Jenkins and I were trying to figure out where to go for dinner one evening. We were pretty hungry so we decided we wouldn’t mind going for all-you-can-eat. I remembered receiving a flyer in the mail featuring an all-you-can-eat dinner at Chili House Thai Bistro so we decided to give that a try. Chilli House is located down by the water at Beach Avenue under the Burrard Street Bridge and although I’ve gone past it several times, I’ve never actually checked it out.

All-you-can-eat at Chilli House has some pretty specific rules so Jenkins and I read the menu carefully to make sure we planned our dishes carefully. For example, you cannot order more than 5 different types of dishes at a time so we had to take this into account when deciding on our dishes.

First came the chicken satay skewers. The chicken was actually quite juicybut was a bit on the salty side. The peanut sauce was also a bit sweet and I would have liked for it to have some chunks of peanuts in it.

The tom yum soup was very sour and lemongrassy. It was also quite spicy and if you like this combination of flavours, this is the soup for you. I was surprised to see that there were actually quite a few pieces of shrimp in the soup and there was a nice distribution of vegetables as well.

The calamari was actually quite crispy and went well with the slightly sweet chilli dipping sauce. We were told that the beef short ribs were a popular item so we decided to order that as well. The ribs were pretty juicy and although fatty, they were quite flavourful with a standard Korean bbq-like marinade.

Although not the wisest choice from an AYCE perspective, Jenkins and I ordered a couple of curries because we really like Thai curries. First was the yellow curry with chicken, which also came with some onions and carrots. The chicken was breast meat but still quite juicy and picked up the mild yellow curry flavours nicely.

I always like the green curry and the offering at Chilli House came with beef. The beef was a bit chewy and probably had too much baking soda in it as a tenderizer. However, the eggplant was very tasty and the curry itself was on par with any other Thai House group curry offering.

The pad katiem was pork marinated with garlic and white pepper. It was actually quite garlicky but one dimensional. I did enjoy the abundance of veggies this dish came with though and it went quite well with rice.

The pad thai was actually done quite well and Jenkins suspected it was because they made each batch individually. The noodles had a nice bounce to it and even though they probably used ketchup in the sauce, it had a nice tangy sweetness to it.

The pad see iw was also well made and the noodles exhibited a nice bounciness as well. There was also quite a lot of chicken in this dish and the broccoli and bean sprouts provided a nice crunch.

By now, we were quite full so it was on to dessert. We ordered a couple of items to share and luckily for us, there were only two dessert items in the AYCE menu.

I really like tapioca so the kanum sakoo was my cup of tea. It was only slightly sweet and the taro, corn, and yam provided some flavour to the flavourless tapioca. The drizzle of coconut milk tied everything together so I quite enjoyed this dessert.

I thought the black glutinous rice pudding was going to be soupy, similar to what  my mom makes at home. However, the version at Chilli House is thicker and more pudding-like.

Jenkins and I liked the variety of dishes we got to try out at Chilli House. Usually, it is just the two of us and we can’t order more than a a couple of dishes to try at a time. If you are in the mood for variety, this may be something that you would be interested in checking out. At $16 per person, we thought this was a pretty reasonable offering.

Details:
1018 Beach Ave, Vancouver (entrance facing the water)
Tel: 604-685-8989

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

One of the good things about working downtown is that there are a variety of options available to you if you are in need of procuring a lunch. Most of the time, I try my best to bring a packed lunch but every once in a while, I am inclined to go out or I just plain forgot my lunch at home. On one such occasion, I needed to buy my lunch and Louis and Amelia decided to join me. We were all in the mood for Thai food so we decided to go to Go Go Thai. It’s nothing fancy, but the food is decent and with lunch specials for $8.95, it’s not too bad for Thai food.

I decided to order the Green Curry with Beef lunch special, which came with a bowl of won ton soup, a spring roll, and a small salad. The won ton soup was basically chicken broth with two pork won tons. It was pretty standard fare and the won tons had more flavour than I expected.

I forgot to take a picture of my spring roll and salad but below is the spring roll and salad that came with Amelia’s dish. Similar to the won ton soup, the spring roll was pretty standard. It was fried to order and the veggies and spring roll wrapping provided the requisite crunch. I should also note that Amelia enjoyed her eggplant with chicken, which was the special of the day. The portion for her special was actually quite large and she ended up packing half of it to take home.

I normally order my green curry with chicken, but I decided to switch things up that day and ordered it with beef instead. The green curry was actually quite flavourful and did not have too much coconut milk in it, which can sometimes be the case. The beef had obviously been marinated and tenderized with some corn starch but still went quite well with the curry. However, I think I still prefer my green chicken with chicken more than beef.

I’ve eaten at Go Go Thai a few times now and their food is fairly consistent. It’s nothing special but I find their lunch specials to be a pretty good value and is comparable to some other Thai places downtown with slightly lower prices. The ambiance is pretty bare bones though so I suppose that’s where the cost savings come from. There is also a lunch counter with premade Chinese food but I’ve never tried it before.

Details:

682 Seymour Street, Vancouver

Tel: 604-688-3218

Summary:

Food: 3 out of 5 stars

Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Price: $

A few of us decided to get out of the office and go for lunch one day. We were on a bit of a time crunch so after some failed attempts to go to some other locations close by our office, we finally settled on Khai Thai just at the corner of Seymour and Robson. The restaurant itself was only about half full even though we arrived at 12:30, during the prime lunch hour, and we were seated almost immediately.

It had been quite a while since my last visit to a Thai restaurant so rather than be adventurous, I decided to have one of my favourite stand bys, the green curry with chicken. Khai Thai offers a variety of lunch specials that are often served with a small salad and a spring roll. The salad was a pretty plain iceberg lettuce salad with an extremely creamy Thousand Island-type salad. I was glad to have some greens in my lunch but would have preferred there to be a more Thai-like dressing with my salad.

The spring roll was a typical vegetable spring roll. There was nothing too spectacular about it but there was nothing bad either.

The green curry chicken came with a healthy scoop of rice (see picture above). I would have preferred the curry to be spicier although to be fair, I did not specify the level of heat to my server, which some people at my table had done. There was also a little too much coconut milk for my liking and I would have liked the flavour of the green curry to stand out more. However, the curry was packed generously with slices of chicken breast and fresh vegetables, including peppers and eggplants. I also liked how there was quite a bit of Thai basil in my curry.

The service at Khai Thai is quite prompt so it’s a quick eat especially if you are pressed for time during lunch. I felt that the flavours of their dishes were a bit muted and at $9.95 for most of their lunch specials, I felt that it was on the expensive side. The next time I am back, I will likely also ask for my curry to be on the spicier side.

Details:
809 Seymour Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-682-7000

Summary:
Food: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Jenkins and I received some coupons in the mail from the Thai House group of restaurants so when it came time for us to pick a restaurant for our upcoming date night, the decision was more or less made for us. We used to frequent Urban Thai in Yaletown quite a bit but for some reason, we had stopped going. We decided to give it a visit and order some of our old favourites.

Jenkins and I weren’t too hungry that day so we only ordered a couple of dishes. First up was the pineapple fried rice with pork. The rice was sticky but not oily, which we kind of liked. In terms of flavour though, we felt that there wasn’t much of a pineapple taste even though there were a few chunks of fresh pineapple and we would have liked it if there were more peanuts.

Green curry is one of my favourite Thai curries and we decided to add chicken to the one we ordered. The curry had quite a bit of coconut milk with the veggies and chicken. I am a big eggplant fan so I would have liked for there to be more eggplant but overall, I enjoyed the green curry and thought it went great with the jasmine rice we ordered.

The Thai food at Urban Thai is pretty decent for the price. I would like for some of the flavours to be stronger and my curry to be a bit spicier but overall, I’m always fairly happy with my visits there. Urban Thai also has some well priced weekday lunch combos for around $7.95.

Details:
1119 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-408-7788

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Chris was back for the holidays so Thu and I met up with him at Charm Modern Thai for lunch. I wasn’t aware that Charm was actually owned by the Thai House chain but I found out when I went to their website to make the reservations.

The lunch specials seemed to be the best value since they also came with Tom Yum soup and fried wontons so the three of us all chose a lunch plate. The Tom Yum soup had a spicy tanginess to it that we all enjoyed very much. The prawn wontons were also quite well done. It was crispy on the outside and stuffed with a lot of minced shrimp, kind of similar to Chinese dim sum shrimp dumplings.

I was in the mood for noodles so I decided to have the Pad Thai with chicken. Unfortunately, this was not one of the better Pad Thais that I’ve experienced. The chicken was dry and the whole dish itself seemed to be slightly burnt as I could see little charcoal bits from the wok that it was cooked in. There was hardly any fish sauce and tamarind flavour and if I wasn’t told that it was Pad Thai, I probably would have thought these were some type of unnamed fried rice noodles.

Chris’s green curry with chicken fared slightly better but he remarked that the curry flavour was a bit weak and he also would have liked for there to be more chicken. I was quite surprised at this because I actually like the green curry chicken at Thai House, which is also in the same chain as Charm.

Thu’s ginger stir fry was probably the most successful dish in our group but she was also unimpressed with her order.

We all left Charm a bit disappointed with our experience. The service we received was spotty at best and it was a bit difficult trying to get the attention of our server. The food was also not what we expected and I have to say that Thai House is better and cheaper than what we had. I’m not sure if this was a one-off poor experience that we had but it’ll probably be a while before I make a second visit to Charm Modern Thai.

Details:
1269 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-688-9339

Summary:
Food: 1 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Tricia, Victoria, and I met up one evening and decided to go to Chili Garden for dinner. Tricia had heard about this place as an up and coming Thai restaurant in the busy Main Street area near King Edward. I always like eating Thai food and am always up for trying new restaurants so this sounded like to perfect place to try out. According to the restaurant description in the menu, Chili Garden’s chef was trained in Thailand and has worked in several restaurants both in Thailand and elsewhere. My expectations were high as I read through the menu to decide what to eat.

The three of us were fairly hungry so we each picked a dish and decided to share so we could get a taste of everything. My pick was the sambal green beans with prawns. I wasn’t being super original with my choice but sambal green beans are one of my favourite dishes in South East Asian cuisine. I’m not even sure if this dish is authentic to Thailand but I do know that this version I had at Chili Garden was very tasty. The spiciness of the sauce blended with the slight sweetness and really highlighted the crunchy beans very well. Sometimes, this dish can be on the oily side but I found that this version used just enough oil to maintain its taste and texture but was not overly oily at all.

Tricia picked the Pad Thai noodles. Not only was the serving size of this dish quite large, it was also very tasty. The noodles were slightly chewy and the sauce used on the noodles was creamy yet tangy and blended all the ingredients with the noodles very well. There was also a generous helping of prawns, bean sprouts, carrots and other veggies giving it a good crunch to contrast with the chewy noodles. On its own, this was probably enough to feed one very hungry person or two moderately hungry people.

Victoria’s choice was the yellow curried chicken. There was a good amount of coconut milk in this dish but not so much that it overwhelmed the other flavours. I suppose yellow curry is the mildest of the Thai curries but I would have liked this to have more of a kick to it. It would have been nice if there was more chicken in this dish but I enjoyed the complement of flavours from the onions, carrots, and Thai basil.

We ate the curry and beans with some bowls of rice that we ordered. Even though we were all quite hungry, we still ended up with some left overs since the portion sizes were so generous. The service was great and even though we were all there on a weeknight evening, the restaurant was more than half full. Chili Garden is a great addition to the slew of restaurants popping up in the South Main Street area.

Details:
4186 Main Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-879-8896

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

We had a team lunch the other day and as is often the case, I was tasked with picking the restaurant. It had been a while since I was last at Green Basil and after a quick consultation with my teammates, we decided that Green Basil would be the location of our lunch outing. I was first alerted about Green Basil when it opened about a year ago and have always enjoyed its convenient location near Metrotown and its yummy lunch specials.

For only $6.95, you can get a lunch special, which includes a spring roll, a small (and I mean small!) salad, soup, rice, and your choice of entree. There are quite a few eligible entrees to choose from, including curries and a variety or meat and vegetarian dishes.

Almost everyone in our party decided to go with the lunch special. Before the entrees came, we were presented with a plate of spring rolls.  As you can see, the size of the salad is pretty meagre but I really enjoyed the slightly tangy dressing on the salad.  The spring roll was a bit greasy on the outside but was very crispy.

I’m not sure what the name of this soup was but it was hot and slightly tangy.  It came with some carrot and cabbage pieces as well.

I really enjoy the green curry with chicken at Green Basil.  Green curry is one of my favourite items to order at any Thai restaurant but what I like about the dish here is that it’s very spicy but has a slightly sweet taste to it as well.  There were quite a few pieces of chicken with my dish and a lot of curry for me to drizzle all over my rice.  I also liked how the vegetables in this dish were not overcooked and provided a nice crunch.

Christina sat next to me so I was able to snap a picture of her lunch special as well.    She had the black bean chicken, which came with a lot of veggies as well.  This is a good alternative for someone who is not in the mood for a spicy dish.  Christina also noted that this dish had just the right amount of sauce to go with her rice without having everything swimming in sauce.

This was quite an enjoyable lunch.  At $6.95, it’s pretty comparable to what you can get in the cafeteria at our building and this definitely beats cafeteria food any day. 

Details:
4623 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-439-1919

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $

It was my last evening in San Francisco and I met up with Thu for dinner. She took me to Straits Cafe over in Palo Alto, which is a Asian fusion restaurant. Thu told me that there are actually several Straits restaurants in the Bay area but the one we went to in Palo Alto was the original one.

We started off with an appetizer sampler. It had a good sampling of the more popular appetizers on the menu. Sorry for the dark and blurry pictures. I really need to learn how to take better pictures in dim lighting with my camera.

I can’t really remember what this was but I think it was a fish carpaccio on a potato wafer. What I do remember is that it was very tasty with the carpaccio contrasting with the crunchy potato.

The fresh oyster was dressed with a light Thai chilli sauce which added some spiciness. This was very good and I only wished that there was more than one per person.

The vegetable samosa was also great. The vegetable curry inside was very tasty and the crunchy outside was not greasy at all. I usually find samosas too heavy but this one was just right.

The chicken satay was very juicy and went well with the peanut satay sauce. As far as taste goes, there was nothing special about this but I still enjoyed it.

For our main course, we shared a couple of dishes. First was a pan-fried tilapia with an Indian yellow curry. This was my favourite dish of the evening. The tilapia was crispy on the outside but very moist and juicy inside. The curry was quite spicy and much of the taste was absorbed by the fish and veggies. This dish came with quite a bit of sauce and would have gone great with rice.

We also ordered some Hokkien Bee Hoon, which was vermicelli noodles with shrimp, fish cake, and chillis. This dish was pretty bland and did not have much taste. In a way though, this worked out ok for us because we spooned the gravy from the fish dish over the noodles.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with Straits Cafe. With the exception of the noodles, most of the items we tried were very tasty (especially the fish!). I am usually a bit skeptical when it comes to Asian fusion places but Straits Cafe did a good job with it. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try the other dishes the next time I am in town.

Well, this concludes my California trip. It was fun to try out some new and different restaurants from what I am used to in Vancouver. This will probably be my last post before the new year, so happy holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Details:
3295 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA
Tel: 650-494-7168

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

A bunch of us met up for dinner one day at Grillage BBQ. It is a Thai place 3885 Rupert St right by E. 23rd Ave. Derek had been giving it rave reviews for the longest time, so we figured we should check it out and see what the fuss was all about.

Before we ordered, we were served a basket of crusty rolls with butter…yum.

Dustin and John both tried the thai iced tea, which came highly recommended by our server. They commented that it was interesting tasting…tangy but sweet.

I chose the pad thai with chicken. This also came highly recommended by our server. I asked for medium spicy (you get to pick mild, medium, or spicy) but the noodles turned out to be much spicier than I anticipated! It was still very good though. The serving size was quite large and it was loaded with chicken, crunchy sprouts, green peppers, and other yummy veggies. Cedric had the same thing but with beef…and he commented that he liked his pad thai on the drier side with less sauce.

Dustin and John shared some potato skins for appies. They looked quite tasty and were not too oily.

Miguel had a braised beef dish served with rice and carrots. He is quite picky when it comes to beef but he enjoyed this dish quite a bit.

Dustin went for the chicken abodo, which I think is a braised Filipino dish. It came with rice, egg, tomatoes, and beans.

Derek had paella, which took 30 minutes to make since they had to do it from scratch. This looked delicious and Derek said it tasted great. There was a generous spread of mixed seafood over the rice. It is definitely a dish to try if you can wait the 30 minutes.

John went for a skewer of prawns and scallops. They were grilled nicely and also quite tasty.

Connie had to go somewhere else for dinner later so she just came for a snack. She ordered prawns and mushrooms which came in a little cast iron skillet. It looked quite good but was a bit on the oily side.

The dinner here was not bad…the server was very friendly and attentive. The food was also interesting and tasty for the most part. It was also pretty different from the food I normally ate, which made for a nice change.

Details:
3885 Rupert St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-873-5300

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 4 out of 5 stars
Price: $$