Noodles Archives - Page 4 of 6

In Cafe

Tsim Chai Noodles: Dumpling Trail in Richmond

November 12, 2016

Tsim Chai Noodles is located in Richmond and serves Cantonese cuisine. I love Cantonese food since it reminds me of eating at home.

We were invited by Tourism Richmond to experience the Dumpling Trail. Tsim Chai Noodles is one of the restaurants featured in the trail for their dumplings in soup.

Interior

The interior is nothing impressive. Lots of seats and can accommodate small to large groups.

Dumplings

Sui Kau in Soup has a good amount of dumplings inside and they were larger than other places. Plump and there is big pieces of shrimp. One thing I didn’t like about the broth was that is a a little bit sweet. Teh dumplings differ from wontons due to the shape.

Wonton Noodle in Soup came piping hot. The noodles were good and chewy, wontons were delicious but that broth also felt a tad sweet. Perhaps it was just an off batch when we dined here.

Other Dishes

Beef Rice Noodle wasn’t too oily and has a good amount of beef, bean sprouts, green onions, and noodles. A good dish to share among people at the table.

Yeung Chow fried rice is another good dish to order for multiple people at the table. There is pork, shrimp, egg, and peas in it.

Preserved Egg and Pork Congee is a classic item on the menu. One of my favourite dishes. I had a lot of congee as a kid and when I need a dish that makes me feel better, it’s congee.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the food is solid but we felt the broth of the wonton noodles and Sui Kau Soup to be a bit sweet.

We Rate Tsim Chai Noodles:

Address:
50-8251 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC

In Japanese

Koyuki Sapporo Ramen: New Ramen Shop near Robson

July 29, 2016

Koyuki Sapporo Ramen is the newest ramen joint to appear near Robson Street. With so many other ramen shops in the area, I was curious how it would compare.

I came here with Dee from Gastrofork to see if it would tickle our tastebuds.

We came during dinner time and they provided us with their lunch time menu. Apparently, the only difference is that the portion is larger. They didn’t have a dinner menu printed out, which I thought was strange.

Interior

The interior hasn’t changed too much as it still had the same structure of the previous restaurant that was here. There are lots of seats but it was very dead when we were here.

Ramen

Tonkotsu Ramen has a rich and creamy broth made from pork bones. it is topped with bean sprouts, cha-shu, green onion, seaweed, black garlic, and an aitsuke egg.

The egg was over cooked and didn’t have that gooey consistency like the other places in town. There was a lot of noodles, but it was chewy and bland. The cha-shu was really good.

Miso Ramen is their Sapporo style with miso flavour, bamboo shoots, green onions, bean sprouts, seaweed and cha-shu.

Gyoza

Gyozas come in 5 pieces and were pretty bad too. Even though it was pan fried, it was limp.

Overall, there wasn’t anything about this place that stood out except their cha-shu, but then again you can’t really go wrong with cha-shu. I didn’t like the texture of the noodles as it was chewy and soggy. The egg wasn’t done right. The service was also pretty awful too.

I’ve never been to Sapporo to have authentic Sapporo style ramen, but all I know is that Koyuki’s ramen was pretty meh.

They have a lot to improve on.

We Rate Koyuki Ramen:

Address:
795 Jervis Street, Vancouver

In Japanese

Ramen Koika: Ramen on Davie Street

June 28, 2016

Ramen Koika is located on Davie Street opened by Caleb Lee. He traveled to Japan to learn how to make ramen in Chiba, Tokyo and Osaka. Did you know he also was a banker before getting into the restaurant industry? Vancouver Sun has a pretty good article talking about it how they began their journey into creating Ramen Koika.

We were invited to try a few items off their menu. I was pretty excited since I haven’t been here yet.

The restaurant is a good size for small and large groups. You can see right into the kitchen to see the staff cooking up a storm.

Snacks

Tako Wasabi is fresh octopus marinated in wasabi. The portion size was very good and had a nice subtle kick of wasabi.

Chashu Wrap is grilled in a panini press before serving. A nice snack if you are coming here and want something small.

Gyoza comes with 5 pieces in either veggie or pork. Nice crisp bottom and savoury filling.

Chashu panini has cream cheese, cajun honey chashu, lettuce, and wasabi mayo. Not a usual item you would find in a ramen shop, but the option is there.

Kakuni is pork belly stewed in a secret Koika soy sauce and topped with a marsala wine sauce. Delicious!

Tornado Potato Stick starts out as a potato that is sliced in a spiral shape and then deep fried. It wasn’t as crispy as other places that have it in town. It might be because of the potatoes they chose to use.

Ramen

Sapporo Miso Ramen has bamboo shoots, ground pork, bean sprouts, green onion and corn. It had a goo balance of flavours and if you usually like miso, you’ll enjoy this.

Kara Miso Ramen is the spicy version of the Sapporo Miso Ramen and it has the same toppings inside like bamboo shoots, ground pork, bean sprouts, green onion and corn. It has a decent amount of spice but it isn’t too spicy.

Chiba Black Ramen has bamboo shoots, roasted seaweed, soft boiled egg, chashu, black tree fungus, green onion, garlic chip, black garlic oil. You can choose the chashu to be lean or fatty.

The egg was cooked perfectly. Look at that egg. Yum. The ramen tasted good and a lot of people enjoyed this dish, but I always find it comes down to personal preference. I still prefer the Black Garlic Ramen from Jinya.

Kings Ramen uses their Wok Smoky Cuisine-Chicken Broth and can be mild or spicy. It also has carrot, cabbage, mushroom, green onion, bean sprouts, shredded pork, seaweed, bamboo shoot, and the soft boiled ramen egg. There’s definitely a lot of flavours going on in this dish.

Okinawa Umi Ramen has fresh mussels, garlic, green pepper, red pepper, green ramen and ramen in the veggie and seafood broth. A very unique ramen dish but the amount of pepper inside was quite strong.

Kimchi Ramen has shredded pork, kimchi, mushroom, spring onion, onion, cabbage, and green onions. There was a good amount of kimchi taste with subtle sour notes.

Nagasaki Champon Ramen is topped with Black tree fungus, bok choy, onion, cabbage, red pepper, green pepper, Thai chili, prawns, scallop, mussel, squid, and bean sprouts. There’s so many ingredients in there that took away from the noodles and the broth.

They also serve beer here, which is great if you want a drink with your ramen.

I find that with some of the ramen, it has a lot of toppings that didn’t add too much flavour to the ramen. Perhaps it’s just a style that wasn’t what I liked at Ramen Koika. My personal preference for ramen is very rich and fatty with less amount of toppings.

It’s good that they offer more options than just ramen, so if you are with friends that don’t want ramen, they can find other types of items on their menu.

We rate Ramen Koika:

Address:
1231 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.ramenkoika.com/

In Noodles

Pink Elephant Thai: 5 Year Annivesary

June 24, 2016

Pink Elephant Thai has been on Alberni Street for 5 years. To celebrate, they are having a 5 year anniversary special where you get 5 dishes for $55. You get 2 appetizers, 2 bowls of rice and 3 entrees to choose from. The 5 dishes are good enough for 3 -4 people.

We were invited to come here to try all of the items on their special menu.

The interior is pink and looks very modern.

Appetizers

There are 10 appetizers you can choose from:

Spring Rolls
Chicken Satay
Thai Fish Cakes
Thai Shrimp Cake
Thai Style Pork Cheek
Crispy Tofu
Som Yum Papaya Salad
Larb Gai
Yum Neau
Tom Yum Gai

Spring rolls were average. There’s only so much you can really do to transform a spring roll. Our portion size was a lot larger since we had 10 people. You can have this with minced pork or vegetarian.

Thai Fish Cakes was an enjoyable dish especially with the accompanying sauce.

Chicken Satay was dry and I didn’t like the texture of it. The flavour of it was good, but texture played a bit part in enjoying the dish.

Crispy Tofu was a delight. It was very crispy on the outside and inside, there was the soft silky tofu. It comes with a sweet chili sauce.

Thai Style Pork Cheek were tender and full of flavour. 5 pieces to the order and each bite was really good.

Larb Gai is a spicy thai ground chicken salad with fresh lime juice, roasted rice, nam-pla and Thai spices. Surprisingly it had a good amount of heat. I love the heat since I usually find most spicy dishes, weak in spice.

Thai Shrimp Cakes is another deep fried dish and had a good amount of filling inside. Definitely a good dish to get.

Yum Neau is a Thai beef salad and was quite spicy. It has sliced grilled New York beef mixed with fresh lime juice, nam-pla and Thai chili.

Tom Yum Gai is a hot and sour soup with mushrooms, tomato, lemongrass and Thai spices. You can choose it with chicken or tofu.

Entrees

There are 10 entrees and you can choose if you want chicken, beef or vegetarian

Yellow Curry
Red Curry
Green Curry
Thai Basil Stir-fried
Thai Black bean sauce
Cashew Nut Stir-fried
Pad Thai Noodles
Pad Kee Mao
Chilli Pepper Fried Rice
Mixed Seasonal Vegetables with oyster sauce

Pad Thai Noodles is a classic dish. It has tamarind sauce, tofu, ground peanuts, egg, green onions, and bean sprouts. Pretty good item.

Red curry has coconut milk, bamboo shoots, bell peppers and fresh basil. Grab the bowl of rice and slather this curry all over it.

Yellow curry has coconut milk, diced fresh pineapple and bell peppers.

Green Curry has coconut milk, eggplant, snap peas, bell peppers and fresh basil. One of my favourite curries of the evening.

Cashew Nut Stir-fried with onions, bell peppers and roasted chili. I liked the added texture from the cashews.

Thai Basil Stir-fried with beef, Thai chili, bell peppers, green beans and fresh basil.

Mixed Seasonal Vegetables with oyster sauce was a good dish. If you love veggies, this would be a good dish to get.

Pad Kee Mao has stir-fried rice noodles with Thai chili, bell peppers, onions, green beans and fresh basil.

Chili Pepper Fried Rice with vietnamese chili, egg and diced vegetables. A filling dish with good flavour, but can be very spicy for some.

Overall, I found some dishes at Pink Elephant Thai to be a hit or miss. Chicken is a popular protein to get, but we found that it was more on the dry side. A few items I enjoyed were the Green Curry, Pad Thai, Thai shrimp cakes, larb gai, crispy tofu and the Thai fish cakes.

One thing we like about this location is the balance of flavours in the dish and the use of spiciness in certain dishes.

We Rate Pink Elephant Thai:

Address:
1152 Alberni Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://thaihouse.com/pink-elephant-thai/

In Japanese

Green Leaf Sushi: Aburi Sushi and Sashimi

April 23, 2016

Green Leaf Sushi in Kitsilano has been generating quite a buzz lately for their Aburi Sushi Platter. They have their version of Miku’s Salmon Oshi Sushi, which is driving people crazy on instagram.

We came here for dinner with the family and waited about an hour and a bit for their large table that fits 8 people. We tried making a reservation in the morning, but they need at least 24 hours notice, so we went a bit early to put our name down since we knew it would be a wait. Even for groups for 4 or 5, they also seem to wait a while.

Always best to make reservations to avoid any waiting.

Complimentary tea arrives on the table or you can ask for water. They weren’t as diligent filling up the tea, but since the restaurant was so busy, it was ok. You just need to flag down a server.

Kabocha Korokke comes with 3 pieces. There is a quail egg inside covered in winter squash. It was pretty good, but we wished there were even pieces instead of just 3 pieces.

Prawn Tempura comes with 6 pieces. Crispy golden and light batter that surrounds the prawn. You’ll need to dunk it in the sauce or else it feels a bit heavy and oily.

For the family, we shared the Aburi Sushi Platter that comes with 6 pieces of each aburi and the roll that has 8. 6 different varieties with 38 pieces in total. it takes about 30 minutes to prepare, so make sure you order this right away when you sit down.

Salmon Oshi Sushi
Basil Ebi oshi sushi
Yukke Tuna Oshi Sushi
Sime Saba Oshi Sushi
Hotate Oshi Sushi
Aburi Tobibo roll

All the rolls were really good. Fresh ingredients and lots of favour. It’s a great item to share with the table, but it is about $60 something dollars.

Salmon Sashimi uses wild salmon, so the quality is really good.

Tuna sashimi was stellar! Some pieces were basically toro. Melt in your mouth!

Saba Miso Yaki is grilled mackerel with miso sauce on top. It also have grilled onions and a side of rice.

Tuna tataki salad was good and lightly dressed with lots of greens on top.

The udon that my dad got was ok, but it reminded us of kimchi stew.

Kimchi bacon Ishiyaki was so poorly put together, whoever made it does not know how to cook rice. The rice was so mushy that you know they added too much water to the rice. Since there was so much moisture, it could barely crisp up in the hot bowl.

Chopped scallop roll, House Roll and Negitoro roll were all well put together, fresh ingredients and super tasty.

Overall, the sushi and the sashimi were very good and fresh. The quality was great, but we didn’t like the cooked items like their udon and their rice bowl. Stick with the aburi sushi and some of their rolls and you’ll have a good time.

We Rate Green Leaf Sushi:

Address:
3416 West Broadway, Vancouver

Website:
https://www.facebook.com/GreenLeafSushi/

In Bubble Tea

Boiling Point Surrey: Personal-Sized Hot Pot

April 15, 2016

Boiling Point opened their newest location in Surrey, BC close to Guildford Town Centre. Their specialty is Taiwanese hot pot and they have with a few locations in BC and more in the US.

They are best known for their personalized hot pots and bubble tea. I was invited by ChineseBites and tried all their hot pots with a few other foodie. I’ve been to the other locations, but it was nice to try another location to see whats new.

The interior is nice with the wooden panels on the walls with the rustic bricks. With the large windows, there is a lot of natural light that travels into the restaurant during the day,

Kimchi Tofu is a side dish you can order to go with your meal. The tofu was smooth and the added kimchi wasn’t spicy at all.

Garlic Pork Belly is another new side dish on their menu and it sure has a strong garlic punch when you first taste it. The flavours were nice, but I felt like it was a tad over cooked.

Our table got the Fresh Milk Tea and Hokkaido Milk tea. I would suggest getting half sweet or a quarter sweet for these drinks.Both types are good, but I prefer thee Fresh Milk Tea since it is made with real milk and has a bolder tea flavour.

If you don’t want bubble tea, you can just grab some complimentary tea or water.

Pomelo Hot Pot is a new flavour they are introducing in stores on May 1st. Currently it’s only available in the Southern California Boiling Point locations.

In the pot, you will also find napa cabbage, pork belly, shrimp, seaweed, fish, enoki mushroom, scallop, Korean bean thread, baby octopus, kamaboko, firm tofu, dried bonito flakes, and green onion. This was an interesting flavour and it had more of a tangy sourness at the end. I find the soup base affects most of the flavour, but I don’t think I really liked the flavour.

You can also choose various levels of spice for all hot pots:

No Spicy
Mild Spicy
Medium Spicy
Very Spicy
Flaming Spicy

They also have 3 sauces that you can mix together to dip your hot pot items into – chili bean sauce, garlic soy sauce and chili oil.

Korean Bean Paste Hot Pot replaced their Kimchi Hot Soup. Inside, you will find soybean sprouts, nira, green zucchini, kimchi, pork belly, fish tofu, kamaboko, tempura, rice cake, enoki mushroom,fish fillet, wok noodle, lobster fish ball, crown daisy, seaweed, and Korean paste. I liked this flavour as it has the right about of spice and I liked the wok noodles that were in this.

Beef Hot Pot is another solid item. It is packed with napa, vermicelli, sliced angus beef, enoki mushroom, tomato, firm tofu, tempura, corn, pork meat ball, kamaboko, fried tofu skin, imitation crab, green onion, and cilantro. flavours, the corn added a bit of sweetness to this dish.

Thai Flavour Hot Pot is a bit sour, a bit spicy. Deep in the hot bowels of this hot pot is cabbage, taro stem, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, cuttlefish ring, fish ball, clam, crab, baby octopus,maitake mushroom, shrimp, and cilantro. I never liked the sour spicy flavour combination, so this wasn’t for me. I found the shells of the crab and shrimp hard to bite into.

Lamb Hot Pot was made flaming spicy to feel the spectrum of spiciness. It was hot, but not up to my category of flaming. Others may feel it as atomic. Always best to have it mild spicy or medium spicy.

In this pot, you will find napa, vermicelli, sliced lamb, enoki mushroom, imitation crab stick, kamanoko, pork blood ricecake, maitake mushroom, clam, pickled mustard greens, firm tofu, tempura, fried tofu skin, egg, green onion, and cilantro.

This was the mild lamb hot pot, the broth looks less spicy and tame.

Japanese Miso Hot Pot was another favourite. A good balance of meat and veggie in this dish.

You will find inside the pot – cabbage, udon, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, clam, fish ball, fish fillet, maitake mushroom, crab, fried tofu skin, soft tofu, egg, and green onion.

The broth is mild and goes with the ingredients very well. Not too salty either.

Curry Fishball Hot Pot is a classic and is only sold in Canada. You won’t find this in their US locations. I like this dish and you will find sliced pork in this dish in addition to the fish balls. The curry broth is thin and very flavourful. Not too salty either.

The is Napa, Vermicelli, Slice Pork, Enoki Mushroom, Imitation Crab Stick, Fish Ball, Fried Tofu Skin, Corn, Tempura, Mountain Yam, Chinese String Bean, Egg, Green Onion.

They place the fish balls very strategically so you think they are 4 full fish balls.

Taiwanese Spicy Hot Pot comes in only flaming spicy, so you don’t have an option to make it mild.

It has cabbage, instant noodle, sliced Angus beef, tempura, enoki mushroom, clam, fish ball, cuttlefish ring, pork intestine, pork blood rice cake, fried tofu skin, maitake mushroom, frozen tofu, greenonion, and topped with cilantro.

Some may want to grab a bubble tea or old water to go with this.

Snow Cubes are a nice little treat after the meal to quell the hot heat of the hot pots. These flavours were green tea, pudding, taro and strawberry.

I went with the green tea since it’s not too sweet.

Overall, the hot pots had lot of ingredients inside, but we did find that it was mostly about the broth that enhanced the experience. Curry Fishball Hot Pot, Korean Bean Paste Hot Pot, and Japanese Miso Hot Pot were my top 3 choices. With all the dishes, we did find that the meat all lumped together and was hard to pull apart. Anything with crab is super hard to eat since you have to pick out the meat from inside the shell.

If you’re craving for some hot soupy dish on cold rainy days, definitely check it out.

We Rate Boiling Point Surrey:

Address:
102-15146 100th Avenue, Surrey

Website:
http://bpgroupusa.com/

In Bubble Tea

Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant: Taiwanese + HK Style Cafe

April 10, 2016

Duotian Fish Noodles Restaurant is a mix of Hong Kong Style Cafe and Taiwanese Cafe. They are located in the plaza on 1st Avenue where T&T is located. They specialize in fish soup noodles, rice hot pots, Western dishes and hot pot meals.

I was invited to attend as part of ChineseBites to try a variety of items off their menu.

The seats inside have large booth and smaller tables.

Complimentary tea arrives in these metal cups. The handle seems to be made of plastic since the color has rubbed off.

One of their popular options is creating your own noodle soup with all these customizable options.’

You can choose your soup base, toppings, type of noodles, drinks and any extra items on the side.

One the reverse side, you can customize your congee or rice hot pots.

Laksa with rice noodles, BBQ pork and sliced beef brisket. Not bad at all, but there are a few other places in town that do customizable laksa a lot better, but if you don’t want to travel far, this will do.

For our customizable Rice Hot Pot, we got salty fish with pork and chicken with octopus. It is topped with bok choy to give it a bit of color.

When we dug in, it was pretty good. The combination of the meat and the salty fish worked really well.

Grabbing an Iced Milk Tea or Ice Coffee Tea mix is classic for Hong Kong style cafes. Both very good! We asked them to make it with less sugar. You will need to stir it a bit more to incorporate all the ingredients.

Iced Lemon Tea is another popular choice too. You have to take your straw and spoon to crush up the lemon slices to get more flavour out of it.

The bubble tea on the other hand wasn’t as good. The pearls were hard and could have used more time cooking.

Baked Spaghetti with meat sauce is one of my go to dishes at these types of cafes. All that meat sauce and cheese covering each strand of spaghetti.

Butter Biscuit toast was ok, but I felt the topping was too sweet. I wouldn’t be able to eat an entire slice by myself. Each of us had a quarter of the toast and it was enough to quell our sweet tooth.

Deep fried fish cake was ok. It had a slight sweetness to them.

Baked pork chop on rice with tomatoes bacon sauce was delicious. You can’t go wrong with pork chops and cheesy sauce.

Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets is a classic item to order. Crisp on the outside and a good amount of salt and pepper.

Yang Chow Fried Rice was a bit bland and sub par. The rice was hard and the texture was off.

Congee with sliced beef and fish balls. We wanted the BBQ quick but it was already sold out.

The first few tastes of the congee, it tasted burnt and there really isn’t a way to mask it.

It also comes with a pan-fried green onion cake as part of the congee combo.

Overall, the dishes were definitely a hit and miss. The most basic dishes weren’t executed well like congee and fried rice. The baked Western dishes and noodle soup dishes were decent.

We Rate Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant:

Address:
#212 – 2800 E. 1st Ave.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://duotian.ca/

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 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 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 Cafe

Ha Cafe: Vietnamese Cuisine

January 2, 2016

Ha Cafe is a Vietnamese cafe located in the Old Orchard Centre near Metrotown. KoreanGirl and I wanted to grab some pho but find a place that we haven’t been before. Looking up online, Ha Cafe seemed like a promising restaurant, plus it wasn’t far from home.

The space isn’t too large but their mirrors in the back make it seem like a bigger space. The space is decently clean but there is a bit of a draft closer to the washroom.

Spring Rolls has 3 pieces per order and you can choose between meat or veggie. We got the meat spring rolls and it was very crunchy and was very tasty. I would highly recommend it.

Special Beef Noodle and Soup has beef brisket, rare beef, tripe, and beef balls, rice noodles, bean sprouts, onions and cilantro. I found the broth to be quite clean tasting. It’s not overly salted and it kinda has a corn taste. The bowls are big but the broth is definitely different from most places. Sweet, but it seems to lack depth.

Spicy Beef Noodle and Soup has beef flank, Vietnamese ham, rare beef in spicy beef soup, rice noodles, bean sprouts, onions and cilantro. It’s supposed to come with thick vermicelli noodles, but we asked for the rice noodles instead. It’s not too spicy but it has a bit of a kick. To have it more spicy, we just added chili oil to it.

Overall, not a bad alternative for Pho in the area. Looking at the menu and what other people were ordering, the rice/vermicelli bowls were popular and so was the banh mi sandwiches. Prices were good under $10. The pho is large but the broth is sweeter and lacks depth to it.

We Rate Ha Cafe:

Address:
Old Orchard Centre, 28-4429 Kingsway, Burnaby

In Kid Friendly

Harvest Community Foods: Ramen and Grocery Store

November 15, 2015

Established in 2012, Harvest Community Foods is a community-driven retail space. As voted on by Chinatown-Strathcona residents, the grocery provides local, seasonal food products. The business also offers Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, further fostering accessibility to B.C. produce.

Chef and owner, Andrea Carlson has revamped prepared grocery eats with heartwarming and sophisticated ramen dishes. More than a market, the store serves as a community gathering place for good eats, conversation, and appreciation of local fare.

When you walk into the store, you will see a variety of products like:

To Die For Fine Foods
Namasthé Tea
Vancouver Island Salt
Bittered Slings
Vancouver Honey
Noble Handcrafted Maple
Sapadilla Soaps
Earnest Ice Cream
Solefood Greens
Sugo Sauce

Of course many more items. It’s not a large store, but you’ll find a bit of everything you need.

Freshly made jams are available too.

Harvest Community Foods draws large crowds during lunch for their Harvest noodles.

It’s made all in-house.

The most popular ramen on the menu is the #39 Ramen with pork shoulder, radish, egg, and candied bacon.

How can you not say no to this beautiful creation. It’s not authentic Japanese ramen, but they put their own twist on it. This is my favourite dish too. The bacon and egg are just amazing.

They also sell some cold sweet treats like Brown Paper Packages Ice Cream and Earnest Ice Cream.

Really, how can you say no to Ice Cream? I used to come here often for Earnest Ice Cream before they opened another location on Quebec and 2nd close to Science World.

They even have drinking vinegar from Pok Pok. No more trips to the states are needed to get these.

If you’re ever in the area, stop by for a bowl of ramen and check out some cool local products.

We Rate Harvest Community Foods:

Address:
243 Union Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://harvestunion.ca/

In Downtown

Sanuki Udon: Udon Bar on Robson Street

October 24, 2015

Sanuki Udon is another new udon bar to pop up in Vancouver. Located right on Robson street in Downtown Vancouver, they serve up fresh handmade udon with different broths and toppings. No MSG or preservatives are used.

The restaurant is quite small and has a few seats. The space is set up like a cafeteria where you just go down station by station to craft your udon meal.

When you’re lining up to order, you can see their 5 steps to dining here.

Take a tray and select one of 6 udon options and size
Select tempura and onigiri to compliment the udon
Enjoy additional complimentary condiments
Slurp and enjoy
Return tray

They have 6 kinds of udon bowls:

Kitsune Udon
Niku Udon
Pork Kimchi Udon
Curry Udon
Kaku Udon
Zaru Udon

They all come in 2 sizes, regular and large.

The noodles are heated up in the vat of water before putting it into the bowl.

In goes the broth.

They grab meat from a big container and put it into the bowl.

Once you get your bowl of udon ready, you can sprinkle on green onions and tempura bits free of charge.

Closer to the cashier, you will see woven baskets filled with different types of tempura. There weren’t a lot of tempura in the basket making it seem like the leftover bits.

Curry Udon seemed watery and lacked the depth of taste. After a while, the tempura bits I put on top got soggy and melded together to form a clumpy mass. I felt like I could make a better version at home.

The tempura was still crisp. I got the sweet potato tempura, yam tempura, and chikuwa tempura. Decent taste, but it was pretty average.

It’s an interesting concept for an udon bar, but the broth and tempura weren’t enticing enough. It felt like cafeteria udon where it’s slapped together for efficiency. I still prefer ramen over udon.

I wasn’t impressed with the taste and the other people I was dining with felt that it was lacking as well. Definitely room for improvement.

We Rate Sanuki Udon:

Address:
1226 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://sanukiudon.ca/

In Chinatown

Fat Mao Noodles: New in Chinatown

August 23, 2015

Fat Mao is the latest addition to Chinatown. Recently, there has been a bunch of new restaurants opening up nearby like Torafuku and Ramen Butcher. Since I work close to this area, I get super excited when something new opens up.

Chef Angus An’s (chef and owner of Maenam) newest venture serves noodle dishes inspired by a range of Asian cuisines. Recipes at Fat Mao are inspired by Chef Angus’s travels in Asia and his favourite family meals from childhood. Flavourful curries, sauces, and rice and wheat noodles are made fresh from scratch, and dishes touch on Thai, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Singaporean cuisines.

The casual 25-seater is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Sunday from 11am. Fat Mao will stay open until noodles run out, or 10pm—whichever comes first. Dishes are affordably priced under $12.

I came here with my coworkers during lunch and we were excited to give it a try.

While you wait for your order, you can read some Slam Dunk comics. If you can’t read Chinese like me…you can just look at the pictures. hahaha.

Century Egg with House Tofu ($7.99) is a nice dish to share in addition with your own individual noodles. I love this dish as the egg and the tofu are perfect matches. We were amazed by how smooth the tofu was.

Braised Duck Noodles ($11.99) comes with a huge duck leg which was awesome. They use rice noodles rolls in this dish. I didn’t like the use of the noodles as they didn’t really match to soak up the broth. The sauce is more thin compared to some of the other dishes. The broth was bland and I didn’t like it very much.

The waitress also suggested to add a few scoops of the hot vinegar sauce. It didn’t really help with the flavours either.

Koh Soi – Chiang Mai Curry Chicken ($11.99) was our favourite dish from the group. The sauce was pretty good, the chicken leg was huge and we loved the added texture from the crunchy bits on top. We would definitely recommend this.

Taiwanese-style Beef Noodle ($11.99) was another good dish according to Anne. Its well-balanced and has a good amount of beef.

Dan Dan Noodles ($8.99) is made with the same noodles as the curry noodles. My other coworker enjoyed it.

In the end, a bowl full of noodles and a shared side dish was just the right amount. Most of the dishes were fusion and the lack of descriptions on the menu may surprise some when the food arrives. The price is good for lunch but you definitely should get the Koh Soi – Chiang Mai Curry Chicken dish.

If you eat all the way down into your noodle bowl, you will find a cute surprise. Meow.

We Rate Fat Mao:

Address:
217 East Georgia Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.fatmaonoodles.com/

In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Angie’s Malaysian Eatery: Hainanese Chicken near Edmonds

August 15, 2015

Angie’s Malaysian Eatery just opened up last May and they sell a fusion Hawker-style food from Brunei. I am on the search for the best Hainanese Chicken in the Lower Mainland, so I had to make a stop here. They are a family-run business, so its quite cool to see how they work together.

I came here around 6pm on a Friday and it was packed. Word must have spread about this little restaurant really quickly. It’s great that they were doing so well. We noticed there were a lot of large groups that took up most the tables.

Roti Canai comes with a small bowl of curry sauce for dipping. The roti itself was a bit disappointing as it was not very crispy. Quite doughy. I would of like it if they cooked it for longer.

Despite the texture of the roti, my friend still enjoyed it. I think it was mostly because of the curry sauce.

Curry Chicken Rice needed more meat in it. We mostly got vegetables in ours. It was good, but the curry was quite watery too. The portion is meant for one person, but I think you may need something extra to get full.

Seria Kolomee it has fish cake, BBQ Pork, minced meat sauce, fried shallots, veggies on top of dry noodles. It also came with a calamansi lime and some pickled peppers on the side.

I thought it was pretty good.

Hainanese Chicken is the personal sized dish and probably their most popular item. The chicken is cut up into very think pieces and comes with rice and a chilli vinegar sauce. The portion is definitely a bit on the small side. The chicken was small, so we wanted more.

We got their entree version that has double the amount of chicken.

Buttermilk Tiger Prawn comes with the shells intact with the delicious sauce and sprinkled with fried shallots. It got quite messy trying to remove the shells as the sauce would go everywhere.

Overall,the food was pretty good but I wish the portions were a bit bigger. The prices are reasonable as everything is mostly under $10.

We Rate Angie’s Malaysian Eatery:

Address:
7355 Edmonds Street, Burnaby

In Kid Friendly

Prata Man: Singapore Cuisine in Richmond

August 8, 2015

Prata Man Singapore Cuisine is located in Richmond in Oak’s Plaza on Capstain Way and Garden City Road. A lot of people have been telling me to come here to check out their Hainanese Chicken.

This place is cash only, so make sure you have some before coming here. Typical Richmond right?

The interior is alright, but not easy on the eyes. Very basic, but it will do. The service was quite bad when we were here, but we really focused more on the food. One of the neighbouring tables helped us flag down a waitress to get us some plates and utensils to share the food.

Single order of Hainanese Chicken with soup and rice ($7.25) was a pretty good sized meal for one. The chicken was nice and cold. When it’s dunked into the ginger and green onion oil, it’s so damn good. We didn’t really use the other sauce as it’s really all about the other sauce.

Curry Beef with Prata Bread ($7.95) was pretty good too. I liked the curry sauce and the huge chunks of beef.

The prata bread was pretty flat and dense like a pancake and not flakey all. It was ok, but i have no idea what prata bread is supposed to be like.

Mee Goreng ($6.50) was very different than what I usually would think it would look like. Either way, it was delicious and one of our favourite items from the menu.

BBQ Satay Skewers (half dozen – $7.95) we asked them for 2 chicken, 2 beef and 2 pork. These were ok but a bit on the drier side. I’ll probably pass on this next time.

Overall, I was impressed by the Hainanese Chicken, Curry and the Mee Goreng noodles. The prices are quite good and we all left with a very good impression. We were able to overlook the bad service since it is a family run restaurant. It’s all about the food right? I’m sure the food here isn’t 100% Singaporean cuisine, but good food is good food.

We Rate Prata Man Singaporean Cuisine:

Address:
Oak’s Plaza, 9060-9020 Capstan Way, Richmond

In Cafe

Cafe de l’Orangerie: Amazing Japanese Pasta

April 13, 2015

Cafe de L’Orangerie is now located in Marpole, a few minutes away from the Vancouver International Airport. They are a Japanese-style cafe serving up their interpretation of Western food.

After coming here, I really wish they had more locations. I love this type of food. You will find on their menu – pasta, curry, hamburg steak, beef stew, and teriyaki. Sounds pretty boring, but once you eat it, you won’t regret it.

I came here with the lovely ladies of Gastrofork – Dee and Nat to film a short interview … and eat of course!

London Fog ($4.55) is a black tea latte with vanilla and steamed milk. Mmmm my favourite! Seriously, I’m going on a long streak of ordering london fogs. It’s essentially my coffee alternative.

Campari Lemon ($6.50) is an alcoholic beverage with the bitter taste of Campari and limonata lemon juice cocktail. Nat and her early morning cocktails. She even got ID’d.

Matcha Green Tea Latte ($4.55) was what Dee ordered. Looks very vibrant and green due to the matcha. You can’t go wrong with this drink.

Curry with Pork Cutlet ($11.95) looks delicious and has a generous portion of curry to rice ratio.

Spaghetti Carbonara ($9.80) has bacon, mushroom, garlic, egg, cheese, and cream. OMG so good! I ate all o fit and didn’t even leave a single noodle on the plate. SO GOOD!