Three Beakers Archives - Page 60 of 63

In Chinese

No 1 Beef Noodle House (Visit #2)

January 13, 2011

Since M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to get some Bubble tea and quick snacks… we decided to go to No 1 Beef Noodle House.

As usual, we always get the Salt and Peppery Chicken. This time we asked for spicy sauce to go along with it. It makes it 10x better (only if you enjoy spicy). We also noticed we got less Salt and Peppery Chicken compared to the last time we came here. Click here to read our past review.

InsecureGirl ordered the Guava Red Tea. I don’t think she really enjoyed it.

FragileBoy ordered the Red Bean Slush.

I ordered the Apple Milk Tea. I had this strange fascination with flavoured Milk Teas after getting some at T&T. It was good and was not overly sweet.

Words of Wisdom:

Shanghai Dumplings are a major disappointment
Good late night hangout
Cash Only
Parking is hard to find
If you get bored, you can spot all the typos in their menu

We rate No. 1 Beef Noodle House:

They are located at:

4741 Willingdon Ave
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant

January 12, 2011

Golden Oscars has been around since as long as I could remember. My parents would always take my sisters here for some lunch on the weekends. Golden Oscars is HK style Cafe serving up dishes from pork cutlet to baked seafood. They have been around for well over 2 decades.

The theme of the restaurant is “The Oscars”. All the walls are decorated with Oscar winning movies.

The interior of the restaurant is very typical for a chinese restaurant. Mostly booth style seating that fits about 4 or 5 people.

I usually order anything from their Set Dinner or Set Lunch Menu. Comes with choice of dish + soup and a hot drink (+$0.50 for cold drinks).

M and I both <3 milk tea, so we both got cold milk tea in our set dinner. They give you your own canister of liquid syrup to adjust the sweetness of your drink. I would not advise pouring it all into your drink because it’ll just become the nastiest thing you have ever tasted. Pour it gradually and taste it till you get the right amount.

Our set menu came with the daily soup which was a cream corn soup.

M ordered the Grilled Chicken Steak and Pork Chop on Rice ($8.99). We order this dish quite often and it never disappoints. You get one chicken steak and pork chop which is still tender and delicious. It is topped off with a gravy and garlic sauce. You also get rice to go with the dish. You get a wee bit of vegetables – corn, carrots, broccoli.

Since I am a big lover of seafood, I decided to get the Prawn with Egg Swirl on Rice ($8.99). This is massive…especially for dinner. It seemed like it was supposed to be shared amongst a few people (But I ate most of it). On the bottom, you have white rice and it is topped with eggs, green onions, and prawns. I’m sure there is more to this dish, but I am not smart enough to know what exactly is in it.

What I like about this is how the ration between sauce and rice were perfect, so you don’t end up with a section of bland rice. Also, the prawns are HUGE. Very big and plump. If you do decide to get this dish, you probably want to share with someone.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in parking lot or residential areas
Large Portions at decent prices
Very busy during peak hours

We rate Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant:

Address:

3868 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC

In Coquitlam

Sushi Mori

January 10, 2011

Fabo comes back and M, FragileBoy, NotFauna, JojoCake, and I met up at Sushi Mori!

Sushi Mori is a Japanese restaurant in Coquitlam. Like many Japanese restaurants in Vancouver… this is also Korean owned.

When you walk inside, you will be amazed by a bunch of Sakura Trees (Cherry Blossom). Begin inside this restaurant makes you feel like you are in the great outdoors.

We all drank tea which came in a SUPER SUPER heavy tea pot.

We got complementary edamame, apple/corn/peas salad, and some onion type of thing. We also all got complementary miso soup too.

The miso soup is pretty good.

M started off his meal getting Chicken Yakitori ($4.95). It came with 2 pieces. He really liked it.

M also got a plate of Toro Sashimi ($14.95). It only came with 7 pieces which M was really surprised over because Gohan Sushi has way more for $9. He ate it all, but the price and the size of it left a bad feeling inside.

FragileBoy ordered the Dinner Bento A Combo ($13.95). This came with Chicken Teriyaki, 6 pieces of Sashimi, 3 pieces of sushi, and 4 pieces of tempura.

This bento is served with miso soup and rice sunomono.

I ordered the Deluxe Sashimi & Sushi Bento ($15.95). Instead of just taking on picture, I did a close up of everything, so it looks super odd.

It came with a green salad, 3 pieces of calamari, 4 pieces of tempura, 2 salmon sashimi, 2 red tuna sashimi, 3 tako sashimi, 1 tako nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 1 red tuna nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, and 1 amaebi nigiri.

I was ok with everything, but the sashimi and nigiri seemed a bit small.

Fabo, JojoCake and NotFauna shared a few different dishes.

They first had the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($4.95).

Then they had the Spicy Tuna Sashimi ($9.95).

Then they had the Crunch Roll ($11.95).

Then they had the Dragon Roll ($11.95).

Lastly they had the Oi-Chee Roll ($11.95).

This was the damage of our bill. $112.62 for 6 people.

The service was pretty bad. We were waiting at the door trying to figure out how many people in total were coming, so when the whole party arrived, the servers did not show us to a table, so we had to find our own. Once we did sit down, no servers came to give us menu’s or any indication that we were even there.

Words of Wisdom:

Sashimi is small and expensive
Lots of parking in the parking lot
Really cool decor
Bento Boxes are good
Tons of specialty rolls

We Rate Sushi Mori:

Website: http://www.sushimorisake.com/

Address:

2565 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

In Bar and Grill

Boathouse (Port Moody)

January 9, 2011

The Family decided to go to Boathouse for a lovely dinner. The have a bar section where patrons can grab a drink and enjoy the game.

On the other side is an open kitchen and high walled dinning room.

The Boathouse locations always have large windows so you can gaze upon the river. Their Lobsterfest always draws a large crowd.

Their dining room was packed and the layout of the restaurant gave people little room to move around.

They also have a kids menu if your kids dont want items from the regular menu. The kids menu is also a coloring book, so they will be occupied!

My sisters and dad all got Shirley temples ($3.79).

My father got the BC Wild Sockeye Salmon & Atlantic Lobster Tail ($32.99). This dish had a fire-grilled fillet and 4 oz. lobster tail. You also get wild rice and green peas and pepper.

All lobster dishes are supposed to come with butter and when we asked our server…she was kinda unsure. You can hear my rant about the service below….

My mother ordered the boathouse bouillabaisse ($28.99). This dish had wild salmon, halibut, prawn, scallop, mussels, alaskan king crab, and fingerling potatoes in a rich tomato broth. There is also bread that comes with it if you want to dip it into the broth.

My mother enjoyed this dish!

My older sister got the Louisiana Lobster Pot ($29.99). There is Carribean Lobster, Manila Clams, BC Wild Sockeye Salmon, mussels, chorizo sausage, tiger prawns, vegetables in a spicy broth.

She enjoyed this dish because it was packed full of seafood.

I ordered the sirloin & seafood grill ($28.99). The seafood skewer had a prawn, a small sea scallop & 2 pieces of wild salmon. It also came with mashed potatoes, green beans, and the sirloin. I did enjoy the dish, but I personally prefer The Keg over Boathouse.

The sirloin was done to medium rare and was perfect. The only bad thing about it was how the scallop that was part of the skewer was really small, it took me a while to figure out where it was because it was between the shrimps head and the tail.

Their mashed potatoes are really good!!

My little sister got the Fire-grilled sirloin ($21.99). Her sirloin was 7oz. It also came with mashed potatoes and green peas and a pepper.

She really liked the dish!

The bread never arrived at our table… we finally asked our server and she forgot to give us bread.

Our service was pretty poor since our waitress was fairly new. She couldn’t explain the new lobsterfest menu, forgot our butter for lobster, forgot the bread, rarely came to our table (we had to flag down other waitresses to get her), gave us the wrong utensils (she gave me a spoon for eating a steak…..)

What made it worse is when we went to the front desk to buy a giftcard for a family friend, our waitress passed by the front desk to check their computers…looked at us…walked past us and said nothing.

I usually don’t complain about service, but I was really upset by the service. Clearly, I will not be returning to this location.

Words of Wisdom:

Hard to get to…so drive and use google maps
Free parking in front
Reservations are suggested
Special Kids Menu
Lobster FEST!!

We rate BoatHouse:

Website: www.boathouserestaurants.ca

Address:

2770 Esplanade Ave
Port Moody, BC

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Libra Room

January 7, 2011

InsecureGirl and I had 3 coupons from Goodnews.com to go to Libra Room. We paid $20 for $50 worth of food. For some reason we bought 3 by accident.

Libra Room has live music, drinks, and food.

The interior has a pub-like feel to it. The main feature of the restaurant is their main stage which features performers every night playing live music. The music varies everyday, so you can check online to see who is playing.

We started the night ordering Sangria ($20). They use red wine and have oranges, apples, and cranberries. They sangria was alright, but not as good as Havana’s a few blocks up.

We ordered the Tequila Clamato Mussels ($10). The broth as you can tell by it’s name is made from Tequila and Clamato. The size of the mussels are really big and worth the money. I personally liked the sauce because it did not taste like alcohol at all and it. It tasted really nice. FragileBoy thought it tasted sweet and didn’t like it.

We ordered the Hefeweized Mussels ($10). Our next set of mussels were a bit different even though they look exactly the same. Hefeweized basically means beer. Yes, the mussels were looked in BEER! I didn’t like it, but FragileBoy likes it. M was pretty indifferent about the taste between between both the mussels….and I forgot to ask InsecureGirl.

Next we had the Irish Nachos ($14). It contained fried beans, roasted corn, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, green onions, cheddar and monterey cheese. They also had sour cream and salsa on top. The nachos were good but they were not THE BEST in Vancouver.

Do you know how good nachos are constructed? To ensure most of the nacho chips are covered in cheese, you must layer the ingredients and not pile everything on top or else you won’t get an even coating over the ingredients on the chips on the bottom.

InsecureGirl ordered the Salmon Ravioli ($12) for her main dish. It’s not on the regular menu, but it was one of their featured dishes for the night. InsecureGirl thought it was alright, but not the best she has had either.

M got the Gingerbeef Kababs ($9). M really enjoyed it and the meat was very tender and moist. It was not dry at all. The kebabs came in skewers of 3 and had a asian slaw on the side. This was an appetizer we would get again.

FragileBoy ordered the House Made Lamb Burger ($13). Inside the burger is cheddar, leaf lettuce, tomato & carmelized onions.

It also comes with a salad and fries.

I ordered the Seafood Linguini ($16) with the white wine sauce. The seafood in this dish were mussels, scallops, and prawns. There is also fresh tomato, basil & garlic in it. I found the pasta quite bland. There was hardly any taste. I did enjoy the seafood. The mussels are huge! I just had to take a picture because I have never seen anything so massive.

I would not order this dish again.

If you ordered the mussels as an appetizer, I would suggest not getting this dish…since it has more mussels.

Our bill came out to me about $130…we thought we could use 2 coupons, but we could only use one, so $50 was taken off the bill, so we had to pay $80. We were pretty disappointed, but we didn’t want to argue with management. We will definitely return for some appetizers and drinks.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter Parking on Streets… or free parking in residential areas further away
Mussels and Kebabs are a MUST!
Entrees are pretty average
Goodnews.com Coupons…one per table…NOT one per 2 people

We Rate Libra Room:

Website: www.libraroom.com

Address:

1608 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

In Brunch

Provence Marinaside Restaurant

January 4, 2011

LAgirl and I were meeting up for Brunch and she suggested we go to Provence in Yaletown. Since it was a Sunday, it was BRUNCH!

We headed over and you guessed it… there was a wait. We waited about 20 mins, but it didn’t feel too long since we went to a Starbucks for a bit.

LAgirl got the Two eggs any style ($14). She chose scrambled eggs with sausages. If you don’t want sausages, you can also choose bacon, smoked salmon or roasted vegetables. This dish also came with roasted potatoes, fruit and toasted baguette.

She said she liked this dish but she was not too fond of the sausage. She really loved the additional fruit to the dish and hasn’t seen this done anywhere else.

I ordered the Croque Monsieur Eggs Benedict ($14). It has poached eggs, black forest ham, gruyère, and sundried tomato butter on foccacia. This has probably been one of my all time favorite eggs benny dishes! The texture of all those ingredients on top of the foccacia were just amazing. The taste of the melted gruyere tasted SO GOOD!

I usually hate potatoes, but their roasted potatoes that came with the dish was really good and well seasoned.

They also give you 4 pieces of fruit as well. I loved it because eating the heavy potatoes and eggs benny, having the fruit there just gave your mouth a great refreshing taste afterwards.

Words of Wisdom:

Good for Brunch
Free 1 hour parking at Urban Fare for Provence Customers
There is also street meter parking

We Rate Provence Marinaside Restaurant:

Website: http://www.provencevancouver.com/marinaside/

Address:

1177 Marinaside Cres
Vancouver,BC

In Gastown

Sea Monstr Sushi

January 2, 2011

Sea Monstr Sushi is located in Gas Town. I have heard much hype about this place and it looked cool, so CandiedZen and I went. They are known for the fresh sashimi and their specialty rolls.

Sea Monstr Sushi has bar seating as well as a small dining room.

The waitress gave us water is a cool Sea Monstr Sushi jug and also some green tea.

When sitting at the bar, you can watch the sushi chefs in action.

We ordered one order of Toro ($2.50) and Salmon Sashimi ($2.50). Each order comes with 2 pieces. The pieces of sashimi ad quite small compared to other places you go, but the taste and the texture are superb.

Daily Special Roll was a spicy ebi roll. It had shrimp, spicy sauce, and greens. CandiedZen and I thought the roll was ok, but it wasn’t amazingly good. The shrimp could have been more plump and tasteful. This was quite mediocre compared to other places and not as well built.

The House Roll ($7) had lettuce, salmon, tuna, tobiko, mayo, and scallops. This roll was pretty good. The lettuce gave this roll a crunchy texture.

Una Tama Maki ($4.50) has BBQ Eel, Japanese Style Egg Omelette, and Daikon Sprout. This roll again was quite mediocre. Rice was a bit loose and not like how other places are held firmly together.

Sea Monstr Sushi is a different type of Japanese restaurant, it is more for hanging out and having a bit to eat. If you think this is like a traditional Japanese Restaurant….don’t expect sushi like Samurai Sushi or Sushi Town. In a way you coud say it a a little bit fusion.

Words of Wisdom:

Meter parking at front and back of restaurant
Ask waitress for daily specials
Very fresh tasting sashimi

We rate Sea Monstr Sushi:

Website:http://www.seamonstrsushi.com/

Address:

A – 55 Powell Street
Vancouver, BC

In Tapas

Raw Canvas

December 31, 2010

MedicalGiraffee is back to town and she had a GroupOn for Raw Canvas. The GroupOn came with 2 tasting plates, and 2 small canvases.

Raw Canvas is a tapas lounge, wine bar and art studio.

The restaurant is split up into 2 parts. A lounge area with long tables! It looks great for big groups and parties.

And then the other half is where all the painting begins! All you need to do is grab a coat, a canvas, and paints and you are set!

You get a plate thing for you to put your paint. If you like to layer your paints and don’t want things to smudge, you get hairdryers to dry the paintings. Also, its good if you want to bring your painting home. You really don’t want paint getting on your clothes or car.

These were the choices for the tasting menu. The tasting menu is $15 and comes with your choice of 3 items on the left side and 3 from the right. The left side has mostly meat and cheese, while the other are spreads, sauces, pickled items, nuts, and dried fruits.

MedicalGiraffe chose :

Hot Sopressata: italian style dry hot pepper salami
ile-aux-grues 5 year cheddar: moderately sharp with an outstanding depth of ﬂavour.
vintage 3 yr gouda: sharp and sweet, like good butterscotch
Matiz Fig Spread
Organic Almonds
Organic Aprocots

I chose the:

Rosette de Lyon: french salami made by granville island’s oyama
Brie de Meaux: vegetal, earthy flavour
Parrano: creamy, sweet ﬂavour of gouda. mellow, buttery, nutty
Kalamata Olives
Dijon Mustard
Cornichons

All the Tasting plates came with a bowl of bread. You can put your items from your tasting plate onto it.

I had a flight of white wine ( About $10). It had 3 types of white wine, but since I am not a wine expert, it all tasted the same to me. I chose white win because its sweeter than red.

MedicalGiraffe had one flight of red wine (About $10).

We stood there instead of setting at the tables because we wanted to paint and eat at the same time. It was quite hard resisting to eat a bit while we had paint on our hands. I have a feeling we ate quite a bit of paint.

This is what we made in the end. An abstract painting… and a weird cartoon painting ripped off from the internet.

Words of Wisdom:

Best to have reservations
Meter Parking on street
Not a place to go alone, best with a group. More people = more Fun

We rate Raw Canvas:

Website: http://www.raw-canvas.com/

Address:

1046 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

In North Burnaby

Sushimoto

December 31, 2010

Sushimoto is located beside Holdom Skytrain on the Millenium Line. It is literally a few steps away. Since BusanGirl was going back to Korea for vacation. A few of us met up and enjoy some sushi. NotFauna decided to choose Sushimoto since it seemed pretty popular online. It was really close to our houses, so we went.

The interior was really nice! paper lantern decorations, many little samurai figurines near the kitchen. There was actually MANY MANY figurines ranging from samurai swords to traditional masks.

Salmon Sashimi (Half Order) ($6). A half order contains about 5 pieces. The pieces are not as big as Sushi Town, but the quality is pretty good.

Tuna Tataki ($12.90) was really good. It was nicely seared on the outside. This dish came with organic salad, shaved onions, and topped with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The ponzu sauce was perfect for the dish and went well with the tuna and salad.

Moto Signature Roll ($9) has Tuna, salmon, cucumber, avacado, egg, crab meat, masago, and carrot. It is topped with spicy-mayo sauce and wrapped is soybean skin. At first it seemed cool that it was wrapped in soybean skin rather than seaweed, but the skin was pretty thin and all the ingredients inside kept falling out. Great tasting roll, but fell apart too easily.

Amusement Roll ($10) has cream cheese, cucumber, salmon, egg, crab meat, ikura, Mayo and unagi sauce. This roll held together better than the Moto Signature Roll. The roll was pretty average and the addition of the cream cheese made this interesting. Other restaurants usually have it in the philadelphia roll. The cream cheese worked well!

Overall, the food was good and the decor was great. Unfortunately, the service was pretty bad. We all agreed that the waitress was pretty awkward. When she described the specials, we were left more confused by what she said. Perhaps she was new and a bit shy.

Words of Wisdom:

Street Parking
Large variety in menu
Sashimi = good!

We rate Sushimoto:

They are located at:

2221 Holdom Ave S
Burnaby, BC

In Chinese

Flying Tiger

December 29, 2010

I heard of Flying Tiger because a friend works here. So, I looked it up and it seemed like a pretty good place for modern asian cuisine. But, today he wasn’t working so IndecisiveGirl and I just ate and complained about how crazy people at Metrotown were….and how hard it is to get anything done due to the crazy Boxing Week rush.

Flying Tiger in Kitsilano features modern asian street food. Imagine the Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant but Flying Tiger would encompass other types of dishes from Korea, India, China, Japan, Philippines, etc.

The restaurant is pretty narrow, but still can fit a lot of people. It is best to make reservations before hand just in case they have a busy night.

If you are seated near the back of the restaurant, you will be able to see the chefs at work.

Their menu is mostly tapas, drink and a few desserts. We asked the waitress what was good on the menu….and after rambling on for a bit… she basically recommended the whole menu. She was quite helpful actually. She explained the the dishes near the top were smaller and lighter, while the dishes on the bottom were larger and heavier tasting.

The special of the day was Sapporo on tap for $4.50. So myself and InsecureGirl got one each.

We ordered the Ebi Mayo ($12). There were about 5 pieces of shrimp. The size of the prawn were pretty large and nicely prepared. Sadly, this still was not as good as the ebi mayo I had at Toratatsu.

Next we had the Pulled Duck Confit Crêpes ($19). It contained Duck confit, Philippine lime, charred scallion, jicama & cucumber salad, Vietnamese coriander, mint, basil, and sesame oil crêpes. I liked how interactive this dish was. You can make your own dish by adding how much of anything you want.

You basically pile up the ingredients in the middle with a little bit of everything and the wrap it up.

When it is all wrapped up, you can bite it and enjoy.

Lastly, we had the Hawker Street Noodles ($15), it had Fresh egg noodles, shiitake mushrooms, free run chicken,wild sea prawns, squid, snap peas, gailan, nam prik pao, oyster sauce, and crispy garlic. This was very well prepared and was filling. Since we were so full from everything, we decided to pack it up and it came in a really cute chinese take out box.

The damage of the bill came out to be $61.60. Flying Tiger is not the best place to go when you are super hungry. It is quite expensive, but I guess you are paying for atmosphere.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking at adjacent roads or street meter parking at front
All dishes are meant to be shared…tapa style
Have daily drink specials
Pretty expensive tapas

We rate Flying Tiger:

Website: http://www.theflyingtiger.ca/

Located at:

2958 W 4th 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 Chinese

Terracotta Modern Chinese

December 28, 2010

I have always been fascinated by the thought of modern chinese cuisine. Could this be possible? After hearing much about Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant on Urbanspoon and Twitter. It was something I needed to try in the future with a few gal pals.

I heard a bit of controversy between this restaurant and a UBC Student Club…lets just say it didn’t look good at all. I saw a Groupon for Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant the following day and just had to purchase it to see what this place really was like.

Since this place was best known for drinks, I thought I would take CandiedZen to celebrate her birthday.

The interior is pretty cool! It has a bunch of statues of Terracotta warriors. Sometimes I find I am creepily amused by Chinese statues. Being a totally whitewashed asian…It’s quite interesting and I wish I could have a statue on my desk.

The waitress started me and CandiedZen with some ice waters as we pondered over the menu.

For my drink I ordered the Chivas & Green Tea ($9). It came in a cool asian style cup. I had no idea what Chivas was, but it seemed like they heavily promoted that certain type of alcohol at the restaurant, so I didn’t think it would disgust me. Turns out Chivas is Whisky from Scotland. At first slip, I really did not like this drink. It was just tea and whisky! After eating a bit of food, it matched well with the dishes. and I slowly began to enjoy it.

CandiedZen ordered the Me-So-H69ny ($9.50). Yes, that is the name of this drink! Sounded hilarious and made us giggle a bit. This drink contained Raspberry Stoli, Red Alize, Cranberry Juice and a lychee. This was a really good drink. The drink is more on the sweet side and not too strong in terms of alcohol taste.

For our first dish, we ordered the Golden Squid ($8). It contained marinated squid, bettered and seasoned with salt. It also had garlic, jalapeno and some type of fruity salsa. This was one of our favorite dishes.

We next ordered the Terracotta Spring Rolls ($7), which has inside – tuna, mango and peppers. At first, the taste was quite bizarre. THe better did not match the taste of the tuna. Maybe if they used something else like maybe… avocados, it would be better.

Nest we ordered the Terracotta Short Rib Sliders ($9). It had braised beef short ribs with green onion served on golden mantou buns. CandiedZen and I agreed, it was actually “modern chinese”. They took the ingredients you would find in a chinese restaurant and add a twist. The braised beef was very tender and the sauce accompanied great as well. It had 3 pieces.

The last dish we had was the Barbecue Duck Wraps ($8). It came in 3 pieces and in each one was BBQ duck, hoisin sauce, green onion, and cucumber. CandiedZen commented how this dish as quite oily and assumed it was because the duck had a lot of fat in it. One thing which I think would make the dish amazing if it was more of a “do it yourself” type of wrap so customers can put in how much onions or cucumber to it because some people are picky about green onions.

Overall, Terracotta Modern Chinese caters to a very specific type of crowd of people – The young, hip, enjoys drinking and a lounge setting. I was clearly not their target market, as Follow Me Foodie has said several times in her posts. Growing up eating mass amounts of Chinese food, I am basically trained to gravitate towards dim sum restaurants or family style chinese restaurants.

Words of Wisdom:

Do not expect this place to be a traditional chinese restaurant
Sliders are highly recommended
Best to drink and have a few dishes
Pay parking on streets

We rate Terracotta Modern Chinese:

Website: http://www.terracottavancouver.com/

Address:

52 Alexander St.
Vancouver, BC

In Bar and Grill

Pier 3132 Grill & Oyster House

December 25, 2010

InsecureGirl bought a Groupon a while back to try this restaurant since they serve oysters.

The interior is very nice and modern. It would seem like a good place to watch some games here.

Looking at the specials, they do seem really good! Thursdays… free entrees with 3 people. Sweet deal! Sadly we didn’t know about the deals… so we were a party of 2 🙁

We ordered the lager and it wasn’t too special.

These are the selection of oysters. Happy hours!! Buck a shuck!

We ordered Kusshi Oysters ($3.50 each). Kusshi mean “precious” in japanese. It had a smooth buttery texture and a sweet finish. They are small in size, but it’s a good choice for beginner oyster eaters.

The little Wing oysters were the feature of the $1 buck a shuck, so we ordered 4. It is sweet, well balanced oyster in a distinctive deep cup shell with a pleasant, fresh aftertaste.

Malpeque oysters ($3 each) are good transitional oysters, bigger and bolder than Kusshis, but still light-bodied and clean on the finish. Easy to eat, with the perfect balance of sweetness, brine, and pickle-like liveliness, they make great accompaniments to a pint of lager.

You can add tabasco or Xtra hot sauce to you oysters.

This is their menu if you want something else besides oysters.

We ordered the Fish & Chips ($16). It is a 10 ounce sable fish with tempura batter, home cut fries, accompanied with remoulade.

This is one of their most popular dishes and the sable fish works really well for this dish. The only thing we didn’t like about it was how easy the batter would fall off the fish. Despite this, InsecureGirl liked this dish.

We also got the Prawn Linguini ($18). The shrimp is this dish were huge. The pasta was cooked perfectly and had enough sauce! I really enjoyed this dish.

Words of Wisdom:

Great specials
Buck A Shuck
Parking on street

We rate Pier 3132:

Website: http://www.thecrabshack.ca/

Address:
3132 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC

In Chinese

Dragon Ball Tea House

December 24, 2010

Dragon Ball Tea House is a popular bubble tea place in Vancouver. They serve milky teas, slushes, real fruit, powder, and many other types of customizable bubble teas. If you are an indecisive person, you will be totally confused when they ask you if you want your drink as a milk or slush, or with pearls. They throw so many options at you, so I totally got lost.

The interior is not very big, so during busy times its hard to fit a large group of people.

Most of the drinks range from $3 – $3.50. If you add pearls or anything extra, it’s $0.50.

What we ordered:

Supreme Milk Tea: Just regular milk tea, nothing too “supreme” about it.
Passionfruit Black Tea w/ pearls: FragileBoy said the pearls were a bit too soft and chewy
Fresh papaya milk: I loved it. It had real papaya, so I was super happy! I hate the powdered stuff.
Green Tea Ice Cream: Had a good taste to it. If you like green tea ice cream, you’d probably like this too.

There is something about this washroom key that cracks me up. Can you see what it is? (Scroll down to see answer)

Yes, if you have spotted the 3 signs that say “Washroom Key”, you are right.

At least you know that if you ever need to go to the washroom, you can live in peace knowing that the washroom key is well highlighted.

Words of Wisdom:

You can have the most customizable Bubble Tea ever!
Parking on the side of building or parking on street
Cash Only

We rate Dragon Ball Tea House:

They are located at:

1007 W King Edward Ave
Vancouver, BC

In Greek

Stepho’s Greek Taverna

December 22, 2010

Stepho’s Greek Taverna on Davie Street has been a really popular restaurant in Vancouver for their affordable greek food.

I have always had the misconception that greek food in Vancouver is fairly expensive. When I eat Greek food in Burnaby, an entree would cost anywhere from $15 – $20. BUT, at Stepho’s, you can have large portions for under $10. This is the reason why Stepho’s is always packed with customers during lunch and dinner time.

When we arrived at 5pm, we thought it shouldn’t be very busy, but there there was already a line up and most of the tables were full. Since it was just M and I, we quickly found a table for 2. Despite the large size of the interior and several tables, it was all full.

The menu comprises of the usual greek dishes you would find any other restaurant, but for way cheaper.

I enjoy playing with candles….so if you are a waitress or a waiter and you see the candles are messed up….ya…it was me. Stepho’s does not use traditional candles, like many other restaurants, they have adopted to use the electronic candles to simulate the same feeling. It took me a while to figure out why the candle did not feel hot.

We ordered the Saganaki ($4.95) for an appetizer. Saganaki is essentially fried cheese. I know it sounds grotesquely fatty….very fatty, but something about melted cheese just makes your heart melt every single time. Maybe it’s just me…but I would kill for melted cheese on any type of bread.

For the Saganaki, it came with a pita bread cut in half. We divided up the cheese and put it on our half of the pita bread. Since it is fried, you get a bit of “ooey gooey” and crispiness to the cheese.

If you are watching your weight, this is probably not a good appetizer.

M ordered the Roast Lamb Platter ($9.95). It came with a Roast Lamb, Greek Salad, Vegetable stew, Roast Potato, Rice Pilaf, Pickled Jalapeno, and a lemon. M devoured the greek salad, it was loaded with Feta cheese. The roast lamb was very flavourful, tender and succulent. It was not dry at all. The meat fell off the bone easily. He also enjoyed the rice since it was flavourful.

I ordered the Small Chicken Slouvaki ($7.95). It came with tzatziki sauce, greek salad, roast potatoes, Rice Pilaf, Pickled Jalapeno, lemon wedge, and a skewer of chicken.

This was a small…I can’t imagine how large, the large size would be. I enjoyed the rice pilaf, greek salad, tzatziki sauce, and the roasted potatoes. One thing I didn’t like was how dry and burnt tasting the chicken skewer was.

We also got more pita bread with our entrees.

Overall, we both had a good experience. The portions were large and at an affordable price. Don’t expect to have the best tasting greek food at Stepho’s, but one thing is for sure…you will be full. The service on the other hand was not great, we often felt rushed with our meal. We spent a total of 35 minutes at Stepho’s. It’s either we eat fast, or they were trying to get us out as fast as possible.

Words of Wisdom:

Limited Parking in the rear
Street Meter parking in the front
Long line ups during peak hours
Large portions for under $10

We rate Stepho’s :

They are located at:

1124 Davie St
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Berry Good

December 21, 2010

I went to Berry Good with my food buddies – SFUPretender and FinanceGirl. Berry Good serves desserts, coffee, and tea. Their specialty is Japanese and Korean inspired desserts. Perhaps the owners are Korean and Japanese.

They are located in Richmond near Garden City Road. The location is slightly hidden in a plaza, so you may want to google it before you go.

The interior is small and cozy. Since it is getting close to Christmas, they even put up a small tree.

Most of their daily desserts are displayed near the cashier. You have to go look at them before you order. They have about 8 cakes on display. Not a large selection, but you know they put effort and care into their desserts by keeping the quantity low.

They offer combos with a dessert and drink from $6- $9. These drink can range from cold and hot teas and coffees.

SFUPretender ordered the Raspbery Chocolate mousse. The raspberry chocolate mousse is layered within chocolate cake. I tried a bit of it and it was ok.

FinanceGirl had the White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was really good. it was on top of a bed of oreo cookies. The cheesecake was very flavourful and rich. I would recommend people getting this.

I got the green tea mousse cake. The bottom was made out of vanilla cake, then green tea mousse, red beans, and green tea jelly on top. I originally thought the red beans would be through out the cake, but as I was eating it, it was only on the outside. If you hate red beans, there really isn’t that much, so don’t be scared by it. The green tea mousse seems to be a popular choice at Berry Good. It’s unique!

After we finished our dessert, the restaurant became packed. All the tables were full an everyone seemed like they were enjoying the desserts. There were lots of couples too.

Words of Wisdom:

Parking in font
If you afraid of disappointment, look online for more reviews.
They accept cards and cash.

We rate Berry Good:

They are located at:

#1120-8766 McKim Way ( In Excel Centre)
Richmond, BC

In Four Beakers

Shoryumen, Fumisen and Bakudanyaki Foodcarts

December 12, 2010

SFUPretender highly recommended we visit the 3 foodcarts in Richmond near River Rock Casino, so we decided to take a trip! I’ve heard people talk about the foodcarts, but never really had an urge to go until now.

The famous 3 foodcarts – Shoryumen, Fumisen and Bakudanyaki sell sushi cones, ramen, and giant takoyaki.

We drove and there was tons of parking! If you don’t have a car, they are located right across the street from the Canada Line.

Bakudanyaki sells giant Takoyaki the size of baseballs. Their filling the the takoyaki does vary once in a while, but today they had the Seafood Bakudan for $5.

You can choose what type of mayo you would like your bakudanyaki.

For my Bakudanyaki, I chose the wasabi mayo.

When you begin eating the bakudanyaki, you are greeted with the various ingredients – egg, shrimp, calamari, corn, onion, carrot and potatoes. You might be wondering when you have so many ingredients packed inside, but if the ball was just made like a normal takoyaki, it would be fragile and fall apart easily.

The bakudanyaki was well made and it really did taste like a big takoyaki.

Clearly a great idea and I would get this again.

We rate Tenku Bakudanyaki:

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Shoryumen is the ramen food cart. You can choose from ramen noodles or udon noodles. you can choose miso, curry or shoyu (Soy sause) soup stock. You can add extra toppings for 50 cents.

For my ramen, I got the curry ramen with corn and garlic chips ($7.75). The egg was cooked perfectly and was not over or under cooked. The garlic chips were not a crunchy as I would have liked. They ended up just sticking to my teeth.

FinanceGirl got the Miso Udon ($6.75).

SFUPretender got the Shoyu Udon ($6.75).

In the end we finished it right up. Instead of just disposing the bowl with soup in the trash, you can give it back to them to properly dispose of the soup.

We rate Shoryumen:

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Fumisen sells sushi cones in 3 sizes – small ($3.75), medium ($5) and JUMBO ($8.50).

There are 4 steps into making your sushi cone:

pick a type of rice
pick a protein filling
pick 2 vegetable fillings
pick a sauce

I got a medium cone with salmon rice, scallop chop chop, salmon sashimi, avacado, tobiko, and wasabi mayo. I wanted to try both the scallop chop chop and salmon sashimi, so they were nice enough to give me both! What I LOVE about the cones was how fresh the seafood is.

If you don’t know what toppings to add into your cone, you can always ask the staff because they are the experts.

Apparently, they buy their sashimi and seafood in small batches to ensure quality and freshness.

FinanceGirl got the Medium cone with salmon sashimi, lettuce, tobiko and mayo.

SFUPretender got a small cone with chicken teriyaki, mango…and I am not 100% what else was in there. It looks good and it tasted good so I guess whats what matters!

We rate Fumisen:

All the carts are located at:

8740 Charles St
Richmond, BC

In Italian

CinCin Ristorante + Bar

December 7, 2010

CinCIn Restaurant + Bar is a high end restaurant where many locals and celebrities like to dine. I came here a few years ago for Dine Out and I was not in love with this place. I heard it tends to happen during dine out.

Today, the Finance Club execs headed over to CinCin for a nice social dinner.

The interior has a very nice italian feel to the decor. Nice soft dim light are used to simulate romantic atmosphere.

In the main dining room, you can see their chefs cooking. Yet again you can see more of the warm italian looking decor.

Bread with olive spread

CFAGirl and I both had the Osso Buco Milanese ($34.00) which is milk fed veal shank with saffron risotto, hazelnut gremolata, and parmigiano reggiano. The meal fell off the bone very nicely. The hazelnut topping gave the meat a very nice crunch to the bite.

They even give you a small spoon to eat the bone marrow.

It was highly recommended by the waiter!

FinanceGirl got the Branzio ($36.50). It is a whole mediterranean sea bass, citrus and fennel salad with salsa verde. She accidentally ordered this and was so amused that she had a fish on the table when everyone else had meat or pasta.

She really enjoyed it even though it was just a piece of sea bass and a small salad, she really enjoyed dissecting her meal. There are bones, so this is not good for those people who hate working on their meal.

To end off the meal, I had a latte.

CFAGirl and FinanceGirl had the Dorian Grey tea.

I got the dark chocolate + lemon semi-freddo ($12.50), which has hazelnut nougatine and cherry sauce and caramelized winter fruits. The nougatine encrusted semi-freddo gave this dessert more body and texture.

I had this all to myself, but I soon realized it was meant to be shared. After eating such a large entree, your stomach may not have enough space.

FinanceBoy had the rhum baba ($12.50), which is fresh fruit salad with whipping cream and rhum raisin gelato. This dessert tastes quite alcoholic, so if you don’t like the strong rum taste, this dessert will not be for you.

FinanceQueen, Finance Girl and CFAGirl all got the tiramisu ($11.50). It has house made lady fingers soaked in espresso and kahlua and mascarpone cream.