Hamilton Street Grill

It's that time of year again for the annual Dineout Vancouver (culinary events, choose from hundreds of sensational restaurants ). This is actually my first year of trying this event, so I was quite excited. My friends decided on trying Hamilton Street Grill in Yaletown because we were all going to $38 restaurants later on and we wanted something with a $28 menu this time. I'm glad they made this choice because I've always wanted to try this restaurant. Our reservation was perfect and our table was ready right at the reservation time. The restaurant started off not that busy as it was early, but as the night went on, it was very lively inside, there were lots of couples, groups of friends, families, all trying the Dineout Vancouver menu.

We were given some bread and little bacon "sandwiches" to start off. 

Both were free but they were actually really good. The bread was very soft. The bacon "sandwich" had a thin piece of bacon squeezed in between, along with what I think is butter. It was warm and very soft, and the bacon was still crispy. Very nice to start the meal.

For the appetizer, I got the Appetizer 1: Roasted Organic Squash Soup, coconut milk, red curry, Thai herb pistou. This was definitely something new for me. By that, I mean the taste of the soup. You could definitely taste the curry, but it wasn't spicy. It reminded me of eating Curry Rice but with just the curry sauce! I liked this one though.

For the entree, I got the Grilled Certified Angus Beef sirloin, horseradish demi, German butter potatoes and seasonal vegetables. I got medium rare as the temperature, and I thought that the meat was still a little stiff, but I liked it. The German butter potatoes (top of the picture) were okay, nothing special in my opinion, I would have preferred mashed potatoes. The seasonal vegetables, I did not really like the beans because they were not soft enough for me. But overall, the beef with the sauce was pretty delicious.

For the dessert, I got the Candy Bar Terrine, Chantilly Cream, burnt demerara sugar toffee. I didn't know what to expect when I ordered it, but I found that I really liked this one. It was like a big mix of taste of a little everything. The toffee was really interesting because it was a hard sweet thing inside the chocolate tasting black toffee. I splattered the cream all over black "thing" and it was a good mix LOL


Overall: I felt my money was well spent for this meal. The service was good and the dishes were delivered at good timely intervals. The food quality matches the price.

Hapa Umi

I was excited to revisit this restaurant because my experience was very positive the first time I was here. I looked forward to trying different dishes on the menu. Upon entering the restaurant, we were warmly greeted, and taken to our spacious seats. The entire restaurant definitely feels upscale due to the design and lighting. 

We were handed warm towels by the waitress before the meal began, very thoughtful. Being quite a large party, we ordered lots of food :)

We started off with the Oyster Tempura. This was a great start to the meal, I loved the slightly sour taste on the oyster from the sauce. I did not think there was too much frying batter, I think it was just right. It was a joy to bite into each piece. 

We also ordered two rolls, one of them was the Umi Roll, I forgot the name of the other one. The rectangle-shaped roll was very interesting for me. The rice used was like sticky rice which was pretty cool. 

The other roll tasted similar to a California roll to me, there was crab inside but what made it different was the piece of fish on top of the roll. I didn't think this roll was that special; the rectangle-shaped roll was awesome though!

We also got the Tuna Tataki. I would say this is one of the best foods I've had in a long long time. The "inner portion" of the tuna was cool, while the "outer ring" of the tuna was harder and had a "smoked" taste. That mixture of hot and cold in perfectly cut slices was great. 

The next dish was the Kakuni Scallop. The scallops of this dish were the best prepared scallops I've ever had in my life. It was just the perfect texture, temperature, freshness. The pork however was very average I thought, I thought it to be a little too "tough", I much prefer the Chinese style preparation of this meat. 

Next was the Chicken Karaage. I thought this was a wonderful value. The size of this dish for the price was excellent. These are like chicken nuggets, there are no bones and it is all organic chicken meat. The moment I bit into the chicken, I was impressed. The karaage just crumbles easily inside your mouth, delivering a salivating taste...

Next is the Sablefish. My favourite part about this was the fish skin. It was crispy and delicious. The fish itself was also better than what I've had at other restaurants. It did break apart too easily and had a smooth texture.

This one was the Bavette Steak. There was some miso on the plate to dip the steak into. This one was good as the steak was delicious, but I nothing really popped out at me for this dish.

For our last dish before desserts, we got the Kani Pasta. This was prepared using dungeness crab. I loved the taste of this dish, it reminded me of the Chinese-style preparation of crab using milk cream. The pasta itself was pretty good as well.

We ordered three desserts, the Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, and the Polenta Cake. My favourites were the chocolate cake and cheesecake. The chocolate cake just explodes in chocolate when you bite into it. While the cheesecake was just, good.

Overall: Pricy for me, but a great great meal with excellent service.

Saravanaa Bhavan

This was a fun gathering after school dinner with my friends. One of my friends suggested getting some good Indian food. So we organized an outing at Saravanaa Bhavan on his recommendation.

Before arriving, I did not know they only had vegetarian menu! I thought this was going to be bad haha because I am a carnivore. Also, I was recovering from a cold today so did not want to eat anything too spicy or deep-fried. However, I was so hungry that I could eat anything, and I believed my friend when he said the food would be good!

One of my favourite foods is potato, so I decided on the Rava Masala Dosa $8.50 (Cream of wheat & rice crepe stuffed with spicy potatoes & onions). The wait for the food was a little long, but all my friends waited until everyone's food was here, awesome!

My food finally arrived! This is definitely a new type of presentation for me, the food arrived in a futuristic metal tray! I tried the sauces on the side with my fork and they were all very good. I did not really use much of the sauces after because I did not want to eat anything spicy. The crepe itself was delicious! The whole thing is very crispy and thin, yet not too hard. The stuffing of spicy potatoes and onions was hot (temperature-wise) and not too spicy. I really liked it, it was just the right level of saltiness. In the end, that's all I had and it was enough to make me full even though I was super hungry before.

Overall: An Indian restaurant I would come back to if I am going for Indian food with friends.

Hong Sushi

What a good reunion time today I had with some friends from last summer! After doing some bowling at Revs in Burnaby, I asked my friends which restaurant they recommend as they live in the area! 

They decided on Hong Sushi on Hastings. I was a bit skeptical on the cleanliness on the place since it's on Hastings, but I was positively surprised. Hong is mostly does take-out sushi orders and there are only two tables inside. Even though the inside did not have much decoration, it felt clean and comfortable. 

I was having a hard time picking what to eat, so decided to get the one that most people get because it's the best value: Sushi Special which included salmon maki, California roll, and yam roll, along with a miso soup. My friend remarked that this place gets crazy during lunch hour once school starts because of its proximity to a secondary school.

My friend also got the sushi special lol

The food was delivered promptly and there was complimentary tea. 

Appearance-wise, I was really impressed because this was a really cheap price but I really liked the neatness presentation of the rolls. This looks a lot better than other places with similar sushi specials.

The Salmon Maki were excellent, the salmon pieces were pretty big for being a maki, and it tasted fresh.

 The California roll were one of the best I've had in these type of set lunches. The imitation crab was cold and tasted fresh. The avocado was also fresh.

My favourite was probably the yam roll because it was still crispy. I've had yam roll at other restaurants where it just tastes soggy. But here, it came warm and crispy which I really liked.


Overall: The food is really good for a take-out place. I'd be interested to try out their others items but since I do not live in the area, probably won't have much opportunity.

Noa Pan Asian Bistro

Wanted to try Noa after seeing their eye-catching purple banner outside their store. I usually like this type of Asian food.

I had a look at the lunch menu online and already decided on what to get for myself :) Upon entering the restaurant, I was impressed with the interior. It was a nicely decorated setting.

Shrimp Cake and Fish Cake

The fish and shrimp cakes along with some other snacks could be added for a few dollars with a lunch item. I found both the deep-fried cakes to be excellent. The whole cake itself is almost all the meat itself. They also came hot!

 If I remember correctly, the second item was the Singapore Laksa with Grilled Chicken, I only had a piece of the pork chops, and it was very good; the taste of the chicken was excellent, it definitely felt that a lot of "firepower" was used to cook it.

Pineapple Seafood Fried Rice $11.95

Next, was the Pineapple Seafood Fried Rice. I actually wanted to get the Pad Thai (maybe next time) but we ordered the wrong item... The fried rice was excellent as well, the seafood ingredients were fresh, and I liked that there wasn't any rice sticking together or anything... It could have been fried more, but I felt it was good enough.

Beef fillet with egg on rice $10.50

Lastly, we got the Beef fillet with egg on rice, the presentation was really nice. What was special about this one was that the beef was really good; it's easily the best tasting beef I've had in a while. I think it was the combination of the sauces and oils used to prepare it. Cutting the egg yolk into the rice was also a satisfying feeling.


Overall: I liked this restaurant, want to try for dinner later.