CHAU Kitchen & Bar

Restaurant: CHAU Kitchen & Bar

Cuisine: Vietnamese/Fusion/Asian

Last visited: January 25, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Robson Street/West End/Downtown)

1500 Robson Street
Range: $20-30

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

Food: 3.5 (based on few items I tried)

Service: 4

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 3.5

Additional comments:

• Vietnamese Fusion tapas
• Contemporary/casual fine dining
• The Vietnamese version of Hapa Izakaya
• Vietnamese owned
• Vietnamese chefs
• Attracts Westerners/locals primarily 30-40+
• Quite healthy
• Moderately priced
• Lunch plates $10-13 until 5pm daily
• Lunch and dinner
• Open 7 days
• Serves alcohol/cocktails/wine
• Mon-Sat 11am-10pm
• Sunday 11:30-9:30pm
• Charge for tea
• Free parking at rear

**Recommendation: Artichoke Tea (I don't feel like I tried their best dishes so I feel like there could be better stuff on the menu that I haven’t tried)

CHAU Kitchen & Bar serves Vietnamese fusion tapas and is pretty much the only expensive Vietnamese restaurant in Vancouver. It’s not fine dining, but it is casual fine dining. The menu offers about 20 Vietnamese tapas with a contemporary twist and although it seems like “white people making Vietnamese food” it isn’t. The chefs and owners are actually Vietnamese so the quality and style of the food is quite good although I prefer Kingyo (Japanese Izakaya) to this. They are different, but I find that I get more value at Japanese Izakaya. It’s hard justifying expensive Vietnamese food because it’s known for “cheap eats” and there are so many in Vancouver.

I came here after dinner #1 at Sushi Garden so I can’t say I was too hungry to eat again…but obviously I still did. I was with my Vietnamese friend and it’s even hard for her to justify pricey Vietnamese food. While the food was good (ambiance and service are better) the tapas are pretty basic and not creative enough to justify the price. I just didn’t see value with some of the dishes. Oh and as a side note, CHAU is pronounced “Cho” almost like “Joe”, and not “Chow” like many people think it is.

On the table:

**Artichoke Tea 5/6

• Steeped from dried artichokes, sweetened with sugarcane and topped with gogi berries. Caffeine free. $3
• They charge $1 for regular Jasmine tea, but I decided to get the Artichoke tea.
• I really liked this! It’s very natural and naturally sweetened and as sweet as Chamomile is.
• In addition to the sugar cane there’s dragon’s eye (fruit) and gogi berries which enhances the delicate sweetness and leaves a honey and floral flavour.
• Artichoke tea is also very good for you and helps cleans e your liver too.

  

Buddha Bowl 3.5/6

• In a mushroom, lychee and date stock served with tofu, rice noodles and seasonal vegetables $7/$11
• We ordered the bigger size because the server said it’s almost triple everything more worth it. It was a pretty decent portion and definitely big for a tapa.
  
• This was basically a vegetarian version of pho. It seemed like a recipe from Martha Stewart. It was quite westernized and very healthy looking and tasting. The noodles are fresh and not dried which is great.
• There was a mound of fresh veggies like raw shredded cabbage, green onions, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, vegetarian ham, eggplant, lotus root, mushrooms, deep fried tofu, dried tofu skins, snow peas, and honey dates.
• There was no lychee in it; they actually meant “longan” which is dragon’s eye fruit. It has a florally sweet flavour and is quite refreshing.
• The veggies were all blanched in the soup before being served so they were all quite bland on their own. They didn’t absorb any flavours and could have been tenderer, but I guess they assume it will cook in the hot soup anyways.
• The broth didn’t taste vegetarian to me. It tastes like a sweetened chicken broth with a light onion and garlic flavour. It probably is vegetarian but tastes like it's from a can, that's partly why I though ti was chicken. It’s more sweet than savoury and there’s a pink tint which is probably from the ingredients.
• There is very minimal fish sauce but it comes through when you squeeze the lime into the soup. I like my broth more savoury and it’s the most important part of pho so I wish they did a better job with it...by the way doesn't fish sauce make it non-vegetarian?!
• I appreciate the variety of ingredients, but it was also something I could easily make at home. The honey dates and longan/Dragon's Eye are actually more Chinese and they come dried in packages at the Chinese supermarket. (The Dragon's Eye could have been frozen/fresh.)
  
• 

Rice Paper Rolls 3/6

• Green leaf lettuce, cucumber, vermicelli, herbs and a crispy egg noodle centre. Choice of chicken, prawn, pork and mint, tofu, or vegetarian ham $6.50
• We ordered it with prawns and they really spread them out so I couldn’t taste them. They used too much lettuce and not enough other ingredients and they were just really tiny in general.
  
• This was the “fancy” version of Vietnamese salad rolls. It wasn’t even fancy as much as it was a cute idea.
• They were pretty small and I actually like the regular Vietnamese ones better.
• The “fusion” part was adding the crispy egg noodle centre which is actually just a crispy layered wafer that looks like a Pocky stick. It wasn’t sweet, but more neutral like a cracker. It added a nice crunch, and was good, but the concept was a bit junior for a restaurant lik e this.
• They serve it with a sauce that tastes like a mix of sweet and sour plum sauce, fish sauce, and that orange Vietnamese vinaigrette that’s usually served with deep fried spring rolls. I which it was nuttier tasting.

Crispy Pork and Prawn Wontons 2.5/6

• $6
• These were just your standard deep fried wontons, except I couldn’t taste or see any prawns. I would have appreciated a bit more stuffing.
• They were deep fried well though, very crispy and golden on the outside and the pork meat was still juicy. Again it wasn't that impressive for a gourmet Vietnamese tapas place, but I didn't really expect them to be either.
• The pork was well marinated though and I could taste garli c and onions.
• They serve them with sweet Thai chili sauce but it’s more sweet than spicy.
• I don’t think it’s worth the price because there were only 4 and it’s the easiest thing an Asian restaurant can make and serve.

Dessert

**Deep Fried Banana 5/6

• Served with lychee ice cream (I’m not sure of the price, but I’m guessing $6-8)
• The banana was served in a doughnut like batter. It wa s covered with sugar, and then covered with syrup before serving. It was a bit too sweet since the banana is already sweet. I also wish the batter stayed attac hed to the banana but I guess it was too heavy.

  

• The banana was warm and creamy and I liked how they garnished it with chopped mint because it brightens up this rather heavy dessert.
• The lychee ice cream was the best part. There are actually pieces of real lychee in it and it went so well with the banana fritter and mint. All the flavours went together so well.

Vietnamese Pancake 3/6

• A fried Vietnamese pancake served with caramel and lychee ice cream (I’m not sure of the price, but I’m guessing $6-8)
• It was one fried pancake made out of Vietnamese flour – seemed like potato or rice flour to me. It’s thin and crispy and glutinous in texture.
• It was swimming in a caramel sauce that was much too sweet and they put too much on.
• Again the ice cream was the best! It has the real lychee bits in it and with the pancake it gave it a nice florally flavour.

Sushi Garden

Restaurant: Sushi Garden – Japanese Restaurant

Cuisine: Japanese/Sushi

Last visited: January 25, 2010
Area: Burnaby, BC

4635 Kingsway
Range: $10 or less

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

Food: 4

Service: 3.5 (Despite comments on poor service, I actually had good service)

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 3.5

Additional comments:

• Cheap sushi, that’s good!
• Bang for you buck
• Pretty generous portions and big pieces
• Extensive menu
• Some creative/fusion rolls
• Lots of seating and still very busy!
• Very casual
• Very busy at lunch and dinner
• Set menus
• Same owners as California Sushi in Coquitlam
• Line-ups/wait list right at 6pm
• Dine in/Take out
• Serves alcohol
• Mon-Sat 11am-10pm
• Sunday 11:30-9:30pm
• Free parking at rear

**Recommendation: Alaska roll, Tuna Gomae, (Also popular for Dynamite roll, chopped scallop roll, sashimi)

I’ve been to Sushi Garden on several occasions, but every time I go I always have to wait 20min before I get seated. It’s busy in there all the time! Even when I get there at 6pm there’s already a waitlist. The main reason: the price! Yes it is a cheap sushi joint, but is it good? I think it is! The pieces are pretty big (not like Samurai Sushi big, but still big) and you can eat like a king for $12-15 including tax and tip! It’s nothing fancy and they have a huge menu so it’s a great go-to place. The value is definitely there and when I’m up for quick, satisfying and something affordable – then this is a great choice.

So apparently the owners are Korean although some of their recipes seem to have some Chinese influence. (You’ll see what I mean). There are some fusion/creative dishes which, as you know, I always like! It’s a pleasant surprise and unexpected for a sushi joint of this style.

I was with my friend who was visiting from Austria and we were shopping for hours at Metrotown across the street. Originally I wanted to go to a nicer sushi place, but we were too hungry and wanted something close by. He had only tried sushi once at a Chinese restaurant in Austria so I had to bring him for sushi! I know?! What an alien right?! He ended up trying Shanghai River, Sushi Garden, Japadog, La Belle Patate, Benkei Ramen, Blendz Coffee, East is East, smoked salmon, candied salmon, and maple syrup with French toast! I think that’s a pretty damn good introduction/summary of Vancouver/Canada!

On the table:

**Tuna Gomae 4.5/6

• Tuna sashimi marinated in gomae sauce and spinach $4.95
• It’s tangy, nutty and citrusy because they mix the gomae (sesame) sauce with ponzu vinaigrette. It’s a pretty big bowl with 8 big cubes of tuna.
  
• The tuna isn't the best quality and it's not really cut in a way that would enhance the most flavour. But there's still so much sauce and it's so flavourful that it's strong enough to absorb into the tuna.
  
• 
• I really like how they give you some spinach gomae on top too.
• This photo is from last summer so I can’t comment on it too much because it was a while ago. The sauce was more like a vinaigrette than it is a sesame sauce though...however I remember it being good.
• I would have ordered it again, but I didn’t know if it was “too exotic” for the Austrian.

Haru Maki 3.5/6

• Vege, tobiko, crab meat $3.50 (Their definition sucks! Of course people wouldn’t order it if they don’t know what it is!...but I guess I would lol)
• My definition: Crabmeat, cucumber, red pepper, avocado, pea shoots and tobiko wrapped in a rice paper roll $3.50
• Ok, for what it is and the price you pay…totally worth it! It’s not the best, but it’s still good. The best ones I’ve had thus far are the ones at Ki-Isu Sushi.
• It reminds me of a Vietnamese salad roll, but instead of vermicelli it’s crab! A lot too! It’s creamy from the avocado and crunchy from all the fresh vegetables. It was a great appetizer. I could have used more tobiko, but for $3.50 I’m not complaining. It was still good!
• They served it with a Teriyaki Hoisin sauce which was great…but along side was a Japanese salad dressing that tastes like Thousand Island dressing. The Hoisin was great but the Japanese salad dressing did not match. I mean does mixing Teriyaki, Hoisin sauce and Thousand Island salad dressing sound good to you? I was good with just the Teriyaki Hoisin sauce. I actually asked for more sauce because they didn’t drizzle enough.

Tako Yaki 2/6

• $3.75
• If you’ve never tried tako yaki than these are good! But if you have then this is a 2/6 because they’re a pretty cheap version of the real deal.
• Tako Yaki is simply baked or fried octopus balls. It’s a popular street food usually made of batter, dice octopus, pickled ginger, green onions and topped with fish/squid shavings, Japanese mayo and okonomiyaki sauce (thicker sweet sauce).
• These ones we re a bit mushy and mostly consisted of batter. I had a very small small piece of octopus in mine, but just one and it was a bit tough from being overcooked.
• I wanted more filling, because they were a bit too airy although the main ingredients were there. I could taste the pickled ginger and onion although it was very little.
• It was creamy, gummy and almost like a glutinous dumpling. It’s like eating a very soft mochi.
• I like the texture and flavour of these; they’re soft, chewy, salty, sweet and a little bit juicy oddly enough. They’re not amazing here, but they’re not bad either.

**Alaska Roll 6/6

• Avocado, tobiko, salmon $3.95
• This is THE roll to order here. It’s delicious and what I’m guaranteed to order it every time I come.
• The avocado is almost like guacamole. It almost seems like they mash it a bit so it’s really creamy and actually quite rich. You need to really like avocado to like this roll.
• The sauce is what makes it different and so good! You don’t need any soy sauce or wasabi with it. You can if you want, but it’s not necessary.
• The sauce they drizzle on top is their own unique sauce. It tastes like a Miso Ponzu type sauce. It’s very tangy like citrus vinaigrette and savoury and sweet to because of the Miso paste…I’m certain it’s in there!
• It’s a perfect one-bite piece of sushi and they don’t use the rice to make it look big. The rice is flavourful too.
• It could use more salmon, but for $3.95 it’s fine. I would have liked some cucumber in there though. Give it a nice crunch because everything was really creamy, however the sauce breaks it up and is the perfect touch.
• I actually asked them for an extra side of sauce...I really like it. They didn't charge me either which is nice.

Dynamite Roll 3/6

• Prawn tempura, cucumber, avocado, lettuce, tobiko $3.95
• This is another one of their most popular rolls. I’m not sure why though. I think it’s quite normal and there’s no special sauce that comes with it.
• It’s a pretty big roll though. There was a lot of cucumber and I think too much because it was the dominant flavour. Not really much else to say here.
• Again, I do like how they don’t use the rice to make the sushi look big.

Island Roll 2/6

• Cooked tuna, tamago, fish flake, with fresh kiwi sauce $4.95
• This is one of their creative fusion rolls. I need to try at least something “different” and not just the popular items right?!
• This one was a bit dry because the tuna was jut a canned cooked tuna and I think it needed to be marinated more. They just marinated it in mayo and not enough of it either.
• The kiwi sauce was literally fresh kiwi mashed up. It was sweet and citrusy.
• Overall the roll was salty and sweet, but more on the sweet side. The kiwi actually didn’t work as well as I would have liked. It was a bit overpowering and the roll needed to be saltier.
• There’s also tamago in it although it doesn’t say on the menu. It doesn’t matter though because you can’t taste it at all. Besides the kiwi sauce the tuna was the only ingredient I tasted.
• This roll is actually better if you dip it in soy sauce and wasabi…yes even with the kiwi sauce. It works!

Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

Restaurant: Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

Cuisine: Taiwanese/Noodle Shop

Last visited: January 30, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

Unit 2800-4151 Hazelbridge Way (In Aberdeen Mall)
Range: $10-20

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

Food: 2

Service: 3

Ambiance: 3

Overall: 2

Additional comments:

• Specializes in Taiwanese beef noodle and soup bowls
• Taiwanese/Chinese (China) chefs/cooks
• Fresh, made upon order
• Homemade, everything made from scratch
• Handmade noodles, dough etc.
• Prepared in small batches
• Large selection of drinks (bubble tea, brewed tea etc.)
• Selection of desserts (shaved ice, Frappe Bliss)
• Large selection of tradition Taiwanese snacks
• Very long line ups at peak hours
• Open/display kitchen
• Lots of seating, quick service
• Popular to locals/Chinese
• Lunch and dinner
• Offers snacks and bubble tea
• Private room available
• Open 7 days

**Recommendation: Noodle topped with ground pork sauce, Pan fried ground pork cake

Chef Hung is getting slammed left, right and centre.

Yes, it’s a bit overpriced, but they do give you a lot of meat. Yes, it’s not worth the long line up, but it might be worth checking out if there is no line-up and if you’re still curious. Yes, it’s overrated, but do I regret trying it? No, because I still had to see what the hype was about; and when there’s a 30+ min. line-up for over a month now…they must be doing something good right?!…errr maybe not…nonetheless I tried everything I wanted to try to make sure I wouldn’t have to line-up again to give it another chance.

For me it was a cross of Taiwanese and Shanghainese food, and in this case I could get better of each cuisine elsewhere. The broth just wasn’t as flavourful or rich to match the authenticity of Taiwanese or Shanghai cuisine. They’re charging a couple dollars more than Japanese Ramen Noodle places and a lot more than Wonton Noodle places and the food is surprisingly bland. The portions are really deceiving because it’s a big bowl with not a lot of noodle, yet a significant amount of meat. The noodles are deceiving too because although they don’t give you much, but they really expand and fill you up fast. You have a choice of either flat noodle, thin noodle or vermicelli and most people seem to be getting the flat noodle.

I do appreciate how everything is homemade and fresh, but the flavour just wasn’t there. It is a relatively quick eat – after all the line-up doesn’t die down during dinner. They’re not rude about it and there’s a lot of staff so the food comes fast and they don't hesitate to ask when you need your bill.

On the table:

Champion beef shank with noodle in soup 2.5/6

• Champion beef shank with noodle in soup $10.95 – Flat noodle
• For $10.95 I should be getting either a big portion, or really amazing noodles and soup. I got neither. This is their hot ticket item and it was only ok. That’s kind of embarrassing.
• If I only order this I’d be really disappointed because this itself isn’t worth the wait. The bowl is big, but not the portion too.
• The broth was very basic and light and almost watered down in taste. It wasn’t very flavourful and the beef taste wasn’t as potent as it looks for sure.
• The noodles were great though. They’re cooked in small batches just until al dente. This is a tricky word – al dente is actually more “undercooked” than one may think. So these noodles come across as undercooked but they’re not. They’re chewy, hand made and it absorbed the flavour (as little as it had to offer) of the soup well.
• They do give you a lot of meat though. The beef shank is quite tender, could be tenderer, and the fat is almost interwoven in layers.
• They also have 2 slices of seared beef which is individually hand seared with a torch. This part was good as well.

**Noodle topped with ground pork sauce 3/5

• Noodle topped with ground pork sauce $6.95 – Flat noodle
• Beef is their specialty, yet this pork noodle bowl was better! I still like it better at other authentic Taiwanese places though – like Lao Shan Dong in Burnaby, or even Zephyr in the Sky in Richmond.
• This noodle bowl is only supposed to come with a little soup, just enough to wet the noodles and then some. The soup again is a bit bland although it looks rich. It’s sweeter, saltier, thicker and richer than the soup in the beef bowls.
• They give you a lot of ground pork which is quite tender and lean. It’s actually quite chunky and not minced like other authentic Taiwanese places would serve it. It’s pretty good though, very marinated, but not saucy and it could have been saucier. I think there were bits of tofu in it, but it wasn’t apparent.
• I do like the al dente chewy and slightly hard noodles. Although I think the thin noodle would have matched the dish better since the meat was ground.

Marinated Beef Crispy Pancake 2/6

• Marinated beef wrapped in crispy pancake $5.95
• This dish is much better at Shanghainese restaurants.
• It was a homemade crispy pancake/crepe rolled with marinated beef slices, green onions, cucumbers, and Hoisin sauce.
• It looks better than it tastes. The pancake part was good and crispy and there was lots of filling, but the dominant taste was raw green onions.
• I could barely taste the meat, and it was very crunchy but there was too much onion and they needed more cucumber. It was slightly spicy from the onion overload.
• Overall it was a bit dry although not oily, but I needed more Hoisin sauce for sweetness and more flavour in general.

Fried Chives Pancake 1.5/6

• Fried chives pancake (2 pcs) $3.95
• This was stuffed with vermicelli, chives, and scrambled eggs.
• The pancake was a very thin crepe and not crispy but soft. It was quite floury and left a powdery layer on my lips.
• The filling was a bit oily and bland with a slight white pepper taste. If anything else it tasted like sautéed onions, with just the natural flavour of the onions and nothing else.

**Pan-Fried Ground Pork Cake 4/6

• Pan fried ground pork cake (2 pcs) $3.50
• I think this is the best thing I ordered and it was worth it. If anything I would come back for these if there was no line-up and it was convenient.
• They dough is homemade and it’s very crispy and thin almost like dumpling skin but more doughy.
• It was the most savoury, but not necessarily flavourful and I wonder if it would be more flavourful than the beef cake. After all the pork noodles were more flavourful than the beef was.
• The pork was really juicy and when you cut into it the juice even leaks out. It reminded me of those Pan-fried Shanghai Pork Buns.
• They’re very crunchy too because they mix the pork with green beans.
• They’re made completely in house and you can watch them doing it. They’re very oily though, but I would order them again.

Pan Fried Sliced Radish Cake 1/6

• Pan-fried sliced radish cake (2 pcs) $3.50
• Ok, no. I like the sliced radish in pastry they serve for Shanghai dim sum better than this.
• I really like radish too, but this was just really bland and fishy tasting. It was fishy tasting because they put some dried shrimp in it as well as Chinese mushrooms although it was way too little and you couldn’t taste them.
• It was packed with filling and really juicy and crunchy, but the dominant flavour was just fishy.
• This was also very oily and I preferred the pork version hands down.
  

Dessert

Mango Shaved Ice 4/6

• $3.50
• This dessert is from Frappe Bliss - a franchise, so they just bought the machine that makes it.
• There is an actual store front for Frappe Bliss in the Aberdeen food court upstairs and it’s better there because you get more variety for toppings. Toppings here are limited and +$1 each.
• This dessert is still amazing and it’s a pretty decent bowl for the price.