food lover Archives - Page 3 of 5

Al Porto Ristorante

December 8, 2014

Al Porto Ristorante is an Italian restaurant in the heart of Gastown, located in the basement of one of Gastown’s many beautiful historic brick buildings. Al Porto had a fancier feel to the restaurant, but I wouldn’t describe it was fine dining. It is certainly a restaurant that to go to when you’re not in a rush. I thought that this place would be great for romantic dates, but after reading a few reviews and hearing some stories from friends, seems like this place gets quite noisy in the night time and it’s hard to hear the person across the table from you.

The main entrance to Al Porto is located off the side of the building, towards the train tracks. There is a sign out front with a big arrow, so it’s pretty hard to miss the entrance. The picture above is the entrance to their second floor loft. I came with a few of my coworkers for lunch. The restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived, and were seated quickly. I liked how we got one of the round tables for the five of us, it made conservation easier and it was nice to see everyone without having to lean forward or anything like that. I wish more restaurants had circular tables =P Like Chinese restaurants!

Right after we ordered, our bread came! If I was going to be picky, it would have been nice to have the bread warm, but oh well. I’m not sure what the bread on the left was called, but it was very doughy and chewy, with subtle garlic and herb tastes to it. I liked how it was chewy and I am a big fan of herbs so this bread was an obvious winner in my books. I wish I could say the same about the right one, but unfortunately I found the outside to be rock hard and bland tasting.

My side of caesar salad was better than I expected it to be, which is always a great surprise! That, or I normally don’t have great experiences with side salads. The lettuce was very crunchy, as were the croutons (and not in a bad way like the complementary bread above). It had a great garlicky flavour to it. Everything tasted really fresh and tasted like what a delicious caesar salad should taste like! There was also bits of crushed pepper, which added more dynamic and a hint of spice to the salad.

Soup of the way was a white bean, tomato and basil soup. It had a thick texture to it, and was a bit starchy due to the potatoes. However, all of the flavours in the soup complemented each other really well and I didn’t find the soup to be extremely salty (I’m looking at you, Olive Garden). I try to stay away from soups at Western restaurants because I find them to be very salty, but this wasn’t the case. I added a bit of pepper to the soup to give it a bit of a flair too. Yum!

For myself, I ordered the tagliatelle buongustaio ($10.95). Tagliatelle is the type of pasta, which is a flatter and wider noodle. My plate came with chicken, sweet pea, and mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce. The tagliatelle was cooked al dente, and had a good bounce to it. The sauce was delicious as well, it was very creamy without being too heavy, and had a subtle garlic and butter taste to it. The chicken chunks had a slightly grilled and smoky taste to it, and was juicy. I love my pepper, and requested for extra in my plate which completed my dish perfectly. I sprinkled a bit of Parmesan cheese, which melted a bit due to the warmth of the everything else.

With all that said, one thing I found a bit off was their service. The service wasn’t bad or rude… it was just a bit off. I wasn’t feeling well that day and had a cold, so I asked for a warm honey water to maybe give my sore throat a relief, and so that I was actually able to talk with my coworkers because I was about to lose my voice. She seemed very confused about it and looked a bit annoyed. The rest of the time, I felt bad and uncomfortable asking her for more water, which I don’t think a server should make you feel especially at a restaurant that is known to be a bit more upscale. So I sucked it up and took Halls like there was no tomorrow.

Going to a restaurant is not just about the food, it is about the ambiance, service, and overall atmosphere. Al Porto really hit the points high with their food, but I think their service could use a bit more work, or maybe the two staff were having an off day. I don’t think I would come back for dinner since I know it gets pretty busy and is a popular tourist destination, but I wouldn’t mind coming back for lunch (if there is better service).

-Carmen

Beefy Beef Noodle House

December 2, 2014

Asian restaurants have the most creatively absurd restaurant names, don’t you think? I’ve always had a good chuckle reading the sign whenever we drove by. I came here back in high school but don’t really recall much, I just remembered it was pretty average. My friends and I decided to come here late one night, as we didn’t want to stay in Richmond anymore and wanted to be back in Vancouver. I had a decent experience, but my friends? Not so much. Read on to find out why.

Walking in around 11pm with six of us (soon to be eight, other two were running a bit late), the restaurant looked about 75% full and was mostly preoccupied with groups around the same size. We asked them for a table of eight, the servers looked very confused and told us it would be a bit of a wait. Guess we should have seen that as a warning sign. Which was weird, because right in front of us were two tables that fit 4 people each. We asked them if they could just move the two tables together and they looked very puzzled… so we kind of motioned with our hands what we meant and they understood. Even when they were moving the tables, they looked very confused, which confused us because moving two tables together shouldn’t be that hard?

I had a hard time deciding on what to order, but decided to get the noodles in soup with Taiwanese chicken nuggets to share with the boyfriend. The noodles were cooked al dente and had a perfect bounce to it, they were delicious. The broth was very flavourful and clear, we’re still debating if it was canned stock or not but either way, it was very satisfying on a cold night. The veggies in the soup were also washed clean, and were fresh and crunchy. The Taiwanese chicken nuggets had a nice crispiness and the usual seasonings, nothing new there but they do cook it well and it tasted authentic. My food also came at least 15 minutes before all the other orders, by the time that I finished my food, some of my friends had just received theirs while our other friend was still waiting for her food.

We all ordered drinks, and disappointingly, they were out of pearls. I ordered the passion fruit calpis juice, but received a peach calpis juice instead (pictured here). My friend ordered a peach calpis slush, so we weren’t sure whose drink they messed up on LOL. Turns out we were right, they had messed up and gave me peach, which I didn’t really mind. The peach calpis was very syrupy and overwhelmingly sweet, I felt that if I drank this in one sitting my chances of getting diabetes would increase dramatically. So I tried to ration myself (even though it was so delicious!) and brought it home for the next day. Just like the food, my drink came first (even though they messed up) and my friends ended up waiting at least 15 minutes after mine for their drinks. We weren’t sure why the drinks weren’t coming out all at once, since we all ordered at the same time. At this point, my friends were not impressed with the wait time, seeing that the restaurant had died down a bit.

So, after waiting around fifteen minutes between my bowl of noodles AND the other main courses (which were just like mine and stir fry dishes), we ended up waiting another fifteen minutes for the buttery condensed milk toast. My friends had asked the servers if they had forgot it, but they apologized and just said it was “on the way”. When it finally came, everyone dug in and man, was the toast heavenly. The bread was extremely soft, fresh, and sweet, covered in a rich layer of thick condensed milk.

Even though our food (when it actually came) was delicious, Beefy Beef was very disorganized and I’m not sure how they operate their restaurant in that manner. We received our food and drinks in long, staggered periods even though we all ordered at the same time. My soup noodles and drinks came first, then a couple dishes and drinks came out after fifteen minutes, followed by the next and so on. Why couldn’t we just receive all our food at the same time when we all ordered together? I felt bad for my friend, who waited almost a hour for her food. She ended up packing her meal to go, since all seven of us were done eating by the time her food came. That was also when she had checked on her food, if she didn’t check, who knows how long the wait would have been.

If their food was average, I probably would not have come back due to how disorganized the restaurant seemed. But since I enjoyed their noodles a lot and it is a convenient location to go to if I crave Taiwanese food, I wouldn’t mind coming back- my hopes would be that they have some kind of standard concept of organization going on.

Sushiholic Japanese Restaurant

November 20, 2014

The boyfriend and I have been meaning to try Sushiholic for many months now, but we never actually went until last month. He ordered take out for us probably a year or so ago, when I worked late hours as a barista. That time, we chomped on it like there was no tomorrow in his car during my break. After that, we wanted to try Sushiholic in restaurant, since our take out rolls were pretty fresh and delicious. I’m not sure if the quality went down in the time that has passed or any other reason, but we weren’t too impressed with the food that night. Pictures are definitely deceiving!
To start, we had an order of salmon sashimi ($10). The salmon tasted pretty bland, there wasn’t that juicy or fresh taste to it. We appreciated the generous portion and thick slices, but sadly, there wasn’t much taste and it fell flat.
The special rolls sounded pretty appetizing, so we decided to order the fire dragon roll ($12). Unfortunately, this tasted really flat as well and had no vibrant or special flavour that we expected for someting with the words fire and dragon in it. Not including those words, the roll was definitely NOT worth $12. It came with prawn tempura, spicy tuna, mayo, cucumber, and avocado. The prawn tempura was very soggy and tasted like it had been left overnight… maybe leftovers? I know that tempura can lose a bit of the crispiness in a roll, especially if there are other wet ingredients in it but it shouldn’t taste that disappointing. Didn’t really taste any of the prawns either. I’ve had other rolls similar to this at other restaurants which have tasted better, with crunchy tempura.
The negitoro roll was pretty decent, tasted average and the tuna actually had flavour compared to the salmon sashimi and fire dragon roll. Onions inside the negitoro roll tasted fresh and were crunchy too. Then came the chopped scallop roll, which was probably the worst dish that had arrived at this point LOL. Thinking back and writing this, it’s pretty funny. It was very bland, warm, and had the scallop had a rubbery texture to it. As well, it definitely did not taste fresh. At this point I was really hoping that I wouldn’t get a stomachache after eating all their sashimi. (Well, minus the tuna!)
The boyfriend ordered the BC Roll, I didn’t try it but he said that the cooked salmon meat and skin was very dry. Our meal prospects were getting worse and worse…
Okay, so our rolls were pretty disappointing so far…but maybe their cooked food would taste better?!? We ordered the tempura udon, and I was relieved that it had the taste I was accustomed to. The broth was flavourful and had the standard udon soup broth, while the udon noodles were cooked perfectly.
The tempura that came with the udon was drastically different than the tempura in the roll, what a great relief and surprise. The tempura here was very crispy, crunchy, and flaky compared to the soggy, abysmal mess before. Do they use their leftover tempura from the day before in their rolls? It sure tasted like that to us….

Needless to say, our visit to Sushiholic was pretty disappointing and unfortunately I don’t think we will be back. It makes me a bit sad to say that because I had good thoughts about this place, which slowly disappeared. In a city like Vancouver where fresh, yummy sushi is easily accessible, there are many places that do it a lot better, and for cheaper too. Although the prices were pretty decent for the sizes we received, the quality of the food just wasn’t there (with the exception of the negitoro roll and udon tempura, not the tempura in our special roll). I had high hopes for this restaurant, I’m not too sure what happened between our take out order about a year ago and now.

-Carmen

Crackle Creme

October 26, 2014

Crackle Creme is a relatively new cafe in Chinatown that specializes in creme brulee. As the Chinatown area slowly turns and adapts to modernization and hip places for the young, Crackle Creme definitely fits in perfectly. Nestled under a new apartment complex, it is located right on the edge of Chinatown by the Georgia viaduct.

After our semi-disappointing lunch at Pacifico Pizzeria, we decided to try our luck with this cafe. Sangria was back for Thanksgiving weekend, and she is a huge fan of creme brulee so it was the perfect opportunity to try this place out.
We went on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, and the streets were quieter than I expected. Because of this, it was a bit harder to find Crackle Creme because I thought that it would be busier there on a weekend.

We finally saw the sign a few stores prior, and the logo of Crackle Creme was a bit hard to read too. You can kind of see it on the glass window there, but not really if you’re far away or if you’re not specifically looking for the place. We knew this was the right place because of the sign out front advertising their goodies, it was definitely not from the window.

Out front, they have a small area for customers to enjoy their creme brulee. The table space is pretty small and cramped outside, there is probably only enough room to fit your creme brulee, which is perfectly fine because that’s what they specialize in.

The table is more of a thin wooden slab no more than 15 inches long I think? Unfortunately, it was too cold that day so we didn’t get to enjoy the seats out here ~~and hipster watch teeheehee.~~
Crackle Creme was pretty small, and there was only one person working, we assumed it was the owner. The table space inside was pretty tight too, as with the patio seating. We liked how there was self serve mint water, but two of us had to use the washroom really badly but we were told there was no washrooms =( So we decided to not drink any more water LOL.

After deciding on a flavour, they then takes a pre-made creme brulee from the fridge, sprinkles some sugar on top, and torch it in front of you. We agreed that the service seemed a bit cold and unwelcoming.

Sangria decided on getting the earl grey creme brulee ($5). She has a major sweet tooth, and really enjoyed her creme brulee. The flavours of the earl grey were really pronounced, had a great custard texture to it, and was very sweet.
For myself, I decided on getting the matcha creme brulee. I was happy that there was a strong matcha taste to this and that the top layer did in fact, crack as the company name suggests 🙂 However, I am the opposite of my friend and don’t have much of a sweet tooth, and couldn’t end up finishing it as it was waaaayy too sweet for me. Sangria helped me finish half of it. I’m not sure if I’m biased because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but in retrospect, $5 for this seemed a bit overpriced for the size it was.

There are two types of people in this world, those that prefer savoury foods and those that prefer sweet foods. Pick your poison, I much prefer savoury and salty foods over sweets and desserts. Because of this, I didn’t enjoy Crackle Creme that much, and don’t think I would have a craving to come here again, and think that it is definitely over hyped (I’m sorry if you’re reading this and you hate me right now, but that is just my own personal opinion).

I would come back in the future if my friends wanted to, but I don’t think I would order another one by myself. If you love desserts and sweets, this place might be checking out. But if you’re like me and prefer a savoury bacon pepper potato hash (which is exactly what I cooked up this sunny afternoon) over an extremely sweet creme brulee, I wouldn’t recommend trying this place.

Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante

October 14, 2014

After a failed attempt and bad beginning at Kamei Baru, Cinnamon, Sangria and I all agreed that we didn’t want to stay, and decided to see what else was around the neighbourhood. As we took our first steps out the restaurant and recovered from the awkwardness of telling the waitress there, an Italian place by the name of Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante right next door caught our eyes.

We quickly scanned the menu outside, which looked appetizing enough so we decided to try this place on a whim. Walking in, it was very quiet and only one other customer at 2pm.
The sole hostess/server was very friendly, and also gave us the option to sit upstairs. We were going to take the offer, but Cinnamon pointed out that it would be harder for us to get service. Instead, we sat at a booth on the main level. Judging from the way Pacifico was set up, seemed like they specialize in romantic date nights (Although from what Meaghan aka ElephantHeartBlog wrote, her date night failed because the food was horrendous sad face). Tables for two, wine glasses set up, candles on the tables…yup, the hopeless romantic in me approves. But how about the food?

Right after we sat down, we were disappointed and considered leaving. Again. I swear this never happens, I’m not a picky eater, we were just having bad luck that afternoon.

But after much hushed conversation and awkwardly glancing up to see if the waitress had overheard us, we decided to just suck it up and eat here because we were in a bit of a rush.

Turns out they don’t have the lunch time menu on weekends. So why put that outside if it’s false? We all wanted their paninis and sandwiches, and none of us were in the mood for heavy pasta.
But since we didn’t want to get up and leave another restaurant AGAIN, Sangria and I decided to split the pollo rustica pizza. We figured that this would curb our hunger for the next hour or so. It also helped that the pizza was $3 cheaper, I think it was the lunch special.

I’m not saying that the pizza was expensive, because it was decently priced for the atmosphere and location, but we just weren’t really in the mood for pizza and didn’t want to pay for something we didn’t really want.

Turned out, the pizza itself was fairly decent. There was a good amount of chicken breast, which was juicy and flavourful. There was a great amount of gouda and mozzarella cheese as well, which became very stringy as I bit into it. I wasn’t a fan of the artichokes so my friend happily had all of it. The freshly chopped onions added more flavour to what would otherwise have been a very bland dish. The crust and pizza dough itself wasn’t as thin as I thought it would be, and I actually enjoyed the texture of it very much.

Cinnamon ordered the appetizer size of the pizzetta margherita ($8). Unfortunately, she did not enjoy hers as much as we did. She wasn’t expecting that much cheese on her dish, and wanted to see if they could remake it.

It took quite awhile for her to finally wave somebody down, I remember I had already finished 3 slices by the time someone came. The lady that came didn’t look like she was a server, someone who worked in the back from the way she was dressed.

Anyways, Cinnamon explained to her that she didn’t expect this much cheese and I thought she was kind of rude about it. That or maybe she was very confused. She came back with a second one with lighter cheese. She ended up only eating half of it and wished that there was more basil or that it came shredded all over the pizza.

All in all, our visit was pretty brief and it was an average experience. Our server was nice in the beginning but she disappeared near the end, and it was hard for us to find service. If I was going to be very picky, it would also have been nice for them to bring us some pepper and chili flakes with our pizza, instead of us having to wave them down to ask for it. Pepper and chili flakes are pretty standard with pizza, no?

Unless this place is too fancy for that. Even though my friend didn’t enjoy her pizza, I thought mine wasn’t bad but I’m not dying to come here again, nor would I make my way downtown just for this restaurant.

-Carmen