Brown Bites is a mini series on my blog featuring places the fiance has tried without me, so it wouldn’t be my own review. Why the name Brown, you ask? It is named after the Japanese LINE character, Brown. Brown is a cute, shy, emotionless cartoon bear but secretly full of love, and we adore him to pieces!

Tsujiri is a Japanese dessert cafe specializing in matcha desserts. Since they opened six months ago in February, there have been 1 hour+ waits to try their desserts. Reservations for their soba bar were also full weeks in advance.

The fiance and I aren’t the type of people to line up for food. In fact, we enjoy having dinner early to avoid rushes so we have yet to come here, until now! 

After a mediocre dinner at Thai Son a couple of steps away, the fiance noticed that there wasn’t a long line at Tsujiri for once. So instead of Qoola, we came here! 

Tsujiri is a matcha brand from Kyoto, Japan. All of the matcha here is high quality and sourced from Uji, which is a city near Kyoto. The interior of the cafe was warm and welcoming, with a traditional meets modern vibe.

The dessert shelf looked barren and a bit empty during our visit since we came in the evening. 

Matcha houjicha swirl float: The fiance decided to try a mix of both tea flavours. The bottom was a matcha slush, then topped with a matcha/houjicha tea soft serve.

He really enjoyed the soft serve! The matcha had a really strong flavour and tasted authentic. 

The slush was a bit disappointing and he wouldn’t get it again. The matcha flavour wasn’t as strong in the slush. The soft serve is definitely the way to go!

Yay!

When the fiance and I first started dating many years ago, the Thai Son at First Ave Marketplace was our go-to place for pho. It was close by, fast, and cheap although laden with copious amounts of MSG.

But over the years, we stopped going to Thai Son as much – mostly because we discovered Basil Garden and haven’t looked back. 

I was craving pho and since we were in Richmond, I suggested Thai Son for old times sake. This location is also relatively new, only being open for the past 3ish years compared to the First Avenue Marketplace location that has been open since I was a child. 

Starting off, service was rude but I’m not sure why I expected any different. Perhaps because it was a nicer location, but nope. One particular waitress was really snappy and rude when I asked for the menu and some water after sitting down and waiting for 5 minutes.

Small pho: I ordered a small pho with brisket, rare beef, and tripe. There was a generous portion of meat in the bowl which was appreciated. However, the broth tasted very flat and just like MSG.

I ended up giving the rest to the fiance because there was too much MSG for my liking and I didn’t want to feel like a lethargic, thirsty piece of crap after dinner. 

Large pho: The fiance ordered the beef ball and rare beef pho. Like myself, he also found the pho to contain lots of MSG and too salty. But he ended up finishing it anyways.

Lemongrass chicken: The lemongrass chicken smelled amazing when it arrived! It smelled more like fried chicken than lemongrass though.

The chicken was very juicy and delicious. The meat was well marinated although it had the flavour of chicken karaage more than lemongrass. It was also very oily.

Overall, Thai Son is not the healthiest or best choice for Vietnamese food but it gets the job done. I probably will be offending some people but this is my own opinion. 

Yes, it is a staple and well known restaurant chain in Vancouver but we found it too salty with copious amounts of MSG. There are definitely better choices for pho in Vancouver though.

Nay!

Whitby’s Coffee House is one of the many cafes along the main street by White Rock pier. After having lunch at The Boathouse a couple of blocks away, I was feeling like some dessert.

My parents and the fiance wanted dessert initially too, until they finished their lunches at The Boathouse and decided they were all too full.

I didn’t really have a preference to which cafe/gelato place, so we randomly walked into this one on the way back to the car. There are seriously so many places to pick from within the few blocks!

Passion fruit and mango sorbet: I’m actually not that big of a sorbet fan because it’s not rich or creamy enough for me. But since I can’t have ice cream and most gelato places currently do not offer coconut milk based dessert, I had to settle with sorbet. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious this was for a sorbet. I’m a big fan of anything passion fruit or mango based so this was right up my alley. There was more passion fruit flavour than mango here. 

In the past, I’ve had sorbets which contained ice chunks because they weren’t blended properly. This was not the case at Whitby’s, the sorbet was smooth and blended well. 

There are so many choices for dessert in White Rock that it is a bit overwhelming. I’m glad I stumbled into Whitby’s though, and would love to get the sorbet again if I ever came back to White Rock!