Thursday, March 27, 2008

Update on pictureless restaurants

Me and my friend were craving chocolate one Sunday night and decided to go to Koko Cafe. We shared the chocolate cake thing. I actually wanted the chocolate pizza thing but they didn't have any. Since I was sitting at the bar, I could see what they were doing. I wasn't really impressed at the 10 dollar chocolate cake because it was microwaved and then placed ice cream and whipped cream on top. I don't even like ice cream! My friend loved it because she loves chocolate and ice cream and whipped cream. oh well..

I've been to several Izakayas recently and I love them. Guu in Gastown is great. The karaage and the sweet potato croquette is totally worth it. The same cannot be said for the mountain yam steak or the omlette thing. They were so disgusting. We had 2 bites and couldn't even finish . damn. even the people sitting near us asked us what's wrong.. hahaha
Hapa Izakaya is really cute but nothin really stood out
Kingyo on the other hand, I recommend hands down. Although we had a really disgusting rice thing, the atmosphere and the menu choice is really impressive. Too bad the food we got sucked, i had two bites and then drank my drink, which by the way was alcoholic so I was impressed. (most asian places give drinks that are not grr). Definitely coming back again :)
Kamei Royale is really good too although I just had the skewers. The waitresses/waitors were so cute. they didn't even make sense they just said ohannayaya and roloroboro HAHAHAA we were like what the fuck but it was funny.

Gyu was fucking horrible. I fucking hate that place and is boycotting it. They tried the whole I don't speak english well shit and try to sucker you into ordering more food by sayin yes crap. omg. fuck off??? If you really need, I will speak cantonese to you if I have to. Me and my friend just wanted to order A la Carte and I guess not a lot of people do, so she had to go and talk to the manager several times to see if we could.. um what the hell? and then I asked if we could share the D combo. she goes "A share good. so A D share good" What the fucking hell. if I heard that I would have thought she thinks A is a good one to share too, not to have Both A And D. Oh and to top it off, they didn't have daiquiri on a friday night at 5:00pm. When you first open, you already don't have supplies??

Another place I am not impressed with was Glowbal. The first time I went I already didn't like it but since they sent me a free dessert for 2 I decided to go again. We shared a pasta, we didn't ask them to split it up but they did it voluntarily for us. We would have been glad to split it up ourselves. So we thought it was a nice gesture. When the bill comes, there was a 3 dollar added for splitting charge WHAT. THE . FUCK. are you shitting me? for splitting my meal, you charge me 3 dollars when I didn't even goddamn ask you to? Milestones or Blue Water doesn't charge, I thought Glowbal was upscale. I was not impressed with the waitor either who kept touching my back and lowering himself right into my face and tried to talk in this "seductive " voice which just turned out to be slow and lame. The dessert was good though. my friend wanted to pay debit and the "seductive" waitor says they have an atm machine in the back.. the atm machine turns out to be broken. He then "seductively" tells her to go around the block to use the TD bank. wtf. I am so not impressed and staying away from all glowbal restaurants after I try Sanafir.

Two days ago I went to Aqua Riva for dinner. I had the salmon, it was ok. The waitress was really good. she was professional, kind, unobtrusive, and what a waitress should be. The view is really nice. We then went to Century which was D-e-a-d. I wanna try clubbing there one day though, heard it was really good. Oh we also went to Bacchus for a glass of wine which took them about half an hour to get to us.

Other recent places include Pinkys, we just had appys there which weren't good but the wine was =) and Joey Tomatoes (the new one on burrard). We had the mini cheeseburgers which were ordinary and the greek wrap which wasn't good. It didn't help that a drunk suit decided to hit on me and think he was so cool speaking cantonese at me which sucked ass. White people should not hit on asians by speaking asian. It's creepy, not impressive.

Monday, March 24, 2008

La Terrazza etc

My latest dining experiences have not been super.. This is so disheartening..
After a lousy presentation, me and my friend decided to get some good food downtown to make up for it. We went to Bardot first, after standing at the door for 15 minutes, we just left. There was NO service to be seen AT ALL. what the fuck. I have never witnessed that before. it's also sad (for me) because this is the 3rd time I've went to this place wanting to try it (first time they were closed for nye, second time my friend wasn't impressed with the menu, 3rd time waited for 15 min) but yet I still want to try... hah. Anyways, after that we ended up at La Terrazza.. It was so expensive we decided to eat appetizers. I pointed mine out to him (crab cakes) because I couldn't read it. He said oh Portabello? I didn't really listen to him and said yes..
So I got this. When I got it I thought i twas just creatively made but still crab cakes. I bit into it and it was disgusting. I couldn't even finish it.
The bill came.. it cost the same as..
are you fucking shitting me. You're telling me my fucking disgusting ass MUSHROOM stuffed into spring roll form is the same as this seafood stew!! WTF. He charged me for the crab cakes. which Obviously I did not eat.
Unfortunately, I did not realize all this until I went home.
I guess stupidity is also at fault here.

Oh well I got crab cakes at Sip another day. They were ok. This was the first time I actually got food at Sip. The restaurant is nice and the concept is cool.. I don't mind this place, they have the best background to take a picture with (haha) and their bartender looks like jared leto apparently, who is hot (I've heard this from a couple people) . I also prefer this place much more than whineo's next door (loud and dark)

Stonegrill+Nu

We are beginning to broaden our Vancouver map to False Creek! haha Before we were always stuck in going to restaurants near Burrard/Yaletown/Gastown. But this beautiful place by the water is actually not that hard to get to. and whaddya know, Granville Island is right across from there!


Stonegrill on Urbanspoon We were super early at Stonegrill because we decided to completely skip ethics class all together (ethical? meh). The food came super fast and the waitor was super professional (kinda generic). The drinks were horrible, was mine even alcoholic? wat the hell. I didn't taste anything nor did could I smell it. Anyways, The food was really good, but I don't know if I am much for the cooking it ourselves part.. It was cooked too fast and I couldn't eat it fast enough! haha..


Nu on Urbanspoon Me and my best friend went to Nu for DOV in Feb. Upon going in, I was really unimpressed by the setting. The place looked so.. retro and weird.. The music was loud and it just didn't fit the place. I thought it was classy or smth but it definitely did not look like it. The chairs were spinny! and the place was soo small all the tables are cramped together. gah. the first course was a fritter. It was very good. I was happy and thought maybe it would get better! it didn't.

The next was this duck.. It was bland and nothing special.. The third was this pavlova that was soo sweet and sour . It was just weird.

I don't think I'll come back to either Nu or Stonegrill again. Great locations, but they just didn't work for me.

Best Japanese Place in Vancouver

I am absolutely in LOVE with Octopus Garden in Kitsilano area. I went there for DOV and I was so impressed. I had sake there.. it was this tasting thing.. ew i hate sake. :( This was the dessert, moshi moshi roll. so cute! it's chocolate and banana and whipped cream and strawberries in sweet rice. mmm
I don't know what this was. We asked her but she didn't know either.. ha ha ha?
Tofu Cocktail as the appetizer. It was small and bland. eh
Cute! bungeeee roll. I like the creativity in it but I didn't like the roll so much because it was spicy

I wish this was downtown, it would be So much more convenient for me. but nonetheless, I am definitely coming back here!


Octopus' Garden on Urbanspoon

Desserts are Deeelish

This cheesecake on the other hand was REALLY good. It's from Steamworks in Gastown. mmm


Man, Cactus Club has got some amazing desserts. I recommend this place for it!!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

DOV 08

this is the first time I've tried Dine Out Vancouver.
The first one was Griffins which was last minute. Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart was filming at a Hyatt a block away. oh my goddddd.

For appetizer, I had a salad which was normal and nothing spectacular. The Main, I had the salmon in the picture above. It wasn't very good. The mango raita? tasted and looked like salsa. The dessert buffet is supposed to entice people but it looked kinda disgusting to me. Nothing was good unfortunately. The cheesecake tasted like i was eating a block of cream cheese. eugh.

The next day I went to Metro, this was planned. It was the restaurant I really wanted to go to.

The appetizer was this grilled calamari. It was the worst thing I've ever ate at a classy restuarant. I thoguht I could suck it up and finish it but after two bites, I just couldn't. It was super bitter and tasted wrong. Maybe too much wine or something. But hopefully they don't always taste this bad.
The main I had this trio of fish. it was Very good. It made up for the appetizer.

The dessert was this cheesecake mousse. It was really good I was happy :) The service was great, the ambience is nice, and I would love to come back to this place one day.

On Thursday we went to Italian Kitchen. The service was absolutely horrid. I can't believe we had to wait 15 min before she even came over to get our drink order. The place wasn't even HALF FULL. Not only that, but I had to ask the hostess to get our waitress, Definitely never done that before.

The appetizer was this cannelloni that tasted like the one I made in grade ten cooking class. The main was this lobster with sole. It was super creamy. Lastly was this tiramisu. I don't like tiramisu so I shouldn't judge it. but my friend got the torte so I had to get this.