Curiously Carmen

Trees Organic Coffee House

April 8, 2014

While walking through Gastown one sunny afternoon after class, my classmates and I noticed this cute little coffee shop in one of the heritage, brick Gastown buildings.

We decided to pop in to talk about our class project. Originally, I wasn’t planning on getting any pastries, but I was sold after seeing their pastry case. We ended up sitting at a table near the window, where the window shelves were made into a seat, filled with pillows!

Here is the till, there was also self serve lemon water on the side. The workers were also really friendly and attentive, gladly answering questions that I had about their pastries.
The selection of sugary, fattening, and indulgent goodness. From what I saw in the case, I would assume that their specialty is the cheesecake.

They also had some small paninis and lunch items on the top two shelves. Curious to see which pastry I got?! Well, after debating for a bit.. I decided on getting…
The vegan banana oat power bar $3! Okay, to some of you, that might sound really gross since it’s so healthy. But I was really curious to try it because I didn’t feel like indulging in a cheesecake or brownie that day, and I love bananas!

I asked for them to warm it up, which they put in the microwave. This bar was decent- there were a LOT of seeds in it. The worker told me that this bar was made out of banana puree, seeds, nuts, and oats. At one point, I started feeling like a bird because it was so seedy. Apart from the seedie-ness, I enjoyed the taste of the bar. It was very filling and guilt-free.
Apart from the bird-seed loaf (Haha, just kidding it was actually pretty good), I ordered an americano. I forgot the price but it was around $3? The espresso was smooth, and not that bitter.

All in all, I enjoyed my quick visit to Trees. The only negative thing would be the sketchy washroom which was located in the basement. You had to walk through this sketchy hallway to the elevator, and once you arrived, it was very quiet and dingy. The washroom was shared by other merchants in that building. There was a funky smell to it as well. Apart from the washrooms, I would definitely come here again if I was studying in this area (but who wants to study in Gastown when there are so many local clothing stores?!).

-Carmen

Sushi Mura

April 7, 2014

I came across Sushi Mura one day and enjoyed it! The only downside is that I’m usually never in this area, so going here would definitely be a treat or a trek. I enjoyed all of their dishes, and judging from the packed line waiting at the door, many other Vancouverites do too. Everything was delicious and I can’t wait to come back!

I also forgot the prices of the dishes, but they were pretty cheap and reasonable, I’ve included the estimated price range from what I can kinda remember (they didn’t have an online menu, boohoo).
The interior has a lot of wooden accents to it. The style reminded me of a contemporary west coast design with all the wood panels everywhere, even in the washroom! As you can tell, their interior is pretty modern and nice. Let’s move on to the food!

The first thing that we ordered was the house salad (I believe that was what it was called), which tasted like a standard salad you’d get at a Japanese restaurant, $4ish.

However, we were surprised when we found a bed of vermicelli underneath the salad. I don’t like eating salad so it was a pleasant surprise for me! Usually, restaurants don’t serve vermicelli with their salads.
Next was our tuna and salmon sashimi $8-9ish. As you can tell from the pictures, the slices were quite generous and thick! My cousin also ordered a ikura nigiri (type of fish egg) which was good.
This was my second favourite dish, apart from the deep fried california roll. Their tonkatsu portion is HUGE, we were pretty surprised at how big the portion was when it came. It was only around $7 and you get so much with it! To give you a ratio, the side of rice is a standard bowl size. There were also two tonkatsu cutlets on top of each other! This was so good! It was super crispy but juicy, and I liked how they give you more sauce on the side. YUM!
Lo and behold, the deep fried California roll (Less than $5)! I’ve seen this on a couple of menus at other restaurants before, but I never felt inclined to order it because I don’t want fried food, and California rolls are average to me. But this intrigued me due to the different colours of sauce layered on top. IT WAS SO GOOD. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be, since it was deep fried, but still lightly crisp. Here’s a close up:
Look at that outer tempura layer! It was so crunchy and delicious.
This was the mango and avocado roll ($4-6ish). Again, I really enjoyed this dish due to the amount of mango they had in it. It was also very sweet.
This is the red roll, chopped scallop with spicy tuna sashimi on top ($4-6ish). It tasted pretty standard, but I liked how they put fresh green onion on the top of the roll.
I forgot what this roll is, but it was basically smoked salmon, crab meat, tempura, and cucumber ($4-6ish). Again, it was pretty good. The negitoro roll ($2ish) was good as well.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to Sushi Mura due to their delicious rolls and tonkatsu. My cousin, her husband, and I went and we were completely stuffed after eating everything.

However, service is pretty slow especially since it was so busy that day. Our rolls took longer to arrive too, but everything else arrived promptly. I would come back here again just for their deep fried California roll, Sushi Mura has converted me to liking deep fried rolls (never thought I would see that day..)!

-Carmen

Yolk’s Breakfast Restaurant and Commissary

March 25, 2014

After hearing all the hype about Yolks, I decided it was time to give it a visit. I went with two friends to their restaurant location on Hastings & Clarke. We all enjoyed our experience and left with happy stomachs. Service was also really friendly, and personable.

The place is a bit small, but it’s really cozy and they work with what they have. We noticed that there was fake sriracha (we are avid sriracha lovers!) and that kinda became a laughing stock throughout our visit 🙂
Menu. I thought their menu was unconventionally designed, and it was pretty cool. You start at the top and go down depending on which choices you want for the poached egg sandwiches. Although the original price is decent, it can get pricier as you include the “addons” listed such as goat cheese, or hash browns. There were some items on the menu that we were confused about, and the server happily and patiently answered our questions.
After much contemplation, I settled on ordering their daily special. Tall stack of berry pancakes with a choice of ham, bacon, or bangers for $13.50.

I enjoyed every bite. The pancakes were extremely fluffy and soft, and tasted really buttery and rich. Peeeeerrrrffeeeccttttt. There was also a generous amount of berries inside the pancakes! So. good.

I also really loved the ham, which tasted even better with their dijon mustard.

My friend’s customized breakfast plate! I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I believe he chose the hand carved honey ham, with the two eggs & double everything option, under a bed of truffle lemon hashbrowns, fresh spinach, and dijon.

This again, was SO GOOD. I really enjoyed the hashbrowns- savoury and perfectly cooked.
My friend’s iced Callebaut chocolate milk. Callebaut is a Belgium choclatier The quality of the chocolate was definitely a lot better and fancier than regular chocolate milk. It was rich, indulgent, and smooth.
My other friend’s dish, she got the customized breakfast plate as well. I really enjoyed their hashbrowns, it was flavoured differently than usual breakfast joints and tasted really unique. Delicious! The spinach bed on the bottom was delicious as well.

All in all, we loved our visit to Yolks. Their breakfast dishes were savoury, filling, and fresh while the service was really friendly and attentive.

Benkei Ramen – Broadway location

March 25, 2014

Benkei has a few locations in Vancouver, but we decided to go this one because we were in that area. It was hard for us to find parking, we ended up parking with the meter a few blocks down.

My visit was alright, but I was quite disappointed with their minimal meat portions (2 thinly cut pieces of chicken/cha shu), I don’t think the price of the ramen was justified when the bulk of it is just noodles and beansprouts.
When we first came in, the restaurant was probably 3/4 full. Their service here wasn’t as friendly as they used to be, they used to actually greet you when you walked in and smile.

They seemed very rushed and that they just wanted us to eat and leave right away. I noticed that their menu changed from the last time I came here, they added some different combo options depending on which ramen bowl you pick.
I decided on getting the shio ramen, $8.50. The broth was very flavourful and they gave a generous amount of onions and beansprouts. I thought this dish was alright except for the chicken, which I was disappointed with. Instead of having the cha-shu (type of pork) with your ramen, you can substitute it for chicken which is leaner and lower in fat.

I personally prefer chicken so I opted for this, however the two slices of chicken was small and really thin. I felt like they should have been more generous with the amount of meat in their dishes.

The boyfriend ordered the miso ramen, $8.50. Again, we felt that the cha-shu portion was really small and that they could have given us more for the price we were paying. Other than that, everything tasted pretty good. He also sprinkled sesame on his noodles which gave it more flavour, I used chili paste instead.

In conclusion, we enjoyed the broth and noodles of our dishes. However, their meat portions were really small which was disappointing and I don’t feel like the price of the ramen were justified.

I would probably go to Kintaro or Santouka for ramen since they have bigger portions and friendlier service.

Moii Cafe

March 25, 2014

Moii Cafe is a cute little cafe off of Cambie. However, they also have a crepe section, which is a good addition if you’re craving something sweet to indulge in.

There are so many cute little quirks about this cafe, which makes it stand out from the hundreds of cafes in Vancouver!
The first thing I see when I step into the cafe. I love antique furniture.

I love this section of Moii. The chalkboard menu is brilliant, it was very informative even though it didn’t fill up the whole wall. I love the different colours on the menu.

The small shelf of vintage Archie comics and nutella wall are a cute plus too!
This is part of the seating area. There are mini tables, but also a long one in the middle (it’s a bit cut out here) for conversation with a bigger group. There’s also a small room in the corner, which isn’t really a room? More like a wall frame but it gives you a sense of privacy. There were vintage albums on those walls as well.
I ordered an americano. Originally, I wanted to get tea but I thought it was a bit pricy. Tea was $4.25 while coffee was cheaper, so I settled on this. It tasted like a regular americano, nothing too special about it.

However, I gave some to the boyfriend after I left and he said it tasted watery, it tasted fine to me. I would love to come back here to try their crepes though.
This thing right here is what made me fall in love with Moii. As I was sipping my americano and waiting for my interviewee, I noticed this small wooden box and the picture above it.

For a person like me who loves and appreciates the art of writing, especially on actual paper, I was really happy to see this. It was also really refreshing to see, because these days we are used to everything being online.

In conclusion, I enjoyed my visit here due to the ambiance and atmosphere. I read on another blog that this place is owned by an Emily Carr graduate, which totally makes sense because of all the artistic elements Moii has. The ambiance is what stood out to me the most, and what sets it apart from other coffee shops.