The Honour Roll (Revisited)

As I previously mentioned, The Honour Roll is just really convenient for a quick bite after classes. So today again, I am at the Honour Roll; little did I know that I would be in for a pleasant surprise.

Philadelphia Roll $3.50     5/5

 +

• mmmmmmm, best roll I've had at The Honour Roll; the surprise is from the numerous times I've been there, I've never seen this roll at all, they should definitely make more of this one!
• smoked salmon, avocado, and cream cheese (mmmm) were all excellent, I give extra kudos to the cream cheese because it was SOOOOO good...

Spicy Crunchy Roll $3.95     4.5/5
roll with avocado and crunchy tempura bits

 +

•  lives up to its name, very crunchy and fresh
• avocado was fresh, I find that they are almost always fresh at The Honour Roll
• teriyaki sauce compliments the roll well

Overall: I am never unhappy with The Honour Roll, and this time, they deliver again. I hope to try the Philadelphia Roll again, I think it is become my new favourite :), my old favourite was the Smoked Salmon Roll.

Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant

This is probably one of my most frequented HK-style cafe's, probably because of it's proximity to where I live. Golden Oscar is almost always busy day or night; I can confidently attribute this to the consistent quality of the food.

Today for lunch, I decided to try a new lunch special on the menu:

Mixed/Assorted Meat and Seafood Stir Fried Udon     3.5/5

 +

• the "wok-air" was present in this dish (you can taste the flames that the chef used when preparing the dish)
• the assorted ingredients (chicken, shrimp, squid, pork) were fresh
• not very oily unlike other HK-style stir fried dishes
• udon was just the right texture, not too soft, not too hard, and did not stick together
• portion was okay

 -

• the included "cream" soup was the worst I've ever had at Golden Oscar, they really dropped the ball on this one; usually, the cream soup is much thicker (this one tasted like water) and has some more food in it (salmon or clam), this time, it was just filled with some celery, not acceptable
• udon could come a little hotter when served 

Overall: Golden Oscar is a reliable HK-style cafe to go to. I just don't know what happened with the soup today.

Osaka Sushi (UBC Village)

Wanted to try a different place for sushi at UBC because going to the same place (The Honour Roll) whenever I crave some sushi at UBC can become repetitive. 

Osaka Sushi is located in the food court under the UBC Village. I was impressed by their stall presentation; they literally had a picture of everything on the walls so there was no confusion on what food I was getting. The variety of the food available was also very impressive; I spent a few minutes contemplating what I would get for my small dinner.

I decided to get this: 


Alaska Roll + Spicy Scallop Roll     2.5/5

+

• good portion
• included free miso soup which tasted decent
• spicy scallop roll was very good compared to The Honour Roll: the yellow sauce is quite spicy which is good because it lives up to the name; my favourite feeling was when biting into the roll, I could feel some crunching in my mouth, didn't know what this was, but it was good!

 -

• now you might be wondering why I gave such a low score if I am loving the spicy scallop roll so much, well this is the reason: the Alaska Roll was horrible
• the avocado was hard, did not taste ready to eat at all; for this reason alone, I gave this a 2.5/5

 Overall: I see Osaka Sushi is quite busy with UBC students. I will give them the benefit of the doubt this time and assumed they didn't know that the avocado was so bad. I will give them a try again.

Simply Pasta

Another "food court style" restaurant located inside the UBC Student Union Building (SUB). During the regular winter school term, there are constantly lines at Simply Pasta by hungry students wanting some excellent and filling pasta with a piece of garlic bread :) (I'm sure UBC students know what I'm talking about).

In the summer term however, their choice of food is much less than the regular term, and I am anxiously waiting for September when I can have some good food at UBC again. 

Today, I decided to try one of their summer lunch specials.

Beef Stew with Steamed Rice served with Mixed Vegetables and Garlic Bread $6.75     3.5/5

+

• served hot
• meatballs were very good, nice mix of salty taste and soft texture
• mixed vegetables were fresh, did not taste like frozen ones

-

• beef stew was not very special, tastes like something I could make at home with Campbell soup
• garlic bread did not live up to the usual standards at this place: the garlic bread was on the toaster and not ready, but the chef took the garlic bread and just hovered it over the stove for a few seconds, resulting in not so good quality.., not very garlicky taste and not crispy enough
  
  
  

Overall: You should simply (no pun intended) visit Simply Pasta from September to April for the best affordable food at UBC.

Guu with Garlic

So this is my second time at Guu, the last time I was here was last September. Being one of the most popular restaurants in Vancouver, I had high expectations on the food. So I decided to bring two of my wonderful friends Mia and Lucas to Guu!


I arrived around 7 and was quickly seated. I was surprised the place was so busy as this was Monday night! The standard "Guu" experience was all here: the Japanese yelling, the loud atmosphere. As neither my friends nor I were familiar with the menu, we randomly picked some things off the menu to try their food.


We started off with some Hot Sake to share between the three of us. It was actually my first time having Sake, it was perfect on this cool Vancouver Spring Day, as I could feel the warmth throughout my whole body hah.

and here's what we ate:




Beef Tataki $5.20     3.5/5
thin sliced seared beef with ponzu sauce

+

• beef was soft
• fresh

-

• I wish it were served a little colder or warmer though, as I thought it was somewhere in between and sort of weird

Takoyaki $4.00     4/5
deep fried octopus ball with tonkatsu sauce and mustard mayo

+

• the innards of the octopus ball was very soft and tasty, the octopus itself was chewy in a good way
• size of octopus ball was just right, not too small, not too big, perfect size for putting the whole thing into the mouth in one large bite!

-

• again, a temperature problem, this dish did not come hot enough in my opinion, would be a lot better if it was hotter

Kakimayo $7.20     3.0/5
baked oyster with spicy cod roe and mayo creamy sauce cheese on top

+

• neatly presented
• fresh ingredients

-

• oyster was very small, did not look like to be a full oyster, for this price, they could do better
• tasted a little bland
• other ingredients (potato, etc) did not complement oyster very well

Kabocha Korokke $3.60     4/5
pumpkin and boiled egg croquette

A wonderful food smiley created by my food artist: Mia :)

+

• again, nicely presented
• pumpkin was very soft
• the softness of the pumpkin complemented the softness of the boiled egg very well, it was like they were unified

Spiced Chicken Wings $6.40     4/5

+

• sauce was good, a very wild taste
• standard-fare chicken wings
• portion was decent

Grilled Mackerel (Saba) $7.80     4/5

 +

• taste was nicely adjusted
• the ingredients besides the fish complimented the dish very good, I actually ate the other stuff too
• fish seemed fresh
• not too salty

Ishiyaki (Rice with beef tenderloin served in stone pot) $8.80      3/5

+

• came hot
• beef was pretty good, not too "old" or hard

-

• rice was a little too soft
• not enough taste, tasted a little bland
• would have liked it better if there were more "crispy" rice stuck to the pot, but this is just personal preference

Overall: Guu with Garlic is obviously a popular restaurant as it was completely packed even on a Monday night. It offers quite competitive prices compared to other Izakayas, our bill for three people was around $60, so not bad at all. It offers a great atmosphere for hanging out with friends (cool people tonight :) ), having some Japanese alcohol, and trying interesting dishes. All in all, a great place for a occasional dinner!

Bing Sheng

Went to Bing Sheng for lunch today, even though we arrived quite late for lunch, there was still a long time to wait for a table as the restaurant was packed, could this be an indication of the quality of the food? We shall see. 

After getting a seat, we were already extremely hungry; so we ordered some dimsum. This restaurant uses ordering forms for food and there is an English version for those who can not read Chinese. 

Shrimp and Pork Dumpling $3.75     4/5

+

• dumpling is big
• not filled with fatty pork like what cheap Chinese restaurants use to "buff up" their dumplings
• pork "vibrates" in the mouth when chewing into it

  
Steamed Rice Roll with Green Onion and Dry Shrimp $3.75     3.5/5

 +

• very standard
• dry shrimps and onions were fresh
• not much to say about this dish

Preserved Egg and Pork Congee $4.75     3.5/5
  

+

• peanut and onion condiments were very good
• pork tasted good, with just the right level of saltiness
• preserved egg tasted decent

-

• congee was too watery, would be better if it was thicker

Deep Fried Chicken Wings with Garlic $5.75     3.5/5

+

• one of the best deep fried chicken wings I have had at a Chinese restaurant
• very fresh
• very crispy
• very juicy
• large portion (9 wings)

-

• would have given 4.5/5 but one of the wings did not appear to be fully cooked, there was slight blood, the other wings were perfect

Pan Fried Radish Cake in XO Sauce $5.75     4/5

+

• comparable to offerings by top Chinese restaurants such as Kirin
• soft inside

Pan Fried Noodle in Soy Sauce $5.25     4/5

+

• tasted fresh
• noodles did not stick together
• oily, but not too oily compared to other Chinese dimsum places

Overall: Bing Sheng delivers an excellent dimsum experience in East Vancouver. I'd say it is comparable to the high-end Chinese restaurants such as Kirin and Dynasty. One of the best thing I think Bing Sheng has done is the delivery of the food. All the dishes came smoking hot (the congee was boiling!), and I find this a rare feat for restaurants.

Richmond / Summer Night Market Food Stalls

Being the opening weekend of the annual Richmond / Summer Night Market, I expected a huge crowd. However, with the wet Vancouver weather, crowds were much smaller than I originally expected. It was the first time I have been to the Night Market since many years ago. From my limited memory of when I last visited, there were noticeably less stalls. I'd say roughly 60% were food stalls, while 40% were merchandise stalls. Honestly, I was more interested in the food stalls, as the merchandise stalls were filled with merchandise I could buy on Chinese websites!, although there were some interesting finds. 

I was not hungry because I already had dinner before, but I did have some food samples from various stalls. And with the rain showers on and off, I was not really in the mood of buying food. I did, however, take pictures of EVERY food stall, so when you visit, you can have a feeling if what you want to try. I will be trying to sort the pictures into the various food ethnics.
  

Chinese

 
Hong Kong Style

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Taiwanese

Thai

Vietnamese

Western

Xinjiang

Overall: The food stalls reminds me of night markets in Asia. The atmosphere has been recreated successfully. I would like to thank the various vendors who gave me a smile :). I'll bring an empty stomach next time.