Chinese Archives - Page 13 of 14

In Cafe

Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant

March 19, 2011

InsecureGirl hasn’t eaten out in a few days and she basically went a bit insane and really really wanted to eat out. We all didn’t want to waste too much money so FragileBoy suggested we go to Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant for some good cheap chinese food. He recommended it because its a place which his parents love.

We came and parked from the back, so it does look a bit ghetto, but I assure you it’s not that bad. If you are a big fan of engrish, “Dr1ver no no hit to fence”, will surely crack you up. I was so entertained that I had to take a picture of it.

Once we parked our car, we entered through their ghetto door…yes ghetto but not creepy at all. You just walk past the kitchen into their dining area. You get to glance at the cleanliness of their kitchen and judge for yourself.

The dining room is very colorful and has tons of seating. It looks nothing like their back, so don’t start judging. I know you probably have judged them up to this point. No worries, i did too until I saw the dining area and their menu.

All the dishes we ordered comes with a complementary soup. We could choose from vegetable soup or cream soup. We all just decided to have cream soup. It was ok, mostly corn and ham inside.

We ordered the fried rice (yan su ji fan). This is M’s favorite dish…like seriously …probably the only item he can order in Mandarin. It’s a normal fried rice with the usual vegetables and meat. It was good and cheap!

This was their chicken chow mein with black bean sauce. The noodles were nice and super crispy! You know it’s a good dish when the noodles are crisp and not soggy.

Then we got the stir fried flat noodle with beef and soy sauce. Good tender slices of beef. We loved this dish because it did not contain as much oil as other restaurants.

For dessert we could choose our desserts to be mango pudding. It was very good but what would make this dessert even better is if they had mango bits inside. Mmmm.

I couldn’t find anything bad about the food, it’s good for the price and does fill you up. All this came out to be $29 in total after taxes. 4 people, so it came out to less than $10. We shared all the dishes and we got super full!

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in rear
Cheap prices, good food
They use less oil in their cooking
Set meals
Complementary soup and dessert

We rate Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant:

Address:

2128 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Deer Garden Restaurant

March 15, 2011

Over the past weekend, the family and I went to devour some Alaskan King crab. I am sure you have heard all the hype since it’s in season. Since we are located on the westcoast close to Alaska, we get high quality crabs for a great deal.

We ventured out to Coquitlam to Deer Garden Restaurant. We heard they had a new batch of King Crab and made a reservation.

The best time to come during the day is 6pm, at least thats what the restaurant told us to go at.

They were absolutely right! When we arrived at 6pm, a hoard of other families made reservations at 6pm too. Crab after crab were flying out of the tanks….from small ones to gigantic ones.

One thing I did not understand was how they were flipping over the crab and showing us which one would be for our meal. Since my family has been here before, we know they do this to disguise the quality of the crab. We double checked that our crab was alive and all limbs were attached. They rush through the whole process so you won’t be able to notice any flaws. Another table we observed ordered a 17 pound crab but the waitress let the table glance for 2 seconds and then dashed off into the kitchen. Their crab was missing half a leg. Is this normal? It seemed a bit strange to me.

This was the menu. I cannot read Chinese to save my life, so it translates to – King crab 4 types, $17.88 per pound

Portugese Baked Fried Rice (Head)
Salt and chilli crab (Body)
Crab legs in Garlic and green onion
Crab legs in Ginger and Garlic Sauce

The crab that we got was 9.75 pounds for 6 people. It was the perfect weight and we ate everything!

The first dish that came was a soup, it comes complementary with the meal. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called…but hey it tasted good and was edible. Not complaining at all.

The body was turned into salt and chili fried crab. Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. There are also garlic chips in this dish. I love garlic chips!

Half of the legs were prepared with garlic and green onion toppings. If you are a garlic fan, you will love this dish. It’s not over powering. What I love about this dish is how you don’t have to crack open all legs to get to the meat. You can get down and dirty with it by using your hands to pull out the meat or forking it.

The other half was a green onion and ginger sauce. I actually prefer this one over the garlic version because it is a bit more sweet and you don’t get the mass amounts of garlic falling off when you eat it.

Our family wastes no part of the crab… not even it’s precious juices. We ordered 2 places of wonton noodles to add it to the left over crab juices. Apparently it’s quite normal and you do get more food!

The head of the crab is flipped upside down and stuffed with Portugese Baked Fried Rice. The crab that is in the fried rice is imitation crab, not the actual meat from the crab. Nonetheless, still delicious.

Since we were feeling a little bit fat after all the seafood and carbs, we thought it would redeem ourselves by ordering their daily vegetable special which was baby bok choy in a garlic sauce.

At the end of the meal, we got Coconut Milk Tapioca Soup.

Overall, the food was decent. All the food came fairly quickly and was prepared well. The only flaw was how the waitresses would try to rush you with the order and not give you a lot of time to inspect the crab you are getting. I know, it’s understandable that they are trying to be efficient and get through all their tables.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on street and parking lot
Best to make reservation for crab
Lots of seats to accomodate large groups

We Rate Deer Garden Restaurant:

Address:

3610 Westwood Street
Port Coquitlam, BC

In Cafe

Well Tea (Richmond)

March 15, 2011

After dinner at Man Ri Sung, M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to stay in Richmond to chill a bit. We wandered and ended up at Well Tea.

Well Tea is a Chinese cafe, so it serves up bubble tea, snacks and set meals.

I’ve been to the Downtown location near BCIT, and the look is completely different. This one has more of a asian garden type of feel. Very green and the theme carries across the restaurant onto their walls and even the floor. It has these glass boxes with items inside.

One feature I like about Well Tea is how there is a button to call the waitress for orders, more water or even playing the bill. You don’t have to be that awkward person putting up your hand and flagging down the waitress.

InsecureGirl ordered the Calpis Green Tea.

FragileBoy ordered the Green Milk Tea.

M had the Chocolate pudding milk tea. He wanted to get it with real milk rather than the powdered milk. He tends to throw up most of the time. Sadly, they did not have any alternative milk choices for any of their bubble teas.

I was also trying to be healthy. I was looking at all their teas and none of them seemed like usual non-sweet teas. After talking to the waitress, the only option was Hot green tea, no sugar. I did feel a bit cheated of my money because at other places, tea would be free and they would have more variety if they charged. Nonetheless, I was super thirsty, so this did relieve my thirst.

1 tea, 3 bubble teas = $20.44. It was an ok price since our goal going here was just to drink and talk.

Words of Wisdom:

Cool decor, nice ambiance
Lots of varieties of drink and food
Good place to talk over drinks

We rate Well Tea:

Address:
4811 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Website:

welltea.ca

In Cafe

Etea Visit #2

March 5, 2011

Visit #1 : Click here

It’s usually a late night and the friends like to go somewhere to chat and have some drinks.

They have lots of food and bubble tea drinks.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered Milk Tea with Pearls. It didn’t seem like they give much pearls with their drinks.

Koreangirl ordered the peach green tea. Yeah, no pearls means less carbs in your belly!

Yet again, I ordered Chrysanthemum Black Tea. What I like about E. Tea is that they use real leaves to make this drink rather than just syrup. They used different cups this time. Some drinks are kinda misleading, since this drink has foam so it seems like you have more in your cup.

CanuckGirl ordered the Mango slush and M ordered the fresh mango slush. As you can tell there is such a large difference in color and appeal. CanuckGirl compared her mango drink to pineapples and was terrible. M’s drink did have more of the rich mango taste. They probably used frozen mangoes since I seriously doubt they are in season.

When selecting drinks here, it is worth is paying a few more bucks for the fresh options.

They have some super cool washroom signs. Only sexy girls and boys can enter the washrooms. And guys, if you think you want to peep into the girls washroom, you “will be slapped”. You can really capture some hilarious photos with your friends!

Words of Wisdom:

Decent prices
Open late
Parking in front
Accepts Mastercards/Visa/Cash/Debt

We rate E. Tea:

E. Tea is located on:

3281 East 22nd Ave.
Vancouver, BC V5M

In Cafe

Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant (Visit #2)

February 20, 2011

Visit #1

Another visit to Golden Oscars on Rupert Street with a bunch of people before heading out to Boss Night Club to check out an event. Since Oscars can usually accomodate a medium sized group of people, we headed over here..plus it’s cheap!

Golden Oscars is a Hong Kong style cafe, so you can find most of the usual items to be in the menu….fried rice, noodles, congee…etc.

I felt thirsty…very thirsty…perhaps it was from my lack of carbs for a while. Apparently it makes you very very dehydrated.
I started off my meal by ordering the Grilled Chicken Steak and Pork Chop on Rice meal ($8.99).

I ordered a cold milk tea with the meal. It came with a small canister of sugar water to add to the milk. I was a little bit distracted and poured a bit too much sugar into my milk tea. Not the best idea since it became super sweet.

I would recommend most people to just to add it in gradually until it’s the right sweetness for you.

The soup that comes with this meal is the usual creamed corn and ham soup. Nothing too special about this, jut normal soup.

What can I really say about the Grilled Chicken Steak and Pork Chop on Rice that I haven’t said in the last visit? There wasn’t anything different except I wish I had more meat. hahaha. No, seriously, I think the portion sizes have gotten a bit smaller in the past few years. Or, my appetite for meat is really large. The chicken and pork chop were both very tender and smelled amazing due to the gravy sauce they have poured on top of both steaks.

This dish also somes with a very very small side of steamed corn, carrots and broccoli. It is very minimal and for a women that likes her vegetables, it really was tiny.

M got his all time favorite dish, baked pork chop. He got the full sized plate rather than the dinner set. It comes with 2 large pieces of baked pork chop rather than just one.

A lot of baked pork chops are different, some come with out bones and some come with bones. Unfortunately Golden Oscars makes them with bones, so I would suggest you ask for an extra plate and cut up all the pork chops and removing the bone before digging into the meal. It makes it easier to eat…. and way less messy.

I do find it very hilarious every time I visit a HK Cafe because I can’t speak Chinese. I can only listen to Chinese but I just can’t speak, it’s super weird but thats what happens when you neglect speaking the language for many years. The waitresses always approach the table speaking Cantonese and i’ll only point at the menu and speak english. I always wonder what they think of me…

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in parking lot or residential areas
Large Portions at decent prices
Very busy during peak hours

We rate Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant:

Address:

3868 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Well Tea House

January 28, 2011

Since I am on co-op, I’m basically using any lunch time that I have to go out to eat food downtown. Since I am usually in Burnaby during regular semesters…I obviously had to go eat as much as I could.

What better way to enjoy a lunch by going to a bubble tea place!

The interior in Well Tea house is very hip and colorful. This place really attracts international students and the universities near by.

FinanceGirl had the Sweet and Sour Pork ($7.95). She swears by it that it’s the best that she’s had. Since it’s a set lunch thing, it comes with a bowl of rice and 3 little side dishes.

I had the peppery beef slices ($7.95) for my lunch. It was very peppery and I liked it. Some people may not like it. It also came with a bowl of rice and the three side dishes. I also got a Milk Tea ($4.75).

Theres a lot of food, so it’s pretty filling. I was really stuffed!

We Rate Well Tea House:

Website: www.welltea.ca

Address:

551 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Grand Dynasty Seafood Restaurant

January 19, 2011

My parents wanted to go out to eat with my grandfather, so they looked at a Chinese newspaper to see where they should go. They found Grand Dynasty and wanted to try it out. They have never been to a Chinese restaurant in casino before, so they seemed excited to go.

Grand Dynasty is located at the Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby.

The interior was really nice and they had these really cool chandlers.

For lunch they have a dim sum menu, and for larger dishes they have the regular menu.

What my mother loved were the super asian place settings. They also charge for their tea…which I suppose is a bit strange…but some restaurants do do that. One tea pot is $1.25.

Shredded Bitter Melon ($6.75) was on the dim sum menu and my parents ordered it. I really don’t like bitter melon but I usually try a piece or 2 in hope that maybe it won’t be so gross. Older asians tend to like it, younger people not so much.

This is the Beef Ball in Soup ($4.95). There were 3 beef balls cut in half, the soup was watercress soup I think. It also came with sauce to dip the beef into. This dish was pretty good.

Bean Curd w/ Crab Meat ($4.95) was probably my favorite, it usually is. I love the texture because it’s nice and soft on the outside and the inside has lots of ingredients. Plus, the sauce makes it really good. I’d probably get this again.

Veggie wrap with bean curd sheet ( $4.95). There’s actually 3 pieces, but my father ate one before I could take a picture. I didn’t eat this dish so I am not sure if it was good.

Steam Stick Rice ($5.25) is not serves wrapped up in a leaf! It was in a bowl with a leaf on top. I am not sure if that matters…anyways, the dish was layered, so on the bottom is rice, then meat, then rice again on top.

According to the server, you have to mix the ingredients together and not just eat it as is.

Shark Fin Dumpling in Soup ($6.50) was really good according to the family. It had more than just whatever you see in the photo.

steamed ribs with blackbean sauce ($4.95) tasted like any normal spare ribs.

House Special Chow Mein ($14.85) looked really good and tasted good! On the bottom you have the crunchy noodles, and on top you have squid, prawns, mushrooms, scallops, meat, and vegetables.

Sweet Osmanthus Cake ($4.50). I have never had this before, but apparently its made out of flowers. Very well made!

Words of Wisdom:

Good food!
A little bit on the pricy side, but still decent
Weekday afternoon you usually get good service since it’s not packed.
After food adventure to the ….CASINO
Free parking

We Rate Grand Dynasty:

Address:

4331 Dominion Street
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

Red Star Seafood

January 19, 2011

The family went to Red Star Seafood Restaurant in Richmond. They are another large Chinese restaurant specializing in Dim Sum for Lunch and large dinners at night.

When we asked if Red Star was affiliated with the Red Star in Tsimshatsui, HK…they said they are not related at all. Apparently, lots of patrons come in asking the same question since the name is the same.

Red Star is located in Presidents Plaza, which is on top of T&T. They are not as elegant as Fortune House in Metrotown, but it’s normal. They have high ceilings, draped curtains and a chandelier in the middle.

We first ordered the watercress soup. This came delivered in a pot and made about 8 bowls. The waiter will soup it out into bowls for you.

They remove all the watercress, meat, dates, and other ingredients into a separate dish for you. They also give you sauce to dip the meat.

This soup was refreshing, but it’s something you can make at home yourself. When the meat came out of the pot, it started drying up really quickly.

The next dish we got was geoduck. At The geoduck was cooked and slices into very thin slices. When the dish arrived, we thought the whole dish was geoduck, but turns out it was bean sprouts in the bottom and that the geoduck was laying on top. This dish also came with a special soy sauce for dipping the geoduck in. It was a pretty good dish. My grandfather said it was good how it was cut so thinly.

Next, we had 2 lobsters. I think we had the lobster sauteed. I’m not exactly sure because I was not paying attention. They prepare the lobster well, so you don’t need to use your hands to crack it open. Tasted good.

For $5 more, you can add noodles to the dish. As you can tell from the picture, there is a layer of noodles under it.

We also ordered 3 bowls of rice.

We also ordered steamed broccoli with crab and egg sauce. We didn’t know what type of vegetable to have with this dish, so the waiter suggested this and it was really really good.

We ordered half a crispy BBQ duck. The duck was really crispy and most on the inside. This is probably one of the best ducks I have had so far. The duck also came with prawn crackers. They also give you soy sauce and salt to add more taste to the duck.

What I love about chinese restaurants is that you get complementary dessert to go with your meal. =)

The Red bean soup had barley and red beans. This was alright, not my favorite dessert since I am not into beans…or anything starchy tasting.

They also give you sesame balls and cookies. These were good, so I ate most of it.

Words of Wisdom:

Park in the parkade instead of near T&T. You will get towed at T&T after the time limit…the parkade is not as strict
Servers are really friendly and can offer advice on what to order

We rate Red Star Seafood:

Address:

#2200 – 8181 Cambie Road
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Leisure Tea & Coffee (Visit #2)

January 14, 2011

Last time I visited here for just tea. This time I went with InsecureGirl and KoreanGirl to revist this place to check out more of what they had to offer.

We got one of the Oriental Style Combo for 2 ( $21.95). We got to choose from 1 coffee, 1 tea, 2 desserts, and a fry combo. We weren’t in a coffee mood, so we paid an additional $1 for another tea.

For our first tea, we got Jasmine Green Tea.

We got their Leisure Fruit Tea. It was really sour for our first cup. All 3 of us were not use to fruity teas since we only have the usual chinese teas at home. If you like fruity teas, you will probably like it because it has real fruits inside – kiwis, pineapples, apples, etc.

What we did after the tea was done, was eat the fruit!

We got the fruit crepe. It had canned peaches,whipped cream and maple syrup. all this was wrapped up in a nice thin crepe.

The crepe was pretty good but one thing we all didn’t like about it was the additional maple syrup. This made it really sweet and didn’t really mesh well with the whipped cream.

The fry combo we got had tofu, fish cake, and chicken. THere is also some spicy sauce on the side to dip. This was an average dish.

Lastly, we had the blueberry pie. This was a very disappointing dessert. It was in a little pie tart with cooked and sugared blueberries and a bit of whipped cream. I use to bake a lot and I can tell this tart shell was from the store frozen. If you look carefully, the tart is even burned.

Overall, this was a bad dessert, everything pre-made and slapped together. It looked nothing like the image on the menu.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of variety of teas
Dessert are a hit or a miss
Parking in the back

We rate Leisure Tea & Coffee:

Address:

1110-8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Leisure Tea & Coffee

January 14, 2011

After eating massive amounts with FinanceGirl and SFUPretender, we decided we needed a break from all the food to have some tea. The first place in mind to just chill and have tea was Leisure Cafe on Alexandra Road.

The interior is very awkward. The walls are covered in old photographs of European landmarks.

They mainly sell drinks, snacks and desserts.

SFUPretender ordered the Jasmine Tea.

I ordered Oolong Tea.

FinanceGirl ordered the Earl Grey Tea.

The teas taste like normal teas, so there not much to explain. Each drink was about $4 or $5. I can’t remember exactly. You could probably get it for way cheaper if you were just at home.

Another review will be put up soon about their desserts.

Words of Wisdom:

Free Parking in back (usually full)
Large variety of sweet and chinese tea

We rate Leisure Cafe:

Address:

1110-8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Cattle Cafe

January 14, 2011

Cattle Cafe may sound familiar if you have been to Cattle Hot Pot in Richmond on Alexandra Road. Same company, different style of food.

Cattle Cafe is a Hk style cafe serving up delicious meal…and are famous for their noodles.

They are usually packed during peak hours, they have limited seating, so big groups may have to wait.

Tea comes in this cute cup.

I ordered a cold milk tea ($2.50) to be simple. It tasted fine as usual.

M ordered the Banana Chocolate Milkshake ($4.95). You can really taste the banana and chocolate in it. It was good.

M got the Curry Deep Fried Pork Chop on Rice ($8.75). Comes with 2 pieces of pork chop, rice, curry sauce and a few bits of vegetables. he liked it.

I ordered the Unagi (eel) sandwich with fries ($5.75).The presentation looked normal for an HK Cafe. What puzzeled me was how could they offere an unagi sandwich for only $5. So, I opened up the sandwich and the eel does not cover 1/3 of the sandwich. I was sad because always like eating every bite with all the ingredients…especially the part with protein.

It is quite obvious their unagi was frozen and just heated up…the fries probably were too. But, this is a cafe, so we can’t expect everything to be fresh or else prices would be higher.

The overall tast was fine. Simple sandwich and it had taste.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking Underground, street parking
Decently priced food
Noodles are their specialty and items on rice.
Limited seating, best to come in 2 or 4

We Rate Cattle Cafe:

Address:

4885 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Bubble World

January 13, 2011

Bubble World on Kingsway is a popular location for tons of university students to hang out and have a BBT or a light meal.

I know I come here when I am bored and have nothing to do for the night. Occasionally, I come here after clubbing when the night really sucks. It is usually fairly busy at night.

I was hanging out with the Nocturnal Vancouver crew having some bubble teas discussing food and social media.

I got the Jasmine Green Tea ($3.50). I really don’t like anything overly sweet or slushy … so i opted for this option. It tasted like the bottled teas you would find at a grocery store. Not bad at all, but sometimes I wish they could serve straight up tea in tea pots.

We ordered Salt and Peppery Chicken ($4.95).

I ordered the wonton soup (Around $5). I didn’t particularly like the wonton soup, it was a bit salty and the wontons did not taste fresh. I much prefer No 1 Beef Noodle House‘s Wonton Soup.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking on side streets
Salt and Peppery chicken is good
If you don’t like sweet drinks, ask for less sweet option

We Rate Bubble World:

Address:

4300 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

No 1 Beef Noodle House (Visit #2)

January 13, 2011

Since M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to get some Bubble tea and quick snacks… we decided to go to No 1 Beef Noodle House.

As usual, we always get the Salt and Peppery Chicken. This time we asked for spicy sauce to go along with it. It makes it 10x better (only if you enjoy spicy). We also noticed we got less Salt and Peppery Chicken compared to the last time we came here. Click here to read our past review.

InsecureGirl ordered the Guava Red Tea. I don’t think she really enjoyed it.

FragileBoy ordered the Red Bean Slush.

I ordered the Apple Milk Tea. I had this strange fascination with flavoured Milk Teas after getting some at T&T. It was good and was not overly sweet.

Words of Wisdom:

Shanghai Dumplings are a major disappointment
Good late night hangout
Cash Only
Parking is hard to find
If you get bored, you can spot all the typos in their menu

We rate No. 1 Beef Noodle House:

They are located at:

4741 Willingdon Ave
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

Bubble Fruity

January 12, 2011

Bubble Fruity is an authentic HK dessert shop in Richmond. I have always been craving for good Mango sago cream, but I could never find it in BC… until now.

They are quite popular. We asked the owners if they would ever consider opening a shop in Burnaby or in Vancouver, they said they were way too busy. Bubble Fruity is a mom and pop store, so only the owners run this place.

They serve snack and are most famous for their authentic Sago cream desserts.

PinappleBun ordered the Durian Sago Cream ($4). This had basil seeds and sago. The black bacteria looking things are te basil seeds, they may seem scary, but it’s delicious.

PinappleBun said it has a very fresh durian taste and smell. She loved it!

If you are not a durian fan, I suggest you stay away from this. If you ARE a durian fan, you MUST get this.

VWboy and I both had the Mango Flavour Sago Cream ($4). It has a really strong favour of mango, which is <3 ! It is also served with sago and basil seed.

When I visited Hong Kong a few years ago, I would love to go out to have dessert just like this. It’s amazing that a place in Richmond can have such authentic HK Desserts!

Of course this was SO good that we had to bring it back home for our parents to try.

We ordered:

Green Bean Soup
Sago Cream with coconut milk
Black Sesame Paste
Red Bean Soup
Durian Sago Cream
Mango Sago Cream
Papaya almond soup

Glutinous Purple Rice Soup

Mango Sago Cream

Papaya Almond Soup

Green Bean Soup

When we took out the items, they were not as good as having it in the store. You get much less and the temperature changes as well. We live in Burnaby and the restaurant is in Richmond. So, we basically left it in the car for about 45 mins.

Overall, the desserts were amazing and very cheap!

Words of Wisdom:

Mango Sago Cream and Durian Sago Cream are highly popular
Limited free street parking, mostly pay parking
Cheap

We Rate Bubble Fruity:

Address:

180-8188 Saba Road
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant

January 12, 2011

Golden Oscars has been around since as long as I could remember. My parents would always take my sisters here for some lunch on the weekends. Golden Oscars is HK style Cafe serving up dishes from pork cutlet to baked seafood. They have been around for well over 2 decades.

The theme of the restaurant is “The Oscars”. All the walls are decorated with Oscar winning movies.

The interior of the restaurant is very typical for a chinese restaurant. Mostly booth style seating that fits about 4 or 5 people.

I usually order anything from their Set Dinner or Set Lunch Menu. Comes with choice of dish + soup and a hot drink (+$0.50 for cold drinks).

M and I both <3 milk tea, so we both got cold milk tea in our set dinner. They give you your own canister of liquid syrup to adjust the sweetness of your drink. I would not advise pouring it all into your drink because it’ll just become the nastiest thing you have ever tasted. Pour it gradually and taste it till you get the right amount.

Our set menu came with the daily soup which was a cream corn soup.

M ordered the Grilled Chicken Steak and Pork Chop on Rice ($8.99). We order this dish quite often and it never disappoints. You get one chicken steak and pork chop which is still tender and delicious. It is topped off with a gravy and garlic sauce. You also get rice to go with the dish. You get a wee bit of vegetables – corn, carrots, broccoli.

Since I am a big lover of seafood, I decided to get the Prawn with Egg Swirl on Rice ($8.99). This is massive…especially for dinner. It seemed like it was supposed to be shared amongst a few people (But I ate most of it). On the bottom, you have white rice and it is topped with eggs, green onions, and prawns. I’m sure there is more to this dish, but I am not smart enough to know what exactly is in it.

What I like about this is how the ration between sauce and rice were perfect, so you don’t end up with a section of bland rice. Also, the prawns are HUGE. Very big and plump. If you do decide to get this dish, you probably want to share with someone.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in parking lot or residential areas
Large Portions at decent prices
Very busy during peak hours

We rate Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant:

Address:

3868 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Flying Tiger

December 29, 2010

I heard of Flying Tiger because a friend works here. So, I looked it up and it seemed like a pretty good place for modern asian cuisine. But, today he wasn’t working so IndecisiveGirl and I just ate and complained about how crazy people at Metrotown were….and how hard it is to get anything done due to the crazy Boxing Week rush.

Flying Tiger in Kitsilano features modern asian street food. Imagine the Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant but Flying Tiger would encompass other types of dishes from Korea, India, China, Japan, Philippines, etc.

The restaurant is pretty narrow, but still can fit a lot of people. It is best to make reservations before hand just in case they have a busy night.

If you are seated near the back of the restaurant, you will be able to see the chefs at work.

Their menu is mostly tapas, drink and a few desserts. We asked the waitress what was good on the menu….and after rambling on for a bit… she basically recommended the whole menu. She was quite helpful actually. She explained the the dishes near the top were smaller and lighter, while the dishes on the bottom were larger and heavier tasting.

The special of the day was Sapporo on tap for $4.50. So myself and InsecureGirl got one each.

We ordered the Ebi Mayo ($12). There were about 5 pieces of shrimp. The size of the prawn were pretty large and nicely prepared. Sadly, this still was not as good as the ebi mayo I had at Toratatsu.

Next we had the Pulled Duck Confit Crêpes ($19). It contained Duck confit, Philippine lime, charred scallion, jicama & cucumber salad, Vietnamese coriander, mint, basil, and sesame oil crêpes. I liked how interactive this dish was. You can make your own dish by adding how much of anything you want.

You basically pile up the ingredients in the middle with a little bit of everything and the wrap it up.

When it is all wrapped up, you can bite it and enjoy.

Lastly, we had the Hawker Street Noodles ($15), it had Fresh egg noodles, shiitake mushrooms, free run chicken,wild sea prawns, squid, snap peas, gailan, nam prik pao, oyster sauce, and crispy garlic. This was very well prepared and was filling. Since we were so full from everything, we decided to pack it up and it came in a really cute chinese take out box.

The damage of the bill came out to be $61.60. Flying Tiger is not the best place to go when you are super hungry. It is quite expensive, but I guess you are paying for atmosphere.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking at adjacent roads or street meter parking at front
All dishes are meant to be shared…tapa style
Have daily drink specials
Pretty expensive tapas

We rate Flying Tiger:

Website: http://www.theflyingtiger.ca/

Located at:

2958 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Terracotta Modern Chinese

December 28, 2010

I have always been fascinated by the thought of modern chinese cuisine. Could this be possible? After hearing much about Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant on Urbanspoon and Twitter. It was something I needed to try in the future with a few gal pals.

I heard a bit of controversy between this restaurant and a UBC Student Club…lets just say it didn’t look good at all. I saw a Groupon for Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant the following day and just had to purchase it to see what this place really was like.

Since this place was best known for drinks, I thought I would take CandiedZen to celebrate her birthday.

The interior is pretty cool! It has a bunch of statues of Terracotta warriors. Sometimes I find I am creepily amused by Chinese statues. Being a totally whitewashed asian…It’s quite interesting and I wish I could have a statue on my desk.

The waitress started me and CandiedZen with some ice waters as we pondered over the menu.

For my drink I ordered the Chivas & Green Tea ($9). It came in a cool asian style cup. I had no idea what Chivas was, but it seemed like they heavily promoted that certain type of alcohol at the restaurant, so I didn’t think it would disgust me. Turns out Chivas is Whisky from Scotland. At first slip, I really did not like this drink. It was just tea and whisky! After eating a bit of food, it matched well with the dishes. and I slowly began to enjoy it.

CandiedZen ordered the Me-So-H69ny ($9.50). Yes, that is the name of this drink! Sounded hilarious and made us giggle a bit. This drink contained Raspberry Stoli, Red Alize, Cranberry Juice and a lychee. This was a really good drink. The drink is more on the sweet side and not too strong in terms of alcohol taste.

For our first dish, we ordered the Golden Squid ($8). It contained marinated squid, bettered and seasoned with salt. It also had garlic, jalapeno and some type of fruity salsa. This was one of our favorite dishes.

We next ordered the Terracotta Spring Rolls ($7), which has inside – tuna, mango and peppers. At first, the taste was quite bizarre. THe better did not match the taste of the tuna. Maybe if they used something else like maybe… avocados, it would be better.

Nest we ordered the Terracotta Short Rib Sliders ($9). It had braised beef short ribs with green onion served on golden mantou buns. CandiedZen and I agreed, it was actually “modern chinese”. They took the ingredients you would find in a chinese restaurant and add a twist. The braised beef was very tender and the sauce accompanied great as well. It had 3 pieces.

The last dish we had was the Barbecue Duck Wraps ($8). It came in 3 pieces and in each one was BBQ duck, hoisin sauce, green onion, and cucumber. CandiedZen commented how this dish as quite oily and assumed it was because the duck had a lot of fat in it. One thing which I think would make the dish amazing if it was more of a “do it yourself” type of wrap so customers can put in how much onions or cucumber to it because some people are picky about green onions.

Overall, Terracotta Modern Chinese caters to a very specific type of crowd of people – The young, hip, enjoys drinking and a lounge setting. I was clearly not their target market, as Follow Me Foodie has said several times in her posts. Growing up eating mass amounts of Chinese food, I am basically trained to gravitate towards dim sum restaurants or family style chinese restaurants.

Words of Wisdom:

Do not expect this place to be a traditional chinese restaurant
Sliders are highly recommended
Best to drink and have a few dishes
Pay parking on streets

We rate Terracotta Modern Chinese:

Website: http://www.terracottavancouver.com/

Address:

52 Alexander St.
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Dragon Ball Tea House

December 24, 2010

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

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

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

What we ordered:

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