Follow Me Foodie - Vancouver Restaurant Guide

Follow Me Foodie is MOVING!

2010-03-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

In the next few days you will notice some changes because Follow Me Foodie is moving homes! The address is: www.followmefoodie.com, but it will have a makeover...yes I'm trying to impress you...not only will it look more delicious, but it will be much much easier to read!

Thank you for your patience.

PS: I will be away from April 1 - May 3 in Asia. I will still be updating the Follow Me Foodie website but not daily. So please continue visiting because I'll have upcoming international posts!

xoxo
Mijune
Follow Me Foodie

Paul’s Place Omelettery

2010-03-21T03:30:00.001-07:00

Restaurant: Paul’s Place Omelettery

Cuisine: Breakfast/Brunch
Last visited: March 14, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Fairview/South Granville)
2211 Granville Street
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4 (based on 3 items)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

Breakfast all-day
Breakfast/Lunch only
Open daily 7am-3pm
Looks nicer insider than outside
Popular to locals
Famous for omelettes
+ $.75 for egg whites
Busy/line-ups for brunch
Free refills on coffee
Cocktails available
Cappuccino/Mocha/Latte/Espresso
Burgers/Sandwiches for lunch options
Washrooms are not wheelchair accessible (upstairs)
Meter parking

**Recommendation: Da Vinci Omelette (also haven’t tried enough)

I’ve heard so many hit and miss stories about Paul’s Place Omelettery that I finally made the effort to check it out myself. It’s undeniable that it’s a local favourite and that it’s packed and busy with line-ups out the door for Sunday brunch. I’d wait 15min, but not more than that…that’s how good it is. So good enough to wait a bit, but not that long…make sense?

Knowing what to expect will help make your decision and settle whatever differences people may have over it.

These are not your traditional fluffy and hearty omelettes – so if you like those you’re at the wrong place. These omelettes are almost gourmet style, They’re delicate and almost crepe like with lots of filling. It’s quite cheap especially for the area but the portions are also quite small. It also totally depends on what you order. The server was a vegetarian so it as hard to get a recommendation. I want to go back to make a bigger dent in the menu…so I would go back but it’s not urgent.

Paul’s Place Omelettery is most famous for their omelettes which are made with 3 eggs, cheddar, edam and cream cheese unless specified otherwise. (You’re pretty much paying for the stuffing/cheese because the omelette is pretty small…they must use 3 mini eggs)

Added note: Apparently food and service was better with original owner Paul. I can’t add to that b/c I don’t know as this was my 1^st visit.

On the table:

Da Vinci Omelette 5/6

Wild game chorizo sausage, mushroom, tomato, spinach & Feta only $9.95
Includes buttered multi-grain toast, our signature jam and fruit. Add pan fries $1.50.
It really bothers me that it was $1.50 for pan fries…I think it should come standard on any breakfast plate.
Anyways…this is the most popular omelette.
My friend got it with egg whites – yeah if you don’t have to…don’t.

The omelettes are made with real eggs but they’re really thin and delicate almost like egg crepes without the flour. I think they add a lot of cream/milk to them so they’re really thin and pliable. The best part is that they’re perfectly cooked…barely any brown.

It savoury, spicy and juicy with the sautéed veggies. It’s packed with a fair amount of ingredients and a decent amount of Feta that gave a creamy salty bite to the whole omelette.

The wild game sausage isn’t gamey so I liked it. I’m very sensitive to this flavour too. It’s nice and spicy, but also store bought…but I still liked it.
The jam I thought was a slightly better store-bought brand of jam…I honestly wouldn’t have been able to tell it was “signature” until re-reading it now…it didn’t taste homemade at all.

They serve it with 2 different hot sauces.
The one in the squirt bottle is similar to a pureed salsa. It’s not exactly chunky, but there are some finely pureed tomatoes. It’s very tangy and the kick is totally afterwards.
The one in the vinegar is almost like a Frank’s hot sauce.

The Devon 3.5/6

Smoked salmon, shrimp, asparagus, onion & Brie only. (The seafood is served cold) $10.50
It was one of those it’s good until I have someone else’s…and then mine isn’t that good anymore.

It was a bit sweet for me…especially after having the other omelette. Then I just couldn’t get over the sweetness. It might have been too many caramelized onions.

It’s packed with ingredients and about 2 asparagus spears in here so they don’t cheap out on that part.

The part that bothered me was that the brie didn’t melt. I just ate cube of brie. I think I had 4 pretty big pieces and I was surprised to get so much.

Pancake 2.5/6

Single Pancake (Side) $1.95
I ordered a single pancake because I like trying pancakes…although nothing will beat the biggest pancake ever I had in LA or the lemon ricotta blueberry pancakes in Kelowna.
This was actually a pretty big pancake so I was happy. It was sitting for a while but they were really busy so I think it could have tasted better.
The pancakes here are almost like cupcakes, but not as sweet. I think they use cake flour and they might even use some vanilla extract or a little bit of sugar because they have a cake flavour to them.

It looks good and tasted good but the texture wasn’t soft and fluffy. It was slightly rubbery and that’s because it was overcooked. they have the potential to be really good, but they just need to be fresh and eaten right away.
I had to saw through it…mind you it was a butter knife…but pancakes shouldn’t require steak knives…or even any knife.

They serve it with pancake syrup and not maple syrup...that’s extra.

Maple Castella - Pork Floss Bread

2010-03-20T03:27:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: Maple Castella - Pork Floss Bread
Cuisine: Bakery/Breads/Pastries/Desserts
Last visited: March 7, 2010

Area: Richmond, BC
#1068 - 8700 McKim Way (In Admiralty Cenre)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (6 for hits, 2 for miss)
Service: n/a (biased b/c they know me now)

Ambiance: 2.5

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

Taiwanese bakery in Richmond
Specializes in Taiwanese buns/baked goods (sweet & savoury)
All breads/buns made on site daily
Amazing breads and buns - cookies not as great though
Bread are more on the sweeter side
Always busy, familiar to locals and Chinese
Taiwanese bakery not Cantonese - so buns are different than Chinese bakeries like Maxim's
Closed Thursday
Smells absolutely delicious inside and outside the bakery

**Recommendation: Pumpkin Bread, Pork Floss Bread, Pork floss bun with the egg wrapped around it

Maple Castella is still one of my favourite Asian bakeries. Sure they have some items that are better than others, but the stuff that is good is really really really good! For example the famous pumpkin bread that I have recommended to everyone – so far I haven’t received any negative feedback from it.

Everything is made daily and seriously the bread (the loaves) sells out as soon as it comes out of the oven. They only make about 12 loaves of each type of bread a day. It’s small bakery with a small operation so believe me when I say PRE-ORDER. Any of their loaves, even their white bread sells out at the end of the day. The pumpkin bread is a guaranteed sell out in like 2 hours on a slow day.

This entry is on another bread that I really enjoy there. The pork floss bread!

On the table:

**Pork Floss Bread 6/6

$4.00 for half a loaf – don't think they offer them in whole loaves.
I love it just as much as the pumpkin bread, and it’s quite different so I can’t compare. It deserves a 6/6! It's probably more for Chinese taste buds just because of the pork floss.
The base of the bread is the same as the pumpkin bread. It’s a super fluffy egg and butter based bread. It’s delicious! So soft! It’s not a crumb bread but a stretchy fluffy one.

It’s interwoven with swirls of pork floss or dried pork fluff.
Pork floss is pretty much shredded pork jerky. It has a cotton like texture and it’s nice and salty. The pork is marinated and dried in soy sauce so that’s why it’s salty. I love this stuff! Asian kids grow up with it.
This bread is delicious and it’s savoury bread.

They bake it with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese on top! It’s soooo good! It gives the bread a salty crust and goes great with the salty pork floss. Even without the cheese the crust is still good! Reminds me of those cheese pretzel breads you eat/ate as kids.
Their breads are so soft and fluffy I recommend to eat them as is. Skip the toaster…if anything you can microwave them for 10 sec. to eat warm.
Great as a snack!

Falafel Maison

2010-03-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: Falafel Maison
Cuisine: Middle Eastern/Fast Food
Last visited: February 28, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/Robson)
516 Robson Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4 (based on shawarma)
Service: 5
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

Family owned and operated
Fast food on Robson
Specializes in falafel and shawarma
Late night/munchies
Very friendly service
Quick and cheap eats
Eat in/Take-out
Mon-Sun 10am-11pm

**Recommendation: Shawarma, Hummus, Shawarma Plate (I haven’t tried the Falafels, but they should be good)

I decided to hit up Falafel Maison for a late night bite after winning the Olympic 2010 GOLD for Canada Men’s Hockey!! I had originally been craving donairs but settled for a shawarma.

Donair and shawarma are different, but it’s debatable what the exact differences are. For me, donairs are made up of ground meat and shawarma is pieces of whole meat. The shawarma is more of a Middle Eastern/Turkish item and the Donair I find is more Greek. Vancouver is full of donair and shawarma places in the downtown core and Falafel Maison is one of the popular ones…I’m not sure if it’s the best though because I surprisingly haven’t tried many in Vancouver.

I must give a shout out to the owners who are super nice, friendly young guys that treat everyone like family.

On the table:

**Shawarma 4/6

Chicken, lettuce, tabouleh, hummus & yogurt sauce wrapped in pita. Optional hot sauce. I think it’s about $5.50
Hot, fresh, made upon order.
They spread a layer of hummus onto the pita first. It’s good creamy hummus but I could have used more. It was very subtle and had a garlic flavour.

They load it with iceberg lettuce and tabouleh, but the tabouleh wasn’t very good here. It’s a traditional Middle Easter salad that’s mixed with vegetables, olive oil or spices. It was pretty much plain parsley here. I didn’t expect gourmet, but I expected a little more than this.
They give you a little bit of tomato, but not enough.

There’s a large amount of shaved chicken which is tender, juicy, moist and actually quite spicy. It's very well marinade with lots of spices. They do a great job with the rotisserie style roasting too.

Last is the yogurt sauce. It’s not like tzatziki, but it’s more garlicky and also a bit spicy.
There’s an optional hot sauce you can get which I think is used in the chicken marinade as well.
Overall the shawarma was very good, but it was a bit dry for me. The pita was dry and although the meat was quite juicy it got lost with all the veggies. There's lots of ingredients, but when it's all rolled up I tasted a lot of pita and parsley.
I definitely wanted more hummus and next time I’ll ask for extra yogurt sauce.

Original Joe's Restaurant & Bar

2010-03-18T11:14:00.001-07:00

Restaurant: Original Joe’s Restaurant & Bar

Cuisine: American/Canadian/Pub food
Last visited: February 26, 2010
Area: Multiple locations - Richmond, BC (Ironwood)
1215 Davie Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: 4.5

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

Multiple locations (Canadian franchise)
Offers traditional/classic bar food
Made from scratch dishes
Big portions
Great for beer
Lots of seating
Daily drink/food specials
Busy during game nights
Very casual atmosphere
Free parking
Big screen tv’s
Great for snacks/beer
Wine available
Small selection of desserts
Mon-Sun 11am - midnight

**Recommendation: Joe’s Red Tractor Nachos, Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich, Sweet Potato Fries

Original Joe’s is a really casual restaurant/bar/pub serving up traditional pub food made from scratch! I actually wouldn’t have guessed from the looks of it, but it is! They have multiple locations in Canada and in Vancouver and the lower mainland. This one I visited is the newest location – it’s the Richmond location that opened in January 2010.

I came to watch the Olympics Canada VS Slovak hockey game and we won…so my good spirits and enthusiastic atmosphere may influence my review to be higher than normal. Having said that I also don’t feel like I’ve tried enough to give a proper review, but I would definitely go back to try more things because I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed everything for the most part. The food was much better than expected and very affordable with big portions. It’s not pretentious and similar to places like Kelsey’s – definitely more bar/pub then contemporary restaurant like Earls which is also bar-ish.

They have daily specials at a bargain price – so there’s always something going on.

On the table:

Crantini

Medium $9.50 Large $11.50
It was on special for $4.75.
It had 1 oz of Vodka but I could barely taste any…it was pretty much cranberry juice.

**Joe’s Red Tractor Nachos 6/6

Crisp tortilla chips piled high; layered with melted cheddar and mozzarella, roma tomatoes, red and green onions, black olives and jalapenos. Served with fresh tomato salsa and sour cream. Full 15.99 – Half 12.99
Add spicy beef, chicken or pulled pork 3.99 Guacamole 2.99
I ordered a half order with chicken and they are seriously ENORMOUS. The really wonder if a full size is twice as big for $3 more…seriously the half order could feed 4 and looks like a full order.

These were delicious! Lots of cheese, really fresh ingredients and big pieces of vegetables.
You can’t really screw up nachos, unless you cheap out and don’t give enough toppings or cheese.
I added chicken and it was nice big slices of grilled chicken breast.
The salsa had corn in it, which was awesome.

**Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich 4.5/6

Slow roasted pork shoulder, pulled, then “mopped” in your choice of sweet onion mustard, cider pepper, or southern style BBQ sauce. Topped with honey slaw and served on a fresh white bun. Served with your choice of 2 sides.10.99 (They serve all the sauces on the side)

This was piled high and loaded with pulled pork and lots of honey cole slaw.
The pork wasn’t too juicy, but still good, and with the BBQ sauce it was fine.
I asked for all 3 sauces, however the server forgot 2 of them. I think the sauce I ended up getting was southern style BBQ sauce. It was a very tangy BBQ sauce with a big kick! It was almost like there was Frank’s hot sauce in it and tons of Worcestershire.

I really liked the cole slaw. It was very lightly dressed, not a gloppy mess so the veggies weren’t soggy. It was a tangy dressing and mildly sweet with a touch of honey. Nice and crunchy.
The bun was just a regular burger bun. Nice and soft though.

Mango Pasta Salad – Side 1.5/6

I didn’t like this side. It was a very simple pasta salad with dill like mayo dressing. The dressing was light but I thought it would be a sweet mango dressing.
There was pretty much zero mango taste. The mango was little bits of fresh mango tossed in the salad. I found 2 pieces the size of bacon bits in the entire bowl.
It didn’t necessarily taste bad but because they called it mango pasta salad, I was left very disappointed.
It tasted like a very lightly dressed regular pasta salad with some black pepper, red onions, and red bell pepper. There wasn’t much bell pepper either.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Gravy – Side 2/6

This was the most traditional mashed potatoes I’ve had.
The mashed potatoes are very smooth and quite creamy, and although they claim everything is made in house…the potatoes tasted like packaged mashed potatoes. No garlic or additional flavorings…it was just any old mashed potato.
I’m pretty sure the gravy is packaged, it really tastes like it.
They topped the mashed potatoes with fried onions or shallots – which were extremely soggy and not good.

Steak & Prawns 4/6

6 ounce grilled steak and a skewer of prawns (your choice of garlic or Cajun) served with your choice of 2 sides. Friday special for $15.99
I don’t expect a supreme quality of beef and you have to take into consideration it is pub food – so lower your expectations a bit.
It was decent, it had a coating of course rub with sea salt on it and it was grilled really well. The meat was tender – not steakhouse quality obviously, but still very good.

The prawns were not made in house – I think they’re the pre seasoned frozen ones from Sysco Food distributor. I can’t confirm, but from appearance and the fact that you can chose the flavours I’m pretty sure they are the pre-prepared kind. They are still good, but just not made in house.
They’re a bit small and obviously fresh ones would be better, but for $15.99 – they do the job.

**Sweet Potato Fries – Side 5/6

Cut thin, fried crisp and seasoned with a house made spice blend. Served with our signature dill dip or chipotle sauce.
Extra 1.99 as a side, or 6.99 as appetizer
I thought they did a great job with these!
They’re very lightly seasoned and not that salty at all, but still flavourful. They are cut thin so they were actually very crispy.
I think they served it with the dill dip because the sauce wasn’t spicy at all…however it was orange so I’m not sure. It basically tasted like a yogurt based dip with dill flavour – so it was almost like a mixture of dill dip and chipotle yogurt dip…but not spicy.

Caesar Salad – Side 2/6

This was just a standard quickly thrown together Caesar salad. Not much else to say here. A few bacon bits and croutons on top.

Charlie's Restaurant & Bar - Desserts

2010-03-17T10:09:00.001-07:00

Restaurant: Charlie’s Bar & Restaurant

Cuisine: Pizza/Mediterranean/Italian
Last visited: March 9, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Yaletown/Downtown)
1265 Hamilton Street
Price Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4
Service: n/a (Media dinner)
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 3.5 (Food is generally good, but just not worth it)
Additional comments:

Chef Brian Ritchot
Chef from Montreal, one from Spain
DJ’s/live music on weekends
Contemporary, sleek, posh atmosphere
Great for drinks, appies
Specializes in gourmet pizzas
Mediterranean/Italian options
Longue like atmosphere
One large projection screen TV
Open late
Pizzas available for take out
Dinner service only

**Recommendation: Short Rib Pizza, prosciutto di Parma 18 Month, Duck Pizza, Banoffee Pie

I was invited to a media dinner at Charlie’s Bar & Restaurant so the food served this evening was complimentary. However there were no expectations from Charlie’s Bar & Restaurant and the review represents my true and honest opinions.

This review focuses on the dessert for the evening. All the desserts are made in house from scratch which I really appreciate it…and quite frankly expect from a restaurant like this. However I don’t think any dessert here should exceed $8-9 because I’d be paying the same for desserts at slightly more expensive restaurants like Lupo Restaurant + Vinoteca down the street.

I get confused between Charlie’s Restaurant and Bar being a gourmet pizza place and being a finer Mediterranean restaurant. The desserts got me more confused…some are traditional British and some seem more French...but it's a Mediterranean/Italian/Pizza place...right?...regardless I’ll tell you what’s good…

The dinner & drink portion of the review.

On the table:

Chocolate Ganache 2/6

Pistachio, chocolate wafer and mint sorbet $11
A bit unusual to see at a restaurant/bar serving gourmet pizzas. It was a bit refined for the style and I couldn’t figure out how it fit in.
The dessert was quite good and basically a twist on mint chocolate ice cream. It was a deconstructed version with gourmet execution.
It was very rich dark chocolate ganache slices sprinkled with cocoa powder and topped with thin dark chocolate wafers.
There was some pistachio and skor graham cracker crumbles around the plate that aided in the presentation rather than the flavour.
The mint sorbet was refreshing but bitter. The after taste was significantly bitter.
I wouldn’t want the whole thing to myself, but I’m not a big fan of chocolate mint ice cream. 1-2 of the small squares is enough.
$11 for this portion I would feel ripped off…but apparently they usually serve it with another piece. (The size of the biggest one in the photo)

Banoffee Pie 4.5/6

Banana, dry caramel and coconut ice cream $10
I really liked this! You don’t see this traditional British dessert served at many places so I enjoyed it here.
I loved how they served it with coconut ice cream. A gourmet twist on traditional pub food…wait is Charlie’s a pub now?

I don’t think the tart shell was made in house, but I’m not sure. It was a crumbly shortbread like cookie crust, but it didn’t taste homemade. It was filled with bananas, dry caramel and topped with cream.
The “dry caramel” tastes like dulche de leche – it was like caramelized condensed milk and very thick.
It was creamy and very sweet with lots of caramel so I'm glad there was ice cream to break it up.
It was served with 3 warm caramelized bananas.
I'd pay $10 for it, but I still think it's reaching a bit. Especially since most people would be use to seeing it at pubs for half the price. I did like it more than the chocolate ganache.

Charlie’s Restaurant & Bar

2010-03-16T11:00:00.001-07:00

Restaurant: Charlie’s Restaurant & Bar

Cuisine: Pizza/Mediterranean/Italian
Last visited: March 9, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Yaletown/Downtown)
1265 Hamilton Street
Price Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: n/a (Media dinner)
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 3.5 (food is on generally good, but not worth it)
Additional comments:

Chef Brian Ritchot
Chef from Montreal, one from Spain
DJ’s/live music on weekends
Contemporary, sleek, posh atmosphere
Great for groups
Specializes in gourmet pizzas
Mediterranean/Italian options
Longue like atmosphere
One large projection screen TV
Open late
Pizzas available for take out
Dinner service only

**Recommendation: Short Rib Pizza, prosciutto di Parma 18 Month, Duck Pizza, Banoffee Pie

I was invited to a media dinner at Charlie’s Restaurant & Bar so the food served this evening was complimentary. However there were no expectations from Charlie’s Restaurant & Bar and the review represents my true and honest opinions.

Overall the evening was very pleasant and the food was good. However if I were to imagine myself as a regular diner I would probably think great atmosphere, good food, but over priced. It’s “Yaletown Pizza”. Better than Opus Bar pizza for sure. Nothing tasted bad, but when you’re paying for it you get more critical. There are things in the recipe or cooking method that could be improved. I would have liked to see smaller sized pizzas at a reasonable price…which they may consider. I just don’t want to share 1 14 inch pizza if I’m having dinner with one other person…and if we order more we’re looking at a steep bill with lots of leftovers.

They offer pastas and a couple mains but their focus is pizza. I liked the thin crust and made in house aspects but it was at times inconsistent and some were crispier than others. I'm not being too picky either - it was a significant difference. However the pizza crust has a slight garlic powder flavour which is great! Also there’s decent leopparding on the bottom of all the crusts – sign of pizza crust cooked properly.

Soggier crust on 1st pizza.

Crisp crust on last pizza!

I attended the evening with Victoria from Victoria’s Food Secrets. 9 courses later and we still had room for one more dessert…so we just reached for the unfinished dessert down the table. ;)

Oh and no – that is not Charlie and the owner’s name is not Charlie…Charlie is a fictional character the restaurant and food is inspired by.

The dessert portion of dinner at Charlie's Restaurant + Bar.

On the table:

House Marinated Olives 4/6

Citrus & fresh herbs $6
Olives are olives and there were a variety which I liked.
I like olives so I liked them. The marinade was good, but also standard.

Grappa Cured Salmon 3.5/6

Cream fraiche, cucumber, mint, salmon roe and lemon zest $15
Very fresh and big piece of salmon. Quite a simple dish that sounds more interesting. A sharing appy.
I liked the levels of saltiness from this – the salty bite of salmon roe, fresh sea salt on top of the salmon and then the fresh caper berry. The cream fraiche helped to balance and round out the flavours.
The cucumber, mint and lemon zest was more for décor and not enough to actually add to the dish.
Not sure how much this appy suits the restaurant, but it’s still good.

Prosciutto di Parma 18 Month 5.5/6

With pea mousse, snow pea tendrils, a poached egg, two crostini, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
Not on current menu, but will be added at end of month. Price TBC. I would hope $12-14.
Great combo of flavours and loved the plating. Prosciutto roses!
I loved the pea mousse. Its very light and fluffy. I recommended them to add Mascarpone to the mousse to give it creaminess and richness. Drool.
I could taste some tuffle oil on the prosciutto – great touch!

The poached egg could have been even softer and there were fresh green peas underneath it all. Loved the textures of it altogether.
It definitely needs a few more crostini for the portion.

Meatball Pizza 2/6

Spicy tomato sugo, pork meatballs, fontina, smoked speck and fresh oregano $23
It was good, but for $23 I wouldn’t order it. It’s a bit too basic for me anyways so I wouldn’t have ordered it on a regular basis.
The best part was the Fontina, except it made the pizza extra greasy which eventually made the thin crust a bit soggy.
It was homemade Italian Sausage meatballs. They were ok but a bit dry and not a highlight. The pizza also wasn’t spicy to me and there wasn’t much oregano. Maybe they should shred them up and spread them around.

Smoked Salmon Pizza 3/6

Salsa verde, house-smoked salmon, red onion, capers, arugula preserve, lemon and goat cheese $25
Lots of stuff going on here, but I did like it.
I liked the big pieces of salmon and there was a decent amount of creamy goat cheese crumbles…a little goes a long way.
It was salty, slightly peppery and the salsa verde got nicely baked in the oven so it gave off a nutty flavour and crispy texture. It was quite a herby salsa.
It was almost like an arugula salad tossed on top so it was quite fresh tasting – the heaviness comes from the goat’s cheese. Some could like this idea and others might find the salad messy and distracting. I liked it.

Roast Potatoes – Side 3.5/6

The potatoes were very flavourful, fluffy and buttery but the skins were not crispy enough.

If we stopped here I would have been slightly underwhelmed...until...

Short Rib Pizza 5.5/6

Tomato sugo, braised short ribs, caramelized onion, mozzarella, horseradish cream and green onions $25
This was my favourite of the night!
Lots of short rib, but it was a bit dry. I like how I can see it but this method dried out the meat during baking.
The beef could have been more marinated to compensate for the drying out. There’s definitely some dried herb they cooked it with so there's still some flavour.
I loved the fresh spicy horseradish cream! It’s spicy, but it tastes like they made it milder so it wouldn’t be overpowering. it also added some sauce/juice to the meat.

Duck Pizza 4/6

Porcini sauce, smoked duck, roast portabellini mushrooms, tallegio, radicchio and truffle oil $25
This had so much potential and it was very good but I was very bothered by the duck part…which is the main part. It had almost completely dried out during baking and it came off as roast beef. Since it was thin slices of duck it really came off as roast beef.

You can see how the duck meat is dry and wrinkly. So it was good, but disappointing in that one aspect.
I liked the mushroom flavour throughout though. Nice layers of mushroom flavour including the big slices of juicy Potabellini and truffle oil which I could taste.
It was a bit on the salty side and I would have liked more shredded cabbage for more of a crunch.

Drinks

Keep in mind I’m not much of a drinker – watch this video to see why.

Champers Thyme 2/6

Apple, cucumber, thyme smashed with agave syrup, Henrick’s, Prosecco crown $11
A sparking cocktail to start the night. Couldn’t taste much apple, but cucumber and thyme stood out. Refreshing, but quite bitter (from Thyme) and tart.

Cocktail 1265 2.5/6

Blood orange, grapefruit, juniper berries, pine nuts, basil, grapefruit bitters, Vodka $10
I thought I would like this more than I did. Pretty strong drink. The pine nuts are pureed it so it has a very subtle nutty flavour. Bold, citrusy and slightly sweet, actually quite bitter.

Devil 4/6

Sliced fennel, cloves, cherry syrup, Cazadores Reposado tequila, cherry bitters and ginger beer $11
I don’t like Tequila, and this was the best drink. It’s surprisingly sweet because of the cherries and it just worked very well. It has a warm spice and slight licorice taste.

The dessert portion of dinner.

La Belle Patate - Review 2

2010-03-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: La Belle Patate - Review 2

Cuisine: Canadian/French/Fast Food
Last visited: February 19, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/West End)
1215 Davie Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: n/a (Met the owner, so I’m biased – but he’s really nice to everyone)

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

Owner Pascal Cornier from Montreal, Quebec
Specializes in poutine
Very authentic
Recently opened (couple months now)
Original location in Victoria, BC
Offers 30 different kinds of poutine
Offers vegetarian poutine - Traditional poutine is vegetarian
Poutine sauce imported from Montreal
Fresh, made upon order
Fast food
Take out/Dine in
Open daily 11am-late

**Recommendation: Traditional Poutine

This is where I started my quest for Vancouver’s Best Poutine on Davie Street. Since then I have re-visited La Belle Patate on a couple occasions to try their other items. In my opinion their poutine wins the most traditional and authentic poutine.

The cheese curds are definitely what makes these poutines stand out and memorable. They're real cheese curds - that squeak becuase they're so fresh!...and they don't melt, it's the real deal. However now that I've revisited on a couple occasions, my rating goes beyond them having excellent cheese curds.

On this visit to La Belle Patate’s it was to try their other items at my own expense. I’ve tried 4 of the poutines now, but of all of them I still think the traditional poutine is best. They're all still very good, but that’s the one I still recommend. I'll still keep trying others just in case...I want to be sure.

La Belle Patate - Review 1

On the table:

Smoked Meat Poutine 3/6

Small $7.50 Medium $8.50 Large $9.50
I got the small size – which is enough for one – they’re quite heavy and filling.
Besides poutine, La belle Patate focuses on their authentic Montreal smoked meat as well.
I thought this poutine was good, but the smoked meat was a little too salty for me. The flavour was really simple, not many spices (if any) – just salty.
The smoked meat is almost like ham rather than a brisket and it has a charred-barbeque taste rather than a smoked taste.

It’s not like deli ham, but like a ham you would have on Christmas. It’s a cross between that and a brisket - but it is beef. They’re pretty lean pieces and they give you quite a bit, but I wasn’t crazy about them.
The gravy was the smoked meat gravy, but it still reminded me of the vegetarian poutine sauce they use on the traditional poutine. I actually couldn’t tell much of a difference.
The fries are made of red potatoes and they’re a thicker hand cut fry.
Again the best part was easily the cheese curds, however overall I still like the traditional poutine better.

Breakfast Poutine 4/6

Egg, bacon, onion Medium $10 Large $12
The smallest size you can get is a medium for this one – which is what I ordered. It’s huge!
I prefer the breakfast poutine at La Brasserie hands down. This one is still very good, but after the one at La Brasserie – I don’t think any breakfast poutine can beat that one. It was so delicious!

The egg was a scrambled egg and I wanted more of it. It was a bit dry and overcooked (front piece that looks like a wrinkled cheese curd in the photo).
I know a poached egg is too ‘gourmet’ for La Belle Patate, but I wanted the egg to have a runny yolk to mix in with my gravy. I would have even liked a fried egg – which isn’t ‘gourmet’.

I loved the onions and how they were sautéed nice and soft, and sweet. They weren’t to the point of caramelized, but almost there. I could have used more of this as well.
The bacon pieces were those standard bacon strips that are quite fatty. I think it's about 2 strips of crumbled bacon - it's cooked on the spot upon order but they're too salty, fatty and not crispy enough. I'm not a fan of bacon in general (yes, I can almost HEAR all the jaws drop...but bacon should always be crispy I think)
Overall I enjoyed this poutine, but I wanted more eggs and onions. It was also quite expensive at $10, considering La Brasserie’s gourmet breakfast poutine is only $12…and just a couple blocks down the street.

Galvaude 3/6

Chicken and peas Small $7.80 Medium $9.90 Large $12
They have a BBQ Galvaude version which has a meat based poutine sauce. The original galvaude is served with a vegetarian poutine sauce.
This one had lots of peas, a decent amount of sliced grilled chicken breast and cheese curds.
Needless to say – but the cheese curds were best as always.

The peas are not the frozen Green Giant peas, but they're those dark green canned mushy ones. They're not as sweet or crunchy and I prefer frozen ones. But I think it might be more authentic with the canned ones.
Authentically I’m pretty sure Galvaude Poutine is supposed to be served with shredded chicken and not grilled sliced chicken. I would have preferred shredded chicken for a poutine, but the grilled was still good.
It’s a very basic and simple recipe.

Traditional Poutine

Blueberry World Frozen Yogurt

2010-03-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Blueberry World Frozen Yogurt
Cuisine: Desserts
Last visited: March 6, 2010

Area: Vancouver, BC (Robson Street/West End/Downtown)
1703 Robson Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 2.5
Service: 3

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 2
Additional comments:

Serves frozen yogurt only
A tad cheaper than other places.
Only flavours: original & green tea
Twist option available
Large is very large
1 oz - 0% fat
Snowy ice option
Smoothie options
Sampling available
Not enough toppings/options/flavour choices

**Recommendation: n/a

Blueberry World is never really busy, but most their traffic is by locals or people living in the neighborhood.

It’s a bit cheaper than the other frozen yogurt places but the cups are small and shallow so you don’t get as many toppings as you would with Tuttimelon or Qoola. The toppings are also limited and they don’t have as many options like mochi, or different nuts/cereals. The amount of toppings depends on who’s doing it…usually the case.

What I do like is that they offer twist and not many places do that, Tuttimelon offers half and half where they put the flavours side by side – but not twist. It’s not my first time at Blueberry World and it isn’t my first choice, but more of a “last resort, and I’m in the area and I want frozen yogurt choice”. This was my dessert after Santouka Ramen across the street…see – close by.

FYI the large size is extremely big! That has more value than small size.

On the table:

Original & Green Tea Twist 3/6

Small: $3.50 Medium $4.50 Large $6.75
Toppings: 1 topping: $0.95, 3 toppings: $1.50
I got it with granola, just because I like the crunchiness.
Compared to most places they don’t offer as many toppings.
The green tea isn’t as tart as Qoola or Tuttimelon, but it is still tart and has more green tea flavour.
The original flavour is quite tart, but not as tart as Qoola.
I like the twist.This small size was significantly bigger than the other smalls I've had in the past! Maybe I was having a good hair day? j/k! =p

Original 2.5/6

Small: $2.75 Medium $3.75 Large $5.75
Toppings: 1 topping: $0.95, 3 toppings: $1.50
Mangoes, coconut jelly, blueberries
Original flavour is tart – it’s very icy yogurt and when it melts it melts like water.

Green Tea 3/6

Small: $3.50 Medium $4.50 Large $6.75
Toppings: 1 topping: $0.95, 3 toppings: $1.50
Kiwi, strawberry, pineapple
Green tea is sweeter than original – still tart. More green tea flavour than Quoola or Tuttimelon.
Very icy yogurt – not the creamy thicker kind.
Significantly more expensive than original flavour.

BONUS - Vancouver's Best Poutine on Davie

2010-03-11T01:58:00.001-08:00

The Topic: Quest for Vancouver's BEST Poutine on Davie Street

The Contestants: La Belle Patate, La Brasserie, Fritz European Fry House

4 Poutines later, the results are in!

The poutine at La Brasserie is in a different league, so I almost feel it is unfair to put it in the same category with La Belle Patate and Fritz European Fry House. If I do put it in the competition, their breakfast poutine takes the lead hands down. For a gourmet poutine on Davie Street, La Brasserie seems untouchable (unless another restaurant wants to challenge them…?)

1^st place Most Authentic French-Canadian Poutine - La Belle Patate.

1^st place Best Tasting Poutine - La Brasserie’s Breakfast Poutine

BONUS VIDEO - Breakfast Poutine

The Best Poutine on Davie Street Part 1 of 4

The Best Poutine on Davie Street Part 2 of 4

The Best Poutine on Davie Street Part 3 of 4

BONUS VIDEO - Breakfast Poutine

Please subscribe, rate & comment at my Follow Me Foodie youtube channel. Thanks!

La Brasserie offer 2 different poutines: A truffle poutine that is offered as a hot appetizer for dinner (or as a side), and a breakfast poutine that is offered for their Saturday and Sunday brunch. I was lucky enough to try both!

The breakfast poutine will keep you full until dinner and maybe even a bit sleepy…but it’s totally worth it!

On the table:

La Brasserie Breakfast Poutine 6/6

Poached egg, bacon, truffle oil, Hollandaise sauce, cheese curds, pork gravy $12
I’m really mad I didn’t get a picture of this for my blog entry, I totally forgot. You can see it in my “Best Poutine on Davie” video though.
Poutine for breakfast? Really? Yes, really…and don’t complain. But again, why would you? You won’t for this one at least.
Oh my gosh...could I have died and went to heaven? Figuratively and literally? Yes, quite possibly. But would I have at least died happy? Yes, because this breakfast poutine is freaking tasty.
Ok first off, put an egg on anything and I’m there. Poach it like the way their chef did it…I’m so there! It was a perfectly soft poached egg and when you poked the yolk it ran all over the fries and mixed in with the Hollandaise and gravy. I’m drooling all over again.
This was a very well prepared poutine. Many things stood out, but the first flavour I got was surprisingly not savoury, but actually tangy! The tang was from one of the best parts of this poutine: the Hollandaise sauce. It’s made in house and from scratch. It’s buttery, creamy, thick, rich and intensely flavourful with a strong lemon taste. There’s also Worcestershire sauce to add to the tang and give it a kick, it’s one of the best Hollandaise I’ve had.
The bacon was fresh pieces of bacon. Not those thin bacon strips, but actual pieces of bacon meat. They were lightly pan fried, and not that crispy ( I kind of wish they were though), but they almost had a dry chewy quality to them. It was salty, but not too salty. This is a Franco-German Bistro so they know their pork…thus the pork gravy is great too. The same pork gravy in the truffle poutine they serve at dinner.
I could definitely smell the truffle oil even though they used less than they did on the truffle poutine. However the truffle oil became secondary to the Hollandaise and to everything else going on. To be honest, it didn’t even need to truffle oil because it was that well prepared.
With everything combined it really is something can’t be missed. It's surprisingly only $12 too, totally worth it! It’s super hearty, filling, and rich, but really who cares when there’s so much to enjoy? I highly recommend this…but park further away so at least you’re walking back to your car…

Truffle Poutine 5/6

Fries, cheese curds, pork gravy, truffle oil $9

Added note: This review is a little different because it was for my video blog. Therefore the food at La Brasserie was complimentary, (although I did offer to pay) but my opinions are still honest and as non-biased as I can be. The opinions and views expressed in "The Quest for Vancouver's Best Poutine on Davie Street" review and video are those of Follow Me Foodie/Mijune only. There is no paid advertising and as always I write for the benefit of the customers and not for the restaurants.

Au Wing Kee - Burnaby

2010-03-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Au Wing Kee

Cuisine: Chinese
Last visited: March 4, 2010
Area: Burnaby, BC (Burnaby South)
5226 Kingsway
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: 2

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

2 locations: Burnaby/Vancouver
Congee & Noodle house
Hole in the wall, but popular
A bit/quite dirty
Quick & cheap eats
The No. 9 of Burnaby, but better
Very familiar to Chinese locals
Traditional Cantonese cuisine
Famous for congee
Extensive menu
Lunch combos 11am-5:30pm
Great for snacks/late night snacks (9pm-1am)
Late night
Open Mon-Sun 11am – 1am
Cash only
Dine in/Take-out
Parking at rear

**Recommendation: Congee, Wonton noodles (they’re popular here although I haven’t tried it yet)

This place has been around for ages! It’s a totally hole in the wall dive that is very familiar to Chinese people. It’s pretty much the No. 9 of Burnaby, but much better. I don’t even mind No. 9 actually, you have to lower your standards for cheap late night, open 24 hour eats...you have to admit the place is packed with Chinese people all the time! It's like Hon's Won Ton Noodle House.

Au Wing Kee specializes in congee and noodles, but they offer everything from chow mien, hot pot, seafood, to late night snacks. They even have a tank filled with live seafood like crab and lobster. The food is fresh, made upon order – not gourmet, but a quick, casual bite that is very easy on the wallet.

This is more or less a tribute review to those suffering from the stomach flu, cold or virus. Too many of us have been hit. I think I was first to catch the stomach flu out of the food bloggers in Vancouver, and since then it has spread like wild fire. Everything we ordered is more or less what older generation traditional Chinese people order when they’re not feeling well. In particular the 2 types of congee we ordered are really high in nutrition and have tons of calcium, protein, and iron.

On the table:

Dried Fillet with Peanut & Spare Ribs Congee 3.5/6

$4.50

It’s not really for the Western tastes buds, but it is very traditional Chinese food. It would be probably rated higher for Chinese people.

The spare ribs aren’t the Western type of spare ribs that are really meaty. They’re really small and boney and the bones are what they use to flavour the congee.

The meat it does have is pretty chewy and the type of meat is a cheap kind. I’m not a fan, but again it is authentic and for $4.50 you’re not going to get high quality spare ribs.

I loved the dried fillet. Throughout the congee there are pieces of dried fish or “fillet”. It tastes like dried scallops and it’s almost jerky like. It’s salty and has a preserved fishy taste that I like.
The peanuts are whole peanuts and they’re really soft. It gives the congee a little nuttiness.
The congee itself is really delicious and creamy. They do a great job with that here. It’s really infused with all the flavours of the ingredients used.

Dace Fish Ball & Watercress Congee 2/6

$4.95 – rating would be much higher for Chinese people
This isn’t for the Western taste buds either. However for Chinese taste buds, they do a pretty good job with this congee.
I was not a fan of this type of congee.

It’s loaded with 8 dace fish balls are very fresh and made in house. It’s a mixture of fish paste, dried orange peel, scallions and white pepper. Very nutritious...but for me not delicious. What I hated was that the fish bones are pureed into the mixture and I could taste and bite into them. It was like scales. However for Chinese people that’s a good thing because it means it’s freshly ground up fish. The orange peel was very strong, but not bitter…but it’s just not for me.

At the bottom of the bowl is the watercress. It’s thrown in raw, but cooks with the hot congee poured on top.
The congee base is great. It’s lighter in taste than the spare rib congee, but still nice and creamy.

Sautéed Lettuce in Slice Pepper w/ Preserved Bean Curd Sauce 5/6

This is again for Chinese taste buds – I really like this dish. It’s acquired though. I just love it as a side dish with congee.
The myth or truth...is that spicy is good because it kills germs...also it makes you sweat so you sweat out the bad stuff. Chinese and I think Indian also believe that ginger kills germs...so again "sick people food". Spicy also makes you cough, so don't have it if you're coughing...and I don't think spicy is good for stomach flus either...it doesn't make sense to me...?
It’s loaded with long strands of ginger (in photo) and round slices of green chili peppers. It has a preserved salty taste and it’s creamy, spicy (not too spicy) and very aromatic with lots of flavours.

The green chili peppers aren’t really spicy though. They’re quite mild and I could eat them whole.
It’s a super soupy/saucy dish, but it’s not too oily and I really enjoyed it. There's no actual pieces of bean curd in it, it's just preserved/fermented bean curd sauce - so the flavour is infused in the sauce.
The taste is very pungent. I had the dish at No. 9 and it’s done a bit differently. I liked the one at Au Wing Kee better.

Bo Laksa King

2010-03-09T10:54:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Bo Laksa King

Cuisine: Malaysian/Burmese/Singapore/Thai

Last visited: February 16, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Joyce-Collingwood)

4910 Joyce St

Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

Major hole-in the wall
Located inside Malaysian grocery store
Specializes in Malaysian/Burmese food
Famous for laksa and wraps
Husband and wife operation
Good for quick lunches – Malaysian wraps
Fresh, homemade, made upon order
Half menu made on site, half from main off site kitchen
Popular to neighborhood/locals in area
Seats 2-4
Cheap eatery – not dirt cheap, but reasonable
Lunch and dinner service
Full dinner menu only available online from 6pm - pick-up/delivery only
Dinner - Pick-up before 8pm
Delivery charges apply
Open late
Catering available

**Recommendation: Roti Canai, Laksa, Malaysian style wraps (but I haven’t tried)…also haven’t tried but the Lahpet Thoke (Fermented tea leaf salad) is authentic Burmese food not available anywhere else.

I would have never heard of Bo Laksa king and would have never discovered it on my own. Thanks to Kim (I’m Only Here for the Food) I was able to try this major hole in the wall located in a Malaysian/Asian grocery store. I’m also never in that area so I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to wander around. It’s a total word-of-mouth place and their business depends on this type of advertising.

It’s a husband and wife operation and they’re really nice people. She’s Chinese and he’s Burmese. The recipes are actually very authentic but they also offer a mixture of South East Asian cuisine from Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai and the rare…Burmese! They even have a couple Chinese dishes in there. It’s popular for quick lunches and their full dinner menu is only available online for delivery or pick-up before 8pm. They operate out of the small kitchen in the back of the grocery store and also a main kitchen that is a few blocks away on Victoria. Keep this in mind because the menu is limited if you’re going for dinner and eating in.

Okay so being a major hole in the wall, I have to lower my expectations a bit, however not by much because the food was really good. It’s a hole in the wall with fresh, authentic, homemade, made upon order meals for a good price…what more can you ask for? Overall I was pleasantly surprised. I would go back because I think there’s better then what I had, and I want to try a wrap.

On the table:

Burmese Tea 4/6

$1.50
It’s similar to Thai tea but not as strong or sweet. It’s frothy, milky, creamy and a smooth tea.
It’s still quite sweet though because it’s mixed and shaken with condensed milk.
The tea is authentic Burmese tea that is steeped and it’s stronger than Chinese tea, but milder than Thai tea.
It’s made upon order and a pretty large cup for only $1.50

**Roti Canai 5.5/6

The small is served with beef curry $3.99 Large is served with chicken curry $5.99
The roti is very hot, fresh and made upon order on a griddle. It’s super fluffy, flakey, soft, stretchy and chewy…but it was a tad oily. We devoured it in seconds though so it didn’t matter. You can watch her toss it and cook it on the spot – it’s almost like watching a pizza dough show.

The curry is their beef curry sauce. It’s very flavourful and slightly spicy. There are little bits of beef brisket throughout and the sauce has a very strong beef broth flavour. They use lots of spices and herbs in there so it’s very flavourful.
It’s quite oily too though so you really have to scoop up the sauce or you’re just dipping into oil. It’s good though!

Satay Skewers 3.5/6

Choice from marinated chicken, beef, or lamb served with sticky rice, cucumber & spicy peanut sauce. (3 skewers) $3.50
The satay skewers are made on a griddle rather than a grill…which I’ll let go because they’re working with limited resources being in a grocery store.
You wouldn't miss out by not ordering it, but it’s a pretty decent sized appetizer for a $3.50 bargain!
This chicken is marinated in a curry spice, but I couldn’t really taste it. It was tender and the pieces are big, it wasn’t necessarily anything to rave about.

The sticky rice is almost like a dessert. The rice is a bit sweet and almost like a giant mochi ball sprinkled with dried coconut flakes.
The peanut sauce is that authentic creamy Thai peanut butter sauce rather than the chunky Malaysian sauce. I prefer the Malaysian version. Bo Laksa King’s is okay but the fish sauce mixed into the peanut sauce was a bit too tangy for me and I didn’t really like the brand they were using – a bit too rancid in taste.

**Laksa 6/6

Prawn, chicken, fish ball, tofu puff, egg, sweet bell peppers and bean sprouts. Choose from vermicelli or yellow wheat noodle $7.50
The authentic way is to have it with vermicelli – so that’s what we ordered it with.
We got it to go, so the fancy bowl is not how it’s served.

It’s loaded with tons on topping and that surprised me.

There are lots of fresh herbs and spices in the broth and it’s really obvious. It had that slow cooked, on the stove all day homecooked flavour. It tasted very authentic with exotic herbs and spices that I’ve never really experienced in laksa before.
It wasn’t very spicy for me, but just very aromatic! It’s very rich and creamy with the sweetened taste of coconut milk.
The noodles are al dente! They’re harder then expected, which I like! They were blanched in the soup and packaged in a separate container to ensure they’re not overcooked.

Pad Thai 3/6

Thai rice noodle, eggs, shrimps, extra firm tofu, Chinese chives, dried chili peppers, banana flower, bean sprouts, preserved turnip, stir fry in house made traditional tamarind sauce $8.75
This is a traditional version of Pad Thai and not the Western version where they make it with Ketchup. This one is made with Tamarind – just like the one at Tangthai Cuisine of Thailand Restaurant.
It’s one of their popular items, but I wasn’t crazy about it.

Overall it was still good with lots of shrimp (6 of them); however I really didn’t like the whole peanuts. I usually love peanuts too, but I want them ground up when I’m having it with Pad Thai.
It was served with a house made fish sauce…which I didn’t like. By home made I mean adding chilies, jalapeños and some additional spices to a bought fish sauce. It was too tangy and rancid…which is expected…but it was almost overly rancid and off. I love fish sauce too! Maybe it was just the fish sauce brand they’re using?
It was a tangy and spicy Pad Thai with jalapeño peppers. I thought it need more flavour though…I was relying on the lime and the fish sauce (which wasn’t that good)…and also the peanuts (which weren’t ground up)….so everything was there…but also not there for me…
I prefer the ground peanuts and fish sauce at Thai Basil.

Maple Castella - Blueberry Bun

2010-03-08T13:56:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Maple Castella - Review for Blueberry Bun
Cuisine: Bakery/Breads/Pastries/Desserts
Last visited: March 7, 2010

Area: Richmond, BC
#1068 - 8700 McKim Way (In Admiralty Cenre)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (6 for hits, 2 for miss)
Service: n/a (biased b/c they know me now)

Ambiance: 2.5

Overall: 5
Additional comments:

Taiwanese bakery in Richmond
Specializes in Taiwanese buns/baked goods (sweet & savoury)
All breads/buns made on site daily
Amazing breads and buns - cookies not as great though
Bread are more on the sweeter side
Always busy, familiar to locals and Chinese
Taiwanese bakery not Cantonese - so buns are different than Chinese bakeries like Maxim's
Closed Thursday
Smells absolutely delicious inside and outside the bakery

**Recommendation: Pumpkin Bread, Pork Floss bread, Pork floss bun with the egg wrapped around it

I’ve written about Maple Castella on a few occasions and have really come to realize that when their breads are good it’s a 6/6 and when they’re not they’re really just okay.

I’m eating my way through all their items and so far, the best is still the pumpkin bread and the pork floss bread.

Everything is made daily and seriously the bread (the loaves) sells out as soon as it comes out of the oven. They only make about 12 loaves of each type of bread a day. It’s small bakery with a small operation so believe me when I say PRE-ORDER. Any of their loaves, even their white bread is sells out at the end of the day. The pumpkin bread is a guaranteed sell out in like 2 hours on a slow day.

On the table:

Blueberry Bun 2/6

$1.10
This looks better than it tastes.
It’s one of their newer items so I was very excited to try it, but it didn’t impress me .

The blueberry is like a jam with mini whole blueberries in it and it’s not very sweet. I wish there was more becuase I could really taste an blueberry flavour with so much bread. It was kind of like a Taiwanese style Danish.

The bread part wasn’t even that good. Still quite soft and fluffy but not as much as their loaves. They can do better. It was actually a bit dry and it’s more neutral than it is sweet.

The bubble like topping should have been more crumbly and sweeter. It’s usually more of a sweet crust made of butter and sugar that gets all crusty and crumbly when baked. This bubble crust was just bread-like.
For me this wasn’t sweet enough to be a dessert, but more of a snack.

8 Juice

2010-03-08T11:10:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: 8 Juice

Cuisine: Drinks/Desserts

Last visited: March 6, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

4151 Hazelbridge Way – In Aberdeen Mall
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 2.5 (Based on their #1 drink only)

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: n/a – in a food court

Overall: 2.5

Additional comments:

Healthy desserts/drinks
Fresh fruit
Made upon order
Specializes in drinks only
Fresh fruit juices
Milkshake/yogurt drinks
Cash only
Asian Jugo Juice

**Recommendation: n/a – but if you’re going to go get the #1 house special – Mango + coconut milk + tapioca + pomelo drink

This is basically the Chinese version of Jugo Juice. 8 Juice is located in the Aberdeen food court. They specialize in fresh fruit drinks and everything is blended, shaken, stirred upon order…like a bubble tea place….but they have no bubble tea.

This is pretty much one of the only places in Richmond serving mango, coconut, tapioca and pomelo drink that is so famous in Hong Kong. You can’t even find this drink at many bubble tea places because the “tapioca” is not pearls – the tapioca is “sago” which is smaller and white in colour.

In Hong Kong the most famous place to have this dessert/drink is Hui Lau Shan. I love it! If you’ve had that then this place is really not good. I was so disappointed. To be fair it’s the only thing I’ve tried on the menu…but if it’s their “No.1 House Specialty” then I don’t have much hope.

After Twittering about the mango, coconut and sago drink the last couple days I had a major craving and decided to check this place out. The guy was really nice, but unfortunately my craving is not satisfied and I don’t think it can be because I don’t know anywhere else that serves it.

On the table:

Mango, Coconut Milk, Tapioca and Pomelo Drink 2.5/6

It’s the “No 1 House Specialty”
Compared to Hui Lau Shan in Hong Kong it is not good
It was really watered down, frothey, but almost bland. I couldn’t taste much mango or coconut milk and it was a major 'save money' move.
The mango juice has a very light mango flavour and they blend it with 2% milk and a touch of coconut milk which I couldn’t taste at all.

There were small bits of mango in the drink, not a lot though. Some of the mango was hairy though….pieces that were too close to the seed.
There was even less pomelo. The pomelo is very shredded into each sliver or ‘pocket’ so you have individual “strands” of it. Pomelo is basically an Asian grapefruit. It’s sweeter and not bitter though. It’s quite neutral in flavour.
It’s a drink that you need to chew with all the fruit and tapioca. However the tapioca is so small you just end up swallowing them unlike the bigger black tapioca pearls.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

2010-03-07T03:26:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Cuisine: Japanese/Ramen/Noodle Shop
Last visited: March 6, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (West End/Robson/Downtown)
1690 Robson Street
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 6
Service: 4.5

Ambiance: 4.5

Overall: 6

Additional comments:

Multiple locations (In US, Canada, Japan etc.)
Closest thing to authentic Japanese ramen
Best ramen in Vancouver – according to Japanese ppl too!
Deceivingly big portions
Specializes in ramen noodles
Famous for signature Shio broth
Famous for Toroniku Ramen bowls – limited quantity
Famous for perfectly cooked noodles
Authentically ramen is eaten with rice bowl
Appetizers “coming soon”
Long lines/busy
Quick eat
Cash only
Clean & contemporary atmosphere
Limited menu, but lots of options for customization
A couple dollars more expensive than most
Extra for green tea
Minimum charge $7.95/person

**Recommendation: Toroniku aka “cha-shu”, Toroniku Shio Ramen, Toroniku Miso Ramen, hard boiled egg…ANY Toroniku ramen bowl, but especially Shio w/all the fixings…the Toroniku bowls have more pork and toppings served on the side.

This place is hands down the best ramen I have had in Vancouver thus far. I was recommended by a friend who got the inside from his Japanese friend. Through word of mouth I also heard that this place is the closest thing to authentic ramen noodles you would get in Japan. My expectations were set high and I was extremely excited.

I do like Kintaro, Benkei Ramen and G-Men Ramen and I’ve never had ramen noodles in Japan so I don’t know what authentic is…however I do trust Japanese people when they say “Hokkaido Ramen Santouka” is the closest thing to it in Vancouver. Some even said Kintaro is “crap”…I don’t think it’s crap, but after Hokkaido Ramen Santouka …it’s definitely not as good and not authentic if this is the real deal. Now it doesn’t necessarily mean Hokkaido Ramen Santouka is the BEST in Japan, but it is still good there. It’s actually a chain restaurant that exists in Japan as well so I’m very happy that it has made its way to Vancouver.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka just opened so the line-up was a 30 min. wait and it’s didn’t stop for 3 hours. To be honest I’d wait in line again…it was worth it. It’s a bit more expensive then most ramen places and the portions looks small, but they’re deceivingly filling. Also go early because they almost ran out of egg when I was there and their house special “Toroniku” ramen bowls are a limited quantity. A lot of their appetizers like gyoza, salad and 2 sushi rolls are “coming soon” – I will definitely go back…soon too.

On the table:

**Toroniku Shio Ramen 6/6

Smmered pork jowl (pork cheeks) and salt seasoned ramen $12.95
+ Egg $1.25 + Tokibi (corn) $2.00 + Yaki nori $1.45
This is the signature, “claim to fame”, authentic and most popular ramen bowl offered.
It’s limited quantity and first come first serve. Get it with all the fixings.
The broth is a “pearl-coloured Tonkotsu soup” that is made with pork bones and other ingredients such as vegetables, dried fish and kelp.

The broth is rich and creamy and so flavourful. It’s got a salty flavour that is so much more than just salt…it’s so complex and delicious. The saltiness is developed with layers of ingredients, it’s slow cooked and the pork flavour is distinct. This is one of the first times I have enjoyed Shio broth more than Miso broth.
Unlike Kintaro and Benkei there’s not as many “floaties” aka pork fat bits floating on the top.
Apparently some people think the broth is not hot enough, I thought it was hot enough…but they have a standard temperature they serve it at for optimal flavour.

The noodles are delicious! They're al dente - a little harder (how they should be) and they have a great chewy texture. Apparently Santouka is famous for cooking their noodles perfectly too.

It's a deceivingly large bowl...don't be fooled...it looks small, but the bowls are deep!

**Toroniku Miso Ramen 5.5/6

Simmered pork jowl and miso (fermented soy bean paste) flavoured ramen $12.95
+ Egg $1.25 + Tokibi (corn) $2.00 + Yaki nori $1.45
This is almost part of their “limited quantity” list.

This was delicious as well! It was a bit more flavourful and richer than the Shio Ramen…but I almost thought it was a bit indulgent. The Shio is such a masterpiece already that the miso almost took away from it…it was still really good though. Still complex and layered flavours.
It was creamier than the Shio and it tastes like there’s sesame sauce in it. It even almost tasted like peanut butter…it’s less salty then the Shio but also richer, heavier and nuttier in flavour.

The side plate of toppings that come with every Toroniku ramen bowl: Toroniku (cha-shu), black wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, green onions and that fake "lobster/crab" thing made of mixed fish.

**Toroniku (BBQ Pork) or “cha-shu” 6/6

Simmered pork jowl meat ($5.45 if ordered separately)
This is THE BEST pork I’ve had served with a ramen bowl yet.
It’s seriously soooo soft it comes off as the texture of cheese. It was so tender, flavourful and juicy. There’s only one type, not like Kintaro where they have lean or fatty.
I want to give this an 11/6…I don’t even know why 11…it’s just so damn good.
Even a toothless person could eat this…my grandma could eat this...that’s how tender it is.

It’s not really fatty, but there is a layer of fat around the edges. It’s not thick or chewy so it’s not obvious and it doesn’t even taste fatty. It’s the kind of fat that you don’t really see or notice…I really don’t like fatty meats and this one didn’t bother me. It's just a bit oily...but so juicy and flavourful. There's an additional salty flavour to it.

The side plate also comes with black ear wood mushrooms, green onions and bamboo shoots. Even the mushrooms and bamboo shoots are delicious. They’re both very fresh and the perfect texture of crunchiness and tenderness. Most places they’re too crunchy....which I like and got used too…but now I’ve had this, I prefer this.

**Egg 6/6

$1.25
I must give a special shout out for the egg. It’s perfect. As perfect if not better than G-Men Ramen.
They almost ran out and I almost cried…but she came back and said they were able to make more…I was ecstatic.

The middle was a dark orange and it was ultra creamy. Freaking love these soft boiled eggs…they do a great job with them here.

Ikura Gohan 2.5/6

A bowl of rice topped with ikura (salmon roe) $5.45 Small size only.
I prefer G-Men Ramen mini dons over this.
Ramen noodles are authentically eaten with a side of rice – they have combination trays (ramen + rice bowl) but only the regular ramen bowls apply, not the Toroniku ramen bowls. I had to order them separately.

Ikura Gohan rice bowl is the most authentic one. Japanese people order it and it was recommended by the server even though it’s not most popular.
I thought it was ok.
The rice is sticky steamed rice, it’s not flavourful like sushi rice is though – not supposed to be either.
It has slices omelette on top that was very dry and came off as dried tofu skin.
Overall it was too plain and simple for me. The only flavour came from the salmon roe. I actually ended up eating it with some of my miso soup broth…that was good!

______Shake Gohan 2/6

A bowl of hot rice topped with pieces of grilled salmon $3.95 Small size only.
I didn’t get the first part of the name for this dish...my camera flash got in the way :(
The salmon is very salty and dry…it comes off as salmon jerky. It almost tastes preserved…not quite pickled, but very salted. It was a decent amount but I wouldn’t order it again.
I liked the toasted sesame seeds on it though…added a little flavour.
Overall the dish was too plain for me again and I still prefer and highly recommend the mini don’s at G-Men Ramen.
Again – The rice is sticky steamed rice, it’s not flavourful like sushi rice is though – not supposed to be either.

Dragon Ball Tea House

2010-03-06T03:45:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Dragon Ball Tea House

Cuisine: Bubble Tea/Chinese

Last visited: February 21, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Shaughnessy)

1007 W King Edward Ave
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Drinks: 6

Service: 3 (well it’s pay at cashier and they go as fast as they can)

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

Located at major intersection, but neighborhood area
Famous for bubble tea
One of the most popular places for bubble tea
Attracts locals everywhere
Family owned and operated
Small operation
Stamp card available
Line-ups during peak hours (late night/after dinner)
Fresh fruit flavours
Seats 15 or so (very limited)
About 4 hot rice dishes available (with fried egg style)
Pay at cashier
Great price
Very casual/hole in the wall-ish
Some small snack available: Pocky, instant noodles
Open late
Couple parking spaces in the back
Pre-order/pick-up service available
Opens daily at 1:30pm

**Recommendation: Japanese Green Tea Ice Cream, Supreme Milk Tea, and any of their fresh fruit series – I like blueberry

Next to Pearl Castle Bubble Tea and Peanuts this is also one of the most popular places for locals to get their bubble tea. Everyone loves Dragon Ball Tea House and it has been here for ages! At least 8 years I’d say…maybe even 10? It JUST got a make-over and it used to look even more hole-in-the wall-ish. It’s has very limited seating and it’s super casual and unpretentious. I’d even call it more of a to-go place. I’ve been coming here fore years and it’s my top bubble tea choice in the Vancouver area…although Capstone Tea & Fondue is good too.

Unlike many other bubble tea places, Dragon Ball Tea House really focuses on just bubble tea. They do offer maybe 3-4 hot dishes (which I’ve never seen anyone order) but they really focus on just bubble tea. They do a great job and they have steady traffic and pretty long lines and waits during busy hours…which is usually late at night or after dinner hours.

I’ve tried a lot of flavours here, but I always go back to the recommendations above. You can get drinks sweet/half-sweet/non-sweet/hot/slush/combination of flavours/mixed fruit etc. Almost everything can be customized, but they just don’t advertise it. Everything tastes like it’s made with ice cream here. The fresh fruit flavours are like smoothies. I haven’t had one bad drink. Even the tapioca pearls are great. Besides tapioca pearls they have coconut jelly, grass jelly and I think maybe mango stars as options.

On the table:

Pudding Slush Bubble Tea 4/6

$4.00 + $.50 with tapioca pearls - $4.50
This was my first time ordering pudding slush. Again it was like ice cream, they do a good job, however the best pudding slush bubble tea is still at Tri-ty.

This was very good, but I wasn’t a fan of the pudding pieces at the bottom. That’s how it’s supposed to be served though, but I just didn’t like them that much. They’re jello like and not that flavourful for me…so I found it more distracting.
The drink part is a sweeter drink and it tastes like vanilla pudding, but in slushy form.
The pearls are great. Nice and chewy and cooked perfectly. They give you lots too!
The drinks are pretty big and filling, but they’re delicious!

Top Gun J&C Restaurant - Review 2

2010-03-05T11:16:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Top Gun J&C Restaurant

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: February 21, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

Unit 2020 Excel Centre, 8766 McKim Way (2^nd floor)
Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (moved up .5, tried more stuff)

Service: 4

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

Part of Top Gun Group
Considered a high end dim sum restaurant
Traditional and creative dim sum dishes (mostly traditional)
Japanese sushi and sashimi available
Cantonese cuisine
Discount if you arrive before 11am
Ordering form service
Busy, but plenty of seating
Fancy set up
Private room available
Breakfast/Lunch 9:30am-3pm
Dinner 5:30pm-10pm
Closed Wednesday
Reservations recommended
Some parking available

**Recommendation: Steamed Diced Pork & Shrimp Dumpling, Baked BBQ Pork Bun, Deep Fried Fish Ball w/Clam Sauce, Steamed Beef Ball, Fried Vermicelli in Homemade Style, Pea Tips and Geoduck rice rolls, Steamed Sponge Cake, Red Bean Almond Tofu with Amaretto, Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Top Gun J&C Restaurant is part of the Top gun Group so it is considered a higher end dim sum Restaurant. It competes at the level of Kirin Restaurant and Rainflower Chinese Restaurant.

So I’ve been here numerous times and this was my second visit for a continuation of Chinese New Year brunches.

The 1^st Chinese New Year brunch review at Top Gun J&C Restaurant.

The dessert at Top Gun J&C Restaurant.

On the table:

Pan Fried Radish Cake 3.5/6

Or pan-fried white turnip cake. (Not sure what it’s called on the menu) $4.75?
This is a traditional dim sum dish to order during Chinese New Year; although it is also a common dish all year around.
It’s made in house and available ‘raw’ or not pan-fried (to give as gifts) during Chinese New Year and other traditional Chinese holidays.
It’s a bit sticky and gluey in texture. It’s made of shredded radish of Chinese daikon, which is neutral in flavour. It’s not spicy and not really sweet either. The radish cake is very soft and the flavour comes from the bits of sausage, dried shrimps and Shiitake mushrooms they add to the mixture.
The ones here are good, but I’ve had better. They’re a little firm and not soft and creamy enough and the edges could be fried crispier. I could also use more Shiitake mushrooms in the mixture.

Pan-Fried Taro Cake 3.5/6

$4.75?
This is another very common dish to have during Chinese New Year that is also available all year around.
It’s almost like the pan fried radish cake but it’s a bit drier and starchier in texture. It’s more potato like and not as creamy.
It’s a savoury cake made or shredded taro root (which is basically a starchier potato-like vegetable), rice flour, Shiitake mushrooms, sausage and maybe some ground pork as well.
I actually think they did a better job with these than the pan fried radish cake, however I’ve had better of these too. These ones were a bit too firm again. They are firmer than pan-fried radish cakes, but even relative to other taro cakes they’re still a little too firm and a bit too dry.

Scallops and Black Wood Ear Mushroom Rice Rolls 4/6

$7.50
This is one of their specialty items and I haven’t seen them offered anywhere else.
They’re a bit expensive, but that’s because there are huge scallops in them! They’re big white fresh scallops, not dried ones. Although it would taste delicious with some dried scallops in there as well.
I wish I got a picture, but you can see the big round scallops underneath the rice roll skin.
I’m not sure if black wood ear mushrooms were the right match – the crunchy texture (cartilage like) kind of threw me off with the soft yet meaty scallops. I would have preferred Enoki mushrooms instead.
They didn’t have much black wood ear mushrooms in there anyways though.
I found it a bit bland and the only flavour was pretty much the sweet soy sauce and natural scallop taste.

**Pea Tips and Geoduck Rice Rolls 5/6

$7.50
It’s pretty much sautéed pea tips and geoduck wrapped in rice rolls.
This is another specialty item that isn’t offered anywhere else. It’s their in house recipe and not traditional, but still very good and very gourmet. So it’s a bit pricier again.

The geoduck is a type of clam, so it almost tastes the same. It’s chewy and they don’t overcook them here, so they are still tender. They give you lots too and they’re cut in nice bite sized pieces.
I really liked the pea tips in here. A unique flavour combination that worked well. It was a very hearty stuffing for the delicate rice rolls, but I still liked it. Lots of textures – soft, chewy, crunchy. I liked it! The ingredients held well with the sweet soy sauce you eat them with too.
Good example of messing with a good thing…and it actually working.

**Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf 6/6

$10.95
This is also quite pricey, but it’s good and they execution is done really well.
It was very fresh and made upon order. I liked the presentation as well.

It’s a pretty big pot of fried rice with pieces of salted egg yolk, scrambled egg, pieces of white meat chicken, baby shrimp, a few minced up Shiitake mushrooms, and sliced Chinese broccoli stems.
It was very flavourful rice and has the same flavour as sticky rice. It’s not sticky though and the grains are separate. They did a great job with the frying.

The yellow pieces that look like squash is the salted egg yolk. I love these! It maybe an acquired taste though. It’s very dry and very crumbly in texture. It’s quite firm and it has a very potent salty flavour. It almost has a bean like salty texture and tastes like fermented food. Well it is – it’s a salted duck egg (did I lose you!? I didn't want to say it and scare you off...) but it's a preserved duck egg. It’s the same egg they use in the centre of Chinese moon cakes.

**Steamed Sponge Cake 6/6

$4.50
This is a very popular Chinese dessert served during dim sum.
The one here is very good! It’s hot, fresh, and made upon order.
It’s very soft, light, fluffy, and very lightly sweetened.
It tastes like egg rolls or Chinese egg balls in sponge cake form.
It has a slight almond-y flavour and I loved the presentation! I’ve never seen it served like this. I ate the middle part…I usually don’t care for this dessert…but this one was great! A lot of Chinese people love it.

Diplomat Bakery

2010-03-04T11:39:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Diplomat Bakery

Cuisine: Desserts/Bakery/Coffee

Last visited: February 23, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

6111 London Road (Steveston)
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5 (based on the 3 items I tried)

Service: 4

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

Location in the middle of nowhere (industrial)
Near Steveston Village
Popular to locals
European bakery
Popular for cakes
Whole cakes available
Wedding cakes available
Very reasonably priced
Quality ingredients
Some savoury café foods available
Great for quick lunch/coffee/dessert
Spacious, clean, contemporary
Self-serve/pay at cashier
Seats 20
Eat in/Take-out

**Recommendation: Napoleon, Spinach and Feta Cheese Brioche

I’ve only tried a few things here and based on those I gave it a 4.5/6. However I think it could easily movie up to a 5 if I tried more things – I still need to try more of their cakes.

It’s basically the True Confections (cake café) of Richmond. The style, look, and choices at Diplomat Bakery are similar to those offered at True Confections, but not quite as refined. I can’t say 100% because I haven’t tried enough, but True Confections I think is better. On the other hand Diplomat bakery is half the price of True Confections. All Diplomat Bakery cakes are $3.50 a slice so it’s very affordable compared to the $7-8 you would pay in downtown.

Overall I enjoyed everything I had and would go back to try more. However it is a little out of the way and not so convenient so I would really have to make it a plan to go again. I don’t think they’re an open late kind of place, but they were very busy in the late afternoon with lots of locals stopping for coffee and dessert. They also serve a small selection of savoury foods like muffins, quiche etc.

On the table:

**Napoleon 4.5/6

$2.75
Every bakery has their interpretation of the Napoleon.
It was layers of flakey crisp pastry and butter cream sprinkled with icing sugar.
It was sweet, but not overly sweet. It’s sweeter than the Saint Germain’s Napoleon though.

It was very fresh and you could taste the quality of ingredients. I loved the layers of flakey pastry and the ratio of cream to pastry was great.
However the layers of butter cream were really buttery and I could taste it – it didn’t melt as well as I would have liked. It was a denser butter cream, not the fluffy whipped kind. It was almost like pastry custard, but it tasted buttery. I prefer pastry cream or custard in Napoleons.

White Chocolate Baileys 3.5/6

$3.50 for a slice $40 for 9 inch cake
This was a pretty cake. It was white chocolate cake with a layer of white chocolate Bailey’s cake and a layer of dark chocolate cake in the middle.

This was a dense cake and although the middle layers look moussey, it’s not. It’s an actual cake, but it does have a slightly creamy texture…almost like cheesecake does, but it’s not cheesecake. It was thickend with butter instead of cheese but it was still a cake. I liked the texture of cake and the denser middle layers of cake though.

It had white chocolate shavings all around the edges, which was a nice touch.
It actually wasn’t that sweet and I thought it would be since it was white chocolate.

I could taste the Bailey’s and it’s not overwhelming or too heavy on the liquor but carries a light coffee taste. It’s mixed into the middle white layers.
I think they the dark chocolate layer could have overpowered the white chocolate layers a little bit. The white chocolate cake layers came off as regular white cake and it was a tad dry. Luckily it had the middle layers to keep it more moist.

**Spinach and Feta Cheese Brioche 4.5/6

$3.25
This was huge and a really good price.

I enjoyed mine with a fried egg for breakfast and my friend enjoyed hers with tuna. It was very enjoyable with these extras although it tastes good on its own too.

It’s not soft and fluffy, but the crumbs are tight like brioche should be. It’s egg and butter based bread, so it’s rich in texture and flavour. It’s a bit dry, drier than brioche should be though, but it was ok because the filling kept in moist.

It’s stuffed with spinach and Feta cheese mixture and the Feta was actually quite strong and stood out. There are some ‘fillers’ in the mixture, but it just made it even better so it didn’t bother me one bit.

They add some mashed potato and onions into the mixture so it’s almost creamy and hold lots of flavour. You can bite into small pieces of minced potato so the texture is great.
I kind of wanted a bit more egg wash on the top though – I like my brioche to have that slightly sweetened and baked egg wash.

Ganache Patisserie - Bakery

2010-03-03T10:30:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Ganache Patisserie - Bakery

Cuisine: Desserts/Bakery

Last visited: February 14, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Yaletown/Downtown)

1262 Homer Street
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5 (but I think there's better I haven't tried)

Service: n/a

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

Opened December 2003
Pastry chef and owner Peter Fong
Gourmet/high-end Parisian bakery in Yaletown
Creative/exotic/posh cakes
Modern French cakes (w/twist)
Quality/seasonal ingredients
Chocolates
Menu changes, seasonal cakes
Whole cakes/mini individual serving cakes
Wedding cakes
Baked goods to go/gifts
Take-out only, very few seats if any
Croissants available Friday-Sunday
Tues-Fri. 11am-7pm
Sat. 11am-9pm
Sun. 11am-5pm
Closed Mondays

**Recommendation: Caramel-Chocolat, Chocolat-Banane (popular choice, but haven’t tried this one)

I’ve heard so many great things about Ganache Patisserie, I haven’t come across one person that doesn’t love it. Visually they are masterpieces, but taste wise…I’m not so sure. I would rather have Bakery Nouveau. I can’t say I was disappointed by Ganache Patisserie, but I also wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be. Since it is a gourmet/high-end bakery my expectations are higher than usual…as it should be for places like these. It really reminded me of Kreation Artisan Cake – classic French cakes and pastries with a contemporary twist.

My friend brought them over and I indulged in all of them with 2 of my girlfriends. We all felt the same way about each cake…and we’re good judgment of desserts. They’re good, but not OMG sooooo good…except for the caramel-chocolat. When my friend asked the staff what she recommended she actually listed the more traditional items rather than the exotic cakes. I guess I just need to try the less original items next time because I was a little underwhelmed by the exotic ones. So I would still go back to try more but I wouldn’t crave anything because nothing was too memorable either. I do recommend it, but I've been really spoiled with great desserts...so I have had better...not necessarily in Vancouver though...so this is still good!

I didn’t have the descriptions while trying them so I was relying on my taste buds to pick out all the flavours. We each had a 1/3 of every cake so it was a decent sample and representation.

On the table:

Blanc Fraisier 4/6

Vanilla cake, vanilla sablé Breton, white chocolate black pepper mousseline, strawberries, passionfruit meringue $5.50-5.75
They say that this is everyone’s favourite and it’s one of their best sellers.
It tasted like strawberry shortcake to me. The cake layers were drier and very much like shortcake cake.
It was almost like custard or layers or pastry cream with fresh strawberries in between the shortcake layers. There wasn’t much strawberry though.
It was creamier then it was mousse like. I couldn’t taste the black pepper or any sort of spiciness. I couldn’t tell it was white chocolate either.
I also couldn’t tell it was passionfruit meringue although it was fluffy and marshmallow like. I liked the texture.

Guava Exotique 3.5/6

Strawberry guava mousse, lychees, pineapple financier sponge $5.50-5.75
This one reminded me of an Asian cake. It was mousse like and the mousse is the light airy mousse they make at Chinese bakeries.
I definitely couldn’t taste the pineapple and didn’t know it was in there until reading the description.

It was nice and moist and the lychee really stood out. There were little pieces of lychee throughout the cake and I liked the texture eating it with the mousse.
I could taste the guava and it was a very floral and fragrant cake.
I’d order it again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. I’d rather try something else before ordering this again.

Matcha-Exotique 3/6

Green tea mousse, mango-passionfruit gelée, lychees, black sesame biscuit joconde $5.50-5.75
I was very excited about this one! One of my girlfriends had tried it as a whole cake and apparently it’s better that way because they make it in layers instead of a bomb cake where the flavours didn’t mesh together as well.
This one is too bitter. They use so much Matcha and black sesame that it became bitter. It was definitely fresh and quality ingredients, but the flavour became overpowering rather than complementing.

The black sesame cake was a bit dry and crumbly in texture too. It made the whole cake taste a bit powdery especially with the green tea mousse which is also made with Matcha powder.
The mango passionfruit was almost like a jello but denser. It was made with frehs puree and it was very tangy and also sweet. The cake tasted much better if you ate it with the jello, but it was hard to portion because there wasn’t much of it. The mango and passion fruit helped to break up the bitterness.
There were also little bits of lychee in this one, but I lost the flavour because of the Matcha and sesame. I only knew because of the texture.

**Caramel-Chocolat 6/6

Milk chocolate caramel mousse with hazelnut croquant, raspberry gelée, 75% Tanzanie dark chocolate mousse, praline crunch, chocolate biscuit $5.50-5.75
This is another one of their popular cakes. It’s more traditional and I usually go for exotics so I wasn’t too excited about this one…little did I know it would be the best of the 4. It was all of our favourites.

It was moist, creamy, moussey, rich and perfect in texture.
There was a great combination of chocolates and levels of sweetness. The hazelnut was obvious and the raspberry was so little, but so potent.
It was chocolatey, nutty, and tangy – I would order this again for sure.
It was the sweetest of all the cakes, but since it was dark chocolate it wasn’t overly sweet. It was definitely most indulgent and I was happy to at least end off on a good note.

Vancouver 2010 Olympics - Holland House: Dutch food

2010-03-02T10:40:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Holland House – Dutch food

Cuisine: European/Dutch

Last visited: February 27, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC (Minoru Park)

7191 Granville Avenue
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

I really wish I could have put this post up earlier, but I didn’t make my visit to the Holland House until the last Saturday of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics! GO CANADA GO!

I heard lots about the Holland House and the exclusiveness of it. Every time The Netherlands won a gold medal they would only let in people with Dutch passports. Throughout the day anyone with a Dutch passport could get in automatically with no line-up, but for everyone else it was 30min on a good day and sometimes up to a 3 hour wait! The exclusiveness made it extra alluring and I also heard they were serving traditional Dutch food so I was determined to check it out. Authentic Dutch foods…actually Dutch food in general…and even Dutch people are hard to find!

So what’s up with my Dutch obsession? Well I was lucky to live in The Netherlands for a while so it has a place close to my heart…and stomach for that matter. So what was my game plan to get in? Well I grabbed my Utrecht Universiteit hoodie and my expired Dutch student ID that clearly states: 2007-2008. And with that I was able to get in! WOOT WOOT! The loser is the one who doesn’t try right?! Seriously…lucky me!

Needless to say I am familiar with traditional Dutch food – well as familiar as I could get. Living there I would ask people all the time what traditional Dutch food was? And more often then not my Dutch friends were lost for words. However after a while I was able to get an idea of Dutch food and the menu offered at Holland House was in pretty close to the real deal! It definitely brought back memories!

Added note: Almost all Dutch food tastes better than it sounds and looks. The stuff at the Holland House was no exception…it was cafeteria style Dutch food, but it was good! It's partly rated so high just becuase I miss it. :(

On the table:

Stamppot Boerenkool met Worse en Spek

Potato-kale hotchpotch with sausage $7.50
The one served at the Holland House is pretty much the “fast food version”…which is interesting because the original is already quite “fast food-like” as is.
Now I didn’t order this one because I tried a home made version in the The Netherlands already. Also the guy working there said his favourite was the Hutspot met Worst en Spek (the one I actually ordered).
Below is the Stamppot Boerenkool I made with my Dutch friend in The Netherlands. It’s traditionally served with pickled pearl onions and pickles.

Stamppot Boerekool is the most traditional and popular ‘stamppot’ or hotchpotch. It’s not necessarily the favourite, but there’s many ways to make it and many combinations, however this potato-kale one is most common.
Stamppot is a traditional dish that people make at home, but it’s not really served at restaurants. It’s pretty much traditional Dutch comfort food that mom’s make.

Hutspot met Worst en Spek 4.5/6

Potato carrot hotchpotch with sausage $7.50
Okay so this isn’t how it’s supposed to be served, but under the circumstances of a standing room only/drinking tent atmosphere it was the most practical method serving it in a cone.
It’s basically mashed potatoes with milk and butter, mixed with coarsely mashed up carrots and onions and topped with a sausage and bacon bits.

The sausage was a crappy sausage – it was those cheap hot dog wieners…usually it’s a thicker sausage, like those ‘U’ shaped ones (like the image in my home made verison)
Other than that the mashed potato carrot part was delicious even though it was sitting under heat lamps for the whole day. It was really creamy and really soft and fluffy. I loved it!
The bacon was new. I’ve never seen it served with bacon, but I liked it. It was almost like a baked potato and I think that’s what they’re going for. They were pretty fresh bacon bits too – not those hard crunchy dried ones.

Broodje Kipkerriesalade 4/6

Sandwich chicken curry salad $5.00
I was pleasantly surprised to see this on the menu. It flew under my radar and I almost forgot how popular of a sandwich it is there.
There’s a heavy Indonesian influence in The Netherlands so it’s very common to see “satay” or “curry” on their menus.
This sandwich is very close to what they would serve at quick eateries or small cafes in The Netherlands.
It’s pretty much diced chicken mixed with a curried mayo. They also include some diced apple and maybe some diced onions in it.
The bread was crappy and tough and it was overpriced, but whatever…that was expected.
The chicken curry salad was really good though. It’s creamy and sweet from the apples. Usually they would serve it with some lettuce and maybe some tomatoes. At really good places I could get them with bean sprouts! I love it with bean sprouts.
The curry is not spicy at all, but just really creamy and rich.

Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant

2010-03-01T11:03:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Last visited: February 22, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC

2292 East Hastings (Commercial Drive/Grandview)
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5

Service: 3.5

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

Popular for pho – famous for soup base
Popular for spring rolls, chicken and beef pho
Fresh, made upon order
Family owned/operated
Vietnamese owners
Hole in the wall
Seats about 30
Authentic
Fast/Cheap/Good
Not much MSG
Some pictures on menu
Cash only
Closed Wednesday
Open daily 10am – 9pm (except Wed.)

**Recommendation: Spring Rolls, Chicken Pho, Beef Pho, Bún Bò Hue, Chicken Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwich)

This all started with Twitter. People were asking me about the best places for pho in Vancouver and to be honest I was a little stuck. I’ve had home made pho before from an excellent Vietnamese mom who worked in a kitchen for years…ever since then I can’t go back to anything else. Home made pho is NOTHING like what they serve you at restaurants.

Anyways people recommended Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant so I decided to give it a try. My expectations were set high because I’ve heard good things about it, and I did my research ahead of time and so far everything was positive. Overall the food is good, but I didn’t think it was amazing. One clear fact I noticed was that they didn’t use that much MSG! Surprising! It was still flavourful too and the noodles are noticeable fresh and the soup is super hot in terms of temperature.

On the table:

**Deep Fried Spring Roll 5/6

As a side order $1.75 each or 3 for $5.25 – which is the same
These are actually really good. The only thing is that they’re a bit small. It’s about 3 inches so they’re a bit pricey, yet I would still order them again because they were good.

They’re hot, fresh, crispy and well stuffed with vermicelli noodles, carrots, jacama root, mushroom, ground pork and cabbage. They don’t use the vermicelli as filler either, there’s actually not much noodle in them.
It was salty and slightly tangy I really liked them.

**Variety of Beef Noodle in Soup (Pho Duc Biet #1) 5/6

Rare beef flank, tripe, tendon, beef balls and noodles in soup M - $5.95 L - $6.50

It came with 3 slices of beef flank that were really tender, but they cook super fast because the soup is served super hot.

There’s also 2 pieces of tripe, 2 pieces of tendon and one beef ball cut in half – and this is for the medium size. They serve with with black pepper on top and I really liked that.

They give you lots of green onion, cilantro and onions which I really like.
The broth was good, but still a bit watered down compared to the real deal. It was savoury and not too sweet and it actually pretty clear tasted. It’s definitely made in house but the beef flavour wasn’t as strong as I would have liked.
I don’t think they use much MSG, maybe a bit because they don’t advertise “no MSG”, but it’s definitely not overwhelming of the most obvious ingredient.

The best part for me was the hot soup and the noodles. The noodles are noticeably fresh and really soft and chewy.

**Spicy Beef Noodle Soup (Bún Bò Hue #26) 5.5/6

Special spicy beef rice noodle soup M - $6.75 L - $7.25

It came with 3 thin slices of Vietnamese ham and a couple pieces of beef shank with cartilage. It's supposed to come with pig's feet (pork hock), but I don't recall any being in there.
This is one of their specialty dishes and it’s not available at every Vietnamese restaurant although it is a common Vietnamese dish.

It’s not as spicy as it looks. It actually wasn’t that spicy at all. It was quite mild with a strong lemongrass flavour which made it a bit sweeter. The spiciness was more aromatic than it was spicy. I actually liked this broth better than the standard beef broth although the broth is the same base. This one also has some shrimp paste in it so it's very aromatic and tasty. This broth was just more flavourful overall especially with the chili oil.

The noodles for Bún Bò Hue are not the standard vermicelli noodles. The noodles are those thin round rice noodles. They're good, but it reminds me of eating Chinese soup noodles.

**Chicken Bahn Mi 4.5/6

Chicken (Vietnamese) sandwich $3.00
This is the sandwich the waitress/owner suggested. That was after she said “everything is good”…so I took it that this was actually a really good item considering when I asked about the sandwiches there was little hesitation to suggest the chicken.
This was really good, except I wish they gave more chicken. There wasn’t much in there but they gave lots of vegetables like cucumber, carrots, radish, and cilantro.

The chicken bahn mi is different here because the chicken is almost like a chicken stew. They cook and serve the chicken in this tomato stew that’s sweet and sour like – it’s savoury, slightly tangy and sweet. It was very light and it had a ketchup flavour but it was really good and made the sandwich so juicy and flavourful.

The sandwich is really buttery though, but that’s part of what makes is so good. It’s actually lard and not butter so it makes it extra good, but extra bad for you too.
The chicken is pieces of skinless dark meat instead of the usual shredded chicken they use in bahn mi.
I could have used a stronger marinade for the vegetables though. It was a bit pickled tasting but I could have used more flavour like fish sauce and sugar.
I doubt the bread is made in house, but it was better than in looks. It was served warm and it was really crusty and really soft in the middle. With the chicken stew I was surprised the bread didn’t get soggy too.

Vietnamese Egg Soda (Soda sữa hột gà) 3/6

Club Soda, egg, and condensed milk $3.50
It’s almost like an ice cream float, but richer in flavour, but not in texture and not as sweet.
I know it sounds a bit different, but it’s actually pretty good.

It tastes like a carbonated custard drink. The flavour is definitely custardy.
It’s not really creamy, and it’s not too sweet although you expect it to be.
The whipped egg just makes it frothier and adds a creamier texture to it although it’s not really creamy. An ice cream float or milkshake is much creamier.

Polonia Sausage House - Review for Polish Poppy Seed Bread

2010-02-28T10:05:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Polonia Sausage House - Review for Polish Poppy Seed Bread

Cuisine: Bakery/Dessert/Cafe

Last visited: February 22, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Hastings-Sunrise)

2434 Hastings Street East
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Polish Poppy Seed bread: 6

Service: 6

Ambiance: ? It's a grocery store/deli/bakery

Overall: n/a

Additional comments:

Owned by Polish family
Frequented by Polish people
Authentic
Homemade sausages
Popular for sausages
Polish grocery store/deli/bakery
Baked goods imported fresh daily from nearby bakery
Frozen perogies available
Bakery (smaller selection)
Mostly cheesecakes

**Recommendation: Polish Poppy Seed Bread

This review is only based on the Polish Poppy Seed Bread.

Another random find! I had finished eating at Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant down the street and i was craving some dessert...surprise surprise huh? =p Anyways I started walked up the street and noticed 4 bakeries just one block. I decided to pop into Polonia Sausage House....I don't even kno9w why because they don't advertised being a bakery. Luckily I walked in though because at the back of the store they sell baked goods. There's only a few of each item and the selection is limited. the baked good are actually all made fresh daily...but off site. They bring them in from an Eastern European bakery further down the street...I'm not sure which one though.

Most of the baked goods are different kinds of cheesecakes or pastries with cream. They looked ok, but I'm not a huge fan of cheesecakes so I opted for something I am a BIG fan of...the poppy seed bread! I was introduced to this from my Ukrainian friend and there's lots of interpretations of it, however this is one of the best I've ever had.

The owner was super nice and she told me they have limited selection because they throw away anything that doesn't get sold that day...and I believe her. most bakeries should operate like this I think - I hope they eat them instead of throw them away though...such a waste of good food otherwise.

I want to go back for more poppy seed bread and I also want to try their sausages...they looked good! Very authentic...everyone in there was speaking Polish - owner and customers...I was excited that I had found an authentic Polish place...even if it is a grocery store.

On the table:

**Polish Poppy Seed Bread 6/6

Half $4.98 Whole loaf $9.98
The owner was super nice. She charged me $4.30 for half a loaf because it was slightly smaller than half a loaf. Really cute.

It's a pretty substantial loaf although I finished it in 2 sittings. I bought half a loaf.
I loved this bread! It's half bread and half pastry so I can't really call it a dessert. Would you consider a croissant a dessert? Or a danish? It's almost like that kind of thing.
This is baked off site at the bakery down the street. YUMMY!

It's loaded with a poppy seed! The poppy seed is almost like a paste and there's also some candied lemon peel, raisins, and walnuts in it. I loved it! I could have used more raisins and walnuts though...there were so few that I wasn't sure if they had gotten in there by accident....but enough to know that they were intended.

There's a very strong fresh lemon taste and scent. The candied lemon pieces were actually quite big, but very good! I thought I wouldn't like it either, but it enhanced all the flavours.

The topping of the bread is almost like a streusel crumb topping. There’s a little bit of icing and a little bit of brown sugar crumb topping. It's delicious.
The bread part is egg bread. It's dense and crumbly and almost like a lemon loaf cake but not as sweet and a bit drier.
It dries out quickly if it's not wrapped up, but it's excellent when it's fresh or even slightly warmed up.
It's not too sweet, but still dessert like. The Poppy Seed Square at Breka Bakery was much more of a dessert. I could this one at any anytime of day...it's delicious.