diner Archives - Curiously Carmen

Fable Diner

November 14, 2016

Fable Diner is a new addition to the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Vancouver, aka my favourite neighbourhood in the city. The name may sound familiar to you because Fable Diner is the sister restaurant of Fable Kitchen, which is in Kitsilano.

My ex-coworkers really love going to Fable Kitchen, and wanted to try out Fable Diner. They all rave about the tomato soup. So, we had a reunion and decided to see how Fable Diner is!
Since we had a larger group, we tried to make reservations but unfortunately, were told that they don’t take them. Hopefully this will change soon, as the space was comfortable enough to hold larger parties. We were told to come a bit earlier to secure seats.

Everything worked out though as one of us called the restaurant earlier in the day to let them know, and they were setting up our table when the first few of us were arriving!

I would describe Fable Diner as a fancier, much cleaner and hipster version of your traditional diner. It is not greasy in there, and did not smell like oil. With that said, it is also more expensive than your classic diner!

Drink: I don’t remember what the drink was called and there isn’t a drink menu online. I do recall it was some sort of blueberry soda though. It was pretty good and sweet.
Peanut butter nutella milkshake: Again, sorry I don’t have the price as the drink menu isn’t currently posted online! Everyone expect me split this milkshake, and LOVED it. It was very creamy and rich, and they couldn’t stop raving about how good it was! It also came with some salted pretzels inside the whipped cream.
Roast duck pancakes, $14: We all decided to split this and see how it tasted. For $14, it is a bit pricey but the roast duck was cooked very well. It was flavourful and very tender. It’s a good appy to split with others!
Tomato soup bowl, $10: Again, almost everyone ordered this because it is a favourite of theirs back at Fable Kitchen. Everyone was happy when they tasted it, and it was the same recipe! I wanted to try it but this dish is the epitome of food death for me because of the high amount of dairy inside!

The boyfriend said that the tomato soup was very creamy and cheesy. It came with a delicious sourdough bread and melted cheese as well. Even though it looked small, the tomato soup was very creamy and filling.
FD Burger, $14: Finally, something I could actually eat! After checking with our amazing and friendly server that this did not have dairy in it, I decided to order this! The patty was cooked well done, and very juicy. It was served with a mayo-based sauce. The bun was also soft and fluffy, and lightly toasted.

I really enjoyed both the burger and fries. The fries were salty, crispy, and thick. If I were to come back, I would definitely order the FD burger again!

Pulled pork sandwich with tomato soup, $10: I didn’t try this, but I was told it was really good! Corn on the cob, $6: I didn’t try this either, but I was told it was really good. It came with a chili lime sauce and a couple pieces of fresh cilanto.

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Fable Diner! The service was top-notch and I would definitely give the service 5 stars. Very friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. I wouldn’t really consider this place a classic diner, it is more of a modern revision and the higher prices reflect that.

But they are located at a prime location, and use fresh ingredients so better quality often means higher prices. However, don’t let that stop you from visiting this place because it is really good!

Yay!

Jo Ju Hot Pot

October 9, 2015

The Heights neighbourhood has a plethora of cuisines to choose from… from the familiar to the more daring choices. However, the one thing that has been missing in that area is a bubble tea shop, ever since Pearl Drops closed down. I really miss that place.

So you could imagine my happiness when we were driving by this area and I saw a new restaurant signage indicating that they serve bubble tea! I was so excited that I messaged a couple of my friends right away to tell them. Sadly, I kept forgetting the name of the restaurant although it was in the back of my mind the next week… I wanted to read reviews on it but I didn’t know the name and it did not show up on Zomato yet… ahhhh! The next time we drove by, I made a mental note to myself to remember the name. Jo. Ju. Jo ju. Jo ju hot pot….!!

Cheese was helping me on a project one evening in August, so I suggested that we go try that place out before working.
After parking at one of the many free parking lots in this neighbourhood close by, we arrived at the restaurant. It wasn’t really busy, as you can tell from my picture above. We were seated pretty quickly and service throughout our visit was quick and friendly.

The restaurant was pretty clean and simple, most of the furniture there seemed pretty new. It was also pretty spacious and didn’t feel too cramped, with lots of natural light coming through the big windows.
I really did not like the design of the menu, and I felt that the pictures looked very inaccurate.. as if they took it from the internet. Furthermore, Cinnamon had visited this place before me and sent me some pictures, which looked nothing like the menu pictures! So, a word of advice… don’t order based on the menu pictures!

I ordered the seafood hot pot, which came with a bowl of rice on the side.

The broth did not have much depth and was pretty plain, but it wasn’t bad either. It was pretty average. It came with an egg, some shrimp, fish balls, and a mussle which I found on the bottom. You could definitely tell that the shrimp came frozen and did not have a bounce to it.

However, the portion was pretty big. I came in the restaurant really hungry, but left really full from this dish! If you are just moderately hungry, I don’t believe that you’ll need the rice bowl.
The egg came poached and hard, probably due to the hot temperature of the soup. If you’re not a big fan of hard poached eggs, I would recommend that you let them know or it will come out as a hard poached egg.

I also ordered it with medium spice, you can kind of see the spice in the picture. I didn’t find it spicy at all though.
Cheese ordered the signature BBQ meat on rice, but sadly, he thought it was disappointing. There was nothing special about this, you could easily cook this at home for a lot cheaper.

Originally, we were going to try the bubble tea but were too full after our meals to think about ordering a drink!

Overall, the food at JoJu Hot Pot is mediocre at best but it does fill you up. I know that they’re new, so I’m willing to come back another time to see if they have improved. There is not much special about their food, nor is it bad.. it’s just very plain, mediocre, and boring.

In a place like The Heights where there are plenty of restaurants to choose from, or just Vancouver in general, this is definitely nothing special or worth driving out for. It would be a place to go to if you were in the area, and definitely not a place where you would be craving.

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Jethro’s Fine Grub – Fraser Street Location

May 18, 2015

Hi all!!

I have driven by this place many times, and always see it completely packed. I’ve also heard it was really good so I decided to finally check this place out for brunch. After reading the reviews, I was prepared on what to order and what not to order.

This place was also featured on The Food Network’s Diners, Drive Ins, and Drives which automatically gives it a higher rating BUT a lot of people said it was very disappointing and did not meet their expectations. So, I came here with low expectations but somehow we left still feeling disappointed and unsatisfied.

We came after the lunch rush around 1 pm, and luckily did not have to wait. The restaurant is pretty small and cramped with very plain decor. Actually, there’s not much decor than the big chalkboard wall. They could really use some decor to make this place feel more comfortable and welcoming.
Started off with the corned beef hash with poached eggs, served with my choice of rye bread. Nothing in this dish really stood out to me and it was really meh, especially the corned beef. The corned beef also came out in little tiny, dry crumpled pieces.
The second dish was a lot better, though – smoked salmon eggs benedict with potatoes. The eggs benny was flavourful, with a rich hollandaise sauce but the potatoes were lacking in flavour. They were also very dry and starchy, they could have peeled off more of the potato skin as well.

Yes I know that some restaurants leave the potato skin on and I do enjoy potato skin, but all my tongue could taste or feel was potato skin and nothing else.
Continuing on to even more mediocre-ness, was our side of sausages. They were your typically greasy, oily breakfast sausages that you would expect at a free 3 star hotel breakfast. Good if it’s free, but I wouldn’t want to have to pay for these.

But at this point, we finished it all since there wasn’t anything good other than the smoked salmon benny.

Lastly, we ordered a side of pancakes because I read that it was a “must order” and it was their specialty. If this is their “specialty”, then clearly it needs some work because these were really mediocre and disappointing as well.

They had a rich buttermilk flavour to it, but they weren’t fluffy at all. All of the pancakes were also a bit burnt. You would try to cut it up but the burnt bottom part would stick to the plate and it just became a mess. To add to this, the inside looked a bit undercooked so they probably cooked it on too much high heat, resulting in a burnt exterior but raw interior.

Needless to say, our visit was really disappointing and we probably won’t be coming back. There was no sense of quality preparation in any of the dishes except for the smoked salmon benny. We had already braced ourselves that this place wouldn’t be amazing, but I didn’t think it would be THAT disappointing, especially for a restaurant that had been featured on The Food Network.

-Carmen

Nay.