lunch Archives - Page 10 of 10

In Downtown

Ha Long Bay Vietnamese Restaurant: Good Addition to Pender St.

July 15, 2011

Its interesting when restaurants close and a new one pops up. In the case of The Best Pho House, it looked sketchy as hell. A few weeks ago, a new Pho restaurant called Ha Long Bay opened up. The definitely refreshed the look of the exterior and changed it to a bright blue. It seemed more welcoming, so Mandu and I headed out for some lunch.

The interior is quite small, but there were enough tables for the rest of the lunch crowd. The server was super awkward most of the time as well. This must be run by a family since this young girl kept filling up our tea and clearing out dishes.

Looking at the menu, there are the usual items you would expect in a Vietnamese restaurant. There are also pictures surrounding the walls of the restaurant, so you can see what it looks like before ordering. Everyone loves pictures, I sure do! Honestly, if you are new to the cuisine, you would want to some pictures to see what you are getting.

Mandu and I needed coffee as usual, so we ordered the Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk ($3.25). Some say this is really strong coffee, but I love it! It is basically drip coffee with condensed milk to give it a little bit of sweetness. No complaints here.

I ordered the Grilled lemon grass chicken sandwich ($4.75) and it was a decent size for the price. It had some juicy lemon grass chicken meat, pickled vegetables, cilantro and cucumber in a bun.

I found that the bun was a bit too much for my liking, there was obviously more bread than filling. Since the meat is in several pieces, there were parts where I felt it could have had more meat. It was still a good sandwich and the price is not bad at all.

Grilled pork with spring roll with vermicelli ($7.75). It comes with a bowl of sauce as well. I think Mandu did not have taste buds this day because either her taste buds were not working or the dish did not have a lot of taste. She used 2 cups of that sauce in it. Other than that, it was pretty good.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Decent food
Coffee is a must for the coffee drinkers!
Closest Skytrain: Waterfront

We Rate Ha Long Bay Vietnamese Restaurant:

Address:

430 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

E-Mo Noodle House + Wang Ga Ma: H-Mart’s Hidden Food Court Downtown

July 11, 2011

Hidden at the H-Mart on Robson is a mini food court, which serves up some amazing Korean food! My Korean friends kept telling me to go there, but I thought it was the strangest things because many years ago, it wasn’t there. I am not exactly sure when they had the mini food court, but it’s super amazing! Since it is attached to H-Mart, you know they have fresh ingredients!

The 2 popular shops are E-Mo Noodle House and Wang Ga Ma. Once you walk in, you can look at their menus, walk to the counter, pay and wait for your number to pop up on the computer screen to see when your order is ready.

There are plenty of seats and you can grab your own water from the machine.

E-Mo Noodle House sells Korean-Style Chinese Food. There is very little on their menu that is remotely similar to Chinese Food. Actually there is really 0. I actually love Korean style Chinese food! It’s just so different and super tasty!

I went up to the counter and ordered the Fried Rice with Kimchi ($7.95). You get a large plate of kimchi fried rice and a side of pickled radish.

For the price, it’s a good value! It was not spicy at all and the flavours were really nice!! You gotta try this for yourself! One of the best Kimchi Fried Rice I have ever had!

Wang Ga Ma sells your authentic Korean food. I ordered the BBQ Beef ($8.95) and it came with rice, kimchi and soup.

You get a lot of beef with your meal and the soup does refresh your pallet. The beef is marinated in soy sauce, garlic, sugar and sesame oil (I think).

I was not a huge fan of this dish since it was way too meaty for me. If you are a meat lover, you will probably enjoy this.

When going through both the menus of E-Mo Noodle House and Wang Ga Ma, I actually liked E-Mo’s menu a bit better. Remember to clean up after yourself too.

Overall, great quick lunch that is super cheap!!

Words of Wisdom:

Kimchi Fried Rice is the way to go!
Under $10
Very fast for lunch
Closest Skytrain: Granville

We Rate E-Mo Noodle House/ Wang Ga Ma:

In Cafe

Save On Meats Coffee Shop: Meals of Disproportion

July 6, 2011

My oldest memory of Save-On-Meats was winning a gift certificate in elementary school, but my parents decided not to go redeem the certificate since it was in such a sketchy area. Fast forward 15+ years later and that part of Hastings isn’t too bad with the new addition of SFU Woodwards and some other amazing establishments.

There has been a lot of buzz about Save-On-Meats since it reopened and I wanted to see for myself if it lived up to expectations. Never really thought I would ever be dining at a place called Save On Meats. They have a butcher shop and a restaurant, so you get a bit of everything.

They also have a window area outside for take out.

The interior is super retro!

I went here on two occasions to give you a bigger scope of what’s on their menu.

Mandu and I needed Coffee ($2) since we really we SUPER tired out of our minds. The coffee here is just the usual. Comes with cream and sugar to mix. Mandu is particularly picky about what she puts into her coffee, so she asked for milk and sugar substitute. They had those both, so she was quite happy.

It’s unlimited refills, so do have more than a cup if you feel like… Mandu and I had about 3 or 4 cups.

Mandu and I shared the Soup of the Day ($5), I think it was a corn and clam soup. It had a nice smooth texture with nice balance of flavour. It also comes with a homemade biscuit. The biscuits are really good!

I ordered the Open Face Roast Chicken Sandwich ($8). It comes with juicy roasted chicken smothered in Brown Gravy, served with mashed potatoes, fries or coleslaw.

When it arrived, I was a bit disappointed. It really didn’t seem very exciting at all. The bread was nicely toasted and the chicken and gravy is always great together. Coleslaw was just ok too.

Mandu got the Linguini Carbonara ($8). It has bacon, wine and cheese, which as all of Mandu’s favorite items! She was really disappointed when it arrived. She expected it to be at least 2 times larger.

Nonetheless, she still enjoyed the taste of the pasta. Very rich and creamy with great smoky bacon! If you are health conscious and want to be bad for just one day, eat this and don’t feel super guilty afterwards.

After the first time coming here, it wasn’t anything extraordinary at all. A few days later, I came with @wongers and @FloYVR to eat more!

Wongers was feeling like a beast, so she decided to eat 2 entrees.

She started with the ribs ($9) and had fries and warm biscuit for her sides. This rib was huge! An amazing price for just $9! The meat was very tender and the bones literally just fell off. The taste was not your usual BBQ sauce; we all agreed it kinda tasted “Asian”. The sauce had a large amount of tomato paste flavour with a little bit of spiciness. This reminded us of the baked pork cutlet from the HK style cafes.

The Savory Pie ($9) is their daily potpie served with mashed potatoes or green salad. She ordered it with mashed potatoes.

The pie was a bit on the small side compared to the ribs. Same price but there is a considerable portion difference. The chicken in the pie was dry and the only way to moisten it up was to pour the gravy all over it.

The mashed potatoes were really really good! Nice and fluffy! Great with the gravy too.

Flo ordered the famous Save On Meats Burger ($6). It comes on a toasted brioche bun, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, mayo and bacon. Also a side of fries too!

She loved it! The meat patty was very fresh and unlike anything else she had before.

I was having a very bloated day, so I just had the Chopped chicken Salad ($7). It has diced chicken, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, avocado, and celery.

This was a very simple salad and it seemed like something I could make at home. I also couldn’t taste the dressing as well. I thought the salad would be bigger as well since I looked at Wonger’s ribs and the proportions were very different.

I then ordered the Banana Triple Thick Milk Shake ($4). This was so good! I love bananas so that’s why. The whole time I was drinking it, Wongers just cringed in fear because she hates bananas. Since the shake came with an extra tin of left overs, I gave it to Flo since she wanted some too.

The best part of the milkshake is the lumpy bits of banana. By far the best banana milk shake I have ever had.

Since I took the last banana for the milkshake, they were unable to make a banana split. The server promised us a Special Dessert ($6), which would blow our minds.

We agreed and awaited the suspenseful dessert to arrive. It has 2 scoops of ice cream, lots of whipped cream + cherry, chocolate sauce, walnuts, marshmallows and their famous house made cookies.This is a large dessert! We were actually expecting something smaller. We all just shared it. This really brought out the kid in us! Their ice cream is made in-house as well as their baked goods! We were surprised, but it made us appreciate the food more.

Overall, we all agreed they had fun desserts and amazing milkshakes. One problem we had were the varying portion sizes and how hard it was to figure out if that dish would fill you up. A few items were a hit and miss, but you can’t go wrong with the Ribs or the Save on Meats Burger.

Words of Wisdom:

Save-On-Meats Burger, Ribs, Milk Shake, + Cookies recommended
Under $10
Very retro and hip interior
Everything is house made
Closest Skytrain: Stadium

We Rate Save On Meats:

Address:

43 W Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
saveonmeats.ca

In Downtown

Dae Ji: Kimchi Roll Cutlet

July 3, 2011

Another quick lunch with my coworker and since it was raining, we wanted to choose something close by and not too expensive.

We ended up at Dae Ji, the Korean restaurant specializing in pork cutlet. The last time, I was here, I didn’t get the kimchi roll cutlet, but it’s always been on my mind. Today was time to put that curiosity to rest.

The Kimchi Roll Cutlet ($8.99) is cut up into 8 pieces and surrounded by some savory gravy. It also comes with coleslaw, macaroni, corn, pickled radish and rice.

The kimchi roll cutlet was not too bad. If you eat the roll without the sauce, the meat does not taste too moist and quite dry. It’s best to really slather it in the gravy.

The macaroni was quite bad and the other sides were not very special.

It’s a good quick lunch that just gets you filled up.

Words of Wisdom:

A block away from Granville Skytrain
Pay Parking on street
All items are under $10, very cheap

We Rate Dae Ji:

Address:

519 Dunsmuir Street
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

East Fusion Food: “Design Your Own Combo” Lunch

June 19, 2011

Mandu and I were out to lunch again. We always seem to have similar working schedules, so it just seems right to grab lunch since we are a skytrain apart.

One day. I was passing by Tinseltown, I saw this crazy open restaurant across from this Daiso looking store. They had some pretty good priced lunch, so I really wanted to try it.

The space is very open, so you do get a lot of natural light from the windows of the mall.

Looking at the menu, they have a “design your own combo” for $9.95. You choose a soup, appetizer and main and it’s just that simple. At this point, we really didn’t know if the quality would be good or not. We were prepared if this was bad or not since its only $10.

I started off with the Spicy & Sour Seafood Soup. Very good balance between the spicy and sour! I usually don’t get this soup, but I wanted to take a gamble and I really liked it!

Mandu started off with the Sweet corn Seafood Soup. It was an average corn soup. It was good.

For the appetizer, we had the vegetarian Spring Roll and the Deep-fried shrimp wontons. They both were nicely fried and just tasted average. Nothing too exciting but really was not bad at all.

For the main, Mandy chose the Coconut Curry chicken with rice. She really enjoyed the dish. Very good and it came with a lot of sauce! You won’t run into that problem where you have too much rice and not enough sauce.

I ordered the Beef with Satay sauce in fried crispy noodle. The dish was pretty good as well. Lots of good sizable beef slices and the noodles were deliciously crunchy. I am usually picky about how crunchy my noodles are and they did not disappoint.

Overall, we were super surprised at how decent the food was for such a good price. The service did suck though. The waitress was not very good at all; she was hard to wave down and was very slow in getting us more tea and the bill. I’m usually ok with it, but what ticks me off is when you and the server make eye contact and acknowledges that you need service…but never comes back.

Words of Wisdom:

Cheap lunch specials, most items under $10
Closest Skytrain – Stadium
“Design your own combo” is a good choice if you want to try several items
Service is a bit slow

We rate East Fusion Food:

Address:

88 West Pender St.
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Cham Mani: Good Quick Lunch Combos

June 15, 2011

A new Korean restaurant opened up on Pender and I just wanted to check it out. The interior seemed very simple and would work for a quick lunch.

Cham Mani serves the usual Korean dishes such as Kimbop, Ramyun, Duk Bok Gi and rice. There are several Korean restaurants that serve about the same type of item. Notably the closest restaurant that is almost the same as Cham Mani is Kimbob & Ramyun.

Their menu is pretty straight forward if you know what’s what on the menu. If not, perhaps it’s best to ask the cashier what they would recommend.

Like most Korean restaurants, water, tea and utensils are all self serve.

I started off with Combo B – Ramyun and Kimbop ($7.95). It comes with 2 sides – pickled radish and kimchi radish. They tasted all right but they were not the best sides I have ever eaten. I think they might have made the sides themselves.

The Ramyun was also pretty good! This dish is essentially just instant noodles. I was just expecting to just be instant noodle in a pot. They add vegetables like bean sprouts and onions into it to taste better. It totally worked!

The Kimbop was made very well. Kimbop is just the Korean version of sushi. It held firm, sliced nicely and tasted good. I love to dip my kimbop into the ramyun soup, but maybe that’s just my way of eating things. ..not sure if anyone else does that.

Mandu ordered Combo C – Duk Bok Gi and Kimbop ($6.95). Mandu’s meal didn’t come with side dishes, so she did feel a bit sad. I am sure the waitress just forgot to give it to her.

She agreed the kimbop was pretty good. She was also craving it today, so it worked out perfectly! The Duk Bok Gi is Korean rice cake with hot sauce. She loved it because it was not just rice cake and hot sauce. They had a bit of vegetables into it as well. It was pretty spicy too.

Overall, Cham Mani is affordable and is great for quick lunchs. It is slighly better tasting than Kimbob E Ramyun, but Cham Mani’s decor is not very nice.

Words of Wisdom:

Closest Skytrain – Granville or Waterfront
Under $10
Best deal is with the combos
Quick fast lunch
Small restaurant, not good for large groups.

We Rate Cham Mani:

Address:

529 West Pender St
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Nuba: Amazing for Lunch

May 31, 2011

Since another one of my coworkers was leaving, it was another lunch outing at the office. We chose Nuba since it was a decent walk from the office and has a reputation for delicious food. They did not take reservations, so we needed to come up with a plan to steal a table for 8. One of my coworkers and I just hopped down there 30 mins. earlier to wait for a table, to our surprise there was an empty 8 person table. This was PERFECT! All the tables were packed…. Except for the large table.

Nuba has a pretty good selection for the lunch menu. I stuck by choosing one of the plate options rather than the Pita options are because you get hummus, tabouleh, and tzatziki. Those were the 3 things I really wanted to taste since it’s been a while since I visited Nuba.

My Coworker ordered the pita and even though it was quite large, she was a bit disappointed because it did not look as impressive as the plate.

I ordered the Lamb Kibbeh Sainish ($12). It has 2 halal lamb patties, lots of vegetables, pine nuts, burghul (kinda like rice). Of course it did include the hummas, tabouleh, and tzatziki. A lot of the flavours are very strong and does takes your taste buds to the middle east, but they work so well together that you will not be overwhelmed.

The halal lamb patties were similar to the meat you would find at the donair/ shawarma places. (But of course better!). You really need to smother the patties with the tzatziki sauce.

Overall, great lunch at an affordable price! I would totally come here again for lunch. (Dinner is good too).

Words of Wisdom:

Go for the plate options and you will not be disappointed
Under $15
Hummas + tabouleh is so good!
Vegetarian friendly

We Rate Nuba:

Address:

207 W Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
nuba.ca

In Cafe

Next Noodle Bar: Quick and Easy Lunch

May 15, 2011

Another lunch, another restaurant, but today I found it so difficult to choose where to go, so I strolled up and down Robson Street and saw this restaurant – Next Noodle Bar. I thought it sounded cool and the food items did not seem very expensive, so I took a seat inside.

The inside of the restaurant is quite large.

They have a large menu, but I decided to stick to the lunch specials because it was quick. If I had an unlimited lunch break, I would probably go elsewhere. Sadly, in reality, we do have to be limited to 1 hr…or less sometimes.

I chose the Egg Foo Young ($7.95). It has the egg omelet with shredded chicken, and sweet chili sauce. Inside the omelet, I really could not identify the vegetables in the omelet because it was so well cooked that it became crunchy near the sides.

This dish also comes with daily soup, almond pudding, bok choy and salty peanuts.

I did not really have a liking to this dish. The sweet chili sauce threw me off and it did not go well with the dish. I have never had egg foo young before, so I don’t have a benchmark of what it should taste like. All I know is that this dish was not for me.

For $8, it was not a bad price! The food did come quick and there seems to be a few good items on their menu.

In addition to the meal, I ordered the Fried Chicken Wings ($5). It comes with about 6 pieces of chicken wings. These were well prepared and it is the type of chicken wings I love! Simple and deep-fried! The size of the wings were quite large and had lots of meat. I’d come back just to have the chicken wings.

Overall, the food was cheap and don’t expect all-star quality at these prices but you will be somewhat satisfied.

Word of Wisdom:

Under $10 lunch special
Good for lunch if in a time crunch
Fried Chicken Wings
Some items are a hit and miss

We Rate Next Noodle Bar:

Address:

560 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Aki Japanese Restaurant: Hidden Gem

May 13, 2011

TaiwaneseGirl and I were hunting for a place right in the middle of where I work and where she lives. Aki Japanese Restaurant on Thurlow sounded pretty good.

Aki Japanese Restaurant is hard to locate if you just pass by. You have to go down a flight of stairs to get there. TaiwaneseGirl was super late to lunch. She first somehow wrote down the wrong address and ended up at Canada Place. She eventually came close to the restaurant but couldn’t find it at all even though I was trying to guide her while talking on the phone. She passes by this block often and she swears there is no Japanese Restaurant…guess who proved her wrong. Hahaha.

Apparently I remember going here 3 years ago but I don’t remember a thing at all. I even have a business card from them, but yet again I don’t remember anything. There are days when having a food blog is handy, clearly it is true that I have a short memory. I don’t remember eating either… I must have been drugged! JK I think I was a birthday party but didn’t eat since I came late.

It was lunch time and I heard they had decent priced lunch. Sure enough the lunches are cheap and decent quality.

TaiwaneseGirl started off with the Tuna Nigiri ($1.95) and Sockeye Salmon Nigiri ($2.25). She was impressed by the thickness of the sashimi as well as the quality. The pieces are not as big as Sushitown in Burnaby, but the quality is there!

She then got the Katsu Donburi ($7.75). It comes with miso soup and pickled vegetables. It is a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried pork cutlet, egg, and sauce. She got really full after this.

I ordered the Lunch Box A ($10.75). This combo has miso soup, sunomono, short ribs, tuna and salmon sashimi, chicken karrage, pickled vegetables and rice. This was amazing! Cheap and good quality! I would totally have this again and again! You get a little bit of everything and you are not spending a fortune on this.

Overall, we really enjoyed our experience! For a lunch, everything did some quickly so I was not late going back to the office.

Words of Wisdom:

Closest Skytrain: Burrard
Decent pricing
Good quality
Lunch Boxes best for lunch

We Rate Aki Japanese Restaurant:

Address:

745 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

2001 Flavours Pizza: Cheap and Fast

May 11, 2011

2001 Flavours on Seymour has been a very popular pizza joint which rivals a majority of all the pizza joints in that area. Even though their prices are a few cents higher than the other pizza places, it still remains a favorite amongst their customers.

As for their name, I doubt they have 2001 flavours. It reminded me of the gelato place on venables….but with pizza. Unfortunately, they only have a hand full of flavours per day. Don’t go in expecting 50+ flavours since they probably only have maximum of 8 at a time.

I have not been to a majority of the pizza restaurants, but I am willing to pay a bit more for some good pizza. I came here a year ago and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the pizza. It is just the way I like it.

I came here for lunch the other day for a quick cheap bite. I found it funny how it is located beside 2 pizza places.

I got their 2 pizza and a pop combo ($4.75). I got the meal lovers and peperoni, green peppers and mushrooms.

The pizza slices are quite sizable with lots of toppings. The meat lovers had ground meat, peperoni and bacon bits. I thought it was very good because the dough is thin so the bottom is crunchy. I love this type of pizza where it is crispy throughout.

I did spend a while eating the first slice since it was big and I didn’t want to get sauce on my face. Because I ate so slow, my other pizza got cold and the pizza was not very crunchy anymore. Boo…urns. (Simpsons reference). I still did enjoy the pizza even though it was cold, I do love mushrooms. They could have had more mushrooms on the pizza.

Overall, good deal for under $5. Its quick and satisfying. If you are watching your waist line, you may not enjoy this. Carbs, FAT, Carbs, FAT. Its good to have pizza once in a while. 2001 Flavours is in no way your artisan pizzas or anything fancy shmancy. It is the large greasy slices of pizza people just love.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $5
Take out/Sit in
Limited seating

We Rate 2001 Flavours Pizza:

Address:

595 West Pender
Vancouver

In BBQ

Peckinpah: BBQ House in Gastown

April 15, 2011

Mandu and I wanted to grab some lunch, so I gave her a list of random restaurants and she chose Peckinpah because it was close to the office and wouldn’t break our wallets. Peckinpah is a BBQ house located in the heart of Gastown. They specialize in Carolina style BBQ and offer a wide selection of beer and alcoholic drinks.

The service was quite slow during their lunch hour and less than half the restaurant was full. We probably spent 30 minutes waiting when our lunch break isn’t really that long. 15 mins to order + 30 min waiting – 1 hr lunch = 15 mins of eating. We ate fast! Mandu ate so fast that she got stomach pains after.

Mandu ordered the Jalapeno Pork Sausage Sandwich ($ 8.50). It is a Pork sausage with roast peppers and onions in a french style bun.

She didn’t expect it to be basically a hot dog. Having the combination of the bun and the sausage posed problems for Mandu. She suggested that this would be better if they sliced up the sausage and then put it onto the bun. She did enjoy the taste of the sausage, very meaty and had a good kick of heat from the jalapeno.

We did also get a choice of a side and she chose the hush puppies. These are not shoes but rather deep fried cornbread balls. Embedded inside the ball were also bits of corn. We both liked the hush puppies and it seemed like it was a very popular dish since everyone else close to us ordered it too.

I ordered the Oyster Po’boy ($11.50). It is a sandwich with deep-fried oysters on french bread with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I remember my first time having an Oyster Po’boy at The Kaboom Box (AKA Fresh Local Wild) Food Cart and I enjoyed it!

I did not love this version of oyster Po’boy at Peckinpah, the bun was difficult to eat, so the filling would fall out, so I used my knife and fork. I really wanted to go down and dirty with the sandwich but it was way too messy. The oysters were a bit on the small side so it was hard to enjoy their full flavour and the texture of the oyster.

For my side I ordered creamed corn. Pretty average and nothing special.

Overall, I would not go back to pay those prices since there are better alternatives in the neighbourhood. The french style bread did not work very well with the sandwiches and made the eating process very difficult.

I would come back if I was in the area late at night. They have really good deals from 12am to 2am on Fri and Sat. This either means you gotta be living close by or partying it up in a nearby club/ bar (Fabric, Post Modern, Lamplights, Blarney….etc)

Words of Wisdom: