La Bocca

November 26, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

The next morning at Whistler, we decided to go for our team breakfast before we headed home. This time, we finally got the whole team sitting together. We ended up at La Bocca, which is next to La Brasserie, and they look basically the same. It was confusing to find it when a couple of us were late and were looking for the rest of the group. The place looks pretty diner style, but they don’t just serve breakfast food. It’s also located right in the heart of Whistler Village, so extremely accessible.

Sunrise Breakfast – 2 eggs served any style (sunny-side up) with hashbrowns, strip bacon, breakfast sausage and whole wheat toast

M got the Sunrise Breakfast. He said that it was pretty decent and that he would rate his meal 7/10. That’s pretty good! It looked like a pretty good breakfast since you get a variety of your favourite breakfast foods. I believe he mentioned that the toast wasn’t that great though…

Traditional Benedict – sliced black forest ham, soft poached eggs and homemade citrus hollaindaise on an English muffin, served with hasbrowns

I got the Traditional Bennedict, which was surprisingly really good. I think I had low expectations coming in because I saw that the ratings were terrible on Urbanspoon. The only bad thing about it was the English muffin, because I swear it was so difficult to cut into. If it takes me so much effort to cut into my eggs benny, it doesn’t make me happy! But, other than that, the eggs were poached nicely, and I liked the hollandaise sauce. The hash browns, which were really tater tots, were the best part. They were crispy on the outside and surprisingly weren’t super salty. They were perfect with the ketchup on the side. Overall, it was a pretty good breakfast. And the portion was actually good since I was able to finish all my food and be full, but not overly full. However, I felt that service wasn’t extremely good. The server wasn’t too friendly, and actually seemed a little annoyed by our large group. After getting home and reading the reviews again, I realized that most of the dissatisfaction was based on their dinner or lunch menus. So I’m guessing their actual entree food is probably not too good, but as for breakfast, I thought it was quite decent! Not so much like a tourist trap, like many said.

Earl’s Restaurant & Bar (Whistler)

November 24, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Last weekend, I went to Whistler for a team building/bonding trip for a school club. It was lots of fun and I also encountered the first snowfall of the year at night! And what’s a trip without some food. We had originally sat down in a nice fine dining restaurant, but they only offered a set menu, and some of us really couldn’t choose anything we liked. So embarrassingly, we told our server we would be looking elsewhere…How awkward. The girls ended up ditching and went off to Earls. Yes – from fine dining to Earls. But oh, comfort food made me so much happier. Earls was located on the second level of a building and was located right inside the village.

Roasted Vegetable Quesadilla – chili, garlic and cumin roasted portobello mushrooms, red peppers and zucchini, avocado, melted jalapeno jack and cheddar, crisp flour tortilla, sour cream and house made roasted tomato salsa

There are always enough choices at Earls for everyone to find a dish. I ended up getting the Roasted Vegetable Quesadilla which came with fries. At first, I felt that the portion was quite small, and it almost seemed like an appetizer, even though it was listed as an entrée. However, I actually got really full and couldn’t even finish my fries. The quesadilla was a vegetarian dish, with no chicken, but it was still really tasty. I’m usually a meat person, but I was still really satisfied with it. The cheese was melted nicely and I enjoyed the peppers and zucchini which gave great flavor. It also came with a dip, which I found quite spicy. It was like a roasted tomato salsa and sour cream, which I mixed it up with. You were supposed to dip your quesadilla in it, but I found that the quesadilla already had enough flavor. So I ended up using the dip for the fries instead. The fries, which I was told to be really really good, were true! They were thinly cut, and somehow, they were just fried to a perfect texture. Overall, I was extremely satisfied with my dinner. Across from me, was my friend’s meal, which was a Cajun Chicken Sandwich with Caesar Salad, which I was told was extremely delicious as well.

Service was also typical and friendly. It wasn’t over the top annoying or ignorant, but just enough to make my experience satisfied. Another note is that when I went to the bathroom, I realized that there were a bunch of empty seats in the back. However, they still made us wait 5 minutes, before we were taken to our seats. They clearly want to make an illusion that they are always packed, so they make you wait a short time.

Acme Cafe

September 27, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Americano

Veggie Sandwich – goat cheese, portobello mushroom, peppers, zucchini, sprouts, sun-dried tomato basil mayo. Ciabatta panini grilled; with cup of Curry Lentil

Chicken Club Sandwich – multi-grain, chicken, bacon, aged cheddar, tomato, arugula, sun-dried tomato may and grainy mustard; with cup of Curry Lentil

Shrimp Melt – shrimp, roasted peppers, and onions open faced and topped with Jack cheese. On a half-Ciabatta; with cup of Curry Lentil

High-faultin’ Grilled Cheese – cheddar, swiss, brie, cranberry-Grand Marnier relish. Ciabatta panini grilled; with cup of Curry Lentil

Close up of the High-faultin’ Grilled Cheese!

Mac and Cheese (side)

I barely ever wake up in time for brunch or breakfast, but KT, KC, J and I decided to make that happen. KT suggested to go to Acme Cafe in Gastown, and we tried to get there for their breakfast menu, but of course, we ended up late… So we were only able to order their non-breakfast food. Anyways, Acme Cafe was busy when we got there, but we only waited for perhaps 5 minutes to get a seat. The place is really cute, and reminds me of a vintage diner, yet a little modernized. They also have this seating area which is a semi-circle and you can watch the chefs prepare your food. Pretty cool place in my opinion.

Anyways, everything on the menu sounded delicious, so it was hard for me to choose something. I ended up getting the High-faultin’ Grilled Cheese since I love grilled cheese sandwiches, but this one seemed to be more than just a grilled cheese sandwich. They also had a normal grilled cheese sandwich, but this one was “high-faultin’”. The ciabatta was thin and crispy, with loads of cheese melted so it was stringy, and the unique part of it was that it had a cranberry-Grand Marnier relish. The hint of sourness actually worked really well with it and was a great twist to the normal grilled cheese sandwiches. I also took a bite from the Shrimp Melt, which was really delicious! It was open-faced so a little difficult to eat unless you cut it up, but the shrimp and all the ingredients together made it an excellent light sandwich to eat. Delicious! All the sandwiches also came with your choice of chips, or soup of the day. We all got the soup of the day, which was the Curry Lentil. Surprisingly, it wasn’t super spicy or anything. It just had a hint of curry flavour to it, but it was definitely a hearty soup. I’m not a big fan of lentils, so it was just alright for me. The two boys also got a side of Mac and Cheese, and a I stole a spoon. It was really good! There were loads of cheese. Like LOTS. But it worked well and I loved how the top was baked so it was a little crispy.

Overall, awesome place to grab brunch or even lunch. Service isn’t anything over the top, but was quick and efficient. Check it out!

The Chopped Leaf

September 16, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Caesar (full salad) – Romaine, bacon bits, parmesan & croutons with creamy caesar

Chopped Signature (starter salad) – Romaine, onion, cranberries, feta, roasted pecans & croutons with chopped balsamic

African Spiced Lentil

M came down to join me for lunch during my internship a few weeks ago. Okay, yes my posts are becoming older and older! I just haven’t gotten time to get over all my summer posts. But anyways, I urbanspooned around for a place to eat in downtown, and also a place that served soup, since I was sick and also had my wisdom teeth pulled out. We ended up going to check out The Chopped Leaf, which is a salad, soup and sandwich place that is actually much nicer than a regular cafe. It seemed like a pretty new place, and I liked how you could see some of the chefs preparing the food when you line up.

Unfortunately, the daily soups change all the time, and all of the soups that were featured that day seemed to have some sort of spice. I opted for a Caesar Salad instead, which was quite boring I know. It was presented very nicely with bacon bits and all, and it was quite delicious. I wish there was a little more sauce, and I love my salads with sauce. Totally not healthy… M got the combo of soup and salad and he said they were pretty good as well.

Overall, The Chopped Leaf is a nice place to grab either take out, or a quick lunch or snack. It’s close by on Robson, and had quite a lot working people grabbing lunch. I found that their prices were a little high though, compared to what I could get at an actual restaurant. The prices are pretty much the same, yet I lack the service and ambiance. But oh well, it’s good if you don’t have much time.

Cheesecake Factory (Bellevue)

August 7, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Tropical Iced Tea

Complimentary Bread

Grilled Rib-Eye Steak served with Mashed Potatoes and Onion Rings

Petite Filet served with Fries and Onion Rings– a smaller version of Filet Mignon

Bistro Shrimp Pasta – crispy battered shrimp, fresh mushrooms, tomato and arugula tossed with spaghettini and a basil-garlic lemon cream sauce

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake – raspberry-vanilla cake, creamy lemon cheesecake, raspberry lady fingers and lemon mousse

It seems that my family always ends up going to The Cheesecake Factory whenever we’re in Seattle. Perhaps it’s because it’s the perfect place to go to after a long day of shopping at Bellevue Mall. Cheesecake Factory is always packed around dinner time, so we had to wait for roughly 30 minutes before we got seated. I decided to get the Tropical Iced Tea, but I didn’t realize that American Iced Teas were unsweetened! And so I was left with a rather bland iced tea with hints of fruitiness to it. My parents both got steaks, and the Petit Filet Mignon was exceptional. I stole a bite, and the meat was extremely tender. I also tried an onion ring, and loved the outer batter as it was thin and crispy. And I forgot to mention, that Cheesecake Factory’s portions are absolutely huge, and it is almost impossible for me to finish a plate by myself. And so of course, I decided to share a plate with my sister, who doesn’t eat a lot either. We got the Bistro Shrimp Pasta, which was extremely delicious. I loved the spaghetinni, as it was thinner than normal spaghetti, and the shrimp also had a lovely texture since it was coated with a light batter. The sauce was light and not too creamy, which I liked. My whole family was extremely full by the end of dinner, but who goes to the Cheesecake Factory without getting a slice of cheesecake! Most tables had their cheesecake to go, but since we still had a long ride back to our hotel, and the weather was quite hot, we decided to just stuff ourselves and eat it at the restaurant. We chose a lighter cheesecake since we could not go for something extremely rich at that point, so we got the Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake. The lemon and raspberry gave the cheesecake a lighter taste to it, with its hint of tangy flavour. I especially love their whipped cream, since it’s super light and airy. You can barely even taste the cream in it! So delicious!

I do want to mention, however, that our waitress, Kelly, was one of the worst servers I’ve had. She came by at the beginning to take our orders, dropped off our drinks and food, and asked how our food was tasting once throughout our whole dinner. I’m not the type that likes to be bothered while eating, but it’s a common gesture to come by more than once throughout the dinner. Not to mention, that I asked for a straw for my drink, and she said she would be right back, but no straw ever came back. My parents also had to remind her to bring them steak knives, which was highly unprofessional. It was almost like we had to chase her down to get her attention. But that’s just our server. I’ve definitely had better servers in the past here, so I guess this is just an exception.

Ikea

June 29, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Swedish Meatballs with Pasta – ($1.99 for past + $1.49 for 5 meatballs)

The new Ikea has been opened for a quite a while now, and I always seem to pass by it, but still hadn’t gone to have a look. I finally decided to check it out, and it definitely is much larger. Everything still looks pretty much the same though, except for the huge Ikea Food Service cafeteria. It is actually quite gigantic! There are basically two lineups to get food, and the beginning has desserts, drinks, and such that you can just grab and place on your tray. Then the hot food comes along, and you let the food service people know what you want. Lastly, you lineup at the cash register to pay. And then there is a huge seating area, with different styles of furniture, from children furniture, to couches to more classic furniture. And of course they are all featuring Ikea’s furniture.

So I have always wanted to try their Swedish Meatballs since I see it on those flyers all the time. And they are always advertised so cheap too! I saw the menu saying that I could get a pasta for $1.99 and add 5 meatballs for another $1.49 and decided to get that. To my disappointment, the pasta was horrific. It was hard, and some of the pasta wasn’t even cooked yet. The sauce was good and helped the terrible pasta a bit, but it was still pretty horrible. The meatballs were much better, but not anything amazing. For that price, I guess it’s pretty decent. I’m not sure if I would want to come back for their food again, but I still remember their hot dogs and ice cream that were really delicious and delicious at the old store. I’m not sure if they were at the new store though, since I didn’t seem to see it on the menu.

Richmond Night Market

June 1, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

The Richmond Night Market opened around 2 weeks ago, and I’ve already gone twice! There isn’t much to do in Richmond, so what better than to go take a stroll and grab some food. I ended up going again the second week it opened, and went there on a mission to fill myself up for dinner. Admission is $1, but there’s free parking and quite a huge lot, compared to the $5 parking at the Summer Night Market by Vulcan Way. It gets quite trafficky along the River Rock Casino area though, but they have people patrolling, so it’s not too bad.

Chef James Xin Jiang Man BBQ – Chicken and Lamb Skewers

Any 3 skewers for $6.75 or 5 for $11
We saw that the line up was long, but decided it must’ve been good for it to be so long, so we lined up. Waited for probably at least 15 minutes before we got called for our order, but the girl told us that there weren’t any beef skewers left, and we could either wait a little longer, or just choose another skewer. We ended up choosing another chicken skewer, but I was still pretty disappointed with not getting what I had ordered!
Both Chicken and Lamb Skewers were still really delicious though, with tender meat, and a great flavour. This was probably one of the better stands of the night.

Takoyaki

$5 for 6 mini takoyakis
Probably one of the worse takoyakis I’ve had! It was all dough, with one tiny piece of octopus. The dough felt as though it wasn’t even cooked properly. It was all mushy as you can see from the above picture.

Bakudanyaki – Original Giant Takoyaki

$5 each
Since we were so disappointed with the takoyakis at the last stand, we ended up going to Bakudanyaki to get a Giant Takoyaki. Their poster claimed that there would be squid, cabbage, corn, red ginger, shrimp, rice cake, quail egg, and green onion, which were no lies. The Giant Takoyaki was filled with all these ingredients and the dough was thin and crispy on the outside. Wasn’t mushy like the last stand. I thought the quail egg inside was pretty interesting too!
They had 4 flavours: Original, Curry, Chili, Wasabi

Dim Sum Express

What’s night market without my favourite Curry Fish Balls? There were quite a few Dim Sum stands, but we just ended up at Dim Sum Express since it was close by and there seemed to be quite a crowd too.

Curry Fish Balls

6 for $3.00
Wasn’t anything amazing, and have had better ones before. Not very saucy, and not as spicy as most stands would serve. Spice was just right for me though, since I can’t take spice, but I wish it were a little more saucy.

Shrimp Dumplings

4 for $3.50
Didn’t try this so can’t comment 🙂

I ❤ Tofu – Sweet Taro Cold Tofu Pudding

$3.50 for just Tofu Pudding; add $0.50 for each topping
Smooth tofu and the sweet taro was a good compliment with a bit of chewiness to it. Perfect dessert after all the greasy food.

BBQ Squid

$6 a bowl
Last item I really wanted was the BBQ Squid. We looked around different aisles to find a good place for it, and many had large line ups. We ended up at the stand named BBQ Squid, which seemed to only sell BBQ Squid, and there was quite a large line up, so we assumed it would be good.
This had to be the worse item we had of the night. After waiting around 5 minutes, we got our Squid, which was freshly grilled in front of us. It tasted full of this curry powder that I had saw them sprinkle while grilling, but that was probably the only seasoning they used. The squids were also not cooked properly or not to the type I had wanted. I wanted the squid to be crispy at the ends, but they were totally not. So disappointed and definitely not going back here again. We even ended up throwing more than half of it away since it was so bad!

Ice Cream Churros

$5
Didn’t get a picture of the stand, but it’s the only stand that sells Ice Cream Churros
I had this the first week I went to the night market, and thought that it would be pretty cool. I mean ice cream and churros? I had imagined the ice cream to be inside the churro, but clearly I was thinking too much.
It’s basically 4 churros with a scoop of ice cream, which you can choose the flavour of. I ended up with vanilla ice cream. I have to say it was a disappointment, as I felt that the churros weren’t even cooked fresh. They were pretty hard and seemed like they had sat there for a while. The ice cream just tasted like cheap Safeway ice cream, but I have to say the ice cream was probably the best part of it, which is pretty sad.
Nothing special, and definitely not worth $5!

Bel Cafe

March 26, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Crispy Choux, Orange & Milk Chocolate Ganache

Rose and Raspberry Macaron & Cookies and Cream Macaron

Happy belated International Macaron Day!! And yes, it’s macaron, not macaroon. Honestly, I didn’t really know the difference until sometime late last year after getting all confused and deciding to do some research into it. But what I’m talking about here aren’t the coconut macaroons, but those colourful Parisian desserts that are made with almond flour. And I believe there is a difference in pronunciation too, but I guess most people don’t realize. So yes, International Macaron Day was on March 20th, and honestly, I did not know about this big day until Steph told me. She is clearly the bigger foodie here! So yes, of course we had to celebrate and get some macarons! We wanted to go to Soirette but it was kind of far from where we were, so I did a little googling, and off we went to Bel Cafe. And we discovered it was actually right next to Hawksworth, and is the sister cafe to it! So they are both situated in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. Honestly, I’m not a crazy fan of macarons as I think there are tons of other desserts that are more worthy, but Vancouver has been on a macaron craze these past few years. Everyone talks about them, and I’m no expert to judge which ones are better. The rose and raspberry macaron definitely had a very strong rose taste to it, but I actually didn’t really taste any raspberry flavour. I did like the strong rose flavour though, as I love rose flavoured desserts! The cookies and cream macaron was really good too. You could totally taste the cookies and cream flavour with a strong vanilla flavour as well. Almost tasted like a chewy Oreo! Overall, they had a consistent smooth texture with a little chewiness inside which I like! Next, we also got the Crispy Choux, Orange & Milk Chocolate Ganache. It was basically a cream puff with a strong orange flavour to it. Not bad, but I found the puff a little tough, but I think it was supposed to be the “crispy” part of it. Service was exceptional, and the cafe is extremely busy! We almost couldn’t find a seat and had to go for take out. Busy busy cafe with exceptional desserts and savoury items as well!