Late December a good friend of mine came to visit me, and we did some catching up over afternoon tea at Tracy Cakes in White Rock.

This place has a great location, right at the ocean front. It was quite busy when we got there at 1pm, and luckily I made a reservation. For high tea, there were only about 9 teas to choose from, I stuck with the classic earl grey.

Our food came out pretty quickly, the bottom of the tray had egg salad, cucumber, turkey sandwiches and 2 sections of a wrap. There were also sliced pineapples, and cantaloupes.

I started with the egg salad sandwich, and found it to be extremely salty; it was hard to finish it. My friend started with the turkey sandwich and also found it salty. Why so much salt?

The top of the 2 tier trays had the sweets such as scones, mini cupcakes, and cookies. I started with the scones and had them with raspberry jam and their devonshire, this was not the best I’ve had, but it was the best part of the whole tray.

The overall experience wasn’t as good as I had hoped and the bad experience started pretty early. When we first sat down at the table, I could smell the dirty cloth they used to wipe the table, it was not a pleasant smell. The presentation of the food seemed sloppy compared to Secret Garden, and I still can’t get over how salty the egg salad sandwich was.

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TracyCakes
15015 Marine Drive
White Rock, BC V4B

Recently, my friends and I have been talking about grabbing a hearty breakfast at De Dutch Pannekoek House before we head to snowboarding. That plan didn’t work out because they don’t open early enough (8am) for us to eat and make it to the mountains on time, so we went on a off snowboarding day instead.

Every time I visit a De Dutch, I always end up ordering a sweet Pannekoek, this time there was no exception, and I munched on a Banana Maple Walnut Pannekoek.

The Banana Maple Walnut pannekoek was prepared like a banana pancake with the bananas cooked within the batter. It was a very sweet dish because there was a good amount of icing sugar, and there were the sweetness from the bananas. There were pockets of crunchy walnuts, I liked this quite a bit.

My friend got his favorite, the #4 Hash Pannekoek. The hash had mushrooms, green peppers, bacon, onions, hash browns, and cheddar. It was hearty, but not overly heavy.

De Dutch Pannekoek House is currently running a sweet vs savoury competition on their Facebook page.  There are several polls where you can vote savoury vs. sweet items that you prefer on your pancakes. I feel like my brain runs this competition every time I visit a De Dutch, but the sweet will always win. They really need to make a pannekoek that is both sweet and savoury. Each vote in one of the savoury vs. sweet polls on the Facebook wall enters you to win a $500 De Dutch gift card, awarded Dec 24

There is also a 25% off January Pass available to anyone on Facebook that likes the De Dutch page and enters. This pass is good for all month long during January 2012. There shall be a lot of DeBakons being eaten with this promotion.

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De Dutch Pannekoek House
#101 – 15235 Fraser Highway
Surrey, BC V3R

I’ve been wanting to try more Indian food recently, and after looking at Follow Me Foodie’s post, I decided to check out Taste of Punjab with my friends last week. It’s really accessible and close to the King George skytrain station.

I pretty much copied Mijune’s recommend list, and hardly looked at the menu. We ordered the Chicken Jalfrzie, Turka Dal, Lamb Curry, Butter Chicken, and some Paneer Pakora. We also added some roti, and garlic nan. I also ordered the spinach nan but it never came, which sucked but was also a good thing because we were stuffed and unable to finish our food. We ordered everything hot, which was surprisingly very tolerable. Definitely not hot enough to make you sweat, but the perfect amount of spice for me.

The paneer pakora is kinda like an Indian fried cheese stick. It’s like an Indian cheese battered a bit, and deep fried. It was stuffed with a mint sauce inside. It was kind of crispy, and the paneer had a slightly firm texture. It was really good, though I think I prefer the one at Asian Spice more, since it came with a really good sauce. This one came sauceless, and I actually put it in the excess butter chicken sauce to make my own Butter Paneer. I enjoyed the other dishes too. They kind of all had the same spicy flavour, with slightly different spices and ingredients. My favourite was the Butter Chicken. The others had some vegetables mixed in too. I don’t think I’ve had enough Indian food to really pick out the differences in spices, I just know that the food was very tasty though and I liked it.

The Turka Dal isn’t my thing. My friend said he usually eats that with lots of roti, but I’m just not really big on that kind of lentil dish. The garlic naan was very garlicky. We were also able to ask for extra basmati rice for free. The service was pretty good (besides missing the spinach nan), and refilled our waters often.

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Taste of Punjab
10009 Whalley Blvd
Surrey, BC

(604) 588-7700

tasteofpunjab.ca

HongMi is a Korean restaurant that has your standard Korean dishes, as well as offering Korean BBQ. For those of you who’ve never done it before (like one of my friends), you are given a bunch of meat, which you can “BBQ” right on your table. If you don’t really know what to do, don’t be afraid to ask. The people at HongMi are very helpful. The three of us opted for the AYCE KBBQ for $25.

We were started with their version of a miso tofu soup. Quite flavourful, and thicker than normal miso soup. It had some more vegetables and large chunks of tofu. She recommended that we eat it with some rice to reduce the saltiness.

We were given the typical sides – kimchi which had little bit less than medium spice to it, the bean sprouts, potato salad, and some other greens which was quite bland. The kim chi was nice, a bit sour, and a decent amount of heat. Not too spicy. The cabbage still had a bit of crunch to it. The bean sprouts were good too. The main sprout of it wasn’t as firm as I’m used to, but I prefer it this way. The potato salad kind of tasted like mashed potatoes mixed with coleslaw. The greens were quite bland, and there was a spicy sauce that was off to the side. Not sure if it was intentional that it was separated. We were also given a plate of lettuce leaves, and also a nice fresh slaw, as well as a couple of different sauces.

They have 4 different meats served here. Pork Belly, Pork, Chicken, and Beef – and that’s the same order that I enjoyed the meats. The Pork Belly was quite thick, but it quickly shrinks when it sizzles on the grill. Wait til it crisps up before you eat it. It’s delicious. The pork, chicken, and beef were all marinated in the same mix. It was really good. The pork were very big pieces and scored so it would cook faster and probably soak up more flavour quicker. After cooking it, it was very tender and flavourful. It had nice salty, sweet, garlicky, sesame flavour to them. Really liked the texture. The chicken was similar. The beef was sliced thiner than the others,  and still pretty good. In the end though, everything did taste the same, so we kind of got sick of it. We did order more pork and pork belly though. I would’ve also gotten more chicken, but my friends were getting full.

Our servers were very helpful in serving us, and making sure we were taken care of. They switched our grilling plate 3 times during our meal, so it was usually pretty clean. The restaurant is really big, because it used to be an old buffet. Though when we went, there weren’t too many people there, maybe that was amplified by the giant size of the space, and how many tables there were. In our table, we could’ve sat 4, but it felt kind of cramped with all of the dishes, and side dishes around.

I was glad to see that they also had pork bone soup and bibimbap so I’m surely going to come back to try those out.

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HongMi
100 – 15155 101st Ave
Surrey, BC

(778) 395-7033

Beipas, my brother, his wife, and I were craving wings while on the way back from a skate at Rogers Arena. Wings is “cheap” on Sundays with 39 cent wings, but when we got there it was packed with a wait of about 30 minutes. We decided to try out another pub close by called Brewster’s Pub.

We ordered a bunch of stuff on special, and actually over bought because the food was quite cheap. I think we started off ordering 6 pounds of wings, fries, and a large salad. Then just because it was only like $8.99, I ordered a steak sandwich after that. On Sundays, the wings here are only 35 cents, and you can choose from Hot, Chili Lime BBQ, Cajun, Garlic Parmesan, Bold BBQ, Salt & Pepper, Honey Mustard, Dry Garlic, Red Thai Curry, Teriyaki, Suicide, Cajun Honey Garlic, Garlic Salt & Pepper, and Honey Garlic. We chose Hot, Garlic Parmesan, Salt & Pepper, and Honey Garlic. The wings are a bit small. The wings were crisp, and moist on the inside. Of course the honey garlic ones got cold quick because it was saucy, but the dry ones remained hot and crisp longer. The hot was pretty standard, and tasted like Frank’s Red Hot, which I don’t mind. My favourite of the bunch was the honey garlic. The steak sandwich came open faced on some garlic bread and topped with onions and mushrooms. It was a pretty big piece of meat, but not the best cut. It wasn’t the tenderest but it was decent for the price.

The restaurant was really dead on a Sunday evening with just a few tables. They said it’s normal though, and they usually can get away with vacuuming and cleaning up at around 7. Saturdays they are really busy because of all the sports, and they also play PPV events like UFC.

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Brewster’s Pub
# 700 – 7380 King George Highway
Surrey, BC

(604) 598-8100

www.brewsterspub.ca

I had a late Friday night and got out of bed at 1:30PM. I had planned to do some errands at Surrey Place. I wanted to look at picking up Nikon micro (macro) lens and test it out right away.  I’m really glad there’s a Broadway Camera so close to me now. I picked up the Nikon 60mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Micro-Nikkor and went straight to the closest place to eat, which was Ricky’s All Day Grill. I was also craving eggs and breakfast food too, so it was convenient. By now it was about 5:30PM lol..

My friend and I started with spinach artichoke dip. For some reason it was really, really good – maybe because we were so hungry. They heated the chips, they had a oily sheen to it – were they freshly fried? Probably not, but they were nice and crisp. The spinach and artichoke dip was really cheesy and creamy with spinach and artichoke bits here and there.

I ordered the Yukon Big Bite which consists of 3 eggs, 3 strips of maple bacon, ham, and your choice of bavarian, chorizo or calabrese sausage served with savoury potato wedges. I chose scrambled eggs with calabrese sausage and sourdough bread. The maple bacon was nice and crisp with a bit of sweetness from the maple, and the ham was cut 1/4 inch thick. The main thing is probably the sausage though. The calabrese was stuffed with mozzarella chunks here and there. They cut it in half, so lots of the mozzarella had leaked out though. I liked the sausage and the bacon the most. I’m not a big ham lover. The potatoes weren’t wedges, but cubes. My first few pieces seemed like the potatoes were recooked, and not very fresh. Wasn’t very crispy, and just had that texture like it had been cooked before and reheated. I also liked how buttery my sourdough bread was.

My friend ordered the Chorizo Brekkie-Bowl which has seasoned chunky potatoes, with red onions, topped with 3 scrambled eggs, 3 cheeses, diced tomatoes and green onions, covered in ranchero hollandaise. My friend’s bowl was just OK. The chorizo was a bit spicy, but overall the entire thing was too salty. The servers were friendly, and I wouldn’t mind going here on occasion if I was craving breakfast food mid day. It’s usually not that busy and close by.

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Ricky’s All Day Grill
10153 King George Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 582-2545

www.rickys-restaurants.com

Having just come back from being food-spoiled with on my birthday trip to San Francisco and Napa Valley, I went for my family dinner to the Keg in South Surrey.

We just the Baked Goat Cheese to start which was just as good as last time. It’s a log of goat cheese rolled in sliced toasted almonds, baked, and then served with some toasted bread and a tomato basil salsa. I just love the flavours all combined with the warm goat cheese with a bit of a crunch from the almonds and the fresh tomato and basil on the toasted bread. Love it. My brother ordered some Scallops & Bacon as well, which I didn’t try.

For my main I ordered the 20 oz. T-Bone steak with a double baked potato. A T-Bone is actually two steaks – strip steak and the tenderloin and split in half by a bone. I enjoyed the tenderloin a lot more because it seemed to be quite a bit softer and fattier. One of the reasons why I ordered this steak is because it comes with the nice thin crispy fried onions. I just love it. It’s crispy, a bit oniony, and salty. The double baked potato was crispy on top, and soft and fluffy in the middle.

We also ordered a few sides – Truffle Macaroni and Cheese, Sauteed Mushrooms, and Asparagus. My favourite was definitely the mac and cheese,  as it had a really cheesy topping that got a little bit crispy on the edges (which is my favourite!). Aside from the topping, the mac and cheese itself was pretty cheesy and creamy. Not a thin sauce which is a good thing, and it the macaroni wasn’t cooked well, and didn’t get soggy from soaking up the sauce. Didn’t really notice the truffle though. The sauteed cremini mushrooms were good too and had a nice glaze on it and a nice meaty flavour.

My family ordered the Bleu Cheese Filet, 2 7 oz. Filet Mignons, and a 16 oz Rib Steak. The bleu cheese filet was the most flavourful as the same bacon-wrapped filet was topped with bleu cheese, with a bit of garlic cloves and then broiled. For me it’s good that bleu cheese wasn’t super stinky and over powering.

When walking into this restaurant, it seemed really similar to the location on Scott Road, and felt like we’d been there before. It has a lot better atmosphere than the one in Guildford, but I still think the Yaletown location is best.

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Keg Steakhouse
15180 32 Ave Divers
Surrey, BC

(604) 542-9733

http://www.kegsteakhouse.com

Dublin’s Crossing is right across from my friend’s place in Cloverdale. They’ve been there a couple times and said it was pretty good. We decided to try it out last Sunday. It was some what empty that day, at least in the front of the house. It is a pretty big restaurant though, with lots of tables further back, outside, and they also have a second floor. Walking in, we weren’t greeted by anyone. Was this another one of those places where you seat yourself? We asked the bartender at the front if we seat ourselves, and we think he said yes, but weren’t sure. After a few minutes of waiting someone finally came to us and seated us.

Their menu had seasonal specials. There were a few things that I wanted to try, but I settled for the Bangers and Mashed because I’ve never had it before, and it is an Irish pub after all. My friends ordered the Dublin Decker sandwich, steak sandwich, and a meat and cheese board (that I was also interested in trying).

My meal came with 3 pork sausages with Calcannon garlic mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables. The pork sausages were pretty good, and it tasted kind of similar to breakfast sausages (which I love), but plumper. I need to go to sausage school haha.. The mashed potatoes weren’t very garlicky, and had a sauce on top that I wasn’t sure what it was. The roasted vegetables were awesome and cooked perfectly (although slightly black – it didn’t detract from the texture or flavour), and dressed with balsamic vinegar.

The steak sandwich first came incomplete, but we didnt’ notice. Someone else served our food and when our actual server came by she said it was missing onion rings, mushrooms and tomato jam. She took it away and came back with the onion rings and mushrooms, but said they were out of the tomato jam. My friend said it was better than the one he had at Original Joe’s because it was a lot less plain. At OJ’s all he could taste was the Montreal steak seasoning, this had a lot more going for it and definitely better. The Dublin decker is a triple decker turkey sandwich. It was really delicious too and the roasted turkey was very juicy. It came with a salad that was OK. My friend was kind of turned off by the canned manadarin orange slices in the salad. The meat and cheese board was huge for $18. My friend got the 3 selection board, which came with Goat Cheese, Blueberry Compote, Stilton, Apricot Chutney, Brie and Red Onion Relish. For the meats, my friend chose the Roast Beef with Horseradish, Roasted Chicken with Chipotle Mayo, and Roasted Ham with Grainy Dijon Mustard. For the meat side, your other choice would have been smoked salmon with a horseradish cream.  That’s a lot of food on a board, and the stacks were really big, especially for the meat. It came with focaccia crostini, which of course they dont’ give you enough of. I liked all of the choices except for the apricot chutney which was a bit too sour. The meat was really good, and they gave you a lot of it. I wish they kind of had a legend as to what went with what, because we were kind of just mixing and matching everything. But I guess that’s the way you can come with good flavours – experimentation. After looking at the online menu today, I noticed that the meats and cheeses were infact paired with condiments.

I’d come back for the food. The service was a bit slow on that Sunday night. Although it wasn’t very busy, I don’t think they had enough wait staff.

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Dublin Crossing Irish Pub
18789 Fraser Highway, Unit 101
Surrey, BC

(604) 575-5470

www.dublincrossing.com

I’ve seen more Original Joe’s popping up recently, and I finally got to drag out my friends and try it out. My brother went a few months ago and said it was pretty good. I haven’t been going to South Surrey much recently, so I haven’t wanted to try this place out. Going in the rest around we stood around for a good few minutes waiting to be sat. Turns out you seat yourself! I wish there was a sign.

Me and my friends each ordered an appetizer and a main. When I ordered mine, the girl asked if I was hungry.. and honestly I wasn’t. I was hoping for my friends to help me… but they didn’t. Anyways, I ordered the Gogi Tacos to start, and the 5 Cheese Tortellini. One friend ordered the Spinach and Sweet Pepper Dip to start, and a Steak Sandwich with Honey Slaw, and Sweet Potato fries as his main. The other ordered the Long Beach Fish Tacos, and the Sicilian Burger.

My Gogi tacos are kind a Korean style pulled pork taco and topped with a ginger slaw. I wish the meat was more spread out, My first few bites were pretty much all slaw, and by the time I got to the end, that’s where all the meat was, and there was quite a bit of it! At first, I didn’t think there was much meat at all, and it was a huge amount of slaw. The meat was shredded, and had a good texture. The slaw was fresh, but I didnt’ taste much ginger in it. The meat could’ve had a more Korean taste, maybe if they added a bit of kimchi. It was kind of odd to serve this Asian inspired dish with Yam fries, but I still liked the fries, that they served with a chipotle aoli. My main was OK. My tortellini was a pretty big bowl, and really filling. It was served with a roasted tomato cream sauce with mushrooms. The tortellini were a bit overcooked and mushy though, and the sauce wasn’t anything special. I would’ve ordered something else if given the choice again.

My favourite dish of the night was definitely the Spinach and Sweet Pepper dip. It was delicious and served with warm tortilla chips. The sauce was cheesy but not too stringy, and the perfect amount of spiciness to it. It was more of a cheese dip than a spinach dip. My friend hoped for more out of his steak sandwich, but it was cooked to order. He said he tasted a ton of Montreal steak seasoning. My other friend loved his fish tacos, perfectly fried fish, and a very good balance between the flavours. He also enjoyed his humungous Sicilian Burger. The Italian sausage added quite a bit of spice.

I think I’ll stop staying away from franchises, some dishes are pretty decent…

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Original Joe’s
#50-2215 160th St
Surrey, BC

(604) 538-4666

www.originaljoes.ca

Moxie’s Classic Grills are often found at the Sandman Hotels. The one in Surrey is right on 152nd St in Guildford right off the highway, and I’ve been there probably a handful of times and usually enjoy my meal. This time, Beipas and I went for brunch before a day of shopping.

I ordered the Mediterranean scramble, and since Beipas was in her enchilada mood, she ordered the Breakfast Enchilada. My scramble was decent. It had nice light and fluffy scrambled eggs served with tomato, asparagus and feta cheese and served with rosti potatoes and some toast. I wish my eggs were a bit fluffier and that they used sundried tomatoes to add a bit more flavour. I did like the flavour that the feta cheese added though. The rosti potatoes were kind of soggy, and I like my hash browns with a crispy edge.

Now the Breakfast Enchilada was really bad, it was actually far from an enchilada. This is false advertising! It was more of a breakfast wrap as there was no sauce or anything. It was just a fat breakfast wrap that had beans, egg, cheese, and corn in it. It was very dry.

I think the dishes are just hit or miss, and I normally have a pretty decent meal there.

A few weeks later I went back with family, and I ordered a Korean BBQ Pulled Pork Baguette which was pretty tasty and flavourful. Not sure how Korean the flavours were, but it definitely had an Asian kick and the meat was nicely shredded and tender.

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Moxie’s Classic Grill
10608 151A Street
Surrey, BC

(604) 495-7020

www.moxies.ca

Ever since finding out about Tobiko Sushi, I’ve been frequently getting sushi from there. This time I went with a new set of friends on Canada day, but sadly it was closed. We decided to go across the street to try out Yoko Sushi instead. Upon going in we were quickly greeted and sat down. It was really cold in there with the AC blasting.

I ordered the yakisoba with chicken bento box and tamago, while my friend ordered the sushi bento box, and my other friend ordered his standard 3 – spicy salmon roll, dynamite roll, and dragon roll. For bento boxes, you have to add an extra $2 if it’s not dinner time. Aren’t bento boxes usually eaten during lunch?

The bento boxes came out very fast, almost as if it was premade and just heated, don’t worry, I don’t think that was the case. The bento boxes came with the main, miso soup, tempura, a korokke, gyoza, salad, and an orange. For mine, I had to add another $2 ($4 total) to add chicken. It’s a pretty good deal before all of the additions. The bento box would’ve been $8.95 before adding the fact that it was lunch time, and that I wanted chicken. The tempura was hot and very crispy, though I personally thought some of the vegetables were a bit undercooked.  The gyoza’s filing was good but the wrapper was way too thick and chewy where it folds over at the top. My yakisoba was way too saucy and it was basically swimming in the sauce. The chicken was fairly scarce too, and there was a ton of cabbage. I wished I had more noodles. The rice for my tamago nigiri was kind of harder than it should be, but my friend said the rice with their sushi was alright.

My friend was far from impressed with the sushi. He said the dynamite roll seemed like they put actual salt on it, and it was loaded with lots of imitation crab meat. The dragon roll too was packed with imitation crab meat, and said he wouldn’t have ordered either if it was just going to be glorified California rolls. He did enjoy the spicy salmon roll though.

I probably won’t be coming back here as Tobiko sushi is just across the street and is way better.

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Yoko Sushi
102-16013 Fraser Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 507-5575

Tobiko Sushi is possibly our newest favourite sushi joint in Surrey, the current being Maguro. It’s located in Fleetwood by the Pizza Hut and Wendy’s. The menu is pretty cool in that it has a bunch of Dragon Rolls in almost all of the Power Ranger colours. No joke. The menu has a lot of rolls, and for sure, my friends want to try all the Dragon Rolls. They have a bunch of dishes on their walls which aren’t on their menu, so be sure to look around. They also serve bubble tea – unfortunately my zodiac sign’s drink ran out of lychee. My friend’s gemini drink was delicious though.

I ordered an Oyako Don and a Tokyo Crunch Roll. The oyako don was a bit different from what I was used to. I’m used to the egg already being cooked and mixed in with the rice with the onions and sauce. This one came with a raw egg cracked on top of my breaded chicken. Most of the sauce was already at the bottom, and got tastier the deeper I got into the bowl. The chicken was crisp and tender. It was good, but a bit different. I like my eggs cooked, and the rice mixed better. The Tokyo Crunch roll is a deep fried california roll with a sweet sauce on it. It was crisp, but the sushi got a bit too warm, and got a bit pasty.

My friends ordered the Miso Soup, Super Dragon Roll, Takoyaki, Black Dragon Roll, Priate Ship Roll, and Avocado Roll. The Super Dragon Roll was huge, and a little strange, in the fact they put cheese on top of the sushi between the roll and salmon – but, it was processed cheese…still my friend liked it. My friends liked all the rolls actually. My friend was craving a plain avocade roll, and it was the best he’s had. So buttery and rich. The takoyaki almost didn’t come, we had to ask to remind them. The friend who typically doesn’t like octopus was hesitant in trying it, but once he did he enjoyed it. There wasn’t that much octopus in it though, not sure if that’s a good thing to those that enjoy takoyaki.

Tobiko Sushi has lots of cool rolls, and the portions are really big. The price is pretty good too. We’re happy to find another local place to have some good Japanese food. My friends love the place, but I think I have to try a few more things (that I can eat) before I make it one of my favourites.

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Tobiko Sushi
15951 Fraser Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 572-5005

www.tobikosushi.com

Royal Oak pizza has been around for a long time and I remember my mom ordering take out pizza and lasagnas from there when I was a kid. From what I remember the pizza wasn’t the greatest and I preferred Pizza Hut. This was a long time ago, so I’m willing to give their pizza another shot. This time I went for my mom’s and brother’s birthday dinner. The place was pretty busy on the Friday we went. It was very loud in there and it was hard to hear someone just directly across the table.

To start we just ordered some Greek style ribs as well as a side of fries for my nephew. The baby back ribs came out really quickly. They weren’t BBQ’d, but boiled or braised in liquid. They were a kind of unappealing grey color, probably just boiled. Flavored with Greek herbs and lemon. Its something that you can easily make at home. Parts of it was fall off the bone tender but some wasn’t.

For our mains, me and my brother ordered the roast lamb, my dad ordered the kalamari dinner, my mom ordered a Greek mixed grill platter that was on special, and Tre ordered the lamb souvlaki. The roast lamb was pretty pricey at 18.95 but it was delicious. The meat was very tender and had a good amount of fat that melts in your mouth. Excellent flavours in the crust, and so moist and juicy inside. Tasted great. It came with Greek salad, which didn’t have much dressing, rice, potato, tzatziki sauce, and some pita bread.

The kalamari wasn’t that good because the squid was cut way too big. I prefer smaller pieces of kalamari so it’s easier to eat. It was lightly breaded, but not very crispy. The mixed platter came with the same ribs we ordered as an appy, a lamb chop, and some souvlaki. Good mix of meats if you wanted to try a variety of things.

The service was OK. Some of the servers were friendlier than others. There isn’t that much parking in the front, but you can also park in the back. I’d come back more often, but wish the roast lamb would be a few dollars cheaper.

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Royal Oak
15336 Fraser Highway
Surrey, BC

(604) 581-3330

www.royaloakpizza.com

My friend told me about Aaron’s pizza probably almost a year ago, but I’ve rarely been in the area. It’s just off the main street of downtown Cloverdale. I had tried to go here a few weeks before but they were closed off for a private function. My hope for this place would be kind of like a closer replacement for Anton’s where I can get decent tasting pasta, and tons of it when I have a craving. On Tuesdays to Thursdays they have 9 dollar pastas. Aside from pasta they also serve greek food and of course pizzas.

I started with the French onion soup which was pretty tasty. It was a very rich dark broth filled with tender strips of onions and topped with a slice of bread loaded with tons of cheese. A bit too salty but really tasty. It was good for being under $4. My friends ordered the seafood chowder and they loved it. A creamy chowder with mixed seafood, potatoes and carrots. They seriously enjoyed it a lot, and would go back there just for the seafood chowder. Really comforting and also really cheap.

For my main I had to order a pasta – the penne with chicken and rosemary tomato cream sauce. The chicken was tender and the sauce had whole cloves of roasted garlic and a very strong basil flavour. The pasta was a bit undercooked in my opinion. Overall it was just pretty average, but that’s maybe because I prefer rich cream sauces. It was a decent size but not huge. I was able to finish my plate fairly easily. My friend said that a lot of his friends can’t finish. I’m not sure about that.

My friends ordered the roast lamb and a bacon wrapped sirloin. I tried a bit of the roast lamb and it was flavorful and fatty it was serves with the usual rice, potatoes, tzatziki, and Greek salad for $15. The bacon wrapped sirloin came with two small pieces of steak and a huge side of spaghetti. It honestly looked like spaghetti with a side of steak. He said it was good though, but yah, way too much spaghetti. We were also given a basket with pita and garlic bread.

I’d come back. Although my pasta was just decent, it was also only $9 that day, and there are a few other pastas I want to try on the menu. I still also need to try the pizza, it is in the name after all.

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Aaron’s Pizza
17665 57 Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 576-8151

www.aaronsrestaurant.ca

Dasom is a Korean restaurant that took over the Taco Del Mar in Guildford. There’s actually another Korean restaurant diagonally across from them in the same complex, so I’m not sure how good the competition/business is. The have the exact same kinda tropically theme inside the restaurant as before so it’s a bit strange.

I ordered a bibimbap which I’ve been craving for a while. Beipas always wants a spicy rice cake dish, but can’t seem to find it! She got a rice cake soup instead. It was a little bit hard for her to describe what she wanted, because there is definitely a bit of a language barrier.

They served us 4 dishes – kim chi, bean sprouts, broccoli, and potato. Decent, but a bit below par I think. I prefer my kim chi a bit spicier, and the potato with a stronger texture.

My bibimbap was a bit underwhelming. It looked promising with the cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, greens, sprouts and ground beef, but it wasn’t flavourful enough for me. I waited for a bit to get the rice crispy and yummy, then mixed it all together and added the spicy sauce. I may have added too little, or the sauce isn’t spicy enough, but it was lacking in flavour. I think I like the stone bowls at Guu better. The mushroom and cheese stone bowl at Guu in Gastown was amazing the last time I tried it.

Beipas’ rice cake dish was a soup with sliced rice cake, dumplings, and chicken in a rich milky broth. The dish was pretty good. The rice cakes were nice and chewy. I remember liking the dumplings because I liked the texture of the wrapper, and the meat inside. I liked her dish more than I liked mine.

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Dasom Korean Restaurant
1A-10320 152 Street
Surrey, BC

(604) 582-1919

I love sandwiches. Sometimes when I don’t feel so awesome, eating a really yummy sandwich could cheer me up. This week we finally made it to the new Be ‘wiched Cafe in Surrey.

The cafe specializes in warm sandwiches. We were there for lunch, and it was a bit hard to hold ourselves back from ordering too much because there were a lot of really promising sounding sandwiches.

For my lunch I ordered the Cubano sandwich with a side of  Tomato Soup. Everything was made to order. The Cubano sandwich had roasted pork, ham, swiss cheese and pickles with ciabatta bread. The sandwich was pressed to give the ciabatta bread a really nice crunch. The sandwich was really good. I loved every bite of it. I could taste the pork, the ham, and the pickles individually, and all together they made a great combination.

I don’t really know what authentic Cuban sandwiches taste like, but I have added this one to my favorite sandwiches list.

We also tried the Monte Cristo and Pulled Pork sandwich.

The Monte Cristo sandwich had turkey, ham, swiss cheese and raspberry dijon spread. You can definitely taste the sweetness from the raspberry dijon. It was also pretty good with the combination of sweet and salty, but I just found it to be a tad bit too sweet.

The Pulled Pork sandwich was a monster. It was a really big sandwich. While the pulled pork itself was good, the bread they used with the pork wasn’t the greatest combo.

We also tried their Beef Enchilada. It came with 2 rolls of beef filled tortillas. I might be really used to super saucy enchiladas, it looked a bit dry to be an enchilada with only melted cheese on top of the tortillas. The beef filling was really flavorful and moist. It was also spicy. It was not an enchilada I’m used to, but it was a good spin of their own version.

The owners were really nice. We were greeted right away. The owner explained that they do all everything in house except a couple hams.

They gave us some Pina Coconut Bars on the house. Pinapple and COCONUT Bars? It’s like they knew me! I love coconut. It was really really yummy, not too overly sweet. It tasted home-made and fresh. I loved it.

Finally, I get to have an amazing warm sandwich without having to travel to downtown Vancouver. It’s a great spot for Surrey peeps. Check out the Cubano, you won’t be disappointed.

Note: Beware of short business hours. 7am – 4pm Mon-Fri only!

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15230 56 Ave
Surrey, BC
(604) 575-3287

Almost a month overdue, my family and I finally went out for my dad’s birthday. We decided on going to the Keg on Scott Road since my dad doesn’t like traveling far for food, and I wanted to take advantage of the $28 dine out menu. $28 for a three course meal that includes steak is a good deal in my books. We also chose the Scott Road location because it’s newer, and I’d never been there before.

We all ordered from the Dine Out Vancouver menu. They actually had a $28 menu and a $38 menu. We all opted for the $28 menu. I ordered the French Onion Soup, Pecan Crusted steak, and the Billy Miner Pie. The rest of my family ordered almost everything else off the dine out menu.

My French Onion soup was loaded with cheese on top that melted over the edge and hardened a bit (yum). Under that was a piece of bread that soaked up a lot of the onion soup. The soup was thin but dark and rich, and had a good amount of shredded onions. The prawns was another one of the appetizers and were loaded with cheese on top, and my brother really liked it. The third appetizer choice was a Caesar salad.

My steak was different, as it was topped with crushed pecans and a little bit of crumbled goat cheese. It added some crunch and a bit of tanginess from the cheese but it didn’t add too much to the overall dish though as the flavours weren’t too strong. It came with mashed potatoes and a tomato with a bit of melted cheese on top. Overall the dish was good, but not great by any means. I’d prefer a regular steak over this. (Note: I forgot to take a picture of my steak). I wish it had the fried onions that are so good. The prime rib however comes with it. My brother ordered the prime rib and it was pretty big and it satisfied his big slab of meat craving. I’m going to order a prime rib next time i see it on a menu. The pork chop was a huge, and probably the thickest porkchop I’ve ever seen. It came with an apple sauce. The pork was very under seasoned though.

For dessert the Billy Miner pie was awesome! I’ve seen it on the menu before but always stayed away from it. I’m glad I didn’t this time though. I twas a huge mocha ice cream cake topped with slices of almonds, as well as chocolate and caramel sauces. It had an Oreo crust. The ice cream was pretty light, and didn’t have a strong chocolate flavour which was good for tastes. I loved this cake. The cheesecake was very creamy, and I think it was unbaked. It came with a cherry sauce, but I don’t like cherry sauces. Reminds me too much of medicine.

The service was really good, and they all made my nephew smile. They came by fairly often to check up on us. On another note, my dad ordered a bottle of shiraz called Quickie from a vineyard called Some Young Punks. Pretty good too!

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Keg Steakhouse and Bar
7948 120 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 591-6161

http://www.kegsteakhouse.com

I found Almanara Shawarma and Restaurant pretty randomly. I made a note that I’d try it out one day. Turns out that was the day. After going around and getting some gas, we decided to stop off and get our dinners. Going in, the store was completely empty with no one to be found. It was about 5:30PM. We walked closer to the register, and then someone came out from a back room. It was very quiet. There was a single stick with chicken on it, not on, or rotating, and with most of the meat already gone. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. On one hand it’s not sitting there over-cooking for no reason, on the other hand, how long has it been there?

The guy came out and wasn’t very friendly. I asked if they had shawarma plates, and he just pointed up at the picture menu. We ordered two of the chicken shawarmas for $8.95 each. He turned on the rotating-heating thing to cook the chicken, and then proceeded to fill up our styrofoam containers with the rest of the things that go into a platter. Didn’t really know what because everything wasn’t visible from the front of the counter, and he also went to the back to put other stuff in. So after about 10 minutes, he cut a good amount of chicken off the skewer and placed it in a container. Then finished packing our food.

I didn’t see what was in it until I got home. I got some stuff that I was familiar with, and others that I’ve never seen before. So I got the standard – rice, chicken, hummous, and some tabouleh. For the different stuff, there were some pickled veggies (one bright purple), and a yogurty sauce beside the hummus.

The chicken was really moist and juicy still so I guess it’s a good thing it was still sitting on the skewer and heated to order. I hate it when the chicken sits in the container heating and it gets really dry. This was perfectly moist chicken with great flavours. On top of the chicken was a bit of the white sauce to add some garlicky flavour. I would’ve preferred some of the spicy red sauce too, but he didn’t ask, or even say anything except how much it cost. The rice that we had is probably the best rice I’ve had in a shawarma plate because it was kind of creamy and had some onions and herbs mixed in. Good texture and good flavour. The tabouleh was still pretty fresh and had a nice acidity to it.

As for the new stuff, the purple vegetable had a nice crunch but was way too salty. The other one was just a sliced pickle I think. The yogurty/white thing was kind of gross too as it had pretty much no flavour, and looked like something you aren’t supposed to eat.

The plate was pretty good, though at $9 the portion wasn’t that big. There was only a little bit of tabouleh and hummous. Some other places pile it high. They also didn’t give any pita. And he wasn’t the friendliest of people. I also found out last week that Donair Affair has Shawarma plates too and are on special for I think $6 on Tuesdays, so I’ll have to check the out next week. They’re already my favourite place to go for Donairs, so my hopes are high.

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Almanara Shawarma and Restaurant
13634 104th Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 585-1221

It’s been a long time since I’ve been back to Fresgo’s. What is it? It’s lots of food for a really cheap price. They’ve never been known for good food, but they give you a lot. Their menu is all up on the front on different boards. You order up front, and then wait while they prepare it and call out your number. You then pick it up and bring it to your table.

I ordered a large mushroom sub ($9.95), while my brother ordered the chicken and ribs ($14.95), and sister-in-law ordered a baked lasagna ($12.75). My mushroom sub was huge and loaded with 2 types of roast beef and I think bologna, mushrooms, lettuce, and tomato. Although it’s wrapped in aluminum foil, it’s a very messy sandwich. As I lifted it off my plate, there was a little puddle of mushroom juices. As you peel off more and more of the foil, theres a high chance of toppings coming out. Overall the taste was decent, its not awesome, but it’ll get your stomach full.

The chicken and ribs were pretty bad though. The ribs were very dry and tough, and of course very messy because the BBQ sauce was slathered all over it. You couldn’t really tell where the good meat was. There was also cartilage here and there. The chicken was OK, fairly moist. It also came with a plate of spaghetti which I don’t like. The sauce was kind of Chef Boyardee-ish with canned corn beef as the meat. Quite bland tomato sauce. I don’t like it at all, but even though my brother knows it wasn’t that good, he found that he couldn’t stop eating it. The baked lasagna was pretty huge. But the sauce was also really bland.

Besides cooking the food, everything else is pretty much self serve. You order the food, pick up your order at the front and bring it to your table. They also have some cups and a faucet for you to fill up your water, and styrofoam containers to pack up your left overs. They also have a bakery in the back which I’ve never actually seen open.

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Fresgo’s Inn Restaurant & Bakery
10102 King George Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 588-0878

I’ve been to Memphis Blues twice in my life. Once for a friends birthday, where we had an epic meat day where we ordered an Elvis Platter, and a Prescilla Platter. That was over $200 of meat and a bit of seafood on our table for about 12 people. Second time, I was just craving a pulled pork sandwich so I visited the Grand View Corners location. I’ve been wanting to have a meat day for the past few weeks. Was planning to go for my dad’s birthday because he’s never had it, but he’s been sick recently. I finally decided to go with a couple of friends because Beipas made me jealous!

I went in with 2 other friends thinking that one other friend was going to come, so I went straight to the till and ordered an Elvis Platter for about $70. Once I got back to the table, I found out our other friend wasn’t coming. So we have 3 people that are about to eat a platter good for 5-6 people. Meat day for sure. The food came to us quick, as I think the food is just sitting in the smokers waiting to be cut and served. The Elvis Platter comes with all of their different meats and sides. The meats were beef brisket, bbq chicken, ribs, pulled pork, rib ends, and smoked sausage. For the sides you get potato salad, coleslaw, pit beans, french fries, and corn bread. It also came with a big bowl of their BBQ sauce.

Let’s start with my favourite. The brisket is awesome. Very marbled, tender, and well seasoned. I would definitely order this on its own (a friend actually ordered an extra 2 pounds of this to bring home after our meal). The chicken was surprisingly still moist even though it didn’t look like it would be. The pulled pork was shredded into fairly thin strips and quite juicy. I didn’t think it was that flavourful though, so I put some of the BBQ sauce to add more smokey flavour. The ribs were pretty good too. They weren’t fall off the bone tender, but the meat was still tender, not dry. I found rib ends to be more tender and flavourful than the whole ribs. The smoked sausage had strong flavour. Overall the meat plate was pretty good. It wouldn’t say the platter as a whole was outstanding (except maybe the brisket), but theres a lot of meat, and lots of choices. It’s worth the money in my opinion if you can get enough people to finish it. I’d go back if I was craving a tonne of  meat.

Out of the sides, the french fries were my favourite. They had a good seasoning and a nice texture. The pit beans had a really strong smokey BBQ flavour, and had little pieces of meat in there too. I prefer a less smokey chilli to be honest. It had too much of a BBQ sauce flavour in there. The corn bread isn’t very good. Quite dry, and not very buttery. Nothing can beat Boonie’s corn bread.

In the end, we had enough food left over for at least another very hungry person, we were way over stuffed. I was actually in pain on the drive home (probably because I also got a Booster Juice that I didn’t finish), and had meat headaches, but I was happy. Next up is AYCE ribs at Montana’s.

My friend who lives right by it, said that this location is kind of hit or miss. Before it wasn’t very good, but the last two times he’s tried it (both in the past month), it’s been really good.

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Memphis Blues BBQ House
#302 – 18690 Fraser Highway
Surrey, BC

(778) 574-3355

www.memphisbluesbbq.com

Haven’t seen a friend for a while so we decided to go to One20 Pub & Grill last week to catch up. Luckily the day before, GoodNews had a coupon for it – $8 for $20 off. One20 Pub is on 120th Street (hence, the name), on the Delta side of Scott Road. The pub has two rooms, and at this time, one room was packed watching the Canadian Juniors get destroyed in the third period, while the other room was completely empty.

I knew I wanted to try a couple of the appetizers, but not sure what I wanted for my main. I ordered the Yorkies, and Sliders. I ended up ordering the Pesto Chicken Burger for my main. For some reason their domain has expired (in the past week) so I’m not sure if they are really called Yorkies. Anyways, they are Yorkshire puddings with roast beef in the middle with a horseradish mayonnaise and served with the jus. The first one I had wasn’t as good because the Yorkshire pudding was fried/baked too long. It was too dark, and a bit burned, so the bitterness spread. It was basically like eating a different style of beef dip. I wished the Yorkshire pudding was crispier and airier. Not sure if it was completely fresh. The mayo had a slight kick, and one of the main reasons for ordering it. My friends said it was pretty good though, and my second one was better than the first, especially with more jus.

The sliders were really good. You get 3 sliders, and can choose different toppings for each one. It’s a good way to sample their burgers. I chose the mushroom swiss, bacon cheddar, and chorizo and onion toppings. These were probably 2-3 bite burgers, that really showed off their burgers. The patties were juicy and well seasoned. The bread was nicely toasted for a nice crunch with each bite. The toppings were really good too. The bacon was very crispy and the cheddar was nice and gooey. The chorizo added the most flavour though, but it was a bit strange seeing a few slices of sausage on top of my burger. Good nonetheless.

My main was OK though. I didn’t want to order another beef burger, so I ordered the chicken burger because I couldn’t make up my mind. That, and I really like pesto. The plump and juicy burger was topped with pesto sauce, cheddar cheese, and  two very crisp slices of bacon. The burger was nothing special, and the pesto flavour wasn’t strong enough. It also came with some fries which weren’t that good. They were a bit soggy, and for the most part, not very crispy.

My friends ordered the mushroom swiss burger, a beefy burger, and a steak sandwich. The burgers were all very good, and my friends enjoyed their meals. The steak sandwich was huge, and my friend really liked it too. I’d totally order this the next time I go. One20 Pub would be a good place to eat and have a few beers while watching sports on TV. I wonder if they play UFC there. They have plenty of TVs around the area, and have quite a big space.

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One20 Pub & Grill
8037 120 St
Delta, BC

(604) 591-3519

www.one20pub.com (Note: their domain expired very recently)

When my cousin was on his body cleansing diet, all he would talk about was visiting The Keg to get some real juicy steaks when the diet is over. As promised, we visited The Keg in Surrey for a celebratory dinner after he completed the program.

Ordering at The Keg was easy because I have been craving for a nice Prime Rib steak for a while. Both my cousin and I got the Prime Rib with mashed potatoes, except I got the regular size prime rib and he picked small. My brother ordered the Baseball Sirloin with baked potatoes.

Before we got our steaks, we had the French Onion Soup and the Sweet Hot Calamari for appetizer.

My cousin really liked the French Onion Soup because it wasn’t overly salty, it’s got nicely melted gooey cheese, nice flavors in general.

The Sweet Hot Calamari was deep fried calamari with sweet and hot sauce. I found this dish to be a bit too soggy because of the sauce they poured on top of the calamari. I thought those calamaris could spend another 30 seconds in the deep fryer because the batter were still quite soft and oily. The sauce was sweet and hot, a little spicier than I expected. There was nothing spectacular about this appetizer.

I ordered my Prime Rib rare, and the waitress told me she’d ask the chef to find the rarest piece of the roast. When my steak came, it did not look rare at all. It was more like medium. The edges were close to well done, the center was more of medium rare. Yes I was disappointed, but since this was already the rarest piece the chef can find, what can they do if I sent it back? Even though it wasn’t cooked to my liking, the pieces near the center were still soft and tender, and the flavors were still nice.

One thing I enjoyed the most was the mashed potatoes. It was so smooth and so creamy, and buttery. I was quite happy about the mashed potatoes.

Another thing we noticed right away was that size small and size regular prime ribs look exactly the same. It wasn’t until we saw the bill, that we found out, size small prime rib has 10oz and a regular prime rib is 12oz. 2 oz in difference, no wonder they looked the same.

My brother’s Baseball Sirloin was cooked perfectly for medium rare, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It was really tender, and it had really nice flavors from the seared crusts. This was a good steak.

To finish off our meal, we also ordered Cheesecake and Creme Brulee for desserts. Both were nice desserts for sharing as the portions were quite big, especially after a steak meal.

Again, huge disappointment for my prime rib, thus the semi low rating.

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The Keg
15146 100th Avenue
Surrey, BC V3R
(604) 583-6700

I’ve heard good things about the Coquitlam location of My Greek Taverna from my family and also from some friends. I haven’t made my way out to Coquitlam for the past while, but luckily there’s another location close by in Surrey’s Newton area. I was craving some roast lamb, so I went. I ordered a spanikopita, and a roast lamb ($16.95), while my friend ordered some calamari ($9.99) and a special of a 8 oz. NY steak and a lasagna ($16.95) – a really good deal. My spanikopita was also  a special and was only $4.99.

My spanikopita was pretty large. It had a nice spinach and feta filling inside a nice crisp, flakey, and buttery phyllo shell. The spinach was cooked all the way through and was easy to cut and bite through. My friend said that the calamari was your standard Greek calamari, nothing special about it. I actually had a full piece this time, and no allergies again. It was OK. The breading was light, but the kalamari was a cit chewy and rubbery. Seems like it’s always like that? I’m new to seafood, so I don’t know.

Now onto my reason for going, and I’m really glad I went. It’s the best lamb I’ve had in a long time. Perfectly cooked, tender, fall off the bone roast lamb, and plenty of fat for extra flavour. It just melted in your mouth. What more could you want? Sometimes roast lamb is easy to shred, but the meat still isn’t that tender as you bite through the meat. This time, it was very tender. I loved the flavour which came mostly from the meat, and a bit of rosemary and lemon flavour. It came with a roasted potato, rice and Greek salad. The Greek salad was very mild, and the most disappointing part of the dish. I really like my chunks of feta cheese in my salad, and they just had thin shavings.

My friend said the steak was better than he expected, and definitely worth the $16.95. It was $5 cheaper that day. We were stuffed and the portions were good, though I’ve seen roast lamb for cheaper at other Greek restaurants, but none as good as this. We were stuffed at the end of our meal. The service was friendly too. I’m glad there’s a place close by to get my fix for roast lamb, but I also want to try the Coquitlam location.

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My Greek Taverna
6450 120th Street
Surrey, BC

www.mygreektaverna.com

Ta Ke Sushi is around the Panorama Village on Hwy 10 and 152nd Street in Surrey. When we arrived there was a foul smell in the area, like very rancid garbage. I’m not sure what it was, because it was all around the area, even when we drove away to a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart.

I ordered a ton katsu, chicken teriyaki roll, inari and tamago nigiri.My friend ordered a sushi combo and a house roll. We both got a miso soup to start. It had a nice flavour to it, but for some reason it was inconsistent. My friend’s bowl of soup had green onions and tofu, where as mine had literally none. Just all liquid soup.

The rest of our food came pretty quickly. My chicken teriyaki was very good. You have the choice of thigh or breast when you order any of the chicken dish.  I ordered the thigh, which is about 50 cents or a dollar cheaper depending on the dish. I noticed that they cut their sushi really thin though. The chicken was moist with a very crispy breading. It was really good, and definitely one of the better chicken teriyaki rolls I’ve had. There was just a tiny bit of the sweet teriyaki sauce. It was very good, but I think it was the crispy chicken that did it for me. The port katsu came on a plate with red/white checkered paper. Very American looking. It was a very thin pork chop breaded and deep fried. It was very crispy, but that’s pretty much it. I think the breading was thicker than the actual meat. Nothing great about this katsu. It didn’t have much flavour, and a little bit dry. The sauce on top added a little bit of sweetness, but didn’t add much to the overall dish.

My friend liked his sushi, but I don’t think he said it was amazing by any means. It was better than what we had at Tawara though, but just by a little. The price is a little bit more than your standard sushi joint in Surrey too. I’d come back for the chicken teriyaki roll.

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Ta Ke Sushi
15335 56 Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 576-0145

http://www.ta-kesushi.ca

As we ordered, our server asked if we’ve ever had it before. We replied “no,” so once she brought out the food, she also showed us what to do, which was really good. First she brought out the gas stove and placed a pot with a vinegar based broth. Next came the plate of vegetables, which was a lot more than a plate of bean sprouts and a few herbs. Aside from beansprouts there were, many more different herbs, lettuce, pickled carrots and daikon, tomato, cucumber, and shallots. She also brought out a plate of rice paper used for fresh rolls. I was getting a better idea of what we were going to eat. But, still, when she brought out the raw beef, I was honestly considering just eating it raw. Luckily, she showed us what to do for this first dish, and she quickly boiled the raw beef in the pot. She also showed us how to soak the rice paper, and told us to put whatever veggies we liked into the roll, and then placed the cooked meat on top, then rolled. Luckily, we’ve had a ton of experience with making salad rolls. The rolls came with a really different fish sauce, that was very tasty. It was different in that it was quite thick and had a whole bunch of other ingredients in it, not sure what, but it was very good and better than your typical Vietnamese fish sauce. Definitely more body. This was my favourite dish of the 5 ways.

The second dish was cooked beef on a bed of cooked vegetables with some fried garlic on top. This was probably my least favourite of the dishes, as the meat wasn’t very tender, and just wasn’t very impressive overall. The next course that came out, was a set of sausages. It seemed like there were only 2 different sausages-one wrapped in leaves, and one without, but apparently. one of the sausages was sweeter, though we didn’t notice at the time. They also put some fried golden brown garlic on top. When this plate was brought out, our server said that was the last dish.

We were a bit confused, and thought it was only 3 courses served, but the last dish had 3 ways, thus giving us beef 5 ways. In the end it was good, but I was a bit disappointed with what we got. I thought there would be a lot more variation. Although it filled us, I don’t think we would pay $25+ for this again. However, my friend as well as another person we met recommended the pho here. The broth is a lot different than we are used to, and they supposedly also have a good Bun Bo Hue or what I just call “spicy pho”. This place is a good alternative to Pho Tau Bay if you are in Surrey. I still need to go back to try the Pho and the Bun Bo Hue for myself before I make my final decision, so no stars for now.

So, Sherman, where can I get beef 7 ways?

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Song Huong
14667 108 Avenue
Surrey, BC

(604) 581-4710

My brother went to South Surrey a few weeks ago and mentioned that there was a 5 Guys location there. They tried the North Vancouver location and said it was really good for a semi-fast food burger.

When I got in there, I knew I wanted a bacon and cheese burger, which is a double beef patty with bacon and cheese. A “little” burger is a single patty burger. I seemed like a noob, because I was ordering for my friends, and it turns out you choose your own toppings hehe.. I just started ordering a bunch of burgers, when the cashier asked if I’d been there before. They have a lot of toppings on the list. I was happy that mushrooms was on the list.  My friends and I ordered 2 bacon & cheese burgers, 1 little burger, large Cajun fries, and some drinks.

Our food came in about 5 minutes, all made to order in a brown paper bag. Our large fries came in a bucket like container, filled to the top, but there was a ton of fries scattered throughout the bag too. Our burgers were huge with the amount of toppings we put on, and obviously really messy. Our burgers were kind of squished and the bread was a little big mangled but that doesn’t affect the taste.

The burgers were made to order with fresh toppings. Mine came with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms. I didn’t all of the toppings on and I could taste the meat still. It tasted fresh, and not frozen. It kind of reminds me of the patties at Wendy’s but bigger and better. We got the Cajun style fries which had a little bit of heat to it. They were thicker french fries, and not as crispy as I like, but they weren’t soggy.

The burger was really good and definitely one of the better fast food burgers, however, the price is pretty high. For a double burger meal with fries and a drink you are looking at least $14 for a combo.

Potential allergy alert: the fries are deep fried in peanut oil.

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Five Guys Burgers & Fries
2285 160th ST
Surrey, BC

(604) 531-7829

http://www.fiveguys.com

I went to Ricky’s All Day Grill for the first time in my life last weekend. I’ve stayed away because I’ve thought it was an old folks diner. I was partly right, aside from old people, there were some families there too. I saw some old classic dishes on the menu that I wanted to try, but for some reason I opted for something different. Luckily, my parents ordered the stuff I wanted to give a try. I ordered the BBQ Breakie-Bowl, while my parents ordered the classic dishes-grilled liver & onions, and slow roasted beef.

My breakfast bowl came with a potato hash, scrambled eggs, and crumbled hamburger meat, accompanied by a couple of slices of very buttery sourdough toast (yum!). It was quite a bit of food and very filling. The ground beef was flavourful because of the BBQ Bourbon sauce. Did it work? Kind of. I’m not sure if BBQ sauce is something I’d normally eat for breakfast, but this was my dinner so I guess it was OK. The scrambled eggs weren’t as fluffy as I would have liked, and I noticed a bit of curry flavour which was a bit surprising. The potatoes were decent as it was mixed with cheese and green onions. Wish it got a bit crispier.

I don’t like liver, but I’ve wanted to try liver, made the “white” way. I still don’t like it. Here they used beef liver, and it still has the after taste that I hate. It was covered up a little bit by the gravy and the bacon, but a few seconds after swallowing, that after taste is right back. I guess I just don’t like it. The roast beef was pretty generic. The gravy seemed kinda instant, but I could be wrong. The yorkshire pudding was really bad too, partially deflated, soggy, and chewy. I think I’ve only ever enjoyed yorkshire pudding once in my life, when I was a kid at my cousins wedding.

Would I come back, maybe. It wasn’t the best food, but it wasn’t that bad (given, that I typically hate liver). Maybe I’ll come back when I have my own family, or elderly.

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Ricky’s
8958 152nd Street
Surrey, BC

(604) 581-3212

http://www.rickys-restaurants.com/?_p=home

Sunny Dragon is a Korean owned Chinese, Japanese, all Asians in one restaurant in Surrey.

This all Asians in one restaurant has a lot of items on their menu, mostly Chinese and Japanese food. My friends and I ordered a bunch of things including the Sweet and Sour Pork, a Japanese Dinner Box, Gyozas, Agedashi Tofu, and a couple sushi rolls. I, for some reason was craving for Korean rice cakes. So when I finally found a Vegetable Rice Cake Soup on the menu, I was pretty excited to get it.

My soup came first, and it was not what I wanted at all. Instead of the white rice cakes I was expecting, they were rice crispy looking squares floating in soup. And instead of Vegetable soup, I was secretly upgraded to the seafood version of the soup. Yup, they messed up my order. Luckily I wasn’t allergic to seafood, and got it for the price of the Vegetable soup.

The soup itself was a little sweet, I wasn’t sure where the sweetness came from. There were bits of vegetables, and seafood in it. The rice crispy squares got soft from the soup, but they still held together pretty well. I think if you are a fan of Chinese corn soup, you might like it just because of its sweetness. The soup was OK, the rice cakes gave it a different texture, and I was disappointed that they weren’t the ‘right’ rice cakes I wanted.

The Sweet and Sour pork would have been a decent dish if they used less batter on the pork. I would say it was mostly a sweet pork dish because I couldn’t taste the sour part of it.

One item you probably want to avoid getting here is the Gyoza. As my gyoza fiend friend described it, it tasted like pork wrapped in pancake batter. There was an unpleasant after taste, that tasted like pancake batter and the pork was not flavorful at all.

I thought it was a good concept to have different cuisines in one restaurant, however usually the quality of food in these restaurants are average or below par. Sunny Dragon was just another average Chinese / Japanese food joint.

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Sunny Dragon Restaurant
#101 – 15988 Fraser Highway
Surrey, BC V3S
(604) 572-5122

I found another donair joint in Surrey after looking around at Evergreen Mall. If I’m around that area, I’d go just to go to Shoppers, or maybe buy some vegetables at Joe’s Market or some liquor at BC Liquor. I haven’t really walked inside the main mall area for maybe a decade. I finally did last week, and noticed a shawarma place. I went back this weekend and decided to try it with some pretty low expectations, but still hoping for a decent local place.

My friend and I each ordered a Chicken Shawarma Plate, slightly pricey at about $10 after tax. It came with rice, chicken, and tabbouleh in the platter, with some tzatziki and hot sauce on top. A pita was given, along with a Greek style lettuce salad. For $10, it was not that much food, as it was served in a half styrofoam container, and it didn’t come with any hummus! First of all, the chicken wasn’t very fresh. When we arrived there, there was only a single lamb skewer. I think our chicken and rice were prepared in the back, so we didn’t really see the freshness of our food. Sadly the chicken was way too tough, meaning it’s probably been sitting there for a long time, and perhaps reheated. I don’t think there was a single fresh piece of chicken, everything was very dry and tough. The flavours were decent in the platter, coming from the rice and tzatziki mostly, but the hot sauce really did overwhelm the plate. I guess I shouldn’t have asked for it or not as much, but it was definitely a lot spicier than the other hot sauces I’ve had with my shawarma plates and donairs. The tabbouleh didn’t really offer much flavour either. I think it was way under dressed.

The salad was lettuce, red onion, cucumbers, tomatoes, and black olives with a light vinaigrette. It tasted pretty fresh and was very crispy. With my pita I added some of my shawarma plate and added some of the salad to make my own donair. It helped tone down the spiciness.

They serve some other food and also some Pakistani dishes there, and have donair specials for about $5. Maybe it’s better when they have fresher meat, but what I had on this trip was really bad. I may give it another shot if I see some meat actually rotating and cooking, but if not, I think I’ll stay away. I’d definitely stay away from the shawarma plates though, it’s too pricey for the amount, and the quality. I may get a donair or some Pakistani fare which I’ve never tried if I want to give them another shot. The owner was really nice though.

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Sofi’s Shawarma & Donairs
8928 152 Street
Surrey, BC

(604) 957-2344

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

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

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

August 18th was Pirate Pak day at all White Spots. On that special day, adults could order their own Pirate Paks, something normally reserved for children 10 and under. Adults had their choice of a Legendary Burger, Chicken Burger, or Veggie Burger. It came with endless fries, coleslaw, and a scoop of ice cream. You could add yam fries and a blueberry for a little bit more money. $2 from each Pirate Pak sold went to the Zajac Ranch for Children.

I was given a $25 gift certificate to White Spot, so I decided to bring Beipas and three of our buddies to White Spot. Funny thing is, is that I’ve actually never had a Pirate Pak. It’s vaguely familiar, but I can’t remember ever ordering one myself. Two of my friends got to relive their childhoods at least, and they were really excited to have it again. They really wanted the gold coin. We arrived a bit late (sorry guys), and were seated after about 10 minutes. It was pretty busy with lots of people waiting for tables.

The guys got the Chicken Burgers, and the girls got the Legendary Burgers. My chicken burger was really good. All of our food, besides the scoop of ice cream came in a pirate ship, which my friends said looked different than before. They thought it was a lot meaner looking before, then again, now that we’re adults, maybe we aren’t scared of these animal pirates. So our ships came, and we made a 5-boat fleet and took pictures. Each boat had the coleslaw in one container, the burger, placed on top of the fries in the middle, a coin, and a mast that you can stick up.

The chicken burger came with cheddar cheese and bacon. This was a grilled chicken breast, not breaded and fried. It was very moist and juicy and well seasoned. The burger was very messy though and was dripping a lot, but it was really good. Sadly, it dripped all into my yam fries, which I don’t think were worth the extra money, at least these ones weren’t. I’m sure normally they are better, but they weren’t too crispy. The chipotle aioli was actually hidden under the coleslaw! Didn’t even notice it until my friend said, “Hey, aren’t we supposed to get some aioli with the yam fries?” This aioli was really thick and quite flavourful. I’m not sure how the Legendary burgers were, they looked quite plain, but didn’t hear any complaints.

We all got the Blueberry pie, and I forced my friend to get one too. These weren’t what I was expecting, as I’d consider them more of a tart. Then again, they call it a “fresh” pie so maybe they can get away with it. So in a tart shell, they put a bunch of fresh blueberries, and some whip cream. Yup the berries were very fresh, tasty, and not soft and mushy, but I was honestly way too full at this point (I ate a bit of dinner before going to White Spot). Although I didn’t really like it at the time, a lot of my other friends say they like it a lot.

To be more like a kid that day, one of my friends ordered a bubble gum milkshake which had gummy bears on top. That was a mistake, as it was like drinking straight up sugar. I think overall though, we had fun acting like pirates! We saw some late teens/20 year-olds dressed up as pirates too!

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White Spot
10181 152 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 585-2223

http://www.whitespot.com

I’ve stayed away from Marble Slab Creamery because I’ve thought it was pretty much the same as Cold Stone Creamery (which is now opening a bunch of locations here). From what I remember (from about 7 years ago), the ice cream I ordered at Cold Stone was way too sweet for me, and there isn’t much that is too sweet for me, so that’s saying  a lot. My first time at Cold Stone, 3 people could barely finish a single cup of ice cream. It may be just the flavour we had, but it was way too much for us. I also thought it was way too expensive.

One of my friends gets ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery fairly frequently when he wants to indulge on some yummy ice cream. So I decided to finally try something and make use of our Entertainment Book coupons. I ordered a Strawberry Shortcake which was $1 off with the coupon. I was expecting a mixed vanilla ice cream with chunks of crunchy short bread, and strawberries. I didn’t get any of that. It was actually a bowl with a fluffy cake on the bottom, a bit of ice cream and strawberries on top and an equal amount of whip cream and strawberry syrup on top of that. Was it good? Yup! It was. I didn’t even realize there was cake on the bottom until Beipas scooped deeper in. The cake was light and fluffy and wasn’t too sweet, and a good contrast. The ice cream was thick and really good with the strawberries and not overly sweet like I thought it would be. My only complaint was that there wasn’t nearly enough ice cream, but there was way too much whip cream on top. A bit too expensive I think because there was so much whip cream and not enough of the good stuff. I’ll probably go back to try out a mixed ice cream to see if it’s still to sweet for me. I also can’t believe people would put all those weird candies (i.e. gummies and stuff) with their ice cream. I don’t think I’d ever do that.

The other coupons in the Entertainment Book are for buy 1 get 1 free, and $3 off a cake. I still think Marble Slab Creamy is quite pricey for ice cream.

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Marble Slab Creamery
#142 – 12101 72nd Avenue
Surrey, BC

(778) 565-7456

http://www.marbleslab.ca

Jack’s Pub took over the old Kelly O’Bryan’s location on 152nd and Fraser Hwy in Surrey. It’s been a while since Kelly O’Bryan’s moved to Kelowna, and I haven’t been to Jack’s Pub since they moved in. I went with mom and dad after work last week. We walked in and were waiting to be seated, after a few seconds someone at the front, possibly the owner, said sit anywhere. That was kinda weird… then again it is a Pub.

I ordered the Mushroom Burger with Onion Rings, while my mom ordered a Beef Dip, and my dad ordered Yam Fries and Hot Wings. I wasn’t sure really what to expect here, but the food was pretty decent. It was your typical pub food, and isn’t really anything too special. My mushroom burger was big and juicy, and came with a huge amount of sauteed mushrooms. Nothing to complain about here, it definitely filled me up and hit the spot. The onion rings were crispy. They were thin strips of onions, and didn’t have a huge amount of batter. They were similar to the size you can get in a frozen bag at M&M Meat Shops. Were these fresh? I don’t know, but they were good at the moment. Crispy and not too oily. 

The wings were OK. Not too spicy, with a similar taste to Frank’s Red Hot sauce. The wings weren’t crispy at all after being tossed around in the hot sauce, and the look wasn’t too appetizing either. Not sure about the quality of these wings, but they weren’t dry or overcooked or anything. The yam fries came with a chipotle aioli. I think the fries were cooked for a bit too long. The chipotle aioli added a nice flavour to the fries but it was very mild. The beef dip jus was a bit too salty from what I remember. The sandwich overall was good though, just make sure you don’t soak it in the dip for too long.

On another note, they do have daily specials, and they also have 1/2 prices appetizers everyday from 3-6PM. With a bunch of other pubs around, I’m not sure how likely I’d come back here in the near future. The food is pretty standard and the pacho’s are long gone! They do play UFC Pay-per-views here though!

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Jack’s Pub
B – 9082 152nd Street
Surrey, BC

(604) 580-6477

http://www.jackspubsurrey.com

Veneto’s Cake & Pastries was one of those places where I always want to visit, but every time I’m around the area, they’re always closed. Why do bakeries always close so early?

Last week I finally make a point to go there to grab some lunch. Little did I know, business at this bakery was quite good! There were always people coming in and out getting sandwiches or sweets. My plan was to get some sandwiches, and take some pastries for home. I shared a European Veggie Panini and a Tuna Salad Sandwich with my cousin.

The sandwiches were pretty good. They were smaller than I expected, but with good quality of bread. The European Veggie Panini ($5.60) had roasted eggplants, pepper, tomato, onions and cheese. The bread was nice and crispy. The vegetables had great roasted flavors. It was a solid sandwich.

For regular sandwiches, i.e. not paninis, you get to choose your own toppings and bread on a little ordering slip. We checked off Tuna salad with cucumber, sprouts, cumbers, cheese and mustard on white bread. This sandwich was also pretty good. It was very light and refreshing. The tuna salad was delicious.

I brought about a dozen pastries home after my lunch there. There were so many choices. There were also cakes and cookies. They were all freshly made, and all really yummy. Nothing was overly sweet. They don’t look as fancy as the pastries you’d find in some of the bakeries in downtown, but they did have a homey sense to them.

The staff were friendly, the prices were reasonable. It’s a great lunch spot for locals. I’d definitely return to get sweets there.

Note: Lunch Served until 4pm.

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Veneto’s Cake & Pastries
#506 – 7380 King George Highway
Surrey, BC V3W
(604) 597-9886
www.venetoscakes.com

We went to Asian Spice for our dinner before our Portland Surfing Trip. It was in the Entertainment Book, which we really want to make use of. Asian Spice is on Scott Rd (120th St) and 94 Ave right beside Mahek. We were excited to try some Indian style Chinese & Szechuan food.

We started off with the Paneer Pakora. It was really good. We loved the green sauce that it came with. It was fried to a nice golden brown, and the paneer inside was still a bit stiff. By itself, the paneer was pretty bland, but it was really good with the sauce. I ordered the Ma Po Tofu because our friend said it was her favourite dish. I haven’t had it in a while, so I gave it a try here. Sadly, although there were two peppers by it on the menu, it wasn’t as spicy at all, the sauce didn’t have much flavour. They also didn’t have a version with pork. I think the tofu should be a bit softer too, and definitely a lot more flavourful and spicy. The Chicken Hot Garlic Noodles was probably my favourite of the bunch. It wasn’t too spicy (although it has 2 chili symbols by it on the menu), but it was spicier than the ma po tofu. The noodles weren’t your normal chow mein noodles, and it had plenty of chicken and garlic mixed in. Manchurian Eggplant was an eggplant dish in a brown spicy sauce. All we can remember is that it had a ton of sauce for the amount of eggplant in there. Beef Hotpot was good too. It had plenty of tender meat and lots of vegetables like celery, carrots and different bell peppers.

Hmm.. the hottest things on the menu had two chili symbols, and we tried a couple but nothing was too spicy. They did have some hot chili oil, and other hot pepper condiments which you can add, but I didn’t. Our waitress noticed that we ordered a lot of saucy dishes, so she gave us some white rice. They also applied the coupon to two dishes on our bill totalling $13, rather than just our most expensive dish ($8). Normally the coupon just works for one entree up to $13. I’d come back here.

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Asian Spice
9436 120th Street
Surrey, BC

(604) 582-8388

I was really craving Greek food last week, and I went to John’s Greek Taverna in the Surrey-Newton area. Actually on this day, I had already eaten dinner, and was no longer craving Greek food, but we went anyway. We searched through the Entertainment Book and decided on a local Greek place that wasn’t even in the Book.

We arrived at John’s Greek Taverna and it wasn’t very busy with just one other table was filled. The parking lot was a bit packed, because it seemed like every other spot was reserved for the RCMP because there’s a police station in the same complex.  We were quite amazed at the menu as it had a lot of non-Greek food there. They actually have teriyaki dishes on their menu.

I ordered the Roast Lamb ($15.99), because that was what I was really craving. Beipas ordered the Greek style chicken ($13.99) and our other friend ordered the Veal Louie ($15.99).

The Roast Lamb was pretty big and came with two pieces, but didn’t look like the roast lamb I’m used to. It wasn’t a thick piece of Lamb with bone in, it was much thinner and came with two pieces. It was also served with some rice, Greek salad, potato and some tzatziki sauce. The lamb was really bad. It was fairly stringy and chewy. There was some fatty bits in there, but it was just tough to chew. It didn’t taste that good either, something was missing. But, the worst thing about it was the texture and the chewiness of it, and it wasn’t because it was overcooked.  One of the worst roast lambs I’ve ever had. Sherman had the same experience over a year ago. The rice was good however, and so was the Greek salad, nice and fresh. The tzatziki was had a nice garlic flavour to it too, which helped with the dish. The potatoes were OK, but I wish it had been broiled for a bit and had a bit crispy on the top.

The Greek style chicken was a half rotisserie chicken. It didn’t really have much Greek flavouring in there, but it was cooked well. Not dry. Beipas says her potatoes seemed old.

The Veal Louie came with a creamy shrimp sauce and topped with melted mozzarella cheese. With cream and mozzarella topping, you just knew that it’s not good for you. Another bad thing was that for some reason the meat was very watery! My friend didn’t even finish half of the entree. It also came with a pretty standard green salad with house dressing which was decent.

They also gave us a basket of pita bread, and garlic bread. But we hardly touched it.

It seems like people usually get take out from this place more than eating in. Would I come back here again? Probably not. There are so many other Greek restaurants that I would rather go to first. Roast Lamb is the dish I crave when I want Greek food, and this one was really bad.

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John’s Greek Taverna
7244 King George Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 591-8471

Akari is a Sushi Place near Scott Rd and 72nd Ave in Surrey’s Newton area. It’s pretty much right across the street from Strawberry Hill. I swear I have been here before, but I’m not too sure. Maybe I’ve just been in the area a few times.

Anyways, me and a friend ate their for lunch, and we both decided on getting some lunch specials. I ordered the Teriyaki Lunch Box, which comes with Miso Soup, Chicken Teriyaki, Veggie and Prawn Tempura, Green Salad, Pickled Vegetables, and a piece of fruit. Strangely it didn’t come with any rice.The miso soup was OK, but didn’t come with any or much tofu. There was a few pieces of green onions. The green salad was pretty standard.

The chicken was served with a healthy amount of teriyaki sauce over top and served over some bean sprouts. The chicken was tender and juicy and the teriyaki sauce was decent. Nothing incredible, but nothing to criticize. The deal came with two pieces of prawn tempura, a zuchini, and sweet potato. They were decent, the batter was nice and airy. The first bite of the prawn tempura was all batter though. The pickled vegetables were OK. Not very pickled or vinegary tasting. They still had a nice crunch though.

My friend ordered a lunch combo, which came with miso soup, a green salad, a special roll called a Crazy Roll, and her choice of a skewer. She chose the Tori Kushiage, which is a chicken skewer with green onion. The Crazy Roll is a deep fried california roll with unagi sauce and it was pretty good. But it was more filling because it was deep fried. The batter wasn’t too thick, and but it wasn’t too crispy. Just a little, they could’ve maybe fried it for a few seconds longer. The kushiage chicken was pretty good too. It was flavoured really well, and nice and tender.

I asked for a bowl of rice to go with my chicken teriyaki, but they forgot to bring it, but that’s OK. The waitresses were kind, and the price was reasonable. I think both of our combos were a little under $10. I’d come back to Akari if I was in the Surrey-Newton area and wanted some sushi.

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Akari Japanese Restaurant
7261 120 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 590-1192

I haven’t been to Tokachi for a very long time, probably pushing over a decade. I decided to try it out again recently because although the location is a bit iffy, the food was pretty good, and a lot of the people on Urbanspoon agree. I finally went back a few weeks ago, and I was glad I did.

I ordered the Spinach Gomae, and Agadeshi Tofu and also ordered a Chicken Teriyaki Roll, Tamago Nigiri, Inari Nigiri, and a glass of Asahi for about $23. It was a bit pricier than other places, but it was really good.

The Spinach Gomaae was $3.95, and was the best I’ve ever had, maybe because this isn’t typically something I order. It had a nice sesame sauce, and was sprinkled with lots of toasted sesame. Really good flavours here, and a bit of sweetness. I think I may order this more often now. The Agadeshi Tofu was also very good. It was still very crispy out of the fryer, and nice and soft on the inside. The tofu had a wonderful tempura sauce, and some grated radish and green onions on top.

The Chicken Teriyaki Roll was quite expensive for $5.50, but when it came it was big (and therefore worth it!). It had just a little bit of teriyaki sauce within the roll (not drizzled on top), and had huge chunks of chicken in it. Really good flavour and lots of  meat. Each of the nigiri I ordered was $1.50. The tamago had a nice huge, thick piece of egg and it had a nice sweetness to it. The Inari was pretty standard and good too. Slight sweetness from the marinated tofu pocket.

My friend ordered the house roll, and an assorted sushi platter which came with 7 types of nigiri, and sushi for $14.95. All of the seafood were really fresh. The menu says it comes with a tuna/salmon roll. Does that mean both or just one? He wasn’t given a choice though, so he was a bit confused. The House Roll was a bit of a disappointment, as it looked similar to a California roll with smoked salmon on top. However, it was actually steamed prawn and radish inside. It was only $5.50 too though, so it wasn’t too expensive. But he probably wouldn’t order it again.

Ten plus years later, and I’m finally back, and I think I will be coming back here more often. The food was really good for sushi in Surrey. I just hope I don’t spend $20+ each time.

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Tokachi
10767 King George Highway
Surrey, BC

(604) 951-3800

www.tokachi.ca

I’ve been looking for a Middle Eastern restaurant in Surrey to get my Shawarma plate fix for the past while, and have been unable to do so. I love Falafel Maison’s plates, but that’s all the way downtown on Robson. Donair Affair is a good one in Surrey, but no plates. I tried finding this place before, but I guess I wrote down the wrong address, and I was able to find it this time. It’s actually pretty hidden though. It’s near 160th and Fraser Hwy, hidden behind a Wired Monk.

Best Donair? Not, not really. They did have a lot of different choices, and a bunch that weren’t really “authentic” but that’s OK, because I like spins on classics sometimes. I saw the “Spartan” which was a donair with bacon and cheddar cheese, which I may go back to try. It was the special of the day, but I really wanted a plate. So, we order the Lebanese Plate, and the Turkish Plate. The prices were surprisingly more than downtown, as the plates were $9.49. I think I paid about $8 something at Falafel Maison.

The Lebanese Plate was your standard shawarma plate. You had you choice of meat, and for this one we picked chicken. It came with hummus and tabouli, rice, and some pita. We chose lamb for the Turkish plate, and the only difference is that it came with dolme instead of tabouli. You could also add tzatsiki, a creamy garlic sauce, a bit of hot sauce, and even hotter sauce. Don’t worry, the hotter sauce isn’t too spicy. I recommend putting all the sauces to get the most flavour.

From what I remember, the chicken wasn’t very tender, and some pieces were a bit over cooked. At the time we arrived there, there wasn’t any meat on the rotating skewers, but they were just on the side being kept warm in heating trays. Who knows for how long. The lamb on the otherhand was a bit more tender. But this isn’t just any old lamb, its the type that gets shaved off the skewers. Not whole chunks of lamb. I must say the sauce really makes this taste a whole lot better. The rice was OK. A bit under cook than would I would like. At least the rice wasn’t plain white rice, and had some flavouring to it. The hummus was a bit bland. It need some extra spices, or flavouring in there, perhaps garlic. In my opinion the tabouli was also under dressed. It didn’t have enough acidity. For the Turkish plate, the dolme were a bit slimey, which wasn’t very appetizing. The rice and meat mixture inside though was decent. I would go back to try their donairs, and would go back for the shawarma plate, only if I really really wanted it. Falafel Maison still has my favourite shawarma plates.

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Best Donair
15930 Fraser Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 865-6696

We finally got to have a 2-on-1 dinner with Master Food Blogger Sherman and decided to check out Elizabeth’s Chalet in Cloverdale. Upon stepping in, we saw what we were getting ourselves into. The clientele is mainly the elderly. Although though owner was very, very friendly, we felt very, very out of place being young, asian, and food bloggers. As we were taking pictures of our food, I heard a customer say, “Back in our day, we used to take pictures of girls.”

Beipas and I both went for the Early Bird specials, which is a 3-course meal for only $22. That’s a really good deal. Sherman went for a duck salad and the prime rib.

For my 3-course meal, I ordered the daily soup, 6 oz. sirloin steak, and strawberry rhubarb pie. The soup of the day was a ginger carrot soup which was pretty good. It was nice and smooth, but didn’t have a very strong ginger flavour, which is a good thing for this kind of soup. Beipas got the Caesar Salad, and it was a good standard Caesar Salad. Nothing to complain about here. I tried a bit of Sherman’s Duck Salad, and upon first bite, I could definitely taste some Asian inspiration from the soy flavoured dressing and duck.

Once our entrees came, all I had to say is that this restaurant is very “Julia Child”. Going by the color, the steak was cooked perfectly and topped with a ton of mushrooms. The quality and cut of the meat however wasn’t not the greatest as it was tougher than it should have been. It was served with fried potatoes, and some veggies that looked very…proper. Something that would be served in the 70′s. The fried potatoes were really good as it was nicely seasoned just right, and had a nice texture with some of it crispy, and some fluffy. Sherman’s Prime Rib was a lot more tender and juicy and came with a Yorkshire Pudding, something that I haven’t seen in quite a while.

The filling for my strawberry rhubarb pie was good, sweet and tart, but the crust was really different. It wasn’t your typical flakey pie crust. It was really doughy, and kind of similar to Asian dough. Very dense. The Lemon Cake was way too sweet, but it was light and fluffy. Not a big fan of either desserts, but I preferred the strawberry pie, even with the doughy crust.

Now I’m sure many of the dishes are hit with their clientele, and most of it was pretty good. But, it’s not my kind of scene, and not the type of food that I’d go out to regularly eat. It was very dated, and not modern. However the prices were pretty good. To sum it up, Elizabeth’s Chalet is like fine dining in the 1970′s with 70′s fine dining prices.

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Elizabeth’s Chalet
17785 56 Avenue
Surrey, BC

(604) 574-1474

http://www.elizabethchalet.com

After hearing mixed reviews of this place, my friends and I decided to dine in at Mahek anyway since it was the closest to home compared to other places. Upon arrival we were greeted with a banner that hung outside the restaurant above the entrance that read “voted #1 in surrey”, yet the parking lot seemed quite empty. In addition, the windows were dark so we couldn’t see if there were a lot of people dining in or if it was even open, which made me hesitant to enter. Thankfully though, it was open, and the restaurant was nearly full.

We ordered the Mixed Snack Platter for appetizer, which had samosa, paneer pakora (cottage cheese fried with flour and traditional spices), chicken pakora and fish. For $9.95, it is too expensive because it’s such a small platter! It only came with 1 samosa, 2 pieces of paneer pakora, 2 pieces of chicken, and 2 pieces of fish. Only the paneer pakora stood out for me – this is definitely not enough to share with 4 or more people. After we cleaned our appetizer clean, the waiter took away our plates, and replaced with one big plate … why? It was definitely awkward to have all of our cutlery resting on that one plate while we waited for our entrees.

For entree, we had the Mahek Mini Meal, which is two pieces of tandoori chicken, you get a choice of Lamb Curry or Butter Chicken, rice, Nan and Vegetable of the day (cooks choice). We also ordered the Fish Bengli, which was fish with coconut gravy and spices. The waiter asked how spicy we wanted our curries – my friend asked for mild Lamb Curry while I opted for medium spicy Butter Chicken.

There must have been a mix up on our order as the Lamb Curry turned out to be spicy and the Butter Chicken not at all spicy. Even so, they were both delicious. The tandoori chicken I thought was too dry; I had trouble swallowing it. The vegetable of the day I assumed was the bowl of chick peas or else it had to be the two thin pieces of onion on the rice. However, for a mini meal, it was a good amount to satisfy hunger.

I thought the Fish Bengli was delicious as well, it had a good mix of spices incorporated together. It has a distinct ginger taste and it matched with the coconut flavor well, surprisingly. But it’s expensive in my opinion. For $11.95, it does not come with rice nor nan – just a bowl of fish in gravy, so it would be necessary to order a side of rice for $2.95.

Overall it wasn’t bad but wasn’t excellent either. Though the servers were very friendly and checked on us often. If their prices were more reasonable, I would consider a second visit.

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Mahek Restaurant and Lounge
9470 120 St
Surrey, BC V3V
(604) 585-3331
www.mahek.ca

Noodle Island. Honestly, that’s a pretty strange name. I found this place about half a year ago, but decided to eat at Sunny Dragon a few stores down. I got take out this time because I needed to get back for UFC. So we ordered a couple of vermicelli dishes to go. I should go back to try out the pho.

I ordered the Bun Ga, Thit, Nem Nuong, Cha Gio (Grilled Chicken, Pork Chop, Meat Patties, and Spring Roll with Rice Vermicelli) ($10.95). It came with quite a bit of food. I think it’s worth it for $11, because I had a lot of variety. Aside from the items listed above it also came with the standard cucumbers, carrots, daikon, and lettuce. It also came with a little container of Vietnamese fish sauce which you pour over your vegetables, spring roll, and noodles. I wish they gave more though! The vegetables seemed pretty fresh. They use the thinner rice vermicelli, which is typical here. My favorite of the meats was the meat patty because it had the most flavour to it. The chicken and pork, although cooked well were a bit bland. The spring roll was decent too.

My friend ordered the Bun Ga Xuyen Nuong, which means 3 grilled chicken skewers with rice vermicelli ($8.50), and she also ordered a Vietnamese Iced Coffee with condensed milk. The ice coffee came out surprisngly fast, as it normally takes 5-10 minutes for the coffee to drip. But since we ordered it to go, I guess they did it for us. It wasn’t very good here. The 3 chicken skewers was a lot of food for $8.50 and she liked it.

Overall the prices are decent, and you get a lot of food. Since we ordered take out, I’m not sure if the quality or quantity would be different. They also speak Cantonese if you aren’t sure what some things are in Vietnamese. Although the food we ordered was pretty good, I would come back to test out their Pho. Surprisingly it is not cash only. My favorites are still Pho Tau Bay and Song Huong.

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Noodle Island
#302 – 15988 Fraser Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 591-6528

Looking through my Entertainment Book, I found Vault restaurant. I’ve been wanting to go here for a few months to make use of the coupon, so I finally brought my parents here for my mom’s birthday. It’s in Cloverdale just off of 176 St. We went at a really good time when there was lots of street parking (5:30PM). When we got there, it started getting really busy and there wasn’t very much parking left when we left.

We were greeted by the hostess, and a few waitresses were there too. Everyone was really nice. We were served and treated really well here. They have live jazz/bands playing but only after 8PM on I think Thursdays and Fridays, so we were a bit early. It was a wood structured building, and for some reason there was a motorcycle propped up on one of the walls (see the picture).

We first ordered our drinks, and I was happy to see they had a long list of beers domestic and international. I saw San Miguel, and I instantly ordered that. I haven’t had this Filipino beer in a while. The beers came out ice cold in extremely chilled glasses. Cold beer is so awesome. Perfect.

We started with Yam Fries ($6.99), and Dry Ribs ($8.99). And later on I added the panko chili chicken ($8.99). Nothing out of the ordinary here, as you can get these at many restaurants. The Yam fries were served in a bucket, and there was quite a bit of them. They were extra long. The ones in the center of the bucket were less crisp as the ones on top. It came with a garlic aioli that just had a hint of garlic.  The Dry Ribs were a bit disappointing. They had good flavour, but it was cooked a little bit longer than I would have liked. The meat was pretty dry. I kind of reget ordering the Panko Chili Chicken because we had our bread, 2 appetizers, and our entrees waiting to come out. But the water cress aioli tempted me. We got just 3 chicken strips with the standard sweet thai chili sauce on top. The water cress aioli again wasn’t too flavourful. I probably could’ve done without the dip. This meat was a bit over cooked as well, as the breading was pretty dark, and the chicken was a bit stringy.

For my main, I ordered the 8 oz. striploin ($23.99) medium rare. I ordered this steak because I wanted to try the butter sage sauce. The steak was flavourful, topped with peppers and seasonings, and for some reason parmesan cheese (which really didn’t add anythin). The butter sage sauce was a bit of a disappointment. Also, the steak was closer to medium than medium rare. Maybe it’s the cut of meat, but it was a bit tougher than I like. The garlic mashed potatoes were very garlicky, which is something I would do at home. 

My dad got the curry prawn penne. I watched him eat it and he had to de-shell the prawns as he ate. The curry packed a bit of heat to it as well. My mom ordered the seafood penne which was loaded with a bunch of different seafood – fish, prawn, scallops and mussels.

Although the food was just OK, the service was good, and it seemed to be a really popular place to go to in Cloverdale. I’d go back to check out the live bands that play later at night, and snack on a few appetizers or pizzas.

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Vault
5764 176 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 576-4243

www.vaultrestaurant.com

I’ve had Swiss Chalet take-out many times in my life, but have only dined-in just a few times. We decided to go here for an early Mother’s Day lunch so we didn’t have to deal with the craziness on Sunday. We arrived there right on time (we made a reservation), but it took them a while for them to seat us even though the restaurant wasn’t very full. I don’t think they were very ready for a lunch rush. It took them almost 10 minutes just to sit us…a sign of things to come. As the day went on, the place got busier and busier.

I was a bit hung over, so I ordered a lot of food to get rid of my headache. I ordered the 1/4 chicken with white meat, and 1/2 rack of ribs for $18.95 (same thing but 1/3 rack for my brother). It came with a side of your choice – fries, baked potato, mashed potatoes, or rice (I think), and also a roll (which I really like too). I also had to add $1 or 2 to change my chicken to white meat. My dad ordered fish and chips, and the mom’s ordered the special which was a 1/4 chicken and a sidewith soup or salad and a slice of pie for $12.95. For our appetizer we ordered the cheese loaf.

The cheese loaf didn’t take that long to come out.. maybe about 10-15 minutes. It was a loaf of garlic bread baked with cheese inside and topped with olive oil, green onions and diced tomatoes. I think it was really good. It had a pretty strong arlic flavour and was very flavourful. The cheese wasn’t really gooey or stringy. The green onion and tomatoes was a nice extra flavour. The soup and salad were served a few minutes after we got our bread. It was a chicken noodle soup, and just a regular garden salad. After that the wait began…

We waited over 30 more minutes to get our food. The people near us were clearly frustrated as well and wanted to just leave. Being that this was my breakfast at 1PM, I was getting hungry too and my headache was getting stronger. I think our food arrived well past 1:30 and we got there at 12:20. Well when our food finally arrived we dug right in. At least the food was cooked well. I love the chalet sauce (yes it took me a while to like, but I really do now!), and their fries are one of my favourites. I’m not sure if I like McDonald’s fries more than these ones. They are a fatter fry, and are more airy inside. Goes really well as a side. The chicken was a breast and a wing, or you could’ve gotten a thigh and drumstick. The breast wasn’t the juiciest, but that’s to be expected, and that’s what the sauce is for. It was a lot of food. The wing was crunch, but a bit overcooked. They do cook the entire chicken together after all. The ribs were pretty tender, and were easily taken off the bone with your knife and fork. These had a really nice BBQ flavour. I was so full from my meal, I didn’t get a chance to eat the roll, which is usually my favorite when slathered with butter.

When we were done our meal, we asked for our dessert to go because it was taking way too long for our meal. We didn’t leave until 2:30PM. A 2 hour lunch at Swiss Chalet is pretty ridiculous. Our waitress was kind when she talked to us, and even talked with my baby nephew, but I don’t think she ever apologized for such slow service. This was excrutiatingly slow, and I can’t remember if they were always like this, or just not ready for the day.

Swiss Chalet is somewhere that my family goes to once a year or every two years for a family lunch or dinner. We get take out a lot more often, and I guess with such slow service, it is better to just get take out. For what it is, I do like the food though.

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Swiss Chalet
9666 King George Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 583-0883

http://www.swisschalet.com

I’ve known about Akasaka as that kind of pricey sushi place next to Oriental Buffet in Guildford. I’ve never been there until a few days ago for my friend’s birthday – it’s her favorite sushi place in Surrey. I got there, and the parking lot was full! I had to park across the street at Guildford Mall.

Inside there are a lot of private rooms. It’s a Japanese/Korean restaurant like many Japanese restaurants. Along with your sushi you can also get Korean BBQ and noodles. They have the button that you press to get service and they came pretty quickly. The prices are on the more expensive side of things when it comes to sushi in Surrey with some rolls over $12. I only ordered a chicken teriyaki roll, and 2 tamago, and 2 inari, and it came out to $11.50 after tax. Sometimes this can cost as low as $8. To be honest, it wasn’t even nearly that good. I’ve had better chicken teriyaki rolls, and it didn’t even come with teriyaki sauce. The Inari was pretty good though, as they used a whole pocket instead of half like some people do. It could’ve used a bit more sweetness. The tamago nigiri had a big piece of egg, but the flavour wasn’t as sweet or have much flavour.

But! A lot of the stuff my friends ordered were good and very well presented. Akasaka likes to use fire. First came the Oyster Motoyaki which was served on a plate, with a side of fire! What did it do? Who knows as the fire was off to the side, I think it just looked cool. Some other stand-outs were the Volcano Roll which was wrapped in tin foil, and lit on fire. It had the cheesy/mayo topping of an Oyster Motoyaki with shrimp, and snapper I think. They also had another roll which was on a bed of crunchy bread crumbs. From what my friends told me, everything was good except for one dish where the fish wasn’t very fresh.

The service was also a bit slow. They were kind and meant well, but they were a bit slow and a hard to understand. They were slow when it came to bringing some tea, or water. Sometimes they forget, and then they remember when they came back and say.. “Oh, it’s coming.” Another thing that was kind of annoying is that even though she numbered us, when we received our receipts, the numbers were off. I was number #12 I think, but after looking at the bills, I was customer #5 now. Kind of annoying how we had to look at each receipt to see which was ours instead of just look for our given numbers.

In the end though, I would come back with my friends so they can try out all the different sushi rolls!

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Akasaka Japanese Restaurant
15110 101 Avenue
Surrey, BC

(604) 588-8656

In my hunt to find a Middle Eastern place close by with a Shawarma plate, I accidentally went to the wrong place and wound up at A1 Coffee and Donuts. Note to self, check what the place is called, and the address. It turns out the place I wanted to go to was just 2-3 stores down in the same complex. Sigh.

Anyways, I got in, and it was a Coffee and Donut shop. I saw that they sold donairs on their sign too, so I thought I would try it out, or thought it was the place that I actually wanted to go to. I got in, and it was just a coffee shop. They were playing some hockey on TV, and they sold donuts, meat pies, and some other random stuff. Their board said they had a chicken donair so that’s what I went for. Donair plus a can of pop for only $5. Pretty good deal I guess.

Then it gets weird. He got a piece of bread, and cut it in half, then put it in a panini grill type thing. As he was doing that, he asked me how I want it the donair. Did I want onions? Cucumbers? Tomatoes? Tzatziki? Spicy? I replied yes to everything. He had a couple rotating meat sticks in the back, but he had some chicken precut up and kept warm. He loaded up my donair and off I went. He was a really nice guy. But what the hell did I just order? It was a chicken donair sandwich.

It was like a hamburger bun cut in half almost halfway. Then grilled, with nothing in it to I guess make it crunchy. Unfortunately, I went to Dairy Queen on the way home which took a long time because of the Blizzard deal, so the bread wasn’t very crunchy by the time I got to it. The ingredients itself weren’t all to good either though. Kind of just there, and all mixed in. The sauce was a bit spicy but not overly. Their wasn’t much taste to anything besides the spice. The chicken was well, just chicken. It didn’t have a very middle eastern meat flavour that I was craving for so long. If you look at it, it’s actually kind of disgusting looking.

I doubt they are really a donair shop. It kind of just seemed like something to have because he was Middle Eastern. I wouldn’t come back for a donair. I never tried their other food, so they may be good. If you want a donair and are in this area, I’d definitely try the other one called Kabab Al-Rafidain, or for a sure bet go diagonally across the street to Donair Affair.

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A1 Coffee & Donuts
14795 108th Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 581-4151

As a side note:  A brown friend told me that places use A1 in their name just so they can be first in the Yellow Page directories.

La Charcuterie Delicatessen is located in Port Kells in Surrey, an Industrial area that I used to work at many summers ago. I’ve heard about this place before, and heard about his reputation. I heard a few years ago that he won some money in the lottery and flashed his dink to the camera. He’s a crazy dude! I thought he would be some sort of a Sandwich Nazi, so I didn’t even want to bring my camera in to take pics of the place in case he yelled at me.

The deli is also a store which sells meats, as well as canned and jarred foods. I didn’t really look around, but they had lots of products. I will next time.

Once we got in, the jokes were already flying with the people there. Nothing is taboo here, and he’ll joke about everything. Sexual and racial comments are all fair game. It’s all in good fun though, as you can tell nothing is meant to be taken seriously, and you can give it to him back. He makes fun of himself also. It definitely is very vulgar, but it’s very funny! I guess I should talk about the food now.

He has some sandwiches up on a whiteboard, but we did like the people in front of us, and let him make whatever he wanted for us. He let us choose the bread, he had white, brown, and some other ones. He said he’d give us poppy seed bread so we can get high (from the opium!). Just from when he grabbed the bread you could tell he has been doing this for a while because he perfectly cut the bread in the middle without looking and talking to us. This isn’t a regular deli sandwich like I was expecting as they were basically sub sandwiches, not on sliced bread. He does put a load of meat which he cuts on his slicer as he makes your sandwich.

For our sandwiches he put mayo, mustard, some really good spicy sauce. For veggies he put lettuce (and we asked for tomato, but he never put it). And for meat he put capicola, roast beef, and some sort of ham. He also put some cheese, which I think was havarti or something really similar to it. The sandwich was huge! I could only finish half. The capicolla added a bit of heat and some saltiness, and had a different texture to it than the other meats. The ham was very light and could almost melt in your mouth. It’s very good value for $7. In the end though, the sandwich wasn’t that great besides the fact that there was a lot of meat. It needed a bit more flavour. Some sort of sauce, since it’s like a sub sandwich. It was a bit too simple for my liking, but maybe I was just expected more than I should have.

I do recommend that you visit this place though if you want comedy show and a huge sandwich for $7, just don’t take offense to anything he says. He’s a very trusting person as he just says leave the money on the counter. He’s not a sandwich Nazi, he’s just a very funny dude.

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La Charctuerie Delicatessen
19080 96 Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 882-0881

I saw that a new Japanese restaurant had opened up where Anducci’s used to be on 152nd St in Surrey. I wanted to check it out, but the reviews on DineHere were pretty bad back in January. I checked on UrbanSpoon today and it turns out that it’s getting better – 80%. Sadly they don’t have a website for me to check their menu.

I got to the restaurant and was quickly greeted and seated. It was a bit odd at my table though as I saw metal chop sticks, is this place Korean? I think so, because it didn’t sound like Japanese when they spoke to each other. Anyways, I browsed through the menu and I noticed the prices are very expensive!

I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Don ($7.99), Chicken Katsu Roll ($5.99), Tamago Nigiri ($1.25) and Inari ($1.25). My Chicken Teriyaki don surprisingly came first, and it seemed quite small. There were about 6 slices of chicken on top of beansprouts and carrots which were on top of rice. My first bite wasn’t very good, as the chicken was slightly burnt, however the rest of my bowl was really good. The teriyaki sauce was nice and a bit sweet, but not too much. The chicken was pretty tender still, and the rice was cooked well.

I was really excited to see the Chicken Katsu Roll. They also had a Pork Katsu Roll, and I’ve never seen these two at any other places so I had to try it. It was basically like your standard chicken teriyaki rolls, but it came with breaded fried chicken. It also came with some sauce, and some cucumbers and lettuce, and topped with toasted and black sesame seeds. The chicken was cooked really well and it was nice and crispy! The only complaint I had about this roll was that it may have been too small. To get 6 pieces, they had to cut some of them pretty thin that they were hard to keep in together when picking it up. My chicken often fell out. It was really good though.

My Tamago was less than awesome, as it didn’t have much flavour to it, and not the sweetness that I’m used to and really like. It wasn’t like it was just fried egg, as it had a hint of something else, but not strong enough. The Inari was also less than awesome. They just used half a tofu pocket. The ginger was also very very spicy.

My friend ordered his favourite Chirashi don which was $16.99. The chirashi don was only $9.99 at Maguro, so this is very pricey. He had to try it though. it came with tamago, roe, salmon, a couple different types of tuna, octopus, some weird thingy, and a whole shrimp served on top of rice and daikon. It was really good, a little better, and a little more, but not worth almost double the Chirashi at Maguro. The few things he would change is that the he would leave the tamago as one piece instead of cutting it into small cubes. He also wished it had unagi.

He also ordered the Spicy Yellow Tai Roll which was $7.99. This looked really good as it was a deep fried roll with red snapper and cream cheese. It was different but really good.

Now what was so expensive? Besides the $17 Chirashi don, a lot of the special rolls were over $12. Kind of unheard of being that this place was in Surrey and not Downtown.

That being said, the service was really good. They often came by to refill our tea and asked how we were doing, and even asked if I was cold. It seemed like whoever was free would check up on us to see if everything was OK. I think in total 4 of them came up to refill our tea or checked up on how everything was. I like this place, but the prices are a bit too high for your everyday sushi place. I’d recommend it, but only once in a while.

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Sushi Tengoku
10194 152 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 584-9878

Note: One funny thing is that on the menu by the Sushi it had two columns.. Roll and Corn.. It took me a quite a while to figure out what that meant. Corn? Sushi? What?… I’m guessing they mean Cone lol.