Curiously Carmen

Shift Kitchen and Tapas Bar

During our weekend getaway to Sunshine Coast 1.5 years ago (whoops, very late post), one of the restaurants we checked out was Shift Kitchen and Tapas Bar. Why am I writing this post so late? Because a) I thought I wrote about this already but didn’t, and b) I need some content for le blog.

Anyways, Shift Kitchen is a pretty small restaurant in a plaza. It reminded me of Rogue Kitchen in Vancouver, but a shrunken version of it.

Caesar: The boyfriend started off our dinner with a caesar, which he enjoyed.

Chicken strips & salad: I don’t care if people think chicken strips are for kids only, I will still continue to order them! Anyways, my chicken strips were pretty decent. They were a lot better than the ones I ordered at Lighthouse Pub the night before, also on Sunshine Coast.

Burger: The boyfriend ordered a pretty big and filling cheeseburger that he enjoyed. It came with a side of fries too.

Overall, our meal at Shift Kitchen was enjoyable and service was friendly. It had a city vibe which we weren’t looking for because we could get that in Vancouver, but that is not the restaurant’s fault at all. 

Shift Kitchen Tapas Bar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Townhall Public House

The bridesmaid duties continue! This time, we went with Sangria to pick our her wedding dress! Before we went though, she suggested that we have brunch at Townhall since we were kind of in the area. 

 The first time I went was with Sangria as well, probably about 4 years ago now? And then I took the boyfriend once after that too. They are pretty popular for their cheap brunch.

Townhall is located just on the border of Burnaby/Coquitlam/New West, before the IKEA Coquitlam. There is also a large, free parking lot which was convenient for us although both cars missed the entrance (it’s kind of oddly situated). 

It was cozy and warm, perfect for a rainy December day. You seat yourself at an available table or hightop table. Our server was pretty prompt in greeting us after sitting down, and service throughout was friendly and frequent. 

House special, $5: Yup, you read that right… $5! Where are you able to get a $5 brunch these days in the Lower Mainland?! No wonder their brunch is always quite busy.

Anyways, the house special comes with toast, fried potatoes or fresh fruit, eggs, and sausage or bacon.

Obviously I wanted to indulge in fried potatoes, but my stomach is very unpredictable so I played it safe and went with the fruit. The pineapple oddly had no flavour, just texture… we think because it had been soaked in the brine for so long. The oranges and grapefuit were freshly cut and were good though.

For $5, there isn’t much to complain about at all! Definitely worth the price.

 

Veggie omelette, $8: It was J’s first time here, so she split the veggie omelette and breakfast skillet with Sangria. The veggie omelette came with mushrooms, peppers, onion, and feta cheese.

They also decided to get fresh fruit instead of the fried potatoes, because the breakfast skillet comes with potatoes already.

Southwest skillet, $8: The last time K came here with Sangria, the skillet actually came in a skillet. This time, it was just served in a bowl.

Maybe I’m just comparing it to the White Spot skillet, but it looked underwhelming. But it’s also half the price of the White Spot skillet so can’t really complain about that! I forgot to ask the girls how it tasted but they didn’t have any complaints about it. 

Overall, Townhall is a decent option for a cheap, no frills brunch. They did make a mistake on Sangria’s mom’s order, however they were quick to fix it.

Yay!

Townhall Public House Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Jong Ga Korean Restaurant – Revisit

Over two years ago, I wrote my first review on Jong Ga Korean Restaurant! Since then, I have been a handful more times and it is my favourite Korean restaurant! I’ve taken different people here and everyone seems to enjoy it as well.

Jong Ga is a small, home-style Korean restaurant. It is usually busy so I try to make reservations before coming. The only bad thing about Jong Ga is the parking! It is located in a small strip mall in Koreatown, and many parking spots are reserved for other businesses.

Korean beef patty: I’m not really sure why the boyfriend ordered this when Jong Ga has enourmous soup noodle portions, but alas. I didn’t have any because I wanted to save room for the banchan and my soup noodles.

He really enjoyed the beef patty, it was full of grilled flavour and sweet Korean sauce. For $10, I personally thought it was a bit overpriced but he enjoyed it.
Banchan: All of their banchan was delicious! In particular, my favourite is the chilled sweet potato which is marinated in some sort of garlic sesame sauce?

The other banchan dishes are quite delicious and fresh as well. The cucumber dish and the beansprouts are also marinated in some sort of sesame sauce, and are both crunchy.
Prime beef rib and sweet potato in savoury broth: This is my go-to! I know I should really try other dishes (well I did order the seafood tofu soup before), but this one is so delicious that I always end up going back to it!

The term savoury broth is not very helpful, but I would describe the broth as a beef broth with garlic undertones. There is a generous portion of soft, fall off the bone, tender beef rib and crystal noodles. There is also a cooked egg and some leeks inside too.

One of my favourite things about Jong Ga is their stone bowl rice! All of their dishes come with a free side of plain rice or stone bowl rice – do yourself a favour and go with the stone bowl!

I like to leave the lid on the stone bowl for about 10 mins while having the soup, to make the rice crispy. Then, I put small spoonfuls of soup into the stone bowl and eat it with the crispy rice. SO. GOOD.
Spicy beef tofu soup: The boyfriend really enjoyed his spicy tofu soup too! Koreans take their spice seriously, and he loved how spicy it was. There was a generous portion of tofu and beef. At the end of the meal, he was sooo full and stuffed!

Seafood pancake: On a separate visit, we took Maki and Nigiri here because they like Korean food as well! Nigiri ordered the seafood pancake, which was nice and crispy outside. The inside was bursting with ingredients! He was quite impressed with this and brought some home for lunch the next day.

Jong Ga is a bit hidden and unknown, but so good. We always say that we should try other places in Koreatown… but somehow always end up back here because it’s so good and worth the price. I can’t wait to come here more as the weather gets colder!

Yay!

Jong Ga Korean Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Travel: Tokyo Eats – Part 3/3

Woohoo! Part 3/3, the final post of my favourite restaurants in Tokyo! Have you been to any of these places?

Yakitori: We stumbled upon this small bar in Shinjuku outside of Memory Lane that probably fits about 10 people, and had such delicious yakitori. Unfortunately, there isn’t an English name for it nor do I remember the exact location. I’m kicking myself for not taking a photo of the entrance like I usually (always?!) do… ugh!

Near the end of our trip, we tried to go back because it was so delicious but couldn’t retrace our steps. 🙁 You’re probably wondering why I’m even posting this if I can’t remember the name? It’s because I like to look back on all my posts as memories, so I want to see this when I look back on my trip.

Kagurazaka Kurikoan: In part 2, I shared a taiyaki stand that we randomly came across in Akihabara, Akihabara Kurikoan. It was our first time trying taiyaki, and we fell in love with the taste so much that the next day, the boyfriend researched some places and came across Kagurazaka Kurikoan! It is a small cafe bursting with many different taiyaki flavours.

Compared to the first place, Kagurazaka Kurikoan had a lot more filling. We tried the regular custard, matcha, and cookies and cream. My favourite was the custard. It was so rich and creamy!

Menya Musashi: This was a ramen place in Shinjuku. Ramen and my sensitive stomach does not sit well, so I opted out while the boyfriend went for a quick lunch. He tried the Musashi ramen which is a combination of chicken, pork and bonito broth which was delicious.

Shin Udon: This is a small little place in Shinjuku, hidden from the main and busy area. They make their udon fresh here and it did not disappoint! The boyfriend’s chilled udon was very unique. It came with some citrus peels (?) which added depth to the chilled udon and beef. I ordered the normal soup udon and it was full of umami flavour.

Tsurotontan Udon: The second udon place we tried, and last meal in Tokyo. Both of my local friends recommened this udon place, so we went to the location at Haneda Airport before our flight back home! I was quite shocked to see people line up for an airport restaurant. However, this udon was spectacular! They had pretty unique types such as the duck meat udon (so delicious), chilled udon with spicy cod roe, egg swirl udon, and more!

Yummm! I know I’ll be looking back at these posts and be drooling over all the delicious food I ate. Until next time Japan, you won’t be able to get rid of us!

Travel: Tokyo Eats – Part 2/3

Continuing on our food adventures in Tokyo, Japan! Funny story, I was only going to do two parts… but then I showed the boyfriend, and he kept bringing up other restaurants I didn’t talk about. So two became three! This isn’t even all of the restaurants we ate at in the 8 days. Come to Tokyo with a hungry stomach!

Hakushu Teppanyaki: OMG, Kobe beef. This was our one major restaurant splurge… we both did not want to leave without trying Kobe beef. We were worried that we couldn’t get in without a reso, but luckily the owners squeezed us in the same night.

The Kobe beef was life changing… I’ve never had such amazing steak before. So incredibly soft, and buttery.. we were on a steak high for the rest of the evening. We thought the bread was a bit strange, but it is used to soak up the precious Kobe beef juice so you can enjoy that after the steak. Highly recommend having Kobe beef at least once in your life!

Sushi Zanmai: This is yet another chain in Tokyo, and personally, my favourite nigiri sushi of the trip! We went to two different locations, in Shinjuku and Shinokubo, but I liked the one by Shinokubo more. I’ve never had such amazing and fresh salmon nigiri in my life… for only 100 yen which is $1.15 CAD!

They also had really good fatty tuna. This is more of a sit down restaurant where you order. It was also really cool to watch the sushi chefs make our nigiri. They do it so fast and artfully!

Sutameshi: This was one of the restaurants that we randomly stumbled across, and turned out to be really delicious! The one we went to was on the second floor of a building in Akihabara.

Japanese people love their hamburger steak, which is essentially a hamburger patty with a side of rice and sauce. I couldn’t leave without trying one, and it was so good! The patty was simple but juicy, and the curry sauce went well with it.

The boyfriend ordered a fried chicken bowl and it was so good as well. It had a very strong garlic flavour, like deep fried garlic chicken.

Daily Chico: Eight. Layer. Soft. Serve. Need I say more?! We came here on the last day following a recommendation from a friend. It is unassumingly located in the basement of Nakano Broadway.

The flavours change often, but the 8 eight flavours we had that day were: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, chestnut, grape, green tea, and soda pop lemonade.

Akihabara Kurikoan: Going to Akihabara was full of pleasant food discoveries! A couple of hours after having lunch at Sutameshi (see above), we randomly saw a stand that served taiyaki. Actually, we spotted it because we wanted matcha soft serve. At the last minute, the boyfriend decided to also try their taiyaki since most people were ordering that.

Well, it was a wonderful decision on his part because it was delicious! Surprisingly, we both have never tried taiyaki before. The matcha ice cream in Tokyo has a more natural and earthy flavour, so don’t be expecting the highly sweetened matcha from Starbucks. Both the soft serve and taiyaki were delicious, and this spontaneous decision led us to source out other taiyaki places on the remaining days of our trip.