The boyfriend and I didn’t know where to go for lunch one day, so we decided to go to East One because it’s been a few years since we came here. East One has gone through many name changes and possibly owner changes throughout the year. Growing up as a kid, I remember coming here but it was a different name.

I also did a review of this place for their late night snacks back when it was called Venice Garden Seafood Restaurant – not sure if the owners are the same or not though.

The cuisine has always remained the same though – Hong Kong/Chinese comfort food.

We definitely over ordered but we brought the rest of it back for his little brother, who likes the food here!

Spaghetti bolognese: I’ve been ordering this dish for the past 15 years or so of my life (minus the 3 years I couldn’t have dairy), and don’t plan on switching anytime soon. It’s my comfort food and it usually tastes the same, but there are some restaurants who don’t make it as well. This is the boyfriend’s little brother’s comfort food too and he is quite picky about it, but he likes the one at East One so I ordered it.

It did not disappoint! There was a generous portion of meat, and there was enough sauce to evenly distribute it with the noodles. It was also cheesy as well. It was a delicious carb heavy treat!

Pepper beef with crispy chow mein: Another classic comfort food! This was a pretty big portion which we ended up bringing back home as well.

There was a generous portion of beef. Meanwhile, the sauce was peppery and delicious. The chow mein was crispy too. Overall, no complaints about this!

Deep fried squid: This isn’t a traditional comfort food at Chinese/Hong Kong style restaurants and more of a Taiwanese dish, but the boyfriend’s family loves the squid here so we gave it a try. The batter was fresh and crunchy, with a good amount of squid.

Chinese/Hong Kong style restaurants are plentiful in Vancouver. East One is a decent option, at least for the things that we ordered. They also have many servers working so the service is quick and efficient.

An added bonus is that they are not cash only!
Yay!

One evening, Maki suggested that we go and try a place that she’s been hearing good things about, Happy Tree House BBQ. When I first heard of the name, it reminded me of Happy Tree Friends and the whole night, I kept calling it Happy Tree Friends. FYI, I would not recommending watching that show.

Anyways, Happy Tree House BBQ is located on Kingsway Street in Vancouver. It is relatively new and specializes in Northern Chinese BBQ, which is something I haven’t had before. Nigiri mentioned that he felt like he was in China because a lot of restaurants there are similar to Happy Tree House.

The restaurant was clean, spacious, and really big! It was comfortable and suitable for large groups. There was also K-pop/C-pop blasting and music videos playing. It’s a good place to go with friends on the weekend.

Most of their items come spicy, which I wish I knew before we ordered. I love spicy foods but my stomach can’t handle it much these days, so I avoid eating it. The server said that if we put in a non-spicy request, they could have accommodated but it was too late.

The meats that they offered were a lot different than what I was used to at a BBQ. They serve organs, tendons and cartilage which could be off putting to people used to Western culture… but in Chinese culture, eating organs and tendons is quite popular and encouraged because they contain a tremendous amount of nutrients such as iron.

We weren’t sure what to order, so Maki just ordered a bunch of things and we hoped for the best! All the BBQ sticks came at once and it was really hard for us to differentiate what meat was what. So the dinner became a game of guessing what meat we were eating =P.
Assorted meat: As mentioned above, we weren’t able to distinguish which type of meat it was before eating it. We ordered a combination of lamb kebab, Angus beef, pork, chicken gristle and chicken gizzards. There is usually a minimum of 3-5 skewers per meat type, which is how I’m assuming they keep their business afloat.

Most of the meats were spicy so I couldn’t eat it 🙁 but I did try a few pieces. The meat was fresh and juicy and bursting with flavour. They used a lot of cumin seasoning which I personally loved! Of course, there was a good amount of spicy kick in it. If I was to come back and order non-spicy, it still would have been delicious because of the variety of spices they use.

Bull backtraps: None of us had an idea of what bull backtraps were… but decided to order anyways. I didn’t have any because it was spicy, but the general consensus was that the bull backtraps were extremely chewy and dry. It did not sound appetizing. The boyfriend had so much trouble trying to bite this that he gave up.

Scallops: The scallops were dusted with a combination of seasoning which was delicious. The most dominant seasoning was white pepper which I love. White pepper is such a comforting spice to me because it reminds me of Chinese soup.

Squid tentacles: I was eager to try this but didn’t know it was spicy, so I didn’t end up having any. There weren’t any complaints about this dish but others mentioned that it was very spicy.

Veggies: We wanted to balance the meat ratio, so we ordered a simple plate of veggies. All the veggies were fresh and we had no complaints about it.

Mung bean pasta: Maki said that this was one of their most popular dishes, so we gave it a try! It was served chilled and had a jelly like consistency to it. It was very flavourful with a hint of spice.

Hand made noodle in bone broth: UGH, I forgot to take a photo of my noodles! =( Since most of the dishes were spicy and I didn’t want to upset my stomach again, I decided to order a soup noodle. I love hand made noodles so I wanted to see how they were here. The hand made noodles were chewy and slightly dense. I believe they were seasoned with white pepper before being cooked, because I could taste it in every bite. However, the bone broth was disappointing and flat. It tasted like boiled water. On the plus side, you know that it is healthy and ‘ching’. I’m glad that the noodles had flavour!

Despite not being able to eat most of the food due to spice, I would still recommend coming to Happy Tree House BBQ if you can/like spicy food and meats. The meat is juicy, fresh and well seasoned. They have a lot of servers working so it’s easy to waive someone down. I would recommend making a reservation because it was packed at peak dinner time, around 7-8pm.

Yay!

 

The boyfriend and I were having one of those indecisive nights about what to do for dinner… we must have spent over a hour thinking of a place!!! Anyways, we decided on Aree Thai since it’s been years that we went, but as we were looking for parking it looked absolutely dead… like the waitress was watching movies on her laptop and there were no tables. At this point, we just quickly pulled up Yelp and entered in ‘Richmond’, Shanghai River showed up so off we went. It was a spontaneous decision but it ended up being a really good dinner.

Shanghai River is located in Richmond by No. 3 road. There is free underground parking in the apartment tower that it is in, just make sure you read the signs for the parking. Walking in, it was more upscale than we thought it would be.

There is also a clear glass window where you can see the workers making fresh XLB.

Stir fry sticky rice cake: When thinking of Shanghai food, this is one of my top picks. It’s been awhile since I had this! The rice cakes were perfectly chewy and dense. People usually underestimate them but they are actually quite filling. There was lots of ‘wok hei’ which made it even more delicious. The literal translation of wok hei is ‘wok breath’. I’m not sure how it works exactly but if the wok is at a high enough temperature, it has a distinct delicious taste. The only negative thing was that it was very oily.

Dan dan noodles: This is the boyfriend’s must have when we go for Shanghai food. He fell in love with it and still talks about how delicious it was. The peanuts were very fresh and crunchy and it had a good amount of spice in it.

Xiao long bao: We wanted to compare the XLB here to other places that we tried! It was delicious. They were fresh and juicy.

Pan fried dumpling: Although we had so much food, the boyfriend insisted on trying this as well. Compare to the XLB, the skin was  alot thicker. It also had a slight sweetness to it. The meat inside was nice and juicy.

We ordered so much food that we had enough for leftovers the next day! We will definitely be back to Shanghai River when craving some Shanghai food. It was a great find on Yelp!

Yay!

After going to Din Tai Fung in Seattle, a Michelin-star chain of Taiwanese restaurants, I was wanting to try Dinesty Dumpling House to see how it compared. Dinesty is pretty popular in Vancouver and it is one of Cocoa’s favorite restaurants, so off we went one Saturday evening!

We made a reservation at their Burnaby location just incase it was busy. It is located a block away from Metrotown, in the same building as Trattoria and element hotel. Good thing we made a reservation because it was packed!

Drunken chicken: Cocoa loves the drunken chicken here so we ordered a plate to share. One thing that sets it apart from other drunken chicken dishes is that it is completely boneless. It is served at a nice chilled temperature. If you are a fan of drunken chicken, you would like the one here.

Xiao long bao: The XLB here were pretty good, although not as good as Din Tai Fung. I was hoping it would be similar so that I could get my fix in Vancouver. They were nice and juicy and came with a good amount of soup inside.

Taiwanese beef noodle soup: I found that the broth was pretty flat and didn’t have much dimension to it. The saving part of this dish was the super tender and flavourful beef brisket.

Dan Dan noodles: The boyfriend was disappointed in this, and rightfully so. There was a huge portion of noodles but not much flavor and no protein. It was no bueno.

Beef roll: The beef rolls were pretty decent, although the portion size wasn’t worth it for the price.

Shanghai pork buns: Just like the XLB, the pork buns were nice and juicy inside. They came lightly pan fried so they were slightly crispy when biten into.

I think this place is a hit or miss depending on what you order. Some items were good, but some were disappointing and not worth the price.

Meh…