Hamilton Street Grill

I've always heard good things about Hamilton street grill but after my lunch here, I beg to differ. I ordered a Caprese Sandwich and my friend ordered Mussels and frites. The place was pretty dead but we waited quite a while for our food. Mine comes out and my yam fries are like.. burnt. wtf. I didn't say anything, and the waitress served it to me as if it was supposed to be like this. So I tried one, and it wasn't crispy or fries tasting.. it tasted funny.. so I ended up not eating any of it. My friend's fries were super salty. she said her mussels were fine, but then again, how hard is it to make mussels? my sandwich wasn't very good, I got it wrapped and my waitor doesn't even comment on my whole plate of yam fries to ask me if anything was wrong. He was practically nonexistant the entire time we were there. Then he proceeds to give me this huge ass brown bag for my small half sandwich. wt.fuck I guess I should have been smarter and have said something. But the way they served it/acted made me feel like they *were* supposed to be like this. Like some sort of alder wooden grilled yam fries or some shit.


Honestly, I hate this place. I am never coming back.

Open house/Ocean Club

Today me and my friend decided to volunteer for our university at the open house. We got a 10 dolla voucher so we used it on Donair Town. Obviously I picked the most expensive thing on the menu, which was a lamb platter. After my first year of university, I stopped eating on campus. The prices are way too pricey for the quality of food. I have honestly only went to the places at school 1-2 times after the first year. The reason i went more during first year was because I had a meal card I already paid for. Hence, I had to use the money up.. (at the end I had about 500 dollars left.. so we ate 50 dollar lunches every day for like 2 weeks at the fancy restaurant at the uni haha). Anyways, I didn't really like it.. At least I tried it, now I know. honestly the food sucks crap here, let me recap my uni: res dining hall: fucking gross dry pizzas/sloppy entrees, it was ranked like worst uni food in canada. Mackenzie: same thing because same company. Koya: Gross beef terriyaki and rolls. Mr Sub: ok that's ok, but how can you go wrong with subs. Triple O's: the best, just because you can't go wrong with burgers but I don't like burgers. Highland pub: suckass. Expensive and food is gross. Himalayan: SLOW and the tandoori chicken was gross. The naan bread was yummy though. Sushi place: Average bento box. Renaissance: i've only had a cookie so I can't really comment. Never been to Romeo+juliet, bubble tea place, and soup place. UGHHH


Afterwards, we went to West Van to The Ocean Club. The place was dead which was a given because it was 5:00. I ordered the crab cakes and my friend ordered the 3 course meal. We waited for EVER for our food. fuck. The crab cakes weren't bad but a little overpriced. The mussels were ok, the mac+cheese/pork was meh. Personally I hate mac and cheese and beef short ribs because the beef reminds me of the way my mother used to cook it and I hate the tenderness of it. The chocolate dome was kind of weird.. I wasn't a fan. At the end, there were very few tables and the food was SLOW. when we left, this couple still haven't got their food and they were there for at least an hour. I felt bad for them because I went through just that. Honestly, what the fuck.

We headed next door to true confections which was empty as well but super clean and nice (opposed to the Denman one but I guess that one is older/popular). We shared a three berry pie. ew. I did not like it. I should have stuck with apple pie. The service was super nice though so good tip :)

Undeliberate Restaurant Hopping

Ok today I was supposed to go to 2 restaurants, head back and do massive amounts of homework.. well it KINDA went to plan..

Skipped the last hour of marketing, went to Trees Organic Cafe on Granville. Heard that it has the best cheesecake in Vancouver. The selection wasn't huge..We chose the Sin City which was Cherry and Chocolate. The owner (I am presuming) was really nice and funny he just kept telling us every one was delicious. The cake turned out to be Eight Bucks. WOW. Thank god we had coupon for half off. I don't know if it is worth that much.. The cheesecake is good..but I think I like Cactus Club more?

It got sunny so we went to English Bay for a bit then we went for dinner at Banana leaf. I've always wanted to try this place. So did my parents and a couple of my friends. We ordered the sample appy for 2 and the chili mango shrimp. The appy was really good. I didn't really like the salad because I thought the vinaigrette was kinda overpowering. The roti canal was good and so were the satays. I don't like veggie spring rolls and the calamari.. I prefer them not ring like. All in all i liked it though. The chili shrimp on the other hand I didn't. Too much chili and spices. it wasn't a very good dish. The food was quick and the place is nice. I think I will be back again. I tipped kinda bad because we needed the money for cake haha but I promise next time, I'll leave a big tip!

We were planning on goin to True Confections after a quick stop at Aritzia so I could get a nice white long button up sweater thing (with shorts and heels= cute :D). But We didn't want to head back to Denman so we went to Manhattan At the Delta Suites. First I wanted to go to As time goes by in the Georgia Hotel.. but I honestly don't even know if that is still there, nor do I know how to get INTO the hotel. The Four Seasons.. I couldn't get into either because of construction, or else we would have went to Yew. Anyways at Manhattan, we shared this banana fritters with coconut ice cream and pineapple/mango sauce. It was tropical.. a little strange.. There were too many flavors going on I think. We ended up tipping them the most even though I wish it was to Banana Leaf.. oops.

Horizons

We chose Horizons on Burnaby Mountain Park because we didn't feel like going too far. It's about 10 min walk? The complimentary bread wasn't very good. I had the rainbow trout and my friend had the Cioppino's dish. the trout was ok. Nothing fancy schmancy but I got my omega-3s :) The menu seems kinda outdated?? i dno, i just remember seeing a lot of the same menu items from the last time I came here, which was a year ago..
For Dessert, we shared the apple rhubarb cobbler. It was o-k. Nothing special. I can't believe it was 8 dollars. So not worth it.
I don't think I'll be coming back again. I am not a fan of horizons much. nor am I a fan of the walk to here. We have to walk in a forest to get here.. and my number fear is gnats/flies (don't ask). The next time I need a quick dinner, I might choose Bombay Behl or Pear Tree

I love this weather

The last two days have been great. Today is really nice too, although I wish it was raining because I am stuck writing two papers :(

On Friday me and my friend went to Insadong. It was pretty good. The meat was nice and non fattening. We were a little confused at what Bulgolgi was but it was pretty good haha. I would love to come back. Although afterwards, I felt SUPER sluggish because I haven't ate meat (except a piece of deli meat a day) for a week and my body used so much energy to break it down. aiya. That night I went to Wild Garlic for a 4.00 double martini. Holy. Fuck. I swear to god mine was pure vodka. I am not even kidding. I tasted absolutely no pineapple juice or like a very small hint of it. The rest I felt like I was taking shots. I don't like hard alcohol anymore so that martini was pure hell.

Yesterday we headed downtown. We went to the Boathouse by English bay first. I thought it was brunch but it was lunch...hum.. The service was minimal, even when I dropped my napkin.. a waitress walked past without even bothering picking it up for me .wtf. I remember at lift when I dropped a knife, and my waitor was far away and he came over, got on his hands and knees, went underneath my chair, to get my knife and get me a new one. Anyways, we ordered these chicken drummettes to share. This other table came later than us and they got their food before us! They ordered burgers .. then we got our food, and guess what, 2 of the drumsticks were RAW inside. what the hellll. I didn't bother complaining because I didn't feel like sitting there for another hour waiting for our food. Not only that, but the food was weird. Chili spiced drumsticks with sour cream to dip . The Sour cream was just a weird dip for the chicken.. I just wanted to get out of there. This was a crappy start to my day.
We headed to Bayside lounge next because my friend told me it was pretty good. I've been to Soho before on the left, and the service there was minimal (I miss pacific crab company :( ) Anyways, Bayside looked really tacky and.. weird.. so we sat for 5 min and got up and left. I felt bad but the waitress smiled and said it was fine. i think she just wanted to talk to her friend over serving others. Which I didn't mind
We headed to Central because we were SUPER hungry. it was 1pm and we had ate nothing besides the crappy ass drumsticks, the unraw ones which was about 3 each. The place had friendly service and it was cute inside. I ordered the breakfast and um.. it's ok. nothing special, something I could make at home. She ordered the soup and she found it really good.
Then we went to tan on English Bay which was really nice. I need a tan, a real one because fake ones look BAD on me.. Afterwards, we walked along the seawall all the way to Yaletown. We went to PlanB. The interior is pretty nice and the music isn't deftly loud and crazy. We had this crazy idea of eating there for 2 hours because of another reservation at Brix after.. We were gonna eat super slowllyy. but as slowly as I eat, I cannot prolong dinner for 2 hours. We also had long island iced teas and water we were SOO thirsty from the whole day.
Anyways, we ordered the mussels (which I realized I don't like that much) and lobster risotto. I don't kno, I think it was the horseradish.. because I was super turned off by this dish..
After, we sat by the seawall again for awhile and then went to Brix. This place is So cute! I love it so much, I am definitely coming back again. I was a little embarassed with what we ordered and such. My plan was actaully to order very little food at PlanB and order more at Brix, but it fell through after we got super full from PlanB. We ended up sharing a salmon crepe and milk chocolate cheesecake. The crepe was disgusting in my opinion. I think I realized I don't like savory crepes. The salmon reminded me of.. tuna salad and I thought it was going to be salmon fillets. haha i don't know. The Cheesecake was really good, tasted like milk chocolate.

Ok, today I am not eating anything except tofu and bread, mainly because we have nothing left in our fridge and we are too poor to grocery shop. Tomorrow I am going to Pinkys for my dad's birthday. Then I think I am not going to eat out for awhile.. maybe just friday.. aiya.

Sciue Italian Bakery Cafe

I take the 135 a lot to go downtown and I always pass this Italian Bakery Cafe. it is so cute outside and I have always meant to go try it out. I finally did today.. The place was pretty busy and the set up is quite like Bread Garden. There are Pane Romano on one side which are long pizzas made fresh daily. They all look really good but I chose the pollo (chicken). I wish I chose the mozza and veggies one instead but I was scared there were onions on it (blech). mm it was ok. It tasted like normal pizza and a little dry. It cost 6.45 so I don't really think it was worth it.. My friend had soup and she said it was ok. I guess this is ok for a standard cafe

Loving this weather!

Yesterday we all made a trip downtown to get some sun. It was absolutely Gorgeous yesterday! I was so glad to wear my sundress instead of jeans, boots, and sweater :D We went for brunch at Joe Fortes. We all had the eggs benedict which was really good. The salad wasn't that great though, could've done without.
After, we walked around and shopped and watched some breakdancers in front of the art gallery. Had a drink at moxies and then walked to English Bay to meet up with others. I Love Vancouver vibe so much. I didn't realize it until yesterday. It's so chill and laid back. it's not rush rush and hectic. I absolutely Love it. After, we went to the seawall and walked/sat around. Very beautiful.
Then two of us went to Ebisu because Guu was too busy. We had the pork gyoza, katsu don, and Unachee roll. I didn't like the filling of the gyoza, the rolls weren't good (I don't like cream cheese in my rolls i guess) and the katsu don, i can't judge because I didn't eat it. I just ate a piece of the pork cutlet and it was a lot of fat. The first time I came here, I loved this place. but I have grown tired of it. If I really need a quick izakaya/japanese fixing, I might try to go to Kamei Royale more.. even if the menus are quite similar.

Then we met up with a couple more people and headed to Foggs and Suds. They specialize mostly on beers..so I was just gonna opt for a smoothie. We received no service for half an hour. the people came after us got service before us! so we just left. That was retarded. We ended up going to Bread garden.. which was a disappointment because I wanted a smoothie and they were out of yogurt. I just had a cranberry juice...on a saturday night. I think this is the first weekend in a long time where I didn't get drunk/clubbed. I am not complaining but it was a little different. hah.

Monks and etc

so on Wednesday, me and my friend ventured to Monk Mcqueens for lunch because we had a coupon and I wanted 1000 points :) We were an hour early so we went to Ocean 6 seventeen for dessert. The place was really empty which was saddening because it is really cute inside and the food doesn't sound too bad. The people are really friendly even though I accidentally ignored the cute chef (sorry!) We had a chocolate pot de creme which he whipped up freshly for us. :D I am definitely coming back for lunch one day.

That cannot be said for Monks. I do not plan on ever coming back. The crab cakes were probably the worst I have ever had. The salad wasn't very good either. my friend had the oysters and she liked it. Maybe it was just today.. but the place smelled bad too (from the oysters but still, it was pretty rank in there)

On Friday, we skipped the last hour of marketing to go have lunch. We went downtown to the mill marine bistro. We shared a baked brie with bread. It wasn't bad but it was not worth 13.75. Are you serious? the menu was a little pricey for what they were serving.

We were still hungry so we went over to the Seawall bar at Westin Bayshore. The prices there were cheaper than the mill! We shared a goat cheesecake. It was really yummy. I love cheesecake
We ventured to Osada above Relish. The place seemed pretty authentic. We shared a bbq chicken wings and flaked salmon and avocado roll. They were both pretty good and good prices. Then we went to Bin 941. I think I like Bin 942 more just because it's a bit bigger. We shared the grilled asparagus. Hum.. one day I'll go there and eat something more than 7 bucks (last time we shared a mashed potatoes :( ).

Lastly we went to Spice Alley and shared the Seafood Jeon. Ew. Way too much batter.
All in all I spent around 25-30 bucks on food the whole day but I spent 100 bucks on clothes :( and I just bought 2 pieces of clothing! A dress for clubbing and a tshirt. ack!

More Restaurant Hopping

Ok this past weekend, me and a friend went to Fiddlehead Joes for brunch. The place was very cute and chill. Definitely a great neighborhood location! The music was old school and didn't really work with the place, but somehow I liked it just because I don't usually hear any other restaurants playing Otis Redding and Billy Joel anymore. The only turn off was the gladiator movie (was it ben hur..??) playing on the TV. that was a little strange. I had the Pancetta Benedict. It was o-k. The pancetta was too salty.
We then crossed the bridge and headed to Cactus Club on W Broadway. My friend told me this was the test kitchen and Feenie works there creating new menus and such. One look at the menu though was exactly like the old ones :( I was sad but we just shared the dessert trio. This is how much I love cactus club desserts- I just had the strawberry cheesecake there yesterday (see post below)
We then headed to Joeys on Broadway for a drink.. Oh my god. Even if you don't like Joeys, just freaking go to see the bathroom. it is 2 floors! The damn washroom looked better than my house! so sad. dang, if no one opened the doors for me to enter the restaurant, this would totally be my new bathroom pitstop (right now it's either pan pacific or hyatt). Too bad I didn't check out the Burard Joeys' bathroom.. that time I was honestly just trying to get the heck outta there after being hit on by drunk old men. sick.

The dinner place we decided for was Fuel. I made a reservation for 5:30 and this was the first time a reservation place phoned me for confirmation. Maybe it's because they thought it was just too dang early hah I dno. but we went around 5:28-5:30 and they were still prepping and all the chefs were gathered around discussing still! haha We stood outside the door staring in, and the maitre d stares back at us. None of us open the door and i just start saying "are you open? are you open?" and i even mouthed are you open.. thinking he could read lips or hear me haha I feel so stupid he opened the door and was just like I guess we are! They weren't mad or pissed we came so early so that made us feel better. However, they sat us by the bathroom and I was pissed about that. The food was really good . I had the salmon. I think I might come back one day, and I don't say that often since I go to so many restaurants.

The last place we finally checked out was Alibi Room. The place is so off course and I don't think you would know it unless you were actually looking for it. We sat at the side and shared yam fries (ya right after a dinner! we are crazy). They had no desserts so we settled and surprisingly, we finished all the fries! the seating was really uncomfortable and I wasn't too impressed. It's more a loud group beer drinking place. I would love to go with all my friends, cept they aren't very adventurous in trying places and it is in a weird location for us. I don't know if I will come back to this place, I wasn't too impressed.

Also on Thursday I went to Westender Korean Restaurant. They only had pork belly and no menus. It was the first time I tried Soju. It was good. I didn't like the food too much though because I don't like kimchi and I don't like spicy. But honestly what the fuck, a restaurant with no menu and only serving pork belly? preposterous.

For mothers day, my family and I went to Shanghai Chinese Bistro for Dimsum. umm. I'll just say I wasn't impressed.

Friday Lunch

I hadn't seen a really good friend for ages so it was really good we went for lunch. We went to Jules Bistro for a nice broiled ham and cheese sandwich. I don't like ham much but it was the cheapest but to my surprise I really really liked it ! It was really good and filling and the place is super cute. It's my fave french restaurant currently (I guess that doesn't help it's my first french restaurant but it'll be tough to beat!)
The next place was Wild Rice. The place was really posh and modern. We just shared a poached pear dumpling with tofu ice cream. The pear dumplings weren't very good but I did like the tofu ice cream (even though I am not a fan of ice cream). I think the desserts were more appealing sounding than the entrees.
Lastly we stopped at Cactus Club on Robson because Saveur wasn't open and neither was Alibi Room. We shared cheesecake. Honestly if you need a staple dessert, you cannot go wrong with Cactus Club desserts.

gah!

On Tuesday class ended early so we went to Characters on Davie because Stephos was packed with people. I had mixed feelings about this place because the place was sooo empty. We were starving though because we ate practically nothing that day and bin 941 didn't seem as filling as greek food would have been. We went inside and the waitor or manager greeted us warmly and said he saw us looking at the menu and if we hadn't come in, we would be missing the best food ever. That was very welcoming so it was a good start. That was it though. The woman manager or waitress who took our order was so rude and was staring out the window when taking our order. wtf. Then the food took 20 minutes in this empty place. The food came. It was ok.

I didn't want to stay any longer so we got the bill and she was so cold and rude once again. Then we left and the male manager waitor was like wasn't the food good? you'll definitely come back? oh during the dinner, people were outside looking at the menu and he went out and tried to get them to come in too but they didn't. So he's desperate and the woman was rude. Great service.

back to school= restaurant hopping

Yay after being sick and stranded in nowheresville, I have moved into my new place and back to restaurant hopping in vancouver. One day we got bored of downtown and decided to take a nice little stroll down Burrard Bridge and lo and behold.. kitsilano! I know that sounds really retarded but I honestly had no idea where the bridge was leading me since I never ever go to south granville/kits .. ever.We walked to W 4th ave and then W Broadway and granville. It was really nice and the restaurants were great. ok lets start! :)

I FINALLY tried raincity grill.. It's probably one of the first restaurants I saw and wanted to try. We had brunch there.. the service was really slow and we just had complimentary bread (good) and museli (simple but the cheapest). I really liked the presentation, even though I was eating boring plain museli, it was really cute the way they presented it. The only problem I have is the waitor was very unattentive and it took WAY too long for service (meaning to get him to take our plates away and get our bill) esp cuz we planned on going to more restaurants and couldn't stay there for too long. I did like this place, I would love to come back here again for more brunch

The next place was Kadoya because we were at an awkward time and everything was closed :( We had a rainbow roll, which was just california roll with colored masago on top. I would love to come back again and eat different, more unique rolls.
We ended up walking across Burrard Bridge and going to Kits and then walking down W 4th and then W Broadway to Granville. man I was sooo tired after, we went to Red Door.. I have seen this place forEVER. Ever since i was little and going to Shabusen across from red door, I always wondered what that place with the red squiggly line was. I was so glad to finally have gone. We just had calamari. it wasn't very good.. the best calamari is still earls :)

We went to Bin 942 after for mashed potatoes. It's funny, I've tried going to Bin 941 so many times but it never worked out and i end up going to 942 before 941 :P We caught the bus and went back to West End. We tried Toratatsu next for some skin free chicken karaage. The place was ok if the service was a little better. We tried to catch their attention for the bill and I swear he saw us but still didn't come over :@ Next was Gyoza King for the cheapest gyozas. There was the hottest guy there but I had to leave so no eye flirting since we kept lookin at each other at wrong times :( I would love to come back here again, the food is cheap and there's a great variety.

Lastly we went to Indigo for dessert. We got the Bits and Bots and it sounded really good but it was just o-k.. It was def chocolate overload but it was o-k..

Japadogs!

ok so after moving into my new place, my father made me drive to eat lunch. We wanted to try out Zest but it was closed so we went to eat japadogs instead because I wasn't even hungry. We had the teri mayo and miso mayo. I was so full after half of one. I accidentally ate the miso mayo (gahh I don't like miso) so I found it really salty. I am sure the teri mayo would have been really good. My father loved them and I am sure everyone else does too because there's always a crowd around the stand. I'll definitely come back for teri mayo dogs :)

old favorites

dang the cakes at true confections (aka tasty delights) are getting smaller! Not only that but 8.50 minimum charge per person? thank god they are lax about that. Oh well, it fixed my cheesecake crave that I had for weeks.
A place that doesn't fail is capstone for cheese/chocolate fondue. They are really slow and the place is like the worst date place because of the lighting (every little pore can be seen) but dang those cheese fondues with the bread is soooo good. and the slushy drinks are yummy. The tea thing is really cool I think I might buy it one day when I have money.

other random vancouver eats I've had

shark club- i don't think I am ever gonna come back here for food. It was disgusting!!! I had the penne pesto and it was so oily. I would bite into a pasta and there would be oil guzzin out of it from the other end. ugh sickkk. I gave it to a homeless, hope he doesn't get sick like I kinda did on the ride home.
Browns- a good place for a quick drink. The yam fries aren't bad (although my fave are from calling).
Takis- ew. I don't recommend. Only went here because Stepho's was too busy. the Calamari was pretty sick and my lamb souvlaki was bland.
Some random korean resturant on robson- the menu was sooo unappetizing we shared a plate of fried gyozas. humm :(

lalalala i hate exams. i've been so busy and cheap I've been eating cereal and pb and j sandwiches. yum. :(

frick i m running out of money

This past friday, I went restuarant hopping to 8 places. yup , eight. Was spose to be ten but i'll get into that.

We were supposed to go to granville island but vancouver weather = rain so we stayed downtown. Thank god it stopped raining because I look like a freakin eskimo with my hood. We went to the Shore Club for a quick appie, we got a jumbo shrimp cocktail. I am not a big fan of shrimps in the first place but I heard they have good ones so I was willing to try. the waitor said he'll give us the dinner one cuz that would be one shrimp more. I was reluctant since I knew we were going restuarant hopping the whole day but my friend said watever it'll probably only be like 50 cents more. Turns out it was four dollars more for a shrimp that I don't even like that much so she sucked it up and paid for it. The place was really nice and sophisticated, but it was not a comfortable setting.

The next place was Ashahi-ya for a quick sushi bite. We shared a dynamite combo which wasn't very good I am sad to say. It was very plain. Norboo was next because it was approaching around 3pm now and most places were closing for a couple hours. We shared a plate of chicken wings wait i mean chiken wings. for 3.50 They were really gross. They had this really sweet weird sauce on top of them so I didn't eat any of the skin. oh well 3.50.

We walked down robson to Denman.. to Kintaro Ramen. We sat down until we saw the min 6.50 per customer. ehhh We just wanted to share a bowl of ramen, not spend arnd 15 bucks. so we left and went to the Calling public house to share a plate of really really good yam fries. We sat by the window and saw a lot of close accidents! omg. I never knew the denman/davie intersection was so dangerous! I wasn't even drinking wine but we were sitting near a heater and my face was turning reddd . ugh. At least she didn't think i was getting the asian flush cuz i was drinking water hah. but those fries were probably the best I've ever had.

We then walked up davie, then right towards Stonegrill and we walked the Seawall to Bardot, which was closed! GRR. this is my freaking 4th time. DAMN. Why do I bother. honestly.
So we ended up going to Elixir for a glass of wine. my wine glass was SOOO dirty. ugh sick. I was not impressed by this place.

We walked up to Burrard and passed the Japadog stand, man i soo wanted to get one haha. but instead we went to Gyoza King which was sooo packed we ended up eating at E-Hwa. We shared a donkatsu which wasn't bad. Nothing amazing though. It was a filling meal if I ate it alone. The place is super korean and dark.

Then we walked to Gastown, to Incenido for a Montreal pizza. It wasn't bad. My friend absoultely loved it because she loved the thin crust. we planned on hitting up Boneta next for Dessert and wine but we accidentally bumped into the rest of our party at the sketchy pizza joint that you stumble to when you are drunk and finished clubbing at Blarneystone. (worst pizza place ever even when I was so hammed). So we went to Boneta together and it was too packed :( Guu was too so we went to the Modern and I was sober as heck.

So sad. but the restaurant hopping was fun times :) ate like a gazillion calories but probably walked it all off.
Exam timeeeeee probably not eating out until may we'll seeee