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Tomokazu (Late night AYCE)

April 18, 2014

My friends and I wanted late night AYCE one night, and decided to come here. I came here a few years back and it was decent as far as AYCE goes, so we decided to come back. Overall, our visit was pleasant. We found out from trial and error which AYCE foods to order, and which to stray away from. If you want to save you and your tastebuds the hassle, keep reading on!

The restaurant is not brightly lit at all, as you can see from this picture. We actually parked at the wrong restaurant initially, because there was a Korean/Japanese restaurant on the second level two blocks down Broadway. I thought that they had just changed the exterior and added Korean food to their offering, but nope.
We came for the late night AYCE. For those who don’t know, some AYCE restaurants offer a discounted rate if you go after a certain time. For Tomokazu, it was 9:30. Their late night AYCE menu isn’t as extensive as their regular menu, but it’s cheaper!
Here are the first four dishes that came, starting with the salmon and tuna sashimi. As expected, the sashimi pieces were pretty small and did not taste super fresh, but still passable. The tuna pieces in particular were really tiny, like tiny mini erasers.

There is also a limit of 6 pieces of EACH sashimi that you could order per round (max 12 per round). I forgot about the miso soup and it turned cold, when I drank it it tasted pretty watery. You could tell that the spinach gomae had been in the fridge the whole day, but it was still pretty tasty due to the rich peanut butter sauce. The spinach itself did not taste bad either, it was pretty juicy. I ended up ordering 2 more orders of this because I liked how juicy and refreshing the chilled spinach was.

I laughed when the salmon teriyaki came because it was so thin, but it was cooked well and decent.
Next came our rolls, which were pretty good! The salmon maki tasted like a regular roll you would order at a restaurant. The chopped scallop cone had a generous portion of scallop, we were all pretty impressed.

We ordered one seafood cone because we were curious, and it was pretty good as well! It came with cooked salmon and mayo. The beside it was the BC Roll , I’m not a fan of salmon skin but my friends liked it. Next was the Tomokazu special roll which we ordered because my friend is very adventurous and has a “why not” attitude when it comes to ordering. We were glad that we ordered it since it was very tasty!

We agreed that this plate alone was worth the money, because when you go to restaurants, cones are around $4 each!
All of these plates were so good! The agedashi tofu was very crispy, I’m pretty sure it was made fresh which is rare for AYCE! I didn’t try the seafood and oyster motoyakis, but my friends both loved it. It was very cheesy, and the seafood one came with a lot of salmon. I loved the chicken karage. It was crispy, well seasoned, and cooked well. We ordered a lot of them afterwards too. The korean BBQ pork was really good as well. It was seasoned and grilled perfectly and cut into small strips.
But wait, there’s more! The hokkigai tasted pretty chewy and rubbery to me, so I probably wouldn’t order this again. The beef teriyaki was very sweet, but towards the end, the remaining beef was very mushy and looked like stew. The BBQ chicken wing was good according to my friend, I was too busy eating the rest of the chicken karage to try this. Finally, the gyoza which my friend thought tasted pretty good (At this point, I was stuffed and wanted to save room for jello).
After drinking more tea and resting, we were ready to stuff ourselves with jello! My friend noted that some places keep their jello with the seafood, so it ends up tasting like fishy jello. He was happy when he found out this was not the case here. However, I noticed that some restaurants keep their jello out for so long that the edges of the jello become kinda hard and dry, but this was not the case either. It was pretty decent jello!

Overall, we had a great experience at AYCE. I personally came with low expectations because it’s AYCE, you can’t expect supreme quality when you’re getting as much food as you possibly can.

Service was average, the workers didn’t really come to top our tea or anything, but it was fine. We ended up staying for more than 1.5 hours (the maximum time limit), but they let us sit and digest our food until they closed.

-Carmen

Venice Garden Seafood Restaurant

April 12, 2014

During work one night, I was craving Chinese late night snack (aka “da-lan”) and found out from my friend Venice Garden is open until 2am!

I have been to Venice Garden numerous times, since it is a convenient location, food is decent, and they accept debit unlike most other Chinese restaurants. Since I always get the same two things here, this review will be relatively short.

But this was my first time having late night snack here, so we’ll see how it goes!
I used to come here a lot when I was a child. I think it used to be named “Happy King” and I’ve heard some sketchy rumours why they had to change it which isn’t worth mentioning.

We got here around 11:30pm, after I finished working. Normally, this parking lot is filled to the brim with people so it was quite refreshing to see it so quiet here for once.

When we got in, there was only one other table eating here. Compared to the daytime, their service at night was SO MUCH better, I can’t believe it’s the same restaurant. It’s not even due to the fact that it’s quieter so they have more time to serve us. We’ve been here during the day when it wasn’t as busy and their service is very brief and sporatic. So, it was a great surprise to have friendly service!

Incase you’ve never had Chinese late night snack before, let’s give you a quick rundown. The menu is completely different from the rest of the day. A lot of the things are deep fried, and the portions are smaller but cheaper. Some popular items are deep fried Chinese donut, congee, deep fried fish/tofu/prawns/clams in spicy salt, or fried green beans with spicy pork. The first thing we ordered was congee with preserved duck egg and shredded salty pork. This is my go-to congee, I love preserved duck egg and I could care less that it’s a health concern (well I care, but I don’t eat it that much so whatever). The amount of preserved duck egg and shredded pork that they give you is very generous.

Their congee is really flavourful, and is cooked perfectly for my taste. I also love how much green onions and peanuts they include, it makes the congee taste so much yummier! We stir in the peanuts and onions, so that the peanuts give you a “crunch” when you’re enjoying the congee. The salted pork is extremely salty, even for myself so definitely eat it in moderation! We usually don’t end up finishing the salted pork since there’s so much sodium in it.
The second thing I was craving that night was deep fried beancurd (tofu) in spicy salt. I was a bit surprised when this came because I’m used to the tofu being cut in larger rectangular chunks, but this was fine too. They gave a great amount of jalapeno peppers, so I ended up eating all of those with each piece of tofu.

Overall, I thought that this tofu was too soft for my liking. Yes, I know that soft tofu is good, but I was craving the firmer and rectangular chunks of deep fried tofu restaurants normally use for late night snack. The tofu they used remind me of the Sunrise tofu dessert, which didn’t feel that fitting but the boyfriend thought it was fine, so it’s probably just me.
This was not from the late night menu, but the lunch menu when we came a few months ago. I love spaghetti bolognese. I find that this place doesn’t have the greatest spaghetti bolognese, but it’s not atrocious either. Their sauce has more tomato flavour to it, making it more acidic tasting. The acidic taste takes away the rest of the flavour of the dish.

Overall, Venice Garden is a decent place to eat Chinese food if you’re in the area, but it’s nothing too special. Their service is sporadic, and minimal at best unless you go during late night. I would love to try more of their late night dishes but there was only two of us, and we didn’t want to stuff ourselves with that much food.

-Carmen

Sushi Mura

April 7, 2014

I came across Sushi Mura one day and enjoyed it! The only downside is that I’m usually never in this area, so going here would definitely be a treat or a trek. I enjoyed all of their dishes, and judging from the packed line waiting at the door, many other Vancouverites do too. Everything was delicious and I can’t wait to come back!

I also forgot the prices of the dishes, but they were pretty cheap and reasonable, I’ve included the estimated price range from what I can kinda remember (they didn’t have an online menu, boohoo).
The interior has a lot of wooden accents to it. The style reminded me of a contemporary west coast design with all the wood panels everywhere, even in the washroom! As you can tell, their interior is pretty modern and nice. Let’s move on to the food!

The first thing that we ordered was the house salad (I believe that was what it was called), which tasted like a standard salad you’d get at a Japanese restaurant, $4ish.

However, we were surprised when we found a bed of vermicelli underneath the salad. I don’t like eating salad so it was a pleasant surprise for me! Usually, restaurants don’t serve vermicelli with their salads.
Next was our tuna and salmon sashimi $8-9ish. As you can tell from the pictures, the slices were quite generous and thick! My cousin also ordered a ikura nigiri (type of fish egg) which was good.
This was my second favourite dish, apart from the deep fried california roll. Their tonkatsu portion is HUGE, we were pretty surprised at how big the portion was when it came. It was only around $7 and you get so much with it! To give you a ratio, the side of rice is a standard bowl size. There were also two tonkatsu cutlets on top of each other! This was so good! It was super crispy but juicy, and I liked how they give you more sauce on the side. YUM!
Lo and behold, the deep fried California roll (Less than $5)! I’ve seen this on a couple of menus at other restaurants before, but I never felt inclined to order it because I don’t want fried food, and California rolls are average to me. But this intrigued me due to the different colours of sauce layered on top. IT WAS SO GOOD. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be, since it was deep fried, but still lightly crisp. Here’s a close up:
Look at that outer tempura layer! It was so crunchy and delicious.
This was the mango and avocado roll ($4-6ish). Again, I really enjoyed this dish due to the amount of mango they had in it. It was also very sweet.
This is the red roll, chopped scallop with spicy tuna sashimi on top ($4-6ish). It tasted pretty standard, but I liked how they put fresh green onion on the top of the roll.
I forgot what this roll is, but it was basically smoked salmon, crab meat, tempura, and cucumber ($4-6ish). Again, it was pretty good. The negitoro roll ($2ish) was good as well.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to Sushi Mura due to their delicious rolls and tonkatsu. My cousin, her husband, and I went and we were completely stuffed after eating everything.

However, service is pretty slow especially since it was so busy that day. Our rolls took longer to arrive too, but everything else arrived promptly. I would come back here again just for their deep fried California roll, Sushi Mura has converted me to liking deep fried rolls (never thought I would see that day..)!

-Carmen

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.

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.