food & drink Archives - Page 66 of 115

Sugar Lab

August 16, 2018

Matcha and I both had matching days off, so we decided to meet up for dessert! She suggested Sugar Lab in Burnaby by Royal Oak, which we both never went to before.

We got there right when it opened at 2pm. There were other people who came right at 2pm so the spots at the small cafe filled up pretty quickly. I would imagine it’s even busier during peak times such as weekend evenings!

Mango crepe cake, $8.95: This was the second time that I’ve had crepe cake, which seems to be quite popular these days. Compared to the crepe cake at L’Otus Cake Boutique, the slice at Sugar Lab was a tad sweeter and creamier. There was a lot of fresh mango in each layer which was great too.

Strawberry with ice cream shaved ice, $8.75: Shaved ice is a good alternative to ice cream because it is less fattening and sugary. Just like the mango crepe cake, there was a generous portion of fresh strawberries. It came with vanilla ice cream and was drizzled with some condensed milk too.

I prefer the Korean style shaved ice that has some milk in it (such as at Passion8 or My Frosty), because the one at Sugar Lab is literally just ice and it is not creamy. Good thing there was a lot of fresh strawberries to make up for it. The portion size was pretty big and we left some ice because we were starting to get full and a bit cold from it.

Sugar Lab is a good option for Asian desserts. They put a generous portion of fresh fruit in their desserts and the service was quick and friendly too.

Yay!

Marcello Ristorante & Pizzeria

August 15, 2018

At one of our hangouts, we decided to order some pizza and stay in. Macaroni loves Marcello, so she went to go get take out for the five of us. This is going to be a short review with only the photos because I don’t remember which pizzas we ordered and Macaroni does not have the receipt anymore!

Probably my shortest review ever! For 5 people, 3 pizzas was a good amount and we were all satisfied. I can say for all of them that they were delicious. The dough was also light and chewy! It’s a good and healthier alternative to Pizza Hut or Dominos, and wasn’t too expensive when the 5 of us split the cost.

Yay!

Shanghai River

August 10, 2018

The boyfriend and I were having one of those indecisive nights about what to do for dinner… we must have spent over a hour thinking of a place!!! Anyways, we decided on Aree Thai since it’s been years that we went, but as we were looking for parking it looked absolutely dead… like the waitress was watching movies on her laptop and there were no tables. At this point, we just quickly pulled up Yelp and entered in ‘Richmond’, Shanghai River showed up so off we went. It was a spontaneous decision but it ended up being a really good dinner.

Shanghai River is located in Richmond by No. 3 road. There is free underground parking in the apartment tower that it is in, just make sure you read the signs for the parking. Walking in, it was more upscale than we thought it would be.

There is also a clear glass window where you can see the workers making fresh XLB.

Stir fry sticky rice cake: When thinking of Shanghai food, this is one of my top picks. It’s been awhile since I had this! The rice cakes were perfectly chewy and dense. People usually underestimate them but they are actually quite filling. There was lots of ‘wok hei’ which made it even more delicious. The literal translation of wok hei is ‘wok breath’. I’m not sure how it works exactly but if the wok is at a high enough temperature, it has a distinct delicious taste. The only negative thing was that it was very oily.

Dan dan noodles: This is the boyfriend’s must have when we go for Shanghai food. He fell in love with it and still talks about how delicious it was. The peanuts were very fresh and crunchy and it had a good amount of spice in it.

Xiao long bao: We wanted to compare the XLB here to other places that we tried! It was delicious. They were fresh and juicy.

Pan fried dumpling: Although we had so much food, the boyfriend insisted on trying this as well. Compare to the XLB, the skin was alot thicker. It also had a slight sweetness to it. The meat inside was nice and juicy.

We ordered so much food that we had enough for leftovers the next day! We will definitely be back to Shanghai River when craving some Shanghai food. It was a great find on Yelp!

Yay!

St. Germain Bakery

August 7, 2018

After working in the Oakridge area for awhile, I completely forgot that St. Germain Bakery existed inside the mall, and regrettably so. There were a few times over the months where I wanted a snack and settled for something mediocre at Safeway… When I could have had a freshly baked, delicious bun from St. Germain instead!

One thing to note is that it is quite busy here. You take a ticket number and wait for them to call you. If you are ordering a cake or a special order, you can go straight to the cake counter and bypass the line. I found this out after I waited in line for 15 minutes. =___=”

Chocolate mousse cake: It seemed like chocolate was quite popular among my coworkers so I went with this one! It was not your typical chocolate mousse cake. It had some Asian components to it, which isn’t surprising since it is an Asian bakery after all.

The inside had hints of orange flavour and some coconut flakes too. It kept the cake exciting and was unlike any chocolate mousse cake I have had.

Passion fruit cheesecake: On another occasion, we tried the passion fruit cheesecake. The cheesecake was not super heavy and thick. It still had the lightness that Asian cakes are known to have. The passion fruit flavour was delicious and there were some fresh fruit on top too! It was a great quality cake and I wouldn’t hesitate to get it again for a special occasion.

Pineapple bun: A Chinese classic, grew up eating these so it is very comforting! There actually isn’t any pineapple in it though. It’s named pineapple bun due to the shape of the top.

The pineapple bun was delicious. It was light and fluffy and tasted very fresh.

Tuna bun: I got this for the boyfriend to eat after work. This bun is savory instead of sweet. He enjoyed it, the tuna bun was light and fluffy as well.

Hot dog bun: Another one of my favorites! On top of the fluffy bun is cut up sausages and a mix of mayo/cheese and green onion which is baked again for the cheese to melt. There was a generous portion of sausage and the sauce ratio was very satisfying.

There’s no doubt I will be back again for the buns, and maybe also a cake for special occasions!

Yay!

Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar

August 3, 2018

Maki and Nigiri’s bridal party was meeting up for a venue tour, so we decided to meet up at Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar beforehand for lunch. I have never been here but Maki and Nigiri love this place, so I was quite excited to try it. It is located on the first floor of the Sutton Place Hotel which was very convenient for our group of eight.

This is definitely an upscale place, do not come here dressed in sweatpants or something. However, there was no pretentious vibe and we had good service throughout the lunch.

Corn bread, free: We were given a basket of corn bread to start! It was devoured quickly because corn bread is delicious. This one was nice and buttery too.

Fries, $7: The fries were pretty standard, nothing to complain about.

Smoked tomato pizza, $17: This was a simple pizza with mozzarella cheese, basil, olive oil, and sea salt. It tasted like a healthy pizza and there was a good amount of gooey cheese and fresh basil. You can’t really go wrong with a simple pizza.

Beef carpaccio, $19: I didn’t have any of this but there wasn’t any complaints on it.

House smoked salmon pate, $14: The salmon pate was definitely one of the table’s favourite! We kept passing this around because it was so good. What made it so delicious was the smoky and grilled flavour of the salmon. After running out of the crackers, we used some bread to eat the rest of the pate.

Albacore tuna tartare, $19: I believe this was the tuna tartare?! I don’t remember LOL. However, it was really good. There was a variety of unique elements which complemented each other perfectly.

Seafood tower for 2 people, $65: We ordered the seafood tower for 4 people, but they gave us the tower for 2 by accident which was fine for us. For the ten of us, each of us were able to get a few pieces. The tower came with wild sidestripe shrimp, albacore tuna tataki, read island mussels escabèche dungeness crab louie, snow crab legs, wild shrimp, local oysters. All of the seafood was SO fresh and delicious!

Raw oysters, market price: I can’t remember the price of each oyster. I’ve only had raw oyster once 6 years ago, which did not really sit well with my stomach so I never tried again. So this would have been my second time. Fortunately, it was prepared a LOT better here because it was delicious. We were all happily slurping away and ordered another plate because it was so delicious!

Yum! It was such a delicious lunch. It was nice to go out and try a fancier place. Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster has really great and fresh seafood. If you’re a seafood lover, I would highly recommend it! They also have a happy hour which is cheaper. I would like to try that out one day too!

Yay!