Rating Archives - Page 90 of 99

In Four Beakers

Sushiholic

March 2, 2011

I pass by Sushiholic quite often and at first I didn’t have high expectations for Sushiholic because they are in a location where there has been several failed restaurants. They did have a lot of reviews from anonymous users on Urbanspoon and some other website, good reviews too.

So, I went to see if it lived up to their reviews.

The exterior is quite an eye sore and looks quite ghetto.

When you enter through the door, it look every clean and modern inside. Nothing like the outside at all.

The Fire Dragon Roll ($9.95) looks super cool since they make it look somewhat like a “fire dragon”. The sushi was composed of spicy tuna, prawns and cucumber with mayo and spicy sauce. This was really really delicious!

The Spider Roll ($7.95) is similar to the other spider rolls you find. It has soft-shell crab inside. It was still delicious and the sauce in the shape of a spider web is a nice touch.

Volcano Roll ($11.95) is a sushi with asparagus and shrimp. It is then deep fried and chopped up. Having the roll deep fried give it a very crunchy texture, the addition of spicy tuna in the middle is really ingenious because it’s supposed to be set up like a “volcano”. The spicy tuna is coated with a sauce that has a combination of sesame oil and spicy sauce.

Overall it was a great dish!

Las Vegas Roll ($9.95) was another deep fried roll. It is chopped up and laid on its side and topped up with more crab meat and tobiko. The best way to eat this is to smush the crab meat down so you can fit it into your mouth.

We also ordered the Sushiholic Tray ($21.95). For this price, you get 54 pieces of sushi. These rolls include California Roll (8pcs), Dynamite Roll (6pcs), BC Roll (6pcs), Tuna Roll (6pcs), Salmon Roll (6pcs), Spicy Tuna Roll (8pcs),Kappa Roll (6pcs), and Chopped Scallop Roll (8pcs). It’s really good for the price if you are hungry.

The rolls aren’t anything special but they were made well.

At the end of our meal, the chef made us a complementary salmon belly sashimi. It was my first time having salmon belly and I did not take too much of a liking. I think I prefer toro instead. The presentation of it was really nice, it was made into a rose shape.

Our bill came out to be $69.16 for 5 people. The price of the sushi tray was an incredible deal. The specialty rolls were alright, you are essentially paying for the presentation of the rolls. Some rolls are worth it and some other aren’t.

Overall, my friends and I had a great experience. Well made sushi roll with quality. One thing we did notice was that this restaurant was owned by Koreans, which seems to be a trend in most sushi places in Vancouver. Either way, they know how to make sushi.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking on the right of the restaurant (small alley)
Decent prices
They have a ghetto exterior, but the interior is really nice
Amazing Specialty rolls
Volcano Roll is really really good!

We Rate SushiHolic:

Address:

3311 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Website:
sushiholic.ca

In Cafe

Mamak Malaysian Cafe

March 1, 2011

My coworker and I were craving something delicious near our office. After scouring the internet for places that were close by … or somewhat close by, we decided to check out Mamak Malaysia Cafe.

I’ve heard great things from other local bloggers – Chow Times and There is Always Room and how their food was to die for. Maybe not literally die, but so good that it’ll keep you coming back for more.

Mamak is located at Pub 340, it is super weird looking on the outside. If you arrive and feel super super confused, don’t be! They have a nice big sign on the outside window. Once you see this you are in the right place.

If you somehow manage to miss the sign in the front, walk inside look to your left and should be able to see the kitchen.

You can sit anywhere you want, but I would suggest not walking straight since thats more of the pub area. If you want to be cozy, then sit in the dining area on your immediate right.

I started off with the Roti Canai ($2.50). It comes with Mamak’s home-made roti served with authentic curry dip and spicy sambal sauce! It came with a knife too to cut the roti to share. Since my coworked didn’t want to try, it I really didn’t know what to do with the knife …except to think of an ingenious way to murder someone with the knife.

Anyways… the roti was very crispy and flaky …perfection! Dipping it into the sambal sauce was like heaven. This is the best roti I have ever had! Like… EVER. Please go order this!

For my main, I had the Malaysia Laksa ($8.50). It has rice noodle in curry coconut milk soup with chicken, shrimp, egg and fish-cake. I think there was tofu and green beans in that too. The tofu puffs really soaked up the the flavour of the soup, so when you put it into your mouth and chew it, you can taste all the flavour in the soup. Yum!

The sizes of the chicken in the Laksa was the size of a finger, yet again delicious. I am usually not a noodle person…even finishing a bowl of ramen is tough, but because of the thin rice noodles, I could finish this all!

I was talking to their waitress and they said Laksa was one of their most favorite dish of their customers…people would come in over and over again ordering this very dish. I mean, it’s cool to have a favorite dish, but why not just have a goal of eating the entire menu?

I will definitely be back for some more! Charles, the owner of Mamak even talked to each table individually to have a little chit chats with them. You can tell he really holds a passion for what he does. When he came to our table he asked us how the food was, if we worked around here and how we heard of Mamak. I just said we worked a few blocks away and I heard about it because I blog about food and saw lots of reviews. I think I was nervous or something because I didn’t tell him which blog I was from..hehe opps. I told you I’m shy!

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10 for lunch
Well made malaysia cuisine
Roti Canai is a must!

We rate Mamak Malaysia Cafe:

Address:

340 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
mamak.ca

In American

Swiss Chalet Home Delivery Service

February 28, 2011

It’s weird how M can find so many commercials of food when he doesn’t even have a TV. Sure enough, he saw this and wanted to order Swiss Chalet online. Since we were already going out to run errands, we decided to order online and go into the restaurant to pick it up.

We set our order to be picked up at 9pm. There were even special parking spots for people who were just picking up. They were spots closest to the door! Since we fought off the snow storm and ended up a few minutes early, we had to wait a little bit for our meal to be ready.

After talking to the waitress about her day, it seems like the online service is actually working! Their kitchen was so swamped getting out all the online orders. Perhaps it was a snowy day and people wanted take out.

Since our order was about 10 mins late, they have us complementary pop as we waited. Very nice touch! M commented it was perhaps the most “homey” type of restaurant he has ever seen in Canada. He liked the service, but I just looked at him funny because it’s just a chain restaurant….nothing too homey about it. I guess what he was trying to say was how the staff really supported each other and were super friendly.

After zooming past all the stuck cars on the hills, we were back home. Snow Tires and 4 wheel drive for the win! We came back in one piece and had food.

I ordered the Roasted chicken and shrimp dinner ($10.99). It came with a multigrain bun, mixed vegetables, roasted chicken thigh, 5 pieces of shrimp and a container of sauce.

The chicken was very tender and juicy when I cut in. Since it was just one thigh, I really wasn’t full from the chicken. The shrimp was pretty bad, it was drenched in oil in the container and it did not holdt a lot of flavour to it.

M ordered double leg meal ($9.99). It came with the multigrain bun, mashed potatoes + gravy and 2 chicken thighs.

Mashed potatoes were thick and tasted very good.The chicken legs were very juicy, tender and the skin was superb with the special sauce.

The sauce that came with the meal was really delicious! It was like a mixture of gravy and BBQ sauce. We gobbled up most of both our sauces with out chicken. Addictive sauce!

Words of Wisdom:

The comfort of Swiss Chalet at home
Easy online ordering system
Delivery

We rate Swiss Chalet:

Address:

3860 Lougheed Hwy
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.swisschalet.com

In Downtown

Babylon Cafe

February 27, 2011

I had no idea where to eat, so I walked around Robson Street and Babylon Cafe caught my eye. I was introduced to Babylong Cafe a few years ago by a friend. The place at first looked uber sketch but all the negative perceptions about this place disappeared.

A few year later, I am back to devour their amazing falafels and shawarma.

The exterior is pretty shady looking, but there is usually a line up during peak hours.

The interior of Babylon Cafe is really small. About 4 or 5 customers can stand inside to make their order. Babylon Cafe on Robson is a strictly To Go.

There are a lot of other ingredients you can add to your wrap, you just gotta add a bit of money to it.

When I arrived at about 1pm, a line began to start forming, there was probably 7 people in line waiting and the line was indeed going out the door. With all the delicious meat roasting in their shop, it is no wonder the smell of all the meat attracts visitors.

It is hand sized, so you can walk and eat at the same time. They also give you enough napkins in case you are a bit messy eating the wrap.

I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($5.95). Inside this wrap is tabouleh, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, hummas, and a mound of juicy chicken.

For $6, I really did enjoy it, the different vegetables, tabouleh and the pickles really gave this wrap a good crunch to go along with the savory chicken. Since, I had no where else to eat it, I went to Starbucks and grabbed at tea. Everyone else there was drinking a coffee and on their laptops. I could see the man infront of me trying to figure out what I was eating.

After eating this, I was not super full, but I was satisfied with the taste.

Words of Wisdom:

Generous amount of Meat
Under $10
To Go Style

We Rate Babylon Cafe:

Address:

708 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Penang Delight Cafe

February 26, 2011

Every time I pass by Penang to go to Kimura, it seems like it is really packed. Plus the photos online looked very delicious.

Since it was time for dinner with ConsultingGirl, I suggested we try this place out.

Penang is located on Rupert and 22nd. They specialize in Malaysian cuisine.

The interior looks really nice and cozy. They even have some really cute decorations on the wall such as little crabs, coconuts and other decor. This place tends to be packed on weekends, so if you are going with more than 4 people, do make a reservation.

When we went it was busy at first but then it really died down around 8:30pm.

We started with the beef satay ($5.95). It came with 4 skewers of beef and I think peanut sauce. I did not like this dish very much because the beef was a bit tough. I really imagined these be a bit more larger and tender.

It was also hard to dip the skewer in the sauce dish, so you will need to use your utensils to spread it onto the skewer.

The satay at Thai House Royal are so much better.

The next appetizer was the Penang Shrimp ($4.95). It is deep fried marinated pork in shrimp in a bean curd wrap. There were other ingredients in here as well, such as water chestnut and cucumbers. There was also a sweet sauce to go a long with it.

This is was pretty good, I liked the change of the wrapper so it’s not the usual wonton wrapper. This gives the roll more of a crunch and a nutty flavour. The addition of the water chestnuts gives it more texture and i love the crunchiness.

The next dish was the Kari Ayam ($7.95), which is dark meat chicken with potatoes stewed in red curry, lemon grass and coconut milk. We were really unimpressed with this dish because it was mostly potatoes and chicken. This dish also got very very cold very fast.

After we had the first bowl, we went to get more and it was pretty cold by then. Not warm, but actually cold. Maybe it’s not their fault since is was a cold day.

Even if the dish didn’t get cold, I would probably not order this again.

The next dish was the Curry Chicken Laksa ($8.95). In has shredded chicken with rice noodle, bean sprouts, fried tofu in a coconut curry broth. This was a pretty good dish and had this subtle taste and i think it was saffron or some other asian spice.

The shredded chicken was very very shredded, it took us a while to figure out it this was a veggie dish or not. Sure enough, we did find it. If you do want more chicken pieces perhaps getting the Hainanese chicken version of this dish. You can also get beef or fish ball versions as well.

I ordered the Soy Milk with Grass Jelly ($2.50). I thought it was supposed to be a cool drink but turns out it is just soy milk and grass jelly. It was also very small too. 4 gulps and it was gone. This is something pretty basic which you can make yourself.

I actually ordered this drink and wanted it at the beginning of the meal but after reminding the waitress, they brought it at the end of the meal.

Overall, the taste of the food was so-so, not the best but decent.

In the end, ConsultingGirl and I got a very weird vibe from this place. One hour before closing, they started cleaning up the restaurant, putting the chairs up onto the tables and cleaning the floors. We kept thinking they were closing and felt like they were trying to get us out. The weird thing was they were still accepting new customers. We were super puzzled.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on adjacent streets
Authentic malaysian cuisine
Slightly expensive for this type of cuisine

We rate Penang Delight Cafe:

Address:

3885 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.penangdelight.com

In Downtown

Sushi Zero One

February 26, 2011

I am running out of options to eat near the office, so when I asked for suggestions on twitter @nicolb suggested I try Sushi Zero One. Since she does know her food, I decided to check this place out.

I swear I walked around the block 2 times but it’s hard to spot since there at 3 sushi restaurants on the block. Since i really did not want to admit defeat, so I decided to look for the store address on the iphone.

Luckly I did find it, it was not as I expected the restaurant to look like. It is very small and has limited seating, most people take out instead of sit there. I was so glad I went by myself because there was only 1 seat left.

Sushi Zero One does have a vast menu of items, there were so many that I had no idea where to look since there was a few items on the board, other items on the wall, a normal menu and a board with daily specials.

I felt a bit overwhelmed by the choices, but I just stick to the daily special…it must be good since it’s on the special menu.

One of the specials were sashimi don ($9.50) with 3 types of fish – wild salmon, albacore tuna and saba.

The don consisted of rice, dried seaweed, pea sprouts, sashimi, and ginger + wasabi. If you dont’ like wasabi, you can take it out and put it in your sauce dish to mix it with soy sauce.

I liked how the don was simple and fresh, the only negative thing I can say about it is that I found that their cutting skills for the sashimi was quite poor, you can tell by the image that there is a bit of the grey skin still on the fish.

It also came with a miso soup.

Words of Wisdom:

Online ordering form
Limited seating
Free delivery
Large menu
Cheap and fresh

We Rate Sushi Zero One:

Address:

559 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.sushizeroone.com

In North Burnaby

Mountain Shadow Pub

February 25, 2011

If you go to Simon Fraser University on the Burnaby Campus, I am sure you have heard about Mountain Shadow Pub. It is just 3 bus stops away and it’s were you go when you want to party, watch the game, or even devour some cheap lunch/dinner.

Mountain Shadow has a lot of weekly specials. My favorite days to come here are Tuesday and Wednesday because it’s WINGS NIGHT! What more could university students want? Cheap food, alcohol, and great company.

I started off relaxing with a pint of Stella Artois (~$7). Stella Artois is a European lager from Belgium. It is golden in color and has an exceptional clarity. The crisp, refreshing flavour of Stella pairs well with flavoured food such as wings. The bitterness cuts through sauces.

Even though the wings are 25 cents per wing, you have to order then in pounds rather than ordering 3 of this and 3 of that.

I ordered one pound of Salt and Pepper ($3) and a pound of hot ($3). I prefer these over the other choices – Honey Garlic, BBQ, Thai, and Teriyaki because those are heavily drenched in sauces and do make your hands very sticky and super dirty.

All the wings are prepared by frying them in the deep frier and then putting their sauces and/or spice onto the wings. Most places that do have the 25 cent wings deal tend to have very tiny sizes for the wings and drumettes. As for the sizes at Mountain Shadow, the sizes were decent, a woman can get really full by have 2 pounds of wings.

The salt and pepper was seasoned well, so there was not too much salt.

The hot was not extremely hot, if you can deal with a little bit of hot, you should be alright. What I usually do to cut down the amount of hotness in my mouth, is to eat one salt & pepper wing, then a hot, and then salt & pepper, and then hot again. This way, the amount of hot does not accumulate.

Words of Wisdom:

Reservations are best on game days for large groups
25 cent wings on Tues and Wed
Lots of free parking
Not a place to take your family – mostly a university scene
Located in a residential area
Student Club fundraising events on Fri/Sat Night

We Rate Mountain Shadow Pub:

Address:

7174 Barnet Rd
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.shadowpub.com

In Downtown

Guu Garden

February 25, 2011

Since I found out the other Guu location – Guu Garden offered lunch, I really had to try it out to see how it compared.

After walking aimlessly around the building, I stumbled upon this sign near some stairs in the rear. If I missed the sight of this sign, I’d probably have no idea where to find Guu. I thought Google maps tricked me into going to this deserted place. (Most of the building was under construction besides Guu Garden & Relish.

When I made my way to the restaurant I was greeted with a welcoming “irrashaimase”, which means Welcome in Japanese.

Since it was me, myself and I…I just decided to sit on the bar. Ya… the awesomeness of being a loner! Woot.

Their menu definitely had more choices than Guu on Thurlow. From bento boxes to the favorite izakaya dishes!

I first ordered the Tuna Tataki ($6.50). For lunch they served it with 4 pieces of tuna. It is lightly seared on the outside and garnishes with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The quality of the tuna was delicious and had a good texture.

It was a tad expensive for lunch compared to what I had next…

Guu Garden has some amazing bento boxes for lunch! $10 Rice Burger bento Box!

The bento box came with a choice of 3 burger – Kobe Beef, tuna fillet, and pork tenderloin. Each bento box comes with miso soup and 4 sides to accompany the dish.

I got my combo with the Tuna Fillet Cutlet with tartar sauce. It is a good take on the traditional burger. The fillet was nice and golden brown on the outside. Once you take a bite of the sandwich, you can hear the *crunch* when you bit into the fillet.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this, after I saw this, I really wish I ordered the Kobe Beef version on the sandwich. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good burger but it didn’t suit my taste. I’m not a big fan of deep fried items.

The miso soup was delicious like most places, but it was a different since they added puff tofu into the miso soup. It added texture into the soup.

This was a cold potato type of thing. I usually dont like potatoes but this was not too starchy tasting.

Next side dish were tempura green beans. It was not too oily and seasoned with salt and pepper.

This shrimp salad was very very good. It had greens, avocado, shrimp, and a few other ingredients. The sauce that they had on it was very interesting and tasted like wasabi but it was not too overwhelming. It did not give you the weird nose stingy sensation

Almond tofu pudding with lychee was by far the best part of the meal and the perfect ending. I love tofu dessert so, I am really biased towards it because I could eat a whole tub full of this.

Words of Wisdom:

Amazing $10 bento lunch
Hard to locate the restaurant

We Rate Guu Garden:

Address:

M101-888 Nelson Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com

In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Jugo Juice

February 23, 2011

NailPolishFanatic and I were at Lougheed Mall and were just walking around catching up and saw Jugo Juice, so we decided to get some instead of going to Starbucks for coffee. Trying to be healthy you know?

Jugo Juice has a new location in at Lougheed Mall. They have chains all over the Lower Mainland…and at almost every mall.

Don’t get this place confused with Booster Juice because I always make the same mistake. They sell very similar things – smoothies, juices and some snacks.

Like all the Jugo Juices, they have drinks with the most weirdest names like – Mango Magic, Berry Binge, Banana Buzz….etc…etc. You kinda get the idea what your drink will taste like assuming you can read their menu with their small font.

I ordered the Watermelon Wiggle, I thought it had a cool name that almost made me giggle. I really did not take a liking to the Watermelon Wiggle. Even though it does have Watermelon in it, the taste was very sweet and almost tasted like candy because of the nectar in the smoothie. I really don’t prefer drinks here because I never liked the taste of the smoothies I have gotten.

When I was watching them make it, they put in prepackaged frozen fruits, nectar and ice to make the drink.

NailPolishFanatic had the Mango Magic, it was way better than the watermelon wiggle but it was not the best tasting drink, but still decent. I think it was the nectar that made this drink more sweet than it needed to be.

Yes, Jugo Juice does have cool sounding drinks, but most of the flavours are hit and miss. Do you have a favorite? If you do, let me know so I can give them another chance. For the time being, I think I will stick with Booster Juice…or I can settle with Orange Julius.

We Rate Jugo Juice:

Address:

9855 Austin Rd. (upstairs mall)
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.jugojuice.com

In Cafe

Cafe Artigiano

February 23, 2011

Cafe Artigiano serves up some of the better coffees in Vancouver. They serve italian-style coffee and are famous for their award winning latte art.

They are a coffee shop chain that have locations all around the Lower Mainland. Cafe Artigiano use to be owned by the Piccolo Family in 1999, but a few years ago they sold it to Earl’s owner – Willlie Mounzer. Even though it has changed ownership, the expansion of Cafe Artigiano has not slowed down. They have even opened locations in Victoria.

All their locations have a similar look and have a warm feeling. There a lots of tables to sit and chit chat. People also like to study or have meetings here. Their menu is located up on top of the wall for drinks.

If you have some thing else in mind that is not on their menu, you can always ask them to make you a custom drink.

Besides coffee and tea, they also sell soup, sandwiches and other pastries.

I ordered a medium Latte. By far, this is 103933 times better than Starbucks. It has a bold and strong taste to it. This will wake you up for the day ahead. What I love most about Cafe Artigiano is their latte art! I think it’s quite unique that they take their time to do latte art on all their drinks.

We rate Cafe Artigiano:

Address:

574 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.caffeartigiano.com

Other posts on Cafe Artigiano:

In Dessert

CheeseCake Etc. Take Out

February 22, 2011

PinappleBun sent me on a trek to grab some take out from CheeseCake Etc. The last time I went here, it was about a year or so ago. A lot has changed since then, their shop use to just be one restaurant but now it has expanded and has an additional dining area. CheeseCake Etc sells NY style cheese cake, which basically there is no graham cracker base.

Looking at their menu, they do not have a large selection of cheesecake. Mostly drinks and a few combinations of desserts and bread.

I came here just for a whole cheesecake to take out. There are not a lot of options…just the original cheesecake ($26), chocolate cheesecake ($31) and a tub of strawberry sauce ($7). I asked the cashier how many slices a whole cheese cake has, and he answered saying about 8. I did bit of calculations and realized it’s not a bad deal at all! You save about $11.

We got the original cheesecake and the tub of strawberry sauce ($33). You have to keep this frozen on order to get a nice looking slice from the cake. If it is half thawed, it will give you can ugly looking slice.

The cheesecake us good with strawberries, it gives you more of a sweet taste and other textures.

If you don’t have a large appetite, you will probably cut smaller pieces and get more than 8 slices.It’s been a few days and we still have this still in our fridge! Cheesecake for breakfast…lunch or dinner. haha.

Words of Wisdom:

Pay parking on adjacent roads
Lots of seating
Good simple cheesecake
Limited choices on menu

We rate CheeseCake Etc. :

Address:

2141 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.cheesecakeetc.com

In Japanese

Kingsway Sushi

February 21, 2011

Kingsway Sushi is an all you can eat sushi joint on Kingsway and Boundary. They are owned by Top Gun Group who also own Richmond Sushi, Top Gun J&C, Top Gun Hot Pot, and Garden City Hot Pot.

They have all you can eat for Lunch, Dinner and Late Night. They have special types of menus for lunch and Dinner depending it you want a wider selection of items to choose from.

They do have an ala carte menu but it is not worth the price since your meal would end up pretty close to what you would be paying for all you can eat. A week day normal dinner cost us $21.95 per person.

On a Thursday night, all the tables were full! Surprising since it was a weekday. This place is one of the better All You Can Eat restaurants in Burnaby. All the other ones at Metrotown can’t compare.

They have lots of different items on their regular menu, I didn’t take a picture of all the food we ordered but here are just a few.

Edamame beans

Beef Tataki / Beef Sashimi

If you eat a lot of this, you will probably get your moneys worth since on the Ala Carte menu the tataki is 8 pieces for $8.95…

Miso Soup

Different types of rolls

Wild Salmon Sushi

Mango Pudding

The service is pretty good, since everything is electronic there is no delay. As we finished giving the waitress our list of items for the first round of ordering, our food came right away! The hot items take a bit longer to arrive compared to already prepared items like the mango pudding and beef tataki.

The food is so – so, but most all you can eats in Vancouver aren’t spectacular .

Words of Wisdom:

Very fast service
Large variety in menu
There is usually a line up if you don’t have reservations
Closed on Tuesdays
2 hour limit
Free Parking underground

We Rate Kingsway Sushi:

Address:

3665 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

Website:

www.topgungroup.com/KS.html

In Downtown

Lully’s Sandwich Bar

February 20, 2011

I posed a question on Twitter “Need suggestions for lunch in Downtown. Any good places that are not the “usual” places to eat at?”, I got a few replies back from the amazing followers! Since it was a nice sunny day in downtown Vancouver, I just had to try out Lully’s Sandwich Bar.

I actually pass by a few times a week and I always feel guilty that I don’t stop and say hi. Keep in mind, I am a very shy timid girl and at times socially awkward! This is why I will be that girl in networking events near the food tables just eating..and eating…and eating. It’s a bad habit, but I’m slowly working on my confidence.

Lully’s Sandwich bar is located outside Granville station. My first thought when I saw this cart was “I wonder who’s Lully, is there really a Lully?”. At this food cart, there are no people named Lully. 2 local entrepreneurs decided to bring Lully’s Sandwich Bar – a famous Victoria Restaurant, here to Vancouver!

Who are these entrepreneurs I am speaking of? They are the Ip brothers of PanDa Fresh Bakery! They have taken a hiatus from running the big yellow bus to start up their new idea of selling Montreal smoked meats in Vancouver. Since they are both from Montreal and hold a deep connection to where they were from, they jumped at the idea of opening a new cart.

No news on whether the PanDa Fresh Bakery will be back, but hopefully it will be back once summer comes around. The reason why they put PanDa Fresh Bakery on hold because of the location and the weather.

Now lets talk about their food. Looking at their menu, it was really hard to choose what I wanted since I was not super hungry. 2 different sizes of sandwich to choose from. So, I asked Michael Ip how big the jumbo and the regular sizes were. After looking at a few images, I really wanted to chow down on the Jumbo since i’ve never had such a massive sandwich.

The Jumbo Old Fashioned Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich ($10) was stacked with so much meat. I was watching him build this and he kept piling more and more meat on the sandwich. In total there was 12 oz of meat with mustard on a 2 slices of bread.

Once the sandwich was cut in half, you can see how large this sandwich really is!

I am not an expert when it comes to eating Montreal smoked meat sandwiches. All I know is that this sandwich is simple and good to honest just gives you a homey feeling. Not complicated and only has 3 ingredients – bread, mustard and meat.

Eating it needs a bit of a strategy since theres so much meat in this sandwich, what I did was to eat one half at a time and keep it in the wrapper so no precious meat falls on the floor. The meat was tender and easy to bite into. I enjoyed it because it was something new that I have never tried before.

Some may say this sandwich is too simple and not worth the $10. But everyone is entitled to their personal opinions.

We Rate Lullu’s Sandwich Bar:

Address:

650 Granville St.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.lullyssandwichbar.com

In Cafe

Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant (Visit #2)

February 20, 2011

Visit #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words of Wisdom:

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

We rate Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant:

Address:

3868 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC

In Japanese

Guu

February 18, 2011

Guu on Thurlow is open for lunch. I heard from PinappleBun that they have great deals under $10. Since I’ve been to Guu for dinner and loved it, I thought lunch would be exciting too.

There are a good amount of tables for lunch and there’s a bar..if you are eating alone. I sat at the bar because it was just me. Don’t be afraid if you suddenly hear your waitress yelling to the chefs, it’s totally normal! They are just communicating your order in a fun way!

The menu on the walls, are dinner specials, so you can’t order them till dinner time. I was eyeing the Beef Carpaccio but I couldn’t get it.

Their menu is quite small, so you only have the main options of Bento box, Don, and curry. They have a few specials too

I ordered the assorted fry Bento Box ($8). I wanted a little bit of everything, so that was the best option.

There was chicken karrage, pork tenderloin cutlet, creamy croquette, bamboo shoots, daikon and a bit of noodles. This bento box also came with Miso soup and rice.

The chicken karrage and the pork tender loin was ok, but I really loved the creamy croquette! Nicely fried on the outside and rich/ creamy on the inside. Yum!

Words of Wisdom:

No waits during lunch
Under $10
Creamy Croquettes!
Small menu selection
No sushi

We rate Guu:

Address:

838 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC

Website: www.guu-izakaya.com

In Four Beakers

Kimura (Visit #4)

February 17, 2011

Visit #1 Visit #2 Visit #3

As you probably know now, I am a huge fan of Kimura’s and is kinda my “go to” place to have some great food with friends.

Since it was Vday, I made reservations ahead of time just in case they became very busy. Indeed they were, but I was smart to make they a week in advance. You should be ok, if you make it a day ahead of time.

M and I had a big bottle of Kirin ($8.95). It was a Large size and it could fill up about 8 small cups.

M and I love their Spicy tuna on Crispy rice ($4.50). It has pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces. Eat with your hands because eating with chopsticks are a bit hard. Plus, it is meant to be eaten with hands.

M wasn’t so keen on the Omakase set this time, so when he heard there was kobe beef steak for $25, he jumped at the chance to order it. You don’t only get the steak, but you get miso soup, rice, and a salad.

The kobe beef was made medium rare and it was very nice and juicy. Did you know kobe beef is quite sought after due to their distinct rich flavour? Because of the really nice marbling of the fat, it gives this steak it’s great flavour.

The salad was quite simple and had no dressing. It is made mostly out of cabbage, radish, carrots, cucumber and a tomato. Still quite refreshing.

I couldn’t help but order Kimura’s Omakase set ($30). This is the only place I find that I can’t get bored of their food, plus the set always changes up a little bit. It’s a good way to range the skills and strengths of the restaurant.

The first dish the came was the appetizer and it contained pieces of chicken, taro, gelatin, fried sardines and kabocha Japanese squash.

I like their appetizer because they are simple and not heavy.

I always feel awesome when the salmon carpaccio arrives with the omakase! Thinly sliced salmon in sesame oil, citrus sauce, peppercorn, salt, and garnished with sprouts and onions. This is my favorite dish! Never gets old!

Second dish was the baked oyster with a miso may sauce. This was a bit different than the ones they had before. They added mayo into it so it tasted more like a motoyaki. Still pretty good.

The third dish was another Spicy tuna on Crispy rice. I totally didn’t know this would came as well….so as you can imagine the rice get me a bit too full.

The fourth dish was the miso soup.This is always good to drink because it is refreshing and is not like the usual miso soups. It tastes a bit cleaner and has tofu skin in it!

The fifth dish was the shrimp pasta salad. There’s actually not pasta in this, he makes the noodles out of shrimp. You can see the shrimp in the noodles. Good light and refreshing dish and yummy sauce.

They changed this up a bit, this time the noodles were a bit more uniform like fettucini.

The sixth dish was nigiri. Shrimp, tuna and salmon. The tops of a few of the sushi already has a thin layer of soy sauce, so you may not need to add more. Personal preference perhaps.

The seventh and final dish was green tea ice cream! It was really good green tea ice cream! You can choose from a whole bunch of ice cream options – mango, black sesame, and red bean…but this can change due to what they have available.

Words of Wisdom:

For best experience sit at the bar and talk to Kimura
Parking in front or in residential areas
Most items under $10
Lots of combos and specials
Customizable dishes
Amazing service! (Like actually!)
Fresh Ingredients
Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant:

Website: http://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Red Robins

February 15, 2011

This is what happens when you have night classes and are left with little choices of restaurants past 10pm. M, InsecureGirl and I headed over to Red Robins to grab a bite before more studying!

The closest Red Robins is located at Lougheed Mall Plaza. We’ve been here several times and its just regular food.

We all started off with the tower of onion rings. This is probably that one appetizer that everyone oogles at since it’s so tall. I just think it looks kinda pornographic. Anyways, the onion rings are pretty good, crunchy on the outside and savory onion in the center. It also comes with 2 sauces but the onion ring was too large to dip into the sauces, so you would need to rip the onion ring in half first.

InsecureGirl ordered the Creamy Classic Mac & Cheese ($11.49). It comes with a salad with choice of dressing and bread.

M and I both got the ensalada chicken platter ($13.49). There are 2 chicken breasts as well, but they were rather flat and not very pump. Comes with salad, salsa and a creamy lime sauce on the side.

Words of Widom:

Large amount of seating, good for b-day parties ( reservation is recommended)
Lots of parking
Free dessert for Birthday and they sing you songs!

We Rate Red Robin:

Address:

9628 Cameron St
Burnaby, BC

Website: www.canadarobin.com

In Cafe

The Dirty Apron

February 14, 2011

The Dirty Apron is many things….a cooking school, delicatessen, grocer, and a lunch/dinner hot spot. They are owned by the creators of Cafe Medina and Chambar. They are actually located on the same block as well.

Mandu and I passed by a few weeks ago and noticed this new place. It wasn’t until today that we decided to try it out.

Walking inside, you can see there are 2 aisles of packaged products. Most of these are packaged products, so you can find canned items, pre-made pasta sauces, and specialty ingredients.

They have a variety of meats if you want to grab some for home or create your own sandwich.

They have about 5 of their grilled sandwiches on display. You can look at them and decide which one you want. Then they will grill it up for you!

They also have daily hot food such as roasted chicken, soups, rice, lentils, pasta, and stews. While you are there, you should try out some of their cheese samples. You may discover a new cheese which you will LOVE.

They have one main menu for baguettes and grilled sandwiches. They range from $7 – $9.

Mandu first wanted a sandwich but then when she saw a huge plate of lasagna ($6.99), she had to have it. First of all, this is some steller lasagna. It has lots of meat and vegetables. Perfectly cooked and had an amazing flavour. Highly recommended if you come here!

While we were there, 3 other people in the dining area had this as well. On any rainy day, this lasagna will turn your whole day around!

I ordered the prosciutto Grilled sandwich ($8.99). Inside this sandwich are figs, prosciutto, watercress, cheese, balsamic and onions.

The bread was really nice, it has inside nuts and cranberries. the outside was nicely grilled so it had a bit of a crunch to it. The balsamic and onions made this a very savory sandwich. I wish this sandwich had a but more prosciutto because at times I felt I could taste more of the figs than prosciutto. Still, the sandwich was amazing.