Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Space Lounge, Asakusa, Mura

current thought : ugh man I hate getting rick rolled.

I went to space lounge a couple nights ago. The construction down granville has made it really hard for people to walk down further than cellar. I've heard about this place quite a bit but never actually been. We went there for drinks and dessert.. ordered sangria and cheesecake. The room is really cool, it looks like a great place to have a party. There's horoscope things posted all around the room, but hard to read. The waitor was really friendly, and I was in a talkative mood so we had a nice chat throughout.

The sangria was pretty tasty.. until I wanted a pineapple, so I took it and ate it and I got a piece of blonde hair... ughhhhh.. The cheesecake was really good with raspberry coulis. The drink was 26 and cheesecake 7. The room gets better as the night goes on. Will probably check it out again another time.

I went to Asakusa today for a quick dinner. The room is very small with pictures of sushi all around the room. There is a tv on the side, and two sushi chefs at the back. The waitresses are horrible, they don't even ANSWER me. I would order and she would honeslty say Nothing. not even a okay, or yes, or uhhuh. just. *silence*.

We ordered the dragonfly roll, house roll, and philadelphia roll. The food comes and I wasn't very impressed. As large as the rolls were, they didn't seem very fresh. The cooked bbq salmon was very dry and gross, and nothing tasted good. blah. I won't be back.

I went to Mura a couple weeks back in the valley. This place was very clean and fresh. I am honestly beginning to think that the valley has better sushi restaurant than downtown. (:o). We ordered a unagi don and a crunch combo (20 pcs). Although the crunch combo was just adequate, the unagi don wasn't so bad. The place gets busy as lunch hour comes. The sushi chef was also the server. he was very efficient and nice. What a nice little place.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Szechwan + Rainflower Restaurant

Looking for a place to have lunch today with the family, I came across 5 choices. I decided to settle on RainFlower Restaurant because it was new and sounded like it was worth a try (urbanspoon 100%). but then I accidentally memorized the wrong address and went to Szechwan instead (urbanspoon 0%). fml.

The restaurant is filled with ancient chinese furniture. There is also a very small tv showcasing szchwan food or szcheuan places. (as you can see I can't spell this word, I've already spelt it 3 different ways in the last 2 paragraphs) The servers speak both mandarin and canto adn there are many menus filled with colorful pictures of the dishes. We ordered the dan dan noodles, korean buns, and pork gyozas.

The man kep coughin the ENTIRE time we were there, and he never covered his mouth. One time as he walked past us, he turned his head and coughed AT me. wtf!!! (side note, one time I was in the library on the computers and the girl next to me turns her head at me and sneezes. ... ... My face was just :| and the guy across me just stares :| at me too. gross. and no one was next to her OTHER side. bitch.)

The dan dan noodles I ordered at little spicy was VERY spicy. oi. for me i guess. but it was very tasty, the bottom was just all hot sauce. ahhhh.. The buns were not good, the filling inside was weird, and the pork gyozas were just normal.. We also ordered the deep fried sweet potatoes as dessert. They had no taste but eh.

I vaguely remembered a map I saw for rainflower so we went that way and finally found it. it's across from Sea Harbor (a place where hk celebs go apparently? we saw one, I forget his name). It's right next to Yaohan and I think used to be some sports store. Inside, the front is just a big space with one couch on the side. This is definitely refreshing to the other dim sum restaurants with the small waiting areas in the front. Inside was very very spacious and filled with people at equal distance (I hate being squished). There's a pretty chandelier hanging from the top of the ceiling. The dim sum here is ordered on a little paper booklet given. The food is around 3-5 dollars I think? with Chef Specials around 6-8. There are some pricier dishes as well (for rice and noodles).

We ordered the siu mai, sticky rice, radish and carrot pastry, and a dessert. The siu mai were pretty good, not very big though. The sticky rice was on the dry side unforunately. I wasn't a big fan of the pastry nor the dessert.

The place is comparable to sun sui wah (upscale spacious room) but I think I like sun sui wah's food more, but rainflower's room better. The waitors were okay. There were a lot of close customers. They got the better treatment (obv in any chinese restaurant). I need to make some inner connections.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Eh! Restaurant

Eh is a restaurant tailored to international students in Vancouver. I stumbled onto it randomly on urbanspoon looking for a place to eat close to burrard. It looked pretty cool so I decided to check it out. My friend got there earlier than me and he could not find the place. Then I started thinking about when I was on Alberni and how I have never seen the place either.. is this some international secret??

then I got there and looked up and I saw it. lol

It's on the 2nd floor of some building by Kobe Steakhouse. We got up there and the room is quite nice. It's very spacious, but the windows are tinted so you can't look outside.. There's a bunch of books lined on the counter. We sat down and she gave us one menu to share. Were they running out of menus? At least it was only one page. The food isn't expensive, around 6-10 dollars I think? There were food such as burgers, fish, honey garlic chicken, wraps, korean bbq stuff. I ordered the lemon snapper for 7.95 and my friend ordered a burger.

The food comes and mine looked reallyy gross.. the lemon snapper had no taste and extremely rubbery. I didn't even bother eating the top part because it just fell off. Also included broccoli and jasmine rice. It didn't help that my plate kept spinning at I ate. wtf. so I stuck a napkin underneath and all was well... but I didn't do that until 3/4 of the way done my meal. The burger was apparently good. It was neat they used foccacia bread as the bun.

meh to eh, it must be some hangout thing for int'l students.

Eh! Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Little Billy's Revisited

This is probably the most hilarious thing I've seen recently (well.. the evil look baby is the funniest) but I've watched it like 10 times now HAAH. it's so catchy. I love pharrell williams (he tried to get a big mac even tho it was 6 in the morning so he started dancing and singing but then they just leave LOL)

ok anyways, yesterday we tried to go to de dutch but we got there at 2:31, and it closes at 2:30. fml. so we went to little billy's for lunch because nothing else sounded good.
The place was empty (obv, it was almost 3), the service was super nice and friendly. she was chatty and personable but not like too intrusive. Although there were a couple dirty utensils/glasses, they were replaced. I had the lasagna and friend had soup/sandwich they were both 9 dollars.

The lasagna was good, cept it was really dinky compared to the salad. like really really small.. I don't like eating salads at restaurants so i was wishing I changed it to fries or smth. friend said it was a normal sandwich but the soup was very very good- well seasoned.

We also had a piece of cheesecake for 8 dollars. it was too dense for friend, but I liked it =) although, it got a little filling after awhile.

I like how there's a higher class restaurant at this part of town, it gives hope to the rest of burnaby lol. jk

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Pasta Polo, Taste nice, Ikea

yaaaa school is almost over. wat a freaking hectic crazy semester its been but I won't bore you with the details.. on with the food!

I went to Pasta Polo last week. The room is really spacious and it seems to be a family style restaurant. They have some pretty realistic lemon/olives above the bar- or at least we think so! the big lemon had all the ridges in it and errthing! (that's my gangster way of saying everything.. keep that in mind. hah)

They have a pretty extensive menu but at lunch they have specials for 9.95 I think. I ordered the Chicken lasagna with fries and friend ordered chicken canneloni with broccoli and cheddar soup. They didn't charge extra for the soup! score (It was supposed to be salad).

The food took a bit of a time to get out.. but it was semi worth the wait. The food was very good, well to me anyways haha .. or I was just real hungry. it was a little filling/hearty but that's what happens with pasta and cheese right. The also have a relatively good list of desserts for 6.95? ya I think so..

A couple days back, me and a friend headed to Taste Nice Caribbean in Surrey because it was the only restaurant I could find close to a skytrain and surrey. Personally to me, I don't find Surrey ghetto, but that's just because I am from an even more ghetto place. At least Surrey has a skytrain to connect them to Vancouver. I have to take a freaking train.. then a bus!
Anyways... is it true that Kiss yo Mama is closing?? this restaurant has been like one of the first restaurants I've always wanted to try since I started to like eating out.. We just never had the time to go check it out =(

The restaurant had a very laid back feel.. there was only one other table filled, and they were older Jamaican ladies.. so we thought it would be good and authentic. The service was really nice, tryin to start conversations.. but too bad all their curry were sold out. We had to resort for jerk chicken. I also ordered a Jamaican patty. Oh ya, and my friend had a Ting, jamaican's leading soda. They ran out of some other soda.

The jamaican patty was okay.. nothing special, the jerk chicken was pretty flavorful I guess. Spicy and full of chicken and potatoes. My jamaican prof brought beef, chicken, and vegetarian patties for class and they were soo much better than these ones. She said it's in this little shop in Shaungnessy ran by a Jamaican man. They were very flavorful and a little spicy, but very good. Maybe try that out, I forget the name tho

When we were leaving to pay, we wanted to pay separately but then the lady just goes "aren't you going to pay for her? " in her boisterious jamaican voice and stands there. thank god he's a good friend of mine but it was just so direct.. got a little offensive too. and most likely awkward if it was someone I was just okay friends with. I think it's because I am asian, our cultures are so different so witnessing people who are more direct and vocal in things like that makes me uncomfortable. eh..

I've always wanted to go to IKEA for food since I've heard about how cheap it was. Before going home, I stopped by here for a quick dinner. It's basically just a food court. I just had a swedish meatballs and fries for 2.99 .. umm it was good for its price haha. and then the almond cake for 2.49 I think and that was really yummy, almond and crunchy and delicious. The garlic bread for 50 cents was standard. I just didn't like the blueberry drink. The food here isn't sensational but it sure is good for its price!!
I can't wait to go to Sweden. 5 more months!!!!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Food Court

I used to never eat at food court unless it's of dire circumstance. However, I have been running around like crazy and the only thing around is the food court.. not only that but I have to live a frugal life atm so maybe the food here might be okay. Furthermore, you never know what you can discover at Food courts.. just stay away from the normal timmys and burger king, there might be some good food..maybe??

I went to Crystal Mall Food Court today because I needed something super quick- like 20 minutes quick. as many ppl have noted, this is the most cracked out parking lot ever. The worst is the tiny space to go up/down floors. It's a wonder there hasn't been as many car accidents! Then the slanted parking spaces.. one time it took my mother 50 tries because she backed in and she couldn't back in slanted. What a nightmare that was. I guess I could have helped her, since my parking is always slanted haha. I hate parking.

I was there rather early and not everything was opened yet. I don't really eat early (I am a night owl.. unless I have to wake up at like the crack of dawn, then I just don't sleep period- jk..not really) so nothing was really appetizing to me. I settled on xiao long baos for 3.75. Took like 15 minutes.. gah. my father was nice enough to drive me again (I didn't want to take the train) and he got the bbq duck with noodles and also a curry fish balls for me knowing it's my favorite =D frick, I wish I ordered what he got because my xlb wasn't great. It was dry and no juice inside. The curry fish balls were obv yummy and the noodles looked good...

A couple hours later of work, I went to metro to grab somethin to go to rush back to class, I went to Izumi Sushi for a katsu don for around 6 bucks. As I was carrying it away, the sauce leaked out. fml. So i quickly sat down and ate it. omg. this is the worst food court meal, worse than stupid tiki ming! The katsu was inedible!! it was soo dry, falling apart, and tasted funny. It had a little pink to it too which was a little weird. All I could was the rice. UGH. UGH. like honestly, can they serve this mess????

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Shanghai Wonderful + Michele Cake Shop

After the really delicious meal at Long's, I wanted my next asian meal to be of shanghai cuisine. I've always seen shanghai wonderful since it is quite noticeable with the blue and yellow and the large chinese character displayed prominently on the front of the restaurant.

We didn't made a reservation and had to wait awhile, 20 minutes? The place is really busy with a large flow of people, but the waiting area is sooo cramped it's horrible. We finally got a seat and it was a secluded booth. It was good seating although the service was nonexistant. We had to wave everyone down and even then it was a little difficult.

We ordered the pork noodles, xiao long bao, beef rolls, sticky rice siu mai, and this dish that I can't remember the name to. ugh, it's reminscent of elastic rubber bands and served as a cold appetizer. I think the famous dish at this restaurant is the duck, so try it when you come. They also have a long list of desserts and other dishes such as rice and noodles and chinese doughnut and soy milk.

The beef rolls were filled with ingredients and not enough sauce. So it tasted like subway to me (beef and cucumbers), it was fresh at least. The xiao long bao were juicy and full of soup but the soup was a little salty for me. The pork noodles was nice except the pork was fried really badly, the fried part was falling off.. there were a lot of pork pieces though. The sticky rice siu mai were ok.. nothing to boast about. All in all, the food at Long's was 100x better.

It cost around 31 dollars incl tips+tax. relatively same prices as long's. The only thing I liked more at Shanghai was the ambience, but other than that.. I'll opt for Long's Noodle House instead

Afterwards, we stopped over at Michele Bake shop near the Richmond Public Market. The shop is relatively small with a ton of mousse cakes and cheesecakes. I bought mocha, blueberry, and mango mousse cake to go. Together they cost a bit over 8 dollars.. a little expensive? They were pretty good, not super sweet, but not super tasty either.. I think my favorite cake shop is La Patisserie on 41 (? I think it was)

Shanghai Wonderful on Urbanspoon

Friday, March 13, 2009

Quick post: Tiki Ming (Oakridge)

you know what's embarassing.. sitting on the skytrain and realizing it's the wrong one after 10 minutes (thank god there was maintenance) and having to stand on the other side while having everyone watch you from the skytrain.
You know what else is embarassing.. getting off at a bus stop, walking a block, only to find out the bus also stops there and everyone gets off there and have seen you walking the one block and is now crossing the street together. oi!

I had to go to oakridge today to get a blood test.. I was early and hungry so I went to the food court.. I settled on tiki ming, the chinese place because no one was there and I just wanted something fast. sweet and sour pork + rice, can't go wrong with that at usual Manchuwok. but YUCK. YUCK. the worst I've ever had. rice was so gross and so much sauce and fat and .. ughhhh!!!!! it wasn't even filling. should have settled for a damn burger. there's a line up for A&W for a reason.

There's also a sweets/cake shop in the middle- I didn't get the name but they some REALLY nice/cute cheesecakes, black forest cakes, etc. I saw the black forest cake and I was mesmerized for 5 minutes. So tempted to buy but the commute is way too long for it to look edible when I got home..

after I got my blood test, I was a little weak so i thought a piece of gum could help me, cept it was sugar free gum and then I gave myself an unintended papercut on papers in my bag rummaging for the gum. fml.

i have to get ready to drink my worries away.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Green Basil

I went there last summer I think and found the food reminscent of Manchuwok.. but maybe that's what happens when you order sweet and sour chicken with pineapple. Anything sweet and sour usually reminds me of manchuwok. After stupid traffic jam and early morning, I didn't have enough time to try out Makoto (next week!) and I remembered how fast my food came from Green Basil so I decided to try this again. My father was kind enough to drive me to metrotown area (from the valley!!!) because I had something to do, so I decided to take him to this cheap thai restaurant. We were the first ones there, which was good, to beat the lunch hour rush!

When I first went in, the people in the kitchen was Extremely loud! Like Fighting Loud. but I don't think they were but the tone/attitude sure sounded like it.. but cantonese sounds pretty brute tho. (side note- afterhours club bathroom, 2 asian women speaking really sharply/loudly/crazy canto but they were just having a convo, but my caucasian friend thought they were fighting oi. cuz to her it sounded like BITCHIMGONNAKNOCKHERTOTHEGROUNDWHOREFACE but she was actually saying wear these sunglasses! can you do my makeup first? then lets go out and dance.. lol..)

ANYWAYS, we ordered a pad thai and coconut curry with chicken. The soup came like 2 seconds after, it was really really sour.. then the springs roll/salad that I didn't like.. the mains came like 2 minutes after. The curry was surpringly really good! I could have eaten the whole thing! It was sweet and I loved all the ingredients used-- it was like pineapple, potato, yams, mmm! thinking about it is making me drool. Why do I like curry so much? it's like a weakness of mine.. that and fried food. such weird weaknesses.

The pad thai, I didn't eat because I was wayyy too full but my dad said the noodles weren't cooked completely. ehh. The guy next to me came and went, I swear in 15 minutes. We stayed there for less than an hour. that is how fast the food comes out here. They even have water lined up in 3 long rows ready for the lunch hour ppl.

The food is around 6.95-9 (if you order a chef special). Go here if you don't want food court yet want a super super fast meal.. and curry! mmm!!

Green Basil on Urbanspoon

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Long's Noodle House

Note: I realized one of my more popular posts is the one about Tojo's. It wasn't much of a post before so I edited it to be more thorough =) Read Here

Today for lunch, after a couple of unsuccessful closed thai restaurants, we went to Long's Noodle House next to Au Petit Cafe on Main St. On the outside, it's pretty hard to see and usually overshadowed by the popular success of the viet restaurant next door.

Inside is very clean and quaint. There's not of tables but sufficient. There were always a hustle bustle of people coming in and out, some close customers, others just here for a quick lunch. We sat in the back and ordered a couple of dishes- pork noodles, xiao long bao, green onion pancake, beef+herbs rolls, and a fish dish that the waitress recommended.

The noodles were very good- the broth wasn't salty and quite clear, the noodles were thin and delicate. The pork was very tasty. The green onion pancakes didn't have enough onions, it wasn't very good. even the waitress agreed. The beef rolls were the best I thought. They were extremely flavorful.. I ate a lot of them. The xiao long bao were delicate and filled with soup. yumm. I didn't really like the fish dish too much, It was made with another Chinese vegetable herb thing, I don't remember the name. The fish was very smooth ("whact") but obviously it was smooth from the all the oil they used :|


Finally we ordered the sweet pastry dish, It was very delicious.. but one of them had a long white hair in it :| ewuck...


The waitress was so nice and extremely efficient. She was the only one working and she attended to everyone and talked to everyone. She also recommended the drunken chicken for next time. yes I'll prolly come for a next time. The bill came to around 34 not incl tip yet. not bad

This place is great, I think I might actually enjoy here moreso than au petit..


Long's Noodle House on Urbanspoon

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Frogstone Grill


We were going to go to Pasta Polo but after being stuck in the right lane and pasta polo being on the left, we decided to go to Frogstone Grill across the road. It is in a small plaza mall where sushi town and a noodle shop is located. Frogstone Grill is a pretty spacious restaurant with a separate lounge and dining area. There are a lot of frogs everywhere. John Mayer was playing softly in the background.

We were seated and the menu was normal restaurant food- salad, appies, ribs, burgers, sandwiches, and pastas. We ordered the cheese dunkers, BBQ "ribbets", and the peanut butter pie.

The cheese dunkers consisted of a strips of pita bread with a bowl of cheese. I didn't really imagine this but it was okay. The piat breads were seasoned nicely and the cheese wasn't bad. But we filled up on this really easily and couldn't finish it up. The ribbits were definitely not what we imagined. We thought they were little tiny ribs, but instead they were normal sized strips of ribs slathered in BBQ sauce . it was okay. The main hit was definitely the peanut butter pie. it was delicious! I love peanut butter, and it was extremely soft and tasted great with the ice cream yum!

In total the bill came to around 27 dollars.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Kura Japanese

I went to Kura in the little mall by Metrotown Yesterday. Outside, it is semi easy to miss as it looks like all the other stores next to it. But inside is a whole different story. It was extremely spacious and it had a dark cave feel inside. I really liked the ambience :) The seating was interesting, with two person tables in the middle sitting on a diagonal and the seats had cool bendy back rest.. but there was absolutely no room! I ate my meal with my jacket and purse on my lap :(

We ordered the unagi don and kyoto and rainbow roll. They have a lot of sashimi and carpaccio. but I needed a quick lunch and wanted something different as well. The rolls were around 8.95 and the unagi don was 10 i think. There were two servers.. I think they need one more because the place was extremely packed! they were running around like crazy but they were so cute. Everything they said was exaggerated it reminded me of the servers at Kamei Royale. I don't know how to explain but like she came over with our packed up lunch and she wa slike "oooOoOoOo leeeffttoohhhhverrrrrrsss ooOoooO" LOL and I swear she did that with everything, it was really cute! haha

The unagi don was pretty good, lots of pieces of unagi. The rolls were o-k. Nothing compares to Sagano Sushi, but they were nicely assembled and presented. I didn't know the rainbow roll had wasabi dressing covered on top. I couldn't eat anymore of it after one bite. If you like wasabi, this is for you! The ingredients didn't seem very fresh.. but they were adequate.

This place seems extremely popular for lunch, so try to come here after the lunch rush.. try to avoid the washroom.. it's really dingy and I think it was also used as storage so I was kinda creeped out that there might be someone behind the cabinets (obv I don't think there were...)

Kura Japanese on Urbanspoon