food review Archives - Page 16 of 18

Moii Cafe

March 25, 2014

Moii Cafe is a cute little cafe off of Cambie. However, they also have a crepe section, which is a good addition if you’re craving something sweet to indulge in.

There are so many cute little quirks about this cafe, which makes it stand out from the hundreds of cafes in Vancouver!
The first thing I see when I step into the cafe. I love antique furniture.

I love this section of Moii. The chalkboard menu is brilliant, it was very informative even though it didn’t fill up the whole wall. I love the different colours on the menu.

The small shelf of vintage Archie comics and nutella wall are a cute plus too!
This is part of the seating area. There are mini tables, but also a long one in the middle (it’s a bit cut out here) for conversation with a bigger group. There’s also a small room in the corner, which isn’t really a room? More like a wall frame but it gives you a sense of privacy. There were vintage albums on those walls as well.
I ordered an americano. Originally, I wanted to get tea but I thought it was a bit pricy. Tea was $4.25 while coffee was cheaper, so I settled on this. It tasted like a regular americano, nothing too special about it.

However, I gave some to the boyfriend after I left and he said it tasted watery, it tasted fine to me. I would love to come back here to try their crepes though.
This thing right here is what made me fall in love with Moii. As I was sipping my americano and waiting for my interviewee, I noticed this small wooden box and the picture above it.

For a person like me who loves and appreciates the art of writing, especially on actual paper, I was really happy to see this. It was also really refreshing to see, because these days we are used to everything being online.

In conclusion, I enjoyed my visit here due to the ambiance and atmosphere. I read on another blog that this place is owned by an Emily Carr graduate, which totally makes sense because of all the artistic elements Moii has. The ambiance is what stood out to me the most, and what sets it apart from other coffee shops.

A&W – Fast food coupons!

March 19, 2014

I’ve had a pretty school-intensive week, so this post is just for fun, short and sweet. Seeing that we didn’t have anything to cook and didn’t want to spend a lot of money, we saw forgotten coupons hidden under a few clothes and decided to go there.

I was so excited for the 30 minutes we were at home waiting for my laundry to finish so that we could go! I love this location because they give you these awesome frozen mugs for your root beer and cool metal fry baskets.

a&w root beer! SO GOOD, especially in these frozen glass mugs. The foam on the top actually turned to ice because of the mug.
Our two teen burgers, root beers, and fries.
YUMMMM. A&W claims to have 100% natural beef, free of preservatives, hormones, and ll of that unpleasant stuff. The onions and pickles in here were also so fresh and crunchy. Definitely an amazing burger for a fast food joint! I didn’t feel stuffed or gross afterwards like I usually do after having fast food, so I guess their ingredients are pretty good for fast food.

Also, I thought this wall was really cute 🙂

-Carmen

East Cafe

March 16, 2014

East Cafe has this certain charm to it. Maybe it’s the atmosphere, or the genuine service, or their vintage Vancouver decor and photographs. I came here with two friends recently and we had a wonderful time.
I love the vintage bicycles on their walls. They also have pictures of Vancouver from the past, which I really love..

It also gives East Cafe a really local feel to it which I love. There were a lot of pictures from hockey teams in the 1900s, different bands, as well as what different neighbourhoods looked like.

Vegetarian panini on grilled foccacia with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, roma tomatoes, Swiss cheese, spinach, and pesto mayo. All paninis are served with a hot pepper and Lays chips.
Prosciutto panini with boccincini cheese, roma tomatoes, red onions, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and pesto mayo. The prosciutto and pesto was amazing!
Montreal smoked meat panini with Swiss cheese, mustard, and caramelized onions. Again, this was so good! The melted Swiss cheese was so delicious and dreamy.
Almond croissant with filling. So good! Light, fluffy, and crispy!
Nutella cookie. It tasted like homemade cookies, which is good and bad. Good because it’s delicious and gives you a comfy feeling, but bad because you can easily just bake this at home for a cheaper price.

This was my second time, and I didn’t order espresso this time. I ordered a wildberry tea, which I asked for iced and they gladly accommodated my requests. I have had the espresso here before though, I would say that it’s quality espresso and has a sweet and fresh finish to it. You can really taste the quality in it.

All in all, although East Cafe is relatively new, it has made it’s mark in Vancouver’s coffee culture. East Cafe exhibits an authentic and local character, while still staying cute and charming. Of course, their food and drink is absolutely delicious as well.

Hime Sushi

March 15, 2014

The boyfriend and I came here one evening during a break between my classes. We were looking for some fast, delicious, fresh tasting sushi and after wanting to try this place for a few months, we decided to actually go.

I’m glad we went because Hime Sushi serves up some really fresh and delicious sashimi, as well as other dishes. I think their sashimi was the star of the show, but their specialty rolls were delicious too.

Hime Sushi is really easy to miss when you’re driving by. The outside of the restaurant doesn’t really stand out, we were both surprised when we found out it was by Broadway and Main because we drive by this area multiple times a week, yet we’ve never noticed it until we street-viewed (is that even a verb?) it.

Trying to take a picture of the outside was also quite difficult to catch everything, but I tried my best.

It wasn’t too busy when we first arrived. The servers were polite, attentive, and friendly. Hime Sushi also starts you off with a small plate of chilled edamame beans. I looove edamame beans so we were off to a great start.
The first dish that came was our tuna and salmon sashimi. I’ve read on Urbanspoon that they have really fresh and juicy sashimi, so it was time to test that out.

And boy, was their sashimi ever delicious! It was really fresh, juicy, and sweet – all great components to delicious sashimi. Yum! I noticed their slices of sashimi were a bit smaller than usual, but the freshness of the sashimi made up for it.
Of course, you can’t go to a new restaurant without trying their specialty rolls. This was there ocean red roll which consists of spicy tuna and green onion in the inside, with wild sockeye salmon on top. It came drizzled with hot sauce.

Again, we really enjoyed this due to the quality and freshness of the sashimi. I found myself finishing off every little detail of this roll because it was so good!
Some standard rolls, starting with the salmon and avocado. This was really good due to the freshness of the salmon and avocado. Not only is their sashimi fresh, but avocado as well! The second one was the negitoro (tuna and onion) roll. We enjoyed this one too.
We ended up ordering a second time since I wasn’t completely full yet. I love tobiko. This was their tobiko roll, which I loved. Their sushi rice was really flavourful and sweet, with the right texture and the tobiko was also really crunchy.

All in all, we thoroughly loved our visit to Hime Sushi even though their portions were smaller than we were used to. Hime Sushi uses really fresh ingredients, and you can totally taste it in their dishes. I am in love with their sashimi and sushi rice. Their service was also really friendly and prompt too. We allocated one hour to eat since I had to go back to class, but we ended up finishing our meal in under 40 minutes.

-Carmen

Bestie – German sausage restaurant

March 14, 2014

After hearing many great things and seeing mouth watering pictures on the internet, we decided to give Bestie a much anticipated visit one sunny afternoon.

Bestie is nestled in Chinatown, adding to the list of recently opened gentrified, hipster-type, local restaurants in this area. I thought that this place wasn’t as great as it was hyped up to be. I really liked the decor, service, and ambiance of this place, but the portions of food were smaller than I expected. I was also a bit disappointed with my currywurst, as I’ll explain below.
I liked the interior of Bestie. It gives off a very clean and cool vibe, with the type of wood panels then use and primary colours. It kind of reminded me of a children’s play space but maybe that’s just me? Of course, they can’t be in Chinatown without having the Chinese money cat statue!

Bestie also serves up alternative specialty drinks, as seen in the corner of the picture.
The boyfriend’s currywurst with venison and blueberry ($8). Blueberry?! Yep! It actually tasted pretty decent, the blueberries gave it a sweeter flavour to it.
Friend’s butter chicken currywurst ($9-10?). Can we all take a moment to acknowledge their cute, customized spoons? I thought they were so cute, but my friend found it harder to eat with it. Since he’s a much taller and bigger person than I am, his hands were too big for the fork. I thought that was pretty funny…
I ordered the currywurst as well, with classic pork thuringer. Again, I thought it tasted alright. It tasted as healthy as a sausage could be, you could definitely tell it was healthier than the normal sausages you’d buy at Costco or something.

However, there was a lot of curied ketchup on top to the point where I couldn’t really enjoy the taste of the currywurst. I’d try to describe the taste to you but the ketchup was overpowering. My fries ended up getting soggy because of all the ketchup that was soaked in it, I ended up eating only 1/2 of it. Next time, I would definitely order the ketchup on the side if I knew!

In conclusion, we enjoyed our visit to Bestie even though my currywurst was a bit disappointing for me with the overpowering ketchup that stole the taste of the actual sausage. Their portions were smaller than I expected for the price paid. I enjoyed the decor and ambiance more than the food.