Three Beakers Archives - Page 58 of 63

In Chinese

Deer Garden Restaurant

March 15, 2011

Over the past weekend, the family and I went to devour some Alaskan King crab. I am sure you have heard all the hype since it’s in season. Since we are located on the westcoast close to Alaska, we get high quality crabs for a great deal.

We ventured out to Coquitlam to Deer Garden Restaurant. We heard they had a new batch of King Crab and made a reservation.

The best time to come during the day is 6pm, at least thats what the restaurant told us to go at.

They were absolutely right! When we arrived at 6pm, a hoard of other families made reservations at 6pm too. Crab after crab were flying out of the tanks….from small ones to gigantic ones.

One thing I did not understand was how they were flipping over the crab and showing us which one would be for our meal. Since my family has been here before, we know they do this to disguise the quality of the crab. We double checked that our crab was alive and all limbs were attached. They rush through the whole process so you won’t be able to notice any flaws. Another table we observed ordered a 17 pound crab but the waitress let the table glance for 2 seconds and then dashed off into the kitchen. Their crab was missing half a leg. Is this normal? It seemed a bit strange to me.

This was the menu. I cannot read Chinese to save my life, so it translates to – King crab 4 types, $17.88 per pound

Portugese Baked Fried Rice (Head)
Salt and chilli crab (Body)
Crab legs in Garlic and green onion
Crab legs in Ginger and Garlic Sauce

The crab that we got was 9.75 pounds for 6 people. It was the perfect weight and we ate everything!

The first dish that came was a soup, it comes complementary with the meal. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called…but hey it tasted good and was edible. Not complaining at all.

The body was turned into salt and chili fried crab. Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. There are also garlic chips in this dish. I love garlic chips!

Half of the legs were prepared with garlic and green onion toppings. If you are a garlic fan, you will love this dish. It’s not over powering. What I love about this dish is how you don’t have to crack open all legs to get to the meat. You can get down and dirty with it by using your hands to pull out the meat or forking it.

The other half was a green onion and ginger sauce. I actually prefer this one over the garlic version because it is a bit more sweet and you don’t get the mass amounts of garlic falling off when you eat it.

Our family wastes no part of the crab… not even it’s precious juices. We ordered 2 places of wonton noodles to add it to the left over crab juices. Apparently it’s quite normal and you do get more food!

The head of the crab is flipped upside down and stuffed with Portugese Baked Fried Rice. The crab that is in the fried rice is imitation crab, not the actual meat from the crab. Nonetheless, still delicious.

Since we were feeling a little bit fat after all the seafood and carbs, we thought it would redeem ourselves by ordering their daily vegetable special which was baby bok choy in a garlic sauce.

At the end of the meal, we got Coconut Milk Tapioca Soup.

Overall, the food was decent. All the food came fairly quickly and was prepared well. The only flaw was how the waitresses would try to rush you with the order and not give you a lot of time to inspect the crab you are getting. I know, it’s understandable that they are trying to be efficient and get through all their tables.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on street and parking lot
Best to make reservation for crab
Lots of seats to accomodate large groups

We Rate Deer Garden Restaurant:

Address:

3610 Westwood Street
Port Coquitlam, BC

In Cafe

Well Tea (Richmond)

March 15, 2011

After dinner at Man Ri Sung, M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to stay in Richmond to chill a bit. We wandered and ended up at Well Tea.

Well Tea is a Chinese cafe, so it serves up bubble tea, snacks and set meals.

I’ve been to the Downtown location near BCIT, and the look is completely different. This one has more of a asian garden type of feel. Very green and the theme carries across the restaurant onto their walls and even the floor. It has these glass boxes with items inside.

One feature I like about Well Tea is how there is a button to call the waitress for orders, more water or even playing the bill. You don’t have to be that awkward person putting up your hand and flagging down the waitress.

InsecureGirl ordered the Calpis Green Tea.

FragileBoy ordered the Green Milk Tea.

M had the Chocolate pudding milk tea. He wanted to get it with real milk rather than the powdered milk. He tends to throw up most of the time. Sadly, they did not have any alternative milk choices for any of their bubble teas.

I was also trying to be healthy. I was looking at all their teas and none of them seemed like usual non-sweet teas. After talking to the waitress, the only option was Hot green tea, no sugar. I did feel a bit cheated of my money because at other places, tea would be free and they would have more variety if they charged. Nonetheless, I was super thirsty, so this did relieve my thirst.

1 tea, 3 bubble teas = $20.44. It was an ok price since our goal going here was just to drink and talk.

Words of Wisdom:

Cool decor, nice ambiance
Lots of varieties of drink and food
Good place to talk over drinks

We rate Well Tea:

Address:
4811 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Website:

welltea.ca

In Bar and Grill

ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro

March 14, 2011

Another wonderful day for a lunch in Downtown Vancouver and I decided to check out ShuRaku. Apparently I’ve been here before..about a year ago for dinner, but I keep forgetting every time I pass by.

ShuRaku specializes in contemporary Japanese cuisine. Their lunch menu has several set meals between $9 to $15.

Their interior is very modern. They also have a wide selection of sake and other alcoholic beverage. They have a very large menu of different sake choices. (DUH, they are a sake bar). Since I was going to lunch, I really didn’t need to be suffering from the “asian glow”and going back to work would be awkward. Perhaps another time for dinner.

I started off by ordering a pot of tea of Sencha Green Tea (about $2/$3). Tea is not free, but there are about 5 or 6 teas to choose from. The pot that comes with the tea is quite heavy, you will be really getting an arm work out.

It’s like a double whammy of healthiness… arm workout + 0 calorie drink!

I ordered the Karaage Nanban Chicken Set ($9.95). It has deep fried chicken with sweet and sour Nanban sauce. The set also came with salad, rice and miso soup.

The karaage was boneless and under the fried exterior was juicy succulent meat inside. One of the better karrage’s I have had this whole week! The salad was mostly mixed greens with a nice citrus sauce. There is really not much to say about the miso soup and the rice since those taste pretty much the same as other restaurants.

Words of Wisdom:

Great atmosphere
Lunch sets
Lots of variety of alcohol

We Rate ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro:

Address:

833 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.shuraku.net

In Coquitlam

Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo (Korean Knife Cut Noodles)

March 9, 2011

Fabo took M and I here after class. We wanted to go to the House of Tofu soup but unfortunately it was closed. We didn’t know where else to eat dinner, so she suggested Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo. It is located in a mini mall near Hamnam Grocery store. It is kinda like an open food court but just for this restaurant. It is known well to Koreans as having authentic Knife Cut Noodles.

I was super skeptical when she brought us here because I had no idea what knife cut noodles were. I could just imagine a bowl of knives with kimchi. Eventually I did lighten up once I saw the pictures of the food. hehehe.

This little place seats about 30 people and all items are under $10.

Then menu is located on the board, you probably would want Google search on your phone to figure out what is on the menu. Or, you can do what I do and keep a Korean on hand at all times to do my bidding and translating.

Along with your meal, you get the side dishes – kimchi and sweet potatoes.

We started off with the Wang Mandu – King Dumping ($8.55). This is a HUGE dumpling! It is filled with pork, chives and other items. It is the size of 1/2 of a baseball, it was packed with meat , so much meat.

M ordered the Bulgogi Dub Bob – Fire Meat on Rice ($7.95). It is beef and some vegetables over rice. It also comes with an egg drop soup.

Fabo and I both had the Karl Gook Soo – Knife cut noodles ($7.60). This was a massive bowl of noodles MASSIVE. You could probably split one between two people. They really give you your moneys worth. The dish has the knife noodles, beef, carrots and zucchini. The broth was a nice bone soup.

I really couldn’t finish my bowl and I felt super bad, so I just drank all the soup.

Words of Wisdom:

Authentic Korean Knife Cute Noodles
Under $10
Free parking
SO MUCH FOOD

We Rate Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo:

Address:

103 – 4501 North Road
Burnaby, BC

In Downtown

Freshii

March 9, 2011

I saw Freshii on Twitter and it sounded like a nice healthy and fresh place to eat at for lunch. They offer freshly made salads, noodles, wraps, burritos, soups and even breakfast. They have a very simple and clean look on the exterior and interior. During lunch time it was pretty busy, some people ate in, some people did take out.

At first I was very confused how to order, lots of different options! You start by picking up a clip board in the middle of the room and jot down your name and what to order. You can either choose any of the specialty items, or you can customize your own.

I found the configuration on the room to be quite confusing, you would have to fill in your paper, go to the back of the restaurant to give them your paper, go to another counter, pay and then wait for your name to be called to get your food. I didn’t really want to waste paper, so perhaps next time, I will do online ordering.

Since I don’t like to think for myself sometimes, I decided to create a chef selected salads. You do have the option of making your own salad, but I was feeling not too picky.

I ordered the Freshii Cobb Salad ($9.89). For that price, you do get quite a big salad! Definitely worth the price. In this salad, there was mixed greens, romaine, roasted chicken, avocado, smoked bacon, diced tomatoes, sweet corn, blue cheese, and topped with dijon mustard dressing.

The ingredients tasted fresh and the combination worked well together except for the blue cheese. I thought I would be adventurous today, but nope still don’t like blue cheese. It really has a pungent sharp taste which really disgusts me. If you don’t like blue cheese, try asking them to replace it with some other cheese or get another type of salad.

You are able to choose the amount of dressing you want on your salad, I went with regular but still felt there was a bit too much. Next time, I will choose the 1/2 amount of dressing. It’s really up to personal preferences.

Word of Wisdom:

Online Ordering form
Fresh customizable salads
Most items under $10
To go or eat in

We rate Freshii :

Address:

870 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.freshii.com

In Brunch

8 1/2 Restaurant + Lounge

March 7, 2011

M and I had no clue where to eat brunch on a lovely Sunday morning. I’m sure there are plenty of places to go, but my brain was not working that day. I recall KoreanGirl saying something about 8 1/2, so we went there without her (oops). I’m sure she doesn’t mind. =)

They serve west coast dishes and really pride themselves by making everything fresh and made to order. All their ingredients are local too. On the weekends the have brunch!

Their interior is really nice and modern. They also have a bar if you want to drink up!

This is their menu, if you came here during brunch time, but felt like something else, you can order that too. For brunch they serve the usual items.

They started off giving us cucumber water, if you haven’t had this before, it’s really unique when you add cucumber to water!

We ordered the Orange Juice ($ 2.50). Their juices are freshly squeezed as well.

I ordered the Wild Salmon Benedict ($9.50). It hasWild BC smoked salmon, dill cream cheese, 2 poached eggs, capers and hollandaise sauce served with rosemary potatoes and fruit. The hollandaise sauce was a bit different than what I am usually use to. It just tasted like mayonnaise. The poached eggs were done very nicely and were super gooey and yummy.

I wished there was a bit more wild salmon because the hollandaise sauce really drowned out the flavour. The rosemary potatoes and fruit on the side were good as well.

M ordered the Feature Hash ($ 11.50). The hash contained steak and cherry tomates, with rosemary potatoes, 2 slices of toast, and topped with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.

M liked the dish but really felt like the hollandaise sauce really ruined the taste of the dish.

The bill came out to be $30. Which, I guess if you go to a lounge for brunch, it’s an ok price. M really would not come here again for brunch since right across the road is Nice Cafe, which serves brunch as well for super cheap. Over all, the food was decent, but I think it was the hollandaise sauce that killed it for us.

Words of Wisdom:

Fresh local ingredients
Weekend/ Holiday Brunch
Daily specials

We rate 8 1/2 Restaurant + Lounge:

Address:

151 East 8th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.eightandahalf.ca

In Bar and Grill

Wings on Granville

March 6, 2011

It was TaiwaneseGirl’s Birthday, so she quickly put together a small party at Wings on Granville.

The only time we could make a reservation was 6pm or before. I guess it’s a policy. Good thing we did make reservations because it was quite full. There were other large groups as well.

They usually show Hockey games, but the day we went was not a Canucks game, so the place was not jam packed. If you are coming here for a Canucks game, there is a HUGE screen in the back of the restaurant.

No birthday party is complete without a pitcher of beer. Goes well with wings!

I was trying to be healthy and ordered the greek salad entree size ($8.99). In this salad were bell peppers, red onions, cucumbers,black olives, feta cheese and tomatoes. It is also served with garlic toast. It was an ok greek salad was not the best. I really like my greek salads to have a bit more balsamic vinegar in it.

KoreanGirl and TaiwaneseGirl both had 2 pounds of wings ($14.39). Thats what 2 pounds looks like. Kinda expensive!

M, InsecureGirl and FragileBoy shared a plate of 5lb wings ($33.95). You get 5 flavours of your choice and 3 dipping sauces with some vegetable sticks. When looking at the plate, it really did not look like 5 pounds. Since all the wings are piled onto the plate, you really have no idea if it is 5 pounds unless you happen to carry a scale in your purse.

You also have no idea what each flavour is since they mostly look the same. The waiter just brought it to the table without explaining what was what.

The only day where it is really worth having wings is Sundays where it is $0.25 each. You essentially save about $3 per pound.

We all decided to share the Wings Shared Platter ($20). It had Wings, dry ribs, crispy wontons, spring rolls, potato skins, chippers, pita bread, veggies, served with tzatziki sauce.

Even though there was a lot of variety in this platter, the quality was not that great, pretty average. It’s still a good dish to order if you are sharing with your friends.

Words of Wisdom:

Wings special on Sundays
Famous for their wings (duh)
Reservations before 6pm
Good place to watch the game

We Rate Wings onGranville:

Address:

1162 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.greatwings.ca

In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Hakuya Japanese Restaurant

March 5, 2011

Hukuya Sushi is this little Japanese Restaurant located beside Red Robins in the Lougheed Mall area. They offer all you can eat as well as reasonably priced Ala carte for lunch and dinner.

On the inside, it has a decent interior. It is never super full when I come here. The people who run Hukuya Sushi, like other sushi places are Korean. It’s not bad or anything, I just wanted to point that out. There are a lot of repeat customers that come to Hukuya…my friend told us that he would come here quite often when he was in High School.

Everyone got their tea and M as usual got a coke.

Everyone was given complementary miso soup. I find that with most customers, they usually give something complementary with the meal. I think once it was a basket of tempura.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered Nigiri to start, there was tako (octopus), unagi (eel)and ebi (Shrimp). She also had a toro (tuna belly), but the waitress accidentally gave her the ebi. Once TaiwaneseGirl told the waitress, she gave her another toro. I don’t think TaiwaneseGirl really minded about the mishap of the order, I think she was more happy she got more food.

I ordered one of their chef specials, Takoyaki ($3.99), it comes with 5 takoyaki balls. Takoyaki is a ball shapped Japanese dumpling…kinda like a savory pancake made out of batter. the takoyaki is filled with octopus, pickled ginger, green onions and topped off with bonito flakes, mayo and teriyaki sauce.

This is a very popular Japanese street food item.

I got the other chef special, which was the okonomikyaki ($8). It is essentially very similar to Takoyaki but without the tako and in a pancake form. It was ok, but there was too much batter compared to the amount of ingredients inside. On top, therer is tobiko and the bonito flakes. They preslice this for you in the shape of a pizza, so you are killing it with your chopsticks.

I know if it wasn’t cut, I would try putting the whole thing in my mouth…or even just massacring the look of this dish.

I hold high regards for people who serve okonomiyaki because for Japanese class in high school, we were required to make this dish. My group did an ok job, but another group almost set the classroom on fire. I tried remaking it at home and wanted to die because I didn’t know how to flip it over.

Since I thought I would still be hungry, I ordered the california roll. Pretty simple, nothing too elaborate and cheap!

M and TaiwaneseGirl ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Don. Underneath the egg, chicken, broccoli and onion lies white rice.

It was a lot to eat since rice does fill you up. Neither of them could finish their own bowls, so they packed it.

InsecureGirl ordere the Chicken Yaki Udon. It is udon, vegetables and chicken served on a super hot black grill plate.

M ordered some shrimp tempura as well, I think it had 7 pieces. I really didn’t mind helping him eat this because as you know…I have an obsession for prawns ….no like actually! As a kid, I would eat shrimp even though I was allergic, I even developed hives but I still ate it. Many years of being scolded by my parents not to each shrimp…I still ate it any ways. If you see me at a buffet, my entire table will have remnants of shrimp shells pilled up on several plates ( true story).

The taste of this shrimp tempura is quite average, nothing special, but it the usual stuff you would expect from any other japanese restaurant.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in front
Lots of specials
Specialty rolls
decent prices

We Rate Hukuya Sushi:

Address:

9626 Cameron Street
Burnaby, BC

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 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: