Taiwanese Archives - Page 3 of 4

In South Burnaby

Boiling Point: Personal-Sized Hot Pots in Burnaby

June 25, 2015

Boiling Point is a Taiwanese hot pot soup specialty restaurant with 2 locations in BC and 15 more in the USA.

They are best known for their personalized hot pots and bubble tea. I was invited by ChineseBites and tried all their hot pots with a few other bloggers. I’ve been here before, but its always nice to revisit restaurant to see what has changed.

There is booth seating, so its good for groups of 4.

There’s also one larger table if you have a big group like us.

Boiling Point has 10 different hot pots and you can do add-ons to them.

You can choose your level of spiciness for each hot pot:

None
Mild
Medium
Very spicy
Flaming spicy

House Special Hot Pot has napa cabbage, fermented tofu, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, kamaboko, pork balls, clam, quail egg, pork blood, pork intestine, nira, preserved vegetables, tomato, and cilantro.

I wasn’t a big fan of this hot pot since it has a lot of odd ingredients like the fermented tofu, pork blood and intestines. It always has this weird taste that I dislike.

Seafood and Tofu Hot Pot has Taiwanese bok choy and under all of that is shrimp, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, frozen tofu, baby octopus, clam, cuttlefish ring, fish fillet, fish ball, vermicelli, egg, and green onion.

Kimchi Hot Pot has napa, vermicelli, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, egg, kamaboko, meat ball, clam, fuzhou fish Ball, kimchi, firm tofu, fried tofu skin, imitation crab stick, and green onion.

This is one of my favourites. The kimchi isn’t very spicy and when it is cooked, it has a very nice savoury flavour. A good balance of ingredients.

Beef Hot Pot has napa, vermicelli, sliced angus beef, enoki mushroom, tomato, firm tofu, tempura, corn, pork ball, kamaboko, fried tofu skin, imitation crab stick, green onion, and cilantro.

Lamb Hot Pot has napa, vermicelli, sliced lamb, enoki mushroom, Imitation crab stick, kamanoko, pork blood, rice cake, organic maitake mushroom, clam, pickled mustard greens, firm tofu, tempura, fried tofu skin, egg, green onion, and cilantro. This was a decent hot pot and you can’t go wrong with it.

Curry Fish Ball Hot Pot is only available in Canada and Washington location. Inside the hot pot is napa, vermicelli, slice pork, enoki mushroom, imitation crab stick, fish ball, fried tofu skin, corn, tempura, mountain yam, Chinese string bean, egg, and green onion. It was a good hot pot and the flavours were good.

Taiwanese Spicy Hot Pot is served flaming spicy. Man, this was SPICY. Don’t get it if you’re not able to handle spicy. Also in this hot pot is cabbage, instant noodle, sliced angus, enoki mushrooms, clams, fish balls, cuttlefish ring, pork intestine, pork blood rice cake, fried tofu skin, maitake mushroom, frozen tofu, green onion, and cilantro.

Japanese Miso Hot Pot has cabbage, udon, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, clam, fish ball, fish fillet, organic maitake mushroom, crab, fried tofu skin, soft tofu, egg, and green onion.

Thai Flavour Hot Pot has cabbage, taro stem, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, cuttlefish ring, fish ball, clam, crab, baby octopus, organic maitake mushroom, shrimp, and cilantro. I didn’t really like this hot pot. It’s hard to eat the crab without getting too messy.

Tomato Veggie Hot Pot has nappa, vermicelli, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, tomato, firm tofu, corn, tofu skin, string beans, and king oyster mushrooms.

Organic Tofu Hot Pot is not a veggie dish as it has sliced pork and lobster ball.

Each hot pot comes with a bowl of rice. You would scoop some of the items into the rice bowl to cool down before you eat it.

They also have 3 sauces that you can mix together to dip your hot pot items into – Chili oil, garlic soy sauce, and chili bean sauce.You can also purchase bottles of these to take home.

You mix a little bit of each into your sauce dish.

Spicy Fermented Tofu is evil in disguise. It’s not for everyone and has a stinky feet odor to it. Some people love it, but I wouldn’t want to eat this again.

Udon is an extra item you can order if you need more substance to your hot pot.

Original Wok Noodle is their own specialty noodle that they have in packages.

Spinach Wok Noodle is similar to the one above but with spinach, thus the slight green color. Good al dente texture and it was enjoyable.

Fresh Milk Tea uses real milk instead of powder. When it arrives, you can tell the difference between the two densities of liquid, so the tea is on the bottom half and milk is on the other half.

I mixed it around and then it looked a lot more like milk tea. It was good but I would have preferred it half sweet.

Snow Cubes come in six different flavours:

Strawberry
Sesame
Matcha
Chocolate
Taro
Hokkaido Flavour with Brown Sugar Konjac

They look cute and is a nice refreshing dessert after the hot pot, but it was pretty difficult eating them. If you have sensitive teeth, biting into these cool blocks will cause you discomfort. The flavours were ok, but everyone hated the strawberry one as it tasted a bit artificial.

You can even take some home, but they can melt within 15 minutes. Especially during a hot summers day…it may not make it home in one piece.

Overall, the hot pots were ok, but some flavours were not very good. I would stick with the beef hot pot, kimchi hot pot and the curry fish ball hot pot. When it comes to the ingredients inside the hot pot, I don’t really like fermented tofu, blood, or intestines.

The menu has changed since the last time I came here in 2013, but I still don’t like how you can’t control the heat of the hot pot. I don’t like eating my food crazy hot in temperature. Everything keeps cooking until the flame underneath goes out. By that time, if you still have stuff in the hot pot, it gets over cooked.

I understand the appeal with personal hot pots, but I like the traditional hot pots because of the interactive experience and the ability to pick and choose everything that goes inside.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to dine at Boiling Point and my meal was comped. All thoughts are my own.

We Rate Boiling Point:

Address:
5276 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.bpgroupusa.com/home.php

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=5276+Kingsway+Burnaby,+BC&t=m&hnear=5276+Kingsway,+Burnaby,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5H&z=16″]

In lunch

Tea Wok Cafe: Bubble Tea near Science World

June 9, 2015

Tea Wok opened right under Columbia College on Terminal close to Science World. The cafe is pretty hidden and you will probably only notice it if you walk around this area. They serve up Taiwanese dishes, bubble tea and dessert.

Their menu is quite limited and is not like the full Tea Wok Restaurant. When we came, they said their fryer was broken so they couldn’t make any other that good salt peppery chicken.

The interior isn’t too large inside, but can still fit large groups if its not busy. During lunch time I did notice most people did do take out.

Jasmine Green Tea is always a cold drink that I enjoy. I find that it was a tad sweeter than most places, so I should have ordered it half sweet.

Minced Pork with marinated egg on rice was one of their lunch specials. It’s pretty basic for a lunch meal and there wasn’t anything special about it.

A lot of the food on the menu is more like Asian fast food. The food is average and nothing special.

We Rate Tea Wok Cafe:

Address:
418 Terminal Avenue,
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://teawok.com/

In Bubble Tea

Pearl Castle: Cotton Candy Drinks and Food

June 2, 2015

Pearl Castle‘s main location is in Continental Centre in Richmond. They also have 3 other locations throughout the Lower Mainland. Pearl Castle is a Taiwanese Cafe and they have won the Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner for ‘Best Taiwanese Restaurant’ year after year between 2010 and 2013.

I usually come to Pearl Castle late in the evening to grab a quick bite with friends and chat over some drinks. Ever since Deer Garden moved out from this complex, they have really been up-ing their game to expand their menu. I was invited by ChineseBites to try a variety of food and drinks off the menu, so just be warned, this isn’t a normal dining experience.

They offer a wide variety of tea-based beverages, slushes, bubble teas, and juices. They have added a few new drinks onto their menu recently and are launching their cotton candy beverages in mid June.

The group of us managed to sample (left to right):

Pudding Milk Tea
Coconut red bean
Peach lemon green tea
Green tea red bean
Traditional black tea with jelly noodle topping
Winter melon juice with jelly noodle topping
Green lattea
Fresh taro green milk tea
Roasted rice lattea

There’s also a Ferrero Rocher chocolate milkshake too.

I had the Roasted Rice Lattea all to myself. I really enjoyed it because you can just sip away at it and it’s not too sweet. You need to drink it with a cream on top. Without it, the drink is way too bland.

Young Girl’s Dream is a new drink launching mid June 2015. It has grenadine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. It looks really fun and exciting but it is on the sweeter side.

Blue sky has blue tangerine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. Similar to the Young Girl’s Dream, its fun but quite sweet. I’m sure you’ll have blue lips after drinking and eating the cotton candy.

Wonton with chili sauce was decent. The skin of it was slightly thicker and the pork inside could have been more dense as it fell apart easily.

Deep fried fish cake was pretty good. I’ve never had deep fried fish cake like this before. I find that Pearl Castle makes deep fried things super delicious. It comes with a seafood sauce and house special sauce, so make sure you dip the fish cake into it because its delicious.

Deep fried mushroom was another great item. You should also dip this into their seafood sauce or house special sauce.

Deep fried tofu comes with a side of kimchi and sauce. I just really love their deep fried food with the spices they put on top. I didn’t like the kimchi that came with it, it wasn’t very fresh.

Taiwanese Sausages comes in nice thin slices. A good dish for sharing with a few friends.

Pineapple shrimp fried rice is a new item on their menu. Yummy and you can’t go wrong with fried rice.

Kimchi seafood fried udon was more sour in taste that I would have liked. It was decent, but not the best one I’ve had.

Three cup chicken is an award winning dish from the 2015 Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner. The dish is served with 3 side dishes, rice and some cookies. These set meals will make you quite full. Good flavours, but it was a bit dry.

Marinated chicken with rice is another new item added to their menu. You have the chicken steal with some veggies and tofu. On the side, you have some cookies. It seems like all the set meals comes with cookies. These cookies will seem familiar because I’m pretty sure you’ve had them when you were a kid.

Milk seafood & pork hot pot is pretty darn good. I would definitely come back to have this again. It tastes like a savoury creamy soup rather than milk. It has a decent amount of seafood and pork.

Curry coconut seafood & pork hot pot is a new addition to the menu and it’s similar to the hot pot above, but it has curry and coconut flavours. Another good flavour combination, but I still prefer the milk version.

Garlic sauce chicken is similar to the three cup chicken dish, but with more garlic.

Fish Nuggets with Sour Sauce comes with the 3 side dishes and rice. Red chili peppers are hot, but it balances well with the fish nuggets.

Original Taiwanese beef noodle was surprisingly good. The beef was tender and the noodles were really enjoyable with a good texture.

Spicy incense pot is a new item on the menu and it is heated underneath to keep it warm. When they say spicy, it’s pretty spicy because of the red chili peppers. Watch out.

Marinated pork with rice is another new dish and it’s similar to the marinated chicken dish. The only difference is the protein.

Vegetarian abalone mushroom with three spices comes with rice and veggies. It’s not the most exciting dish, but if you’re a vegetarian, this may be for you.

We went through a lot of dishes for one dinner, so near the end, most of the dishes started tasting similar. We don’t normally have so many dishes come at the same time, so it was a marathon to taste everything unless a lot of the dishes contain the three spice powder. My favourite items are the hot pots.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Pearl Castle’s dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.

We Rate Pearl Castle:

Address:
Continental Centre
1128-3779 Sexsmith Road, Richmond

Website:
http://pearlcastle.com/en/

In Bubble Tea

Uncle Lu 安可盧萬巒豬腳: Taiwanese Cafe in Richmond

March 18, 2015

Uncle Lu is a new café that opened last year in Richmond. They are a Taiwanese bubble tea café specializing in braised pork hock, noodle soups and bubble tea.

The restaurant has high ceilings and they also have a good amount of booth seating.

I’m pretty picky when it comes to bubble tea. So when we asked if they use powder in their bubble tea, they said no. But the waitress didn’t understand our question. Definitely lost in translation. After putting in our order, we saw them take out the large powdered containers and then we knew they use powder. We inquired with another waiter and he did confirm they only use powder since there’s not a lot of fruit in season during winter.

Royal Milk Tea ($4.75) was alright. It did have quite a bit of foam at the top.

Mango Slush with pearls ($4.75) is a nice refreshing drink when it’s hot outside. Great for summer.

Deep Fried Peppery Chicken with Basil ($6.75) is a good snack. Good for sharing too. Nice crunchy exterior with juicy tender meat inside.

Braised Pork Hock is marinated in soy sauce and comes with a potent garlic sauce. Certain parts are quite fatty so we just avoided those parts.

Five Spice Beef Wrap ($5.95) comes chopped up into 5 pieces. Good flavour of the five spiced beef.

Taiwanese Style Grilled Steak ($10.95) comes on a hot skillet with noodles, veggies and egg. I found the dish quite bland even-though it comes with a peppery sauce. I prefer the skillets at Strike.

Overall, the food was ok, but I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps it was because we ordered pretty typical items that would be found at most Taiwanese Cafes.

We Rate Uncle Lu:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

In Late Night

Maji Restaurant: Taiwanese Restaurant in Richmond

June 28, 2014

Maji Restaurant is located in Richmond on Alexander Road with all the other delicious restaurants on that strip. I came here for dinner with a few friends and I was excited to try this place. Maji serves Taiwanese food and are only open for dinner till late.

There is parking in the back, but during peak hours, it’s really hard to find a spot. You may find yourself having to park further away.

The interior is unique and the bricks on the walls look quite neat. It is a bit dark inside, but it sets the mood for late night snack and drinks.

If you know Taiwanese Beer, this beer is pretty delicious! I haven’t been able to find it at any other restaurant till now. It’s very light and has a crisp taste.

Stir Fried Gai Lan ($6.25) was delicious! It is stir fried with garlic. The downside is that it’s a bit oily.

Taro Chicken ($8.99) is once of the dishes our friends suggested. It has a good amount of chicken and taro. Some of the chicken had bits of bone, but the sauce was very good. I would get this again.

Rice was ordered so we could eat it with the dishes we ordered. Since I don’t eat a lot of rice.

Overall, the food was pretty good. M and I shared these items and we still had to take some of it to go. The portions are perfect and price is great.

We rate Maji Restaurant:

Address:
1180 – 8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/majirestaurant

In Cafe

Pink Sugar Cafe: Japanese Lunch Set

April 28, 2014

Pink Sugar Cafe is located in Coquitlam close to the mall. KoreanGirl and I came here for their signature lunch sets. There’s a few parking spots and if you come early enough, there will be plenty of parking spots and seats.

We came here around 11:30am and it wasn’t packed at all. When it got closer to 12:30pm, thats when it gets quite busy.

If you come early enough to catch their early bird special, you get a free upgrade to any item on their drink menu. Usually you would get house coffee or tea with your lunch set. This is only applicable till 11am. If you are looking for an early lunch, it’s a good deal. But, if you don’t want to wake up early on the weekend, you won’t miss out too much.

People usually come here for their lunch sets anyways.

Japanese Lunch Special changes every day. You never know what they are going to feature. Some people call in ahead of time to see what they are serving as their feature.

We came when they had ginger pork. It also comes with miso soup, chawan mushi, salad, rice and a custard dessert. What I liked about this is that you get a little taste of everything and not overwhelmed by one dish for lunch.

Ginger Pork that was part of the set was delicious and very aromatic and full of flavour. The slices were quite large.

The salad has lettuce. onion, tomato, orange and a delicious dressing.

Chawan Mushi is an egg custard and it was silky smooth. Very light and enjoyable. It has a distinct dashi broth taste in this dish and it goes well with the mushrooms and shrimp.

Miso Soup was also good!

Rice has some sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

Dessert was a smooth silky custard dessert topped with whipped cream and fruit.

After you are done your lunch set, you have the option of having tea or coffee. They have a lot of different teas to choose from. I just got green tea.

Overall, the food was great. KoreanGirl liked the little tastings of each dish. It was a great portion for lunch and you won’t be bursting at the seams.

We Rate Pink Sugar Cafe:

Address:
#115-3030 Lincoln Ave
Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://www.pinksugarcafe.com/

In bellevue

Din Tai Fung: XLB in Bellevue, WA

February 12, 2014

The first time I tried Din Tai Fung was in Hong Kong about a year and a half ago. The menus are similar but there are a lot of things that are missing. We arrived right at 10:30am on Saturday and we just beat the rush. By the time it was 11:30, this place was packed and had a long line up. People in Seattle sure love their Xiao Long Bao.

I’m still waiting for Din Tai Fung to open up in Vancouver, but they might. Nonetheless, we do have some good alternatives like Dinesty in Richmond and Downtown Vancouver.

The interior is quite large, so it can fit a lot of people.

Shrimp Fried Rice is always my favourite! Lot of shrimp piled on top with the savoury fried rice on the bottom. The downside is that it is a bit oily.

Juicy Pork Dumplings comes with 10 pieces. They are not all uniformly shaped compared to the ones in Hong Kong. It’s still good! The skin is thin but won’t break easily. This is probably the most ordered item on the menu.

You dip the dumplings in vinegar and ginger.

Shrimp & Pork Shao Mai comes with 10 pieces. It was ok, but I didn’t like the overcooked shrimp.

Vegetable & Pork Dumplings came with 10 pieces and really reminded me of Korean dumplings (mandu).

Pork Buns come with 2 per order, but we ordered a total of 4.

Shrimp & Pork Wonton with Spicy Sauce was good. A good level of spice and we ate it quickly.

I feel like I’ve been spoiled by all the great Taiwanese food in Vancouver. It was good, but I still find Dinesty in Vancouver is a good alternative without travelling so far. The prices at Din Tai Fung are a bit high, so each dumpling dish is around $10.

You’ll definitely experience higher quality at the Din Tai Fung locations in Asia, but I found this locations to be subpar.

We Rate Din Tai Fung:

Address:
700 Bellevue Way NE Ste 280
Bellevue, WA

Website:
http://www.dintaifungusa.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=700+Bellevue+Way+NE+%23280&sll=47.6171914,-122.2014796&sspn=0.0055543,0.0109864&t=m&hnear=700+Bellevue+Way+NE+%23280,+Bellevue,+Washington+98004,+United+States&z=16 “]

In lunch

Tealicious Richmond: Taiwanese Cuisine

January 21, 2014

Tealicious Taiwanese Cuisine is located in Richmond in a plaza near Cambie Road and Sexsmith Road. M and I were with CoffeeLover and he took us here to have some good noodles. They were open since August 2013 and serves up authentic Taiwanese dishes.

I’ve never heard of this place but was excited to give it a try.

Beef Noodle Soup ($6.75) has the beef broth some thick noodles and bits of beef. M thought it was ok. Not as good as some of the other places in town.

Black Pepper Chicken With Rice ($8.50) was huge! There is also some cold side dishes to accompany the meal. It was worth the price as you get pretty full. The chicken was tender and had the coating similar to salt and peppery chicken.

Seafood Noodle Soup 海鮮麵 ($8.95) was CoffeeLovers favourite item to order. There’s lots of seafood like fish, squid, and shrimp in it.

Overall, the food was ok. Nothing very special about the items that they have here.

We Rate Tealicious Richmond:

Address:
2116-3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.tealiciousrichmond.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=2116-3779+Sexsmith+Rd,+Richmond,+BC&t=m&hnear=3779+Sexsmith+Rd,+Richmond,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6X+3Z9&z=16 “]

In South Burnaby

Boiling Point 沸點臭臭鍋: Individual Hot Pot

December 17, 2013

Boiling Point is a US chain of Taiwanese personal size hotpots. You can find them mostly in California, Seattle and Vancouver. It was a cold day in Vancouver and we wanted something warm and comforting. What better way to warm up by consuming some hot pot.

What I liked about Boiling Point, is that each hot pot is personalized so you aren’t spreading germs.

There’s a lot of seats, but it can get a bit cramped if you are sitting in the booth area.

10 different types of hot pots and you can choose you degree of spiciness.

Beef Hot Soup ($11.99) has nappa, vermicelli, beef slices, enoki mushroom, tomato, firm tofu, tempura, corn, meatball, kamaboko, tofu skin, and imitation crabstick.

Korean Kimchi Hot Soup ($11.99) has nappa, vermicelli, pork slices, enoki mushroom, kamaboko, meatball, tempura, clam, fishball, kimchi, firm tofu, tofu skin, and imitation crabstick.

Lamb Hot Soup ($11.99) has nappa, vermicelli, lamb, enoki mushroom, imitation crabstick, kamaboko, pork blood, tofu skin, mushroom, clam, sour mustard, and firm tofu.

Taiwanese Spicy Hot Soup ($15.99) has taiwanese cabbage, instant noodle, beef, mushroom, tempera, clam, fishball, cuttlefish ring, pork blood, pork intestine, tofu skin, and frozen tofu. This hot is extremely hot and the size is much larger than the other ones.

You really need to be able to handle your spice if you want to order this.

It comes with rice too.

I love frozen tofu, so I ordered it on the side for a dollar and a bit more.

Overall, the hot pot was ok, but its too bad everything came already cooked. There’s no way to control the temperature of your hot pot as there is just a fire under the pot. It turns off when the fuel runs out. It lasts for a long time, so your soup will be boiling hot.

We Rate Boiling Point:

Address:
5276 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.bpgroupusa.com/home.php

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=5276+Kingsway+Burnaby,+BC&t=m&hnear=5276+Kingsway,+Burnaby,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5H&z=16″]

In BBQ

O Grill Yakiniku: Setting Fire to the Grill

October 16, 2013

O Grill Yakiniku is located on Newton Street close to Kingsway. It’s a bit hidden, so you definitely need to rely on Google Maps to get here. They serve Taiwanese and Japanese food.

I came here with the lovely Chinesebites crew to check out what O Grill Yakiniku has to offer.

There are lots of booth seating but even with the vents it can still get a bit smokey inside. When we went, it was really cold and the heat of the grill didn’t help us keep warm either.

Chicken Karrage with fried basil. It was pretty good but did remind me more of Salt and Peppery Chicken.

Deep Fried Squid was good too. A bit oily, but still good. I’d still choose his over the salt and peppery chicken because of the texture of the squid.

Sweet Potato Balls with condensed milk and crushed nuts. Surprisingly a great item to order if you want to munch on something. It was like eating fried mochi balls.

Asparagus Salad was a strange thing to see here drizzled with a creamy sauce kinda like Thousand Island. I think it would have been better if it was just raw asparagus, so you can grill it.

Ground Pork on Rice was average, but could have used a touch of more sauce

Pork Jowl was severely frozen and didn’t look appetizing.

When the pork jowl hit the grill and started thawing, you can tell there was lot of fat content in these little babies. The sight was so beautiful. Sizzling on the grill and creating a lot of fire and smoke. It was quite fun.

When you have a grill right in front of your table, you know you need to get some meat on the grill and hear the sizzle.

They have 2 house sauces, so you can dunk your meat into them to have more flavour.

Premium Short Ribs looked so delicious and we couldn’t wait to get cooking.

The sight of deliciousness.

Beef Tongue was also quite frozen from the look of it. The tongue after it’s cooked is still a tad tough and bland.

Rib steak came in small cubes and it’s also frozen.

Garlic Prawns were deveined and tasted good after being grilled.

Spicy and Basil Chicken was good with the marinade, it certainly added flavour to it. Since it is chicken, you have cook it all the way or else you might get sick.

Mixed Mushrooms come hot to the table, so you don’t need to stick it on the grill. I love mushrooms, so I slurped up this dish.

Round 2 of more delicious meat!

Corn needed a bit of roasting before sinking your teeth into these kernels.

Pork Belly was a bit thin and cut into smaller pieces. This is essentially bacon.

Beef Toro is like the bacon of the cow.

Beef Finger is what is was called on the menu. We didn’t think cows really had fingers but it’s actually the meat between the ribs.

All the meat tasted fine, but since most of them didn’t have sauce that marinated it, it was a bit bland. So, you can dunk it in their house sauces or put on some salt and pepper to bring out the flavour.

One thing that sucked about the grills is that all the heat would be mainly in the centre, so it cooked the meat very unevenly. They recommended us to only cook a few pieces at a time, leaving us a little bit impatient since there was lot of meat to cook.

I much prefer the grills at places like Gyu Kaku.

Green Tea Ice Cream was the normal stuff.

Caramel ice cream with a caramel drizzle and some choco sticks.

Milky Pudding comes with your choice of red bean or strawberry sauce.

Egg Pudding was really good and satisfying at the end of the meal. Probably my favourite out of all the desserts.

Overall, I probably would not revisit this place again. A majority of the meat was frozen and the grill was very weak. Not very impressive at all. I might as well grill my meat at home and feel more comfortable.

They should really just thaw their meats and add more more marinade to bring out the flavours of the meat.

We Rate O Grill:

Address:
4992 Newton St
Burnaby, BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/OGrillYakiniku

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=4992+Newton+St+Burnaby,+BC&t=m&hnear=4992+Newton+St,+Burnaby,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5H&z=16″]

In All You Can Eat

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot: Hot Pot in Burnaby

September 22, 2013

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot has several locations around the world in the United States, China, Japan, and Canada. In the Vancouver area, there is one in Richmond and most recently their Burnaby location just opened.

They have all you can eat Hot Pot for $19.95 (Adult) and $14.98 (Children), you then have to add $9.99 for the soup base. The price is pretty decent.

I came here with the ChineseBites crew for dinner to see how it compares to the other hot pot places in town.

The interior is quite large and can fit a lot of people. They even have outdoor patio seating too.

All the sauce for the hot pot is available in the middle of the restaurant. It’s on top of a cart and you’re free to grab as much as your like.

The different sauces are:

Soy sauce
Vinegar
Peanut Sauce
Chili paste
Chili oil
Satay sauce

The peanut sauce and satay sauce are most popular.

Once you have your sauce, you are ready to start cooking!

The broth we had was a mix of spicy and original broth. It’s a good option to get if you have a group of friends who can’t decide which broth to get. I generally find that spicy is great for cooking meat and the original is great for vegetables.

Lamb and Beef Meatballs.

Cuttlefish and shrimp meatballs.

Beef slices

Lamb Slices

Seafood

Garlic Beef

Oyster Mushroom and Enoki Mushroom

Frozen Tofu and Fresh Tofu

Pork Liver, Beef Tendon, Bible Tripe, Honeycomb Tripe and Pork Blood.

Dumplings

Overall the All You Can Eat Hot Pot items are pretty solid and I wasn’t disappointed. Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is still one of my favourite hot pot places in town. The only downside is that the service here is pretty poor. If you want another order, you really gotta track them down.

Additional Items off the Hot Pot Menu

Plum Juice ($2 with free refills) is a must, but for anyone new to this drink, you may not like it.

Chinese Donut wouldn’t be an item I would order at a hot pot restaurant. Perhaps if it was closer to noon.

Seasme Bun was quite dense, so it can fill you up before you you even begin hot pot.

Lamb Skewers has a strong taste of cumin and was quite delicious.

Spicy Beef Skewers were quite good and full of flavour.

Overall, I think I would just stick with the all you can eat menu. It’s pretty good.

We Rate Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot:

Address:
#200 – 4755 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=4755+Kingsway+%23200,+Burnaby,+BC+V5H+2C3&sll=49.2399859,-122.95816940000002&sspn=0.1721632379598321,0.3516140337636478&t=m&hnear=4755+Kingsway+%23200,+Burnaby,+British+Columbia+V5H+2C3&z=16″]

In Cafe

Beefy Beef Noodle House: Beef Beef Beef

August 17, 2013

M and I tried going to Zakkushi without a reservation, but we would have to wait over an hour for a table. So, we opted to eating at Beefy Beef Noodle House as we’ve heard they had good Taiwanese food. Seeing that it was Summer, the interior was quite cold and it didn’t help that they were playing a winter-themed thriller movie on their TVs.

We saw they had a Top 8 Food list, so we relied on that to order the best items.

House Special Beef Noodle in Soup ($9.50) had some pretty fresh ingredients. M was quite pleased with the quality of the veggies. The beef was tender and the broth was decent. The bowl was pretty big, so he couldn’t finish it.

Curry Beef Brisket with Rice ($9.50) it comes with 2 small side dishes . It was marinated bamboo shoots and cauliflower. The beef brisket was decent it had lots of beef brisket chunks in it.

I still prefer to get my beef brisket curry dish from Mui Garden. If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about.

Overall, the dishes that we had were decent. It’s a good place for a lot of young people to chill and have some bubble tea to catch up.

We Rate Beefy Beef Noodle House:

Address:
4063 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.jynoodle.com/index1.html

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=4063+Main+St,+Vancouver,+BC+V5V+5C8&sll=49.891235,-97.15369000000001&sspn=45.72347923378347,88.1395350118194&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=4063+Main+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5V+5C8&z=16″]

In Noodles

Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle: Noodles in Richmond

July 28, 2013

Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle is located on the 2nd floor of Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. They are an award winning noodle chain around the world.

We walked all around the mall trying to find a place to eat, but we settled on this place since we found it was cool that they made their own noodles. I think we were more mesmerized by the moving mechanized noodles by the front entrance. But, Taiwanese Beef Noodles are usually pretty good.

When you walk inside, there are tons of seats. Great for large parties too. A private room is available too.

Instead of ordering food the normal way, you must fill out this form with your order and then give it to the waitress. It’s not a bad thing because you can get your order done accurately.

They serve Chatime bubble tea and Frappe Bliss flavoured shaved ice here too.

Pan-Fried Ground Beef Cake ($5.20) comes with 2 pieces and you can cut them in half to share it with people at your table. The inside is quite meaty and oily. Best to share since it’s a lot for one person to consume.

Champion Braised Beef with thin noodle in tomato soup ($10.95).

The braised beef was tough and wasn’t very tender at all. It was ok, but it wasn’t very crazy amazing. The noodles were firm and it made it a good bowl of noodles, but that beef needs to improve.

Champion Beef Brisket with thin noodle in clear soup ($11.95).

The meat was VERY tender. THe broth was a bit bland, but when you add in the chili oil, it makes it taste so much better.

Overall, the food was ok, but not crazy amazing. There definitely needs to be some improvements here.

We Rate Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle:

Address:
2800-4151 Hazelbridge Way
(Aberdeen Centre)

Website:
http://www.chefhungnoodle.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=4151+Hazelbridge+Way,+Richmond,+BC+V6X&sll=49.2399859,-122.95816940000002&sspn=0.1721632379598321,0.3516140337636478&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=4151+Hazelbridge+Way,+Richmond,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6X&z=16″]

In Bubble Tea

Strike: Taiwanese Food in Kitsilano

July 21, 2013

Strike is a Taiwanese Restaurant near UBC and they will soon open another location in Richmond. I came here twice before and I’ve been addicted to their sizzling plates. You can super full for $12.

I came here again for a ChineseBites dinner with my fellow food bloggers.

Yam Fries is probably one of the last things I would think would appear on a menu of a Taiwanese restaurant. It tasted good, but I wouldn’t normally order it off the menu unless I wanted something to nibble on with bubble tea.

Wonton with Chili Oil was good. Meaty plump wonton pieces wrapped in a thin wonton wrapper. If you like it more spicy, go ask for some hot sauce.

Stewed tofu with garlic sauce was alright.

Five spice beef wrap was ok. It fell apart easily as the wrap itself was a bit thick.

Deep fried chicken nuggets is a must have dish at any Taiwanese restaurant. Well seasoned and very crunch. Yum.

Thai style chicken was good, nice sweet sauce on top, but of all the deep-fried chicken items, I would stick with the Deep fried chicken nuggets.

Deep fried pork chop was tender, well seasoned and I really did enjoy this. Good appetizer if you just want to pick away at something.

BBQ chicken is probably not an item you want to order on its own. You may want to order it as a combo with rice. The skin in spiced really well.

House special beef noodle soup was ok, but I found the beef to be a bit tough.

Taiwanese cold noodle is a great item for the summer. It has peanut sauce, cucumbers, carrots and the noodle. You mixed it all up together and enjoy.

Taiwanese Braised Minced Pork Rice with meat sauce, tea egg, pork fluff and pickled mustard greens. It was really good! One of the must order items here.

Taiwanese style chicken steak with black pepper sauce is one of my favorite item to order here. You have so much going on with this dish and you will get full. Highly recommended. You can choose either noodle or rice.

Taiwanese style steak with black pepper sauce is the same as the dish above but just the protein is different. I liked this dish too but My personal preference is to get the chicken instead. Don’t get me wrong, both dishes are awesome.

Milk Tea with Pearls is definitely a must if you want to indulge in the whole experience. I wanted to get it with real milk, but they didn’t have it on hand to accommodate. They did use the powdered milk to make it. It tasted good, but

Overall, the food is pretty good at Strike, but the best way to enjoy your time at Strike is to order the combos or the sizzling plates.

We rate Strike:

Address:
3217 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strike/113553352131031

In Cafe

Strike Taiwanese Restaurant: Near UBC

June 16, 2013

My friend told me I had to go check out Strike on Broadway closer to UBC. There’s a lot of Taiwanese Restaurants in town, but only a handful of them are really good. TaiwaneseGirl kept telling me I had to come here. All of her recommendations to me are pretty solid.

As usual, I can’t say no to trying new restaurants, so we came here for dinner. We found street parking right outside the restaurant and wasn’t too difficult.

Five spice beef wrap ($5.75) comes cut up in 4 pieces. Beware the toothpicks, but other than that, its a decent beef wrap.

Deep Fried Chicken Nugget Rice Combo ($8.50) comes with rice, 3 side dishes and the deep-fried chicken nuggets. The food was well executed and nothing seemed weird at all.

Taiwanese Style Steak with Black Pepper sauce on a sizzling plate with noodles ($11.95) this is probably one of the most popular items. It looks really good and boy was the meat mighty tender. If you’re a fan of black pepper sauce. You should get this.

I don’t know too many Taiwanese restaurants in this area and it seems like a good addition. Most items are under $10 and you get a good amount of food.

We rate Strike:

Address:
3217 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strike/113553352131031

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=3217+W+Broadway+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=3217+W+Broadway,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6K+4N7&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Cafe

Ali Shan Restaurant: Meal Under $10

March 31, 2013

Ali Shan Restaurant is a Taiwanese Restaurant located in Crystal Mall. I was in the area with my coworker and we wanted some lunch before heading back to the office, so we went to Ali Shan for a quick bite.

All items either come with daily soup or cold tea. We chose the tea as we wanted something refreshing. It was good and it was sweetened.

Braised Pork Belly with Red Fermented Sauce ($7.20) comes with egg on rice, pickled vegetables and a side dish.

Beef Hotpot ($6.90) was inexpensive, but the hotpot broth was rather bland. Even though it is a good deal and has lots of items packed into the pot, it’s not the most delicious thing I’ve eaten. It’s decent for the price.

Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with this place but the price is good if you want an inexpensive lunch. The service is alright, but it does take a bit of time for the food to arrive at the table. There are a lot of other options in the area too. They are cash only.

We Rate Ali Shan Restaurant:

Address:
4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4500+Kingsway+Burnaby,+BC&hnear=4500+Kingsway,+Burnaby,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5H&gl=ca&t=m&z=14″]

In Dim Sum

Din Tai Fung: Michelin Star Restaurant in Hong Kong

November 23, 2012

Din Tai Fung is an award winning restaurant from Taiwan. There are branches all over the world. Din Tai Fung has been around since 1958 and then in the 1980s they began selling Xiao Long Bao, which made them very popular.

The location in Hong Kong is located in Tsim Tsa Tsui in Silvercord and has won a Michelin Star. Also, Open Rice has awarded them Best Restaurant Award of 2012.

It is popular amongst locals and tourists. I came here since I heard they had the best steamed pork buns. I actually came here about 4 times during my Summer vacation. I was crazy addicted to this place.

The interior is nice and has lots of seats. When we came around 11am, it was quite empty.

By 1:20pm, this place was PACKED. It’s best to come here around noon since there will be tables left.

Soy Sauce and Vinegar is at the table and you can use it to flavour your dishes.

I added the soy sauce and vinegar in my ginger for the Pork dumpling.

Juicy Pork Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) are so good! We had to order a few baskets to satisfy our cravings.

Vegetarian Dumpling was another one of my favorites. I know it doesn’t have meat, but it really enjoyed the minced vegetables inside.

Shrimp and Pork Sui Mai was OK. I really didn’t take a liking to it that much because of the overcooked shrimp.

Drunken Chicken was good. There was a good amount of meat between the skin and bone.

Shanghai Smoked Fish wasn’t our favorite item. It had bones inside.

Drunken Chicken Feet with marinated vegetables is not for everyone. It has a bit of alcoholic wine taste to it, but some people love it.

Shredded Vegetable and Tofu has a touch of sesame oil. I really like this dish since I have a bit of an addiction to sesame oil.

Hollow Spinach in Garlic

Marinated Jelly Fish

Pork Jelly

Shrimp Fried Rice is yummy too but it is a bit small, so you may need to order more. It was a little bit oily, but I really liked it since there is so much filling in it.

Braised tripe was good, but its not for everyone. Some people may get scared of the look.

Large Hot & Sour Soup was my favorite soup! Yum!

Pork Slices with garlic sauce

Wonton Soup

Noodle with Minced Pork Sauce

Braised Beef Noodle Soup

Fried Beancurd Puff with Vermicelli Soup

Overall, all the dishes were pretty good. One of my favorite restaurants when visiting Hong Kong. When you come here, you must have the Steamed Pork Buns! Its the one thing that everyone orders.

We Rate Din Tai Fung:

Address:
Shop 130, 3/F, Silvercord,
30 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Website:
http://www.dintaifung.com.hk/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=30+Canton+Road,+Tsim+Sha+Tsui&hnear=30+Canton+Rd,+Hong+Kong&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Bubble Tea

Gong Cha: Bubble Tea in Hong Kong

September 7, 2012

Gong Cha first launched in Taiwan in 2006 and soon opened locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, China, Malaysia, and Philippines. There are a lot of locations all over Hong Kong and attracts locals and tourists. They are best known for their signature milk tea with a dollop of cream on top.

The location in East Tsim Sha Tsui was very busy and had lots of tourists ordering drinks. The menu had some english and the cashiers knew a little bit of english too. It’s not great english, but at least it will make your ordering experience go smoothly.

On top of each drink are instructions on how to consume it:

Open the lid and drink, letting the tea pass through the foamy layer.
Insert the straw and enjoy the flavour of the tea.
Use the straw to stir and enjoy the combined flavour of the tea and milk.

Milk Tea ($10) has the tea on the bottom with the dollop of cream on top. It was delicious and different than usual bubble teas. The cream does change the taste a lot and not everyone will love it. My sister liked the drink at first, but eventually started hating the cream on top.

Gong Cha Milk Green Tea ($12) needed a good mixing in order to incorporate the layers together. I tried mixing it together very well, but it was a bit hard to do that. The cream itself was salty.