WestCoast Archives - Page 5 of 6

In Chinatown

Oyster Express: Buck A Shuck in Chinatown

July 30, 2013

After hearing Oyster Express has buck a shuck, my coworkers and I decided to come here after work. Its quite close to our office, so we just had to see how it compares to the other buck a shuck options in town.

Oyster Express is located on Keefer and Gore. It’s a little hidden. The restaurant is a bit small, so it’s a bit hard to fit several large groups.

The restaurant doesn’t have air conditioning, so the interior is very very hot. We came during one of the hottest weeks of the summer and it was a bit painful dining here, so we definitely needed to grab some cold drinks.

I got the Philips Lager ($5), it was pretty good lager. Light and crisp.

The buck a shuck oysters that were servered were fanny bay oysters. For $1, the size was great and the shucking was done superb. The oysters were mighty fresh as well.

Your first dozen is $1, but after that, it’s $1.50 per oyster. Thats the downside of the buck-a-shuck here.

You have a few sauces to dress up your oysters with – red wine mignonette, tabasco sauce, and a cocktail sauce.

Overall, the oysters were great, but the experience was dampened by the extreme heat inside the restaurant. The heat kinda makes you afraid to eat the oysters. I would be back if they are able to install air conditioning or some sort of air ventilation system.

We Rate Oyster Express:

Address:
296 Keefer Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.oysterexpress.ca/

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In Canadian

Mosaic Bar and Grille: New Summer Menu

July 20, 2013

Mosaic Bar & Grille is located in the Hyatt Vancouver on Burrard and Georgia Street. They specialize in locally sourced produce, sustainable seafood and choice ingredients with careful and creative preparation.

Their menu’s change often to really adapt to the seasonal ingredients. You are guaranteed that you will find something yummy on their new Summer menu.

Related Links:

As usual, the meal starts off with complimentary biscuits that arrive as you wait for your meal. It’s fluffy and comes with butter.

Mosaic Martini is a mix of absolut raspberri vodka, absolut mandarin vodka, grey goose la poire vodka and cranberry juice.

The first little dish was to show us their gorgeous skuna bay king salmon that arrived that morning. Chef Heinrich was very excited about it and amazed by the quality, so he shared a little sampler with us.

The skuna bay king salmon lays on top of a brine, and squid ink then garnished with lemon lime caviar and an ice plant from San Diego. I did enjoy the fresh taste of the salmon with the different textures and tastes.

The second dish is the GBE Heirloom Tomato Salad. The tomatoes are quickly blanched quickly in a sou vide and infused with onion and garlic flavours. It is served with a 12 year old balsamic reduction, basil fluid gel, local greens, and buffalo mozzarella. It was like a caprese salad, simple yet very complex.

Crab Cannelloni is on top of an avocado mousse. Below the mousse is a crouton crust. It was good! The crab meat was nice and sweet to go with the creamy mousse and crunchy crouton crust. Great textures that worked really well together.

Seared Scallops with a fire roasted green pepper coulis, and a succotash made of sweet corn and roasted tomato. The scallops were great but I didn’t really think the succotash complimented the dish very well.

Pan Seared Ling Cod served with baby bell pepper and a tomato nage. The dish was ok, it needed some more flavour to enhance the flavour of the cod.

Slow Cooked Lamb Tenderloin was beautifully cooked. It is served on a pomme puree, mustard greens and a peppercorn sauce. This was my favorite dish of the night! Really good!

The Cassoulet is a french bean stew with organic heirloom runner beans, duck confit, oyama sausage, tomatoes, onions, garlic and duck jus. The dish was hearty and rich. I didn’t particularly like this dish, but perhaps because I was pretty full. This item is meant to be shared among the table.

Ricotta Cheesecake was garnished with strawberries and a mango puree. It was deliciously creamy!

Creme Brulee was served with some berries and 2 macarons.

Mosaic Chocolate Cake is always a must! The slice is huge and tastes really good.

Overall, the menu does have its hits and misses but it’s generally delicious.

Words of Wisdom:

Follow @CheftHeinrich on twitter, You can be up to date on new menus that he launches at Mosaic
Steps away from Burrard Skytrain
Free Mosaic Chocolate Cake on your birthday
Beef Carpaccio is a must!
Great service

We Rate Mosaic:

Address:
655 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://vancouver.hyatt.com/

In Canadian

Mosaic Bar & Grille: Chefs Tasting Menu

June 26, 2013

Related Links:

Chef Thomas Heinrich, their Executive Head Chef created a 5 course Chef Tasting Menu from June 14th to June 28th. He incorporates the freshest ingredients of the season into this menu.

The 5 dishes in the menu are:

Roasted Sweet Corn Bouillon
G B E Heirloom Tomato Salad
Skuna Bay Salmon Sockeye Salmon
Taleggio D O P Italy
Watermelon

It’s costs $45 for the 5 course meal. If you want the additional wine pairings it costs $65. It’s a pretty good deal and he creates these types of menus every few weeks. So, the menu is always changing.

The meal starts off with complimentary biscuits that arrive as you wait for your meal. It’s fluffy and comes with butter.

If you had a long day at work, its good to grab a drink as you peer off into the streets of Burrard street. I find enjoyment staring at people walking up and down the street. It’s weird, but it’s fun.

Roasted Sweet Corn Bouillon has some tomatoes, chanterelle mushrooms and topped with a feta foam. It has my 2 favorite ingredients – mushrooms and corn. It’s a nice start to the meal as the broth was light that complimented the ingredients.

G.B.E. Heirloom Tomato Salad has basil gel, pickled okra, some seasonal greens and topped with aged parmesan. The ingredients were just beautiful and the presentation was just wow. I really like their salads here.

Skuna Bay Sockeye Salmon is seared on the sides and the plate also has sweet garlic gnocchi and sorrel leaves. The salmon was cooked nicely so it just melt in your mouth.

Taleggio DOP Italy is an example of a savory sweet dish. It was a hot bowl of cheese, nuts and dried fruit. There is grilled bread and fig jam on the side.

Watermelon This has the gravity defying panna cotta, topped with a watermelon and pepper mixture and then lemon sorbet and chocolate bits. I wasn’t a fan of this dessert, even though it had a lot of watermelon elements to this dish, it didn’t capture of fresh crisp taste of watermelon. The presentation was definitely cool though.

In addition to the items on the Chefs Tasting menu, we received two extra dishes. This on was seared scallops with seasonal greens above a cucumber jelly. The cucumber jelly didn’t really mesh with the dish too well, but we did like the scallops.

Lamb on lentils. The lamb was incredibly juicy! Easily our favorite dish of the night. Many thanks to Daniel and Michael for making the additional dishes.

Overall, still a pretty good set of dishes for the Chef’s tasting menu. The chef definitely does a lot of cool experiments with the dishes, so you will find something unique about it.

Words of Wisdom:

Follow @CheftHeinrich on twitter, You can be up to date on new menus that he launches at Mosaic
Steps away from Burrard Skytrain
Free Mosaic Chocolate Cake on your birthday
Beef Carpaccio is a must!
Great service

We Rate Mosaic:

Address:
655 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://vancouver.hyatt.com/

In Resort

The Painted Boat Resort: Exploring the Sunshine Coast

June 7, 2013

It has taken me a long time to explore the Sunshine Coast. I’ve always assumed it was very far away from Vancouver, but it’s only about 2 hours and 30 minutes away from Downtown Vancouver. When I got the invitation to go to the Painted Boat resort, I couldn’t say no.

The drive up was incredible, especially Davis Bay Pier outside of a small town called Sechelt. The trip does require a 40 minute Ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay. 4 adults and a car cost us about $120 on BC Ferries, which also includes the return trip too.

Once you get off the highway 101 and into some smaller streets, you will arrive at The Painted Boat Resort.

We checked-in to our villa at the reception area, which is located right beside the spa. We loved the entrance way of the spa and thought this place would be an awesome place for a girls getaway.

There are about 30 villas in the resort right by the harbour. The weekend we came for a visit, it was a mix of sunny skies and periods of heavy rain. You can definitely tell in the picture.

Despite the mixed weather, the view is very calming. It’s great to get away from the city and just relax for the weekend.

Accommodations

We were put in to the Sakinaw building in Unit #6, which is the upper level of the villas. It has a nice view, but I’ve heard there are no bad views since everything overlooks the water. Our particular unit has 2 bedrooms, a loft, den, gourmet kitchen, and a balcony.

We walked inside and we were just amazed. This beats any hotel. It was like being in a nice home that’s not yours. Everything you need is essentially there. The kitchen has stainless steel appliances and is stocked with all the necessary items. We didn’t do any cooking since the only place around here for groceries was at an IGA a few minutes away.

Nice high ceilings with a loft at the top. The loft just had a sofa couch, a tv and a balcony.

The view of the living rooms, kitchen and dining area from the view of the loft.

The balcony has a table with 4 chairs, a BBQ and 2 other lounging chairs. We really wanted to BBQ some pork belly when we saw the BBQ.

Hidden in the fridge was a bottle of white wine and some small pastries. A nice touch to begin relaxing for the weekend.

The master bedroom has a king size bed, a tv, a soaker tub, and a really large bathroom.

The second room is smaller and has a separate bathroom in the hallway.

There is access to a pool, a gym and a hot tub. Its located in the middle of the resort.

There isn’t too much to do around in the area. We found the area called the Pirates Bluff and thought it was a trail, but it was just a very small hill. Exploring is always fun. The immediate resort area isn’t too large, but you can travel a bit farther to town, which is just one road with a few coffee shops and an IGA.

The Restaurant

The purpose of the trip was to visit The Restaurant at Painted Boat Resort. They recently re-opened on May 1st with their new Head Chef Marcus Bugoy. He brings his passion for modern cooking techniques and ability to create delectable French inspired dishes to The Restaurant’s new menu. As the restaurant is known for its coastal cuisine, it’s cool to see the blend of tastes.

The interior isn’t very large but can seat about 70 people. The view over looks the water and docks.

A basket of bread arrives at the table and there were 2 kinds – one was regular and the other was olive bread. Olive bread is always yummy!

An Amuse Bouche arrives from the chef at the beginning of the meal. When we were there, it was a truffled egg custard topped with fresh spot prawns. It was a nice item to start the meal and stimulate the palate. It’s light and has a subtle sweetness from the spot prawns.

West Coast Mussels ($15) comes with a toasted baguette on top. The mussels were very plump and has a nice light curry sauce to it. It was perfectly good. Highly recommended.

Duck Confit & Ham Press ($13) has a carrot & cardamom sauce on the bottom. M gobbled this right up.

Chilled Pea Velouté ($14) also has spot prawns, buttermilk, and mustard tuille. The blended peas did give the soup a bit of a gritty texture, but is enjoyable on a hot summers day.

Albacore Tuna ($15) has squid ink aioli, egg yolk, herb salad, and radish. It’s a very pretty dish. The tuna tasted very fresh.

Heritage Chicken Breast ($26) has a mushroom puree, vegetables, potato pave, and a sherry glaze.

Butter Poached Lobster ($34) has fava beans, lobster tortellini, and a warm tarragon vinaigrette.

Ribeye For Two ($69) comes with crispy bone marrow, pomme anna, beans, truffle béarnaise, and chimichurri sauce. This was definitely a meal for two. Each person gets their own set of sauces, and plate of the pomme anna and the vegetables.

The downside of this dish is that it does take a bit of time to make. When we were there, it seemed like there was a fair amount of people ordering this.

The ribeye was very tender, but it’s also due to the fat content of the ribeye. This particular piece was quite fatty, so we had large globules of fat. We just ate around it. I am not an expert on different cuts of meat, but if we knew it was this fatty, we would have chosen a different dish.

We had it cooked to medium rare and was cooked perfectly, too bad there was so much fat.

I ended the meal with a latte. It wasn’t anything fancy.

We had to save room for dessert. Looking at the menu, there were a few items that tickled our taste buds into wanting to consume more. This is what happens when you’re on vacation, you want to eat everything.

Chocolate Ganache is what M ordered. The liked the different textures of chocolate incorporated into the dish.

Panna Cotta was much prettier than we would have imagined. It doesn’t have that usual look. It has a berry puree on the bottom and lots of fresh fruit on the plate.

Housemade Ice Cream was another option on the dessert menu. You get to choose up to 3 different ice cream choices. I don’t remember what the flavours were but it wasn’t the usual chocolate or vanilla. It’s was something a little more exotic.

Chef Select Cheeses was what I ordered. I just wanted to be a bit different from the rest of my friends. The cheeses change depending on that they have available. I never had cheese as a dessert, so this was a first. I don’t remember what the cheese were but they all had different textures and flavours, some nuttier, some sharper, and it all paired with something on the side.

Overall, we did enjoy our meal. The dishes that featured seafood were a hit. If you are coming to The Restaurant, I would highly recommend choosing a seafood dish. Might as well since you are dining right by the sea and this restaurant is known for their OceanWise dishes. If you are looking for other dining options, there isn’t any other places at the resort.

As the sun set in the distance, we relaxed watching some TV and chatting in the villa. We would have taken a dip in the pool or hot tub, but we felt so full after dinner. If you are stay here, definitely take a swim as the sun sets. What makes The Painted Boat Resort stand out is that they are trying to be as sustainable as possible. They urge their guests to recycle and as well as making it smoke-free.

Breakfast baskets was hidden in the fridge. We had bagels, croissants, danishes, salmon, jam, orange juice, yogurt and granola. It was nice to have first thing in the morning before checking out so we didn’t have to scramble thinking about where to eat.

Overall, we had a great time on the weekend here and will definitely be back. One of our friends thought it would be a great place to have their wedding. We had good fun teasing them about it. Being here was like home away from home. It was very relaxing and peaceful.

On the drive back to the ferry, we made some more stops along the way before hoping on the ferry.

Website: http://www.paintedboat.com/

In Gibson

Smitty’s Oyster House: Seafood Galore in Gibsons, BC

June 4, 2013

Smitty’s Oyster House is located in Gibson’s Wharf. It’s tucked away and hidden, so you need to walk closer to the wharf to be able to see the restaurant. Smitty’s Oyster House was opened by the same owner as Rodney’s Oyster House. It’s named after Henry Smitty, one of Gibsons’ early pioneers who built the blue box which used to be a marine repair shop.

On our way back from the Sunshine Coast, we decided to make a stop here to try some seafood. It was a bright and sunny day, so this place was buzzing by the patio. They were also recently feature on You Gotta Eat Here on Food Network.

Parts of the interior you can definitely tell have some resemblance to Rodney’s Oyster House. The staff don’t have the sexy sounding t-shirts, but they do have similar items on the menu.

Manhattan Clam Chowder ($9) is a tomato-based baby clam chowder. The baby clams were tiny, so it was sad to have so few clams in the chowder.

We ordered a dozen raw oysters, but we never figured out what types they were since the server never informed us. The sauces that came to the table was also a mystery since nothing was explained. Nonetheless, the oysters were shucked beautifully and had a great taste. Definitely recommended.

Halibut Fritters ($17) have crispy tempura beer battered halibut pieces topped with a malt vinegar reduction. It is also served with tartar sauce. He thought it was good, but it was quite expensive.

DIY Fish Tacos ($19) has cumin-baked mahi mahi, hand-cut pico de gallo, avocado, sour cream and shredded iceberg lettuce and warm corn tortilla. It was fun to put together, but with the amount of cumin on the mahi mahi, it was hard to taste the original flavour of the fish.

Oyster Po Boy ($15) has fried oysters on a steamed bun with spicy remoulade, lettuce & tomato.

Mmmm look at that fried oyster. CoffeeAddict really liked it.

Overall, the food was good, but one thing you have to order is the raw oysters. The food is a pricey, but where else in Gibson are you going to get this type of food? One thing we were not impressed with was the service, the server was rude at times and the speed at which the food arrived was very strange. One person finished their dish before the rest of the dishes arrived. The item I originally ordered was sold out, so they didn’t inform us until later in the meal and told me my dish would arrive way later than everyone else. Luckily it arrived a few minutes after everyone else’s meal. Despite it all, I would still come back for the raw oysters.

We Rate Smitty’s Oyster House:

Address:
643 School Rd
Gibsons, BC

Website:
http://www.smittysoysterhouse.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=643+School+Rd+Gibsons,+BC&hnear=643+School+Rd,+Gibsons,+Sunshine+Coast,+British+Columbia&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Canadian

Mosaic: Spot Prawn Tasting Menu

June 1, 2013

It’s May and it’s BC Spot Prawn season! I go nuts since BC Spot Prawns are my favorite thing to eat. I usually got to T&T to grab a few pounds, it’s never occurred to me that I could go out and eat them, especially in a 5 course meal.

Mosaic is located on the 2nd floor of the Hyatt near Burrard station. The executive head chef of the Hyatt is the amazing Chef Thomas Heinrich, who crafts the delicious dishes coming out of the hotel. Mosaic currently has a spot prawn tasting menu till May 29th. I know it just ended, but they always have some special menu for whatever ingredient is fresh in season. I just get all my news from the Chef on Twitter. You can follow him at @CheftHeinrich

This menu is the 5 course tasting menu focusing on spot prawns. It’s $45 or $65 with alcohol pairings.

The alcohol pairings is a nice touch as you get to try different wines. I had the wine pairings and my friend didn’t. You don’t need alcohol to have fun with this tasting, but if you have a good appreciation for wine, you should do it.

Complementary biscuits come before the meal. It’s deliciously fluffy and comes with butter.

Spot Prawn Terrine came with fiddled head ferns and topped with fried lotus roots and ikura. There are also dots of fermented black garlic gel and lemon fluid gel. I really liked this dish since the spot prawns were nicely presented and their natural flavours shined through.

Spot Prawn and Arugula Salad comes with almonds and a citrus caviar. It was a nice dish, but I felt like there was a little too much dressing so it wilted the leaves a little bit.

Spot Prawn Carbonara has freshly made linguini, peas, geldermen farms pork belly, truffle oil, parmesan, and a 64 degree egg yolk. It is a very rich creamy dish

Spot Prawn and Spring Creek Beef has fava beans and a pomme maxim which is a ring of fried potatoes. This dish is beautiful but by this part of them meal, I started to wonder why the spot prawns weren’t that star of each dish if it’s a spot prawn tasting.

I had the beef done at medium rare and it was beautifully cooked, but it was quite tough to cut through. Perhaps it was the aging of the beef that made it a tad tougher, but the flavour of the meat itself was very lovely.

Tangerine Consomme was a lovely end to the meal. In the center is the cardamom ice cream.

Overall, the menu was great but since the menu is supposed to showcase spot prawns, I felt like there could have been more cooking techniques used to showcase the versatility of the spot prawn. Whether its serving the spot prawn raw or frying the shell…it just seemed the spot prawn was the secondary item in most of the dishes except the spot prawn terrine dish. $45 for 5 courses and $65 for 5 courses plus wine pairings is a fair price.

Below are a few other item off the tasting menu that we tried.

Asparagus Consomme with gruyere cheese balls was an interesting soup. Never would have thought about asparagus as a soup. As asparagus is fibrous, we did feel small strands of fibres in the soup. At first I thought I was getting my hair in my mouth but realized it was the asparagus.

Besides that, the gruyere cheese balls were so delicious when dunked in the soup. Mmm so good! My friend even said she would eat a whole bag full of these if she could.

Seared Scallops with a stinging nettle puree oh boy, this was really good! The scallops were seared perfectly and the stinging nettle puree was so delicious. I would eat this over and over again.

Words of Wisdom:

Follow @CheftHeinrich on twitter, You can be up to date on new menus that he launches at Mosaic
Steps away from Burrard Skytrain
Free Mosaic Chocolate Cake on your birthday
Beef Carpaccio is a must!
Great service

We Rate Mosaic:

Address:
655 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://vancouver.hyatt.com/

In Mount Pleasant/Main Street

Burdock & Co : Farm to Table Concept

May 19, 2013

Burdock & Co has open up in the former location of Cafeteria. This restaurant is headed by Chef Andrea Carlson. Her menu reflects the locavore philosophy with using local organic produce throughout the menu. The interior is quite cozy with a communal table and a few separate tables on the side.

My coworkers and I came here after work one day just to chill over some delicious food. The plates are best shared with a group. The 3 of us shared 4 dishes and a dessert.

Burdock & Beer ($11) is a mixture of saison, gingerbeer, burdock root & sour, ginger, plum & rootbeer bitters.

Seasonal Garden-Slug ($11) contains vodka, lemon, apple & fenugreek, western elderberry bitters, and moondog bitters. I chose this cocktail for its name since ‘garden-slug’ sounded adventurous. There’s no garden slug in this, but it tasted good and went well with the intricate dishes.

Urban Digs Egg ($9), wild cress, hazelnut & blue cheese granola, browned butter and potato vinaigrette. It’s a vegetarian dish. The quality of ingredients was great and the items did blend nicely together. Portions are on the smaller side.

Fresh Oysters ($15) comes with finger lime caviar, french breakfast radish, chickweed,apple & verbena sorbet, and a kasu emulsion. Beautiful presentation of the ingredients and tasted good but as you can tell, it won’t fill you up if you just order this item.

Pickled humpback shrimp ($14) also has house made tofu, wild ginger, charred spring onion, and fiddleheads. It’s yet another beautiful dish, but it’s not enough to fill a person up.

Harvest Oxtail Ramen ($13) also has swiss chard and kimchi. This item is best to order as it has more substance to it. If you have been to Harvest Community Foods and tried this ramen, you’ll be a fan of this. Before opening up Burdock & Co, the Chef Andrea Carlson was at Harvest Community Foods, so you can see how aspects are infused into her menu. It tasted good and I would recommend this dish.

Salted Caramel Apple Pot Pie ($8) topped with Elderflower Ice Cream. When we saw the salted caramel words, we gravitated towards this dessert. The elderflower ice cream was very subtle in flavour that balanced the butteriness of the crust. The crust was crispy and under it laid the piping hot apple mixture.

Overall, Burdock and Co isn’t for everyone. It’s a bit pricey than other places in town, but if you consider the ingredients that goes into their items, you know it’s not processed or frozen. They care about the ingredients and have built strong relationships with local farmers. It’s best to share the dishes as they are a bit of a tapa style.

We Rate Burdock and Co:

Address:
2702 Main St.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.burdockandco.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=2702+Main+St.+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=2702+Main+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5T+3E8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Happy Hour

Joe Fortes: Happy Hour

May 6, 2013

Joe Fortes has happy hour from 4pm till 6pm daily, where select items are 50% off. InsecureGirl and I decided to come here after work to indulge ourselves in some oysters and other items. They don’t take reservations for this and you can only have the happy hour items in their bar seating area. It’s first come first serve, so you will have to be lucky enough to find open spots if you come in a group. Since it was just the two of us, it was easy to find open seats.

They have been open for more than 25 years and known for their seafood.

Basket of complimentary bread arrives and it comes with a lobster oil and balsamic vinegar dip. A good nibble before your food arrives.

Truffle Parmesan Frites (Reg $9.95 | Happy Hour $5) is seasoned with grana padano, herbs, and sea salt. It comes with a side of ketchup. It comes in a cute presentation on a skillet. The skillet is piled full of fries and is definitely enough for 2 people to share. There is a strong douce of truffle oil and it smelled amazing.

Jumbo Tempura Prawns (Reg $14.95 | Happy Hour $7.50) comes with 3 pieces and accompanied with togarashi mayo and a wedge of lemon. These prawns were massive!

Buck a Shuck (Happy Hour $1) are the bomb. They shuck them very cleanly and the size of the oysters are massive. It comes with a few sauces and lemon wedges. Of all the happy hour places I’ve been to in Vancouver, they probably have the best.

I do love happy hour since all the prices are great! You can’t beat 50% off. Downside of this great deal is the limited seating by the bar. You must get the oysters.

We rate Joe Fortes:

Address:
777 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC

Website: http://www.joefortes.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=777+Thurlow+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=777+Thurlow+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6E+3V5&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Gastown

Rodney’s Oyster House: Gastown

April 29, 2013

Rodney’s Oyster House has opened a new location in Gastown. The have taken up the space of Cobre that used to be there. They have the same items like their Yaletown location. My coworkers and I came here for their happy hour from 4pm till 6pm. Oysters are $1.50 and their other items are on special too.

The interior is decorated similarly to their other location and has 2 floors too. They servers are really nice and know how to make their guests at home.

Complementary bread comes to the table with a lump of butter.

Zydeco Stew aka Caesar ($10.25) it contains the usual stuff with fresh grated horseradish and topped with a lemon and a huge shrimp. It was a really good caesar and the shrimp was fantastic.

Low Tide Oysters ($1.50) can vary in variety when ever you go. These were from Denman Island and are somewhat similar to a Fanny Bay Oyster. I found that this time around, they shucking wasn’t done as cleanly, so there were bits of shell when I ate some of them.

When the oysters arrived, it came with a whole platter of sauces – Worchester sauce, 2 types of Tabasco sauce, vodka pepper sauce, and 4 of their house sauces. If you want to burn in pain, try using the ‘back from hell’ sauce.

Pan Fried Oysters ($16.95), which are freshly shucked oysters, breaded and fried. They also some with tartar sauce and lemons for taste. Delicious as always and the oysters are a good size. The oysters are different kinds than the low tide ones as you can tell these are super long in size. This dish was ordered after the happy hour, so it was quite expensive.

Overall, the quality of good is great, but it will be quite expensive when it’s not happy hour. The only problem we had were the bit of sediments or shell that was left in the shell when we ate it. They usually shuck really well, but I guess I came on an off day.

We Rate Rodney’s Oyster House Gastown:

Address:
52 Powell St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.rohvan.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=52+Powell+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=52+Powell+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6B+2J1&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Canadian

Mosaic Bar & Grille: Local, Sustainable, Creative, and Delicious.

April 14, 2013

I was invited to Mosaic Bar and Grille by Chef Thomas Heinrich to explore their amazing cuisine. They specialize in locally sourced produce, sustainable seafood and choice ingredients with careful and creative preparation. When you look at their dishes, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Mosaic is located inside the Hyatt Vancouver Hotel on the 2nd floor. It is easily missed if you come out from the Burrard Skytrain. It’s right above Grain Tasting Bar.

When you sit by the window, you get a great view of Georgia Street and Burrard.

Right now, they have teamed up with Vaneats.ca to create a 3 course dining pass for only $22. Seriously, it a really good deal!

We start off with complementary biscuits that arrive as you wait for your meal. Good bite-size pieces and you can always ask for more.

Spring Creek Beef Carpaccio has 15 thinly sliced pieces topped with fried capers, crispy chives, castillo de canena smoked olive oil, and a 68-degree yolk.

It was really good! If you’ve ever had beef carpaccio, this will blow you away! The crispy capers and chives add an amazing texture to the savoury beef slices. Highly recommended!

Pork Jowl lays on top of pickled radish, and snow peas. The dish has a galbi marinate sauce drizzled around the dish. The dish is garnished with crisp lotus roots and edible flowers. The pork jowl was deliciously fatty and super tender.

Local Seasonal Spring Salad looks amazing. Probably one of the prettier salads I’ve seen in a while. The greens are very fresh and you can definitely tell they put a lot of care into sourcing the ingredients. The housemade sheep milk ricotto and the citus/mustard dressing liven the dish.

Warm a la Minute Smoked Skuna Bay Salmon arrives on your table with a dome-shaped cover. Insides the dome is smoke. When they remove the dome, the delightful smokey smell envelop your senses.

Once the cloud of smoke goes way, you will see the salmon, avocado terrine, maple matured sherry bourbon oak vinegar gel. The presentation is really amazing, so it was hard to take the first bite out of it. You can tell the restaurant puts so much love into their food. Each item is beautifully arranged. Highly recommended!

Grilled Skuna Bay Salmon lays on a bed of British peas and topped with a lemon foam. The salmon was beautifully cooked, so the center was very juicy and tender. I usually don’t liked cooked salmon, but they do a fantastic job!

Oceanwise Long Line BC Gray Cod has a bed of baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms surrounded by a dashi broth. The combination of all the items have it a bit of an Asian flare to the dish.

8 hour braised short rib with BC foraged ramps, sweet onions, and morel mushrooms. The meat is tender and the morel mushrooms was a treat to devour.

Lamb Medallions were cooked nicely with fresh greens on the side.

Mosaic Chocolate Cake is their signature triple layer cake. This cake has been with Mosaic for years and years and year. The recipe has never changed and will probably be there for more years to come. Anyone that comes here raves about how huge this cake it. I’ve had this twice and it’s quite hard to finish. But have no fear, there is always a takeout box for it.

Banana Split is huge! There is caramelized banana, vanilla ice cream, almond brittle, chocolate sauce and fresh fruit. What I love about Mosaic is that their desserts aren’t small.

Overall, I loved my experience at Mosaic. After this experience, I came back with a bunch of my friends with 11 Vaneats dining passes. They all loved it too. 3 courses for $22 is totally worth it because a regular entree is a about $20. I would go back again for special occasions and pay regular price. I am usually not impressed by fine dining, but I’ve enjoyed my 2 visits to Mosaic and was not disappointed.

Words of Wisdom:

Steps away from Burrard Skytrain
Free Mosaic Chocolate Cake on your birthday
Beef Carpaccio is a must!
Great service

We Rate Mosaic:

Address:
655 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://vancouver.hyatt.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=655+Burrard+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=655+Burrard+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6C+2R7&gl=ca&t=m&z=14 “]

In Brunch

Chewies Steam and Oyster Bar: It’s Brunch Time

March 4, 2013

Chewies Steam & Oyster Bar is located in Kitsilano. The specialize in oysters and seafood inspired by New Orleans. I came here with FoodQueen and Gastrofork. Parking is always scarce in this area since you either have to have a parking permit or fight for the paid parking spots. This is what I usually dislike about this area, but since we came here for brunch on a weekend, we were lucky enough to find a few parking spots open. Boooyah!

Who doesn’t love brunch with oysters? I love oysters any time of the day.

We tried 3 types of oysters – Kumamoto, Kusshi, and Fanny Bay. They were all really good and fresh! The person who shucked this did a fantastic job too, there were not particles inside. Of all the oysters, the best one was the smallest oyster – Kusshi.

The oysters come with 3 different types of homemade sauce. My favorite sauce to use was the habanero sauce. It’s really spicy, so watch out.

Southern Fried Chicken and Waffles ($12) comes with 2 buttermilk waffles topped with fried chicken and then drizzled with a cajun honey butter. Amy and Dee both ordered this. It’s one of the more popular items on the menu.

Braised Short Rib and Hash ($15) consists of black eyed peas, smoked gouda, diced Kennebec potato fries and topped with 2 poached eggs. I thought this was ok.

French Quarter Beignets ($6) are Cafe Du Monde style classic beignets with a chicory coffee anglaise. We were all trying to be anonymous and acting like people who really like to take food pictures, but that didn’t work out well. One of their staff asked jokingly if we were bloggers and gave us this complementary dessert and didn’t charge for our oysters. This rarely happens, but it didn’t affect our reviews.

You can’t get this item during brunch, but it’s a pretty awesome item to order for dinner. It’s the size of an iPhone and is hollow inside. The coffee sauce went really well with the beignets. Really delicious.

We Rate Chewies Steam and Oyster Bar:

Address:
2201 W 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website: http://www.chewies.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=2201+W+1st+Ave+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=2201+W+1st+Ave,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6K+3E6&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In International

Eight and a Half Lounge: Dining Package Review

February 20, 2013

Eight and a Half is a lounge on Main and 8th. I came here a while ago for brunch, but haven’t been here for dinner yet.

Right now they are doing a dining package with Vaneats.ca, where you pay $15 for a flight of beer, an appetizer and a pizza. Not bad actually. I was browsing through the menu and you save about $10 or $15 dollars. I came here with M and Scarface to try the package and order a few items on the side.

The interior is loungey and has a large bar.

The flight of beer arrived featuring 2 types of Stanley Park Brewery’s beer.

The first 2, which are lighter in color is the Amber, which has a cleaner finish when you drink it. You don’t taste a lot of the hops either.

The other 2 darker beers is the Bruns. The flavour profile is supposed to contain distinctive dried fruit aromatics, complex chocolate, roasted nut and malt biscuit. I’m not a beer expert, but it paired nicely with the food.

Dungeness Crab Cakes is served with lemony yogurt, avocados, and arugula. This is a badass crab cake. Really good and there wasn’t a lot of filler that went into it. You could taste all the meat!

The other options for the package is the tortilla soup or the Baked Brie.

For our pizza, we chose the Wild Smoked Salmon thin crust pizza. It is topped with BC smoked salmon, creamy dill, capers, red onion, and craisins. Any bite that you get the smoked salmon is pretty awesome. We really didn’t like the crasins in this pizza because once its cooked in the oven, the crasins get very hard. For some reason, we were charged an extra dollar and a few cents for this choice. I’m not really sure why, but I’m not the type to argue.

When we finished the package, we were still hungry, so we ordered a few more items to complete the meal.

Steak Bites ($9.50) are gluten free, but I guess you can tell since there isn’t just meat and a salad. The steak bites were marinated in a chili rub and done to medium rare. It is accompanies by a creamy parmesan dip. The steak was very pepper and over spiced.

When we saw that the baked brie was part of the package, we knew we wanted it, but we could only choose one appetizer. So we ordered it separately.

Baked Brie ($8.50) is so amazing! It’s a filo wrapped brie with the sweetness of honey. When you cut into the brie, it just oozes out. Once you get it onto the bread, it’s just fantastic. We all loved this and you can’t say no to yummy cheese…unless your lactose intolerant.

Pacific Bacon Sliders ($12.50) contain mini beef patties, alder smoked bacon, pacific pepper cheddar, Dijon aioli, fresh corn salsa, tomatoes and pickles. Pretty good sliders.

Overall, the food was good, but not crazy amazing. By being able to use the use the dining package and ordering off the regular menu, I would definitely recommend getting the package because you save a good amount of money. Our regular items excluding the dining package items came to about $37 for 3 appetizers.

We Rate Eight and a Half Lounge:

Address:
151 E 8th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.eightandahalf.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=151+E+8th+Ave+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=151+E+8th+Ave,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5T+1R8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Dineout

EBO Restaurant: Dine Out 2013

January 19, 2013

EBO or otherwise known as ‘East of Boundary’ is located inside Grandvilla Casino in Burnaby. I’m not a gambler, but I come here for some good food. I decided to come here for Dine Out with M since I’ve heard their menu is amazing and only $28.

The interior is very beautiful and can seat lots of people. Our server Michael was very nice and helped us make some decisions.

Complementary Bread arrived at the table and there were 3 different varieties, which was great.

Wild Mushroom Soup has Mushroom Terrine, Truffled Brioche Coal, and Feta. I know the picture isn’t appetizing, but this soup is SO AMAZING. It was a good portion and if I could die in a pool full of this soup, I would be so happy. Definitely recommended!!!

Tuna is encrusted in a crisp rice crust, with Dungeness Crab, Avocado Puree, Compressed Watermelon on the plate. The portion was definitely way smaller than the soup. M thought this dish was ok, but preferred the wild mushroom soup instead.

Roasted Duck Confit is has curried butternut squash puree, white bean stew, and maple gel. It was very tender and had a crisp skin, but the duck was salty. If you want something less salty, maybe stick with the steelhead option.

Grilled Lamb Chops Barley (Additional $7) has braised neck, Sunchokes, and Salsa Verde. We were so excited to see the lamb chops on the menu that we didn’t see the addition $7 charge for this dish. It makes sense since this dish is originally $33 on the menu. M got the lamb medium and was cooked perfectly.

Chocolate Pot de Crème, Momon, Crispy Chocolate Bits

Looking at the menu, you probably have no idea what will arrive at your table. M imagined a chocolate cake, but it was more like a small chocolate mousse, cake and bits. It still tasted good.

Poached Pineapple, Spiced Filo, Almond Cake

This dessert was pretty good and I enjoyed it. A good end to the meal.

At the end we even got white chocolates with a passionfruit filling.

Overall, the $28 menu at EBO was pretty good. You just need to choose which item appeals to your palate . I totally wish I chose the steelhead instead of the duck. Just looking at their regular menu, you are definitely saving when getting the Dine Out menu.

We Rate EBO Restaurant :

Address:
4331 Dominion St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.eborestaurant.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4331+Dominion+St+Burnaby,+BC&hnear=4331+Dominion+St,+Burnaby,+British+Columbia+V5G+1B2&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Granville Island

Whet: ‘Whet Your Appetite’ Dining Package Review

October 27, 2012

Whet is located at the entrance of Granville Island right across from the Children’s Toy Store. They serve up West Coast Cuisine and are dedicated in using sustainable and local products in their dishes.

Vaneats is offering a dining package right now that gives you 2 beers, 2 appetizers, and a main dish for $30. The items included are:

2 Sleeves of Angry Scotch Ale
Coconut Scallop Ceviche
Prawn, Shrimp, & Wild Mushrooms Salad
Choice of the following:
- Crispy Duck Leg
- Red Honey-Curry Coho

The interior is nicely spaced out and has a predominant wood texture. There is patio seating available too. When we went on a Monday night, it was pretty empty and the service felt very awkward. It’s probably best to go on busier night like Friday and Saturday.

2 Sleeves of Angry Scotch Ale are from Russell Brewing Company. It’s a dark ale with dominant malt accent that originated in Edinburgh. Made with Scottish specialty malts including Peated Malt imparting a slight smoky character to the beer.

I found that the beer best paired with the entrees more so than the appetizers. I am not a dark beer drinker, but I found it to be not too strong for the casual beer drinker.

Coconut Scallop Ceviche has hand peeled shrimp, citrus juices, ginger, jalapeño, corn chips, tobiko, & ikura.

It’s easy to share since each person has their own pile of chips! No more fighting over who’s chip is who’s. The ceviche was ok, but needed more acidity since the coconut neutralizes it.

One this I really didn’t like about the dish was how watery the ceviche was. I would be very hard to eat it without it dripping all over the table or on your clothes. We couldn’t figure out the best way to eat this.

Prawn, Shrimp, & Wild Mushrooms Salad has pan seared prawns and wild local mushrooms, hand peeled shrimp, arugula, grapefruit, taro root crisps, and a lemon-hazelnut vinaigrette.

When this arrived, we noticed they had the same grapefruit slices and the hand peeled shrimp in the previous dish. The mushrooms were my favorite part of the dish.

Red Honey-Curry Coho has wild BC Coho, saffron yoghurt, hot pickled lime puree, candied almonds, and cinnamon market vegetable. The interior was very moist and the outside had a great amount of unique flavours.

It’s very hard to share between two people, so you may want to order an additional entree. KoreanGirl and I found we were not too hungry after this meal.

Crispy Duck Leg, has confit of Fraser Valley duck leg, sweet chill ginger sauce, yam & plantain chips, sesame seeds, and grilled plums. This is the other option if you didn’t choose the Coho. You can check out Alvin’s review to see what he thought about this dish.

Overall, the dishes were just OK, KoreanGirl and I didn’t particularly enjoy this dining package. The service was really awkward, but maybe because it was just a Monday night. It was good that we were able to try the offerings from this restaurant and seeing the array of styles they put into their dishes. You probably need to order a few dishes to get the full Whet experience.

We Rate Whet:

Address:
1517 Anderson Road
Vancouver, BC V6H

Website:
www.whet.ca

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1517+Anderson+Road+Vancouver,+BC+V6H&hnear=1517+Anderson+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver+Regional+District,+British+Columbia&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Granville Island

Sandbar Seafood Restaurant: $12 Mussel Mania

September 11, 2012

The Sandbar Restaurant has a happy hour special for mussels called “mussel mania” in their Teredo Lounge. It includes mussels, fries, and a pint of Granville Island Beer for $12. It used to be $10, but prices have risen. You can get this on the weekday from 3-6pm. It’s a good deal considering Sandbar is a bit expensive for dinner.

KoreanGirl, CanuckGirl and I came here to grab a quick bite.

It wasn’t very busy inside, nor was the Teredo Lounge very busy either.

Complementary Bread arrived at the table, but they didn’t give us utensils to spread the butter onto our bread. We had to ask them to give us side plates and cutlery.

Service was very poor from the start of the meal and didn’t improve. We found this was very interesting because the restaurant had lots of staff, but most of them were standing around.

Granville Island Pale Ale is my favorite beer since it’s light and sweet.

The mussels come in 3 sauces of your choice – Thai Curry, Vindaloo, and Tomato Provencal. When the mussels arrive, you think you are getting a bucket of mussels, but the bucket is just for the shells.

Vindaloo Mussels was ordered by me and I did enjoy the sauce. It wasn’t too spicy and coated each mussel nicely. The size of the mussels were fair and there were no complaints.

Tomato Provencal had pieces of chorizo inside. CanuckGirl enjoyed them because of the meat and the mussels.

Thai Curry Mussels was enjoyed by KoreanGirl. She was kinda disappointed by the size once she realized the bucket didn’t contain as my mussels. Looks can be deceiving.

Overall, it was a good-sized snack before dinner. We girls did have a good meal despite the lack in service.

Words of Wisdom:

Poor service
Weekdays 3-6pm Mussel Mania for $12

We Rate Sandbar Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
1535 Johnston St, Creekhouse #102
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.vancouverdine.com/sandbar

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In Downtown

Coast Restaurant: Lunch Specials in Downtown, Vancouver

July 13, 2012

Coast Restaurant is part of the Glowbal Group and they specialize in seafood. Located on Alberni Street, tourist and locals flock to Coast for fresh and delicious seafood. They a a bit expensive for dinner, but for lunch time, they have some amazing lunch sets for under $15. It has a good atmosphere to bring coworkers or friends.

Before I left to Hong Kong for vacation, I met up with Flo to have some lunch here. She’s been here several time, but I haven’t, so she was nice enough to join me on this food adventure.

Fish & Chips Cones ($8.95) has tempura cod, japanese tartar sauce, sprouts and tobiko wrapped up. The tempura was lightly battered and very delicious! It’s unlike the traditional Japanese sushi cones, these ones won’t make you too full.

Linguine Vongole ($14.95) has manila clams, bacon lardons, crushed chillies in linguine. Flo thought it was alright, but it wasn’t anything amazing. You can get the same item for dinner for $16.95.

Oyster Box ($13.95) has an oyster po’ boy sandwich, caesar salad, fries, and smoked fish chowder.

The Smoked Fish Chowder thats part of the Oyster Box was ok. I didn’t get a lot of the smoky fish taste in the chowder.

The Fries were my favorite part of the box. It was very crispy and awesome when dipped in the mayo sauce.

The Caesar Salad was quite plain. The dressing was very light, which isn’t a bad thing. The strip of bacon was yummy and crispy .

Oyster Po’boy sandwich was very poor. The bread was very hard and thick that it didn’t allow much flavour of the oyster to pop out. It was very hard to eat through the bun, so I just ate the oyster. The oyster wasn’t too bad, it was very large.

Overall, the Oyster Box wasn’t every appetizing even though the price is quite fair. It had lots of food, but didn’t hold up to the reputation of the restaurant. Flo commented saying how the food wasn’t as good as before. The service was also slow and was hard to have a meal in under one hour. You need at least 1.5 hrs to have a lunch here. We really didn’t know why the service was so slow because it was pretty empty at 11:30am. It started to get very busy around 12:30pm. Also check your bill since they may accidentally charge you the dinner price instead of the lunch price. Good thing Flo and I checked the bill!

Words of Wisdom:

Always good to have reservations just in case
Well priced lunch box specials
Good friendly service
Allocate more than 1 hr for lunch

We Rate Coast Restaurant:

Address:
1054 Alberni St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.coastrestaurant.ca/

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In Four Beakers

The Peartree: Fine Dining in Burnaby, BC

July 9, 2012

The Peartree is owned by Scott and Stephanie Jaeger since 1997. They bring together world class cuisine with a downtown feel in the suburbs of Burnaby. The menu changes seasonally to incorporate the freshest ingredients. They have won several awards and have been recognized for their amazing food.

I bought a Groupon a while ago for The Peartree, where you would get 2 five-course signature menu dinner for $75. Seeing that it was a great deal, I had to get it. I brought along MedicalGiraffe since she really wanted to try this place.

The dining area isn’t too large, but most people make reservations since it is a nicer type of restaurant.

I got a cocktail, but I don’t remember what it was called. It wasn’t too alcoholic and had a nice fruity taste to it.

Brioche bread is served before your meal. It was very delicious, probably has lots of butter, but I could eat this all day.

Warm Potato and Leek Foam was very delicious. Good consistency and very yummy. It was a surprise to find little cubes of potato on the bottom.

Orange Caramelized Scallops With double smoked Bacon Risotto was very creamy and done perfectly. For MedicalGiraffe, she felt it was a tad salty. For myself, I didn’t notice it too much.

Fresh ‘Miracle Springs’ Rainbow Trout With Butternut Squash was well put together! The fish was tender and the butternut squash puree was a good accompaniment. This was my favorite dish!

24 hour Brasied Natural fed BC Short Ribs with Mushroom Ravioli was delicious as well. The best part of the dish was the mushroom ravioli! I could eat it all day! The short ribs was good, but it was a tad salty.

Fresh Pea Shoots comes with the meal too. It was lightly salted, so it was a good addition.

Valrhona Chocolate Ganache With Salted Caramel and Orange/Chocolate Sorbet was SO GOOD! It was MedicalGiraffes favorite item.

Hazelnut Macarons come when the bill arrives. They are smaller than the normal macarons you would see, but they taste awesome.

Overall, the meal was fantastic! You could probably tell by me over using the words “nice”, “perfect”, and “good”. I thought it was worth every penny. If you pay regular price for the set meal for 2, it’ll cost you $150 plus drinks, tax and gratuity. You really need a good excuse like a date or some special occasion to spend that much on a meal. Nonetheless, it is really great food.

Words of Wisdom

Amazing food, great for special occasions
12% HST + 15% gratuity
Good service
Make Reservations

We Rate Peartree:

Address:
4120 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.peartreerestaurant.net/

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In Seafood

Rodney’s Oyster House: Low Tide Oyster Specials

April 14, 2012

Rodney’s Oyster House is always a hit with locals for delicious seafood. Monday to Saturday from 3pm to 6pm, they have their low tide specials, which is equivalent to happy hour. They have oysters specials at $1.50 per piece and some other seafood items as well. Such as their mussels, clams, prawns, etc.

I had an extra hour of parking, so FoodPunk, KoreanGirl and Mandu headed to Rodneys to catch their low tide menu. It is always busy around the low tide specials, so it’s good to make reservations or go early.

The restaurant has 2 levels, so if you are at the top, you can watch everyone below. The best experience is at the bar where you can watch the oysters shuckers at work, it’s fun to watch, plus sometimes they give you some free oysters to sample.

Unfortunately, this time we were seated upstairs, so the experience was a lot different that being on the first floor.

Bread (complementary) is quite huge. If you do order the garlic prawns or mussels, save this bread to dip into the sauce.

Fanny Bay Oysters ($1.50) were the special for that day. The other oysters like kushi oysters aren’t part of the low tide price, so you do need to pay more for the other oysters. The oysters varied in size, some were quite large, some were a bit smaller. The shuckers shucking ability is really good since there was no sand or shell debris in the oyster!