Last week before we head to Blink 182′s concert we grab a quick bite to eat at Charm Modern Thai.

I didn’t have a good experience on my first visit to Charm Modern Thai a year ago, but words out that they have a new head chef, and with recent positive reviews from other bloggers, I was willing to give them a try again. Also their  2 for 1 appetizer happy hour everyday from 5pm – 6pm, worked out perfect with our concert schedule.

To take advantage of the happy hour we ordered 5 appetizers that included Duck Sticks, Beef Short Ribs, Chicken Wings and Tiger Prawn Satay from their specials menu. I listed 4, but that’s only because the duck sticks were so delicious that we decided to place another order of it shortly after we finished our first.

My favorite appetizer would have to be the Tiger Prawn Satay. 3 fat skewered and grilled prawns came with peanut sauce and a sweet thai sauce. The presentation just screams eat me. The prawns had really nice charred flavor from the grill, very very delicious. This is a what I would come back for.

Another item off their special menu was the Fish Filet. It was deep fried fish filets topped with sweet and sour sauce with garlic, onion, basil, green onions and other herbs. I liked this quite a lot too. Most of the flavors came from the toppings and the flavors were really bold. This was something new for me in terms of thai cuisine.

We also had Chicken Pad Thai and Chicken Panang Curry for mains. Both were really good, you can’t really go wrong with coconut milk based curries, we pretty much cleaned the plates.

The food was much better from my last visit.  We were all happy with our meal this time around.

2 for 1 appetizers at happy hour is a pretty good deal, but you’d just have to remember to get your orders in early as our would-have-been 6th appetizer didn’t make the 6pm mark. I’m glad they picked 5pm to start their happy hour, it’s a reasonable time to as opposed to 3pm or 4pm; because really, who has the time to leave the office at 3pm just for a happy hour snack?

I will be back for those tiger prawns again, and also one of their signature dishes like green tea chicken and pineapple beef.

Charm Modern Thai
1269 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC V6B
(604) 688-9339

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This Monday I was once again invited to a media tasting event, and this time I was invited to Pink Elephant Thai.

At this dinner me and six others got to try 4 appetizers, 8 main courses, and 2 desserts. There was a lot to eat, and there were a lot of memorable dishes.

The first appetizer we got was the Look Tong Tom Moo, pork spare rib soup served with egg nest and steamed rice. I thought this was a perfect appetizer to start the night because the broth both smelled and tasted appetizing and yet not overwhelming. I loved the whole garlic cloves in the soup, the spare rib had fell off the bone meat. Really delicious slow cooked broth.

The Double ‘O’ Lettuce Wrap had oysters and ostrich meat.  The dish was sweet in flavor and I loved the oysters in this dish. It had a nice crispy batter, which added another texture to the dish. It was a good twist to a normal lettuce wrap.

Another good appetizer to get was the Floating Market, and the star of the dish was those spinach tempuras. I’ve never had spinach tempura, they were light, crispy and so good with the sweet and spicy Thai applesauce.

My least favorite appetizer was the Spicy Butterfly Butter Jumbo Tiger Prawn. I guess the name of the dish threw me off a bit, because the dish wasn’t spicy or particularly buttery to me at all.

All the main dishes were family style dishes, and  our first main was the Keang Panang Pla, it was red curry with Salmon. And if I remember correctly this was the Chef’s family dish. I love red curries to begin with, and I loved this dish.

My favorite curry dish was the Coconut Curry with braised ox-tail and pumpkin. This is the curry I would order over and over again, because I love coconut and I love ox-tail. The ox-tail was fell off the bone tender. The curry creamy and and the pumpkin added extra sweetness to the dish. Soo yummy.

Kra Pau Moo was an other dish that was packed with sweet and spicy flavors. It was pork cheek with red chili paste. It was served with mixed vegetables. The pork cheek had really nice BBQ charcoal flavor.

We also had the Pla Salmon Salad. This was a warm salad and again with sweet and spicy flavors. It had some cashew nuts and sliced apples to give the crunchy texture. I really enjoyed the sliced green onions because they gave the salad a good spicy bite.

Just when we thought we were done, we were given 2 desserts to end the meal with. One of them was Vanilla Ice Cream with grilled pineapple and one was sticky rice with fresh mangos and coconut. My favorite was no surprise the sticky rice with coconut, it was the most flavorful of them all, and it just had the right amount of sweetness.

Dinner here was great, and I had a lot of fun eating with 5 other strangers. There was a lot of pink in the restaurant without it being too cutesy. It was a nice modern and fun space to dine in. It looks like an expensive place to eat, but the prices are very reasonably priced at $12 for main, and average of $7 for appetizers.

Thanks Pink Elephant Thai for having us over. I left the restaurant still thinking about that ox-tail curry.

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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.

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Goldfish Pacific Kitchen
1118 Mainland St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 689-8318

http://www.goldfishkitchen.com

The owner of Charm Modern Thai is supposedly the son of the onwer of Urban Thai Bistro just a few steps down Hamilton St. A bit strange that Father and Son are competing against the Thai restaurant market so close to each other. I wonder which one is better. I think Samba’s is also part of their group.

We arrived at the restaurant at about 6:30PM. It wasn’t busy at all, and our group of 5 was quickly seated. Our hostess-slash-server was great. She was very attentive and nice. We ordered our drinks first. I decided on the Phuket Caiprioshka, which has Lychee caiprinha, with Fresh whole lychees muddled with Soho and Vodka. The drink was OK. Not something I have again. Although I love lychee, and there was a lychee on a plastic skewer on top of my drink, the alcohol was too strong, and the straw was pretty much useless as the chunks of lychee clogged the straw. The Lycheetini was a lot better.

We all ordered the 3 course meal for $28.75. You can read Beipas’ review for the stuff they ordered. I had the Charm Neau Carpaccio, Tamarind Duck, Pad Thai, and a Chocolate Chilli Tort. I wanted to try as much as I could because I wasn’t sure how often I’d go back. My main goal was to try Pad Thai because I’ve never had it. But there were so many other options that were appealing that I wanted to order more. As I ordered, I made sure to tell our server that I’m allergic to peanuts. And she passed, none of my food had peanuts in it.

As our appetizers came, I was passed my Carpaccio, and saw some brown bits. I got worried a bit, but it turned out it was just fried Garlic. This Carpaccio was great. It has slices of raw beef, and topped with cilantro, chillis, fried garlic and topped with a Thai vinaigrette. I loved every piece of it. The fried garlic wasn’t too overpowering and added a nice little crunch with the bite, and there was just the perfect hint of cilantro. Starting off so well, I was excited for the rest of my meal.

Next came my Tamarind Duck and my Pad Thai. The duck was served on top of a lettuce leaf and the tamarind sauce was drizzled over top. It was served with some vegetables on the side. Now, to me the duck was cooked well, though it was served just warm and cold down fairly quickly. I ordered mine medium rare and it was still a bit red, but that’s OK by me. My friend who also had the duck said that his was tough, but I think mine was cooked perfectly. Anyways, the tamarind sauce was very mild in flavour. I could hardly tell that it was a tamarind sauce. The vegetables however were complete crap. They seemed to be undercooked, and they had a bitter taste to it which I totally didn’t like. The duck, which is the main feature of the dish was good, but this isn’t something I would order agian.

As for the Pad Thai. Well, I was greatly disappointed. It came very dry, and the chicken was dry and overcooked. The noodles didn’t have much sauce to it, and it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting a saucier noodle, with some eggs in it too. What I got was a dry noodle, with some tofu. This has actually turned me off of Pad Thai. Maybe it’s because I waited a bit too long and the sauce was soaked up by the noodles, but I doubt it. I let everyone try some, and they said it’s not supposed to be that dry either. Maybe the crushed peanuts make the dish better? I’ll probably never find out. If this is how Pad Thai is always like here at Charm Modern, do not order it.

Finally for my dessert. It was strange. It came with a hair on the plate. We let our server know, and she apologized and brought me a new plate a few minutes later. OK, that’s not why it was weird. This chocolate chilli tort had I think chilli flakes in it. You’d take a bite of the chocolate, and it would be sweet, then as you swallow the chilli would hit you with some spice. It’s good for a bite or two, but more than that and it’s just annoying. I finished less than half of it. It also came with a fried wonton skin with some sort of sweet red sauce… strawberry perhaps?

To make up for the hair in my dessert, our waitress gave us all a shot of Lychee and vodka with muddled lychee inside. It was pretty good, and a good gesture by her. So in the end, though I was pleased very pleased with my appetizer, it did go down hill from there. Like Beipas said, they started very high, but the food quality kept going lower and lower. Now, I think my food was better than what everyone else had, for the most part, so I’m giving them a 3 out of 5. My bill hit $60 which hurt the wallet a bit because of the extra entrée on top of my 3-course meal. I must stop ordering so much food. Our server was awesome though – Charm Modern if you read this, give the girl who worked on Friday January 8 a raise.

Charm Modern Thai
1269 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC V6B
(604) 688-9339
http://www.charmmodernthai.com/

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Last night I hit up Charm Modern Thai in Yaletown, Vancouver with Dee and a few friends. The restaurant has very nice ambiance, it is dim, modern and clean. However, this place started off strong, then it went down down in the earlier round.

I started off the night with a Sukumvit lycheetini, which was delicious. And coincidentally my other friends also got other lychee drinks. Who doesn’t like lychee? I took a look at the menu and decided to go with the 3 course set dinner ($28.75). Having entrées averaging $18 dollars, the set dinner seemed to be the best value as you also get an appetizer and a dessert. For my 3 course dinner I picked the Tom kha lobster bisque for appetizer, Coconut cream scallops for entrée, and Vanilla bean tapioca for dessert.

The food didn’t take too long to come. The lobster bisque has one small piece of lobster in it. It is sour and spicy. The spiciness was not overwhelming, but it will stay tingling in your month for quite sometime. I didn’t love it, I didn’t dislike it either. I had a bite of my friend’s duck spring rolls appetizer, I would recommend it over the lobster bisque. After the drinks and appetizers we all agreed that we would come back to this place, and we all looked forward to our entées. The star rating at this point was 5/5. But this is when it starts to go downhill…

I was not impressed with my coconut cream scallops. The scallops didn’t taste like they’ve been seasoned at all, the coconut cream sauce was rather bland. It was literally unseasoned seared scallops with bland sauce on top, no variety of flavors going on. Bleh. There were 5 scallops in total, and I started offering them away after 3. My friend’s beef short ribs curry however, was a lot tastier, but it was spicy! The meat is tender, it falls off the bone, and the pineapple in it gives it a variety in taste. Dee also ordered a Pad thai on the side because he’s never had pad thai. I feel bad for his first pad thai experience, because it was really dry and sweet. There were 5 of us sharing it, we didn’t finish it. We were also given rice with our entrées, but I was disappointed that it wasn’t coconut rice. Isn’t coconut rice a standard in Thai restaurants? The star rating for this place has gone from a 5 to a 3 after the entrée. Now we’re skeptical about the dessert.

Ok here’s the desserts, picture time! but wait…, what is that? It’s a hair on Dee’s dessert! Gross. We let the waitress know right away, and she was really apologetic about it, and brought him a new one. Good thing we were taking pictures! Dee ordered a chili chocolate dessert. It was interesting to eat it, because it is very chocolaty, but the after taste is spicy! It’s fun to eat it at first, but after a couple bites, it gets a little too dramatic for your tongue as it goes from sweet! to spicy! back to sweet! back to spicy! My tapioca was pretty good, I think it was probably the best one out of the 3 on the set dinner menu. Do not order the ice cream from the set dinner menu, it is a tamarind and green tea ice cream, and they do not mix well together. The star rating is about 2/5 by this point.

After our dessert the waitress came back and offered us 5 lychee flavored shots to apologize for the hair on Dee’s dessert. That was very nice of her to try to make things right. And the effort earned their star redemption back to 3/5.

We all left with one agreement, Charm Modern Thai is good to come for drinks and appetizers, not so much for other things. The service was excellent, however it all really comes down to how your food taste. And if you’re wondering why it ended up with 2 stars out of 5, well, my friend got food poisoning after. It might have been the beef short ribs, it might have been the duck appetizer. Sucks for him and Charm Modern Thai.  It is not nice to ask your customers to bring their iron stomachs.

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Charm Modern Thai
1269 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC V6B
(604) 688-9339
http://www.charmmodernthai.com/