vancouver Archives - Page 2 of 13

Pho D’Lite

November 24, 2016

A new pho restaurant has popped up in Burnaby! Well, not thaaat new, but it opened in the past year beside the Whole Foods in the Solo district. The name of the restaurant is Pho D’Lite, such a cute and punny name!

After hanging out at one of my friend’s condos at solo (such breathtaking views up there!), the boyfriend and I were starving. We didn’t want to drive anywhere because we were that hungry, and warm, comforting pho seemed like the perfect option.
The restaurant was very clean, new, and spacious. In particular, we awed over the beautiful plate art wall that was behind us. It looks like they glued a bunch of Asian plates into a nice pattern. I can certainly spot some plate patterns that my family and relatives own!
P4, Pho Tai, Large, $9.95: There are many different pho combinations to choose from, as with most Vietnamese places. The boyfriend chose p4, which just comes with rare beef. There was a pretty generous amount of rare beef, as well as onions.
P7, Pho Nam Bo Vien, Large, $9.95: I ordered the opposite of the boyfriend, aka all cooked beef – beef balls and beef brisket. As with the other bowl, they were pretty generous on the meat toppings and onions.

The broth itself was comforting and flavourful, not too salty or light. Each of the bowls also came with a HUGE amount of noodles. In retrospect, I should have ordered the small because I did not finish the large bowl, especially with the generous toppings of meat.

Pho D’Lite is a pretty solid pho joint that I would definitely come back to if I was in the area. Service is quick and friendly, while the pho is comforting and comes with generous portions of both noodles and meat.

Yay!

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!

Kylie Matte Liquid Lip Kit

October 22, 2016

By now, I’m sure you have ALL heard of Kylie Jenner, or at the very least, the Kardashians. I’m not going to go into detail with them because I do not ‘Keep Up with the Kardashians’ (pun intended) and have never watched their ‘reality’ TV show nor do I ever plan to.

I never took an interest in Kylie’s lip products, until Maki told me she was planning on buying her products. The initial reaction of ‘Whaaatt whyyyyy’ shifted to curiosity, which is seemingly fitting for my blog’s name, Curiously Carmen :)!

Maki really enjoyed the formula of her lip kits , much to both of our surprise. Unfortunately, she did not like how one of the shades looked with her skintone, so she gave it to me. Fast forward to today, I am here to review the product!

The product I will be reviewing today is the Kylie matte liquid lipstick in the shade 22. 22 is a beautiful, attention grabbing bright orange-y red.
Whenever I wear 22, I seem to always receive compliments on the colour. People are often surprised that it is by Kylie Jenner, because they didn’t know that her products were actually pretty decent (myself included in the past).
The swatch above is just from one swipe! You can see how pigmented it is. The top corner looks a bit weird because that was the first spot I swatched, and it was still drying.

As the name suggests, it is a true matte finish. Once it dries, it does NOT budge, so it is important to apply it slowly and carefully. This is not one of those lipsticks where you can quickly grab it from your purse, and blindly swipe it on your lips without a mirror.

The few seconds that it takes to dry may feel strange if you’re not used to a matte lip product. It dries out my lip at first and I feel the need to put lip balm on. After a couple of minutes, the feeling goes away and it wears pretty comfortably.

What I love most about this product is how LONG it lasts. As I said above, this lipstick seriously does not budge. I tested it and wore it for over 9 hours, with meals/drinks/snacks in between and only the middle part faded a little. It is really impressive and so far, the longest lasting lip product I’ve tried.

It is also incredibly pigmented and very true to colour. One swipe is all you will need. Although it is extremely long lasting and highly pigmented, there is no chemical scent or taste to the lipstick and it has never smudged on my lip.
Here is a picture taken TEN hours after wear, using bright flash so you can see it better. I applied this at around 1pm, and took it off at 11pm. You can see the middle part start to fade.

During these ten hours, I drank some water, iced tea, and ate a filling sushi & udon dinner. I was positive that the slippery udon would get rid of the lipstick, but nope! Amazing!

Overall, I am really impressed with Kylie’s lip products. I never thought I would try her products, or let alone LOVE it, but I’m really glad I gave it a chance. I’m already thinking of the next shades that I want to try. Unfortunately, they are a bit pricey with the USD conversion and shipping rate seeing how I’m a jobless student right now. But I’m hoping to get some more during Christmas!

Edit: After writing this post, the Kylie Gods were on my side and they offered free international shipping! I wanted to buy them ALLLL, but I behaved and only bought one! It arrived about a week later, and is the Leo shade.

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!