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Curiously Carmen

MILA

November 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

MILA is the newest addition to Vancouver’s vegan food scene that opened a couple months ago in early September. After hearing about it, Avocado and I knew that we had to check it out! I predict that this place will be very popular for vegans and non-vegans alike. Or should I say plant-based because that is the new trendy term for vegan these days? 🙃

MILA is located in Chinatown. The restaurant was easy to miss because there weren’t any signs except for a small one on their door. I recommend making a reservation because they are quite busy and have limited seating due to the pandemic. Despite it being busy inside, the tables were spaced out and we felt clean and safe in there.

While writing this review, I also found out that they are the sister restaurant to Virtuous Pie, a vegan pizza joint a few blocks away. Avocado and I also tried Virtuous Pie almost 3 years ago and we enjoyed it.

Walking in, we were greeted with loud music (not in an obnoxious way, they had some good lo-fi beats going on) and it was bumpin’ in there for a Sunday evening. It was not what we were both expecting with the dark lighting, music and all. We both thought it’d be a quiet, low-key place. To quote Avocado, it felt like a vegan Cactus Club!

The atmosphere could have easily been seen as hipster, pretentious and snobby (like our experience at Heirloom a few years ago).

If I sense that a place is pretentious, I likely won’t go back. However, that wasn’t the case with MILA. The staff were very friendly and there were no pretentious, hipster vibes detected which was a relief.

Aburi lox: This was one of the most popular items online, so we decided to give it a try. It ended up being our favourite of the evening! I wasn’t sure how I’d feel with carrot being a replacement of salmon, but this roll was delicious for a non-vegan like myself.

Admittedly, the carrot did not replace the texture of real salmon because it lacked the fleshiness of salmon meat (why does that sound morbid?). However, what it didn’t lack was taste. The aburi lox was an explosion of delicious flavour. The sauce on top was incredibly creamy and rich with a nice grilled flavour to it.

There was also more sauce in the middle with shiso leaf, which elevated the flavour even more. I didn’t even mind that this was carrot, that was easily forgotten because of how delicious everything else was.

Bao buns: The bao buns came with hoisin tempeh, pickled onion + cucumber, sambal aioli, cilantro, and crispy shallots. The buns themselves were warm, thick and puffy. I found that some of the bun stuck to the wooden bowl though, so I’d recommend removing the lid and letting it cool down before eating.

The bao buns were not bad either and we both enjoyed it. The sambal aioli and fresh veggies gave the bao buns a lot of flavour, but not enough for me to forget that it was vegan (unlike the aburi lox).

Mushroom and sausage tagliatelle: This dish was also highly recommended online, and I was super excited to try it! Avocado and I appreciated how they split the dish for us already when we told them that we’d be sharing everything.

The tagliatelle was cooked perfectly. The vegan sauce was made up of pistachio pesto cream. The flavours were great, and I also asked for some freshly cracked black pepper which elevated the dish more. My only complaint would be that they could have added more sauce because I didn’t find it creamy or saucy enough for a pasta.


All in all, we left really satisfied with Mila. The ingredients were high quality, and we enjoyed all of the dishes. Service was also friendly and attentive too.

I would definitely recommend this place for vegans! If you’re like Avocado and I who enjoy eating vegan food every so often, you’d probably enjoy it too.

If you’re a die-hard meat lover who refuses to eat vegan food, I would not recommend it because you could still tell that some dishes are vegan.

MILA Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Filed Under: chinese, food & drink, fusion, italian, japanese, vegetarian/vegan

Emilio Finatti Pizzeria

September 7, 2020 Leave a Comment

Emilio Finatti Pizzeria in White Rock came highly recommend by some old co-workers, Latte, and online reviews. Latte and I had plans to get takeout for a picnic, but the weather was cloudy so we went to Pho Sunrise and Mink Chocolate Cafe instead. We tried to come again a month later (with the fiance as well because it sounded delicious to him too) and it was a success!

Emilio Finatti Pizzeria is located in White Rock, a few minutes drive from the beach (but it would be a hard walk due to the steep hills!). The restaurant itself is very small and a bit hole in the wall inside.

Mr Chu Tea and Coffee is across the street too, so you could also get some bubble tea while you’re here. Review coming soon!

They usually have a couple small tables but due to the pandemic, no customers were allowed in. There were a couple tables outside but you’d be better off enjoying the pizza at the beach instead.

While writing this review, I wasn’t too sure what Silician pizza was. After looking it up, I learned that Silician pizza is usually thick crusted and prepared in a rectangular fashion. However, Emilio’s advertises themselves as thin crust. Not that I’m complaining though, everything was delicious as you’ll soon find out!

Roma pizza: The 3 of us shared 3 small pizzas, which proved later to be too much but leftover pizza in the air fryer is delicious! The Roma pizza came with marinara, cheese, genoa salami, red onion, green bell pepper, roasted red bell pepper finished with parmesan.

It was love at first bite! All of the ingredients in the pizza were extremely fresh and great quality. The perfect thin crust pizza. They were quite generous with the toppings too.

Mama mia: The second pizza we ordered was the mamma mia. This pizza came with marinara, cheese, meatballs, green olive, green bell pepper, hot banana peppers, finished with cheddar cheese, parmesan and herbs, Italian parsley.

This pizza was delicious as well! The thin crust was perfect too and the ingredients on top were very fresh. I haven’t seen a pizza with a whole banana pepper before. My only complaint for the Mamma Mia was the olives, because I’m not a fan of olives. 

The meatballs on top of the pizza were seasoned well and tender too. You could really taste the quality of the meatballs!

Pepperoni primo: Last but not least, the pepperoni primo! The pepperoni primo came with marinara, cheese, ham, pepperoni, genoa salami, mushroom, artichoke, finished with roma tomato, parmesan, greek pepper garnish.

This was my favourite of the day! The pizza was full of such fresh ingredients and was so good. There were so many toppings on top. I really liked the fresh sliced tomato that was added after. The parmesan dusting rounded out the pizza and elevated the deliciousness even more.

We all really enjoyed Emilio Finatti. The quality of the pizza and the toppings were top notch. A lot of reviews mentioned that the prices are a bit higher than usual, but it’s no mystery why when you taste the quality ingredients and freshness. I would love to come back here during my next trip to White Rock.

Emilio Finatti Sicilian Pizzeria Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Filed Under: food & drink, italian

Water Street Cafe

July 19, 2020 Leave a Comment

Water Street Cafe is a cute restaurant located in the heart of Gastown, right across from the famous steam clock. We came here with Sangria and Lager for a much needed catch up dinner!

Walking in, I really enjoyed the ambiance of Water Street Cafe. There was a romantic, classic New York City feel to it… as if you were stepping into the crisp pages of a chick lit novel and the protagonist was about to have their first date. The ambiance was spectacular but the food was lacking unfortunately, as you’ll soon find out.

Social distancing and sanitation protocol were at place here, and it felt clean and safe. Although, we did tell them that we would be sharing, our server didn’t bring out serving utensils and plates until we asked.

Bison carpaccio: To start, we ordered the bison carpaccio to share (we had serving forks and knives). No complaints about this dish. The parmesan and capers went really well with the bison.

Mushroom gnocchi: After finding out that they make their gnocchi in-house, we decided to share this as well. Personally, I found it to be underwhelming. Truffle butter was advertised but there was no taste or scent of truffle at all.

It was also made with goat cheese so there was a strong gamey taste, which the fiance was not a fan of. We would not get this again.

Pappardelle bolognese: After a great experience at Ask For Luigi, I decided to order the same thing to see how it compared since Water St. Cafe is also a fancier restaurant. Again, this was underwhelming and disappointing.

Lager noted that the tomato sauce tasted like grocery store canned pasta sauce, which I agreed with. In addition, there were strange pools of oil at the bottom of my plate.

I could have made better pasta at home for 1/4th of the price since this tasted like canned pasta sauce anyways.

Meatballs and pappardelle: The fiance’s pasta sauce was the same as mine, and he also found it to be lackluster and disappointing.

The meatballs were very tender, but he found the dish to be pretty forgettable and meh.

Seafood pasta special: Lager ordered the daily special, which was a seafood pasta in a lemon butter dill sauce. This was far more delicious than the fiance and my pasta dishes. The sauce was buttery, while the dill gave it a nice aroma.

However, the seafood was extremely overcooked. The clams were rubbery and the scallop had shrunk and was overcooked.

Braised beef short rib: Sangria had perhaps the most satisfying dish out of all of us. The braised beef short rib was tender and fell off the bone nicely. It was marinated in hoisin sauce which was unexpected for a Western restaurant, but it worked well.

There was live music playing on the patio right next to us which was nice, but the singer was belting out ballads and it was too loud and hard to hear our own conversation at times. It was nice when he was singing softly or just playing instrumentals though.

All in all, the dishes left little to be desired and was disappointing. While the ambiance and service was great, the same can not be said about the food.

Water Street Café Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Filed Under: food & drink, italian

Ignite Pizzeria

June 12, 2020 Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part by social distancing and only going out when necessary. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

We are now in phase 2 which means restrictions are slowly lifting. It is crucial that we still limit our social circle, and wear masks when out. Yes, you may feel fine but you could be passing on the virus to someone who is immunocompromised or elderly that may not survive this virus. I know it’s summer and we want to go out and enjoy the sun, but let’s all remember to be safe and protect those most vulnerable.


Last weekend, the fiance and I were craving pizza, but not fast food pizza (although fast food pizza is delicious too!). After a great experience with Straight Outta Brooklyn pizza, we decided to look for another pizza place on DoorDash.

We browsed a few options and ended up choosing Ignite Pizzeria. However, we were a bit disappointed with it and should have gone with another place instead.

When our pizza arrived, it came in an unsealed box without a bag. In normal, non-COVID times I wouldn’t have thought twice as that is usually how pizza is delivered. But during a global pandemic, we would have felt more safe if the pizza had a sticker sealing the box or was in a stapled bag like most delivery places we order.

I realize this is a highly unlikely chance, but there are stories out there of delivery drivers coughing and spitting on food or property. Perhaps the restaurant is trying to be environmentally friendly, but to us, during a global pandemic, it made us feel iffy knowing our food could have possibly be tampered with. I asked the fiance if I was overthinking or being crazy, but he also agreed (which he doesn’t all the time) that during a pandemic, that seems a bit unsanitary.

It soured our first impression and we ended up heating the pizza in the oven again just to be safe.

So Fun(Ghi): This pizza came with tomato sauce, mozzarella, salami, and mushrooms. There was a decent amount of toppings. This was a thin crust pizza and the dough was soft and light. Out of the two, we enjoyed this pizza more.

Farmer: We also wanted to try a white based sauce, so we went with the farmer. This pizza came with alfredo sauce, mozzarella, chicken, red onions, sun dried tomatos, and pancetta.

While writing this post, I looked up the menu online for reference and just realized the menu said this pizza came with pancetta (aka pork belly)! I had no idea while eating it because it was so sparse! That was the theme of the pizza as we were quite disappointed with the lack of chicken on top. What little amount of chicken there was, was chopped in very small pieces.

Where is the chicken and pancetta (pork belly)? Lol

We were not impressed with this pizza because of how stingy they were with the toppings, but at least the alfredo sauce was tasty.

Overall, Ignite Pizzeria was disappointing. We had a DoorDash coupon so good thing we didn’t have to pay full price because it wouldn’t have been worth it.

It was quite forgettable to us and there are plenty of other pizza places out there that are better.

My rating: 2.5/5

Ignite Pizzeria Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Filed Under: food & drink, italian

Ask For Luigi

May 20, 2020 Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

I know that you may want to go out and have fun, but it is crucial that we distance ourselves to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve before it gets worse. Yes, you may feel fine but you could be passing on the virus to someone who is immunocompromised or elderly that may not survive this virus.


This year’s anniversary was a lot different than we expected, aka we did not expect there to be a pandemic! This did not dampen our plans though, thanks to delivery. Our original plan was to order Miku’s delivery platter but we realized a day before that Miku was closed on Sundays.

After looking around on Yelp, I suggested Ask For Luigi as it’s been on my list for many years now! This place was also highly recommended by friends and other food bloggers so it’s about time I tried it out.

Ask for Luigi is located off the beaten path in East Vancouver by the industrial area just before DTES. You would not expect a delicious, intimate Italian restaurant with homemade pasta here.

Admittedly, we are no pasta or Italian food experts. After Googling most of the terms on the menu (and playing the game of ‘is this a cheese, noodle or meat?’), we placed our order.

Penne bolognese, parmesan: I decided on the penne bolognese with parmesan but substituted with pappardelle noodle instead because I was craving wide and flat noodles that day.

My bolognese was so delicious. I could see what the hype about Ask For Luigi was after my first bite. The pasta was so cheesy and creamy with a delicious tomato sauce. There was a generous portion of beef inside as well.

The homemade pappardelle was cooked to a perfect al dente.

Pappardelle, boar rago, and pecorino: I’m not sure if the fiance or I had boar before, but it was similar to pulled pork with a slightly gamier taste.

Compared to my bolognese, the fiance did not like his dish as much because it wasn’t as cheesy or creamy. The cheese had a sharper taste to it. After a quick Google search while writing this, pecorino is a type of hard sheep cheese so that explains why (I looked up all the other dishes except this one because the fiance had decided on this already).

If he knew that this was made from sheep milk, he wouldn’t have ordered it. But if you’re a fan of gamey food, I’d recommend this dish.

Overall, we were quite impressed with Ask For Luigi. The quality of the homemade pasta noodles and dishes overall was evident, even in takeout boxes without the romantic Italian atmosphere.

I can see why this place is so popular and I’m glad that we finally tried it!

Ask for Luigi Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Filed Under: food & drink, italian

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