curiouslycarmen, Author at Curiously Carmen

MILA

November 8, 2020

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.

Nando’s Flame Grilled Chicken

November 5, 2020

Nando’s is a reliable, delicious restaurant that the fiance and I go to from time to time. We probably have Nando’s 2-3 times a year. Usually, we go to the Nando’s at Garden City in Richmond which you can about read here.

This time, we ordered delivery from the Kingsway location by Metrotown. This is not the same location as the Nando’s inside Metrotown food court. On a side note, we went to the Metro food court location a few years ago and the chicken was raw inside so we’ve been wary of that location since.

1/2 chicken with mashed potatoes: I ordered a 1/2 chicken with mashed potatoes. It comes with a chicken breast and thigh. The portion was huge and I was only able to finish half of it!

As usual, the chicken was juicy and delicious! I ordered the medium spice which gave the chicken a spicy kick. There was a nice char to it that added a delicious grilled flavour as well.

The mashed potatoes were smooth, buttery, and garlicky. There was also some herbs sprinkled inside and some potato skin which gave the mashed potatoes more texture. It was so creamy and delicious!

Just writing about this is making me hungry….

1/2 chicken w/ spiced rice: The fiance also ordered a 1/2 chicken, but with a spiced rice instead! The spiced rice was fragrant and delicious.

His 1/2 chicken was also very juicy and delicious with a spicy kick.

Nando’s is always a great choice! The chicken is always delicious and juicy. We definitely ordered too much, but no regrets because we enjoyed it the next day.

In the future if I’m reading this, it’ll probably be enough to order 1/2 chicken with sides! (I just read my old review and we shared a 1/2 chicken, so I have no idea why we ordered so much this time… whoops)

Delhi Fusion Indian Cuisine

November 1, 2020

Indian food is a cuisine that the fiance and I have been trying more recently. Prior to this year, we didn’t really get Indian food that much, but we have been really enjoying it and getting to know the different dishes!

Before settling down and finding our go-to delivery place, we have been trying different places. After looking on UberEats, Delhi Fusion looked decent so it was the pick that evening.

Delhi Fusion seems to be a new restaurant too. After looking at reviews online, the oldest Google review was only 2 months old and I don’t see it on Google street view either (it was last updated in May 2019). They are located on Commercial Drive.

Samosa: The samosa skin was thicker and crunchier than I’ve had at other places, so I wonder if they deep fry it twice here. The samosa skin on the outside was also really flavourful, they marinated the skin with some sort of herb mix before frying which was delicious. The samosa filling could have used a bit more flavour, but it was not bad.

Mango chicken: I usually go with a biryani, but after being disappointed a couple times with it I decided to try something else this time. The mango chicken sounded interesting, and I love mango so why not give it a try!

I wasn’t really sure of what to expect, but it was really good and I’d order it again. There weren’t any real mango chunks in it, so I am assuming that they use mango juice or puree in the sauce. I’m used to Indian food being more spicy and savoury, but the sauce was really sweet this time. The sauce also had a thick and creamy consistency.

Since most people are familiar with butter chicken, I will use it as an example to compare (Not minimizing all Indian food to butter chicken, it’s just one of the Indian dishes that is most popular). Compared to butter chicken, I found the mango chicken to be sweeter but the consistency was the same.

Madrasi chicken: Just like how I usually order chicken biryani, the fiance’s go-to is chicken korma. However, he was also feeling adventurous this time so he went with the Madrasi chicken, which we have yet to try before.

Madrasi chicken originated from the city of Madras, India. Compared to other Indian dishes, Madrasi chicken is known for its tangy flavour. We also enjoyed this dish. Since the mango chicken was pretty sweet, I enjoyed the spicy kick of the Madrasi chicken. In addition, there were some coconut flakes inside which gave the dish a bit of a textural crunch and slight sweetness.

Rice: Both of the dishes came with fluffy basmati rice. I appreciated the addition of a few green beans, to add some colour to the dish.

Overall, we were impressed with Delhi Fusion and wouldn’t mind ordering from them again!

South Castle Korean Restaurant

October 28, 2020

While looking for a place to have dinner, Sangria suggested South Castle Korean Restaurant. She’s driven by it many times and has been wanting to try it for awhile.

The name sounded familiar to me, and after looking it up, I saw that they also have a location in North Van. I remember hearing good things about the North Van location so I was looking forward to trying the Burquitlam location.

One thing you should know is that parking is tricky here. There are only a couple of spots in the front. This entire street is one long connected strip mall and you can only enter from one direction of Austin Avenue, going eastbound. If you’re coming from westbound, you will have to do a left turn and U-turn to get on the other side of Austin Avenue, then drive down the strip mall stretch.

We did a couple of loops until I saw a sign at the end of the strip mall by the auto shop, that there was parking underground. We parked in the underground parking underneath the auto shop, but then realized that each store has their own small underground lot and moved the cars under South Castle. Phew!

When Sangria and I finally came in after the parking confusion and the guys were moving the cars, we were greeted coldly by the waitress.

This set the tone for service during the rest of the evening. We all found her to be cold, dismissive and rude the entire visit, more on that below.

Banchan: We started off with some banchan. The kimchi here was served in cubes and were more sour than spicy. The fish cakes were delicious although a bit on the salty side. Lastly, we’ve never had this type of preserved onion banchan before. By itself, the taste was very strong but it went well with the rice.

Seafood pancake: The seafood pancake was not cut up already, but we were provided scissors so no big deal. The pancake was delicious, with lots of veggies as you can see! There was more veggie than batter, I’m not complaining about that.

Sun du bu: Sangria had a hard time choosing what to get, and eventually decided on the spicy tofu and seafood soup. At first, she was underwhelmed because she only found 1 measly shrimp inside the bowl. However, turns out the rest of the seafood was at the bottom so all was good. The spicy tofu and seafood soup packed a spicy punch and she enjoyed it.

I forgot to take a photo, but all of our bowls came with rice too. They added some purple rice in there which has more health benefits and nutrients than white rice. Plus, the purple rice was cool to look at haha.

Gam ja tang: Lager and the fiance both ordered the spicy pork stew. When this first arrived at the table, the cold waitress said the name of it very quickly in Korean.

Since we didn’t know the Korean name, we were all a bit confused and she repeated the same thing in Korean. I tried to stand up to see if I could tell whose dish it was, but then she got exasperated at us and dropped it on the table for us quite rudely and left. To quote Lager, she was intense! We also asked for a water refill but it didn’t come until I asked for it again.

Despite her attitude, the gam ja tang was delicious. It was very spicy and flavourful. The pork was tender and fell off the bone too. Both the fiance and Lager really enjoyed it.

Kal bi tang: I went with the beef rib stew. This was delicious as well! The broth was very flavourful and the beef was tender.

All in all, the food was delicious. However, the service was really rude that day and that put a damper on the visit. With a plethora of delicious and authentic Korean restaurants here, I would rather go somewhere with better service.

The Alley – Richmond Location

October 25, 2020

I remember when The Alley opened their first location in downtown 1.5 years ago. They were the first bubble tea shop to offer soy milk alternative, so I really wanted to try it because I was missing out on the brown sugar milk craze.

There were crazy line ups so I was planning on trying it in a few months, but by then I found other bubble tea shops that started to offer non-dairy brown sugar milk drinks (such as Jenjudan, Chun Yang, Ding Tea, Dive In Dessert Bar if you also can’t drink milk!) and I forgot about The Alley. Since then, they have opened a second location in Richmond which is where I will be reviewing today!

After having lunch with Maki at Deer Garden in Continental Plaza, I was originally going to take her to Blackball Dessert just across the parking lot. However, after such a filling lunch, we both didn’t feel like eating dessert so we decided to get drinks for later from The Alley which was also in the same plaza.

Due to the pandemic, The Alley was not offering any dine-in and all the chairs and tables were gone. The cafe was pretty small but had very high ceilings so it didn’t feel that small. I’m a big fan of deer art, so I appreciated the big deer mural and deer paintings.

Brown sugar deerioca fever with soy milk: I went with the brown sugar drink! This was delicious. The brown sugar gave the drink a nice, smooth, caramel taste to it. Meanwhile, the brown sugar pearls were very fresh, soft and chewy. It was perfect.

Jasmine green milk tea: I ordered this for the fiance. He really enjoyed the drink. There was a strong jasmine flavour.

Trio milk tea: Maki ordered this for Nigiri and he enjoyed it! It is called the “trio” because it came with pearls and two types of jelly inside. The milk tea was rich and flavourful. Also, the quality of the large cups were great. The cup was very thick and sturdy and you could probably reuse it a few times.

Royal no. 9 milk tea: For herself, Maki ordered a different milk tea. She enjoyed hers as well. There was a hint of jasmine in the tea and she found the milk tea to be really smooth and delicious. Even at 70% sweetness, it was still sweet enough for her.

I’m glad that I finally tried The Alley and wish I came sooner! We all enjoyed our drinks and had no complaints about it. Everything was made with quality and the prices were reasonable too. I would definitely come back here to get my bubble tea fix.

Despite only one visit, they have quickly risen to one of my top recommendations for bubble tea.