curiouslycarmen, Author at Curiously Carmen

Tony’s Noodle House

July 26, 2015

Hi everybody!

Another noodle shop post today… can you tell I like noodles yet? I stumbled upon this restaurant while looking for Taiwanese noodles to eat around Oakridge back in April (Oops, super late post, sorry!). I was in the mood to try a new place, and the trusty Urbanspoon app told me that Tony’s had fairly good ratings and was right across the street from the mall. Wait, what?! I’ve been to this mall and driven by so many times, yet I’ve never seen this restaurant.

Turns out the restaurant is located across Oakridge on Cambie street, on the main floor of the building. Honestly, I thought that Tony’s was a Chinese herb/medicine store… half of their glass wall is securely gated by a white fence, and I never saw any food pictures!

The inside is pretty cramped and seating is not comfortable. Space was maximized for as many tables as they can possibly shove, leaving customers and staff to squeeze in between. Not a good place for a relaxing sit down meal, but somewhere you would go while in a rush and just wanted to fill yourself up with some delicious noodles.

I ordered the standard beef brisket with thick noodle. The soup was good, but I’ve had better at Wang’s… the flavour wasn’t as rich here though. The noodles had a nice bouncy and chewy texture to it. Initially, I was starving, but was really full and satisfied by the time the noodles were all gone.
Le boyfriend ordered the beef brisket as well, except with thin noodles and spice. It was only a tad bit spicy for our taste, but he enjoyed his bowl too. We found that the beef brisket here is the winner, and why we would want to come back. It was amazingly tender and came with a generous portion. A lot of times, the brisket contains a lot of tough tendon or fat which is a turn off to eat, but the pieces here were quality, tender brisket pieces.

Service was slow and rushed, but that was to be expected since they were busy. In a city where Taiwanese noodle joints are plentiful, Tony’s does not stand out but it’s not bad either. I wouldn’t mind coming back here if I was in the area, but it’s not a place where I would crave their food and drive here just to eat.

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Won Jo Korean Noodle House

July 21, 2015

Hiiii everyone!

Earlier in May, a couple of my girlfriends and I went to try Won Jo Noodle House on North Road. I never really got the chance to have Korean but I am starting to really love, and become familiar with the preparation and taste of the dishes.

Won Jo is an authentic Korean restaurant located in a tiny strip mall a bit past Lougheed Mall. Walking in, we were greeted by a kind, older Korean lady who gave us great service throughout our lunch.

Standard Korean appetizers! I always forget about these complementary appies although I’m unable to resist them. The kimchi tasted fresh and crunchy, while the seaweed was cool and refreshing. My favourite was the potatoes.

In the middle of the table, was a stove which was used for hot pot or BBQ-type dishes. Reading other reviews, I knew that the noodles would be cooked in a hot pot style. But what we were confused about was what if we wanted two separate types of soup?

We asked the lady if we were able to split two types of broth, but unfortunately they’re unable since it is one big communal pot on the table. Luckily, we both wanted the same thing and ordered the seafood hot pot. This might be a problem if your party does not agree on the same broth.

The homemade noodles were delicious, well-prepared, and bouncy! There was a generous amount of vegetables as well. The seafood had a very fishy taste to it, and was pretty light.

Unfortunately, we were both disappointed with the lack of seafood in the broth. Although the menu said it came with seafood, we only found a few clams, which were shriveled up and had slight freezer burn taste. Because of that, I wouldn’t order the seafood hot pot again and would want to try another broth.
We were glad that we only ordered one seafood noodle soup because we felt that it wasn’t worth the price. Instead, we split a Korean pancake and I’m happy to say that this was really delicious!

It was a pretty thick pancake, with a generous amount of filling inside. The outside was crispy, while the inside was bursting with ingredients.

Thinking about it is making me hungry again!

Our other friend ordered a spicy seafood soup, which came with a side of rice. After trying hers, I regretted ordering my noodle soup because this was really good.

It had a great amount of spiciness to it, and was cooked with quality and care. This dish felt super comforting and would be perfect for a rainy day! Unlike our ‘seafood’ soup which only had a meager few freezeburned clams in it, hers had a good amount of seafood and had a thicker broth.

I would recommend going to this place for an authentic Korean meal! I really enjoyed it and will come back whenever I’m craving some great Korean food, but would skip the seafood hot pot next time 🙂

What is your favourite Korean dish?

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant – Stingy restaurant =\

July 14, 2015

Hi everyone!!

Cheese and I decided to have lunch here one day because we were craving Hong Kong style iced lemon tea, and it was the closest place. I didn’t really have a good experience here last month, but I wanted to come back and give it another try.

I’m not sure I’l be back or not, their food isn’t that great because the restaurant is so incredibly cheap and stingy. There are definitely a lot better places, this place falls on the bottom for the make-your-own-noodle -soup combo category.

As I mentioned earlier, Cheese and I came here instead of our original plan at Sushi Uomo because we were craving HK style iced lemon tea. When our drinks came, the lemon slices were incredibly paper thin. The pictures don’t do it justice because you see the front of the lemon slice and not the side.

Because the lemon was so thin, our drinks did not taste authentic and tasted like plain sweet tea from McDonalds. It was pretty disappointing, and we ended up crushing our lemons completely to a pulp in order for it taste a tiny bit like HK lemon iced tea. Overall, it was pretty disappointing.

Continuing along to prove my point of how cheap they are, look at this french toast that my friend ordered. There was barely ANY custard in it, he felt like he was just eating two slices of bread.

There was also barely any syrup on the side, normally they provide a full small tin of syrup for you.

If there was an adequate amount of custard filling, the french toast would have been decent.
Cheese ordered the pumpkin and tomato fish soup with rice noodles, beef balls, and sliced beef.
I ordered my usual century egg and parsley soup with vermicelli, beef balls, and fish balls. I wanted cuttlefish but they were out. =(

The broth was lighter and more watery than I was used to, but the flavour was still good.

Overall, Duotian is pretty meh and I wouldn’t come back unless I was stuck in the area and REALLY, REALLY craving noodle soup. Cattle Cafe and Deer Garden are much better, and they are less cheap with their ingredients.

Have you been here? What did you think of it?

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Applebee’s – Roadtrip to the USA!

July 10, 2015

Hi readers!

Call us crazy, but some friends and I made the trip down to USA for some good ol’ indulgence in cheap American food. Yes, we drove all the way there just to eat, but ended up wandering around Bellingham after as well! I’ve only ever driven by Bellingham or went to Bellis Fair, so it was nice to go around and explore the rest of the city.

We headed down shortly after rush hour ended, and following an adventure at the US border, we were off to Applebee’s!

To start off, I decided to get a strawberry lemonade. I was quite tired that day and needed some sugar for energy! The lemonade was very tart and sour, because the strawberry syrup was at the bottom. Give the drink a good stir and it will taste a lot better.

This drink also came with fresh strawberries! I ordered a couple of these during our visit as they have unlimited refills.
Originally, we were going to go to Olive Garden but found out that Applebee’s was having a promotion! One appetizer, and two entrees for twenty dollars – so cheap! You could never get that sort of price and portion in Canada.

The boyfriend and I shared the deal, while my two friends got the same deal but the ‘upgraded’ version.

Pictured above was both of our appetizers which we all shared – boneless wings and onion rings. The boneless wings were very juicy, flavourful, and had a nice crispy exterior! They were delicious! I believe my friends ordered this with BBQ sauce. As for the onion rings, they were gigantic and very fresh and crunchy.

Both appetizers were very satisfying and it was a great start to our meal.

I ordered the chicken strips and fries. Again, the chicken strips were fresh and had a crunchy batter, just like our appies. They were also well seasoned and juicy. The fries were a bit too salty and I didn’t end up eating all of them.

The boyfriend ordered the cheeseburger. The onion and bacon were already inside the patty, which is why the burger looks pretty plain. He enjoyed the burger a lot.

As I mentioned above, my two friends decided to upgrade and get the $25 special instead of the $20. Cheese ordered the macaroni and cheese, which came with some bread and chicken strips.

He was in love at first bite! The mac and cheese was incredibly creamy, and full of garlic and herb flavour. The chicken strips were the same as the ones I ordered. He wanted to finish the mac and cheese, but it was so rich and creamy that he had to pack some leftovers.

Cocoa ordered the chicken steak and prawn with potatoes. Oh mannnn… I had a bite of her chicken and I was in LOVE. The garlic butter slowly melted and encompassed the chicken, and was so delicious! It was very juicy, bursting with flavour, and had a slightly grilled taste to it.

I wish I had ordered this instead and will probably get this the next time I’m at Applebee’s!

We were all very satisfied and stuffed after our meal at Applebee’s. We couldn’t believe how little we paid, yet how much food we got in return.

What is your favourite American chain restaurant?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Sushiyama

July 3, 2015

Hiiiii everyone!

I’ve passed by Sushi Yama numerous times, but to be honest, I didn’t really find it too enticing and easy to miss. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon this place on Urbanspoon (Now Zomato) and read great reviews on it – I was quite surprised!!

I finally got the chance to come here as an impromptu hangout with some friends in April. We came here because most other Japanese restaurants were already closed at that time (yeah, we had a craving at 10pm) and it was somewhat of a halfway meeting spot.

I don’t remember the exact hours, but this place closes late compared to most casual Japanese restaurants that close around 9:30/10pm. We were here until 11:30pm that night, and I don’t remember seeing them beginning to clean or close the restaurant yet.

Although it was a bit late for dinner, the restaurant was still pretty busy. There were only a few tables remaining when we were seated. The restaurant could use a bit of a renovation as the floor tiles looked worn out and slightly greasy, with visible built up dirt. The tables had some built up sticky residue as well. Oh well, it still works!

Macaroni had already ate, so she just ordered a small snack – wild salmon nigiri. We saw another customer eating this sashimi, and judging from the colour of it, we thought it would be pretty tasty and fresh!

The sashimi tasted fresh and was decent. My favourite place to get affordable, wild salmon sashimi is Kazu and I have yet to find another cheap/casual Japanese restaurant that is on par with the taste and quality of sashimi at Kazu, but Sushi Yama’s wild salmon sashimi was not bad!

Cheese ordered the normal salmon nigiri and thought that the piece was small for the price. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. =(
Continuing along, the boyfriend ordered the BC roll, chopped scallop roll, and hamachi roll. The BC roll was average, and he would have preferred the salmon skin to be slightly more crispy.

The chopped scallop roll was a winner that night, the boyfriend and my friend ordered it and they both loved it.

Lastly, the hamachi roll was alright but he said he would have liked it more if it was prepared like a negitoro roll, with the tuna mushed with the onion instead of chopped up pieces.

For myself, I had the tuna roll, salmon roll, dynamite roll, and yam tempura roll that I split with the boyfriend.

Overall, all of the rolls were pretty average and nothing really stood out. The prawn tempura did not taste fresh, we suspect that they use the leftover prawn tempura in the rolls as my friend ended up getting an order of tempura and it was perfectly fresh and crispy.

Sushi Yama is pretty average to me, but I wouldn’t mind coming back if I was in the area or wanted some late night sushi. The cleanliness of the restaurant could be improved, but overall we had a decent experience and I’m glad that I was able to check this place off my ‘to-eat’ list!

Have you been here before?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen