food review Archives - Curiously Carmen

The Pink Bicycle

January 19, 2017

While in Victoria, the boyfriend and I tried a few locally loved restaurants. I mean, you’re not truly visiting a place if you don’t try their food, right? When we were looking up restaurants to eat, The Pink Bicycle rose to the top of both of our lists.

We made the decision to walk from our hotel to The Pink Bicycle to save on parking and see more of the city, but the walk was longer and more difficult than we expected. We got a bit lost, it was still really cold from the snow storm warning, and I was getting blisters from the new winter boots I had just bought in preparation.

The restaurant is dark and doesn’t really have much signage, except for a pink bicycle on the window.
As expected on a Friday night, there was a bit of a wait. The restaurant is pretty small, and the kitchen is on the top floor. I always feel a bit bad for restaurants where the kitchen is on another level, because of the servers who have to walk up and down.

If that was me, I probably would slip a few times.
Pink Bike Cheeseburger, $12.50: I ordered their standard cheeseburger, but without the cheese due to my dairy restriction =(. It came on a toasted sesame bun, naturally raised local beef, veggies, and the pink bike sauce (a combination of mustard, ketchup, and relish).

This burger was such a delight! You could really taste the quality in it. The patty was thick and juicy, and full of flavour. You know it’s a good burger when the juices are oozing out onto your plate and getting all over your fingers.

I also really enjoyed the sesame bun. It was nice and thick, and reminded me of a classic burger. Although the pink bike sauce is just a combination of mustard, ketchup, and relish, they really nailed down the ratio because it tasted really good.

For my side, I stuck with the regular fries. They were nice and crispy.
BBQ Island Bison Burger, $15.50: The boyfriend also really enjoyed the bison burger. As with my beef burger, his bison burger was thick and juicy as well. It was topped with smoky cheddar and BBQ sauce.

Since we were on vacation, he went all out and upgraded to the mac and cheese sticks. I really wish I could have tried them because he kept raving about how delicious and cheesy they are.

He also added a zesty lime mayo dip, which he said was alright. The star of the dinner was definitely the mac & cheese sticks for him!

Overall, we really enjoyed our food at The Pink Bicycle and I would highly recommend giving it a try if you’re a burger lover! Service was a bit slow since they were busy, but they were all very friendly and catered to my food restrictions nicely!

Yay!

Gojiro Ramen

December 4, 2016

Most of the time, I am the one that finds new places for us to try out because I am more connected with food bloggers/influencers! However, occasionally, the boyfriend will come across places he wants to try. Gojiro Ramen was one of these places!

Once he saw the chicken karaage ramen on Facebook, he was sold. On top of that, it has a Godzilla theme! After a couple months, we found ourselves conveniently close to Gojiro Ramen and decided to try it.
Although we came on a Thursday evening around 8 pm, the place was still full! Luckily, we were the first in line so the wait was less than 10 minutes.

One thing I liked about Gojiro was how spacious it was, compared to other ramen joints. Although the ramen is amazing at Santouka and Kintaro, we all know how cramped the seating is. Gojiro is bigger, and not as cramped.

I also really liked the interior design, it was very simplistic, clean, and modern with some Godzilla-themed decor here and there.
Gojiro focuses on jiro-style ramen, which is ramen that features a mountain of toppings.
Basic bakamori w/ karaage,$13.55: DAMN. LOOK AT IT! There was a generous amount of chicken karaage, loaded with a mountain of cooked beansprouts.

All the Yelp reviews previously mentioned how delicious the karaage was, so I was really looking forward to trying it for myself. AND MAN, WAS IT DELICIOUS. The chicken was crispy, juicy, and super flavourful. 10/10 would recommend!

I wish I ordered the karaage as well, but the boyfriend was generous enough to give me a couple pieces. =D I have digestive issues anyways so I shouldn’t be eating all that fried food myself, unless I want to get sick.
Basic w/ chashu, $9.95: My bowl does not look as impressive as the boyfriend’s, but it was still really delicious. We both requested the thick broth because why eat ramen otherwise?

Due to my dairy restriction, I asked if the broth contained any butter/dairy products/etc and I was happy to hear it didn’t! Even without dairy, the broth was thick, creamy, and fatty. Definitely not something you should eat everyday.

As for the chashu, it was no where as good as the karaage. The chashu was dry and bland. Definitely stick to the karaage, or soak the chashu in the fatty broth and eat it last.
The noodles were cooked perfectly, with a nice bounce to it. They were a bit thicker than I was used to, but still super delicious nonetheless.

I also like how the restaurant is located in the downtown core, and not all the way at the end of Robson Street like the other ramen joints. It is definitely more convenient for me to come here!

In conclusion, we left Gojiro with extremely happy and satisfied tummies. The chicken karaage is a must order, and their broths are amazing as well! I will definitely be coming back.

Yay!

Tentatsu- Burnaby Location

October 13, 2016

You may be familiar with the original Tentatsu restaurant in East Van, by Hastings and Nanaimo. Tentatsu recently just opened their second location in Burnaby, about a 8 minute drive from the original!

The boyfriend and I decided to try it on a whim one evening.

In addition, Tentatsu was having a 10% grand opening discount! Perfect time to try it out and see if it matched the original.

The restaurant itself is really big and spacious. It reminds me of a dance hall and is good for large groups.

Compared to the original location, I liked the service here a LOT better. Thinking about the service at the original makes me so angry because of how atrocious it was.

The staff weren’t friendly, but quick and efficient enough. Or maybe because I have such low standards from the original Tentatsu that I thought their service was decent (actually, this is definitely the case).

We were also impressed with how they served quality genmaicha tea (Japanese match green tea w/ brown rice) for free! I was happy when our food came quite quickly, unlike the original location where my mom and I waited almost 30 minutes when it wasn’t that busy.

California roll: The California roll was decent, and tasted fresh. It has a good about of ripe avocado inside and topped with crunchy sesame seeds.

Salmon roll: The rice in the salmon roll was still warm, but it was good nonetheless.

Tuna roll: The tuna roll was decent as well, no complaints about it!

Salmon nigiri: I only wanted one to try their sashimi, but the boyfriend insisted I order 3. You will soon see why it was not a good idea!

The sashimi had a slight fishy taste to it and was fresh. Lately, I’ve been tasting ‘sashimi’ that has the texture of sashimi, but no taste. So, it was a relief when there was a slight salmon taste!

Negitoro roll: We were dissappointed with this roll because it barely came with any tuna. However, the tuna was fresh and tasted good! There was only a few measly pieces of green onion inside.

Negihamachi roll: I didn’t try this because I was too busy trying to finish the other dishes. The boyfriend thought it was okay, but could have used more flavour. Again, the rice was slightly warm.

House roll: The house roll was pretty decent! As with all the rolls, it tasted fresh. It is basically a large California roll with tamago and masago.

BC roll: Nope, not as good as Uomo next door. The salmon was a bit dry and bland and way too fishy.

Here is a picture of the negitoro roll. You can see the small amount of tuna compared to rice, and how little onion there was.

With a seemingly negative review, would I come back? Yes! Although it’s not the BEST, the prices are amazing for what you get. Service is quick and efficient too.

We ordered all this food, with so much leftovers for $25 including tip and tax! Granted, there was a 10% opening discount but $27-29 for all this food is really cheap. It’s a good option for a quick bite in the neighbourhood!

Yay!

Kilala Sushi

October 2, 2016

Earlier in the summer, myself, the boyfriend, and Sangria decided to venture out from our usual sushi joints and try a longstanding but hidden restaurant, Kilala Sushi. They’ve been around for awhile now, and I hear their name getting tossed around from time to time.

Kilala Sushi is an authentic Japanese restaurant, run solely by a husband and wife team. They also specialize in distributing tamago for various restaurants in Vancouver, so this place is half restaurant/half tamago-making factory? I say that because the sitting area itself is quite small but you can see that the back is a bit factory like, with a very big stainless steel kitchen.
Appetizer sashimi, $5.95: The appetizer sashimi comes with three pieces of tuna, and two pieces of salmon. The salmon was average, but the tuna was really good. It was very soft and buttery, and melted in your mouth.
Tamago roll, $2.25: As I mentioned above, they specialize in tamago, so it was only natural to try it! The tamago was sweet, fluffy, and tasted fresh. I really liked how it had a fluffy texture, as a lot of places I’ve been to have a harder texture with dried edges (which means it’s not fresh and has fried out).

Negitoro roll, $3.00: The boyfriend and I ALWAYS order negitoro roll, so we had to try Kilala’s version of it! It was pretty good, and above average. Just like the tuna sashimi, the tuna in here was also soft and buttery. It was filled with lots of green onion too. They definitely did not skimp out on the tuna and the onion.
Hmmm, I don’t recall what these two rolls were called and I can’t find anything similar on the online menu! Sorry.

Even though I don’t remember what they were called, I remember how they tasted! Both tasted very fresh, and were filling. Just look at how big that salmon sashimi is inside the roll!

All in all, Kilala serves quality and authentic sushi, and the three of us enjoyed our meal. Everything was fresh, and even though there was only one server (the wife, husband was the chef), service was quick and friendly.

The only downside of this place is that it is quite hidden behind a bush and the seating is also a cramped.

Yay!

Olive & Anchor

September 20, 2016

During the last week of summer, the boyfriend and I went to a bunch of different outdoor places around the Lower Mainland to savour what was left of the season. One of these places was the beautiful Whytecliff Park, which is a bit past West Vancouver and by the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

After enjoying an afternoon at Whytecliff Park, we decided to venture to Horseshoe Bay. Four minutes drive later, we arrived into the small but lively village and decided to try Olive & Anchor after I found it on Yelp!

I am really glad we tried this place because everything about it was spectacular!
Since we had already quickly looked at the menu on Yelp, we knew we wanted to try their happy hour. I also really wanted to try this place because most of their happy hour items were dairy free! Olive & Anchor has some Asian influences in their dishes, which explains why there wasn’t dairy in a number of their plates.
Ebi mayo, $6: We started off with the ebi mayo, which was a shrimp and green bean tempura. After seeing this at another table, it looked kinda small and we were kinda doubtful that it was worth $6.

However, the tempura was fried really nicely and had a lovely crunch to it. It came with Japanese mayo, which we both love a lot. If you haven’t tried Japanese mayo before, I urge you to try it out!
KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) Wings, $6: The chicken wings came in a delicious sweet chili glaze, topped with crunchy cashews and sesame seeds.

The wings were juicy and full of flavour. Just like the ebi mayo, the fried batter on these wings tasted really fresh as well.
Crispy cod taco, $6: I am normally not a fan of tacos (cue GASPS) but I was feeling adventurous that day and ordered this. BOY, am I GLAD I did because this was delicious. This taco right here is starting to convert me into a taco person!

The cod was fried perfectly, while the fish was juicy and flaked off nicely. The taco came with a generous amount of fresh veggies and a slice of avocado. I was seriously considering ordering another one but stopped myself.
Fish poppers, $6: These were like mini fish fillets. Again, the fish was juicy and flaky with a very fresh and crunchy batter. So good!

Olive & Anchor really wowed us not only with their food, but with their service as well. Our server was really friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. I wish that all servers were this amazing.
I have nothing but good words to say about Olive & Anchor. I wish we discovered this place at the beginning of summer, so we could take advantage of the outdoor seating and ferry view more. But, I know that we will definitely be back!

Yay!