dessert Archives - Page 18 of 18

Bella Gelataria Handcrafted Gelato

June 26, 2014

Back when I did not have a blog, I came here with my friend who was stopping in town from Japan for a few days. Prior to him landing in Vancouver, he told me that he had to try this place before leaving, because apparently this place is very well known in Japan. Well damn, if people across the ocean raved about this place, it must be one good gelato place!

We ended up loving our gelato, but to be honest, I don’t remember much of the gelato itself as I was too happy that I was able to reunite with my friend living halfway across the world after a year.

So, half a year and one beautiful sunny afternoon later, I decided to stop by again and enjoy some delicious gelato after a delicious meal at Kintaro Ramen!

Bella Gelatria is located on the main floor of the luxurious Fairmont Pacific Rim, right by the water. There was a line up out the door, and almost around the corner the day we went. In total, we waited about fifteen minutes in line.

The staff working there are very experienced in heavy volume traffic, so they had a pretty efficient system going. There are also awards and framed newspaper articles lined up from top to bottom, so you definitely will not get bored in line.
Of course, if you do not want to read their framed articles, you can take the time to decide what flavour you want to try. I was craving strawberry that day, but unfortunately, the worker told me they didn’t have it. She was then interrupted (in a friendly manner) by the owner and master gelatier, James Coleridge as he informed me that they only make strawberry when in season.
After much debate, I settled with the chocolate belgian brownie. I was in love at first bite. The chocolate was extremely rich, smooth, decadent, and soft. I fell in love with how well-rounded the chocolate flavour was, and how creamy it was.

I have never had gelato, or ice cream, as creamy and rich like this before. You could really tell the difference in quality. Typing this post is making me so hungry now.
Next up (no, I did not order three all to myself, incase you’re wondering) is the Thai coconut milk gelato. Just like my chocolate one, this one was extremely creamy as well. There was a strong and delicious coconut taste. It came with little slices of fresh coconut as well, which added to the freshness of the gelato.
This was the mint chocolate gelato, but I didn’t get a chance to try it. Delicious is actually just an understatement for Bella Gelataria.

Honestly. I’m not the only one that thinks so, either considering that Bella Gelataria has won numerous awards in Italy for their gelato and their rating on Urbanspoon.

-Carmen
PS. Here is a picture of the outside, with their big sign. This picture was taken at my first visit in chilly November (read first paragraph above), hence the jackets.

Basho Cafe, East Van

May 18, 2014

I’ve been to Basho Cafe three times now, but wanted to make sure I had a variety of different things to share in this post, rather than make smaller revisit posts. This place is very popular and has been on the top 10 of Urbanspoon for many weeks now, and for good reasons too.

Basho Cafe is a cute, quaint, and lovely cafe owned by a Japanese family. They offer a few full meal sets, Japanese inspired pastries, and drinks. I’ve tried many items and my favourite would have to be the matcha latte.
Upon walking in, you will find a selection of mini pastries. Some of their items are vegetarian or gluten free, if you’re into that. Many of their pastries are made with matcha, as you can see from all the green in the shelf!
This is their menu. They only have three main dishes. You can add a plate of 3 pastries, tea, salad, and a daily soup for only $3, which is a really good deal as I’ll show you below what it looks like! Even though this place is a coffee shop, you can leave the place decently full and satisfied with their food.
The first time I went with my friend, we both decided to order the veggie lunch set ($10ish). Normally, I don’t like eating my veggies but I was surprisingly in the mood! I was pleasantly surprised at how big the plate was.

As for the veggie rice bowl, I enjoyed it very much. It came with avocado, cucumber, broccoli, carrot, cooked sweet apples, and a side of house made tofu mayo. The rice underneath made this dish very filling, and it was also flavoured with some sort of rice vinegar. The daily soup that day was broccoli, which was very flavourful and had a nice puree texture to it. The salad was a standard vinaigrette, as was the green tea.

A close up of my pastry selection. Sesame miso cookie, matcha cake, and chocolate mochi mochi. All three pastries weren’t super sweet, which I liked. The cookie had a toasted sesame, buttery taste to it but it wasn’t greasy at all. The green tea loaf had a very strong matcha taste, and was light and fluffy.

My favourite was the chocolate mochi mochi. I loved the chewy texture to it, and how the chocolate wasn’t super sweet! Out of the three, I would probably buy the chocolate mochi mochi again because the other two don’t feel as if it would be worth their separate price.
I really enjoyed my first visit, and wanted to show the boyfriend this place, so off we went the next day! Unfortunately, we went 30 minutes prior to closing and they were sold out of many pastries. We ordered the matcha brownie and matcha coconut cookie. The matcha brownie had a nice, chewy texture to it while the top had a toasted sugary taste. The matcha cookie wasn’t too sweet, and the coconut flakes added a light coconut flavour to it, which wasn’t too overpowering.
I told my friend about this place, and she really wanted to try it, so I went again! She ordered the veggie lunch set, which I talked about above. I wanted to try something different this time, and decided on the teri pulled pork lunch set.

The pulled pork was very tender and soft, and full of flavour. Just like the veggie bowl, it came with Japanese rice that was cooked with some sort of rice vinegar which I loved! The soup of the day was yam, which had a puree texture to it. The pastries I recieved were the green tea mochi mochi, sesame miso cookie, and another mochi pastry. I really liked the green tea mochi mochi because it was very chewy and squishy, and full of matcha flavour! I wasn’t a big fan of the other mochi square (forgot the exact name, sorry), because it was filled with different types of nuts, I would have preferred it without the nuts.
We also wanted to try the matcha latte, since the last two times I came here, I saw that it came in a pretty big bowl-cup and it looked very good. Turns out, if you order a lunch set, they will take off $1 off the matcha latte so that it only comes to $2.75! They also did not charge us for soy, which is a plus.

I also didn’t know that it came with a free pastry. I fell in love with the matcha latte at first sip. It comes unsweetened, so you can really taste the pure matcha flavour. It also wasn’t too hot, so I didn’t burn my tongue. I liked how it came with no foam.

It was very smooth,and full of matcha flavour. Delicious!
Overall, I think that Basho Cafe is worth the hype. They have very delicious matcha pastries, as well as matcha lattes. My friend mentioned to me that this place looks like a perfectly crafted Pintrest space, with all the eclectic decorations and focus on quilts and tea cozies.

It has a very welcoming atmosphere. The family that runs this place is also really friendly. Although the lady doesn’t speak much English, she is very friendly, and always has a smile on her face. I’m glad that Basho has opened up, I will come here again when I’m craving matcha goodies.

JOEY Bentall One, Downtown Van

May 15, 2014

I apologize for the lack of restaurant reviews lately. My summer semester started a week ago, and the assignments are already piling up! The good news is that one of my courses will be done in half the normal time, since it’s an intersession course, so I will have a lot more time once it is over. But for now, I am swamped with course assignments, starting my application process for co-op, work, and trying to squeeze in a social life still.

Hence, my attempt at squeezing in a social life results in this restaurant review. It was one of my childhood best friend’s birthday last week, so a small group of us converged over great food at Joey!
There are actually two JOEY restaurants on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver. One is the actual JOEY Burrard, while the other is JOEY Bentall One. Bentall One is located a block away from Burrard skytrain.

I was a bit confused at first since my friend told me it was the Burrard location, but when I got there, it said Bentall One. Thankfully, I was at the right location! As always, the decor and ambiance was very fancy and lively.
Since I was running late due to my class, they decided to order an appy while waiting for me to arrive. They were also nice enough to save me a piece of the pesto shrimp flatbread, $14.50.

It was very doughy and loaded with a lot of ingredients on the top. They were also generous with the amount of shrimp. I was really considering ordering this as my main dish, but decided on getting something else.
I ordered the chicken souvlaki served with skinny fries, $14.50. I was surprised when the dish came out, because I was expecting it to be on a bed of rice, with a chicken skewer.

However, this wrap was really filling and delicious nonetheless. The chicken was grilled and had a hint of smokiness to it, while the other veggies and cheese inside tasted really fresh. The pita bread wrap was also very soft.
Friend’s lobster grilled cheese, with brie, cheddar, and and cocktail sauce $15. I had a bite of the sandwich, and really enjoyed the strong flavour of cheddar in it. The lobster was mixed inside with the warm cheddar and brie cheese.
Some of these I didn’t get a chance to taste, so I will unfortunately just have to give you guys the name and price. Ahi tuna tacos – $12.
Bacon cheddar burger, sub yam fries $15.25.
The 500 salad – organic quinoa, barley, watermelon radish, mint, tomatoes, avocado $13.50.
If the birthday girl wants to indulge in dessert, she is allowed to. She decided to order the molten lava chocolate souffle, $8.25. Yes, it looks and sounds as good as it tastes! Thick, warm dark chocolate slowly oozes out of the molten lava cake after you dig in. The chocolate was very creamy and smooth. Paired with the raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream, it is seriously a match made in heaven.

As always, service was attentive despite the restaurant being relatively busy.