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Seafood

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ConsultingGirl was craving for some Japanese food, so I suggested we try this place out. PinappleBun is always talking about it too, raving how amazing this little Japanese Restaurant.

The interior is really cozy. Not the best place for big groups, unless you call ahead of time.

Tea in cool cup!

We started off with the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($3.95). It has 4 pieces of deep fried tofu with green onions and spicy sauce.

Next we ordered the Assorted Deep Panko Fry ($7.95).  This is essentially tempura, but instead of tempura batter, it has japanese bread crumbs coating the items to give them a crunchier texture. In the assorted dish were 2 prawns, 2 oysters and one croquette.

As in most our Japanese restaurant reviews, we always order the Ebi Mayo ($5.95). When it arrived at our table, we really had no idea what we were looking at. It was greens with mayo slop. Presentation quite horrible. When you stick your chop sticks and pull and ebi out, the delicious fried ebi is revealed. The ebi was quite average and it was not extraordinary but still well made despite it’s appearance.

In the future, you can ask for the mayo to be on the side to avoid mass amounts of mayo.

Up next in our food adventures was Beef tataki ($7.95). It has a sweet citrus soy sauce with green onions, and other little items to eat the tataki with. The beef tataki was a little bit thick for what we usually enjoyed eating, so it didn’t really hold too much of the sauce.

We also ordered the Zipang Roll ($5.95). Rolls that are named after the restaurant is usually really good and popular. In the cause with the Zipang Roll, yet it was! The zipang roll has scallop, salmon, radish sprouts and has tofu skin around the rice.

We also ordered the negitoro roll ($2.95).  It is a mixture of tuna belly and green onions. Pretty standard amongst Japanese restaurants. it was good, but who doesn’t like tuna belly right? Delicious!

ConsultantGirl ordered the scallop nigiri ($1.25) and I had the Toro Nigiri ($2).

We next ordered the six piece sockeye salmon sashimi ($8.50). This was a different than the usual orange salmon you get at other places. If you want the orange ones, you won’t find it here.

The flavour of the sockeye salmon tasted fresh and yummy. I never usually eat this with soy sauce. I find that the soy sauce over powers the natural taste of the salmon. Personal preference I suppose.

The second to last item we got was Spider Roll ($7.25). No spiders were harmed in the making of the roll, but I can tell you a soft shell crab did die.

Man, we ordered a lot of food! This is the Kairan Roll ($6.25). It is a scallop roll with avacado and salmon on the top. Very enjoyable!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking near residential areas
  • Low prices, great quality
  • Large Variety in menu

We Rate Zipang:

Address:

3710 Main St
Vancouver, BC
Zipang Sushi on Urbanspoon

M and I spent our last meal of 2010 at Gohan Sushi. Gohan is close to our hood and we love their food, so we like to go here often. This is probably our 2nd favorite sushi place to eat at. Quality is good, and decently priced!

You can take a look at our previous post by clicking this.

Without hesitation, we dove into the menu to try some more items that we have no tried yet. they always have specials!

I ordered the Garlic Tuna Tataki ($6.95). The tuna is pan seared on the outside and then topped off with a vinagarette and garlic chips.

The tuna and garlic by itself were delicious but I did not like the vinaigrette sauce. It tasted a bit salty and heavy for such a clean tasting fish.

I also ordered 2 pieces of toro nigiri ($1.85 each). This will always be my favorite place for toro because it is very fatty and just melts in your mouth.

I also ordered the spicy scallop cone ($3.75). Inside is cucumber, scallops, spicy sauce, lettuce, rice and wrapped in seaweed. Delicious cone!

M and I both shared the Garlic Chicken Karaage ($5.95). The chicken in marinated in sake and garlic, then it is deep fried. TO accompany this dish is a side of light honey cream sauce.

It was probably one of the most unique sauces I have ever tasted. It wasn’t super good or super bad but ok.

M got a plate of toro Sashimi ($9.95). After a disappointing time at Sushi Mori, he really craved the toro at Gohan Sushi. Bigger pieces and more quantity! This dish always makes his day better!

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

Fabo comes back and M, FragileBoy, NotFauna, JojoCake, and I met up at Sushi Mori!

Sushi Mori is a Japanese restaurant in Coquitlam. Like many Japanese restaurants in Vancouver… this is also Korean owned.

When you walk inside, you will be amazed by a bunch of Sakura Trees (Cherry Blossom). Begin inside this restaurant makes you feel like you are in the great outdoors.

We all drank tea which came in a SUPER SUPER heavy tea pot.

We got complementary edamame, apple/corn/peas salad, and some onion type of thing. We also all got complementary miso soup too.

The miso soup is pretty good.

M started off his meal getting Chicken Yakitori ($4.95). It came with 2 pieces. He really liked it.

M also got a plate of Toro Sashimi ($14.95). It only came with 7 pieces which M was really surprised over because Gohan Sushi has way more for $9. He ate it all, but the price and the size of it left a bad feeling inside.

FragileBoy ordered the Dinner Bento A Combo ($13.95). This came with Chicken Teriyaki, 6 pieces of Sashimi,  3 pieces of sushi, and 4 pieces of tempura.

This bento is served with miso soup and rice sunomono.

I ordered the Deluxe Sashimi & Sushi Bento ($15.95). Instead of just taking on picture, I did a close up of everything, so it looks super odd.

It came with a green salad, 3 pieces of calamari, 4 pieces of tempura, 2 salmon sashimi, 2 red tuna sashimi, 3 tako sashimi, 1 tako nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 1 red tuna nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, and 1 amaebi nigiri.

I was ok with everything, but the sashimi and nigiri seemed a bit small.

Fabo, JojoCake and NotFauna shared a few different dishes.

They first had the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($4.95).

Then they had the Spicy Tuna Sashimi ($9.95).

Then they had the Crunch Roll ($11.95).

Then they had the Dragon Roll ($11.95).

Lastly they had the Oi-Chee Roll ($11.95).

This was the damage of our bill. $112.62 for 6 people.

The service was pretty bad. We were waiting at the door trying to figure out how many people in total were coming, so when the whole party arrived, the servers did not show us to a table, so we had to find our own. Once we did sit down, no servers came to give us menu’s or any indication that we were even there.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Sashimi is small and expensive
  • Lots of parking in the parking lot
  • Really cool decor
  • Bento Boxes are good
  • Tons of specialty rolls

We Rate Sushi Mori:

Website: http://www.sushimorisake.com/

Address:

2565 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

Sushi Mori on Urbanspoon

The Family decided to go to Boathouse for a lovely dinner. The have a bar section where patrons can grab a drink and enjoy the game.

On the other side is an open kitchen and high walled dinning room.

The Boathouse locations always have large windows so you can gaze upon the river. Their Lobsterfest always draws a large crowd.

Their dining room was packed and the layout of the restaurant gave people little room to move around.

They also have a kids menu if your kids dont want items from the regular menu. The kids menu is also a coloring book, so they will be occupied!

My sisters and dad all got Shirley temples ($3.79).

My father got the BC Wild Sockeye Salmon & Atlantic Lobster Tail ($32.99). This dish had a fire-grilled fillet and 4 oz. lobster tail. You also get wild rice and green peas and pepper.

All lobster dishes are supposed to come with butter and when we asked our server…she was kinda unsure. You can hear my rant about the service below….

My mother ordered the boathouse bouillabaisse ($28.99). This dish had wild salmon, halibut, prawn, scallop, mussels, alaskan king crab, and fingerling potatoes in a rich tomato broth. There is also bread that comes with it if you want to dip it into the broth.

My mother enjoyed this dish!

My older sister got the Louisiana Lobster Pot ($29.99). There is Carribean Lobster, Manila Clams, BC Wild Sockeye Salmon, mussels, chorizo sausage, tiger prawns, vegetables in a spicy broth.

She enjoyed this dish because it was packed full of seafood.

I ordered the sirloin & seafood grill ($28.99). The seafood skewer had a prawn, a small sea scallop & 2 pieces of wild salmon. It also came with mashed potatoes, green beans, and the sirloin. I did enjoy the dish, but I personally prefer The Keg over Boathouse.

The sirloin was done to medium rare and was perfect. The only bad thing about it was how the scallop that was part of the skewer was really small, it took me a while to figure out where it was because it was between the shrimps head and the tail.

Their mashed potatoes are really good!!

My little sister got the Fire-grilled sirloin ($21.99). Her sirloin was 7oz. It also came with mashed potatoes and green peas and a pepper.

She really liked the dish!

The bread never arrived at our table… we finally asked our server and she forgot to give us bread.

Our service was pretty poor since our waitress was fairly new. She couldn’t explain the new lobsterfest menu, forgot our butter for lobster, forgot the bread, rarely came to our table (we had to flag down other waitresses to get her), gave us the wrong utensils (she gave me a spoon for eating a steak…..)

What made it worse is when we went to the front desk to buy a giftcard for a family friend, our waitress passed by the front desk to check their computers…looked at us…walked past us and said nothing.

I usually don’t complain about service, but I was really upset by the service. Clearly, I will not be returning to this location.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Hard to get to…so drive and use google maps
  • Free parking in front
  • Reservations are suggested
  • Special Kids Menu
  • Lobster FEST!!

We rate BoatHouse:

Website: www.boathouserestaurants.ca

Address:

2770 Esplanade Ave
Port Moody, BC

Boathouse (Port Moody) on Urbanspoon

InsecureGirl and I had 3 coupons from Goodnews.com to go to Libra Room. We paid $20 for $50 worth of food. For some reason we bought 3 by accident.

Libra Room has live music,  drinks, and food.

The interior has a pub-like feel to it. The main feature of the restaurant is their main stage which features performers every night playing live music. The music varies everyday, so you can check online to see who is playing.

We started the night ordering Sangria ($20). They use red wine and have oranges, apples, and cranberries. They sangria was alright, but not as good as Havana’s a few blocks up.

We ordered the Tequila Clamato Mussels ($10). The broth as you can tell by it’s name is made from Tequila and Clamato. The size of the mussels are really big and worth the money. I personally liked the sauce because it did not taste like alcohol at all and it. It tasted really nice. FragileBoy thought it tasted sweet and didn’t like it.

We ordered the Hefeweized Mussels ($10). Our next set of mussels were a bit different even though they look exactly the same. Hefeweized basically means beer. Yes, the mussels were looked in BEER! I didn’t like it, but FragileBoy likes it. M was pretty indifferent about the taste between between both the mussels….and I forgot to ask InsecureGirl.

Next we had the Irish Nachos ($14). It contained fried beans, roasted corn, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, green onions, cheddar and monterey cheese. They also had sour cream and salsa on top. The nachos were good but they were not THE BEST in Vancouver.

Do you know how good nachos are constructed? To ensure most of the nacho chips are covered in cheese, you must layer the ingredients and not pile everything on top or else you won’t get an even coating over the ingredients on the chips on the bottom.

InsecureGirl ordered the Salmon Ravioli ($12) for her main dish. It’s not on the regular menu, but it was one of their featured dishes for the night. InsecureGirl thought it was alright, but not the best she has had either.

M got the Gingerbeef Kababs ($9). M really enjoyed it and the meat was very tender and moist. It was not dry at all. The kebabs came in skewers of 3 and had a asian slaw on the side. This was an appetizer we would get again.

FragileBoy ordered the House Made Lamb Burger ($13). Inside the burger is cheddar, leaf lettuce, tomato & carmelized onions.

It also comes with a salad and fries.

I ordered the Seafood Linguini ($16) with the white wine sauce. The seafood in this dish were mussels, scallops, and prawns. There is also fresh tomato, basil & garlic in it. I found the pasta quite bland. There was hardly any taste. I did enjoy the seafood. The mussels are huge! I just had to take a picture because I have never seen anything so massive.

I would not order this dish again.

If you ordered the mussels as an appetizer, I would suggest not getting this dish…since it has more mussels.

Our bill came out to me about $130…we thought we could use 2 coupons, but we could only use one, so $50 was taken off the bill, so we had to pay $80. We were pretty disappointed, but we didn’t want to argue with management. We will definitely return for some appetizers and drinks.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Meter Parking on Streets… or free parking in residential areas further away
  • Mussels and Kebabs are a MUST!
  • Entrees are pretty average
  • Goodnews.com Coupons…one per table…NOT one per 2 people

We Rate Libra Room:

Website: www.libraroom.com

Address:

1608 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Libra Room on Urbanspoon

MedicalGiraffe just LOVES Rodney’s Oyster House and just needed to go there before going back to Yale. As per our first visit, we had a blast, so here we are again.

It was a busy day during the holidays, so going for the Low Tide Oysters meant a bit of waiting. By 3:30pm, the place was packed!

We got our bread, but we did notice something interesting this time. I think they ran out of bread, so one of the workers went out to grab some more bread from the grocery store.

We ordered the Pan Fried Oysters ($10), which are freshly shucked oysters, breaded and fried. They also some with tartar sauce and lemons for taste. Delicious as always and the oysters are a good size.

We next had the Garlic Prawns (about $10). They are sauteed in lemon, butter, garlic and chilli peppers. The sauce was really good, we even ate all the sauce with our bread. One thing I wish they had were bigger and plumped pieces of shrimp.

We ordered 6 low tide oysters ($1.50 each). It was a very busy day, so it took us a long long time to get our oysters. It took probably 40 minutes to get these…and we devoured them in about 3 mins.

Overall, the food experience was great. The service was quite poor this time around. Our food took way too long to come, and our server added a few extra things that we did not order onto our bill. Good thing MedicalGiraffe looks at the bill because I would usually not notice.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Meter Parking on Street
  • Low Tide Oysters between 3pm and 6pm
  • Pan fried oysters are popular
  • Always check your bill because waiters may make mistakes
  • Go early and sit at the counter

We rate Rodneys Oyster House:

Visit their website: http://www.rodneysoysterhouse.com/

Address:

1228 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

Rodney's Oyster House on Urbanspoon

Sea Monstr Sushi is located in Gas Town. I have heard much hype about this place and it looked cool, so CandiedZen and I went. They are known for the fresh sashimi and their specialty rolls.

Sea Monstr Sushi has bar seating as well as a small dining room.

The waitress gave us water is a cool Sea Monstr Sushi jug and also some green tea.

When sitting at the bar, you can watch the sushi chefs in action.

We ordered one order of Toro ($2.50) and Salmon Sashimi ($2.50). Each order comes with 2 pieces. The pieces of sashimi ad quite small compared to other places you go, but the taste and the texture are superb.

Daily Special Roll was a spicy ebi roll. It had shrimp, spicy sauce, and greens. CandiedZen and I thought the roll was ok, but it wasn’t amazingly good. The shrimp could have been more plump and tasteful. This was quite mediocre compared to other places and not as well built.

The House Roll ($7) had lettuce, salmon, tuna, tobiko, mayo, and scallops. This roll was pretty good. The lettuce gave this roll a crunchy texture.

Una Tama Maki ($4.50) has BBQ Eel, Japanese Style Egg Omelette, and Daikon Sprout. This roll again was quite mediocre. Rice was a bit loose and not like how other places are held firmly together.

Sea Monstr Sushi is a different type of Japanese restaurant, it is more for hanging out and having a bit to eat. If you think this is like a traditional Japanese Restaurant….don’t expect sushi like Samurai Sushi or Sushi Town. In a way you coud say it a a little bit fusion.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Meter parking at front and back of restaurant
  • Ask waitress for daily specials
  • Very fresh tasting sashimi

We rate Sea Monstr Sushi:

Website:http://www.seamonstrsushi.com/

Address:

A – 55 Powell Street
VancouverBC

Sea Monstr Sushi on Urbanspoon

Sushimoto is located beside Holdom Skytrain on the Millenium Line. It is literally a few steps away. Since BusanGirl was going back to Korea for vacation. A few of us met up and enjoy some sushi. NotFauna decided to choose Sushimoto since it seemed pretty popular online. It was really close to our houses, so we went.

The interior was really nice! paper lantern decorations, many little samurai figurines near the kitchen. There was actually MANY MANY figurines ranging from samurai swords to traditional masks.

Salmon Sashimi (Half Order) ($6). A half order contains about 5 pieces. The pieces are not as big as Sushi Town, but the quality is pretty good.

Tuna Tataki ($12.90) was really good. It was nicely seared on the outside. This dish came with organic salad, shaved onions, and topped with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The ponzu sauce was perfect for the dish and went well with the tuna and salad.

Moto Signature Roll ($9) has Tuna, salmon, cucumber, avacado, egg, crab meat, masago, and carrot. It is topped with spicy-mayo sauce and wrapped is soybean skin. At first it seemed cool that it was wrapped in soybean skin rather than seaweed, but the skin was pretty thin and all the ingredients inside kept falling out. Great tasting roll, but fell apart too easily.

Amusement Roll ($10) has cream cheese, cucumber, salmon, egg, crab meat, ikura, Mayo and unagi sauce. This roll held together better than the Moto Signature Roll. The roll was pretty average and the addition of the cream cheese made this interesting. Other restaurants usually have it in the philadelphia roll. The cream cheese worked well!

Overall, the food was good and the decor was great. Unfortunately, the service was pretty bad. We all agreed that the waitress was pretty awkward. When she described the specials, we were left more confused by what she said. Perhaps she was new and a bit shy.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Street Parking
  • Large variety in menu
  • Sashimi = good!

We rate Sushimoto:

They are located at:

2221 Holdom Ave S
Burnaby, BC

Sushimoto on Urbanspoon

I heard of Flying Tiger because a friend works here. So, I looked it up and it seemed like a pretty good place for modern asian cuisine. But, today he wasn’t working so IndecisiveGirl and I just ate and complained about how crazy people at Metrotown were….and how hard it is to get anything done due to the crazy Boxing Week rush.

Flying Tiger in Kitsilano features modern asian street food. Imagine the Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant but Flying Tiger would encompass other types of dishes from Korea, India, China, Japan,  Philippines, etc.

The restaurant is pretty narrow, but still can fit a lot of people. It is best to make reservations before hand just in case they have a busy night.

If you are seated near the back of the restaurant, you will be able to see the chefs at work.

Their menu is mostly tapas, drink and a few desserts. We asked the waitress what was good on the menu….and after rambling on for a bit… she basically recommended the whole menu. She was quite helpful actually. She explained the the dishes near the top were smaller and lighter, while the dishes on the bottom were larger and heavier tasting.

The special of the day was Sapporo on tap for $4.50. So myself and InsecureGirl got one each.

We ordered the Ebi Mayo ($12). There were about 5 pieces of shrimp. The size of the prawn were pretty large and nicely prepared. Sadly, this still was not as good as the ebi mayo I had at Toratatsu.

Next we had the Pulled Duck Confit Crêpes ($19). It contained Duck confit, Philippine lime, charred scallion, jicama & cucumber salad, Vietnamese coriander, mint, basil, and sesame oil crêpes. I liked how interactive this dish was. You can make your own dish by adding how much of anything you want.

You basically pile up the ingredients in the middle with a little bit of everything and the wrap it up.

When it is all wrapped up, you can bite it and enjoy.

Lastly, we had the Hawker Street Noodles ($15), it had Fresh egg noodles, shiitake mushrooms, free run chicken,wild sea prawns, squid, snap peas, gailan, nam prik pao,  oyster sauce, and crispy garlic. This was very well prepared and was filling. Since we were so full from everything, we decided to pack it up and it came in a really cute chinese take out box.

The damage of the bill came out to be $61.60. Flying Tiger is not the best place to go when you are super hungry. It is quite expensive, but I guess you are paying for atmosphere.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking at adjacent roads or street meter parking at front
  • All dishes are meant to be shared…tapa style
  • Have daily drink specials
  • Pretty expensive tapas

We rate Flying Tiger:

Website: http://www.theflyingtiger.ca/

Located at:

2958 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Flying Tiger on Urbanspoon

InsecureGirl bought a Groupon a while back to try this restaurant since they serve oysters.

The interior is very nice and modern. It would seem like a good place to watch some games here.

Looking at the specials, they do seem really good! Thursdays… free entrees with 3 people. Sweet deal! Sadly we didn’t know about the deals… so we were a party of 2 🙁

We ordered the lager and it wasn’t too special.

These are the selection of oysters. Happy hours!! Buck a shuck!

We ordered Kusshi Oysters ($3.50 each). Kusshi mean “precious” in japanese. It had a smooth buttery texture and a sweet finish. They are small in size, but it’s a good choice for beginner oyster eaters.

The little Wing oysters were the feature of the $1 buck a shuck, so we ordered 4. It is sweet, well balanced oyster in a distinctive deep cup shell with a pleasant, fresh aftertaste.

Malpeque oysters ($3 each) are good transitional oysters, bigger and bolder than Kusshis, but still light-bodied and clean on the finish. Easy to eat, with the perfect balance of sweetness, brine, and pickle-like liveliness, they make great accompaniments to a pint of lager.

You can add tabasco or Xtra hot sauce to you oysters.

This is their menu if you want something else besides oysters.

We ordered the Fish & Chips ($16). It is a 10 ounce sable fish with tempura batter, home cut fries, accompanied with remoulade.
This is one of their most popular dishes and the sable fish works really well for this dish. The only thing we didn’t like about it was how easy the batter would fall off the fish. Despite this, InsecureGirl liked this dish.

We also got the Prawn Linguini ($18). The shrimp is this dish were huge. The pasta was cooked perfectly and had enough sauce! I really enjoyed this dish.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great specials
  • Buck A Shuck
  • Parking on street

We rate Pier 3132:

Website: http://www.thecrabshack.ca/

Address:
3132 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Pier 3132 Grill & Oyster House on Urbanspoon

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

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

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

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

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

For my Bakudanyaki, I chose the wasabi mayo.

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

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

Clearly a great idea and I would get this again.

We rate Tenku Bakudanyaki:
Tenku Bakudanyaki on Urbanspoon

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

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

FinanceGirl got the Miso Udon ($6.75).

SFUPretender got the Shoyu Udon ($6.75).

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

We rate Shoryumen:


Shoryumen on Urbanspoon

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

There are 4 steps into making your sushi cone:

  1. pick a type of rice
  2. pick a protein filling
  3. pick 2 vegetable fillings
  4. pick a sauce

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

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

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

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

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

We rate Fumisen:

Fumisen! on Urbanspoon

All the carts are located at:

8740 Charles St
Richmond, BC

Brioche has great food and atmosphere. They are known for their amazing daily specials. Located in Gastown, Broche offers up amazing items from pastas, soups and sandwiches.

Their daily specials are located on a chalkboard. The door leads to the washroom, so its not a good idea to stand in front of it just incase someone is inside and they happen to open the door. What is bad about the specials is that they do not specify the price. On their larger, there are prices.

The little cafe is a good place to have a nice little chat. Most of the tables either eat 2 or 4 people. Not good for large groups.

I got a latte. I didn’t think their lattes were extraordinary or anything. It was not as strong as other places.

I got the Grilled NY Steak Panini. It came with wild mushroom sauce. The bread was very fresh, it was very light and fluffy on the inside and nice and crispy on the outside. I was kinda skeptical about this sandwich, but the cut of the NY Steak  was very tender and very easy to chew. This was a really really good sandwich and you will get full. The mushroom sauce worked well with all the ingredients.

It came with a greek salad. It was yet again very fresh and I did enjoy it. The latte, NY Steak Panini and the side of greek salad came out to be $18. I don’t remember the breakdown of this, but I was surprised how expensive it was for a lunch. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the panini and salad.

MedicalGiraffe had the Cioppino Mix Seafood Stew ($18), it had Sauteed Seafood, Penne Noodles, Veggies, and simmered in a Garlic Tomato Broth. She thought it was pricey, but she did enjoy the stew. It came wit 2 pieces of bread, but she wish there was more to eat with the stew.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Food is a bit pricey
  • Best in small groups
  • Panini’s are really good
  • Parking garage across the street. Discounted parking for SFU students after 6pm.

We rate Broioche:

Website: http://www.brioche.ca/

They are located at:

401 West Cordova Street

Vancouver BC

Brioche on Urbanspoon

Hapa Izakaya in Kitsilano is a great late night place to go for tapas. M, FragileBoy, InsecureGirl and I wanted something light and not too heavy to end the day. After contemplating many choices, we chose Hapa on Kits!

The interior is really intimate with candles and it’s dark appearance. As the rumour goes, yes, Hapa has some pretty girl servers. To think about it…I don’t think I saw any waiters…only waitresses. Imagine going on a date and the guy keeps staring at the waitresses…that wouldn’t be cool.

There were a lot of menu’s on our table. I guess they have a lot of specials and seasonal dishes.

When asked what we wanted to start off with, we asked if they had Asahi Black ($6.50). Indeed they did! So we ordered 4.

We started off with Beef Tataki ($7.95). This was a bit different that what I usually imagine. It had hot sauce on it instead of the usual ponzu sauce. I didn’t particularly like this dish. If you are into hot sauce, you may enjoy this dish.

We next had the Negitoro ($7.95). It is blended toro and onion. It also has i think either ponzu sauce or soy sauce. You would first mix up the ingredients so you get an even coating of sauce when you divide up the dish. This was soooo good! We have to order 2 places cause we all wanted more!

Spicy Scallop Roll ($7.95) was just average. Nothing exceptional about this roll. I could have been more spicy. Inside the roll there was spicy scallops and cucumber. If you call it “spicy”, you gotta make it SPICY!

Next we had the Salmon Risotto croquette ($6.95). It had 5 balls and they contained shitake mushrooms, salmon+ Dashi Risotto and drizzled with mayo. This as surprisingly filling. The risotto didn’t taste like risotto since it was in a different form.

The Wild Prawn Ebi Mayo ($8.95). Tempura prawns with spicy mayo sauce. The prawns were a bit small for my liking. I still believe you can’t beat the ebi mayo at Toratatsu and Guu.

Smoked Gindara ($11.00) smoked sable fish. The sable fish was perfectly done! It was nice, moist and the skin was nice and crunchy.

King Crab Roll ($11.95) I thought was expensive and overrated. You can’t really taste the full flavour of the king crab with all the other ingredients in the way.

We also got the Sashi Mori ($19.95) which is basically assorted sushi. It had 4 pieces of scallops, salmon, tuna, and some other type of fish. The quality was pretty good, but for that price, it was so not worth it.

The damage on the bill was $138.38 for 4 people. Ouch.

Overall, I was satisfied with Hapa Izakaya.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Negitoro!

We rate Hapa Izakaya:

Check out their website:  www.hapaizakaya.com

Hapa Izakaya (Kitsilano) on Urbanspoon

It was a super cold Wednesday evening when InsecureGirl and I were SUPER HUNGRY after long classes and meetings at SFU. I told her to decide where we should go. After she did a lot of stalking on Urbanspoon, she stumbled upon Go Haggis’s Review on Gyoza King. Looking at the pictures, it made her super excited and more hungry than ever.

Gyoza King is located on Robson Street specializing in Gyoza’s and traditional Japanese dishes.

From the outside, it looks like a large restaurant, but it is pretty small from the inside. It seats I would says about 50 people. When we went, it was about 11pm and it was not empty at all. People would come in for the gyoza’s, tapas and drinks. InsecureGirl really liked the interior decor and said it was pretty clean. I really had no idea what she was saying because the floor looked dirty.

I have this thing about hand drawn daily specials. I think it’s super cool and you don’t need to hire any designers! Reminded me of other Japanese places like Hapa Izakaya and Guu. Gyoza King also had a list of top 5 items on their menu this week. If you are super indecisive like we are, it’s a good guide to see whats good for the week.

Mmmmm Tea.

Gyu Tataki ($6.50) is seared beef slices in ponzu sauce. It is topped off with green onions, and radish. It was really delicious and the acidity of the ponzu sauce made it very enjoyable.

Ebi Mayo ($6.50) has tiger prawns with a type of mayo sauce. Compared to places like Guu…Gyoza King’s version has smaller shrimp. The taste of the mayo went well with the tiger prawns.

Pork and Vegetables Gyoza  (6 for $4.95) was a must because this place is called Gyoza King. I found them to be quite average. Maybe I am use to the flavours of dumplings because I eat so much at home. When you add the ponzu sauce (in the small black tea pot on the table) to the dumplings, it makes them so much better!

This udon was quite interesting. It had pureed radishes, beef slices, and seaweed in ponzu sauce. InsecureGirl was really skeptical about the pureed radishes and now it all fit with the dish. After mixing it around, it added more texture and soaked up the ponzu sauce.

Japanese-style duck breast with sweet soy ($9.50) came with a small salad, lemon and some fried onions. The duck was #1 on the top 5 things to have at the restaurant. The duck was well cut and thin.

It seemed like InsecureGirl and I had a lot of ponzu sauce in our meal. If you don’t know what ponzu sauce is, it’s a citrus soy sauce. It’s probably one of my favorite soy sauce for all foods. With all the Izakaya restaurants on Robson, they are all starting to seem very similar to them all. What you can say about Gyoza King is that if you have late night cravings at 1am….you can get your fix!

Words of Wisdom:

  • They serve Asahi Black – Black Lager
  • Open till late – 2am
  • Call ahead of time to see if the restaurant is busy
  • Look at the specials and the Top 5 items of the week
  • Looking for sushi? They don’t serve sushi

We Rate Gyoza King:

Check out their website: http://www.jpcanada.com/info/gyoza_k/

Gyoza King on Urbanspoon

Fresh Local Wild is a new food cart that opened up a few months ago in Downtown on Granville and Robson. I am a big fan of seafood and if it is Ocean Wise, that is a big plus! Their name basically sums up the types of seafood that they serve….fresh….local…and wild.

The men of Fresh Local Wild are really amazing guys and very approachable. Since it was raining, I didn’t want to walk elsewhere to eat, so I stood there like a loner eating, but these guys were very talkative and kept me company!

Their menu is simple and has the freshest and sustainable ingredients in their menu items. The items are quite expensive, but that the price you pay for sustainable ingredients…it doesn’t come cheap.

I ordered the Fried Oyster Po Boy ($10) sandwich with a soda ($2) and poutine ($3). They have a small selection of soda at the store, Lemon Lime and another flavour that changes daily. I decided to have the Lemon Lime soda and it was very flavorful and reminded me of sprite but with more lime flavour. This is something you should try.

The fried oyster Po Boy was very fresh and the oysters had so much flavour! One thing I really didn’t like about the sandwich was how it fell apart very easily. The tartar sauce and coleslaw filling inside was spewing out every time I took a bite. Maybe next time they should have less sauce. I really really enjoyed the taste of the fried oysters…perhaps one day they will make skewers of fried oysters (drools…)

The Quadra Isle Chanterelle Mushroom Poutine was overall pretty well executed. The fries were firm and slightly crunchy. Topped off with the Chanterelle mushrooms, cheese, green onions, and gravy.

To get customers to leave a mark at Fresh Local Wild, they have several markers for you to draw all over their cart. I was looking around for a spot to leave my mark and I found fellow blogger and SFU alumni Nicolb! It seemed right to leave my mark beside hers.

My experience at Fresh Local Wild was positive. After looking at a few other blogs, there seems to be a few negative reviews when they first started up their business.  It seems like Josh, Andy and their crew have made improvements to their menu to keep their customers satisfied. It can only get better from here.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Follow them on twitter @freshlocalwild to see if their hours change
  • If you are an oyster lover like myself, get the Fried Oyster Po Boy
  • Don’t forget to chat with the guys because they are super friendly

We rate Fresh Local Wild:

Check out their website: http://www.freshlocalwild.com/


Fresh Local Wild on Urbanspoon

The Eatery features a twist on the traditional japanese food. All their rolls are super creative and features rolls you probably have never heard of. Try eating a Captain Crunch roll, or and Ichi Roll. You have probably heard of the traditional Alaska rolls or california roll, but why try that when there are so many types of rolls.

Looking at the inside of the restaurant, there are so many items hanging off the walls to glance and stare.  The inner decor is very hip and funky. Located a few minutes away from the UBC campus, it is a perfect place to have a date or a nice hangout and try some unique rolls. After the Advanced Screening of Due Date, FratBoy, JojoCake, Canuckgirl, M, Bebe Yeoville, KoreanGirl, BigBaby, DJMikxter, and MathBoy headed over to The Eatery.

At each table, there are candles stuck into beer bottles. The Eatery is very dark and are lit by candles and red lights.  I was tempted several times to drink the candle.

I had the virgin mango margarita ($4.95), it was very sweet and not what I expected. Very concentrated and strong.

I ordered the Jalapeno popper roll ($6.75) and the Italian Stallion roll ($5.95). The Jalapeno popper has smoked salmon, jalapeno, cream cheese, and deep fried with a tempura batter. It was alright, but it did not have the Jalapeno popper feel to it.  The italian Stallion has prosciutto, papaya, eel and cream cheese, with hot pesto sauce. This roll tasted really nice and the papaya is a real surprise when you eat it.

M, CanuckGirl, and DJMikxter had the CHICKEN KATSU CURRY ($11.95) which is breaded deep fried chicken on rice. You can have a choice of mild, medium, or hot curry. The Katsu was very meaty and breaded nicely. M said he would have it again.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Sunomono is really poor quality compared to other japanese restaurants
  • Have daily specials for different days of the week
  • Good Curries
  • Some rolls are of poor quality
  • Good athmosphere

I do like the concept of The Eatery, but the execution of some of their rolls are of low quality. Maybe I am not use to the flavours since I’m a huge fan of traditional japanese food and flavours. If you go here, I think you are paying more for the atmosphere more than the food.

We rate The Eatery:

Check out their website: www.theeatery.ca

The Eatery on Urbanspoon

MedicalGiraffe and I went here because we both love oysters. Rodney’s Oyster House is really popular and has a great “low tide” option between 3pm to 6pm! $1.50 per oyster…who wouldn’t want that? (I guess if you don’t like oysters…then you probably wouldn’t like it).

The inner décor reminded me of the décor in a boat because of all the ropes and nets hanging inside. Even the exterior of the restaurant makes you think of the ocean with the white wooden panels. The ambiance was quite nice and what added a big PLUS was how friendly the staff was.

Their menu’s are even on a piece of wood. Very different from most restaurants I’ve been to.

We sat at the bar in front of the clam steamer contraption and had really good conversation with the Oyster Shucker man and the other guy in charge of making all the steamed mussels.

We started off with a glass bottle of Coke and a bottle of Keiths. All bottled and nothing super special.

We decided since its 3pm, we should get a dozen of the oysters from the low tide menu. We even watched the Oyster Shucker man prepare it. He even went step by step on how he goes about shucking them.

As we waited patiently, we got some bread with butter.

When the oysters arrived, it came with a whole platter of sauces – Worchester sauce, 2 types of Tabasco sauce, vodka pepper sauce, and 4 of their house sauces.

The low tide oysters were the Fanny Bay Oysters.  Fanny Bay Oysters are from BC and they have firm meat, a mild brininess and a pronounced cucumber finish. I enjoyed them. We tried the different sauces on them as well.

The vodka pepper sauce was horrible in my opinion. It really just tasted like vodka.

The Worchester sauce, and the 2 Tabasco sauce are all the standard type of sauces to put on oysters. It’s really worth trying their house sauces for the unique taste, which you can’t buy from stores.

The sauces on the right side are quite mild and works their way to a sauce called “Back from Hell”. I reassure you, that sauce is hot and will leave a stinging sensation in your mouth even if you put a little tiny bit of it. If you have the will power to test it out for your self, why not.

As we were eating the oysters and talking to the Oyster Shucker Man, we got a lot of samples of the different types of oysters to see how oysters are really different. We had – kumamoto, stellar bay, some other one that I don’t remember. Some were creamy, some were really salty, and the other was sweet. 6 free oysters and we were really happy!

After eating a dozen and a half oysters, we decided to have the pan fried oysters, which apparently is one of their other specialties. I lost the picture of my camera, so I can’t show you but they were golden brown and had a nice nutty flavour to them. This dish came to about $10.

In total we spent around $40.

Rodney’s Oyster House is probably one of the best places to go to if you want to get your Oyster craving out of your system…or make you come back for more until you run out of money.  Go between 3pm and 6pm because that is when you get most of the deals.

We rate Rodneys Oyster House:

Visit their website: http://www.rodneysoysterhouse.com/



Rodney's Oyster House on Urbanspoon


No trip to Victoria is ever complete without having some seafood! On our way back to Vancouver, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I really wanted some oysters and The Oyster was really calling out to us! Even the “Buck-a-Shuck” sign in the front tempted us to have oysters for $1 a piece.

We took so long contemplating the decision that the “buck-a-shuck” deal ended at 5:30pm. But nonetheless we went anyways because we are whores for oysters.

We walked in and the place seemed very lively with a majority of the seats full and the vibrant red walls screaming excitement. Soon enough, we found out this place was not so exciting after all.

We looked at the menu and it seemed really limited so we stuck to the steamed mussels and clams in garlic butter, as well as 3 types of oysters. It took the waitress awhile to get our order…even though she was a few steps away from us at the bar. All the food came fairly slowly and made us super hungry. ( you can click on the photos to see larger versions).

First up was the bread. Like all restaurants they bring bread. Nothing super special but free bread is always nice…since asians love free stuff!

Next the pound of steamed mussels and clams arrive in its delicious garlic butter. It was very good and even M said so himself….and he doesn’t really like seafood. I thought the garlic butter was just fantastic…I even dipped the bread into the sauce.

The 3 types of oysters that we chose were – kusshi, satori, and Fanny Bay. All oysters were served with 4 sauces: classic mignonette, cucumber mignonette, hot pepper sauce, house cocktail sauce and freshly grated horseradish.

My favorite was the Kusshi oyster. It has a very buttery texture, rich and salty with a sweet mildly fruity finish to it. Even The Oyster’s website said it is one of the oysters that beginners should eat. It’s small and not too intimidating for people starting out to eat raw oysters.

Satori was a bit salty but no distinguishing taste that I could get out of it.

Fanny Bay was very salty and sweet with a cucumber or melon finish.

One thing we didn’t like about the oysters is how there were still bits of shell near the meat of the oyster, so when you ate it, you would need to spit out pieces of the shell.

Also at the end, the service was still pretty bad….

If you are looking for a wide selection of oysters and other types of seafood, check out The Oyster! Just watch out for the service cause it’s bad!
We rate The Oyster:
Visit them at their website: http://theoysterbar.ca/



The Oyster at Pescatores Seafood on Urbanspoon