Category

BBQ

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Montana's Ribs

It was M’s Birthday, so he chose to go to Montana’s Cookhouse. As it is a Wednesday, they have all you can eat ribs! I made sure to prepare and wore sweat pants to prepare for this occasion. Trying to figure out what camera to bring to a restaurant is always a pain. As I haven’t used my HTC One yet, I used it instead of my iPhone or my LX7. The last time I went to Montana’s we were able to eat a large amount of ribs. 3.5 racks to be exact, but back then they were much smaller. I was definitely up for the challenge!

If you come here during your birthday, they make you put on a moose hat, sing you happy birthday in front of the restaurant, and bring you a free piece of cake. M of course was too shy, so he didn’t tell anyone it has his birthday.

Montana's Ribs

The interior is very country. It’s family friendly and has tons of seating. There’s some pretty cool things on the ceiling to look at. Like… cars, canoes, antlers, etc.

Montana's Ribs

Water comes in mason jars and you get some crayons to draw all over the table. It’s fun to just doodle as you wait for the food.

Montana's Ribs

For the ribs, you get a bucket for your bones, lots of napkins, cutlery, ketchup, wet naps, and straws for your drinks.

Montana's Ribs

AYCE Back Ribs ($28.99) starts off with the first rack with the flavour sauce of your choice, 2 sides and cornbread. We were surprised to see the ribs were so large and meaty. Each rack has 12 ribs and the meat was moist, plus it had a nice smokey flavour.

As our order arrived, we immediately put in an extra order for half a rack since it took the quite a while to get our first order.

Of all the flavours, our favourite was the Texas Bold.

Montana's Ribs

3 people’s worth of half a rack of ribs. We could only finish 2 more before we had to stop. We were very full after 14 ribs. We asked if we could take it home, but we weren’t able to. I guess that’s a good thing since some people might abuse the AYCE system. We felt bad for over-ordering since we didn’t want it all to go to the trash.

Overall, the ribs were pretty good with the Texas Bold sauce and I would come again for AYCE. It’s a bit expensive, so only go when you have a crazy appetite. Do be warned that the service is very slow. We waited about 40 minutes to get our first order, but we knew it wouldn’t be a quick dinner, so we had our phones with games to keep us company.

We Rate Montana’s

Address:
1046 – 2929 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://www.montanas.ca/

Montana's Cookhouse on Urbanspoon

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Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro is located close to the corner of Robson and Denman street and have been around for a little bit over a year now. They specialize in fusion Chinese Szechuan cuisine. It’s a family run restaurant and Executive Chef Henry has over 20 years of cooking experience from Hong Kong and Canada.

I came here with a few friends to check it out and we heard they have peking duck, so it peaked our attention.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The interior isn’t too large but it has a row of booths, some bar seats, and some tables near the front. It has a lounge feel to this place as there is a large bar.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Peking Duck with 12 crepes is served with green onions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce. On top of the duck are prawn chips. The duck and the crepes are all made in-house. This is their signature dish.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The skin is nice and crispy with a good layer of meat underneath. Probably one of the best quality peking ducks around town. It wasn’t too fatty either. Super moist and yummy.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

You take a little bit of everything and wrap it in the crepe. It’s really good. Highly recommended!!

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The second part of the peking duck meal is the lettuce wraps. The rest of the duck meat and stir fries it. On the side, there are 6 lettuce wraps for you to put to ingredients into.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Just roll it up and begin munching away. Delicious! We definitely needed more lettuce wraps since 6 were not enough.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The perfect things to pair with the peking duck is with beer! I ordered a bottle of Tsingtao beer. Asian beer with asian food is a good mix.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Chengdu Special Fried Rice ($12) has house special fried rice with shrimp, chinese sausage, onions, jalapeño, broccoli stem in a spicy Szechuan style. This fried rice was definitely spicy with the jalapeño and Szechuan sauce. It’s finally good to see a fried rice that can pack some heat. If you like spicy food, you’ll like the rice.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Ginger Beef ($11) has crunchy beef in spicy ginger kung pao sauce with onions, carrots and fresh ginger. It’s one of their signature dishes and quite popular amongst guests. The dish was decent.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Mapo Tofu ($9) has soft tofu, spicy ground pork, shrimp, onions, chinese mushrooms and water chestnut.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Szechuan Pan Fried Prawns ($12) has pan-fried prawns in spicy garlic pepper oil. We table had mixed review on this item. Some said it was too salty, but some loved how it had a strong garlic flavour.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Szechuan Green Beans ($8) has long green bean tossed in a spicy Szechuan sauce with ground pork and preserved vegetables. This was really good. A bit oily, but good flavours.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Pumpkin & Red Bean Sticky Rice Cake Ice Cream ($6) nice sweet end to the meal. Its sticky, chewy and a bit sweet. It goes well with the ice cream.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Deep Fried Banana With Ice Cream ($6) has a honey glaze around the battered bananas. A fun dish to share.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Of course there is a fortune cookie. Did you know it’s actually an American invention?

The peking duck dishes are pretty awesome here and would recommend it to anyone. I found the other dishes to be quite average and is a bit more expansive compared to other restaurants.

If you are tired of ramen in the area, definitely come here and try their peking duck. You won’t regret it. Yum.

We Rate Chengdu Szechuan Bistro:

Address:
792 Denman St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.chengdubistro.ca

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ChengduBistro

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro 成都美食 on Urbanspoon

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Bossam Delivery Pohang

While in Pohang, we decided to order in some bossam. Bossam, is steamed pork wrapped in leaves and other ingredients. Imagine it like the Korean version of peking duck.

We found Flower Pig in a directory and decided to try it out. They only use local Korean pigs and the restaurant is open till 1am. We ordered around 6pm and took about an hour for them to prepare and deliver the meal.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

We ordered a large order of bossam and it was definitely enough for 5 people. All the component was there to begin wrapping those slices of steamed pork.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

It also came with free cold noodles. It was quite large but it wasn’t very good. The noodles were damp and seemed like very random ingredients were thrown in.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

The steamed pork had a lot of slices.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

We had some carrots, lettuce, sesame leaves, peppers and sliced garlic.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

These were salted shrimp, marinated onions, red sauce and some kinda of unidentified liquid.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

We also had a large box of kimchi. There was so much that we didn’t make a large dent into it.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

With the ingredients, you kinda just throw it together to suit your tastebuds.

The restaurant that we ordered from wasn’t very good. The bossam would have been much better if we had it grilled to have a little bit more of a crunch. Next time, I’d probably just have it at a restaurant or make it at home. Delivery is never the same unless you know a good place.

Busan Eel

Busan is known for their eel and most tourists come here to enjoy the fresh taste of grilled eel. M really wanted to go, so he asked his aunt to take us to the best eel restaurant in Busan. The locals like to come here and it was pretty packed on a weekend.

unyang charchoal eel bbq

The eels are alive in the tanks outside and you can watch them wriggle before your meal.

unyang charchoal eel bbq

The menu is on the wall.

unyang charchoal eel bbq

All the seating is on the floor, so if you aren’ used to it, you might get a little uncomfortable. My legs went numb a few times due to my poor circulation, so I was moving around adjusting my legs.

unyang charchoal eel bbq

The grill has a bunch of super hot coals. It’s so hot, its glowing.

unyang charchoal eel bbq

The eel is skinned and chopped up into pieces on a plate. As the eel is fresh, the flesh is still moving slightly. It’s a little bit scary, but it’s ok because you will be sticking it on the grill.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-grilling

Looks beautiful.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-cooked

We really had no idea when each piece would be done, so we just guessed. As long as it has a nice golden char to the edges, it will be ready to eat.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-sides

The meal comes with a few banchan and a few other items to wrap your eel in.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-wrap

My favorite leaf to use is the sesame leaf with some spicy sauce, a piece of eel and garlic chive kimchi. Just wrap it all up and stick it in your mouth. The eel tastes just like fish.

Grilled eel was a unique experience because the eel I am used to is covered in a sweet BBQ sauce compared to the fresh eel in Busan. It’s something I can’t get fresh in Vancouver because we don’t have eel.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-pumpkin

Once you are done the BBQ portion of the meal, you are given more banchan.

This is roasted pumpkin. It’s soft and quite flavourful.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-radish

More kimchi.

Busan-BBQ-Eel-soup-rice

The last part of the meal is soup and rice. I can’t remember what type of soup it was but it had some meat and vegetables. It was a very good soup but a tad spicy.

By the end of the meal you’ll get quite full. I was happy with the meal and I would definitely go again because I love being involved with my food and cooking it.

We Rate Unyang Charcoal Eel BBQ

Phone:
+82 51-247-2150 ‎

Address:
Seodaesindong 2(i)-ga, Seo-gu, Busan, South Korea ‎

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?t=m&cid=0x20c3dc0e68c0deb5&z=16&iwloc=A “]

Sometimes in Korea, you want food to come to you instead of you going out for food. Or perhaps cooking is too hard. For a lot of university students, ordering in is quite common and you can almost get every single type of food to be delivered.

We were craving different types of chicken, so we ordered from BHC and BBQ Chicken for some of their specialty chicken. They have locations all over Korea, so you’re bound to run into one.

As we knew the original fried chicken would be amazing, we ordered other items off their menu to get a taste of what else is popular in Korea.

BBQ

BBQ Chicken Korea

From BBQ Chicken, we ordered grilled chicken and it came with sauce, a can of pepsi, and pickled radish cubes.

BBQ Chicken Korea

Korean traditional Charbroiled Chicken is quite juicy and is marinated ahead of time and comes straight off the grill to seal in those juicy flavours. It was pretty good, but you can’t really beat an experience eating inside the restaurant.

Website: http://www.bbqbarbecue.co.kr/


BHC Chicken

BHC Chicken Korea

Another popular place is BHC which stands for Big Hit Chicken. They usually advertise heavily with the use of celebrities. M wanted boneless chicken so we ordered from here.

BHC Chicken Korea

Boneless Chicken with shredded leek is another popular item. It reminded me of chicken nuggets with green onions. It was ok, but nothing very special.

Websitehttp://www.bhc.co.kr/

There were all good alternatives for chicken but I think the one that still steals my heart is original fried chicken. Can’t beat that stuff. I must continue the hunt for the best chicken.

O Grill Yakiniku

O Grill Yakiniku is located on Newton Street close to Kingsway. It’s a bit hidden, so you definitely need to rely on Google Maps to get here. They serve Taiwanese and Japanese food.

I came here with the lovely Chinesebites crew to check out what O Grill Yakiniku has to offer.

O Grill Yakiniku

There are lots of booth seating but even with the vents it can still get a bit smokey inside. When we went, it was really cold and the heat of the grill didn’t help us keep warm either.

O Grill Yakiniku

Chicken Karrage with fried basil. It was pretty good but did remind me more of Salt and Peppery Chicken.

O Grill Yakiniku

Deep Fried Squid was good too. A bit oily, but still good. I’d still choose his over the salt and peppery chicken because of the texture of the squid.

O Grill Yakiniku

Sweet Potato Balls with condensed milk and crushed nuts. Surprisingly a great item to order if you want to munch on something. It was like eating fried mochi balls.

O Grill Yakiniku

Asparagus Salad was a strange thing to see here drizzled with a creamy sauce kinda like Thousand Island. I think it would have been better if it was just raw asparagus, so you can grill it.

O Grill Yakiniku

Ground Pork on Rice was average, but could have used a touch of more sauce

O Grill Yakiniku

Pork Jowl was severely frozen and didn’t look appetizing.

O Grill Yakiniku

When the pork jowl hit the grill and started thawing, you can tell there was lot of fat content in these little babies. The sight was so beautiful. Sizzling on the grill and creating a lot of fire and smoke. It was quite fun.

When you have a grill right in front of your table, you know you need to get some meat on the grill and hear the sizzle.

ogrill-sauce

They have 2 house sauces, so you can dunk your meat into them to have more flavour.

O Grill Yakiniku

Premium Short Ribs looked so delicious and we couldn’t wait to get cooking.

O Grill Yakiniku

The sight of deliciousness.

O Grill Yakiniku

Beef Tongue was also quite frozen from the look of it. The tongue after it’s cooked is still a tad tough and bland.

O Grill Yakiniku

Rib steak came in small cubes and it’s also frozen.

O Grill Yakiniku

Garlic Prawns were deveined and tasted good after being grilled.

O Grill Yakiniku

Spicy and Basil Chicken was good with the marinade, it certainly added flavour to it. Since it is chicken, you have cook it all the way or else you might get sick.

O Grill Yakiniku

Mixed Mushrooms come hot to the table, so you don’t need to stick it on the grill. I love mushrooms, so I slurped up this dish.

O Grill Yakiniku

Round 2 of more delicious meat!

O Grill Yakiniku

Corn needed a bit of roasting before sinking your teeth into these kernels.

O Grill Yakiniku

Pork Belly was a bit thin and cut into smaller pieces.  This is essentially bacon.

O Grill Yakiniku

Beef Toro is like the bacon of the cow.

O Grill Yakiniku

Beef Finger is what is was called on the menu. We didn’t think cows really had fingers but it’s actually the meat between the ribs.

O Grill Yakiniku

All the meat tasted fine, but since most of them didn’t have sauce that marinated it, it was a bit bland. So, you can dunk it in their house sauces or put on some salt and pepper to bring out the flavour.

One thing that sucked about the grills is that all the heat would be mainly in the centre, so it cooked the meat very unevenly. They recommended us to only cook a few pieces at a time, leaving us a little bit impatient since there was lot of meat to cook.

I much prefer the grills at places like Gyu Kaku.

O Grill Yakiniku

Green Tea Ice Cream was the normal stuff.

O Grill Yakiniku

Caramel ice cream with a caramel drizzle and some choco sticks.

O Grill Yakiniku

 Milky Pudding comes with your choice of  red bean or strawberry sauce.

O Grill Yakiniku

Egg Pudding was really good and satisfying at the end of the meal. Probably my favourite out of all the desserts.

Overall, I probably would not revisit this place again. A majority of the meat was frozen and the grill was very weak. Not very impressive at all. I might as well grill my meat at home and feel more comfortable.

They should really just thaw their meats and add more more marinade to bring out the flavours of the meat.

We Rate O Grill

Address:
4992 Newton St
Burnaby, BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/OGrillYakiniku

O Grill Yakiniku 炎燒日式燒烤 on Urbanspoon

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Urban Belly

When I was vacationing in Chicago, I went to visit Urbanbelly near Logan Square. They are also recipients of a Michelin Bib Gourmands Chicago award in 2010. It basically means they are a quality restaurant with affordable price.

They don’t take reservations, but on a weekday lunch hour, there was no wait.

Urban Belly

The counter is at the back, so you just line up and order. They have daily specials written on the wall.

Urban Belly

You can find the rest of the regular items on their menu. The prices are quite decent with nothing over $13.

Urban Belly

The interior is one large room with 4 communal tables. Better get cozy and meet some new friends.

Urban Belly

Asian Squash and Bacon Dumplings ($7) comes with 4 pieces of the steamed dumplings. It has a predominantly squash filling. It is topped with bacon bits, orange slices and other things. It was pretty good and has a nice balance between the sweet oranges and the savoury dumpling.

Urban Belly

Urbanbelly Ramen ($13) is made with a pho broth and has pork belly and shitake mushrooms. Its deep rich broth with layers of savoury flavours is quite delicious.

Urban Belly

Phat Rice ($9) is a fried rice dish that combined all the other rice dishes into one. There was short rib, pork belly, pineapple, scallions, pea shoots, and Thai basil. I chose this dish because I was pretty indecisive of what to order….so this was the best option. It was pretty good.

Urban Belly

Chinese Eggplant with Thai Basil came complimentary because we waited a long time for the Phat Rice. I loved the sauce that came with it.

Urban Belly

At the end of the meal, they give you some Ginger Candy to round out the experience.

Overall, the food was pretty good and I would come again. The food is a bit only and rich, but that means its extra delicious.

We Rate Urban Belly: 

Address:
3053 N California Ave
Chicago, IL

Website:
http://www.urbanbellychicago.com/

Urban Belly on Urbanspoon

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Chinatown Night Market

The Chinatown Night Market has changed a lot since I was a kid. With the emergence of the other Night Markets in town, the quality of the Chinatown Night Market isn’t as good as it used to be. Despite that, it still attracts thousands of people every weekend to enjoy the festivities. It’s the closest night market to the Downtown core, so it makes sense. If you’re in the area, take a short stroller here and then enjoy the sunset at False Creek near Science World.

The Vancouver Chinatown Night Market is open from May 17th till September 8th, 2013 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.


Related Link:


Chinatown Night Market

The market spans from Main Street  to Columbia Street on Keefer street. The block is closed off so people can walk freely on the streets.

Chinatown Night Market

There are a few stalls that sell toys, jewellery , clothing, and a lot of random stuff.

Chinatown Night Market

I honestly never come here to buy things. It’s all about the food for me. But when it was about 10 years ago, I would come here to buy  pokemon cards. Nowadays, there’s nothing very spectacular from the vendors.

Bar-B-Q

Chinatown Night Market

There’s a stall that sells a lot of skewers. It’s one of those staple items that you must have at a night market.

Bubble Gallo Tea House

Chinatown-Market-bbt

There’s bubble tea too. Perfect for the hot summer weather.

Dim Sum Express

Chinatown Night Market

The food area is quite popular and the most congested part of the street. There’s even Dim Sum Express, they have a food truck near Waterfront station too.

Potato Tornado

Chinatown Night Market

One thing that was a must for MedicalGiraffe and I were the potato tornadoes. You might know them as hurricane potatoes…. depending on where you’ve been. It’s $3.75 each and you can choose your seasoning. They also sell popcorn chicken for $4.50.

This was a popular stall, so the food did take about 10 minutes.

Chinatown Night Market

The way that they cut the potatoes is with a drill. Very strange but I guess it gets the job done. Then they deep fry it for the crunchy goodness. The last step is sprinkling on the spices.

Chinatown Night Market

We got our ketchup flavoured potato tornado and it sure looked pretty. The taste was ok, but it was very very oily.

Takoyaki

Chinatown Night Market

Takoyaki was another item on our mind. It was very very busy at this stall, so it took about 20 minutes to get our order.

Chinatown Night Market

They had a lot of people waiting for them, but it took me a long time to figure out something was off about this stall.

Chinatown Night Market

All the balls looked ready and perfect to eat, but they took a long time to cook. After watching them for a while, we realized they were frozen store bought takoyaki heated up in these pans.

She wasn’t poking to see if the batter in the centre was cooked, she was seeing if it was not frozen on the centre.

Chinatown Night Market

6 pieces for $4.50.

We did feel a bit ripped off since we now know we could probably go to T&T and get a gab of frozen takoyaki for that price.
It tasted passable, but sucks that it wasn’t prepared the way it should be.

Bubble Waffles

Chinatown Night Market

There was also bubble waffles too. 1 for $3.75 or 2 for $6.50.

Chinatown Night Market

Near the other side of the Night Market seemed a little more Gastown-like with artist, local produce, plants, and jams on sale. There were also 3 Food Trucks there too – JJ’s Trucketeria, Holy Perogy and Ze Bite.

JJs Trucketeria

Chinatown Night Market

JJ Trucketeria is a Filipino themed Food Truck. I’ve always wanted to go for a visit but they are usually on Fraser and 43rd. Way too far for me to get to during lunch.

Chinatown Night Market

During the night market, they had salads, garlic fried rice plate, panwiches and their market bowls. Their prices are pretty good for a food truck. We really wanted to try their meaty items but we held back and decided to try the market bowl.

Chinatown Night Market

Market Bowl ($5) has brown rice, carrots, leeks, caramelized onions, yams, black beans, chick peas with their signature JJ sauce. It is completely vegan, so good for those people with dietary restrictions.

MedicalGiraffe and I didn’t particularly like this item since it was mostly the brown rice mixture with a bit of sauce.

Jj's Trucketeria on Urbanspoon

 

Ze Bite

Chinatown Night Market

Ze Bite was there selling their amazing French food.

Nice Pops

Chinatown Night Market

Nice Pops were selling some gourmet popsicles with 4 flavours:

  • Rhubarb and Cardamom
  • Cucumber, lime and Chili
  • Strawberry and balsamic Vinegar
  • Strawberry and buttermilk

The prices are $4 each or 3 for $10.

Chinatown Night Market

 Cucumber, lime and Chili starts off with the refreshing cucumber and lime flavours but them the spicy chili taste kicks in. MedicalGiraffe’s mouth was literally on fire.  She can handle her spice, but this was definitely spicy.

Rhubarb and cardamom was  very refreshing. Highly recommended.

Chinatown Night Market

On the day that we went, there was outdoor karaoke. Surprisingly a lot of people were fearless and stepped up on the mic. There was a variety of songs sang by people of various ethnicities.

Chinatown Night Market

The Chinatown Night Market is not as impressive as the Richmond Night market, so don’t go out of your way to come here. If you are in the area after dinner Downtown, you can just take a stroll over here after dinner.

Website: http://vancouverchinatownnightmarket.com/

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill serves a bunch of tapa dishes and specializes in skewers. They have a few locations in Vancouver and one in Toronto.

M really wanted a good dinner, so I suggested Zakkushi. After all these years, I have no idea why we’ve never gone together. When we got here, we thought the exterior was pretty cool. It’s all covered up in dark wood. Very nice.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Sakura Cocktail ($7) has lychee liqueur, grapefruit juice, calpico and soda.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Toro Sashimi ($9.50) has 5 pieces of the sockeye salmon belly. It’s not the same texture as the tuna toro, but was more chewy. The quality nonetheless was very fresh.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Karaage ($5.80) is deep-fried chicken with an oroshi sauce. It’s different from most places as it comes with a shredded daikon, ponzu, and green onion sauce. Anything fried is delicious.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Tsukune is a chicken meatball and on their menu, they have 5 different kinds, but we stuck with the cheese and norimayo flavours.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Cheese Tsukune ($1.90 each) has white cheese melted on top with some pepper. It was really good! The cheesiness of the cheese and the juicy chicken meatball tasted really good.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Norimayo Tsukune ($1.90) is topped with mayo and seaweed. It’s really good! You really need to try this.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Zakkushi Set ($8.80) has 5 skewers momo (Chicken thigh), umeshiso yaki (chicken thigh with shio leaf and sour plum), Me Maki (garlic shrubs wrapped with pork), p-toro (Crunchy juicy pork), and oropon beef (AAA grade beef with diakon and ponzu sauce). It was a nice set of skewers to order if you are indecisive. You get a little bit of variety from the skewer menu.

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill

Negi P-Toro Don ($7.50) has p-toro pork, green onion sauce, picked veggies,  half boiled egg, and seaweed  on top of rice. We mixed this all together and it was so good!

We also ordered Oden, but I was too excited about it that I ate it before taking a picture. The sake flight was good as well if you are into sake.

Overall, we had a great time here and will definitely be back. The food and atmosphere are awesome. It’s best to make a reservation ahead of time if you don’t want to wait for a seat. They also have a semi private party area for large groups.

We Rate Zakkushi

Address:
4075 Main St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.zakkushi.com/

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill on Urbanspoon

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Friend's BBQ Restaurant

Friend’s BBQ Restaurant is a new restaurant in the former location of Mui Garden on North Road. We came here thinking it would be a BBQ place where we could grill our own meats. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. They specialize in HK style food similar to Mui Garden but has an emphasis on the BBQ meats like crispy roasted pork or BBQ duck.

Friend's BBQ Restaurant

As we entered, a majority of the decor was the same as Mui Garden but a few little changes here and there. When we sat down, we immediately knew the place was going to be bad. Even though the restaurant was fairly empty, we had a really hard time flagging down a server to take our order. They all congregated by the cashier and one of the managers were eating in the hallway near the kitchen and washrooms. We thought this was a strange sight.

When one of the servers finally took our order, they forgot all the drinks that we ordered. So, we had to get another server to grab us our drinks. Instead of getting the drinks, they gave us a receipt… and the drinks came about 10 minutes later. The food took another 45 minutes to arrive. All we ordered were BBQ meats that are already cooked….so we were very confused why putting rice on a plate and chopping up BBQ meat would take that long.

Friend's BBQ Restaurant

Daily Soup came with our order of 3 BBQ meats on rice. It was a nice touch since it makes it more of a complete meal. The soup was good and had lots of beef and radish inside.

Friend's BBQ Restaurant

3 BBQ meats on rice ($8.50) took 45 minutes to arrive. By 8pm, they only had 3 meats left so we had no options to choose from. We really wanted BBQ Roasted Pork or BBQ Duck, but that wasn’t available. We had the BBQ Pork, Soy Chicken and Ribs. The quality of meats were passable, but not as delicious as some other places in town. It was a bit tough and riddled with lots of bones. Rice was very dry. I would still say T&T has better BBQ meats.

Friend's BBQ Restaurant

Red Bean Soup came at the end of the meal. It wasn’t very sweet, which I liked.

Overall, the prices are decent and the amount that you get will surely fill you up. I usually can handle crappy service, but the service was down right BAD. The servers took inaccurate orders, food took too long to arrive, and very inattentive. When we wanted to grab the bill to pay, none of the servers turned around from the cashiers area. We decided to go up and pay. As we paid with debt, the machine declined the card. Then we tried credit card and it declined the card too. The machine flashed “Cannot connect to base”. The server said the machine worked fine and didn’t believe us that it was the machine. So we just paid cash and left. With so many restaurants in the area, you can go elsewhere.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Quality not as good as Mui Garden
  • Horrible service
  • Decent prices and set meals
  • Not open on Wednesdays

We rate Friend’s BBQ Restaurant

Address: 
4327 North Road
Burnaby, BC

Friend's BBQ Restaurant 老友記燒臘菜館 on Urbanspoon

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HK BBQ Master has been well-known to the community for having amazing BBQ meats. Far better than any other place in Vancouver. I had to take KoreaGirl and CanuckGirl here for lunch. The prices were good for under $10.

It’s located under the Superstore on #3 Road. There’s tons of parking, so no worries about fighting for spots.

HK BBQ Master

When we arrived here, it was about 1pm and the place was packed with lots of people doing take-out. I hate my roast pork skin soggy, so eating it fresh was definitely on my mind. They have a few tables available. We were able to get a table right away! The service was very quick and rushed. They’re all about speed and efficiency.

HK BBQ Master

BBQ Pork and Roast Pork ($7.50) is what KoreanGirl ordered. The roasted pork was amazing! Crispy skin and deliciously fatty. Each plate comes with a piece of broccoli and it really sucks.

HK BBQ Master

Roasted Pork, BBQ Pork and Soya Chicken ($9.50) was a great way to try all their meats and I had to agree that the Roasted Pork was crazy good!

HK BBQ Master

BBQ Duck and Soya Chicken ($7.50) is what CanuckGirl ordered. I stole some duck from her and it was really good!

Overall, we were impressed with their meats! If you want the best, you really have to come to HK BBQ Master. The crisp skin on the roast pork is addictive. MMmmmmmmmm! We left happy and will definitely return.

We Rate HK BBQ Master:  

Address:
4651 #3 Rd
Richmond, BC

HK BBQ Master 明家燒臘專家 on Urbanspoon

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The Pork Belly Beer House is a Korean restaurant just off of Robson Street close to Safeway. It looks shady on the inside and outside, but it quite popular with Koreans. It gets quite packed in the evening since you can eat all the pork belly and side dishes for under $20.

The last time I was at Pork Belly Beer House, we had a mediocre all you can eat pork belly. We decided to come back to celebrate new jobs with friends and eat meat. For $16, you get pork belly, bulgogi, salad, rice, soup, kimchi, pop and sauces.

One of the biggest changes was that you can’t cook your own meat anymore. 🙁 Due to fire regulations and their inability to provide proper ventilation in the restaurant, the meat comes to you already cooked.

This was very disappointing because the point of Korean BBQ is cooking your own meat to your liking. We were not impressed because I like my Pork Belly crispy. We asked them to bring a few other dishes on the crispier side, but that never happened.

The pork belly is poor in quality and there is more fat than meat. What I hated the most about this pre-cooked option is that when you are half way done the plate of meat, it all goes cold.

The bulgogi was just lightly seasoned beef and grilled. Nothing amazing about it.

The food is just passable, but is only a good place for people who want a lot of food and drink. The meat is quite fatty, so make sure you don’t come here too often! Make sure you have a Korean with you since it’s easier to communicate with the servers to ensure you get what you order.

We rate Pork Belly Beer House:

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

Pork Belly Beer House on Urbanspoon

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Re-Up BBQ opened a restaurant inside River Market in New Westminster. They have the same sandwiches you can find at their food carts and some other new BBQ items. I was here for a conference in the building and thought I had to have some of their amazing pulled pork for lunch.

You order on the left counter.

Then, you pick up your order on the right corner. The whole kitchen area is visible, so it’s fun watching them prepare your food.

Sweet Tea was good and refreshing to go with a pulled pork sandwich. It’s light, crisp and not too sugary.

Pulled Pork Sandwich has pulled pork slathered with BBQ sauce and coleslaw in a bun. It wasn’t as large as it was a long time ago when they first started their food cart.

Overall, not a bad place to eat at the River Market. It can be a bit pricey for just a sandwich and a drink.

We Rate Re-Up BBQ:

Address:
810 Quayside Dr
New Westminster, BC

Website:
http://reupbbq.com/river-market/

Re-Up BBQ on Urbanspoon

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I met up with Steven from High School as he was in Korea in the Summer too. He took me to explore the Hongdae area where lots of University students hang out. There are tons of shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars.

After walking around the area, we ended up going to 벌집 삼겹살 (beoljip samgyeopsal) for some grilled meats. I knew it was something I wanted to eat!

It was really packed inside! Almost all the tables were taken up. Most people looked like they were in their 20s.

If you are getting the grilled meat, romaine, raw garlic and some different sauces will arrive at the table. You are supposed to grill your meat and then wrap it in the lettuce. Very delicious!

You also get a variety of side dishes with your meal. Lots of variety too!

Honeycomb pork belly is their signature type of meat at this restaurant. Thus, the name of the restaurant is named after this. The samgyeopsal is cut thick, then carved on one side with a honeycomb pattern. It’s very different from what you would typically think porkbelly would look like.

It was very delicious after grilling and fast to cook! You definitely need to order this!

Thick Cut Pork Shoulder was massive.It was really big and meaty.

I had too much fun eating this and forgot to take pictures of the meat in the lettuce wrap. If you are in Korea, you must try Korean BBQ!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Your clothes will smell like BBQ meat and grease
  • Pork belly is a must!
  • Always have this type of meal with a group of friends

We Rate Bee-hive Samgyeopsal:

Address:
345-6 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu,
Seoul, South Korea

Webite:
http://www.bulzip.co.kr/


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Yun Fat Tea House (潤發茶餐廳) in Mong Kok is known to locals for their delicious BBQ meats. If you were just walking by, you would probably not notice this restaurant. It’s not aesthetically pleasing on the outside and has no english at all.

The inside looks like any other Hong Kong style cafe.

Chicken and bone soup was very good. The flavour from the meat and bones really made this soup fragrant and enjoyable.

Look at that meat!!!

BBQ Duck and BBQ Pork on Rice was what everyone else at the table ordered. You gotta eat their signature items here. The meat was very beautiful, tender and very flavourful.

Deep-Fried Fish in Creamed Corn Sauce on Rice comes in a large portion! I couldn’t even finish it! The creamed corn sauce was yummy, but I wasn’t a fan of the fried fish.

Minced meat and vegetable sauce with egg yolk on rice was very good! There was enough sauce for all the rice and my little sister really enjoyed it. I tried some of it too and the meat just melts in your mouth! Yum!

Overall, it was a good decent meal. The down side is that there is no English here. I had to get my mom to order something for me since I can’t read Chinese.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Get off at Mong Kok MTR Exit B3
  • BBQ Meats is a must
  • No English Menu
  • Floor Toilets and kinda dirty
We Rate Yun Fat Tea House:

Address:
56 Mong Kok Street,
Mong Kok, Hong Kong


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Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ is a Japanese restaurant in Downtown. It’s located beside Relish Gastopub and below Guu Garden.

They have a lot of good lunch combos and even a wicked Happy Hour special. They sell Japanese BBQ grill dishes, noodles, rice and other dishes. You can have a good lunch for under $10 after tax. If you come at happy hour times, it’s pretty damn cheap too! KoreanGirl, Mandu, and I came on Monday for their all day happy hour special to just pig out and celebrate graduation.

Edamame  ($1.75) is the perfect starter if you want something to snack on while drinking beer. It is lightly salted on the outside to give it a little bit of flavour when you chew at the edamame to extract the beans.

Pitcher of Sapporo ($9.99) is a good price. It’s kinda needed if you want to just drink and chill.

Large Sake ($5) we got a large sake too since mandu is always wanting some sake bombs.

We also decided to do a bit of barbecuing too.

The grill is hot and flames will shoot out of it. We ordered a bunch of different meats to go on the grill.

Kalbi Chuck Tare ($3.95) is thin cut beef. It was good.

Horumon shio ($3.95) is intestines! It’s not for the squeamish or people who hates eating animal organs. It was a bit tough and interesting to eat, but I’d probably never order this again.

Yakishabu Tare ($2.95) we got them to put spicy miso sauce on it to give it some more flavour when grilling.

Toro Beef Tare ($3.95) was good tasting as well.

Pork Belly ($2.95) comes in 4 pieces and it a must when doing barbecue.

Filet Mignon ($5.95) was our favorite. The cuts were nice and chunky, so you could cook them medium rare if you wanted to.

After you finish grilling your meat, you can dunk them into 3 different sauces – soy sauce, ponzu sauce and something else.

Chicken Karaage Bowl  ($5.95) is a must order item!!! It’s the best karaage you will ever have. We order this every time!

Pork Belly chips ($3.95) was good too but it did taste similar to the chicken Karaage.

Overall it was a good experience. We usually come here during happy hour if we want to pig out and not spend over $20 per person. The first two dining experiences were great, but for my graduation dinner, we made reservations and they did not honor it. They made all 8 of us wait for 30 minutes for a table and we got fed up and went to Guu Garden instead. We tried asking the host several times for an update on when our table will be available, but they were not there most of the time. All we knew was that the table was finishing their dessert. We were quite pissed.

Words of Wisdom:

  • $9.99 pitchers of beer during happy hour
  • Some items are a hit and miss
  • Under $10 lunch specials
  • Happy Hour deals
  • Make reservations

We Rate Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ:

Address:

888 Nelson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.gyu-kaku.com/

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ on Urbanspoon


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Rotisserie Romados is located in Quebec near the Plateau Mont-Royal area. It was recently named one of Canadas Top 50 restaurants. When looking at the list, it was the only one that was under $10. I just had to check this little place out since I was in town for a few days with CanuckGirl. They are best known for their chicken rotisserie!

During peak hours the lines can get quite long. Nonetheless, don’t let any lines discourage you because it is quite quick to get to the front. At the back of the restaurant is where you order the chicken and on the right is where they have pastries and baked goods.

The menu is in all french, but you can use your iPhone is translate what is says. Majority of items are under $10, which is awesome. If you don’t know french, they speak english too.

1/4 Chicken Breast with Fries and Salad ($7.09) is basically a mound of salt and peppered fries. I asked my chicken to be spicy. It also comes with a large bun.

The fries tasted good and the chicken was succulent. The only let down was the salad because some of the leaves were not fresh and a bit wilted and turning black.

1/4 Chicken Leg with Salad and Fries ($6.29) CanuckGirl said she enjoyed it.

The bread that comes with it is good, but it’s gonna make you super full. CanuckGirl and I couldn’t finish ours with our meals, so we just took it back to the hotel room for later.

Overall, it was a very filling meal for cheap! It’s not the most healthiest meal, but it’s worth the price. Definitely check it out!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Limited amount of seating, most people do takeout
  • Under $10
  • Friendly staff
  • Must get the chicken!!

We Rate Rotisserie Romados: 

Address:
115 Rue Rachel Est.
Montréal, QC

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A new restaurant has popped up on the Downtown East Side called Fat Dragon BBQ. The location is quite remote and nothing very pretty is around this place.Even though it is a Chinese restaurant, its more of Chinese x Southern US fusion. You won’t be able to find any fried rice here or anything traditional. You’re going to the wrong place if you want Chinese food.

Ange of FoodPunk and I headed to try out Fat Dragon BBQ since I heard from my sister they have an amazing pig head. Pig head on a menu isn’t regular and I’ve never heard of people eating pig head.

Once you walk inside, you’ll enter a pink tunnel and you will be transported into the restaurant where you will find a very rustic interior.

The interior is quite cool since there are lots of small dim light around. It kinda reminds me of lanterns and fireflies. Also, there are huge scales running across to the back of the restaurant like a dragon’s tail.

You get chopsticks for your meal and the best part is the bad grammar on the packaging! Clearly it is a product of China.

Yanjing Beer ($5) is a light beer and does not have a strong hop taste to it. Its refreshing especially with BBQ.

Junmai Sour ($8.50) has fruit tea sake, gin, lemon, orange blossom and egg white.

Crunchy Squid Bao Buns ($2.50) is a unique twist on the steamed buns. It has calamari, scallions, coriander, chili salt and hot sauce. The batter of the squid was light and well seasoned. I enjoyed it.

Slow-Smoked Beef Deckie Bao Buns ($2.50) has minced meat, cabbage and candied peanuts. The filling inside would easily fall out, so be a bit careful when eating. I thought the beef was a bit on the dry side, but there was hints of a smokey flavour. The texture of the cabbage and the meat contrasted nicely.

Smoked and Roasted Half Pigs Head ($45) it is served with lemon, bacon bits, herb sauce as well as bean sprout kimchi and lettuce. This is meant to serve 4 -6 people. It does take a while to prepare, so it is best to get a few drinks or appies to not get bored waiting.

The cheeks were quite fatty, but it was so delicious and tender. It was like pork belly but on its face. Ange and I both devoured this without trouble! While we were eating it, several people did have to come to our table to check out 2 small Asian girls eating a pig’s head. It’s really not that big, but we were able to survive through it.

Don’t spend too long eating this because when it gets cold, the fat does solidify. We didn’t run into any issues since it stayed warm for a long time.

We took a little bit of everything and put it into the lettuce. I found that the lettuce and the bean sprout kimchi is needed to enjoy the meat! It gives it a refreshing crunch, plus the taste of fat will not overwhelm your tastebuds.

Jasmine Hot Tea ($2.75 per pot) was definitely needed after the pig head to aid digestion. I always have a habit of drinking tea after fatty meals. Ange ordered the Vanilla Oolong tea ($2.75 per pot) and it did smell very fragrant and sweet, but it did not taste sweet.

Fat Dragon Chocolate Bars ($7.50 each) was a bit disappointing when it arrived at the table. We did not expect it would actually be just chocolate bars. It seemed ordinary, but the 2 kinds do have interesting flavours.

Milk chocolate with crispy rice, toasted coconut and ceylon cinnamon.

Dark Chocolate with smoked peanuts, candied ginger and sea salt.

Overall, nothing too Chinese here, but the BBQ is pretty good. I saw lots of people ordering ribs. We didn’t ordering too many variety of items, but the pig head was fun to devour.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking on the street after 6pm
  • Some items can be expensive
  • Good for BBQ

We Rate Fat Dragon BBQ:

Address:
566 Powell Street
Vancouver, BC
Website: http://fatdragonbbq.com/

Fat Dragon on Urbanspoon


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