WE. Coffee

WE. Coffee is a small coffee shop located on Robson right next to Santouka After eating at Santouka, my boyfriend and I decided to go head next door for some coffee and dessert. WE coffee has a variety of different coffees, teas, and waffles! We were quite full, but decided to go anyway :) One word of warning... do not go there if you just had a big dinner. The portions are quite large...

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Lumiere, One Last Time

As you may have read in our very first blog post, back in August we had what ended up being the best meal of our lives at Lumiere.  When we heard the news that it, along with its sister restaurant DB Bistro were closing, we were extremely saddened at the prospect of never being able to dine there again.  We immediately made reservations to have one last dinner there to see if we could recapture our experience.  The verdict: not quite.  But I don't know if that first meal will ever be topped.  

Food-wise, this actually may have been better overall than last time, but it was busier, and so they were a bit less attentive.  Our first time there, we had the amazing Sommelier Drew Walker check up on us several times.  He was one of the key ingredients to making that such an unparalleled experience.  I have never met anyone in the food service industry that was so pleasant, friendly, and knowledgeable.  As we did not order any wine, we did not really get to chat with him this time, and that was detrimental to our experience. It's pretty incredible that one person could make that much of a difference, but when it comes to Mr. Walker, that is indeed the case.  

One last time

Just like last time, we went with the intention of ordering either the three or five course offerings in order to keep the price down.  Then we started debating on whether or not to add the wine pairings, as I was interested to experience how their selections would enhance their already amazing food.  Neither of us are big drinkers, however, so in the end, we opted to get the seven course menu and skip the wine pairings to make up for the expense.

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Tojo's

I've always wanted to try Tojo's and finally gotten a chance to when my boyfriend surprised me by taking me there for our anniversary! <3

The restaurant is really spacious, modern Japanese decorations and surprisingly not too noisy for the amount of people that was inside. We sat down at our table and looked quickly through the menus. We knew that we wanted to try the omakase (chef's choice). I wished we sat at the bar as it would probably make the experience dining at Tojo's just a bit more special. We also saw Tojo busily working away at the sushi bar. When I took out my camera to take a photo of the restaurant, our waiter came by and asked if I wanted a photo with Tojo. He told me "You want a picture with Tojo? I can take. Go now. Don't be shy". I chuckled to myself before getting up and following the waiter up to the sushi bar where he snapped a photo of Tojo and me. After taking the photo, we placed our orders. We ordered the 5 course omakase ($80 per person). The waiter asked if we had any allergies before leaving to get our teas.

 Tojo's Restaurant Interior

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db Bistro & Lumiere - Closing March 13th

Some sad news today :(

db Bistro and Lumiere will be closing their doors on March 13th, 2011

Unfortunately, they were unable to meet their sales expectations. I will miss these restaurants.

Link to the article:
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Vancouver+Lumiere+Bistro+Moderne+close+after+sales+fall+short/4355680/story.html

The Hermitage

We'd bought a groupon for The Hermitage restaurant just before Christmas.  A few weeks ago, we got an email from them saying The Hermitage was closing and that we had to use our coupon soon, so we made reservations for the night before they closed.  The restaurant had a nice cozy feel to it.  Very home-y.  Located just past Robson and Burrard, it was very easy to get to.  We found out that they're rezoning that area that's pushed back off the street where The Hermitage kept its residence.  However we also found out that they're not closing for good!  They're moving to Main and 27th sometime in April I think.  Anyway, on to the food!

We each had an appetizer, main, and dessert course.  Hers was the Caesar Salad.

Caesar Salad - with garlic parmesan 

croutons and prosciutto chip

This was a pretty standard caesar salad, good but nothing special.

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Cattle Cafe (Burnaby)

I was meeting up a friend in Burnaby for lunch and we decided to go to the Cattle Cafe which was located in the space where Death By Chocolate used to be. Cattle Cafe and Cattle Hot Pot (Richmond) are sister restaurants and owned by the same person. Cattle Cafe is a Hong Kong Style cafe and is known for their noodle selection. There is a large menu with a variety of items where you can customize what type of soup noodles you want to eat. And the portions of the noodles here are huge!

But unfortunately, I wasn't too hungry and my friend isn't much of a noodle person. So we didn't order any soup noodles. I would like to go back and try that one day.

For lunch, I just had a luncheon meat & egg sandwich and chicken wings. I have this strange liking to Spam and egg sandwiches... My boyfriend never understood that. Maybe it's because I grew up eating it and it's comforting and reminds me of my childhood. My friend had the chicken & rice and also the chicken wings.

My sandwich also came with a drink, so I had a hot milk tea.

Hot Milk Tea

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Moderne Burger

We have passed by Moderne Burger several times while heading to D.B. Bistro, and finally had a chance to try it out after a friend invited us to dinner there.  The decor is that of a 50's diner, simple and well lit.  It's a fairly small restaurant, so they won't sit you until your entire party is there.  That meant we had to wait a bit as one of our party was late, but they were really great about it.  In fact, the service here was really fast and friendly.  The guy on the left in the picture below who I assume is the owner, even helped clear our plates and told some amusing horror stories about people trying to park out front of the restaurant after our friend's car was backed into by some idiot lady who couldn't drive.

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Dine Out Vancouver - Five Sails

Our final restaurant for this year's Dine Out Vancouver was Five Sails at the Fairmont Pan Pacific Hotel.  Its elegant decor is complemented with a gorgeous view of Coal Harbor.  

 We were seated promptly and given water and menus.

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Dine Out Vancouver - 100 Days

Our second Dine Out experience together was at 100 Days.  100 Days is a pop-up restaurant located in the OPUS Hotel and is open only for 100 days. When I walked in, my first impression of the decor was: interesting and funky. There was unique graffiti art sprayed over the walls, empty spray paint cans lining the windowsill, and the menu was written on giant chalk boards on the walls with different colour fluorescent lights illuminating them and the room.  The folding chairs give the restaurant a sense of temporary-ness which makes sense given that its time is limited, and I suppose makes it easier to redecorate as they are doing constantly throughout the restaurant's life cycle.  However they are not terribly comfortable to sit on.

We started with cocktails.  They were featuring 3 on their dine out menu, and since there were three of us, we decided to try all of them.

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Dine Out Vancouver - Ouisi Bistro

For Dine Out Vancouver this year, we decided to try three restaurants we'd never been to before.  First up: Ouisi!

There were two bottles of hot sauce on our table.  I'd had Franks Red Hot many times, so I tried the Auntie Bev's Hot Sauce.  It was pretty spicy and lingered for awhile.

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