***½~ (3.5/5)

I’ve known about Goldfish Pacific Kitchen as it has been in the Taste of Yaletown for the past few years. I finally got to go for my mom’s and brother’s joint birthday dinner. As we arrived we noticed that they had an engagement party completely with bunny ears. Anyway, the restaurant looks really cool and trendy. The decor is really nice, and the restaurant is actually quite big. I think they had an outdoor room in the back with white sofas…or at least it looked open.

Goldfish has a 3-course set price menu for $28 between 5PM – 6:30PM (I believe it was $25 a few months ago). They also have happy hour between 4-6PM on weekdays.  I decided to try out other stuff on the menu, while the rest of my family went for the prix-fixe.

We ordered drinks to start. I copied my brother and dad and got Tiger beer from Singapore. It came with what seemed like chilled glasses, but once we got it, it seemed pretty warm. Cool, but not ice cold. It made the beer taste crappier. I wasn’t a fan. They had a bunch of cocktails that seemed good, but I didn’t order it this time.

Anyways for my meal, I started the Pulled BBQ Duck Spring Rolls ($12) which came with nuoc cham, fresh mint, and butter lettuce. For my main I ordered the Korubata Pork Ravioli ($25). The spring rolls were nice and crispy and fresh from the fryer. I think it came with 3 rolls cut in half diagonally. I’m not really too sure what was in the dipping sauce (nuoc cham), but it was very, very mild. I’ve noticed that restaurants are using butter lettuce even more now (also at Hapa Izakaya) for wraps. I guess they are better because they aren’t as hard/crisp as other lettuces. They are better used for wrapping, as they are pretty tender and soft, but also can keep its curved shape. I’m grateful they cleaned the leaves, but they didn’t do a very good job of drying the leaves. So I was instructed to wrap the the spring roll in the lettuce, and place a mint leaf inside, and dip in the sauce. The flavour of the spring roll itself was good, and when combined with everything on the plate it added a few more layers of flavour, even though the sauce didn’t add too much.

My Ravioli was quite different. You could definitely see the fusion going on here as you had ravioli in a coconut cream type of sauce. It came with 4 pieces of ravioli. The pasta dough seemed a bit different than regular Italian pasta dough. The coconut curry sauce was really good, and had a bit of spiciness to it which I enjoyed. The ravioli was stuffed with pulled kurobuta pork and very tender. Nice asian fusion here.

I wanted to try some stuff on the dessert menu like the Vietnamese Coffee Cheese Cake, the Toasted Cocnut Tart, and the Warm Banana Spring Rolls with Lychee mint salad. Thankfully I didn’t, because the Spring Rolls have a cashew butter in it (says the online menu)..I was going to come back to give these a try. Uh, on second look, it seems like they changed the cashew butter with hazelnut on the menu at the restaurant. Maybe I can go back and try =).

For the fixed price menu:

- Appetizers: Soup of the Day (Tomato) or Wild Mustard Green Salad or Tuna Tataki
- Main: Fish and Chips or Shaken Wok Beef Tenderloin or Pan Roasted Artic Char or Maple Soy Chicken
- Dessert: Creme Brulee or Sorbet (Grape fruit)

I got to try the Shaken Wok Beef Tenderloin, and it was OK. Flavour was pretty nice, and the meat was fairly tender, but it could’ve definitely used some rice! It was just a plate of beef topped with bean sprouts, fried garlic, and bit of pepper for heat. I liked the fries with the Fish and Chips though. I also defied death again and tried some of the fish and chips (I can’t help myself recently). Since, I’m not very familiar with it, and since I just had a few slivers, I can’t really comment. The fish lightly battered, and wasn’t too crispy.

I was also able to try both desserts. I really wasn’t happy with the Sorbet. I don’t like grapefruit to start with, and this was no exception. It was tart, and had a pretty bitter after taste. They also forgot to bring the almond cookie, but we got it after asking. The brulee was tasty. Had a nice solid torched top, and a nice custard inside. The jasmine was very subtle.

Overall the staff was nice and friendly. The manager even liked talked with my almost 1 year old nephew as he was staring at the party with bunny ears. The food didn’t blow me away though. I’d come back on a night out for some drinks and dessert.

[View with PicLens]

Goldfish Pacific Kitchen
1118 Mainland St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 689-8318

http://www.goldfishkitchen.com

***½~ (3.5/5)

Last Saturday was one of the funnest/randomest nights I’ve had in a very long time. Our last stop that night was the Tsui Hang Village. We arrived there at about 2:30 AM and greeted by the host at the front. This place seemed to be the place to go after a night of clubbing. Most of us had no clue it existed. Our group of 8 were seated after about 10 minutes in a private room at the front…A room that had a vault door in it. Huh? Was this in a old bank? But why would the vault be placed near the front of the restaurant?

Anyway yah, we were tucked away in a private room. Our server said normally this is a $200/person room, but since it’s like 2 AM, it’s a minimum $8/person. Minimum charge? That’s a bit strange, but didn’t really care, because we were hungry and knew we would eat more than $64 between the 8 of us. Looking at the menu, the prices seemed higher than normal too, with many dishes ranging from $11-14, and of course some a lot more. They had a special menu too, though I can’t remember the prices on that.

We ordered chicken fried rice, dry spare ribs, house special chow mein, mongolian beef, diced chicken with almonds, and a vegetable dish.

The Mongolian beef came first, and was pretty good, however not spicy like I’m used to. It was lightly battered, fried and mixed with the sauce. It pretty good, but not awesome, and definitely not spicy.  The chicken fried rice was pretty good too as was the chow mein, these are pretty standard though and not much different from anywhere else. The chow mein was crispy on the edges, and nice and saucy in the middle. I really don’t like it if all of the noodles are crispy, so this was a good middle ground. The diced chicken with almonds was my least favorite because it seemed like it may have peanuts too, though I wasn’t sure. I only ate a little bit in fear that I’d get an allergic reaction. I did eat one nut, which was luckily an almond, it looked like there were peanuts only. The vegetable dish was really good too because it had lots of chinese mushrooms.

My favorite dish had to have been the spare ribs. They were nice and crispy but the meat was still tender. I really liked the seasoning, it had a really good flavour, and had the perfect saltiness. I ate a bunch of these. They were so good, that one of our friends was about eat the already used bones! Just kidding, but we did almost trick him into eating it. One kind of dumb thing we did was order some steamed rice when we were almost done our food. They served it to us in a huge bowl, and that huge bowl came out to $8. Which I guess is reasonable if you charge $1 per person for some rice. But, it was just bad timing on our part.

One thing that annoyed us with the service is that they kept closing the door, and the room was really warm and stuffy. We kept opening it, but when someone would check on us or bring us food, they would shut the door behind them as they left. And we’d just open the door right back up. We told them to not close the door, but maybe they just didn’t hear us. It was also funny because this private room is right by the entrance, and there would always be a person out there with his arms crossed like he was our body guard. But they were just random clubbers that liked to stand infront of our room..

[View with PicLens]

Tsui Hang Village
1193 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 683-6868

***½~ (3.5/5)

I’ve been to Hon’s numerous times, but never the one at Chinatown. Last week, I finally got the chance to go there for a friend’s send-away dinner.

Hon’s Wun Tun House at Chinatown had the same layout as the Hon’s in Richmond and on Robson street, open kitchen and cafeteria style tables and chairs, except it was probably the smallest Hon’s in terms of restaurant space.

We got a ton of dishes, included the very famous Chicken Pot-Stickers. These pot stickers were so greasy but so good. I like to douse mine with a lot of the vinegary sauce that it comes with. It somehow makes it taste less greasy.

I don’t think I disliked any of the dishes there, like usual. The Honeymoon Fried Rice was my favorite rice dish of the night. I really liked the cream and tomato sauce on top. As for noodles, the House Chow Mien never fails. The noodles just got the right amount of crispiness for the sauce to make it soft after a while.

I also really liked the Lemon Chicken. Fried chicken with sweet and tangy lemon sauce, it was so tasty with rice. One dish I never had before was the Black Cod in Hot Pot. It had pieces of deep fried black cod fillet with vegetables, it was also really good with rice.

Hon’s will always be one of my favorite place for comforting Chinese food. The service is always friendly.  Eating there is one of my guilty pleasures. So yummy, and so greasy too! The portion size is always big for its value, I don’t think I’ve ever walked out of Hon’s without a food coma, how can I not?

[View with PicLens]

Hon’s Wun Tun House (Chinatown)
268 Keefer St
Vancouver, BC V6A
(604) 688-0871
www.hons.ca

****~ (4/5)

If you want or wonder about Chinese comfort food, Congee Noodle House can offer you that. I used to come here a lot after a long day or night of studying, and it has since been one of my favorite places to get congee.

This was a place you can always count on for late night dinner. My friends and I were starving after watching a para-Olympics sledge hockey game, and after our first restaurant choice closed at 9pm, we came here. Congee was one of the items you almost have to get here, because it’s just so yummy. We ended up ordering a large Fish Congee, Chinese Donuts, Salt & Peppery Shrimp, Snow Peas & Chicken in XO sauce, and Chicken Fried Noodles in Black Bean Sauce.

The Fish Congee was great. It was loaded with fish fillets, green onions, and some peanuts on the top. The tiny ginger slices in there was really nice to contrast the taste of the fish, and it was a refreshing component to the congee too. The texture was creamy, it really took no effort to eat. We always get a plate of Chinese Donuts to eat with the congee. The Chinese donuts here were doughy rather than crispy. I like to soak them in my congee before eating them, but they were also good by themselves.

The rest of the dishes we ordered were good too, but not nearly as good as the congees here. We were here just past 9:30pm, and that was just in time for their late night specials. There were a lot of items on the late night special menu, but mostly beef dishes. The late night special dishes ranges from $6.50 – $7.50 dollars. Our Snow Peas & Chicken in XO sauce and Salt & Peppery Shrimp were late night special items.

Part of the reason for their cheaper prices was the dishes came in smaller portions. I’m not sure if it’s really cheaper than regular prices, but generally this is a cheap place to eat at.

Every time I eat here I feel so satisfied and comforted after that I just want to crawl into bed. Trust me, that’s a fantastic feeling when are you feeling especially tired.

Note: Limited Free Parking at the back of the restaurant. Cash Only!

[View with PicLens]

Congee Noodle House
141 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5T
(604) 879-8221

****½ (4.5/5)

Last week I went to Beefy Beef Noodles for lunch. I’ve never been here before, but the name in both English and Chinese sounded really familiar to me for some reason.

Beefy Beef Noodles is a Taiwanese restaurant, specializes in beef noodles. The menu has a large selection from appetizers, hotpot, noodles and rice. I got the Spicy Beef Brisket Noodles ($6.5o) and 2 appetizers Deep fried Tofu with Taiwanese Kimchi ($6.50) and Beef Pancake Rolls ($5.50).

The food came not too long after I ordered, and it was huge! When the noodles hit my table, it smelled soo goood. The authenticity of the appearance was 5/5 . The broth was dark, topped with 5 slices of thick beef briskets, vegetables, preserved vegetables, and on top a layer of red hot chili oil. I liked this bowl of noodles already.

While the broth was dark, and it looked like it should have a strong flavor, it was actually quite subtle. It had a really nice flavor from the spices, and it wasn’t salty. The beef briskets were really thick, and tender. The noodles were my favorite. They were cooked al-dante with a little bit to it, it tasted home made, and it was cooked perfectly, really really good.

There was a lot of food in that bowl of noodles. I only managed to finish half even though I kept picking at it. I had to take the rest home, but I didn’t mind eating it for dinner again.

Alright, the noodle was pretty good, but here’s the true test, the appetizers. Although Taiwanese people categorize some dishes as ‘appetizers’, most likely you’re not supposed to eat them as appetizers. You eat them as a side dish while you’re eating the main. That’s why I didn’t write about the them first.

The Deep fried Tofu with Taiwanese Kimchi was really yummy. The tofus were really soft on the inside, and it was topped with garlic soy sauce. The kimchi was really authentic. It was nice and vinegary, cold, and the veggies were crunchy as they should be. It tasted exactly like what you would get in Taiwan. Eat the cold kimchi and the hot tofu all together, heaven.

I always get the Beef Pancake Roll when I visit a new Taiwanese restaurant. If it’s on the menu, I’d order it. I LOVE beef pancake rolls, and sadly, I could never find good ones here in Vancouver… until now!

They have the best beef pancake rolls. It had all the correct ingredients. The green onion pancake was fluffy, flaky, soft and crispy on the outside. The beef had the right seasoning, the green onion, and the sauce, everything all together was so, glorious. Seriously, you should come here for this.

This place is pretty popular, the restaurant was quickly filled during lunch hours.

The staff here was slow on the service, and kind of stupid for mixing up my take out with my friend’s. At least they were friendly. The restaurant was clean, and neat.  I’d definitely come back again. Good food trumps stupid waiters. And it is cheap! This is already my favorite place for Taiwanese food in metro Vancouver.

[View with PicLens]

Beefy Beef Noodles
4063 Main Street
Vancouver, BC V5V
(604) 568-6821
http://www.jynoodle.com/evancouver.html

*½~~~ (1.5/5)

Wild Rice is located downtown, right by the Tinseltown movie theatre.  They claim to offer modern Chinese cuisine while being socially responsible; taking part in the Ocean Wise program and Green Table network.  Having received an honourable mention in the Best Other Asian category of the 2009 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, you’d assume that would have some pretty darn tasty food.  Sadly, I was quite disappointed when I went there for my first time in mid December 2009.

My companion and I decided to start with the Hot & sour soup, with tofu substitution ($7).  When the soup came, I was a bit surprised by the look of it; not exactly what I was expecting.  I decided to put the looks aside and give it a try.  I was quite surprised by how bland this soup was.  It tasted like the chef had made a mistake in making it and forgot to add something very key; salt perhaps?  The soup was neither hot nor sour.  I call false advertising!

One of our entrees was the Spicy Kung Po Chicken with Twice Cooked Peanuts ($18); we had this with tofu substituted in place of the chicken.  I must say that the very best part of this dish was the peanuts; I love nuts!  While the dish wasn’t very spicy in my books, my companion found it to be quite spicy.  To me this dish seemed to be lacking something in the flavor department.  Without the peanuts it would have been a total loss for me.  Go double-roasting!

Our second entrée was the Bhudda’s Noodles ($16).  These were some of the most bland noodles I’ve ever had.  I had to play the “Find the snowpea” game; I only found one in the entire dish.  This is an extremely simple dish with an extremely bland taste.  I can’t imagine finishing a whole bowl by itself; it desperately needs flavour.

Wild Rice does a better job when it comes to quality of tableware than they do with the taste of their food.  The chop sticks that they provide are of good quality and feel smooth to the touch.  The knives and forks felt like they were of decent quality as well and had a good weight to them.  Their napkin was nice and thick.  I’m trying to think of things I liked about this place, it’s not easy, can you tell?

The service was passable.  The waitresses were attentive enough, though they did seem to want to mingle amongst themselves more than they wanted to tend to tables.

If I had to describe the food in this restaurant with one word, it would without a doubt be “bland”.  I won’t ever return to this location and am quite surprised that they’re still in business.  Most everybody that I spoke with about this restaurant after my experience said that they’d once been there and wouldn’t return either.

The full Wild Rice menu with descriptions and pricing can be found on their website.

[View with PicLens]

Wild Rice
117 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC  V6B 1S4
CANADA

Tel: 604-642-2882
Fax:  604-642-6778
http://www.wildricevancouver.com/

***½~ (3.5/5)

I visited Tsui Woo Seafood Restaurant for the first time last year for dim sum, and it quickly became my regular dim sum place. The funny thing is, I never knew the name of this restaurant until now. I’ve always refer to it as the place on Broadway and Nanaimo with the green awning. This place is very busy, they do not take reservations, and on a typical Sunday brunch time, the wait could range from 20 – 40 mins.

Anyways, this place has a good selection of dim sum, averaging $2.50 per dish. You can easily walk away with a full stomach for under $15 dollars. The food is delicious. They have the usual shrimp dumplings, and shumai, which were fresh, and came in good portion sizes. One thing I recommend is the Salt & Peppery Squid. It is deep fried squid top with awesome, awesome salt & hot green peppers; very very tasty. My friends are also very into their crab balls. They are basically 2 giant deep fried shrimp and crab meat balls wrapped on a small crab claw, served with a side of sweet dipping sauce.

For dessert, they probably have the best mango pudding in all restaurants. It is a must get item whenever I visit. And another dessert worth a note is their egg tarts. The egg tarts are in good bite sizes, and they have very buttery flaky crusts. Do not leave the restaurant without these desserts.

As for their services, this is a Chinese restaurant, so, do not expect good services. And by that I don’t mean the servers are rude, because they are actually really nice. It is just hard to flag them, since the restaurant is so busy, and they always seem under staffed. Given that, you cannot be shy to flag the waitresses, otherwise they will never see you. And once you do get their attention, they will get you what you need with a good attitude.

Note: Cash only!

3.5 stars, thumb up!

[View with PicLens]