M’s Food Court Corner Archives

In Japanese

Kimura: Changes in Portion Sizes Makes Me Sad

September 3, 2011

It’s always a good end to a day by having a delicious Japanese dinner with friends. Since Fabo is leaving soon to the east coast, she wanted to come here to eat their crispy rice. I came with her before, but I guess it was time for a revisit since it’s been a few month, who knows what has changed.

2L Asahi ($27) was their only option. They didn’t have any pitchers, so we had to get this. I dont think they have anything on tap, so most of their alcohol is just bought from the store.

Hakutsuru Sake ($21) is a cold bottled sake you would also find at any liquor store. I’m not exactly sure why M chose this sake, but I guess he wanted to try something different since he always just orders the hot sake.

Chicken Curry ($11.50) comes with the side of curry, rice and chicken cutlet. M enjoyed this since it really brought him back to the days when he visited Japan. This dish is pretty large, so don’t order too many dishes.

Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice ($4.50) is much smaller than I remember! It has pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is also garnished with jalapeno, and various sauces. I think there are now 70% of their original size. It was still good, but it was just so disappointing to see it so big, to being so small.

Oyster shooter ($3.50) usually comes with the omakase, but I didn’t want to spent $30 to just have it in my meal, so I asked for an order of it and it was totally fine! It has quail egg on top, oyster on the bottom with ponzu and soy sauce mixture. I am not exactly sure what was 100% in the shooter, but it didn’t taste too bad. Just remember to mix it before drinking.

Everyone else at my table just stared at me as I drank this. They thought it was the strangest thing in the world.

They had a Black Cod Special ($19.50) that comes with grilled black cod, tempura, sashimi, yakitori, kobachi, rice and miso soup! I thought it was a pretty good deal since you get to try so many different items.

The miso soup is always my favorite since it has more than just the water, paste and green onions, He ads some tofu curds into it the soup so there is more texture.

Kobachi just means little dish. It has cucumbers and conch (I think). I’m not 100% sure, but it kinda tasted like it. It was a refreshing dish.

The Assorted Tempura had a light coating of the tempura batter and was nicely fried. What I like about their ebi is how they salt it a little but before battering. When you bite into it, you can taste more the of ebi and it really stands out.

Yakitori in this special comes with 2 skewers. One with chicken and bits of wasabi and mushroom and peppers. Their yakitori is pretty good! I think there might have been cheese wrapped around both of these. Yum!

The sashimi has salmon and tuna. Very thin sliced delicate pieces. I prefer my sashimi small because you can really taste the quality and favours of it.

Black Cod is the main dish of the combo and I have never had black cod till now! It is the most delicious delicate fish you will ever have. It is so fatty that it literally just melts in your mouth!

Another good experience at Kimura, it’s also good to note that some portions of items have changed. Spicy tuna Crispy rice…why couldn’t you have stayed the same size. I guess thats why revisits are good. Fabo was disappointed by the size too since she expected the size to be the same. Despite that little change, we all had a good time…and they way you can tell that is when the bill is over $200…for 6 people… ouch!

Words of Wisdom:

Grilled Black Cod and yakitori is delicious
They now accept reservation again!
Parking in front or in residential areas
Customizable dishes, order off the menu
Sushi is not very good
Best to stick with combos and special to get the bang out of your buck

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant:

Website: http://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

In Fast Food

M’s Food Court Corner: The Return of the KFC Double Down

June 15, 2011

Welcome to another M’s Food Court Corner! Today I tried the Double Down from KFC at Brentwood Mall. Yep, they just had to bring this heart attack in a box back for a limited time. For those who never heard of this infamous creation of gluttony, the Double Down is 2 chicken breasts put together with Swiss Cheese, a sort of an aioli sauce, and bacon in the middle. No bread; the chicken is the bread!

I tried taking down the Double Down when it came to Canada late last year. However, the three attempts I tried it, I couldn’t finish more than half of it. The reason was that the 2 chicken breasts were unbearably salty. Like literally eating rock salt with bacon and cheese. I asked the KFC workers on the third attempt to make the chicken breasts less salty, but they said they couldn’t change anything! I should’ve said, “Screw you guys, I’m going home” but nope, had to bite a block of salt that is the Double Down again.

I wouldn’t have taken the Double Down ever again, even if it came back, but a recent commercial on TV from KFC said that the chicken breasts were the Colonel’s Original Recipe. I decided to do another plunge of faith and I’m happy to announce I was not disappointed. First the price is of course ridiculous, $6.99 for the Double Down by itself and $8.99 for the combo. Might as well get the combo. I guess if it was any less expensive, Canadians might get as fat as Americans. They said it would take 5 minutes to prepare so we just sipped on the Pepsi for 10 minutes. 15 minutes later, our Double Down’s were done! I actually saw them dunk breaded chicken breasts in the deep fryer so I was pleasantly surprised KFC’s commercials wasn’t all lies.

The return of Double Down comes with less salty original recipe chicken breasts, so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Still a little bit salty, but what do you expect with bacon, cheese, and fried chicken? The chicken was delicious, and the cheese was plentiful. The bacon was not that great however. Definitely worth shaving a few minutes from your life span to try.

M’s Words of Food Court Wisdom:

Paying $6.99 for just the Double Down isn’t worth it, just get the combo for the drink.
Double Down is very hot! No bread to save your fingers from hot meats!
If you tried the Double Down last year and didn’t like it, give this new one a try.

M’s Food Court Corner Rating: (Not to be compared with Design Girl’s “real” restaurant rating.)

KFC Locations:

All Major Malls

In BBQ

M’s Food Court Corner: Gourmet Barbeque

June 10, 2011

Hello to another Mark’s Food Court Corner! Today I will be reviewing Gourmet Barbeque in Lougheed Mall Food Court. Guess which mall I live close to? No not Lougheed, but I do find myself there quite a lot.

Gourmet Barbeque isn’t a chain as far as I know, it has a similar looking food court restaurant right next to it, so I figure its owned by the same person. Gourmet Barbeque when I first saw it looked sketch; I think the sign and menus threw me off a bit. Don’t let the appearance fool you, this place is awesome!

Gourmet Barbeque serves everything from Greek to Chinese food. I sometimes get their Lamb Pita, because their lamb has a nice unique smoky taste. However, today I decided to get, what I always get, the Chicken Curry on Rice ($5.49). Awesome value for a plate of rice with generous serving of chicken curry. The curry itself is unique. It’s not straight up Chinese curry but close to it. Chicken is boneless, which is a bonus, and it also has carrot and potatoes. Not spicy at all, but pretty flavourful. $5.50 for a big plate of rice and curry from a food court? Definitely a must get!

To switch things up, I got their Spring Rolls ($2.99). Nothing special here, but has a nice chewy/crunchy texture. Eating both dishes I was stuffed out my mind!

So if you are at Lougheed Mall, don’t go straight to a chain food court restaurant try out the Gourmet Barbeque!

M’s Words of Food Court Wisdom:

Curry Chicken a must!
Great value, good food.
Get a medium Coke from the fountain with the Curry, matches perfectly!

M’s Food Court Corner Rating: (Not to be compared with Design Girl’s “real” restaurant rating.)

Gourmet Barbeque Locations:

Lougheed Mall

In M's Food Court Corner

M’s Food Court Corner: Thai Express

May 22, 2011

Welcome to the first article of many of M’s Food Court Corner. I will be reviewing the different food court restaurants in Vancouver and the tri-city area specifically for young bachelor’s with no money like me! I won’t be going to the same chains in different food courts, but if you find a better than average chain at your favorite food court, be sure to let me know!

The first M’s Food Court Corner restaurant I reviewed is the recently opened Thai Express in Lougheed Mall. I also saw that there is a Thai Express in Surrey and it looks identical! I actually went to this Lougheed chain twice and will recount both times that I ate there.

To start off, Thai Express looks uber classy and modern! I love their brand and the black and green. It definitely is more appealing and attractive than any other Food Court restaurant. I ordered the General Curry with Red Sauce the first time and the Green sauce the second. Anything that starts with General in Thai Curry refers to the deep fried chicken bits that they add to the dish. I have to say General chicken is delicious and fits very well with any of the curries.

They have 3 types of curry sauces to choose from: Red, Yellow, and Green. Red is the spiciest and has a special ingredient – bamboo! Yellow is medium spiciness while Green is the mildest of them all with a special ingredient – eggplant. When I first had Thai Express my Korean side screamed for hellfire, and thus I chose the Red sauce curry ($7.58) thinking I would becoming a raging fire breathing dragon. Alas, it was not that spicy. So mild in fact, adding sriracha sauce would’ve made it meh.

The green sauce General Curry ($7.58) was actually more flavorful because it wasn’t trying to be spicy. I’m no fan of eggplant, but it worked in the Green sauce curry. The bamboo in the red sauce was bland. Both curry dishes comes with a nice helping of delicious white rice and I had no problem balancing out the rice with the curry.

I didn’t get the spring roll the first time around, but apparently they come together if you “combo” it up with a drink and your selection of entrée. The eggroll did not look good and tasted like a badly made grocery store bought one. It was weird it was put in a paper bag like some bread.

The price was normal for this sort of food from a food court. I recommend getting the Pepsi ($1.88) to balance out the curry.

M’s Words of Food Court Wisdom:

Awesome branding and look. It’s cool to watch the chefs make your curry in a flash of fire in front of you while you wait.
I recommend trying it once. It is sort of pricey for Thai, but you pay for the uniqueness.
Pass on the Spring Roll.

M’s Food Court Corner Rating: (Not to be compared with Design Girl’s “real” restaurant rating.)