food & drink Archives - Page 106 of 115

Kintaro Ramen

June 5, 2014

Hi everyone,

For the past year, I have raved about Kintaro Ramen to the boyfriend at no end. We’ve tried a few times to go, but they have failed, much to my dismay.

Since we didn’t want to pay for parking in downtown again, we ended up walking from Pacific Center. It actually only took us 15 minutes, and wasn’t a bad walk at all. It’s also slightly downhill. Or, biking along the seawall and stopping here.

We got here around 6, so I was dreading a line up like every other weekend or time we tried to come here. However, there was no line up and we were seated right away! I highly recommend going to Kintaro around or before 6, or there will be a line up out the door.
We shared a big communal table with 2 other parties. It felt a bit awkward at first, but the table was spacious enough that we didn’t have to make awkward eye contact or accidentally brush arms while eating. I took a picture to give you an idea of the seating.

At the other popular ramen joints in this area, they have a big communal table like this as well but I believe that Motomachi Shokudo has a mini bamboo wall so you aren’t directly facing other customers.

The English side of the menu. Pretty straight forward, you choose your soup broth of choice, lean/fatty meat, and richness of broth. Since all their broth is made from pork bone stock, they do not have any vegetarian ramen available.
Last time I came here was over a year ago, so I was worried that their quality had changed and was not like the delicious ramen that I fell in love with a couple of years ago. I ordered a shio ramen ($8.95), with a choice of lean and rich broth.

Shio ramen is usually more creamier and rich than the other soup bases, which I love. It tasted as delicious and rich as I remembered it to be. The noodles were cooked perfectly, and the broth had a lovely and rich aroma to it. It was extremely flavourful, and came with beansprouts, green onions, and bamboo shoots which all tasted really fresh.

The veggie toppings really added a nice crunch to a heavenly bowl of noodles. This is what a perfect bowl of ramen tastes and looks like.
The boyfriend picked the BBQ pork ramen, with shio broth and fatty pork. I was relieved when he agreed and said that the ramen was as delicious as I described it. I have been waiting for that moment forever!! (Well, not forever… maybe just the past year).

I also like how they gave you an hard boiled egg as well, in the previous two disappointing ramen places we went to (see below), they did not include it.
The boyfriend’s little brother ordered the miso ramen with lean pork. He enjoyed the noodles as well, and had no complaints. He didn’t end up finishing his noodles since the portion was too big for him. Afterwards, he tried some of the boyfriend’s shio broth and liked it a lot more than the miso broth. I should also mention that the miso ramen is Kintaro’s specialty and recommendation on their menu.

In the past few months, we have had disappointing visits to both Benkei and Sanpachi Ramen. Benkei Ramen lacked ingredients and was overpriced for what you pay, while the shio broth at Sanpachi was not creamy and rich at all. Kintaro Ramen solved both problems and had the best of the two previous places – quality and quantity.

I also find that they have very generous portions of noodles, and you are left really full and satisfied. Undeniably, the best place in the Lower Mainland to have authentic ramen is on the West End. Kintaro, Santouka, Motomachi Shokudo, are all great examples.

There is a reason why they all have long line ups. I am still on the lookout for delicious tasting ramen outside of this area, so please let me know of any!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Sushi California

June 4, 2014

I have heard many great things about this restaurant, but never went to try it because I’m not in that area. One night, I was craving sushi and decided to finally come here after hearing Cheese rave about this place. House special rolls for around $5? Count me in!

We went a bit later and since it was a Friday evening, we knew for sure it would be busy.
Sushi California is located inside a small strip mall right across from Lougheed Mall. There is a small parking lot, but some spots are reserved for other merchants in the strip mall. I would imagine that the small parking lot gets pretty crazy during peak hours.

Anyways, we found parking with no problem since we got there around 8:30pm. To our surprise, there was still a lineup inside the restaurant! I thought that the restaurant was more spacious than I expected.

It was a typical Japanese restaurant, nothing really special about the decoration or interior design. But the food, now that’s a different story…! The two of us ended up over-ordering and had to pack half our food to go. We weren’t sure how big their portions were because it was our first time!
This was their box sushi, which came with shrimp, smoked salmon, scallop, and more things that I can’t remember anymore ($4.95). The sushi rice was pressed very nicely, giving the rice a great texture. It tasted very refreshing due to the lemon.

For $4.95, it was an amazing deal! Also, I ordered a single tobiko and salmon nigiri as well, which tasted fresh. Since we decided to not order a sashimi plate, I wanted to sample their sashimi and thought that it tasted pretty sweet and fresh.
Deep fried california roll, or as they call it, the “crunch california roll”. It was lightly fried, and crispy. Overall, I thought it was okay due to the sauce, but the boyfriend preferred Sushi Mura’s because it was crunchier and there was also more sauce. But again, for $3.95, it was a good deal.
Up next were our smoked salmon garlic roll ($4.50), chopped scallop roll ($3.95), and double spicy roll ($3.95). My favourite was the smoked salmon garlic roll because I am a huge fan of shrimp and smoked salmon!

I actually thought this roll tasted better the next day, because the rice absorbed the garlic overnight giving it more flavour. Some of the garlic flakes were also rock hard. The chopped scallop roll was pretty average. The double spicy roll came with spicy sashimi on top and in the inside. It wasn’t too spicy for me and I enjoyed the spicy tuna sashimi, as well as the crunchy flakes on top.
Last but not least, our chicken karage ($3.95!!! WHAT SO CHEAP?!)! This was absolutely delicious. You think for $3.95, they would cheap out on small chicken wings but nope, these were the juicest and biggest chicken wings I’ve seen! They were super hot, the skin was crispy, and was perfectly seasoned. If I knew how good it tasted and how big the portion was for $3.95, I would have ordered this instead of one of the rolls!

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Sushi California. There were many servers working, and they were all attentive and knowledgeable. The most amazing thing about this place is their PRICE though. For $4, you can get their house specialty rolls and the size is not compromised. We paid under $30 for our dinner and we were in disbelief at how cheap everything was. I love Sushi California because their food is delicious, and it is easy on our student budgets.

-Carmen

Aree Thai

May 31, 2014

After spending the lovely afternoon in Steveston, and having fish and chips at Sockeye City Grill, the boyfriend and I came back to Vancouver for a hearty Thai dinner. We went to Aree Thai last year, and liked our experience so we decided to come back.
Since we have been here before, we remembered which dishes we enjoyed, and the ones that we didn’t. When we came here last year, we remembered that we didn’t like the spring rolls and avoided them this time around.
For starters, we ordered the tom kha soup, with chicken (small- $4.95). For most of their dishes, the server will ask you what level of spiciness you’d like. We decided to go with a medium level. Tom kha is made with a coconut broth, flavoured with mushrooms, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal. The coconut broth was very evident and gave the soup a sweet taste with a creamier texture.

We enjoyed the soup but found it to be very spicy. Normally, we love our spicy foods and have a high tolerance, but if we had one more spoonful of this soup, we would have had to soak our mouths with milk. I’m not sure if the kitchen accidentally made our soup super spicy, because it was definitely not medium spice. I would order this again due to the variety of flavours, but with less spice.

Next up was the yellow curry in rice noodle, with our choice of beef ($9,95). I wasn’t a big fan of this dish because I found the rice noodles were a softer, soggier texture than I was used to.

Also, there was a strong lime flavour to the curry which was overpowering for me. However, the boyfriend really liked this dish so it really just depends on your own personal preference! The beef was tender, and the onions were a great addition as well.
The last two dishes we ordered was green curry and coconut rice. We ordered the green curry previously, and loved it. This time was no different. Like the soup, there was a strong coconut taste to the curry, and made it a bit sweet. We ordered it to be medium spicy, which it was, unlike our fire scorching, tear inducing, flaming chili bowl of soup LOL. There was a decent amount of good quality white meat chicken, with no fat or tendon on it which I loved. As for the coconut rice, it was very delicious and moist. Eating the two together is a perfect combination!

All in all, we enjoyed our second visit to Aree Thai. There was only one server, but she was doing her best to serve the other four tables that were there. Nothing much to complain about, if you are wanting a low-key, easy going dinner, then Aree Thai is a good place to go.

Pros:

Delicious, aromatic food
Fast and nice service
Not too long of a wait due to lots of seating space
Clean and simple interior with some Thai sculptures
Free street parking

Cons:

Spice level on their menu is not always accurate, or the same for all dishes (ordered medium spicy for both dishes, but the soup was suuuuuppeeerrrr spicy)

Yo Sushi, Burnaby

May 25, 2014

The boyfriend and I were feeling like sushi a few weeks ago, and wanted to try a new place as opposed to our regular sushi joints. We decided on going here based on a recommendation from my friend, who said that they have really great quality there.

I remember a year or two ago, when this place first opened, I was told by a different group of friends who did not like their experience here. They said that it was overpriced, and wasn’t that good for what you pay for. But I decided to try it, since that was over a year ago, things probably would have improved, right?
The first thing I noticed after walking in was how spacious the place was. We were the second party there, so we were greeted and seated pretty fast. Service was pretty friendly throughout the night.
To start off, we received complimentary chips.
We ordered a plate of tuna and salmon sashimi , $11.95. The sashimi was pretty disappointing and we would not order it again. The salmon did not taste fresh or sweet, and was very thin. It was also folded, which I’m not too sure why… maybe to make it look like bigger pieces? As for the tuna, it was still frozen and not thawed properly. It also did not taste super sweet or fresh.
Moving onto the rolls, we ordered the chopped scallop roll and negitoro roll. Both rolls were pretty average, nothing too special or outstanding about them. We appreciated that there was a bunch of chopped scallop on top of the roll, making it a better deal.
For the specialty roll, we ordered the red dragon roll which came with spicy tuna sashimi, crunchy flakes, and spicy mayo. This was probably the only thing that we thoroughly enjoyed, but for $9.95, it is a bit overpriced. Other sushi joints by Yo Sushi (Sushi Nanaimo, Sushi Garden, Sushi Town) have their red dragon rolls for around $5-6.

After our quick meal, we received hi-chew candy! I love hi-chew candy so this made me feel a lot better about the visit. They also gave us a free coupon for gyoza salad. We paid $32.35 for our meal, not including tip.

I don’t think we will be back here again, because there are other sushi places in this area that have better quality dishes for cheaper prices and there was nothing special about this place.

-Carmen

Tap and Barrel, Olympic Village

May 19, 2014

Summer is quickly approaching and we took an opportunity last week to enjoy a patio dinner with a great view. Tap and Barrel offers a huge selection of craft beer, which in my opinion tastes a lot better than your regular beers.

So, before you say you hate beer, give craft beer a try. I’ve been here two other times in the past but never had a chance to try their dinner menu. Here’s how it went!
We came on a Friday evening, so we expected a long line up since it was a warm night. Fortunately for us, they had a patio seat right away! The patio was buzzing with energy and chatter, almost all the seats were taken!

I loved the decor of the patio, it was very simple and had a west coast contemporary feel to it. The tables were wooden, and all the chairs were red. As the night progressed, we came to realize that the glass wall on the patio was very thick and sturdy. It was a bit windy but we didn’t feel a breeze or cold at all, even when it got dark.
We ordered two beers. I got the Phillips Chocolate Porter and the boyfriend got the Vancouver Island Brewery Summer Ale.

The chocolate porter was rich and dark, with a smooth chocolate finish. If you are craving a smooth and dark beer, I would definitely go with the chocolate porter. As for the summer ale, it was light and refreshing with tropical fruit notes.
We had no idea what to order since we’re used to only coming here for beer! I was a bit disappointed because I saw a few menu items on Urbanspoon that looked really good, but unfortunately weren’t on the menu that day.
For appetizers, the boyfriend wanted deep fried pickles ($5.45). The deep fried pickles were cut very thick, and the batter was very crispy. I found these to be quite oily, but was very tasty. I was also impressed at how big the portion was. The dipping sauce was a mix of sour cream and dill, which went really well with the pickles.
We also ordered the shrimp and salmon ceviche ($11.95). I was a bit disappointed with the portion, as I expected it to be bigger (minus the tortilla chips). But nonetheless, there was an abundance of shrimp and salmon in the ceviche. The boyfriend squeezed the life out of the lime, so it was pretty sour to the point where it didn’t accentuate the taste.

Yes, I know that’s not the restaurant’s fault but just be careful of how much lime juice you add into the ceviche, especially if it’s a small bowl. But when you used the tortilla chips to top off the cevice, the sourness was a bit diminished.
For our main dish, we finally decided on their “Maui Wowie” pizza. All their pizzas are hand stretched, hence it being a bit unsymmetrical, and baked in a wood stone oven. It came with tomato sauce, mozza cheese, pulled bacon, and cayenne roasted pineapples. It was pretty average, but I liked how doughy the pizza was and that it wasn’t too greasy. The pineapples really saved the dish, otherwise it would have been really bland.
We also decided to order their mac and cheese, with pulled pork for an added $3 ($15 total). This dish was a total disappointment to us as it lacked any cheese flavour and was lukewarm. We felt that we could have made this better at our own house. The only saving grace about this dish was the pulled pork, but there wasn’t that much to the dish.
By the end of our dinner, the sun had set and the city lights were slowly coming to life under the night sky. It was beautiful, we ended up staying a bit longer just to enjoy the view. Tap and Barrel offers a great and delicious selection of beer, but their food options are a a bit hit and miss. But when an establishment’s specialty is beer, and they do that right, you can’t really complain.

It was a pretty busy night, so our server was quite busy but she tried her best to talk to us when she could, which we appreciated. I can’t say I’ll be back for the food, but definitely for patio drinks!

-Carmen