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
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.
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.
