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Curiously Carmen

Sushi Umi

May 16, 2019

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with Biscotti for dinner! Last time, we had an enjoyable meal at Hachi Hana in North Vancouver. This time, I came across Sushi Umi which was a few blocks up from Hachi Hana! 

There is free parking in this area, but it may be hard to find depending on the day. One thing great about this area is that parallel parking has marked lines so it’s easier to park! 

Walking in, I was glad that I made a reservation because it was pretty busy! I was acknowledged and seated pretty quickly, which set the service tone for the rest of our meal – quick and attentive. 

I quite enjoyed the modern, woodsy theme in here. It gave the restaurant a relaxed, warm vibe and the hanging light bulbs were a nice touch too. 

Miso soup: Biscotti started off with a small miso soup. It came with a good portion of tofu and green onions inside. 

Agedashi tofu: The agedashi tofu looked delicious, I wish my stomach was able to tolerate oily foods! Biscotti had no complaints. The tofu batter was crunchy and fresh, and I noticed some steam coming from the dipping sauce too. 

Chirashi don: It isn’t something I normally order, but was feeling like it that night. The don was a bit smaller than I expected, but it packed a lot of freshness and flavour!

All of the sashimi tasted fresh and delicious. There was more rice than it appeared at first. It also came with a side salad and an onion sauce. 

The onion sauce was surprisingly really good! It was made with creamy mayo and some sort of onion mix? I enjoyed it a lot and would not mind getting a jar of this for home if it existed. I love mayo because it doesn’t contain any dairy, so it’s safe for me to eat. 

Assorted sashimi: We split an assorted sashimi, and it’s safe to say I met my sashimi quota for the week. 

Just like my chirashi don, all of the sashimi was very fresh and flavourful! My favourite was the fatty salmon in the back. It was rich and very flavourful, it’s hard to find salmon this flavourful in Vancouver! 

Blue fin tuna: I noticed they also had some specialty tuna nigiri! The blue fin tuna tasted very fresh and had a soft, melt in your mouth texture. So good! 

Funky veggie roll: Biscotti enjoyed this role as well! It came with 4 different types of vegetable tempura, avocado, flakes on top, balsamic sauce and onion sauce. She didn’t notice that much of the onion sauce though. 

All in all, we left very satisfied with Sushi Umi and I have no complaints about this place. The sushi was fresh and service was attentive and friendly! This place used to be a Fatburger and another sushi restaurant, I hope that Sushi Umi can stay because it was great!

Sushi Umi Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: food & drink, japanese

Sharetea – Kitsilano Location

May 13, 2019

After trying out RedBeef Noodle Kitchen, the boyfriend and I noticed a Sharetea location which was on the same block. We decided to go in and try this location, but sadly, left disappointed with our drinks.

Although, I would be willing to give them another chance in a few months because this location is only a month old.

When we first walked by, their open sign was off (you can see in the pic above) and it looked like no one was inside. However, I really wanted Sharetea so I decided to try opening the door and sure enough, they were open. I guess that was our first warning sign, haha!

There was one other customer waiting for his drink when we came in. The staff member seemed quite stressed when we walked in and asked us to wait a bit, which we didn’t mind since we were satisfied from our lunch.

After about 5 minutes, another staff member came out to took our order. This staff member did not seem as stressed, more confused and probably new as well. He asked about our toppings, sweetness level, and ice level twice.

Our drinks took about 10-15 minutes to make, which was not surprising since they both seemed new. I don’t want to imagine how long the wait would be if there were other customers in there! I’m glad we were the only ones waiting.

Wintermelon lemon tea: I’ve been on a wintermelon craze recently, but decided to try it with lemon this time. For comparison, I usually get the plain wintermelon 1/2 sweet.

I was expecting the lemon to be similar to a sweetened lemon juice? But it was sour and tart, and took away from the wintermelon flavour.

The most disappointing part was that they forgot to sweeten the pearls. While the pearls had a nice, chewy consistency, they lacked any taste/sweetness at all. I usually get the drink 1/2 sweet because the sweetness from the pearls make up for it. Coupled with the sour lemon juice, this just tasted like a plain, unsweetened lemon juice with tasteless pearls.

Don’t get me wrong – I do love my lemon water and drink it everyday, but I was expecting a wintermelon lemon tea that day!

Hokkaido milk tea: The boyfriend stuck with his current favourite, the Hokkaido milk tea. The tea was fragrant and tasted exactly like his usual ones which was a relief.

However, he was also disappointed at how they forgot to sweeten the pearls too.

I’m willing to give this Sharetea location the benefit of the doubt, because they are quite new. Often times, I don’t like trying restaurants right when they open because they have some kinks to work out… However, we didn’t know that they were newly opened (I looked it up when writing this review).

For now, I’ll stick with the Kingsway location and perhaps come back to this one in a few months if I’m in the area.

Share Tea Kitsilano Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, food & drink, taiwanese

RedBeef Noodle Kitchen (Two visits)

May 11, 2019

I first heard of RedBeef Noodle Kitchen a few months ago, when I saw it on Instagram. I made a mental note to try it sometime but forgot about it until one of my co-workers brought that place up last week. So when the boyfriend and I were looking for a new place to try, I suggested this place!

We enjoyed it so much that we came back a couple of weeks later! This post is a combination of two visits.

RedBeef is located in Kitsilano and took over Thai One (Or Tai One? They had both spellings…), which was also a Taiwanese restaurant we went to three years ago. It was an interesting experience with a fiery dragon lady waitress, food was alright but I’m not surprised it closed considering it wasn’t that popular. There also aren’t many Taiwanese restaurants in Kitsilano so that is another warning sign. I hope RedBeef can last though!

If you’re lucky, you can find some free 2 hour parking, or there are plenty of paid meters around.

We came right after they opened, so it was still pretty quiet with only 2 other tables. The booths were comfortable and service was friendly, attentive and fast throughout.

It seems like they specialize in beef! I mean, look at this page with all the beef options… And their name is RedBeef, after all.

Tomato beef noodle soup: If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile (which I appreciate!!), you’ll know that I always order the regular beef brisket soup. But on this particular day, I was having a hard time deciding between the regular or tomato because I was craving tomato soup for the past week! On the other hand, I wanted the regular one as a basis to compare other Taiwanese restaurants such as Myst or No. 1 Beef Noodle but my tomato soup craving won over this time.

The broth had a strong tomato flavour, which satisfied my craving. I couldn’t taste much of the beef broth due to the tomato though. There was also two tomato chunks and 3 pieces of choy.

The star of the show was the beef brisket. Seriously, it was so good. The brisket was so incredibly tender and soft, and just melted in your mouth. It was seasoned perfectly and you could taste all of the Taiwanese spices in there. I’d go back just for the beef brisket.

The noodles were nice and chewy too, but the brisket was definitely the star of the show. I found the portion to be a bit small so I’d recommend getting a snack to share too.

Dry minced beef noodle: The boyfriend had a hard time deciding on what to get too! He ended up getting a dry noodle, which he enjoyed.

It came with a garlicky sauce that was not too overwhelming. The noodles had a good balance of beef, garlic and sliced cucumbers to make it less rich.

Taiwanese chicken nuggets: He also ordered a side of nuggets, which I sadly could not eat due to my digestive problems. Sad… But that meant he was too full to finish his noodles so I happily ate a bit of that instead.

When they came to the table, they smelled wonderful but the nuggets looked burnt and the batter color was uneven. However, they ended up being delicious and the boyfriend gobbled it all.

Taiwanese beef noodle: Since I tried the tomato soup last visit, I wanted to try their standard beef noodles. It was delicious! The broth was well rounded, savoury, and fragrant. The pickled veggies came on the side and were really crunchy and fresh. The picked veggies do have some spice in it too, just a heads up!

I also decided to try the flat noodles for an additional 0.50 cents. The noodles were delicious, I love flat noodles because the ridges/curves of the flat noodles pick up the delicious beef broth.

As for the beef, it was the same quality and melted in your mouth. There were a few times where I used my chopsticks to pick up the beef, and it was so tender that it ended up breaking and falling into my soup!

Premium beef noodle soup: The boyfriend had a long work week, so he treated himself to their premium beef noodle soup! This is one of RedBeef’s specialties, and I haven’t really seen it around at other Taiwanese restaurants.

The broth is poured into your bowl once it arrives at the table, because the beef is thinly sliced and cooks very fast. The broth was the same as mine.

The beef was sooo good and such good quality. It was very soft, tender, and had a nice marbling to it.

We left very satisfied with RedBeef for both visits! It would be a restaurant we would purposely make the drive to, if we were craving some solid Taiwanese food.

RedBeef Noodle Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: food & drink, taiwanese

Sharetea – Kingsway Location

May 8, 2019

Bubble tea is taking over, and I’m not mad about it at all! Share Tea is the another place that the boyfriend and I tried with Maki and Nigiri one evening. We ordered delivery, so I can not comment on the restaurant experience!

The location we ordered delivery from was on Kingsway Street in Vancouver. Their store is located across the street from Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea, which is another really popular bubble tea place on my list. How do they compete with each other?! I guess Vancouverites really love their bubble tea.

Oolong milk tea: Maki and Nigiri shared the oolong milk tea. They’ve been to Share Tea a few times, and have enjoyed it. They had no complaints about their drink.

Hokkaido milk tea: The boyfriend has been enjoying his Hokkaido milk teas recently, ever since discovering it at Ding Tea. The Hokkaido milk tea at Share Tea was delicious as well! After reading up on it, the difference between a Hokkaido milk tea and a regular milk tea is that the Hokkaido milk tea uses a richer milk. This results in a richer and creamier flavour.

Wintermelon tea: For myself, I ordered the caffeine free wintermelon tea! I have been curious about wintermelon for a long time, so I finally ordered it.

Wintermelon has a mildly sweet taste, which would mix well with other fruits or tea. I ordered the 100% sweet with pearls, which I found too sweet. I would recommend getting it at 50% sweet, especially if you have toppings already.

On a second delivery order, I tried this half sweet which was a lot better! You can really taste the wintermelon. I’ve also tried the 30% sweet which I like too.

Fresh milk boba: The boyfriend decided to try the fresh milk boba the second time. It was caffeine free, basically composed of milk and pearls. He would order this again if he wanted something caffeine free.

Sharetea Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, food & drink, taiwanese

Shiny Tea – International Village Location

May 5, 2019

After spending some time at Aquariums West in Yaletown, I noticed that Shiny Tea in International Village was only a 10 minute walk away! It was the perfect, sunny Spring day for a walk so off we went.

Shiny Tea is another chain that has popped up recently and has great reviews. I honestly don’t know how all these new places compete with each other but I guess everyone just loves their bubble tea.

Shiny Tea is located on the second floor of Intentional Village. This mall is quite dull and quiet with the exception of Yokoyaya123 and the theatre, so Shiny Tea is a nice addition and probably gives the mall some more traffic.

It was completely dead when the boyfriend and I came, and the black pearls were still being cooked. But we didn’t mind getting the clear ones which were ready.

Honey longan red date tea: I had my eyes set on this drink for awhile now because it is caffeine and dairy free! I also really like date tea.

I really enjoyed my drink. It was light, refreshing, and pure. The honey and dates gave it a well rounded sweetness. There were bits of ground up lychee which were delicious and sweet too.

The clear pearls were smaller than the regular pearls. They were alright, nothing that special but a nice addition to the drink.

Brown sugar milk tea: After trying Onezo’s delicious brown sugar milk tea, the boyfriend wanted to compare. He found that Shiny Tea did not have much brown sugar flavour. It tasted like a regular milk tea instead of a brown sugar one.

I would love to come back to Shiny Tea! I appreciate the fact that they have a caffeine free menu section, which is very rare.

Shiny Tea Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, dessert, food & drink, taiwanese

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Hello!

Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

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