Seasons in the Park

Came here as part of a school dinner trip, the price was $30 tax and tips included for a set meal.

Almost everyone chose the sirloin steak as the main course haha, everyone likes steak because we probably don't have it very often. It was mildly disappointing that we did not have the famous Seasons view of the city because we were placed in a back room with no view at all... I tend to think that the view is part of the Seasons experience, so it was a little disappointing to have no view...

Mixed Seasonal Greens (candied almonds, fresh berries, goat cheese, maple vinaigrette

I don't really like salad and cheese in general so I don't have much comment for the this except that it tasted fresh.

Grilled 7oz Sirloin Steak (bourbon green peppercorn demi-glace, market fresh vegetables, local potatoes)

This is what everyone was waiting for :). The steak was prepared medium for everyone. I really liked the potatoes; I basically like any type of mashed potatoes... yum... At first, I ate each piece as I cut it. This tasted good, but not as good as when I just decided to cut all of them into little pieces, then proceed to mix them thoroughly into the demi-glace sauce... it was... so good.

Best way in my opinion to eat it :)

Last but not least, we had the dessert.

Sunburnt Lemon Pie

My favourite part about this pie was the crispy layer on the top of the cake, that was pretty cool, it was a slightly burnt crispy layer.

Overall: It was worth the money and the food was good.

Zakkushi (W. 4th Av.)

First time trying Zakkushi. At first I expected something like Guu, but it's actually really different. Almost all the food on the menu are grilled skewers. It is a little pricey, but the food quality is top... This is one of the better foods I've ever had... Here's some pictures of some of the skewers I had. Each one is ~$2. The set at the bottom was $8.20.

I definitely want to come back because the skewers are so very good... They have cooked it to the PERFECT level...I also got their sake ice cream for dessert

This was definitely something new for me, although the taste was a bit weird because the ice cream is sweet and the sake was bitter... didn't really like it.


Overall: I want to try their other locations and see how they are. The restaurant is TINY so make a reservation.

Peaceful Restaurant

Reading all the good reviews online of this restaurant, I decided to give it a try for lunch.

I went pretty early to avoid the crowds and I was glad I did, because when I left, there was already many people waiting! I thought the service was good, the waitresses are very attentive.

I decided to try their famous Beef Roll 

I must say, this beef roll probably deserves the hype. They put salty beef inside a wrap similar to those cha siu rolls you get at Chinese bakeries. The rolls are pretty big, and they are bigger than they look in this picture. I actually couldn't finish them because they are oily, so I took one for take out. I got really hungry in the late afternoon, so I had the leftover roll cold, it was even more delicious, maybe because I was starving...

I also wanted to try out their hand ripped noodles because they are famous for their open kitchen, where customers can see the noodles being made. I decided to get the Shanghai Pork-Chop Soup Noodles $7.95 (crispy pork-chop & spinach in a savoury broth). I was disappointed with this one. It just tasted like those types of food where it's quantity over quality. The broth I found unnecessarily too salty. The pork chops were really difficult to bite apart, there was not enough actual meat in the deep fried pork chops, but a lot of the frying batter. The noodles themselves I didn't find anything special.


Overall: It's good if you want to get full, but the noodles I did not really like.

Shanghai River

Went to Shanghai River for a family dinner. I haven't been to here in ages and back then, it was only for lunch dim sum. 

I was excited to try some Shanghainese dinner dishes. 

We started off with an appetizer consisting of drunken chicken and sweet fish. I don't know the actual names of these dishes so I'm just going by description haha

I thought this dish was good. It is a cold dish, you could really taste the slight alcohol taste on the chicken. The texture of the meat was good, it wasn't overly soft or hard. I didn't have much of the fish, but it was okay, it's just a little weird if you haven't had this type of dish before because I actually ate some of the small bones.


We ordered four main dishes.

Cream Shrimp with walnuts

Fried Duck

Egg-white with Crab

Sweet and Sour Pork

I won't comment on the Sweet and Sour Pork because it tasted the same as in any restaurant, but it's still good. The fried duck was definitely the most interesting dish I had. I have never had duck that was prepared this way in my life. I absolutely loved it. It was a little salty but I felt it enhanced the deliciousness. The skin was crispy. It is a nice detour from the usual Chinese Duck that I usually have.

I have tried that dish with the cream shrimp a few times at other restaurants. I love the dish... I love how the shrimp is so bouncy when you bite into it... and the taste that the cream has added to it.

The egg-white with crab is also one of my favourite dishes. It was great for eating with a bowl of rice :)


Overall: I want to eat here again.

Chef Hung (West Vancouver)

It is rare for there to be a Chinese or Taiwanese restaurant to open in North or West Vancouver simply because there just isn't the Asian population to support these restaurants. Only way to be successful is to also attract the customers who are not Asian. 

Chef Hung Taiwanese Noodle can be found worldwide. Their first store in Metro Vancouver was in Aberdeen Centre in Richmond. I have not been to that particular store because I've read horrible reviews. 

When I heard in the radio that Chef Hung is opening in West Vancouver. I was positively surprised and excited to try it. Coming in to the restaurant, I immediately noticed how nice the interior was.

It was clean and bright and gives a overall modern feeling. Since this was my first time here. We decided to get some appetizers as well.

Taiwanese Chicken Nuggets

Jellyfish and the Sea Plant thing... forgot the name

Deep Fried Tofu with fish meat

All the appetizers were delicious. The sea plant thing tastes different than the Korean and Japanese ones, I like this one better. However, I felt I had better chicken nuggets at other restaurants, the ones here did not have a very strong taste.

I decided to get their Award-Winning Beef Shank, Tendon & Tripe with Noodle in Soup and Champion Beef Brisket, Tendon, & Tripe with Noodle in Soup. There was an option to choose between thick noodles or thin noodles. I chose to go with thick for the first one and thin for the second one. Let's see which noodles tasted better to me...

Award-Winning Beef Shank, Tendon, & Tripe with Noodle in Soup

Champion Beef Brisket, Tendon & Tripe with Noodle in Soup

 I absolutely loved both the noodles. But I definitely preferred the Award-Winning Beef Shank, Tendon, & Tripe because the slightly spicy soup for that bowl of noodle was so good that I am drooling as I am typing this... The beef quality was great for both bowls, there isn't any hard to chew beef brisket or anything like that here... I prefer the thick noodles because I think it offers more to chew on and it's quite chewy, but quantity wise, I think there are more noodles were it's thinner...


Overall: I'll definitely be back for the food, but only once in a while because it isn't cheap.

Cattle Hot Pot

Decided to have Chinese Hot Pot before heading to the Richmond Night Market, I forgot why we decided on Cattle Hot Pot, but it was my first time there.

The price was pretty good for the dinner all you can eat. They had some items on the list that were pretty cool, like the salted fish rice in pot.

One of our friends is a big spicy eater, but I'm not! So we decided to get two soup bases, one for me and one for her.


And they had luncheon meat for hot pot, first time I've done that but it was good... but then, luncheon meat is always good in my opinion...

 I thought the food was pretty fresh so food quality is good.


I was amazed at the size of the oysters even after being cooked, never seen oysters that big before.

Overall: I feel 2 hours is not enough for hot pot, we were quickly rushed to leave after the time limit, which was a little disappointing because I wasn't finish eating! But the food is good, so maybe go on a weekday where there is less people.

Anton's Pasta Bar

It was exciting to finally give this Burnaby institution a try. Over the years, I've always seen people lined up outside the restaurant. I was here today for a farewell lunch to one of my friends who is leaving Canada.

We ended up waiting close to a hour because we were a large group, so by the time we got into the restaurant, everyone was starving.

I decided to get the Linguine Con Salmone Affumicato $12.50 with dill cream sauce (smoked salmon in a dill cream sauce), I actually had no idea what dill cream was..., but thankfully I liked the sauce when the pasta came.

Reading the reviews on Urbanspoon, I was excited to see exactly how big the portions would be. I was not disappointed. I managed to finish the whole plate, but I was literally stuffed after...

On the actual pasta itself, I though it was pretty good, I liked the sauce and the smoked salmon bits still had their salmon taste. One thing I would have liked is if it wasn't as salty.

Overall: I think this is a good place to stuff yourself if there's no lineup, otherwise I'm not sure if the wait is worth it...

2S Green Asian Cuisine

This is a rarity, an Asian restaurant in North Vancouver that is not Korean or Japanese food. Seeing them open on Marine Drive a few months ago, I've always wanted to give them a try to see how the food is.

Upon entering the restaurant, I noticed they have made some renovations since a fire destroyed the old Yuko Maki that use to be at this location. The lighting is dim and creates a cozy atmosphere.

We were given the lunch specials menu, and I realized that they mainly serve Singapore-Malaysian-Thai (SMT) dishes. I decided to try the Thai Fried Rice because I can not handle very spicy dishes. I did not know that Thai Fried Rice is spicy ;(

All their lunch specials come with either salad or wonton soup. I got the wonton soup, it exceeded my expectations, I almost drank the whole bowl of soup even though I know the salt probably isn't the best for my health haha. The wontons tasted good and the meat was fresh I think.

All the lunch specials also come with a spring roll. Mine wasn't hot, but it was still crispy which is definitely the most important. Besides the not so optimal temperature, it is good otherwise.


For the fried rice itself, I have not had Thai fried rice before, it is definitely a different experience than regular Chinese fried rice. The ingredients they used: BBQ pork, peas, carrots, etc. tasted good to me. Too bad I'm not very good with spicy stuff. But I still liked it okay.

Overall: The restaurant appears to be family-run. The waitress was very friendly. We were given the wrong dish because they mixed up the order, but they offered to replace the dish with the correct one with no hesitation. I liked this. I will come back here during dinner to try their dinner menu and maybe their version of the Pad Thai.

 

Ichiban-ya

Was thinking of going to Guu two blocks down Thurlow St., but the wait was approximately 40 minutes and people were hungry!

So we stumbled down the street and my friend suggested this place which has a rather interesting "hole-in-the-street" entrance. The restaurant is underground. Nowadays, I do not really care what I eat so I did not mind trying new restaurants.


Inside, we were greeted by the enthusiastic manager in a multitude of languages including Korean and Japanese, my friends and I thought this was quite funny.


I don't know why, but I've been having a sashimi craving these days, so I decided to get something I don't usually get: Salmon and Tuna Sashimi $11.95 and a Chopped Scallop Roll $4.95. I felt these prices were okay because the place looked pretty run down, but it felt comfortable.

I ended up liking both items that I ordered. The sashimi was fresh in my opinion. I know that some people don't like the sashimi were it feels like it's just taken out of the freezer, but honestly I could not tell, and I love when sashimi is ice cold.


The chopped scallop roll was the standard fare, nothing special, nothing bad.


Something to note, when paying the bill, they charged me extra $2 for "wild salmon" when I did not ask for it at all. Thankfully they returned the money after I asked about it, otherwise I would have gotten extremely annoyed.


Overall: Decent restaurant.

Tokyo John

Our party decided to eat somewhere on Cambie Street after visiting the Christmas lights display up at Queen Elizabeth Park (http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/bloedel/). I wanted to try the new NOA Pan-Asian restaurant, but my friends wanted sushi. So I went along with them...

We ended up at a new restaurant for all of us.

I read some reviews on Urbanspoon.com that the service was bad, I did not encounter this, I felt they were quite acceptable (filled up tea, prompt, polite) for this type of restaurant.

I was quite hungry after the long walk, so decided to go with the Deluxe Bento Box $17.95. It is a little bit pricey in my opinion versus other restaurants, so I was really hoping it would not suck!

The bento box arrived and the presentation was quite nice. All the food items were neatly placed in the tray and the miso soup came separately. 


I really enjoyed the Salmon and Tuna Sashimi, I actually like it better when it's freezing cold. The chicken teriyaki, tempura, California rolls, Dynamite rolls were the standard fare as at other restaurants so not much comment, decent food.

Overall: I would not mind returning and trying some of their 10th anniversary special rolls.

La Brasserie Street

Was headed to Richmond in the morning to meet up with some friends. On my way, I travel by Vancouver City Centre Canada Line Station; I remembered seeing an interesting street vendor a few days ago, so I wanted to try them today. I got there around 11, and had to wait a few minutes for them to be ready for customers.

It was easy picking what to eat at this food stall, they only serve one item of food, the Brass Chicken Sandwich $6.25 (Beer brined rotisserie chicken in gravy, on a buttermilk bun, topped with crispy onions) 3/5. The sandwich came wrapped in a foil wrap and was ready quickly after ordering. 

This was definitely something new for me, the flavor was really unique. I think it was the beer brined chicken and gravy that made that taste. I didn't really especially like or dislike it, but it was alright, something new. I liked the crispy onions that topped the sandwich, they were actually crispy; I also liked how the onion taste was overridden because I don't like onions that much. The rotisserie chicken was decent, but I found the texture a little rough; however, there was a piece of chicken that tasted extremely delicious because there was some fat on it. The chicken was very moist because of the gravy, this is pretty yummy, but again, I did not really like the texture. The sandwich bun was decent, it wasn't overly toasted or overly soft. One of my gripes is that I wish the sandwich would come much hotter. It was only slightly warm, I felt it would have been much more delicious if it came hot.

Overall: I do not think I'll try this specific sandwich again, but I like their ideas of food, so when they have something new, I'll definitely try it!