restaurant review Archives - Curiously Carmen

The Last Crumb Bakery

March 16, 2015

Hi everyone,

Valentines Day for the boyfriend and I was mostly spent eating out and trying new places, we tried a total of 3 new restaurants in one day. In the afternoon, we went for brunch and dessert followed by a lovely dinner at The Fish House in Stanley Park.

I had my eyes set on taking him to The Last Crumb, since I thought he would enjoy the peanut butter pie! I called The Last Crumb to confirm that it was not a daily rotation special. They confirmed that it was baked year round, but could not guarantee it would be on the shelf since it is very popular.

We drive past this area quite often and Main Street is one of our favourite neighbourhoods in Vancouver to eat in, but I’ve never really noticed this place. I think because their sign is small and hanging on the top, so if you’re in a vehicle and looking out the window, it’s not at eye level? I always thought it was some kind of furniture or interior design store… not a bakery with yummy goodies!
The cafe is very spacious and simply decorated. I really liked how roomy it was in there, yet it didn’t feel too big. There is also a small alcove upstairs with more tables, and even a little play station for toddlers!
I’m happy to say that they still had the peanut butter pie! Obviously, it was a big hit with the boyfriend and he thought it was amazing. Peanut butter lovers, this one is for you. Very rich in peanut butter flavour and creamy, although the texture itself was a bit soft like whipped cream if that makes any sense.

I normally do not like peanut butter desserts, but I gave it a try anyways. I was pleasantly surprised to find it okay! I think it was due to the caramel drizzle and Reese peanut butter chunks inside that sealed the deal for me. I wouldn’t order this for myself, but wouldn’t mind having a few bites to share.

The crust was a layer of cookie crumbs. I want to say Oreo, but it was not sweet at all so it’s probably some other type of crust filling. It balanced the sweetness of the rest of the cake.
I wanted something for myself too, and ordered a herbal fruity tea called “Hanna’s picnic tea”. It was slightly sweet even though I didn’t add any sugar. It was also pretty concentrated in flavour.

I can’t believe I didn’t see this when we were going up the stairs, but look how interesting this is – real tea cups and saucers glued on to an otherwise plain wall!

This would be a nice place to get dessert after dinner, but sadly they are only open mornings until late afternoon.

Are you a peanut butter lover? Would you give the pie a try?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar- Convention Center location

February 15, 2015

Hi everyone!

Sometimes, as a food blogger, you will visit one of those restaurants that are so bad that you don’t even want to waste your time writing or even thinking about it. But at the same time, you want to warn people before they go to said restaurants. Well, Rogue at the Convention Center is one of those said locations. If I knew how bad the food and service would be, I would have definitely tried another place. This place was definitely one of the worst places I’ve been to in a while, food and service wise.

Walking in, I was very impressed with the decor and location. They had floor to ceiling windows, which let in a lot of sunlight and there was a beautiful view of the water outside. Unfortunately, that’s where it stopped with Carmen being impressed.

My friend and I decided to share the chicken and chorizo cappelini, which sounded delicious on paper. What arrived and what we tasted was another story. The cappelini noodles were extremely mushy, bland and soggy. In addition, the entire plate was void of any flavour, just soggy, mushy, disgusting noodles.

The worst part of the dish was how oily it was. The entire time we were trying to stomach this down, all we saw was oil gleaming from every angle and all we tasted was bland, soggy noodles.

After a few bites, we were done and couldn’t eat anymore. I don’t know how they can serve this out to customers and charge $17 for it. Take it from our experience and save yourself the money, do not order this.
My friend and I also shared the spicy tiger prawn and pesto pizza. I had this at the other Rogue location in Waterfront station, which was really good! However, we were disappointed again when we picked up a slice, and it collapsed due to how much greasy oil was on the thin crust dough. The whole pizza was incredibly oily, to the point where it was so unappetizing that neither of us wanted to eat it anymore.

I tried to salvage it by dabbing my napkin to soak up the oil, but my napkin was drenched in oil after two slices and service was so slow and rude that I didn’t want to ask for more napkins. The pizza was also cut really badly and uneven, some of the pieces were four times larger than others. I’m sorry, but this was just terrible.

There weren’t many prawns on the dish either and tasted nothing like what I had at the other Rogue, I can’t believe they are sister restaurants.
I’m so glad that I ordered a side soup because this was the only minimal dish I had that day. This was the tomato basil soup. I’m not sure if they can cook their soups really well, OR if my standards for this place had gone so low that I thought this was good. There was a strong tomato taste to it, and had a bit of a thicker consistency. It had the right amount of herbs and saltiness, and the melted Parmesan added a nice finishing touch.

Moving on to the rude service. Service was very minimal, and when our server did come, she seemed to be in a really big rush and did not want to serve us. I asked for a hot honey water, which never came so I asked another server as she was walking by. Bad choice. She literally THREW it down on our table and walked away so fast that we couldn’t ask her to bring our server.

My friend was also missing her utensils and water, which took us three tries before our server got it for us.

It’s safe to say that I will not be returning to this Rogue location after how gross our food was and how bad the service was.

-Carmen

Hapa Beach- What happened to you?

January 26, 2015

Hi all!

Before I begin: I am doing a Cetaphil skincare set giveaway which is super simple to enter! Details and enter here!

Fun fact- The first restaurant post I ever did was on Hapa Izakaya last year at Dine Out Vancouver. We had an amazing time there, from the delicious food, ambiance, and friendly servers. With that said, we were really looking back to coming here again and I booked our reservation right away.

Hapa Beach, I’m not sure what happened to you. Change in ownership? We left very disappointed, the quality and preparation of the food comparable to all you can eat restaurants, minus the heaps and heaps of food. It was nothing like this the first time, I can’t believe that it is the same restaurant we went to a year ago.

When we first stepped in, we could tell that it was already busy. The hostess was on the phone for a few minutes before she was able to greet us, and we were sat quickly afterwards. We were also reminded a few times of the 1.5 hour dining limit.

For the first choice of appetizers, we ordered the taster appetizer (above) and bagna cauda fondue (below). The taster appetizer came with bok choy gomae, edamame beans, and tuna carpacccio. The bok choy was crunchy and fresh, with a generous amount of gomae sauce.

The tuna capaccio was very fresh and the ponzu sauce was good, but the portion was really small so just a heads up there (Yes, I understand that it’s an appetizer and also DOVF menu). The chilled edamame beans weren’t that great. It didn’t taste fresh and was over seasoned.

Ever since having amazing bagna cauda at Rajio , we wanted to try Hapa’s. The sauce was not mixed well, or it sat out for too long and separated. It was also bland in flavour, and one of the veggie pieces my boyfriend had was bitter.

The second course was the worst and this was when it reminded us of being at an all you can eat restaurant instead of at a nice izakaya. Let’s start with the aburi saba. It was mediocre, there was a slight grilled and smoky taste to it but it was not prepared well at all. Felt like they just slapped a bunch of pieces onto big chunks of rice, then put it on a plate to serve.

The agedashi tofu was drowned in the sauce and floating in oil. It did not look fresh at all, I’ve had better agedashi tofu at all you can eat actually. I’ll let this picture do the talking:

The outside batter of the tofu was slimy and sticky, and came right off the tofu when we tried to eat it. It lacked all flavour and just looked disgusting and pathetic in the bowl. We asked to exchange for the gyozas (the only thing left on the second course menu) instead because we are not eating or paying for this “tofu” . Where was the quality in this?

Although the servers were really attentive and nice, they seemed pretty new and said they had to ask the manager if they were able to switch for us. Fair enough. In the meantime, our main dishes were brought to us- more like being quickly thrown onto the table and having the servers dashing away before you could say thanks. Another point- shouldn’t a nicer establishment like Hapa have better service?

After all the disappointing starters (minus the few bok choy and quarter sized tuna carpaccio), our mains arrived. The spicy pork ishiyaki came with a decent amount of pork, and a raw egg that they stir in for you. The stone bowl is really hot and cooks it, and you’re also recommended to leave the rice for a few minutes so that it can become crispy due to the side of the bowl.

It also came with chives, which did not taste fresh either.

The boyfriend ordered the cho wagyu- four thinly sliced pieces of raw Kobe beef, which you cook yourself with the black stone and dip in ponzu sauce. Again, the portion was really small and thin although from the angle of the picture, it looks like a thick cut. He said it was pretty chewy, althought he made sure not to overcook it.

Again, he said it was pretty disappointing due to the size. I’m glad I ordered the rice bowl and we ended up sharing that.

When we were done our main course, our replacement appetizer came- pork gyozas. The server apologized for the ~~slimy tofu mess~~ agadashi tofu, and said since it was deep fried, that’s why it was oily. No, I know that deep fried food is oily…but the point was that the tofu batter was slimy and tasteless.

Anyways, the gyozas were not your usual gyozas. They came with minced pork, layered with lotus root and then deep fried. This was a LOT better than the slimy tofu mess. We weren’t sure if we actually enjoyed this dish a lot, or if everything else so far was so mediocre or abysmal that this was delicious.

Either way, the gyozas were cooked well and crispy. The lotus root made it really filling and there was a good amount of pork inside as well.

As for service, the entire time, we felt like we were being rushed. Our food was coming really fast and we had servers quickly taking away our dishes. They had told us 3 times about the 1.5 hour seating limit, we were there for a bit under a hour. It felt like the servers were there to just toss dishes on the table.

I’m not sure if I’ll come back but I kind of want to give them one last chance since we had a great time here last year. I feel like there might have been a change in management as the name of the place changed from Hapa Izakaya to Hapa Beach, but I think they’re still under the Hapa Izakaya family. All the more current reviews at Hapa are pretty negative as well.

Read a happier, more positive, and YUMMIER post on our original visit here.

Did you come here for Dine Out or just recently? I’m really curious to see if we just came on a bad day…

-Carmen

Las Margaritas (Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2015)

January 25, 2015

Hi everyone,

First off, have you noticed the domain change? Yep, I have retired my old site and will be posting on curiouslycarmen.com from now on! Same me, different site =)

Dine Out Vancouver Festival is upon us for yet another year! While many people do not like DOVF because they claim you won’t get the “full” or authentic experience, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to try it out. Also, you’re not limited to just ordering off the DOVF menu, you are able to order from the regular menu as well. Some places offer great deals that you wouldn’t see elsewhere.

There were so many restaurants I wanted to try this year, but had to refrain myself or I would be spending waaayy too much money on food. Instead, I asked the boyfriend to pick some restaurants that he wanted to try and we would narrow it down from there. For my first dine out, I went to Las Margaritas, which I’ve been wanting to go for quite some time now!

Las Margaritas is easily distinguishable from the rest of the shops on the block. It was a nice, exterior Spanish design with bright colours. You can’t miss it!

Our reservation was made for 7:30, but the parking gods were on our side that night and we showed up 10 minutes early. The restaurant was really busy, and I overheard them saying the wait for walk in customers would take at least one hour… so glad that we made a reservation. They weren’t ready for us since we were a bit early, and we were seated around 7:35.

One small detail that I appreciated about this place was their tiled tables! I loved the detail and thought it looked really good.

For a place with the name margaritas in it, you better expect that they have delicious margaritas. While we were waiting for our spot, we read the menu and found out that they were famous for their margaritas, so we decided to give it a try. We ordered the melon margarita ($8.95), which came with Sauza Gold Tequila, melon liqueur, pineapple juice, peach nectar and their own sweet & sour mix.

I really enjoyed the flavours of the margarita, and could not taste the alcohol in it at all even though it was a double shot. It was really fruity, and had some pulp in it which was a nice added surprise! It was not exactly a slush texture though and didn’t have a rimmed glass, but I didn’t mind.

To start off, we received complementary salsa and tortilla chips, which apparently they were famous for as well. The tortilla chips were crunchy and tasted pretty standard, but they were served warm which was a nice surprise! The salsa had a strong onion and fresh taste to it. Overall, really good for a complementary dish!

One of the options for the DOVF appetizer menu was the pozole, a chicken and white corn soup simmered in chilies and spices. On the side was an assortment of fresh red onions, dried chili peppers, and oregano. The chicken in the soup was extremely tender and well marinated, while the broth itself was absolutely delicious… I’m getting hungry just thinking about it again.

Adding the oregano, pepper, and fresh onions to the mix, you have yourself a sure winner. My favourite dish of the night.

The second appetizer we ordered (we pretty much shared everything btw) was the scallop ceviche. Everything in the ceviche was very fresh, with a hint of fresh lime juice. The chips were a bit too oily for my liking, however. I ate the cerviche with the leftover complementary tortilla chips instead.

Now, time for the main course! This was the chile en nogada, aka a poblano pepper stuffed with ground turkey meat, sauteed with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and apple. It was covered with a walnut cream sauce and pomegrante seeds, and came with a side of salad and beans. This was our least favourite dish that night.

There was a lot going on in the poblano pepper, but to us, the ingredients didn’t mix well together and was disappointing.
The second entree we had was the chile Colorado. It was cubed sirloin beef simmered in a chile guajillo and New Mexico chile sauce, with a side of white rice refried beans and corn or flour tortillas.

This dish was executed really well! The cubed sirloin beef was very tender, and went really well with the fresh red onion. The rice had some corn in it, so it wasn’t as boring or plain.

We also did not know that this dish came with tortillas, there was around 5 wraps. I guess I didn’t read far enough, I was sold on “cubed sirloin beef”. We ended up making our own “tacos”, filling it with the sirloin beef, rice, and salad/beans from the other dish, and topped it off with our choice of four hot sauces that were brought to our table.

I’m really glad that it came with the tortillas, otherwise we wouldn’t have been really full since the poblano pepper was a dissapointment.

For dessert, I chose the tres leche cake.Caramel lovers will love this cake for sure! It is called a “tres leche” cake because it is soaked in three different types of milk. I personally prefer my cakes to be light and fluffy, I didn’t like how it had a wet and soggy texture to it.

However, the flavour of the cake was definitely there, it’s just my personal preference that I didn’t like the soggy texture.

The boyfriend ordered churros that came with a chocolate dipping sauce. One bite of the churros and I had filled by sugar and dessert quota for the week, maybe even month- I kid you not. It was extremely sweet since it was rolled in sugar and chocolate sauce. All you sweet tooth lovers out there, this one is for you. I’ll stick with my savoury snacks instead.

Have you tried Las Margaritas, and if yes, how did you like it?

-Carmen

CRAFT Beer Market

January 16, 2015

Hi guys!

Wow, so I decided to read the reviews for CRAFT Beer Market before I wrote this post… All I can say is that I’m glad we came here spontaneously without checking the reviews (and if you’re a food blogger, that almost never happens!) or we would have missed out on a good time!

After visiting Bright Nights during the holidays, the boyfriend and I didn’t feel like going back home… so he sheepishly asked if I wanted some beer. Uhhhh… yes?! I asked him why he sounded hesitant to ask me. He said it was because we usually only grab beer or go to pubs with friends, and wasn’t sure if couples go get beer as a date. I’m not sure if couples normally get beer alone together, but I don’t really care because I’ll get beer any day! On a whim, we thought of CRAFT because we’ve always wanted to try it, but somehow always end up at Tap and Barrel across the street.

All this rambling and I haven’t even gotten to the food yet, wow. We arrived around 9pm on a busy Saturday night, and were quickly seated at a corner booth with really cozy, plush leather seats. We had a great view of the big and noisy restaurant, but were also seated in an area quiet and cozy enough to have conversation.

One thing I have to agree on with the other Urbanspoon reviews is that service here is slow, so don’t come here if you are in a rush. It took us 10 minutes before our server came. Throughout the night, I could tell that she was busy but she did make an effort to be friendly, ask how we were doing, etc.

CRAFT has an extensive and impressive amount of craft beer. The beer menu is almost endless and overwhelming! I wanted something citrus-y, and decided to try the Blanche de Chambly, a type of Belgian pale ale. It did not disappoint, and hit the spot perfectly. It was refreshing, citrusy, and light topped off with a great, velvety layer of foam. The boyfriend ordered a darker beer, the Ayinger Celebrator which was very malty and hoppy.

The boyfriend ordered the poutine, which was served hot on a pan (we were warned not to touch the pan or we would get burnt). I also read reviews that some guests received cold poutine, but ours was steaming hot and came with an abundance of melted cheese, gravy, and salt. I didn’t have many because I wasn’t feeling like fried food that night, but the boyfriend enjoyed the poutine a lot. The hotness of the fresh fries melted the cheese to a great consistency, topped off with peppers and herbs, making it a very satisfying munch.

Fun fact about me: I am not a veggie person, but the only exceptions are kale and arugula. I loooove arugula in my salads, pizzas, and flatbreads. I ordered the prosciutto argula flatbread with Grana Padano cheese. The flatbread was very doughy, and not too thin which I liked. It was topped off with a generous amount of fresh and crunchy arugula, as well as grated Grana Padano. I didn’t really taste much of the proscuitto due to the overwhelming flavours of the arugula and cheese, but I did see it there.

Overall, our visit to CRAFT was wonderful, even though service was slow. Our server was really friendly and was making an effort to check on us when she could, but it’s wasn’t really her fault. I loved the atmosphere, the long communal dining tables, the beautiful city view, and the empty keg display they had as well.

Are you a fan of craft beer, and which ones are your favourite? Have you been here before? Let me know in the comments!

On another note, I’m also currently giving away a free Cetaphil skincare set (suitable for both females and males!) until February 2nd! Read my post here to enter and full details =)

-Carmen