Pizza recently introduced their new Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza. As Panago pizza is very close to our place, M decided to order some for lunch. Best lazy meal ever. We both love spicy food, so we really wanted to see if it would really set our taste buds on fire. The basic pepperoni pizza is awesome and you can’t go wrong. When you add a bit of spice into the picture, it should taste good.

We ordered a Large Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza for $15. It is made of Italian tomato sauce, spicy pepperoni, and mozzarella. There’s so much pepperoni that you can’t even see the pepperoni slices underneath.

It wasn’t very spicy and had a bit of a spicy tingle. If you want some extra spice to it, add some tabasco sauce or Franks Red Hots sauce.

To balance out the greasy pizza, I ordered the Chicken Garden Salad that comes with grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, green peppers, grape tomatoes, and red onions. It comes with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The salad was alright. The chicken pieces tasted ok, but it wasn’t great.

Overall, the Deluxe Spicy Pepperoni Pizza is a good item to order when people are over.

Website: http://panago.com/

In American

Bennigan’s in South Korea

December 7, 2013

Doing some research on where to eat in Korea, M wanted to go to Bennigan’s. It’s an American chain restaurant that serves up Irish and American food. After doing a debate of dining choices, I reluctantly agreed to come here for lunch. They serve Monte Cristo sandwiches here and M has been searching far and wide for this sandwich.

The restaurant is located on the third floor. There is also a Bennigan’s Kids on an alternative level for just kids. Adults can watch them from a monitor on the third floor and have their privacy.

This is what we came for.

Complimentary Bread arrived.

Sweet Pickles came as the side dish.

World Famous Monte Cristo (10,000 won) has honey wheat bread layered with tender ham, roasted turkey, Swiss and American cheeses. Batter-dipped, gently fried and coated with powdered sugar. Served with red raspberry preserves for dipping. Fries came on the side.

This dish was huge and very filling. It was hard for M to finish the whole thing.

Soup and pop combo (+ 4,000 won) can be added to your meal.

Chicken Quesadillas (10,000 won) has Garlic-marinated chicken with Colby and Monterrey Jack cheeses, flavorful spices and crispy fried onions folded in a flour tortilla.

It is served with salsa, guacamole, and a lime sour cream sauce. The quesadilla was decent.

Chicken Stir fry (10,000) is served on a hot skillet with rice, vegetables and chicken.

Sweet Potato Pan Cheese (10,000 won) is a very korean inspired dish since Koreans love sweet potato. You won’t find this in North America. You definitely want to share this because you’ll get sick of the taste quite quickly.

Overall, the food was ok, but the Monte Cristo is always the sinfully delicious item to get. The place was pretty busy during a Friday and with lots of families. The prices are comparable to the states. The menus here have english, so you won’t have any issues ordering.

If you want to explore Korean cuisine while you are traveling in Seoul, this is probably not the place you want to go. M and I went here because we don’t have one in Canada.

We Rate Bennigans:

Address:
3F, 94, Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Website:
http://www.bennigans.co.kr/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=3F,+94,+Nonhyeon-dong,+Gangnam-gu,+Seoul,+South+Korea&t=m&hnear=94+Nonhyeon-dong,+Gangnam-gu,+Seoul,+South+Korea+(334+Dosan-daero)&z=14″]

In American

Dunkin Donuts in South Korea

December 5, 2013

Dunkin’ Donuts in Korea is very different from the ones in North America. Everything is Korean-ized, so you will find things like sweet potato donuts, olive oil donuts, and other weird creations.

M and I were in Coex Mall and everything was under construction. We had very bad timing when coming here. Only a few shops were open and it totally sucked. We were roaming around the vast empty mall and found a Dunkin’ Donuts and we felt like it was time for a little snack.

As we were traveling in Korea near Halloween, they had some cute treats.

What is unique about Dunkin’ Donuts that drew me in was their breakfast and snack items. They look pretty decent.

When I saw their burritos I got kinda hungry. I actually have no idea if they have these in the North American Dunkin’ Donuts because I’ve never seen one. There is a Dunkin’ Donuts in Montreal but nowhere else in Canada.