food & drink Archives - Page 83 of 115

Angel Cake Cafe

January 5, 2017

Okay, I don’t even know how to begin this post! Angel is one of mine and they boyfriend’s regular places to eat. We LOVE this place for cheap Hong Kong style food!

We come here quite regularly because, as you will see, their set combo is super delicious and CHEAP. If we are super hungry, ordering ONE of these combos will fill us to the brim.

The lunch combo we order is $15, which includes ALL the food below!

In fact, we went to Cora’s for brunch the other day and joked how $35 of food there was not remotely satisfying or delicious as $15 of Angel’s. 😛

Soup: The combo comes with your choice of soup. Usually it’s Borscht or Cream of Mushroom that you can pick from.

The boyfriend usually has the soup, unless he picks Borscht then I’ll have a bit. The soup is always really flavourful and filling, even though there aren’t many pieces of meat/veggie inside.

Garlic bread: This garlic bread is AMAZING. It comes toasted, and is very fluffy and slathered with lots of butter. But of course, I can’t eat this anymore because of the butter.

Drink: To have a cold drink, you’ll have to pay an additional $0.50, which is the standard at HK Cafes. The drinks here are always tasty and satisfying.

On the day we came here, we decided to each order a drink. The extra drink was full price at $3.50.

Choice of two meats, rice/spaghetti, and sauce WITH veggies and fries: Seriously. Look at how big this portion is. FOR $15, which includes the appetizers! And, it is so delicious too!

The boyfriend and I each pick one of the meats. You can also order 3 meats, but we did that in the past and it was definitely a regret because we didn’t even touch it.

Fish cutlet/fillet: The boyfriend always picks the fish fillet. Each time we get this, the fillet is very fresh and crunchy.

The fish meat flakes off really nicely and is accompanied by a cheap jar version of tartar sauce.

Chicken steak: I always get the chicken steak, and like everything else here, it is amazing every time! Look how BIG that is, the plate was a large plate and compare it with the fork!

The chicken steak is seasoned very well. The skin is nice and crispy but the inside is always really juicy.

Spaghetti with black pepper sauce: Again, they give a very generous amount of spaghetti. The black pepper sauce is perfect with a nice amount of heat and flavour to it.

You can also pick from other sauces or have rice instead.

Let me remind you how much this super filling and delicious meal costs- $15! It’s seriously mind blowing due to the quality and portions they give you. This lunch set begins at 11:30 and they have a dinner version, which costs a bit more and includes a BAKED POTATO. Even thinking about how much deliciousness they give you is making me full right now.

Although the boyfriend and I don’t live in the neighbourhood, we are always willing to drive here just for Angel’s!

Yay!

Fat Mao Noodles

January 2, 2017

My friend had wanted to try Fat Mao Noodles, and being the noodle fanatic that I am, I did not say no. If I ever say no to noodles, you should know that I am probably not okay.

The restaurant has been open for a bit over a year now, and gained a bit of interest in the foodie community. Why? The restaurant was opened by Angus An, who is behind Maenam, Longtail Kitchen, and Freebird. You can read my review here on Longtail Kitchen afterwards!
Fat Mao Noodles is located inside Chinatown. It is easy to spot from the rest of the stores on the bloack due to it’s glass walls.
The restaurant is fairly small, but seating is still comfortable because customers do not have to squish beside each other. I was greeted instantly by the workers in the open concept kitchen. My friend and I came around 12 pm, and there was only one other table (pic taken before we left).

The place started filling up around 12:30pm, so we were glad we came before the rush and got to order and ask our server questions!
The menu is also worth including because it is so cute! We really enjoyed the cat themed decor in here, and I’m sure cat lovers would appreciate it as well.

After all, mao is cat in Cantonese, so the restaurant name translates to fat cat!

Each table also has a side of sauces to go with the noodles. As you’ll soon read, these sauces played a really important part to my bowl of noodles!
Braised duck noodles, $11.99: With this dish, you could choose between either Shangnai chewy noodles or wide rice noodles. I love my doughy and chewy noodles so I went with the Shanghai noodles.

First off, the duck was amazing. It was soooo tender, and effortlessly fell off the bone. It was also full of that Chinese BBQ flavour. Just for the duck alone, I’m glad I ordered this! I’ve attached another close up of the duck below because it was that delicious.

The noodles were perfect as well. They had a perfect bounce and were chewy. Since they weren’t completely flat, some of soup went in between the folds and made it more flavourful.

The broth was average. It was more on the sweet side, but it was really flat. The server recommended two scoops of the vinegar sauce. I ended up adding 5 scoops and one scoop of chili to make it have more depth. I’m really glad the sauces were there!
Boat noodles, $10.99: This was the special that day. It was a spicy pork broth with pork shoulder, beef balls, fried garlic bits and crunchy deep fried noodles. We also speculated on why it was called boat noodles.

Unlike the duck broth soup, this boat noodle broth was full of flavour. The broth had a nice tangy spicy kick to it. It didn’t really need any of the additional side sauces but my friend added some chili flakes for even more heat.

We both agreed that the noodles were a bit underwhelming. They tasted kind of like pho noodles, but were harder (not in the undercooked way). We both liked the broth of the boat noodles more, but the noodles for the braised duck noodles were better.

The boat noodles were definitely more of a southeast Asian influence while mine was more like a Taiwanese noodle. This is why we liked Fat Mao because you could get a mix of different types of Asian cooking!
Durian ice cream, $5.99: Although my friend was quite full, she really wanted to try the durian ice cream. She is a huge durian lover and wondered how durian ice cream tasted.

The ice cream was very light and fluffy, more like a mousse. It had a strong durian taste which she liked, and it was drizzled with caramel sauce on the top.

However, for the price, it was not worth it. She got the small size, which was about 6 regular spoonfuls. For $6, that was really steep and if she had known the price, would have not ordered it. So, it was delicious until she found out the price. But she also commented that she should have asked for the price before ordering.

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to Fat Mao and left satisfied. Although my broth was pretty flat, it was easily made better with their sauce. And that whole duck leg was just amazingly tender and what a meat lover’s dreams are made of.

Yay!

Blue Dog Kitchen, New York City

December 26, 2016

Is there really a blue dog in the restaurant? Not exactly, but Blue Dog Kitchen is still worth visiting if you’re ever in New York City. I found this place on Yelp in the morning before my mom and I headed out for yet another day of wandering around the concrete jungle. I am glad I came across this place because it did not disappoint!

The restaurant is pretty small and located on the main level of an apartment building (or maybe it was an office building? don’t remember). The only downside to the restaurant is that it is really cramped.

We’re talking almost elbow to elbow room and if you’re sitting beside the wall, you need to move your table in order to squeeze by or you risk knocking over stuff from the next table!
Blue Dog burger, $16.50: After ensuring that the burger had no dairy in it, I was good to go! The Blue Dog burger consists of a custom blend brisket-chuck beef, fried egg, applewood bacon, veggies, and fries. I asked for the burger to be cooked well done, as I am a bit wary of eating raw ground beef.

The burger was really juicy and flavourful, while the veggies were nice and fresh. The egg and bacon was a fantastic addition to an already delicious burger. The bun was also lightly toasted and slightly sweet. Overall, a really delicious burger!
Free range chicken burger, $15.50: The ground chicken burger was delicious as well! Even though it looks pretty simple, the patty was bursting with juicy flavour, much like the beef.

Our fries were also piping hot and crispy! I wanted to have more of the fries, but was already really full from such a big burger.

Overall, we really enjoyed our lunch at Blue Dog. I would love to come back here should I visit NYC again. The service was really attentive, friendly, and very knowledgeable about their food.

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Peaceful Restaurant – Downtown Seymour Street Location

December 11, 2016

Peaceful Restaurant is quite popular and well known in the Vancouver restaurant scene, a large part due to it being on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. The restaurant serves up Northern Chinese cuisine, which is characterized by foods that have a bit more spice. I love Northern Chinese food and find it really comforting!
They have a number of locations in Vancouver. This review is for the location in downtown on Seymour Street, a few steps from BCIT Downtown and Granville Skytrain Station. I think this location is somewhat new because when I used to work in this area, it used to be a Taiwanese restaurant.

My cousin and I went during the lunch rush, where the restaurant was completely full. We waited about ten minutes in line.
Lanzhou beef noodle, $9.95: I have been craving Lanzhou noodles ever since I went to Tasty Handpulled Noodle in New York City. So, I decided to order something nice and comforting!

The bowl of noodles comes with a very generous portion of thinly sliced beef, although I did get lots of the tendon part. Above the noodles is a pile of glass noodles (fun see), cooked spinach, and cilantro. I felt like I was getting a bonus portion of noodles with the fun see!

The broth was very clean, non-oily, and very rich in flavour. It reminded me of homemade broth. There was also a really strong garlic taste too!

As for the noodles, they were excellent. It was cooked al dente (seems kinda strange describing Chinese food in Italian terms), and nice and chewy as Lanzhou noodles should be. I loved this and would order it again in a heartbeat!
Peaceful Beef Rolls, $7.95: There was actually another piece in here, but we forgot to take a photo until after my cousin ate it.

The beef roll was so delicious! The dough was slightly thick and chewy, but with a nice flaky and fresh exterior. There was a very generous amount of beef slices inside, coupled with hoisin sauce. I don’t order beef rolls often at other places, so I’m not sure how this compares.

But, I really loved it and would order it again!
Xiao long bao, $7.95: This was the one dish that I didn’t enjoy that day. The noodle soup and beef rolls were amazing, but this was quite lacking. It tasted like those frozen ones from TNT, which I mean is okay if you’re steaming it at home.. but not at a restaurant for almost $8!

All in all, we really enjoyed Peaceful Restaurant and have another place to go to when I’m craving soup noodles. I went back to their other location on East 5th, which is by Olympic Village/Earnest Ice Cream.

Compared to the East 5th location, the Seymour location had more fun see noodles and had spinach. The beef rolls at the Seymour location were also bigger and had more filling. But, I would still go back to the East 5th location because it’s more convenient for us and the noodles & broth tasted the same!

Yay!

Gojiro Ramen

December 4, 2016

Most of the time, I am the one that finds new places for us to try out because I am more connected with food bloggers/influencers! However, occasionally, the boyfriend will come across places he wants to try. Gojiro Ramen was one of these places!

Once he saw the chicken karaage ramen on Facebook, he was sold. On top of that, it has a Godzilla theme! After a couple months, we found ourselves conveniently close to Gojiro Ramen and decided to try it.
Although we came on a Thursday evening around 8 pm, the place was still full! Luckily, we were the first in line so the wait was less than 10 minutes.

One thing I liked about Gojiro was how spacious it was, compared to other ramen joints. Although the ramen is amazing at Santouka and Kintaro, we all know how cramped the seating is. Gojiro is bigger, and not as cramped.

I also really liked the interior design, it was very simplistic, clean, and modern with some Godzilla-themed decor here and there.
Gojiro focuses on jiro-style ramen, which is ramen that features a mountain of toppings.
Basic bakamori w/ karaage,$13.55: DAMN. LOOK AT IT! There was a generous amount of chicken karaage, loaded with a mountain of cooked beansprouts.

All the Yelp reviews previously mentioned how delicious the karaage was, so I was really looking forward to trying it for myself. AND MAN, WAS IT DELICIOUS. The chicken was crispy, juicy, and super flavourful. 10/10 would recommend!

I wish I ordered the karaage as well, but the boyfriend was generous enough to give me a couple pieces. =D I have digestive issues anyways so I shouldn’t be eating all that fried food myself, unless I want to get sick.
Basic w/ chashu, $9.95: My bowl does not look as impressive as the boyfriend’s, but it was still really delicious. We both requested the thick broth because why eat ramen otherwise?

Due to my dairy restriction, I asked if the broth contained any butter/dairy products/etc and I was happy to hear it didn’t! Even without dairy, the broth was thick, creamy, and fatty. Definitely not something you should eat everyday.

As for the chashu, it was no where as good as the karaage. The chashu was dry and bland. Definitely stick to the karaage, or soak the chashu in the fatty broth and eat it last.
The noodles were cooked perfectly, with a nice bounce to it. They were a bit thicker than I was used to, but still super delicious nonetheless.

I also like how the restaurant is located in the downtown core, and not all the way at the end of Robson Street like the other ramen joints. It is definitely more convenient for me to come here!

In conclusion, we left Gojiro with extremely happy and satisfied tummies. The chicken karaage is a must order, and their broths are amazing as well! I will definitely be coming back.

Yay!