Ho Yummy

Review: Hi Genki Japanese Restaurant

When Victoria told me that Fujiya operated a home-style Japanese restaurant in a retirement home, I wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not. Jenkins and I like going to the Fujiya at Clarke and Venables to stock up on hard-to-find ingredients for Japanese/Asian dishes. Victoria told me that although it sounded a bit bizarre, the food at Hi Genki was actually quite tasty and is supplied to the Nikkei Heritage Centre and the adjoining retirement home by Fujiya. I recruited Alison and Mabel to come along with me and it turned out to be a good thing because Hi Genki was a bit difficult to locate.

After we parked, we spotted this helpful sign so we knew we were at the right place.

We arrived just before noon so we had no trouble getting a table right away. Hi Genki seems to have different specials each day, which are all displayed right at the entrance to the eating area so we checked them out on our way to our table. Despite its location by the retirement home, there was a 50/50 mix of seniors to non-seniors.

My order came with some miso soup, which was pretty standard tasting.

I ordered a box lunch with flaked tuna cooked in sake and soy sauce. The tuna was simply prepared and went very well with rice. In a way, it almost reminded me of canned tuna but tastier. The box was also stuffed with some veggies, marinated wakame (seaweed), and a potato croquette. The croquette was lightly coated with panko and fried to a delicate crispiness. I enjoyed this little lunch box quite a bit.

Both Mabel and Alison decided to go with the yakitori don. It was a perfect size for lunch and was quite cheap at around $5.50 or so. The chicken was very juicy and the onions and fresh salad greens provided a slight crunch. I would consider getting this the next time I’m at Hi Genki.

By the time we left to go back to work, it was just before 1:00PM and the restaurant was quite full. Evidently, we were not the only ones who knew about this little retirement home secret.

Details:
6680 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby
Tel: 604-777-0533

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $

Posted in Burnaby, Japanese, Lower Mainland Cities, Reviews | 1 Comment »

Review: Alvin Garden

Over the weekend, I attended a food blogger dinner organized by Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures. It was only my second time attending an event such as this and I had the opportunity to meet other bloggers in the Vancouver area, including Kevin from 604 Foodtography, Jessica and her boyfriend from Yum-O-Rama, Kim from I’m Only Here for the Food, Wilson from La Petite Vancouver, Christina and ET from Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken, Andrea from the Best Damn Food Blog There Is, and TS from the Eating Club. It was nice to see the face behind the blogs and even better that we got to do so over a meal at Alvin Garden in Burnaby. Alvin Garden is a Chinese restaurant that features food from the Hunan/Xiang region (near Szechuan). I’ve never had Hunan food before so it was quite a good thing that Kim suggested this place. The picture below was taken by Kim because I was too afraid of getting wet to venture across the street in the rain.

Each “blog” got to choose a dish and because all the ordering was coordinated via Sherman and Viv, I’m not too sure what was ordered. I have access to the menu though so I’ll try to give my best guess although you other bloggers who attended can feel free to correct my mistakes in the comments.

The food came pretty much all at once and before long, our large table was filled with several, mostly spicy dishes. Jenkins and I deliberated quite a while on what our contribution would be and finally decided on the pan fried spicy chicken, which was noted as a Xiang Special. Despite the abundance of chili peppers, I did not find this to be too spicy and the crispy chicken went really well with rice. Jenkins’ only complaint was the pieces of chicken were cut too small to be truly satisfying.

The Hunan-style braised pork was not too fatty, despite it being made with pork belly. The sauce was a bit on the salty side though so this is best eaten with rice.

The braised duck came in a curry-like sauce but was not spicy at all, in my opinion. The pieces of duck were cut quite small (similar to the pan fried spicy chicken) so we weren’t sure what the meat was in the dish initially. I found the duck to be overcooked and dry despite it coming in a stew-like format.

I enjoyed the Dongting broiled fish in chili soup although I had no idea that there was fish at the bottom of this bowl at first. There were quite a few chilis in this soup but not overwelmingly so.

The moist and flaky fish went very well with the bean sprouts in the soup and tasted great with a bit of rice.

The spicy Ma Po tofu was another dish that is best eaten with rice. The ratio of ground pork to tofu was just right for me and I found this quite a bit spicier than most versions I’ve had, which I really liked.

To temper all the spicy food we ordered, someone also ordered a pot of the daily soup. The simple flavours of this soup tasted very homey and included tofu, pork, corn, and carrots.

I felt that the green beans with pork were too oily for my liking and the meat was a bit on the salty side. The beans were nice and crunchy though and I suppose if you ate it with enough rice, the saltiness wouldn’t have been too bad.

The pork belly with peppers was ok but I felt that this was much oiler than the braised pork belly we had earlier.

The steamed egg with minced pork tasted exactly like the version that Jenkins’ mom makes. It’s best eaten with rice and was a nice change of pace from the many spicy dishes we had that evening.

I found this steamed fish head with chilis surprisingly salty and the several small bones decreased my eating pleasure. Despite the bones, I think I would enjoyed this dish quite a bit more if it wasn’t so salty.

These fried pumpkin cakes had a chewy consistency similar to mochi and its slight sweetness made it more of a dessert item than something you would eat for your main course. I also enjoyed the crispy outside and was a bit dismayed that I had to share mine with Jenkins.

These steamed corn cakes were the biggest bust of the evening. They were surprisingly hard and dry even though they were steamed. There was also no flavour to them whatsoever so someone suggested that maybe they were supposed to be eaten with some kind of sauce.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the unique dishes at Alvin Garden. It was great that we went with such a large group because we were able to sample quite a few dishes and now I know what to order the next time I’m there. Service was pretty prompt and by the time we left the restaurant at around 7:30PM, all the tables were full. The prices were also very reasonable. All the dishes we ordered worked out to $16/person at the end of the evening.

Thanks Sherman for organizing this fun event. Looking forward to attending the next one.

To read what the other bloggers thought of the dinner, click on the links below:
Sherman’s Food Adventures
I’m Only Here for the Food
La Petite Vancouver
604 Foodtography
The Best Damn Food Blog There Is
Yum-O-Rama

Details:
4850 Imperial Street, Burnaby
Tel: 604-437-0828

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$

Posted in Burnaby, Chinese, Lower Mainland Cities, Reviews | 13 Comments »

Review: Lunch at Toyotomi

Even though I occasionally work in Burnaby really close to Chris’s office, we hadn’t met up for lunch in quite a long time. We finally got our acts together and decided to meet up for lunch one day around E. Hastings and Willingdon in Burnaby. I always need to get my fill of sushi so Chris suggested going to Toyotomi. Here’s a photo of the front that I remembered to snap as we were driving away:

Toyotomi always has a couple of items on special each day where certain dishes are featured for around half price. Always in search of a good deal, we decided to order both the specials for that day. Note that lunch specials are available to dine-in customers only. First up was the Pink Lady Roll for $2.99. The roll seemed to be slightly smaller than a regular roll but turned out to be quite tasty. The roll had salmon wrapped around the outside and was generously sprinkled with green onions, tobiko, and a bit of mayo.

Our second order was the Monkfish Maki on special for $2.03. Both Chris and I were confused when the “Maki” turned out to be a spring roll with with monkfish roe in the middle. It was drizzled with a vinegar sauce. We found this to be too oily and could not really taste the monkfish roe stuffing.

The salmon sashimi was very fresh and sliced quite generously. I think this was one of the best items we had for lunch that day.

Both Chris and I were quite hungry that day, as evidenced by the large number of rolls and other items that we ordered. I don’t remember the name of the following special roll but I do remember the rice to be quite undercooked. The components that made up this roll (imitation crab, avocado, spicy tuna, tobiko, and tempura bits) were all very tasty and went well together but I found it hard to get over the almost crunchy, undercooked rice.

The remainder of our rolls all had the same undercooked rice affliction. The spicy tuna in the spicy tuna roll was slightly sweet and just spicy enough for my liking but the rice was almost as crunchy as the tempura bits sprinkled on top.

The California roll also should have been tasty but again, I found it hard to get over the undercooked rice.

I was a bit disappointed with my lunch at Toyotomi. Chris had been there a few times previously and had enjoyed it quite a bit so I’m not sure if our visit this time around is indicative of their usual quality. Rice makes up such a big component of sushi (obviously!) so even though the filling was well done, poorly prepared rice can easily overshadow the filling that’s used. Toyotomi seems to be highly rated on sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon, and some other sites so I may give it a try sometime, but for now, I’m really in no rush.

Details:
4121 E. Hastings Street, Burnaby
Tel: 604-676-1506

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$

Posted in Burnaby, Japanese, Lower Mainland Cities, Reviews | No Comments »

Review: Not Just Pasta at Anton’s

It was Gene’s birthday and he decided that our team should celebrate at Anton’s Pasta Bar in Burnaby.  For those of you who haven’t tried the Anton’s experience, it’s a pasta place that is well known for its extremely large portions.  I’m not sure if it is still the case these days, but they used to have a promotion going that if you could finish an entire dinner size pasta entree by yourself, you would be the proud owner of an Anton’s ballpoint pen.  Personally, I didn’t see how this would motivate someone to eat so much pasta in one seating but I knew many people who saw this as a personal challenge. 

I was a bit wary of eating even a lunch-sized portion of pasta for lunch since I had to go back to work afterwards so I decided to try one of their salads.  I went for the spinach salad because they used a vinaigrette dressing instead of a creamy one.  Even the salads at Anton’s come in large and small sizes.  Since I was only planning to eat salad for lunch, I thought I should go for the large size but our server advised us that small would be more than enough.  Even though my salad just consisted of spinach, mushrooms, and bacon bits, it was more than enough to fill me up for lunch.

You do have to be careful if you’re ordering salad only to be healthy though.  Alison ordered a seafood salad with Anton’s special dressing and she was presented with a generous heaping of dressing.  She told me the salad was pretty good though, albeit a bit heavy on the dressing.

Some of us added some chicken to our salads for some additional protein.  You had a choice of garlic chicken or spicy chicken.  I chose the spicy chicken, which just turned out to be fried chicken in a tabasco-based sauce.  The batter was not too heavy but I found that the spicy sauce didn’t go with my salad at all.

In a party as large as ours, it’s almost a given that someone would order a pasta dish.    Christina chose the spiral pasta with seafood and mushrooms in a cream sauce.  She also requested whole wheat conchiglie instead of the regular egg version.

Jay had the penne bombay, which also had prawns and was served in a creamy curry sauce.  It was something different and the curry actually went pretty well with the pasta.

Gene decided to go for penne alle’ Emiliana, which had chorizo, bacon, and black olives.  The server recommended that Gene also add pine nuts, which would add some additional crunch to the pasta.

Anton’s can sometimes get pretty busy so lunch is a pretty good alternative to dinner if you want to avoid the crowds.  The restaurant doesn’t take any reservations though so if you are going in a large group, it’s best to go earlier.  I generally find the pastas at Anton’s to be too heavy on the sauce or too oily, but the salads turned out to be a nice alternative.  You just need to watch what kind of salad dressing is used. 

Details:
4260 E. Hastings St, Burnaby
(604) 299-6636

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$

Posted in Burnaby, Italian, Lower Mainland Cities, Reviews | 3 Comments »

Review: Poking Some Fun at Po King

I first went to Po King a while back when my grandparents introduced it to me.  It’s a relatively cheap Chinese restaurant that opened a few months ago and offered dim sum for $2.99 per dish.  As such, it’s pretty busy at lunch and it’s best to get there a bit before 12 (at least on week days) if you don’t want to wait for a table.  Po King is located along Kingsway about a three minute drive east of Metrotown.

Most dim sum restaurants these days require you to order from a sheet and the dim sum is then brought to your table.  Po King kicks it old school by bringing carts of dim sum around.  One thing to note though is that the rotation of dim sum can be pretty scant at times so if you see something you want, it’s best to grab it right away.

The bean curd with pork and bamboo shoots was quite tasty.  Sometimes, this dish can get a bit oily but Po King’s version was not so.  Because there is so much pork packed in the bean curd wraps, it is actually quite filling so it’s best to ask your server to cut them in half.

I am always a fan of these Chinese beef balls, especially when there is an accompanying vinegar dipping sauce.

These bbq pork buns also have a sweet topping which makes for a unique combination of salty and sweet.  My aunt first introduced these to me quite a while ago and they always make for a tasty filler dish.

We sure do like our bbq pork buns!  We also had the regular version with no sweet coating on top. 

My grandma ordered this dish of steamed eel. There were quite a few bones so it is some work to eat it but also worth it. 

I really enjoyed this dish of fried leather jacket fish in Maggi sauce.  The bones weren’t too difficult to navigate and the crunchy outside of the fish went very well with the Maggi sauce.

We were still a bit hungry so we also ordered some fried noodles with chicken and veggies.  This dish was made fresh so the noodles were nice and crunchy.

One of my favourite dim sum dishes is the shredded chicken with jellyfish “salad”.  I would say that there was more jellyfish than chicken and I found it to be a bit watery towards the bottom.  It tasted good though and I liked the pickled sweetness of the pickled ginger and turnips.

Po King is a great deal for the type of food you get and the price.  I’m really glad that another good dim sum place has opened up near where I work.  I’ve already dragged my co-workers here a couple of times since first going there with my grandparents. 

Details:
150-5665 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-436-2986

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $

Posted in Asian, Burnaby, Chinese, Dim Sum, Lower Mainland Cities, Reviews | 6 Comments »

Review: Pittsburgh Cafe

I went with John and Louis today to the Pittsburgh Cafe at Crystal Mall in Burnaby. It is actually spelled “Pittsburg” but I am a stickler for spelling so I refuse to spell something wrong on purpose, even if it was spelled incorrectly on a sign. It is a Hong Kong-style cafe that serves a mix of Asian and Asian-style Western dishes.

Coincidentally or not, the three of us all ordered basically the same thing. Louis and John had the curried pork cutlet with rice and I had the curried chicken with rice. What can I say, it was a day for curry.

First came our drinks. This was basically the only place where our choices differed. The mini meals we had all chosen came with our choice of a drink. Because we all chose cold drinks, there was an extra $0.80 charged. But at a base cost of $7.25 for each of our mini meals, this was a pretty good deal.

I had a cold Ovaltine, which is a kind of chocolaty malt drink. Sometimes this can taste pretty watered down but today, it wasn’t bad. Louis had the iced lemon tea, which came with fresh lemons that you had to mash with your spoon in order to release the lemon taste. John had an iced Hong Kong-style tea & coffee drink.

Louis and John each had the curried pork cutlet with rice. The pork was lightly breaded and deep fried and then immersed into the curry sauce. It also came with some roasted potatoes and deep fried onion strips.

The rice came on a separate plate and was probably equivalent to 2-3 bowls of rice. More than enough for lunch…especially when you have to go back to work afterwards.

I forgot to take a picture of my curry chicken with rice but just imagine the same looking dish of curry as above, but substitute the pork with chicken. My chicken was a bit on the salty side but the potatoes had a nice roasted taste and the curry sauce was just the right amount of spicyness.

Pittsburgh Redux

I went to Pittsburgh Cafe again a couple of days later with Louis, John, and Dustin. Here are some shots of the meals we tried this time around:

John had a baked spaghetti with meat sauce. It was made Hong Kong style, which meant the sauce is a bit sweet and ketchupy, especially when compared to Western-style spaghetti dishes.

Louis and Dustin both had the baked chicken with a cheese alfredo sauce. Apparently, this is a popular choice with people. The sauce looked to be a bit on the heavy side but Louis assured me it was very tasty.

I had the baked beef tongue and tomato with spaghetti. If you have never tried beef tongue before but you like the taste of beef, you should try this at least once.

Details:
1687 – 4500 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-438-6263

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$

Posted in Asian, Burnaby, Chinese, Lower Mainland Cities, Reviews | 4 Comments »