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The Fish House – Valentines 2015

February 22, 2015

Hi everyone,

For Valentines Day this year, the boyfriend and I decided to go out for a nice dinner. Since we didn’t make reservations a month in advance, we were a bit strapped on our dining options. A lot of places that we wanted to go were already all booked. Lesson learned, figure out what to do way before Valentines Day!

But everything worked out in the end, and we couldn’t have been happier with our decision =) We ended up making a reservation two weeks before to The Fish House in Stanley Park. I thought I had went there a few years ago for my aunt’s bridal shower, but I think that was actually The Tea House in Stanley Park.

They had called us two days before our reservation to confirm. Driving to The Fish House was pretty easy, there’s a shortcut that you can take so you don’t have to drive around the whole park. Also, Stanley Park doesn’t have any street lights so it may look a bit creepy since it’s pretty much pitch black except for the car lights.

We had asked for a window spot, preferably with a view. Unfortunately,they weren’t able to give us a window seat and the restaurant didn’t have a nice view of the water, as I was hoping since it wasn’t that close to the water. We were seated quickly and there was a nice, fresh rose and lit candles waiting for us!

As expected, the restaurant was packed with other couples celebrating Valentines Day. Our server was really nice and made an effort to check in on us a few times, even though we could tell she was busy. Their service was excellent.

To start, we received a complimentary bread basket, served with lobster oil and vinaigrette. The bread was very soft and served warm. The Fish House also sells the lobster oil, serving it as a side with the complementary bread is a great way to advertise!

The lobster oil had a strong seafood taste and scent, so those who don’t like seafood probably will think it smells too “fishy” , but we loved it.

The boyfriend insisted that we both get appetizers, even though I thought it was going to be a pricey bill =( He wanted to order either the crab cakes or clam chowder, but decided on the latter.

The clam chowder was creamy, rich, with a generous amount of seafood. It also came sprinkled with small bacon bits and potatoes.

For myself, I knew what I wanted instantly when I saw “arugula” and “salmon” in one line. Salmon and arugula salad, with beet-cured Sockeye salmon, argula, pistachio, red onion, and dill vinaigrette ($13).

I loved the arugula- it was fresh, crisp, and the dill vinaigrette sauce had a tart taste to it which completed the dish perfectly. I thought it would be served with smoked salmon, so I was a bit surprised when the salmon had a sweet taste to it. The egg was cooked hard, which I didn’t mind and tasted average.

As I mentioned earlier, the restaurant was pretty busy that day and they forgot our drinks. After our starters came, we asked if our drinks would be arriving soon and they came shortly after. Caesar for the boyfriend, a raspberry mint soda for me. The boyfriend enjoyed the caesar, which was spicy enough for him.

I loved my raspberry mint soda so much that I ended up ordering two, hehe. The addition of the fresh mint really enhanced the raspberry flavour and it wasn’t too sweet. I found that the second order I received had a stronger tonic water taste. It was also a bit heavy on the ice but I drank it so fast that the melting ice wasn’t a problem =)

So far, we were having a great time. The starters were great, and so were the drinks and service! Now it’s time for the main course!

I’m not too sure why the boyfriend ordered a sirloin steak at a restaurant named The Fish House but oh well =) This was the “surf and turf”, which came with a 6 ounce sirlion and a ravioli made with sable fish and wild mushroom.

He asked for the steak to be cooked to be cooked medium rare, and it was cooked puuuuurfectly. As for the ravioli, he said it was very flavourful but wished there was more.

His vegetables were cooked in the same beurre blanc sauce as mine, and the sauce was amazing. Beurre blanc is a French sauce made of melted butter and white wine. So heavenly.

I ordered from the “simply grilled fish” section, since I wanted to try the seafood at a seafood specialty restaurant. That, and I love my salmon. They had a wide variety of fish to chose from, I ordered the sockeye salmon.

The sockeye salmon was cooked perfectly and flaked right off. It was darker in colour since it’s wild salmon. The beurre blanc sauce was lightly covering the top, and it complemented each other so well. My beurre blanc sauce was also made with lemon juice, since we all know how amazing lemon and salmon go together.

The potatoes were also bursting with flavour and seasoned with herbs. Swirling the beurre blanc sauce with the potatoes and fresh, crunchy vegetables was just amazing.

I’m sorry to be using the word amazing so much in this post, I’m not sure how else to describe the meal. DELICIOUS? PERFECT? Take your pick =)

We were too full for desert, but after paying for the bill, our great server came by and gave us a small present from the restaurant! It was a strawberry macaron and a marshmellow! The strawberry macaron was pretty big, fluffy, and sweet but the marshmellow was pretty gross…. it was grey and tasted like wet cardboard. Anyways, we enjoyed the little gift from them!

I have nothing but positive things to say about our experience at The Fish House. From the quality food, romantic ambiance, and service, The Fish House really knows what they are doing and everything is executed perfectly. I’m so glad that we came here and it was the perfect place to spend Valentines.

After the dinner, we drove to the other side of Stanley Park to see the city skyline. Apparently, lots of other couples had the same idea because the parking lot was packed. This is one of our favourite spots for a late night drive, so we’ve been here a lot of times but never seen it this busy at night!

What did you do for Valentines? What are some other great restaurants for Valentines Day?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar- Convention Center location

February 15, 2015

Hi everyone!

Sometimes, as a food blogger, you will visit one of those restaurants that are so bad that you don’t even want to waste your time writing or even thinking about it. But at the same time, you want to warn people before they go to said restaurants. Well, Rogue at the Convention Center is one of those said locations. If I knew how bad the food and service would be, I would have definitely tried another place. This place was definitely one of the worst places I’ve been to in a while, food and service wise.

Walking in, I was very impressed with the decor and location. They had floor to ceiling windows, which let in a lot of sunlight and there was a beautiful view of the water outside. Unfortunately, that’s where it stopped with Carmen being impressed.

My friend and I decided to share the chicken and chorizo cappelini, which sounded delicious on paper. What arrived and what we tasted was another story. The cappelini noodles were extremely mushy, bland and soggy. In addition, the entire plate was void of any flavour, just soggy, mushy, disgusting noodles.

The worst part of the dish was how oily it was. The entire time we were trying to stomach this down, all we saw was oil gleaming from every angle and all we tasted was bland, soggy noodles.

After a few bites, we were done and couldn’t eat anymore. I don’t know how they can serve this out to customers and charge $17 for it. Take it from our experience and save yourself the money, do not order this.
My friend and I also shared the spicy tiger prawn and pesto pizza. I had this at the other Rogue location in Waterfront station, which was really good! However, we were disappointed again when we picked up a slice, and it collapsed due to how much greasy oil was on the thin crust dough. The whole pizza was incredibly oily, to the point where it was so unappetizing that neither of us wanted to eat it anymore.

I tried to salvage it by dabbing my napkin to soak up the oil, but my napkin was drenched in oil after two slices and service was so slow and rude that I didn’t want to ask for more napkins. The pizza was also cut really badly and uneven, some of the pieces were four times larger than others. I’m sorry, but this was just terrible.

There weren’t many prawns on the dish either and tasted nothing like what I had at the other Rogue, I can’t believe they are sister restaurants.
I’m so glad that I ordered a side soup because this was the only minimal dish I had that day. This was the tomato basil soup. I’m not sure if they can cook their soups really well, OR if my standards for this place had gone so low that I thought this was good. There was a strong tomato taste to it, and had a bit of a thicker consistency. It had the right amount of herbs and saltiness, and the melted Parmesan added a nice finishing touch.

Moving on to the rude service. Service was very minimal, and when our server did come, she seemed to be in a really big rush and did not want to serve us. I asked for a hot honey water, which never came so I asked another server as she was walking by. Bad choice. She literally THREW it down on our table and walked away so fast that we couldn’t ask her to bring our server.

My friend was also missing her utensils and water, which took us three tries before our server got it for us.

It’s safe to say that I will not be returning to this Rogue location after how gross our food was and how bad the service was.

-Carmen

CRAFT Beer Market

January 16, 2015

Hi guys!

Wow, so I decided to read the reviews for CRAFT Beer Market before I wrote this post… All I can say is that I’m glad we came here spontaneously without checking the reviews (and if you’re a food blogger, that almost never happens!) or we would have missed out on a good time!

After visiting Bright Nights during the holidays, the boyfriend and I didn’t feel like going back home… so he sheepishly asked if I wanted some beer. Uhhhh… yes?! I asked him why he sounded hesitant to ask me. He said it was because we usually only grab beer or go to pubs with friends, and wasn’t sure if couples go get beer as a date. I’m not sure if couples normally get beer alone together, but I don’t really care because I’ll get beer any day! On a whim, we thought of CRAFT because we’ve always wanted to try it, but somehow always end up at Tap and Barrel across the street.

All this rambling and I haven’t even gotten to the food yet, wow. We arrived around 9pm on a busy Saturday night, and were quickly seated at a corner booth with really cozy, plush leather seats. We had a great view of the big and noisy restaurant, but were also seated in an area quiet and cozy enough to have conversation.

One thing I have to agree on with the other Urbanspoon reviews is that service here is slow, so don’t come here if you are in a rush. It took us 10 minutes before our server came. Throughout the night, I could tell that she was busy but she did make an effort to be friendly, ask how we were doing, etc.

CRAFT has an extensive and impressive amount of craft beer. The beer menu is almost endless and overwhelming! I wanted something citrus-y, and decided to try the Blanche de Chambly, a type of Belgian pale ale. It did not disappoint, and hit the spot perfectly. It was refreshing, citrusy, and light topped off with a great, velvety layer of foam. The boyfriend ordered a darker beer, the Ayinger Celebrator which was very malty and hoppy.

The boyfriend ordered the poutine, which was served hot on a pan (we were warned not to touch the pan or we would get burnt). I also read reviews that some guests received cold poutine, but ours was steaming hot and came with an abundance of melted cheese, gravy, and salt. I didn’t have many because I wasn’t feeling like fried food that night, but the boyfriend enjoyed the poutine a lot. The hotness of the fresh fries melted the cheese to a great consistency, topped off with peppers and herbs, making it a very satisfying munch.

Fun fact about me: I am not a veggie person, but the only exceptions are kale and arugula. I loooove arugula in my salads, pizzas, and flatbreads. I ordered the prosciutto argula flatbread with Grana Padano cheese. The flatbread was very doughy, and not too thin which I liked. It was topped off with a generous amount of fresh and crunchy arugula, as well as grated Grana Padano. I didn’t really taste much of the proscuitto due to the overwhelming flavours of the arugula and cheese, but I did see it there.

Overall, our visit to CRAFT was wonderful, even though service was slow. Our server was really friendly and was making an effort to check on us when she could, but it’s wasn’t really her fault. I loved the atmosphere, the long communal dining tables, the beautiful city view, and the empty keg display they had as well.

Are you a fan of craft beer, and which ones are your favourite? Have you been here before? Let me know in the comments!

On another note, I’m also currently giving away a free Cetaphil skincare set (suitable for both females and males!) until February 2nd! Read my post here to enter and full details =)

-Carmen

CRAFT Beer Market

January 2, 2015

Hi guys!

After visiting Bright Nights during the holidays, the boyfriend and I didn’t feel like going back home… so he sheepishly asked if I wanted some beer. Uhhhh… yes?! I asked him why he sounded hesitant to ask me. He said it was because we usually only grab beer or go to pubs with friends, and wasn’t sure if couples go get beer as a date. LOL, I’m not sure if couples normally get beer alone together, but I don’t really care because I’ll get beer any day! On a whim, we thought of CRAFT because we’ve always wanted to try it, but somehow always end up at Tap and Barrel across the street.

Are you a fan of craft beer, and which ones are your favourite? Have you been here before? Let me know in the comments!

On another note, I’m also currently giving away a free Cetaphil skincare set (suitable for both females and males!) until February 2nd! Read my post here to enter and full details =)

-Carmen

Urban Fare Deli (Yaletown Location)

October 30, 2014

It was a lovely, sunny afternoon in Vancouver back in July (yes, late post I know.. sorry) and I spent it studying with a friend from school. She lived in Yaletown, so suggested that we meet up there to study. But how do two hungry girls study without proper food and nourishment? We don’t.

So we decided to make a quick stop for lunch at Urban Fare before diving into our pop music history notes. I’ve only ate at Urban Fare one other time, and had a panini which I vaguely remember was pretty tasty. I was going to order another one based on that memory, but as I went up to order it, the calzone caught my eye.
After much speculation, I decided to get the calzone instead because a) It was cheaper b) Being the curious girl I am, I wanted to try it and c) the sandwiches didn’t sound super delicious that day. Ordering here is a bit different here. You tell the staff what you would like, then they print out a receipt for you.

Then, you go to the cashier and pay, where they initial your receipt and you go back to the deli counter and they hand you your food at the pickup window. Since that visit in July, I’ve been to Urban Fare a handful of times and I have yet to master their seemingly confusing system. Oops.
I ordered the four cheese pepperoni calzone ($5). It came with sausage, pepperoni, red onions, tomatoes, basil, parsley, monterey jack and Parmesan cheese, and warmed up. I immediately fell in love with the softness of bread, and how doughy it was. The warmness of the dish just emphasized the softness even more. As for the inside, there was a decent amount of sausage and pepperoni. For a dish that has the word “cheese” in the title, it wasn’t that cheesy, which I didn’t really mind. I ended up ordering another one for an afternoon snack later on.
My friend ordered their breakfast omelette platter, which came with an omelette (duh), sourdough bread, and potatoes. I only tried the sourdough bread, which tasted pretty standard and normal.

-Carmen

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