coffee and tea Archives - Page 9 of 11

Cat + Cafe = A visit to the Catfe

April 3, 2016

I got invited to the Catfe and seeing how popular it has been since opening two months ago in December, I decided to go and check it out!

Cat + cafe = catfe =^_^= There are many cat cafes in Asia, but Catfe is the first of its kind in Vancouver. In addition, all the cats at the Catfe are from the SPCA and are open for adoption. It’s a great way for potential pet owners to get a sense of what the cat’s personality is like, before adopting.
Of course, I forgot to bring my allergy pills! Yes, unfortunately I’ve been allergic to cats ever since I was a child. But cats are so cute! Luckily, my allergies only get really bad after two hours, so I just dealt with a itchy nose for the time being. My bad…

Catfe is located on the second level of Tinseltown. As you can tell from the picture, there is one main entrance (the full, clear glass door). The actual cafe where they serve food and where the cats are, are separated due to Vancouver’s health rules.

They have a LOT of cute cat themed merchandise for the cat lover in you! These would also make great gifts for those people in your life that have a huge affinity for cats. *insert heart eyes cat emoji here*
Vegan & gluten-free brownie, around $5: Many of their pastries are healthy and suitable for those with alternative diets. I ordered a brownie with peanut butter icing. The brownie was a bit on the dry side and lacked a chocolate flavour, but the peanut butter on top was delicious.

Let’s be honest here, you don’t come to Catfe for their food and drink. You come here to see the cute cats, so let’s enter the cat headquarters! I actually got pretty distracted by the cats and forgot about my brownie.

After washing my hands (a requirement before entering) and having a staff member go over all the rules with me (basically don’t be a jerk to the cats), I saw a big, brown sleepy cat on the counter, pictured on the top left. I am in awe at how he managed to snooze so deeply when there is so much going on around him. I wish I could do that too.

Many of the cats were sleeping when I went. Some were sleeping on the chairs, or in little shelves and boxes.

There was around seven cats when I visited Catfe. The number of cats vary each day, depending on if they have been adopted or not yet.
Here are some of the places for the cats to play. One of their entire wall is a wooden shelf for cats to crawl around in, or sleep in the holes.
They also have cat themed board games and children’s story books as well! It truly is a cat lover’s paradise here.
Hehe, a selfie with one of the sleepy cats. The chairs are cat themed too!
All in all, I think the Catfe is a great place for cat lovers. I wouldn’t recommend coming if you aren’t a fan of cats, because you are essentially paying $5 (with purchase from cafe) or $8 (no cafe purchase, just to see the cats) to see them.

Think of the Catfe as a cat shelter, but with average drinks/pastries, really cute interior design and better living conditions for the cats while they wait to be adopted.

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Complementary media pass provided, I paid for the food. All opinions are own.

Commodity Juicery

February 5, 2016

I don’t know about you, but I loooveee green juice! That might be hard for you to believe as I’m not completely into the whole healthy living lifestyle. I love my burgers, fries, and root beer, but sometimes I like to trade that in for some feel-good green goodness.

Commodity Juicery is a new juicery that opened up on Fraser Street in Vancouver, right across from Earnest Ice Cream. Since this area isn’t that busy or commercial, it is pretty easy to find parking. It is also easily accessible by bus (#8 Fraser or #25 UBC).

I was invited to a taste-testing and sampled a few of their juices and food offered on their menu. Here is what I thought!
Upon walking in, Commodity Juicery is pretty small but seating is comfortable. They have a service counter that doubles up as a table, which seats four people comfortable. There are also two lounge chairs by the window.

I loved how white, clean, and new everything was! They also have an open kitchen, which you can completely see the staff juicing on their ginormous industrial juicer or make the food. Half way through our taste testing, we got to see and talk to one of the staff members, who was creating more nut mylk and juices!
Top left, going clockwise

All greens #2: We started off with the least sweetest juice. This was made with kale, cucumber, romaine, celery, parsley, lime, and ginger. It was very light, and tasted like cucumber water with a hint of lime and celery. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t like this, but it wasn’t that bad! You would like this if you’re a fan of green juice like I am.

Mighty greens #3: Cucumber, green apple, mint, romaine, celery, kale, lime. This one tasted similar to all greens, except that it was sweeter due to the green apple.

Purple puppy #6: Beet, cucumber, cilantro, orange, apple. Compared to the previous two, this one was a LOT sweeter due to the orange and apple. My cousins both said there was a strong beet taste to this.

If you’re not a fan of the green juice taste but want the healthy benefits, I would recommend this one. It tasted like a regular, sweetened juice (even though there was no added sugar!).

Bright greens #4: Romaine, cucumber, kale, parsley, green apple, lemon. This one tasted pretty similar to the other two green juices. I enjoyed all three!

Top to bottom

Morning love #7: Carrot, yam, orange, lemon, cinnamon. This reminded me of the fall due to the cinnamon and carrot. It tasted like you were drinking a pie, if that makes any sense! It was very warming and smoothing.

Matcha mylk#12: Cashews, almonds, matcha, maple syrup, vanilla bean. Moving away from the green juices, we sampled one of their ‘mylks’ – all of their milk is dairy free and made with nuts.

This was really delicious! The cashews and almonds made it creamy, due to the higher fat content that nuts have. The vanilla bean taste at the end was the cherry on top of a delicious mylk.

Zucchini & kale chips: The zucchini chips were seasoned with sour kream (aka. cashew milk with seasoning), and tasted delicious! The kale chips were nice and thick, and flavoured with chili lime. Both chips were delicious and we couldn’t stop munching in between juice samples.

Vegan quinoa salad: I was surprised at how creamy the quinoa was, even without dairy! Again, it was made with cashew milk. There was a nice garlic flavour, with hints of fresh and sweet apple.
Vegan minestrone soup: This recipe was carried on from one of the owners grandma! How sweet. Even though it did not have any meat, I found this to be really delicious and something I could have daily. It was the perfect embodiment of a heart warming soup.

Vegan Caesar salad: Hands down, my favourite dish that day. I couldn’t stop thinking about this salad and telling my friends how amazing this was! This salad was so incredibly fresh, crunch, and creamy.

Did you know that the base of Caesar dressing is anchovies? I didn’t know that! In replacement of anchovies, they used dulce flakes which has a similar taste to anchovies.
Vegan coconut almond date bites: These cute little bites were delicious as well! They were very sweet due to the dates, while the coconut flakes gave it a nice crunch. These are perfect for a healthy dessert alternative and sure to satisfy those who have a sweet tooth.

In conclusion, Commodity Juicery opened my mind up about vegan eating, and how delicious and easy it can be. The juices were delicious as well and there is something for everyone, even if you’re not crazy about green juices.
Juices range from $10-12 a bottle, with food items ranging anywhere from $2-$10. If I could afford a $10 juice, I would come back here pretty often but until then, I’ll be continuously thinking of their delicious juices.

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Complimentary tasting in exchange for a review. Opinions are own.

Neverland Tea Salon

November 27, 2015

I can’t believe that I forgot to talk about Neverland Tea Salon. I was in the middle of switching phones in the summer, and the photos were taken on my old phone and I completely forgot about them after I got my new phone. Nonetheless, a late review is better than no review – especially if it is a place as magical as Neverland Tea Salon.

I first stumbled upon this place after a meager dinner experience at Ramen Sanpachi, over a year ago. We were walking around the street after dinner, and although the lights were off and the place was closed, I knew I had to come back to Neverland Tea Salon one day. I kept this place at the back of my head until Bubble suggested to go to high tea!

We also had Entertainment Book coupons for high tea so decided to go before things got busy in the Fall (Hah, it’s practically Winter now).

Neverland is very cutesy and girly. You step into a fairy tale setting and everything about this place is just so princess-y, classy, and cute. Luckily, we got the best seats in the restaurant that day, which was a big pink sofa spot at the front.

There were four of us, and we ordered two separate sets of high tea. We ordered the high tea ($30 each) and the demi high tea ($18 each), but it was slightly cheaper from the coupon. With the high tea, you get bottomless tea (!!!!) but with the demi high tea, you are only able to select two teas per person.

I’m not going to go to detail over all the teas that we ordered, but trust me when I say their tea was pretty good! All of the teas that we ordered were full of flavour, and can be sweetened with honey or sugar cubes on your table.
Demi tea ($18/person): This is the smaller and cheaper selection of high tea. The pastries and sandwiches offered with the demi tea are the same as high tea, but it does not include some items. Since Rainbow, and Stitch had already been here many times and weren’t that hungry, they split the demi tea.

Fun fact: The owner of the tea salon actually made all the high tea trays herself! She bought all these vintage plates, and glued them together into beautiful stands.

High tea ($30/person): Bubble and I split the high tea, which ended up being cheaper since we had a buy one get one from the Entertainment Book! As you can see, there are more items offered from the high tea.

Although I’m not a big fan of scones, I was told that I had to try the scones here because they were really good. And yes, they were delicious. They were soft, warm, and buttery. So good!

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile now, you know that I prefer savoury food over sweet food. In fact, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth at all so naturally I gravitated towards the bottom plate with the savoury selections.

Since their sandwich and pastry selection changes often and this visit was over three months ago, I don’t think it’s much use to describe each of the food items in detail. Although the sandwiches look very simple, they were actually really delicious and the quality was definitely there.

Here is a picture of both the demi and high tea! Since you are drinking A LOT of tea, you definitely get full really fast. We ended up packing most of the pastries home because we were so full from the sandwiches and amount of tea we were drinking.

I would recommend trying out Neverland Tea Salon if you like girly and cute themed places. The service is very friendly and knowledgeable, although a bit slow. Maki came here last month too and mentioned that it took so long for her to ask for the bill, that she ended up with a parking ticket when she left because the meter expired. She asked for the bill 15 minutes before the meter expired so that really sucks. 🙁

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Cattle Cafe (Metrotown) – DIY Soup Noodle Combo!

August 4, 2015

Hi everyone!

I don’t know about you… but I find the restaurants inside Metrotown to not be appealing or delicious. Which is why whenever we go to Metrotown and want to have dinner nearby, we like to eat across the street at Cattle Cafe.

I was quite sad when Cattle Cafe closed down for awhile, but I’m really glad they re-opened two stores down from their original location. Whenever I’m craving the Asian style DIY noodle combo, Cattle Cafe is one of my go-to places as I’ve said in my previous post on the super stingy/cheap Duotian Fish Soup Noodles restaurant.

I almost always order the DIY soup noodle combo, which comes with a drink. You can get a cold drink for an extra .50 cents. That day, I ordered the hot almond milk as usual. The almond milk here comes pretty sweet, you can definitely tasted the condensed milk. I love the familiarity and comfort of Chinese style almond milk.

The boyfriend ordered an iced milk tea. It had a strong and authentic milk tea flavour, definitely one of the better places to order a milk tea!

I absolutely love their french toast and even though I know I will feel horribly and uncomfortably stuffed because of over-ordering, I will still eat this because of how good it is.

I love how they cut it up into small sections for you already. Not only does it make it easier to eat, but I find that you get to taste more of the outer, crispy filling as opposed to the middle piece that tastes just like bread and custard.

It came with a generous amount of custard inside, unlike Duotian (I’m still a bit bitter about how cheap and stingy they are!) and just enough syrup.

I always order the same soup no matter where I go! Century egg and parsely soup, with vermicelli noodles and beef/fish balls.

The broth is deliciously creamy and flavourful, meanwhile there is an abundance of ingredients on top.

Oh yeah! I just remembered that when both of our noodles came, mine had a lot less soup. I asked the server if I could have a bit extra since I like my noodles with a lot of soup, and she was really nice about it. I was a bit scared to ask at first because y’all know that a lot of Asian restaurants are notorious for being stingy and unwilling to compromise with customers…. LOL
The boyfriend ordered the peanut chili soup with Japanese BBQ pork and beef balls. Compared to the broth at Deer Garden, he said that the peanut taste here was a lot lighter and he was disappointed. Keep in mind though, he loves peanut butter to death and always spreads 4X the regular amount on his toast LOL.

I don’t like peanut butter as much as he does, so I liked the taste of it his broth. Any more peanut flavour and it would have been overwhelming for people who aren’t die-hard peanut butter lovers =P

—

A big bowl of warm, filling noodles and some fresh french toast after, we were both very stuffed and satisfied with our meal. I always have a hard time walking out of here because I get so full after LOL! Cattle Cafe is always consistent, and I can always rely on this place to curb my soup noodle craving. It’s a great place to go for soup noodles, and I love how they have friendly service as well.

What is your ‘go-to’ noodle combo?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Peqish – Healthy fast food sandwiches

June 10, 2015

Hi everyone!

I first noticed Peqish in January after our office had moved closer to this area. My coworkers came here one morning, and arrived back at the office with piping hot, melt in your mouth, freshly made chocolate cookies. We decided to try this place out for lunch a few months ago in February.
As you can see, Peqish is pretty small. The concept behind Peqish was to provide people with healthy fast food on the go. Each of their items are made fresh daily. With emphasis on the express, the place has a mere 5 bar seats which is pretty narrow. You also order your coffee/drinks on the computer and pay there, similar to restaurants that I’ve seen in Tokyo with the same system.
The shelves are filled with healthy sandwiches, wraps, mini salads, and smoothies. This is a picture of their hot food section, while 3/4 of the other items are stored in a fridge. There were so many to pick from and took us all awhile to decide on what to order. So many decisions.
I settled on the “bohemian wrapsody” – shwarma beef, hummus, tahini sauce, peppers, and carrots enveloped in a Middle Eastern style flatbread. I also got one of their “protein booster” chicken snacks and the green smoothie made with kale, coconut, and pineapple. This was a lunch combo for $10.

I found both the meat in the wrap and protein snack to be extremely dry. It took me awhile to finish because it was so dry, which was disappointing. Aside from that, the vegetables were fresh and sauces were flavourful. There is a lot of potential in the wrap, but sadly the meat was just too dry to be edible.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the smoothie and think I’ll be back in the future to get this. The coconut and pineapple were really strong, and it tasted refreshing! Much healthier and cheaper than going to Starbucks, haha.

My coworker ordered the 5 spice pulled pork wrap from the hot shelf (mine was from the fridge shelf). Like my meat, the pulled pork was extremely dry.

For her side, she chose the orzo pasta salad cup which was really good. It had a good amount of herbs and the vegetables tasted fresh.

She ordered the berry smoothie, but said it was disappointing because all she could taste was the banana. It tasted exactly like a pure banana smoothie but berry coloured… but bananas are easily over powering in smoothies so it’s important to get the ratio right!

This is a close up of my coworker’s pulled pork wrap, since the previous picture is just covered in condensation.

Overall, we were disappointed with the wraps since the meat was so dry and inedible, but I liked the green smoothie and she enjoyed her pasta salad cup. I’m not sure if we will be back for the sandwiches, but I did enjoy the smoothie and wouldn’t mind having another one!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen