Thursday, July 30, 2009

Cafe Kathmandu + Bandidas Taqueria

I went to Cafe Kathmandu a few weeks back. The restaurant is full of beautiful art and paintings exemplifying the nepali region. We got there pretty early.. 5pm, and the restaurant doesn't get packed until around 6-7.

When you come here, I have heard you must try the momos. but I forgot this, and ordered the deep fried dumplings instead. Nonetheless, they were really good! They were crunchy on the outside but soft and full of ingredients inside. It also came with three dips, unfortunately I do not remember them anymore, except that one of them was extremely spicy :(

Then we shared a large plate of goat curry that came with rice and roti, dhal, and side veggies. It was very filling for the two of us. The goat was very tasty, but the dish was a little too spicy for me :(:(



Afterwards, we headed next door to Bandidas for dessert. The room is very minimal but crowded. They serve up mexican food but we just ordered some brownies and the flan. The brownies were a little too bitter for my taste, but the flan was very sweet, rich, and tasty. Too bad after a few bites, it was too rich for me.. The service is nice and they did not hurry us at all (something I hate at restaurants). They also feature beautiful photographs around the room. my friend's exhibition of photographs he has taken in the Middle East will be featured this Saturday at Bandidas.. so go and check it out !

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Ma's + Gingeri + Golden Phoenix

sooo someone told me how there's this restaurant very close to where I live that serves food that has been already served already... which is already quite disgusting... but then a waitress once tried to advise customers not to order something because it was recooked food, the owners heard.. yelled at her, hit her, and fired her... wtfuck!! I am not going to name the restaurant but seriously, that is pretty despicable. I think that reserving food, although as dirty as it is, is sorta common in small restaurants in China, but I guess I never would have thought in Van.. If this was true (I dno why two diff ppl would lie) I hope health inspection has found out.

Anyways,
My mother told me that if I like shanghai cuisine so much, I should go try Ma's. I broke my toe 3 weeks ago (really dumb accident...no comment) so it ruined my plans of going to la bodega :(:(:( but a girls gotta eat, so I hopped on over to Ma's. and when I say hop, i really do literally mean hopping into the restaurant mere hours after being at the friggin hospital. talk about dedication to eat :P

Ma's on Urbanspoon They serve halal cuisine, so there are no pork dishes on the menu. The restuarant looks like a normal asian restaurant with pictures of dishes posted around the room. There were about 5 flies flying around next to me.. so we asked them to close the door and turn on the AC to get rid of them. then I asked my father where they would go, and he said to a place w/o AC.. which is the kitchen.. where all the food is.. oi.

We ordered the beef roll ups, a crepe and lamb dish, beef pastry, and a noodle dish. Everything was just o-kay. except the beef pastry one. Although it was very oily and fatty, it was quite yummy. There were a lot of ingredients inside. For dessert we ordered deep fried taro and seasame balls and they were veryyy good. Although filling, they were piping hot and soft. yum


Gingeri is a Chinese seafood restaurant in Richmond Landsdowne Mall.. I am not a big fan of large dim sum restaurants due to the fact that there is obvious favoritism towards close clientele there. Maybe I am just bitter because I have no connections (haha) but I don't think it's right that I made reservations and still waiting for a freaking table when I see so many opened, and then a "close customer" walks in and beelines through the damn line and gets one of the tables. we said somethin to the hostess and she just shrugged and said sorry. oi. There was another frustrated group next to us but they somehow argued their way into getting a table.

The food was okay. Waited so long I didn't even care anymore. Here are some dessert we had. no I am not coming back.

On the other hand, I went to Golden Phoenix a couple weeks back on a weekday. I've been here before and I liked their innovative dim sums. Since it was a weekday, it was extremely quiet but they were very very attentive and kind. I was a little hard to serve that day because I wasn't feeling well but they brought over so much water and tea and sympathetized with me which was nice. We would ask if they had something and they would quickly make it and we accidentally ordered something and didn't want it and they said no problem and quickly cancelled it.

These are baked bbq pork buns and they were very very good. Sweet and soft with piping hot bbq pork inside. Delicious.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Salade de fruits cafe

Salade de Fruits Cafe on Urbanspoon A great little french spot on W 7th, offering up delicious brunch at this quaint place. Tons of bugs in front of the entrance. friend had to wack them away so I could run in (this fear is getting outta hand man).

We sat on outside and presented a door handle looking menu.. everything in french. Time to put my french 11 (99% might i add :P) to the test. I figured out poulet and ouefs and that was it haha.. we asked the server a ton of questions, but he was nice and answered (and repeated) everything patiently :) there's eggs benny, chicken, fish, lamb, mussels, crepes, etc.. a lot of vairous food for a brunch! I chose the crepes with cheese and chicken, and friend had the eggs benny with sausage. We also had a nice french cassis cocktail drink. Service was nice, everyone spoke french .. how authentic :)

My crepe was really good. I didn't have high expectations for it because I've never had a savory crepe before, but the crepe was soft and there was a ton of filling. It was just really tasty. Eggs benny was good too, cept the sausage was a little dry.

It's a hidden little gem that provides very yummy brunch. try it out some time :)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tentatsu, Hiroshi's, and Sakura Sushi

man no internet really sucks, i hate you telus

Tentatsu on Urbanspoon Tentatsu is a japanese restaurant on busy hastings st. There is always a large group of people waiting for the bus in front, which attracts me to stare at the restaurant whenever my bus stops there to load people on. I guess this accidental marketing worked because I really wanted to try it ever since.

They have a large menu with lunch boxes, but we opted for menu items.. we ordered the chicken karaage, a sushi roll, a piece of saba, and unagi don.

The sushi roll was nice. it had scallops on top with tempura prawn and avo inside. The unagi don was quite large and filling, the saba was grilled nicely, but the karaage was a let down. Although the chicken was perfect (juicy and not dry) but the taste was too salty for me..and tasted a little like KFC fried chicken. Service is nice, food comes out fairly quick and it is fine.. this is an adequate sushi spot :)

Hiroshi's Sushi Creations is a very tiny mom and pop store on Oak st. They are only opened on Weekdays until 8pm. I've read very good reviews on them and their innovative rolls and decided to give it a try. Their menu is not very big but they sure have some different things. We only ordered sushi rolls: energy roll, refresh, ebi cheese, and tropical.
The energy roll had pumpkin tuna with garlic lime sauce, refresh with cilantro, tuna, and lemon mustard, tropical had avo and mango sauce, and ebi cheese was cheese ebi and lemon mayo.
The ingredients were very fresh but I found the energy and refresh to be too sour for me :( but other than that it was pretty good. (I liked pumpkin in sushi :D)

It seems like a local negihborhood gem.. serving fresh sushi and jap food at good prices :)

Finally I stumbled onto Sakura Sushi when I was in Langely. I didn't realize there were So many sushi restaurants there until now! We chose Sakura because we parked closest to it . haha. No one inside was a little wearysome, but nevertheless a try. We had a sushi box and a sakura sushi (had unagi cream cheese I believe..?). The sushi box is pictured here. I really enjoyed how they have ebi su included :) The gyoza was a little dry, and the chicken teriyaki was really bland. The sushi was fine. The sakura sushi had good flavor, but it was veryyy mushy.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Grub + Sweet Revenge

Grub is a tiny little restaurant on Main that isn't too hard to miss because they have a really big GRUB sign on the front. The restaurant was very busy and seemed quite kid friendly as well (crayons, coloring paper things, the ability to store a stroller in the back).. The menu is full of pizza, salad, and appetizers while the side is the fresh list of better mains. I felt like a pizza so I ordered one with sausages. friend had duck salad.. we waited patiently.. which felt like actually quite a while.. hummmmmm

My pizza was quite delicious, soft, and fresh, with enough pieces, although I only ate two and got the rest packed up. The salad was good too apparently, although it looked bland to me.. They really cater well to your needs. friend wanted it with no lactose ingredients and they made sure of it. great :)

Then we headed over to Sweet revenge and sat outside. friend going through a cutting out lactose for a week experiment. boy did we choose a bad week to hang out. Unfortunately the only thing on the menu with no lactose was the fruit plate. Man, it must suck to be lactose intolerant!!! The menu had a wide variety of things I wanted to try (pies, cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, bread pudding).. but I chose the white chocolate cheesecake because it was noted to be a favorite. There is a minimum charge of 6 dollars here ps. but he let it go for us, because my friend didn't want to get fruit.... The cheesecake was very very good. It was flourless and had a creamy soft texture that almost felt like it melted in your mouth. Too bad it is a little small. The man (I think he is the owner) wasn't very warm. You know, you can smile..

Then we were walking and past Nyala, a restaurant I am hoping to go to. They have flamenco dancing on Saturdays. The owner comes out and tries to persuade us to go inside. He was a nice man and I felt bad for him.. It was karoke night and he wanted us to go in and sing and eat, but there was only one other customer inside.. We promised we'd be back on a Saturday and he told us we could flamenco dance as well. lol. ya.. we'll see mister

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Sasaya + Kreation

Sasaya Bistro on Urbanspoon Sasaya is an Asian restaurant near where I live. I always walk past to the skytrain and 'glance at the pictures on the window'... when in fact I was just checking to make sure my hair wasn't looking crazy (please, everyone does it. don't lie.) The place has chinese writings and has chinese dishes.. but they also have korean hot pots, and japanese curry, and my friend told me this place used to be taiwanese..

The place is pretty minimal, looks kinda like a cafeteria. They have a fairly big menu and pictures as well. We ordered a korean bbq beef, rice, and hotpot, and meatballs. The meatballs come and they are just 4 boring meatballs you put in hot pot at home with some bland soup. This was 4 something. omg, rip off.

The korean bbq dinner was quite big actually. When I saw it, I was a little turned off because the mini hot pot looked like it had nothing. But as I dug in, it was pretty deep filled with shrimp, egg, vermicelli, vegetables, and some other things I believe. The beef was a little dry, and although there were a lot of food in the hot pot, it was a bit bland. I guess this would be a filling dinner, but not something I would enjoy.

I wanted to try Kreation cakes, so I went to buy some. The place is quite easy to miss since their store is sorta dark and the sign is small. The room quaint but they have a selection of small cakes and cookies to buy. The prices are quite expensive, but the cakes are pretty unique. I bought the blueberry tart, caramel lamington, and raspberry cheesecake. I am sure the names were more intricate than that but I don't remember it anymore! Unforunately, the only one I didn't mind was the blueberry one. The caramel was way sweet and so was the cheesecake :( I prefer la patiserrie near Red Star Seafood Restaurant.

lastly, look at the size of this pizza! it's so gigantic!! it's a 18" Costco pizza for around 13 dollars. Hella cheap! It wasn't very good, but damnnn!! Side note: Ah beetz sell 18" pizzas for around 16-25 dollars. I reallyy wanna try this place because apparently they are the only authentic ny pizza in bc.. but it seems like everytime I've tried to go there. their machine is broken or they ran out of dough.. Here's an article on them

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Maurya + Raga

Maurya on Urbanspoon I have heard relatively good things about Maurya so I decided to go for Father's day. There's a couple of free parking in the back and it is right next door to Bogarts. The restaurant itself is very spacious with high ceilings and mansion-like feel.
We ordered the butter chicken, chicken chettinand, and lamb palak. They were all around 12-14. We also ordered some rice and naan. One of the meals (I think it was the chicken one) came with veggies and rice as well. We were also given complimentary papad to start. Although the dishes looked small, the plates were pretty deep so there were a lot of food! Everything was really delicious, although I still loved the butter chicken the most. All dishes had ample pieces of meat and they were very tender. The only thing I didn't like was the naan, it was too crispy for me (I like doughier naan more). We also ordered 2 dessets: kheer (rice pudding) and ras malai (cheese patties in milk) for 6.95..
I don't think they were worth it.. they were small and nothing amazing. Just sweet.
Even so, I thought the main dishes were very good!

Last week I went to Raga near Tojo's. The servers were very very nice. I think there was a man sleeping in the back.. because we didn't see anyone.. then after awhile, this man popped up and just sat there.. then we didn't see him again. LOL Complimentary papad was also given.

We ordered the Lamb Korma and Butter Chicken with naan and rice (they are not included). The mains were 14 dollars.. a little expensive!!
I found the sweetness of the lamb korma a bit strange for me, so I ate more of the butter chicken. There was a good buttery taste . and the naan was very doughy here- yum. The dishes weren't as big as Maurya I don't think, but still adequate.. This restaurant is pretty good.. although a little expensive.. but the service was very good =]

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Hons + The Place

random note: there's this side app that tells me how people are getting to my site .. LOL to someone googling "yuppie am i a" and getting to my post.

I went to Hons on the weekend right when it opened. We thought we were too early, but there were a few others bustling in at the same time as us. Unfortunately their kitchen wasn't set up and we, along with others, had to wait a bit to get our food. The other table was in a hurry and even asked to get their dishes (that haven't arrived to their tables) taken to go because they had no time for sit down and eat. I understand that they *just* opened, but if you aren't ready to be opened, then maybe don't say you're open yet?

We ordered the pan fried noodles (cheong fun), duck and wonton noodles (what was I thinking? at 9 in the morning), and tang jai congee with chinese donut. Everything was adequate Hon's Chinese food. I don't have much to say, so on with the pictures :)

The Place on Urbanspoon After the delicious time I had at Lin's many months ago, I wanted to try the Place, the tiny shanghai restaurant on the far end of Granville. The restaurant itself is small with a very high ceiling. There was only one big table occupied when we got there, but as dinner rolled on, people slowly trickled in. We ordered the beef rolls, xlb, beef noodles, and something that I absolutely cannot remember what it was.. I think it was chicken.... or beef..

Anyways, so the beef rolls were okay but damn, nothing compares to Long's.. I don't know why they are so good there. but one thing I must rave about is how juicy and plump those xlb were! I don't think I've even seen anything as nice as them. yum!! The beef noodles were good too.. very tasty, and the chicken possibly beef dish tasted great wrapped in little crepes. It is also great with rice, as I found out for dinner the next day =)

For dessert, we had deep fried sweet potato and a sesame cake dessert. I liked the seasame one, very tasty

So I went to the washroom here, and obv I didn't have much of any expectations. I went to wash my hands and the sink had a tube connected to this machine next to the it. uhhh what the freaking hell. After I randomly pressed some red and blue buttons on the machine, water came pouring out in the machine inside. (like a freaking washing machine). umm why is their sink the washing machine???? Like I am pretty sure that was a washing clothes machine used as a sink now. this is probably one of the more random encounters I've had with washrooms. but at least I was smart enough to figure this out =) =p