Capstone + Hub

Afterwards, we headed on over to Capstone for some chocolate fondue like the old days. :) I don't necessarily LOVE this place, but it holds sentimental value to me and my friends (lots and lots of fondue trips back in first year :D) I also don't like ice cream but I really wanted to try the ice cream ball fondue. It was really neat with the toppings as well.

Hub in Yaletown took over what used to be Browns. My friend and I were both absolutely starving and we decided on the closest restaurant to the skytrain. Inside, it still looks like Browns.. Dark spacious sports bar. I ordered the Linguine Carbonera and friend had the Teriyaki Bowl. My Linguine was nice, but very very cheesy and the teriyaki bowl was alright with wayyy too much onions. Mehhh.

Chau + Gramercy Grill

I know I have restaurants dating back to last year I haven't posted about yet, but I think if I wait another 6 months to blog these two, it won't be as relevant.

After the infamous gold medal hockey game, it became the topic of choice for the following week, and the usual first question after "did you see that goal by crosby???" would be where did you watch the game?? Even though I am an avid hockey fan, going to a pub at 8am or live city did not appeal to me. People I know not only went at that time (or earlier), they proceeded to drink as well. Sorry, drinking was farrrr from what I was thinking about doing on a Sunday morning since I was still recovering from my Saturday night. I ended up waking up WAY late so my friends went off to look for a decent place to sit and watch the game.. They were late as well and ended up finding a spot at Chau, far down robson. As I was hurrying to get there, i saw soo many people standing on streets just watching the tvs, amazing!! I love this spirit. I think I also passed Victor Kraatz but I am horrible with famous people. (One time I saw Pat Quinn and we stared at each other only to have me go back into the car to tell my NON hockey fan friend that pat quinn was right there instead of saying hi to him. God. I think he heard me too).

ANYWAYS, I've been to Chau once before to share a pho bo because we thought the name was funny. We found the price too expensive for a bowl of pho. But just finding a place to sit and watch the game was already good enough for me. We ordered spring rolls as an appy and even though my picture below looks like there's barely any, this is about halfway through the spring rolls (we were hungry), and they were quite nice. I ordered the lemongrass chicken lunch bowl with taro spring rolls, friends had the vegetarian bowl, and the beef stew. I believe food was all around 10-12 dollars.. The food looked really pretty and they were pretty large size lunch bowls. They were decent with I think the only critique being that the beef dish was too salty.. At the end, my friend couldn't eat anymore..

What a STRESSFUL game with honestly the best ending ever. Man, Zach Parise.. He's one of my fave players in the nhl, but WHY.. You sent canada into a temporary moment of depression. It's okay. I am good. After the game we went down and high fived/shouted/waved flags all the way around vancouver (yes I was also prepared to riot). Even though I had a midterm the next day.. Why would a professor be so cruel!

And for all those that say they hate kesler because he supposedly said he "hates" canadians or because he played with so much grit for usa, think about CANADIANS and what WE say about AMERICANS . He just loves his country and wants to bring home the gold just like Crosby, Toews, Luongo, and everyone else does for Canada. But honestly, Kesler and Demitra needs to play the way they did in the olympics for the canucks.. I want another one of these epic games/craziness downtown for the playoffs :)

The game between Slovakia and Canada, I believe I watched this at the Gramercy Grill. Now, one might think why didn't you go to a bar to watch the game. This restaurant is not necessarily a neighbourhood spot for NEITHER my friend nor myself, why? Once again, it's the damn foodie nature in me.. And the exploitation of knowing my friend drives hahaha. So a place where transit is not as accessible and a new place I have never tried? Why not the gramercy grill! We got a seat right in front of the tv, prime spot. Me and my friend had a plan.. We were going to eat appetizer first period, main second, and dessert/drinks third. Funny how everyone around also had the exact same plan. One of the longest dinners I've ever had coming from someone who eats quite fast. During 2nd period we even thought about leaving before if we knew canada was going to win. Phewf glad we didn't.

We ordered the carpaccio to start and it was actually really good. It was flavourful and went really well with the bread they offered. Alas, as much as I wanted to scarf it all down, I had to nibble/eat every 5 minutes. OI VEY. The complimentary bread basket was yummy and also a time staller. I especially liked the corn bread.

The main, I had the spaghetti and meatballs, friend had the duck dish. The spaghetti dish is MASSIVE! WOW. You see, I also have really bad pics for this dinner because I wanted to test out my iphone capabilities as a camera, and I also didn't feel like flash taking pics since I was in the line of sight for everyone watching the game. I am a really secretive foodie taker.. Blink and you'll miss me taking it.. That is, if I don't shake and blur it up Ugh. The meatballs were friggin humongo. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. A lot of people around me ordered this dish so I am guessing it's a popular one. I found it to be just okay. I liked the duck my friend had more, cooked perfectly and very very good.

For dessert, I craved creme brulee and friend had the cheesecake. They were both decent desserts. For the final few minutes, the whole restaurant stopped eating and just started yelling at the tv. Just a tense moment, oh demitra.. It's okay that you almost scored, just score now on the Canucks and stop getting injured :) I like the ambience of the restaurant, definitely a good try if you are in the area.

Rhizome Cafe, Central City Brewing + Club Ilia

Oi.. I briefly mentioned a new restaurant in gastown (not mentioning it again so it won't get more views on this site) and people are coming to my website from google expecting a review on them (same with sushiwa in van)... makes me wanna go there so i CAN review it and people won't feel disappointed.. :/

I went to Rhizome cafe for brunch one sunny morning. There was a line up for seats but we got a table after 15 minutes. The room is quite spacious and had a casual laid back feel. I believe there are lots of events that goes on at this cafe so they would be great to check out one day.

They have a pretty decent selection of food choices including the good ol' norms such as eggs benny, omelettes, and pancakes. However, the thing that makes this place special is the fact that they use healthy foods and some that you might not usually find in a usual breakfast joint. Stuff such as Kamut-banana pancakes, or Breakfast polenta, or even the golden miso tofu scramble. Wow. I decided to have the Eggs Rhizomedict which were eggs benny with squash sauce, spinach and peppers, while my friend had the Pumpkin seed pesto tofu scramble. They come with a choice of roots or salad (are roots just potatoes? I can't tell the difference if it isn't?), or both. And the scramble came with corn muffins. The server asked us if we were running late or if it was okay if food took awhile to come out. We had no problem with time since we were hoping to catch up from a long overdue brunch date so we told them it was fine to wait. I thought this was a very nice gesture, to let us know the food will take awhile.. Since I am quite an impatient person.. after 15-20 minutes, stare downs at my waitresses and the chefs might ensue.

The food comes and wow it is beautiful! The colors were amazing and everything looked great. And the food really doesn't disappoint. I found my eggs benny to be perfect with the squash sauce, and apparently the tofu scramble was nothing to complain about. If you are looking for a good brunch spot, definitely give rhizome cafe a try :)


Central City Brewing company is located at Surrey Central in the same mall as SFU Surrey. It is a nice, one of the higher class pubs with all sorts of food and specials (although I find the prices a little more expensive). I've been here many years ago for a hockey game which led to a nice burger and some random shots. After class one day, we decided to venture here for some drinks food and hockey game. They have televisions situated at different parts of the restaurant so you can see a screen wherever you were sitting with a large one in the back. I had the wings with maui glaze.. Half off special, friend had cheesy bread with meat sauce. The wings were tasty (sweet and teriyaki like) and there were ample amount of wings. While the cheesy bread were nice as well. Decent meal, great game (because we won), good times.

We were low on time but I wanted something good to eat over Subway, so we went to Club Ilia at Cornerstone for lunch. Located right next to Himalayan and Renaissance, the place is stylish and a perfect addition to the community. We told them we had little time and they made sure to rush everything. Service was prompt and nice. Food took a while to get out, but the pizza probably took awhile to bake. I had to carbonara pizza with Caesar Salad for 9.99 (lunch special). The salad was good and the pizza was decent.. Too much onions for me personally. Had the rest wrapped up and off we went to class with 10 minutes to spare. They have decent drink specials as well. Damnit, why did they open a year after I stopped living here (same with nesters).