Kid Friendly Archives - Page 5 of 14

In Dim Sum

Dinesty: Dumpling House in South Burnaby

April 6, 2016

Dinesty has a brand new location in South Burnaby under the Elements building. It is a few minutes away from Metropolis at Metrotown. They are best known for the Xiao Long Bao aka steamed pork dumplings.

Since foodies like to get together and eat, a few of us decided to meet up for the first time at Dinesty. Always good to put a face to someone’s online foodie persona.

Similar to the other locations, you will see a bunch of teapots in display cases when you walk in. It’s awesome to look at because each tea pot is different.

Even if you are waiting in line, staring at those tea pots can help speed up the wait perception.

The space has a lot of large round tables, so its great for families or large groups. Just make sure you put down a reservation ahead of time to avoid any waits.

I always like how they have the kitchen showing into the dining area, so you can see how all your food is put together.

Chinese Spinach and Bean Curd was good. Always my favourite item to order at Dinesty. It also has sesame oil, so that taste comes through.

Marinated Mushroom and Bamboo looks pretty creepy. Taste was ok, but nothing very notable.

Spicy Pig Ears was a pretty mediocre dish. More oily and not spicy at all. I found the similar experience at other Dinesty locations too.

Fried rice with shrimp, vegetables and ham was ok. A tad bland but would fair well with some chili sauce.

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Shanghai Fried Noodles was delicious. Not to oily and had a good mix of veggies and meat.

Wontons with Sour Chili Sauce could have been better. It was more oily and didn’t have much hot chili flavour to it.

Stir Fried Rice Cake with Pork Chop Shanghai Style was pretty good. The chunks of pork chop were flavourful and tender. I would order this again.

Stir fried basa fillet with wine sauce was good as well. Flavourful wine sauce with the tender flakey basa.

We made sure we loaded up with the Steamed Pork Soup Dumplings by getting 3 orders.

When they came out, it wasn’t super hot. It shriveled up a bit, so it wasn’t as soupy. Very minimal soup. The day before, I was actually at the Robson location and it was different.

Although, this visit was decent, it wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Camphor & Tea Smoked Duck came with 8 buns to eat with the duck. We were surprised by the flavour of this. Very good smoky flavour and the meat was so good.

We wished there were so duck breast meat on the plate, but it was mostly bone. I think I snagged one of the only plump and juicy breast pieces.

The rest were bony, so you couldn’t devour it without needing to pick out some bones.

Of all the locations, I would say my go to location would be the Dinesty on No 3 Road as it was the first on in Vancouver.

This South Burnaby location still has a few kinks it needs to work out. Some items are a hit and miss, but if you can’t get the steamed pork dumplings right, you gotta try again.

We rate Dinesty:

Address:
104 – 4501 Kingsway, Burnaby

Website:
http://dinesty.ca/

In 24 hours

Duffin’s Donuts: Drunken Paradise in Vancouver

April 1, 2016

Duffin’s Donuts is an amazing place if you want cheap food 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This place never stops running. You will find fried chicken, Chinese Food, Mexican Food, breakfast, burger, and hot dogs. It’s like every drunken person’s paradise. I came here with Amy and Nat to have an all out food feast. In total, we spent about $75 here. We were sober the entire time.

We ate…a lot. We didn’t make it though the whole menu, but we made a decent sized dent.

The space is super old school and it looks like it’s stuck in the 80s.

Fritou Fried Chicken is what they sell. It comes in Spicy and regular.

You can choose from wings, breasts, drumsticks or thighs.

We grab a 4 piece and it had one of each type. The taste reminds me of a Church’s and KFC, but slightly less crisp. It didn’t come straight out of the fryer, so that probably why it wasn’t super crisp.

White meat is dry, so stick with the dark meat.

Veggie Spring Rolls and Pork Spring Rolls is served here too and its crisp on the outside. It’s ok, pretty average. Nothing notable here.

Pupusas is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla that is usually filled with pork, beans, or cheese. At Duffin’s they serve is was salsa and a simple slaw.

Chorizo Con Huevos Torta has lettuce tomatoes, avocado, scrambled eggs, and chorizo. A decent torta but it would be better if there was more egg and chorizo.

They also have Chicken and Beef Tamales hanging out by the cash register. All wrapped up individually and then wrapped up in plastic wrap.

The tamales are made with masa, potatoes, red bell peppers, chicken/beef and then wrapped in leaves. Tasted ok as well, but nothing worth noting.

All Day Breakfast with Hashbrowns comes with 2 egg, 2 pieces of toast, bacon/sausage/ham, peanut butter and Jam. Pretty basic. I wished the hashbrowns were more crisp and golden brown, it was mostly wedges of potatoes.

Viet Mixed Ham has cold cuts and loaded with carrots, cucumber and cilantro. It would have been nice to have an option with spicy jalapenos. It was decent, but like most items here, what you pay for is what you get.

Cheese Burger was ok, but I prefer other types of burgers out there.

Chili Hot Dog is pretty good. Not gonna lie, all it’s missing is a ooey gooey fried egg and you’ll be in heaven.

Horchata, Pina Colada and Avocado Fresh Fruit Bubble Tea were 3 drinks we got to get a feel of what they can make. I was just surprised they had this spectrum of beverages.

Of course, we had to end the meal with donuts. You can’t leave here without a box.

It definitely beats Tim Horton’s Donuts any day.

Overall, most of the food is pretty average. It’s decent, cheap and always open. It definitely attracts unique crowds here. You’ll find all types of people here. What makes people come back is all the different types of comfort food in one place. Sometimes you want something sinfully greasy.

Plus, those donuts are pretty good.

We Rate Duffin’s Donuts:

Address:
1391 East 41st Avenue, Vancouver

In Kid Friendly

Dinesty Restaurant: Steamed Pork Dumplings on Robson St

March 30, 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We Rate Dinesty:

Address:
1719 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://dinesty.ca/

In Cafe

On Yogurt: Ice Fried Yogurt Gelato

March 29, 2016

On Yogurt is located in Yaletown near BC Place. They are the first in Canada to produce Ice Fried Yogurt Gelato. They got their inspiration from Thailand, which is popular to have ice fried ice cream. They decided to bring the technique to Canada and change it to a healthier choice – yogurt. I was close by, so I decided to pop by with a friend.

The interior is cute and has a good amount of seating. When I came in the evening, it wasn’t too busy.

All of their yogurt selection is organic and gluten-free, sourced from local organic farms in BC. They have the yogurt flavours in a pitcher and when you order, they potion it out and begin preparing it.

Check out this timelapse of how it’s all put together. The plate is -35 degrees, so it cools down the yogurt mixture quite quickly to turn it into a cold dessert.

There are over 50 toppings to choose from, so you can be very creative in putting your dessert together.

Matcha Ice Fried Yogurt with Oreos is folded into the yogurt, so its integrated into the yogurt. They also top it off with more oreo bits and 2 chocolate rolled wafers.

Earl Grey Ice Fried Yogurt with Candied Almonds. I thought it would be crushed almonds and they would fold it into the yogurt, but it was just the whole candied almonds on top. Then they added the 2 chocolate rolled wafers.

I found that the ice fried yogurt was super fun to watch them make it. As for the taste of the earl grey yogurt it was really rich and the flavour didn’t really wow me as much.

Overall, it tasted ok, but it didn’t impress me enough for a revisit in the near future. I love the process of them making it, but I feel like if I want dessert, I want to go all out and want full fat. But, thats just me.

For those who want to have healthy dessert options, you can give it a try.

We Rate On Yogurt:

Address:
95 Smithe Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.onyogurt.com/

In Downtown

Ramen Gojiro: Gatsuri-Style Ramen in Vancouver

March 20, 2016

Ramen Gojiro is a new ramen shop in Downtown Vancouver and it is part of the Menya Kouji group that also owns Ramen Butcher and Taishoken.

They specialize in jiro-style/gatsuri-style ramen that has lots of noodles and toppings. They are trying something new that differentiates themselves from the other ramen shops.

It was a rainy day in Vancouver, no surprise right? My friend and I came here before heading off to work.

They are still very new, so there were grand opening flowers out front.

We came at 12:30pm on a Sunday, but there wasn’t a line up until about 1pm. We were pretty lucky to get a table as I’ve only heard people lining up outside during peak hours.

The interior is nice and simple with wood and cement textures. There’s even a painting of Godzilla.

The staff in the kitchen were wearing t-shirts from Ramen Butcher.

The menu is simple and you have the choice between 2 size, 2 toppings and 2 broths.

Beer, fried rice and tsukemen aren’t available just yet, but at some point, it will be.

After putting in our order, the server asked if we wanted an apron. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The paper napkin helps prevent any noodle slurping splatter from hitting your clothes or bags. As we put on our aprons, we realized NO ONE else in the restaurant had one on. We didn’t hear them offering these to other tables.

Regardless of how ugly it was, we kept it on and it really did help with the splatter.

Basic Chashu has their signature broth with pork and chicken. Noodles are made in-house.

The thickness of the noodles were in between udon and ramen. There is also lots of bean sprouts. My friend said the chashu was fatty and delicious, but the broth was meh.

Basic Bakamori with karaage is a mountain of food. It has the same broth but with more topping, more noodles, and more meat. If you are a big eater, you will want this option.

I wasn’t thrilled with the broth either. It was rich but lacked much depth to it and it was salty.

The chicken karaage was crispy and full of flavour, but I didn’t like the noodles. The option garlic on top was pungent as well.

Ramen Gojiro has its high points and low points, but I don’t think I would return. It’s just didn’t appeal to my tastebuds.

We Rate Ramen Gojiro:

Address:
501 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramengojiro.com/

In Kid Friendly

Haroo: Korean Cuisine in Richmond

March 19, 2016

Haroo Restaurant is located on Alexandra Road as is one of the top Korean restaurants in Richmond. Everyone seems to come here. I met up with a few foodie friends to check it out. I love Korean food and I still haven’t been here. I’ve eaten at a majority of the restaurants around K Town in Coquitlam and thought it was time to visit.

There is parking on the main level and the 2nd floor but it is very busy, so hunting for a spot might be tough.

The restaurant isn’t very large, but has mostly booth seating. You definitely want to make reservations before coming here. One the night we came here, it was so busy that they had to turn people away who did not have reservations.

Complimentary Korean Congee arrived at the table. One small bowl for each person at the table. Good start to the meal.

Kimchi Fried Rice was surprisingly small for $12.50. The flavour was nice and I loved the egg on top.

They also give you 5 complimentary side dishes for the whole table.

Soybean Sprouts is a standard side dish that Korean restaurants serve. One of my favourites as it is coated with a bit of sesame oil.

Green Salad had a carrot shaped like a star. Very colourful and simple.

Kimchi is a fermented side dish made of cabbage and other vegetables that tastes sour and a bit spicy.

Marinated Potatoes is another favourite of the table. Soft texture and slightly sweet.

Sweetened fish cake was good as well. There were stands of onions in this too.

Gamjatang Hot Pot is a pork back bone and potato hot pot. Is is already pre-cooked, so you just need to bring it up to a hotter temperature.

It was a good hearty hot pot and it came with 2 small bowls of rice. It was pretty expensive at around $30.

Seafood Pancake came out super crispy and is unique compared to other Korean restaurants. It seems like it was deep-fried as every inch of it was crisp. This is highly recommended.

Cheese Tteokbbokki has rice, pasta, meat, and vegetables in a spicy sauce then topped off with cheese. This was surprisingly really good. You can’t go wrong with anything covered in cheese.

Overall, it was a nice restaurant to go to in Richmond if you are craving Korean food, but it is price is a bit higher. Parking can be a nightmare in this area.

We Rate Haroo:

Address:
Venezia Place
2000-8580 Alexandra Road, Richmond

In Japanese

Sushi By Yuji: Nigiri and Gukan Sushi

March 7, 2016

Sushi By Yuji is on Kingsway is best known for their fresh nigri and gunkan types of sushi. After seeing lots of people commenting about my last post about Masayoshi, people told me to check out Sushi by Yuji.

The space is small and it’s best to make reservations here to guarantee a spot. On the night that we went, they had no more spots for walk ins.

Surprisingly, the menu is pretty vast with a lot of nigiris, rolls, sashimi, and a few hot items. For their freshest items, look at their board of specials.

Tea was complimentary. The server was really nice and filled it up often.

The first set of Gunkan sushi arrived. Eggs on eggs! It’s beautiful not to get.

Ikura with Quail egg was an explosive sensation in your mouth. Once you start chewing the saltiness of the ikura blends well with the quail egg.

Tokibo with quail egg was similar but with the flying fish roe. Equally as good but some people don’t like the raw quail eggs. M and I both enjoyed it.

Chopped Scallop was fresh and delicious.

Next plate arrived full of negitoro. The plain Negitoro Gunkan was good. Chopped of toro with green onions.

Because everything looks better with a quail egg, we got the negitoro with quail egg. Delicious as well.

Salmon toro nigiri was one of the special fresh items. They use wild sockeye salmon, so you will notice the warm red colours rather than the orange stripes at regular Japanese restaurants.

Salmon Carpaccio gunkan was an interesting item to see. It has green onion, salt and pepper on top. It would have been nice if there was a sauce to go with it.

Very clean flavours and different than most places.

Yuji Roll has tuna, prawn and salmon with cucumber. It has the rice wrapped on the outside. It was a good roll with fresh ingredients. The flavours didn’t stand out too much.

Tuna Toro Nigiri was cut thin and was fatty.

Overall, the quality is there but it can get a bit expensive if you are a big eater. The taste is very clean and doesn’t have any additional sauces to them.

At the end of the meal, they give you a packet of Pocky for each person. Very nice touch.

I feel like a kid again. hahaha.

We Rate Sushi by Yuji:

Address:
2252 Kingsway, Vancouver

In Dessert

Waffle Frenzy: Sweet and Savoury Waffles

March 6, 2016

Waffle Frenzy is a new sweet and savoury waffle restaurant in Downtown Vancouver close to SFU Harbour Centre. Bite BC invited a few of us to try a few items off their menu to promote their 50% discount for their members.

They took over the location of a pizza shop and have a cleaner look inside. Mostly white with simple IKEA furniture.

Chicken and Waffles Sandwich has buttermilk fried chicken with chipotle BBQ sauce, lettuce and tomato between 2 waffles.

In each order, you get 2 sandwiches loaded with a big piece of chicken.

Waffle Fries comes with chipotle mayo dip. Nothing spectacular about these fries and could have been a touch crisper. It’s a good item to munch on as a snack.

Oreo Cookie Crumble with Whipped Cream In my picture, its only half and order, but a normal order would come with 4 pieces. I found this to be quite boring as a topping. It needs something a but more than smashed oreos and whipped cream.

The waffles weren’t as crisp as I would have imagined either.

Berry Explosion Waffle has blueberry, strawberry, and kiwi. This was ok as well. For my personal taste preferences, fruit toppings is my go to. The variety I found was pretty meh. The golden kiwi was good, but it would have been nice to have blackberries or raspberries.

Nutella and Banana dessert waffles is a good combination and you can’t go wrong with nutella. The waffle itself was a bit limp.

2 Tier Waffle Cake sells for about $10. This particular one had maple walnut ice cream between the waffle. Then topped with kiwi, green tea ice cream, blueberry and strawberries.

I liked it a bit more than the other waffles as it had more toppings and textures to it. They made these last waffles a tad more crisp, but still wasn’t quite there yet.

Overall, the waffles were ok. Nothing too special as there are other waffles places in Downtown Vancouver but closer to the West End. In the immediate area, there’s no other competition close by. If you had to come here, the savoury sandwiches are a nice choice.

We Rate Waffle Frenzy:

Address:
420 Richards Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.wafflefrenzy.com/

In Cafe

Golden Oscar Cafe: HK Style Cafe

March 4, 2016

It’s been a while since my last visit to Golden Oscar Cafe and Restaurant on Rupert St in Vancouver – 5 years to be exact.

It’s an old school Hong Kong style café where you can find classic meals and set meals. The booth seating and the aging decor has never changed since I first came here year and years ago. There are movie posters all over this restaurant, but because it’s so outdated, you won’t find anything with Leonardo DiCaprio on it or anything from the last few years.

M got the Curry Beef Brisket mini set. It first comes with a Creamed Tuna soup. Pretty average and nothing special to it.

Cold Hong Kong Style coffee tea mix was his accompanying drink, but he had to add $0.50 for getting it cold. They give you a small cup of sugar water to sweeten the drink to your choosing.

Curry beef brisket arrived with a mound of rice. Piping hot and ready to be devoured.

The beef brisket chunks were nice and big. Tender and it really hit the spot.

I went with the Baked Spaghetti Bolognese. It took a little while for it to be ready, but I was ready. The picture of it look terrible as its brown and has burnt spots, but trust me, its good.

Once you mix it around a little bit, it’s not that ugly to look at. Pop it in your mouth.

Overall, the taste and quality are pretty average, but its this type of HK style café that brings comfort to me since it’s what I would eat often as a kid.

We Rate Golden Oscars:

Address:
3868 Rupert Street, Vancouver

In Cafe

Cafe De L’Orangerie: Japanese Pasta and Curry

March 2, 2016

Cafe De L’Orangerie has been our favourite spot for Japanese pasta for a while now. Last week, M had a huge craving for their curry, so he picked me up after work and drove here before the dinner rush.

Its a bit far from our house, so we don’t always get to come here.

Mango Fruit Smoothie was a pretty bad option to get for a drink. It tasted super sweet and artificial. We agreed that we would not order this again.

Chicken Karaage was pretty good. Light, crispy batter and well seasoned. Very enjoyable.

Curry with Pork Cutlet has rice, the crispy pork cutlet and the curry. M thought it was good. Perfect thing to cure his cravings.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Hamburger Steak. The hamburger steak was pretty large like a huge meatball, but I didn’t like how it was slightly sweet.

Besides the hamburger steak, I did enjoy the pasta. I think next time, I will go without the hamburger steak and stick with just the carbonara.

Overall, food is still pretty good her, but certain things are too sweet.

We Rate Cafe De L’Orangerie:

Address:
1320 West 73rd Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://cafedelorangerie.ca/

In Cafe

Qoo Cafe: HK Style Cafe

March 1, 2016

Qoo Cafe is located in the Marpole area. They are an Asian fusion restaurant featuring HK Style favourites, an assortment of Asian dishes, Western selections, pastas, sandwiches, noodle soups, and bubble tea. I was invited by ChineseBites to try a few things off their menu.

The space is large and can fit up to 90 people. It’s been here for a while now, but haven’t been here until now.

M and I went with the classic drink – coffee and tea mix and the HK style milk tea.

Mango Slush with Pearls is what the others ordered.

Goose Liver Toast and Truffle Mushroom Toast was surprisingly good. I love how they toasted the bread and it has no crust! The truffle mushroom was a lot better than the goose liver version.

Baked Mussels with pesto sauce comes with 8 pieces. Juicy and not over cooked.

Lobster with rice cakes is surrounded by a decorative cucumber barrier.

They have their mix and match special where you can choose 2 types of protein from the menu, soup of the day and a hot beverage for $14.95 during dinner.

You can choose from:

Pan fried chicken steak
Pan fried pork chop
Basa fillet
Pork Chop fillet
Baked salmon fillet
Wiener sausage
Spicy chicken skewer
Deep fried chicken wings
Pan fried cod fish fillet
Grilled ox tongue
Shrimp skewer
Honey beef short ribs ($3 extra)
Rack of lamb ($6 extra)
Baked lobster ($7 extra)
Charbroiled New York steak ($5 extra)

They gave us a platter full of the proteins to try. Most of them were pretty average, but the rack of lamb and New York steak were tender and medium rare. Of course, you have to add a bit of money for those options. If I didn’t want to add money to the set, I would get the pan-fried pork chop and the pan-fried chicken steak.

The sets also include either rice, spaghetti, french fries, or mashed potatoes. Mixed veggies, you have to add an additional $2.

To accompany the meats, you can choose from black pepper gravy, red wine gravy, onion gravy, garlic gravy, mushroom gravy or butter cream.

We got the Yeung Chow Fried Rice to end the meal. It is a wok fried dish with ingredients like pork, shrimp, scallions, veggies and eggs.

Overall, they are definitely more expensive than the average HK Style Cafe.

We Rate Qoo Cafe:

Address:
7994 Granville Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.qoocafe.ca/

In Hastings-Sunrise

Bai Bua Thai Cuisine: Dinner Time

February 28, 2016

Bai Bua Thai Cuisine is a family owned business in the Hastings-Sunrise area and has authentic Thai cuisine. Since I’ve never been to Thailand, I can’t really comment on the authenticity, but a few friends have said its pretty close. There is pay parking at the front of the restaurant, but it can be tricky to find a spot since there is a bit of traffic near the intersection. Luckily we were able to find a large space out front since it was pouring outside.

The restaurant has a good amount of space. We made reservations just in case this place filled out, but when we went around 6pm, it wasn’t too busy. Later in the evening, it did get very busy.

We started off with the Thai Ice Tea with Milk and omg it’s so darn good. I can not express how amazing and delicious this drink is. It was like milk tea but a lot better. If they made this into an ice cream, it would be awesome. Highly recommended item to order.

Laab is a warm salad that is North-Eastern Thai Style. You can choose to have it with ground chicken or pork. It also has lime, fish sauce, onion, green onion, coriander, ground chili and ground roasted rice.

It was like a warm meat salad. Good flavours, but I wish I had some rice with it.

Chicken Wings comes with 8 pieces. They are marinated in spices and garlic before being deep-fried. It came piping hot to the table and was very enjoyable. The batter reminded me a little bit like Church’s Chicken.

Khao Pad Pring Poo is their spicy fried rice. You have the choice of having it with chicken, beef, or pork. We went with the pork. The dish also has rice, chili, egg, green onion and carrots.

When first tasting this dish it wasn’t very spicy at all. It could have been a bit more spicy.

Green Curry comes with your choice of chicken, beef or tofu. We went with tofu. The dish also has green curry paste, thai herbs, coconut milk, eggplant, green beans, thai basil and bamboo shoots.

It was really good. We ordered a large coconut rice to go with it too, which was great.

Pad Thai Chicken comes with thin rice noodles, tamarind sauce, sugar, salted radish, egg, chives, bean sprouts and ground peanuts.

It was ok, but the sugar really threw me off. Didn’t like the slightly sweet taste to it.

One item that I was really looking forward to is the mango sticky rice dessert in the shape of a rose. It’s just so beautiful!

It is served warm with some coconut milk drizzles on top. I’ve never had this before, so it was a nice treat.

The 3 of us had a great meal but some dishes were definitely a hit and a miss.

At the end of the meal, they give you the bill with some apple hard candies.

We Rate Bai Bua Thai Cuisine:

Address:
2443 East Hastings Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.baibuathaicuisine.com/

In Bakery

Sweetery Cafe + Dessert: Open on Saturdays

February 4, 2016

Sweetery Cafe + Dessert finally opens up on Saturdays. Even thought I work close by, it was always just out of reach. Seeing all their mouth water photos on Instagram, made me go a little bit nuts. I came with a friend to indulge on some coffee and waffles during brunch.

It’s located on 2nd close to the Granville St Bridge. There’s free parking out front for 1 hour.

There is a good amount of seating inside. We got here at around 10:30am and stayed here for both their breakfast and lunch menu.

We put in our order and waited patiently for the wonderful food to arrive.

Cappuccino was what I needed this morning. Nice and frothy.

Eggs Benedict on Waffles comes with potatoes on the side. You have the option to have it on waffles or english muffins. Highly recommended item!

We chose to have our eggs soft and they did deliver! Once I cut inside, it was so delicious and gooey.

I love the option of having it on a waffle.

Chicken and Waffles is what I was craving. We had to wait till 11am till they started taking orders for their lunch menu. It comes with maple syrup and hot sauce.

The chicken was tender on the inside, but the exterior could have been more crisp. On the other hand, the waffle was very delicious and crisp. I guess it kinda makes up for it.

Overall it was a good experience. You must get their Eggs Benedict and double baked croissants.

We Rate Sweetery Cafe + Dessert:

Address:
340 W. 2nd Ave, Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.sweeterycafe.com/

In Coquitlam

Hee Rae Deung: Chinese Korean Food

February 3, 2016

Hee Rae Deung is a Korean Chinese Restaurant on North Road in the same plaza as the Independent Grocer. Since we knew it was a busy day, we came here at 5:45pm on a weekend for dinner, to our surprise, there was already a long wait ahead of us. We waited for about 30 minutes until we got seated.

To start off the meal, they give us pickled radish, bean paste and onion. You take a piece of the raw onion and put a little bit of bean paste to it. It changes the flavour completely.

Deep fried dumplings are a must if you are in a group. There are about 10 dumplings to an order.

Packed full of delicious pork and veggies inside the deep-fried shell.

Sweet and Sour Fried Pork comes with a lot for one dish. Plenty to go around the table. They serve the sauce and pork separately to ensure the pork remains crisp until you devour it with the sauce.

The pieces are pretty big, so you may want to cut them up into smaller pieces.

You definitely need the sauce since it’s not the same without it.

Gan Ja Jang is noodles with a mixture of stir fried veggies, pork and black bean sauce. This is one of the specialty items here, plus some Koreans have said this is the best place to get Ja Jang Myun.

Look at that delicious bowl.

You have to mix vigorously with your chopsticks to combine the sauce and noodles together. It takes a bit of effort, but its so worth it.

Messy bowl, but it sure is delicious.

Stir Fried Rice is my absolute favourite! There is the fried rice with egg on top, with a salad and black bean sauce. It is also served with a spicy seafood soup.

Overall, we enjoyed all the dishes. We think all groups should order the above items. We came in a group of 4 and had a little bit of leftovers.

We Rate Hee Rae Deung:

Address:
435 North Road
Coquitlam, BC

In American

The Keg: Dine Out Vancouver

January 30, 2016

The Keg Steakhouse + Bar is a Canadian chain of steakhouse restaurants and bars located in Canada and the United States. M really was craving steak and I had a $50 gift card to use from my work, so we decided to come here for dinner. We actually come here quite often since the steaks are good and prices aren’t too high compared to other places.

I totally forgot it was Dine Out Vancouver, but customers don’t have to order from the set menu. I contemplated for a long time to see if I wanted to order from the menu. My asian mind started calculating numbers to see what was a better deal. A $40 3-course meal isn’t cheap here, but I only had to pay a few more bucks for an appetizer and dessert.

In the end, M decided to order from the regular menu and I got the Dine Out Vancouver menu.

Concannon Pinot Noir was M ordered to start off the evening. He has a pinot noir phase at the moment and wants to try them all. He didn’t particularly like this. Perhaps it was because of the toasty oak finish to it.

Complimentary loaf of bread arrives with whipped butter. It comes very hot, which is perfect for all that butter to melt.

As part of the dine out menu, I started off with the Caesar Salad, which is typical with their regular Keg Classic meals. I had a mad craving for a caesar salad, so I didn’t get the baked garlic shrimp or the wild mushroom soup. It had the right amount of dressing on each leaf, plus cheese and croutons are so good.

For my entree, I got the New York Striploin at 12oz with some veggies and you choice of side. I chose to have the roasted garlic mashed potatoes as my side.

I got them to cook it the striploin to medium rare, just the way I like it. It was very tender and has nice grill marks on it. The veggies are ok, but it felt a tad undercooked. The mashed potatoes were awesome.

As for dessert, I tried their cheesecake since I’ve never had it from here before. It has a graham cracker crust on the bottom, with cherries on top. The cheesecake itself was good and you can tell there is a lot of cream cheese in it.

M and I shared the appetizer and the dessert, but he went with his own steak as he wanted something more tender.

10oz Filet Mignon has the tenderloin wrapped in applewood smoked bacon and served with Béarnaise sauce on the side. He got mixed vegetables as his side. He also felt like the vegetables were a bit undercooked as well. Other than that, his steak was cooked to a perfect rare. He really enjoyed it.

On average, we always spend close to $100 for the 2 of us. I don’t mind since I can never make as good steak at home. I found the quality of their steaks are pretty good even for dine out since all the items they offer on that menu is on their regular menu. Their mixed vegetables could be a bit better but can’t go wrong with their mashed potatoes.

We rate The Keg:

Address:
4510 Still Creek Avenue, Burnaby

Website:
https://www.kegsteakhouse.com/

In Cambodian

Phnom Penh: Lunch Time Essentials

January 28, 2016

Phnom Penh is a Vancouver staple and if you haven’t been here, you’re missing out on some amazing Vietnamese/Cambodian dishes. It’s crazy busy everyday for lunch and dinner. Try to get reservations or avoid peak times. They only take resos for groups of 5 or more. I’ve come here so many times in the past 5 years and I can’t get enough of a few of their signature dishes.

One of my coworkers haven’t been here, so we made it a mission to come here!

Essential Dishes

Butter Beef is a must! It is raw beef with a delicious soy vinegar mixture on top with garlic and cilantro. It’s so good and that sauce is just so addictive. We wish we ordered 2 of these, but decided to pace ourselves as other dishes would arrive at the tables.

Luc Lac with egg is another popular dish. This is a good dish if you want it all to yourself. Its a good portion for lunch, but in our case, we shared it amongst the 3 of us. The beef is very tender and the sauce is so good with the rice.

Deep Fried Chicken Wings is probably ordered by every single table in the restaurant. It is served with a lemon pepper dip. Super crunchy and full of salty garlicy flavour.

Vietnamese Rice Roll was an item that we randomly ordered from the menus we wanted to try something new. We found that it was a great dish to balance out the other ones as its not as salty or sour.

Overall, the food is pretty consistent at Phnom Penh. If you haven’t been here before, make a visit and order the above dishes.

We Rate Phnom Penh:

Address:
244 E Georgia St
Vancouver, BC

In Dessert

Tangram Creamery: New Ice Cream Shop in Kitsilano

January 25, 2016

Driving around Kitsilano, M and I stopped by Tangram Creamery for some delicious ice cream after dinner to end the night. I’ve seen so many picture of this new shop on instagram that we had to check it out.

The shop is cute and doesn’t have too many seats but on the evening that we came here it wasn’t that busy.

They have a limited menu of their ice cream and sorbets, but there’s always something that will intrigue your taste buds.

Double Chocolate with Sugar Cookie Cone ($5 +$1) was what M got. The single scoop is a great size since they stuff the cone so you get your moneys worth. M enjoyed the double chocolate as there were bits of chocolate pieces inside. He did not that there were some ice crystals in it.

The sugar cookie cone is awesome and worth the extra $1.

Hoji Cha with Sugar Cookie Cone ($5 +$1) I got this Japanese roasted tea flavour since it has a pretty unique taste. A really enjoyed it and they really got a nice concentration of flavour. I also did notice small bits of ice crystals in here too, but it wasn’t too distracting.

The ends of the sugar cones are dipped in chocolate to seal the cone so any dripping ice cream doesn’t seep out. Great idea and it also tastes yummy.

You can also grab water from their super cool water dispenser that looks like an espresso machine.

Overall, they have some unique flavours that no other ice cream shop has, but they also have classic flavours to satisfy those who are less adventurous. With both flavours, we did find small ice crystals inside, but since they are quite new, hopefully they will improve that.

We Rate Tangram Creamery:

Address:
2729 Arbutus Street
Vancouver BC

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/tangramcreamery

In Kid Friendly

White Spot: New Comfort Foods Menu

January 20, 2016

Once in a while, I will let M choose a restaurant he wants to go for dinner and I’m not allowed to veto his decision. He wanted to go to White Spot to try their Macaroni & Cheese Bigger Burger. I didn’t mind since it was so close to home and you can’t go wrong with burgers.

Macaroni & Cheese Fritters is made with aged white Cheddar macaroni & cheese. Each plate has 5 crispy panko breaded fritters with Sriracha ketchup. There could have been more Sriracha ketchup for the dish, but it really just tasted like ketchup. The server even gave us a whole bottle of extra ketchup.

The inside of the fritter was nice and gooey. No complaints here.

Macaroni & Cheese Bigger Burger with Island Farms Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream ($15.99) has a 6 oz beef burger with macaroni & cheese, a slice of crispy cheddar cheese, sautéed onions, bacon, Sriracha ketchup, and mayo. Island Farms Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream for dessert.

M substituted the fries/salad with zoosticks. The ice cream also never arrived with this dish.

The burger is magnificent and the crispy slice of cheddar is awesome with the bacon. We just wished there was some more mac and cheese inside it. It’s not comfort unless the mac and cheese falls out of the burger.

Chipotle Mango Pork Chop ($15.99) has a tender chargrilled bone-in pork chop served with sweet potato mash, roasted broccoli & chipotle mango sauce. The sauce was drenched over the pork chop, so all you can see is the bone. I have no idea how chared it was. It was tender, which was good. The sweet potato mash was pretty sweet, so I wish I substituted it for something else. Perhaps normal mashed potatoes.

When we got the bill, we realized they forgot to give us ice cream that accompanied the mac and cheese bigger burger, so we reminded the server about it and asked for it to go. He then took our bill away and gave us a new one with the ice cream.

Afterwards, we realized they charged us extra for the ice cream. It was pretty annoying, but I didn’t realized this until we left the restaurant. If I knew it would cost us extra, I wouldn’t have wanted it.
Overall, there’s really nothing comforting about the comfort menu. If you were to come here, just stick with the burgers.

We Rate White Spot: