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/