curiouslycarmen, Author at Curiously Carmen

White Spot – Gilmore Location (Two Revisits)

April 6, 2021

White Spot has been advertising their chicken pot pie for awhile, and the fiance really wanted to try it. Advertising works! We went to the Gilmore Location (before restaurants closed for dine in again) so the fiance could have his chicken pot pie craving satisfied. On a side note, pot pies now remind me of Modern Family and Cam’s obsession with them.

I have been to the White Spot on Gilmore and Lougheed many times throughout the years. This location has been here for a long time and I hope it doesn’t get torn down for condos (although it wouldn’t be surprising since it’s so close to the Skytrain). I just never wrote a post on this location over the years so I thought I finally would.

We ended up coming back a couple of weeks later for their happy hour, so I included that in this post too. Again, these two visits were before restaurants closed for dine in again to prevent the spread of COVID!

Chicken pot pie: The chicken pot pie was satisfying and just what the fiance wanted. It was delicious, with lots of white meat inside. The pie crust was very flaky and crispy! To the fiance’s disappointment, this was a limited time offer so I am not sure if they still have it on the menu anymore.

The only minor complaint was that it was the only side dish was the salad and the fiance wanted fries. But we ended up swapping our side dishes so it wasn’t a big deal. Thinking back, we probably could have just asked them for fries as well.

Regardless of location, White Spot always has a delicious salad and this did not disappoint. The lettuce is always very fresh and crunchy.

Grilled chicken wrap: This is what I usually get at White Spot! You can pick between the crispy or grilled chicken. White Spot has delicious grilled chicken, their chicken burger is good as well. I find the wrap has too much sauce for my liking so I ask for no sauce or on the side. I’m a weirdo!

However, I found the chicken wrap disappointing here compared to other locations. The chicken was cut into very small chunky pieces instead of slices. It was also wrapped pretty loosely. Taste wise, it was not bad but I’ve had better chicken wraps at other White Spot locations.

Poutine: After noticing the happy hour deals, the fiance and I came for a late night meal (although I didn’t end up ordering happy hour because I saw chicken strips hahaha). The fiance enjoyed his poutine and said it was delicious and satisfying. There was the perfect amount of gravy and cheese curds.

Onion rings: I’m not a big fan of onion rings but the fiance enjoyed these a lot as well. The onion rings were served hot and crispy. There was a good amount for the happy hour price.

Chicken strips: For myself, I decided to try White Spot’s chicken strips! It is no secret that I love my chicken strips. The chicken strips here were delicious. Piping hot, crispy, and well seasoned. I ended up packing half of it for leftovers the next day and they were just as good after heating them up in the air fryer.

Overall, White Spot is a BC staple and you can’t go wrong with it. The one thing is that service can be slow sometimes, which would be my only complaint but otherwise, I enjoy getting my White Spot fix every once in awhile.

Ebisu – Robson

March 25, 2021

It has been awhile since I have gone to downtown for a meal (thanks COVID). Seeing that it was a nice day, I suggested going to Ebisu on Robson Street for their happy hour. We used to go to the Ebisu on Broadway a lot (like almost every weekend at some point!) but haven’t been there for a couple years. Since Broadway location’s happy hour was good, we decided to see if the Robson location would also be good.

I made a reservation on Open Table and selected the patio seating option, so I was quite looking forward to enjoying the sun and warmer weather. However, when we got to the restaurant, the patio was still closed so we had to sit indoors. That was disappointing since they gave the option to pick on Open Table.

Although we came for happy hour, we treated it like an early dinner. Their happy hour is from 3-6pm.

Raw oysters: Raw oysters are something I love, but try to only eat occasionally because of how risky food poisoning is. Did you know raw oysters are associated with a bacteria called vibrio, which could lead to limb amputation or even death in very serious cases? Anyway, I probably only eat raw oyster 1-2x a year to minimize my risk of food poisoning.

The oysters were on a great deal for happy hour, $1 an oyster. Raw oysters go for $1.50 usually for happy hour so I was happy to see the lower price here. The raw oysters were delicious. I was only going to eat 1 (HAH!) it was so good that we ordered more. They were creamy, juicy and briny. I can’t stop thinking about raw oysters now and am wanting to go back for more.

We ordered a second round as well. In the second round, the oysters came with some toppings and sauce inside. Personally, I prefer my oysters plain with a tiny bit of lemon juice so I can enjoy the full flavour of the oyster – maybe that’s weird? Anyway, I’m putting this here as a reminder to myself to ask for no toppings on the oysters.

Takoyaki: We used to always order the takoyaki at the Broadway location, so we tried it here as well. They were good here as well and I’d order them again.

Truffle fries: Another regular dish we ordered at the Broadway location! The fries were served piping hot, fresh and crunchy. However, it could have used more truffle oil because I didn’t taste much of it.

Salmon nigiri: This was a pretty good happy hour deal at $9 for 5 pieces. The salmon was fresh and tasty. I would definitely get this again, especially at the price point.

Grilled squid: This isn’t something we normally order, but it was on the happy hour menu so we decided to try it. It ended up being really good! There was a nice char to the squid and a grilled flavour to it.

We left satisfied and full from happy hour. I am sure we will be back, especially for those delicious buck a shuck oysters!

Milksha – Two Visits

March 19, 2021

There are so many new bubble tea places that it is hard to keep track of. I certainly don’t keep track of bubble tea places because it seems like there is one popping up every day. I usually rely on word of mouth or social media (although I was seeing Sun Tea very hyped up on social media but it turned out to be so bad), which is how I heard of Milksha.

There are currently two Milksha locations, and I won’t be surprised if more pop up. The original location is in downtown, and the second one is in Richmond.

This review is on the Richmond location, located inside Tian Shi Fu restaurant so they share the same entrance. Milksha is located in the waiting area before the restaurant. This small space used to be a Sharetea because I saw some old signs posted outside the restaurant.

Barley tea: Barley tea is something I haven’t seen on bubble tea menus before, only in Korean restaurants! I was excited to try it because I love my barley tea, and it is caffeine free. The barley tea was refreshing and delicious. It was my first time trying barley tea sweetened. This would be a perfect drink to cool off with on a hot day.

In addition, I loved the white honey pearls. They were perfectly fresh and chewy, and had a honey taste to them.

Barley tea latte: I was so excited to order that I accidently placed ordered the milk version on the UberEats app. I asked if I could switch to the non-milk version but it was already made so they said no. So we ended up with 3 drinks that visit and the fiance was happy to drink the tea latte later on.

The barley tea latte was just as good as the non-dairy version. Milksha uses 3.25% organic milk so the quality is quite good.

Izumo matcha fresh milk: The fiance decided to try their matcha drink. It was more on the sweet side and the matcha was not that strong or earthy. I prefer my matcha to be stronger but he enjoyed it. If you like stronger matcha, I’d recommend getting this with less sugar.

Ice Shavings of Orange Juice: On the second visit, I ordered another barley tea so I won’t include that again. This drink sounded interesting and the fiance didn’t want any caffeine, so he went with this. However, the drink name was misleading because it actually did contain tea. It tasted like an orange jasmine tea with some crushed ice on top.

This is an bad photo, but I wanted to show what the drink looked like since the cup was opaque. A strange and misleading name for a drink, but it was good as well although the orange had a slightly artificial taste to it.

We ended up trying the Milksha in downtown too, but ordered the same drinks as reviewed above so I don’t plan on writing another post. With all the bubble tea places popping up, Milksha is a decent choice and their honey pearls are delicious.

Argo Greek Restaurant

March 16, 2021

Greek food isn’t something I have regularly, but I do enjoy it a lot. I was looking for a Greek restaurant to order from on UberEats, and originally we wanted to try Trocadero. However, Uber kept saying they were unavailable but when I called the restaurant to check, they said their system was up and working. Since we were both getting hungry, we gave up and decided to try Argo as the second choice.

Argo is located on Canada Way by Boundary Road. It seems like there are a handful of good restaurants in this intersection, such as Simba’s Grill, Agra Indian, Charlie’s Chocolate Factory, Big Star Sandwich, and of course, Argo.

Chicken souvlaki: I love my chicken souvlaki, and that’s what I ordered that night! There was so much that I had half for dinner the next day as well. The chicken skewer was big, and seasoned well with a nice grilled flavour to it. It was sliiiiightly on the dry side, but not extremely dry. The rice was fluffy and seasoned well too.

I really enjoyed the Greek potatoes. They were extremely lemony and delicious. I’ve had Greek potatoes where it wasn’t marinated enough, so the middle of the potato didn’t have any lemon flavour. However, Argo’s potatoes were delicious and what stood out to me the most.

I asked for the Greek salad to have no feta cheese in it, but it was still good. The vegetables were fresh and crunchy. Overall, I was satisfied with my chicken souvlaki plate and would get it again.

Lasagna: This isn’t really a Greek dish, but they had it on the menu. The fiance absolutely loved the lasagna. The lasagna was extremely cheesy and full of beef and tomato sauce. The garlic bread on the side was very garlicky and soft too.

We both enjoyed our delivery from Argo and would get it again. The portion sizes were big (we had enough for 2 dinners) and the food was tasty.

Ramen Gaoh – Revisit

March 11, 2021

It has been awhile since we last went to Ramen Gaoh! The fiance wrote a post on it about two years ago. Ramen Gaoh is a decent choice for ramen in this area. They are part of the same group as Ramen Gojiro in downtown and Ramen Butcher in Chinatown.

I noticed that Ramen Gaoh has vegan ramen now, so I suggested that we come here. In the past, there wasn’t much I could eat (Once we came here and I ordered a small bowl of plain rice with ramen eggs lol). I’m not vegan, but ramen broth is too rich and heavy for my stomach problems.

I’m not sure when they added the vegan dishes but I am happy they did!

Chicken yuzu ramen: This ramen sounded interesting, so the fiance got this instead of his usual ramen. We were both surprised at how light and clear the broth was. The broth was pretty unique and something we haven’t had before. The yuzu was a nice addition in the broth and went well with the chicken.

The chicken yuzu ramen was served with thin noodles, which we both didn’t like as much because they were overcooked. It also came with some juicy slices of chicken and dumplings.

The fiance noted that it felt more like a wonton soup due to the thin noodles, light broth, and dumplings and I agree with that. For that reason, he would get the other ramen next time but had no regrets trying the chicken yuzu ramen.

Ramen Goah offers a free noodle refill, so the fiance asked for a thick noodle substitute instead of the thin noodles. Both of us prefered the thick noodles because the thin noodles reminded us of wonton soup. I love wonton soup, but I am here for ramen!

Misotarian vegan ramen: There were actually 3 options for vegan ramen which was impressive, usually restaurants only have one. The misotarian was not bad and I would get it again. The photo makes it look spicy but it wasn’t.

The noodles were cooked firm, and on the thicker side. My only complaint would be that I wish there was also tofu instead of only a single mushroom. It didn’t feel worth it to just have a single mushroom cut in half as a meat replacement, when the meat ramen is the same price. At least the mushroom was juicy and big.

Overall, our latest visit to Ramen Gaoh was delicious as usual. Ramen Gaoh is a great option in the area when you don’t want to go downtown for ramen. The service was also friendly and attentive.

On a side note, if you’re looking for vegan ramen recommendations, I have tried a few places now. You can read my vegan ramen reviews at Yah Yah Yah Ramen (my current favourite), Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba, Ramen Danbo, and The Workshop. Let me know if you have any other suggestions for vegan ramen!