Ho Yummy

I first found out about Bonchaz when I was on someone’s Twitter that they were opening up on West Hastings near Homer in Vancouver. I was told that Bonchaz was basically a brioche shop and since I am a huge brioche fan, I knew I had to check it out. I later found out that Bonchaz is the name of the milk buns and although they were kind of similar to brioche, they weren’t really the same thing.

To further incent me to pay Bonchaz a visit, I was told that they were giving out free samples on their grand opening day. I was sold so after Jason and I finished our lunch at Benkei Ramen, we wandered over to Bonchaz to give their bonchaz a try.

When we arrived at the modest little shop, we could smell the delicious bonchazes as soon as we stepped inside. Since the original flavour had just come out of the oven, the friendly server presented us each with a full sized bonchaz along with a cup of French press coffee. The bonchaz itself was quite hot and the crispy and slightly sweet crust gave way to a buttery yet airy inside. I would say that a brioche tastes a bit denser than a bonchaz and they are both good in their own way. Bonchaz’s unique selling proposition is definitely the fact that the bonchaz come fresh out of the oven piping hot. I mean, how can that not taste good? The coffee served as a perfect accompaniment to the bonchaz.

Laureen told me later that day that she tried the banana walnut and that it was definitely worth a try. Although I still haven’t tried it, I will need to pay another visit soon to try it out.

Details:
426 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-626-7215

Summary:
Food:
Service: n/a
Price: $

Jason and I met up for lunch one day and we were both in the mood for ramen. Luckily for us, Benkei Ramen had recently opened on Thurlow and it was a nice walking distance from my office. Jason explained to me that the Benkei on Denman is his favourite ramen place so he had pretty high hopes for the Thurlow location. The Denman ramen places, although very good, are too far for me to go at lunch so I was quite happy that a location had opened up closer to where I work.

We started first sharing a small plate of gyoza. At $3.50 for 5 pieces of gyoza, I thought it was a fair deal. The gyoza was tasted pretty standard so there isn’t very much to say but I did like how the gyoza skin was thin and slightly chewy (in a good way).

I decided to have the Shio ramen ($6.95) and added half a soft boiled egg for an extra $0.50. The noodles themselves were perfectly cooked and had a a nice, slightly chewy consistency to it. Jason ordered the same thing as me and we both noted that the shio broth did not have enough pork flavour to it and it seemed a bit watered down. He said that soup at the Benkei on Denman was definitely tastier. We also lamented that there was only two thin slices of chasu that came with our noodles. Jason said he recalled the Denman one was more generous with their meat rationing.

I enjoyed the ramen at Benkei. As far as ramen goes, it wasn’t bad although I’ve also had better. I wasn’t sure if the broth seemed thin and watering because they had only opened recently since Jason said that the Denman Benkei definitely had better broth. Due to its relatively convenient location near my work, I’ll probably go back again to see if they have ironed out their initial opening kinks.

Details:
1741 Robson Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-688-6980

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $

Right before the Olympics started, Jenkins and I were wandering around downtown one day after lunch. We were just about to head back to our respective offices when I realized that we were very close to Big City Cupcakes’ downtown location. I had been meaning to try Big City Cupcakes for quite some time but due to its slightly out of the way location downtown, it was never convenient for me to go.

Once we were inside, we were greeted with a wide array of cupcakes. I was really glad that I did not eat too much for lunch and I quickly decided that Jenkins and I should each have a cupcake rather than share one selection. Jenkins balked at this a bit but I assured him that if he had trouble eating his cupcake, I would gladly help!

I asked the lady behind the counter what she would recommend. She gave me a few choices but the one that really caught my eye was the strawberry cheesecake. This cupcake was made with a vanilla strawberry batter and had a little chunk of cheesecake in the middle. On top was a demure amount of cheesecake frosting, one of my favourite types of frosting. The cheesecake was not overly sweet and the frosting had a nice, slight tang to it. The cheesecake filling in the middle added a nice creaminess to the cupcake and was a nice little surprise. The strawberry flavour was quite weak and it could have been enhanced some more, but other than that, I had no complaints.

Jenkins had the Chocolate Mounds cupcake, which was a chocolate cupcake with ganache in the centre and was topped with a coconut butter cream with coconut and more ganache. I would say that his choice was more traditional than mine and he enjoyed his selection more than my strawberry cheesecake version. He was generous enough to let me have a bite and the chocolate flavour was very rich without being too sweet. The frosting was also just enough to complement the flavour of the cupcake itself and did not have the cloying sweetness that plagues some cupcakes.

I quite enjoyed the two cupcakes we had from Big City Cupcakes. I am not a fan of the cupcakes made by Cupcakes (the company :p) and I think the ones from Big City  Cupcakes are much better. The flavours at Big City Cupcakes are more original and the amount of frosting they use is not as excessive. That being said, I know Cupcakes has its own dedicated fan base, so if you are into a lot of frosting on your cupcakes, Big City may not be for you. The cupcakes at Big City are quite expensive though, the filled cupcakes are $4.15 and the non-filled versions are $3.10. I’m not convinced that this is the best value, but since it will prevent me from coming here too often, it’s probably best for my waistline.

Details:
1015 Howe Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-683-6603

Summary:
Food:
Service: n/a
Price: $

Jenkins and I used to be frequent visitors to Ogenki Sushi. We really enjoyed their cheap and tasty rolls and we always happened to be in the neighborhood. We noticed that they renovated sometime during the winter and since it had been quite some time since our last visit, we decided to see if anything had changed other than the restaurant interior.

Jenkins and I always resort to ordering the roll combos at Ogenki. Partly because they are great value and partly because we’ve tried most of their other things on their menu but find that rolls really are their forte. The first roll combo we ordered came with tuna sushi, California roll, and a yam roll. The tuna roll was pretty good but Jenkins and I both felt that the California roll had a little too much mayo and the yam tempura was over-fried and over-battered.

The next combo had a half house roll, BBQ salmon roll, and another tuna roll. The house roll was alright and had the usual offering of tamago, salmon, crab meat, and cucumber. I actually liked that it was not as big as some of the house rolls offered at other restaurants but felt that there was a little too much rice. I thought the BBQ salmon roll would be made with raw salmon but it turned out to be something akin to canned salmon and mayo with some BBQ sauce drizzled on top. Needless to say, I did not enjoy this roll at all: there was too much mayo and putting canned salmon (or something like it) in a sushi roll just does not seem right to me.

Jenkins and I were a bit disappointed with our re-visit to Ogenki Sushi. It seemed like the owners and staff had all changed and even though they were friendly, it was not enough to make up for the not-so-good sushi rolls.

Details:
4342 Main Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-875-9975

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $

There are several places that are my go-to lunch or dinner places whenever I’m looking for a stand by or am in a rush and since I go to them so often, it doesn’t even occur to me to blog about it. One such place is Viet Sub, which opened last summer on Robson Street and is very close tow here I work. I was thrilled that I no longer needed to hike over to Chinatown to satisfy my Vietnamese sub craving.

Although Viet Sub also has pho and salad rolls, the subs are definitely the best thing they offer.

I’ve tried all their subs by now and I like them all to varying degrees but my regular standby version is the cold cut sub ($3.25). I think bread plays a huge part in Vietnamese subs and can make or break them; in the case of Viet’ Sub’s bread, it is crispy on the outside and is not too doughy. The types of cold cut used seem to vary from day-to-day but generally have at least Vietnamese bacon and ham. They are quite generous with the amount of meat they put in and it is a good ratio of meat to veggies (i.e. cilantro and pickled radish & carrots). You also have the option of adding Jalapeno peppers but you have to request them when you put in your order.

My only complaint is that the pate seems to be absent from these subs but Viet Sub attempts to compensate for this with a nice drizzle of their special sauce. Other than that small complaint, I am very happy that yet another cheap and tasty lunch option is now available downtown. When I feel like splurging, I also enjoy ordering the special sub ($3.75) or the BBQ sub ($4.25). In terms of sauce and flavouring, they are both quite similar except the special sub has cold cuts whereas the special sub has a combination of pork, beef, chicken, and meatball.

Details:
542 Robson Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-569-3340

Summary:
Food:
Service: n/a
Price: $

When Jenkins and I found out that Hapa Izakaya was going to open up at Shiru Bay’s old location in Yaletown, we were both quite happy. Finally, another tasty izakaya opening up in Yaletown and filling in the void left when Shiru Bay vacated. Even though it was a Friday night, Jenkins and I arrived relatively early at about 6:30PM so we were seated after a short 10 minute wait. I’m chalking it up to the fact that this location was new and they were probably still ironing out the kinks but it took quite a while before anyone even noticed us waiting at the door.

As per our usual strategy at any izakaya, Jenkins and I started by ordering a couple of dishes. We once made the mistake of ordering everything all at once and our table filled up too quickly! After learning our lesson, we now only order 2-3 dishes at a time when it’s just the two of us.

We first perused the fresh sheet for the day and decided to order the pork belly lettuce wraps. Thin slices of lightly grilled pork belly were accompanied with some fried wonton crisps, tartar sauce, and butter lettuce. We really liked the rich flavour of the pork belly and the way it contrasted with the crispy wonton skin. The tartar sauce was a good complement and seemed to have some mustard in it as well. I only wished that the lettuce pieces were a bit bigger because quite a few of my self-assembled wraps fell apart. However, it could have also been due to user error.

Before Jenkins and I wandered into Hapa, we were actually on our way to have sushi at Yamato Sushi on Davie. However, the lure of Hapa drew us in so we changed our minds on a whim. To compensate for this, we decided to order the assorted sushi platter, which also seemed to be a popular item for many other tables. The sushi platter had quite a few different types of nigiri sushi, including both fresh and salt water eel, chopped scallop, tuna, mackerel, tai (snapper), and two rectangular cubes of tamago (egg). I had actually expected the nigiri to have a unique izakaya spin on it so I was quite surprised to see that they looked like regular nigiri sushi except for some different shapes. I enjoyed the chopped scallop, mackeral, and unagi but found the tuna and tai a bit on the bland side.

Jenkins’ favourite dish at Hapa Izakaya is the Ishi-Yaki, which is rice made Korean-style in a stone bowl along with minced pork, garlic, egg, tomato, lettuce, and spicy miso. Not only is this a filler dish, which Jenkins enjoys, it is also very tasty. The ingredients are all mixed right at your table in the very hot stone bowl and after everything is mixed, you are advised to let it sit there for a bit. As a result, the edges of the rice which are closest to the bowl become crunchy while the other parts are creamy and yummy. The spicy miso complements the rice very well and provides a slight kick.

Our last dish before dessert was the negitoro with garlic toasts. This is another Hapa classic but it seemed to be prepared differently from what I was used to. The green onion and tuna was binded together with a slightly sweet sauce that had a hint of soy sauce and also seemed a bit spicy to me although Jenkins claimed that it was not spicy at all. In any case, I really enjoyed this dish and the toasts provided a nice contrast to the creamy negitoro spread.

For dessert, Jenkins and I shared the matcha creme brulee. The creme brulee was very creamy with just a hint of matcha flavouring. I thought the texture was just right but would have preferred a stronger matcha taste.

In terms of the food, both Jenkins and I enjoyed the dishes we tried at the Hapa Izakaya in Yaletown. We did notice some issues with service, such as when we first arrived and there was a slight mix-up with our dishes but since we went within the first couple of months of its opening, we’ll just chalk it up to the restaurant still trying to work out its kinks. I’m just glad that an izakaya is finally available again in Yaletown.

Details:
1193 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-681-4272

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$