Two Beakers Archives - Page 8 of 12

In American

Jimmy’s Place Restaurant: Standard Breakfasts

January 3, 2012

Hidden in a small plaza on North Road lies Jimmy Place Restaurant. I’ve been in the plaza numerous times, but I’ve never seen this restaurant before. It’s easily missed when just passing by.

The interior seems a bit dated and has a diner feel to it. It’s cash only, but the food is quite cheap and affordable. It’s known as a neighbourhood favorite for their breakfast.

2 Pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 bacon with toast ($6.95) is a pretty standard breakfast.

Two eggs breakfast with 2 sausages, toast and hash browns ($5.95) They didn’t have hashbrowns left, so they give you fries instead.

Denver Omelet with cheese ($9.95). M thought it was alright, but its nothing amazing.

Everything Omelet ($10.95) has green peppers, tomatoes, onion, mushroom, green onions, ham, bacon and cheddar cheese.

I found this dish to be quite expensive for what you get. It tasted alright, but nothing too spectacular.

Overall, the food is ok, but it’s not the most amazing breakfast place to come dine at.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash only
Lots of parking
Lots to choose from in their menu
Cheap and affordable

We Rate Jimmys Place Restaurant:

Address:
435 North Road
Coquitlam, BC

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In BBQ

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

January 3, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

Overall the wrap was alright with some good unique flavours!

Words of Wisdom:

Offers Breakfast
Under $10
Delicious mesquite smoked meats

We Rate Raging Bull Mesquite Grill:

Location:

Granville St & Dunsmuir St (Outside Shoppers Drug Mart)

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In Coquitlam

IKEA Restaurant: All About The Meatballs and Nothing More

January 2, 2012

There is more to IKEA than just Swedish furniture. They have a restaurant to chill at since the whole store is so large that their patrons might get hungry. They are most famous for their Swidish Meatballs and other cheap affordable dishes. It’s very kid friendly too.

Since we were watching a movie across the street, we thought it would be a good idea to stop by IKEA for some uber cheap eats. The holidays have left us all quite broke, so this is how we compensate.

They also serve alcohol, which is super awesome, but I didn’t feel like drinking in such a public place with other peoples children. They have Stella, Sleeman and white wine.
I guess this section is for the parents that need to relax a bit.

They also have these weird Swedish juice flavours – Dryck Flader and Dryck Lingon. I haven’t tried it yet, looked a bit creepy.

They also have some desserts, but trust me, do not get them!

Self Serve Pop can be added to your combo for I think $1… but I could be wrong. The lingonberry drink wasn’t that good and tasted like on odd version of cranberry.

10 meatballs ($2.99) comes with lingonberry sauce and your choice of mashed potatoes or fries. Its also topped off with gravy. For a $3 meal, I quite liked it! It filled me up and I was happy.

15 Meatballs ($3.99) looks so much more appealing than the 10 piece. just look how it fills up the plate. It’s a good choice if you want to eat lot and lots of meatballs.

Apple Pie was really horrible! Not even close to what a decent apple pie should taste like.

Overall, I think the best item are the meatballs. I think the staff don’t really cook anything except reheat food and serve it out. Thats why you can’t go wrong with the meatballs.

Words of Wisdom:

$1 Breakfast before 11am everyday
Really cheap meals under $5
Only get the meatballs to avoid disappointment
Bad service

We Rate IKEA:

Address:
1000 Lougheed Hwy
Coquitlam, BC V3K
Website:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/IKEA_Food/restaurant.html

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In Brunch

De Dutch Pannekoek House: Sweet vs Savory

December 15, 2011

Foodology Disclaimer: I was provided with a $50 gift card to De Dutch to try out their sweet and savory dishes to promote their upcoming contest on Facebook. I brought along 3 picky eaters to really keep this review as unbiased as possible! This review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.

De Dutch Pannekoek House in North Burnaby isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing location since it’s located in a back alley, but it’s known in the community and serves lots of hungry customers with their famous Pannekoeken, which is a Dutch Pancake. I came here with KoreanGirl, M and my little sister.

We wanted to duke it out between sweet and savory breakfast lovers…plus everyone loves breakfast!

The interior is quite narrow and not very pretty. They even have fake windows. I’ve actually never been to any other De Dutch location, so I dont know how it compares.

Coffee ($2.60) is needed in all mornings. It was normal, nothing special about it.

Dutcha Mocha ($4.25) was pretty awesome. There was a lot of whipped cream! In fact, 1/4th of the cup was rich thick cream! The coffee part was strangely lukewarm. Nonetheless, it had a rich chocolate accent and was a delight to drink all the way down to the bottom. M was clearly indulging.

Chocolate Milk ($3.25) was incredibly disgusting. M said it tasted watered down. So watered down, it’s mind blowing that something simple as chocolate milk failed to satisfy. My little sister had this too and even though she drank it all, it really wasn’t good.

Boer’s Farmer’s Pannekoken ($16) was the best of the lot. There was a plain pannekoken in the bottom of a pile of hashbrowns, two eggs, two ham, two bacon like ham, and a delicious bratwurst. To top it all off was their Hollandaise sauce. M’s not a fan of Hollandaise as he says that the sauce isn’t flavorful. The eggs were medium as ordered, and the overall meal tasted fresh. The hashbrowns are unique in that they feel light and have great texture. All in all, the best pannekoken in De Dutch…but expensive.

Mixed Fresh Fruit and Whip Pannekoken ($12.50) has the pannekoken on the botton with powdered sugar with a lots of whipped cream and some fruit. It really didn’t seem impressive for the price you pay. It tasted alright.

Meat Lovers Pannekoken ($13.50) has DeBakon, ham sausage, turkey bacon integrated into the pannekoken. It is then topped with 4 slices of edam cheese and tomatoes.

It’s kinda like the Boers Farmers Pannekoken but with all the meat part of the pannekoken. My little sister thought it was good, but she wasn’t a fan of the tomatoes.

‘Abby’ Perogie Pannekoken ($13.50) has Hash Browns, DeBakon and Onion inside with Cheddar and Sour Cream on top. This was surprisingly good! It really did remind me of a perogie.

We all got pretty full from our pannekoken at the end.

I’ve always had a firm stance on being on #teamsavory and could never stand sweet pancakes.

If you want some sweet discounts from De Dutch, like their Facebook Fan Page and retrieve your 25% off January Pass to get 25% off your meal. Also, if you participate in their savory vs. sweet poll, you are entered to win a $500 De Dutch gift card. Contest ends of Dec 24, 2011.

Do you like your breakfast sweet or savory?

Words of Wisdom:

Entrance in the back
Free parking in the back
Overpriced for what you get
Pannekoek should probably be ordered

We rate De Dutch Pannekoek House:

Website: http://www.dedutch.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dedutch

Address:

6651 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

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In Downtown

Pita Wrap Cafe: Come Here, Eat Cheap, Be Full.

November 2, 2011

Pita Wrap Cafe is super popular for international students for their cheap lunch deals. You can probably get really full for about $7. They have about 2 daily specials, which are usually the most popular. Since I wanted to explore more of the unknown restaurants, I came here with Flo for lunch. We really had no idea what to expect.

The interior has a few seats and you just order up at the corner. It gets pretty packed here around noon, so it’s best to go earlier before noon or past 1pm.

The most popular items for lunch are usually on the middle menu section. Most regular menu items are under $8, but if they happen to be the daily special, it can be about $5 – $6.

Chicken Shawarma wrap ($5.25) has fresh lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, tzatziki and tahini. Not as good as other places, but it was decent.

Flo had a Lentil Soup ($2.75) to go with her wrap.

Beef Kabob Plate ($7.45) has rice, greek salad, roasted potatoes, tzatziki, pita bread and the beef kabob.

The 2 beef kabobs tasted alright but could have had more flavour. The rice and potatoes were decent as well.

Just like the rest of the meal, it was alright. you get what you pay for. You will get pretty full from this dish, but it won’t be the most exciting beef kabob you have ever had. You probably want to come here to eat cheap to be full.

Words of Wisdom:

Good variety of dishes
Pretty average dishes
Daily Specials everyday
Under $10
Closest Skytrain: Granville

We Rate Pita Wrap Cafe:

Address:
565 Dunsmuir St
Vancouver, BC

In Portuguese

Nando’s Flame Grilled Chicken: Good chicken, but everything else sucks

October 19, 2011

I keep having bad experiences at Nando’s, so I decided to give it one last shot. I’ve been to the other Kingsway location, but I thought the mall location couldn’t be too bad. They specialize in peri peri chicken, which is their flame grilled chicken.

Since it was just me, myself and I. I decided to look towards the “Classic Meals for One”, how depressing! I actually don’t mind since no one needs to watch me chow down. their prices are alright, but can get pricy if you keep adding stuff onto your meal.

Quarter chicken theight meal with Greek salad ($9 +$1). When you upgrade to the greek salad, you gotta pay a dollar more. The salad did not look like it was worth $1 more, the leaves were not fresh and started to change colors. I was scared…but since I’m asian I ate it anyways. The onions didn’t look fresh either, it seemed like it was cut a while ago and just refrigerated for a long time. Best to stay away from the salad.

The chicken on the other hand was pretty good! I got their medium peri peri sauce to give it a kick. What is very disappointing is that their sauce is just smothered on top. I kinda wanted more sauce since the flavour does not seep all the way down into the meat. The thing I like about the chicken is the nice smokey flavour, but I don’t think it’s worth the money you pay.

I think by now I’ve given Nando’s enough chances, so it’s time to say goodbye and keep on eating Church’s Chicken instead.

Words of Wisdom:

Wilted and unfresh salads
Slightly expensive for what you pay for
Decent chicken

We Rate Nando’s Flame Grilled Chicken:
Address:
4820 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
Website:
nandoscanada.com

In Brunch

IHOP: Chocolate Chip Pancake Nostalgia

October 15, 2011

M and I decided to grab some breakfast at IHOP since it was close and convenient. I think he just wanted to go here for pancakes. I had no preference, so I went.

IHOP stands for the International House of Pancakes and is a large chain restaurant located all over the Lower Mainland.

The inside has lots of booth spaces and is usually pretty full on weekends.

They have 4 types of syrups at the table, so you can totally try them all. I’m not a pancake person nor a syrup person, so I never try these things.

What I love are the 2 types of tabasco sauces! At most other places they just have the red ones.

Spinach & Mushroom Omelette ($12.99) has spinach, mushrooms, onions, cheese in an omelette. There is a hollandaise sauce and diced tomatoes on top. It is also serves with a choice of pancakes of toast.

It tasted alright, but I found that the mushroom inside were not cooked very well. It didn’t have too much flavour and was bland, so I poured quite a bit of tabasco sauce on this. I love tabasco sauce so I love to put that stuff on everything.

Pick – A – Pancake Combo ($10.69) you get your coice of flavoured pancakes, 2 eggs, hash browns, bacon or sausage.

The combo gives you the best of both things…sweet pancakes and savory dish. M thought it tasted good but the hash browns could be crunchier. M did the same thing and put tabasco sauce all over this too.

Chocolate chip Pancakes was what M chose as his side of pancakes. These pancakes were nostalgic to him because he has not had any chocolate pancakes since he was young. It was good for the small size, but by the end, I think he was sick of it because the chocolate was a bit sweet.

Overall, it was an OK breakfast, but not crazy amazing.

Words of Wisdom:

Convenient Locations
Mediocre bland food
Lots of breakfast choices

We Rate IHOP:

Address:
9855 Austin Rd
Burnaby, BC

Website:
ihop.com

In Downtown

Suzette’s Cafe: Cheap Breakfast and Lunch for Under $6

October 4, 2011

I’ve heard the sandwiches at Suzette’s Cafe is a must try. I have to admit, I’ve passed by so many times and it really doesn’t appeal to me. Perhaps it’s the outdated decor or perhaps their Coca-Cola signage.

Nonetheless, I decided to try it out with @floYVR for some cheap lunch eats!

You order at the counter and it reminds me of a Subway. There are lots of seating around the restaurant and lots of windows, so it’s well lit.

They have all day breakfast, so you can get your fill of eggs and bacon! At these prices, it won’t break your wallet.

They also have another board for sandwiches. They have a good amount of choices.
This place is quite popular for their cheap eats and attracts many international students in the area.

Schnitzel Sandwich ($5.50) has freshly prepared schnitzel with your choice of bread and fillings. They don’t have a large selection of vegetables, but you can choose from the basics like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and sauce.

Flo was feeling a need for pickles, so she asked for a side of pickles to fill her cravings.

She thought the sandwich was alright for the price. It’s not the most amazing sandwich, but you get what you pay for.

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich ($5ish) is this huge hotdog looking sandwich! It has whatever vegetables filling you want. It has cheese on top and the best sauce to go on top is BBQ sauce.

I got pretty full from this sandwich, the taste was already, but nothing super delicious. I wish they had more variety of toppings to add on, but I guess thats why it’s so cheap. There was lots of meat piled on top, so I wasn’t disappointed.

Overall, it was just pretty average. They are well priced and will fill you up! Perfect for students in the area that want a quick cheap lunch or breakfast. After 2:30pm, they have a special deal where it’s buy one get one half off. (I think)

Words of Wisdom:

Cheap and affordable
All Day Breakfast
Closest Skytrain: Granville

We Rate Suzette’s Cafe:

Address:

501 Dunsmuir St
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Frenchies 50s Diner: Montreal Smoked Meat of Disappointment

September 23, 2011

I always by this place when I walk to Stadium Skytrain. I always look inside and drool at the montreal smoked meat, but never had a chance to go inside. This week, I thought I would go since I was a hungry girl needing some lunch. Frenchies focuses on French-Canadian like montreal smoked meat and poutine.

You really can’t get anymore Canadian than this. There are so many warning signs outside saying this place is addictive.

The interior is set to a 50s diner theme. Pretty cool since there’s not that many around.

The interior has a few seats, not the best for large groups since seats are in 4s and 2s. They have a few old hockey photos on the walls too.

Trio smoked meat (~$15) comes with 5oz montreal smoked meat sandwich with fries and pop. I found this to be quite expensive especially for lunch. If i’m paying $15 for lunch, it better be damn good.

Looking at the cross section, the amount of meat was quite decent. The bread was sourdough and it had mustard. The meat was nice and delicate.

Even though this picture is nice, it’s not a great representation of the sandwich!

All the meat was bunched up in the center and very little was on the edges. I felt lied to!! It really did not feel like 5oz of meat. The edges of the sandwich were basically empty. The only good bite was the first bite in the center.

The fries that came with this was pretty good. Nice and crispy on the outside. I love crispy fries!

I was pretty disappointed, it was expensive and not worth the price at all! There are so many better restaurants in the area that would even be cheaper. I would not visit again.

Words of Wisdom:

Around $15 for lunch
expensive for what you get
Mediocre service

We Rate Frenchies 50s Diner:

Address:

425 Dunsmuir Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.frenchies-diner.com

In Brunch

Cozmos Cappuccino Bar & Grill: Decent Food, Cold Service

September 8, 2011

MedicalGiraffe was back in town and she really does love brunch! The closest brunch place near our hood is Cozmos Cappuccino Bar & Grill. It’s quite popular in the Burnaby North area. If you are a student from Burnaby North Secondary School, I am sure you’ve heard of this place as well.

They have lots of seating and aren’t too busy during weekend brunch. At least when we went there, it wasn’t very full.

They have a few cool interior pieces that make this place stand out. They have metal Greek god art pieces and in the back of the restaurant they have a mini waterfall.

Their menu is very limited and you can get the usual omelets, and egg dishes.

Latte was nothing special. Just taste like any regular latte.

I tried ordering normal drip coffee, but the server didn’t know what I was talking about. So, I just ordered this. After ordering our meal, I didn’t get a good vibe from him. He seemed very cold towards us, like we were a bother to him. MedicalGiraffe and I were quite puzzled why he was so cold.

Mushroom & Cheddar Cheese Omelet ($8.75) comes with hash browns and a slice of orange. MedicalGiraffe thought the omelet was quite mediocre. Nothing mind-blowing, but quite bland. Perhaps they should have seasoned it a bit more.

The hash browns are deep fried, so you do get that nice crunch when you bite into them.

Eggs Florentine ($8.75) has 2 poached eggs with spinach and hollandaise sauce on english muffins. You also get hash browns and a slice of orange. I thought this dish was not too bad. The poached eggs were nice and runny on the inside, so when you cut into it, all the delicious yolk just runs out and covers everything. Yum. One thing I didn’t like was the english muffin, didn’t seem very fresh to me at all.

Just like MedicalGiraffe, I did like the hash browns! Nice and crunchy!

Overall, the food was alright, but we were very turned off by the cold service we received. Just because of his attitude when he took our orders, it made us feel very uneasy throughout the entire meal. Maybe they were having a bad day, so perhaps if you go, you might get different service.

Words of Wisdom:

Limited Brunch menu
Italian-feel to the restaurant
Under $10
Decent food
Very cold service
Eggs Florentine is a popular item

We Rate Cozmos:
Address:

6691 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC

In Japanese

Yami Sushi Japanese Restaurant: Served with a Side of Hair

August 20, 2011

The @SFUSMN crew were having a car wash on Granville and we got super hungry after washing cars and ever large trucks. We went to a few other restaurants and discovered a lot of them only take cash. Seeing that we like to rely on plastic, we found this little restaurant called Yami Sushi Japanese Restaurant. They serve up your usual items at a sushi restaurant.

The interior is quite small and can seat up to a maximum of 4 per table. They only had about 3 tables, so it really doesn’t fit a lot of people.

Their menu is above so you can check out their full selection.

Sake Don ($9.99) has no sake whatsoever! Sake = Wild salmon sashimi. It comes in a bowl of rice with 6 slices of wild salmon sashimi on top. M loved the texture and taste of the wild salmon and its better than the regular orange one. This dish is very simple, so you may want to add a bit of soy sauce if you want a bit of taste.

Toro Sashimi (5pcs – $6.99) was really good. Melt in your mouth goodness!

Wild Sockeye Salmon Sashimi (5pcs – $7.99) is probably their specialty. It was good on the don and it was good on its own!

You are probably reading this whole article and wondering, where is this hair that she speaks of. It was in their Green salad ($3.50). In the picture above it looks quite innocent…has avocados, cucumbers, apple, tomatoes and mayo.

As you dig further, this hair can be revealed embedded between the lettuce. At first I thought it was mine, but upon further inspection, it was well embedded in the salad and not just fallen on top. I alerted the waitress and they made a fresh bowl without the hair.

The new salad was not very good. I didn’t like the mayo sauce that they had on top. I expected to have a citrus sauce on top instead of a mayo sauce. It’s my pet peeve to see mayo on salads…really not my thing.

Overall, they do have great sashimi, but items like the bento boxes are rather decent. The service was quite slow too, which was funny since it is a small restaurant. There were only 6 of us, so its a manageable size.

Words of Wisdom:

Good Sashimi
Green salad is not good
Slow service
Decent prices
Free parking on road and adjacent roads

We Rate Yami sushi:
Address:

8051 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Slingers Mobile Food Truck: It’s Like Pasta Between Two Buns

August 17, 2011

I was walking near Burrard to find something interesting to sink my taste buds into during my lunch break. I really had no idea where I was going, until the Slingers Mobile Food Truck caught my eye. I always have such bad luck trying to catch them because they are at various locations and not always at the same spot. They are located on Burrard and Pender on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Their menu is quite simple and has an Italian flair to their menu. They serve up their signature parmesan sandwiches and pasta.

Seeing that I was hungry for lunch, I ordered the Chicken Parmesan Sandwich Combo ($11.75). It comes with the sandwich, fries and a can of pop.

I was looking through their pop and my eyes gazed upon Brio,italian style herbal drink. It tasted different of course, but it was not bad at all.

They give you a lot of home cut fries for the combo. They are made to order and some of the fries are soggy, some of them are crunchy. I guess it depends how long you leave it in the box too. They probably could have used a bit longer in the fryer.

There were really way too many fries to eat, so I ate a bit of it because I still had the sandwich to get through. I have a weird eating habit, I must eat the sides first and then the main item.

You can choose from chicken or veal for your sandwich, but I chose chicken. It is lightly breaded in a mixed herb batter and deep fried. It is also topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and served on a Calabrese bun. This really was like pasta between two slices of bread, but without the noodles. It tasted alright, but really nothing too special. They could have done more to it to make it more exciting, but it just seems kinda premade. I am probably wrong, but I didn’t see it as amazing.

Words of Wisdom:

Closest Skytrain: Burrard
Pricey for what you get

We Rate Slingers Mobile Food Truck:

Address:

W Pender St & Burrard St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.slingers.ca

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/SlingersMobileFood

Twitter: @slingersmobile

In Izakaya

Electric Owl Social Club: Surprising Asian Inspired Menu

August 16, 2011

It was @wongers birthday and she decided to have it at the Electric Owl. The name of the place sounded very interesting, seemed more like a pub/lounge to me. Since we went there early and it was fireworks night, this place was pretty much desserted except for our large group and some other people.

They serve up items you would see at an izakaya place. This place really confused me because there were chopsticks and most items on the menu didn’t match the look of this place. Their Japanese style snacks are prepared by a Vietnamese chef in an izakaya-inspired room and a live band.

Their whole philosophy is that, like great drinks and creative food, good is always better when there’s more.

There are 2 bars, a large stage, an open dancing area in the middle and lots of seating around the restaurant. Its actually great for large birthdays where you want to have food and drinks. Usually there is nightly entertainment, so there isn’t a need to go elsewhere if you want to party.

On all the tables are the Japanese-like ceramic cups with napkins and chopsticks.

Since the menu was so Japanese, I decided a Sapporo (Pint – $5.30) was a must. Straight from the tap and it comes in the tall glass.

Spicy-cured Beef Tataki ($7.90) is seared NY steak spiced with togarashi seasoning with greens and mayo. The cut of beef was really nice, but I felt that the dish did not have the spice I was looking for. It was not at all spicy. The mayo did not work very well with the beef since it does not give your pallet a good clean feeling compared to the traditional ponzu sauce.

If you are going to get this dish, you might as well go to Guu or any other Izakaya to get the traditional item with ponzu sauce.

Karaage Chicken ($6.90) is deep fried chicken seasoned in soy sauce. It is topped off with leeks and has a side of mayo. M said it was alright, but he wasn’t full from just one dish. You probably need to order about 2 dishes to get full.

Drunken Ebi Mayo ($7.80) is sake-marinated, deep-fried prawns with mayo cocktail sauce. It was alright, but anything out of the ordinary. I liked the side of the cocktail sauce since some other places like to just douse it all in the sauce.

Owl Poutine ($6.20) has fries with teriyaki gravy, cheese curd, green onions, nori, and mayo. You can also add bacon for $1.60. This is one of their popular dishes. It tastes really good!

Matcha Rice Pudding ($4.30) is creamy matcha-infused rice pudding. I liked it even though the presentation is not that exciting. It’s not very heavy and a great light dessert to finish off your meal.

Ice Cream agemono ($5.30) is deep-fried phyllo-wrapped vanilla ice cream with fresh fruit and green tea compote. It tasted alright, but it melted pretty quickly.

Overall, the food is really not the main attraction. It’s a good venue to just chill with your friends and have a drink. They always have large special events, so great social place. Even though their website advertises 2 for 1 ‘appy hour’ from 5pm – 7pm, we didn’t get it. Perhaps it was because we were in a large group.

Words of Wisdom:

Large amount of items are not available on their menu anymore. No brunch, No Bubbletea.
Customizable drinks and super nice bartenders
Lots of large events
Reservations for large groups
Owl Poutine is a must
Free parking in rear
Closest Skytrain: Main

We Rate Electric Owl:

Address:

928 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.electricowl.ca

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/ElectricOwlSocialClub

Twitter: @electricowl_ca

In Japanese

Nao Sushi: Disappointing Food and Service

August 11, 2011

It was another sushi adventure with M and Fabo. After our final exam, we wanted some sushi in the Metrotown area and found Nao Sushi. People in the area rave about this place and their good food, so I wanted to see if it is really as good as people say. They sell similar items to other restaurants like Sushi Town, Sushi California and Sushi Garden.

At first glance this place looked really large and all the seats were filled so it must be a popular place.

Indeed, the inside was full of people. It took the servers a while to get us a seat, even though there was an empty table right in front of us. Throughout the night, the service was not that great and our tea cups grew empty.

Sashimi salad ($7.95) has mixed greens, salmon, seared tuna, ebi, and tako with citrus sauce and crispy wonton crisps on top. The top half of the salad was good, but the rest of it was very soggy at the bottom. There was a lot of liquid and it probably came from the excess water from washing the vegetables.

A plus is that there is a good amount of sashimi with this salad.

Gyoza ($3.50) comes with 5 pieces and was very plain. It seems like this was just pre-frozen and just boiled in water. It’s really not worth what you pay and you can get the same quality by buying the frozen gyozas from T&T.

Veggie tempura ($4.20) was disappointing. It wasn’t cooked well enough so some of the vegetables were very tough to eat… especially for the carrots and yams.

Salmon Sashimi ($9.80) has 7 pieces and was uniformly cut. Nothing wrong with this. The salmon sashimi was slightly more expensive than usual places.

Chopped Scallop Roll ($4.25) was alright, nothing too special at all.

Spicy Tuna Roll ($3.25) was a big disappointment, it has a bit of cucumber and tuna, but it lacked the spicy flavour that makes it a spicy tuna roll.

Sound Trap Roll ($8.50) was delicious. M really liked the sesame on top of the roll and it gives it a nice texture. The inside was deep fried eel and cream cheese, since he is a fan of cream cheese, he loved it. I had a few of them and it was really good!

The prices of some items were reasonable. For the dinner time, the bento boxes seemed very very expensive. I wasn’t too impressed by Nao Sushi and we all didn’t have a good impression either.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on adjacent streets
Well priced
Some items poorly executed
Slow mediocre service
Good Sashimi

We Rate Nao Sushi:

Address:

7060 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.naosushi.com

In Tulalip

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels: Quick Snack at the Outlets

August 6, 2011

If you are from Vancouver, going to the Outlets in the states during the weekend is super fun! Who loves discounts? Something about 40% off clothes makes me overjoyed. Since there really isn’t much food around that area, getting a little snack at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels is always enjoyable.

They make all their pretzels by hand! You can stare at the working if you feel super bored.

I ordered the Pretzel Hotdog Combo ($5.97). It comes with the pretzel dog, choice of dip and a drink.

The pretzel dog is just a normal hotdog wrapped in the pretzel dough. For some reason I thought it would taste super awesome, but I was a bit disappointed. Honestly, it just tasted like a hotdog with minimal bun.

For the dip, I chose the marinara sauce, but there are others you can choose from. I thought a savory type of sauce would go well with it and it wasn’t too bad at all.

In the end, I kind regretted getting the pretzel hotdog since I should have just ordered the normal pretzel. The combo was not very filling and it left me wanting more food to eat.

Words of Wisdom:

Only get the Pretzel!
Good for a snack

We Rate Auntie Anne’s Pretzels:

Address:

#312-10600 Quil Ceda Blvd
Tulalip, WA 98271

Website:
www.auntieannes.com

In Dessert

Coldstone Creamery: Everything Tastes Better in a Waffle Cone

August 1, 2011

Cold Stone Creamery is slowly gaining popularity and has about 7 locations in the Lower Mainland. To make their way into the Canadian Market, they have partnered up with Tim Hortons and make it part of their store.

If you look inside, it looks exactly like a Tim Hortons and at times it’s really hard to find a seat to sit at.

They have signature creations that you can choose from without making the decision of which ice cream to get with what topping.

If you want to be a bit different, you can make your own creation or just have some smoothies and milkshakes.

They have a few flavours to choose from. They have the usual mint, cotton candy, coffee, etc.

They have a lot of choices for toppings, so make sure you don’t go over board because it will cost you! You can even put your ice cream in a waffle cone. I had a horrible experience last time at the Coquitlam Coldstone by choosing my own toppings.

When you choose everything, they begin mixing it together on a “cold stone”, get it? It’s actually quite cool seeing them mash up all the ingredients together.

M ordered the ‘Cookie Doughn’t You Want Some’ in a ‘Like It’ Size with a chocolate waffle cone.

It has Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate chips, cookie dough, fudge and caramel. M liked it for the first few bites but felt it was quite sweet, so he was glad he got the smallest size.

I ordered the ‘All Lovin No Oven’ in a ‘Like It’ size with an original waffle cone.

It has cake batter ice cream, cookie dough, fudge and whipped cream. I really did not like the addition of the whipped cream, it felt way too sweet and added such a slimy texture to the ice cream. I also found that the waffle was quite old and stale. It didn’t have the nice crispy “snap” when you break it off.

Overall, we both found their signature creations to be too sweet and not really suited our tastes. I prefer my gelato or froyo.

Words of Wisdom:

“Like it” Is a good size if you don’t want to over indulge
Found their creations to be too sweet
Lots of Parking at Metrotown.

We Rate Coldstone Creamery:

Address:

Unit 1157 – 4700 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

I found this on a forum, so I hope it’s legit and you can redeem it and see for yourself.

http://smartcanucks.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/coldstonecreamery.jpg

In Gastown

Vera’s Burger Shack: Waiting 40 mins for a Burger Isn’t Acceptable

July 28, 2011

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Vera’s Burger Shack in Gastown with Mandu. Other restaurants in that area had line ups, so we decided to go to Vera’s since it seems it would be a fast alternative. Burgers don’t usually take too long to put together. We would soon realize how wrong we really were.

Looking at the menu, they had a really good deal on Fridays for their weekly specials. On Friday, you can choose any of the special without being limited on what day it is. I got the Big Chick and Mandu got The Stinger.

We were given our sides first. Mandu got the regular fries and I upgraded for Onion Rings. We decided to share since there were so many onion rings and fries. The fries were pretty average, I spent a lot of time searching for the crunchy ones. The onion rings were pretty good, but still not as good as A&W.

We spent a while eating these 2 baskets of sides and wondered where were our burgers.

We looked around and saw a group of others that were here before us and they were still missing a few burgers from their table. There were 2 more people on the other side of the restaurant waiting as well. Some of them kept going back to the counter to inquire about the status of their burger.

Mandu and I kept looking at our phones too since we are only permitted 1 hour for lunch.

40 long minutes later Mandu’s Stinger Burger arrives … then another 5 minutes till I got my burger. Seeing that we ate all the onion rings and fries, we really had no stomach to eat anymore. (Those sides are super filling!). You really can’t blame us since the burgers did take that long.

We were quite full but we decided to take the burgers to go. Another customer did the same thing. Since we both had dinner plans, we both never finished the burger. It really didn’t fit into our eating schedule. We didn’t want to spoil our dinner appetite. I gave my burger away and I think Mandu still has hers sitting in her fridge. Mandu told me to complain to the Manager about the slow service. I wanted to but I needed to go back to the office since lunch time was up.

I do what I usually do and complain via Twitter.

The person in charge of their Twitter account messaged me immediately after hearing the strings of complaints between other twitterers and I about the failed lunch. Later in the day, I also got an email from the owner about the situation, I replied back telling my experience and he told us to return for a complementary meal.

I have to say their social media presence and timing were pretty good! I wasn’t too upset about the experience but rather disappointed. I felt bad for Mandu because I just kept raving about how amazing the burgers were…I think it left a worse impression on her. I feel really bad when I take others to restaurants that are sub par since they assume I will take them to something amazing.

A week later we returned and the meal was compensated. It was a good thing since neither of us ate the previous burgers. I had a craving for something spicy, so we both got The Stinger Burger with Onion Rings.

As usual, the onion rings came with a lot in the basket! Same quality as before. I don’t know how Mandu did it, but she devoured her onion rings. I think she really has an obsession for them.

The Singer Burger has a beef patty, fried jalapenos, lettuce, sauce and cheddar. This turned out to be quite large! At times it would be hard enough to get my mouth around it. The burger was quite messy to eat, but it had the extra spicy kick from the jalapenos. Mandu didn’t like the burger and felt a bit disgusted by it.

I thought the burger was just ok and I prefer the Commercial location a bit better. I don’t like how the sides and burger come at different times. At the Commercial location, it comes at the same time.

Words of Wisdom:

Huge sides, save room in your belly and don’t eat all of it
Large portions
Closest Skytrain: Stadium or Waterfront

We Rate Vera’s Burger:

Address:

213 Carrall St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.verasburgershack.com

Twitter: @verasburgers

In Cafe

Sweet Revenge: Disappointed Take Out Dessert

July 12, 2011

It was a nice day and my sister really really wanted dessert desperately! Since I was on Main Street, I picked up a few items to bring home. Sweet Revenge is one of the popular places to head out to dessert after a dinner, but it’s always pretty packed since it cannot seat too many people. The best solution is take out, but is it really worth the price?

Here is the take out menu. Click to enlarge.

The first item I ordered was the Apple Pie ($6.35). It is just the apple pie and no whipped cream or anything on the side. You must finish off the dessert yourself by putting it in the menu for a few minutes on 2o0 degrees Celsius. Since we followed the instructions are did it in Fahrenheit, the apple pie was not crispy at all. Best to turn up the temperature !!

It was basically a fail for us. Plus eating the apple pie alone isn’t that great. I would suggest grabbing some vanilla ice cream to accompany this dessert.

The next item was the Chocolate Pudding Cake ($6.35 + $2 deposit). The cake comes with a ceramic dish, so they must charge a deposit to return. The chocolate pudding cake required some time in the oven as well. Since I’m a noob with the oven, the pudding cake just turned out decent. Best to under heat it than over cook it because the center should stay gooey.

This was another dessert that needed attention before being able to be served at your dinner table. I would suggest some whipped cream, strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

The last item we ordered was the Double “Smooth Operator” ($18). It is a chocolate sponge cake layered with mascarpone cheese, raspberries, white chocolate and raspberry sauce. Since they did not have a large enough box for the double, they just gave us 2 single slices. This was a pretty good dessert! It’s a bit pricy but at least no extra effort needed to prepare for this dessert.

Overall, it might seem like a great idea to do take out, you can’t just open up the box at your table and devour. Since I am a noob in the kitchen, heating problems with the oven did worsen the enjoyment of the dessert. Plus, you get way less than what you would get at the restaurant…but at the same price…. I feel like I paid more just to take out…when it should be cheaper…

If you don’t want to deal with all of this, it’s probably best to just dine in the restaurant and have it served to you. Plus, you don’t need to return to get your deposit back for the ceramic dish from the chocolate pudding cake.

Words of Wisdom:

Some assembly required for take out
$2 Deposit for desserts that have ceramic dishes
Best not to order the apple pie or chocolate pudding cake for take out, troublesome
Rip off for take out
A bit pricey

We Rate Sweet Revenge: