***~~ (3/5)

Last week I had a nice little treat from my little sister, and she look me out to lunch at Sushi California in Coquitlam.

I let my sister did the ordering since she raved about this place so much, but the first thing she said was: I think they’ve changed the menu. Uh oh, that’s not a good sign, or is it? Together we got the Double Spicy Tuna Roll, Smoked Salmon Roll, Mango Roll, Negihamachi, and Agedashi Tofu.

I was a big fan of the Double Spicy Tuna Roll. It was spicy tuna roll, topped with more spicy tuna, and crispy tempura batter bits. Each bite I got an explosion of spicy tuna in my mouth. The crispy tempura better bits was a really nice touch on top, because it added in a crispy texture, otherwise the roll would have been too mushy.

The Mango Roll was a california roll topped with sliced mango and mango sauce. I think this was almost like a dessert sushi roll. The sauce was really sweet, and there was a lot of it. It was something different.

I didn’t really enjoy the Smoked Salmon Roll, mainly because it had cream cheese in it. I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese in a sushi roll, but my sister said it’s worth the try. It turned out that she ordered the wrong one. The one she meant to order was the Smoked Salmon Roll II…Awesome naming convention for your sushi rolls (insert sarcasm).

I enjoyed my lunch here, the staff was friendly, and our teas were filled constantly. I wasn’t wow’d, but it was a fairly nice place to visit and get decent sushi.

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Sushi California
501 North Rd
Coquitlam, BC V3J
(604) 931-8284

***½~ (3.5/5)

Montana’s Cookhouse is having a promotion where you can order All You Can Eat Ribs any time you want. Normally, I think this would be just on one day of the week, but they have it everyday right now. The weird thing is that, I don’t think the prices are listed online.

We got to the restaurant, and it was kind of dead. All You Can Eat Ribs cost $24.99 – $26.99 depending on what kind of ribs you want. We all ordered the Pork Back Ribs for $26.99. They also have three flavours to choose from – Apple Butter, Honey Garlic, and some Texas Rub. You also get your choice of two sides. Your choice of Rice Pilaf, Mashed Potatoes, or Baked Potato, and your choice of Corn Bread or Baked Beans.

I ordered the Apple Butter Ribs with the Rice, and Corn Bread. It actually took a very long time to come out. We each got a full rack to start. Being an All You Can Rib noobie, I was told not to eat my sides, because they just take up space. And the goal is to eat as many ribs as you can. But, I didn’t listen. The rice was really good, and I finished it all. I actually wanted to order more, but the goal was to eat ribs (the expensive part!). The corn bread was also the best corn bread I’ve ever had. I’m used to really dry and hard corn bread, but this was a lot softer, moister, buttery-er, and sweeter  than any one I’ve had. I liked it.

Now to the actual meat of the review. The ribs were awesome. A lot better than the ones at BBQues. It was still fall of the bone tender, but the meat was still very juicy and saucy. The Apple Butter by far is the best flavour. After finishing up our first racks, we ordered more ribs. We asked for a just a 1/2 rack of Honey Garlic for the three of us who wanted more ribs. But, after waiting 15 or so minutes, she brought us 6 half racks…The Honey Garlic wasn’t nearly as good as the apple butter, so we just ate our three half racks and left the rest. We thought we would be able to take the ones we were working on home, but for some reason our waitress said we couldn’t. My friends sweared they let us before, but not anymore apparently?

We ordered more Apple Butter ribs, and they came faster.  So in the end they took away 2 half-racks of Honey Garlic. What a waste if they threw it away. Might as well just pack it up and let us take it home. I’m not too sure what it was about the Honey Garlic ribs, but it just didn’t taste nearly as good as the Apple Butter.

So overall, my experience was good. The wait for the food was long, but worth the wait. I don’t think I’d be doing AYCE ribs for a long time, because I was stuffed, and that was way too much meat for one day. I think by the end of it, you have to eat 2 racks of ribs to make it worth it. I did not get a meat headache.

Montana’s Cookhouse
1046 – 2929 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

(604) 472-7772

http://www.montanas.ca

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*~~~~ (1/5)
I haven’t been to an asian buffet in a really long time. My last time was in Toronto a few years ago and it was pretty good. In BC though, I haven’t been to one in even longer, and the standards are definitely a lot different. I’ve actually been wanting to go to an asian buffet recently, and whenever I pass by the oriental buffet in Guildford, I’m tempted to go. But shortly after parking and seeing New China Kitchen in Coquitlam, I got really hesitant. I didn’t say anything though, and we decided to eat the $9.95 lunch buffet. Before we actually went in, our friend told us that our other friends hated the place. Not a good first impression.

We were quickly seated, and headed straight for the buffet line, sadly a lot of the trays were empty. The place wasn’t busy at all, as maybe 8-9 tables had people in them. There were only two lines of food, and then a small dessert table. They had some standard dishes like fried rice, fried noodles, sweet and sour pork, fried chicken, dimsum dishes, and onion rings (haha yes I call onion rings standard, at least here in BC). Then they had some weird dishes, like Honey Garlic Sausage! Yes, this was what seemed like skinnier Vienna sausage, fried, then put into a honey garlic sauce. Being Filipino, I am accustomed to my vienna sausage, and the dish was one of the most flavourful and tasty dishes they had, but, the three of us who ate it, left with stomach aches.

A lot of the food was overcooked, or just had been sitting there for a while. Things like the honey garlic chicken, and sweet and sour pork were very dry and hard to chew. Yes, I know it’s a buffet, but at least some buffets completely switch trays, not just stack the new food ontop of the old food.

After my second fairly small plate, I didn’t want anymore. None of us had more than 2 plates of food. Surprisingly they had oreos and other Mr. Christie cookies, as well as ice cream for dessert. I didn’t touch it.

The only thing that I liked about New China Kitchen in Coquitlam is that they were good at serving us tea and getting us a new pot whenever ours was empty. Then again, there weren’t that many people to deal with. It might be the new thing with H1N1 lurking around, but they had antibacterial dispensers at the start of the line.

I’m not coming back. The food was lacking in variety, amount, flavour, and texture. If you can’t enjoy the food, and eat more than a plate or two of food at a buffet, why even go? If you leave the place with a stomach ache, that’s even more reason not to come back. Supposedly there is another New China Kitchen in Langley, but given the experience I had here last week, I’m not going to be going there. Heck, maybe this place has scared me away from buffets in BC forever. I’ll stick to my AYCE sushi, or golf-club and wedding buffets if I want some All You Can Eat. Maybe I’ll just go on another cruise.

New China Kitchen
100 Schoolhouse Street, #112
Coquitlam, BC V3K6V9
Tel: (604) 526-1336

One good thing that came out of this experience, is that I found a Greek restaurant called Kefi that I want to try. Wish I went there instead.