Cafe Archives - Page 26 of 28

In Cafe

WE. Coffee: Waffles + Dessert

June 1, 2011

WE Coffee opened up a few months ago and I have always wanted to try it out. I love waffles, so I am always on the look out!

It doesn’t look like there is a lot of seats inside when you first walk in, but you just need to walk further in and you can find seats for up to 6 or 8 people.

Their menu has coffee, tea, sandwiches, and desserts.

I ordered the London Fog (Medium – $3.59). It’s not on the menu, but I just asked if they could make it and they did! It tasted like a normal London fog, but on two occasions I found it to be very inconsistent. The first time I had it, I uncovered a huge tea bag underneath the foam…then the second time there was no tea bag inside. Not a bad thing at all, but I thought it was interesting.

The Al’ Opera Special Blend Tea ($5.99) is a special type of green tea but enhanced with red berries and spices. The tea was ok, but it was quite steep in price (no pun intended :P) at $6 a pot. You really need to be a tea expert to really appreciate it.

One cool thing about their teapot is that there is a metal shield that covers the pot. Not really sure what it’s purpose but we assume it was either to prevent the lid from falling off or to give the pot a sleek look.

KoreanGirl ordered the Iced Americano (Large -$2.75). It looks super cool and tall!

KoreanGirl ordered the one topping Waffle Sandwich with strawberry ice cream ($5.29). This was not very impressive at all. This was hardly a sandwich at all. Nothing sandwiched in the middle. Not worth the price.

I ordered the Strawberry Trifle ($7.99) and it had custard, cake, strawberries, whipped cream and almonds on top. The image on the menu was slightly misleading since there are no Pocky sticks in it. It still tasted pretty good.

CanuckGirl ordered the Waffle with Banana and Ice cream (Half-$6.99). It comes with a scoop of chocolate ice cream, custard, 3 pieces of banana, 2 quarters of a waffle and whipped cream. She thought it was alright but yet its not super impressive for the price.

I came back on another occasion and ate some more. This time, I ordered the Brownie and Ice Cream ($7.99). This looked so delicious! It is a very rich brownie with walnuts inside. It has vanilla ice cream on top and it topped with chocolate sauce, caramel, almonds and a few blueberries.

The brownie was very very good! One of the better brownies I have had.

AuditGirl and Eevaa both ordered the Strawberries and ice cream (Half- $7.99). It has the 2 quarters of a waffle, fresh cut strawberries. Custard and strawberry ice cream. They both thought that it was just average and yet again nothing special.

Overall, both groups that I came here with said it was just ok and nothing special. The items are a bit overpriced for what you get. Hands down, Michi Waffle house is still better. Even though this is so…I would still return just to chill and grab a coffee.

Words of Wisdom:

Strawberry Trifle and Brownie
A bit overpriced
Everyone must order an item
Free wifi

We Rate WE. Coffee:

Address:

1696 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.wecoffee.ca

In Cafe

Higher Grounds: Tea & Coffee Place

May 26, 2011

I’m usually pressed for time when I move from the SFU Burnaby Campus to the SFU Harbour Center Campus. Time does not really permit me to have a big snack or even a lunch when there is 1 hour between class and the bus ride can take about 45 mins.

I was really dead and tired one day, so I decided to quickly go to Higher Grounds for some tea and a small little something. Their prices are quite reasonable and won’t break the bank compared to some other places. The Simon Fraser Student Society runs it and the money goes back into the school.

I ordered a soy London Fog and a chocolate cookie with white chocolate ($4.60). The London Fog was perfect, I find it so much better than Starbucks and way cheaper! It’s not too sweet or too bitter, but just right.

The cookie was also pretty darn good and hits the spot. Having the white chocolate chips inside made this cookies just melt in your mouth.

Overall, it’s my favorite place to go on campus for tea and a snack.

Words of Wisdom:

The food isn’t that good
Go for the drinks and pastries

We Rate Higher Grounds:

Address: Maggie Benson Centre
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC

In Bubble Tea

The One: Good Alternative to Bubble World

May 23, 2011

SkinnyBones was back in town after 1.5 years of exchange to Korea. Flo and I decided to meet up with her to catch up over some food near Kingsway.

Since The One on Kingsway looks super cool, we decided to check it out. They serve the usual type of Taiwanese food found in places like Bubble Word and Beef Noodle House.

The menu was fairly large and it took a while for us to see what we wanted. So, the waiter kept coming back to check up on us about 3 times, up to the point where they stopped approaching our table. Eventually we had to flag them down to take our order.

I ordered the Pineapple and Banana Milk ($6.75). The taste of the drink was really fresh and had a lot of banana inside. It was great but it was lacking one thing – pineapple. I tried really hard to distinguish the tastes from each other, but in the end I concluded that they left out the pineapple or just put in one small piece. I didn’t bother asking the waiter because it was still pretty good and I didn’t feel like complaining.

I ordered the Chicken nuggets with Noodle in Soup ($9.50). This meal is pretty huge and it comes to you to the table on the huge tray. The large bowl of noodles has the vegetables already cut up, which is good because you don’t have to be that weirdo at the table spending forever trying to chew through you vegetables. If you have kids, it’s a good dish to share with them.

The chicken nuggets live up to their expectations and were really good! The meat was nice and tender. The batter was quite light and enjoyable. It took me a while to figure out what was on top, and it was fried basil. It was a nice touch because all the nuggets that would be sitting under the basil left had a slight hint of basil to it.

SkinnyBones ordered the Beef Curry with Rice ($8.50). Since she just came back, she was not use to such large portions. You will probably get stuffed from this. You get your curry and the rice, and on top of that, you get 4 side dishes. These vary on every visit. She did like it but it was just way too big for her.

Overall, this is not a bad place to go. It’s a good alternative to the usual places near Kingsway like Bubble Word, Estea and Beef Noodle House. Don’t expect this place to be perfect either since service is a bit lacking.

Words of Wisdom:

Large portions
Under $10
Fried Chicken Nuggets!
Free parking in the front lot

We Rate The One:

Address:

5908 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
theonerestaurant.ca

In Cafe

Next Noodle Bar: Quick and Easy Lunch

May 15, 2011

Another lunch, another restaurant, but today I found it so difficult to choose where to go, so I strolled up and down Robson Street and saw this restaurant – Next Noodle Bar. I thought it sounded cool and the food items did not seem very expensive, so I took a seat inside.

The inside of the restaurant is quite large.

They have a large menu, but I decided to stick to the lunch specials because it was quick. If I had an unlimited lunch break, I would probably go elsewhere. Sadly, in reality, we do have to be limited to 1 hr…or less sometimes.

I chose the Egg Foo Young ($7.95). It has the egg omelet with shredded chicken, and sweet chili sauce. Inside the omelet, I really could not identify the vegetables in the omelet because it was so well cooked that it became crunchy near the sides.

This dish also comes with daily soup, almond pudding, bok choy and salty peanuts.

I did not really have a liking to this dish. The sweet chili sauce threw me off and it did not go well with the dish. I have never had egg foo young before, so I don’t have a benchmark of what it should taste like. All I know is that this dish was not for me.

For $8, it was not a bad price! The food did come quick and there seems to be a few good items on their menu.

In addition to the meal, I ordered the Fried Chicken Wings ($5). It comes with about 6 pieces of chicken wings. These were well prepared and it is the type of chicken wings I love! Simple and deep-fried! The size of the wings were quite large and had lots of meat. I’d come back just to have the chicken wings.

Overall, the food was cheap and don’t expect all-star quality at these prices but you will be somewhat satisfied.

Word of Wisdom:

Under $10 lunch special
Good for lunch if in a time crunch
Fried Chicken Wings
Some items are a hit and miss

We Rate Next Noodle Bar:

Address:

560 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Meat & Bread: Tale of the Dry Bread

May 8, 2011

I was at a conference at SFU Harbour Centre and when it came to lunchtime, a group of us headed over to Meat & Bread. I chose it since it was close and I knew people would just love it.

During the peak of the lunch hour, we still found seats for our large group. Even though most tables were full and seat all taken, the turnover time is quite fast. Just have a little patience and seats will free up. Since the line up for ordering was long as usual, we had a fun time watching them prepare the porchetta.

Since I have not had the porchetta ($8) in a long time, I ordered that with a dandelion and burdock soda.

The porchetta sandwich was interesting this time. The meat was delicious as usual, but the crunchy pork skin parts were different. Before the crunchy bits use to be a bit bigger and very hard to chew. This time, they were chopped up thinner and had more of a airy crunchiness to it. My friend ordered the same sandwich as well and she was afraid she would not be able to chew at the skin bits. As she ate the sandwich, it was no problem for her.

Another thing I noticed with my sandwich and not anyone else’s was that my bread was very hard and wrinkly looking. The bread is supposed to be a bit soft, but as you can see clearly in the picture, it looks hard. It’s like a wrinkly old man.

Everyone else’s sandwich was fine, but I as unfortunate to be plagued with the bad bread. All the other bread they had looked fine, so I don’t know where this odd shaped one came from. I really wanted to like the whole meal, but sadly the dry bread really affected the sandwich. Thus, I had to give Meat & Bread a lower rating this time.

This is what the usual bread looks like….major difference right?!

Words of Wisdom:

Best to go early to ensure nothing is sold out
Porchetta is the most popular but the other sandwiches are also delicious
The sauces are a must try
Dandelion & Burdock Soda is good!

We rate Meat & Bread:

Check out their website: http://meatandbread.ca/

In Cafe

Cactus Club Cafe: Private Tasting Event

April 29, 2011

Foodology Disclaimer: This was a fully subsidized private tasting from the managers due to poor service a month ago. This experience does not prove or guarantee 100% on the service and food you might normally get from this restaurant. Refer to the previous post – ” Cactus Club Cafe: The Tale of Awkward Service“.

One day I was just checking my email and the managers of Cactus Club Burnaby emailed me to invite me to a private tasting to amend the bad service from my previous post. Seeing that there were no strings attached, I accepted and invited 4 others. Honestly, I felt guilty. I did not create a food blog to get preferential treatment or to write for free meals. I pay for all my meals 100% unless otherwise noted, such as the disclaimer at the top.

It took me a while to figure out if I wanted to cover this event or not. I needed to see for myself if there was any benefit to the readers of Foodology. Upon knowing that Private Tastings are openly available to all patrons of Cactus Club, I have decided to write about my experience at the tasting. There was no pressure from management whatsoever to talk about the tasting.

Private tastings are bookable through reservations only on Thursdays (according to the Burnaby Cactus Club Branch). You are allowed to have up to 6 people at the tasting and costs around $350. You get 5 courses with wine pairings and its hosted by the senior manager. This works out to be about $67 per person. All the proceed apparently go towards charity, so thats a plus.

All 5 of us – ConsultingGirl, M, Fabo and LinLin arrived promptly at 6pm. We were greeted by the Manager and was showed to our table. Waiting at our table were 5 settings each with a Cactus Club water bottle. I am assuming pink for the girls and silver for the men.

Since this tasting fell on a game day, it was not bad at all. The restaurant was packed with people watching. The large projector screens made it easy to watch the game. Too bad the only Canuck fan was ConsultingGirl, she would be sitting there making noises such as “ouch” “oh no” and “SHOOOT”. Plus people at other tables would be making noises as well. It wasn’t bad since it was an indication to see what was happening on the big screen. It wasn’t a very intense game either – Round 2, Game 1 against the Predators. Canucks won!

The private tasting menu gives you a feeling of exclusivity since they put the persons name at the top. It shows the 5 items you will be served. We also noticed there were other people having the private tasting as well.

Our humble manager – Sean Doran made us all feel welcome and not too awkward. He was pretty down to earth guy and seemed pretty chill. Sean would explain in great detail about the wine pairing and the history and flavour profile of each wine.

The chef would explain in detail about the dishes that were presented to us.

Even though they did go on long rants about each item, it was interesting to know what was in our dish and where each ingredient originated from. I am usually the type of person where I have a really really short attention span, so I honestly can say I was only listening to 20% of what they were saying.

I did pick up a few things and it really made me appreciate the food I was presented with. All of us were really surprised from where all these ingredients were from and their history. It was quite surprising because as a chain restaurants, you wouldn’t really expect too much.

Our first course was the Tuna Tataki paired with the Gray Monk, Pinot Gris from Northern Okanagan.

This dish has seared albacore tuna, green papaya slaw with a yuzu vinaigrette. We all liked this dish, it was light and simple. The acidity from the yuzu and the sweetness from the papaya really accentuated the flavour of the tuna.

Our second course was Rob’s Goat Cheese + Feta Flatbread paired with the Prospect Winery, Pinot Noir.

It contains grape tomatoes, caramelized onions, pesto, arugula, balsamic vinegar and sea salt. One thing we noticed off the bat was the inconsistencies between the flat breads. Since we were given 3 plates of the flat bread, 2 of the flatbreads were more soft, while one of them was more crunchy. I think the flatbread was supposed to be more on the soft side, but we did prefer the flat bread to be more crispy, kinda like a pizza. It’s probably another one of our personal preferences.

If we focus on the toppings, it was a good blend of savory, acidic and salty.

The third dish was the Prawn + Scallop Spaghettini.

This dish has pan seared prawns and scallops with spaghettini in roasted tomato sauce, and parmesan crostini.

As the chef was explaining the dishes, he mentioned that this dish was more of an oil based dish rather than tomato. We found this was quite interesting. We all loved the prawn and the scallop! If you left me in a corner with a whole bucket of them, I would be happy for a whole day! On the other hand, without knowing that this dish was more of an oil based pasta, we would not have been keen on liking this dish. All of us are more use to the traditional pastas where there would be lots of sauce.

All of us agreed that the crostini was a bit soft and if it was a bit crunchier, it would have made the dish a bit better. The noodles were average and the oil based sauce was pretty bland. M remarked his mother could’ve made better Spaghettini.

The forth course was Rob’s Hunter Chicken. This was paired with the 2008 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon from California.

It had portabello mushrooms, crimini, button and shiitake mushrooms (talk about a mushroom party), demi glaze, green beans and herb fingerling potatoes.

I have had this dish in the past several times and I would have to say its my favorite. The chicken is brined for a few hours so the inside of the chicken is moist and juicy. Everyone else really enjoyed the taste. The chicken was so tender and juicy, while the skin had a slight crispiness texture of a rotisserie chicken.

The last course of the day was the Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Bar.

This has Tahitian vanilla ice cream, the bar, caramel sauce and chocolate pearls. This was by far our favorite dish of the night! Who doesn’t love dessert right? The bar was very rich and sweet, but when you grab a bit of the caramel and the vanilla ice cream, they complement each other very well.

Apparently, the chocolate pearls were imported from Paris. They are made up of a rice crispy covered in what seems to be dark chocolate.

By the end of this, we were all stuffed. Fabo and I ordered some green tea to help us digest such a large meal.

Overall, it was a great experience to be able to attend this tasting. It gives you a greater appreciation for the food, but for me it was all about the taste regardless of where the ingredients are from.

If I had to spend $350 for a tasting, I’m not sure if I would. Begin a student, its a bit steep. Nonetheless, we would consider returning again for a few of the dishes we did enjoy. All of us agreed that the 2 items that blew us away was Rob’s Hunter Chicken and the Chocolate peanut butter bar.

In Cafe

Cyclops Cafe & Lounge

April 28, 2011

After walking around Downtown, then venturing through Olympic Sculpture Park and checking out Seattle Center, we were so tired of walking! It was time for dinner and we wandered into Bell Town.

After asking people of the Twitterverse where I should check out, I settled with Cyclops.

As we slowly got to Cyclops, we realized it was more of a pub setting. Since everyone was not 21+, we didn’t know what to do since there was a sign saying that people had to be 21+ to enter. Too bad the legal age isn’t 19 in the states. We walked a little bit further and we were super confused, there was another restaurant also named Cyclops. We stood there staring and staring at the doors until someone told us that one was the bar area and another was the dining area. It all made sense!

Cyclops is split in half to accomodate two types of crowds.

M thought of Jim Carrey’s character, Uncle Olaf in the movie, Series of Unfortunate Events, with all the different creepy one eyes in the restaurant.

Their menu is just 2 pages and there is also an additional one for specials.

Since I am over 21, I decided to get myself a Stella Artois. If I’m legal in the states, why not have a drink. Plus, since we did so much walking, I needed a little break. They had a lot of beers that I was not familiar, so I just got Stella.

I used to not like stella since it was a bit bitter than usual beers, but over the years it has grown on me. It has a nice refreshing finish and accompanies meals very well.

BusanGirl was not feeling very hungry, so she ordered the Roasted Corn & Chicken Quesadilla ($7 USD). In this quesadilla is roasted chicken breast, roasted red pepper, caramelized onions, roasted corn, feta, and cheese in a flour tortilla.

She was amazed by the great flavours of the quesadilla. The roasted onions and the roasted corn added a lot of savory flavour.

M and Fabo both ordered the Meatloaf sandwich ($10 USD). As I mentioned before, M loves Meatloaf… 2nd time today he has had meatloaf. This sandwich has BBQ glazed meatloaf on sliced sourdough bread with basil aioli served with fries.

TanGuy ordered the El Cubano ($11 USD). It is a sandwich with roasted pulled pork, sliced ham, cheese, thin pickles, dijon mustard, poblano aioli on a grilled ciabatta bun. He thought the sandwich was ok, but the dijon was very potent.

I ordered the Pepper Bacon Mac n’ Cheese ($8 USD). It has penna pasta, cheddar, swiss, pepper bacon and bread crumbs all baked in the oven and ready to serve. It even comes with some toasted bread on the side.

The Mac n’ Cheese was pretty good, the amount of bacon gave the mac n’ cheese a more salty flavour to the dish. It also added a bit of texture since the bacon was crispy.

Words of Wisdom:

Unique artwork on the walls, check website for info about them
Under $10
Lots of tables and great for groups

We rate Cyclops Cafe & Lounge:

Address:

2421 1st Ave
Seattle, WA

Website:
www.cyclopsseattle.com

In Brunch

Beth’s Cafe: 12 Egg Omelettes

April 27, 2011

Beths Cafe is most famous for their 12 egg omelets! They have been featured on Man v. Food when Adam takes the 12 omelet challenge. After watching that episode, it was on my ‘to-do’ list for Seattle. Who wouldn’t want to tell the tale of having eaten a 12 egg omelet?

We arrived around noon, which is probably the worst time to go to any popular restaurant. Can you guess why? Line ups. There were people lining up. There were probably a good dozen people or so infront of us, but the time passed by pretty quickly. They have chairs set up outside and the sun was shining! We basically spent most of the time looking at the menu contemplating which 12 egg omelettes to order.

What is super cool about Beths Cafe is that all the walls are covered in customers art work. This is the ultimate hole in the wall restaurant. Old outdated furniture, tons of tape and paper on the walls. It’s actually quite interesting to see a few of the drawings on the wall. I even found a cool Charlie Sheen reference! I also found Angry Birds too!

M was so happy he sat in the exact same seat where Adam Richman of Man V. Food was sitting in! I think it made his day.

Their covers of their menu even has artwork. When flipping through the menu, the only thing we were interested in was the omelettes. 6 different types or you can even customize your own.

TanGuy needed his caffeine fix since we clearly walk around too much. M ordered Mr. Pibb, the Pepsi version of Dr. Pepper. He went nuts when he could order it here. It was his childhood drink that he has long forgotten. They don’t sell it in Canada, so he wanted to get his hands on this drink.

As we waited for our meals, we began doodling! Fabo drew a scary version of the Deuce Panda and the rest of us collaborated to draw a picture of the Nyan Nyan Cat. The Nyan Cat is this viral website featuring a cat non-stop singing. Similar to badger badger badger. No worries there are no viruses in the above links.

M and TanGuy shared the Triple Bypass 12 Egg Omlette ($20.75 + $1.50). You need to add on an additional $1.50 per person sharing the dish. This dish is so huge that it needs to be served on a pizza tray. Inside the triple Bypass are bacon , sausage, ham, double swiss and double american cheese. The egg is folded up and placed onto a bed of bottomless hash browns. Then you also get 2 pieces of toast on top. You also have ketchup, tabasco sauce, salt and pepper to season your omelette if needed.

The girls wanted in on this 12 egg omelette, so the 3 of us ordered the Makin’ Bacon 12 egg omelette ($17.25 +$1.50 +$1.50). this was also massive! It had mass amounts of bacon, sour cream, tomatoes and swiss cheese.

Eating this was quite interesting, I started off with 1/4 of the omelette was a piece of cake, then I ate the hash browns and I started feeling the barrier. The hardest and most filling item is not the omelette, but the hash browns! If you really want to finish the whole 12 egg omelette, your best bet would be to finish the eggs first and then dig into the hash browns.

Just be warned, there is no reward for finishing the entire omelette. It says specifically on the menu to stop people to attempt the hard challenge. The only reward you will get is self satisfaction and bloating. As all women know, feeling bloated is not a good feeling. If you plan to attempt this, make sure you walk around for a few hours to burn it all off.

Overall, it was a great experience and the omelette was actually tasty! I would eat this again if I was in Seattle!

Words of Wisdom:

Try their famous 6 or 12 egg omelettes
Best HashBrowns EVER (Never Frozen)
Psych yourself up by watching Man v. Food (episode about Seattle)
Open 24 hours

We Rate Beth’s Cafe:

Address:

7311 Aurora Ave N
Seattle, WA

Website:
www.bethscafe.com

In Cafe

Curry King: HK Style Cafe

April 22, 2011

M and I were near Metrotown and we do what we do best – eat. After many failed attempts of going to other restaurants, we stuck with Curry King – HK Style Cafe. M wanted to go to Oscars and I just wanted to review a new restaurant…so we drove around and around and decided this was the place.

Curry King is located on Kingsway close to Saffron and Bubble World. Lots of space inside for groups of 4 or 5. Like most HK Style cafes, they have set menus and the usual items.

M and I started off with Lemon Coke and Cold Milk tea. Pretty usual and nothing cool about it. I prefer my cold milk tea to come with liquified sugar to add however less or more I want, but oh well. M’s Lemon Coke had a strong Lemon taste due to the 4-5 slices of lemon found inside it.

The set mini meals come with soup and today their daily soup was a cream soup with ham, corn and fish. Decent soup but the fish had a very odd texture. It wasn’t flaky like a fish, but more of a solid block. Very odd.

I ordered the Chicken Steak with Rice Mini Meal (~$8). This is probably the best chicken steak I’ve had at any HK style Cafe. The chicken was nice and juicy on the inside. The outer part was sightly crispy and the black pepper sauce went well with it.

There were more vegetables! I love vegetables.

M ordered the Meat sauce with rice in a Stone Bowl ($8.95). It has meat sauce, raw egg, and peas on top of rice. At first it looks like a large amount of sauce and meat, but when you begin mixing it all together, there really isn’t that much meat. M was a bit disappointed. No meat to be found for the carnivore. Even with the amount of sauce, he said it lacked flavour.

He even stole a bit of my black pepper sauce for his rice….then he asked the waitress for hot sauce… and then even considered asking for MSG or soy sauce.

I took a few bites out of his dish and it wasn’t too bad. It still had a good flavour, but I guess it wasn’t his type of thing. This meal does have a lot of rice, so you will get full.

Words of Wisdom:

Free rear parking
Under $10
I <3 Beef steak or Chicken Steak
M’s wisdom is if you get any kind of rice Stone Bowl, press the rice against the sides to get them crispy!

We Rate Curry King:

Address:

4250 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Chez Meme Baguette Bistro: When French meets Burnaby

April 16, 2011

When I heard there was a French Baguette Restaurant in Burnaby, I had to go here. It has been on my “To Do” list for a long time, but I just never had the chance to go because of school and work. See, they close at 3pm, so I never get there on time.

Today, I was working at home and could stray off to finally grab lunch at Chez Meme Baguette Bistro! M was working on his essay at my house, so we took a little break/ adventure.

They serve up breakfast and lunch, but they specialize in baguettes.

I ordered the Cordon Bleu Baguette ($9.25). Inside this baguette is chicken and emmenthal cheese wrapped in blackforest ham. You get a side of dijon mustard to accompany your sandwich. You get your choice of soup salad or fries, but I stuck with the green salad with balsamic dressing.

The Cordon Bleu had a decent taste, but when you add the dijon into it, it adds a really nice flavour. The baguette was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Fresh! The salad was fresh as well with a little bit of tomato. The Balsamic dressing is not the usual black sauce, but more of a creamy dressing. It still have a good acidic taste but I felt like there was a bit too much dressing on the salad. Hurt my lips a tiny bit. If you are picky about the amount of dressing on your salad, perhaps ask for the dressing on the side.

M ordered the Bourguignon Baguette ($10.25). It has a bunch of beef short rib, carmelized onions and horseradish. He loved this sandwich! Full of great tasting meat and no vegetable fillers. Why do men dislike vegetables?

The Bourguignon sandwich has considerably more filling than the Cordon Bleu. The meat was very tender and packed a bot of savory juices. The horseradish added a really nice kick to the sandwich! Perfect accompaniment,

M substituted his Soup Du Jour for the French Onion soup for an additional $3. He’s always been on the hunt for some amazing French Onion Soup. Clearly, the Tim Hortons version does not cut it for him.

The top of the soup has a thick layer of melted cheese, so you need to break through it in order to get to the center. Breaking the cheese layer gives you a exciting feeling as all the onion soup gushes out. M had a great time digging around it trying to see what was inside. Under the cheese layer, there’s the savory soup, onions and mushy croutons. He gobbled the soup right up and said “Now I know why the french love to smoke”. In my head I was like, WTH… Something I will never understand. Men….

Some people cannot finish both their baguettes, so you can take it to go! They wrap it up nicely for you as well.

Overall, good food but the hours of operations are quite limited.

Words of Wisdom:

Amazing French Onion Soup
Free Parking on adjacent streets
Busy during lunch hours
Slow service
Under $10

We Rate Chez Meme Baguette Bistro:

Address:

4016 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Prado Cafe: Silent Service

April 11, 2011

Arriving here after work around 4:30pm on a hot sunny day, Prado Cafe was packed! Every single seat occupied…and most people are either studying or surfing away on their laptop.

Since I saw a few people about to leave, I thought it would be a good idea to get a drink first. Looking at the menu, theres a lot of the usual coffee choices, but for someone who has lent coffee, I really could not break my promise to a friend (ConsultingGirl lent coffee and I decided to join her for support).

The menu is not a good indication of what they can make. After talking to the barista, they can indeed make most tea lattes. I decided to go with the London Fog (~$3).

I grabbed the first seat available and set up my laptop before meeting the professor. I connected to the internet that was unprotected. I am not a big fan of unprotected wifi because of that whole firesheep plug-in for Firefox. Since I did have it installed (curiosity), I wanted to see if it would work. Sure enough, I was able to capture a few peoples Facebook. I was super scared so I closed Firefox and did not tamper with their Facebook. Do keep in mind, people who are more evil that I am, could hack your computer.

Back to the story, as I was waiting for my drink to be ready…I was wondering for the longest time if my drink was done. Apparently it was done a while ago, but the barista does not call out any drinks. She just makes it and leaves it there. Very poor service. I did enjoy their london fog, nice and frothy with a subtle hint of vanilla syrup.

People who usually come here just grab a drink and start surfing on the internet. The staff do not seem very happy or excited by customers ( or at least to me).

Words of Wisdom:

Free Wireless
Lots of natural light
Poor Service
Hipster

We rate Prado Cafe:

Address:

1938 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.pradocafe.com

In Cafe

Congee Noodle King: Hit or Miss

April 6, 2011

After looking at the bank accounts and bills, I thought it would be best to try to eat meals $15 and under. Since M and I were on Kingsway, we thought going to Congee Noodle King would be a good idea.

Congee Noodle King has lots of round tables that fit 8 people. The interior is bright and mostly large groups/families are here.

Looking at some of the plates and bowls, M was very turned off by the quality of it since the tops were chipped and super scratched up. In the picture, they look ok, but if you look closer you can see how you may be afraid to eat from them .

We started off with ordering cold milk tea. I really found this to be a bit on the sweet side. I would prefer getting my own little container of syrup to tweak the amount of sweetness.

M ordered the sweet and sour pork on rice. This sweet and sour pork was not very good at all. There was way too much coating around the pork that you could not really taste the pork. M is a huge sweet and sour pork fan, but Congee Noodle King did not do this dish justice.

You would probably get better Sweet and Sour Pork at Manchu Wok at a food court than at Congee King.

Since this restaurant is called Congee Noodle King, I just had to have the Congee. I ordered the diced fresh oyster and minced pork congee. It has green onions, coriander and salty peanuts. The congee tasted very good and had no complaints.

It was a good texture and it was not too runny or too thick.

Overall, I find some of the dishes here at Congee Noodle King a hit or a miss.

I usually go to Chinese restaurants speaking English just to see if they will treat me differently. Usually there is no problem with the service.

In this case the service was a bit lacking, I called for the bill but it never came (I asked for it in cantonese – “mai dan”) . She even acknowledged me, so I am sure she knew that I wanted the bill. I asked another waitress for the bill but I could hear them telling other staff to take care of it. Eventually the bill came but it took them a while to come back to get our change, so we went up to the counter so it would make the process a bit faster. M was already pissed off about the subpar Sweet and Sour Pork.

Words of Wisdom:

Limited parking in the rear
Park in residential areas
Can’t go wrong with congee or the fried items
Cash Only

We Rate Congee Noodle King:

Address:

3313 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

In Cafe

Borandsi: Fusion Board Game Cafe

April 6, 2011

On North Road in Coquitlam, there is a little cafe called Borandsi, or quite commonly known as the board game cafe. People come to Borandsi to eat dessert and grab a drink. They also have a large amount of board games which you can use for a small fee. If you live in Vancouver, it really isn’t worth it to play games here since your bill can rack up to the cost of a brand new board game.

It’s perfect for international students or travellers who do not have games with them.

After eating Pho, Jojocake really craved waffles … so we headed to Borandsi for dessert!

The interior is quite nice. Large tables and couches. It is usually not that busy, so you can always find a seat for you and your friends. People either: a) sit and chat b) study or c) play board games.

At one time they had a spa and a cell phone shop in the back corner, but it has since been removed to make room for more tables.

The menu is all listed on a piece of paper double sided. They have drinks, desserts and some Korean dishes. Yes, it is Korean owned and operated.

KoreanGirl ordered the Brownie & Ice Cream ($5.95). The brownie is not freshly made. When you walk up to the counter and stare at their fridge, you can see all the brownies all chilled and wrapped in plastic wrap. They heat up the brownie, add vanilla ice cream and drizzle chocolate sauce on top.

This is not a gourmet brownie, just your regular brownie.

I ordered the Apple Pie & Ice Cream ($5.95). Similar with the brownie, it is also pre-made and stored in a fridge. I think they microwave it so the crust is no longer crispy. The apple pie still tasted good but I wish it was crispy on the outside. They also added vanilla ice cream and drizzled chocolate on top.

JojoCake was CRAVING waffles, so she ordered Waffles & Ice Cream ($7.95). Unlike the brownie and the apple pie, this was made fresh. How do I know this? I saw a waffle iron while peeping into their kitchen.

The waffle is topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, bananas, kiwis and strawberries. One things Jojocake commented on the waffle was that it was a bit over done.

Overall, great place to chill and catch up for friends. Service is not very good, so you gotta do the usual staring and hand waving.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Good for studying
Average tasting desserts

We Rate Borandsi:

Address:

4035 North Rd
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

Libo Cafe

April 4, 2011

M wanted to go to Crystal Mall to buy some cheap cables for his TV/computer monitor since his HDMI cord was malfunctioning.

Since we were both a bit hungry, we went to Libo Cafe at the Crystal Mall food court. We’ve been here many times and the food is decent and cheap.

Their lunch combo menu is quite straight forward. Choose an item labeled number 1 -9, and then you also get a free drink and soup!

M ordered combo #5, which is Ham, pork cutlet, egg with curry and rice ($7.25). He chose the russian Borscht and cold milk tea. The ham was very thinly sliced and nothing special. Its basically the ones that are from the grocery stores. The Egg was also normal. The pork cutlet had lot’s of bones. M doesn’t like bones… He HATES them! The Russian Borscht was the worst one M tasted. M’s favorite soup from Chinese places is the Russian Borscht, but this one tasted pretty bland and rather disgusting.

The only best thing about this meal was the curry! Libo curry sauce is incredibly spicy, but very delicious. So good, M wanted to by a bowl full to take home.

I ordered the black pepper sauce Chicken and beef steak with spaghetti ($7.25).

I thought the beef steak was cooked nicely since it was pink in the middle and not tough. The chicken steak was also good, slightly crispy on the inside and juicy in the middle. The black pepper sauce was very peppery and super strong. Decent sauce since I do like it super peppery. One thing I wished they had was more sauce since there was a lot of spaghetti.

On the side I got the potato bacon soup and lemon tea. Lemon tea was good as usual.

The Potato Bacon Soup was alright. It did have a potato texture to the soup and had real bacon bits in the soup. Decent but not my favorite soup from this place.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Large menu

We Rate Libo Cafe:

Address:

4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

In Cafe

E.Tea : Epically Failed Night

April 3, 2011

Jojocake, KoreanGirl and I were searching for food since Jojocake’s parents left her to fend for herself. How can she fend for herself if she does not even have essentials like milk? She called up KoreanGirl and I to go eat dinner.

Our first stop was supposed to be Pho 101, but when we walked into the restaurant…everyone looked at us funny as we sat down at a booth. We didn’t understand why there were mass amounts of spring rolls everywhere, nor all the awkward looks towards us. Apparently it closed 5 mins earlier … but no one told us they were closed until after many many awkward minutes. We felt embarrassed so we decided to drive west.

What was on Hastings that would be open after 8pm? We drove to Bo Laska King’s Bubble and Bits since I know for sure they are open till midnight. When we arrive, they were closed but the sign said they were open 7 days a week till midnight.

Another fail…. so what is the one place we know that for sure will not close early. E. Tea on Rupert and 22nd.

I got one of their dinner combos – crispy chicken + meat sauce on rice ($9.50).

I really did not take a liking to this meal. The crispy chicken pieces had a lot of cartilage and tendon still in the meat. So, I was constantly picking stuff out of my mouth.

The meat sauce on rice was not very hot. The sauce and the meat were room temperature and the rice was a bit hot.

KoreanGirl ordered the Crispy chicken with noodle ($6.95).

The meal was quite simple, crispy chicken and a bowl of noodles. There was a lot of noodles.

JojoCake ordered the Baked Curry Pork Cutlet on Rice ($7.50). As you can probably tell, the images above are NOT anything resembling curry.

When JojoCake’s order arrived, it looked more like a baked seafood. She is allergic to seafood, so for them to bring the wrong dish to a person with allergies is a no no. Good thing she figured out it was not the right order and asked the waitress about it.

The waitress brought back a menu to confirm which was the right item she wanted. She quickly confirmed the order and sent it back to the kitchen.

At this point, KoreanGirl and I were almost done eating our own dishes.

Next, the waitress brings another dish to the table, this time it could have been mistaken for the curry pork cutlet, but when Jojocake began poking around, it was mostly cheesy meat sauce and seaweed on top of rice.

At this point, she just really wanted her curry pork chop cutlet since she was STARVING! We talked to the waitress and she believed it was the Curry Porkchop cutlet, so she goes to the back to talk to the kitchen. Turns out, this was not the curry porkchop cutlet.

When KoreanGirl and I finished our meal, the correct dish for JojoCake arrived.

The appearance of the Curry Porkchop cutlet was not the best. The curry sauce was very watery and was not baked very well. As she stirred the sauce onto the rice, it started to become more of a congee type thing rather than rice.

She was very outraged.

As we were very disheartened about the visit to E. Tea, we expected E. Tea to be more respectful of their customers and at least offer some sort of compensation for the trouble. As we asked for the bill, the waitress said nothing as she handed us our bill. Not even a sorry for the trouble.

We just paid $27.33 and just left. No tips, just exactly $27.33. We felt slightly guilty for not tipping, but on the other hand it was a horrible experience. We jumped into my car and drove away.

I’ve been a customer for many years and I did notice a decline in their service and food. It is safe to say, we will never return to E. Tea.

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 Cafe

Goldies Pizza

April 3, 2011

CanuckGirl and I met up again during lunchtime. It was hard deciding a place to eat, but I heard raving reviews about Goldies Pizza, so we decided to go.

The place was not packed during lunch, but later on it got more and more busy. A lot of people were grabbing and going from the window.

On their menu, they have the different types of pizza and drinks.

We both shared the 7″ Roasted Chicken ($.9.95). The toppings had Tomato sauce, mozzerela cheese, roasted chicken, roasted red peppers and onions.

Then we also got the 7″ mushroom lovers ($8.95). It has portobello and champignon de couche mushrooms marinated in extra virgin oliveoil and reduced balsamic vinegar, honey, rosemary and garlic.

I honestly did not like the pizza. The toppings were great and flavourful but one thing that just kept bugging me were the burnt crust of the pizza. If it was golden brown, I would be more satisfied. When you finish each slice, I was a bit hesitant to finish it because it did taste sightly burnt.

When you attempt to hold up the pieces, you can tell the dough was not crunchy, but a bit soggy. It did not hold together well as a slice. So, what we did was just use a knife and fork to eat it.

Perhaps it is the rustic type of pizza I am not into. Again, just probably personal preference.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10
Close to Granville or Waterfront Skytrain
Take Out window

We Rate Goldies Pizza:

Address:

605 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.goldiespizza.com

In Cafe

Dessert Dynasty

March 29, 2011

Beside T&T at Metrotown is a cafe place called Dessert Dynasty. They sell desserts and different types of bubble tea. If you are ever at the mall and wanted a bit of something sweet, it’s a decent place to head to.

I remember when I was younger…so many bbt places at Metro and I couldn’t decide which one to go to…. Till this day, I still can’t figure out which one is my favorite.

The menu is both in Chinese and English, so you will have no issues reading it. I usually skip reading the menu and get my 2 staple items – Milk tea and bubble waffles! You can’t get anymore asian than that. (You probably could but this is how I roll).

The Cold Milk Tea ($3ish) was like most average milk teas. It was slightly on the sweet side but not too bad. I find that as I get older I like things to be less sweet. I know I’m not THAT old, but I like to save my teeth for the future.

If you are like me, you may want to get half sweet. ( Plus, it’s less calories!)

Lastly, the Bubble Waffle ($3.33) was pretty good. A bubble waffle is basically little ball of puffy waffles. They mix this egg batter and pour it into a waffle-maker with a honeycomb pattern. It gets cooked, and voila! You have your waffle balls – crunchy on the outside, and if cooked just right, slightly chewy on the inside.

I thought the ones at Dessert Dynasty wouldn’t be that great since I’ve heard mediocre review about this place. The lady today made it well, nice and soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Yummy!

Overall, Dessert Dynasty is pretty average and not super outstanding. It’s place to go if you are in the area and want some sweets.

Words of Wisdom:

Address:

149 – 4800 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:

http://www.dessertdynasty.com/

In Cafe

Meat & Bread: The Power of Twitter

March 28, 2011

When I’m in Downtown in the office, I love looking for places to eat for lunch. I do rely on twitter for deals or even new cool items a restaurant has for that day. I was looking up and down my twitter feed and Meat & Bread had some new items on the menu, even secret ones too…so I just had to go!

They had 2 specials that day – the Chicken Hot Wing and the goat sandwich. When do you ever get to go to a restaurant and give them a secret code to get a secret sandwich that only tweeters know. (GASP!)

I took Mandu with me to try these sandwiches! It was close to both our offices so we didn’t trek too much out of the way.

Mandu ordered the Chicken Hot Wing ($8). It has chicken, hot sauce, celery, carrots and blue cheese. Mandu really liked the taste of it! The only issue she had with it was that the sauce was a bit watery, so when she ate it, the sauce would leak out.

I went up and told one of the staff “Gimme the Goat“. He was surprised that the tweet actually worked! They had enough ingredients to make 10 sandwiches and I was the first one to sink my teeth into it! When I took my sandwich to the table, the table beside us kept looking at our food and tried to identify what they were. Clearly, they could not identify the goat sandwich. It was super awkward attempting to eat the sandwich when people are clearly staring at you. I had to intrude on their conversation and tell them about what we ordered so it would give them a clear idea of what to order and give them recommendations. After a few giggles here and there, they totally ordered the same thing as us. (The power of influence!)

If you are into the whole internet ‘meme’ thing, you will understand what I’m trying to say. I had to remove the inappropriate words just in case there were children reading this.

OK, anyways, back to the sandwich! The taste was super amazing! I had no idea what was in it. If I tried to guess the ingredients, I will probably trick you into thinking things….honestly I have no idea what I ate. I probably should have asked but I was too hungry. (Having no allergies is awesome FYI). The goat was really nice, tender, and super flavourful. There was also some type of greens and this purple spread. Trust me it was good!

I also got a soda! They have several types of sodas but I chose the Dandelion & Burdock Soda. Apparently it is the most popular soda they have. You will not find any Coke or 7up at Meat & Bread. The soda did not taste too strange or earthy.

It is infused with Dandelion leaves and Burdock root, sweetened with pear juice and spiced with a touch of ginger and anise. Apparently its a popular British type of soda. It may sound gross since dandelion are weeds….but delicious!

Words of Wisdom: