Curiously Carmen

Remi Patisserie

December 27, 2020

Vancouver has been abuzz lately with the opening of Remi Patisserie’s storefront! Over the past year, Remi Patisserie has gained popularity by selling their pastry products in other cafes or on social media. They are a small shop located by Cambie and Broadway, and pre-ordering days in advance on their Instagram is highly recommended.

Maki and Nigiri told us good things about Remi Patisserie back in the summer, and really enjoyed it. They were nice enough to drop off some cake for us recently! It was the perfect treat and pick-me-up since the fiance and I were both feeling sick that week.

Maki and Nigiri picked out 3 slices of cake for us. While looking on their Instagram, I believe these are called tea rolls. They are more Asian inspired and reminded me of an elevated version of the Chinese swiss rolls from Asian bakeries that I grew up eating.

Thai tea roll: First up, we tried the Thai tea roll. At the time, we didn’t know what flavour it was… but knew that it was DELICIOUS and that we loved it. The roll itself felt dense and thick, but it was actually very soft and fluffy when bitten into.

In addition, the filling of the Thai tea whipped cream was delicious. There was a strong milk tea taste while the cream filling was light and delightful.

Matcha sesame tea roll: Secondly, we tried the matcha sesame tea roll. The matcha used at Remi Patisserie is organic and from the city of Uji in Japan. Again, this roll was delicious. Just like the Thai milk tea roll, the quality and flavour of the matcha was excellent. The matcha was nutty, strong and earthy.

The sesame added more nuttiness to the roll and highlighted the strong matcha flavour even more. The combination of the two was great.

Earl grey and salted caramel roll: Lastly, we tried the earl grey and salted caramel roll. Out of all three, this one was my personal favourite. The earl grey and salted caramel cream inside was so incredibly light and fluffy.

The tea flavour in this roll wasn’t as strong as the Thai milk tea or matcha, but I could still taste it. In addition, the salted caramel gave the roll an extra amount of sweetness.

Overall, we really enjoyed the pastries we tried from Remi Patisserie, and can see why they are so popular! The quality of the pastries is evident and it was so delicious. The texture of the tea rolls were perfect too.

As mentioned earlier, they reminded me of a fancy version of traditional Asian pastries. I would love to try more of their other desserts as well.

House of Dosas

December 22, 2020

A couple of years ago, the fiance and I tried House of Dosas a few times. The first time was delicious, and was how I was introduced to chicken biryani. The second and third times weren’t as good though, so we stopped ordering from them. I didn’t end up writing a review because back then, I didn’t want to write delivery reviews.

How funny is it that fast forward two years later, most of my reviews are delivery because a “small thing” called a pandemic happened and uprooted everyone’s normal lives?!

Since it’s been awhile, we decided to order from here again and see if it was any good two years later. We are trying a bunch of Indian restaurants now to see which is our favourite and could be the go-to, hence why you are seeing a bunch of Indian food reviews lately.

Chicken kothu paratha: When Lager took us to Sri Lankan food at Kurumba earlier this year, I really enjoyed stir fry roti bread dish. While looking at the menu, I noticed that House of Dosas also offered this dish so I ordered again in hopes that it would be as delicious as I remembered it to be.

The flavour was delicious, it was very aromatic and seasoned. There was a hint of spiciness to it. However, I found it to be more on the wet/oily side, and lacked the smoky, grilled taste from the pan that Kurumba. I wish that it was fluffier too.

The portion was absolutely huge, and we were only able to finish half of it that evening. Despite the huge portion, there wasn’t much chicken in it. But what chicken there was, it was tender and flavourful. Overall, the dish was disappointing, especially having Kurumba to compare. I wouldn’t order it again because of how wet, oily and dense it was.

Chicken korma: One thing that I remembered we really liked from House of Dosas was that their dishes came with papadum, which is a thin, and crunchy flatbread. In addition to the delicious papadum, they also include roti bread and rice too. It’s great that they have all 3 sides offered at no extra cost!

The chicken korma was delicious. It was fragrant and really flavorful. My favourite would be the roti bread though. The roti bread was perfectly layered, chewy, and soft – perfect to dip with the chicken korma.

The chicken korma also came with a tub of sauce? We weren’t too sure what it was but ate it anyways. There was a sweet taste for the first few seconds, which quickly turned into a spicy kick.

Overall, House of Dosas was alright. What stood out to me most was the papadum and delicious roti bread. Those two sides would be the reason I’d order again rather than the main dishes.

It is also quite hit or miss here. As mentioned in the intro, we ordered delivery here a couple of years ago and the chicken biryani was different quality each time. This time, the chicken korma was delicious but the kotthu parotta wasn’t.

With so many Indian restaurants to choose from, House of Dosas wouldn’t be high on my list. Dosa Factory is on the same block as House of Dosa, and I would prefer Dosa Factory instead.

Nando’s – Davie Street

December 19, 2020

Another day in the pandemic, another delivery review. While looking on UberEats, the fiance and I saw that Nando’s and UE was offering an unreal promotion. Nando’s had a BOGO chicken combo promotion, and we were able to combine UberEat’s 30% off discount as well so our total came to about $18 after fees, tip and tax!

Since then, it seems like UberEats doesn’t allow you to combine discounts but we enjoyed it for that meal while it lasted!

I’ve written reviews on the Nando’s in Richmond’s Garden City Plaza, and the location on Kingsway. The delivery order was placed for the Nando’s in downtown on Davie and Howe Street.

1/4 chicken with 2 sides: My go-to order whenever I have Nando’s. The chicken was very juicy and flavourful. I ordered mine with a medium spice and it was perfect.

For the sides, I went with the garlic mashed potatoes and spiced rice. I absolutely love the garlic mashed potatoes, maybe even more than I like their chicken. They have one of the best mashed potatoes in town. They were buttery, creamy, and garlicky.

You also can’t go wrong with the spiced rice either! The rice was light and fluffy and seasoned well. I mentioned this in my previous Nando’s review, but incase you didn’t read it, I recommend getting these 2 sides for delivery because they don’t get soggy like fries or something deep fried.

1/2 chicken with 2 sides: The fiance ordered the same as me, and enjoyed it a lot as well. He loves the wedge fries, and decided to get an extra side of it. I’m not a huge fan of the wedge fries and prefer their garlic mashed potatoes or spiced rice.

The quality and taste at Nando’s is consistent no matter which location you go to. They have delicious and reliable food that you can’t go wrong with! On that note, I would also like to try Barcelo’s one day, which I heard is very similar to Nando’s.

Sun Yee Cafe

December 4, 2020

Sun Yee Cafe is a new Hong Kong style cafe that opened two-ish months ago and replaced Golden Penny Chinese Restaurant, which had been around for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I remember Golden Penny being around! Sun Yee Cafe is by Hastings and Lakewood inside the small strip plaza.

While looking this place up online before placing my delivery order, I noticed that there were two previous Sun Yee restaurants in Vancouver. One of them was a block away from the current location many years ago, and the other Sun Yee was located on Victoria Drive. Both previous locations have since shut down, so I wonder if this Sun Yee has the same owners or not? Or did new owners take their name for recognition sake?

Anyway, I noticed this place on UberEats for a bit now. One afternoon, I noticed that they were offering a buy one, get one free deal so it was the perfect time to try it!

This post is a review of 3 separate orders. You’d think that it was good if we ordered it 3 times, but it wasn’t as you’ll soon read about.

Diced chicken and salty fish fried rice: I wished that UberEats lets you mix and match all the eligible BOGO items, but unfortunately you have to order the same thing. I tried to call the restaurant if they would be willing do make another fried rice on the BOGO menu, but unfortunately they said no.

Anyway, it has been awhile since I had this type of fried rice! The fiance doesn’t like salty fish (anyone else? haha I can see why it’s off putting, the taste is quite strong and pungent…) so I had this all to myself, with enough to last me 4 meals!

There wasn’t much diced chicken, salty fish or egg in the rice, which was a bit disappointing. Salty fish has a strong taste so you don’t need much for flavour, but it did feel stingy. I was also disappointed that the rice lacked the “wok hei” aroma that makes fried rice taste good.

In addition, fried rice usually comes with some peas or chopped choy. The fried rice here didn’t include that, but instead had some cooked iceberg lettuce instead. The lettuce was pretty limp, tasteless and slicked with oil.

If there wasn’t a BOGO deal, the fried rice would have 100% not been worth it. I’m not sure if the quality was not good because of the BOGO so they skimped out, or if that was their normal quality. Either way, my first impression of the restaurant was not good.

At least I was full and ended up having 4 meals (lunch and dinner for 2 days!) with it due to the promo, so the value was there. But taste wise, I’ve had a lot better tasting fried rice and I would not recommend it at full price.

Baked spaghetti with sausage: On another day, I saw that they were offering the BOGO promotion as well, so we ordered two of these dishes for the price of one. Considering that my first order was disappointing, I wanted to see if this dish would be any better.

The baked spaghetti was slightly better compared to the fried rice but still pretty average. At least there was a generous portion of meat in the tomato sauce. Although the dish said baked, it didn’t really seem like it was.

Beef fried rice: Lastly, we ordered beef fried rice during another BOGO promo. It seems like this BOGO promotion is always happening, at least right now since they are newly opened.

The beef fried rice was as lackluster as the diced chicken and salted egg fried rice. There weren’t many pieces of beef inside, and what beef there was, was small and crumbly. As well, there wasn’t much flavour and there was even less scrambled egg in here than our previous fried rice order.

After ordering 3 times, my verdict of Sun Yee Cafe is that it is below average and not worth regular price. We only ordered because of their buy one get one free promotion on UberEats. It would not be worth the price otherwise. The taste is not that good and they are pretty stingy with ingredients. There are way better Hong Kong style cafe restaurants out there.

Milssam Tacorea / Bobkim’s Kimbob

December 1, 2020

I had the sudden craving for kimbap one morning, but there aren’t many places around me that have kimbap. I ended up forgetting about it but as I was looking on UberEats later in the day, I noticed a new place that I haven’t seen before called Bobkim’s Kimbob Korean Rice Roll. What a long name!

I haven’t heard of this place before, and no results showed up when I did a Google search. Very weird… Then I looked up the address and Milssam Tacorea in Yaletown showed up. When I looked up the menu at Milssam Tacorea though, there was no mention of kimbap or Bobkim’s so I was pretty confused at where this mysterious kitchen was coming from. I ended up calling Milssam to ask. Turns out, Bobkim’s is sharing a kitchen with Milssam. Mystery solved, and I knew where my food was coming from!

Tuna kimbap: My favourite kimbap is tuna, so of course we had to get this. The price was pretty reasonable as well. At the time of writing, this was $4.50 for 9 pieces.

The tuna kimbap was alright. It did satisfy my kimbap craving though and the roll had a lot of fresh, crunchy vegetables inside. The tuna was also juicy and mixed with some mayo, so it wasn’t dry.

Kimchi kimbap: The kimchi kimbap was our least favourite. We found the kimchi to be on the watery side and not spicy. You can probably tell looking at the photo too. The kimchi was more vinegary and lacked spiciness.

On the plus side, look how jam packed it was and how much egg was inside!

Pork kimbap: The pork kimbap was nothing special and pretty average as well.

We appreciated the amount of fresh, crunchy vegetables inside but the pork flavour itself was meh. It could have used more seasoning.

Fried gimmari seaweed roll: To meet the delivery minimum, we also added a fried seaweed roll which was something neither of us have tried before. It was a bite sized, deep fried roll with glass noodles and veggies inside (think of a deep fried japchae roll?).

In writing, gimmari sounds delicious, but I found that they used some sort of seasoning that made the roll taste a bit off. There was also a very heavy sesame oil taste.

Overall, we definitely have had better kimbap elsewhere. I also found myself pretty thirsty afterwards, so I suspect they added a lot of MSG in the rice because it did taste pretty salty. It’s weird because we found the main items (like the kimchi and pork) to be bland, but other things like the rice and gimmari were overly seasoned and too salty.

On the plus side, the rolls were filled with fresh ingredients and they did not skimp out. Seeing that there aren’t any Korean places around us that have kimbap, we may possibly order again but have our expectations lowered (or just go to Kim’s Mart instead).