Yokohoma + GoGo

Sunday Night, me, my family, and relatives went to Yokohoma for the dineout slash new years eve dinna. I think I've been here many many years ago, before it was teppanyaki. It wasn't very good... however I did not have any say in this chosen dineout.. my relatives believed it was a good deal for 28 dollars since there was kobe beef and sushi and lobster. so whatever, new years is about spending it with family right?

Inside is very small. They have 4 teppanyaki stations in the middle. When we sat down, they gave us one menu, another promotional ad of their other meals, and a huge ass photo album of visitors that have been to Yokohoma? I don't know, I never opened it. They also had pics of gordon campbell with the servers on the wall behind us. I guess he came one time to eat.. then across the room, you can tell it was another pic of them with gordon campbell LOL .. I guess they were hoping one side of guests will not venture to the other side

The seating was pretty uncomfortable and cramped. There was nowhere to put our jackets/bags and it was hard for people to walk behind me and I was already really cramped as was.
We ordered one of everything.

The appetizers came.. and they were 4 cali roll, 2 sushi, or tempura. TWO sushi??? what a horrible appy!!! Thank god we were sharing, or else I felt bad for my father.. getting two tiny sushi.

Then the teppanyaki man came and started talking to us. I guess he was pretty friendly, but his attitude kinda pissed me off. It was a little cocky/boisterous but maybe that's just his personality. He cooked the other part of the appy which was a shrimp teppanyaki.. which was basically one shrimp. One salty tiny disgusting shrimp.

Then he made the veggies which was ok, I was dying during this time because the scraping really really hurt my ears.. I thought I was goin to start crying (and I am a robot..but the noise got real bad). Then he made the entrees, everything was super small portions. I didn't take any pics because it looked disgusting. The lobster was neutral, the kobe beef didn't melt in my mouth as really good kobe beef should, the other steak was tasteless, but the salmon was pretty good.

He also made rice (disgusting, no taste) and bean sprouts that were sour? I think he used lemon juice.. it wasn't good either. None of us were full, none of us were happy. The dessert definitely did not help, she brought the wrong desserts even after I told her we were missing a dessert. The cheesecake was tiny as hell. UGHh. when we were leaving my father said the waitress was shoving a business card into his hands.. uh.. no we are not coming back ever.


We were not full so we went to Gogo tea cafe. Inside is very spacious.. it was very very empty with one waitress. The menu was half full of drinks .. I am not a drinks type of person (esp in richmond.. long car ride home.. I'd prolly have to pee!) but I got one nonetheless.. I got the passion fruit/mango ice cream drink.. it was good but I could only drink a quarter of it. it was huge! Me and my cousin shared the chocolate fondue. and others got tofu pudding and noodles.

The chocolate fondue for 8.99 was normal.. reminded me of capstone since they served it with fruits, gummies, marshmallows, cream puffs, etc. The tofu puddings were a little sweet for my liking. It was sesame tofu pudding or 2 of the following-- red bean, peanut butter, taro, or something else I forget. The noodles were apparently ok.

Everything was really cheap and on this big white screen, they were playing the chinese music awards.. so if you are a fob/honger, you'd like it. or me, I was really really bored.

that's it, gong hay fat choyy.. sun tai geen hong, hot yip jeung bo, sum seung see sing.. that's all I know.. hahaa

Curry King (Kingsway)

After seeing that delicious lobster meal at the Curry King on Cambie, I was aching to go and try it. Since I don't like going to a restaurant twice around the same time, I decided to try their original restaurant on Kingsway.

The decor inside was similar to the Cambie one.. with the same table cloths etc. We ordered the lobster/steak, beef brisket curry, and laksa. The service was typical asian waitresses but they were so bloody freaking loud. They kept having loud conversations with the cooks in the kitchen. hollyy crap. And then at one point, the two waitresses were discussing about spiders, cockroaches, and another "crawling biting" insect really loudly. WTF?

The laksa was o-k.. not very good.. the beef brisket curry was fine for 8.95. But after having the phnom penh curry, it doesn't compare haha. The steak/lobster comes and it looked better that day at Cambie than it tasted :(. It was a big mush mess!! sooo gross. and the steak was about 80-90% rare. Too rare for me. euck. I know that this is a dirty cha chang teng (my friends words, not mine :P), what did I expect.. Gotham Steak and lobster? but stillllll.... it looked soo good that last time..

It also didn't help that the cooks kept staring at me? I was a mess too. please leave me alone, but don't spit in my food. oh but you know what, the washroom was clean- props.

Curry King

Upon returning back from Portland, we all went to Curry King for a quick dinner before braving it back to the valley. It was a pain to find parking..since we didn't know you could park in capers for an hour underground.. argh. The walk to curry king afterwards was hell.. the sidewalk was soo icy.. I slipped about 60 times. I had the elderly telling ME to be careful. oi! At the end, I wasn't even walking, I was just sliding my way through.

Interior of curry king is pretty tacky with colorful everything and a tv playing boxing. We had nine people so we sat in the middle. While waiting for the food, we saw everyone eating crabs and lobster. the Lobster looked really good. It was cheese baked I think.. the meal was 22.95? man, I could have so eaten that one day.. but I had no appetite and opted for a roti canai instead for 4.95.

My roti was really greasy but it was adequate for the price and the curry was good too. It was mild enough for me to eat =). I think banana leaf had the best roti still.

Other things ordered were the chicken/beef brisket curries, fried rice, noodles (gong chao ngo ho), some veggie dish, and rice dish I think. I didn't eat anything else but some said the curry was good, others said not.. and I think everything was just adequate.

The menu is huge with various items to choose from. If only I was hungry..

I want to try this place again.. and try the lobster.. .. =)

Hons/Me + Eds

Hons.. the one place both asians and white ppl go for good bbq meat, rice, wonton soup, etc. Some say it reminds them of HK, others just like it because it's cheap and fast, and I guess it's rather authentic.

I used to go when I was a child.. esp to the coquitlam one because it's close.. but then one time, I witnessed a man server yank a woman servers hair really hard because they were verbally fighting in front of all the customers. I was like. ten at that time. so it kinda scared me. Definitely something you do not want to see at a restaurant.

I had to go to coquitlam today so we stopped by Hons quickly before heading back.. we ordered a bbq pork+rice and wonton soup separately.. but then I looked at the menu and saw that together combo is only 7.49. Being asian cheapskate I am, obv I wanted this! so we tracked down our intial server by him walking to her, then another server came over so I told about it, but then there was confusion because both were told.. so we told a 3rd server and she fixed everything. haha phewf. Confusion just to save a few bucks.. but they were totally nice about it :) and I am glad we ordered the combo because I wasn't very hungry (the combos were smaller).

Everything was adequate . nothing to rave but nothing to be disgusted by. Definitely worth 7.49!!! so come here for a cheap eat!


Me and Eds is this new pizza joint in Abby. There's other locations in the lower mainland so I am guessing it is a semi successful franchise? We went today and it was quite empty when we got it.. there was a fly that kept flying around too.. soo annoying and gross. We ordered nachos and a small pizza. for nachos they cost 12.95 I think, and has no meat at all. We ordered it without onions/olive/jalapenos.. haha basicallyalmost everything! we also ordered a small pizza the Me & Ed's Combo with meats pepper and mushrooms I think.

The food came and the nachos was fricking gigantic. Omg it could have fed 6 people.. but nope, it was just 2 people.. oh god. There was nothing but tomatoes and cheese on it too.. We thought lettuce was included? anyways.. omg we were sooo full after, it was ok.. the chips were too hard for my liking. The pizza was pretty good.. very meaty with a thin crust.
but man! we were soooo full from the nachos we just had one slice each and took the rest home.

Two things- cost us 15 bucks each. and it was a small pizza.. I don't know if that's a good price. Doubtful I will be back.

Lin Chinese Cuisine

mmm! I think I love Lin Chinese Cuisine. Growing up in a Chinese household, all I ate for most of my life was Chinese food. My parents would sometimes have "western nights" where we would eat slices of ham with cream of mushroom soup. haha. I don't really like Chinese food and I definitely do not like rice anymore. I went to Lin yesterday for my usual family lunch and it was a good experience :)

We sat down near the window.. the service was nice.. although a little confusing because some spoke mandarin and others spoked cantonese. I tried to use my weak ass mandarin but I don't think she understood me! haha.. I'll just stick with canto..

We ordered south asian pancakes with curry sauce, pan fried pork buns, xiao long bao, tan tan noodles, and rice. By the kitchen, there's an area where they knead the dough to make the noodles and buns and stuff I think. That made me happy because it meant everything was freshly made :)

The tan tan mien came first.. I couldn't eat it because it was too spicy for me.. but my parents really enjoyed it.. saying it's even better than the ones they had in some popular restaurant in HK (or it was popular but went downhill..). I really liked the xiao long bao.. I used to hate them because I thought the soup inside was undeliberate and actaully fat.. so I always avoided them. but the dumpling was very soft and tender. Very good.

The pan fried pork buns, for me, was too salty. but don't listen to me.. apparently they were good too. the pan cakes things were crispy and good with the curry- although I prefer roti more

Finally we had the red bean pancakes (dou sa wo bang) for dessert.. mm.. I've had better unforunately.

One of the women that worked there was so nice to us. Too bad i didn't understand anything she said (fucking mandarin.. I actually learned for 5 years but it was really early or Sat Mornings and we read Christian comics in Mandarin..) The sun was blinding our eyes and so she told us to move the table forward whenever the sun was in our eyes, and then when the sun moved, to move our table backwards again. haha! I think that was the only downside to Lins. so if you ever go, stay away from the window.

Apparently there's free underground parking in the back, so that's always good for busy broadway. We didn't know and had to pay stupid parking meter outside.

If you ever need good sichuan food, go to lin! :) It's cheap too- 4.99-5.99/dish ish. and at lunch, they have a special for 5.99 I think.. but the food sounds very western-asian .. like sweet and sour pork and lemon chicken.. so maybe stay away from that unless you want a quick lunch..

(pardon my navy blue nail polish.. it's my current obsession)
Oh we also went to Ba Le french Sandwich shop.. it's so small in the smallest little strip mall ever. If you didn't even know about it nor are you ever on Kingsway, you would never find it! Inside, theres one table but most people go there to get a quick banh mi. I got the bbq pork banh mi... but it was kind of cold inside.. hum.. I need to try au petit cafe.

Asian Food

Last week, I went to Ken's Chinese Restaurant, which is across from Dai Tung. The place is freaking bright as hell and the menu is very very extensive.. with some questionable food. The place had a really asian feel to it, so noodles/rice/asian fare food is the norm. But then there were chicken wings, lamb chops, spaghetti, western fare... I started feeling sketch. Ok, I know that westerinzed food is common at HK cafes, but this one had a REALLY asian feel to it! Nonetheless, I ordered a western combo because I didn't feel like asian. We also ordered half a chicken and beef noodles.

Everything was ok. Even the lamb chops were good. I am still weary though. I don't know why?? Maybe it's because I just saw Kitchen Nightmares yesterday and I read a blog post about worst things found in food (crawling cockroaches? omg) so I am a little uneased.. but like my father says, what you don't know can't hurt you.
The next day I went to get my haircut so I was around Metrotown/BCIT area. We went to No 1 Beef noodle house. It was jam packed with people but the food was quite bland/adequate.

Tonight I met up with a old friend that I hadn't seen in a year (finally got himself out of the valley). We went to Black Tuna and I have to say, it was a huge let down. The place was super empty and it looked really drab as well. The menu was quite unimaginative and the food was bland. The unagi was grilled nicely but the rice was too hard. We also had the chicken karaage that tasted super off and the skin was really weird.. like it was fried for too long. We should have went to Yoshi.

Gloucester Cafe

When I was a kid, I absolutely ADORED Gloucester Cafe on Cambie. I would come here with my parents all the time for baked pork chop with rice. mmm. It was probably one of the more cleaner hk cafes in vancouver and thats always good in my books.

I went through a phase where I hated hk/chinese dishes but now that I have regained my appreciation for my own country's food, I was happy to go back to gloucester after many many years.

The waitresses were super friendly and talkative. There were many food choices ranging from 6 dollars to 32 (those were the combo deluxe dinners I think). Many of the dishes came with a free hot beverage (your usual hk fare drinks).

We had the laksa with chicken, stir fried noodles, and pork chop with rice :) . Everything was adequate and decent and came out pretty fast. I haven't been to any hk cafes in van that can compare to the ones from hk (obviously.) but gloucester is pretty decent. It's more westernized than other ones, and it's not as good as I remembered from my childhood, but the dishes are still ok :)

Off topic: Next door is Spices, I can't wait to check that one out! and across the street is Dadeos, I wonder if it's exactly like the one from Edmonton

Bogarts+Cactus Club+ Hakkasan

After class, I was starving so we went off to Bogarts and I ordered a steak. I rarely ever order steak just for myself (it's so meaty and usually really exp) so ya i was pretty freaking hungry. The steak was ok. I think they overseasoned a bit. The place was pretty empty and the food took quite a while to get out (or I was just extra impatient that day). The place wasn't memorable enough for me to want to come back...


I am not a fan of chain restaurants. Unless I was with a group of people or needing to get drunk, I don't usually venture to earls or milestones for dinner or a date.
Unforunately, I was starving and around Metrotown area with no where to go except chain places (Well I wanted to go to Kiss yo mama but I had no idea where it was). We ended up going to Cactus Club and I had the cajun chicken sandwich. I don't like Burgers because I find them kinda fatty and really difficult to eat. There's just so much filling inside a burger and so many calories. However, a sandwich just sounds a little healthier and better created. (I know, my connotation with sandwiches and burgers are weird but that's how i feel!) So when I got a burger, I wasn't very pleased. I ended up only eating half and taking the rest back for takeout.

The next day, I went to hakkasan in Richmond. It's around the industrial areas .. which is a bit weird for a restaurant! The place was nice and clean. The waitresses were all very friendly and courteous, but a little fake in my opinion. I just wanted to try the hakka burger (I know it's a burger) but the creative thing about this burger is that it uses steamed bun (man tou) instead of regular buns, and the filling inside is like unagi. So it was kinda cool. However, it was freaking HARD to eat! the bun soaked up the condiments inside so it made it reallyy soggy and then difficult to hold up and eat. Everything fell out AS I ate, so I had to discard my lettuce and tomato to make it work. I ended up eating it with a fork and chopsticks because it wasn't working with hands. It sure was tasty though.
We also ordered a chicken and rice which was SOOO salty.

Ho Yuen Kee

Ho Yuen Kee.. I've been here several times and have always left happy and full :). There is a variety of choices of tasty authentic chinese dishes that are served hot and fast. On top of that, this place is not expensive at all. excellent

I went here late one night for food because I was absolutely Starving (I don't usually eat after 6-7). We ordered Congee, wonton soup, salt and pepper spareribs, steamed eggs (dun dang), and beef tendon soup. Everything came super fast and they were all good. At first I thought the congee and spareribs were too salty but then they got yummier. I had 4 bowls of congee ! (even though they are small bowls that's a lot for me) and so many spareribs. They were not dry or super fatty but packed with flavor. The wonton soup wasn't that great (I don't like wonton soup though) but the dun dang was yummy. The bill came to 25! Cheap, fast, and delicious. This place is good, if only it weren't so far (fraser st).

Sunday

I went to Tomo today at east broadway and the service was pretty bad. she's very non responsive and slow, never cracks a smile, nor does really anything! I tried to be friendly and smile and be super nice and she was just a robot (and this is coming from me- ice queen herself.. long story). The place was dead empty and it was like around 1pm. Whatever so we ordered unagi don, chirashi don, ebi mayo, salmon mango roll, and chicken yaki soba.
everything was forgettable, only the roll was good..but this is because it was a simple cali roll with mango/salmon on top- which in my book, makes any roll good. Aiya. I am never coming back here again. a couple years ago, these people we know from the states came to vancouver and said specifically they had to go to Tomo because it was highly praised. really???

I was still tad hungry afterwards so I got a bbq chicken viet sub from Carolina Deli next door. This is because I am very curious to what a viet sub tastes like. and I must say, I am a fan! even with the hot sauce on it, it was very good! I think it was the crispiness of the french bread mmmm.

That night my parents wanted to go to Tsim Chai Noodles in Richmond (obv stopped by the public market to get some che lung bao :P) they had the wonton soup and beef noodles. I sat there because I was too full from the che lung bao. haha. they said the place gone downhill since the last time they were there (a year ago?) I wish I could recommend where to get good noodles and wontons but I never eat this stuff.. aiya. the only thing I can probably give my two cents is cheesecake.. haha

Deer Garden

sooo Deer Garden is this homey chinese place in port coquitlam that no one really knows about because it caters to chinese people more. I think it's really really good curry and chicken and etc etc.
So I went there tonight and humm it wasn't as good as I remembered :( I think it's because I've been eating a lot of raw food recently (fruits/salads) and everything we ordered tonight just seemed.. really heavy... (except the hainanese chicken)

We ordered beef brisket curry (obv), hainanese chicken, gai lan + beef (I wanted dou miu but it was too exp), and cod + tomato sauce

Everything was standard. nothing really stood out, and it just seemed really heavy (really saucy/oily) :(:(

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..