Rating Archives - Page 89 of 99

In Downtown

Fairmont Lobby Lounge: Carvery Luncheon

March 19, 2011

I bought a Social Shopper coupon for a Carvery Luncheon at the Lobby Lounge at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. The deal is good for $20 for 2 Carvery lunch sets ($40 value).

The Lobby lounge is located on the first floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim. As you can tell by the name, it is located near the lobby. It is an open space and has lots of comfy chairs…VERY comfy chairs. It’s a great place to have a few drinks, appies and have a good chat or a meeting.

For a drink, I was feeling like a non-alcoholic drink, so I ordered the Flower Pot ($8). It’s not a tea or anything, it’s just a soda. It was really good and refreshing, but $8 was quite steep ..but it is the Fairmont, so its expected.

The carvery meats used in the sandwich is cut in the dining room, if you sit close enough, you can see them cutting the prime rib and doing their thing.

The Carvery Luncheon ($20) comes with choice of soup or salad, fries, prime rib burger and condiments on the side.

We could choose from a tomato and garden soup or Caesar salad. Flo said the soup was pretty average and nothing too spectacular. I chose the Caesar salad, lightly dressed, cheese on top and has 2 crouton things on the side. I enjoyed it!

Both choices are healthy alternatives and you can’t really go wrong.

The fries that come with the luncheon were very poorly made. It was not crispy and they were very limp. It seemed like the frozen fries you would get at the grocery store and make at home. We were both very disappointed since we expected more from the Fairmont.

The main item of the luncheon is the prime rib sandwich. Comes in a nice toasted bun, super tender prime rib slices, and a bit of sauce. You can also add a bit of stuff to your sandwich. The is mustard, horseradish, pickles, hot peppers, pickled onions, and beef juice.

You can spread the horeseradish and mustard into the sandwich or dip it as you go. Many endless possibilities of how you want to go about eating it.

If you don’t want to use your hands to eat this, you can use your knife and fork. I found that the best way to go about it was to cut the sandwich in half so you can dip it into the sauces.

Overall, great luncheon for the Social Shopper deal (Saving 50%!). If you don’t have the coupon, you can order this during lunch time for $20 per person. The service was very poor in my opinion. We made a reservation but there was no one at the Lobby Lounge entrance to lead us to the reserved table, so we just walked in and seated ourselves. We waited a long while till a server came to greet us.

Even though you use the coupon, there is a social shopper gratuity added onto the bill so you do have to pay about $8.

We Rate Lobby Lounge at Fairmont Pacific Rim:

Address:

1038 Canada Pl
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.fairmont.com/pacificrim/GuestServices/Restaurants/LobbyLoungeandPatio.htm

In Cafe

Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant

March 19, 2011

InsecureGirl hasn’t eaten out in a few days and she basically went a bit insane and really really wanted to eat out. We all didn’t want to waste too much money so FragileBoy suggested we go to Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant for some good cheap chinese food. He recommended it because its a place which his parents love.

We came and parked from the back, so it does look a bit ghetto, but I assure you it’s not that bad. If you are a big fan of engrish, “Dr1ver no no hit to fence”, will surely crack you up. I was so entertained that I had to take a picture of it.

Once we parked our car, we entered through their ghetto door…yes ghetto but not creepy at all. You just walk past the kitchen into their dining area. You get to glance at the cleanliness of their kitchen and judge for yourself.

The dining room is very colorful and has tons of seating. It looks nothing like their back, so don’t start judging. I know you probably have judged them up to this point. No worries, i did too until I saw the dining area and their menu.

All the dishes we ordered comes with a complementary soup. We could choose from vegetable soup or cream soup. We all just decided to have cream soup. It was ok, mostly corn and ham inside.

We ordered the fried rice (yan su ji fan). This is M’s favorite dish…like seriously …probably the only item he can order in Mandarin. It’s a normal fried rice with the usual vegetables and meat. It was good and cheap!

This was their chicken chow mein with black bean sauce. The noodles were nice and super crispy! You know it’s a good dish when the noodles are crisp and not soggy.

Then we got the stir fried flat noodle with beef and soy sauce. Good tender slices of beef. We loved this dish because it did not contain as much oil as other restaurants.

For dessert we could choose our desserts to be mango pudding. It was very good but what would make this dessert even better is if they had mango bits inside. Mmmm.

I couldn’t find anything bad about the food, it’s good for the price and does fill you up. All this came out to be $29 in total after taxes. 4 people, so it came out to less than $10. We shared all the dishes and we got super full!

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in rear
Cheap prices, good food
They use less oil in their cooking
Set meals
Complementary soup and dessert

We rate Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant:

Address:

2128 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, 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 Cafe

Well Tea (Richmond)

March 15, 2011

After dinner at Man Ri Sung, M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to stay in Richmond to chill a bit. We wandered and ended up at Well Tea.

Well Tea is a Chinese cafe, so it serves up bubble tea, snacks and set meals.

I’ve been to the Downtown location near BCIT, and the look is completely different. This one has more of a asian garden type of feel. Very green and the theme carries across the restaurant onto their walls and even the floor. It has these glass boxes with items inside.

One feature I like about Well Tea is how there is a button to call the waitress for orders, more water or even playing the bill. You don’t have to be that awkward person putting up your hand and flagging down the waitress.

InsecureGirl ordered the Calpis Green Tea.

FragileBoy ordered the Green Milk Tea.

M had the Chocolate pudding milk tea. He wanted to get it with real milk rather than the powdered milk. He tends to throw up most of the time. Sadly, they did not have any alternative milk choices for any of their bubble teas.

I was also trying to be healthy. I was looking at all their teas and none of them seemed like usual non-sweet teas. After talking to the waitress, the only option was Hot green tea, no sugar. I did feel a bit cheated of my money because at other places, tea would be free and they would have more variety if they charged. Nonetheless, I was super thirsty, so this did relieve my thirst.

1 tea, 3 bubble teas = $20.44. It was an ok price since our goal going here was just to drink and talk.

Words of Wisdom:

Cool decor, nice ambiance
Lots of varieties of drink and food
Good place to talk over drinks

We rate Well Tea:

Address:
4811 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Website:

welltea.ca

In Bar and Grill

ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro

March 14, 2011

Another wonderful day for a lunch in Downtown Vancouver and I decided to check out ShuRaku. Apparently I’ve been here before..about a year ago for dinner, but I keep forgetting every time I pass by.

ShuRaku specializes in contemporary Japanese cuisine. Their lunch menu has several set meals between $9 to $15.

Their interior is very modern. They also have a wide selection of sake and other alcoholic beverage. They have a very large menu of different sake choices. (DUH, they are a sake bar). Since I was going to lunch, I really didn’t need to be suffering from the “asian glow”and going back to work would be awkward. Perhaps another time for dinner.

I started off by ordering a pot of tea of Sencha Green Tea (about $2/$3). Tea is not free, but there are about 5 or 6 teas to choose from. The pot that comes with the tea is quite heavy, you will be really getting an arm work out.

It’s like a double whammy of healthiness… arm workout + 0 calorie drink!

I ordered the Karaage Nanban Chicken Set ($9.95). It has deep fried chicken with sweet and sour Nanban sauce. The set also came with salad, rice and miso soup.

The karaage was boneless and under the fried exterior was juicy succulent meat inside. One of the better karrage’s I have had this whole week! The salad was mostly mixed greens with a nice citrus sauce. There is really not much to say about the miso soup and the rice since those taste pretty much the same as other restaurants.

Words of Wisdom:

Great atmosphere
Lunch sets
Lots of variety of alcohol

We Rate ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro:

Address:

833 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.shuraku.net

In Chinatown

Phnom Penh: Visit #2

March 14, 2011

When DesignGirl told me that we were meeting up with MadamMilton, BaguetteGirl, and DermaMan for Vietnamese food, I thought we were just going to get pho. Boy, was I mistaken! We headed to Phnom Penh, where the menu items are as diverse as our pronunciations for the restaurant name.

Phnom Penh is tucked away in Chinatown, and its tasty treasures are masked behind its ordinary exterior and red and white sign board. But inside the restaurant, things were hustlin’ and bustlin’. DesignGirl had dined here previously, so she knew all the right things to order.

With most meals, you get complementary soup, sprouts and hot sauce.

We started off with the Rice Special A – a Vietnamese hodpodge of rice, grilled chicken, Vietnamese ham, egg, and sides of lettuce. This reminded me a bit of Korean bibimbap, as you have to get a little bit of everything and mix the rice all up in it. I drizzled a bit of their mild vinegar over my bowl, and it sure was delish! DermaMan said that this was his favorite dish of the day.

We then ventured onwards to try the phnom papaya salad, which BaguetteGirl ordered since she loves papayas. I couldn’t quite taste the papaya here, as it felt more like radish. It consisted of ‘papaya’, peanuts, hot peppers, shrimp, and mint. It was definitely refreshing and crispy, but because it was so rainy and cold outside, it was more difficult for me to appreciate a cold dish.

Up next was the phnom 2 noodle. The “2” in the name is for the two types of noodles in this bowl. Upon a first glance, you would think this was another ordinary bowl of pho, but it sure wasn’t! The broth was not msg-ridden compared to other pho places, and the noodles were delicate and cooked perfectly. There was also shrimp and other Vietnamese hams and meats in it. You can eat this with the side of bean sprouts they brought. I liked this dish so much, I had two bowls.

What’s a trip to Phnom Penh without ordering their famous wings? Each table in the restaurant had an order of their wings, which were tossed in chilli pepper flakes and came with a side dipping sauce that was slightly tart and peppery. Wow! I was so surprised when I bit into this chicken – it was moist, and juicy, but incredibly flavorful, especially with the dip. I will definitely order this again.

Finally, the moment we were all waiting for arrived: the butter beef. The butter beef is akin to a beef carpaccio in that it features raw beef (slightly cooked around the edges) in a mild soy like sauce, overlaid with ample cilantro and peanuts. This was an incredible mélange of flavors and textures. MadamMilton was very skeptical about eating raw beef and kept telling us she was waiting for “20 minutes to pass” to see if any one of us would rush to the bathroom. None of us did and she gobbled down the butter beef happily.

By then, we were stuffed. DermaMan had ordered a moomooshake, which was a strawberry iced milk shake. It looked very…cold, so I didn’t not sample it. But everyone else that tried it liked it quite a bit.

DesignGirl also ordered an iced Vietnamese coffee, while I got a hot Vietnamese coffee. The Vietnamese coffee came in an espress drip tin, and a cup with condensed milk (your creamer + sugar, essentially). It was so delicious and rich! However, the caffeine concentration in this drink really messed me up and I was dizzy and had heart arrhythmia for the rest of the day.

Phnom Penh is located in Chinatown. We left around 2pm, and the restaurant was still packed and had line ups for lunch diners.

Words of Wisdom:

Very busy during peak hours…line up for sure!
Marinated Butter beef, Chicken Wings, Deep fried squid!!! Order it now!
Metered parking on street
Kinda sketch looking area….near chinatown

We Rate Phnom Penh:

Address:

244 E Georgia St
Vancouver, BC

In Gastown

Momo Sushi

March 13, 2011

I was trying really hard during my lunch time to find a new place to review. I was super stuck until I figured that Gastown was not too far of a walk. I decided to check out Momo Sushi since I’ve had mixed experiences there.

Momo Sushi serves the usual items you would find in a Japanese restaurant.

The first page of their menu, they had a much of their specials and box sets. Most of the items were under $10, so it seemed like a good option.

I ordered the Box Special A ($6.95). It was the cheapest special they had and it was not a bad set menu because it included sashimi. The set included 3 pieces of tuna sashimi, 3 pieces of salmon sashimi, 1 tuna nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 3 pieces of california roll, rice, salad, fruit and miso soup.

I also ordered the Chicken Karaage ( about $4/$5). There were 5 chicken wings on a bed of salad. I really did not like the taste of their karaage. It was sweet and it seemed like there was a bit of honey on the coating of it. They also added some small bits of seaweed on top.

Words of Wisdom:

Cheap Bento boxes and lunch sets
Closest skytrain: Waterfront Skytrain

We Rate Momo Sushi:

Address:

375 Water Street, Unit 6
Vancouver, BC

In American

FatBurger

March 12, 2011

To fulfill M’s desire to go to FatBurger, we decided to go here to grab a quick dinner. Like usual, I gave the weird facial expression and decided to go with him.

The closest location to us was the Lougheed Hwy location near Brentwood Mall.

This is the only FatBurger I’ve ever been to, but I am pretty sure most of them look like this. You order up at the counter and pay. Then they give you a number and the meal is delivered to your table.

If you are just by yourself and dont want to feel too lonely there are counters where you can sit at. There are even little TVs to keep you entertained.

M ordered the FatBurger Meal with an extra egg and Chilli cheese fries ($13.27).

M liked the chilli cheese fries, it was a bit on the salty side, but he did like the cheese and the ooey gooeyness.

He didn’t really like the FatBurger, it wad hard to taste the meat, the egg was bland and this whole meal did not seem to be worth the price. He said he would rather go to Veras for burgers.

Since he did enjoy the chilli, he will be back to try their chilli dogs.

I ordered the Mushroom Swiss Burger Meal ($12.49). I enjoyed my burger, the mushrooms were looked perfectly, so it was not a weird slimy texture. I overall found all the ingredients worked well together and nothing was wrong.

I really don’t like their fries, very bland and boring. Not crispy either.

This was the damage on the bill. Comparing FatBurger with the other burger joints in Vancouver…I still think Veras has better burgers than FatBurger.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in front
Customizable burgers
Unlimited refills

We Rate FatBurger:

Address:
4461 Lougheed Hwy
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.fatburger.com

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 Downtown

Freshii

March 9, 2011

I saw Freshii on Twitter and it sounded like a nice healthy and fresh place to eat at for lunch. They offer freshly made salads, noodles, wraps, burritos, soups and even breakfast. They have a very simple and clean look on the exterior and interior. During lunch time it was pretty busy, some people ate in, some people did take out.

At first I was very confused how to order, lots of different options! You start by picking up a clip board in the middle of the room and jot down your name and what to order. You can either choose any of the specialty items, or you can customize your own.

I found the configuration on the room to be quite confusing, you would have to fill in your paper, go to the back of the restaurant to give them your paper, go to another counter, pay and then wait for your name to be called to get your food. I didn’t really want to waste paper, so perhaps next time, I will do online ordering.

Since I don’t like to think for myself sometimes, I decided to create a chef selected salads. You do have the option of making your own salad, but I was feeling not too picky.

I ordered the Freshii Cobb Salad ($9.89). For that price, you do get quite a big salad! Definitely worth the price. In this salad, there was mixed greens, romaine, roasted chicken, avocado, smoked bacon, diced tomatoes, sweet corn, blue cheese, and topped with dijon mustard dressing.

The ingredients tasted fresh and the combination worked well together except for the blue cheese. I thought I would be adventurous today, but nope still don’t like blue cheese. It really has a pungent sharp taste which really disgusts me. If you don’t like blue cheese, try asking them to replace it with some other cheese or get another type of salad.

You are able to choose the amount of dressing you want on your salad, I went with regular but still felt there was a bit too much. Next time, I will choose the 1/2 amount of dressing. It’s really up to personal preferences.

Word of Wisdom:

Online Ordering form
Fresh customizable salads
Most items under $10
To go or eat in

We rate Freshii :

Address:

870 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.freshii.com

In Four Beakers

G-Be Izakaya

March 9, 2011

Last time I went to the Grandvilla Casino, my parents and I went next door to Grand Dynasty for dim sum. Today M and I were thinking of a place to eat. After begging him to take me here, we decided to go to G-Be Izakaya rather than Fat Burger. Seriously, he would think by now that I have some decent suggestions for places to eat.

G-Be Izakaya is a new restaurant that opened up near Grandvilla casino in Burnaby. They are owned by the same people who run Gyoza King. You wouldn’t know it when you sit down, but when you look at their dishes, their logo is on all the dishes.

I was so amazed at their interior decor. It was hot! Communal tables in the middle, tables and booth on the side. There is also a large party room.

When we looked at the menu, the first page it really explained a lot about their restaurant and how they dont serve alcohol due to a pending liquor license, being patient with waitresses as well as it being their soft opening.

Tea isn’t free, so you have to pay for it. You pay per head for tea and you can choose from 7 specialty teas.

I got the genmaicha green tea ($1.50). You get refills of your pot so it’s not too too bad.

Ebi Nira Gyoza ($4.50) comes in 4 pieces and contains porks, prawns and chives. The prawn is not just a paste, you taste a whole shrimp in the gyoza. The gyoza was not super amazing and spectacular, just normal.

GomaMiso Chicken Karrage ($6) is flash fried rice crisp battered fresh chicken breast with sesame miso sauce. I actually love the crispy rice/ cereal batter since it make it super crunchy and the chicken breast is still very succulent and moist.

Fried Goat Cheese Stick ($6) is crispy fried goat cheese served with balsamic teriyaki sauce. Yet again it is covered in something like corn flakes. The inner was very gooey and i think it had some bacon too. Yummy!

Uni Steamed sushi mini Hot Pot ($6.50), it has steamed 7 grained rice with egg, seaweed and fresh uni. It was really a mini pot, it tasted really good if you are a fan of Uni.

You can probably get 6 or 7 spoonfuls of this.

King California Roll ($7) is a roll with snow crab meat, avocado, sprouts wrapped with soy paper and topped with mango and more avocado. Tasted ok, but not awesome. One thing that does make it stand out is how they use healthy ingredients to put this together.

Triple salmon roll ($6) sockeye salmon tempura, avocado, and sprouts wrapped in smoked salmon topped with spicy salmon. Very creative roll but not super amazing. It did seem very healthy and have fresh ingredients.

M ordered the Mushi Choco Man ($3.50). It is a steamed chocolate lava bun. You have to wait a bit before you eat it, the chocolate on the inside was hot. Good thing the waitor warned us because M wanted to dig in.

You have to be careful about this bun because when you bite into it, the chocolate will squirt out. The chocolate on the inside was very nice, warm and rich.

I ordered the Creme Brulee ($4.95), it comes with 3 mini creme brulees – Jasmine, green tea, and earl grey.

This is probably the best creme brulee I have ever had, it was unique and you got to try a bit of everything. The jasmine creme brulee was very subtle. The earl grey creme brulee was very flavourful with a strong taste, so you could definitely tell it was earl grey. The green tea was amazing as well!

Words of wisdom:

Free Parking
Most dishes under $10
Unique dishes
Creme Brulee is a must!
No alcohol served yet (One day in the future they will!)

We Rate G-Be Izakaya :

Address:

4331 Dominion St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.g-beizakaya.ca

In Brunch

8 1/2 Restaurant + Lounge

March 7, 2011

M and I had no clue where to eat brunch on a lovely Sunday morning. I’m sure there are plenty of places to go, but my brain was not working that day. I recall KoreanGirl saying something about 8 1/2, so we went there without her (oops). I’m sure she doesn’t mind. =)

They serve west coast dishes and really pride themselves by making everything fresh and made to order. All their ingredients are local too. On the weekends the have brunch!

Their interior is really nice and modern. They also have a bar if you want to drink up!

This is their menu, if you came here during brunch time, but felt like something else, you can order that too. For brunch they serve the usual items.

They started off giving us cucumber water, if you haven’t had this before, it’s really unique when you add cucumber to water!

We ordered the Orange Juice ($ 2.50). Their juices are freshly squeezed as well.

I ordered the Wild Salmon Benedict ($9.50). It hasWild BC smoked salmon, dill cream cheese, 2 poached eggs, capers and hollandaise sauce served with rosemary potatoes and fruit. The hollandaise sauce was a bit different than what I am usually use to. It just tasted like mayonnaise. The poached eggs were done very nicely and were super gooey and yummy.

I wished there was a bit more wild salmon because the hollandaise sauce really drowned out the flavour. The rosemary potatoes and fruit on the side were good as well.

M ordered the Feature Hash ($ 11.50). The hash contained steak and cherry tomates, with rosemary potatoes, 2 slices of toast, and topped with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.

M liked the dish but really felt like the hollandaise sauce really ruined the taste of the dish.

The bill came out to be $30. Which, I guess if you go to a lounge for brunch, it’s an ok price. M really would not come here again for brunch since right across the road is Nice Cafe, which serves brunch as well for super cheap. Over all, the food was decent, but I think it was the hollandaise sauce that killed it for us.

Words of Wisdom:

Fresh local ingredients
Weekend/ Holiday Brunch
Daily specials

We rate 8 1/2 Restaurant + Lounge:

Address:

151 East 8th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.eightandahalf.ca

In Cafe

Giovane Cafe

March 6, 2011

FloYVR keeps telling me about Giovane Cafe, so we just had to head there for lunch. For those people who pass by the Pacific Rim Fairmont, it’s the restaurant will the cool looking “g”. Don’t deny that you have taken pictures beside it. (I’ve seen your display pictures..and it’s quite cute).

I pass by this place a lot too, but I was amazing at how large it was inside. Lots of seating! Giovane Cafe specializes in italian inspired foods such as pizzas, soups, and panini’s. They also have fresh coffee, cakes, pastries, breads and cookies.

To order, you need to go to the back of the restaurant to look at the menu and see what you want to order. They even have a large variety of specialty drinks and the usual drinks like pop and water.

Like I said, all of their food is italian inspired, thus the abundance of different panini’s, pizzas, and salads. They also have calzones but I didn’t take a picture of that.

After thinking for a long time, I ordered the Funghi Misto Bosco pizza ($10). I had truffled mushrooms, tellegio, leeks, and thyme. It really did take me a long time to decide to choose this. The staff told me the Funghi had a lot of flavour and tasted really good. Since I do like mushrooms, I got it.

After sinking my teeth into this pizza, the flavour from the leeks and the truffled mushrooms made it a very savory pizza. The dough was nice and thin and crunchy on the edges. The only thing I wish could have been better would be having the center of the dough be more crispy because I felt when i picked up each slice, it would flop around.

FloYVR had the special pizza ($10). I am not sure if this has a name but it was the special of the day.

Most of the pizza’s are reheated in their ovens before serving, and her pizza was not very warm, so she had to go back to get it to a better temperature to fully enjoy the pizza.

If you can’t finish your whole pizza, they give you a small cute pizza box for it. Imagine bringing this back to your office and making your coworkers jealous. haahaha.

Giovane Cafe also has a coffee/pastry bar area in the front where you can grab something quick to go. Since FloYVR had a 2 for 1 coupon for a drink from their tweet up, we used it!

Since we had to try their desserts, we chose to share the Mini Emerald Green Apple, Caramel Almond ($7). This was a very unique dessert, we really had no idea what to expect. In between the green apple mousse were layers of green apple pieces and a caramel almond layer. It may seem like a very odd combination but it worked really well together. It was not very sweet either, so if you fear sweet things, you should be ok with this dessert.

Words of Wisdom:

Busiest days: Thurs & Fri
Amazing desserts
A bit on the pricey side since it’s located in the Fairmont

We Rate Giovane Cafe:

Address:

1038 Canada Pl
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.giovanecafe.com

In Bar and Grill

Wings on Granville

March 6, 2011

It was TaiwaneseGirl’s Birthday, so she quickly put together a small party at Wings on Granville.

The only time we could make a reservation was 6pm or before. I guess it’s a policy. Good thing we did make reservations because it was quite full. There were other large groups as well.

They usually show Hockey games, but the day we went was not a Canucks game, so the place was not jam packed. If you are coming here for a Canucks game, there is a HUGE screen in the back of the restaurant.

No birthday party is complete without a pitcher of beer. Goes well with wings!

I was trying to be healthy and ordered the greek salad entree size ($8.99). In this salad were bell peppers, red onions, cucumbers,black olives, feta cheese and tomatoes. It is also served with garlic toast. It was an ok greek salad was not the best. I really like my greek salads to have a bit more balsamic vinegar in it.

KoreanGirl and TaiwaneseGirl both had 2 pounds of wings ($14.39). Thats what 2 pounds looks like. Kinda expensive!

M, InsecureGirl and FragileBoy shared a plate of 5lb wings ($33.95). You get 5 flavours of your choice and 3 dipping sauces with some vegetable sticks. When looking at the plate, it really did not look like 5 pounds. Since all the wings are piled onto the plate, you really have no idea if it is 5 pounds unless you happen to carry a scale in your purse.

You also have no idea what each flavour is since they mostly look the same. The waiter just brought it to the table without explaining what was what.

The only day where it is really worth having wings is Sundays where it is $0.25 each. You essentially save about $3 per pound.

We all decided to share the Wings Shared Platter ($20). It had Wings, dry ribs, crispy wontons, spring rolls, potato skins, chippers, pita bread, veggies, served with tzatziki sauce.

Even though there was a lot of variety in this platter, the quality was not that great, pretty average. It’s still a good dish to order if you are sharing with your friends.

Words of Wisdom:

Wings special on Sundays
Famous for their wings (duh)
Reservations before 6pm
Good place to watch the game

We Rate Wings onGranville:

Address:

1162 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.greatwings.ca

In Downtown

Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi

March 5, 2011

On my way to lunch, I could feel the showers beginning again, it was that weird day were there were “140km” winds (It totally wasn’t…darn those weather people). There were random periods of heavy rains and then BAM it was sunny and then it turned rainy again.

I was originally going to eat somewhere else, but I just decided to go to Fumiyoshi since it was a block away.

There is lots of room inside if you want to come in with a bunch of people. Most of the seating are booths and 4 people tables.

Since I was craving Fried chicken, I decided to get an order of Chicken Karrage ($3). I have to admit, this is the most failed chicken karrage I have ever seen and tasted. It was not a chicken wing or drumette. These pieces were the joints of chicken bones, so you don’t get a large amount of meat since most of it is just cartilage.

For my main, I ordered their bento boxes. It was $10.99. There was chicken teriyaki, yam rolls, green salad and vermicelli rice wrap. Miso soup comes with it as well.

The miso soup tasted good and refreshing. The green salad was mostly iceberg lettuce and it did not seem very fresh at all. The yam roll was ok as well, the yam roll was more of a yam tempura roll. The vermicelli rice wrap was a bit soggy on the outside and affected the structure of the wrap. It started falling apart.

I really didn’t like Fumiyoshi even though it was at a decent price. There are tons of other sushi restaurants on the same block that I would rather go to.

Words of Wisdom:

Large menu
Most items under $15
Has Japanese and Vietnamese items on their menu

We rate Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi:

Address:

538 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Etea Visit #2

March 5, 2011

Visit #1 : Click here

It’s usually a late night and the friends like to go somewhere to chat and have some drinks.

They have lots of food and bubble tea drinks.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered Milk Tea with Pearls. It didn’t seem like they give much pearls with their drinks.

Koreangirl ordered the peach green tea. Yeah, no pearls means less carbs in your belly!

Yet again, I ordered Chrysanthemum Black Tea. What I like about E. Tea is that they use real leaves to make this drink rather than just syrup. They used different cups this time. Some drinks are kinda misleading, since this drink has foam so it seems like you have more in your cup.

CanuckGirl ordered the Mango slush and M ordered the fresh mango slush. As you can tell there is such a large difference in color and appeal. CanuckGirl compared her mango drink to pineapples and was terrible. M’s drink did have more of the rich mango taste. They probably used frozen mangoes since I seriously doubt they are in season.

When selecting drinks here, it is worth is paying a few more bucks for the fresh options.

They have some super cool washroom signs. Only sexy girls and boys can enter the washrooms. And guys, if you think you want to peep into the girls washroom, you “will be slapped”. You can really capture some hilarious photos with your friends!

Words of Wisdom:

Decent prices
Open late
Parking in front
Accepts Mastercards/Visa/Cash/Debt

We rate E. Tea:

E. Tea is located on:

3281 East 22nd Ave.
Vancouver, BC V5M

In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Hakuya Japanese Restaurant

March 5, 2011

Hukuya Sushi is this little Japanese Restaurant located beside Red Robins in the Lougheed Mall area. They offer all you can eat as well as reasonably priced Ala carte for lunch and dinner.

On the inside, it has a decent interior. It is never super full when I come here. The people who run Hukuya Sushi, like other sushi places are Korean. It’s not bad or anything, I just wanted to point that out. There are a lot of repeat customers that come to Hukuya…my friend told us that he would come here quite often when he was in High School.

Everyone got their tea and M as usual got a coke.

Everyone was given complementary miso soup. I find that with most customers, they usually give something complementary with the meal. I think once it was a basket of tempura.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered Nigiri to start, there was tako (octopus), unagi (eel)and ebi (Shrimp). She also had a toro (tuna belly), but the waitress accidentally gave her the ebi. Once TaiwaneseGirl told the waitress, she gave her another toro. I don’t think TaiwaneseGirl really minded about the mishap of the order, I think she was more happy she got more food.

I ordered one of their chef specials, Takoyaki ($3.99), it comes with 5 takoyaki balls. Takoyaki is a ball shapped Japanese dumpling…kinda like a savory pancake made out of batter. the takoyaki is filled with octopus, pickled ginger, green onions and topped off with bonito flakes, mayo and teriyaki sauce.

This is a very popular Japanese street food item.

I got the other chef special, which was the okonomikyaki ($8). It is essentially very similar to Takoyaki but without the tako and in a pancake form. It was ok, but there was too much batter compared to the amount of ingredients inside. On top, therer is tobiko and the bonito flakes. They preslice this for you in the shape of a pizza, so you are killing it with your chopsticks.

I know if it wasn’t cut, I would try putting the whole thing in my mouth…or even just massacring the look of this dish.

I hold high regards for people who serve okonomiyaki because for Japanese class in high school, we were required to make this dish. My group did an ok job, but another group almost set the classroom on fire. I tried remaking it at home and wanted to die because I didn’t know how to flip it over.

Since I thought I would still be hungry, I ordered the california roll. Pretty simple, nothing too elaborate and cheap!

M and TaiwaneseGirl ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Don. Underneath the egg, chicken, broccoli and onion lies white rice.

It was a lot to eat since rice does fill you up. Neither of them could finish their own bowls, so they packed it.

InsecureGirl ordere the Chicken Yaki Udon. It is udon, vegetables and chicken served on a super hot black grill plate.

M ordered some shrimp tempura as well, I think it had 7 pieces. I really didn’t mind helping him eat this because as you know…I have an obsession for prawns ….no like actually! As a kid, I would eat shrimp even though I was allergic, I even developed hives but I still ate it. Many years of being scolded by my parents not to each shrimp…I still ate it any ways. If you see me at a buffet, my entire table will have remnants of shrimp shells pilled up on several plates ( true story).

The taste of this shrimp tempura is quite average, nothing special, but it the usual stuff you would expect from any other japanese restaurant.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in front
Lots of specials
Specialty rolls
decent prices

We Rate Hukuya Sushi:

Address:

9626 Cameron Street
Burnaby, BC

In Four Beakers

Kimura (Visit #5)

March 2, 2011

My 5th visit at Kimura would have to be epic.

I know i’ve said great things about Kimura in the past, but reading all my posts will probably hype Kimura’s up a bit too much. So, your best best is to have a seat near the bar so you can actually talk to him and get to know him. I personally never sit at the bar so I’ve never had a deep deep conversation with him…nor does he really remember my face even though I’ve been there many times. FragileBoy and Insecuregirl always go there and take a conscious effort to talk to him every single time they go. I, on the other hand am super shy and awkward so … I am a ghost.

FragileBoy decided to have his birthday party at Kimura’s and talked to him a few days before so Kimura could set up a special Omakase set. There were 15 people, so he needed to prep before hand…plus we took up half the restaurant.

We started off with 5 big bottles of Kirin ($8.95 each), and a large sake ($12) to share between everyone. I didn’t take a picture of the sake, but in my previous posts you can see what it looks like.

Since Kimura was very generous, he offered fragileboy a special Omakase set for his birthday and all the guests. Usually the Omakase is 7 dishes, but today…there was way more!

We started off the first course with Gomae which is just cooked spinach. As usual his appetizers are very clean and simple tasting.

The second dish was the Salmon Carpaccio, but it was a bit smaller than usual, but it was expected since Kimura increased the amount of dishes and provided a cheaper rate for the omakase set. This was delicious as usual! It’s one of my favorite dishes because of the sesame oil, salt, and pepper he adds to the ponzu sauce.

The third dish was yaki tori skewers. Each person had 2 each. The yakitori had chicken, onions and peppers. The chicken was very moist and was not dry. They have this on the regular menu as well.

The forth dish was Tonkatsu (Fried Pork Cutlet). There were 2 pieces drizzled with plum sauce. I found there was not enough sauce since some pieces did not have any sauce. You should also ask for a slice of lemon to go with it because it actually goes really well with it.

The fifth dish was tempura. You are probably thinking, “oh it’s normal, nothings great about it”. I thought the same thing until I ate the shrimp tempura. The batter on the outside was not crunchy, but really soft. When you bite into it, the shrimp is already seasoned with a bit of salt which really brings out the taste. I usually avoid tempura, but because of the taste of salt and the texture of the batter it did not taste oily.

The sixth dish has approached and it is the miso soup. The reason why I like this miso soup compared to other places is because of the addition of the tofu skin. It adds texture and body to the soup. The rest is pretty much the same.

The seventh dish arrived, at this point we were like…how many dishes are there? All the girls were pretty much getting full.

There was 4 california rolls, 1 wild salmon nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, and one shrimp nigiri. It was nothing too fancy.

Hey, look it’s the 8th dish. >.<” (Asian face emoticon thing indicating I was full). Each person got 1 of the Spicy tuna on crispy rice. Smaller than usual but it was alright because we were all getting full. Some people were a but scared of this dish because the tuna is spicy.

If you have a SUPER low tolerance for heat, you probably won’t like this. But, it’s a really cool concept for a dish. I can stand heat so it wasn’t a problem for me.

Dish number nine. Yes, NINE! This was the spicy toro cone. This was not very spicy, so if you are a spicy hater, you would actually like this. Melt in your mouth toro!

The tenth and final dish was mango ice cream. This ice cream is pretty good, not like the artificial mango ice cream.

Since it was FragileBoy’s birthday, Kimura was kind enough to make him a plate of Frog Legs. On the plate were 8 frog legs, which meant 4 frogs had to die for this dish, but as someone said at the table “they are over populated anyways, so might as well eat them”. So, we did just that… we ate them all! haha. It was my first time trying out frog legs, so I jumped at the chance of trying it. It has a very interesting taste, it was like a cross between chicken and fish.

I spent most the the time comparing the frog leg to an olympic speed skater. The Frog legs are not on the usual menu, but you can call in ahead of time to order them.

When they were speaking on the phone prior to the dinner, FragileBoy insisted that Kimura should not go out of his way to get cake…but guess what happened? Kimura went to T&T to buy him 2 little cakes anyways. Really amazing chef that truly has a passion for food.

Words of Wisdom:

For best experience sit at the bar and talk to Kimura (the best advice you will ever get!)
Parking in front or in residential areas
Most items under $10
Lots of combos and specials
Customizable dishes
Amazing service! (Like actually!)
Fresh Ingredients
Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: