Lunchtime Special!


Here's a rapid fire triple play special for all you lucky folks!

Three restaurants, Three meals, Three reviews!

First meal!

A few of my coworkers head out for lunch almost everyday (bad Camilla!), and are always tempting me with some tasty lunches out (I normally pack my own). I finally gave in and decided join them. On a nasty rainy day, the options are pretty limited to Boston Pizza (I barely consider this to be food, and shame on anyone who actually CHOOSES to dine here on purpose!), or Denny's (which I do like!). But another option is the Seoul House Royal Korean restaurant! A traditional Korean restaurant close to my office.

I ordered the Korean braised shortribs and Sweet beef bone soup with Potato noodles

I love braised shortribs! It is my Kryptonite! Korean cuisine has some of the best out there! It's also nice to get them on the bone! I've already ranted about this before, but some restaurants out there serve so called boneless shortribs. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! It's normally just some cheap cut of beef that is simply labeled "shortrib", kinda like how "Red Snapper" is on some restaurant menu's out there, when in fact it's just some cheap whitefish. Shortribs should always be served bone on! OK Rant over.

The shortribs were tender and tasty, with a nice thick sauce. The bone soup was full of meat but lacking in the noodle category. A very mild and gentle flavour. But here's the kicker, all this was for $13 and it comes with the Korean side dishes! I think I'll be heading out with my coworkers a bit more often!

Second meal!

Gloucester Restaurant on Cambie. A popular local HK style cafe. I must admit this wasn't for lunch but a latenight meal with Debbie. Hainese Chicken with flavoured rice.

Chicken was good, but served ice cold. I don't like ice cold chicken. The rice was cooked perfectly and really flavourful, a lot of places out there, will serve the rice soggy and mushy, but this rice was darn good! Chicken had some great flavour too, if only it was served warm!

Third meal!

Full Ramen (yes, that is the name), a proper Japanese Ramen restaurant in of all places... Surrey!!

I was shocked when I saw this. So Debbie and I decided to immediately give it a try!

The restaurant is actually Chinese owned and run, but the Ramen is authentic Japanese flavour and style.
I ordered the Tonkotsu Ramen...

And it was good! The broth had that nice creamy pork bone flavour, with the proper amount of salt. Served with some tasty "Chasu" pork, Fish cake, Softboiled egg, Bamboo shoots, etc. I was happy with my meal, and will be coming back to this restaurant soon! It only opened a week ago so they are still getting their legs under them, so service was a little slow. But I'm happy to say Surrey finally has a proper Ramen restaurant! Hurray for Surrey!

Neptune Seafood Restaurant


Dim Sum Time! In of all places Surrey!

The Neptune Seafood restaurant in Surrey has been opened for a few months now, and we decided to finally give it another try, we've been there before, but was right after the grand opening and we wanted to let them settle in (weekend afternoons can be insanely busy).

As I'm sure most of you have tried Dim Sum before, I will spare you the more common dishes, and focus on the unusual ones.

We start off with the Tenderloin beef with Eggplant

I'm a sucker for Chinese tenderloin beef, and this is no exception. The beef was tender and cooked well with a nice sauce. Debbie says it tasted a bit fishy, but tasted good to me.

Next up the the Mushroom & Truffle oil dumpling

This is Debbie's favourite menu item here. It's a mushroom medley with a good dose of truffle oil. I love the taste of truffle and this is a great mushroom dish.

Deep Fried Tilapia wrapped in noodles and topped with wasabi mayo

Greasy. It has a nice crunch but those noodles absorbed all the oil! The fish is perfectly cooked, but is rather bland inside the noodle wrapping. The wasabi mayo is tasty though.

Golden Fried Egg Tofu

This dish cost $8!!! More than the fish or the beef and everything else. Moving on...

Truffle Mushroom tart

Sound familiar? Same filling as the dumpling, but in pastry form! I like this version better (puff pastry = yum!), but the pastry was a little undercooked. Overall is a great dish when cooked properly.

Neptune restaurant has improved a bit since we first came here, the dim sum menu has expanded to double the original size, but is missing some of my favourite dishes (Steamed Chicken rice hotpot and Fried Sticky rice are my fav's). The restaurant is a beautiful place to go for dim sum, but is still missing a few things on the menu, we will be back, the restaurant finally reaching it's stride.

Manzo Izakaya


Debbie and I a little while ago happened to be in Richmond and wanted to try something a little different than our usual choices (ie: HK style Cafe's). So we decide to take a detour through Alexandria rd in Richmond.

This is a great area for the adventurous, literally a street of nothing but restaurants (mainly Hotpot restaurants, HK Cafe's, Taiwanese Bubble tea cafe's, Izakaya's, etc).

We were craving Japanese, and there are quite a few of these around and a lot of them look identical, after some discussion, we decided on Manzo Izakaya (simply because it was busier, which is always a good sign!).

This place specializes with Robata (grilled meat on skewers)

We started with a Beef Sukiyaki

A simple beef stew with cellophane noodles, fishcake & tofu. A great winter food item. This one was ok, I was hoping it would be raw dish and cooked table side. A good dish with rice, not bad for $10!

We ordered some Robata's consisting of Chicken, sweet potato cake, and wait for it..... Chicken skin!
(unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the chicken skin or sweet potato).

Best dishes of the night! The skewers were juicy, flavourful with a great dipping sauce. Especially the crispy grilled chicken skin! Extremely guilty pleasure!

Miso grilled Sablefish 
 Another great grilled dish, except for two things. It is a tiny porton! And it costs $16!!! It was barely two ounces of meat! Great dish, but an absolute ripoff!

Our final dish was a Pork Cheek fried rice. 
Sadly this was bland, and flavourless. A real miss. I would avoid ordering this next time.

Overall the meal was hit & miss. We loved the robata, but everything else was kinda average and a bit pricey. We will be coming back to this restaurant, but next time it will only be for Robata!

The Flying Pig

*The photo's are a bit small today, click on them for their full sized glory!*

My cousin from out of town dropped by and I wanted to take her and my family out to a nice western meal, as we had been having nothing but Chinese food since she arrived! I've been looking forward to going to this restaurant for a while now, the menu has a nice fancy comfort food theme to it, and finally had a chance to go there.

Sometimes you don't get what you hope for...

It was Sunday brunch so we had a few breakfast themed dishes.

We ordered a Pulled Pork Poutine to share

My cousin had never heard of Poutine, so this was a nice intro. Fries were good, but pork was a little bland but overall who doesn't love Fries + Gravy + Cheese!?!??

Debbie ordered the Chicken Cutlet with mashed potatoes and vegetables

Pretty darn good, the chicken was well cooked and the mashed potatoes had some nice flavour to it, another hit!

My Cousin ordered the Croque Madam

Basically a ham & cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top, she enjoyed it and was very filling

My Sister ordered the Baked pulled Pork Gnocchi

Bland Pork, the Gnocchi was pasty, and sauce was non-existent. She only ate half and didn't bring it home. I think this says everything.

I ordered the Braised Shortrib Pasta with a creamy mushroom sauce

And it was not good...

It's strange that the dish was extremely salty, yet had no real flavour to it! The pasta was soggy and broken, and the sauce again had no flavour. The "shortrib" was just some cheap braised chuck steak and didn't have the texture or flavour of a true bone-in shortrib (but in their defense a lot of restaurants around town have "braised Shortrib" on the menu, when in fact it is just some cheap braised beef).

Overall I have to give this restaurant a pass, but maybe you'll have a better meal than me.

Le Tigre food truck

Where I am located now there are very few food trucks, so this is a rare treat for me. I was on my way to pickup something from a friend who happens to work on Granville St. Right in front of his office was the Le Tigre food truck, so I decided to give it a try!

It is run by Clement Chan, one of the contestants from Top Chef Canada.

One thing about food trucks... None are cheap, and this is no exception, so be prepared to pay a little more from them. The good news is that most have much better quality cuisine than your standard food court restaurant.

I decided to order two things, starting off with the Popcorn chicken

This was a fried spicy boneless chicken with a chili mayo dip, pretty darn good, though was a bit greasy (left a big pool of grease at the bottom of the container). Similar to Taiwanese fried chicken nuggets but with his original spices.

The "Kick Ass" rice with Pork belly and a poached egg.

I feel my arteries harden! This is definitely a luxurious dish with fatty braised pork belly, a perfectly poached egg & a topping of spicy mayo. A tasty dish but the pork belly was way too fatty.... I know your probably screaming at me saying that pork belly is supposed to be super fatty! But I seemed to get only the super "lardo" pieces with very little meat on them, but the meat that was there was pretty good, the egg was perfectly poached. Needed more rice though (I'm a bit of a rice addict).

Overall this meal cost me $14, a bit much for a quick lunchtime meal, but worth it if you go out for lunch as rarely as I do.

Shaolin Noodle House

Here's a quickie folks!

I love fresh noodles, who doesn't? My coworkers and I decided to have some handmade noodles for lunch, and we decided to make the trek out to the Shaolin Noodle House.

I ordered the Pan fried sticky rice cake with pickled cabbage and pork.

Be warned this is very filling! The Rice cake is freshly cut to order, and simply pan fried with a special soy sauce, cabbage & pork. It sounds simple, but is very tasty! This is comfort food for me. Kind like Meat loaf to some folk. Best to share with others!.... Must not be so greedy next time!

We decided to share a dish of Spicy Cumin lamb

A great sharing dish, lots of lamb for everyone and not too spicy! Just the right amount of grease!

One dish not pictured was my coworker's plate of Special shrimp fried rice. It was truly special!
It was a multi-grain fried rice with the perfect amount of egg, spice and grease! I will order this dish the next time we hit this restaurant! In fact I would strongly recommend eating family style at this restaurant instead of everyone ordering their own dishes. Lots to share and more to eat!

A Restaurant on the Beach...


In Mexico that is!

Sorry for the long delay folks, I've been on vacation in Mexico. So why not focus today's post on a restaurant in Bucerias Mexico.

After spending a day walking through the little town of Bucerias, we were getting hungry. Unfortunately a lot of the places we wanted to dine at were closed. Luckily a coworker of mine recommended a place that we just happen to stumble upon!

The Fat Boy Seafood

And yes, that is the name of the place.

It is located in Bucerias right by the town square, a little place by the beach with a great ocean view.

After sitting down we started with a Pina Colada...a big one!

Then came a complimentary fish ceviche & chips, the fish had some great flavour though the texture was a bit like hamburger.

Debbie ordered the grilled Mahi with garlic, it's served with garlic bread, rice pilaf, and some really great roasted potatoes!

The fish is very fresh and the accompaniments were great, plus the portion size was huge!

I ordered the Scallops served two ways, One was sauteed in garlic & butter, and the other wrapped in bacon and grilled.

This was an awesome dish, I love scallops and I haven't seen ones this big very often. Great dish and would order again!

At the end of the meal we received a complimentary dessert of Kahlua and cream, a great way to end a meal.

This is a great little restaurant on the beach and I'd strongly recommend stopping by if you happen to be in the area. One small warning though, there are a lot of beach vendors in the area, and literally stop by every five minutes to try to sell you something, it can get annoying at times, but each vendor will leave you alone after you say no.

Indian & Chinese Together!


The Chili Pepper House, is an Indian/Chinese fusion restaurant. The story behind this cuisine is fascinating, where Chinese citizens who wanted to escape the Cultural revolution ended up migrating to India, where their cuisine is a mixture of Chinese cooking techniques with Indian ingredients.

On with the show!

We first started out with the Chicken dumplings covered in a Chili soy gravy

The dumplings were handmade and pretty good (and one of the only non-fried items on the menu!), and the sauce was great! I ended up keeping the sauce after we finished the dumplings since it was so good!

Next was the Hakka Chow mein.

Greasy, boring, nothing special. Next!

Fried prawns with sweet & sour sauce.

Now I know what your thinking, it's a dish of fried prawns. But wait! They were fresh and nicely fried, the batter was light and the sauce was not too sweet. I would get it again!

Fried Okra & Eggplant, with a sweet chili sauce

Debbie and our friends really enjoyed this dish! It's very greasy but the flavours were nice and the Okra not slimy at all.

Sweet & Sour Fish

Best dish of the night, the fish was nicely fried (though a very cheap fish I'm sure, like Basa, Tilapia, etc) and the sauce was nice and light and not too sweet. Very tasty!

Chili Chicken

This is the house specialty, fried chicken with a not too spicy chili soy gravy similar to the one served with the dumplings. The chicken was good, but at this point we had already had our fill of fried foods.

This restaurant can get very busy, so either book ahead or come early, just be prepared for an entire meal of fried food! I need some fruit now...

Roma

What a great surprise!

It's that PNE time of the year! It's always fun to stop by the PNE once a year. Mini donuts, Corndogs and.... The Superdogs(the show, not the food!). The PNE is a great place for a fun snack but not a great place for a full meal. So on the hunt we went!

Heading out westward we initially planned to stop by the Red Wagon Cafe as I've heard so much about the place, but as we park the car, Debbie notices another restaurant that looks more interesting.
Roma (right next to the Busy Bee dry cleaners). This is the sister restaurant of Campagnolo and what a lovely surprise it is!

We start off with a Pizza for an appetizer. We order a Funghi Pizza with Mushrooms, fresh Mozzarella, Mizuna, & herb butter.

Now when it comes to pizza, in my opinion the best I've ever had is at Serious Pie in Seattle. Bar None. Ever since then, almost every pizza I've had has been average at best. This pizza though is pretty damned good. It has a great crisp crust with fresh cheese and mushrooms. Easily one of the best pizza's I've had in Vancouver. It's not Serious Pie, but its really close!

Debbie orders the Rigatoni with smoked albacore Tuna, fennel, olives, capers, and tomatoes.

Debbie really enjoys the pasta, with nice and tasty tuna. Not the largest serving size but this is quality over quantity! If you want huge plates, head to Anton's Pasta or the Olive Garden and stop reading my blog!

Still there? Cool, continue reading

I order the Tagliatelle with pork ragu 'in bianco', a white pork bolognese.

Really creamy and yummy! The pasta is nicely 'al dente', the white bolognese is both rich yet and nicely meaty, it's not simply an alfredo with meat, it's much more than that.

Overall I can see why this place is busy all the time, passing by it I always thought it was just a coffee shop, but is in fact a proper Italian restaurant, drop by and enjoy!

The Dirty Apron


This will be an unusual review. The Dirty Apron is actually a cooking school & delicatessen (owned by Chambar & Medina), Debbie gave me a gift card for a cooking class there a while back and finally had a chance to use it!

So this post will actually be me posting a review on my own cooking skills!

EEP!

You book the class online, and choose your menu, I chose the Ultimate Seafood class.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived here is how amazing the kitchen is. Every person who takes a class here is given their own professional gas stove, prep area, & sink. The Chef instructor has his own area where he will demonstrate each dish in front of us. A very impressive setup.

After cooking your dish you take it to the communal dining table where you're given complimentry wine, bread, & dips, and you get to enjoy your meal with the other guests.


We started out with Citrus Olive oil poached Spot prawns, with pan roasted Halibut cheeks and Saffron aioli.

Not too shabby huh? The prawns were nicely poached and I learned a bit more on cooking the cheeks better with a white wine sauce. The Grape Must drizzle added a nice bit of sweetness to the dish. The Emperor is happy!

Soy & sesame Tuna tartar with roasted shiitake mushrooms on pressed avocado, topped with a yuzu foam.

The easiest dish of the night, but very tasty (if a bit too salty, need to cut back on the soy and add more mirin). This dish makes me more confident on handling raw tuna. We all received what I thought was a very small piece of tuna, but when cut up and mixed with the diced mushrooms it makes a shockingly large amount of food! I also learned a new trick with the avocado I'd never seen before!

Pan seared Arctic Char, with a Vegetable Nage
A simple dish, but it's easy to mess up! I learned a few tricks to ensure the fish stays nice a medium rare, and the vegetable nage was simple and easy to do (a little butter always does the trick!)

Overall I find this place to be wonderful special treat as a gift for yourself or to someone special, because it isn't cheap. Not even close. A class here costs $150 per person!!! So this isn't an everyday experience. I strongly recommend this for anyone who enjoys cooking, and would like to learn new skills.

Sushi & Roll


Wow. Am I the only one who thinks that's a dumb name for a restaurant?

A few months ago, Surrey got a new Sushi restaurant, not a bad looking place, very similar to other Korean owned Sushi restaurants like Sushi Garden (though I believe they most likely serve Escolar instead of Tuna).

This will be a quickie.

I ordered a bunch of takeout rolls, both fusion and regular maki, and none of it really stood out. They tasted fine, but didn't stand out in any way. Some of the rolls (like the BC roll) was filled with a lot of filler (cucumber) and very little of the main ingredient (salmon skin)!

I didn't even bother to take a photo.

Until...

I saw something on their menu I hadn't seen before. A true diamond in the rough.

The Seared Salmon Nigiri.

This was amazing! A simple Nigiri with fatty salmon belly topped with a little mayo and seared with a torch. So simple yet so incredibly tasty! The top is nicely seared while the bottom is still nice and rare. I would come back to this restaurant any day for this!

Would I recommend this restaurant? Sorta*

* Again the food is decent, but nothing special. But if you do come here, you must order the Seared Salmon Nigiri! It is worth it. Otherwise the place is comparable to a Sushi Garden.

Tex Mex in Bellingham...

First things first. I'm not a fan of Tex Mex food, I do enjoy freshly made tacos when I can get them but this isn't that type of place.

In Bellingham they only seem to have Tex Mex places, and to me at least, are all the same! I don't even remember the name of this place, it's one of the three Tex Mex restaurants near Bellis Fair mall.

So take my review with a grain of salt, this isn't my favourite cuisine.

On with the show!

Here is what Debbie ordered a Grilled fish (not sure what type) with a creamy pepper sauce with Rice, Beans, & Salad. Fish was very salty but was cooked well. Huge serving though.

I ordered the Chicken & mushroom crema, basically some pan fried chicken pieces with a creamy pepper sauce with Rice, Beans, & Salad. Not much to write home about here, was boring and just tasted of cream and pepper, kinda like an Alfredo sauce with some chillies mixed in. Huge serving though. American sized!

Again I'll say that Tex mex is not my preferred cuisine, so if you like it I'm sure you'll enjoy these places. If you like a massive amount of food, I think you'll enjoy this place.

Kingyo Izakaya


I love Izakaya's, they all have great and varied menu's, and we love to stop by some of them whenever we get the chance.

If only Surrey had one....

Nope.

Anyways back to Kingyo! A great Japanese owned & run Izakaya on Denman St.

I've been here a few times, and this was Debbie's first time here so we decided to stop for lunch.

Here are some lovely Fried prawns with Spicy mayo. Nothing unsusual, but I love fried prawns and these are nice and tasty!

Debbie ordered the Negitoro & Avocado bowl. It comes with an amazing spicy garlic sauce and sesame seeds on the side (you crush them yourself!). Great dish, and Debbie would order again. I am also pretty sure they use real tuna and not that Escolar fish I've been hearing about!

I ordered the Braised pork Belly on rice with a fried egg. A very simple dish, but so yum! The Braised pork was cooked perfectly with a lovely sauce, the runny egg compliments the dish. Very fatty but so yummy!

I love coming here and they really put some effort into these dishes. Did I mention that each dish was only $8.88 each!!! An amazing deal and cheaper than most foodcourt lunches! Go have a meal there, I strongly recommend it!

Transylvania bakery


Just finished my company picnic and on my way back home I decided to stop by one of my favourite dessert places in town, It is a small Romanian bakery on Davie St with some very good dessert options.

As I have been here many times, I just purchased my two favourite things there.

Here is the Kurtos Kalacs, also known as a Chimney cake. It is sweet dough wrapped around a round wooden block and cooked rotisserie style on an open fire, finished with caramel & walnuts. It is amazing when served hot and fresh!

I know... Not the best photo. But here a link to their website and how it's made.
http://transylvaniantraditions.com/KurtosKalacs.html

I also got the Savarina, a simple crumb cake dipped in rum syrup, then filled with whipped cream and crushed strawberries. Simply amazing!

Sorry for the late post folks, I'm currently on vacation!