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Chinese

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Chi Men 吃面 specializes in Lanzhou noodle soup on the West End in Downtown Vancouver.  What makes it Lanzhou noodles are the hand pulled noodles of various thicknesses. I wasn’t planning on coming here for dinner with friends but their decor caught our attention.

Interior

I really love the murals of noodle slurpers and it shows what the restaurant is all about. The space isn’t very large, but has enough spots for smaller group. Since it was a cold rainy night, it wasn’t very busy.

Menu

Charcoal BBQ Wings

Each order of chicken wings comes with 4 pieces. The taste of the charcoal penetrated deep into the chicken wings.

Traditional Beef Noodle Soup

The broth is clear and not super strong. You can add some chilli oil to add an extra kick of flavour. There are slices of beef, daikon, greens, and a lot of noodles. They didn’t have a lot of noodle options even though it was listed on the menu, so this is the 1.5mm noodles.

Soy Bean Paste Noodle

The soybean paste noodles has  noodles topped with soy bean paste, tomatoes, beef, egg, cucumber and green onions. This also has the 1.5mm noodles. My friend found this dish a bit bland and needed more flavour.

Chilli Sauce Noodle

This is a dry noodle dish and it has beef, chilli sauce, mustard greens and green onions. I got this with 1.5mm noodles as it was recommended by the staff. The chilli sauce did pack a little punch. This is one of their most popular items on the menu.   

Final Thoughts

The food was good but we wished there were more varieties on the menu for noodle thickness as there should have been 7. The top items to get here is the traditional beef noodle soup and chilli sauce noodle. The prices here are a little higher than what you expect, but given the area, its ok.

We Rate Chi Men: 

Address:
1120 Denman Street, Vancouver BC

Website:
http://chi-men.ca/menu

Jasmine Club Chinese Restaurant in Coquitlam serves up Korean Chinese cuisine. Three popular dishes are Jajangmyeon – noodles with a thick sweet bean sauce, Jjamppong – spicy noodle soup, and Tangsuyuk – sweet and sour pork dish.

We came here for dinner since M really craved some jajangmyeon.

Interior

The space was pretty busy for a weekend evening and the tables filled up very quickly. For large groups, its best to have reservations.

Banchan – Complimentary Side Dishes

Banchan are small side dishes that come complimentary with the meal. There is pickled daikon and picked carrots and cabbage. It was good to nibble on throughout the meal.

Mandu – Fried Dumplings

There are about 8 pieces that come in an order. It’s so delicious and deep-fried till a golden brown on the outside. The inside is very savoury and yummy.

Tangsuyuk – Sweet Sour Crispy Pork

This is very different than the usual sweet and sour pork. The pork is covered in potato starch, thus the pale coating around it. There are a lot of veggies like wood ear mushrooms, carrots, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and maraschino cherries.

Jjajang bokkeumbap – Fried Rice with Black Bean Sauce

This is what I ordered. I really like the fried rice with the black bean sauce. It was good, but I wished they gave a little bit more black bean sauce

Jajangmyeon

There is a lot of black bean sauce with the noodles. Mix it all together and slurp up all the noodles.

Final Thoughts

Jasmine Club Chinese restaurant has some pretty good Korean Chinese food, but it is pricey compared to what you would normally pay in Korea.

We Rate Jasmine Club Chinese Restaurant

Address:
1001B Austin Avenue, Coquitlam, BC

Xi’an Famous Foods is a chain of fast casual restaurants based in New York City that serves authentic Northern Chinese dishes. When in New York, I had to try it since I love some good spicy noodles. We went to the location closest to MoMA and it’s literally across the street.

Interior

There is seating on either side of the walls, but no group tables at all. Those who are eating alone or with people don’t have to worry. It was busy in the evening, so we waiting a little bit till another group left.

Menu

Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles in Soup

Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles

Their hand-ripped noodles mixed with sauteed spicy cumin lamb. It was so so so delicious and comforting, but it had a kick of heat to it. There are good chunks of lamb in it. The noodles were a bit chewy.

Final Thoughts

It was great to have something in New York that wasn’t burgers or pizza.

We Rate Xi’an Famous Foods: 

Address:
37 W 54th St, New York

Website:
http://xianfoods.com/

Peaceful Restaurant rings in the Year of the Dog with auspicious and culinary dishes created by owner and Master Chef Charlie Huang. We were invited to check out Traditional Chinese New Year foods and dishes to ring in the new year. They currently have 7 locations across the Lower Mainland and you can get all these items on their regular menu.

Master Chef Charlie Huang

Owner-chef Charlie Huang’s culinary inspiration stems mainly from his upbringing in Xi’an, an ancient Silk-Road city in North-Western China. The cuisine in the city-region reflects the fusion of various cultures over the course of several thousand years, which Charlie has sought to bring to Vancouver and share with others. His cumulation of his various experiences and the desire to spread the experience and diversity of Chinese cuisine – he calls ‘homecooked comfort food’ – has led to the creation of Peaceful Restaurant.

He even did a dumpling demonstration to see how it’s all made by hand.

Sichuan Cucumbers 麻辣黃瓜

Woodear Mushroom Salad 涼拌木耳

Xi’an White Lamb Soup 羊肉泡饃

Sichuan Broth Braised Fish 水煮魚片

Xing-Jiang Cumin Lamb with Sesame Flatbread 孜然羊肉加燒餅

Mu-Shu Stir-fried Noodles 木須肉炒面

Chinese Rice Cakes 炒年糕

Sichuan Thousand Chilli Chicken 四川辣子雞

Sichuan String Beans 干煸四季豆

Dan-Dan Noodles 擔擔面

Sizzled Hot-Chilli Noodles 油潑辣子面

Xi’an Cold Steamed Noodles 陝西凉皮

Northern Pork Dumplings 北方水餃

Xiao-Long Bao Steamed Buns 小籠包

Peaceful Beef Rolls 牛肉卷餅

Pan-Fried Vegetable Dumplings 素菜鍋貼

Hand Pulled Noodles

I love hand pulled noodles especially when its freshly made. A piece of dough is repeatedly stretched and folded onto itself in order to align the glutens and warm up the dough for stretching. This dough is then pulled to about an arm span’s length. The puller then makes a loop with the dough, joining the two ends into one clump of dough, and inserts his fingers into the loop to keep the strand from sticking to itself. Doing this, the pull has doubled the length of the dough while fractioning its thickness. This process is repeated several times until the desired thickness and quantity is achieved.

Blade Sheared Noodles

With one hand holding the dough pointed downward at a 30º angle, and the other hand clutching a special sharp knife specifically made for this purpose, the noodles are shaved directly into a large pot of boiling water. It’s fast and has been described as an endless loop.

Final Thoughts

Traditional Chinese New Year foods and dishes include noodles, dumplings, fish and nian gao (glutinous rice cake). They symbolize happiness, longevity, an increase in wealth and prosperity.

A few of my favourite items of the night were:

  • Sichuan Thousand Chilli Chicken
  • Xi’an White Lamb Soup
  • Mu-Shu Stir-fried Noodles
  • Sichuan String Beans
  • Peaceful Beef Rolls

If you’re looking for a very casual restaurant for Northern Chinese cuisine, check out Peaceful Restaurant. There are many locations, but this particular one we went to is on West 4th Ave in Kitsilano.

Address:
2394 W 4th Ave, Vancouver

Website:
http://peacefulrestaurant.ca/

It’s been a while since coming to Liuyishou Hotpot and their interior and menu have been revamped. Founded in 2000 in Chongqing China, Liuyishou Hotpot has grown to over 1000 locations worldwide over the past 17 years. From a single location on a small street in Chongqing, Liuyishou has expanded to a prominent franchise with locations in China, Canada, U.S., Dubai, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Thailand, and France.

Hot Pot

Hotpot is an interactive method of cooking and eating Chinese food as diners simmer their food in a pot of delicious broth, giving the food a blast of true Chinese flavour while cooking food to the perfect temperature.

You start by selecting the types of broth for your hotpot. I can be spicy or more of a mild broth. I love getting my hot pot with both spicy and a mild broth.

Chongqing style hotpot is extremely popular in China and many other regions, is well represented by Liuyishou, and the recipe of traditional hotpot broth. Prepared with special premium butter, red hot chili, Sichuan peppercorn, and many other exotic herbs and spices, it is the secret of how to achieve spicy, stimulating, umami and aromatic pleasures to astonish all your senses.

Then you add an array of veggies, meat, and seafood, or noodles to the meal. You start by cooking the raw food in your part in a particular order – meat, seafood, mushroom, veggies and noodle. All items are good quality and it’s a la carte unlike some of the all you can eat hot pot restaurants.

Sauce Bar

Liusushou hotpot has a huge sauce bar with so many items you can add to your sauce that you can mix for the cooked food items.

There are also diagrams if you don’t know what to mix your sauce with. I always a little bit of my favourite sauces like satay sauce, garlic, chili oil, sesame sauce and green onions.

Drinks

The best drinks to go with hot pot is beer, pop, and plum juice especially if you have the spicy hot pot.

Sweets

Golden Mantou buns with condensed milk is a sweet treat with the meal outside of the hot pot.

Bing Fen is a traditional Sichuanese cold dessert jelly with different toppings.

Liuyishou Hotpot Week

For a week-long celebration, join Liuyishou Hotpot at any Canadian location to celebrate the year of The Dog with a special menu offering. The holiday dinner specials (available 5:30 pm  10:30 pm only) include the dinner set for 2 and the dinner set for 4 from February 26 to March 2, presented by Vancouver Gourmet Tours. More details and tickets are for sale now on Eventbrite.ca:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/o/vancouver-gourmet-tours-16495752595

Address:
5507 Kingsway St, Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://liuyishouna.com/

We were originally in Richmond wanting to go to Happy Tree BBQ there but the wait was an hour long, so we drove to their Burnaby location as the line as shorter. When we got there, we were seated right away as the space is larger. They specialize in skewered street food especially cumin lamb skewers. I’ve heard lots about this place and it’s always packed.

Make sure you bring cash if you are spending less than $50. I just came with one friend and we spent $49, but they were wanting us to pay in cash. Since there were no signs, they eventually eased up and let us pay by Credit Card.

Cucumber

For $4.95, this is a lot of cucumber in a spicy sauce. So delicious and it was a great item to pair with all the lamb skewers.

Lamb Kebob (Original)

Of all the skewers, this is the most popular and most delicious. Covered in delicious spices like cumin. There is a minimum order of 5 skewers, but for 2 people to devour it, it wasn’t a problem at all. You must order this.

Lamb Kebob (Special)

This lamb kebob is served on a metal skewer and also has a minimum 5 pieces per order. A good sprinkling of spices, but the original still wins out by a hair.

Angus beef Kabob

This also have a 5 piece minimum order with the angus beef. It has similar spices as the lamb but the texture of the beef was a bit tougher.

Chicken Wings

Unlike the other skewers, there is a minimum order of 2 skewers of the chicken wings. Delicious exterior and moist mean on the inside.

Steamed Buns

On each skewer, there are 2 pieces of the steamed buns which are them grilled. This could have used a bit longer on the grill as it cooked a bit unevenly. Not as delicious at the other meaty skewers, but it was go to try out.

Coconut Juice

Beer is a no-brainer with this type of food, but they have juices and non-alcoholic beverages on the menu. When I was looking at other people, I had to get it as its a good coconut drink.

Final Thought

Overall, the skewers were delicious and a great place to go to with a large group. The spices on the skewers were delightful. I would come back again.

We Rate Happy Tree BBQ

Address:
3502 Kingsway St, Vancouver, BC

Beijiang Restaurant opened in 2009 as the first Halal restaurant in Vancouver serving Uyghur dishes like Dapanji and Cumin Lamb. They recently moved to Leslie Road in Richmond, which now has their own parking lot. I was invited to check out the restaurant since I haven’t been here before. I don’t normally eat Uyghur dishes but I absolutely love the flavour profiles of chilis and cumin.

Interior

There are lots of large round tables for small to larger groups in the restaurant. Everything has been renovated, so you get a lot of decor that reflects the Beijiang region. They also have a bookable private room with a minimum spend if you ever need privacy with your group.

DaPanJi 大盘鸡

This Xianjiang dish is like a chicken stew with potatoes, veggies, and chicken with bones. It is cooked with a delightful sauce and you can adjust the level of spice. Some of us at the table liked spicy and some are ok with a little bit of spice, so the staff were able to choose the right amount.

Handmade noodles come with the dish too, so you can add them to it after so it can be coated in all that sauce.

Lauan Twigs Lamb Kebob 红柳枝羊肉串

The skewers are pretty meaty and covered in a good amount of spices like cumin. It does have a spicy kick to it which I enjoyed. I’ve never had lamb skewers on a sharpened stick, so it was fun to eat. One of my favourite dishes of the night. You can order this piece by piece.

Stir Fried Slice of Lamb with Steamed Buns

This is a fun dish to eat as you get to assemble your bun with the lamb and peppers. A good dish to share if you have a lot of people around the table.

We found this dish to be more on the oily side, so tea or Coca Cola pairs well.

Xianjiang-style Lamb Leg Shanks 新疆风味羊拐

Each order comes with one, so for our table of 4, we had 2 in total. It’s best to cut up the shanks to share among the table.

Some pieces were moist but then some pieces were more tough.

Baked Puff Pastry with Lamb 烤包子

Inside has a lamb filling wrapped in puff pastry. It was crisp on the outside, but I wanted a bit more seasoning in the filling.

 Lamb Scorpion Hot Pot 羊蝎子

This was my absolutely favourite dish of the evening. They call it lamb scorpion hot pot is because the bones looks like the shape of a scorpion. The bubbling hot pot comes with boney pieces of lamb that you can eat with your hands. They provide you gloves so you each nibble away at each piece.

Once you get through most of the bones, you can add in freshly made noodles to the pot. It’s fun to see it being unwound. As it cooks in the broth, the flavour really soaks into the noodles.

Sweet Corn Pancake

The sweet corn pancake reminded me of a pizza. It was interesting to see this as one of their desserts, but surprisingly the corn went well with the sugar. Definitely unique but not for everyone.

Drinks

They have non-alcoholic drinks, beer, wine and tea at this restaurant. As some dishes are on the oily side, I found that tea and Coca-cola were great to go with the meal.

Final Thoughts

A great new space for Beijiang Restaurant gives them more space to do what they love. You will also find a good balance of Cantonese-style dishes on the menu too. I enjoyed their Halal Uyghur dishes and I’ll definitely be back.My favourites were the Lamb Scorpion Hot Pot, Lauan Twigs Lamb Kebob, and the Stir Fried Slice of Lamb with Steamed Buns.

We Rate Beijiang Restaurant

Address:
8111 Leslie Rd, Richmond, BC

Website:
https://www.beijiangrestaurant.ca/

Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine Restaurant is a simple Chinese cafe specializing in soups, noodles, and dumplings by hand. This hole in the wall has some really cheap food. Everything is $3.50 or under. That is an amazing price for New York standards.

Interior

The inside of the restaurant isn’t anything special. A little old school but theres a bit of charm in that. You order at the counter first and then find any seat available.

Menu

Dumplings

We got the pork and chive dumpling and they came out so quickly. We started with the small size but little did we know that these were so good that we ordered a few more large sizes.

Beef Tripe with Thick Noodle Soup

The size of the noodle soup was pretty good. A good amount of noodles to go with the beef, tripe, and veggies.

Wheat Noodle with Peanut Butter Sauce

You mix these noodles with the sauce and enjoy.

Final Thought

The food here was great for the price. We ate so much and didn’t make a dent in our wallets. The dishes are very homey tasting and simple.

We Rate Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine Restaurant

Address:
118 Eldridge St, New York

Chinatown BBQ is a new restaurant on East Pender in Vancouver’s Chinatown. They put their own spin on classic Cantonese-style meat shops by making it new and fresh to attract customers of all types.

With more and more restaurants and shops opening up in Chinatown, it’s good to see more of these BBQ shops.

When you first walk in, you see all their delicious meats hanging from the display case.

Interior

There are a lot of seats but during lunch, it can get pretty busy. Turnover is pretty quick, so you’re never waiting too long. The interior evokes a bit of new and old in this space and I really liked that.

Menu

Tea

When they seat you, you are given some hot tea.

Chef’s Plate

The Chef’s Plate comes with BBQ Pork, Soy Sauce Chicken, Roasted Pork and half a salty egg over rice. For $14.50, it’s not exactly cheap. The quality of their meats were delicious, but it did bother me a bit that the cuts were a bit thin for what I’m used to. My favourite was the roasted pork since the skin is so crisp.

Beef Brisket Curry on Rice

The portion size was good. Lots of curry to rice ratio. The taste of this was decent, but not the best I’ve had.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the quality of food is good and I like how the space is new and clean. The prices are a bit higher than most places, but understandably due to rising costs.

We Rate Chinatown BBQ

Address:
130 E Pender St, Vancouver

Website:
http://chinatownbbq.com/

November Dessert is a Chinese dessert shop located on Grimer Street in Burnaby. This street has a lot of dessert shops and cafes opening up in the last few months and locals are noticing. I’ve heard of November Desserts but haven’t made a visit until they asked me to come for a visit to try some of their different dishes. If you’ve heard of Scorpio M in Richmond, they moved their operations here, changed the name and the menu is very similar to what they had before.

Interior

The interior is large and can fit small to large groups. They have utilized the beautiful grey brick walls and incorporated some beautiful Chinese decor that gives it a unique look.

Menu

Their regular menu has different soupy desserts, pancakes, and limited drinks. They also have a beautiful afternoon tea set, but you need to order 24 hours in advance. You wouldn’t know they had it unless you look at their social media accounts. I missed out on the tea set since I didn’t reserve ahead of time, so we stuck to the regular menu.

It was hard to figure out how each item on the menu differentiated itself from another, so I had to get my mom to translate some parts of the menu since I can’t read Chinese.

Drinks

I started with the milk tea, they use oolong tea as their base, but when they mix it together with the milk it’s eerily frothy, perhaps they use powdered milk, which I really do not like.

Mango and Durian Pancakes

The pancakes are wrapped like little packages. The skin is thin and is filled with whipped cream and the chosen fruit inside.

Durian

The durian pancake has a good chunk of fruit inside and all the durian lovers will enjoy it. It’s an acquired taste, so you will either love or hate it. I’m more on the neutral level since it taste like onions to me, but everyone’s experience if different.

Mango

Mango is a classic and a hit with everyone unless you are allergic to mangos. One of my favourite items to get here.

Snow Ice with Chopped Strawberry

We also added taro mochi, grass jelly, and papaya. I love this bowl since it has the cute little polar bear in the centre. I really enjoyed the toppings and the snowy ice flavoured with a bit of condensed milk.

It’s a good item to share with friends and you chat away and pick at this.

Mango and Black Sticky Rice with Homemade shaved ice

The shaved ice was milky, which was enjoyable. It is  topped off with 2 large scoops of black sticky rice and chopped mangos. This was ok, but not that special.

Mango, kiwi, homemade riceball with homemade shaved ice

 

Final Thoughts

They have improved their desserts since they were Scorpio M, but with the tough competition of dessert cafes in the area, it’s hard to stand out since there is another cafe doing similar desserts. The space here is quiet, so we did notice some people studying here.

We Rate November Dessert

Address:
5358 Grimmer St, Burnaby

Website:
http://mdessert.ca/en/

Deer Garden Signatures has been expanding in the last few months with 5 locations in total. Their Burnaby location is on Sperling and Kingsway. They took over the location of Pearl House Restaurant. I came on the weekend for lunch and it wasn’t as busy as their Vancouver location, so that was great for us.

Interior

There are a few booth-style seating for larger parties, but there is also smaller tables for those with 2 or 4 people. The space isn’t too large but they can still seat a good amount of people here.

Menu

You order your meal using the form provided to you. You can customize your noodles anyway you like. I’ve also noticed prices have gone up since my last visit back in 2014 by a few dollars.

Milk Tea

Whether you have cold or hot milk tea, you still gotta get it. M got the cold house special milk tea and I got the regular cold milk tea. Both were really good.

Laksa Noodles

This is the laksa soup base with beef brisket, beef balls and egg noodles. M loved it and he was able to eat this entire bowl, which is massive.

Coriander and Century Egg Soup Noodles

The coriander and century egg broth is one of my personal favourites. It has a very comforting taste and I had it with beef brisket, fish balls and thick rice noodles. So good! I wasn’t able to finish all the noodles but I tried my very best. Most people end up getting their remainder to go.

Pan Fried Boneless Chicken with Teriyaki Sauce

This chicken was delicious! The skin was crisp and the meat was very moist.

Desert Wings with Ginger

There are 3 pieces to an order and I also love this item too. Very crisp and the ginger is subtle. Pairs so well with soupy noodles.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s a great additional to the neighbourhood. It’s the same ol’ delicious noodles, so they have kept the quality consistent. I’ll be back for more.

We Rate Deer Garden Signatures

Address:
7150 Sperling Avenue, Burnaby

Website:
http://deergarden.ca/

Deer Garden Signatures Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Neptune Chinese Kitchen recently opened at Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam. There are currently 12 restaurants under the Neptune Restaurant Group. You’ll notice they have expanded quite quickly in the last few years. You’ll find an array of Chinese dishes here from dim sum, noodles, to their seafood specialties.

Interior

The interior is newly renovated and much brighter than the restaurant that was here previously. It’s a large space and can fit small to large groups here.

Dim Sum

Pork Sui Mai with Fish Roe

This comes with 4 pieces to a steamer. The sui mai is a mix of shrimp and pork. This was ok, but I felt it was missing something.

Shrimp Spring Roll

The shrimp spring roll has 5 pieces cut in half. It is deep-fried until golden brown. Pretty standard.

Shrimp Dumpling

Shrimp dumplings had a good bounce to them. You should ask them for some hot sauce to go with it. Our dumplings seemed like it was steamed a bit too long, so the skin separated from the dumpling.

Creamy Egg Yolk Custard Bun

So delicious! If you’re here for dim sum, you should order this. Sweet and creamy.

Lunch and Dinner

Minced Fish and Pumpkin Congee

Congee definitely hits the spot and it’s my sort of comfort food. They have 13 kinds of congee. I’ve never had minced fish and pumpkin in congee, but it was good.

Chilled Spicy Shrimp

The shrimp were delicious and was a good start to the meal as an appetizer. A good amount of spice that isn’t too spicy at all.

Wonton Noodle in Soup

A simple items to get for lunch if it’s just for 1. You get 5 wontons and some broccoli with the noodles. and broth.

Curry Seafood Chow Mein

The curry sauce and the seafood was good but the noodles oddly looked red under all of that. The sauce is a tad sweet.

Steam Lobster with Sticky Rice in a Bamboo Steamer

Always a good dish and it’s weird to see the lobster stares at you. The sticky rice sits on the bottom on the steamer wrapped in leaves. Then the delicious lobster is on top.

Yang Chow Fried Rice

A good classic fried rice dish that has a bit of everything. Can’t go wrong with this.

Crab with Salty Egg

I really enjoyed this dish. The salty egg on the outside of the shell was so addictive that I wanted to lick it all off. The crab was cooked well and the meat was naturally sweet.

Sticky Rice on Crispy Chicken

This was a well liked dished among the table. The skin was beautifully rendered so it was crispy and not fatty at all. A lot of prep went into this to really debone a chicken to create this. I would definitely order this again.

Neptune Signature Ribs

A good portion of the ribs that are saucy and sweet.

Final Thoughts

Overall, some items were average but it’s still a good addition to the neighbourhood as there needs to be more Chinese restaurants. Whether you come here for dim sum, lunch or dinner, you don’t have to travel too far.

We Rate Neptune Chinese Restaurant

Address:
2080 United Boulevard, Coquitlam

Website:
http://www.neptunechinesekitchen.com/

Neptune Chinese Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

PiDGiN has always been a place I wanted to check out. I went with a friend to try their prix-fixe tasting menu for $55 per person, but there was an awesome voucher on TravelZoo for the 7 course dining for 2 people at $66, so I purchased it to save a little bit of money.

Interior

The interior is hip and cozy. The lighting is dim but it sets the atmosphere.

Happy Hour

Since it was happy hour, drinks were on special, so I grabbed Tiger, which is an Asian Lager. Good and crisp to pair with the dishes.

Daily pickles

Some daily pickles were carrot, onions and cucumbers. Nice to much on as we waited for the other dishes.

Oyster shot

This also has apple, cucumber granite, and a horseradish dashi. AN interesting combination of flavours.

Spring salad

The salad comes with marinated tofu, onsen egg and wasabi yogurt. A good refreshing salad before the other dishes arrived.

Mantou bread

This dish has 3 pieces of mantou bread with bayildi, miso, eggplant, onion, and tomato.

Cultivated Mushrooms

This is topped with a delicious ramen egg, soy yuzu brown butter, and onion puree. If you love mushrooms, you’ll love this dish. The mushrooms just soak up all that delicious butter.

Spring Salmon

This dish has clams, maitake mushrooms, sesame butter, and tobiko. The salmon is perfectly cooked with more mushrooms and the yummy calms.

Beef Striploin

Topped with broccolini, spinach gomae, and some local wasabi. The wasabi was freshly grated and not as potent as the ones in tubes. The dish was ok but the gomae was on the salty side.

Chai Panna Cotta

The dessert was ok but I didn’t really take a liking to it.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was a good 7-course meal between myself and my friend. The dishes were well thought out, there is lots of food between 2 people.

We Rate PiDGiN

Address:
350 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.pidginvancouver.com/

PiDGiN Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Mr. Chili Noodle House in Burnaby specialized in Chongqing cuisine. Sherman had a coupon he had to use up before it expired, so he was nice enough to invite myself and some other foodie friends to check out this place. I’ve passed by this restaurant so many times, but never though about coming here till now.

Interior

The interior is beautiful. It reminded me of a cafe, but with no coffee. I didn’t expect this place to look so nice and modern.

Drinks

You can ask for tea or water when you get a seat. The cups are really cute too.

Spicy Pig Ear

The pig ears were thinly sliced and had a good amount of spice to them. It was really good.

Chicken with Chili

So damn good. This is their smaller size and the chicken was so moist and flavourful. Even if you took the chili sauce away, the chicken would be fantastic on its own. I would highly recommend this.

Hot and Sour Potato Vermicelli

This was definitely spicy and it had a good balance of spice and sourness. There is minced meat and peanuts in here too.

Beef Noodle Soup

There are chunks of beef in this soup with nice marbling of fat. The broth was clean and not overly salty. They don’t use any MSG in their dishes. A good sold beef noodle but I felt like it was missing something.

Spicy Fish Tofu in Soup

This is one badass dish with tons of Szechuan peppercorn and the fish and tofu hiding inside. We tried not to eat the peppercorns as it would numb our mouth. The soup wasn’t very spicy at all.

Curry Beef Brisket Pot

Here is a pretty big bowl of curry to share with the table. You probably want to order this with some rice.

Stir Fried Green Beans

The stir fried green beans were ok, but we found it to be a bit old as it didn’t have a nice crispness to it.

Kung Pao Prawns

This dis was ok as well. You need to grab a piece of chili to go with the prawns to balance out the sweeter sauce with the pepper.

Final Thoughts

The spicy dishes were super delicious but a few other dishes were a miss. Its still really good to have a Chongqing restaurant in North Burnaby as its hard to find.

We rate Mr Chili

Address:
3760 Hastings Street, Burnaby

Website: http://www.mrchilinoodlehouse.ca/

Mr.Chili Noodle House Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Flying Rose is an Asian dessert cafe on Robson Street. I was passing by and noticed it since they serve things like mango desserts. I came with a few friends to give it a try since all other cafes were super busy.

Interior

The interior is bright, colourful and has large tables for big groups. We came around 8pm, so it was still early in the evening. You order and pay up at the counter instead of at the table.

Sago, coconut milk, mango puree, fresh mango and pomelo

We were looking forward to this, but it was pricey for what we got. There was barely any mango and pomelo in this and it was super gritty tasting from the coconut milk. Very disappointing.

Fresh Mango Crepe

Each order has one piece and for some reason came out separately even when we ordered 2. It took a long time for them to put this together. There was about a ten minute gap between each crepe arriving at the table.

Once we got both, it was delicious. The crepe was thin and had the right texture. The fresh mango and the whipped cream were great, but still pricey.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the experience was pretty meh as the service and execution was pretty poor. Desserts from the kitchen came out really slowly and I’m sure one of our desserts were made incorrectly. They definitely have some kinks to work out.

We Rate Flying Rose

Address:
1517 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.flyingrose.ca/

The Flying Rose Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

We were invited to Vancouver’s longest-running Chinese restaurant – Pink Pearl for a culinary journey of  Dim Sum. Signature dim sum dishes representing different decades at Pink Pearl  was prepared by Dim Sum Chef F.K. Jiang and his team. We were taken on a tour of 4 decades of items featured in past menus from the 1980’s to 2010’s.

13 different dim sum dishes were featured and some dishes brought me back to my childhood. The event was co-hosted by Gojoy Berries, Stephanie Yuen and Chinese Bites.

1980s

I remember the good ol days when there were more carts roaming around Chinese restaurants and all the guests were scarily fighting over the last sui mai. Lots have changed since then and there are only a handful of restaurants left where they will push around the carts. Pink Pearl still has push carts, which is great.

Liver & Pork Dumplings

This was an interesting dish and I felt like it should have stayed in the 80s. The chalky taste of the liver with the dumpling didn’t blend too well, but yet again, I’m not a big fan of liver.

Duck Web Wrap

The webbed duck feet were wrapped in a sheet of bean curd and there was also ham and mushrooms inside. It was ok, but it was tricky to eat as the duck feet would slide out of the wrapper.

Shrimp Toast

This was another item you don’t see as often. You have the shrimp paste on top of toast and then deep fried. The toast did get a bit oily.

Pan-Fried Half-Moon Dumpling

The dumpling is served with a light refreshing broth. The dumpling was ok but it had minimal filling.

1990s

Mini Steamed Pork Bun

A classic item and you can’t go wrong with a mini steamed pork bun. I liked it.

Black and White Sweet Sesame Roll

This really brought me back to my childhood. I don’t see this as much anymore. As a kid we would pretend they were film canisters and unroll the “film” and then eat it. It was a tradition and I totally forgot about it until now.

Lotus Wrapped Stuffed Sticky Rice

The sticky rice was really packed full of ingredients and it was pretty good. It was easy for 2-4 people to share one basket.

2000s

Steamed Shrimp Dumpling

A very popular item ordered for dim sum. A classic and you can’t deny this.

Steamed sticky rice roll

This is an item that I normally don’t order, it’s like carb on carb. It tasted good.

2010s

Steamed beef rice roll

Steamed beef rice roll is something we are all so familiar with. The minced beef in the centre is delicious. You add some sauce on top of the rice rolls to add more balanced flavour.

Steamed shrimp rice roll

Similar item to the above but with shrimp instead of beef.

Wok-fried lotus roots & fresh mushrooms

A decent dish but it didn’t mesh too well with the other dim sum dishes. It was a good way to incorporate the gojiberries, but I was more use to the dried gojiberries.

Gojoy gojiberries gelle

A nice sweet touch to the end of the meal with this gelle, which was pretty good.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was good to see some of the different dim sum dishes thought out the decades and there were some interesting dishes that stayed in the 1980s. Starting May 1st, Pink Pearl is showcasing their ‘4-decades of Chinese dinner’ with a 4-month long campaign to benefit Food Bank and Sowers Society. You can find more information on their special dinner menu on their website.

We Rate Pink Pearl

Address:
1132 E Hastings St, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.pinkpearl.com/index.php/en/

Pink Pearl Chinese Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

MYST Asian Fusion just opened in Burnaby and they are serving up many different kinds of Asian cuisine. We were invited for a tasting of their menu to see what they offer. There is a parking lot but it can be quite full at peak hours, but there is free street parking too.

The restaurant is a bit hidden but just look out for the bright blue sign.

Interior

They have lots of seating inside with booth style configurations. This location took over Lester’s Arcade, so they really did a lot of renovations to get this look.

Drinks

Taiwanese Beer

They have a selection of Taiwanese Beer on the menu. It’s sweeter than the average beer and infused with fruity flavours.

Uchikinoki ice cream smoothie

A green tea drink with ice cream, mochi and red bean.

Slushies

They have huge slushies with marshmallow and chocolate eyeballs. This particular one was green apple flavour.

Pea Flower Tea

They have a series of pea flower tea, which have been quite popular among bubble tea shops around town. These 2 particular drinks were Calpis butterfly pea flower tea and the Strawberry lemon butterfly pea flower tea.

Potted Milk Tea

The milk tea base to topped with a cookie crumble and a green leaf. it was a really cool concept, but I didn’t like the gritty texture of the cookie crumble.

Takoyaki

It comes with 6 pieces and has a piece of cooked octopus inside. It is topped with mayo, teriyaki sauce, and shredded seaweed. It was interesting to see this on the menu, but tasted decent.

Fried green beans with minced pork

It has a good portion size for a table to share this. It had a nice caramelization from the hot pan. It was good.

Steamed sticky rice dumplings

7 pieces to an order in a steamed bamboo basket. The wrapper is filled with all the delicious sticky rice. It was an interesting dish but it was too carb heavy for my personal liking.

Skewers

They have a large variety of skewers on the menu. They were all pretty meh I would have wanted more char for added flavour.

  • Pork intestine
  • Lamb
  • Pork
  • Chicken
  • Fish cake
  • Chicken gizzard

Japanese style egg fried rice

There is a good amount of seafood in the fried rice and it’s topped with a fried egg, seaweed and mayo. My kind of comfort food.

Golden sand prawns with salted egg yolk sauce

Very delicious and the egg yolk crust is so addictive. I peeled the head off and at the rest with the shell on. Some people hate it with the shell but I oddly like it with the crunchy texture.

Chives & shrimp spring rolls

Mediocre spring rolls and nothing was special about them.

Pan fried beef pancake

The green onion pancake is rolled with beef, green onions and some sauce. 4 pieces some in an order and they are big pieces.

House special spicy lamb hot pot

This was my favourite dish of the evening. It is lit underneath with some fire to keep it nice and hot as you eat the meal. It is served with rice and 2 side dishes.

The hot pot was packed full of ingredients like spam, tofu, fish cake, bean curd, and imitation crab.

Deep fried ginger flavour chicken whole wings

This is their large order and each wing was perfectly fried. The exterior was crisp and golden brown.

Fried chicken in chili pepper

The pieces had a lot of bones so it wasn’t as enjoyable to eat. Meh.

Sandwiches

The sandwiches are pretty basic. Egg, tomato, ham and cucumber are inside the slices of white bread.

Chives, shrimp & pork dumplings

Pretty decent for dumplings and there is 10 pieces to the order and some sauce on the side.

Taiwanese style fried rice vermicelli

Soft vermicelli noodles with some veggies and meat mixed throughout.

Assorted deep fried basket

This basked had squid tentacles, salt and peppery chicken, blood sausage, and other deep fried items.

MYST beef noodle soup

Inside, we added beef shank, tripe, and tendon. It was decent and filling.

Marinated 3 item combo

This had dried tofu, seaweed and pork ear string. It was served cold on this dish and we slowly picked at it.

TaiNan style egg noodle soup

This was an ok dish but it didn’t compare to the other soupy dishes on the menu.

Myst deluxe marinated pork with rice

This dish had a lot of ingredients in it. Just mix it all together and enjoy.

Preserved cabbage with shredded pork fried rice cake

It was a good dish for sharing around the table. The chewy rice cakes with the preserved cabbage and pork were a nice combination.

Hakka style sweet rice cake

Nope. The dates gave it an odd bitter preserved flavour to the dish. No one likes it, but maybe you have to have an acquired taste.

Myst Jelly

This is a Winter Melon Jelly and has a consistency of a harder jello. It was very sweet and I didn’t really like this either.

Shaved Snowflake

They have this in either strawberry or mango flavours. We got the strawberry version and it sit on top of dry ice that makes the fog underneath. The strawberry shaved ice and the ice cream have a sweet artificial taste to it, kinda like Pocky. The strawberry slices were fresh.

Myst Taiyaki

The taiyaki sits in a ice cream cone bowl, matcha ice cream, mochi, red bean sauce, chocolate drizzle and a chocolate wafer stick. It was a dessert fit for a kid.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the food was so-so, but there is quite a variety that you’ll find something to enjoy. My favourite were the House special spicy lamb hot pot, deep fried chicken wings, and the golden sand prawns with salted egg yolk sauce.

We Rate MYST

Address:
6400 Kingsway, Burnaby

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

Myst Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

The Deluxe Chinese Restaurant is located in Richmond just off of No 3 Road by Aberdeen Mall. We were invited to try their dim sum items on the menu and of course I couldn’t say no. This restaurant just opened up recently and they serve up dim sum, sushi, sashimi, and regular Chinese dinner items.

The dining room is large and they also have a few private rooms too. I can imagine a lot of weddings, birthdays and other celebrations here.

Dim Sum

There was no shortage of dim sum during my visit. It was pretty damn epic. Of course they knew we were coming, so they made sure all the food arrived at the same time.

Ha Gau (Prawn Dumpling)

This is a classic item to order at dim sum and it comes with 5 pieces in each basket. The skin was a decent thickness and the shrimp inside was very delicious.

It’s always something I order no matter where I go. You can pair it with XO sauce or spicy sauce for an extra kick of flavour.

Truffle Siu Mai (Pork & Shrimp Dumpling)

They do their siu mai a bit differently with the added truffle. The dumpling is still delicious. 5 pieces per basket too.

House Special Wild Rice Noodle Roll

Inside the pinky rice roll due to the wild rice are crispy fried vermicelli surrounding each piece of shrimp. There are 9 pieces to the order.

Baked Portuguese Tarts

These unique looking baked Portugese tarts were amazing. The flakey crust and the silky smooth egg mixture. Yum.

Garlic Prawn Spring Rolls

3 pieces in an order served in a cup. The spring rolls were crisp on the outside with the prawn mixture inside.

Steamed Pork Spareribs

Lots in this basket and there was a good amount of meat in each piece.

Country Style Steamed Honey Comb Cake

One of my favourite Chinese desserts. It’s slightly sweet and it’s not too sweet. A good asian amount of sweetness. We don’t really like our dessert overly sweet.

Green Tea Glutinous Pancakes

On the inside is mango and the green tea glutinous pancakes rolled around it. It was ok, but not my favourite dessert.

Steamed Creamy Carrot Custard Buns

A sweet custard filling inside these are great when its hot and fresh.

Steamed Buns with Mushroom & Taro Roots

Very cute concept of having the bun look like a mushroom, but I didn’t like a lacklustre taro root filling.

Shredded Chicken with Cucumber

This dish was one of my favourites too, but it does have quite a bit of sesame oil. Served cold and it also has crunchy taro strips to give it more of a crunchy texture.

Pumpkin Congee with Sparerib

I love congee and this was very savoury with all the ample amount of meat inside. I would order this again.

Preserved Egg and Pork Congee

A classic and what I instantly noticed was the amazing amount of preserved egg and pork. Very impressive and I would order this again too.

Soy Sauce Chow Mein

A good dish to share among the table. Nice texture and flavour as well.

Singapore Fried Noodles

It had a good amount of ingredients in this fried noodle. The texture of the noodles were a tad on the dry side, but it was still enjoyable.

Nigiri

They surprisingly have nigiri on the menu with tuna, salmon or hamachi. Each piece is pre-sauced, which I didn’t like as much. I personally like mine with a slight dab of soy sauce to keep the natural flavours of the fish.

Tamago

They have pieces of tamago as well, but it was missing something. It’s really hard to find a place that makes a good tamago.

Speciality Japanese Rolls

For a Chinese restaurant, they had a good selection of specialty sushi rolls. Still strange to see sushi here when you order dim sum.

Mango Roll

They craft them nicely, but the rice ratio is a bit much. When they roll it, there is a slight flaw. The mango roll was refreshing with their thinly sliced mango, which is in season.

Dragon Roll

Dragon roll has alternating toppings of eel and avocado. Inside is salmon and asparagus. It was good but it was a tad pricey.

Salmon Oshi Sushi

It has tobiko, salmon, sauce and layers of rice. Delicious but it had a bit to much rice and also it still doesn’t compare to Miku, where this type of sushi originated from.

Final Thoughts

A good spread of items for dim sum, but I would stick with the classic. There’s nothing inherently wrong with their sushi or sashimi, but the flavours don’t blend as well when you go from congee to a California roll. Their dim sum is solid and I really fell in love with their congee.

We Rate The Deluxe Chinese Restaurant: 

Address:
4260 No 3 Road, Richmond

The Deluxe Chinese Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato