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In Four Beakers

Gohan Japanese Sushi (Visit #2)

January 11, 2011

M and I spent our last meal of 2010 at Gohan Sushi. Gohan is close to our hood and we love their food, so we like to go here often. This is probably our 2nd favorite sushi place to eat at. Quality is good, and decently priced!

You can take a look at our previous post by clicking this.

Without hesitation, we dove into the menu to try some more items that we have no tried yet. they always have specials!

I ordered the Garlic Tuna Tataki ($6.95). The tuna is pan seared on the outside and then topped off with a vinagarette and garlic chips.

The tuna and garlic by itself were delicious but I did not like the vinaigrette sauce. It tasted a bit salty and heavy for such a clean tasting fish.

I also ordered 2 pieces of toro nigiri ($1.85 each). This will always be my favorite place for toro because it is very fatty and just melts in your mouth.

I also ordered the spicy scallop cone ($3.75). Inside is cucumber, scallops, spicy sauce, lettuce, rice and wrapped in seaweed. Delicious cone!

M and I both shared the Garlic Chicken Karaage ($5.95). The chicken in marinated in sake and garlic, then it is deep fried. TO accompany this dish is a side of light honey cream sauce.

It was probably one of the most unique sauces I have ever tasted. It wasn’t super good or super bad but ok.

M got a plate of toro Sashimi ($9.95). After a disappointing time at Sushi Mori, he really craved the toro at Gohan Sushi. Bigger pieces and more quantity! This dish always makes his day better!

Words of Wisdom:

Great fast service
Food came very fast
High quality ingredients
The best toro you will ever eat!
Reasonably priced.
Closed on Sundays

We really enjoyed Gohan and it has become our favorite place to go to in Burnaby to get sushi!

We rate Gohan:

They are located at:

Burnaby
1815 Rosser Ave S
Burnaby, BC V5C

In Fairview

SAWA Tea Lounge & Gallery

January 11, 2011

CandiedZen is now my weekly eating buddy! She suggested we go here since she heard it was unique and very good.

Sawa Tea Lounge & Gallery is located right outside Granville Island close to the Afkghan Horsemen. Sawa sells a variety of specialty teas, and green healthy lunches.

The top floor of the restaurant is where you order and pay, but as you walk further into the restaurant, you can walk down into the gallery AKA seating area. There are a few art pieces you can buy off the wall. This area can fit about 20 people. The main table is really cool and has a tea pot in the middle.

CandiedZen started off with a pot of Kyoto Cherry Tea ($2.90). This flavour was Chinese Sencha with rose petal. The tea tasted very relaxing and had an after tast of rose. It was not overly sweet, it was almost subtle.

I just ordered the Salmon SAWA Donburi ($7.50). This is SAWA’s special rice bowl, topped with green mix salad and meat or tofu. Seasoned with SAWA’s original dressing and you get to choose from salmon, beef, chicken or tofu.

It may seem weird to have salad with rice and some type of protein topping. Surprisingly it was REALLY GOOD! I think it is the secret SAWA salad dressing that is really tasty.

How I ate this was just mixing all the ingredients together.

CandiedZen also ordered the Onigiri Set ($7). You can choose from two onigiri (rice balls) filled with plum, salmon or seaweed. Comes with miso soup and salad.

She ordered the plum and salmon. She commented saying the dish was very simple and delicious. She would come again because the food was great and the atmosphere is really nice and calming. The nice tea was a plus as well.

Here are close ups of the salad and onigiri. The salad has the special SAWA dressing (YUM). The onigiri were made in a mould and thats why it is shaped so perfectly.

Overall it was a great experience. Come here for nice light lunch and some relaxing tea. If you arn’t into heavy meals, this is your place!!

Words of Wisdom:

Paid Parking Lot – $4 / hr
Large variety of teas
Lots of light organic meals
Relaxing atmosphere

We Rate Sawa Tea Lounge & Gallery:

Website: http://www.sawatea.com/

Address:

1538 W 2nd Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Coquitlam

Sushi Mori

January 10, 2011

Fabo comes back and M, FragileBoy, NotFauna, JojoCake, and I met up at Sushi Mori!

Sushi Mori is a Japanese restaurant in Coquitlam. Like many Japanese restaurants in Vancouver… this is also Korean owned.

When you walk inside, you will be amazed by a bunch of Sakura Trees (Cherry Blossom). Begin inside this restaurant makes you feel like you are in the great outdoors.

We all drank tea which came in a SUPER SUPER heavy tea pot.

We got complementary edamame, apple/corn/peas salad, and some onion type of thing. We also all got complementary miso soup too.

The miso soup is pretty good.

M started off his meal getting Chicken Yakitori ($4.95). It came with 2 pieces. He really liked it.

M also got a plate of Toro Sashimi ($14.95). It only came with 7 pieces which M was really surprised over because Gohan Sushi has way more for $9. He ate it all, but the price and the size of it left a bad feeling inside.

FragileBoy ordered the Dinner Bento A Combo ($13.95). This came with Chicken Teriyaki, 6 pieces of Sashimi, 3 pieces of sushi, and 4 pieces of tempura.

This bento is served with miso soup and rice sunomono.

I ordered the Deluxe Sashimi & Sushi Bento ($15.95). Instead of just taking on picture, I did a close up of everything, so it looks super odd.

It came with a green salad, 3 pieces of calamari, 4 pieces of tempura, 2 salmon sashimi, 2 red tuna sashimi, 3 tako sashimi, 1 tako nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 1 red tuna nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, and 1 amaebi nigiri.

I was ok with everything, but the sashimi and nigiri seemed a bit small.

Fabo, JojoCake and NotFauna shared a few different dishes.

They first had the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($4.95).

Then they had the Spicy Tuna Sashimi ($9.95).

Then they had the Crunch Roll ($11.95).

Then they had the Dragon Roll ($11.95).

Lastly they had the Oi-Chee Roll ($11.95).

This was the damage of our bill. $112.62 for 6 people.

The service was pretty bad. We were waiting at the door trying to figure out how many people in total were coming, so when the whole party arrived, the servers did not show us to a table, so we had to find our own. Once we did sit down, no servers came to give us menu’s or any indication that we were even there.

Words of Wisdom:

Sashimi is small and expensive
Lots of parking in the parking lot
Really cool decor
Bento Boxes are good
Tons of specialty rolls

We Rate Sushi Mori:

Website: http://www.sushimorisake.com/

Address:

2565 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

In Bar and Grill

Boathouse (Port Moody)

January 9, 2011

The Family decided to go to Boathouse for a lovely dinner. The have a bar section where patrons can grab a drink and enjoy the game.

On the other side is an open kitchen and high walled dinning room.

The Boathouse locations always have large windows so you can gaze upon the river. Their Lobsterfest always draws a large crowd.

Their dining room was packed and the layout of the restaurant gave people little room to move around.

They also have a kids menu if your kids dont want items from the regular menu. The kids menu is also a coloring book, so they will be occupied!

My sisters and dad all got Shirley temples ($3.79).

My father got the BC Wild Sockeye Salmon & Atlantic Lobster Tail ($32.99). This dish had a fire-grilled fillet and 4 oz. lobster tail. You also get wild rice and green peas and pepper.

All lobster dishes are supposed to come with butter and when we asked our server…she was kinda unsure. You can hear my rant about the service below….

My mother ordered the boathouse bouillabaisse ($28.99). This dish had wild salmon, halibut, prawn, scallop, mussels, alaskan king crab, and fingerling potatoes in a rich tomato broth. There is also bread that comes with it if you want to dip it into the broth.

My mother enjoyed this dish!

My older sister got the Louisiana Lobster Pot ($29.99). There is Carribean Lobster, Manila Clams, BC Wild Sockeye Salmon, mussels, chorizo sausage, tiger prawns, vegetables in a spicy broth.

She enjoyed this dish because it was packed full of seafood.

I ordered the sirloin & seafood grill ($28.99). The seafood skewer had a prawn, a small sea scallop & 2 pieces of wild salmon. It also came with mashed potatoes, green beans, and the sirloin. I did enjoy the dish, but I personally prefer The Keg over Boathouse.

The sirloin was done to medium rare and was perfect. The only bad thing about it was how the scallop that was part of the skewer was really small, it took me a while to figure out where it was because it was between the shrimps head and the tail.

Their mashed potatoes are really good!!

My little sister got the Fire-grilled sirloin ($21.99). Her sirloin was 7oz. It also came with mashed potatoes and green peas and a pepper.

She really liked the dish!

The bread never arrived at our table… we finally asked our server and she forgot to give us bread.

Our service was pretty poor since our waitress was fairly new. She couldn’t explain the new lobsterfest menu, forgot our butter for lobster, forgot the bread, rarely came to our table (we had to flag down other waitresses to get her), gave us the wrong utensils (she gave me a spoon for eating a steak…..)

What made it worse is when we went to the front desk to buy a giftcard for a family friend, our waitress passed by the front desk to check their computers…looked at us…walked past us and said nothing.

I usually don’t complain about service, but I was really upset by the service. Clearly, I will not be returning to this location.

Words of Wisdom:

Hard to get to…so drive and use google maps
Free parking in front
Reservations are suggested
Special Kids Menu
Lobster FEST!!

We rate BoatHouse:

Website: www.boathouserestaurants.ca

Address:

2770 Esplanade Ave
Port Moody, BC

In French

Smoking Dog Bistro

January 8, 2011

This post is long overdue and I totally forgot about it.

Back in October, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy, M and I went to Smoking Dog Bistro. We heard it was good so we tried it out. The Smoking Dog Bistro specializes in french cuisine.

The interior is very nice and dogs can been seen all over the restaurant.

M, Fragileboy and InsecureGirl ordered Heineken Beer ($6.50), while I had the House White Wine ($5)

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Insert the longest waiting time in THE WORLD for our food to come. It took so long that I had to add this little section. We waited 1hr 15mins for our appetizers to arrive. Even while we waited, bread did not arrive until the same time as appetizers.

The waiter just said it was a busy night.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

M ordered the Lobster Bisque ($10), which also had in it cream fraiche and cognac. M and I thought it was way over priced for soup, when it is mostly broth-like. It was really unappetizing and we would never order this again.

I would rather go to Yew in Four Seasons to have Lobster Bisque because they actually have real pieces of lobster in it.

Fragileboy ordered the escargot de bourgogne ($12) It was flavoured with garlic and parsly.

Finally the bread arrived!

I was super full rom a previous dinner, so i got the Goat Cheese appetizer ($13). It is goat cheese wrapped in phyllo pastry and topped off with a portobello mushroom and mixed greens. The cheese was really rich and the mushroom and greens balanced out the strong taste.

InsecureGirl had the Salmon Fillet ($15). It is salmon with a mushroom and oil type of sauce. It comes with fries as well. She said ti was not very good and was on the dry side.

The men both got Steak Frites ($15). This was s Canadian AAA beef – grilled NY steak with bordelaise sauce. Fries on the side. The men said it was good and worth the price. Good size as well.

Words of Wisdom:

Good for drinks
Steak frites
Great $15 entree menu
meter parking on streets
expensive appetizers

We rate the Smoking Dog Bistro:

Website: http://www.thesmokingdog.com/

Address:

1889 W 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Brunch

De Dutch Pannekoek House

January 8, 2011

NotFauna, Jojocake, VideoGameGuy, and Jengay decided to go to De Dutch because Cosmo’s was closed for the holidays.

De Dutch is best know for their Panneloek (pan_ne_koek), which is a Dutch pancake, tasting similar to the traditional North American pancake and is slightly thicker than a crepe.

One you get into the restaurant, the interior is super ugly and outdated. There are no windows… just walls. You feel like you are in a basement…perhaps you might be.

I ordered the BC Benny ($12). It had thinly sliced smoked wild BC salmon on top of dutch rusks with eggs and hollandaise sauce. You also get Special Recipe Hash Browns and our Garden Green Salad. The hash browns were horrible! I think their “special recipe” is just to under fry the hash browns. The garden salad did not seem very fresh at all.

For $12, it was not worth it since you can get much better breakfast at any of the other popular brunch places.

NotFauna ordered the Seafood Benny ($14.5). The benny contained thinly sliced smoked wild BC salmon, and baby shrimp sauteed in lemon butter. Similar to the benny above, it was served on Dutch Rusks with eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, Special Recipe Hash Browns and the Garden Green Salad.

JojoCake ordered the DeSausage & Eggs ($9.5). She had her eggs scrambled. It was served with e Hash Browns, Toast and Garden Green Salad.

VideoGameGuy ordered the Hash Pannekoek ($12). The hash contains Hash Browns, Mushrooms, Green Peppers, Onions and Cheddar Cheese, mixed with DeBakon. Topped with Hollandaise Sauce and all served on top of a Pannekoek.

Jengay ordered the Boer’s (Farmer’s) Pannekoek ($16). This had Hash Browns, Ham, DeBakon, Bratwurst, 2 Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce.

All this served on a pannekoek. If you are a meat eater, this dish should satisfy your meaty desires.

Words of Wisdom:

Entrence in the back
Free parking in the back
Overpriced for what you get
Pannekoek should probably be ordered

We rate De Dutch Pannekoek House:

Website: http://www.dedutch.com/the-de-dutch-story/locations/british-columbia/east-hastings.asp

Address:

6651 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Libra Room

January 7, 2011

InsecureGirl and I had 3 coupons from Goodnews.com to go to Libra Room. We paid $20 for $50 worth of food. For some reason we bought 3 by accident.

Libra Room has live music, drinks, and food.

The interior has a pub-like feel to it. The main feature of the restaurant is their main stage which features performers every night playing live music. The music varies everyday, so you can check online to see who is playing.

We started the night ordering Sangria ($20). They use red wine and have oranges, apples, and cranberries. They sangria was alright, but not as good as Havana’s a few blocks up.

We ordered the Tequila Clamato Mussels ($10). The broth as you can tell by it’s name is made from Tequila and Clamato. The size of the mussels are really big and worth the money. I personally liked the sauce because it did not taste like alcohol at all and it. It tasted really nice. FragileBoy thought it tasted sweet and didn’t like it.

We ordered the Hefeweized Mussels ($10). Our next set of mussels were a bit different even though they look exactly the same. Hefeweized basically means beer. Yes, the mussels were looked in BEER! I didn’t like it, but FragileBoy likes it. M was pretty indifferent about the taste between between both the mussels….and I forgot to ask InsecureGirl.

Next we had the Irish Nachos ($14). It contained fried beans, roasted corn, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, green onions, cheddar and monterey cheese. They also had sour cream and salsa on top. The nachos were good but they were not THE BEST in Vancouver.

Do you know how good nachos are constructed? To ensure most of the nacho chips are covered in cheese, you must layer the ingredients and not pile everything on top or else you won’t get an even coating over the ingredients on the chips on the bottom.

InsecureGirl ordered the Salmon Ravioli ($12) for her main dish. It’s not on the regular menu, but it was one of their featured dishes for the night. InsecureGirl thought it was alright, but not the best she has had either.

M got the Gingerbeef Kababs ($9). M really enjoyed it and the meat was very tender and moist. It was not dry at all. The kebabs came in skewers of 3 and had a asian slaw on the side. This was an appetizer we would get again.

FragileBoy ordered the House Made Lamb Burger ($13). Inside the burger is cheddar, leaf lettuce, tomato & carmelized onions.

It also comes with a salad and fries.

I ordered the Seafood Linguini ($16) with the white wine sauce. The seafood in this dish were mussels, scallops, and prawns. There is also fresh tomato, basil & garlic in it. I found the pasta quite bland. There was hardly any taste. I did enjoy the seafood. The mussels are huge! I just had to take a picture because I have never seen anything so massive.

I would not order this dish again.

If you ordered the mussels as an appetizer, I would suggest not getting this dish…since it has more mussels.

Our bill came out to me about $130…we thought we could use 2 coupons, but we could only use one, so $50 was taken off the bill, so we had to pay $80. We were pretty disappointed, but we didn’t want to argue with management. We will definitely return for some appetizers and drinks.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter Parking on Streets… or free parking in residential areas further away
Mussels and Kebabs are a MUST!
Entrees are pretty average
Goodnews.com Coupons…one per table…NOT one per 2 people

We Rate Libra Room:

Website: www.libraroom.com

Address:

1608 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Market By Jean-Georges (Visit #2)

January 6, 2011

MedicalGiraffe and I had our first meal of 2010 at Market By Jean-Georges. They have amazing set lunch/brunch sets for $32. You get 2 dishes and a dessert!

I went here in August and I loved it, so it wasn’t too difficult making a choice to revisit.

We sat in a different area of the restaurant and it looked super nice! Very modern.

We got our fix of bread and butter and awaited our dishes to arrive!

MedicalGiraffe ordered the Beef Carpaccio Pizza ($16). It has mushrooms, arugula, parmesan, and beef carpaccio on top of crispy pizza dough. I had this last time too and it’s a great appetizer especially for sharing.

I had the Dungeness Crab Cake ($16) as the appetizer. It comes with pink grapefruit, avocados and ginger. The different ingredients may seem very strange at first, but they worked well together. WHen you try the sauce on it own… it is sour…super sour, but when you grab a bit of the crab cake, avocados, and grapefruit IT IS AMAZING.

MedicalGiraffe ordered the Slowly Cooked Atlantic Char ($25) and it comes with mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and truffle vinaigrette. the arctic char was perfectly cooked and full of flavour. All the items on the plate meshed well together.

I ordered the Alberta AAA Hanger Steak ($21) and it came with gingered Mushrooms, sauteed broccoli Rabe and a soy – Caramel Sauce.

I had it medium rare and when it arrive at the table, you know its medium rare by looking at it. I really liked the presentation of the steak sliced up because the color from the inside really pops up and makes your super hungry. The steak was cooked perfectly and the cut of meat looked really good.

The only problem I found with the dish was that the mushrooms underneath the steak was a tad bit salty of my liking.

Lastly, we both had the Chocolate Pudding, which is composed of whipped cream, crystallized violets, chocolate pudding and chocolate cake. This is my all time favorite dessert…and I will probably always order this. The light whipped cream on top really balances out the heavy rich pudding beneath. The hidden chocolate cake in the middle is a plus!

MedicalGiraffe enjoyed this dessert for the first few bites and then found it a bit bland afterwards.

The total of the bill came out to be $71.68. Not bad considering we could have paid way more if it was not a set meal. This is why I love coming here for Brunch and Lunch times!

Words of Wisdom:

Parking on the streets
Having the bunch or lunch set menu and really save $$$ if you want to try out Market
Great for dates or a get together

We Rate The Market:

Check out The Market’s Website: http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/vancouver/shangrila/dining/restaurant/market

Address:

1128 W Georgia St
Vancouver, BC

In Four Beakers

Rodney’s Oysters House (Visit #2)

January 5, 2011

MedicalGiraffe just LOVES Rodney’s Oyster House and just needed to go there before going back to Yale. As per our first visit, we had a blast, so here we are again.

It was a busy day during the holidays, so going for the Low Tide Oysters meant a bit of waiting. By 3:30pm, the place was packed!

We got our bread, but we did notice something interesting this time. I think they ran out of bread, so one of the workers went out to grab some more bread from the grocery store.

We ordered the Pan Fried Oysters ($10), 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.

We next had the Garlic Prawns (about $10). They are sauteed in lemon, butter, garlic and chilli peppers. The sauce was really good, we even ate all the sauce with our bread. One thing I wish they had were bigger and plumped pieces of shrimp.

We ordered 6 low tide oysters ($1.50 each). It was a very busy day, so it took us a long long time to get our oysters. It took probably 40 minutes to get these…and we devoured them in about 3 mins.

Overall, the food experience was great. The service was quite poor this time around. Our food took way too long to come, and our server added a few extra things that we did not order onto our bill. Good thing MedicalGiraffe looks at the bill because I would usually not notice.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter Parking on Street
Low Tide Oysters between 3pm and 6pm
Pan fried oysters are popular
Always check your bill because waiters may make mistakes
Go early and sit at the counter

We rate Rodneys Oyster House:

Visit their website: http://www.rodneysoysterhouse.com/

Address:

1228 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

In Dessert

salle de the Tea Room @ 113

January 4, 2011

salle de thé Tea Room is a tea, dessert, and wine place in Richmond.

Insecuregirl and I bought 4 coupons from IndulgeLiving to go to salle de thé Tea Room. We were really glad we got the coupons because our bill turned out to be quite steep. The coupons were $6 for $12 worth of food. We took CanuckGirl, FragileBoy and M with us to a little adventure down to Richmond.

InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I ordered 3 pots of teas. They were $7 each. Their teas are quite unique and they do have a large selection. If you do have a particular taste you like for teas, you can ask them questions and they can show you which teas are good. $7 can be quite expensive for a small pot of tea, but you also get refills.

They also give you a small cup of honey if you like honey in your tea.

M ordered this blueberry and lychee type of drink. I forgot what the name was, but it was quite good and had nice balance of flavour between the blueberries and lychee.

We all shared the match cheesecake. This was really delicious! The green tea taste was amazing and it was not too bitter. Just perfect !

We ordered 2 chocolate fondues and I think they were about $15 each.

The fondue did take sometime to arrive at our table. I really couldn’t figure out why since it can’t be so hard to prepare. One of my friends commented by saying they saw one of the workers go out to buy ingredients. I can not confirm if this was true or not, but if this is so, it’s quite sad.

The items that they give you to dunk are:

marshmallows
pretzels
dried apricots
strawberries
banana
apple

The chocolate sauce for the fondue was done quite poorly. It was really sweet and did not taste like real chocolate at all. It reminded us of chocolate syrup instead and it was not warm. We also looked at the consistency of the chocolate and it did not seem like it was made out of real chocolate since it should eventually harden up.

If you want good fondue, try out Capstone Tea House because it’s cheaper and its all you can eat.

The bill turned out to be $79 and after using the 4 coupons, it ended up to be around $30.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking in plaza
Do not get the fondue
Cakes are good
large selection of teas
Expensive

We rate salle de thé Tea Room:

Wesbite: www.salledethetearoom113.com

Address:

8571 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Brunch

Provence Marinaside Restaurant

January 4, 2011

LAgirl and I were meeting up for Brunch and she suggested we go to Provence in Yaletown. Since it was a Sunday, it was BRUNCH!

We headed over and you guessed it… there was a wait. We waited about 20 mins, but it didn’t feel too long since we went to a Starbucks for a bit.

LAgirl got the Two eggs any style ($14). She chose scrambled eggs with sausages. If you don’t want sausages, you can also choose bacon, smoked salmon or roasted vegetables. This dish also came with roasted potatoes, fruit and toasted baguette.

She said she liked this dish but she was not too fond of the sausage. She really loved the additional fruit to the dish and hasn’t seen this done anywhere else.

I ordered the Croque Monsieur Eggs Benedict ($14). It has poached eggs, black forest ham, gruyère, and sundried tomato butter on foccacia. This has probably been one of my all time favorite eggs benny dishes! The texture of all those ingredients on top of the foccacia were just amazing. The taste of the melted gruyere tasted SO GOOD!

I usually hate potatoes, but their roasted potatoes that came with the dish was really good and well seasoned.

They also give you 4 pieces of fruit as well. I loved it because eating the heavy potatoes and eggs benny, having the fruit there just gave your mouth a great refreshing taste afterwards.

Words of Wisdom:

Good for Brunch
Free 1 hour parking at Urban Fare for Provence Customers
There is also street meter parking

We Rate Provence Marinaside Restaurant:

Website: http://www.provencevancouver.com/marinaside/

Address:

1177 Marinaside Cres
Vancouver,BC

In Gastown

Sea Monstr Sushi

January 2, 2011

Sea Monstr Sushi is located in Gas Town. I have heard much hype about this place and it looked cool, so CandiedZen and I went. They are known for the fresh sashimi and their specialty rolls.

Sea Monstr Sushi has bar seating as well as a small dining room.

The waitress gave us water is a cool Sea Monstr Sushi jug and also some green tea.

When sitting at the bar, you can watch the sushi chefs in action.

We ordered one order of Toro ($2.50) and Salmon Sashimi ($2.50). Each order comes with 2 pieces. The pieces of sashimi ad quite small compared to other places you go, but the taste and the texture are superb.

Daily Special Roll was a spicy ebi roll. It had shrimp, spicy sauce, and greens. CandiedZen and I thought the roll was ok, but it wasn’t amazingly good. The shrimp could have been more plump and tasteful. This was quite mediocre compared to other places and not as well built.

The House Roll ($7) had lettuce, salmon, tuna, tobiko, mayo, and scallops. This roll was pretty good. The lettuce gave this roll a crunchy texture.

Una Tama Maki ($4.50) has BBQ Eel, Japanese Style Egg Omelette, and Daikon Sprout. This roll again was quite mediocre. Rice was a bit loose and not like how other places are held firmly together.

Sea Monstr Sushi is a different type of Japanese restaurant, it is more for hanging out and having a bit to eat. If you think this is like a traditional Japanese Restaurant….don’t expect sushi like Samurai Sushi or Sushi Town. In a way you coud say it a a little bit fusion.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter parking at front and back of restaurant
Ask waitress for daily specials
Very fresh tasting sashimi

We rate Sea Monstr Sushi:

Website:http://www.seamonstrsushi.com/

Address:

A – 55 Powell Street
Vancouver, BC

In Tapas

Raw Canvas

December 31, 2010

MedicalGiraffee is back to town and she had a GroupOn for Raw Canvas. The GroupOn came with 2 tasting plates, and 2 small canvases.

Raw Canvas is a tapas lounge, wine bar and art studio.

The restaurant is split up into 2 parts. A lounge area with long tables! It looks great for big groups and parties.

And then the other half is where all the painting begins! All you need to do is grab a coat, a canvas, and paints and you are set!

You get a plate thing for you to put your paint. If you like to layer your paints and don’t want things to smudge, you get hairdryers to dry the paintings. Also, its good if you want to bring your painting home. You really don’t want paint getting on your clothes or car.

These were the choices for the tasting menu. The tasting menu is $15 and comes with your choice of 3 items on the left side and 3 from the right. The left side has mostly meat and cheese, while the other are spreads, sauces, pickled items, nuts, and dried fruits.

MedicalGiraffe chose :

Hot Sopressata: italian style dry hot pepper salami
ile-aux-grues 5 year cheddar: moderately sharp with an outstanding depth of ﬂavour.
vintage 3 yr gouda: sharp and sweet, like good butterscotch
Matiz Fig Spread
Organic Almonds
Organic Aprocots

I chose the:

Rosette de Lyon: french salami made by granville island’s oyama
Brie de Meaux: vegetal, earthy flavour
Parrano: creamy, sweet ﬂavour of gouda. mellow, buttery, nutty
Kalamata Olives
Dijon Mustard
Cornichons

All the Tasting plates came with a bowl of bread. You can put your items from your tasting plate onto it.

I had a flight of white wine ( About $10). It had 3 types of white wine, but since I am not a wine expert, it all tasted the same to me. I chose white win because its sweeter than red.

MedicalGiraffe had one flight of red wine (About $10).

We stood there instead of setting at the tables because we wanted to paint and eat at the same time. It was quite hard resisting to eat a bit while we had paint on our hands. I have a feeling we ate quite a bit of paint.

This is what we made in the end. An abstract painting… and a weird cartoon painting ripped off from the internet.

Words of Wisdom:

Best to have reservations
Meter Parking on street
Not a place to go alone, best with a group. More people = more Fun

We rate Raw Canvas:

Website: http://www.raw-canvas.com/

Address:

1046 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

In North Burnaby

Sushimoto

December 31, 2010

Sushimoto is located beside Holdom Skytrain on the Millenium Line. It is literally a few steps away. Since BusanGirl was going back to Korea for vacation. A few of us met up and enjoy some sushi. NotFauna decided to choose Sushimoto since it seemed pretty popular online. It was really close to our houses, so we went.

The interior was really nice! paper lantern decorations, many little samurai figurines near the kitchen. There was actually MANY MANY figurines ranging from samurai swords to traditional masks.

Salmon Sashimi (Half Order) ($6). A half order contains about 5 pieces. The pieces are not as big as Sushi Town, but the quality is pretty good.

Tuna Tataki ($12.90) was really good. It was nicely seared on the outside. This dish came with organic salad, shaved onions, and topped with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The ponzu sauce was perfect for the dish and went well with the tuna and salad.

Moto Signature Roll ($9) has Tuna, salmon, cucumber, avacado, egg, crab meat, masago, and carrot. It is topped with spicy-mayo sauce and wrapped is soybean skin. At first it seemed cool that it was wrapped in soybean skin rather than seaweed, but the skin was pretty thin and all the ingredients inside kept falling out. Great tasting roll, but fell apart too easily.

Amusement Roll ($10) has cream cheese, cucumber, salmon, egg, crab meat, ikura, Mayo and unagi sauce. This roll held together better than the Moto Signature Roll. The roll was pretty average and the addition of the cream cheese made this interesting. Other restaurants usually have it in the philadelphia roll. The cream cheese worked well!

Overall, the food was good and the decor was great. Unfortunately, the service was pretty bad. We all agreed that the waitress was pretty awkward. When she described the specials, we were left more confused by what she said. Perhaps she was new and a bit shy.

Words of Wisdom:

Street Parking
Large variety in menu
Sashimi = good!

We rate Sushimoto:

They are located at:

2221 Holdom Ave S
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

Flying Tiger

December 29, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words of Wisdom:

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

We rate Flying Tiger:

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

Located at:

2958 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Fairview

Cru

December 28, 2010

Since MedicalGiraffe was back in town, we went to Cru! Since we didn’t want to waste too much money on dinner, we opted to go there for lunch.

The interior was not as what we imagined. It was kind of small and had mostly booth style sitting. We imagined the inside to be more blue. Instead, it had very warm color tones.

Their lunch menu you can order by dish or you can indulge in the the set menu in choices of 2 or 3 dishes. We chose 2 dishes each for $19.

Medical Giraffe started off with the soup of the day, which was carrot and ginger puree soup. It didn’t really taste extraordinary. The taste was a bit bland and was similar to baby food but in a more soupy form.

She next had the Citrus-cured Roasted BC Sablefish which has olive oil crushed potatoes, creamed leeks and oven-dried tomato. This dish was good, the sablefish was very made perfectly.

I had the Crispy Duck Leg Confit which has warm bacon vinaigrette, spätzle and goat cheese hash. The duck was very crispy on the outside and oh so delicious on the inside. All the items worked out really well together.

For my dessert, I had the “Grand Cru” Chocolate Truffle Torte with dulche de leche ice cream and a nut tuille.

At first, the torte looked dry, but when you bite into it, it was amazing! Very moist and chocolate on the inside. It kinda reminded me of the one bit brownies but 100000x better. Ice ice cream and nut tuille worked well with the dish as well.

Overall, we didn’t think the portions were large enough to get us full. On normal days, we don’t really eat a lot anyways…so if you are a person with a large appetite, Cru may not be the place for you.

Our server seemed a bit awkward for some reason but we couldn’t put our finger on it. They also seemed understaffed for lunch as there was just one server walking around. The food took a while to come out too. If you are limited to 1 hour lunches…you may expect to be here for 1.5 hours for lunch.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter parking… or park in the back and pretend you are going to the chinese restaurant!
Don’t sit near the booth near the entrance, every time someone enters, a gust of cold air can be felt
Reservations are good to ensure a spot

We rate Cru:

Website: http://www.cru.ca/

Location:

1459 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Terracotta Modern Chinese

December 28, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words of Wisdom:

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

We rate Terracotta Modern Chinese:

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

Address:

52 Alexander St.
Vancouver, BC

In Four Beakers

Sanpachi Ramen

December 27, 2010

Sanpachi Ramen is a new ramen joint that opened up downtown. I’ve been to several ramen places, and none of them really satisfied me. Until now. Thanks to KimHo for her amazing post about this place. Sanpachi Ramen is on Bute and Robson. This place is now my favorite ramen place in Vancouver.

Sanpachi has really nice interior decor and can accomodate more people than some ramen places downtown.

When you walk into the door, you are able to see the workers in the kitchen preparing the noodles. It’s usually quite common for ramen places to openly display their kitchens.

Their menu looked good, lots of pictures to see what exactly you will be getting.

They even have combos, a few side dishes and half order options. One thing that I rather did not like was how a majority of the menu items were “coming soon”. I really wanted the gyoza 🙁

M ordered the Spicy Ramen ($8.95) with a tasty egg ($1). The broth was delicious! It was spicy and miso base. The dish came with the usual bamboo shoots, chashu, green onions and a slice of fish cake completed the dish.

The additional “yummy egg” was cooked perfectly so the yolk is slightly gooey. I wish I took more pictures of this, but I was preoccupied ogling my own dish 😉

TaiwaneseGirl had the Tonkatsu Ramen ($8.95). When it first arrived at the table, it really didn’t look like what was on the menu. When I think back, I don’t think TaiwaneseGirl ordered seaweed with this. Despite the look, the tonkatsu base was the best out of the 3 ramens. The broth was nice and rich. If Inception was a bowl of noodles, this would be it. It had so much depth! This also had bamboo shoots, green onions and a slice of fish cake.

TaiwaneseGirl finished her dish leaving no broth behind. Every last drop was gone!

I ordered the Nori Mayo and miso ramen (half order) combo ($8.95). It’s hard for me to finish a full bowl of noodles…or even one pack of instant noodles. So, the combo was the best solution for me.

The nori mayo had mayo/pork mixture on top of rice and wrapped in seaweed. At first I was a bit skeptical because of the look, but it was pretty good. It also came with 3 pieces of pickled radishes.

The miso mayo was good as well. Probably one of the best miso broths I’ve ever had. It also had bamboo shoots, chashu, green onions and a slice of fish cake completed the dish! Even though it was half an order, I was good and full. I have a small appetite but love try a little bit of everything. So this combo worked out well for me.