Coquitlam Archives - Page 7 of 7

In Coquitlam

House of Tofu Soup: Authentic Korean Cuisine

March 30, 2011

Another night out at Korean Town with my Korean Homies – M, BusanGirl and Fabo! I always rely on them when I we go to any Korean Restaurant. They make the order process 100000x easier for me. What can I say, having Korean friends are handy when I want to check out hidden Korean restaurants around town.

House of Tofu Soup is supposedly has the best tofu soup in the Lower Mainland. Fabo has said that it is even better than the tofu soups in Korea! House of Tofu Soup is located on North Road. It is very hidden and their popularity has spread mainly by word of mouth.

The menu is quite limited but what is awesome about their menu is that they have 3 different translations on their menu – English, Korean and Chinese. If you bring your parents or Grand Parents, they won’t be grumpy that they don’t understand the menu.

The meal starts off with the Korean side dishes – mashed potatoes, seaweed, kimchi, marinated daikon, and pickled daikon with daikon juice. All the side dishes were pretty good and no complaints.

We ordered the Goon Mandu (Fried Dumplings) for $4.99. It comes with 8 pieces. Extra crispy on the outside and has pork and green onion inside. They also give you a light soy sauce to dip our dumplings into.

BusanGirl and M both got the Spicy Dumpling Tofu Soup ($9.99). Even though it look very red and its labeled spicy, this tofu soup will not burn the taste buds off your tongue. The dumplings inside is basically the same ones that we had for a starter but it was not friend.

I ordered the Spicy Seafood Tofu Soup ($9.99). It came bubbling and steaming like it came from the depths of hell. JK. It was just boiling really hard. There was very small bits of mussels and about 8 tiny shrimp in it. There is TONS of tofu in the soup so you are getting your moneys worth.

Also like the other tofu soup, it was not too spicy at all.

They also give you eggs for your tofu soup, no matter what flavour it is. You crack it, dump it in and swirl it around. If you are thinking that I am so cool for cracking an egg with one hand…I actually used two hands but I had to pose with one hand since the other one had to take the picture.

You also get rice to go with your soup. You can dump some into your soup to eat together…or eat it separately.

When they scoop the rice in to the metal bowls, you are left with hot stone bowls with the rice sticking to the side. They pour tea into the stone bowl to soften it up. At the end of your meal, you can scoop this rice/tea into your bowl and eat it.

It’s pretty bland and it’s like eating tea with rice. Some people like it and some people don’t.

Words of Wisdom:

Best Tofu Soup in Vancouver
Under $10
Free Parking in lot or in parkade

We Rate House of Tofu Soup:

Address:

4563 North Rd
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

Deer Garden Restaurant

March 15, 2011

Over the past weekend, the family and I went to devour some Alaskan King crab. I am sure you have heard all the hype since it’s in season. Since we are located on the westcoast close to Alaska, we get high quality crabs for a great deal.

We ventured out to Coquitlam to Deer Garden Restaurant. We heard they had a new batch of King Crab and made a reservation.

The best time to come during the day is 6pm, at least thats what the restaurant told us to go at.

They were absolutely right! When we arrived at 6pm, a hoard of other families made reservations at 6pm too. Crab after crab were flying out of the tanks….from small ones to gigantic ones.

One thing I did not understand was how they were flipping over the crab and showing us which one would be for our meal. Since my family has been here before, we know they do this to disguise the quality of the crab. We double checked that our crab was alive and all limbs were attached. They rush through the whole process so you won’t be able to notice any flaws. Another table we observed ordered a 17 pound crab but the waitress let the table glance for 2 seconds and then dashed off into the kitchen. Their crab was missing half a leg. Is this normal? It seemed a bit strange to me.

This was the menu. I cannot read Chinese to save my life, so it translates to – King crab 4 types, $17.88 per pound

Portugese Baked Fried Rice (Head)
Salt and chilli crab (Body)
Crab legs in Garlic and green onion
Crab legs in Ginger and Garlic Sauce

The crab that we got was 9.75 pounds for 6 people. It was the perfect weight and we ate everything!

The first dish that came was a soup, it comes complementary with the meal. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called…but hey it tasted good and was edible. Not complaining at all.

The body was turned into salt and chili fried crab. Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. There are also garlic chips in this dish. I love garlic chips!

Half of the legs were prepared with garlic and green onion toppings. If you are a garlic fan, you will love this dish. It’s not over powering. What I love about this dish is how you don’t have to crack open all legs to get to the meat. You can get down and dirty with it by using your hands to pull out the meat or forking it.

The other half was a green onion and ginger sauce. I actually prefer this one over the garlic version because it is a bit more sweet and you don’t get the mass amounts of garlic falling off when you eat it.

Our family wastes no part of the crab… not even it’s precious juices. We ordered 2 places of wonton noodles to add it to the left over crab juices. Apparently it’s quite normal and you do get more food!

The head of the crab is flipped upside down and stuffed with Portugese Baked Fried Rice. The crab that is in the fried rice is imitation crab, not the actual meat from the crab. Nonetheless, still delicious.

Since we were feeling a little bit fat after all the seafood and carbs, we thought it would redeem ourselves by ordering their daily vegetable special which was baby bok choy in a garlic sauce.

At the end of the meal, we got Coconut Milk Tapioca Soup.

Overall, the food was decent. All the food came fairly quickly and was prepared well. The only flaw was how the waitresses would try to rush you with the order and not give you a lot of time to inspect the crab you are getting. I know, it’s understandable that they are trying to be efficient and get through all their tables.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on street and parking lot
Best to make reservation for crab
Lots of seats to accomodate large groups

We Rate Deer Garden Restaurant:

Address:

3610 Westwood Street
Port Coquitlam, BC

In Coquitlam

Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo (Korean Knife Cut Noodles)

March 9, 2011

Fabo took M and I here after class. We wanted to go to the House of Tofu soup but unfortunately it was closed. We didn’t know where else to eat dinner, so she suggested Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo. It is located in a mini mall near Hamnam Grocery store. It is kinda like an open food court but just for this restaurant. It is known well to Koreans as having authentic Knife Cut Noodles.

I was super skeptical when she brought us here because I had no idea what knife cut noodles were. I could just imagine a bowl of knives with kimchi. Eventually I did lighten up once I saw the pictures of the food. hehehe.

This little place seats about 30 people and all items are under $10.

Then menu is located on the board, you probably would want Google search on your phone to figure out what is on the menu. Or, you can do what I do and keep a Korean on hand at all times to do my bidding and translating.

Along with your meal, you get the side dishes – kimchi and sweet potatoes.

We started off with the Wang Mandu – King Dumping ($8.55). This is a HUGE dumpling! It is filled with pork, chives and other items. It is the size of 1/2 of a baseball, it was packed with meat , so much meat.

M ordered the Bulgogi Dub Bob – Fire Meat on Rice ($7.95). It is beef and some vegetables over rice. It also comes with an egg drop soup.

Fabo and I both had the Karl Gook Soo – Knife cut noodles ($7.60). This was a massive bowl of noodles MASSIVE. You could probably split one between two people. They really give you your moneys worth. The dish has the knife noodles, beef, carrots and zucchini. The broth was a nice bone soup.

I really couldn’t finish my bowl and I felt super bad, so I just drank all the soup.

Words of Wisdom:

Authentic Korean Knife Cute Noodles
Under $10
Free parking
SO MUCH FOOD

We Rate Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo:

Address:

103 – 4501 North Road
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Cumpari’s Gelato & Caffe (Visit #2)

February 4, 2011

Since Cumpari’s is close to where I usually hang out, so here we are again! Check out my review from Visit #1

Since CanuckGirl and I wandered off from a party, we decided to take a quick trip to Cumpari’s for a late night snack.

CanuckGirl grabbed a small gelato with 2 flavours – pistachio and white chocolate.

I got this Tubular cookie with nutella and nuts ($3). I really wanted a churro but they ran out….so I had to settle with this..I thought it was some sort of profiterole, but it was hard. I’m not sure if it has a name (the staff didn’t even have a name for it). It’s basically a cookie with filling inside.

Craving italian pastries during the night but too lazy to drive to Vancouver or Richmond? Get your fix here, but it is slightly pricey.

We rated Cumpari:

Cumpari Gelato & Caffe is located at 535 North Road in Coquitlam, BC

In Coquitlam

Man Ri Sung Korean Restaurant

January 11, 2011

Man Ri Sung is an amazing Korean Restaurant located on North Road. I always went here with my sister and they have the most amazing BBQ duck special. It seems like thats the only item we ever order.

Today, PinappleBun, MandaPanda, and Officialmaglee decided we should go for the oh so yummy duck!

THe interior has many wooden tables and chairs. Sometimes the decor is very mismatched…like the chairs we had. Don’t expect too much from the decor since it’s all about the taste of the food here.

They have lunch specials and other traditional korean dishes.

For their duck special, for $49.99 you get side dishes, Crispy duck wings, DIY duck wraps, hot pot, and your choice of Japchae or dumplings. This set feed about 4 – 5 people. We had a group of 4 girls eat this and we were all full!

They first start off by giving you a few korean side dishes – bean sprouts, kimchi, sweet potato and cucumber/tofu.

This time the chef did not come out into the dining room to slice the duck infront of us. They gave us the wings of the duck first and they were very crispy. Some parts of it was really good, but we did not have the teeth to eat through it.

The main feature of the set menu is the tofu duck wrap. You are presented with various slices of duck meat.

You also get tofu skins, green onions and sauce to wrap it all together.

I like to put the sauce on first, and then the green onions and then the duck. Fold it over, and BAM you put it in your mouth and enjoy.

The next dish we had was the JapChae. JapChae is a traditional korean dish made out of sweet potato noodles. It is stir fried with sesame oil and various vegetables and beef. It was good.

The last dish made out of the duck remains were a hot pot. The soup and the noodles in this soup made this a very hearty dish. It is not spicy like other types of korean hot pots. Very delicious, but by the time we got to this dish… all 4 of us wished we had stretchy pants.

FYI, we all gathered enough strength and stomach space to finish it off!

One thing I found super creepy was how the washroom was located in the basement…you must walk down these creepy stairs to get there.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking in back
Lunch Specials
Call ahead to order BBQ Duck special. PS it’s AMAZING!

We rate Man Ri Sung:

Website: www.manrisung.com

Address:

609 Clarke Road
Coquitlam, BC

In Coquitlam

Sushi Mori

January 10, 2011

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

In Cafe

Cafe Kaldi

November 5, 2010

Cafe Kaldi is located in Coquitlam a few blocks away from Ikea. I am a big fan of privately owned cafes compared to large chains such as Starbucks. They pride themselves for having sandwiches and drinks made out the the freshest ingredients rather than just heating things up.

Inside Cafe Kaldi are nice big lounge chairs, which are great for meetings or a nice get together. Free wireless is a plus as well! The staff are really nice and are willing to take critiques from customers to make sure their future visits are enjoyable.

I got a latte as usual! You can’t take me away from my lattes! The latte has a strong bold flavour which I love. I totally needed one today after a long stressful day at school. Latte art is always a plus.

They also have amazing english muffins! I know my photos don’t do it justice, but they are very simple and well made. I can’t remember what this version was called, but it had brie, egg, and this amazing hot sauce! Brie is just amazing FYI. This was only $3.75 and makes are a great snack.

We rate Cafe Kaldi:

Fid them at:

Coquitlam
930 Brunette Avenue
Coquitlam, BC V3K

In Bar and Grill

Montanas

October 29, 2010

Montana’s is your go to place when you want ALL YOU CAN EAT RIBS on Wednesdays. Imagine pigging out on rack, after rack, after rack…you will feel super stuffed and probably get meat sweats. Sadly, today was Monday so M and I had to settle for some normal steaks and burgers for a very late lunch. When you walk inside, everything is wooden, wooden walls, wooden chairs, wooden pillars, wooden floors,….everything is wooden!! Wood fest.

Look at that all you can eat section of the menu. Makes me scared already (once I had 3.5 racks..for a women thats A LOT)

Looking at the menu, I like visuals so I know what to expect. M was in a meaty mood and I was in a “lunchtime burger” mood.

To start off our meal, we had a coke ($3)…not much to say there. Coke is coke and it came in a cup.

M got the Grilled Rib Eye ($25.99). It came with coleslaw, mashed potatoes and cajun onions. M got his steak medium rare as usual. He thought the cajun onions were good and the steak was well made. In my opinion, for the price of $25.99, you could get a better steak at The Keg…

i had the Chipotle Firecracker Sirloin Burger ($11.99) and it had chipotle honey BBQ sauce topped with bacon, cajun onions, melted colby cheese, and fried jalapenos. The burger was huge! I wouldn’t fit it in my mouth (Thats what she said). It also came with a choice of side salad or fries. It was a decent burger.

This was the damage of the bill, $49 for 2 people on a lunch, thats a bit steep. i blame M’s Rib Eye.

Words of Wisdom:

If you go for all you can eat ribs, the service is slow so you may not get your $$ worth. Order multiple racks at a time
Burgers are decent, can go wrong with that

I enjoy Montanas for a good lunch, but they are not the best at steaks or ribs. If you want better meats, probably should go to The Keg, or Gothams, or where ever else they specialize in meats.

We rate Montanas:

Check out their website: http://www.montanas.ca/

** Sorry to those that have commented previously…I have written this post probably 3 times…and WordPress has been wonky and deleting things**

In Coquitlam

California Sushi

August 25, 2010

After M came back from Whistler, we decided to go out and eat at California Sushi. Sushi California is one of the better sushi places in Burnaby. It’s a block away from Lougheed Mall and has a wide selection of sushi. The restaurant is owned by Koreans which seems to be the trend in Japanese sushi restaurants which I can never figure out. Lunch times and dinner times can be quite busy, so i really suggest going a bit earlier so avoid the rush.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I couldn’t help but notice one of the soy sauce dishes was a bit dirty. So, you should watch out too if your plates look like it as bits of food on it.

We started with half order of spicy tuna sashimi which tasted not as spicy as I expected. It was a bit sweet. M said they used Korean hot sauce paste and mixed it with sugar to get that taste. As most sushi places, it usually comes with radish garnish, but we did not get any with this one. If you don’t want to eat too much of this dish, just do half an order because it’s cheaper and you know you can finish it without wasting it. You could take it home to eat but it will not taste as good.

We ordered Tempura scallop asparagus roll as well. At first I thought it was probably the weirdest thing to order a sushi roll fried in tempura batter. It had a nice crunch texture to it and it did not taste too oily.

Followed smoked salmon cream cheese roll II. I guess they have two versions of this roll, so they had to add a “II” to the end of it. I’m not exactly sure how it’s different but I did not find this roll too special. It reminded me of an Alaska roll but with different insides.

The next thing we ordered was toro nigiri. I always enjoy ordering a piece of toro at sushi restaurants. If you don’t know what toro is, it is the belly portion of the tuna which is more fatty. Compared to other sushi restaurants, I found this toro was a bit icy, so i assume they froze it and defrosted it for the day. I’ve had better.

Then finally we had tobiko with quail egg nigiri, these just remind me of boobies because it has the yellow dot in the middle. This is certainly very odd to eat and you must make sure you shove this into your mouth so no tobiko or the quail egg spill on the plate. Whenever i encounter a restaurant with red tobiko, i get kinda weirded out since I usually see orange tobiko. According to google, they come in various colors like green and black.

If you like sushi in the mid-range price, then sushi california will be for you. They have the basics as well as some specialty roles. Just watch out for the cleanliness of your dishes.

We rate Sushi California:

Sushi California is located at: 501A North Road in Coquitlam, BC.

In Coquitlam

Cumpari’s Gelato & Caffe

August 23, 2010

Cumpari’s Gelato & Caffe used to be the home of Burger King in the 1990’s and after years of abandonment, Cumpari’s took over this deserted venue. There is no other authentic Italian dessert place near Lougheed Mall. They have anything from cakes, gelato, to coffees and teas. They even play Italian opera music to set customers in the mood.

At a given day, there are a dozen of different cakes and pastries produced. Even though they look super delicious, it will put a bit of a dent in your wallet. Each piece can range from $5 to $8 per piece. If you have that sweet tooth right after dinner, it’s quite enjoyable.

Along with their cakes, they produce gelato! Without the gelato, they could not pull off the whole Italian dessert place. They do not have 300 flavours but they do have one that people will enjoy. We ordered the large which gave us 3 flavours – pistachio, mango creme, and Hazelnut. If you are not so keep on so many flavours they also have smaller sizes too.

Ferrero Rocher cake! Yes, it is made out of Ferrero Rocher! It was a big slice, so sharing is key! I found it to be a bit too sweet for my liking.

This cake, which I have forgotten it’s name was sweet and when you got to eating a strawberry they were a bit sour.

Mini Von Horne is made out of small profiteroles filled with cream and drizzles with chocolate. This dessert was not overly sweet and was just perfect.This is probably the best way to share a dessert since there are 5 balls that come apart easily without the messy ripping and sharing.

Craving Italian pastries during the night but too lazy to drive to Vancouver or Richmond? Get your fix here, but it is slightly pricey.

We rated Cumpari:

Cumpari Gelato & Caffe is located at 535 North Road in Coquitlam, BC