Downtown Archives - Page 16 of 22

In Downtown

Cham Mani: Quick & Cheap Korean Meal

January 13, 2012

Cham Mani is a Korean restaurant on Pender. The interior seemed very simple and would work for a quick lunch. The lunch are cheap and under $10. My coworker wanted some good cheap food, so I took her here.

KimchiJjiGae ($7.50) is kimchi stew with pork, tofu and onion. Comes with a side of rice. I like it! It was a tad spicy, so if you fear spicy, this isn’t for you. There’s a good amount of stew and rice, so you will be full.

I ate it by mixing the rice into the stew, but you could also put some stew onto the rice. Doesn’t really matter how you do it as long as it gets into your belly.

You also get some side dishes to share. We got Kimchi and tofu curds, which are complementary.

JeYukDupBap ($8.25) is spicy pork and vegetables over rice. It is also spicy, so do watch out. If you like spice, you’ll be alright.

Overall, pretty good. The place is family owned, so you do get a sense of “home” in the food when you eat here. I was looking at other tables and their other dishes looked pretty awesome too. The dishes aren’t too fancy, but its perfect lunch food.

Words of Wisdom:

Closest Skytrain – Granville or Waterfront
Under $10
Best deal is with the combos
Quick fast lunch
Small restaurant, not good for large groups.

We Rate Cham Mani:

Address:

529 West Pender St
Vancouver, BC

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In Canadian

Dunn’s Famous: Montreal Smoked Meat Deliciousness

January 9, 2012

Dunn’s Famous has opened up their first location in Western Canada in Downtown Vancouver. I’ve heard their super sandwiches were really good, so the SFU Food Bloggers – FoodQueen, I’m Busy Eating, Good Eat, Eating with Kirby and Eat with Jenny decided to check out this restaurant.

Do check out their blogs for their version of their review since we all have different tastes and opinions.

The main dining area is quite large and can accommodate large groups.

They even have a smaller room in the back and I think it turns into a private area if you have a super super large group.

Salami Stacker ($12.99) has a stack of sliced all beef salami on light sourdough rye with mustard. Comes with a choice of side and coleslaw with a pickle. I chose fries for my side.

The salami in the sandwich was cold, but I guess that’s how the salami supposed to be. There is a generous amount of meat in the sandwich and it has mustard inside to complement the meat. I thought it was OK, but there are better items on the menu.

If you have this for lunch, you will be full for sure.

Hot Chicken ($11.99) has Two Rivers free run chicken breast on sliced white bread covered in gravy, topped with peas. Jenny chose the fries on the side.
The Famous Dunn’s Reuben ($13.99) has Montreal smoked meat, double stacked on dark rye with sauerkraut & melted Swiss cheese. The side is seafood chowder and it doesn’t cost extra! Kirby ordered this and Good Eat and I shared this too.

It tasted really good with the layers of smoked meat, sauerkraut and Swiss. One thing that sucked is how the bottom bread gets soggy.

You have your choice of choosing lean, medium or fatty for the Montreal smoked meat, but all of us chose medium since it was the best one.

The Combination ($12.99) gives you the choice of Montreal smoked meat & free run chicken or Montreal smoked meat & salami or salami & free run chicken on light sourdough rye. I’mBusyEating chose the Montreal smoked meat & free run chicken. She also had the seafood chowder on the side. She found the chicken to be pretty dry.

Super Montreal Smoked Meat ($10.99) has 6 oz hand sliced smoked beef brisket on light sourdough rye poutine. FoodQueen added the Québécois poutine of the side for $3.50 more.

Look at all that meat!

Super Giant Montreal Smoked Meat ($12.98) has 8 oz hand sliced smoked beef brisket on light sourdough rye. I ordered the salad on the side for no additional charge. GoodEat and I shared this too.

At first glance its hard to tell the difference between 6oz and 8oz, but you need to look carefully.

Medium was a good choice for the Montreal smoked meat and worked well for all the sandwiches.

If you need more flavour, they have ketchup and mustard for you. I really like mustard, but I would have much preferred Dijon Mustard with the seeds.

Overall, really great super sandwiches, they are so super you will definitely get full off of them.

Words of Wisdom:

Metered Parking in front, underground pay parking, ImPark Lot across the street
Decent Prices
Medium Smoked Meat is best
Chicken is very dry
Choose the featured soup for no extra charge
Lots of seats
Great for large groups

We Rate Dunn’s Famous:

Address:
827 Seymour Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:
dunnsfamousbc.com
Twitter:
@dunnsfamousbc

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In Cafe

Miura Waffle Milk Bar: Waffle Sandwiches are Epic

January 5, 2012

Miura Waffle Milk Bar is located on Davie and Howe St. they are best known for the waffle sandwiches in sweet and savory flavours. This has been on my “To Eat” list for a long long time, but I seldom visit this area.

Since a few of us from my High School were meeting up again, I wanted to take them somewhere unique so I thought to myself, waffle sandwiches are unique!

The interior is not too large, but it fits a few parties of 2s and 4s. Sometimes more if you are able to put chairs together.

You can watch them create your waffles as you wait. They don’t have a ventilation machine, so, if they accidentally burn something, the whole place smells like burnt waffles.

Latte (12oz – $3.29) was not very good. It was very milky and could have had a stronger coffee taste.

Strawberry Flavoured Milk ($3.29)

Blueberry Yoggy Milk ($3.29) it’s a thin textured yogurt-like drink that’s slightly tangy.

HEC Savory Waffle Sandwich ($5.99) has ham, omelette and mozzarella cheese between 2 waffles. Sunny really liked it and it was quite cute.

BELT Savory Waffle Sandwich ($4.99 Tuesday Special) has bacon, egg, lettuce and tomatoes. What is awesome about this is that the bacon is cooked right into the waffles. You know no one is gonna steal your bacon cause it’s hidden in the waffle.

Wasabi Salmon Savory Waffle Sandwich ($7.99) has soy cured salmon, lettuce, wasabi ranch sauce and some herbs. Look at how flakey the salmon is inside the waffle. It complemented the wasabi sauce nicely and I would definitely eat it again!

Tiramisu Sweet Waffle Sandwich ($5.29) has cream cheese custard cream, coffee jelly and chocolate sauce. It clearly has no resemblance to a tiramisu, but it tastes good. It’s the same size as the sandwich, but they can split it into 2 so it’s easier to share. Tasted delicious!!

Overall, one sandwich was good enough for lunch! The prices are decent and you will leave with a smile on your face. Then, you can go on Facebook and brag to your friends you had a cool waffle sandwich. hahaha.

Words of Wisdom:

Weekday specials
Very unique and memorable sandwiches
Under $10

We Rate Miura Waffle Milk Bar:

Address:

829 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://miurawafflemilkbar.webs.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miura-Waffle-Milk-Bar/115874321771418

Twitter: @MiuraWaffle

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In BBQ

Raging Bull Mesquite Grill Food Truck: Open for Breakfast and Lunch

January 3, 2012

A new food truck has popped up on Granville St & Dunsmuir St called Raging Bull Mesquite Grill.

They only use prime cut sirloin and organic chicken. Its smoked with mesquite wood. They are open quite early at 8am and sell breakfast!

Here is a look at their menu. They only have a few items available, but caters to vegetarians too. This is a first time I’ve seen a food cart offering breakfast.

Chicken Fajita Wrap ($7.50) has salsa, spanish rice, beans, corn, cheese, chipotle sauce rolled up in a soft tortilla shell.

The wrap was pretty large and had very unique flavours inside. I loved the grilled chicken, it had lots of mesquite flavour and it really was the star. Certain ingredients in the wrap were warm and then some other were really cold. The cold salsa annoyed me and made the wrap get colder faster.

Overall the wrap was alright with some good unique flavours!

Words of Wisdom:

Offers Breakfast
Under $10
Delicious mesquite smoked meats

We Rate Raging Bull Mesquite Grill:

Location:

Granville St & Dunsmuir St (Outside Shoppers Drug Mart)

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In Downtown

Italian Kitchen To Go (IK2Go): Quick, Cheap and Easy

January 2, 2012

Italian Kitchen To Go (IK2GO) is a faster and cheaper alternative to dining inside Italian Kitchen. It’s very hard to find where it is, but all you need to do it find this sign and keep walking down the hall (don’t walk up the stairs).

I met up with Angela from Munchkie’s Munchies for some delicious lunch at IK2GO. You can find her detailed review here.

Just walk a few meters and you should see this. If you don’t see this, you are in the wrong place. Usually there is a long line up, but when we went it was quite short.

They have a large amount of panini sandwiches. It’s a perfect lunch if you are just walking around. Theres a ton of flavours to choose from, so you might have a bit of a headache. To be precise, theres 11 choices.

If you are feeling like something light and somewhat healthy, these can range from $3.95 to $5.50.

Squash and Bacon Pizza ($3.95) was a good size and had lots of delicious squash. It has cheese, bacon , squash, spice and chilli flakes. It had a good balance of flavour.

Timballo ($6.95) has baked pasta with lamb sausage, macaroni, egg, and caramelized onions. This was like a mac and cheese pie! The lamb sausage near the bottom was quite salty, but it matched well with the macaroni and cheese texture.

Macarons ($1.95 each) was poorly constructed. the inside of the shells were hollow and collapsed easily with little pressure. The filling was this weird jelly like disk, which didn’t seem right at all.

Chocolate Brownie ($2.35) was quite large and full of chocolatey richness. I would totally get this again!

Overall, the meal was good and theres tons to choose from. I would probably return for lunch.

Words of Wisdom:

All TakeOut, so you need to go elsewhere to sit down and eat.
Under $10
Can order online

We Rate Italian Kitchen To Go:

Address:
1030 W Georgia St
Vancouver, BC V6E

Website:
http://www.glowbalgroup.com/wp-content/themes/italiankitchen/ik2go/form.php

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In Downtown

Shizen Ya: Organic Japanese Food

December 30, 2011

Back to Shizen Ya to try out their dinner combo. I liked their lunch combo and it’s great that they use only organic fresh ingredients. For the health conscious people, it’s good to know there is nothing chemically hidden in your food.

The dinner combo is $14.95 and you get miso soup, sashimi, sunomono and a choice of a main dish. You can choose from beef teriyaki, chicken breast miso teriyaki or their curry.

Prawn Sunomono has boiled tiger prawn, seaweed, cucumber, carrots, brown rice vermicelli with the sweet vinegar sauce. It was unique since it used the brown vermicelli instead of the usual clear ones. It tasted good.

Organic Tofu Miso Soup has organic tofu and vegetables in the organic miso broth. It tasted a bit similar to the other miso soups from other restaurants, but it was a tad less salty.

Assorted Sashimi has 2 pieces each of the wild sockeye salmon and albacore tuna. The sashimi looked fresh and had a good taste.

Japanese Kheema Curry has shredded chicken breast with five kinds of beans curry. It also has brown rice. The curry was bit spicy, but it isn’t too overwhelming. It tasted good as well, but I am not a bean person, so I disliked the taste of beans.

Overall, I thought it was a good combo for dinner since I was super super filled.

Words of Wisdom:

Great lunch and dinner combos
All brown rice and no white rice
Vegetarian and vegan options
Limited desserts

We Rate Shizen Ya:

Twitter:

@shizenya_van

Website:

http://shizenya.ca/

In Downtown

Meat & Bread: It’s Just That Simple

December 27, 2011

I’ve been to Meat & Bread plenty of times but I always seem to go back for some mouth watering sandwiches. They have their usual items and once in a while they have some unique sandwiches. I’ve had some good and bad experiences here, but this visit was one of the good ones.

Meat & Bread is one of the most talked about restaurants in town and they just keep everything simple. Their menu is quite limited but you won’t be disappointed…unless you are a vegetarian.

Pemberton Meadows Braised Beef, House Made Chipotle BBQ Sauce, Scallion Cabbage Slaw ($8)

This was their special of the day. I usually keep up on their twitter to check out any interesting creations they have since I am usually in the area. This sandwich has a lot of meat and with the sauces … it was quite messy to eat, but it was delicious.

Porchetta ($8) is their most famous sandwich! It’s has savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast with some verde sauce. The best part is crunching on the crispy “cracklings” aka the skin. Similar to the Chinese roasted pork.

It can be a bit oily or fatty for certain people’s palettes. For M, he loved it and wouldn’t give me more than a bite.

Overall, it makes for a good lunch, but the price of $8 for just a sandwich can turn off some people.

Words of Wisdom:

Best to go early to ensure nothing is sold out, 11am is good and it’s empty
Porchetta is the most popular but the other sandwiches are also delicious
The sauces are a must try
Dandelion & Burdock Soda is good!

We rate Meat & Bread:
Address:
370 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:

http://meatandbread.ca/

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Vancouver

In Culinary School

JJs Restaurant: Dining On A Budget

December 22, 2011

My coworkers and I went to JJ’s Restaurant in Vancouver Community College for our Christmas party. It’s really a perfect location since we work closely with all post secondary institutions. JJs is a great place since it’s cheap and a great learning experience for their culinary students.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad ($4)is one of my favorite items since I love shrimp. I’ve had it before and they’ve added an additional layer of coleslaw on the bottom. It worked really well since it added a unique texture to accompany the shrimp and avocados. On top is garnished with a cherry tomato that was skinned.

Some of us didn’t really like the addition of the cherry tomato because it felt a bit strange with the other flavours.

Lamb Cooked Two Ways($10) has Slow cooked leg of lamb and pan-roasted loin with rosemary jus. In addition, there was brussel sprouts, red cabbage, and mashed potatoes wrapped in phyllo pastry. I wasn’t in love with the pan roasted loin, but the slow cooked leg of lamb was very tender and flavourful. Overall, its still a pretty good dish. Price is awesome too.

Dark chocolate mousse with caramel espresso ice cream ($3) the mousse was nice and chocolatey and went really well with the ice cream. One of their awesome desserts. I did find the dessert a bit cake-like, but it still had the rich chocolate taste.

Overall, great lunch experience at a very affordable price! Sometimes the service is a bit strange, but remember they are all students that are learning. If you are on a budget and want some good food, this is the place to go.

Words of Wisdom:

Lunch is also super affordable!
Closest Skytrain – Stadium
Under $10
You’re missing out if you don’t visit this place!
Make reservations especially during the holidays!

We rate JJ’s Restaurant:

Address:

250 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

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Vancouver

In Downtown

Guu Garden: Rice Burger Bento Lunch Is Awesome

December 20, 2011

Guu Garden is probably my favorite place to have lunch downtown. It’s cheap and you are guaranteed a fabulous lunch. Plus, I love Japanese food to death. For AvocadoGirl’s last day of work, I took her here since she really needed to see their amazing lunch.

You get super full for about $10.

The lunch menu is above, but they do change once in a while.

We grabbed some tea and waited for our order to arrive. Unfortunately, it was busy at lunch so it did take quite a while for our meal to arrive. I think it took about 30 minutes for our order to arrive. This was quite a bit long since lunch is supposed to be a fast meal. Eventually it did arrive, which is good.

Kobe Beef Hamburg Steak Rice Burger Bento ($10) it comes with green bean fries, prawn & avocado wasabi salad, side dish and miso soup. You can also double the patty for an extra $2.50.

Kobe Beef Hamburg Steak Rice Burger look really good and flavourful. It’s a bit hard to eat with your hands, so I used a knife and fork.

The Kobachi served when I went here was bean sprouts with a little bit of chili sauce. Overall pretty good, but it was small.

Prawn & Avocado Wasabi Salad is another one of my favorite dishes. It doesn’t have a strong overwhelming wasabi taste, so its good for people with varying spicy tolerance.

Green bean fries complimented all the other items nicely since it had a nice crunch. Not oily at all.

Grapes came as the finishing dessert. It was just normal grapes, so can’t really say much about that. They use to have this almond pudding instead and that was so much better than grapes.

Okara & Veggies Korokke Rice Burger Bento ($10) it comes with green bean fries, prawn& avocado wasabi salad, side dish and miso soup. Everything is the same except for the burger.

AvocadoGirl had this and I don’t think she had any complaints.

Pasta of the Day ($10) has their daily pasta, side of avocado shrimp salad and a miso soup.

They warned me that the pasta would be spicy, but it really wasn’t. It had a light tomato sauce with peppers, tomatoes, herbs and bacon. It was alright, but nothing too spectacular.

The miso soup was pretty good! It even has bean curd in it.

It’s the same avocado and shrimp salad that comes with the other combos. YUM!

Avocado Cheesecake surprised me at first! How can you put those two together? It tasted really good, the avocado is subtle but you can still taste it!

Overall, really good lunch deals especially in the downtown area. Highly recommended!

Words of Wisdom:

Amazing $10 bento lunch
Hard to locate the restaurant
Slow service

We Rate Guu Garden:

Address:

M101-888 Nelson Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com

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Vancouver

In Downtown

Ebi Ten Japanese Fast Food: Cheap but Not Good

December 9, 2011

Yet again, I had no idea where to eat lunch, so I headed down and randomly found Ebi Ten. They have Japanese fast food, which I don’t know what that means…but they are known for their decent dons. They are quite affordable and under $10. Good for a quick cheap lunch.

The inside does have a few chairs, but mosts for groups of 2’s. There is one table of 4, but during peak hours it might be occupied.

All meals are well priced. You can upgrade into a combo and get miso soup or a can of pop.

Ebi Ten Plate (Combo – $9.40) comes with assorted tempura, california roll, chicken teriyaki with salad and mayo.

With the upgrade to a combo, I chose the miso soup instead of the pop. Just trying to be a bit healthier.

Miso soup was alright, nothing special here.

The assorted tempura tasted good, very fresh and the batter has a nice crunch to it. The vegetables and ebi were cooked perfectly too.

California roll came with 8 pieces. I was not a fan of it. They were constructed poorly and you can see the avocado was going a bit brown.

Chicken Teriyaki with salad and mayo was pretty disgusting. I just really don’t like mayo with my salad. it really didn’t seem like salad at all. Also, the leaves were wilted and not fresh.

I think I probably chose the wrong dish to have here since most people were ordering the bowl items instead. Best to stay away from the Ebi Ten Plate.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Go with the bowl items or specials
Do not get Ebi Ten Plate
Poorly constructed sushi

We Rate Ebi Ten:

Address:
388 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

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In Bakery

Thierry Patisserie: Late Night Dessert Shop

November 30, 2011

Thierry Patisserie is located near Alberni and Thurlow and sells some delectable treats! From croissants to cakes… they have the tasty treats you want.

I came here with a few of the SFU Food Bloggers – FoodQueen, ImBusyEating and GoodEat. We weren’t planning to go here, but since it was so close to where we were…we just had to try it out! The interior is just beautiful and has a lot of seats! It’s open till late as well, which is a big plus!

Their macarons vary every season. They can be quite colorful and packed full of flavours….or in some cases food coloring.

Chocolates chocolates… and more chocolates. They have a variety of different chocolate from fruit ganches, flavoured ganache, pralines, marzipan and many others.

Thierry also has an assortment of cakes for sale as well. Perhaps for someone’s birthday or any special occasion.

If you are looking for an individual sized cake, they have those too. They have so many kinds…so good luck choosing one. I was tempted to eat all of them.

Croissants are available too…they have ham, original, almond, and chocolate.

Latte tasted alright. It goes well with the desserts!

Chocolate Eclair was awesome! I just love the custard filling with chocolate on top! It might be because I have a secret love for profiterole type of desserts.

Chocolate Croissant has chocolate inside of its golden flaky exterior.

Pistachio Chocolate Cake ($5.75) has Chocolate cake with mousse and pistachio mousse on top.

Macarons (7pack – $11.95) were alright. I really didn’t like the texture of the macarons compared to other places in town. Tasted a bit cake-like to me.

Overall, Thierry Patisserie is a good place to chill with your friends over coffee/tea and pastries. It’s open late at night, so it’s the perfect after dinner spot (assuming you aren’t too full from dinner).

Words of Wisdom:

Large variety of pastries
Can be a bit pricey
Lots of tables
Beautiful decor

We Rate Thierry Patisserie:

Address
1059 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:
thierrychocolates.com

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Vancouver

In Downtown

Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant: Delicious Vietnamese Noodles in Downtown

November 28, 2011

Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant is this amazing Vietnamese restaurant on Howe Street near Pender. Just walking by, you wouldn’t expect that this place has some pretty delicious and cheap pho! I never knew this place existed until Flo told me to join her for lunch!

The interior is very large, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Most lunch hours are packed! People actually make reservations to ensure they get a spot. Best to either come earlier or late… or just make a reservation.

They have a lot of choices on their menu…. most items are very affordable and under $10.

They also have pho / vietnamese noodle soups! If you love to look at photos, they have a few photos on a wall too.

Fresh Young Coconut ($4.50) can either come in the whole coconut or takeout in a cup. Flo got her drink in a take out cup since she didn’t have to scrape the coconut meat herself.

Cold Vietnamese Coffee ($3.50) doesn’t have the dripping apparatus, but makes the drink less messy. It is still as strong and delicious as usual. Good for the afternoon caffeine kick.

Special Beef Noodle Soup ($7.99) has a little bit of everything. The size of it is pretty large, so you really get your moneys worth. Its not the best quality, but it’s good near the Waterfront/ Burrard area.

Shredded Crabmeat and Seafood Noodle Soup ($7.99) looks spicy, but its not at all spicy. It is also very large and has a good amount of noodles and items inside. The seafood is the frozen type, so you don’t get the full freshness and flavour of the seafood.

There’s also different sauces at the table if you want to add some more flavour to your noodles.

Overall, good find in the Downtown core. If you want to spend less than $10 and get super stuffed, you should go here. Plus, noodles in the winter-time is a good choice!

Words of Wisdom:

Large amount of menu items
Noodle soup is most popular ordered item
Under $10
Should make reservations if you want to get a seat right away

We Rate Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant:
Address:
551 Howe St
Vancouver, BC V6C
Website:
http://www.joyeaux-cafe-restaurant.com/

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Vancouver

In Downtown

Shizen Ya: All Organic, Uses Brown Rice and Delicious!

November 27, 2011

Shizen Ya is Japanese restaurant they specialize in organic and fresh Japanese food. They only use brown rice in their sushi with no extra charge. They pride themselves of not using additives or MSG. When you eat here, you know you are getting quality without any hidden ingredients.

The interior is quite narrow and small, so if you go with groups of 4 or more, it is best to make reservations.

Hot Green tea comes complementary and it’s pretty good tea.

Salmon and Avocado Roll ($2.95) is made of organic avocados, fresh salmon, wrapped in brown rice and seaweed. MeatGirl and I really loved this roll since it was so fresh! You don’t need soy sauce with this roll since the flavours of the ingredients is all you need to taste. No need to mask that taste with soy sauce.

The Lunch Combos all come with brown rice, spinach gomaae, and organic salad. All lunch combos are under $10, which is a great deal.

Organic Salad was lightly dressed and was really fresh.

Spinach Gomaae comes on the side of your main dish of your lunch combo. It has a sesame sauce made out of real sesame.

It is also available ala carte for $2.95.

Beef Teri Combo ($8.95) has juicy and tender Tokyo cut beef with vegetables and teriyaki sauce with the side of brown rice.

Kheema Curry Combo ($7.95) has shredded chicken breast, five kind of bean curry with the side of brown rice. AvocadoGirl said the curry was a bit spicy. If you like a little bit of spice to your curry, then this is a good choice. It tastes super healthy too.

Chicken Breast Combo ($9.95) has braised chicken breast with an organic miso teriyaki sauce and brown rice. The chicken was a bit on the dry side, but not too dry. The sauce helped the texture.

Overall, for the lunch combos are pretty good quality and you’ll get full. On the bright side, it’s healthy too! Portions are pretty good.

Words of Wisdom:

Great lunch and dinner combos
All brown rice and no white rice
Vegetarian and vegan options
Limited desserts

We Rate Shizen Ya:

Twitter:

Website:

In Downtown

Shark Club Bar & Grill: All You Need Is Beer and Good Company

November 23, 2011

Shark Club Bar & Grill is a large venue which is great to watch the game. Too bad I’m not into sports or going out to bars to watch sports games. I only go to these places for beer and good company!

The Social Media Network from SFU and UBC were hosting a Tweetup here and I decided to join in on all the fun. Of course there had to be food too .

Molson Canadian ($4) actually tasted good. It was nice and light.

Chicken Pesto Quesadilla ($13) has grilled chicken breast, pesto sauce, peppers, onions and melted cheese, in a flour tortilla. It also has sour cream and salsa and fries. There was a lot of filling in the quesadilla so you do get full.

Roast Beef Dip ($13) it has roast beef topped on a toasted baguette with a side of au jus. Also a side of fries too.

I liked it since it had so much meat! The best park was just dunking it into the au jus and having the bread to soak it all up. The fries were decent.

Overall, foodwise it was alright. It was a bit expensive for what you get. I probably wouldn’t go here on a normal day. The service was pretty slow and they probably could have used more servers on a Friday night.

Words of Wisdom:

Very large venue, good for really large groups
Good for the game
pretty dead when there are no games on
Daily drink specials
Decent food and ok service
Slightly overpriced for what you get

We Rate Shark Club:

Address:
180 W Georgia St
Vancouver, BC V6B

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In Downtown

Smiley’s Public House: Nachos + Non Existent Service

November 22, 2011

It was a long day, so a bunch of us decided to head to Smiley’s Public House to unwind. It’s a pub that is owned and operated by the Donnelly Group.

We went inside and just seated ourselves. It took the waitress a while to give us menus and to serve us. It seemed like they were quite understaffed since it looked like one waitress serving the whole place. If you can bear with mediocre service, you should be fine….it is a pub so don’t expect too much.

Nachos ($16) tortilla chops, cheddar cheese, monetery jack cheese, olives, tomatoes, jalapenos with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. It was pretty good, but if you aren’t a fan of heat, you should pick the jalapenos off. The nachos were quite large and can feed about 3 – 4 people. It goes well with beer!

Overall, food is decent, but service is bad. I asked for the bill and they wouldn’t deliver it to the table for some strange reason. I tried paying at the counter but the waitress just walked away and didn’t take the money, so we just left it on the table. It made a simple process quite confusing and complicated.

Words of Wisdom:

Daily specials of food and drinks
Lots of TVs for the game
Lots of seats
Service sucks
Closest Skytrain: Burrard

We rate Smileys Public House:

Address:
911 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6C
Website:
donnellygroup.ca/smileys

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In Downtown

Zero One Sushi : Rainy Day Meal

November 21, 2011

I was at Harbour Center and didn’t want to walk too far since it was raining. M, Scarface and I went to Sushi Zero One for some cheap fast sushi.

They have fairly cheap and affordable sushi. It’s not the best sushi, but it’s decent.

It is very small and has limited seating, most people take out instead of sitting there. It’s pretty empty near dinner time, so there are seats available to sit down. It’s not a good place for big groups…probably parties of 3 are the largest.

They have complementary tea and water on the side if you didn’t want to buy a drink.

Tea, I love good ol simple tea.

Gyu Don (Large – $6.30) has beef, onions and egg on top of rice. It was alright, but you probably need some soy sauce to go along with this.

Gyu Don (Mega – $7) has an even larger size – mega. It’s actually quite hard to tell what the difference is. It’s the same sized bowl, but it doesn’t seem like there is a substancial difference in the amount of meat.

Either way it was still decent, but you should still add a bit of soy sauce.

Deluxe Chirashi Don ($9.50) has albacore tuna, sockeye salmon ,ebi ,hotate ,ikura and egg on top of rice. Pretty good for the price, but some of the cuts of the sashimi were a little bit big and was quite a mouthful. I needed to add a bit of soy sauce to the rice to really bring all the ingredients together.

Miso soup comes along with the Deluxe Chirashi Don. It’s normal and nothing special about it.

Their items are alright. They have a large menu with good prices.

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

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In Downtown

Tacofino Blue Food Truck: It’s all about the Burrito

November 9, 2011

I saw that there was another Tacofino truck near Burrard, but it had a different name “Tacofino Blue”. When I got there I just laughed because it was actually blue. I spent the whole morning trying to figure out how this one would be different than their other location. There is a big big difference between the two trucks – BURRITOS!

They still have a few tacos at this location, but you never know when they will be there or not. They don’t specialize in tacos here.

Their main menu has mostly Burritos. If you are feeling like Burritos, come here instead of their orange truck.

The burrito at first may seem a bit on the small side for about $10, but it has quite a bit of weight to it.

Chicken Burrito ($10) has slow cooked chicken with refried black beans, seasoned basmati rice, sour cream, chipotle mayo, salsa fresca and shredded cabbage rolled in a warm 12” flour tortilla. I really loved all the sauces and the flavours mixed together in this burrito. I was stuffed, so the $10 price tag was worth it.

Words of Wisdom:

Burrito are really filling
Tuna Ta Taco + Pork Gringa + Jarritos = Best meal!!
Really busy during lunch
Can get messy
Closest Skytrain: Burrard

We Rate Tacofino Blue:

Location: Burrard x Dunsmiur

Website: www.tacofino.com

Twitter: @TacoFinoCantina

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/TacoFino-Vancouver/157314964322202

In Downtown

Viet Sub Vietnamese Cuisine: Amazing Viet Subs

November 6, 2011

Viet Sub is a very popular place on Robson to grab some lunch. The sandwiches can be under $4 and the pho is about $6. There were lineups out the door, but most people were just doing takeout. The interior is very very small, so it’s not a place to take a group of people here. Best to just take out and sit outside the art gallery to enjoy some sun.

The reason why people keep going back is because it’s cheap and worth the price!

Chicken with French Bread ($4.20) was a good price for what you get! The chicken is nicely shredded on the bottom and has a good amount of pickled vegetables and cucumber in a milky bun. I really really like the buns they use. I kinda hate bread, but I could probably eat it all day.