Archive for July, 2007
Thursday, July 19th, 2007
I’ve compiled some of the best cheap lunch places to eat in Vancouver:
Ebi-Ten - 388 Robson Street – Great fast-food Japanese place – try there Combo number 2 – it’s their unique teriyaki chicken rice bowl with mayo. Less than $6 for the teriyaki chicken and drink. The food is made by a true Japanese staff.
Bale Sandwich - #21-701 Kingsway – Great Vietnamese Sub sandwiches. Less than $3 for a chicken sub.
Babylon Cafe - 716 Robson Street – Some of the best shawarmas in Vancouver. Shawarmas are delicious pita wraps with a mix of chicken (or beef), tzatziki sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers etc – absolutely delicious. Less than $6 here for a filling meal.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for Part 2. What are some of your favourite affordable hangouts?
Posted in Articles | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
I went to Cao Van Pho for a quick and cheap dinner the other day. It was so hot that day that I just wanted to eat somewhere quickly and get it over with. 
Jenkins and I come here pretty often so I think the owners kind of recognize us now and are usually pretty nice and speedy.
It’s always nice to go to a restaurant and know exactly what you want. For me, I chose the No. 1 small, which was basically the “special” Vietnamese beef noodle soup, which comes with beef balls, tendon, tripe, fatty flank, and steak. It may sound sketchy but this tastes very good and is my favourite pho dish to order.
It came with a healthy serving of blanched bean sprouts, thai basil, and a wedge of lime. I dunked most of this into my pho while the soup was still piping hot.
Jenkins had his favourite dish: rice vermicelli with grilled lemongrass chicken, bean sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, and fried onions. This was very filling and came with more than enough grilled chicken to go with the noodles. One good thing about this place is that they are very generous with the meat included in the dishes unlike other places that leave you wishing for more.
As if this wasn’t enough food already, Jenkins and I also shared a Vietnamese sub that came with some mixed veggies and lemongrass grilled chicken. It was the same type of chicken that came with Jenkins’ noodles.
This meal was pretty satisfying for us. As far as Pho places go, this is one of the cleaner ones and the service is pretty fast and efficient. It is tucked away at 8191 Saba Road in Richmond across from the Richmond Public Market and is a bit difficult to find.
Details:
150-8191 Saba Rd, Richmond
Tel: 604-231-0750
Summary:
Food: 
Service: 
Price: $
Posted in Vietnamese, Asian, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Monday, July 16th, 2007
I went with Pick to Cassis Bistro the other day. It is a French bistro located at 420 W. Pender in downtown Vancouver. I haven’t been here for over a year but the value of the food here is great. Pick had wanted to try this for a while and I’m always happy to go there.
First, the bread. I’m not sure if they make the bread themselves but it was so good that we asked for a second helping. The outside was warm and crusty and the inside was nice and soft. It went great with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
We were pleasantly surprised when our waiter served us with small dishes of amuse-bouche. It wasn’t too much to look at but our server told us it was a potato vichyssoise with a drizzle of truffle oil. To me, this was my favourite dish of the meal. If it was on the menu, I would definitely order it every time I come here! It was light and airy, almost like mousse, and the truffle oil added a nice little punch.
For our appetizer, Pick and I shared the brie cheese fondue, which came with focaccia breadsticks, cucumbers, and grapes. There are different types of cheese you can choose for the fondue and this one was $14.75. The cheese was not too heavy and the cucumbers and grapes were interesting accompaniments for the fondue. I also dipped some of the French bread with the cheese.
The main courses at Cassis are very reasonable…most if not all are under $20. I chose the canard l’orange (orange duck) for $17.50 and a side of glazed cauliflower, asparagus, and tomatoes.
The duck tasted great and came with a small fennel salad. You could really taste the oranges and all the fat had been cooked off so the duck did not taste too fatty at all.
The market veggies were pretty good but if I had known the duck dish was so big, I probably wouldn’t have ordered the additional veggies. I was only able to eat a few pieces and had to pack this up.
Pick had the Daube de Boeuf (beef stew) because one of his friends had told him this was really good. This did not disappoint and Pick was very happy.
He also had a side of ratatouille (like the movie ;)) but like me and the market veggies, he was already full with the beef stew and probably didn’t need to add the ratatouille to be full.
On to dessert. By this point, I was already pretty full, but Pick convinced me that I couldn’t come to Cassis and not have dessert. We decided on the lemon tart, which was a great deal at $5, and a flourless chocolate torte with pistachio ice cream.
The lemon tart was nice and tangy with a great lemon flavour but the crust was a bit too thick for me.
The flourless chocolate torte was perfection and went very well with the pistachio ice cream. It was very hot that day and even hotter inside the restaurant (there was no air conn!) so unfortunately, the ice cream was a bit melted. However, I liked this quite a bit more than the lemon tart.
.
Yet another great meal at Cassis. If you want good French food at reasonable prices, this is the place to go. The wine selection is great and the server even let me try a variety of different wines before I finally settled on one. The last few times I was here, I found the entrees a bit on the small side and always needed to add a side dish. However, this time, I found that the entrees were more than enough and didn’t even need a side dish.
Details:
420 W. Pender St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-605-0420
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$$
Posted in French, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Thursday, July 12th, 2007
In case you haven’t in noticed, in my last blog post, I rated the restaurant that I went to. After a lot of feedback from my readers, I finally got around to trying out a rating system. I’ll try to standardize this a bit in the next little while so that a $$ priced restaurant and a 3.5/5 stars for food can actually correlate to something. :p I’ll also try and go back to my previous reviews and enter some ratings there.
Keep the feedback coming! And let me know your thoughts on what a useful rating system should include.
Posted in Updates | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
I went to King’s Chinese Cuisine at 4488 Main Street in Vancouver over the weekend. We had a bunch of relatives visiting from out of town and that is always a good reason to get together and eat. My grandparents come here pretty frequently for dim sum and so we decided to come here for dinner as well.
We had your typical multi-course Chinese meal where we had some “staples” such as steamed fish and chicken, as well as some other dishes such as soy sauce shrimp.
First off was the assorted appetizer plate. The portions at this place are generous if anything else. My favourite items in this dish were the honey garlic spareribs and the deep fried chicken knees with jalapeño peppers. Also included was some marinated jellyfish and pork.
Next was a plate of soy sauce shrimp. I found it to be a bit too greasy and the shrimp was somewhat overcooked.
We also had assorted veggies with scallops and cuttlefish. Again, a bit on the greasy side but there was a healthy amount of seafood in this dish.
The third item was soup with shrimp, snow peas, and tofu. Although it was quite hearty and chunky, the soup itself was surprisingly lacking in taste. I had to supplement it with a few drops of red vinegar.
The lobster and crab dish was very tasty. The best part of this dish was the wonton noodles at the bottom which had soaked up all the flavourful lobster and crab sauce. Yum!
Pea sprouts must have been in season as the sprouts in this next dish were very tender and flavourful.
By this time, everyone was starting to get full. Next up was some free range chicken. This went well with the ginger & onion paste that was served alongside.
We also had some fresh tilapia steamed with green onions and soy sauce. Our server even removed the bones from the fish for us before we all dug in.
If the fried rice looks familiar, it’s because the same sauce was used in this as the soup we had earlier: shrimp, tofu, and snow peas! Similar to the soup, this did not have a lot of flavour.
And finally, we were at dessert. We had our choice of red bean soup…
…or mango pudding. Neither were that great, but I preferred the red bean soup because the mango pudding tasted too sweet.
I don’t recall the price for this meal but value-wise, it is a great place to go., as can be evidenced by the large lunch and dinner crowds. The meals are fairly cheap and there is a lot of variety. However, some dishes are a bit on the oily side and other dishes seem to be lacking in flavour. That being said, I’ve been here a few times with my family now and everyone always leaves happy.
Details:
4488 Main St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-874-3525
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
I went to Lao Shan Dong noodle house the other day with Mabel. It’s located at 4887 Kingsway in Burnaby, right across the street from Metrotown. I’ve been here a few times for lunch now and the place always fills up quickly. To be seated right away, I would recommend getting there before the lunch rush. Their specialty is the delicious taiwanese beef noodle soup.
The first thing we noticed was the colourful array of Taiwanese appies, including the pickled cucumber, marinated pork ears & intestines, bean curd noodles, and peanuts. We didn’t end up ordering any of these but they looked so tasty, I couldn’t help taking a picture of them.
Mabel and I both decided to go with the beef noodle soup. You have a choice of getting the spicy or non-spicy version. The small size is about $6.50 and the large size is about $1 more. Unless you are very hungry, the small size is more than enough. One thing I like about the beef noodle soup here over the other places is that it is not as greasy and you can drink the soup without having your throat clogged up with a coat of oil.
The best thing about getting a smaller sized noodle soup is that you have some stomach space freed up to try another dish. We shared a small dish of 10 pork & veggie dumplings for $4.95.
Our total bill was under $20 and worth every penny. Defnitely worth a re-visit….I think I will try the assorted Taiwanese appies next time.
Details:
105-4887 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-439-9588
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | 4 Comments »
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