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Seafood

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I was trying really hard during my lunch time to find a new place to review. I was super stuck until I figured that Gastown was not too far of a walk. I decided to check out Momo Sushi since I’ve had mixed experiences there.

Momo Sushi serves the usual items you would find in a Japanese restaurant.

The first page of their menu, they had a much of their specials and box sets. Most of the items were under $10, so it seemed like a good option.

I ordered the Box Special A ($6.95). It was the cheapest special they had and it was not a bad set menu because it included sashimi. The set included 3 pieces of tuna sashimi, 3 pieces of salmon sashimi, 1 tuna nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 3 pieces of california roll, rice, salad, fruit and miso soup.

I also ordered the Chicken Karaage ( about $4/$5). There were 5 chicken wings on a bed of salad. I really did not like the taste of their karaage. It was sweet and it seemed like there was a bit of honey on the coating of  it. They also added some small bits of seaweed on top.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Cheap Bento boxes and lunch sets
  • Closest skytrain: Waterfront Skytrain

We Rate Momo Sushi:

Address:

375 Water Street, Unit 6
Vancouver, BC
MoMo Sushi on Urbanspoon

Last time I went to the Grandvilla Casino, my parents and I went next door to Grand Dynasty for dim sum. Today M and I were thinking of a place to eat. After begging him to take me here, we decided to go to G-Be Izakaya rather than Fat Burger. Seriously, he would think by now that I have some decent suggestions for places to eat.

G-Be Izakaya is a new restaurant that opened up near Grandvilla casino in Burnaby. They are owned by the same people who run Gyoza King. You wouldn’t know it when you sit down, but when you look at their dishes, their logo is on all the dishes.

I was so amazed at their interior decor. It was hot! Communal tables in the middle, tables and booth on the side. There is also a large party room.

When we looked at the menu, the first page it really explained a lot about their restaurant and how they dont serve alcohol due to a pending liquor license, being patient with waitresses as well as it being their soft opening.

Tea isn’t free, so you have to pay for it. You pay per head for tea and you can choose from 7 specialty teas.

I got the genmaicha green tea ($1.50). You get refills of your pot so it’s not too too bad.

Ebi Nira Gyoza ($4.50) comes in 4 pieces and contains porks, prawns and chives. The prawn is not just a paste, you taste a whole shrimp in the gyoza. The gyoza was not super amazing and spectacular, just normal.

GomaMiso Chicken Karrage ($6) is flash fried rice crisp battered fresh chicken breast with sesame miso sauce. I actually love the crispy rice/ cereal batter since it make it super crunchy and the chicken breast is still very succulent and moist.

Fried Goat Cheese Stick ($6) is crispy fried goat cheese served with balsamic teriyaki sauce. Yet again it is covered in something like corn flakes.  The inner was very gooey and i think it had some bacon too. Yummy!

Uni Steamed sushi mini Hot Pot ($6.50), it has steamed 7 grained rice with egg, seaweed and fresh uni. It was really a mini pot, it tasted really good if you are a fan of Uni.

You can probably get 6 or 7 spoonfuls of this.

King California Roll ($7) is a roll with snow crab meat, avocado, sprouts wrapped with soy paper and topped with mango and more avocado. Tasted ok, but not awesome. One thing that does make it stand out is how they use healthy ingredients to put this together.

Triple salmon roll ($6) sockeye salmon tempura, avocado, and sprouts wrapped in smoked salmon topped with spicy salmon. Very creative roll but not super amazing. It did seem very healthy and have fresh ingredients.

M ordered the Mushi Choco Man ($3.50). It is a steamed chocolate lava bun. You have to wait a bit before you eat it, the chocolate on the inside was hot. Good thing the waitor warned us because M wanted to dig in.

You have to be careful about this bun because when you bite into it, the chocolate will squirt out. The chocolate on the inside was very nice, warm and rich.

I ordered the Creme Brulee ($4.95), it comes with 3 mini creme brulees – Jasmine, green tea, and earl grey.

This is probably the best creme brulee I have ever had, it was unique and you got to try a bit of everything. The jasmine creme brulee was very subtle. The earl grey creme brulee was very flavourful with a strong taste, so you could definitely tell it was earl grey. The green tea was amazing as well!

Words of wisdom:

  • Free Parking
  • Most dishes under $10
  • Unique dishes
  • Creme Brulee is a must!
  • No alcohol served yet (One day in the future they will!)

We Rate G-Be Izakaya :

Address:

4331 Dominion St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.g-beizakaya.ca


G-Be Izakaya on Urbanspoon

On my way to lunch, I could feel the showers beginning again, it was that weird day were there were “140km” winds (It totally wasn’t…darn those weather people). There were random periods of heavy rains and then BAM it was sunny and then it turned rainy again.

I was originally going to eat somewhere else, but I just decided to go to Fumiyoshi since it was a block away.

There is lots of room inside if you want to come in with a bunch of people. Most of the seating are booths and 4 people tables.

Since I was craving Fried chicken, I decided to get an order of Chicken Karrage ($3). I have to admit, this is the most failed chicken karrage I have ever seen and tasted. It was not a chicken wing or drumette. These pieces were the joints of chicken bones, so you don’t get a large amount of meat since most of it is just cartilage.

For my main, I ordered their bento boxes. It was $10.99. There was chicken teriyaki, yam rolls, green salad and vermicelli rice wrap.  Miso soup comes with it as well.

The miso soup tasted good and refreshing. The green salad was mostly iceberg lettuce and it did not seem very fresh at all. The yam roll was ok as well, the yam roll was more of a yam tempura roll. The vermicelli rice wrap was a bit soggy on the outside and affected the structure of the wrap. It started falling apart.

I really didn’t like Fumiyoshi even though it was at a decent price. There are tons of other sushi restaurants on the same block that I would rather go to.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Large menu
  • Most items under $15
  • Has Japanese and Vietnamese items on their menu

We rate Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi:

Address:

538 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi on Urbanspoon

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is a very popular Japanese street food item.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking in front
  • Lots of specials
  • Specialty rolls
  • decent prices

We Rate Hukuya Sushi:

Address:

9626 Cameron Street
Burnaby, BC
Hukuya Sushi on Urbanspoon

My 5th visit at Kimura would have to be epic.

I know i’ve said great things about Kimura in the past, but reading all my posts will probably hype Kimura’s up a bit too much. So, your best best is to have a seat near the bar so you can actually talk to him and get to know him. I personally never sit at the bar so I’ve never had a deep deep conversation with him…nor does he really remember my face even though I’ve been there many times. FragileBoy and Insecuregirl always go there and take a conscious effort to talk to him every single time they go. I, on the other hand am super shy and awkward so … I am a ghost.

FragileBoy decided to have his birthday party at Kimura’s and talked to him a few days before so Kimura could set up a special Omakase set. There were 15 people, so he needed to prep before hand…plus we took up half the restaurant.

We started off with 5 big bottles of Kirin ($8.95 each), and a large sake ($12)  to share between everyone. I didn’t take a picture of the sake, but in my previous posts you can see what it looks like.

Since Kimura was very generous, he offered fragileboy a special Omakase set for his birthday and all the guests. Usually the Omakase is 7 dishes, but today…there was way more!

We started off the first course with Gomae which is just cooked spinach. As usual his appetizers are very clean and simple tasting.

The second dish was the Salmon Carpaccio, but it was a bit smaller than usual, but it was expected since Kimura increased the amount of dishes and provided a cheaper rate for the omakase set. This was delicious as usual! It’s one of my favorite dishes because of the sesame oil, salt, and pepper he adds to the ponzu sauce.

The third dish was yaki tori skewers. Each person had 2 each. The yakitori had chicken, onions and peppers. The chicken was very moist and was not dry. They have this on the regular menu as well.

The forth dish was Tonkatsu (Fried Pork Cutlet). There were 2 pieces drizzled with plum sauce. I found there was not enough sauce since some pieces did not have any sauce. You should also ask for a slice of lemon to go with it because it actually goes really well with it.

The fifth dish was tempura. You are probably thinking, “oh it’s normal, nothings great about it”. I thought the same thing until I ate the shrimp tempura. The batter on the outside was not crunchy, but really soft. When you bite into it, the shrimp is already seasoned with a bit of salt which really brings out the taste. I usually avoid tempura, but because of the taste of salt and the texture of the batter it did not taste oily.

The sixth dish has approached and it is the miso soup.  The reason why I like this miso soup compared to other places is because of the addition of the tofu skin. It adds texture and body to the soup. The rest is pretty much the same.

The seventh dish arrived, at this point we were like…how many dishes are there? All the girls were pretty much getting full.

There was 4 california rolls, 1 wild salmon nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, and one shrimp nigiri. It was nothing too fancy.

Hey, look it’s the 8th dish. >.<”  (Asian face emoticon thing indicating I was full). Each person got 1 of the Spicy tuna on crispy rice. Smaller than usual but it was alright because we were all getting full. Some people were a but scared of this dish because the tuna is spicy.

If you have a SUPER low tolerance for heat, you probably won’t like this. But, it’s a really cool concept for a dish. I can stand heat so it wasn’t a problem for me.

Dish number nine. Yes, NINE! This was the spicy toro cone. This was not very spicy, so if you are a spicy hater, you would actually like this. Melt in your mouth toro!

The tenth and final dish was mango ice cream. This ice cream is pretty good, not like the artificial mango ice cream.

Since it was FragileBoy’s birthday, Kimura was kind enough to make him a plate of Frog Legs. On the plate were 8 frog legs, which meant 4 frogs had to die for this dish, but as someone said at the table “they are over populated anyways, so might as well eat them”. So, we did just that… we ate them all! haha. It was my first time trying out frog legs, so I jumped at the chance of trying it. It has a very interesting taste, it was like a cross between chicken and fish.

I spent most the the time comparing the frog leg to an olympic speed skater.  The Frog legs are not on the usual menu, but you can call in ahead of time to order them.

When they were speaking on the phone prior to the dinner, FragileBoy insisted that Kimura should not go out of his way to get cake…but guess what happened? Kimura went to T&T to buy him 2 little cakes anyways. Really amazing chef that truly has a passion for food.

Words of Wisdom:

  • For best experience sit at the bar and talk to Kimura (the best advice you will ever get!)
  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Websitehttp://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

I am running out of options to eat near the office, so when I asked for suggestions on twitter @nicolb suggested I try Sushi Zero One. Since she does know her food, I decided to check this place out.

I swear I walked around the block 2 times but it’s hard to spot since there at 3 sushi restaurants on the block. Since i really did not want to admit defeat, so I decided to look for the store address on the iphone.

Luckly I did find it, it was not as I expected the restaurant to look like. It is very small and has limited seating, most people take out instead of sit there. I was so glad I went by myself because there was only 1 seat left.

Sushi Zero One does have a vast menu of items, there were so many that I had no idea where to look since there was a few items on the board, other items on the wall, a normal menu and a board with daily specials.

I felt a bit overwhelmed by the choices, but I just stick to the daily special…it must be good since it’s on the special menu.

One of the specials were sashimi don ($9.50) with 3 types of fish – wild salmon, albacore tuna and saba.

The don consisted of rice, dried seaweed, pea sprouts, sashimi, and ginger + wasabi. If you dont’ like wasabi, you can take it out and put it in your sauce dish to mix it with soy sauce.

I liked how the don was simple and fresh, the only negative thing I can say about it is that I found that their cutting skills for the sashimi was quite poor, you can tell by the image that there is a bit of the grey skin still on the fish.

It also came with a miso soup.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Online ordering form
  • Limited seating
  • Free delivery
  • Large menu
  • Cheap and fresh

We Rate Sushi Zero One:

Address:

559 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.sushizeroone.com


Zero One Sushi on Urbanspoon

Since I found out the other Guu location – Guu Garden offered lunch, I really had to try it out to see how it compared.

After walking aimlessly around the building, I stumbled upon this sign near some stairs in the rear. If I missed the sight of this sign, I’d probably have no idea where to find Guu. I thought Google maps tricked me into going to this deserted place. (Most of the building was under construction besides Guu Garden & Relish.

When I made my way to the restaurant I was greeted with a welcoming “irrashaimase”, which means Welcome in Japanese.

Since it was me, myself and I…I just decided to sit on the bar. Ya… the awesomeness of being a loner! Woot.

Their menu definitely had more choices than Guu on Thurlow. From bento boxes to the favorite izakaya dishes!

I first ordered the Tuna Tataki ($6.50). For lunch they served it with 4 pieces of tuna. It is lightly seared on the outside and garnishes with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The quality of the tuna was delicious and had a good texture.

It was a tad expensive for lunch compared to what I had next…

Guu Garden has some amazing bento boxes for lunch! $10 Rice Burger bento Box!

The bento box came with a choice of 3 burger – Kobe Beef, tuna fillet, and pork tenderloin. Each bento box comes with miso soup and 4 sides to accompany the dish.

I got my combo with the Tuna Fillet Cutlet with tartar sauce. It is a good take on the traditional burger. The fillet was nice and golden brown on the outside. Once you take a bite of the sandwich, you can hear the *crunch* when you bit into the fillet.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this, after I saw this, I really wish I ordered the Kobe Beef version on the sandwich. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good burger but it didn’t suit my taste. I’m not a big fan of deep fried items.

The miso soup was delicious like most places, but it was a different since they added puff tofu into the miso soup. It added texture into the soup.

This was a cold potato type of thing. I usually dont like potatoes but this was not too starchy tasting.

Next side dish were tempura green beans. It was not too oily and seasoned with salt and pepper.

This shrimp salad was very very good. It had greens, avocado, shrimp, and a few other ingredients. The sauce that they had on it was very interesting and tasted like wasabi but it was not too overwhelming. It did not give you the weird nose stingy sensation

Almond tofu pudding with lychee was by far the best part of the meal and the perfect ending. I love tofu dessert so, I am really biased towards it because I could eat a whole tub full of this.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Amazing $10 bento lunch
  • Hard to locate the restaurant

We Rate Guu Garden:

Address:

M101-888 Nelson Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com
Guu Garden on Urbanspoon

Kingsway Sushi is an all you can eat sushi joint on Kingsway and Boundary. They are owned by Top Gun Group who also own Richmond Sushi, Top Gun J&C, Top Gun Hot Pot, and Garden City Hot Pot.

They have all you can eat for Lunch, Dinner and Late Night. They have special types of menus for lunch and Dinner depending it you want a wider selection of  items to choose from.

They do have an ala carte menu but it is not worth the price since your meal would end up pretty close to what you would be paying for all you can eat. A week day normal dinner cost us $21.95 per person.

On a Thursday night, all the tables were full! Surprising since it was a weekday. This place is one of the better All You Can Eat restaurants in Burnaby. All the other ones at Metrotown can’t compare.

They have lots of different items on their regular menu, I didn’t take a picture of all the food we ordered but here are just a few.

Edamame beans

Beef Tataki / Beef Sashimi

If you eat a lot of this, you will probably get your moneys worth since on the Ala Carte menu the tataki is 8 pieces for $8.95…

Miso Soup

Different types of rolls

Wild Salmon Sushi

Mango Pudding

The service is pretty good, since everything is electronic there is no delay. As we finished giving the waitress our list of items for the first round of ordering, our food came right away! The hot items take a bit longer to arrive compared to already prepared items like the mango pudding and beef tataki.

The food is so – so, but most all you can eats in Vancouver aren’t spectacular .

Words of Wisdom:

  • Very fast service
  • Large variety in menu
  • There is usually a line up if you don’t have reservations
  • Closed on Tuesdays
  • 2 hour limit
  • Free Parking underground

We Rate Kingsway Sushi:

Address:

3665 Kingsway
VancouverBC

Website:

www.topgungroup.com/KS.html
Kingsway Sushi on Urbanspoon

Visit #1 Visit #2 Visit #3

As you probably know now, I am a huge fan of Kimura’s and is kinda my “go to” place to have some great food with friends.

Since it was Vday, I made reservations ahead of time just in case they became very busy. Indeed they were, but I was smart to make they a week in advance. You should be ok, if you make it a day ahead of time.

M and I had a big bottle of Kirin ($8.95). It was a Large size and it could fill up about 8 small cups.

M and I love their Spicy tuna on Crispy rice ($4.50). It has pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces. Eat with your hands because eating with chopsticks are a bit hard. Plus, it is meant to be eaten with hands.

M wasn’t so keen on the Omakase set this time, so when he heard there was kobe beef steak for $25, he jumped at the chance to order it. You don’t only get the steak, but you get miso soup, rice, and a salad.

The kobe beef was made medium rare and it was very nice and juicy. Did you know kobe beef is quite sought after due to their distinct rich flavour? Because of the really nice marbling of the fat,  it gives this steak it’s great flavour.

The salad was quite simple and had no dressing. It is made mostly out of cabbage, radish, carrots, cucumber and a tomato. Still quite refreshing.

I couldn’t help but order Kimura’s Omakase set ($30). This is the only place I find that I can’t get bored of their food, plus the set always changes up a little bit. It’s a good way to range the skills and strengths of the restaurant.

The first dish the came was the appetizer and it contained pieces of chicken, tarogelatin, fried sardines and kabocha Japanese squash.

I like their appetizer because they are simple and not heavy.

I always feel awesome when the salmon carpaccio arrives with the omakase! Thinly sliced salmon in sesame oil, citrus sauce,  peppercorn, salt, and garnished with sprouts and onions. This is my favorite dish! Never gets old!

Second dish was the baked oyster with a miso may sauce. This was a bit different than the ones they had before. They added mayo into it so it tasted more like a motoyaki. Still pretty good.

The third dish was another Spicy tuna on Crispy rice. I totally didn’t know this would came as well….so as you can imagine the rice get me a bit too full.

The fourth dish was the miso soup.This is always good to drink because it is refreshing and is not like the usual miso soups. It tastes a bit cleaner and has tofu skin in it!

The fifth dish was the shrimp pasta salad. There’s actually not pasta in this, he makes the noodles out of shrimp. You can see the shrimp in the noodles. Good light and refreshing dish and yummy sauce.

They changed this up a bit, this time the noodles were a bit more uniform like fettucini.

The sixth dish was nigiri.  Shrimp, tuna and salmon. The tops of a few of the sushi already has a thin layer of soy sauce, so you may not need to add more. Personal preference perhaps.

The seventh and final dish was green tea ice cream! It was really good green tea ice cream! You can choose from a whole bunch of ice cream options – mango, black sesame, and red bean…but this can change due to what they have available.

Words of Wisdom:

  • For best experience sit at the bar and talk to Kimura
  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Websitehttp://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

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Previous Posts about Gohan : Visit #1 Visit #2 Visit #3

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M and I decided to go here since we really do love this place. It’s not a chain restaurant and the quality is always good.

As per usual we ordered the Toro Sashimi ($9.95). It’s really thin and just melts in your mouth! There is about 8 or 9 pieces.

Next we ordered a full order of Spicy Tuna ($9.95). There was about 8 or 9 pieces as well. Very nice tuna with an amazing spicy sauce on top. The sauce is probably a mix of mayo and spicy sauce? I’m actually not 100% sure but it’s different from other places.

Next we ordered the Garlic Chicken Karaage ($5.95). They are deep fried breaded chicken meat served with a light honey cream sauce.

This was a pretty average dish.

Next is the Spicy Garlic Calimari ($7.50). The calimari was pretty bland. Not as flavourful as the Chicken Karaage. Even though it was stated it was spicy garlic, I did not taste any hint of garlic at all. It should have been seasoned with a bit more salt and pepper.

It’s probably because I am so use to the calimari at other places and its a bit different.

Next I had the Deep Fried Ice Cream. This was the size of a baseball. I was very surprised the that Deep Fried Ice Cream was covered in so much breading and left with not too too much ice cream. I guess it’s a bit unique. It still tasted really good, the breading tasted more like tapioca pudding or some types of sweet bread. Worked really well together!

We really enjoyed Gohan and it has become our favorite place to go to in Burnaby to get sushi!

We rate Gohan:

They are located at:

Burnaby
1815 Rosser Ave S
Burnaby, BC

Gohan Japanese on Urbanspoon

My last Dineout of 2011 was at Ciao Bella was with FinananceGirl, SFUPretender, EnvyGirl and LGirl.

Ciao Bella is an Italian restaurant on Denman Street which has a lot of traditional italian dishes.

When we walked inside, the interior was very homely and they even had a piano player.  This is seriously a perfect location for an intimate romantic dinner. Someone even get engaged while we were there. So crazy!

They have the DineOut menu and their regular menu. We stick to the DineOut since thats the purpose why we are going. It was $28 for 3 courses.

Before we got our appetizer, we got bread. You can drizzle oil and balsamic vinegar all over it! It’s so delicious. I even accidentally poured too much balsamic….so my bread looked all black. BUT it was still delicious because I love balsamic!

For my appetizer I got the Grameroni Della Casa, which is cold poached prawn cocktail with horseradish dip. This was a small appetizer since it only had 4 prawn. Since I love prawns I gobbled them down like they were potato chips. The prawns and the horseradish dip was just quite average and nothing too special.

Everyone else had the Zuppa Al Aragosta , which is the chef’s lobster bisque. They all liked the soup and loved how there were bits of lobster in it!

LGirl, SFU Pretender and I got the Pollo Pavorotti, which is a breast of free rangec chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. It is topped off with a Porcini mushroom demi glaze. You can choose either vegetables or pasta. But I chose vegetables because of my diet of no pasta or rice.

One thing that was a pain was cutting into the breast and the filling would just pour out. The chicken was a little on the dry side, but it you smother it in the sauce, it’s tastes just fine.

FinanceGirl and EnvyGirl ordered the Agnello E Gamberoni , which is grilled Lamb Chops and tiger prawns. Both of them got it with the pasta option.

LGirl ordered the Tiramisu. It has layers of lady fingers, marscarpone cream cheese, and chocolate.

SFUPretender and FinanceGirl ordered the Creme Carramelo, which isa custard dessert with a layer of caramel on top.

EnvyGirl and I had the Torta Chocolate, which is their house special chocolate italian cake. I think this was by far the best dessert, you have some rich chocolate cake and very nice chocolate mousse in the middle. Yum!

Words of Advice:

  • Parking in rear
  • Amazing live piano music
  • Amazing weekly deal and evening dinner specials (50% off pasta on weekday lunches)

We Rate Ciao Bella:

Website: www.ciaobellavancouver.ca

Address:

703 Denman St
Vancouver, BC

Ciao Bella Italian Restaurant & Piano Bar on Urbanspoon

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Continuation of :

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It was NotFauna’s goodbye dinner, so she decided that we go to Gohan Japanese

Since I am still on my no rice diet, I got the Age Chicken ($6.95). there are 4 chicken strips and a side of salad. The strips were deep fried and drizzled with teriyaki sause. The side salad had a citrus orange sauce.

Overall, it was pretty good, not too oily tasting. I would probably get this again.

Next I ordered half an order of spicy tuna sashimi ($5) and half an order of toro sashimi ($5). The spicy tuna had a really nice spicy sauce to it, it wasn’t like the other japanese restaurant where they just have korean hot sauce over it. They take time to make their own spicy sauce.

The toro sashimi was nicely cut and really fresh.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great fast service
  • Food came very fast
  • High quality ingredients
  • The best toro you will ever eat!
  • Reasonably priced.
  • Closed on Sundays

We really enjoyed Gohan and it has become our favorite place to go to in Burnaby to get sushi!

We rate Gohan:

They are located at:

Burnaby
1815 Rosser Ave S
Burnaby, BC V5C

Gohan Japanese on Urbanspoon

Since the old gang was back together in Vancouver, going out to Dineout seemed right. We left all the planning to ConsultingGirl and she brought everyone together.

We chose to go check out Aqua Riva. Aqua Riva is located beside the Waterfront convention centre. The dine out was $28 for 3 courses.

We just had water since we got reservations for 5 people at 8:30pm. Since we all had to work or go to school the next morning, we just didn’t get any additional drinks.

2 types of bread came to our table, Focaccia bread and french bread? It also came with salsa and butter. Salsa was my choice of topping on bread…..yum!

LabRat and I started off with the Baby green salad with Smoked Wild Salmon. On top of the greens, there is white and green asparagus. THe sauce used was a sherry Dijon Vinaigrette. I liked it and the salmon was really really good!

PharmacyBoy got the Manhattan Seafood Chowder. In addition to the seafood was chorizo and saffron. He was quite disappointed by the chowder because it was a tomato sauce rather than the traditional white cream sauce in chowders.

ConsultantGirl and SpongeBobGirl ordered the Sesame Crusted Scallops. The scallops are served with spinach and couscous salad. Around it is a orange and sesame vinaigrette.

SpongebobGirl and I both ordered the Wood Grilled Rib Eye. The steak was done medium rare. It comes with Cajun jumbo fries, Salsa verde and a peppercorn sauce.

PharmacyBoy and LabRat ordered the Orachiette pasta with grilled prawns. Shittake Mushrooms, spinach, chilies, and pesto cream sauce.

ConsultingGirl ordered the GInger potato crusted wild salmon. There is a grilled asparagus risotto, corn + blackbean salsa and basil butter sauce.

For dessert there was Apple and cranberry crisp.

There was also the Banana Chocolate Mousse Cake.

No one could really decide which one was the better dessert since we all had different tastes. Since it was only limited to 2 choices of dessert, we didn’t feel that Aqua Riva had any extraordinary desserts.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking at Convention Centre for $9 all night
  • Decent dineout but not the best for the $28 range

We Rate Aqua Riva:

Website: www.aquariva.com

Address:

200 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Aqua Riva on Urbanspoon

I was really excited to finally check out Phnom Penh because it is Vancouver’s most famous vietnamese food. They have won countless awards….. year after year…after year!

When InsecureGirl, M and I came at 6:30, this place was packed! The line up was almost out the door!

The inside has tons of chairs and tables, but most of the time they were occupied. The interior is not anything special…usual asian restaurant.

Tea!

We ordered 3 of the Condensed milk vietnamese coffees. I’d rather have this than a regular latte! It’s really strong and tastes great with the addition of the condensed milk! When you were a kid, i’m sure you had a can at home…so you would take a spoon and just eat it from the can.

These additional sides came to our table along with out meal. Bean sprouts, chilli sauce, lime, and then this really delicious broth. I don’t know what is in it, but it was very nice and refreshing.

Dry Noodle ($6) looked really good, it was loaded with different types of seafood and meats. Underneath the meat and the cilantro and green onions were the dry noodles and this dark sauce. To eat this dish, you should mix everything together so all the noodles get a good coating of the sauce.

After having it all together, it was alright, but not the best.

Marinated Butter Beef ($12.85) was TO DIE FOR! It is essentially a plate of thinly sliced beef that is almost rare. It is loaded with cilantro, garlic chips, ginger, and an amazing sauce. This also one of their famous dishes.

Deep Fried Squid ($8.95) were also amazing! Battered, fried, seasoned with garlic, onion and other ingredients. You also get  side dipping sauce that has a lemony taste to it.

Very good and highly recommend!

Deep Fried Chicken wings ($12.50) was really good! It’s one of their most popular dishes on their menu. Very well made and super delicious! One thing I started to notice was how the squid and the chicken seemed so familiar….but maybe it was just me.

There was also the same dipping sauce as the squid. Worked well since it was a nice accompaniment with acidic sauce matching with fried taste.

Here was the bill, $73 for 3 people.

A shout out to @KoKoNutso and @GourmetFury for letting me know what to order! Thanks guys, you totally made picking what to eat super easy!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Very busy during peak hours…line up for sure!
  • Marinated Butter beef, Chicken Wings, Deep fried squid!!! Order it now!
  • Metered parking on street
  • Kinda sketch looking area….near chinatown

We Rate Phnom Penh:

Address:

244 E Georgia St
Vancouver, BC
Phnom Penh on Urbanspoon

I work close to Yume Japanese Restaurant, so I decided to give it a try for lunch. It was one of the better looking Japanese Restaurants on the block.

The interior had lots of tables and a very high ceiling which made the restaurant look big. Most the of the tables are in 2’s and 4’s. So it’s best to go in groups no larger than 4 during peak hours. I was just by myself during lunch and finding a seat for 1 was super easy.

They have lots of specials that are under $10, so it’s quite affordable.

They even have little pots of tea too. Since I drink a lot of tea, it’s perfect. Did you know this pot is from Daiso? Now you know!

I started off with the Negitoro and Tofu Salad ($4.99). I love Negitoro rolls, so I thought this would not be bad at all.

Since the tofu is hot and the negitoro was directly on top, I really didn’t enjoy the hot temperate of it since it is raw toro. The salad dressing was just a citrus sauce but it didn’t really do much for this dish.

Since I wanted some meat in my meal, I got the Salmon and tuna sashimi ($9.99). It had 3 pieces of salmon and 3 pieces of tuna. I thought the salmon sashimi was really good, but I found the tuna sashimi to be more disappointing. The tuna was a little bit icy, so it didn’t thaw all the was through, also there was strange connective tissue inside.

This was the damage to my wallet. Totally shouldn’t have gotten sashimi. Specials should have been the way to go.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Steps away from Granville Skytrain
  • Street Pay Parking
  • Most items under $10

We Rate Yume Japanese Restaurant:

Website: www.yumejp.com

Address:

602 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC

Yume Japanese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Clearly I go to the restaurant a bit too often.

Check out our past posts : Visit #1 & Visit #2.

This time I brought PinappleBun and ConsultingGirl to visit Kimura Japanese Restaurant.

PinappleBun ordered the saba and amaebi nigiri. They don’t like to waste any ingredients, so they also give you the rest of the amaebi shell fired. It may seem not edible, but be rest-assured, it is.  Add a bit of the lemon and it’s quite delicious.

Next was the Miso Eggplant, it is grilled eggplant topped with miso sauce.

No visit to Kimura can go without the Crispy Rice with Spicy tuna ($4.50 / order). We got 2 orders  of this for 3 people. It has pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces.

I really recommend this dish and remember, eat with your hands!

I always order the omakase set ($30) since it gives you a variety of what Kimura has to offer, and it always changes because they don’t follow a recipe. I like to share one order of the set with the whole table because it’s way too but for 1 person.

The first dish of the Omakase is the pig ear appetizer. It comes with kabocha Japanese squash, fried sardines, and 3 pieces of pig ear in gelatin with peanut sauce.

Our second dish of the Omakase set is Salmon Carpaccio. It has thinly slices salmon in sesame sauce and citrus sauce. On top, there are a variety of garnishes.

Our third dish of the Omakase set is the baked oyster with miso sauce. Comes with 3 pieces.

Our forth dish of the Omakase set is shrimp pasta salad. There’s actually not pasta in this, he makes the noodles out of shrimp. You can see the shrimp in the noodles. Good light and refreshing dish and yummy sauce.

Our fifth dish of the Omakase set is sushi . There is a variety of nigiri to this dish and it’s not the usual ones you see.

We also got a miso soup but I drank it all before taking a picture.

Lastly, we go mango ice cream as our last dish. Very good mango ice cream!

The omakase set is almost the same as when I had my previous visit because I went the day after. (I am just that crazy to go 2 days in a row…but hey it’s good food).

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Websitehttp://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

InsecureGirl and FragileBoy visited this place before and told M and I we must try it. So, one day after class, they dragged us here. I think this was the best idea yet. M and I were kinda skeptical about a Japanese Restuarant on Rupert street. It’s located across the street from Golden Oscars.

The interior is really nice and modern and has a lot of jazz elements on the walls.

The owner and chef of Kimura is named Itsuroku Kimura. He has had an impressive legacy in the restaurant business. He has open up places in Mexico City, Shanghai, and various place in Los Angeles. For his retirement, he settled down in Vancouver and opened Kimura to keep his passion of food alive. He always experiments with his food and can make custom items for his customers.

His love of jazz can be heard through out the room as he only play relaxing jazz music.

He is always seem at the counter preparing all the sushi items. If you want an amazing experience, sit by the bar and talk to him.

M started our with have a large Kirin beer ($8.95). You can’t go to a Japanese restaurant and not have Japanese Beer.

M and Fragile Boy then had a large hot sake ($12). What is great about Kimura is how they arn’t trying to cheat you! You can see they fill the container all the way to the top unlike other restaurants. M and Fragile Boy dubbed this the “never ending sake” because there is so much.

They have a variety of different skewers that you can order. We started off with the 2 orders of Quali Egg Skewer ($3 each)and 2 orders of Dango skewer ($3 each).

The quail egg skewers are just boiled quail eggs, if you love eggs this is for you. I personally wasn’t a big fan because i dont like yolk.

The dango skewer was pretty damn good. I think it was just seasoned pork on skewers. Nothing like what a dango is supposed to be.

We ordered the Deep Fried Oysters ($7.95). You get a lot for that price. They are crispy golden on the outside and has a nice deep oyster flavour on the inside. The oysters were big as well and not small little dinky ones.

I still find the deep fried oysters at Rodneys better, but for the price of $7.95 its’ not bad at all.

Since we heard their Fresh Uni ($15)was the best in town, we tried it. Uni is sea urchin. You can was Kimura prepare the uni. Some pieces can still be seen moving if you look carefully.

I’ve had some pretty bad defrosted uni at other sushi restaurants..at Kimura, you can’t get any better if it’s straight from the shell.

The uni had a very interesting texture and you are basically eating the uni’s ovaries. It is best if you squeeze the lemon on top and add a bit of salt.

We ordered 2 orderes of Crispy Rice with Spicy tuna ($4.50 each). The pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces.

The correct was to eat this is by using your hands to eat them … kinda like a taco. This is probably THE BEST dish on their menu. It’s unique and the flavours work so well with each other.

FragileBoy and InsecureGirl also ordered baked mussels.

They also ordered the Salmon Carpaccio , which M and I accidentally ate. Best mistake ever! This has thin slice of salmon sashimi in sesame oil and ponzu sauce, It is the best salmon carpaccio ever. It’s probably due to the sauce.

Insecure and FragileBoy also ordered the Take Combo ($15.95), which comes with Assorted Tempura, Sushi 6pcsSashimi or Ginger PorkMiso Soup and dessert.

This is the Assorted Tempura.

This is the 6 piece sushi .

This is the sashimi.

This is the miso soup.

M and I got the special Omakase Set ($30). This is what you need to order to get a full feel of the restaurant. The items change on it everyday depending on what they have fresh at the restaurant. You may luck out and have a super fantastic set. Even though it says $30 per person, not everyone at your table needs to get one. It’s a lot of food, so i would suggest 1 per 3 people and add a dish or 2 extra.

The first dish of the Omakase was the appetizer, it has braised beef with radishes, cold shrimp, and marinated lotus root.

2nd dish of the Omakase is the Agedashi tofu.  Various tofu are in this pot with varying sizes in the traditional sauce you would normally have in agedashi tofu.

3rd dish of the Omakase set was fried soft shell crab. At this point, we were tripping out because this is a WHOLE soft shell crab. Very delicious and I’ve never had it outside the “spider roll” before.

The third dish of the Omakase was Chawan mushi. It is an egg custard with dashi broth, mushroom, and seafood. Delicious!!!

The forth dish in the Omakase Set was the Braised Kobe beef with curry. M and FragileBoy was shocked to find out this was Kobe Beef. This made the entire $30 worth it! The curry was spot on and the braised kobe beef was very tender and fell apart nicely.

The fifth dish of the Omakase Set was some unknown dish, I will just call it sashimi. When it arrived, this looked so nice, it had fried shrimp heads (Totally edible and delicious), amaebi with tomato, lime and ikura, geoduck, and scallops. This was heavenly!!!!!

Since 2/4 of us ordered different set menus…in additon to the other items we ordered, Kimura was kind enough to give us all dessert. Plus, we did rack up a large bill.

We chose to have red bean mochi with mango ice cream for our dessert. At this point, we were stuffed but the dessert still tasted amazing.

This was our bill.  $127.51 / 4 = $31.88 per person. It was a bit expensive, but we did eat A LOT.

After this experience, I fell in love with this restaurant. I even went again two more times. I will post those up a bit later. I love Kimura Japanese Restaurant because getting the Omakase set is like a grab bag, you don’t really know what to expect when you go there.

Even if you don’t get any set, most dishes are under $10. It can be quite affordable, but this time we just decided to splurge.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant:

Website: http://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

The family went to Red Star Seafood Restaurant in Richmond. They are another large Chinese restaurant specializing in Dim Sum for Lunch and large dinners at night.

When we asked if Red Star was affiliated with the Red Star in Tsimshatsui, HK…they said they are not related at all. Apparently, lots of patrons come in asking the same question since the name is the same.

Red Star is located in Presidents Plaza, which is on top of T&T. They are not as elegant as Fortune House in Metrotown, but it’s normal. They have high ceilings, draped curtains and a chandelier in the middle.

We first ordered the watercress soup. This came delivered in a pot and made about 8 bowls. The waiter will soup it out into bowls for you.

They remove all the watercress, meat, dates, and other ingredients into a separate dish for you. They also give you sauce to dip the meat.

This soup was refreshing, but it’s something you can make at home yourself. When the meat came out of the pot, it started drying up really quickly.

The next dish we got was geoduck. At The geoduck was cooked and slices into very thin slices. When the dish arrived, we thought the whole dish was geoduck, but turns out it was bean sprouts in the bottom and that the geoduck was laying on top. This dish also came with a special soy sauce for dipping the geoduck in. It was a pretty good dish. My grandfather said it was good how it was cut so thinly.

Next, we had 2 lobsters. I think we had the lobster sauteed. I’m not exactly sure because I was not paying attention. They prepare the lobster well, so you don’t need to use your hands to crack it open. Tasted good.

For $5 more, you can add noodles to the dish. As you can tell from the picture, there is a layer of noodles under it.

We also ordered 3 bowls of rice.

We also ordered steamed broccoli with crab and egg sauce. We didn’t know what type of vegetable to have with this dish, so the waiter suggested this and it was really really good.

We ordered half a crispy BBQ duck. The duck was really crispy and most on the inside. This is probably one of the best ducks I have had so far. The duck also came with prawn crackers. They also give you soy sauce and salt to add more taste to the duck.

What I love about chinese restaurants is that you get complementary dessert to go with your meal. =)

The Red bean soup had barley and red beans. This was alright, not my favorite dessert since I am not into beans…or anything starchy tasting.

They also give you sesame balls and cookies. These were good, so I ate most of it.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Park in the parkade instead of near T&T. You will get towed at T&T after the time limit…the parkade is not as strict
  • Servers are really friendly and can offer advice on what to order

We rate Red Star Seafood:

Address:

#2200 – 8181 Cambie Road
Richmond, BC

Red Star Seafood on Urbanspoon