Ho Yummy

Review: Seventh Heaven

Tricia and I went to Seventh Heaven in Aberdeen Centre for lunch one weekend. It is one of the ubiquitous Hong Kong-style cafes in Richmond and is actually more western-influenced than most HK cafes. The inside is decorated as a 50s-style diner and is a nice open space.

I saw a picture of the curry beef brisket and rice when I was walking into the restaurant so I decided to give that a try. It came loaded with potatoes and the dish of curry was actually quite big. However, the beef brisket was quite tendon-y and chewy and the curry itself had a strong MSG-like taste. The potatoes were also a bit undercooked for my liking.

Tricia ordered the clubhouse sandwich with fries. The sandwich was different from your typical clubhouse and came with the usual toppings plus cheese and scrambled eggs. Although Tricia liked the sandwich, the fries were too starchy for her liking.

I find that the dishes at Seventh Heaven can be hit and miss. You either really enjoy the dishes or they just aren’t up to par. Unfortunately, this time around, my curry brisket left much to be desired. Next time, I will just have to remember to try something else!

Details:
4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond
Tel: (604) 295-6777

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Price: $

Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »

Review: Prima Taste

Jenkins and I dropped by to Prima Taste (570 Robson St) in downtown one Friday for dinner. This placed opened a couple of years ago and service a mix of Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine. If you have an Entertainment Book, you can also use one of the coupons here.

We decided to start with the roti canai, which is a pan-fried Malaysian-style pancake. It is served with a side of curry sauce, which you can pour over the roti. I found the roti to be a bit oily this time around and there also wasn’t enough curry sauce.

For our main course items, we shared a couple of dishes. First, came the Malaysian chicken curry. This was served in a clay pot and came with a lot of potatoes (my favourite!). The curry was slightly spicy and the chicken and potatoes were very tender.

We ordered some rice to go with the curry and the two were great together. Check out the size of the potatoes below! They were well cooked and infused with tons of curry flavour but not crumbly or too mushy.

We also decided to try the Chin Kiang pork, which was described as wok-fried pork with Chin Kiang vinegar. I had no idea this was actually deep fried but the pork strips were quite crispy. The vinegar sauce made the whole thing taste like sweet and sour pork. Because there was so much sticky vinegar sauce, it is a must to eat this with rice.

Dinner was pretty good, although I probably wouldn’t order the Chin Kiang pork again. Sweet and sour pork just isn’t my thing although they did try to make jazz it up somewhat.

Details:
570 Robson St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-685-7881

Summary:
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Price: $$

Posted in Singaporean, Asian, Reviews | 1 Comment »

Review: i-Cafe

Dustin, Miguel, John, and I met up at i-Cafe at 2525 Heather St in Vancouver one day for dinner. It is one of Vancouver’s many Hong Kong-style cafes and is located in a fairly central area. I like coming here because the food is quite tasty and it is one of the closest HK-style cafes near downtown.

Miguel and Dustin decided to try the fresh kiwi juice. It looked pretty interesting and both Miguel and Dustin said it was very tasty. I will have to try this out the next time I’m here.

John went for the fresh orange juice. I’m not sure if it was because it was freshly squeezed, but it was very aromatic.

I chose the hot lemon tea. The tea is quite strong so the lemon really helps to offset the potency. It also comes unsweetened so I am able to add as much sugar as I please…which is not much.

My favourite item to order here is the spaghetti with meat sauce and a fried egg. The meat sauce is slightly sweet, which I like and feel that it goes well with the spaghetti. The fried egg is something that I’m not used to having with spaghetti, but for some reason, it works for me. I felt that there was too much garlic in the meat sauce this time around though.

Miguel, Dustin, and John all ordered set dinners for their meals so they had soup included with their main dishes. John’s minestrone soup was full of tomatoes and he enjoyed it quite a bit. Both Dustin and Miguel had a cream soup with carrots, peas, and tuna. They were pleasantly surprised by the taste.

John chose the chicken cutlet with garlic sauce, spaghetti, and mixed vegetables. Although it was supposed to be a garlic sauce, it had a slight tomato flavour.

Dustin’s dish was the same as John’s except he had pork chops.

Miguel had beef tenderloin with a mushroom sauce and spaghetti. He is pretty picky about his beef but he enjoyed this dish quite a bit.

Among HK-style cafes, I think i-Cafe is one of the better ones around. The environment is comfortable and relatively clean, which is always a plus. There is also a large variety of dishes to choose from (as is often the case with HK-style cafes) and I have enjoyed most of the dishes I have tried.

Details:
2525 Heather St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-630-0238

Summary:
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Price: $

Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »

Going on Vacation!

I’ll be out of town for a few days…headed to California to do some Thanksgiving Day shopping.  :)  I won’t be posting any reviews while I’m away but feel free to leave comments on the current reviews!

Posted in Updates | No Comments »

Review: Rare Restaurant

Jenkins and I went to Rare Restaurant yesterday for a nice dinner. I had heard nothing but rave reviews about Rare for quite a while now and I was eager to see what they had to offer. It is located at 1355 Hornby St in downtown.

I had made my reservations for Rare through OpenTable.com. Because of this, they already knew my name when I walked into the restaurant. Why do I even bring this up? Well, it’s because when I opened my menu, I found that it was personalized with a welcome message just for me! I know it’s a small thing, but it made me pretty excited to eat there.

Rare has quite a few tasting menus that are available and these seem to be the specialty of the restaurant. Jenkins went for the $45 November tasting menu while I chose the $65 Chef’s Choice tasting menu. Because between the two of us, there were so many dishes, I only took pictures of mine for reviewing purposes.

Shortly after we were seated, our server told us that they would be bringing us an amuse-bouche prior to showing us the menus. It was a layered crepe galette with house-prepared chorizo sausage with a dab of olive tapenade. I did not find the tapenade to be too overpowering and although the crepe galette was very dense, it was not too heavy.

My first “official” course in the tasting menu was a light broth with mussels, oyster, and a spot prawn. The mussels were very fresh and cooked just right. The oyster was smaller than what I was used to but it was very tasty and a little crunchy.

Next came a seared scallop with cornbread, grilled peppers, and chorizo. This was one of my favourite dishes of the evening. My scallop was crispy and seared on the outside and the inside was raw but not slimy. It had a nice “bounce” to it and went very well with the chorizo and the sweet peppers.

By this point, I was really getting into my tasting menu. Next came sauteed pine mushrooms with yam gnocchi. This was some of the best gnocchi I had ever tasted. It was chewy and yummy with a crispy exterior. The sauce was quite rich and I found the mushrooms to be a bit on the salty side though. However, the gnocchi helped to offset some of the saltiness and was terrific with the sauce.

I am a big fan of duck and was looking forward to this next dish. The duck came on a bed of Israeli cous cous and a dab of blackberry jam. I found the duck skin to be a little salty at times but the medium rare meat was cooked perfectly. My favourite part of this dish though was the cous cous. I am not sure if it is the nature of Israeli cous cous or if it was the way it was prepared, but it was very creamy but not too heavy or rich. If this dish came only with the cous cous, I still would have been very pleased!

By this time, I was well into my tasting menu and enjoying the dishes very much. My server gave me a break from all the dishes presented to me by giving me a vanilla rooibos seltzer to cleanse my palette. It came in a shot glass and my only complaint was that it was too small! It was very light and refreshing and I enjoyed it…although Jenkins found it to be too sweet for him and not enough rooibos flavour.

My last “main” course was a striploin steak on a dash of pureed beet served with small fingerling potatoes stuffed with a lemony goat cheese. The steak was perfectly medium rare and very tasty. The beet puree also helped to mellow out the strong flavour of the steak. On its own, I wasn’t too crazy about the potatoes with goat cheese although once I paired a bite of it with the steak, the flavours of both really came out and created a nice medley in my mouth.

This concluded the savory portion of the meal and we were off to dessert! First off, the server brought us a pre-dessert. I had never heard of this before but I think other restaurants should seriously think about incorporating this into their menus as well. The pre-dessert this evening was an almond macaroon with a quince filling on a dab of creme fraiche. I found my macaroon to be too chewy though and like it when the cookie is lighter in texture.

My dessert was a medley of different chocolate treats…just my cup of tea. First, I tried the white hot chocolate with a home-made marshmallow. The marshmallow was too sweet for me but I could have drank a full cup of the hot chocolate. I could taste a little nutmeg in it and that really made the hot chocolate stand out in my mind. I enjoyed the chocolate truffle, which had a peanut centre, although nothing stood out. The chocolate ganache tart was very creamy and the sweetness was offset by the shortbread crust. Next came the chcolate sparkle cookie. I am not sure if this was made in-house of by the Thomas Haas bakery but it is one of my favourite cookies and this did not disappoint. Last came the chocolate brownie. Like the truffle, there was nothing special about this but it was still very good.

Jenkins’ tasting menu came with a sweet potato mille-feuille. Because the main ingredient was sweet potato, it was not as sweet as your typical dessert. Jenkins also found his sweet potato ice cream to be a bit on the grainy side. I found the taste interesting…although I enjoyed my dessert better.

All in all, Jenkins and I enjoyed our dinner very much. We were both pretty hungry when we first entered the restaurant, but by the time we left, we were very full. Maybe because we went on a weeknight, it was a little quiet and empty inside the restaurant. The service here was great and our servers were friendly. I would definitely recommend this restaurant and am looking forward to our next visit!

Details:
1355 Hornby St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-669-1256

Summary:
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Price: $$$

Posted in West Coast, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Review: Pho Van

Jason and I met up at Pho Van for dinner one day. It is located at 3370 Fraser St in Vancouver.  The pho here is pretty good and is the one Jenkins and I usually go to when we are in Vancouver.

I started with a fresh coconut juice, which I have been drinking a lot of lately.  :)  I like drinking it when I have pho because I find that the coconut juice helps to offset the spiciness of the soup.

I ordered the pho with mixed beef parts.  I like the pho here because they are always generous with both the noodles and the beef ingredients.  :)  Even if you order a small bowl, you still end up being quite full just because there is so much stuff in your bowl.  My noodles also came with some pieces of daikon radish, which was different, although I was too full to eat it. 

Jason’s noodle soup was spicy and his noodles were thicker and also a little chewy.  It also came with a sprinkling of cabbage and had miscellaneous items such as a pork hock, some beef, and ham.  I had never tried this before but may just order it the next time I come here.

I like the pho at Van Pho because they seem to have less MSG than most pho places I go to.  Jason also noted that their pho is denser and packed with a lot more noodles and meat than your normal pho place.  The inside of the restaurant is also relatively clean and the service is always quick and efficient.

Details:
3370 Fraser St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-872-2879

Summary:
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Price: $

Posted in Vietnamese, Asian, Reviews | 4 Comments »