It has been awhile since Sangria and I spent some one on one time together due to conflicting schedules. Sigh, as we grow older it’s so much harder to make plans with people. Anyways, she randomly texted me one afternoon and we were both free in the evening that day! Yay! After spending the afternoon discussing on where to eat, we still had no idea. Even when we got into the car, we had no idea. Even when we started DRIVING, we had no idea LOL. Rip.
So anyways, as we were in the car, she mentioned that there was a Groupon for Mr. Chili, a Szechuan noodle place that opened about a year ago. Sure, let’s go there. After buying the Groupon in the car, we parked, and the restaurant was closed on Mondays. LOL! At this point, we decided to just go across the street to Hiro Sushi because we were hungry and had no better ideas.
Hiro Sushi is hard to miss when you’re on Hastings. It is right on the border of Vancouver and Burnaby on Boundary Road, underneath the apartment complex. The signage is bright yellow. It’s right in my neighbourhood, but I’ve never gone because there are so many sushi restaurants to pick from! That, and I read some reviews on it which said it was average, so I never bothered trying it.
The restaurant used to be an Italian place I believe, and they ended up keeping the murals. The restaurant felt pretty comfortable and was clean, with nice and high ceilings.
We both got the “All Day Super Special”, which was $10.95 for your choice of three items and a free miso soup. I chose this instead of doing a la carte because the options seemed pretty good and worth the price.
Miso soup, $10.95 combo special: The miso soup that came with the combo was pretty watery. Nothing special about it or worth noting.
Small chicken teriyaki don, $10.95 combo special: For a “small” size, this was not small at all! I was expecting maybe just one of those small regular rice bowls, but this bowl was like the size of a soup noodle bowl. What a pleasant surprise!
It was delicious too. The chicken was lightly pan fried and tasted fresh. The teriyaki sauce was nice and sweet, topped with some sesame seeds. There was some veggies with the steamed rice as well. This dish really filled me up as I wasn’t expecting it to be as big as it was.
Salmon & avocado roll, $10.95 combo special: Alongside the chicken teriyaki don, I chose the salmon & avocado roll. It was an excellent choice. There was a great amount of avocado and it was perfectly ripe. The salmon tasted average but I really enjoyed the creaminess and good amount of the avocado.
Tobiko nigiri, $10.95 combo special: The last part of the combo included your choice of three nigiris. I was in a tobiko mood, and this satisfied me perfectly. The tobiki were crunchy and I loved dipping my salmon & avocado roll into the tobiko.
Beef udon, $10.95 combo special: Sangria chose the small beef udon for her cooked dish. Again, she was also surprised at how big it was! She had no complaints about it.
Salmon & avocado roll, $10.95 combo special: Sangria also ordered the salmon & avocado roll. See my comments above! This picture is closer up than mine, so you can see how much avocado there was and how ripe it was 🙂
Chopped scallop nigiri, $10.95 combo special: Sangria chose chopped scallop for her nigiri. She had no complaints about it.
Phew! Since there was so much food, we took many breaks in between and left really satisfied and full. I was pleasantly surprised at Hiro, and would gladly come back for their combos again.
My go-to in the area has been Uomo for the past three years, but in the past couple of months, we noticed that the quality has been going downhill while prices have increased. I understand that price increases happen, especially in an expensive city like Vancouver, but it is the quality part that makes us have second thoughts about going to Uomo now.
Yay!
Ice cream w/ ginger cake: My dad was confused with the Mason jar style that is so hip nowadays, LOL. He said it wasn’t as practical to eat the dessert, which is true. The ice cream came w a ginger cake that he wasn’t a fan of.
Grilled pork and spring rolls w/ vermicelli, $9.50: The pork was very flavourful with a good amount of lemongrass flavour to it. They do a great job of grilling meats and it’s always very flavourful w a slightly grilled and sweet taste.
Maru Korean Bistro is located in North Vancouver, by Lonsdale Quay/seabus terminal. From reading the reviews online, it opened a little under a year ago. I would say it is walkable from Lonsdale Quay, but there is a steep hill! The boyfriend and I go to Lonsdale Quay quite often in the summer because it is a quick drive and offers a beautiful view of downtown Vancouver’s skyline.
There is street parking outside but it may be hard to find, depending on the time you go. Luckily, we found the last spot just steps away from the restaurant. Walking into Maru, we were really surprised at how big it actually was! It appeared that they separated the restaurant into two. The picture above is where all the customers that night were seated, ourselves included.
Korean seafood pancake, $12: Of course we had to try their seafood pancake! Unfortunately, the seafood pancake was pretty disappointing due to the lack of seafood. There was barely ANY seafood in there, except for maybe a few pieces of very tiny frozen shrimp and skinny squid pieces. It felt more like a veggie pancake.
Korean fried chicken, $8.50: The Korean fried chicken came with a Korean chili sauce, which I would describe as spicy but also a bit sweet. Like sweet chili, but packed with a lot more heat! This dish was delicious!
Open faced BBQ pork bun, $8: The BBQ pork bun came with slow-braised pork belly, kimchi, shredded lettuce, garlic chips, jalapeno, and mayo. I really loved the soft and doughy bread, which reminded me of the Chinese man tao buns or steamed buns. Because of that, this was a very comforting dish to me.
Soft tofu soup with seafood, $12: Yummmm! Adding to the deliciousness, the soft tofu soup was tasty as well. There was a nice spicy kick to it. Actually, not just a small kick- more like a full body karate kick to the face. Spicy food lovers would definitely enjoy this! The boyfriend drank more of the soup, and his nose was running by the end of the meal.
Bonus picture of the meme books that we made for each other! It’s amazing how well you know a person’s habits and quirks based on the amount of memes you can come up with for them. <3
The restaurant is more on the small side, but the seating still felt pretty comfortable. The decor is a bit all over the place with mismatched chairs (note the more royal red seat covers vs. the others) and mismatched tables (note the white table cloth tables, wooden table, and glass pane table) but that’s when you know it’s a legit Chinese restaurant!
Beef noodles w/ vegetables in soup with cutting noodles, $7.50: For $7.50, this was really worth it and so delicious! The broth was clear and not too heavy, but still full of flavour. There was a generous amount of beef slices and vegetables as well.
Dan dan noodles w/ dragging noodle, $7.50: What Lanzhou noodle soup to me, is dan dan noodles to the boyfriend. He loves dan dan noodles due to the peanuts and spiciness. I only tried a small bite since I was sick and didn’t want to aggravate my stomach with the chili oil, and it was really good!