food & drink Archives - Page 27 of 115

Ramen Danbo

July 4, 2020

Ramen Danbo has been on my list for awhile now, because they offer both regular ramen and vegan ramen! I loooove ramen but unfortunately, had to stop eating it due to my chronic stomach problems. However, I wanted to see if vegan ramen would be any good, and I’ve heard really great things about Ramen Danbo.

The last time I had ramen was 2 years ago at Marutama, how delicious that was before my stomach problems went even more downhill (I did go to a couple of places like Jinya and Ramen Gaoh but didn’t order a ramen dish)!

Ramen Danbo is an authentic ramen shop with locations in both Kitsilano and downtown. The Kitsilano location was their first location outside of Japan!

One of the worst things about having ramen is the line up. Most authentic ramen joints are always lined up! Because we hate waiting in line, we went to the Kitsilano location about 10 minutes before they opened and were seated immediately.

The restaurant was pretty small as most ramen places are, and they removed half of their tables due to COVID. As with most restaurants, they have a QR code that you scan to see the menu.

Ramen Danbo has a lot of customization options: noodle thickness, noodle firmness, thickness of broth, amount of lard (if non-vegan), and amount of karadare (spicy sauce).

Vegan shio ramen: I chose thin noodle, firm, standard thickness, and a little bit of karadare.

I’m pretty sure I confused the poor waiter by asking for a slice of pork and egg with my vegan soup. Oops! Anyways, I found the vegan ramen to be absolutely delicious. The broth was very flavourful and creamy, with so much umami flavour.

I couldn’t get enough of it. It wasn’t as fatty as the fiance’s regular ramen, but it still satisfied my ramen craving and I’d come back. In addition, the pork slice was tender and soaked up the broth well. The soft boiled egg was a nice touch too, ramen eggs are delicious.

Personally, I prefer my ramen broth as simple as possible to enjoy the full umami flavour of the soup which is why I usually get the shio ramen. Because of that, I wouldn’t order the karadare again because the spiciness distracted the broth.

Don’t get me wrong, I love spice and hot sauce but I prefer my ramen simple.

Classic chashu men: The fiance went with the thin noodle, firm, strong thickness, rich lard, and no karadare. The broth was very flavourful and rich.

It was the perfect bowl of comforting noodles to warm your soul. However, he loves his ramen as rich and fat as possible (to the point where you’re drinking straight up lard LOL), so he would go up a level to the maximum amount of richness, aka the extra rich level.

The chashu ramen came with a whooping 6 pieces of pork as well.

We enjoyed our visit so much that we decided to try delivery. However, the delivery experience wasn’t as good.

The portion was smaller and although they only had firm noodles as an option, the noodles were pretty soft. I wouldn’t get delivery again and would recommend going to the restaurant.

We will definitely be back!

OEB Breakfast Co

July 1, 2020

What kind of food blogger am I if I told you I am not crazy about going out for brunch? One that’d make you stop reading this blog? 😉 Anyways, I do enjoy going for brunch once in awhile and eating something that isn’t easily cooked at home. For example, eggs, toast, sausage, pancakes, waffles etc are so easy to make at home.

But after hearing that OEB served duck fat fried potatoes from Cola, I knew we had to try it out as it’s not easily replicated at home!

I was actually invited here last summer when they first opened as a media guest, but turned it down because my stomach problems were absolutely horrible last year. Fast forward to now, I can finally try it as a paying customer!

Chasing chickens: Cola recommended the breakfast poutines, which I had my eyes on already. My poutine came with poached eggs, duck fat fried herb potatoes, Saint Cyrille curds, smoked pulled chicken, and brown butter hollandaise.

This was heaven in a bite. The duck fat fried potatoes did not disappoint, they had a nice flavour and aroma to it that was different than other potatoes I’ve had.

In addition, the smoked pulled chicken was juicy with some grilled flavour to it. The poached eggs were disappointing though, the egg whites were kinda rubbery and tasteless.

However, the star of the show was the hollandaise sauce! I am usually just okay with hollandaise, but this one was just spectacular. It was better than the duck fat fried potatoes imo. The hollandaise was very buttery and lemony. I’d come back just for the hollandaise sauce.

Gold digga: The fiance ordered a breakfast poutine as well, but with a different meat. The gold digga came with poached eggs, duck fat fried herb potatoes, Saint Cyrille curds, Berkshire roast pork, black truffles, and brown butter hollandaise.

Most of our poutine was the same and equally as delicious. The Berkshire roast pork was tender and seasoned with rosemary, my favourite herb! It was absolutely lovely.

The fiance is a huge hollandaise fan, and often bases brunch ratings according to their hollandaise. He was really impressed with OEB’s hollandaise too, and it was one of the best he’s had!

All in all, we were very impressed with OEB. The main item I wanted to try was the duck fat fried potatoes, and they did not disappoint. We were also very blown away with their amazing hollandaise! The price point is a tad high compared to other places, but the quality and taste is there.

The Rise Eatery

June 28, 2020

It has been over 3 months since I have ate a proper meal at a restaurant! How crazy is that? The last sit down meal was at Do Chay with Avocado in March.

The Rise Eatery is an Asian-fusion restaurant inconspicuously located in the South Granville area, a block away from Kyo. The restaurant is located at the end of the shopping area so it’s a bit hidden.

The restaurant was about half full, with other reservations that night too. We had a server who was friendly, but slow and hard to flag him down at times.

Drinks: We started off with some drinks! Starting from the left, Jerky ordered the ‘Life’s a Peach’ which came with peach tea, peach puree, ginger ale, lime and rosemary.

In the center was my drink, Dark n’ Timmy. I’m a huge fan of ginger beer and this was delicious! The drink came with ginger beer, grapefruit juice, lime, vanilla, and a candied ginger. The grapefruit gave it some sweetness and rounded out the spicy flavour of the ginger.

The birthday boy Smores ordered a Lolliwood North, which came with bench 1775 sauvignon blanc, lychee liquor, elderflower soda, cranberry & orange-mango popsicle. The popsicle was a cute and unique addition!

Uni-Versal Pasta XO Edition: Smores has been here before and raved about this. After deciding between the pasta and the heart attack rice, I decided on the latter and regretted it because this was delicious! I had a bite (the first bite with a clean fork so no germ transmission going on here), and was in love.

This came with squid ink pasta, sea urchin cream, runny egg yolk, sauteed prawn, flying fish roe, and toasted seaweed. It reminded me of an elevated and fancy version of a mentaiko udon.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this dish the next day! I would definitely order this for myself next time because one bite was not enough.

Heart attack rice: My rice bowl came with grilled chicken, a runny egg, and chicken crackling cooked in chicken fat rice. I can definitely see where the name heart attack rice came from.

The rice bowl was delicious as well, although a bit oily but that’s to be expected. The grilled chicken was tender with a nice char flavour. So good! The chicken crackling was essentially deep fried chicken fat, which was too rich for me and my sensitive stomach so the fiance happily ate those pieces.

Shad thai: The only disappointing dish of the night. The sauteed fish noodles were very odd and not good… think of a springy, light fish ball but in noodle form. Some things should not be made into noodles, this is one of them.

The “noodles” came with a fish sauce, with a hint of sourness to it. The sauce was okay but the noodles were not good and ruined the dish. It also didn’t feel worth the $19 price.

Chicken seoul good: This was amazing! Korean style fried chicken with wild mushroom cream, truffle oil, and grated Parmesan. All of these things combined was a match made in heaven. The chicken was juicy and crunchy, and the mushroom cream and truffle oil went so well together.

The truffle oil scent was very aromatic too. The cherry on top was the melted parmesan. Sooo good.

All in all, we enjoyed our visit to The Rise Eatery. It’s a bit hidden at the end of South Granville, but very good (just don’t get the Shad Thai). They do Asian fusion very well and you won’t be disappointed with the uni pasta or fried chicken!

Cindy’s Palace

June 25, 2020

For Father’s Day, I suggested dim sum. Initially, I wanted to get Western Lake but they were open too late, and my dad had to go to work. I called a couple of other places such as Happy Valley, but the braniacs over there had a voicemail message saying they were open for takeout and then the line cut off so you can’t even order. *eye roll* and Wah Lun’s line was dead too.

So Cindy’s Palace was actually a 4th option, but it turned out to be pretty decent!

Surprisingly, I have not yet been to Cindy’s Palace. With so many dim sum options around this area, we always end up going somewhere else. I always forget this place exists actually.

Picking up the take out was not smooth. I placed the order at 9:40am, they told me to come in 20 minutes at 10:00am. I ended up waiting for 25 minutes until 10:25, which I was not pleased about because my dad had to leave the house at 11:00am. I told the owner this and she was understanding and did apologize, and I also heard her checking on my order in the kitchen a couple times which I appreciated.

So although it was annoying, her service made up for it which is rare because Chinese restaurants are notorious for bad service.

Bean curd wrap: Ordering bean curd wrap is always a hit or miss for us. We were relieved that the bean curd wrap here was delicious! The filling was not dense as opposed to other restaurants. In addition, there was a decent portion of meat and veggies, and the sauce was not gooey.

Deep fried pork ball: The deep fried pork balls were delicious, and my favourite of the morning. They were fresh and piping hot, even after a car ride. The outside was crunchy, and a mix of sweet and salty.

Beef flour roll: The beef flour rolls were plump, containing a decent amount of beef and some kind of crunchy vegetable inside (daikon?). No complaints here.

Beef tendon: I’m actually not a fan of beef tendon but my dad likes it, so this dish was for him. He had no complaints about it.

Sticky rice wrap: The sticky rice wrap was delicious! The rice was very flavourful and there was a decent amount of filling inside.

All in all, I was very impressed with Cindy’s Palace. Despite the hiccup in the beginning with the take out delay, the owner was apologetic about it and the food ended up being very fresh and tasty. I would definitely come back!

Samurai Sushi – Cambie

June 22, 2020

Samurai Sushi is a classic in Vancouver, known for their super cheap ginormous rolls. I’ve had take-out here many times for family gatherings over the years, but have yet to write a review on it which I found a bit surprising!

It’s been awhile since I’ve had Samurai Sushi, I want to say maybe at least a year? I totally underestimated how big their normal rolls were. I remembered that their house rolls were huge, so we only placed a half order, but the normal rolls were GINORMOUS!

This ended up being our lunch and dinner because the pieces were so big with so much rice.

House roll: The house roll is what Samurai is known for. They were the size of my palm! Taste-wise, the salmon, tuna, avocado and tamago were fresh and yummy, but the imitation crab meat wasn’t. The crab meat, which took up majority of the roll, was a bit dry.

Salmon roll: The salmon roll was decent, with no complaints. The salmon pieces were quite big.

Negitoro roll: No complaints about the negitoro roll either.

Here is my palm for comparison. I wasn’t joking when I said the house roll was huge!

California roll: This doesn’t look that big, but this is one of our large plates that normally serve steak. So yeah, it was actually really big. Again, the imitation crab meat was a bit on the dry side but the avocado was ripe.

Spicy tuna roll: There was so much food that I didn’t end up trying the spicy tuna roll. The fiance enjoyed it though, and said the tuna tasted fresh.

Scallop roll: We were quite impressed with the scallop roll! The roll was bursting with scallop. In addition, the scallops tasted very fresh too.

Overall, Samurai Sushi is a major bang for your buck restaurant. Sushi rolls do not get bigger or cheaper than this. It is all about quantity here so if you want large, filling portions of sushi, come here!

I feel like most Chinese or Asian people in Vancouver have been here or have had takeout at large family gatherings. If you know, you know 😉