Type Archives - Page 62 of 125

In Fast Food

Chop n Toss: Healthy Food Court Options

June 27, 2015

Chop n Toss is a newer addition to the Metropolis at Metrotown Food Court located near The Bay. It’s hard to find a somewhat healthier option at the mall. Most items are deep-fried or reheated. When I saw Chop n Toss, I thought I would give it a try.

They started off as Garden Fresh Salad with Style in 2004, which was a salad bar. The owners transformed it into Chop n Toss that is different that the usual salad bar. They have wraps, panini’s, salads, noodle boxes, rice boxes, and juice.

You can design your own salad or wrap by picking whatever ingredients you want.

You can also choose their already designed salads, noodle box, rice box, panini’s, and wraps to make the picking a lot easier.

Thai Chicken has peanuts, iceberg lettuce, mangoes, tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, sesame seeds, and tossed with their Thai vinaigrette dressing.

Overall, I did enjoy it. Much better option that getting a burger. It’s summer, I gotta be healthy or at least attempt to be.

We Rate Chop n Toss:

Location:
Metropolis at Metrotown, Food Court, Upper Level,
4820 Kingsway, Burnaby

Website:
http://chopandtoss.ca/

In Cafe

Che-Licious: Bahn Mi and Vietnamese Dessert in the West End

June 26, 2015

Che-Licious is located in the West End close the English Bay. They serve up Vietnamese classics like bahn mi, salad rolls, skewers, and of course their speciality – Che – Vietnamese dessert.

I’ve seen lots of pictures from this place on Instagram and on my Facebook feed, so I decided that I would take a trip out here during lunch to catch up with Wongers and of course eat.

There are a good amount of tables in here. It may be hard fitting a large group, but 2’s or 4’s would work well.

Chè-Licious Special ($6.50) is filled with pandan jelly, agar jelly, pom pearls, toddy palm, jackfruit, longan, coconut milk and ice. What I love about Che is that its so colourful. I remember going to pho restaurants and this would be every kids dream.

With each slurp and spoonful of Che, I really had no idea what I was eating. You get the dominant flavour of the coconut milk and then the textures of all the jellies. They are really generous with the amount of jellies.

They have a good variety of che ingredients as you can see from their list. Not bad at all.

Saigon Signature ($6.50) has various cold cut meats, BBQ pork, pork floss, pate, served with pickled veggies, cucumber, cilantro, house made mayo with optional jalapeño.

The best part was the bread! Crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. As for the ingredients inside of the sandwich, I wish there was more pate. I love me some good pate.

Ducking Good ($6.75) has roasted duck, ginger, scallion with pickled veggies, cucumber, cilantro, house made mayo with optional jalapeño. The ingredient to bun ratio seemed a bit off for this sandwich, but the duck was pretty awesome and it had it’s skin intact.

Overall, the bahn mi is a bit more expensive compared to other places, but that bun is delicious. What makes this place stand out are their varieties of che, you don’t see it anywhere else. Most places just have one option.

We Rate Che-Licious:

Address:
1120 Denman Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.che-licious.com/

In Brunch

Lakeside Cafe: Breakfast at Harrison Hot Springs

June 24, 2015

Lakeside Cafe is located on the second floor of the Harrison Hot Springs Resort and Spa. We came here around 8:30am to partake in their breakfast buffet. It starts at 7am and goes on till 11am on the weekdays or 12pm on the weekends.

Lakeside Cafe offers dinner too and it’s much more casual than the Copper Room.

The interior is a bit dated, so sitting inside really reminded me of a 90s buffet. We opted to sit outdoors on the patio.

The view is stunning on the patio. If you aren’t too afraid to be a tad chilly, definitely sit outside.

After we were seated, the servers offered us coffee and tea to start off the breakfast buffet. They also give us a pot of coffee so we can refill it at any time.

You can alternatively get some juice if you like. You can’t go wrong with orange juice.

Their most popular feature is their omelette bar. The man that takes care of this area is hilarious! He’s great to chat with and makes all the guests laugh. You can also have plain eggs too if you don’t want an omelette.

You can choose from a variety of toppings.

Once everything is in the pan, you can wait till it cooks. It does take a while and the line is a tad long, but its worth it.

There is a cereal area with oatmeal and different toppings like nuts and dried fruit.

There is also a section for yogurt and fresh fruit.

There is a bread and toast area. When you use the toaster, be ready to catch the toast as it likes to fly out of the toaster.

There’s also the heated food area that I didn’t take pictures of. They have, waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages, etc. A decent amount of options, but we all know that bacon and sausages are the most important.

I got the omelette packed with a bit of everything. Smoked salmon, sausages and a pile of bacon.

They have fresh fruit, but the fruit was a bit mushy like it’s been siting in some sort of liquid for a while. Definitely could have been more fresh.

M got a little bit of everything, but we both agreed that the quality was pretty average. The options are a bit limited in the buffet and could used more protein options. It was around ~$20 for the breakfast buffet, which is pricey because no one really needs to eat huge portions for breakfast. If you are a huge eater, maybe this is for you.

After we had the breakfast buffet, we took a stroll around the lake. In the morning, you’ll see a lot of wildlife around.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa and my meal was comped. All thoughts are my own.

We Rate Lakeside Cafe:

Address:
100 Esplanade Ave,
Harrison Hot Springs, BC

Website:
http://www.harrisonresort.com/Lakeside-Cafe.aspx

In Dessert

Icepik Shavery: Flavoured Shaved Ice

June 22, 2015

Have you seen this adorably cute penguin on Kingsway near Joyce?

Icepik Shavery just opened last April and they serve up flavoured shaved ice with yummy toppings. It is similar to Frappe Bliss in Aberdeen Mall. It’s a great addition to the Collingwood area and we can never have too many dessert shops.

Foodobyte, FoodQueen, EatingwithKirby and I came here as we kept seeing so many delicious pictures on Instagram. We do what we do best – eat!

There are 4 steps to creating your Icepik creation:

Pick your size
Pick your favour
Pick your toppings
Add any sauces on top

If you find it too hard to choose what to put into your dessert, choose their combos so you don’t have to make that decision. Sadly, you can’t make any substitutions on these.

They make the dessert by shaving up the blocks of flavoured ice, then all the toppings go on top.

Fresh Pik’d Fruit (Regular $5.85) has mango snow cream with mango, strawberries, house made rice cakes, and mango jelly.

It’s a good combination of toppings and they really pile it on top. Looks like a snow mountain. I love fruit, so I gravitated to this option. Its half way between traditional shaved ice and frozen yogurt.

Emperor’s Pik (Regular $5.85) has green tea snow cream, house made rice cakes, grass jelly, mango and lychee jelly.

Penguin Pik (Regular $5.85) has black sesame snow cream with house made rice cakes, oreo crumble, grass jelly, and tapioca pearls.

We thought all 3 needed a generous dose of condensed milk on top. It really enhances the flavours! Just stick with condensed milk, no need for the other syrups. With the hot summer heat making its way to Vancouver, this will be a popular spot to have dessert to cool down.

We Rate Icepik Shavery:

Address:
3377 Kingsway, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.icepikshavery.com/

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: Chocolate Nanaimo Sundae

June 20, 2015

Throughout June, McDonalds is featuring 5 different ‘Canadian’ menu items for a limited time. It’s supposed to show off the flavour profiles of Canada.

I swear, this will be my last post about McDonalds this month ok? I finally finished trying all 5 items for their Summer promotion.

Chocolate Nanaimo Sundae has the soft vanilla ice cream base, with fudge and the Nanaimo crumble on top.

It really reminds me of the Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake because of the different textures and it has similar ingredients. Not bad at all. It was a pleasant surprise. The crumble is a tad sweet, but it still is missing that classic yellow cream thats part of a Nanaimo bar.

Being from British Columbia, I thought it was weird how it represents our province.

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: McLobster

June 19, 2015

Throughout June, McDonalds is featuring 5 different ‘Canadian’ menu items for a limited time. It’s supposed to show off the flavour profiles of Canada.

It’s finally here! MCLOBSTER! I’ve been waiting years to get my hands on this because I didn’t want to travel to the East Coast. It costs $7.49 for only the sandwich, but if you want the combo, it is around $10. Definitely more expensive than their other menu items.

The McLobster represents the Atlantic provinces. In the soft buttery roll is shredded lettuce and the lobster/lemon/sauce/celery mixture. I’m not exactly sure whats in it, but there is a dominant lemon taste.

What I found with the sandwich is that it is VERY inconsistent when it comes to the amount and quality of lobster.

I went with about 10 of my coworkers to McDonalds and the group consensus was that it was decent, but they wouldn’t order it again. It was fun to try and tell others they tried it.

This one didn’t have large chunks but it it had lot of smaller pieces. More like a mush.

This one had 2 huge pieces but the middle was quite sparse. I’m sure they have some sort of quality control, but it’s really not seen. When I went on Instagram, the amount of filling varied so much.

In Bubble Tea

Express Bubble Tea: Smoothies at Deep Cove

June 18, 2015

I’ve gotten into hiking in the last few weeks. Vancouver is just so beautiful that I need to soak up as much sun as possible before the rain comes back in the Fall. I can’t eat out all the time. I have to balance out all the eating somehow right? Deep Cove for the Quarry Rock hike is my favourite since it’s short and there’s a great view. It’s no Grouse Grind, but it will do for now.

We wanted to grab a juice or smoothie after the hike since we were thirsty and hot. Looking at the limited options at Deep Cove, we decided to check out Express Bubble Tea.

We saw that they sell fresh fruit smoothies, so we made this our stop.

They have a loyalty program, so you can see all the stamp cards on all their walls. I thought it was also weird how they were storing the fruit in the boxes on the floor.

Pineapple Strawberry smoothie ($5.49) wasn’t exactly fresh as they advertised. They did use real strawberries, but their pineapples were canned. You know, the ones that are preserved and dunked in syrup. I could taste the canned pineapple taste. It’s quite distinct to me since I hate them on pizza.

My friend ordered a Gyros Sandwich and they just microwave the meat to get it warmed up. I had a look of disgust on my face, but I felt like they were not pass a food safety test. He didn’t get sick, but it weirded me out.

My other friend got the peach and mango smoothie and requested no sugar to be added. The person at the shop didn’t listen and put in a few pumps of liquid sugar. Also, all her fruits were canned instead of the fresh fruit as advertised.

Perhaps I’ve grown to have higher standards for smoothies? I think I was just more mad that the fruit wasn’t 100% fresh for the smoothies.

We Rate Bubble Tea Express:

Address:
4377 Gallant Avenue,
North Vancouver

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: Western BBQ Burger

June 17, 2015

Throughout June, McDonalds is featuring 5 different ‘Canadian’ menu items for a limited time. It’s supposed to show off the flavour profiles of Canada.

Western BBQ Burger represents Alberta because they are best known for their beef. It has a quarter pounder patty, BBQ Sauce, crispy onions, bacon, and white cheddar.

The bun is the same as the Cottage Country Chicken with the sesame seeds and poppy seeds.

It tasted like a quarter pounder with BBQ sauce. There could have been a bit more onions to it too. It didn’t seem like anything special. I probably wouldn’t get this again. But then again, since it’s only available till June 16th, I can’t get it in the future anyways.

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: Maple and Bacon Poutine

June 16, 2015

Throughout June, McDonalds is featuring 5 different ‘Canadian’ menu items for a limited time. It’s supposed to show off the flavour profiles of Canada.

I’m not sure why I’m so compelled to try these all, but I find the new items pretty cool especially the McLobster.

Maple and Bacon Poutine is similar to their poutines in the past, but it has bacon and maple gravy on top. The Poutine is supposed to represent Quebec for their love of poutine and maple syrup.

When I opened the box, it smelled insanely sweet. The taste was actually ok, but I don’t like sweet and savoury mixing in my meals. I wouldn’t order this again.

In Cafe

Take Five Cafe: Stopping for a Beverage

June 15, 2015

Inside the main entrance of Pacific Centre in Downtown Vancouver is Take Five Cafe. It’s been here as long as I can remember. They have about nine locations in the Lower Mainland.

There’s plenty of seats in the area as its in the Pacific Centre atrium area.

I came here with M as our friends were getting married in the Four Seasons. I needed a coffee to cure my headache and Take Five Cafe was closest.

Chocolate Frappini is perfect for a hot day. Imagine it like a frappuccino. M said the beverage was ok, but it had a lot of chunks of ice in it. He had to stir it around until it melted to slurp up some more.

Cappuccino was great. Light frothy foam up on top. No complaints here.

They definitely have a lot of competition since there are a handful of coffeeshops in the area like Starbucks, Cafe Artigiano, Blenz, etc.

We Rate Take Five Cafe:

Address:
Pacific Centre,
700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.takefivecafe.ca/

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: Cottage Country Chicken Sandwich

June 13, 2015

Throughout June, McDonalds is featuring 5 different ‘Canadian’ menu items for a limited time. It’s supposed to show off the flavour profiles of Canada.

For the first week, we went to grab the Cottage Country Chicken Burger that represents Ontario’s Cottage Country. I’ve never been there, so I really have no idea what it’s like there. One day I’ll make my way there, but in the meantime, I’ll eat this burger.

Inside the toasted bun is the fried chicken patty, lettuce, tomato, and smokey Muskoka sauce.

Overall, the Cottage Country Chicken Burger was pretty good. The chicken is moist, the cheese and that Muskoka sauce is awesome. M could eat that sauce with everything.

I can’t wait to try the McLobster! It’s always only been available on the East Coast, but finally I can give it a try without flying all the way there.

In Downtown

K&J: Austrian Food Truck in Vancouver

June 12, 2015

K & J’s Food Truck features an Austrian menu crafted by a Baron Klaus Erich von Hochgotz. I have no idea if thats his real name. I saw them near Main and Terminal, so I had to give them a try since I don’t usually wander too far to find new food trucks.

With the amazing Summer weather, its hard not to visit a food truck and eat your food in the sun.

The line ups are not very long as their menu isn’t very large.

The main item on the menu are schnitzel sandwiches with different sauces and topping add-ons. They also have smoothies and salad.

Wiener Schnitzel Sandwich ($10) has a huge schnitzel that is thin, breaded and deep fried veal with spinach, tomatoes and sauce. The sandwich was pretty bad and it needed something to balance out the fried schnitzel. The bread was quite hard and didn’t seem well executed. The schnitzel was so large that it was very difficult to eat. I needed a knife and fork to eat this without getting it all over myself.

We Rate K&J Austrian Food Truck:

Website:
http://kandjfoodservices.wix.com/kandjfoodtruck

Location:
Varies. Check http://streetfoodapp.com/vancouver/k-j

In Downtown

Coast: Happy Hour in Downtown

June 11, 2015

Coast is part of the Glowbal Group of restaurants and they specialize in seafood. They bring together West Coast flavours with fresh local seafood.

They have a special cocktail hour from 2:30pm till 5:30pm. On this menu, there is $5 beer and wine as well as oysters, appies, entrees, sushi and sashimi. We rushed from work to make it on time.

As we arrived, the waitress was a bit rushed and impatient about ordering. With 20 minutes to spare, we put in our order but then the waitress was a bit rude and told us we only have 4 minutes to make another order. She was very precise in saying 4 minutes. Not 5 minutes, just 4. You can tell Happy Hour doesn’t bring happiness to the staff since they get slammed with orders.

For a nicer restaurant, I’m not sure why the service is so poor.

Kirin Beer ($5) is a light beer thats crisp and smooth.
Warsteiner ($5) was pretty good, it has a clean, crisp, refreshing taste.

Both good choices to go with the food they serve. Light beers go well with seafood and fried foods.

Kusshi Oyster ($3.70 each) tastes clean, mildly sweet, delicate, and meaty. It’s one of my favourite types of oysters.

Beni Sake Salmon Sashimi ($6.50)
Toro Tuna Belly Sashimi ($7.50)

Both were good.

Smoked Salmon Flatbread ($16.95) has dill crème fraîche, red onion capers, and arugula. It is a filling item to order and there’s a good amount of smoked salmon on top.

Crispy Garlic Calamari ($14.95) is topped with fresno chillies, cilantro, and a lime aioli. It wasn’t very crispy after a while, it got quite limp.

Overall, the food was alright, but nothing very special. I would still prefer to go to a Japanese restaurant to get food like this. Even with the food 50% off, it was still a tad expensive.

We rate Coast:

Address:
1054 Alberni Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.glowbalgroup.com/coast/

In lunch

Tea Wok Cafe: Bubble Tea near Science World

June 9, 2015

Tea Wok opened right under Columbia College on Terminal close to Science World. The cafe is pretty hidden and you will probably only notice it if you walk around this area. They serve up Taiwanese dishes, bubble tea and dessert.

Their menu is quite limited and is not like the full Tea Wok Restaurant. When we came, they said their fryer was broken so they couldn’t make any other that good salt peppery chicken.

The interior isn’t too large inside, but can still fit large groups if its not busy. During lunch time I did notice most people did do take out.

Jasmine Green Tea is always a cold drink that I enjoy. I find that it was a tad sweeter than most places, so I should have ordered it half sweet.

Minced Pork with marinated egg on rice was one of their lunch specials. It’s pretty basic for a lunch meal and there wasn’t anything special about it.

A lot of the food on the menu is more like Asian fast food. The food is average and nothing special.

We Rate Tea Wok Cafe:

Address:
418 Terminal Avenue,
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://teawok.com/

In Dessert

Qoola: Froyo at Pacific Centre

June 8, 2015

I love myself some good froyo when its hot in the summer. Sometimes I feel like I can’t function at all when it gets higher than 26 degrees (celsius). Qoola opened in Pacific Centre in the food court with a smaller space than they normally have. There’s no seating inside, but theres tons of seats in the food court.

They have 8 different kinds of frozen yogurt, but I always go with the original tart flavour. Before you dive into a flavour, you can try them to see if any of the flavoured ones taste good.

I gravitate towards the fruit section for the toppings. I’m all about the fresh fruits. I found this location doesn’t have a large variety of fresh fruits. I could see strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and mango. The others are canned fruits in syrup.

They have lots of other toppings like chocolate, gummies, nuts, cookies, etc.

Original Froyo with mango, blueberries, oranges, lychee and kiwi flavoured balls. I found the original froyo to be enjoyable, but I still wish they had more fresh fruit options for toppings.

It’s a convenient location but I’m not a fan of food court seating. It’s pretty depressing. On the bright side, they are opening up their Robson and Bute later this Summer.

We Rate Qoola Pacific Centre:

Address:
701 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://qoola.com/

In Dessert

Yogen Fruz: Frozen Yogurt

June 5, 2015

Yogen Fruz has been around as long as I can remember. My parents would take us here for a nice sweet treat only if we behaved. From my young childhood memories, I was always amazed that a solid brick of yogurt and fruit would be a match made in heaven.

Yogen Fruz started off in Toronto in 1986 and now has thousands of franchises all over the world.

I always gravitate towards the frozen yogurt with the fruit flavours. I was never into the chocolate or vanilla flavours. You can’t go wrong with fruit.

Their ‘fresh’ fruit is all frozen, but it needs to be all frozen so it gets all whipped into the frozen yogurt.

Mango Frozen Yogurt is a flavour your can’t go wrong with. Strawberry is pretty good too. What I like about their yogurt is that it has a slightly sparkling soda taste to it. It really just brings me back to my childhood. The texture is consistent and very smooth.

Overall, I still love it after all these years. Before all the other frozen yogurt places popped up in town, this was my go to froyo place.

We Rate Yogen Fruz:

Address:
Oakridge Centre, Food Court,
650 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.yogenfruz.com/

In Food Carts

Disco Cheetah: Korean Fusion Food Truck

June 4, 2015

Disco Cheetah Food Truck was outside my work place this week and since they were only a few steps outside our building, I just had to get a bite for lunch.

They serve up Tacos, Burritos and Quesadilla with a Korean twist. Korean and Mexican flavours really go well together.

Their menu is a bit limited but everything is $10 or under.

Grilled Cheese Chili Chicken Quesadilla ($10) has Korean chili mayo on top with dill sour cream, kimchi slaw and pickled red cabbage on the side. Everything was delicious. I really appreciated the cabbage and the slaw to really balance out the quesadilla.

My other coworkers got their tacos and burritos and seemed to enjoy it. I’m glad Disco Cheetah rolled into our neighbourhood to serve up lunch. There really aren’t too many options near the Science World area.

We rate Disco Cheetah:

Location:
varies

Website:
http://discocheetah.com/

In Cafe

Starbucks: ButterBeer Frappuccino

June 3, 2015

I was passing by the mall and this sign caught my attention. They actually advertise the butterbeer frappuccino when it’s on their “secret menu” that no one talks about.

Some location and some staff may not know how to make a butterbeer frappuccino, but here’s the recipe:

Creme Frappuccino base
Add caramel syrup
Add toffee nut syrup

Thats basically it! I’ve never been to Harry Potter land in Orland to try the Butterbeer, but some have said it’s close to the real thing and some people say it’s not. I’ll definitely know later this year when I make a trip there.

M and I chose to have the mini size of the frappuccino. I actually really like this smaller size. Since the butterbeer frappuccino is more on the sweet side, having a smaller size worked really well.