Ho Yummy

Review: No. 1 Beef Noodle House

I went to No. 1 Beef Noodle House in Burnaby the other day for lunch. Located at the corner of Moscrop & Willingdon, it is a small Taiwanese eatery that is extremely busy at lunch due to its location by both BCIT and a high school. Not only do they serve great lunch dishes but they also have bubble tea.

Despite the busy hubbub inside, our food came pretty quickly. I had Taiwanese pork sausage with rice, which also came with two small dishes of vegetables. It was very filling but the sausages could have have used a little more salt. The veggies were tasty and a nice complement to my main dish.

Renee had a bowl of noodles with a marinated egg, minced pork, and preserved veggies.

She also had a side of deep fried tofu that looked very tasty. She said the tofu was fried perfectly but the sauce was a bit bland.

Chris had a curried pork chop with rice, which came with the same veggies that I had with my sausage. The curry looked to me like it should have been sweet but it was actually quite savoury. The pork chop was lightly fried and came with some potatoes.

All in all, our lunch was great. I’m glad it is so close to where I work and it is always one of my top picks when I am looking for a place to go for lunch. The service is brisk and the food usually comes quite quickly. Their menu is fairly extensive and the prices are reasonable. The bill for the three of us came to about $22. The next time I come here, I will try to review the bubble tea.

Details:
4741 Willingdon Ave, Burnaby
Tel: 604-438-6648

Posted in Chinese, Reviews | 4 Comments »

Meandering to Minoa’s

I went to Minoa’s Restaurant the other day with a couple of co-workers. Minoa is a quaint little Greek restaurant in a house by Kingsway & Smith in Burnaby.

The seating arrangement is a bit odd here. You enter through the ground floor of the house where the kitchen also happens to be situated. Patrons are instructed by a sign to go up the stairs to be seated. The interior is your typical Greek restaurant dressed in blue and white paint with some Greek-themed wall hangings.

I ordered the Moussaka, which is kind of a Greek-style sheppard’s pie. The version at Minoa’s was layered with potatoes, eggplants, ground beef, and a bechamel sauce.

They also have the standard fan favourite, souvlaki. You can order beef, lamb, chicken, or prawn souvlaki. The one pictured below is beef.

My biggest gripe here is the looooong waits. I was here for lunch with some co-workers and although we ate quickly, it was tight to fit our lunch in under an hour. The portion sizes are also a bit on the small size and don’t really justify the price. My moussaka was $9.95 and the 1-skewer beef souvlaki was $10.95.

Details:
3823 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-430-2545

Posted in Greek, Reviews | 4 Comments »

Yakking at Yakko Sushi

I went to Yakka sushi with a couple of co-workers the other day. I had never been there before, but situated on Kingsway across from Metrotown in Burnaby, it was a short distance from where I work. I was craving sushi and originally wanted to go to Sushi Garden, but Chris assured me that Yakka was pretty good as well and as an added bonus, they have 20% off lunch (except combos) because the Kingsway location just opened recently.

The lunch combos are fairly priced. I’m not sure if it is just a special they are running due to the grand opening, but you can order a California and Dynamite roll combo for $5.50 and another combo with a California roll, tuna roll, and salmon roll for around the same price.

I had settled on the Cali and Dynamite rolls.

I also had a side of Negitoro rolls. I had no idea that the portions were so big and if I had known, I wouldn’t have added the Negitoro rolls. However, they were quite tasty.

Chris added a spicy tuna sashimi to his combo order. I was a bit skeptical at first due to the generous slathering of spicy sauce on the tuna. But it tasted much better than my initial thoughts on the way it looked.

Nicky had a bowl of beef udon with his sushi combo. At around $5, this was a great deal.

The three of us were stuffed for under $25. The restaurant itself wasn’t too busy, even though it was lunch but that may have been because it just opened. The restaurant space was small but clean. It’s nice to know I have other sushi options near work other than the busy Sushi Garden.

Details:
4689 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-437-6405

Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 3 Comments »

Take-out at Ogenki Sushi

Over the weekend, Jenkins treated his family to a sushi lunch from Ogenki Sushi on Main & 28th. We had eaten there a couple of time before and always had an excellent experience there. The service is prompt and friendly and the food is surprisingly good, despite the somewhat sketchy exterior.

Looking over the takeout menu, we saw that they even provided a free delivery service but we decided to just go pick it up ourselves. We parked in the free lot at the back and were quickly greeted by the friendly waitres

There were 6 of us for lunch and we ordered a party tray with 36 assorted pieces, including some salmon/tuna/ebi nigiri, dragon rolls, and California rolls. We also ordered extra “special” rolls, such as the spider roll (soft-shell crab), Ogenki roll (spicy tuna, yam tempura, potato crisps), and the Philadelphia roll (cream cheese, spicy salmon, avocado).

I wasn’t crazy about the Philadelphia roll or the Ogenki roll but they were interesting to try.

Topped off with some fresh Richmond farm strawberries for dessert, I have to say this was a great lunch and all 6 of us were comfortably full. All this for less than $60!

Jenkins and I just found out about this place a couple of weeks ago and it is quickly becoming one of our favourite Vancouver sushi eateries. Great food and great service…what more can you ask for?

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

Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 3 Comments »

Toko a No No

Jenkins and I were looking for a cheap and quick place to go on Saturday night and settled on Toko Restaurant. Nestled in a quiet neighborhood around 7th and Ontario, I had always driven past this place and had no idea it was a restaurant. We had heard that it had an extensive list of Asian dishes and herbal teas and thought it would be worth a try. Entering the restaurant, we found that it was very busy and had a queue of people waiting to be seated.

By this time, we were quite hungry and were eager to pick something out. We had heard that their specialty was noodles and we selected a Malaysian fried noodle dish and honey garlic spareribs. We were used to fast and prompt service in most Asian restaurants but for some reason, it was quite a while until our food finally arrived.

The Malaysian fried noodle was ok but tasted nothing like the authentic fried noodles I had tasted at Banana Leaf. You could tell that it was some kind of Asian dish, but I wouldn’t necessarily point my finger at Malaysian.

Next was the honey garlic spareribs. Normally, this is one of my favourite dishes to order but the the ribs weren’t even spareribs and were heavily fried. The taste of honey lingered in your mouth lingered long after you had swallowed.

We had the option of ordering these dishes without MSG but we forgot to mention that to the server. As a result, I couldn’t get enough tea to quench my thirst as I ate. I’m not sure I will be coming back to this place, at least in the near future. The quality and value of the food is just not up to par with most casual Chinese or Asian eateries. As extensive as the menu was, it wasn’t that big when compared to my favourite Chinese restaurants. However, I can still see why it was so busy. The staff was friendly, the place was clean and trendy, and the location was in a nice and quiet neighborhood. Despite this, it just wasn’t the place for me.

Details:
223 W. 7th Ave, Vancouver
Tel: 604-879-0701

Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »

Cru Bday

It was my birthday on Friday and Jenkins took me to Cru restaurant on Broadway & Granville. I had been there earlier this year for Dine-Out Vancouver and had a great experience there. Cru is a mid-range French bistroand although the prix fixe menu is a good place to start, there are also a la carte items available. Each of the dishes are also colour-coded to match different categories of wines, which we found very helpful.

I decided to go with the prix fixe menu and selected a cold apple-cucumber melon soup to start. The soup was refreshing and tasty although I could hardly taste any of the apple or cucumber. I suspect this was because of the fennel garnishes which were very overpowering and pretty much took over the whole dish.

Jenkins went with the appetizer special, which was a spot prawn dish with cucumber and daikon radish on the side. We later found out that because it was the special, it meant that the prix fixe pricing didn’t apply to Jenkins’ dishes. He didn’t feel that the dish was good enough to justify having to pay $20 extra for his meal.

On to our mains. I had the seared tuna with haricots vert, olives, quails egg, and a smoked paprika vinaigrette. I enjoyed this quite a bit and the slightly spicy vinaigrette provided an extra pop to the dish. It also went very well with my glass of Gewürztraminer.

Jenkins had the seared pork tenderloin with organic farro and morel mushroom sherry sauce. I had a taste and I have to admit that I liked it even more than mine. The sauce complemented the pork perfectly and we couldn’t resist dipping our bread in the sauce to finish it off. He had a glass of Merlot which he said matched the pork well.

Finally, it was time for my favourite part of any meal…dessert! I had been dreaming about the bitter chocolate torte with passion fruit curd for over a week now and I was not disappointed. The rich chocolaty goodness was offset with the tangy passion fruit.

Jenkins had the vanilla creme brulee which came with a home made sable biscuit. It was very creamy and was just the right consistency. I liked the thick sugary shell on top.

All in all, it was a great dinner and a perfect start to my birthday evening. The quality of food at Cru was great and well worth it especially if you had the prix fixe. Service was prompt and the staff was friendly. By the time we left at around 8, the restaurant was packed and they had to turn away a couple of parties that did not have reservations. I would definitely come here again.

Details:
1459 W Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-677-4111

Posted in French, Reviews | 3 Comments »