Robson Street/West End Archives - Page 4 of 8

In Brunch

La Brasserie: Brunch is Back

July 17, 2016

Located in the heart of the West End, La Brasserie is a relaxed 35-seat restaurant that serves authentic Franco-German cuisine.

La Brasserie was one of my favourite brunch places and I was super sad that it closed down temporarily years ago.

William Wang purchased La Brasserie in January of 2015. Driven by his love for the restaurant and news that it was meant to close its doors indefinitely, Wang took over this small West End gem with hopes of renewing the quality and consistency it had previously been known for.

La Brasserie offers dinner daily and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The menu still has the same favourites and even the chef is the same.

Using high quality, locally sourced ingredients, all of the dishes served at La Brasserie are made to order. I love sitting by the bar since thats where all the action happens in the kitchen.

A good brunch starts with brewed coffee, sugar and milk. Free refills, so I always have at least 2 cups.

As I sipped on my coffee and chatted with CanucksGirl, we watched our brunch being put together. I always admire all the hard work that goes into the meal.

Chicken Mornay Crepes has pulled rotisserie chicken, mushroom, Mornay sauce, gruyére, and topped with salad. It’s a very rich and satisfying dish since I love cheese.

Suckling Pig and Eggs has confit potato, seasonal vegetables, poached eggs, and hollandaise. Another great dish and the suckling pig is very flavourful. Eggs poached perfectly.

Brasserie Burger has ground hanger steak, white cheddar, bacon, crispy onion, truffled aioli, and frites. It’s a classic item to order here and people always marvel at the amount of crispy onions they can stack on top. Also ask them for their house-made ketchup. The burger was so big that I had a hard time eating it, but tasted really good.

For those who are gluten-free or have dietary restrictions, they can make some adjustments to the menu, so you can have a good time.

Overall, the food was as good as before. I’ll be back for more.

We Rate La Brasserie:

Address:
1091 Davie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.labrasserievancouver.com/

In Cafe

True Confections: Dessert Restaurant on Denman Street

July 9, 2016

If you’re craving for dessert on Denman Street, True Confections is always there to fill that craving. They opened in 1986 to start the first dessert only restaurant. They also have another location on Broadway near UBC.

After dinner, we were in the area and decided to stop by for a sweet treat before heading home.

The place was pretty busy as others were grabbing a dessert around the same time. There are indoor and patio seating too.

All their cakes can be seen in the display case. The cakes are huge and the portions aren’t small either.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is served with whipped cream on the side. A good potion and has a good balance of sweet and sourness. M enjoyed it but I prefer something else.

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie is my kind of pie. The classic banana cream pie smothered in delicious chocolate. I really enjoyed it. Super indulgent and not for those who are on a diet.

Overall, the desserts were ok, but people are more intrigued by their large size. You can’t go wrong with any of the moussy desserts, but some of the larger cakes I feel are a bit dry. It’s also good that its open late at night.

We Rate True Confections:

Address:
866 Denman Street, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://trueconfections.ca/

In Japanese

Ramen Koika: Ramen on Davie Street

June 28, 2016

Ramen Koika is located on Davie Street opened by Caleb Lee. He traveled to Japan to learn how to make ramen in Chiba, Tokyo and Osaka. Did you know he also was a banker before getting into the restaurant industry? Vancouver Sun has a pretty good article talking about it how they began their journey into creating Ramen Koika.

We were invited to try a few items off their menu. I was pretty excited since I haven’t been here yet.

The restaurant is a good size for small and large groups. You can see right into the kitchen to see the staff cooking up a storm.

Snacks

Tako Wasabi is fresh octopus marinated in wasabi. The portion size was very good and had a nice subtle kick of wasabi.

Chashu Wrap is grilled in a panini press before serving. A nice snack if you are coming here and want something small.

Gyoza comes with 5 pieces in either veggie or pork. Nice crisp bottom and savoury filling.

Chashu panini has cream cheese, cajun honey chashu, lettuce, and wasabi mayo. Not a usual item you would find in a ramen shop, but the option is there.

Kakuni is pork belly stewed in a secret Koika soy sauce and topped with a marsala wine sauce. Delicious!

Tornado Potato Stick starts out as a potato that is sliced in a spiral shape and then deep fried. It wasn’t as crispy as other places that have it in town. It might be because of the potatoes they chose to use.

Ramen

Sapporo Miso Ramen has bamboo shoots, ground pork, bean sprouts, green onion and corn. It had a goo balance of flavours and if you usually like miso, you’ll enjoy this.

Kara Miso Ramen is the spicy version of the Sapporo Miso Ramen and it has the same toppings inside like bamboo shoots, ground pork, bean sprouts, green onion and corn. It has a decent amount of spice but it isn’t too spicy.

Chiba Black Ramen has bamboo shoots, roasted seaweed, soft boiled egg, chashu, black tree fungus, green onion, garlic chip, black garlic oil. You can choose the chashu to be lean or fatty.

The egg was cooked perfectly. Look at that egg. Yum. The ramen tasted good and a lot of people enjoyed this dish, but I always find it comes down to personal preference. I still prefer the Black Garlic Ramen from Jinya.

Kings Ramen uses their Wok Smoky Cuisine-Chicken Broth and can be mild or spicy. It also has carrot, cabbage, mushroom, green onion, bean sprouts, shredded pork, seaweed, bamboo shoot, and the soft boiled ramen egg. There’s definitely a lot of flavours going on in this dish.

Okinawa Umi Ramen has fresh mussels, garlic, green pepper, red pepper, green ramen and ramen in the veggie and seafood broth. A very unique ramen dish but the amount of pepper inside was quite strong.

Kimchi Ramen has shredded pork, kimchi, mushroom, spring onion, onion, cabbage, and green onions. There was a good amount of kimchi taste with subtle sour notes.

Nagasaki Champon Ramen is topped with Black tree fungus, bok choy, onion, cabbage, red pepper, green pepper, Thai chili, prawns, scallop, mussel, squid, and bean sprouts. There’s so many ingredients in there that took away from the noodles and the broth.

They also serve beer here, which is great if you want a drink with your ramen.

I find that with some of the ramen, it has a lot of toppings that didn’t add too much flavour to the ramen. Perhaps it’s just a style that wasn’t what I liked at Ramen Koika. My personal preference for ramen is very rich and fatty with less amount of toppings.

It’s good that they offer more options than just ramen, so if you are with friends that don’t want ramen, they can find other types of items on their menu.

We rate Ramen Koika:

Address:
1231 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.ramenkoika.com/

In Dessert

Snowy Village: Open on Robson Street

June 27, 2016

Snowy Village has their second location on Robson Street right beside Ramen Santouka. When they first opened in Richmond, people were lining up like mad trying to get a taste of their milky shaved ice and the croissant taiyaki.

You will see a line up outside the store, but it’s for Ramen Santouka. After being here twice, it’s not too busy compared to the Richmond location.

Ordering

We put in our order and started to wait for a table to open up. We noticed there were a lot of people getting bingsoo or the taiyaki for takeout. It’s pretty easy to get it to go and eat it at English Bay or Coal Harbour.

They also do cash, credit or debt.

Sizes

One major difference in what they serve is the size of the bingsoo. Even if you are eating the dessert in the store, they don’t use their nice metal bowls. It looks smaller, but because of the shape difference, I can’t be certain if the volume of shaved ice is different.

Bingsoo

Mango Bingoo is the most popular item that customers order, There is layers of mango chunks, mango puree and the milky shaved ice.

I like the fruity bingsoo as it is more refreshing.

Oreo Bingoo has the layer of oreo then the milky shaved ice. I like it but I always fear of smiling after since the oreo bits would hide between my teeth.

Injeolmi Bingsoo has red bean with it too. Injeolmi is a Korean rice cake snack. This smaller size also has the layers, but I found that as we kept digging into it, we wanted more of the injeolmi.

Green Tea Bingsoo has a sprinkling of green tea, red bean and some spongey cake. There definitely need to have more green tea in it.

Croissant Taiyaki

Each Croissant Taiyaki is made to order. You can watch the guy make it at the front of the store and smell the delicious aroma of the taiyaki.

They come in 5 flavours:

red bean
injeolmi red bean
custard cream
sweet potato
nutella

It did take a little while for them to be cook it, so the bingsoo came out before these.

We bought 3 for $10 and of all the flavours, I still prefer the nutella taiyaki.

Each order, we also got a wet nap to clean our hands. A nice touch, but we weren’t that messy.

Overall, it’s still good bingsoo and there’s no other shop to get it in the area of Robson. It would be nice if they had more fruit options on their menu. During peak hours it can be hard to get a table, but I find the turnover to be quite quick.

We Rate Snowy Village:

Address:
1696 Robson Street, Vancouver

In Noodles

Pink Elephant Thai: 5 Year Annivesary

June 24, 2016

Pink Elephant Thai has been on Alberni Street for 5 years. To celebrate, they are having a 5 year anniversary special where you get 5 dishes for $55. You get 2 appetizers, 2 bowls of rice and 3 entrees to choose from. The 5 dishes are good enough for 3 -4 people.

We were invited to come here to try all of the items on their special menu.

The interior is pink and looks very modern.

Appetizers

There are 10 appetizers you can choose from:

Spring Rolls
Chicken Satay
Thai Fish Cakes
Thai Shrimp Cake
Thai Style Pork Cheek
Crispy Tofu
Som Yum Papaya Salad
Larb Gai
Yum Neau
Tom Yum Gai

Spring rolls were average. There’s only so much you can really do to transform a spring roll. Our portion size was a lot larger since we had 10 people. You can have this with minced pork or vegetarian.

Thai Fish Cakes was an enjoyable dish especially with the accompanying sauce.

Chicken Satay was dry and I didn’t like the texture of it. The flavour of it was good, but texture played a bit part in enjoying the dish.

Crispy Tofu was a delight. It was very crispy on the outside and inside, there was the soft silky tofu. It comes with a sweet chili sauce.

Thai Style Pork Cheek were tender and full of flavour. 5 pieces to the order and each bite was really good.

Larb Gai is a spicy thai ground chicken salad with fresh lime juice, roasted rice, nam-pla and Thai spices. Surprisingly it had a good amount of heat. I love the heat since I usually find most spicy dishes, weak in spice.

Thai Shrimp Cakes is another deep fried dish and had a good amount of filling inside. Definitely a good dish to get.

Yum Neau is a Thai beef salad and was quite spicy. It has sliced grilled New York beef mixed with fresh lime juice, nam-pla and Thai chili.

Tom Yum Gai is a hot and sour soup with mushrooms, tomato, lemongrass and Thai spices. You can choose it with chicken or tofu.

Entrees

There are 10 entrees and you can choose if you want chicken, beef or vegetarian

Yellow Curry
Red Curry
Green Curry
Thai Basil Stir-fried
Thai Black bean sauce
Cashew Nut Stir-fried
Pad Thai Noodles
Pad Kee Mao
Chilli Pepper Fried Rice
Mixed Seasonal Vegetables with oyster sauce

Pad Thai Noodles is a classic dish. It has tamarind sauce, tofu, ground peanuts, egg, green onions, and bean sprouts. Pretty good item.

Red curry has coconut milk, bamboo shoots, bell peppers and fresh basil. Grab the bowl of rice and slather this curry all over it.

Yellow curry has coconut milk, diced fresh pineapple and bell peppers.

Green Curry has coconut milk, eggplant, snap peas, bell peppers and fresh basil. One of my favourite curries of the evening.

Cashew Nut Stir-fried with onions, bell peppers and roasted chili. I liked the added texture from the cashews.

Thai Basil Stir-fried with beef, Thai chili, bell peppers, green beans and fresh basil.

Mixed Seasonal Vegetables with oyster sauce was a good dish. If you love veggies, this would be a good dish to get.

Pad Kee Mao has stir-fried rice noodles with Thai chili, bell peppers, onions, green beans and fresh basil.

Chili Pepper Fried Rice with vietnamese chili, egg and diced vegetables. A filling dish with good flavour, but can be very spicy for some.

Overall, I found some dishes at Pink Elephant Thai to be a hit or miss. Chicken is a popular protein to get, but we found that it was more on the dry side. A few items I enjoyed were the Green Curry, Pad Thai, Thai shrimp cakes, larb gai, crispy tofu and the Thai fish cakes.

One thing we like about this location is the balance of flavours in the dish and the use of spiciness in certain dishes.

We Rate Pink Elephant Thai:

Address:
1152 Alberni Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://thaihouse.com/pink-elephant-thai/

In Italian

Grotto: Italian Cuisine near English Bay

June 21, 2016

Grotto is an Italian restaurant near English Bay in Vancouver. It’s a bit easy to miss when on Davie Street since it’s not on ground level. It’s a bit under ground level kinda like a basement.

I bought their Groupon deal months ago and like usual, I wait till the last day to redeem it. It was $59 for $100 value for four people. I made reservations ahead of time and same with a few of our friends.

Walking into the space, it was dark and has an intimate feel. They have pretty good daily specials. It was Sunday, so a lot of people were here later in the evening for their beer and pizza special.

Antipasti

Pork Belly has white balsamic, orange syrup, frisee, pickled mustard seed and crispy artichoke. Nice, fatty and crisp on the outside.

Humboldt squid also has housemade sausage, roasted eggplant, olives, tomatoes, lemon and parsley. I found that the grilling method made the squid a bit bitter.

Pizza

Funghi Pizza has a white sauce, mushrooms, roasted garlic and topped with arugula. The texture of the pizza was quite interesting. It is thin crust but very crisp and delicate. The crust reminded me of pita chips. Definitely unique as I’ve haven’t encountered another pizza place with such a crisp pizza base.

Prosciutto Pizza has mozzarella and figs with the similar crisp pizza base. It was good as well, but the funghi had a lot more flavours that I enjoyed.

Mains

Pappardelle has braised beef, red wine jus, confit cipolli onion, green peas, bone marrow, and focaccia. I love the large piece of bone marrow on top. A nice touch.

Gnocchi has smoked chicken, pork belly, mushroom ragout, and crispy celery root. The pork belly was the same as the pork belly antipasti. The gnocchi was nice and fluffy.

Overall, the food here was good and filling.

We Rate Grotto:

Address: 1725 Davie St., Vancouver, BC

Website: http://grottoitalian.ca/

In Kid Friendly

Dinesty Restaurant: Steamed Pork Dumplings on Robson St

March 30, 2016

Dinesty Restaurant is one of my go to places for Xiao Long Bao. My friends and I were looking for a place to have dinner and we realized we haven’t been here for some time. Something about hot soupy pork dumplings made us start to drool. It’s my secret comfort food.

Since it was a busy Friday, we waited in line for about 20 minutes for a table of 5. People do finish up quickly, so you won’t ever have to wait an unbearable amount of time. You can also call ahead to make a reservation if you hate waiting.

They now have 5 locations across the Lower Mainland serving up delicious Shanghainese cuisine. The Xiao Long Bao/ Steamed Pork Dumplings are #1 on everyone’s list. It’s basically on every table in the restaurant.

Xiao Long Bao/ Steamed Pork Dumplings came piping hot right out of the steamer. Don’t wait too long since you don’t want it to cool down too much.

The skin of the dumplings are thin and full of soup. You want to pick it up near the tip to avoid piercing the skin. The soup has gotta stay inside so you can enjoy it all. We loved it as usual.

Chinese Spinach and Bean Curd is an item that I really enjoy. Always very surprising since it’s just so simple. It has a nice sesame oil taste to it. If you haven’t had it before, give it a try.

Spicy Pig Ears looks pretty gross to some people, but it has a nice texture. We found that is wasn’t spicy at all. More oily than spicy. It definitely could have been better.

Marinated beef with soy sauce wrapped in pancake was ok. It looks nice, but we felt that it was missing hoisin sauce.

Fried Rice with Shrimp was pretty bland. It needed a bit more salt to it. We mixed some of the spinach and bean curd dish with this and it made it so much better.

Pan Fried Pork Pot Stickers comes with 6 pieces are were also ok. It doesn’t compare with the XLB dumplings.

Fried Bun with Condensed Milk is always a favourite to end the meal. Condensed milk is so addictive.

Some items are a hit and miss, but if you order the Xiao Long Bao, you’ll be very happy.

We Rate Dinesty:

Address:
1719 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://dinesty.ca/

In Japanese

Ramen Danbo: Fukuoka Style Tonkotsu Ramen on Robson

February 5, 2016

Ramen Danbo has their 2nd location on Robson Street. With Robson Street already having a huge cluster of ramen shops, you would think its hard adding another into the mix. On a Sunday night, this place was packed for dinner. I’ve been to their West 4th location and loved it.

What makes them unique is that you can customize the ramen you order by selecting:

amount of spicy tare sauce
firmness of noodles
amount of lard
thickness of broth

At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of choices.

I took my food blogger friend – Sherman and MissVancouverPiggy to indulge in some good ramen.

They have taken over the VanVan Izakaya and made slight modifications to the interior. Mostly removed the chalkboard walls and put the white textured pattern on the walls which is much nicer.

After waiting about 15 minutes, we got a seat at the bar.

Classic Tonkotsu Ramen with egg has their signature Tonkotsu Pork Broth and is essential to those who are new to Ramen Danbo. Don’t forget to order it with their egg!

It makes the whole bowl like a smiley face…a delicious smiley face.

Classic Tonkotsu Ramen ‘Shio’ is slightly different with their simple Tonkotsu soup broth and special Shio ramen-dare soup base. Can’t go wrong with this either.

Blazing Hot Rekka Ramen is 5x the spiciness of their classic ramen. It uses their Ichimi Togarashi red pepper imported from Japan to ignite your palete. You can select from 5, 10, 15, or 20 times the standard spiciness. I went and got the 15x amount of spiciness. It is awesome for people who love spicy. Good flavours.

Pan-fried Yaki Gyoza is a pork and scallion dumpling. Crispy on one side. These were ok.

Overall, I love their rich broth and the ability to customize a lot aspect of the dish.

We Rate Ramen Danbo:

Address:
1333 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramendanbo.com/

In American

Buckstop: Classic American BBQ Feast

January 26, 2016

Buckstop is a classic BBQ and small plates saloon on Denman Street. I bought a Social Shopper deal for their classic American barbecue feast for two people, including fried dill pickles, pulled pork sandwich, smoked chicken leg, St. Louis pork ribs,navy beans, Kennebec fries, hush puppies, cornbread and honey butter. Pretty good deal for only $28.

M and I came on the weekend to finally use it before it expires.

I love the dim atmosphere and the decor inside.

M ordered a coke, which came in a cute mason jar. You can’t have BBQ without coke.

Deep Fried Dill Pickles with a cajun aioli sauce. The staff warned us that its scalding hot, so we should wait a few minutes before digging in. I loved the thin crunchy exterior and the sour pickle that lies inside. So far the best deep fried dill pickles I’ve had so far.

Hush Puppies and Corn Bread is served with a honey butter. M hasn’t had hush puppies in a very long time since he lived in the states, so his eyes lit up when devouring these.

I’ve never had hush puppies before, so I thought they were a tad dry, but I have no idea if its supposed to be like that.

The pulled pork sandwich is served on a Portuguese bun lots of pulled pork and coleslaw inside. The pork was tender and the coleslaw balanced it out.

The smoked chicken leg and St. Louis pork ribs were piled on top of each other. Both of then were very tender and was falling off the bone. We slathered their BBQ sauce on it and devoured it super quickly.

The thin Kennebec fries were ok, but I wish they were more crispy.

The navy beans and coleslaw completed the rest of the platter. I didn’t care much for the navy beans but I ate all the coleslaw.

It was a good meal for M and I. It was pretty good deal with the SocialShopper deal and I would come back on a regular night. The atmosphere is great especially grabbing a few cocktails or beer to go with your meal.

We Rate Buckstop:

Address:
833 Denman Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://buckstop.ca/

In Brunch

Earl’s Kitchen and Bar: Weekend Brunch

January 3, 2016

Earl’s Kitchen and Bar serves up brunch on the weekends and they invited us to try all 5 of their signature brunch items on the menu. They were founded in 1982 and since then has 65 locations across North America. This particular location in on the 2nd floor right above London Drugs on Robson Street.

The space is large with patio seating as well. We were seated right by the window, so it was nice to watch the cars drive by Robson Street.

To start off the brunch, I got apple juice and the other ladies got orange juice.

Goat Cheese Frittata ($13) has arugula, oven dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, chopped olives, and preserved lemon. The egg was light and fluffy on the bottom and the greens on the top helped lighten the heaviness of the egg.

Sweet Virginia Benny ($13) has sweet virginia ham, poached eggs, hollandaise, grilled sourdough, and crispy fried potatoes.
The eggs were poached perfectly soft! The crispy potatoes were so addictive!

Fried Egg Sandwich ($13) has cheddar, caramelized lemon aioli, tomato, and bacon inside warm griddled sourdough.

This reminded me of a BELT Sandwich but with cheddar. It’s a good alternative. Tasted very satisfying but I wish the side wasn’t potatoes. Perhaps fries or a salad.

Chorizo + Mushroom Hash ($14) has avocado, crispy fried potatoes, topped with poached eggs and hollandaise. This was the favourite dish of the meal.

The egg was poached perfectly and the chorizo, avocado and crispy potatoes just meld together so well.

Sourdough French Toast ($12) has a berry compote, chantilly cream and pure maple syrup. A perfect item to end the meal. Splitting it amongst friends is the best so you can ensure a sweet finish to the meal.

A majority of the dishes use sourdough bread which was easily noticed when we had all the dishes in front of us.

After eating all those dishes, we needed to eat and drink more to digest. We all got coffee and just relaxed.

What better way to enjoy the weekend that brunch with some good friends? The brunch at Earl’s was pretty good and the items were prepared very well. The prices are very fair and I would return again. With all the other brunch options in town, its easily missed.

We Rate Earls:

Address:
1185 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
https://earls.ca/

In Canadian

Village Bistro: Canadian Comfort Food

December 14, 2015

Village Bistro, formerly known as Lips Resto, has been reimagined by the original owners to serve as a casual West End staple in the community. They serve up bistro-style comfort food with Canadian flavours, and a menu entirely made-from-scratch. I was invited to come here for dinner to experience their new brand and menu.

I was a fan of Lips Resto, so I wanted to see how their menu has evolved too.

The interior is quite beautiful and can seat up to 100 people. I love the old-world bistro charm with modern industrial accents.

Their custom-made caramel leather chairs, rich wall coverings, and warm lighting installations really give it a nice atmosphere.

Closer to the bar, there are a few TVs so you can watch the game and have a drink.

Layer Cake Pinot Noir ($10) is from Central Coast, California. M has fallen in love with Pinot Noir during our trip to the Okanagan. This particular pinot noir has aromas of savory herbs, licorice, mint, plums and black cherries. Definitely has a different taste than the ones from the Okanagan.

Peroni ($6) is one of my favourite beers. It’s light, refreshing and not bitter at all. A good easy beer to drink.

Salt Spring Island Mussel ($12) has a smoked tomato broth, roasted garlic, basil, and a ton of mussels. There is also 2 pieces of focaccia. Very good mussels and plump in size.

Alberta Bison Carpaccio ($10) as pickled mushroom, egg duo, grana Padano, and fennel aioli. That carpaccio was addictive! I would highly recommend it.

The egg that sits on top is beautiful. So good!

Boneless Alberta Beef Short Rib ($19) has roasted cauliflower, broccoli, crushed potatoes, blue cheese, and natural jus. This is one of their most popular dishes.

Herb Roasted Fraser Valley Chicken ($18) has bacon wild rice pilaf, seasonal vegetables, arugula salad, and blueberry jus.

The chicken was juicy and had great flavours on its skin. The salad helped balance out the heaviness of the sauce.

Cheesecake is served up in a cute mason jar. The crumble on top added a nice texture to it.

Peach Cobbler with homemade vanilla bean ice cream was crisp on the outside. I don’t eat a lot of cobbler, but it was good.

Overall, the prices of each dish were very reasonable and tasted awesome. They really don’t cut corners preparing these dishes. I would come back again.

We Rate Village Bistro:

Address:
1143 Davie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.villagebistrobc.com/

In Four Beakers

Sura: Korean Lunch Set Menu in Vancouver

November 16, 2015

Sura Korean Royal Cuisine on Robson Street draws a large crowd during lunch and dinner time. Their lunch specials are undeniably affordable for those who want to try an array of Korean cuisine. I came here with a few of my coworkers since I’ve never been here.

They have been around since 2008 serving traditional Korean cuisine. They have won multiple awards from Vancouver Magazine and WE Vancouver Best of the City Dining.

Set Course SU – $15 per person includes:

ong–chimi
Green Salad
Yam Mousse
Tang–pyungchae (Acorn Jelly Salad)
Bulgogi (Korean beef)
Potato Pancake
Tang–sooyuk (Sweet and Sour pork)
Grilled Atlantic Croaker
Bossam (Pork belly wraps)
Doenjang Jjigae (Korean Stew)
3 kinds of Side-dishes
Korean Rice Punch

The menu requires a minimum of 2 orders and the set is available to order until 3:00pm daily.

The items on it may change from day to day.

First, soup arrived for each person at the table. It reminded me of a egg drop soup but more gelatinous.

Green Salad has a mishmash of vegetables and fruit. I wasn’t a fan of the oranges and strawberries in it.

Tang–pyungchae (Acorn Jelly Salad) really is quite tasteless, but according for my Korean friend, it’s good for you. I really couldn’t tell you the science behind it.

House Special Spicy Seafood has stir–fried assorted seafood with spicy house special sauce.

Bossam (Pork Belly wraps) comes with the pink pickled radish as the wrap, kimchi, paste and the delicious pork belly. So good! My favourite dish.

Tang–sooyuk (Sweet and Sour pork) tasted ok. Not my favourite but its pretty average.

Rice comes in a little tin. Eat it with the other side dishes.

Marinated Seaweed and mashed pumpkin mousse are 2 of the 3 side dishes. I always can’t get enough of the seaweed.

Kimchi is the last side dish. Delicious and not too spicy.

Bulgogi comes in a large dish and went great with the rice.

Doenjang Jjigae (Korean Stew) has tofu, veggies, and kimchi. It’s not too spicy either. Very good.

Potato Pancake came with 4 pieces as there was 4 of us. It’s was surprisingly pretty good.

Grilled Atlantic Croaker was an interesting dish that arrived. It takes a bit of work to eat it as there are a lot of tiny bones.

Korean Rice Punch was a nice way to end the meal. It’s a sweet rice drink.

All this for for $15 per person is a great deal for lunch. So many dishes arrive and you get a taste of a lot of Korean dishes. At times, we would run out of room on the table to put the food. Some of the dishes are a hit and miss, but still a great price. I love this type of family style dining.

We Rate Sura:

Address:
1518 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
www.surakoreancuisine.com

In Four Beakers

The Ramenman: New Ramen Shop in Vancouver

October 27, 2015

The Ramenman is the newest Japanese ramen joint to open up on the West End of Downtown Vancouver. After seeing Sean’s beautiful pictures on instagram of The Ramenman, I had to check it out. Surprisingly, when I came here to have dinner with a CanuckGirl, guess who was there? Sean. Always good to bump into another foodie friend.

The restaurant is small, so there is one large communal table and 2 tables in the back. I think this place can fit about 20ish people comfortably.

They are still in their Soft Opening phase, so I’m not sure how much their menu is going to transform once they are done their soft opening. The menu has 3 type of ramen, a few appetizers, and drinks. Pretty cool to see beer on tap in a ramen restaurant.

The 3 ramen they offer are:

Chicken x Clam
chicken x Stew
Chicken x Regular

Appetizer Plate ($5.50) has your choice of charsui (chicken or pork), ramen egg, Japanese Leek, Bamboo Shoots, Spinach, green onion and chili pepper. There are more like items that you can dump into your ramen.

I got this with 2 slices of pork. The pork looks like ham, but it’s not. It’s tender and seemed more like sous vide pork. It’s a French cooking method that is cooked at a lower temperature for longer periods of time to get the inside is pork cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain more moisture.

Chicken x Clam ($11.50) has your choice of charsui (pork, chicken or both), clams, green onions, red onion, parsley, garlic, black pepper, green onion oil and truffle oil.

I got mine with both pork and chicken charsui to taste the difference. It was both very good. The chicken probably has the same cooking method ask the pork. The broth was nice and not too salty.

Chicken x Regular ($9.50) has your choice of charsui (pork, chicken or both), ramen egg, bamboo shoots, Japanese leek, green onion, garlic, black pepper, green onion oil and truffle oil.

The spoon is pretty big. Think of it as like a mini bowl with a handle.

Overall, it’s good to have another chicken ramen base alternative. Marutama also has chicken ramen, but what I like about the Ramenman is the good balance between all the ingredients in the bowl. Service is great and the interior is quite comfortable. I do enjoy chicken broths, but not everyone will agree.

We Rate Ramenman:

Address:
841 Bidwell Street, Vancouver

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/The-Ramenman-172684076409030/

In Brunch

Adesso Bistro: Brunch in the West End

September 12, 2015

Adesso Bistro is hidden in a residential neighbourhood in the West End. I’ve been searching for new places for brunch and this popped up as one of the suggestions on Zomato. Since I’ve never been, I thought it would be a good chance to have brunch and hang out with a friend. We love brunch, so we do love to explore.

The interior is nice and intimate, which is good for a dinner setting. As the building is older, we could really smell the age of the building. The smell reminded me of a museum.

They also have a patio, which is pretty awesome. Since it was cold in the morning, we stayed inside.

Strata ($14) is a brunch dish, similar to a quiche or frittata. It is oven baked in a hot skillet. There is pancetta, eggs, oyster mushrooms, and fontina cheese. There is a cherry tomato and arugula salad with a light dressing.

It sounded like a cool dish when the waiter described it, but it fell kinda flat.

Trota Hollandaise Benedict ($18) has house smoked trout , poached eggs, roasted tomato, chives, hollandaise, and spring onions. They also serve it with a tomato and arugula salad with light dressing.

The poached egg was made to a perfect medium. I liked the use of focaccia bread instead of the typical english muffin. It gives it a nice texture and it soaks up the hollandaise and yolk a bit more.

Overall, the brunch was good if you have the bennys but it is a bit pricey.

We Rate Adesso Bistro:

Address:
1906 Haro Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.adessobistro.net/

In Four Beakers

reLiSH Gourmet Burgers: New on Davie Street

September 7, 2015

reLiSH Gourmet Burgers just opened up their newest location on Davie Street close to English Bay. The restaurant comes from the East Coast of Canada – New Brunswick. They also have another location on Commercial Drive and will soon open another in North Vancouver.

The space is a good size and lots of chairs. With the communal tables, you can fit large groups in here.

Jersey City Burger has fried field mushrooms , pickled peppers, pancetta bacon, provolone cheese and their ground turkey patty. The turkey patty went well with the burgers since it balances the pancetta quite nicely. The burger was not greasy at all. I felt pretty good and not too bloated afterwards.

L.A. is my Lady Burger has sliced avocado, roasted peppers, basil pesto, creamy goat’s cheese and their veggie patty. I loved the veggie patty since it has a very nice crunchy texture on the outside. The taste of the veggie patty reminded me of falafel.

The Odyssey is only served in this location to represent Davie Street and the community. Inside you will find pickled red cabbage, spicy miso Sriracha glaze with a pan-fried egg. M really enjoyed this burger. You can’t go wrong with a burger with a fried egg in it. Their egg is fried till the yolk is medium, so it still has a bit of moisture without it leaking all over your hands.

Their bun held all the ingredients together. They only use really produce in their burgers, so you won’t find any processed cheese in their burgers. You won’t find any cheese burgers here.

Overall, we did enjoy all the burgers that we tried. It wasn’t too greasy and each ingredient on the burger complimented each other. I would definitely come back.

We rate reLiSH Gourmet Burgers:

Address:
1708 Davie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.relishlife.com/

In Dessert

Transylvanian Traditions: Desserts That Do Not Suck

August 13, 2015

Transylvanian Traditions is located on Davie Street in Vancouver and they make delicious dessert. No vampires here. Narcisa Stoian noticed the lack of traditional Romanian sweets, which have always been a part of her childhood and her parents’ careers, and decided that Vancouver was the perfect place for her to share her love of Romanian cuisine.

If you miss the taste of Romanian and European desserts, definitely make a visit here. If you look closely, they have vampire mugs here.

They selection of desserts isn’t too large, but you will find something that you will enjoy.

Creames is made with homemade filo pastries combined with vanilla cream cake, covered by a layer of whipping cream mixed with roasted walnuts. I thought it was ok, but M loved it.

Chocolate Eclair is a cream puff filled with special recipe chocolate cream and home-made whip cream. This was so good and really just sinfully delicious. I would order this again.

Profiterole has vanilla cream puffs embedded in fluffy chocolate mousse cake. It is topped with whipped cream and has a chocolate drizzle on top.

Overall, we both enjoyed it and the prices were reasonable. It’s not a super fancy place but it has great taste and awesome to bring to potlucks or parties.

We Rate Transylvanian Traditions:

Address:
1111 Davie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://transylvaniantraditions.com/

In Cafe

Che-Licious: Bahn Mi and Vietnamese Dessert in the West End

June 26, 2015

Che-Licious is located in the West End close the English Bay. They serve up Vietnamese classics like bahn mi, salad rolls, skewers, and of course their speciality – Che – Vietnamese dessert.

I’ve seen lots of pictures from this place on Instagram and on my Facebook feed, so I decided that I would take a trip out here during lunch to catch up with Wongers and of course eat.

There are a good amount of tables in here. It may be hard fitting a large group, but 2’s or 4’s would work well.

Chè-Licious Special ($6.50) is filled with pandan jelly, agar jelly, pom pearls, toddy palm, jackfruit, longan, coconut milk and ice. What I love about Che is that its so colourful. I remember going to pho restaurants and this would be every kids dream.

With each slurp and spoonful of Che, I really had no idea what I was eating. You get the dominant flavour of the coconut milk and then the textures of all the jellies. They are really generous with the amount of jellies.

They have a good variety of che ingredients as you can see from their list. Not bad at all.

Saigon Signature ($6.50) has various cold cut meats, BBQ pork, pork floss, pate, served with pickled veggies, cucumber, cilantro, house made mayo with optional jalapeño.

The best part was the bread! Crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. As for the ingredients inside of the sandwich, I wish there was more pate. I love me some good pate.

Ducking Good ($6.75) has roasted duck, ginger, scallion with pickled veggies, cucumber, cilantro, house made mayo with optional jalapeño. The ingredient to bun ratio seemed a bit off for this sandwich, but the duck was pretty awesome and it had it’s skin intact.

Overall, the bahn mi is a bit more expensive compared to other places, but that bun is delicious. What makes this place stand out are their varieties of che, you don’t see it anywhere else. Most places just have one option.

We Rate Che-Licious:

Address:
1120 Denman Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.che-licious.com/

In Izakaya

VanVan Izakaya: Japanese Sakaba on Robson Street

May 27, 2015

VanVan Izakaya is a relatively new restaurant on Robson Street. You won’t be able to find any sushi here except for the lunch hour. You will still find sashimi on the dinner menu. They call themselves a Sakaba, which translated to ‘Bar’ in Japanese. A few of us were invited by ChineseBites to try out their menu, so we did what any foodies would do…try to eat a majority of the items on the menu. We clearly had to eat through the pain.

The seating is what you would expect from an izakaya – wooden rustic furniture and funky walls.

You can even take some chalk and start drawing over the walls. Most of everything on the wall doesn’t make sense as people have written over other people’s drawings.

The dinner menu is a decent size and you can find the usual items on there. It’s a good selection. Their menu is also quite constant, so it won’t change too much.

Ebi Mayo ($7.80) is battered tiger prawns with chili mayo and balsamic vinegar. It was pretty average and the spinach leaves didn’t add much to the dish. Perhaps green onions would be a tad better.

Beef Tataki ($8.50) has thin slices of raw beef, garlic chips, radish, green onions, onions and ponzu sauce. You grab a little bit of everything and dunk it into the ponzu sauce.

I didn’t really like the way the beef was sliced. It was very thin, so you could hardly taste the beef. Plus the slices were a bit smaller.

Chicken VanVan ($7.80) is fried with a sweet and sour sauce. Then it is topped with tartar sauce. We thought it was ok, but it was a bit weird with the tartar sauce.

Curry Poutine ($8.80) has a bed of crispy fries, curry sauce and cheese. A great choice! The fries are very crispy and goes so well with beer.

Nasu Dengaku ($6.80) is a baked eggplant with 2 sauces – miso and tomato sauce + cheese. The miso glaze was a tad sweet for our liking. Surprisingly both of the sauces worked with the eggplant.

Yabaflower ($6.50) is deep-fried cauliflower and it’s served with tartar sauce, matcha salt and a lemon. It was delicious! You can’t go wrong with any deep-fried.

P-Toro ($8.80) is pork cheek served on a hot skilled. It has lots of green onion and a lemon wedge. I love pork cheek! Very flavourful.

Albacore Tuna Sashimi ($7.80)
Scallop Sashimi ($6.80)
Atlantic Salmon Sashimi ($7.80)

These were good, but we did find a little bit of debris on them, especially the scallops. Nat bit down on something crunchy that she couldn’t figure out. what it was. Perhaps shell or sand?

We ordered another plate of Atlantic Salmon Sashimi. We really do love our sashimi.

Spicy Pork Intestines ($7.80) comes in a sizzling hot bowl filled with cabbage and pork intestines. I ordered this just to scare FoodQueen, but in the end, no one really had a liking towards the dish. It had a particular chemical taste to them that really turned me off. If they were deep-fried or had some other textures, I think that would have added to the dish.

Ika Naruyaki ($7.80) is a whole grilled squid served with teriyaki sauce and mayo. Another great item on the menu. I loved it. I couldn’t stop eating.

Salmon Yukke ($7.80) is chopped salmon with garlic sauce and cucumbers. It is also served with dried seaweed. You scoop some onto the seaweed and enjoy.

Russian Roulette Takoyaki ($5.80) comes with 5 pieces, but one of them is super spicy and filled with wasabi. We went one by one and the victim was Angela. She knew right away because it has a pretty pungent smell. It’s a very fun dish for a group of friends. Plus, if you’re lucky to avoid the wasabi takoyaki, the normal takoyaki tastes pretty good.

Gyu Tongue ($9.80) has many thin slices of beef tongue that is BBQ’d and served with a Japanese leek mixture on top. The mixture is a bit salty, but it goes well with the tongue.

Matcha Tonyu Pudding ($4.80) was so good! If you want something unique, get this! It’s like a custard/soup. I wanted to eat the whole thing.

Matcha Ice Cream ($4) is topped with matcha powder, whipped cream and red bean. Very good and flavourful ice cream.

Black Sesame Ice Cream ($4) is paired with whipped cream and red bean. The sesame is very fragrant and tastes great.

Overall, VanVan Izakaya is a great atmosphere if you like Japanese bars. It’s lively, staff are attentive, and good atmosphere. Some of the food is a miss, but a majority of them are delicious.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try VanVan Izakaya’s dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.

We Rate VanVan:

Address:
1333 Robson St
Vancouver BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/robson.sakaba.vanvan