Rangoli

One of the restaurants that is on my go to list is Vij's. Too bad it wasn't open when we were walking on Granville so we settled for its more casual sister restaurant Rangoli. It looked super busy but we quickly got a table because an older couple decided to take off from the noise level. since we were still young and hip we could take the noise (ha. sorry. I actaully sometimes gets headaches when I walk into Aritzia or Sirens.. music so crazy).

The menu was short and simple, we ordered a jackfruit curry with goat meat to share because it sounded the most unique and very delicious. Coconut salad? Jackfruit Curry? How can you go wrong! Everyone's dish came out and they looked so cute as well. The curry+rice was pretty good. The jackfruit turned out tasteless and having a weird texture.. We had the toughest time deciphering what this was.. I thought it was boiled cabbage. The coconut salad had no coconut taste.. what a downer. And the naan bread were kinda soggy, greasy?

I think the reason I like this restaurant is because of the presentation of the food and reputation of this place, which is not a good way of evaluating a restaurant. but my pretentious side is sold. I still prefer Bombay Bhel best. and Himalayan Peak worst (UGH@$&^@$*&)

Smoking Dog Bistro

For dinner, we decided to try out Smoking Dog Bistro because we had a coupon from the entertainment book. I've never really heard much about this place and when I told my roomie today, she laughed at me (thought the name was funny).

The place had a weird vibe..I wasn't sure if it was fine dining or casual.. because there were candles on the tables, dimly lit lights, and classy wine glasses.. in the making of a fine dining restaurant. Then you look at the tables and the chairs and how close everyone were in seating and etc and it has the feel of a casual place. Whatever.. anyways

We ordered the steak and lamb shank. It took half an hour for the food to come out. I definitely got rather impatient.. my lamb was ok. It wasn't bad but I think there was so much of it that I got really sick of it after awhile. The steak had wayy too much pepper on it. Every taste was pepper. gross.

This place is quite a fars way for me to get to, I don't think I'll be coming back anytime soon.

Kishu Sky

omgosh I haven't had Japanese in such a long time and I have been craving it like crazy! We passed by Kishu Sky on W 1st so we went in for some quick sushi rolls. They have enticing pictures on the side as we walked in so we already knew what we wanted. The rolls were very cheap.. about 4.95-7.95 I think. We ordered the Mango and the caterpillar. They came pretty fast

The mango one was yummy, because the mango slice was very sweet. The Caterpillar one wasn't very good. You can tell the avocado has gone border line bad but they tried to cover it up with a shitload of sesame seeds. The rolls themselves were not very stuffed, The ingredients inside were very scarce. The eel inside the caterpillar roll was very very dry.

I think the people that own the place were vietnamese. Weird, I've never seen vietnamese people own a sushi restaurant. They also have a happy hour which is 40% off after 7 pm. wow, almost 50% off!

Ouisi Bistro

I just found a super easy way of getting to Kitsilano. Before, I thought I had to transfer wayy too many times so I just stuck with downtown vancouver and never even thought about dabbling towards the yuppie side. Wait yaletown is pretty yuppie too.. I take it back then, sorta not really.

We walked on granville and was about to be tempted by primo's mexican on w 12th but decided on new orleans instead at Ouisi Bistro. They were jam packed with people so we opted for sitting at the bar. I've never sat at the bar for dinner before, I never know how to feel with having someone standing right there as I ate, but I guess it wasn't so bad.

It was pretty dark inside but there was a jazzy vibe with it all, that was quite enjoyable. I ordered the jambalaya and my friend ordered the duck gumbo. I've heard of these two dishes soo many times (especially in disneyland.. felt like every restaurant served it..along with churros). I've never had them nor seen them so I thought this would be a good time to try somethingnew.

Our food came and apparently the duck gumbo was absolutely delicious. The Jambalaya ok until the spiciness began to kick in. I guess I should have known better that cajun spices and jambalayas are normally spicy. I have a super low spice tolerance level and my mouth felt like it was on fire. damn.

I took it to go and I offered it to a homeless, which turned it down. So I gave it to another "homeless", to which afterwards my friend told me wasn't one. shit. well he accepted it!

Bistrot Pastis + Noodle Box + Picnic

We decided to have brunch at this French Restaurant today. It was a very small restaurant which gave off a very cozy and warm vibe. or maybe it was the fireplace I noticed mixed with the warm tone color of the walls. Anyways, I loved it

I had the salmon eggs benny and my friend had the eggs and ham crepe with fries. The eggs were poached perfectly. but the english muffin was a little too tough for my liking. The ham and eggs crepe was apparently good, but it lacked color for a poor presentation (haha minor detail). The food here was adequate. I am still hooked on the ambience of the place. so pretty. The only little downside was the slow service. Maybe it was because they didn't want to rush us (which is a good thing) but we were putting on our jackets, took out our wallets, and looked at her dead in the eyes, and she just walked off.. Oh well, it is a minor downside. I really like this place, I'll probably be back :)

Afterwards we went to Noodle Box and shared a Kids box haha. My friend in victoria always goes to the Noodle Box and calls me while she decided on which noodles she wanted. The place was jam packed with a consistent flow of people. The kid's box contains egg noodles with veggies and supposed "light" soya sauce. I found it to be way too salty and couldn't eat after two bites. I thought it was another personal preference since I practically cut out salt from my life, but my friend found it to be too salty as well. oh well.

For dessert, we headed to granville to Picnic which is next to (or attached to) Meinhardt Fine Foods. We shared a raspberry cheesecake. Upon inspection, there was a rather bruised raspberry that looked off. It was mold! so we took it off, and there was mold on the cheesecake! gross. We got a new one that was mold free. but dang, if one was like that.. how long do they keep them out for .. :|

The cheesecake was pretty yummy but well, I like anything cheesecake :) Inside looked like a cafeteria. I guess it would be a good place to grab a quick lunch.. but still, the mold we found kinda turned me off from this place.

Yew York+ Abigail's Party

We went to Yew York and shared a chicken souvlaki wrap. We said no onions, and honestly 2 seconds after, she tells the cook to make a wrap and doesn't say no onions. Honestly, 2 . seconds. after. No one else was at the restaurant either, so how the hell is her memory THAT bad. Anyways, onions came in it. we were starving we just picked it off.

It was ok. the fries were tasteless and the wrap was meh. The place is really small and seating a little comfortable (in my opinion).

After we headed to Abigail's party and I was super uncomfortable because my number one phobia is fruitflies/gnats flying around. There were about 2-3 that kept flying around us and I got so tense. ..
The place is really small and everyone seems to know each other. We had the duck confit quesadilla and it was soooooo grosss. I couldn't even eat it after 2 bites. It was just so salty and ughh ew. We wanted to leave really bad but we had this coupon that says get 1 menu item and the 2nd one is free. so we decided to get a dessert, since after all, it WILL be free right..

the dessert was o-k. nothing to rave about. The bill came and they said the coupon won't work because it was only for entree.. What the fuck? first it just says 1 MENU item and the 2 MENU item is free. So i pointed this out to her and she's like ya but they have to be around the same value and stuff.
What???
um, we are asking you to take off the dessert, which is 7 dollars. Is that not actually beneficial for you instead of asking you to take of a main which is around 12-13 dollars? She didn't really make sense nor do I think she knew what she was talking about. But I honestly just wanted to get out of there and didn't feel like making a commotion

I was going to go to a sushi place after but I was pretty fuming, so went home instead.
Obviously I am never going to Abigail's Party again.

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.

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.

Best Japanese Place in Vancouver

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

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