vietnamese Archives - Curiously Carmen

The Rise Eatery

June 28, 2020 Leave a Comment

It has been over 3 months since I have ate a proper meal at a restaurant! How crazy is that? The last sit down meal was at Do Chay with Avocado in March.

The Rise Eatery is an Asian-fusion restaurant inconspicuously located in the South Granville area, a block away from Kyo. The restaurant is located at the end of the shopping area so it’s a bit hidden.

The restaurant was about half full, with other reservations that night too. We had a server who was friendly, but slow and hard to flag him down at times.

Drinks: We started off with some drinks! Starting from the left, Jerky ordered the ‘Life’s a Peach’ which came with peach tea, peach puree, ginger ale, lime and rosemary.

In the center was my drink, Dark n’ Timmy. I’m a huge fan of ginger beer and this was delicious! The drink came with ginger beer, grapefruit juice, lime, vanilla, and a candied ginger. The grapefruit gave it some sweetness and rounded out the spicy flavour of the ginger.

The birthday boy Smores ordered a Lolliwood North, which came with bench 1775 sauvignon blanc, lychee liquor, elderflower soda, cranberry & orange-mango popsicle. The popsicle was a cute and unique addition!

Uni-Versal Pasta XO Edition: Smores has been here before and raved about this. After deciding between the pasta and the heart attack rice, I decided on the latter and regretted it because this was delicious! I had a bite (the first bite with a clean fork so no germ transmission going on here), and was in love.

This came with squid ink pasta, sea urchin cream, runny egg yolk, sauteed prawn, flying fish roe, and toasted seaweed. It reminded me of an elevated and fancy version of a mentaiko udon.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this dish the next day! I would definitely order this for myself next time because one bite was not enough.

Heart attack rice: My rice bowl came with grilled chicken, a runny egg, and chicken crackling cooked in chicken fat rice. I can definitely see where the name heart attack rice came from.

The rice bowl was delicious as well, although a bit oily but that’s to be expected. The grilled chicken was tender with a nice char flavour. So good! The chicken crackling was essentially deep fried chicken fat, which was too rich for me and my sensitive stomach so the fiance happily ate those pieces.

Shad thai: The only disappointing dish of the night. The sauteed fish noodles were very odd and not good… think of a springy, light fish ball but in noodle form. Some things should not be made into noodles, this is one of them.

The “noodles” came with a fish sauce, with a hint of sourness to it. The sauce was okay but the noodles were not good and ruined the dish. It also didn’t feel worth the $19 price.

Chicken seoul good: This was amazing! Korean style fried chicken with wild mushroom cream, truffle oil, and grated Parmesan. All of these things combined was a match made in heaven. The chicken was juicy and crunchy, and the mushroom cream and truffle oil went so well together.

The truffle oil scent was very aromatic too. The cherry on top was the melted parmesan. Sooo good.

All in all, we enjoyed our visit to The Rise Eatery. It’s a bit hidden at the end of South Granville, but very good (just don’t get the Shad Thai). They do Asian fusion very well and you won’t be disappointed with the uni pasta or fried chicken!

Obanhmi

May 16, 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.

I’ve seen Obanhmi on Uber Eats for awhile, and was always curious about it… But for some reason, we always ended up getting our usual delivery places instead. However, this pandemic has made me try new delivery places to keep me out of boredom, including Obanhmi!

We ordered four banh mis which was enough for lunch and dinner. The banh mi were nicely labelled and came in a cute, branded paper bag.

Meatball banh mi: The fiance chose a meatball banh mi. If you are ordering for more than 1 meal, I would recommend eating this first because the meatballs were quite saucy and juicy so it would make the bread soggy if you waited too long.

The meatball banh mi was absolutely delicious! The meatballs were tender and juicy. Cooked in a tomato sauce, they had a slight hint of sweetness to them as well. I will warn you that this is a bit messy to eat because it is saucy and the bread got a bit soggy.

Lemongrass chicken: I actually used to only order cold cut banh mi, until I tried lemongrass chicken banh mi at Thai’s Saigon Bistro and Basil Garden and was converted! We actually tried to order this a couple weeks prior, but their lemongrass chicken sub was sold out and that was the main reason I wanted to get it.

The lemongrass chicken banh mi did not disappoint either! The chicken had a nice, grilled flavour to it and was juicy and tender. This hit the spot perfectly! My only complaint would be that it was a tad bit too salty.

Classic cold cut: A classic cold cut banh mi brings me back to childhood! My mom used to buy these for me quite often because she worked close to Bale. So nostalgic! I actually didn’t even realize until a few years ago that there were different types of banh mi like lemongrass chicken or beef. I thought that only the cold cut version existed!

This was like biting into childhood! It was a solid cold cut banh mi and because it only has cold ingredients, this was the only banh mi where the baguette wasn’t soggy. My favourite part of a cold cut banh mi is the Vietnamese meat pate. So delicious!

Sate beef: The last banh mi we ordered was the sate beef! This was a flavour bomb explosion as well. The sate beef was aromatic and delicious. Just like the lemongrass chicken, my only complaint would be that it was slightly too salty.

All in all, Obanhmi was an excellent choice and we would definitely order again! All of the banh mi were delicious even though a couple of them were on the salty side.

The prices are pretty reasonable too, about $6-7ish I believe for a sub. The baguette sizes were also larger and longer here compared to other banh mi places I’ve tried.

Vietnam House

April 11, 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.

Another day, another day of social distancing and being at home. I realized that I did not step outside for 7 days, which I am not sure if that is impressive or just sad. I finally broke the streak by going to stock up on more groceries!

Anyways, it has been a whole 7 days of not eating restaurant food since our last meal with Wara Thai, so we decided to treat ourselves for lunch. The fiance had a coupon on Skip, and I was craving bun bo hue so we decided to try out Vietnam House since it had free delivery.

Vietnam House didn’t sound familiar to me, but when I googled it, I remember it used to a hole in the wall called Thai Hang. Thai Hang had been around for ages… I went as a kid and in high school as well. Looking at pictures, it seems like they went through a renovation in addition to the name change.

The menu on Skip was a bit odd, as it didn’t include the names of the dishes in Vietnamese. For example, they didn’t even write ‘pho’ but at least that is easy enough to translate to English. I had a harder time finding ‘bun bo hue’ and ended up calling the restaurant to find out which one it was. The translation was ‘beef and pork in rice spaghetti in soup’.

Spring rolls: I normally don’t order spring rolls because #health, but we are in a pandemic right now and I wanted to excite my taste buds.

I was also motivated by Michael at Yes We’re Eating Again to plate my takeout food nicely, as takeout boxes don’t make for aesthetically pleasing photos! #FoodBloggerProblems. It was fun, although I was rushing because we were hungry and the food smelled so good!

The spring rolls were fresh and still a bit crunchy despite being takeout, which was great! They were your usual Vietnamese spring rolls and tasty.

Bun bo hue: As mentioned above, I had a craving for bun bo hue, and this did not disappoint. When I first opened the takeout container, I was immediately greeted with an aromatic, fragrant soup.

The bun bo hue packed a lot of spice, and there was also hints of lemongrass flavour. There was also a generous amount of meat as well.

Had to give up with chopsticks and use a fork because the noodles were too chopped and short… 🙁

My only complaint would be that the noodles were too choppy and short, so my chopsticks couldn’t pick it up. I gave up and ended up using a fork at the end because they were just bits and pieces of the noodles. This made it a bit harder to enjoy because I am the biggest noodle lover out there.

Grilled beef, chicken, and spring roll on vermicelli: The fiance ordered a vermicelli dish, and his was delicious as well. I had a bite of the chicken, which was bursting with grilled lemongrass flavour, and also very juicy! The beef was also very juicy and flavourful.

He noted that his vermicelli noodles were also chopped and short, so he had a hard time picking up the noodles with his chopsticks as well.

All in all, Vietnam House was delicious! One good thing (obviously I wish that this never happened in the first place) about that this crisis and social distancing has brought on, is that we have been trying new, local places for delivery. When we do order delivery usually, we just stick with the usual and familiar places so it’s nice to branch out.

So far, we have tried Manpuku for Japanese rice bowls, Wara Thai, and now Vietnam House! All three discoveries have been great and I hope the the next delivery order we place will be just as delicious.

Do Chay

March 21, 2020 Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. Luckily, I have some drafts saved up before this whole craziness began so please don’t attack me for posting restaurant visits before this began.

Do Chay is a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant that has been on my radar ever since it opened last summer. While looking for a place to have dinner with Avocado before this whole COVID-19 fiasco, I suggested this place because she is my buddy for trying vegetarian/vegan restaurants with!

Do Chay is the sister restaurant of House Special in Yaletown. I remember reading that the owners of Do Chay had another Vietnamese restaurant in Vancouver, but didn’t realize it was House Special. Tbh, if I knew it was House Special, I would have been less inclined to visit because House Special was disappointing.

Anyways, Avocado and I totally underestimated the atmosphere in here. We both thought, for some reason, that it would be a low-key, casual family-owned style restaurant. When we walked in, it was quite bougie and hipster. But after I found out that they were the same owners as House Special, it made more sense.

Ginger lemonade soda: I wasn’t going to order this, but it looked really good when I saw the bartender make it for another table. The selling point to me was how I saw her freshly squeezing lemons into the drink. The drink was really good if you like ginger-y things like I do!

Black truffle tofu: I was sold when I saw this on the menu as I am a huge fan of truffle! However, we both found this dish pretty disappointing and our least favourite of the evening.

We were under the impression that it would contain truffle oil to give it that wonderful truffle aroma, but it didn’t. The tofu was just your ordinary deep fried tofu with soya sauce, and not worth $8.

I would skip this because the other dishes were a lot better, as you’ll find out.

Coconut rice cakes: The coconut rice cakes were unlike anything I’ve had before. They were made with coconut milk and lightly pan fried. Usually rice cakes are chewy and dense, however the coconut rice cakes were slightly crispy on the inside, and creamy in the middle with a fragrant coconut taste.

To elevate the dish even more, the coconut rice cakes came with an ‘ish sauce’ which is a vegan fish sauce. The ‘ish sauce went perfectly with the coconut rice cakes and I found myself savouring every bite of this.

These are a must try because I’m not sure where else you could get these!

Satay noodles: The noodles came with a spicy peanut and sesame satay broth. Since the dish is called ‘satay noodles’, it could be interpreted as a stir fry but that was not the case.

It was very saucy, warming, and filling. The noodles soaked up the delicious broth.

Curry bowl: The rice curry bowl was warming and delicious as well. There was a very mild spice to it and was quite creamy. I loved the addition of the deep fried curly yam strings on the top! It gave the curry more excitement and some fun texture.

Overall, we left very satisfied with Do Chay with the exception of one dish. The food here is made with quality and care, and you can really taste it. Compare to Chau Veggie Express which is another vegan/vegetarian Vietnamese place nearby, Avocado and I both liked Do Chay more as we found the dishes more innovative and had richer, deeper flavour.

Do Chay is on the pricier side so I don’t see myself coming regularly, but it’s a great spot for something different and/or if you’re a vegetarian or vegan. Definitely don’t miss out on the coconut rice cakes!

Thai’s Saigon Bistro – Revisit

September 22, 2019 Leave a Comment

Thai’s Saigon Bistro has been one of my staple Vietnamese restaurants for more than 5 years now, ever since they opened! The food is consistently delicious, the family that runs this place is friendly, and it is in the neighbourhood.

It has been over 5 years since my last post, so I figured that warranted a revisit. I’ve noticed that the portion sizes have gotten smaller since.

Pho with rare beef and tripe: The pho portion here is quite small, which is my only complaint about this place. That being said, I still come here quite regularly so I clearly don’t mind that much.

The broth is flavorful and comforting. I don’t ever feel thirsty or lethargic after. If you’re really hungry, I would recommend the large instead of a small. Their large is probably the average size of pho elsewhere.

Chicken banh mi: The chicken banh mi here is amazing. Since the pho is quite small, the fiance and I usually split a side of the chicken banh mi which fills us up. The baguette is freshly toasted, and comes with this garlicky mayo sauce which is sooo good.

In addition, the chicken is very juicy and full of delicious grilled flavour. It’s a must get here. The veggies are also always very fresh.

Pork banh mi: During one of our visits, the fiance decided to switch it up and try the pork banh mi instead. The lemongrass pork was delicious and grilled perfectly as well.

My only complaint here would be the very small portions sizes for pho. The portion sizes for their other dishes such as the banh mi or vermicelli dishes aren’t as small. But everything is so delicious and the service is always very pleasant, so we will continue to come here as one of our top picks for Vietnamese food.