DB Bistro (Dinner) & True Confections

For my birthday dinner, I decided to go to DB Bistro for dinner and then to True Confections for dessert! I decided on DB because it is my favourite restaurant and the food there is always good! The one down side in going in a large group is that they charge a 20% gratuity for groups larger than 8... I had about 11 people in my party, so the 20% was automatically added on. The service was good and attentive so paying the 20% wasn't so bad.

For my dinner, the table that was reserved for my group was the table tucked away in the corner right by the wine racks. It was a nice spot that was semi separated from the rest of the dining area. After everyone arrived, we ordered some drinks and looked through the menu.

Cocktails Menu

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Sushi Oyama

For my friend's surprise engagement dinner, we all decided to go to Sushi Oyama in Burnaby for some Japanese food. The restaurant is located on Kingsway (near Metrowtown) and is in some sort of house. I believe it used to be a house, then funeral home, Korean restaurant and then Japanese restaurant.

The restaurant is usually busy and reservations are usually a good idea. My friend made a reservation for 9 people and the great thing is that they do not charge gratuity for large groups! When I arrived, I was greeted quickly and was brought to the table. The table was located upstairs! I didn't know they had an upstairs area. The table was located in a small room and had just enough room to fit 9 people comfortably. Since it was upstairs, there was also a phone inside the room where we could use to get a hold of a waitress. But we didn't use the phone since the waitress kept coming up and checking on us. Great service!

Now onto the food!

Salmon Nigiri

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East Fusion Food

As long as I can remember, Tinseltown has been a relatively dead mall. Not much shops besides a movie theatre, a food court and a couple of restaurants. I didn't know that there was a Chinese restaurant on the main floor of the mall! My boyfriend and I decided to go to East Fusion Food since we were planning on watching a movie after dinner.

When we arrived, there was a fair amount of people inside the restaurant. But we were seated quickly. We sat down and they gave us these huge menus to look through. There were a lot of dishes to choose from! Appetizers, seafood dishes, chicken dishes, beef dishes, pork dishes, veggie dishes, rice dishes, fried noodle dishes and a variety of soup noodles. The menu was really vast and it took us a while to figure out what to order. The items on the menu reminded me of the dishes that you can order from a congee/noodle place. I wouldn't call this place fusion... It's more of a Chinese place.

After looking through all the dishes and debating what to eat, we decided to order the combo that they offer: Any 2 entree dishes and it comes with soup, rice and free chicken for $24. We ordered the Garlic Gai-lan and Tofu with Cod Filets, Pork & Mushrooms. We were about to order an additional noodle dish until the waitress reminded us that the combo comes with rice and soup! It was a good thing that she mentioned it cause we just glazed over the rice and soup!

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Viet Sub & Beard Papa's

With only $7 in my pocket, I didn't know what I could eat for lunch... and finding a place where I can buy lunch for less than $10 downtown is quite rare. After much thinking, I remembered Viet Sub. It's a small (really small) hole in the wall sandwiched between the Beard Papa's and Kushi Box on Robson. They serve a variety of Vietnamese subs, pho and salad rolls. It's a place where you can get lunch for under $10! The salad rolls are about $2.75, subs range from $3.25 - $4.25 and pho for $6.45.

My co-worker and I ventured out from Yaletown to Robson street. It was really busy when we arrived. After placing our orders, there was barely enough room to stand inside. I ordered the Veggie Sub and a Shrimp Salad Roll.

While waiting for our orders, I saw a sign posted where if you bring your receipt into Beard Papa's, you get 10% off! Wanting some cream puffs too, I asked for my receipt.

Veggie Sub

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Holiday Baking

It's this time of year again where I bake loads of stuff. This year I made gingerbread in the shape of bears = gingerbears, shortbread, peppermint shortbread, chocolate chip cookies, and almond cranberry biscotti.

 Bear Shaped Gingerbread

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DB Bistro - Brunch

We've been to DB Bistro many times for brunch, but have yet to blog about it, so last Saturday we decided to rectify that and headed over to West Broadway.  The restaurant was decently busy, but we got a table immediately and got coffee.

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Italian Kitchen - Brunch

I love sleeping in on the weekends whenever I get a chance <3 I woke up this weekend and called my boyfriend to find out where we were going for brunch. After thinking for a bit, we decided to try Italian Kitchen for brunch since I still have a Glowbal Group gift certificate and also we haven't tried the brunch there yet.

We arrived at the restaurant and I realized that I have forgotten to bring one of the free teaser cards... We walked through the doors and were greeted enthusiastically and seated right away. I ordered a coffee and we looked through the menus.

Americano

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Refuel

I've wanted to try Refuel's famouse Polderside fried chicken for awhile now, so when we found ourselves on a Friday night without dinner plans, this seemed like the obvious solution given that it's only available on Fridays.  

 We were seated immediately even though we arrived without reservations.  

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Yaletown Brew Pub

My co-workers and I decided to go to the Yaletown Brew Pub for lunch this week since it was close by and also because our manager raved about how the feature burger he ate there was the best burger he ever had. In his words, "This is so f[beep]ing good!". He said that if we were ever going to try it, we must try it with the bacon and egg.

We all headed downstairs to the restaurant and were seated right away. We all knew what we were going to order, the Brewer's Burger with the bacon and egg. I had fries with my burger while my co-workers had onion rings. I must say that this is one pricey burger! $15.99 for the burger and an additional $3 for the bacon and egg and another $3 for onion rings.

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Mr. Kumpir

Mr. Kumpir is a chain restaurant that started in Turkey.  From what I remember reading awhile ago, 'Kumpir' means potato in Turkish, and this is the first North American location.  Mr. Kumpir specializes in stuffed baked potatoes, although they also serve hot dogs, fries, and poutine.  You may think that a baked potato is not enough for a meal, but these potatoes are incredibly filling!  First they scoop out the insides and mix them with cheese and butter.  Then they add the toppings.  Being that it's a Turkish chain, I went for the Turkish baked potato which has beef sausage (really sliced beef hot dog), kisir, russian salad (which seems to contain sliced pickles, peas, and more sliced hot dog), turkish salad (which looks like potato salad) and black olives.

This thing is huge!

I snapped these pics quickly with my iPhone 4, and then began to eat.  The combination of all those ingredients might seem strange, but the end result is actually pretty tasty with the kisir giving it some heat.  I would liken eating this to eating a brick, as I was getting pretty full by the time I was half way through.  In the end, I couldn't finish it, which was rare for me.

Overall Impressions:  If you're really hungry, I'd definitely suggest Mr. Kumpir.  For $6.25, you can get a tasty stuffed baked potato that will leave you feeling extremely full.

Mr. Kumpir

1162 Denman Street

Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604.568.8655

http://www.mrkumpir.com/ 

Tropika

The girlfriend has long preferred Tropika to Vancouver's other predominant Malaysian restaurant, Banana Leaf, and as I had only tried the latter, we'd been looking for an opportunity to correct that.  We visited the location on Robson, and after climbing the stairs, were greeted and seated immediately.  

We decided to start with some Roti Canai.  The bread was soft and chewy, yet slightly flaky, and the curry dipping sauce was very delicious, having just the right amount of spice.  This was a great start to the night. This was at least as good as Banana Leaf's version.

Roti Canai (Malay Bread)

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Corner Suite Bistro De Luxe

I've always walked by this little blue bistro sitting on the corner of Thurlow and Haro and wondered how the food is there. I've heard mixed reviews about this restaurant and was curious to try it myself. On a Saturday morning, my boyfriend and I decided to try the brunch there. When we got to the restaurant, we saw it was quite empty. We hesitated for a bit before deciding to enter into the restaurant. We saw that there were only 1 other table at the restaurant. I found that a bit strange as most brunch places I've been to on a Saturday morning/afternoon have quite a bit of people.

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Flying Tiger

I won a $75 gift card to Flying Tiger through a Tourism Vancouver Dine Out Vancouver Facebook contest.   They serve pan-Asian street food, and the menu looked enticing so we decided to try it out.

The restaurant is very modern looking, with dark finishes and an open kitchen.  We were greeted and seated immediately upon arriving.

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Romer's Burger Bar

I had a friend who was back in Vancouver for a visit and he really really wanted a burger because he hasn't had a good burger since he left for China. I've seen Romer's Burger Bar on West 4th and was curious to try it. The steak house, Pinky's, used to be at the location that Romer's is at currently. I've never gotten a chance to try Pinky's before they closed all their locations =( I'm guessing it wasn't that good if both their locations closed.

At Romer's Burger, they serve all natural Angus beef, Fraser Valley pork, turkey, free-range chicken or wild salmon all grilled on a flat-top, served on a brioche bun with pepperoncinis and olives on the side. When ordering at Romer's, the price you see is just the price of the burger. You will need to order your sides separately. They have a variety of sides and salads that you can choose from. One side of fries is enough for 2 people to share if you also order a side salad.

Magic Mushroom Burger with Organic Roasted Baby Beets Salad

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Beefy Beef Noodle

With a name Beefy Beef Noodle and giant letters advertising salty peppery chicken, it is one bubble tea place that was calling my name. A few of my friends and I decided to go there for dinner one night. Not knowing what to eat (which is always our dilemma), we just decided to try Beefy Beef Noodle.

Beefy Beef Noodle is owned by the same people who run No. 1 Beef Noodle House in Burnaby. I often went to No. 1 Beef Noodle House for lunch when I worked out in Burnaby and really liked the food there. I was curious about their sister restaurant.

Strawberry Slush & Peach Calpis

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Trattoria

After trying the Spaghetti and Meatballs at Italian Kitchen, we decided to go to the other Italian restaurant owned by the Glowbal group, Trattoria, to compare.  We went on a Tuesday, as all of their pastas are $10 on Tuesday with the exception of the lobster one.  Like all Glowbal groups, the noise level is fairly excessive, but the open kitchen makes up for it.

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Meat & Bread

Newly opened, Meat & Bread is a sandwich shop located in Gastown (right by Cambie and Hastings area) that serves exactly what their name says! Meat and bread. Mmm tasty combination. On their menu, they have a selection of hot sandwiches and also soups.

I've been hearing about their porchetta sandwich and how it is a must try when going there. Porchetta is Italian of origin and is a boneless roasted pork loin usually stuffed/rolled in a mixture of herbs.

Sitting at my desk at work with lunch hour looming around the corner and not knowing what to eat... I thought about Meat & Bread and decided to venture out there with a co-worker. We arrived around 12:30pm and the restaurant was packed full of people. We got in line and looked at the menu. I knew exactly what I wanted, a Porchetta Sandwich. My co-worker ordered the Meatball Sandwich. While standing in line, I saw the pork loin, the crispy skin and the perfectly rectangular cibatta bread... I couldn't wait to try the sandwich.

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ShuRaku Sake Bar & Bistro

ShuRaku = "enjoyment of sake".

ShuRaku is a sushi izakaya with an extensive list of sake located on Granville street. What makes this izakaya different from others is that they offer a wide selection of sushi along with the tapas. When we arrived, we were greeted and got a choice of either sitting at the sushi bar or at a table. We opted to sit at the table. Even though sitting at the sushi bar would have been nice too as you can see all the chefs work. Horray for open kitchens =)

We ordered some Genmaicha tea (roasted brown rice & green tea) and took a look at the menu. It took us a while to decide what we wanted to eat as we are indecisive most of the time. There is only so much food 2 people can eat! And it's tough to decide what to try at a restaurant we've haven't been to before. We decided to order 2 hot dishes, 2 signature rolls and some nigiri sushi.

Genmaicha Tea

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Goldfish Pacific Kitchen - Taste of Yaletown

We went to Goldfish to for their Taste of Yaletown menu. I've been to Goldfish before and I really like the food and atmosphere there. The food is always well executed and it's a very chic, modern and trendy restaurant. The dining room is sizeable and the lounge is a great place to hang out and get drinks. This restaurant is one of the few that I think does fusion very well.

For the Taste of Yaletown, they offer a $35 set-menu where you get to choose 1 appetizer, 1 entree and 1 dessert from a selection of 3. On the menu, the appetizers that you can choose between are a tuna ceviche, papya salad or king crab tempura. For the mains, a salmon, prawn gomiti, or bison. And finally dessert, creme brule, almond cheesecake or chocolate lava cake.

For the appetizers, we ordered the tuna ceviche and the king crab tempera. Our server recommended that we should get 2 orders of the king crab tempura as it was really good and that you can't have just one. Sounded tempting, but we decided to just order different dishes so we can try all of it. For the entrees we ordered the salmon and bison. Our server also recommended the bacon fried rice with the quail egg as a side. We decided to get a 1/2 order of it to accompany our mains. And finally for dessert, the creme brule and the chocolate lava cake.

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Italian Kitchen

Armed with a couple of the very common Glowbal group vouchers, one for a free teaser and one for a free main course when you buy two mains and two appies, we decided to head to Italian Kitchen.  We'd been there once before and received poor service, but the food was good so we decided to give them a second chance.  Upon arriving, we were promptly seated and greeted with glasses of water.  The waiter was friendly and overall, the service was much better this time around.

We started with our teasers - the typical meatball teasers that are given out at Glowbal and Trattoria.  They are always good.

Meatball Teaser

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Gyoza King

Gyoza King is a Japanese izakaya which is a restaurant that serves drinks and tapa style dishes that are meant to be shared. Gyoza King is well known for their hand made gyoza. I really like the gyoza there and I think they are well made.

The restaurant is relatively small and cozy. They get pretty busy there during Fridays and weekends. So if you go during dinner hours, expect a wait. When we went, we went relatively early and didn't have to wait in line. For 2 people going, ordering 6 dishes is usually enough food.

Ebinara Gyoza (Prawn Gyoza)

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YEW Restaurant + Bar

We went to YEW for some drinks for a friend's birthday. The restaurant + bar is located inside the Four Seasons Hotel Downtown. The decor there is hip and modern and the wood inside the restaurant really adds character. It's a place where people can have a few drinks and hang out. It isn't too loud in there (which I like) because most of the time at lounges, it gets too loud and you can barely hear the other person talk.

We ordered some cocktails and appetizers. The cocktails menu will change from time to time and there are a lot of cocktails/drinks to choose from. The cocktails there are unique and I haven't seen any of them at any other restaurant before.

Chocolate Dream Martini

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Paul's Place Omelettery

Paul's Omelettery is a place to be if you're craving a well made omelette. The omelettes are light, fluffy and delicious. Made from 3 eggs and a 3 cheese blend of cheddar, edam and cream cheese. The one thing I'm not a fan of is the service. The service there is a hit or miss. One time we went, we received great service. Greeted and seated right away and the waitress was friendly. The second time we went, we were ignored. We waited at the door for 10 minutes and no one even made eye contact. We left that time.

We ordered 2 omelettes and some pancakes! All omelettes come with some fruit and multigrain toast. For an extra $1.50, you can add some pan fries.

The 1306

A mixture of Shiitake, Oyster and Button Mushrooms

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day!

Yesterday my friends and I had a huge Thanksgiving dinner. It was a potluck style dinner where everyone brought a dish to accompany the turkey that the guys made. There was a large assortment of dishes: broccoli casserole, mac n cheese, roasted veggies, baked potatoes, carrot & turnip mash, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, candied yams, caprese salad, brussels sprouts and of course, the turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. It was a lot of food! And for dessert, pumpkin pie and apple pie!

Before shot (A lot of food!)

Why blog about this? Well, it's food, it's Thanksgiving (and who doesn't like turkey?) and I also made food. I made the candied yams and apple pie. See more after the cut!

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Hidden

Hidden restaurant is located inside the Westin Grand and is a tasting bar and lounge. It's a place where people can sit down and share a bite to eat. The food they have there is comfort food with a "modern twist". The great thing about Hidden is that they use local ingredients. Local = Good =)

I went to Hidden during the summer and at that time, I haven't started my blog yet. So this entry will be some of my backlog from the summer. After looking through my camera, I realized that I had a bunch of food photos and that I have yet to put up =)

We ordered 4 dishes and a dessert. I liked all the dishes we ordered and it was enough food for the 4 of us.

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PHAT Sandwich

PHAT: Pretty Hot And Tasty. I didn't know that was what it stood for. I always thought it was a play on words... PHAT = Fat = Big Sandwich.

PHAT Sandwich is located in Yaletown and is one of the few sandwich places that serve Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwiches. I ordered their Skinny Hot Montreal Smoked Meat on Marble Rye ($7.99) and my co-worker ordered the Skinny Reuben Sandwich on Marble Rye ($9.99). For an extra $2, you can upgrade your sandwich a larger size or PHAT size which will have more meat. Mmmm extra meat. 

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Glowbal Grill Steaks & Satay

This weekend, we went to Glowbal Grill Steaks and Satay twice! I actually forgot that I've made reservations for Sunday dinner and we ended up going there on Saturday for brunch!

Every Sunday, Glowbal has a special promotion on their prime rib. For $24, you get a 10oz prime rib, yorkshire pudding, organic arugula heirloom tomato salad and a side of poutine! It's a pretty good deal! And another great thing is that I have a card for a Free Teaser at any of the Glowbal group restaurants. I brought this card to both brunch and dinner!

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Sciué

Scuié, pronounced "Shoe-eh" is slang for "good and fast". Good, yes. Fast, not so much as there were a lot of people lined up there for lunch. I'm pretty sure if there wasn't so many people, it would be fast!

Scuié is an Italian café located downtown that serves flat bread pizza, pasta, sandwiches, coffee and pastries. The pizza there is soooo good! The pizza here isn't sold by "slice" but by weight. You tell them how big of a piece you want and they will cut a piece, weight it and then tell you how much to pay. I'm not sure how much they charge per gram or kilogram as I didn't see the scale when they weighed the pizza. But we paid about $21 for 3 slices.

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Taste of Yaletown 2010 - October 13 - 31

Taste of Yaletown is a yearly event where restaurants in Yaletown offer a 3-course prix-fixe tasting menu of $25, $35 or $45. A portion of the profits will be donated to the Vancouver Food Bank. Why not help out and enjoy great food at the same time! This year, the event runs from October 13th - 31st and restaurants are already taking reservations.

There are 25 restaurants participating this year:

- Bistro Sakana: $35
- Brix Restaurant Wine & Bar: $35
- Cactus Club: $35
- Capones Restaurant & Live Jazz Club: $35 or $45
- Charm Modern Thai: $25
- Earls: $35
- George Ultra Lounge: $25
- Glowbal Grill & Satay: $45
- Goldfish Pacific Kitchen: $35
- Hamilton Street Grill: $25 or $35
- Hapa Izakaya Yaletown: $25 or $35
- Hub Restaurant & Lounge: $25
- Hurricane Grill: $25
- Milestones: $25
- One Hundred Days: $35
- Provence Marinaside: $35
- r.t.l: $35
- Rodney's Oyster House: $45
- Section (3): $25
- Simply Thai: $25 or $35
- Society Dining Lounge: $25
- Sweeney's of Yaletown: $35
- The Keg Yaletown: $35
- Urban Thai Bistro: $25
- Yaletown Brewing Co.: $35

Menus for the restaurants can be found here:
http://yaletowninfo.com/events/taste-of-yaletown/menus/

After looking through all the menus, the one place that I really want to go to is Goldfish Pacific Kitchen. I think this is the only restaurant that I will be going to this time.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

I realized that I've been eating a lot of noodles and going on a noodle craze lately.

The next noodle/ramen shop is Santouka on Robson. I've been to Santouka a couple of times but never really think about going there since I always default to Kintaro for ramen. But this time, I didn't feel like anything too heavy and thought about Santouka since their broth there is lighter and less greasy than Kintaro.

Another reason why I don't frequent Santouka is that the prices for their ramen there is slightly higher than most ramen places. It ranges about $10 to $13 for a bowl of ramen, $5 for gyoza and they also charge about $2 extra for corn, an egg or seaweed. The good thing about this place is that there are rice combos where you can add a bowl of salmon, ikura (fish eggs) or cha shu (BBQ Pork) rice to your ramen. The rice combos will run you about $15 per set. And also for $1 more, you can upgrade your ramen to a large size.

We ordered Gyoza, Toroniku Miso Ramen and Cha Shu Miso Ramen.

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Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

I remember walking by this restaurant last year in Aberdeen and seeing the hoards of people lined up outside. I thought to myself that this must be a good Taiwanese beef noodle house. I've been wanting to try this place and finally decided to eat there with a few of my friends. The great thing about going a year later is that I get to avoid the lines!

Chef Hung's noodle restaurants was established in 1995 and he has also won the National Beef Noodle Contest award for 3 consecutive years. The restaurant in Aberdeen is his first North American location to open.

And again.... I forgot my camera. I should always remember to carry my camera with me. But I sometimes forget... So, again, we had to use the Iphone4's camera.

Open kitchen! You can watch the chefs make noodles.

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Kintaro

On a cloudy, cold, rainy Vancouver day, the best thing to eat is a bowl of ramen! In my opinion, Kintaro is the best place to get ramen. The soup there is made from pork and is rich and flavourful. The noodles are just the right consistency and the BBQ pork there is tasty.

Tucked away on Denman street, Kintaro is a relatively small restaurant and going in large groups is not recommended. Arrive early for dinner, before 7pm, to avoid the lines. If you are in line, expect to wait about 15 - 25 minutes.

There are 6 different types of ramen available at Kintaro: Miso, Shio (sea salt), Shoyu (soy sauce), Cheese, BBQ Pork (extra pork!) and Vegetable. First you choose your ramen, second you choose the richness of the broth (rich, medium or light) and then lastly, if you got BBQ pork, you can choose the cut, lean or fat. And the great thing about Kintaro is that everything is made in house. The noodles, broth and pork!

Vats of pork broth simmering away

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La Belle Patate

Fries, gravy and cheese. The best combination ever! Whenever I have the craving for poutine, I would usually get my quick fix from New York Fries. That poutine is okay at best and cannot compare to the poutine that I had in Montreal. Montreal poutine is sooooo good and I was unable to find any here in Vancouver until La Belle Patate opened!

When I saw that La Belle Patate does Montreal style poutine, hot dogs and smoked meat sandwiches, I was excited to try it. The menu there is extensive. 26 different types of poutine, hotdogs, grilled cheese and of course, smoke meat sandwich.

I went to La Belle Patate on 2 separate occasions. The first time I went, we ordered 2 medium poutines: Poutine Extreme (beef, bacon, mushrooms, onions) and Smoked Meat Poutine, and a couple of hotdogs.

Poutine Extreme

Beef, Bacon, Mushroom, Onion

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Bonchaz Bakery

My friend always raves about Bonchaz and how good the pastry buns there are. Every time he talked about it, I would always want one cause it sounds so tasty!

A Bonchaz is a brioche-like bun with a milk filling and a crispy top. It comes in many different flavours: Original with Sea Salt, Banana Walnut, Chocolate Truffle, Apple Cinnamon, and Matcha Green Tea. I decided to try the Matcha Green Tea one and he got the Original with Sea Salt.

The buns were fresh out of the oven and were soft and warm. I like the softness of the bun and the slight crispiness of the topping. There was also plenty of filling in the buns! The Matcha Green Tea Bonchaz filling had a slight green tea taste and wasn't over powering. I really liked the coconut topping that it had. The Original with Sea Salt was also tasty! Over the 2, I think I like the sea salt one better.

Original with Sea Salt

Matcha Green Tea with Coconut Topping

Overall Impressions: I will definitely visit Bonchaz again to try all the other flavours! I really like the softness and crispiness of the buns and how it isn't too sweet.

Bonchaz Bakery

www.bonchaz.ca

426 West Hastings

Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604.626.7215

Japadog - Robson

When I saw that Japadog was opening an actual store back in February, I was excited because walking to the Robson store from my work place would be closer than trekking out to the Burrard and Smithe stand.

One lunch hour, my co-worker and I decided to try out Japadog. The menu at the store is slightly different than the one at the stand. They have the standard Terimayo, Oroshi and Okonomi and also some new hot dogs: Love Meat, Negi Miso, Tonkatsu, Yakiniku Rice and dessert hot dogs! They also have shaken fries on the side and you can choose from a variety of flavours: Aonori (seaweed), Teriyaki, Japa Shio (sea salt), and Butter & Shoyu.

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Empire Chinese Cuisine

It was my mom's 60th birthday over the weekend and we decided to go to the Empire Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Richmond. My mom wanted to go there because they had a special going on for one of their set menus. It's a pretty good deal. $398 for 10 dishes and it includes abalone, shark fin, lobster, squab and dessert. The only catch to this deal is that you can only book a maximum of 2 tables (20 people).

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Pearl Castle (Richmond Centre)

We were wandering around Richmond Centre, and decided to stop in at Pearl Castle for some bubble tea food. The place was pretty busy but we managed to get seated right away.  We had forgotten our camera so we were stuck using my iPhone 4 camera instead.

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Food Cart - ReUp BBQ

In the mood for pulled pork and wanting to sample some of the new cart vendors that have popped up as a result of Vancouver's street food initiative, we decided to head to ReUp Barbecue in front of the Vancouver art gallery.

The line up was pretty long and we ended up waiting for 10 minutes or so before we were able to order. The menu is nice and simple. A pulled pork sandwich will set you back $6 plus HST. You can add a homemade sweet tea or soda for $2 plus HST.

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Dinesty

I had a craving for some Shanghai food and wanted to eat some shanghai buns (xiao long bao) and some beef and green onion pancake. I remember the beef and green onion pancake being really good at Dinesty and wanted to go eat it.

We ventured out to Richmond and made our way to the restaurant. There are a couple of things that I like about this restaurant: 1) The decor and 2) Open kitchen. The decor is modern and well placed. You don't feel crowded when sitting at your table like in most Asian restaurants. With the open kitchen, you can see all the food being made and you know what's coming out of the kitchen.

The restaurant was surprisingly busy for a Monday night! But we were seated quickly and the menus were handed to us. I noticed that the menus were English friendly, being that all items were translated in English. I've been to Shanghai places before where the menus were partially translated. On the Dinesty menus, there are pictures and also a letter/numbering system for each dish which makes ordering easy if you do not speak the language. After debating on which dishes to order, we decided to order 7 small dishes: xiao long bao, vegetable dumplings, shiitake mushrooms wrapped in bean curd, beef and green onion pancake, radish cakes, wine chicken (or drunken chicken), and cucumber with garlic. About 5 minutes after placing our order, the first dish came out which was the xiao long baos.

Xiao Long Bao

The xiao long bao came out hot and exactly like how the dumplings are supposed to be: thin skinned and soupy. The one thing that I didn't quite like was that it tasted a bit greasy.

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First Post - Lumiere!

I love food, I love to eat and I love to share these experiences with everyone.

I figured I'll start my blog off with the best meal that I've eaten to date! That would be at Lumiere. I've always wanted to try Lumiere ever since I've heard about it years ago. Lumiere is a French fine dining restaurant overlooked by Daniel Boulud and run by the youngest Grand Chef, Dale Mackay. There are only 160 Grand Chefs in the world! And who wouldn't want to dine at a restaurant run by one of the 160 talented chefs?

When I finally went, I was blown away by everything. The ambiance, the service, the food, and everything about the dining experience there was wonderful and perfect. The servers were friendly and knowledgeable about the food. Each dish that arrived was explained and any questions we had they all had the answers to.

When arriving at Lumiere, we were promptly greeted and seated. We were the first people in the restaurant and little did we know, we would be close to the last ones to leave. Initially, we were thinking of trying the 3 course Prix Fixe Special. But after browsing through the menu and taking into account of what our server told us about the 9 course Grand Tasting Menu, we opted to try the 9 courses. We figured that since we rarely get the chance to dine here, we might as well try everything! And surprises are always good as the 9 courses would be the Chef's selection. 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts. Each dish that came out was beautifully presented and a work of art.

4 hours and 16 dishes later.... See more after the cut!

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