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In Dessert

CheeseCake Etc. Take Out

February 22, 2011

PinappleBun sent me on a trek to grab some take out from CheeseCake Etc. The last time I went here, it was about a year or so ago. A lot has changed since then, their shop use to just be one restaurant but now it has expanded and has an additional dining area. CheeseCake Etc sells NY style cheese cake, which basically there is no graham cracker base.

Looking at their menu, they do not have a large selection of cheesecake. Mostly drinks and a few combinations of desserts and bread.

I came here just for a whole cheesecake to take out. There are not a lot of options…just the original cheesecake ($26), chocolate cheesecake ($31) and a tub of strawberry sauce ($7). I asked the cashier how many slices a whole cheese cake has, and he answered saying about 8. I did bit of calculations and realized it’s not a bad deal at all! You save about $11.

We got the original cheesecake and the tub of strawberry sauce ($33). You have to keep this frozen on order to get a nice looking slice from the cake. If it is half thawed, it will give you can ugly looking slice.

The cheesecake us good with strawberries, it gives you more of a sweet taste and other textures.

If you don’t have a large appetite, you will probably cut smaller pieces and get more than 8 slices.It’s been a few days and we still have this still in our fridge! Cheesecake for breakfast…lunch or dinner. haha.

Words of Wisdom:

Pay parking on adjacent roads
Lots of seating
Good simple cheesecake
Limited choices on menu

We rate CheeseCake Etc. :

Address:

2141 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.cheesecakeetc.com

In Fairview

SAWA Tea Lounge & Gallery

January 11, 2011

CandiedZen is now my weekly eating buddy! She suggested we go here since she heard it was unique and very good.

Sawa Tea Lounge & Gallery is located right outside Granville Island close to the Afkghan Horsemen. Sawa sells a variety of specialty teas, and green healthy lunches.

The top floor of the restaurant is where you order and pay, but as you walk further into the restaurant, you can walk down into the gallery AKA seating area. There are a few art pieces you can buy off the wall. This area can fit about 20 people. The main table is really cool and has a tea pot in the middle.

CandiedZen started off with a pot of Kyoto Cherry Tea ($2.90). This flavour was Chinese Sencha with rose petal. The tea tasted very relaxing and had an after tast of rose. It was not overly sweet, it was almost subtle.

I just ordered the Salmon SAWA Donburi ($7.50). This is SAWA’s special rice bowl, topped with green mix salad and meat or tofu. Seasoned with SAWA’s original dressing and you get to choose from salmon, beef, chicken or tofu.

It may seem weird to have salad with rice and some type of protein topping. Surprisingly it was REALLY GOOD! I think it is the secret SAWA salad dressing that is really tasty.

How I ate this was just mixing all the ingredients together.

CandiedZen also ordered the Onigiri Set ($7). You can choose from two onigiri (rice balls) filled with plum, salmon or seaweed. Comes with miso soup and salad.

She ordered the plum and salmon. She commented saying the dish was very simple and delicious. She would come again because the food was great and the atmosphere is really nice and calming. The nice tea was a plus as well.

Here are close ups of the salad and onigiri. The salad has the special SAWA dressing (YUM). The onigiri were made in a mould and thats why it is shaped so perfectly.

Overall it was a great experience. Come here for nice light lunch and some relaxing tea. If you arn’t into heavy meals, this is your place!!

Words of Wisdom:

Paid Parking Lot – $4 / hr
Large variety of teas
Lots of light organic meals
Relaxing atmosphere

We Rate Sawa Tea Lounge & Gallery:

Website: http://www.sawatea.com/

Address:

1538 W 2nd Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Fairview

Cru

December 28, 2010

Since MedicalGiraffe was back in town, we went to Cru! Since we didn’t want to waste too much money on dinner, we opted to go there for lunch.

The interior was not as what we imagined. It was kind of small and had mostly booth style sitting. We imagined the inside to be more blue. Instead, it had very warm color tones.

Their lunch menu you can order by dish or you can indulge in the the set menu in choices of 2 or 3 dishes. We chose 2 dishes each for $19.

Medical Giraffe started off with the soup of the day, which was carrot and ginger puree soup. It didn’t really taste extraordinary. The taste was a bit bland and was similar to baby food but in a more soupy form.

She next had the Citrus-cured Roasted BC Sablefish which has olive oil crushed potatoes, creamed leeks and oven-dried tomato. This dish was good, the sablefish was very made perfectly.

I had the Crispy Duck Leg Confit which has warm bacon vinaigrette, spätzle and goat cheese hash. The duck was very crispy on the outside and oh so delicious on the inside. All the items worked out really well together.

For my dessert, I had the “Grand Cru” Chocolate Truffle Torte with dulche de leche ice cream and a nut tuille.

At first, the torte looked dry, but when you bite into it, it was amazing! Very moist and chocolate on the inside. It kinda reminded me of the one bit brownies but 100000x better. Ice ice cream and nut tuille worked well with the dish as well.

Overall, we didn’t think the portions were large enough to get us full. On normal days, we don’t really eat a lot anyways…so if you are a person with a large appetite, Cru may not be the place for you.

Our server seemed a bit awkward for some reason but we couldn’t put our finger on it. They also seemed understaffed for lunch as there was just one server walking around. The food took a while to come out too. If you are limited to 1 hour lunches…you may expect to be here for 1.5 hours for lunch.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter parking… or park in the back and pretend you are going to the chinese restaurant!
Don’t sit near the booth near the entrance, every time someone enters, a gust of cold air can be felt
Reservations are good to ensure a spot

We rate Cru:

Website: http://www.cru.ca/

Location:

1459 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

In Fairview

Vij’s

December 18, 2010

Vij’s serves indian infused fusion food. I’ve heard a lot of great things about this place and I thought it was time I try it.

Since I gave away my Blackberry to TaipeiGirl, she took me and TaiwaneseGirl out for dinner. I was super happy because well…Vij is quite pricey.

We just missed the first sitting at the restaurant and had to wait in the back of the restaurant near the bar. We were about the 3rd party waiting and we were told we would have to wait 1hr to 1.5 hrs. Since they do not take reservations, we just waited. It was probably one of the best waiting experiences I have ever had! Nice atmosphere and there were even chairs and tables to have a small conversation.

Before we knew it, the waiting area filled up. This was at least better than waiting outside in the cold. Vij knows how to treat their loyal customers.

As we were waiting, the waitress passed around some samples of different foods that they had. In total they had about 4 variations of samples. They had strange names so I don’t remember most of them. None of them were bad at all! We probably ate everything twice while we were waiting, but still we were happy.

After about 1 hour of waiting, a table cleared up. The lighting was really nice and not too dim. The lamps even add a little something something to the ambiance.

The menu was pretty text heavy…and as a graphic designer… they could have formatted the menu a bit better. They do have a variety of different appies and entrees.

Our water came with a refillable jug on the table. It looked pretty cool so I snapped a picture. It looks like it could be an artifact of some sort. Perhaps I am strange and like things that I would not see in everyday life.

We started with the Samosas ($13). They are filled with lamb and beef sauteed in fennel, cloves and sumac. It also came with naan bread. TaipeiGirl did not take a liking to it since she does not have a high tolerance for the taste of lamb. TaiwaneseGirl didn’t really like lamb but she tried it anyways. We both enjoyed it and the sauce went really well with the samosa.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered the grilled salmon ($28). It came with a coconut and green onion curry. We all came to a consensus that the salmon tasted a bit different that what we would like it to be. It tasted like grilled skin. On the other hand, the Coconut and green onion curry was fantastic!

TaipeiGirl ordered the Braised Beef short ribs ($27). It is braised in yogurt, fenugreek and cumin curry. This was really good. The meat was really tender and most enjoyable!

I ordered the wine marinated lamb popsicles ($27)in fenugreek curry on turmeric and spinach potatoes. This is the most ordered item at Vij’s and you can’t go wrong with this dish…unless you hate lamb. The lamb is succulent and tender! I would eat this every single time if I could.

Our entrees came with Naan bread and rice to go with our curry sauces. We got full really fast due to all the naan. Naan is so good!

Overall we had a positive experience, but I think Vij’s was too hyped up from friends so we kinda had very high expectations for it. If you compare Vij’s to other indian cuisine places, you can tell Vij’s uses really fresh high quality ingredients.

Words of Wisdom:

No reservations
Long line ups, unless you go before 5:30pm to line up
Lamb Popsicles and Beef Short Ribs are a must!!
This is not your everyday Indian Fusion restaurant… expect to pay around $30 – $45

Website: http://www.vijsrestaurant.ca/

They are located at:

1480 W 11th Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Sha Lin Noodle House

August 13, 2010

I started going to Sha Lin Noodles House after I saw it on an episode of “$40 a day” by Rachael Ray. I thought if Rachael Ray went there it should be amazing.

What I really enjoy about Sha Lin Noodles for their food since it tastes very clean unlike Pho places. They have a variety of different noodles, which you can choose from (Dragging, cutting, broad, etc). If you are lucky, you can even watch the chef make the noodles!

We both ordered the Dragging noodles with chicken and vegetables soup (Told you Indecisive Girl is indecisive). The noodles were cooked perfectly and had enough chicken and vegetables to go along with it. Adding a bit of chili sauce to the dish is pretty good too if you love an extra kick in your dish. I could finish the whole bowl and I was even tempted to drink the soup too. It was good to be at a restaurant where they do not put MSG into their food.

On the side we had Fried Bun, which came with condensed milk. It was really crispy on the outside and the inside was just so nice and fluffy. Definitely worth a try! But when you order it don’t eat it right away because it’s hot.

The interior of the restaurant is like a typical Chinese restaurant where it’s quite bland and feels slightly unsanitary. When Indecisive Girl and I were there, they took all the hot chili pepper sauce from all the tables and put it in a big giant bowl. They then cleaned all the containers and refilled it. If you plan to use the chili sauce, imagine kissing hundreds of people’s food.

If you are ever craving hand-crafted noodles with no MSG, check out Sha Lin Noodles. But beware of the Chili Sauce.

It’s a great place to go if you really want a cheap meal under $10.

We rate Sha Lin Noodle House: