****~ (4/5)

I’ve been to Glowbal about 3 times, and I can honestly say that I’ve never had a bad meal here, this time was no exception. I decided to take my brother and his family out to dinner at Glowbal for his birthday, even with my soon-to-be 1 year old nephew. We sat out on the patio. We were a bit nervous, because although he doesn’t really cry, he likes to pound on tables, drop things, and scream, but it went well, and he entertained the other customers.

I wanted to try as much as I could, so I ordered 4 tapas to start. I had the Lamp Chop with Honey Glaze ($4.50), Coconut Chicken with Spicy Tropical Glaze ($2.90), Kobe Meatball with Tomato Fondue ($2.90), and I had to do it, I ordered the Wagyu Chuck with Black Sea Salt for ($9.25). I had the Short Rib before, and it was really good too, but I wanted to try all new things. All the satays were served with a thai slaw, ginger white soya, and a hot chinese mustard, which I barely even used. The tapas were good on its own. My favorite of the bunch was the Lamb Chop. Grilled perfectly. The meat was very tender, and had a nice subtle glaze to it. My Next favorite was the Kobe Meatball, which had a nice tomato sauce, and anice parmesan cheese shaving. This was my first time having a Kobe Meatball here and I wasn’t disappointed. Very good flavours in everthing tied together nicely.  My next favourite was the pricey Wagyu beef. I don’t think it’s worth it for $10 honestly. The meat was really tender, and you could see lots of fat marbling when you bit in. The beef was cooked until there was no more pink inside, but it was still very tender and flavourful because of all the fat. I don’t think I’d pay $10 for another one though. That being said, it’s $18 per oz of steak, so given that a normal steak is about 8 oz, that would be a $144 steak! My least favourite, although not bad, was the Coconut Chicken. It was juicy and tender, but didn’t have much coconut flavour at all. I still enjoyed it though. I could’ve done without the slaw. My brother ordered the Sablefish and of course enjoyed it.

For my main I had the Prime Rib Burger ($19), my brother had the Spaghetti and Meatballs ($25), and my sister-in-law had the Rigatoni Pomodoro ($17). I guess I should’ve read what my burger was but I was shocked that there was an egg over-easy on my burger. This was truly a very messy burger. First of all it was HUGE! The patty itself was over an inch, and it was toppe with bacon, pancetta, the egg, and some cheese (which I didn’t notice). Of course taking the first bite, or even cutting into the burger, the egg yolk starts dripping, but it was really good. The burger patty was thick and juicy and well seasoned, the egg added to the mayo sauces, and the bacon was crispy. After the 4 satays, I wasn’t able to finish my burger, it was huge, and a lot better than the prime rib burger I had at Joe Forte’s. The fries though a bit soggy were decent, and got better the more I ate them. It came with a mayo sauce with red sea salt. They seemed to really like using red sea salt, because it was also in the butter that came with our bread.

My brother said that the spaghetti and meatballs seemed a bit different. Instead of Spaghetti, it came with a linguine with a very oily sauce. My brother wasn’t sure if it was always like this, but he thought it came with spaghetti and tomato sauce. I had to agree, the pasta was very oily and not that great, though you could taste the truffle, but the kobe meat balls were still really good. I’ve noticed that my brother always orders this dish when he goes to Glowbal, so it must be really good. I also noticed they had like a cheese flower that I saw at Eat Vancouver. The Rigatoni Pomodoro was also pretty good.

The only problem I had with the service was that it took quite a while to get our main courses, and even longer to get our bill. We were waiting for our bil for a good 20 minutes because our waiter wasn’t paying any attention to us by that time and he thought someone else had given us our bill. That put a bit of a  damper to what was a good dinner. We also used a $15 off coupon that my sister-in-law received on her birthday, so that was a bonus.

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** Update – went there again this weekend and tried some more dishes

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Glowbal Grill and Satay
1079 Mainland St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 602-0835

http://www.glowbalgrill.com

****~ (4/5)

Last week we had a birthday dinner at Cobre in Gastown. After eating there, I thought it was a Mexican fusion restaurant, however according to their website it was a fusion of Argentinian, Cuban, Brazilian and Mexican.

All items on Cobre’s menu were tapas, and they came in mostly servings of 4. For example, an order of Pulled Duck Tacos contains 4 duck tacos. The duck tacos were my favorite of the night. The tacos were served on corn tortillas, with just the right amount of meat on top. The duck was really moist, succulent and it was added by  the sweetness of caramelized scallion on top. Very delicious.

The Lamb Tacos were really interesting. They were lamb patties topped by garlic flavored popcorn. The lamb patties were fairly moist, and the popcorn itself was well seasoned. Everything all together was pretty good, the popcorn added a different texture to the tacos but flavor wise, it didn’t really do much.

Another highlight dish of the night was the Maple chipotle tamarind glazed wild boar belly. This dish was so yummy, big chunks of very fatty pork in sweet maple glaze. It was full of fat, but it wasn’t greasy, it just melted in my mouth very nicely. I rarely enjoy fat in pork, but I liked this a lot.

Our birthday boy is a dessert fiend, so we ordered all 3 of Cobre’s desserts. They were Churros with Caramel sauce, Chocolate cake, and Goat Cheese Penna Cotta. The best one was the Goat Cheese Penna Cotta, it was creamy, sweet, and I loved the berries it came with.

The service here was excellent. The waiter had full knowledge of all the dishes and he did a good job on explaining them as he served them to our table. The presentation of all the dishes were pretty pretty in an elegant way. Beer here were as cheap as $3.50 per pint, which was really good for a tapa restaurant. We had a great time there, we’ll definitely return.

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Cobre
52 Powell St
Vancouver, BC V6A
(604) 669-2396
www.cobrerestaurant.com

****½ (4.5/5)

Guu Otokomae was latest of all 5 Guu restaurants  that I visited. I went to this one with a fairly high expectation because my friends love this place and said it is the best out of all Guu restaurants.

The menu for food and drinks at Guu Otokomae was significantly larger than Guu with Garlic. I let my friends did the ordering, let them show me how this Guu is ‘the best’ out of all.

They ordered a bunch of dishes that I’ve never had before at other Guu restaurants, which was great. The only dish I was familiar with was the Ebi Mayo. I wasn’t surprised to see this dish because how can you visit Guu and not order this dish? The deep fried prawns topped with their special mayo, warm, crispy batter, yummy.

If you are a cheese lover, you should definitely get the Brie Cheese. It was big chunks of Brie, deep fried, and served with mango and blueberry dipping sauce. This dish is so bad for you, but so good. The Brie was completely melted when I bit into it. The mango and blueberry sauce was delicious.

We also tried a couple of tataki dishes, Salmon Belly and Beef tataki. They were both really good. They both came with a bed of shredded daikon, and loads of the very yummy ponzu sauce. The tatakis never fail to impress at Guu.

We ordered 3 desserts here. The best 2 out of the 3 were Coconut Ice Cream and Baguette Hot Pot, and Earl Grey Créme Bulee. The hot pot dessert was really interesting. It was baguette chucks bathed in hot caramel sauce in a hot stone bowl and topped with a big scoop of coconut ice cream. Just be careful when you’re eating the baguette and ice cream together at first, because you might get burned by the hot baguette soaked lava like caramel. Overall the dessert was good, the coconut ice cream was really yummy, but it was a little bit of sugar overload. And you’d need to eat this quickly, or at least remove the ice cream from the hot stone bowl if you don’t want your ice cream to melt too fast.

If you’re not a big fan of sugar, you should get the Earl Grey Créme Bulee. Créme Bulee with a hint of earl grey, it was pretty awesome.

I really enjoyed eating here. The service was excellent, food was great.  The only item I didn’t really like was the Deep Fried Taro Balls, but that was because I was expecting it to be sweet. That was my fault for not reading the descriptions. And I think I’ll have to agree with my friend, even with all the hype, it didn’t disappoint. Guu Otokomae, is the best out of all Guu restaurants I’ve been to so far.

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Guu Otokomae
375 Water St
Vancouver, BC V6B
(604) 685-8682

***½~ (3.5/5)

Finally I made the trip to Gastown and went through Blood Alley to try out the Salt Tasting Room that Giada De Laurentiis talked about on her show. Sadly, Beipas didn’t come along for the fun.

We got to the Salt Tasting Room at 10 PM on a Saturday night with no reservation. Amazingly we didn’t wait at all, which was kind of shocking because I didn’t see a spot big enough for our party of 8…Turns out we were going downstairs to the cellar which I thought was really weird. There were already people down there though, so that made it better. It was really dim though, so I had to boost up the ISO on my camera.

Our waiter was very informative on how the menu worked. We had an idea of what to do but wasn’t too sure about what to order. Me and a friend wanted to make the most of it, so we shared – we each got a flight of wine (3 2oz glasses), and one of us got a meat combo, and the other got a cheese combo. Each of the combinations came with 3 condiments to pair it with. We looked at the chalk board with all of the meats, cheeses, and condiments and felt a bit overwhelmed since we didn’t know what a lot of it was. So, we let our server pick for us. I told him what I didn’t like and what I was allergic to, but I don’t think he really listened. I don’t think he made up our combinations on the spot, as he brought us two sheets with the pairings printed on it. He did end up giving us a blue cheese, and a full bodied wine which we said we didn’t like.

We were first given a basket full of different sliced breads and crackers. Note, you can ask for more if you run out! Some of the crackers were really salty and overpowered the subtler flavours. While some breads were softer, and you couldn’t spread the cheese well.

Our first pairing was the cheese. He told us try each pair in a specific order, from subtle to strong.

1. Vueuve de Vernay Rosé with Savoury Moon and Marcona Almonds
   My favorite pair simply because I like subtler wines and I don’t like super strong blue cheeses. The cheese was brie like in that it was soft and spreadable. The wine and the almond even match perfectly together.
2. Alaja Cab Sauvignon Monastrell with Red Leicester and Basque Olives
   This was my second favorite combo, the Red Leicester is like an older cheddar, and a bit stronger. It came with a bunch of different olives. The wine was pretty good too.
3. Nutty Solera Oloroso with St. Agur and Quince Paste (and honey)
   My leat favourite. The St. Agur is a blue cheese. When mixed with the Quince or Honey, or something sweet it was OK. Alone, I wouldn’t eat the blue cheese. This wine was my least favourite, as it had a bit of sherry in it. It was more acidic and vinegary than I would like. These were definitely the strongest flavours, and of course I liked it the least. My friend on the other hand, said it was his favourite.

Second pairing were the meats. Again we were told to start from lighter to stronger.

1. Fallen Angel Riesling with Lomo and Piparras Peppers
   This was my favourite wine. A nice white wine, that was very subtle again. The Lomo was very light and subtle as well as it was thinly shaved. The peppers were kind of like really small quiznos peppers. Nothing too great here.
2. Pentage Rosé with Spicy Fennel Salami and Cornichons
   The wine was my second favourite in the bunch. The Salami was good too, and the cornichons were very good pickles.
3. Delas Cotes du Rhones with Tartufo Salami and Cipollini Onions
   Least favourite wine as it was the most full bodied out of all of the wines I tried. But it came with the best meat, and the best condiment. The cipollini onions were marinated in a nice sauce and it really brought out the sweetness of the little onions. This salami was also the most flavourful.

Our friends did the same, but they chose a couple bottles of wine, and then let the server choose stuff to accompany it.

Overall we had a really good time getting in the zone (from the wine), and being fancy. It was good trying out a bunch of different wines, meats, and cheeses. It was pretty pricey as it was $15 for each 3-meat/cheese combination, and $15 for each flight of wine (so $30 before tax and tip each). I would go back, but I don’t think I’d do it very often. It’s definitely not enough food for dinner, but more of a place to have a few drinks and try some nice meats and cheeses.

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Salt Tasting Room
45 Blood Alley
Vancouver, BC

(604) 633-1912

****½ (4.5/5)

A few of my friends from LA came visiting this weekend, and before they came they had asked me to make a list of restaurants for them. They were only going to be in Vancouver for 5 hours, and I gave them a list of maybe 20 restaurants. I have to say I salute my friends for hitting up 4 restaurants in Vancouver/Richmond in the span of 4 hours, and still came and ate like champions with me at Guu with Garlic.

I’ve always loved Guu with Garlic, because the food is always good, and it’s just such a good place to grab a drink with friends. Tonight we ordered a lot of stuff including: Tuna-Yukke, Beef Carpaccio, Ume-Shiso Udon, Kabocha-Krokke, Creamy Krokke, Krokke, Nankotsu-Karaage, Tori-Karaage, and Ebi-Mayo, Grilled Pork Belly, and a couple other specials of the night dishes I can’t remember the names of.

The food tonight was really good as usual. It was the first time I had Kabocha-Krokke, it’s deep friend pumpkin ball with a boiled egg inside. It looked more like a dessert when it came. The pumpkin was mashed with herbs, it was pretty good, and the egg, was just a boiled egg. The Creamy Krokke was a special of the night.  There was runny cream and corn inside after you break it, it was sweet, had a lot of corn flavor, and really tasty.

The Grilled Pork Belly was also really good. The pork belly were skewered with whole cloves of garlic. It had a really nice charcoal BBQ flavor to it, all together with the garlic, so yum. Another dish I liked was the Ume Shiso Udon. It was pan fried udon with mushrooms, beef, and veggies, topped with seaweed. It had a nice presence of Ume (Japanese pickled plum) taste to it. It was refreshing in some way. If you’ve never had Ume, you might find it weird tasting.

The Chicken karaage is a must get. It was so yummy. Boneless deep friend chicken with garlic mayo. So good. So good with beer.

I had a really good time here. The price was very reasonable, the beers by the pitchers were fairly cheap, I didn’t think it was expensive for its food quality. My LA friends really liked the food too. It was really fun eating with a group of people that constantly made the ‘Mmmm!’ sound through out the dinner, and I’ll have to thank the restaurant for that.

Note: The restaurant is small, and always busy. Go in early for dinner to avoid long waits. The lunch menu is a lot smaller than dinner menu.

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Guu with Garlic
1698 Robson St
Vancouver, BC V6G
(604) 685-8678
www.guu-izakaya.com

****~ (4/5)

I went to Stella’s Tap & Tapa Bar for the first time a couple weeks ago, and wow, this place caught me by a surprise. Being my first time there, the word ‘Bar’ just make me think of sports TV, and nuts on the tables. This place was not that.

I arrived this place at 7pm, and was told to expect a 20min wait for a table for 4. I didn’t really get my table until probably a hour later, but surprisingly, I didn’t really mind the long delay. We were offered to sit at the heated patio to grab a couple drinks first while we waited. The hostess was really nice and apologetic, she came back nearly every 5 minutes to keep us updated on our table.

Beer lovers, you will love this place. They have a wide range of beer selection, anything from 12% alcohol beers, to fruity beers, or just regular Belgian beers on the tap, there’s a lot to choose from. I decided on a Dekoninck Amber ($7) on the tap while I was at the patio, because it only seemed right try their Belgian beer since that is their specialty. I’m not a beer person, but I liked it a lot. It was very smooth, subtle, and nothing over powering.

When we were led to our table, we walked through the bar section, and at the end of the bar to the right, there was all the tables in a bistro type arrangement. Something I didn’t expect for a ‘bar’. The menu has Tapas, and a set dinner selection. You can get a 2 course meal for $22 or a 3 course for $28. My friends and I decided to get a bunch of tapas to share. We ended up ordering the Belgian poutine (with blanche de chambly, miso gravy and green onions), corn dogs (coz we felt fancy), mumbai wings, and 1/2 pound of Orleans mussles (with andouille sausages and smoked corn). My favorite would have to be the mussles, it was fresh, and spicy, it was just sooo yummy. The corn dogs were a suprise, they were actually really good. The batter was thin, and the mustard sauce it came with was really yummy paired with the hot dogs. The wings were my least favorite because they had a really long lasting after taste.

I had a really good time at this place. The food was tasty, and they came really fast and warm. The waiters are nice, the atmosphere is cozy, the crowd and the music is just loud enough in the background for you to still talk to your friends without yelling. It’s a great place to hang out after work with your friends, and it’s a great place to take your dates to. The only negative thing I have to say about Stella is probably their price, averaging $8 per tapa dish, and minimum $7 for drinks, your night could get really expensive.

I heard they have also brunch here, can’t wait to come try it out.

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Stella’s Tap & Tapa Bar
3305 Cambie street
Vancouver BC
604-874-6900
http://stellasbeer.com/cambie/