food & drink Archives - Page 110 of 115

Tractor Foods

April 14, 2014

My friend and I noticed Tractor Foods while shopping along West 4th one afternoon, and seeing we both felt like having a light meal, we decided to try it out.

As you can tell, their design is very simplistic. We didn’t even realize that Tractor was a restaurant until we crossed the street and took a closer look. When we first walked in, we were overwhelmed with how modern and nice everything looked. (Picture from 604now.com)
You will first see the salads, and other sides, like soup, that they offer. Tractor makes their food in small portions, so that everything is as fresh as possible.

All their salads looked really appetizing, and we both had a hard time choosing which one to get! I love my dark green veggies, and there was such a plethora of them here that I had to select from! Once you pick the side you want, you will then proceed to the sandwich/main course of your choice.
Since we only wanted a light meal, my friend and I settled on getting half a sandwich, with a choice of side. I ordered their grilled chicken sandwich, which came with tomato, basil, and provolone on cranberry bread.

For my salad, I ordered one of their kale salads, which came with potatoes. I absolutely loved my meal, everything was perfect about it. Everything tasted so fresh, from the crunchy kale to the cranberry bread. It was also very light and refreshing too, which was exactly what I wanted on a nice, sunny day.

The portion was perfect and I left feeling satisfied.
My friend ordered their vegetable sandwich, with an addition of grilled chicken like mine. Her side was the tomato salad with basil and bocconcini.

The bocconcini had an elastic texture to it, and had a light taste which complemented the stronger tasting, and more acidic tomatoes. The tomatoes were also very juicy as you can see in this picture! She enjoyed her dish as well!

Overall, Tractor is a great place to go for a light meal if you’re in the neighbourhood. I noticed on their site that they changed parts of the menu since the last time I went (they have different salads now) so I will come here again when I’m in the neighbourhood!

-Carmen

Acme Cafe

April 10, 2014

I love brunch. I even eat brunch for dinner sometimes.! Maybe it’s just me, but having brunch is one of the best starts to a day. This visit was from awhile ago, but I had a lovely time at Acme Cafe.

Acme Cafe is undeniably one of the more popular places to have brunch in Vancouver. It is located in the DTES (Picture taken from www.flavourhunter.com).
I love the interior of Acme Cafe. It is very welcoming, clean, and simple. Acme cafe also offers a huge pastry selection as you can see! I don’t have that much of a sweet tooth, but it still looks very appetizing! Yum!
Baked eggs benny- $10.75. This is their signature dish, and it did not definitely did not disappoint! We were a bit surprised when it came out because we’ve never seen eggs benny done like this before.
Eggs sunny side up- $10.75. Read my blurb on their kitchen grill story below, it will relate to this dish! The eggs were cooked perfectly sunny side up. I love how there were onions on top since I am a huge fan of green onions.

My friend doesn’t like bacon so I was lucky enough to have it! The bacon was cooked well too, it wasn’t super oily or greasy. Underneath was the bed of hash browns which was perfectly seasoned as well. The side of fruit tasted really fresh too.
European breakfast – $9.50. This normally comes with proscuitto, but you were able to substitute it for smoked salmon at no charge. When I first saw this on the menu, I was sold because it had smoked salmon. My friend was going to order this too, but instead ordered the plate above because it sounded more filling and worth the price, which I agree.

The cantaloupe tasted pretty fresh, as did everything else. Overall, I thought that this plate was average. The smoked salmon, of course, was delicious, but I don’t think that it was worth $9.50. Maybe I should try it with the standard prosciutto next time…

One thing I found interesting about Acme is that they do not have a grill. The waitress pointed out their stove, which looked like the one from my own kitchen! I was quite impressed that they were able to run such a successful restaurant without a restaurant-stove top, but hey, they make it work so props to them!

All in all, I enjoyed our visit to Acme Cafe and would definitely come back here. I probably wouldn’t order the European breakfast again, but order the baked eggs benny which is their specialty.

-Carmen

Trees Organic Coffee House

April 8, 2014

While walking through Gastown one sunny afternoon after class, my classmates and I noticed this cute little coffee shop in one of the heritage, brick Gastown buildings.

We decided to pop in to talk about our class project. Originally, I wasn’t planning on getting any pastries, but I was sold after seeing their pastry case. We ended up sitting at a table near the window, where the window shelves were made into a seat, filled with pillows!

Here is the till, there was also self serve lemon water on the side. The workers were also really friendly and attentive, gladly answering questions that I had about their pastries.
The selection of sugary, fattening, and indulgent goodness. From what I saw in the case, I would assume that their specialty is the cheesecake.

They also had some small paninis and lunch items on the top two shelves. Curious to see which pastry I got?! Well, after debating for a bit.. I decided on getting…
The vegan banana oat power bar $3! Okay, to some of you, that might sound really gross since it’s so healthy. But I was really curious to try it because I didn’t feel like indulging in a cheesecake or brownie that day, and I love bananas!

I asked for them to warm it up, which they put in the microwave. This bar was decent- there were a LOT of seeds in it. The worker told me that this bar was made out of banana puree, seeds, nuts, and oats. At one point, I started feeling like a bird because it was so seedy. Apart from the seedie-ness, I enjoyed the taste of the bar. It was very filling and guilt-free.
Apart from the bird-seed loaf (Haha, just kidding it was actually pretty good), I ordered an americano. I forgot the price but it was around $3? The espresso was smooth, and not that bitter.

All in all, I enjoyed my quick visit to Trees. The only negative thing would be the sketchy washroom which was located in the basement. You had to walk through this sketchy hallway to the elevator, and once you arrived, it was very quiet and dingy. The washroom was shared by other merchants in that building. There was a funky smell to it as well. Apart from the washrooms, I would definitely come here again if I was studying in this area (but who wants to study in Gastown when there are so many local clothing stores?!).

-Carmen

Sushi Mura

April 7, 2014

I came across Sushi Mura one day and enjoyed it! The only downside is that I’m usually never in this area, so going here would definitely be a treat or a trek. I enjoyed all of their dishes, and judging from the packed line waiting at the door, many other Vancouverites do too. Everything was delicious and I can’t wait to come back!

I also forgot the prices of the dishes, but they were pretty cheap and reasonable, I’ve included the estimated price range from what I can kinda remember (they didn’t have an online menu, boohoo).
The interior has a lot of wooden accents to it. The style reminded me of a contemporary west coast design with all the wood panels everywhere, even in the washroom! As you can tell, their interior is pretty modern and nice. Let’s move on to the food!

The first thing that we ordered was the house salad (I believe that was what it was called), which tasted like a standard salad you’d get at a Japanese restaurant, $4ish.

However, we were surprised when we found a bed of vermicelli underneath the salad. I don’t like eating salad so it was a pleasant surprise for me! Usually, restaurants don’t serve vermicelli with their salads.
Next was our tuna and salmon sashimi $8-9ish. As you can tell from the pictures, the slices were quite generous and thick! My cousin also ordered a ikura nigiri (type of fish egg) which was good.
This was my second favourite dish, apart from the deep fried california roll. Their tonkatsu portion is HUGE, we were pretty surprised at how big the portion was when it came. It was only around $7 and you get so much with it! To give you a ratio, the side of rice is a standard bowl size. There were also two tonkatsu cutlets on top of each other! This was so good! It was super crispy but juicy, and I liked how they give you more sauce on the side. YUM!
Lo and behold, the deep fried California roll (Less than $5)! I’ve seen this on a couple of menus at other restaurants before, but I never felt inclined to order it because I don’t want fried food, and California rolls are average to me. But this intrigued me due to the different colours of sauce layered on top. IT WAS SO GOOD. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be, since it was deep fried, but still lightly crisp. Here’s a close up:
Look at that outer tempura layer! It was so crunchy and delicious.
This was the mango and avocado roll ($4-6ish). Again, I really enjoyed this dish due to the amount of mango they had in it. It was also very sweet.
This is the red roll, chopped scallop with spicy tuna sashimi on top ($4-6ish). It tasted pretty standard, but I liked how they put fresh green onion on the top of the roll.
I forgot what this roll is, but it was basically smoked salmon, crab meat, tempura, and cucumber ($4-6ish). Again, it was pretty good. The negitoro roll ($2ish) was good as well.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to Sushi Mura due to their delicious rolls and tonkatsu. My cousin, her husband, and I went and we were completely stuffed after eating everything.

However, service is pretty slow especially since it was so busy that day. Our rolls took longer to arrive too, but everything else arrived promptly. I would come back here again just for their deep fried California roll, Sushi Mura has converted me to liking deep fried rolls (never thought I would see that day..)!

-Carmen

Yolk’s Breakfast Restaurant and Commissary

March 25, 2014

After hearing all the hype about Yolks, I decided it was time to give it a visit. I went with two friends to their restaurant location on Hastings & Clarke. We all enjoyed our experience and left with happy stomachs. Service was also really friendly, and personable.

The place is a bit small, but it’s really cozy and they work with what they have. We noticed that there was fake sriracha (we are avid sriracha lovers!) and that kinda became a laughing stock throughout our visit 🙂
Menu. I thought their menu was unconventionally designed, and it was pretty cool. You start at the top and go down depending on which choices you want for the poached egg sandwiches. Although the original price is decent, it can get pricier as you include the “addons” listed such as goat cheese, or hash browns. There were some items on the menu that we were confused about, and the server happily and patiently answered our questions.
After much contemplation, I settled on ordering their daily special. Tall stack of berry pancakes with a choice of ham, bacon, or bangers for $13.50.

I enjoyed every bite. The pancakes were extremely fluffy and soft, and tasted really buttery and rich. Peeeeerrrrffeeeccttttt. There was also a generous amount of berries inside the pancakes! So. good.

I also really loved the ham, which tasted even better with their dijon mustard.

My friend’s customized breakfast plate! I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I believe he chose the hand carved honey ham, with the two eggs & double everything option, under a bed of truffle lemon hashbrowns, fresh spinach, and dijon.

This again, was SO GOOD. I really enjoyed the hashbrowns- savoury and perfectly cooked.
My friend’s iced Callebaut chocolate milk. Callebaut is a Belgium choclatier The quality of the chocolate was definitely a lot better and fancier than regular chocolate milk. It was rich, indulgent, and smooth.
My other friend’s dish, she got the customized breakfast plate as well. I really enjoyed their hashbrowns, it was flavoured differently than usual breakfast joints and tasted really unique. Delicious! The spinach bed on the bottom was delicious as well.

All in all, we loved our visit to Yolks. Their breakfast dishes were savoury, filling, and fresh while the service was really friendly and attentive.