Two Beakers Archives - Page 11 of 12

In Cafe

Leisure Tea & Coffee (Visit #2)

January 14, 2011

Last time I visited here for just tea. This time I went with InsecureGirl and KoreanGirl to revist this place to check out more of what they had to offer.

We got one of the Oriental Style Combo for 2 ( $21.95). We got to choose from 1 coffee, 1 tea, 2 desserts, and a fry combo. We weren’t in a coffee mood, so we paid an additional $1 for another tea.

For our first tea, we got Jasmine Green Tea.

We got their Leisure Fruit Tea. It was really sour for our first cup. All 3 of us were not use to fruity teas since we only have the usual chinese teas at home. If you like fruity teas, you will probably like it because it has real fruits inside – kiwis, pineapples, apples, etc.

What we did after the tea was done, was eat the fruit!

We got the fruit crepe. It had canned peaches,whipped cream and maple syrup. all this was wrapped up in a nice thin crepe.

The crepe was pretty good but one thing we all didn’t like about it was the additional maple syrup. This made it really sweet and didn’t really mesh well with the whipped cream.

The fry combo we got had tofu, fish cake, and chicken. THere is also some spicy sauce on the side to dip. This was an average dish.

Lastly, we had the blueberry pie. This was a very disappointing dessert. It was in a little pie tart with cooked and sugared blueberries and a bit of whipped cream. I use to bake a lot and I can tell this tart shell was from the store frozen. If you look carefully, the tart is even burned.

Overall, this was a bad dessert, everything pre-made and slapped together. It looked nothing like the image on the menu.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of variety of teas
Dessert are a hit or a miss
Parking in the back

We rate Leisure Tea & Coffee:

Address:

1110-8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Brunch

Knight and Day

January 13, 2011

M and I couldn’t decide where to go to for a quick late lunch. He had an idea and wouldn’t tell me…I thought it would be an exciting place…but it turns out it was just Knight & Day. Sad date, but I didn’t mind because I haven’t been here since 2005.

Knight and Day serves a variety of different food items from breakfast to greek to burgers to pasta. They are open 24 hours, so you can be a kid again and have breakfast for dinner. Muhahaha….

The interior is quite dated and have booth style seatings. Nothing has really changed in many years. The waitresses are really nice.

I good the green tea. Nothing fancy, just a tea bag in a pot.

M got the Truckers Breakfast Platter ($10.79). It has three eggs, two strips of bacon, two sausage links, three buttermilk pancakes and pan fries with thick-cut toast. M loved it because it has so much meat and made fairly well compared to places like Denny’s. ( Denny’s is good too).

They also give you ketchup for your eggs and hash. You get a selection of 4 types of jam for your toast. Lastly, syrup for your pancakes.

I was not really hungry, so instead of getting a calamari dinner, I got the Klassic Kalamari appetizer ($8.99). It has their marinated kalamari rings served with tzatziki, fresh pita bread and lemon. The size of the kalamari rings were massive. It looked like onion rings rather than kalamari. These were pretty average. I was pretty full eating the kalamari that I didn’t even bother eating the pita bread.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of parking outside
Open 24 hours

We rate Knight & Day:

Website: http://www.knightandday.com/

Address:

3684 Lougheed Hwy
Vancouver, 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.

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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 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 Dessert

Frappe Bliss and Qoola in Aberdeen Mall

December 23, 2010

Frappe Bliss serves up flavoured shaved ice at Aberdeen Mall. The flavours can range from Mango to Peanut. This little kiosk is actually owned by Fairchild. Isn’t that interesting? It’s like they practically own most of everything in the mall. Frappe Bliss has moved around in many locations in the food court, but they currently reside between the Mambo Cafe and the Anime store.

Frappe Bliss was actually my first job that I ever had. I was so glad the job didn’t last long because as an Chinese person who can’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin, it was a HARD job! It was like trying to guess what people were trying to order. It makes you think, why they even hired me in the first place.

If you are an indecisive person, you can choose from the items on the left or you can customize your own by choosing the flavour of ice and toppings.

They first take a block of flavoured ice and put it in the ice shredding machine to turn the block of ice into the shaved ice you know and perhaps love! If you compact all the shaved ice that you get….it comes out to be less than a cup of liquid. 🙁

I ordered the Peanut Iceburg ($3.60). It has peanut ice, chocolate sauce, and peanuts. This was pretty gross. The chocolate sauce was too sweet, and the peanut ice didn’t taste very peanut like. Three years ago, they had this amazing peanut sauce which you could have added, but I guess they stopped making it. I wasn’t satisfied with it. After eating this I wanted some frozen yogurt.

Words of Wisdom:

Popular ice flavours – Strawberry, Mango, yogurt
Best to order fruit toppings
Discounts found on their Facebook account (Usually 10%)
10% using membership card

We rate Frappe Bliss:

Website: www.frappebliss.com

They are located at:

4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

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Since FinanceGirl didn’t want Frappe Bliss, the went downstairs to Qoola to get some dessert.

She got the chocolate frozen yogurt and SFUPretender and I thought it had a very sour taste for chocolate but we assumed it was the yogurt taste.

I guess she was in a very chocolaty mood since she added chocolate chips and chocolate sprinkles all over her chocolate frozen yogurt. If you are a traditionalist, stuck with the regular one or the green tea flavour. You can’t go wrong with those.

Website: www.qoola.com

They are located at:

4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

In Cafe

Boss Restaurant

December 23, 2010

The Boss Restaurant is located in Metrotown near Zellers. When you are walking around the mall and you are craving chinese food, this is where most people go.

There are always lineups during peak hours…huge groups of people can be seen around the outside of the restaurant….thats how you know its packed. The Boss undergone renovation last year and looks a lot more amazing than before!

We arrived at about 5pm and they told us it’s going to be a while till we got a table. There were 4 of us…and when we looked through the windows we saw tons of booths empty… half the restaurant was empty…so…I wonder what happened!

Since TaiwaneseGirl and KoreanGirl decided to go do some more shopping, we decided to wait. It took us only 10 mins to get a table. But, half our group left..so CanuckGirl and I sat there looking at the menus and playing with our Iphones.

The interior.

As we waited, we both got tea. with my meal, I ordered a coffee and tea mix ($3.50). Basically it’s milk tea but with some coffee in it. It was good but I always hate how there is always so much ice. Did you know, when there is ice in your drink, you get less liquid? True Story!

CanuckGirl ordered the dried oyster and century egg and pork congee ($5.95). It was on one of their specials. It was good congee and very flavourful. When the dish arrives at the table, it smells amazing due to the sesame oil drizzles on top. Everything was blended well together. One thing CanuckGirl hated was the ginger.

I did the same thing too, but I had the drink with it. The only thing I didn’t like about mine was how there wasn’t enough century egg. I love those gross looking black eggs. I grew up with them, so I don’t think they are weird at all.

When TaiwaneseGirl and KoreanGIrl arrived, they ordered the breakfast special ($5). It came with congee of the day and your choice 1 of 4 dishes.

The congee of the day was Clam Congee.

KoreanGirl had the fried noodles and TaiwaneseGirl had the radish cakes.

Overall, the food was decent. A bit on the pricey side for the food you get compared to other HK Style Cafes. I only really come here for the convenience of the location.

Words of Wisdom:

Tons of Parking
Long waits during peak hours
Usually have set meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Can’t go wrong with congee

We rate the Boss Restaurant:

They are located at:

4720 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Four Beakers

Shoryumen, Fumisen and Bakudanyaki Foodcarts

December 12, 2010

SFUPretender highly recommended we visit the 3 foodcarts in Richmond near River Rock Casino, so we decided to take a trip! I’ve heard people talk about the foodcarts, but never really had an urge to go until now.

The famous 3 foodcarts – Shoryumen, Fumisen and Bakudanyaki sell sushi cones, ramen, and giant takoyaki.

We drove and there was tons of parking! If you don’t have a car, they are located right across the street from the Canada Line.

Bakudanyaki sells giant Takoyaki the size of baseballs. Their filling the the takoyaki does vary once in a while, but today they had the Seafood Bakudan for $5.

You can choose what type of mayo you would like your bakudanyaki.

For my Bakudanyaki, I chose the wasabi mayo.

When you begin eating the bakudanyaki, you are greeted with the various ingredients – egg, shrimp, calamari, corn, onion, carrot and potatoes. You might be wondering when you have so many ingredients packed inside, but if the ball was just made like a normal takoyaki, it would be fragile and fall apart easily.

The bakudanyaki was well made and it really did taste like a big takoyaki.

Clearly a great idea and I would get this again.

We rate Tenku Bakudanyaki:

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Shoryumen is the ramen food cart. You can choose from ramen noodles or udon noodles. you can choose miso, curry or shoyu (Soy sause) soup stock. You can add extra toppings for 50 cents.

For my ramen, I got the curry ramen with corn and garlic chips ($7.75). The egg was cooked perfectly and was not over or under cooked. The garlic chips were not a crunchy as I would have liked. They ended up just sticking to my teeth.

FinanceGirl got the Miso Udon ($6.75).

SFUPretender got the Shoyu Udon ($6.75).

In the end we finished it right up. Instead of just disposing the bowl with soup in the trash, you can give it back to them to properly dispose of the soup.

We rate Shoryumen:

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Fumisen sells sushi cones in 3 sizes – small ($3.75), medium ($5) and JUMBO ($8.50).

There are 4 steps into making your sushi cone:

pick a type of rice
pick a protein filling
pick 2 vegetable fillings
pick a sauce

I got a medium cone with salmon rice, scallop chop chop, salmon sashimi, avacado, tobiko, and wasabi mayo. I wanted to try both the scallop chop chop and salmon sashimi, so they were nice enough to give me both! What I LOVE about the cones was how fresh the seafood is.

If you don’t know what toppings to add into your cone, you can always ask the staff because they are the experts.

Apparently, they buy their sashimi and seafood in small batches to ensure quality and freshness.

FinanceGirl got the Medium cone with salmon sashimi, lettuce, tobiko and mayo.

SFUPretender got a small cone with chicken teriyaki, mango…and I am not 100% what else was in there. It looks good and it tasted good so I guess whats what matters!

We rate Fumisen:

All the carts are located at:

8740 Charles St
Richmond, BC

In Japanese

Kintaro Ramen

December 9, 2010

Kintaro Ramen is one of the more popular ramen shops in Downtown. They are known for their large bowls of ramen, with customizable ingredients that go inside. People always complain about their long line ups… but today I thought of a very ingenious way to beat the line up.

Since it was the Santa Clause parade, TaiwaneseGirl and I spent a few hours waiting in the cold watching all the floats go by. Since we were grown cold, we thought a big bowl of ramen would make the day complete! We stood right by where the parade started, so we could watch every float and dash to Kintaro while everyone is still at the parade.

Sadly, others had that in mind too, so there was about 4 people in front of us, good thing the turn over is quite fast, so we got a table in about 10 minutes.

Kintaro is quite small and most seating is shared with strangers. They only have 3 tables that seat 2…while the other is bar seating or a large table. There isn’t much else you can do, but it does force you to meet strangers.

After we sat down, there was a rush of people wanting to get a taste of the Kintaro Ramen. When you walk in, you wil be able to see their open kitchen where the chefs prepare the meal. Some say it’s fun eating at the bar because you can see exactly what they chefs are doing to each meal.

We started off with the Gyoza ($5), it was nice and crispy on one side and it had a citrus soy sauce. It was good, but it wasn’t the best ones I’ve had. Especially, if you are paying $1 per piece, totally not worth it. When you bite into them, a bunch of juice would start leaking out.

TaiwaneseGirl had the Miso Ramen ($7.95). She asked for the lean pork rather than the fatty pork. It also had bean sprouts, corn, bamboo shoots and green onion.

I had the Shio ramen with medium soup and lean pork ($7.25). One thing that puzzled me was how much fat there was in the broth. It had eggs, bean sprouts, green onion, and bamboo shoots as well.

After hearing all the hype over Kintaro, the noodles were just average. It’s decent for it’s price and large , but this is not the best. After thinking about another Japanese Ramen place – Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, I prefer their overall taste.

Words of Wisdom:

Good prices, large portions
Long waits during peak hours
Limited seating, you may be sharing tables

We rate Kintaro Ramen:

They are located at:

788 Denman St
Vancouver, BC

In Bar and Grill

Moxie’s Classic Grill (Robson)

December 8, 2010

It was a lovely dinner with the SFU Student Marketing Association. We had dinner, raffles and played “white elephant”, which is an evil version of secret santa. All proceeds went to the BC Children’s Hospital, which is an amazing plus!

I’ve been to Moxies a few times on many special occasions. I even met David Choi here too!

Moxie has their special Winter Features on their menu, which is available November 4 to December 30th.

They even have big Bad Boy sized beers such as Heineken for $7 special. This was big! I was about a glass and a half worth of beer. We decided to put it side by side with a regular sized bottle…and you can tell…it’s quite massive.

InsecureGirl had a bellini.

We started off sharing the moxie’s combo platter ($25), which had calamari, chicken tenders, avocado spring rolls, med bread, chicken wings + three great dips. It was supposed to come with 3 dips….but for some reason 2 only came with the platter.

The platter overall was pretty big, but for some reason it came at the same time as our entree….so we had to tell them to hold back the entrees.

There could have been more calamari since it was so little compared to everything else.

TaiwaneseGirl had the coconut curry rice bowl, which had apples, ginger + curry-buttered naan bread, and chicken.

InsecureGirl had the beef dip, which has house-roasted beef, sautéed mushrooms & swiss cheese on baguette with au jus. She even got a daily soup as well.

Even though this is on the lunch menu, you can order it at dinner time too.

KoreanGirl and I both had the winter stew with puff pastry ($15), it has turkey, mushrooms & vegetables simmered with shallots & creamy white wine sauce, topped with puff pastry. The first few bites were delicious and the creamy taste of the stew blended nicely with the puff pastry.

As time went on, the taste got very boring and we got full fast because the stew was very rich. We felt really “fat” after eating this because we know it was just cream.

We rate Moxie’s:

Located at:

808 Bute St
Vancouver, BC

Website: www.moxies.ca

In Japanese

Bon Crepe

November 4, 2010

Bon Crepe is located outside Konbinya Japanese convenience store on Robson Street. Before work, I was scouring Downtown for some good and quick food. SInce most street carts close before 5pm, I needed to find something fast and filling to get me through 3 hours of work. TaiwaneseGirl always tells me to go to Bon Crepe for amazing crepes. Since I was in a hungry snack mode, I got a savory crepe rather than a sweet one.

I settled on the tuna corn salad crepe ($3.53). What is different about their crepes compared to other places are the texture of the crepe skin. It was soft and chewy unlike places such as Cafe Crepe. It was the perfect size for a snack! As for the ingredients they used, I really wish they used fresh ingredients….tuna was canned…corn was canned…

The crepes are reasonably priced and I would go here again to try their sweet crepes, but maybe not their savory crepes.

Words of Wisdom:

No seats, more like grab and go
Some ingredients are not fresh, so choose which crepes your get wisely
I heard the sweet crepes were better than their savory ones

We rate Bon Crepe:

In Japanese

Oyama Sushi

October 22, 2010

Oyama Sushi is located on Kingsway in a large house near Metrotown. Inside Oyama, there have really cool interior decor such as paintings and this water fall wall. I got really confused walking to the washroom because there were so many walls. After listening to the waitresses chit chat, we determined this restaurant is Korean owned. I find it interesting how most sushi places are owned by Koreans.

After looking at the menu, we decided to have the party tray “D” ($49.99), which contains assorted sashimi, assorted sushi, california roll, alaska roll, and chopped scallop roll.

The sashimi and nigiri were good and they had a large selection with the combo. What we really didn’t like were the rolls. They fell apart easily and had way too much rice. For the price of $49.99, it was not worth it.

In addition to the combo, we added spicy tuna sashimi. Similar to most places, it has the korean hot sauce mixed with sugar.

We also had a large warm sake and a large bottle of Asahi.

Words of Wisdom:

Nigiri is not worth it, too much rice

Overall, I thought Oyama Sushi was pretty average compared to most sushi places. For the price you pay, you might as well go to better places in Burnaby like Sushi Garden, Sushi Town and California Sushi. They didn’t have any distinguishable dishes on their menu.

We rate Oyama Sushi:

Oyama Sushi is located at:

Burnaby South
5152 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H

In Chinese

Prince Chinese Seafood

October 9, 2010

After watching the SFU Business Convocation Ceremony, it was off to the Prince Chinese Seafood for some Dim Sum with parents and grandfather.

I always get nervous going to this place because there is never parking available. Luckly, today I found a spot in the back.

For a Thursday afternoon, this place was super packed! I had to weave through a whole bunch of tables before I got to my table.

As usual, I left the ordering of the items to the parents and requested some tofu curd and shrimp dumplings.

Deep Fried Tofu in Peppery Salt ($4.95) is the best fried tofu I have ever had. It was fried really nicely and the inside was soft. The peppery salt with Jalapenos added an extra kick to the dish.

Pan Fried Leather Jacket in Maggie Sauce ($6.75) blew all our minds. Along with the nice crunchy flavour of the fish, the sweet soy sauce work really well with the dish. My dad loved it so much he ate half the plate.

Steamed Spareribs in garlic sauce ($3.75) did not impress me very much. it was quite boring and the garlic sauce wasn’t strong at all.

Steamed Eel with Black bean Sauce ($4.25) was the strangest dish I have ever had. I don’t think I enjoyed the texture of the eel. It tasted like eating fat.

Rice Rolls with beef and chinese parsley ($3.95), it was not as good as other chinese restaurants.

Steamed Beef Tripe with 5 spices ($3.75), I usually avoid this dish because i chew it so much it starts to taste like chemicals. Surprisingly, I just ate it for fun and I didn’t have the same experience with this dish. The 5 spices worked well!

Steamed prawns with spinach dumpling ($3.95), this was just average, nothing special. I expected something different

Stuffed Bean curd in superior broths ($3.75) was my favorite dish. I just really love bean curd in sauce.

After we ate all that food, we waited for our last dish to come but for the longest time it didn’t, so we asked one of the managers to check up on it and she told us it takes 30 minutes to prepare steamed rice with spareribs and chicken. She said it would be coming out shortly. We waited and waited but nothing came. So we asked one of the other waiters to check up on the order but apparently it was never inputted in the machine in the first place. At that point we were just pissed off cause they made us wait for food that was never coming. During the time we waited, another table ordered and finished their meal. Thats pretty bad service that they gave us.

I’ve had decent experiences here before, but this time it was just very bad.

Words of Wisdom

No pushing carts, so you can’t really see what you are ordering. Perhaps look up pictures of food they have before ordering if you do not know chinese food very well
Service is pretty bad, so be prepare to be flagging down servers
Best to arrive around 10am or 10:30am for a good spot without waiting too long in line

The Prince Chinese Seafood has a lot of good sides and bad sides to them. I found that a lot of the food was a hit or a miss. Some items can be quite bland while other dishes are AMAZING.

We rate Prince Chinese Seafood:

They are located at:

2881 Grandview Hwy
Vancouver, BC V5M

In Chinese

Poke’m

October 8, 2010

Poke’m Food Cart is spelled like Pokemon but with no “o” or “n”. Without all the hotdog carts in Downtown Vancouver, it’s time to forget sausages and go for the balls!

Poke’m has a very vibrant green cart on the corner of Robson and Hornby street. Serving up all types of balls, one would surely be amazed by their exotic sauces.

Drinks!

I got the combo ($7) so I chose the cuttlefish balls with Japanese sauce and chicken balls with Korean sauce.

I really didn’t like the Korean sauce because it had pork floss and it’s more Chinese than Korean. If they wanted it to be more Korean, they would have had Kimchi sauce or some type of Kimchi in it.

Overall, it is a smart concept to have a ball place but you can make it at home for way way cheaper! For $7 for 8 pieces of balls…. That’s almost $1 per ball!

We rate Poke’m:

In SFU

Donair Town

October 6, 2010

As a student, there are not many good places to eat on campus. Donair Town is considered one of the better places to eat. Something about their taste of donairs and platters make my taste buds salivate.

For lunch, JojoCake and I went to Donair Town after our class to grab a bite during our 3 hour break. Since we are not carnivorous beasts, we chose to have the Mini Platter.

The mini platter consists of rice, a green salad with cucumber and tomatoes, and chicken meat. You can customize it with different sauces you want on top such as garlic sauce, tzatziki, or hot sauce.

Of course there are way more items on the menu than just platters. They have donairs, falafaels, and platters. You can choose from Beef, Chicken or lamb as your meat.

As for the service, I find that they hire a lot of international students so their English is not great. I remember seeing one girl in front of me in the line and she wanted to add an extra topping to her donair and well, they both confused each other a lot.

Words of advice:

Morning does not mean fresh, sometimes their tomatoes look a bit soggy because they have been left overnight

Overall, the food is decent, but it can be a bit expensive. About $6 for a mini platter, $9 for a full platter and $5/6 for a falafel or donair. If you want a quick bite and you don’t want to wait in line for Tim Hortons, go here instead.

We rate DonairTown:

They are located at SFU Burnaby Campus.

In Chinese

E. Tea

September 19, 2010

E. Tea is probably my favorite place to grab a snack when it’s late at night…or when you want to use credit card/ debit card at a bubble tea place.

BebeYeovil was super hungry and wanted some food because her parents left her all home alone. So, we went out to E. Tea.

We walked in, sat down and took a look at their menu. They basically have the typical types of food and drinks you would encounter at a bubble tea place.

BebeYeovil ordered a Taro Toast and Beef Roll.

I ordered Chrysanthemum Black Tea. What I like about E. Tea is that they use real leaves to make this drink rather than just syrup.

I go here frequently, but I would not say this is a great BBT place to go to. The food is decent and on par with Bubble World, some drinks on the menu are slightly below average because of the powder and syrup the use. I am a big advocate of fresh ingredients.

The have wifi too…the password is their phone number.

If you are looking for a cheap BBT place for drinks and food, E. Tea may be your place to go. For under $10, you can get a decent meal.

We rate E. Tea:

E. Tea is located on:

Renfrew-Collingwood
3281 East 22nd Ave.
Vancouver, BC V5M

In Korean

Pork Belly Beer House

September 18, 2010

At first glace, you would think Pork Belly Beer House is the most shady place you have ever seen. A restaurant with no name, crappy interior décor, lots of white fans everywhere, and lot of plates and soju bottles everywhere equals major sketch. If you are Korean and know your way around town, this place serves all you can eat Pork Belly! Pork Belly is basically like bacon but so much more thicker.

Interior is quite small.

When we sat down, we looked at the menu and just went with the $16 buffet, which included meat, salad, side dishes, soup, rice, and pop. Totally worth it and you get more than the $10 option. We wondered how they could keep their prices so reasonable but we concluded that the crappy décor probably kept their costs down.

Once the meat arrived, we did not waste another second to put the meat on the grill. All 9 of us were really excited to eat it but sadly we had to wait till it was nicely cooked.

It would have been nice if our salad, rice and soup all came at the same time…. These items came half way through our meal. Totally not a “buffet” if they don’t give it to us in the beginning.

When the meat is done, you can put it in the lettuce with kimchi, bean sprouts, jalapeño, and garlic. Once assembled inside the lettuce wrap, you can dip it into the miso paste or in the salt and pepper sauce.

If you grill the kimchi, bean sprouts and the garlic, it will make the wrap a lot better! Thanks to BusanGirl for that tip!

To add to this buffet, we got beer and Soju. I am a light weight, so having both got me a bit tipsy.

The service was not great since they would forget an order and take way too long refilling our food. Conversing in English would have probably been a problem but luckily I had 4 Koreans with me to do all the ordering.

Also, some of the meat the gave us was VERY FATTY ( 85% fat and 15% meat). It was pretty gross and they “boys” table got that so I think it ruined their start of the night since their meat did not cook well cause it had so many fat streaks in their pork belly. The “girls” tables got lucky since their meat turned out nice and brown.

The damage of the bill came to be over $200… but after splitting it up, it turned about to be about $26 per person.

I would advise you to not eat this often…maybe once or twice a year because this is quite fatty. We left this restaurant smelling like BBQ, I woke up feeling oily, and one person spent a while in the washroom…if you know what I mean…

When you go here, make sure you have a Korean with you. The service may be pretty crappy and if all the items in the buffet do not arrive, do ask them because you are paying for it. The pork belly should be nicely marbled with fat….and not strips of fat…so send it back if there is too much fat. Remember you are paying for all you can eat pork belly and not all you can eat fat.

We rate Pork Belly Beer House:

Pork Belly Beer House is located:

Robson Street/West End
841 Bidwell Street
Vancouver, BC V6G

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Megabite Pizza

September 18, 2010

Megabite pizza at Commercial Skytrain is probably all commuters dream! This is probably some damn good cheap pizza you have ever had if you are heading to Vancouver or Burnaby.

I was heading back from The Town Advanced Screening, M wanted some pizza from Megabite since he heard it was decent pizza and super cheap.

Walking into the place, there were about 10 different types of pizza to choose from if you are into individual slices. Everything looked SO delicious but I came in for a whole pizza.

When I was ordering you can choose up to 3 toppings, they have lots of toppings to choose from. I decided to have grilled chicken, Chorizo sausage, and pepperoni…. But the cashier made a mistake so I ended up with grilled chicken, chorizo sausage, and pineapple. Pineapple isn’t my thing but M liked it.

The wait was about 15 minutes and it came in a box obviously. It was a bit weird waiting inside cause the interior seemed pretty dirty and sticky so I just waited outside.

You can also add extra sauce to your pizza free of cost. Theres ranch sauce, chili flakes, cheese, and hot sauce.

Price List:

Slice – $2

2 slices and a pop – $4.75

Small pizza – 5.99

Medium pizza – $8.99

Large Pizza – $ 10.99

XL pizza – $13.99

If you need a quick bite or need some pizza to recover from clubbing, Megabite pizza has huge slices of pizza for $2! There is no need to ever go to Panago, Dominos, or pizza hut ever again! It’s not the BEST pizza in the word but it’s good for the price.

We rate Megabite Pizza: