happy hour Archives - Page 3 of 3

Food: Earl’s – Happy Hour

November 17, 2017

Mmmm, happy hour. Is it weird that I go to happy hour mainly for the cheap food instead of alcohol?

Cocoa suggested that we check out Earl’s for happy hour after work a couple of months ago. They have a pretty good menu for happy hour, and one of the perks about Earl’s is that they offer happy hour specials on Friday & Saturday nights too!

The last time I went to Earl’s was over a year ago and it was for dinner, so it was my first time trying their happy hour. Here’s how it went!
Virgin passion fruit limeade, $4.50: This came with passion fruit, mint, and fresh lime juice. It was a bit sour for my liking and I wish that there was more passion fruit flavour. Nonetheless, it was alright and a good non-alcoholic drink.

I should also mention that if you like highballs, they are only $3 during happy hour! Yes, I am aware that my virgin drink cost more than alcohol… when does that ever happen???
Maui Ahi Poke, $9.50: I can’t sing enough praises about the ahi tuna poke… it was so delicious! In fact, I came back here a week later and ordered the same thing because I enjoyed it that much.

The poke came with some cilantro, mango, smashed avocado, and a side of chips. It was seasoned with sesame oil which is why I loved it so much. Whenever I make my own tuna poke at home, I use sesame oil as my main marinate so the poke at Earl’s was exactly how I liked it!

I would recommend scooping the poke on the chips. A bit unconventional but the chips are really bland on its own. Think of it was a Western twist on poke?
Garlic fries, $3.50: Cocoa and her friend decided to share this, but it was quite disappointing for garlic fries. There wasn’t really any garlic taste at all. It tasted just like normal fries.
Chicken tacos, $7.50: We each ordered two chicken tacos for $7.50, which was a pretty decent price.

We all enjoyed the tacos. The ingredients were fresh and did a good job in filling us up.
Margherita pizza w/salami add on, $5~: Without the salami, the margherita pizza was only$3.50 which is so cheap! However, do be warned that it is definitely a snack size and is quite small. Cocoa had no complaints about the pizza.

Avocado toast, $7.50: Cocoa’s friend was curious about the avocado toast, so she decided to try it. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious either but I never order it from restaurants as I can easily make it at home. I feel like avocado toast has also become so amusing ever since that businessman said in the news that avocado toast is the reason young people can’t afford a house these days.

Anyways, the avocado toast was disappointing. There wasn’t much flavour to it and it was really plain… definitely not worth $7.50.
A shot of all our food! Overall, some food items were a hit or miss but I would definitely come back now that I know what to order and what to avoid. The prices are great and it is a good place to go to hang out over food. And now that you’ve read my review, you can learn from our mistakes and not spend your money on the items that weren’t worth it 😉

Service was spotty and a bit slow at times, they also forgot Cocoa’s poke and we had to ask them about it. On my second visit here the following week, we were seated and waited 15 minutes for a server. Finally, one of the servers there noticed that we had been sitting there for awhile with no one so he ended up helping us for the rest of the night.

Yay!

Olive & Anchor

September 20, 2016

During the last week of summer, the boyfriend and I went to a bunch of different outdoor places around the Lower Mainland to savour what was left of the season. One of these places was the beautiful Whytecliff Park, which is a bit past West Vancouver and by the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

After enjoying an afternoon at Whytecliff Park, we decided to venture to Horseshoe Bay. Four minutes drive later, we arrived into the small but lively village and decided to try Olive & Anchor after I found it on Yelp!

I am really glad we tried this place because everything about it was spectacular!
Since we had already quickly looked at the menu on Yelp, we knew we wanted to try their happy hour. I also really wanted to try this place because most of their happy hour items were dairy free! Olive & Anchor has some Asian influences in their dishes, which explains why there wasn’t dairy in a number of their plates.
Ebi mayo, $6: We started off with the ebi mayo, which was a shrimp and green bean tempura. After seeing this at another table, it looked kinda small and we were kinda doubtful that it was worth $6.

However, the tempura was fried really nicely and had a lovely crunch to it. It came with Japanese mayo, which we both love a lot. If you haven’t tried Japanese mayo before, I urge you to try it out!
KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) Wings, $6: The chicken wings came in a delicious sweet chili glaze, topped with crunchy cashews and sesame seeds.

The wings were juicy and full of flavour. Just like the ebi mayo, the fried batter on these wings tasted really fresh as well.
Crispy cod taco, $6: I am normally not a fan of tacos (cue GASPS) but I was feeling adventurous that day and ordered this. BOY, am I GLAD I did because this was delicious. This taco right here is starting to convert me into a taco person!

The cod was fried perfectly, while the fish was juicy and flaked off nicely. The taco came with a generous amount of fresh veggies and a slice of avocado. I was seriously considering ordering another one but stopped myself.
Fish poppers, $6: These were like mini fish fillets. Again, the fish was juicy and flaky with a very fresh and crunchy batter. So good!

Olive & Anchor really wowed us not only with their food, but with their service as well. Our server was really friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. I wish that all servers were this amazing.
I have nothing but good words to say about Olive & Anchor. I wish we discovered this place at the beginning of summer, so we could take advantage of the outdoor seating and ferry view more. But, I know that we will definitely be back!

Yay!

Ebisu on Broadway

July 25, 2016

The boyfriend and I were planning on grabbing dinner but ended up eating too many snacks at home while watching TV that we weren’t hungry for a full meal anymore. Oops =P

So, we decided to get some light snacks in Richmond, but we couldn’t find parking. We ended up going back to Vancouver to Ebisu on Broadway Street as the boyfriend has been wanting to try this Vancouver chain out. Yes, there is an Ebisu in Richmond but we wanted to be back in Vancouver.
I’ve been here a few times already with my family years ago (along with the location in downtown), but this was the first time the boyfriend has tried Ebisu.

This location is on the second floor of a plaza, just off Broadway on one of the quieter inside streets. Luckily, we arrived just after 10pm so meter parking was free already!

The outside doesn’t look that nice, but the inside is a lot better. The seating is comfortable and spacious, while the service was really warm and fast.

We didn’t know that they had happy hour from 8:30pm-close, so that was a nice surprise! Unfortunately, none of the happy hour items really stood out to us so we ended up only ordering one item from their happy hour menu.

Sashimi salad $9.50 small | $15.95 regular: I’ve been on a sashimi salad kick lately, so naturally, I had to order Ebisu’s sashimi salad! You can choose from either creamy, house ginger, or spicy dressing. I chose the house ginger.

The veggies were pretty fresh, and the house ginger sauce was really tasty! It tasted more like a garlicky, miso sauce but we both really liked it.

The amount of sashimi was a bit disappointing, I would have wished there was more. Albiet a small portion, the sashimi tasted pretty fresh and came with octopus, tuna, wild salmon, and salmon sashimi.
Takoyaki, $5.95 happy hour | regular hours $6.50: The takoyaki was plump and flavourful. The boyfriend enjoyed the takoyaki here more than Manzo because they have less lemon juice sprinkled on top, making it less sour. I found the takoyaki pretty delicious and would order it again here.
Dynamite roll $3.95 happy hour | $5.50 regular: We decided to try out the dynamite roll because it was pretty cheap during happy hour! Unfortunately, the cheap price justified the cheap taste. The rice was bland and mushy.

While it looks appetizing here, it collapsed once we picked it up. The tempura was very soggy and did not taste fresh at all.

We wouldn’t order this again and I hope the regular dynamite roll tastes better than the happy hour version!
Truffle fries $4.95 | regular $5.95: Oops, I forgot to take a photo of the truffle fries but you can see it in this picture!

The truffle fries were AMAZING. They truffle oil really enhanced the flavour of the fresh, crispy, piping hot fries. It was dusted with some sort of herbs as well. I would come back to Ebisu just for these truffle fries!

——

All in all, we had a lovely experience at Ebisu and I would definitely come back for snacks(esp. the truffle fries!). The prices are a bit higher than what I’m used to, but I don’t mind coming here once in awhile. It’s a nice change of scenery from the regular Japanese restaurants I visit.

I wish they opened later than 11 pm for happy hour, but it is located in a quiet area so I understand. The Ebisu in downtown is open until 1 am though!

I’ve only been to the Ebisu in downtown and Broadway. I would say they are both pretty similar in terms of quality and service. I actually went to the downtown Ebisu in the summer but never got around to writing a review.

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Hapa Izakaya (Coal Harbour) –

June 4, 2015

Hi everyone!

In May, some friends and I met up to chat over some happy hour appies. I’ve heard great things about Hapa hour, so we decided to go to the Coal Harbour location. Although our conversations were great, we all left slightly disappointed with the food.

With my horrific experience at the Kits location in January in mind, Coal Harbour was not as bad. Actually, my experience at Hapa Beach was probably the worst restaurant experience I’ve had in the past year or more. When I think of bad food and bad service, my mind automatically goes to Hapa Beach. You can read about it here…
We ordered the grilled squid, which came with a garlic soy marinade. I didn’t really taste the marinade, and found it to be very bland and overly chewy. The only flavour the squid had was a slight smoky flavour from the grill.
Next up was the spicy tuna roll. This was also very bland and the quality of the ahi tuna was very poor. It lacked flavour, and didn’t taste fresh.

This was probably the worst spicy tuna roll I’ve had. For a higher end Japanese restaurant, I expected a lot more as I can go to a cheaper place for better tasting rolls.
Continuing along with the disappointment, came the beef tataki. Again, the beef lacked any flavour and was very dry. Although the menu said ‘lightly seared’, the edges of the beef were seared so much that it was chewy and rubbery.

The beef was also shriveled up due to how poorly it was seared.
The hapa hot wings were perhaps the worst of all. Seriously, this dish was a huge mess and we all weren’t sure what they were trying to make. To start, the only good thing about the wings was that they were crispy and fresh. There was no flavour at all in the wings.

It also came sprinkled with some sort of chopped tomato/salsa mix which made us really confused??? Like why? It did not go with the chicken wings at all!

Then, the side dipping sauce was even weirder and did not go with the already weird salsa mix/bland chicken wing combo. We weren’t even sure what it was, it tasted like a cold puree slop of some kind????

LOL. As well, the menu had said they were ‘hot wings’, yet there was no hint of spice or even traces of pepper. Did the kitchen staff blindfold themselves and chuck whatever was available into the chicken, and not bother to season it? This dish was just so weird, tasteless, and random… we really weren’t sure what was going on here.
The only thing that we liked that day was the ebi mayo. The prawns were big and fresh, and had a nice snap to them. They were also nice and crispy and the sauce was flavourful as well.

Safe to say that we will not be coming back to hapa hour and we were all really disappointed with the food. In fact, I’m not sure if I want to go back to the Hapa Izakaya chain in general as it seems the food quality has diminished at a fast rate. Two years ago, I really enjoyed my dinner at Hapa but I’m not sure what was happened recently.

In a city like Vancouver where there are LOTS of competitors for Japanese cuisine, Hapa needs to step up their game or they will become lost in the sea of Japanese restaurants.

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House

July 24, 2014

I don’t come to Joe Fortes as often as I would like to, but I have been eyeing their appy hour menu for awhile and decided to go with Cola one sunny afternoon after work! Appy hour was from 4-6pm, we got there around 4:15 and were quickly seated.

The happy hour special is only applicable to the limited bar seating, so I was glad we got seats! We noticed that the bar was fully seated by 5, and there was a short lineup for their appy hour specials.

Started off with the shrimp cerviche ($7). I really liked the cerviche at Tap and Barrel, and wanted to see how theirs compared! This was probably my favourite dish out of all the ones that Cola and I ordered.

It was very refreshing, and the avocado and shrimp tasted really sweet and fresh. Shrimp and avocados mark the top of my food favourites, so it was great to be able to enjoy them together.
Up next was the calamari ($9). I thought the calamari was a bit bland, probably should have squeezed more lemon juice or used more of the sauce. The batter itself was crispy, and the red onions were a small but great inclusion, and gave it a rounder flavour.

Truffle parmesan frites ($5). I didn’t really enjoy the flavour of the cheese, grana padano, and found it to be a tad bit too much for my tastebuds. Apart from that, the fries were pretty standard. I don’t think this dish is worth the $5, especially once you take away the cheese, they taste like your regular fries.
Lastly, we ordered the raw oysters. Unfortunately, I got sick from my first raw oyster experience two years ago, and have not enjoyed eating raw oysters since then. Cola loves her raw oysters so she ordered five, since they were on special anyways. She loved them and had no complaints! Looking around the bar, most of the other customers had raw oysters as well so I’m sure they are delicious! Perhaps one day, I’ll try them again 🙂

-Carmen