Curiously Carmen

No 1 Beef Noodle House

March 11, 2014

I don’t know how they can call themselves “Number 1” when they had the worst bowl of beef noodles I’ve ever had. Even when I lived in Calgary, a city where they don’t offer nearly as much satisfying authentic Asian food, had better beef noodles.

We would have been better off cooking our own beef noodles at home, and that’s saying something because none of us know how to make it. Our visit to No 1 Beef Noodle House was really disappointing, from the service, to wait times and noodles. I can’t think of a single redeeming quality of this “restaurant”. Let’s start with the review…

When the four of us got inside, we were quickly seated. They gave us tea and it took longer than usual to flag down a server for hot water instead. When we were all ready to order, again, it took us awhile to find service. Keep in mind that the restaurant was not that busy, it was probably 3/4 full.

My friend’s chicken nuggets and rice dish came first (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture, sad face). He thought that the dish was okay, it came with a few other sides too. If we ever came again, I would order that instead.
Standard beef brisket with wide noodle: When we were ordering, the server was asking us which noodles we wanted and I asked for the wide ones, like at Wang’s or Chef Hungs.

The bowl of noodles were really disappointing. The “chopped” noodles were gross extremely soggy. The soup was really bland and had no taste to it. They also give you thinner slices of beef brisket than other restaurants (More on the beef brisket below..). The portion here was also smaller than usual, so I wasn’t particularly full or satisfied.

Oh wait! It gets worse! Initially, when the two of us got our noodles & fried chicken dish, we were waiting for the other two to get their dishes before we started eating. So, we waited… and waited.. 20 minutes came by, my friend and the boyfriend still didn’t their noodles.

They ordered the same thing as me, except with different noodles so we weren’t sure why it was taking them so long. After waiting for a long time, my friend finally decided to ask a server about their food. Of course, it took her another 5 minutes to actually wave down a server. At this point, everyone was pretty hungry and getting frustrated at the restaurant.
Spicy beef brisket with noodles: After waiting another 30 minutes for the rest of us to get our food, it finally came! I don’t understand why theirs took so long when it was similar to mine, and it wasn’t even that busy. I didn’t take a picture of my friend’s because it looked the same.

With his first bite, he didn’t taste any “spicy” soup even though his bowl cost $1.50 more. He told me to try it, and I didn’t taste any spiciness at all. Soup was bland, just like mine. Luckily, we had a side of chili paste so he ended up dumping the whole thing inside to salvage it. Of course, it gets worse, again!
This piece of brisket in the boyfriend’s and my friend’s was so hard that it was impossible to chew. They both tried to eat it but gave up after awhile because it wasn’t worth it.

Of course, finding a server was hard and when we told her that we wanted to split the bill, they didn’t understand what we meant.

No 1 Beef Noodle House was disappointing in terms of their food, service, and overall experience. After reading the reviews on Urbanspoon, I noticed that people had the same experience as us. When you read the reviews from oldest to newest, they slowly get worse and worse.

-Carmen

Tuc Craft Kitchen

March 9, 2014

Hi everyone!

Nestled in the trendy neighbourhood of Gastown, Tuc Craft Kitchen fits in perfectly with its vintage, but modern-type ambiance. Tuc features high ceilings and big windows, which makes it seem roomier and there are wooden board accents on the wall too.

My friends wanted to try this place after hearing good reviews, so we decided to go one afternoon. We all had a lovely experience here, from the accommodating and friendly staff to the delicious dishes they had to offer.
Picture taken from (http://www.vanbrosia.com/2013/08/tuc-craft-kitchen.html). Here is the exterior of the restaurant, pretty simplistic and minimal design but enough to be noticed!
Some of us got there 15 minutes before they opened for lunch, but the owner was nice enough to let us in so we didn’t have to wait outside. I really like the wooden interior and design of the restaurant, and think the white chairs make a good accent as well.
I finally settled on ordering the Tuc pot pie ($11), which consisted of Fraser Valley free run chicken, nugget potatoes, sweet peas, and carrots in a white wine/thyme creme sauce. I liked that there was a generous amount of quality chicken inside.

The top itself was really soft and flaky, which I ended up cutting into separate sections and dipping it in the sauce and chicken. It was very creamy, warm, and comforting. The salad was pretty decent too, it came with a lot of spinach which I loved and there was a sweet taste to it!
This was the chicken dip sandwich with parsnip fries ($12). I didn’t try this, but my friend said it tasted pretty good and thought it was unconventionally delicious with the dip.

The parsnip fries were definitely new to me, but I enjoyed them. More on those later…
Here is where Tuc’s service really shines through! My friend couldn’t eat meat that day due to religious reasons, and asked the server what vegetarian options were available. She told us that there weren’t many vegetarian options but that they would be happy to make a dish for her off the menu. They ended up making a customized vegetarian pasta that my friend enjoyed very much.
This was the beef brisket and pork crackling sandwich that came with a side of smashed potato fries ($13). Even though I only had a bite, I fell in love with this sandwich! The beef brisket was very tender and the pork was very crispy. When you took a bite, it would be soft but there were bits of crispy pork pieces in it too. It came on sourdough bread, with dijon mustard and pickles. So. good.
Next up was the mini shepard’s pie and soup ($9) (I believe the server told us the soup of the day was tomato and basil). My friend enjoyed her dish and I liked the presentation of it, so cute!
To share, we decided to get parsnip fries and smashed potato fries ($8~ for both), even though two of the dishes we ordered came with them already. What really made these fries stand out for me was the dipping sauce. They said it was their homemade ketchup but I have never tasted such delicious ketchup before! It was made with coriander, which made it a bit smoky and spicy but it had a hint of sweetness to it. I would order their fries again just for the ketchup.

I thought their lunch menu was really delicious and crafted with great quality. Their service was also very accommodating, fast, and friendly not to mention the beautiful decor.

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

Dream Sushi

March 6, 2014

Hi everyone,

The boyfriend, his little brother, and I were in the neighborhood last week and were craving some sushi, so we decided to check out Dream Sushi after reading some positive reviews on Urbanspoon.

I’ve been here once a few years ago, but I don’t remember anything from my visit. However, we had a pleasant and satisfying visit at Dream Sushi and would probably come back here again if we were in the area!
So, with all the crappy and rainy weather we had recently, I didn’t get a chance to take a decent picture. Here is one I found of Google with credit to Sherman’s Food Adventures (http://www.shermansfoodadventures.com/).

It is pretty small inside, even though it’s cozy. Their walls are filled with different comments from customers on brightly coloured paper, which I thought looked pretty cool since I’ve never seen a restaurant completely fill up their walls like that.

This place is also Chinese-owned, I’m assuming with all the Cantonese I heard from all the staff.
The first thing we ordered was the salmon sashimi ($9.50). It tasted really fresh and juicy. As you can tell from the picture, the slices were pretty thick and decent too.

It came under a bed of shredded daikon. I would definitely order this again, with how fresh it tasted!
This was the paparazzi roll ($8.95), which was comprised of spicy tuna, cucumber, avocado, fried yam crisps (? I think, not too sure but it was crispy) with seared tuna tataki, spicy mayo, onions, and sesame on top. This was AMAZING.

I loved how all the ingredients tasted so perfectly with each other. This roll was made with a lot of care, quality, and detail as you can tell with the garnishing on top. It also tasted really fresh, and there was a slight crunch inside. The sashimi in this dish was also very fresh tasting as well. I would highly recommend trying this dish! YUM!
Last but not least, we ordered some regular rolls. I’ll start with the california roll ($3.50). This tasted like a regular california roll, but the avocado was really fresh.

Most restaurants either add cucumber OR avocado, but they included both in their roll. I also liked how there was sesame on top, it was a great addition to detail and made a somewhat-boring roll look more interesting. Look at those sesame seeds!
The other roll we ordered was the negitoro roll ($2.75). Nothing special about this roll, we all enjoyed it and didn’t really have any complaints. We also ordered a chopped scallop roll ($3.75). Again, nothing too special about this roll either. The last roll was the smoked salmon roll ($3.75). We were a bit disappointed with this roll because we thought it would taste better than it actually did, but maybe we had high expectations due to the other dishes.

In conclusion, we enjoyed our visit to Dream Sushi. All of their sashimi is extremely fresh, and they prepare all their rolls with detail and quality. Service was attentive as well. They weren’t overly friendly or anything, but they made our visit pleasant and were quick to come to our table, and refilled our drinks without asking.

Lancôme – La Base Pro Makeup Primer

March 5, 2014

Hi readers!

I received this as a sample from Shoppers Drug Mart when I recently purchased something from their beauty department. My thoughts on this primer are mixed because on the two separate occasions I wore it, I got different results.

I don’t think I would purchase this product just because I got different results so I’m not too sure how reliable it would be, nor would I want to spend $40+ on a product I am iffy about.

I’ll start off with the application. The primer came out like a gel, but when you applied it, it became very soft on your face, almost like a powder. I noticed that it felt very slippery and oily, and I had a feeling that my foundation would not last…. Keep reading to find out why.
First impression: After applying all my makeup, I noticed that I looked really cakey and streaky. To put it frankly, it did not look nice and I felt like all my pores were magnified. I didn’t really have time to reapply it, so I tried blending it more with my brush, which helped a little.

Overall, my first impression of it was that even though it did have that “satin-soft finish” (or slippery/oily as I call it, hah) it left my face feeling pretty heavy. I never knew it was even possible to have “streaky” foundation until this product came along. (Basically, it means I saw a lot of my stroke marks from my brush).

At the end of the night, my foundation was still on even though my face felt heavy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures in good lighting and ended up deleting the initial ones. I was really disappointed with my first impression on this primer, and was glad I got this for free.

Second impression: I didn’t want to lose hope on this primer! A few nights after, I decided to only apply the primer to half my face and ask the boyfriend which side looked more pore less & even. I was hoping that he would say the side that I didn’t put on the primer to conclude, but he actually said that the right side looked smoother!

I noticed that this time, my foundation did not appear as streaky or cakey as the initial time, even though all the products and amount were the same. I noticed that unlike the first night, my skin didn’t feel heavy or gross the whole night- I even forgot I wore it. Here is a picture I took at the end of the night:
Conclusion: After reading reviews, I noticed that users with the same skin type as mine (combination/oily) had the same problems. Therefore, I conclude that this foundation would be better suited for you if you had dry skin. It all makes sense now!

My face was probably oilier during my first application since I just took a shower before applying (I don’t know why, but my face becomes oilier after I shower) which is why it looked so cakey and streaky. The second time, I don’t remember putting on any heavy moisturizer or showering before.

That meant that my skin was drier my second time, which was why I had more success with it. But yeah, I don’t think I would buy this primer or use it again – I’ll probably give it away to a friend that has a dry skin type.

-Carmen

Thai’s Saigon Bistro

March 2, 2014

Whenever I am craving hearty, delicious, and authentic pho, my mind and tummy travels to Saigon Bistro. I love Saigon Bistro because their pho broth is lighter, and less salty than other places.

Their pho really reminds of authentic home cooking, and the vegetables served here are really fresh and crunchy. I never leave this place feeling bloated and gross due to their light but delicious broth. Not only is their broth healthier, the owner of the restaurant is an extremely friendly and cheerful Vietnamese man!

Let’s get the review started:
This is one of the pho dishes that I normally get, pho tai nam gan sach (rice noodle with beef flank, rare beef, tendon, and tripe) $6.75 for small. I normally ask for extra tripe and no tendon, and the owner is glad to accommodate my requests.

As you can tell from the picture, the broth is pretty light in colour and clear. Although the broth is lighter, the flavour of the pho itself isn’t sacrificed. It really reminds me of home cooked pho due to its light but delicious flavour- really only a broth that a mom/grandmother could perfect! But somehow, they accomplish it!

The noodles are also cooked perfectly, and do not clump together.
This is the nuong cuon (salad roll with grilled pork) ($3.50). This dish is pretty tasty due to the marinated and grilled pork. The wrap also isn’t that sticky, so pretty easy to eat.

There is also vermicelli and lettuce inside the wrap. In addition, the roll comes with a peanut butter (I think there’s also Hoisin sauce in it?) dipping sauce which complements the flavour.
This is the salad roll with shrimp & ham, goi cuon ($2.95 for 1 roll, $5.50 for 2 rolls). Nothing too special about this dish, but I love ordering it when I’m not that full yet and want something light.

All the vegetables taste really fresh and crunchy. I find that their slice of ham isn’t as big as other restaurants.
This is the banh mi thit nuong ($4) grilled pork with vegetables and hot pepper, toasted on a french bun. The bread is super crunchy on the outside, but soft in the inside. I love this sub because there is an equal amount of meat to vegetable. The vegetables, again, also taste really fresh (Look at that fresh, yummy cilantro!). I normally dip every bite into hot sauce and it’s delicious!

-Carmen