Category

Seafood

Category

After hearing so much about Joe Fortes, I thought it was time to go! A group of us went during lunchtime because they have $10 Blue plate specials and  Prix Fixe set meals for either 14.95 (2 dishes)or 17.95 (3 dishes).

Since Joe Fortes is a seafood restaurant, Insecuregirl, Fragileboy and I decided to order some oysters! We love oysters, we would probably drink oyster if we wanted to. We started off with 3 types of oysters – Kumamoto, Joe’s Gold and Local Beach. If you do not know anything about oysters, just ask the waitress/waiter for suggestions because you don’t want to end up with oysters that taste nasty.

The Kumamoto Oyster had a firm texture and a rich creamy flavour. The after taste was quite interesting since it ended with a buttery-sweet and mildly fruity, with just a hint of briny flavour. Apparently it’s very popular. I really loved this one a lot. As you can tell, this oyster came from Japan.

Joe’s gold was a bigger than the Kumamoto Oyster. Joe’s gold oyster had a mild, fresh flavour with a sweet finish. These oysters are specially ordered from Saw Mill Bay for Joe Fortes…thus the name – Joe’s gold.

The last oyster – Local beach was about the same size as Joe’s gold. It also had a mild fresh flavour but it also tasted salty and briny.

For more info on local BC oysters check out:
http://www.pacifickiss.ca/about-bc-oysters/bc-oyster-buyers-guide

Enough about oysters, let’s get back to the meal! InsecureGirl, CanuckGirl and I had the Cup of New England Clam chowder as an appetizer, part of our prix fixe meal set. It came with oyster crackers on the side to add into the Clam chowder. Inside the clam chowder there were cream, potatoes, bacon, thyme and of course clams. It was an ok chowder but I really wished there were more clams in the chowder because I didn’t find much of it expect for maybe half a clam. The crackers were a nice touch when you wanted more texture in your chowder.

M and FragileBoy had the Halibut and Chips. M’s Halibut came on his dish looking like a fish. It was super amazing because FragileBoy’s Halibut looked nothing like a fish. The batter was really nice and crispy. The halibut inside was perfectly done on the inside. There was also tartar sauce to dip the halibut into. The tartar sauce tasted like normal tartar sauce but with more of a dill taste. The fries on th bottom were really good as well. One thing the whole table agreed on was that the fries had a “Mc Donald’s” aftertaste, which was interesting, but it made us all want to eat it more.

InsecureGirl, TaiwaneseGirl and CanuckGirl all got the Wild Salmon with mashed potatoes. The Salmon was just ok by itself but if you ate it with the corn and peppers on the bottom, it just adds to the dish so much more! The sweetness from the corn really balances out the taste.

I ordered the blue cheese meatloaf. It was really good since I’ve actually never had meatloaf before. Tasted really good with the corn on the bottom. I found that it was quite a large dish for myself and was quite meaty…since it is a meatloaf. I wanted more vegetables to really break the meaty taste from my mouth.

To finish everything off, there was dessert! I ordered the Vanilla crème brulee.

The crème brulee was nice and crunchy at the top and creamy at the bottom. I didn’t like the mound of whipped cream on the side. I didn’t think it added much to the dish.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered the Vanilla Gelato with Chocolate Ganache drizzled on top. The wafer and the chocolate ganache added a lot of texture to the gelato. It was very well done and great dessert to finish the meal.

For the price of the food, it could have been way better since there are so many other seafood restaurants in Vancouver. I might as well spend the same amount of money elsewhere to get better food with more amounts.

Joe Fortes is the king of seafood but the menu is quite pricy if you go for dinner. If you want to try this place out for lunch, it is way cheaper. A lot of the food we ordered was just ok and not super fantastical delicious.

We rate Joe Fortes:

Check out Joe Fortes website: http://www.joefortes.ca/
Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House on Urbanspoon

I was at work at a special event at Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. At lunch I really wanted seafood and my friend had a craving for clam chowder!

After walking around loops at the market, we had decided to try out Screaming Mimi, which apparently has a good selection of seafood as well as dishes with seafood. Located right near the plaza, it is in a spot with lots of traffic. Since the place is inside Lonsdale Quay, their seating is limited and the ambiance is pretty ugly. When they are very busy, the service is slow, so you will need to flag someone down for an order.

TaiwanGirl decided to order first and got a large Cream Roma Clam Chowder. Unlike the traditional clam chowder, it was a mix of cream and tomato together to make a very nice soup. What amazed TaiwanGirl was how many clams they gave you in the soup. They scooped one huge ladle of clams into the cup and then filled it with the soup. She commented saying how it was totally worth the $4 since it had so many clams and also they were delicious!


Right after, I ordered a large tomato clam chowder because there was no more Cream Roma soup left. But nonetheless it was good trying something different. I too was amazed by the amount of clams they gave and how delicious they were! I am a huge seafood fan, if I had to drink seafood, I probably would. In addition to the chowder, I got the fried oysters. WOW! These were so delicious and I am going to get these again! It was not oily or strangely cooked. It tasted like what an oyster should taste like. You can even taste the butter that the oysters were fried in. It gives it a nice texture of crunchiness. You can order these as single, doubles or colossal! And they are around $2 each.

If you are on the quay and craving some seafood while looking at the river and the sight of downtown Vancouver, you must try Screaming Mimi! If you love seafood, you will end up screaming for more Screaming Mimi! But don’t expect too much from their decor.

 

We rate Screaming Mimi:

Screaming Mimi is located at:
123 Carrie Cates Crt
North Vancouver, BC
Screaming Mimi's on Urbanspoon