***~~ (3/5)

I visited the Washington Avenue Grill’s sister restaurant the Vault in Cloverdale back in June. I filled out one of their comment cards, and they mailed me a coupon for up to $25 off an entree for my birthday. I was able to use it Sunday-Thursday in August, but I managed to wait until the very last day to use it. I heard some pretty good things about the restaurant from a friend, but his last visit was many years ago. I was still quite excited though. The restaurant is an old yellow house, which was actually an old lumber mill. In the back of the dessert menu there’s a story about the Washington Avenue Ghost. I didn’t read it though, it was way too long, and way too dim. We arrived there at 7:45PM and it got dark really fast, really hard to take pictures in.

The place was kind of busy on a Monday afternoon. It has a nice view of the beach> it’s not in the heart of the White Rock strip, but still has a waterfront view. The building was really old, and is in a real need of restaurant make over. The seat cushions were ripped, some of the lanterns were ripped too, but the worst things were the loose wood floor boards. Our table would move every time someone walked by.

When I got there, I already knew what I wanted to order. I started with the Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio ($9.99). The thinly sliced beef was served with crostini and topped with a little bit of grated parmesan cheese, a garlic-mustard aioli, and some crispy fried capers. The toppings didn’t add that much flavour. I hoped the mustard aioli had a little bit more spice or stronger flavour to it. The capers, though added some nice contrast in texture, didn’t have that slightly sour caper flavour. Overall the beef was very tender and melted in your mouth, but the flavours were pretty bland.

For my main I got the Stuffed Chicken ($18.99) which was stuffed with prosciutto and goat cheese, served with a tarragon cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The chicken was moist and juicy and had a nice crisp skin. But the filling was only a little portion of the chicken, and I didn’t really notice it until the end, and it wasn’t very good. It had an odd clumpy texture. The sauce was also a bit too salty for my liking. The mashed potatoes were just standard.

My friends ordered the Seared Scallops ($12.99) which came with 5 scallops in a soy based sauce with some spinach. Unfortunately the scallops were slightly overcooked, and the sauce was way too salty. The spinach was very salty too. They also ordered the Seafood Penne ($18.99) which was loaded with prawns, fish, and mussels. They said it was decent and it was loaded with seafood.

The food was a bit sub-par, and the furniture and structure was a bit bad. The atmosphere and service were good though. The place was lively, and they have live music on certain days too (just like the Vault). When I got home, I read some reviews on Urbanspoon, and noticed that the reviews have said the restaurant has gone down hill in the past year or so.

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Washington Avenue Grill
15782 Marine Dr
White Rock, BC

(604) 541-4244

http://www.washingtonavenuegrill.com

***~~ (3/5)

I was looking for a quick lunch in Vancouver, and my friend suggested that we’d go to Best Burrito, a place he discovered recently. The menu was really simple, I ordered a Chicken Burrito ($8) and watch the owner made it in front of me.

The size of the burrito was huge, pretty comparable to the donair size at Donair Affair. It felt like it weighted a pound. It had rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, and a ton of chicken. I also asked for some hot sauce.

It took me a couple bites before I got to the chicken, and the chicken was really tasty. It was flavorful, moist, and some bits had charred BBQ texture and taste to it. The whole thing tasted really good all together. The rice was al-dente. The only thing I didn’t really like was the salsa, I wasn’t a fan of the mushy tomatoes.

I think this would be considered cheap eats considering the size of the burrito. It wasn’t the best nor the most authentic burrito I’ve had, but it’s decent. It’s a good place to get food on the run, but just be careful, you might get a food coma after.

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Best Burrito
195 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5Y
(604) 879-2378

****½ (4.5/5)

OK, I love desserts. I almost always need to eat something sweet after a meal, no matter how full I am. So after my lunch at The Lion’s Den Cafe, I visited Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates & Patisserie on Broadway.

Picking something to eat at Thomas Haas was almost impossible. They had a very large selection of chocolate truffles, pastries, and cakes. Everything looked really delicious. In addition to my Mocha, my friend and I decided on an Almond Mascarpone cake and a Stilton Cheesecake with Rhubarb Compote. And also as a last minute decision, we got 3 macaroons on the side.

The Mocha was almost a dessert itself. It had a really intense chocolate flavor. In addition to chocolate sauce, they’ve also sprinkled in coca powder. It was really rich, and creamy. It was more of a drink for sipping, than actually drinking. I liked it a lot. It really hit sweet spot.

The cakes were also really yummy. The Almond Mascarpone cake was very fluffy, light, and had just the right amount of almond flavoring. This cake was went really well with my mocha mostly because it was light, really nice pairing with the savory mocha.

The Stilton Cheesecake was really dense. It had a caramelize top, and a shortbread crust. The tiny cheesecake took me a while to eat because of its density in both texture and flavor. I really enjoyed the fresh fruits on top, although I wasn’t a big fan of the rhubarb compote. I ate the cheesecake without it.

The 3 Macaroons we were got were Passion fruit, Pistachio, and.. the purple one. All of them had a crunchy top, and chewy inside.  They were all really sweet. The 3rd flavor we ordered was Coffee, but we got a purple one instead, not too sure if it was really coffee, it tasted like raspberry. My favorite one was passion fruit.

The price was on the pricey side, but the quality standard was high. The staff were really nice. It’s definitely a great place for desserts.

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Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates & Patisserie
2539 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6K
(604) 924-1847
www.thomashaas.com

***½~ (3.5/5)

I was in Yaletown last week looking for a quick bite for dinner, and my friends brought me to Ki-isu Japanese. I didn’t really have a high expectation for Japanese restaurants in Yaletown. I’ve been to one that’s really near by Ki-isu, it was pretty bad. That was before the existence of MePlusFood, and no, I will not return just to write a post about it.

I was pretty tired that day, and a bit lazy on deciding what kind of things I wanted to try here. Good thing there’s always dinner boxes that has pretty much everything. I decided to just get a Dinner Box A with Teriyaki Beef ($13.95).

The appetizer part of the Dinner Box A were miso soup and sunomono. The soup was average, but the sunomono was delicious. It was nicely chilled, the noodles weren’t mushy, it had just the right amount of sourness; a very refreshing dish to start off the meal.

In the actual Dinner Box there were Beef teriyaki with rice, Spicy Tuna & Dynamite Roll, California Roll, Salad, and the Tempura was served on a separate small dish. There was a lot of food.

There were 4 pieces of vegetable tempura and 1 piece of shrimp tempura. They gave me full sushi rolls instead of just 3 pieces of a roll. The Spicy Tuna & Dynamite roll was a bit messy to eat because it was pretty big, it was also pretty tasty. The beef teriyaki was also pretty good, and there was a lot of it. The beef wasn’t over cooked, and the teriyaki sauce wasn’t too sweet.

I don’t remember the last time I ordered a lunch box or a dinner box at a Japanese restaurant, and ordering one here wasn’t a bad idea. I was really full after my meal, and I packed the rest home and ate it for lunch the next day. For the amount of food, I think it was fairly priced. Just to give a prospective on how much food there was in Dinner Box A, the couple at the table next to me shared the same Dinner Box I got, with a side of something else. That was a smart thing to do.

It was a good find in Yaletown, and I’d come back to try some of their pretty looking appetizers.

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Ki-isu Japanese
275 Pacific Blvd
Vancouver, BC V6Z
(604) 899-0366
www.kiisujapanese.com

***~~ (3/5)

The Lion’s Den Cafe has been in business for 10 years, but I only heard of it recently from other food bloggers. A Caribbean cafe with a preserved lion that also serves Okonomiyaki? I am definitely intrigued.

We stopped by the cafe for lunch. From the menu, you will learn the word “Japaribbean”. It means the fusion Japanese and Caribbean food, and therefore explains the existence of Okonomiyaki. The day I went, their daily special was Soul Food. They had cat fish, fried chicken and Jambalaya. I was more in a mood for curry, so I ordered the Curry Goat off the regular menu. My friend ordered the Jerk Chicken, also off the regular menu. I was really hungry that day, before my food arrived my table, I decided to also ordered the Jambalaya to share with my friend.

Food here looks really home made. My Curry Goat came with rice, and corn bread. The Curry Goat looked like there would be a lot of flavor, but it was actually pretty bland. There’s just wasn’t a lot of spices going on. I asked for spicy, but it wasn’t spicy at all. I’ve never had goat before, the meat was pretty tender, but there was more bones than I expected. I couldn’t really taste any goat flavor either. It also felt like the curry was microwaved, because some parts were really hot, and some parts were just lukewarm.

The Jerk Chicken on the other hand, had more flavors going on. It came with 3 chicken drum sticks. The meat was really tender, not dry. It was spicy, but the kind of spicy that builds up slowly. It was delicious.

We ordered the Jambalaya with sausage and shrimp. The Jambalaya here looked different that I am used to. It was probably because it was just sauce on top of rice, instead of everything mixed in together. The sauce was less stewy, it was rather more clear. It was tomatoey, and unlike the Jerk Chicken, you can taste the spiciness right away. And again, more flavorful than the Curry Goat. It was pretty good, but the shrimps didn’t have much flavor.

All 3 dishes came with a side of corn bread, which I liked a lot.

The restaurant had a great relaxing/hipster vibe. The owner had a great attitude, and was super friendly. He goes around to chat with everyone in the restaurant. He could tell if you are a first timer. And if you’re a first timer, he’ll tell you the story of The Lion’s Den Cafe, and will ask you to sign his guest book that he’s had since day one of his restaurant.

The food itself was OK, but the friendliness of the staff definitely added some bonus points to the dinning experience.

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The Lion’s Den Cafe
651 E 15th Ave
Vancouver, BC V5T
(604) 873-4555
www.lionsdencafe.oxyfx.com

***½~ (3.5/5)

Alpha Global is a small little Sushi/Izakaya restaurant slightly off of the heart of Yaletown. I actually haven’t even noticed this place, but I decided to go here for my birthday dinner with my friends. I made a reservation for 12 a week before, and they asked if I could provide them with a list of things we’d want to order because they have a small kitchen and would like to prep some of the food before hand.

We ordered a lot of food! A lot of which I probably don’t remember the name of. To start, I had a spinach goma-ae ($4.50) but was unable to edit because it smelled a lot more peanuty than sesame. I could’ve been wrong, but I didn’t want to take the risk. First, I had the Mozzarella Kushi-Age ($5), which are just breaded-deepfried mozzarella sticks on skewers. It supposedly had a bit of curry and chilli peppers, but I didn’t really taste too much. It was seasoned a bit, but I couldn’t pick up those flavours. It had a nice crispy coating, and gooey cheese inside but it wasn’t too stringy. We ordered three Chicken Kara-Ages ($8.00) and it was pretty good. It was big boneless chunks of chicken deep fried and served separately from the sauce. The chicken was crispy on the outside, and very tender and juicy inside. It was lightly salted, and the sauce was soy sauce based. I prefer the sauces used at Guu and Hapa over this one though. The agedashi tofu ($4.75) was lightly fried, and not too crispy. It was sitting in the sweet sauce so it got a bit soft, but picked up a lot of flavour.

The Italian Spring Roll ($7.50) was filled with mozzarella cheese, tomato and basil. With this one, the roll cooled down a little to fast and the mozzarella was already solidified again, so the texture in your mouth wasn’t very appealing. It also didn’t have much flavour to it. Pumpkin Croquette ($6.00) were decent, but it actually was squash. Inside the crispy exterior it was a very sweet and soft filling. My friends liked Guu’s croquette better because it has the egg inside too. The Beef Sashimi ($9.50) was lightly seared and topped with a ponzu sauce. The sauce was sweet, and the beef was pretty tender, but nothing special. Manzo’s is still my favourite because the beef was a bit thicker, and a lot more tender. I didn’t like the spare ribs, because it was quite chewy and hard to eat off the bone.

They had a bunch of items that weren’t on their online  menu or take out menu so I can’t remember what they are called. We also ordered a few more spring rolls. They had something similar to a california roll sans rice which was wrapped in spring roll paper, fried, and served with a mayo sauce. I enjoyed it but I don’t think my friends did because I ate most of it.

My friends really said the Richards Roll ($10.75) was amazing. It had prawn tempura, tobiko, and cucumber and topped with unagi and avocado with a yummy wasabi mayo sauce. They also ordered the Alpha Roll ($12), Mango Vancouver Roll ($9), and possibly more. Some ordered the Mentaiko Udon ($6.75) which they didn’t enjoy because it was weird. It seemed kind of cheesy.

They had a lot of things that I could eat, i.e, a lot of non-seafood dishes that I haven’t seen at other Izakayas so that’s a bonus. The dishes were decent for the most part and cooked well, but I’m not sure if all of the flavours worked well together or with the theme of a Japanese restaurant. Their menu is also really weird, they had a bunch of super-natural books and they just pasted their menus inside on the front and back covers. Really weird idea, and I don’t think I like it.

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Alpha Global Sushi & Bar
1099 Richards St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 633-0355

http://www.plusalfa.com

***½~ (3.5/5)

After a failed attempt to visit Chill for some alcoholic bubble tea (because they are closed for renovations) we had no back up plan. So we looked across the street and saw White Spot. I didn’t really want to go because I just went a few days before for Pirate Pak day, but we couldn’t think of anything else, and my friend really wanted to try the Blue Berry “pie” that our other friend was raving about.

We got in, and noticed there were a lot of old people there. We seemed really cool going into White Spot at 930PM on a Friday night. Yup, we’re cool. Anyways, two of us had already eaten dinner at Glowbal Grill a few hours before, so we weren’t that hungry. That didn’t stop me from ordering a main though. It really took me a while to order because there wasn’t really anything I wanted. I went for something I’ve never had before – the Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese which was listed under their Spot Classics section. It turns out it wasn’t too bad. It came with the Spot’s Salad, a bowl of Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese, and rice. The spot salad was a mixed green salad with a vinaigrette and sunflower seeds. It was pretty good, the seeds added a nice salty, nutty crunch to the salad. The Chicken Brocolli Cheese rice was very saucy. The cheddar cheese was melted on top, and also mixed in with the sauce. The chicken was very very tender, and the broccoli was still crisp. There was a hint of curry in the sauce too which made it quite different, but good. The rice was also cooked well and had a bit of extra flavour.

One friend ordered a Smokey BBQ Chicken flatbread, and the other ordered the Blueberry pie that she was craving. The flatbread was really good as it came with a nice sweet bbq sauce and really good chicken. The crust was thin and crispy. To my friend, the blueberry lived up the expectations too. We also ordered a side of fries which were not very good this time.

So two visits to White Spot in 3 days, and both were pretty good (definitely better than the time I went in February). It may not be the hippest places to eat for us twenty-year-olds but the food is decent.

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White Spot
50 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

(604) 434-6668

http://www.whitespot.com

***~~ (3/5)

Last week I got to visit Tawara. It’s a family owned restaurant in the Panorama Ridge area near 152nd St and Hwy 10 in Surrey. Looking at the menu it wasn’t one of the cheaper sushi joints in town.

Surprisingly, I ordered a bunch of stuff other than sushi, and for the hell of it, I ordered a Tamago nigiri. I ordered the Agedashi Tofu, Ramen, and Spicy Chicken. I could tell all of the dishes were made with care, but I wasn’t too impressed with most of the flavours. The agadeshi tofu was probably the best one. It was 5 pieces of battered and fried tofu completely separate from the sauce. I guess it’s good that it’s separate so it won’t get soggy after sitting in the sauce too long, but I did notice that it did lack flavour. The tofu was fried perfectly though, nice crunch outside, and the inside still was kinda firm, not soggy, just wish it was seasoned more. The sauce added a bit of saltiness, but not enough. I think it was missing daikon and green onions for more contrast and flavour.

I don’t know why I did it, but I ordered the Ramen too. I think Ramen is only good at Ramen restaurants, and the best part of a bowl of ramen is the fatty pork. The ramen here like most sushi places didn’t have the fatty pork, and either used the wrong noodles, or cooked it too long. The soup came with a bunch of vegetables – enoki mushrooms, bok choy, green onions – and noodles. The broth was decent, but the noodles were pretty soggy, didn’t have a bite to it anymore.

The chicken was also a bit weird. It came in bite sized pieces, but  something about the batter was strange. It kind of had a grainy texture to it. And the chicken wasn’t very tender anymore. The sauce was OK, at least it wasn’t just that sweet thai chili sauce that’s used in a lot of places.

Finally, the tamago was really bright yellow. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but it wasn’t that good. The texture in either the egg or the rice wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. That said, my friend actually liked his tamago that came in his chirashi don. So maybe I’m weird.

My friend ordered the Chirashi Don, and a spicy salmon roll. He liked his food a lot more than I liked mine. We were also given a few pieces of ika kara-age on the house. By the time we got to it, it was already cooled down, so we couldn’t really tell if it was good or not. I only took a tiny bite, because I’m still allergic to seafood.

The service was really good, and the decor was really nice. I think I’d go back to try their rolls. I’d stay away from the Ramen and the chicken dish. It is a little bit pricier too though.

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Tawara Japanese
103-15153 Hwy 10
Surrey, BC

(604) 574-5353

****~ (4/5)

A few weeks ago we went skydiving in Abbotsford. It was crazy fun, but it ended a lot earlier than we expected, and we decided to stay in Abbotsford for lunch. What’s there to eat in Abbotsford besides Ah-Beetz Pizza? A quick search on the iPhone lead us to Hi Lunch Box Japanese. Japanese food in Abbotsford? I know, we were a pretty skeptical at first, until we had their sushi.

I was pretty surprised by their menu, because they had quite a few creative and unusual sushi rolls. I ordered a Mango Roll and a Hi-Five Roll.

Before our sushi came, we were given edemame for free as appetizers. When the sushi rolls came, we were all surprised. The rolls looked really well made, and they looked delicious. My Mango Roll was self-explanatory, it had mangos and cucumbers. The Hi-Five roll was a California roll with 5 different sashimis on top with fresh avocado layered in between. The 5 sashimis were salmon, tuna, shrimp, octopus, and sockeye salmon. It was a massive roll, and a delicious one. They didn’t cheap out on the ingredients, and the amount of rice was just right. The sashimis were fresh, I liked it a lot.

Another highlight was my friend’s Spicy Dragon Roll. It was spicy tuna roll, topped with unagi, avocado, and more spicy tuna, and drizzled with spicy sauce. It was so massive! You cannot look at this roll and not say ‘wow’. Beware, this was a roll that was truly spicy. My friend enjoyed it a lot, even though it got really spicy for him.

Other rolls we got were the Crazy Boy, which was deep fried California roll with spicy sauce.  Dee also got a Bacon Roll, which he loved because the bacon was nice and crispy.

I seriously had pretty low expectations for this place, but when our sushi hit our table, I was proven so wrong. The food was really tasty, and the sushi was just really neat and well made. We all enjoyed our food. I loved the presentation. The quality was better than most casual Japanese restaurants in metro Vancouver. And just add on to their awesomeness, the prices were slightly under from the prices in the Japanese restaurants in Vancouver.

I chatted briefly with the owner and she said they moved the restaurant from Vancouver to Abbotsford a couple years ago. It’s awesome for Abbotsford residents, but I really wished they hadn’t move all the way out there. Who knew, great sushi in Abbotsford.

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Hi Lunch Box
31962 South Fraser Way
Abbotsford, BC V2T
(604) 854-1009

****~ (4/5)

After UFC a few weekends ago, we got really hungry so we decided to bring out friends to our favourite pho joint because I’ve gone their after UFC before. We got there, and it was closed . Donair Affair was closed too. And the late night Surrey pho hunt began, late night being past 10PM. Kim Hoang was closed too, Pho Tam was closed too, and Pho Vinh was closed. OK, we’re pretty much out of options because I refuse to go to Pho Hoa. Since we were in Guildford, I noticed that a Korean restaurant that I’ve gone to before (but never had a clue what the name was) was open!

Our group of 6 was kind of hungry but not super hungry. Their menu was really small. But it seemed pretty popular as many people came in and out while we ate. The menu has English and Korean, but they also had a bunch of dishes and combos all over the wall, written in only Korean. Hmm.. well we found a combo that seemed like it would be good for us. We figured it out by matching symbols in the menu with what was on the wall. Smart eh? We couldn’t really ask our waitress because it seemed like she didn’t know any English either! We ordered the combo, but she recommended something slightly different, and we let her give us what she wanted. A lot of pointing was done. Guess what, we got an awesome meal for just $49.95 for 6 people. We were really satisfied after.

Our combo came with a small pot of Gamjatang (Pork Bone Soup), Seafood Pancakes, Bibimbap, Short Ribs, 3 bowls of rice, and the 3 side dishes, kim chi, spicy daikon, and bean sprouts. Our small Gamjatang was actually pretty big. Each of us got two big chunks of pork bone. It had just the right amount of spiciness. Not too spicy, but just enough. The stock was rich and goes really well with the rice. There was plenty of meat around the pork bones, and some of us lucky ones (me) didn’t even have to work hard for some of the meat. The meat was very tender, and was easy to scrape and pick off the bone. It came with some pieces of potato too. I haven’t had gamjatang since I had it in Toronto 2-3 years ago, so I was really happy to have it again. By the end it was a bit spicy, and I was sweating a bit, but not enough to make my nose run or make me want lots of water.

I’ve had the Bibimbap here before and it was the same. It’s meatless, with a mix of sprouts, mushrooms, seaweed, cucumber, carrots, and egg. It came in a sizzling hot stone bowl so that the rice could get crispy. It also came with some hot sauce which we added as we mixed our rice and toppings together. The bibimbap was decent, but definitely missing some meat in my opinion.

The short ribs were OK too. A bit too chewy, and a bit hard to take off the bone. The flavour from the sauce was delicious though, as it was sweet and a bit salty. I didn’t eat much of it because I was really full from the bibimbap, sides, and gamjatang. I was tempted to try the seafood pancake. It didn’t seem like it was loaded with seafood, but it was. I thought it was just shrimp, but as I peaked into the pancake it had squid in it too…everywhere. My friends enjoyed it too though.

In the end, our combo only came out to $10-11 per person. A really good deal, considering Korean restaurants are usually pretty pricey. We were all pretty full by the end of our meal. Separately, the small gamjatang was $25 (large is $40), the bibimbap is about $9, the seafood pancakes $13, and the short ribs another $10-ish. We saved about $10 and it was definitely worth it. I’m really happy with this place, our waitress was really nice, but the communication just wasn’t there.  I wish they could speak English or use more English in the restaurant. Oh, and I finally found out what the restaurant was called by looking at my receipt. One other funny thing I remembered was that it seemed like the restaurant only had one menu. A couple came in, but we were hogging the menu, so they had to wait.

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Note: Thanks to @ericvchan for taking pics and bringing his dSLR along.

Bukchigo Jangguchico
128 – 15280 101st Avenue
Surrey, BC

(604) 589-7401