Vegetarian Archives - Page 3 of 3

In Indonesian

Hawker’s Delight: Cheap $5 Dinners, But Is It Good?

January 11, 2012

Hawkers Delight is located on Main street and they are known for their amazing cheap food. All items on the menu are around $5. It’s cash only, but as long as you have a $10 in your pocket, you will be OK. They serve up Malaysian/Indonesian dishes and have good vegetarian options.

M, KoreanGirl and I came here because we were feeling pretty frugal and needed a super cheap dinner.

Tofu Goreng ($5.25) are little stuffed tofu puffs with cucumbers and bean sprouts with a lots of peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce. Each one of those puffs are soaked in a lot of sauce. When you take a bite, its gonna be messy, so watch out for your clothes!

Some of us at the table liked it, and I particularly didn’t like that taste of the sauces and how messy it was to eat.

Dried Noodle ($5.75) has a bed of warm dry noodles, bean sprouts, veggies, and a bunch of other ingredients. I thought it was alright, but I didn’t really love the taste of it.

Nasi Goreng ($5.25) is like Mee Goreng, but in a fried rice form. KoreanGirl and M both had their versions spicy. They were surprised by the low price and good taste.

Overall, I think there are a few items that are a hit and a miss. The prices are quite affordable, but you do get what you pay for. Perhaps it just didn’t suit my tastes.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in side streets
Take Out containers are $0.25
Cash Only
Order at Counter and everything else is self serve

We Rate Hawkers Delight:

Address:
4127 Main St
Vancouver, BC V5V

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In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Palki Indian Restaurant: Hidden Find on Commercial Drive

December 27, 2011

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by the owners to try out their restaurant. I brought along 3 friends to really keep this review as unbiased as possible! This review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.

Palki Indian Restaurant is located on Commercial Drive. Their first location has been running for the past 12 years in North Vancouver. In the past year, they opened up their second location on Commercial Drive. From the outside, it doesn’t look much, but they have some amazing Indian food. All their food is authentic and made by their skilled chefs from India.

At first, when I was walking by, this sign really doesn’t do this restaurant justice. I would probably keep on walking. They have plans to redo their exterior, so this will change in 2012.

The interior is very elegant and I was very impressed. There are 2 levels in the restaurant – one is the regular dining area and the 2nd is this funkier bar area.

Surprisingly, this place was packed for a Tuesday evening. Even though there is not a lot of online presence by the restaurant, they have an amazing amount of loyal customers that keep coming back.

Mango Lassi is a drink you should be ordering. It’s a yogurt based drink with mangoes. I’ve always loved drinking mango lassi and this one was good. It’s non-alcoholic so it’s perfect for kids and adults. They also have an alcoholic version on their menu too if you felt like boozing it up.

If you plan on ordering spicy food, I find it a good drink to cut the spice because of its creamy texture.

The Peacock is made of kiwi, lime, lemon, blue curacao, melon liqueur and soda. It was nice and fruity and not too alcoholic. Everyone was eyeing Gmoney’s drink since it did look pretty cool.

Goa Sunrise contains mango, ginger, white rum with malibu and grenadine. J thought it was good, but she still preferred the Peacock since it was more fruity.

KingFisher Beer is a beer from India. It has a very light crisp taste.

Onion Bhajia is deep fried battered onion. The batter is bright red, but it is in no way spicy at all. The color is all natural and gets it’s red color from the paprika. J loved this dish and couldn’t get enough. The onion is nice and savory with it’s crunch batter.

Chicken Pakora was mixed in there as well. It’s a deep fried battered boneless chicken with Indian spices. It has the same bright red exterior. I liked it! The chicken was juicy and well flavoured.

These two items were probably my favorite appetizers.

Vegetable Pakora is deep fried fritters of garden fresh vegetables. It was alright, but it didn’t suit my tastes.

Vegetable Samosa has spiced vegetables stuffed in a savoury pastry. The filling was mostly potatoes and Im not a huge fan of starchy foods.

The appetizers come with two sauces – cilantro mint sauce and a tamarind sauce. I liked the cilantro mint sauce because of its strong pungent flavours. I just loved dunking the appetizers in it! The tamarind sauce was alright, but I preferred the other sauce.

Curried Mussels ($11.95) has mussels cooked in a curry sauce. There was lots of sauce to accompany the mussels, but I felt the mussels could be a bit more plump. You do get a lot of sauce left over, so it might be good to grab some naan for it.

Butter Chicken ($11.50) has boneless chicken in a butter and cream sauce. This is their most popular dish! 50% of the curries they serve is this dish. It’s probably because it’s a fairly common dish.

The curry tasted really good and even though it’s not very large, when you order rice or naan with it, you will get full.

Lamb Vindaloo ($11.95) has boneless lamb with garlic, ginger, vinegar, potatoes and some Indian spices.

It another one of their popular items, but I wasn’t a big fan of the lamb. They also have a beef version too, so that might be good.

Kofta Dil Bahar ($10.95) has minced paneer– Indian fresh cream cheese and mixed vegetable balls stuffed with dry fruits and served in a mild cream sauce.

I loved this dish even though it’s vegetarian. It’s not spicy and has a good flavour to it.

Tandoori Naan ($1.85) should be ordered with the curries. Perfect for dipping into it.

More Tandoori Naan.

Onion and Cilantro Naan ($3) was very colorful and seemed like pizza instead of naan. I’ve never had anything like this. Good, but when you have this with the curry, it doesn’t let the flavour of the curry shine through.

Spinach And Paneer Naan ($4) is stuffed bread with homemade cheese and spinach. I’ve never experienced anything similar to this. It’s quite unique, but it still doesn’t taste that great alone. It still tastes better with the curries.

Pulao ($3) is basmati rice . It’s a good chice to accompany your curry.

Im probably more of a traditionalist, so I would prefer the original naan and the basmati rice to accompany the curries. This is not to say the other naan arn’t good, I just like the original simple stuff.

Overall, I think it’s a great addition to the Drive! Lot of choices on their menu and its a nice place to dine at with affordable prices.

Words of Wisdom:

Large amount of curries and Naan
Best to stick with the original Naan
Some parking available in the residential areas or pay parking in front
Good prices and good atmosphere
Onion Bhajia, Chicken Pakora, Butter Chicken and Kofta Dil Bahar are highly recommended

We Rate Palki Indian Restaurant:

Address:
1130 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
Website:
palkirestaurant.com
Twitter:
@PalkiRestaurant

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Vancouver

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Bandidas Taqueria: Vegetarian Tacos!

October 10, 2011

Bandidas Taqueria is a vegetarian Mexican joint on Commercial that sells some amazing vegetarian tacos. Since I have not seen Eva in a while, so some taco from Bandidas Taquria seemed fitting since she’s a vegetarian.

The interior is very rustic and has lots of tables.

The tables even have these cute little micro plants.

Horchata is a traditional Mexican rice beverage. It’s refreshing, sweet, milky, nutty and has a nice cinnamon taste.

Ronny Russell Taco has roasted yams and onions, fresh guacamole, black beans, green salsa, purple cabbage and toasted pumpkin seeds. You can turn the 2 tacos into an entrée for a little bit extra and you get rice and beans on the side. Eva usually gets this dish quite often, which means this must be good.

Fajitas ($12) has smoked tempeh, sautéed strips of poblano chilies, onions and red peppers. It is also served with rice, beans, cheese, roasted salsa, sour cream, red cabbage and corn tortillas. This was a pretty big plate of food.

I don’t usually eat vegetarian food, but this was so good! The flavours were amazing and the tempeh tasted very good. Tempeh is like a dense version of tofu.

Bandidas Taqeria did not disappoint at all! Good food, good location and good company!

Words of Wisdom:

No reservations
All Vegetarian food
Good quality ingredients
Closest Skytrain: Commercial/Broadway stn

We rate Bandidas Taqueria:

Address:

2781 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.bandidastaqueria.com

In North Burnaby

The Ladle: Vegetarian + Vegan +Gluten-Free Options

June 3, 2011

One good thing about SFU is that they have a shop that offers vegan and healthy vegetarian cuisine at decent prices. They have soups, salads, wraps and other random things.

They are located in the Maggie Benson Center near Convocation Mall. Its a good place to go if you want a healthy alternative to the other items on campus.

Just so you know…I’m not a vegetarian…I just end up coming to these places by random chances.

All of us ordered the Mac & Cheese. This Mac & Cheese tasted worse than Kraft Dinner. It was crunchy at the top and mushy under neither. It lacked any taste and felt like a chore eating it. I could go on exaggerating, but plain and simple – it was just bad. The only way to have it somewhat edible was to mix in some salt and pepper. Perhaps they forgot to add salt to their batch of Mac & Cheese?

If you do happen to get the Mac & Cheese, do gram a few packages of salt and pepper just in case the same thing happens for you.

I also had the Small Minestrone soup. I was expecting to be the other type of minestrone soup with herbs and more yellow. The soup still tasted fine, but I guess it has more of the dominant tomato taste.

Overall, it’s a good alternative but food isn’t that great. My 2 favorite items here are the shepherd’s pie, creamy mushroom soup and the grilled cheese. Everything else here is pretty meh. It’s safe to say the SFU really does not have great food. Natures Garden might be a good alternative if you want other vegetarian food.

Words of Wisdom:

Grilled Cheese, Creamy Mushroom Soup, or shepards pie are my Favs
Under $10
Vegetarian/Vegan/Gluten-Free Friendly

We Rate Ladle:

Address:

8888 University High St
Burnaby, BC

In Downtown

Gorilla Food: For Vegans + Gluten-Free Foods

June 2, 2011

I am slowly running out of places for lunch near my work area, but then I found this little place – Gorilla Food. They are a restaurant serving vegetarian and organic food. I thought their entire look of their store seemed super cool, so I decided to take my coworker here.

Walking inside, it felt more like a jungle than a restaurant. I have probably passed by this place a few times and it seemed quite popular. Their menu was so foreign to us. We really had no idea what to choose! If you are a meat eater, you probably do not want to step into this place since it’s ALL VEGGIE.

My coworker started with the Main Street Monkey Sandwich ($7.75). Inside this sandwich are avocados, zucchini type of hummus, olive tapenade, sprouts, tomato slices and cucumber in veggie flax bread. She found this to be quite interesting and very earthy. I don’t think she was super keen on the veggie flax bread.

I ordered the GO Veggie Burger ($8). It is made of 2 veggie burger patties, guacamole, tomatoes, cucumber, veggies, and a ginger tomato ketchup sauce served between two lettuce leaves. It’s so cool when a burger is served with lettuce instead of bread. It’s not a new thing, but it’s always fun.

The burger was quite small; it was probably slightly bigger than my fist. If you look at the picture carefully, you can guesstimate the size. It tasted alright, but was not my type of food.

I also ordered the Strawberry Zing Smoothie ($6). It has strawberries, bananas, orange juice, hemp seeds, and ginger. Yes…it had hemp seeds. I did not even go into a psychedelic state or anything crazy like that. The dominant taste was of the strawberries and orange juice. It tasted pretty good. Apparently, it ‘s their most popular smoothie. It’s quite big, so you will get pretty full from a burger and smoothie.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash Only
Great for Vegans or people with gluten allergies
Under $10

We Rate Gorilla Food:

Address:

436 Richards St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.gorillafood.com

In Three Beakers

Cafeteria: Not Your Ordinary One

April 5, 2011

Flo organized another food gathering after our time at L’Abbatoir. Irv highly recommended that we all go to Cafeteria, so we all went for our next foodie adventure!

There were 6 of us in total, so we thought the smartest thing would be to get a reservation. When Flo called Cafeteria, we were informed by them that there would be an enforcement of the 3 course meal for everyone in our group. They were trying a new tactic since they are quite popular. We did not want to force our entire party to such a restriction so, we decided to go at 5:30pm and wait for a table of 6.

I was the first to arrive at Cafeteria. The exterior was not amazing, so I almost walked past it. It’s on the corner of the street. The dining area is quite small. Probably seats 9 parties at a time? At 5:30pm is was not very busy.

I wanted to grab the table of 6, but they would not allow me to get the table until the whole party arrived. So, I sat and waited till the rest arrived. We didn’t wait long for a table.

Their menu is laid out like how a high school menu would look like, but in this case the items described on the menu is quite exquisite and nothing you would find in a school cafeteria.

The menu changes daily, so it’s always a surprise what will be on the menu.

You can order ala Carte or just go for the 3 course meal ($32.50). Starters at $10, Mains are $19…so if you wanted to get both, might as well just get the 3 courses right? It does get pricy really fast.

Half of us ordered the 3 courses and and others got ala carte.

Some got the Duck confit salad ($10). It also comes with blood orange, lyonnaise onion, and pink peppercorn.

At first glance, you wonder where the duck is, but the good stuff is underneath the greens. I didn’t eat this, so I really can’t tell you much about it.

I started off with the Tuna Salad Nicoise ($10). It is essentially a mixed salad. There was potatoes, anchovies, quail egg, capers, and so many other ingredients. I liked the different textures coming together.

Others got the Grilled Veal Chop ($19). It comes with Scalloped Potaotes, and french beans .

Flo ordered the Ruby trout fillet ($19). It has grapefruit on top, almonds, mint, brown butter. It sits on top of some mashed potatoes.

I ordered the Chicken scaloppine ($19). It comes with wild mushroom risotto with marsala sauce. This dish has 2 thinly sliced chicken breasts and it was very very delicious and moist! The wild mushroom risotto was SO good! Mushrooms with Risotto = <3

The marsala sauce mixed well with both the chicken and the risotto.

The dish was garnish with a broccolini, which is a thinner version of the usual broccoli.

For dessert there was the Peanut butter pie ($6.50). It came on a bed of banana cause and a side of vanilla ice cream. Even though it is called “pie” it is not what you would imagine. Eating this was like devouring a Reeses cheese cake.

The banana sauce was very very good and was not overly sweet. Banana lovers would go nuts for this.

I ordered the Butterscotch pudding ($6.50) It is topped with honey comb. I did not love this dessert, it was good for the first few bites but after a while, I really could not stand eating such a rich and heavy dessert.

Overall, the food at Cafeteria was good but I would not go out of my way to eat here since other joints on Main are in a lower price range. Even though this is so, this does not stop lots of people from lining up for Cafeteria. When we left, the line up was out the door!

Words of Wisdom:

Mandatory 3 course set when reserving for 6+ people
Metered parking on Main Street
Free parking on perpendicular roads
Long Line ups after 6:30pm

We Rate Cafeteria:

Address:

2702 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.cafeteriavancouver.ca

In Kitsilano

The Naam

August 12, 2010

Vancouver sleeps early. It’s pretty difficult to find an eatery that serves food after 11pm. The Naam is one of the few; it’s open 24-hours, 7 days a week. After our night scuba lesson, Batman and I were famished, and met up with DesignGirl to indulge in some midnight snacking (more like, food-hoarding).

Even at midnight, the Naam is brimming with business, mostly from starving students. We pulled up a few seats near the back as courtyard dining was not available at such a late hour, but the dim lighting and deep foliage that lined the courtyard made it irresistibly romantic. You’ll find an eclectic group of diners here – everything from lululemon-wearing yogis to blockbuster celebrities such as The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Jessica Biel. The appeal of the Naam rests in its simplicity – the Naam serves up huge portions of simple, warm, comfort food. Hempwear and dreadlocks are common. Oh, and did I mention that it’s completely vegetarian? But even the most meaty meateaters go gaga for the Naam.

DesignGirl opted for the Buddha’s Feast – and it is what it sounds like – a heaping plate of stir fried vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, tofu, peppers, zucchini, beets, carrots) atop organic brown rice. The veggies are meant to be jumbled together and post-mixing, we arrive at a dish that’s undeniably delectable. The vegetables are crisp and well-cooked, the tofu is flavour-bountiful, and the brown rice is soft and savory.

Batman’s quite affectionate about avocados, and ordered the cashews and avocado enchilada, which came with a side salad. His dish arrived piping out, with guacamole gushing below a tortilla coated in melted cheese. Batman’s verdict “avocado, beans, and other hippy vegan veggie stuff (which is good for you) baked inside cheese. Need I say more? The salad was interesting too.” Personally, I found the enchilada to be too heavy on the avocado – a few spoons would have satisfied me, but eating a whole enchilada was just too rich. The side salad had your standard greens, tomatoes, and sprouts. The dressing was their homemade ‘miso-gravy’ dressing – light and different, without the usual acidic zing of a vinaigrette.

Batman also ordered a beer – the Deadfrog Brown Ale: “The deadfrog brown ale is not dead at all. It was hoppy and jumping all over the place! Settling down with this refreshing beer made me feel grateful to be alive and well. (I think he was just happy to have alcohol) For me, it’s not as consistently drinkable as a lager or pale ale, but I enjoyed the glass of this acquired taste. It made me feel like a froggin’ King.”

I finished everything off with a large carrot juice – which by the looks of it, did not come in a very large glass – and with this being The Naam, I knew it was freshly squeezed.

The service was horrible, I’ve could’ve friven home, planted and harvested my own carrots for juice, with the time it took them to take out order.

For huge portions of organic veggie eats that will fool even the most clever carnivore, The Naam is your best bet – especially for those late night cravings.

We rate The Naam: