John 3:16 Malaysian Delights

February 9, 2016February 8, 20161 Comment

Seeing all the posts about John 3:16 Malaysian Delights and the restaurant being a drive away from my home, I suggested to S that we give it a try on Friday night for dinner. Situated in the strip mall on Buswell next to Dairy Queen, many would pass by not noticing this restaurant.

The interior is very small and decor is quite shabby to be honest. Tacky wallpaper with religious quotes, so definitely not the greatest ambiance.

Roti Canai with Curry Sauce

Although the ambiance may be poor, the food here is of great quality. We started off with the Roti Canai with Curry Sauce which I had heard great things about. It didn’t disappoint as the roti was extremely flaky and buttery. I just wished there was more curry sauce for the two large pieces of roti!

Penang Char Koay Teow

S got the Penang Char Koay Teow and this was amazing! The flat rice noodles were stir fried with shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, Chinese sausage, and fish cake. The flavours were amazing and had that nice “wok” flavour. Very comparable to the ones in Singapore!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

For myself, I chose the Hainanese Chicken Rice. This came with a large portion of flavoured rice, but we still found that the flavours lacked compared to the ones in Singapore. As for the chicken, it was extremely tender and I liked the touch of the fried garlic on top.

Overall, we were very pleased with the quality and flavours of the dishes at this hidden gem. Prices are also very reasonable with most of their entrees around $9. Good for sharing or if you want the whole dish for yourself. Only downside is the poor ambiance and how small the restaurant is. Service is friendly but slightly hard to get attention of since there is really only one girl running the front of the restaurant. They also only take credit card for bills over $30.

Pros:
– Great flavours and quality in dishes
– Reasonable prices and portions

Cons:
– Poor ambiance and very small
– Service is friendly but hard to get attention

Price Range: $10-15/person

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4.5 Service: 2 Ambiance: 1.5 Parking: 3 Overall: 4

Oyster Express

February 8, 2016February 7, 2016Leave a comment

Looking for a place to catch up with my girlfriends, I suggested we go to Oyster Express during their happy hour, which is from 4:30-6:00 on Sundays. There are other happy hour times listed on their website.

Located in Chinatown, the shop is really tiny and fits around 20 diners only. One thing we noticed is that it was very warm inside. We were all sweaty during our meal.

Of course we had to get some oysters here. They serve the oysters with a variety of sauces. There is the basic mignonette sauce, the cocktail sauce, and Tabasco sauce. Then they have their housemade spicy sauce. I didn’t try their housemade sauce but K said it wasn’t that spicy.

Glacier Bay and Kusshi

The oysters on sale for the day during their happy hour were Glacier Bay oysters. They were $1.50 each. Their Kusshi oysters were also on sale that day for $2.50 so we got some of those. The Glacier Bay oysters were rather tiny but still sweet. However, we enjoyed the Kusshis a lot more. Much bigger and plump and very fresh. For the most part, the shucking was pretty good, but we still had a little bit of shell in some oysters.

Manhattan Clam Chowder

Their menu is quite limited, but we did order some items to share. First was the Manhattan Clam Chowder. This was actually a tomato based chowder rather than a white cream. The soup was filled with tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, corn, celery, onions and of course clams. Served with some bread and cracker on the side, we really enjoyed the flavour of this chowder.

Fried Oysters (1/2 order)

The half order of Fried Oysters came with three large oysters which were breaded and deep fried to a golden brown. The oysters were very fresh and the breading was very light.

Steamed Mussels

Lastly, we had the Steamed Mussels, which featured a pound of these sweet and plump mussels steamed in white wine, shallots, tomatoes, garlic, and butter. It came with a side of baguettes but not enough to enjoy the remaining sauce.

Overall, Oyster Express did not disappoint although the oysters can be quite expensive if they are not on sale. They do however have an extensive list of oysters compared to many other restaurants. Service was quite friendly. No reservations unless you have a party of 6 or more, so finding a seat can be difficult at times since it’s a rather small shop.

Pros:
– Oysters are very fresh and good variety
– Other menu items are tasty as well

Cons:
– Really warm inside the restaurant
– Some of our oysters had a bit of shell pieces

Price Range: $20- 30/person

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4 Service: 3 Ambiance: 2.5 Parking: 3.5 Overall: 3.5

Supermarine – Dine Out Vancouver 2016

February 7, 2016Leave a comment

My second Dine Out Vancouver Festival restaurant was at Supermarine, a relatively new restaurant tucked away in Kitsilano in an area I was not even aware of. Located on Yew St and W 1st Ave, the restaurant is quite the hidden gem.

The interior is very small, fitting around 35 diners, with a rustic charm.

Their Dine Out Vancouver Festival menu was $30 so very reasonable, considering we were beyond full by the end of our meal.

Smoked Whitefish

For appetizers, we ended up trying all three choices on the menu. I got the Smoked Whitefish, which was presented a little funky looking with their bottles of homemade hot sauce and creme fraîche served on the plate. On the side were buttered saltines to place your smoked whitefish on. We all really enjoyed this and it reminded me of Fable’s canned tuna.

Crispy Brussels Sprout Salad

SP got the Crispy Brussels Sprout Salad with soy, honey vinaigrette and yogurt. I had a bite and the brussel sprouts were cooked to tender with nice crispy edges. I don’t usually like brussel sprouts, but these were delicious!

Littleneck Clam & Ham Hock Chowder

SK got the Littleneck Clam & Ham Hock Chowder. It comes with oyster crackers and is topped with a green garlic pistou sauce, which is similar to a pesto.

Octopus Chips

We also added on a side of Octopus Chips for around $9. Served in a jar, these were sliced octopus and fingerling potatoes battered and deep fried. A slightly spicy tomato aioli was served alongside for dipping and this made a great snack. The octopus was very tender and potatoes were nice and crispy. Too bad we found that there were way more potatoes than octopus.

Salt Spring Island Mussels

SP and SK both got the Salt Spring Island Mussels for their entree. The mussels came with chorizo, fennel and were cooked in a smoky tomato broth. The mussels were plump and fresh. No empty shells in the bowl! A generous serving alongside with a huge bowl of fries and tartar sauce. The girls could barely make a dent in the fries after finishing the mussels!

Grilled Flat Iron Steak

I sort of wanted the mussels as well, but being a foodie, I had to order something different, so I went for the Grilled Flat Iron Steak. The already sliced steak came on top of a nori potato puree with smoked fingerling potatoes and covered with watercress. The steak was cooked to a beautiful pink medium rare and was very tender. At first I thought the plate looked small, but there were actually a lot of meat and potatoes. Was definitely stuffed by the entree!

Chocolate Semifreddo

For dessert, the girls got the Chocolate Semifreddo. I stole a bite and really enjoyed it! A nice firm chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow, graham crumbs and smoked salt.

Calamansi Lime Curd

For myself, I chose something different again and went for the Calamansi Lime Curd. When I saw it, I was pretty confused at what I had, but it turned out to be a lime curd with whipped ricotta, shortbread crumb, candied citrus and topped with cilantro. The flavours worked very well together with that herb taste coming through from the cilantro. The lime curd was quite sour but when mixed with the sweet ricotta, there was a nice balance. Not bad!

Overall, we were quite impressed with the flavours of the dishes at Supermarine. Prices are also very reasonable and if you enjoy cocktails, they have a great list. Only downside was that our service started out pretty good, but at the end, apparently they had a huge 10 people reservation right after us, so they kept pushing all the diners along one side of the dining table to leave. Felt like the service lacked because of wanting to maximize capacity from Dine Out, so will need to come back on a regular day.

Pros:
– Great portions and reasonable prices
– Flavours in dishes are unique

Cons:
– Service during Dine Out wasn’t very good
– Seating was a bit tight (not sure if it’s like this during regular service)

Price Range: $30/person (DOVF menu)

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4 Service: 3 Ambiance: 3.5 Parking: 3 Overall: 4

Torafuku – Dine Out Vancouver 2016

February 1, 2016February 1, 2016Leave a comment

Our first Dine Out Vancouver for 2016 was at Torafuku. I’ve been wanting to try this new restaurant ever since having a good meal from their sister food truck, Le Tigre. The Dine Out menu was $30 per person.

The interior is minimalist with barely any renovations. There is one long communal table and some booths on the side. We had made reservations early in advance but unfortunately we were still given bar seats. S was quite disappointed since he had wanted a more intimate seating. Bar seating was fun to watch the kitchen, but it definitely wasn’t very comfortable.

Love the wooden plates. Definitely has that hipster ambiance.

Since we were seated at the bar, we got a good view of what was going on in the kitchen.

One Fish, Two Fish

Apparently, we were only allowed to choose one appetizer per two people for the Dine Out menu. We were slightly upset with that since we had already heard that portions would be small. (It did say in fine print at the bottom of the online menu, so my fault for missing that!) Anyways, we chose One Fish, Two Fish. This was a bowl of sashimi salad with salmon, tuna, and geoduck sashimi on top of salad greens and wakame mixed with a sesame dressing. I quite liked this as the mix of seaweed and greens gave a nice texture, but I wish there was more dressing as it was slightly bland. Loved the texture of the geoduck though and the sashimi was quite fresh.

Pickled Cucumber and Radish

While waiting for our entrees, the server brought us a complimentary side dish of Pickled Cucumbers and Radish to share. I enjoyed the pickled flavour and it definitely opened up my stomach for more food.

Call of Duty (CoD)

For my entree, I chose the Call of Duty (CoD). If you go through Torafuku’s menu, they have such witty names! This consisted of crispy ling cod, clams, root veggies, and handmade gnocchi in sake a kumbu broth. The fish was moist and my favourite was the handmade gnocchi. The broth was very flavourful as well and I could’ve had a whole bowl of this. Veggies were slightly undercooked for my preference. Overall, a good dish, but the portion was way too small! The fish was almost half the size of usual portions.

Kare Kare

S got the Kare Kare, which I preferred out of the two entrees. It came with seared beef blade steak, on top of a 3 grain risotto, with pickled veggies, oxtail, and peanut ragu. The flavours were delicious and the beef was cooked to a beautiful medium rare. Again, portions were way too small though. This was more like an appetizer.

J-E-L-L-O

For dessert, the menu online had said we could choose between two options and I had seen pictures of others from the week earlier order the second option. However, our server told us that there was only the J-E-L-L-O that night. Quite disappointed since I wanted to try different desserts. However, the J-E-L-L-O has got to be one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time. It was an oolong infused yuzu jello, with condensed milk ice cream and topped with crispy salted caramel. The dessert was light and refreshing and the milky flavour paired well with the slightly citrus jello. I had nothing to complain about this and could eat this over and over again!

Overall, I was quite pleased with the dishes from the Dine Out menu. However, we both agreed that the portions were way too small! Especially the fact that we had to share an appetizer between the two of us and it still costed $30 per person. Service was also a bit cold. No one really checked up on us. We also ended up having to pay a visit to McDonald’s to fill up. I’m curious to see what it’s like during regular service though and will need to make a revisit to try their regular menu.

Pros:
– Great flavours on Asian-inspired dishes
– Jello dessert was the bomb!

Cons:
– Portions are small
– Seating isn’t very comfortable

Price Range: $30/person (DOVF menu)

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 3.5 Service: 2.5 Ambiance: 2.5 Parking: 3 Overall: 3

Sanpoutei Ramen

January 31, 2016Leave a comment

Sanpoutei Ramen opened up a few weeks ago and has been the talk of the town. Located just between Parker Place and Aberdeen in the new Kam Do Square, they feature Niigata style ramen. They have been having crazy line ups for the past few weeks so I would suggest trying them once the hype has died down if you don’t want to wait. We went on a Friday night around 6pm and luckily only waited around 15 minutes.

In the waiting area, you will find their ramen noodle maker. They make their noodles in house whereas many other ramen shops purchase their noodles.

I think the biggest differentiation of Sanpoutei is how nice and spacious the interior is. Decor is beautiful and you don’t need to be cramped with bar seating in front of a steamy kitchen like many other ramen shops.

Tori x Miso Spicy Ramen

I got the Tori x Miso Spicy Ramen which comes with 2 slices of aburi chashu, half a flavoured soft-boiled egg, stir-fried vegetables and minced chicken for $13. Unfortunately, I think my bowl missed the egg. Their spicy broth is much thicker than the others. The noodles really soaked up the broth so I was left with very little at the end. However, I liked the broth as it had just the right amount of spice level without covering the miso flavour. The noodles are a flat wide wavy type and very different from the usual. If you like chewy noodles, this is perfect for you. I quite liked this change from the usual.

Niigata Shoyu Ramen with Special Full Topping

S went all out and got the Niigata Shoyu Ramen with Special Full Topping for $14.50. This comes with 4 slices of aburi chashu, a full flavoured soft-boiled egg, dried seaweed, bamboo shoots and spinach. I tried the broth and it is definitely very different from your typical pork bone broth. It had a strong fish stock and they mention in their menu that this is from the dried sardines they use. We both agreed that we loved the aburi chashu very much though. It has a very nice char and the ratio of meat to fat is perfect with the fat melting in your mouth. Soft-boiled eggs were pretty good but Marumata’s is still the best.

Deep Fried Spring Chicken with Oroshi Ponzu Sauce

We also got one of their appetizers which were the Deep Fried Spring Chicken with Oroshi Ponzu Sauce. No gyozas here but three choices of fried chicken. The fried chicken itself was very crispy and well made, but the ponzu flavour wasn’t very apparent. For $6, this only came with 4 pieces, so it was pretty pricey.

Tsukemen

On another occasion, K visited Sanpoutei and tried the Tsukemen which she raved, so I might as well include it here. For $12.50, this comes with a flavourful broth of dried sardines and bonito and a side of cold noodles which you dip into the hot broth. It also comes with a full flavoured soft-boiled egg and bamboo shoots. With this menu item, you get 30% more noodles, so perfect for bigger eaters. You also get a jug of wari soup, which is a plain soup stock. Your pour this into the dried sardine soup to finish your noodles.

Overall, I was quite pleased that there is a new addition to ramen choices in Richmond. The style of ramen is quite different so a nice change. However, ramen is on the pricier side starting at around $12 a bowl. Friendly service and nice ambiance.

Pros:
– Quality chashu and noodles
– Beautiful decor and ambiance

Cons:
– On the pricey side for quantity
– Long waits

Price Range: $15/person

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4 Service: 4 Ambiance: 4 Parking: 3.5 Overall: 4

Buckstop

January 21, 2016January 19, 2016Leave a comment

I had won a dinner for two at Buckstop from the 12 Days of Giveaway of Nomss so we headed to the cozy restaurant on Denman on a Friday night. The winning was a Social Shopper voucher for the American BBQ Feast for 2 valued at $59 for the price of $28.

The restaurant is very narrow with a bar at the front. Seating is a bit tight but I loved the ambiance with the dim lighting. Service was alright even though we were using a Social Shopper.

Phillips Blue Buck Ale

On Friday nights, they have select pints for $5. We chose the Phillips Blue Buck Ale since we like lighter beers. I noticed that they ended up charging us $6 (their regular price) but I didn’t want to fuss about the $1 difference since we were already using a Social Shopper voucher.

Fried Dill Pickles

The American Feast for 2 comes with all of the following items I’ll mention. First were the Fried Dill Pickles which was served with a cajun aioli. These were lightly battered and had a nice crunch. I did find them a little too sour but they were good when eaten between the meats.

Hush Puppies & Corn Bread

Next up were the Hush Puppies and Corn Bread which were served with a honey butter. These were still warm and I quite enjoyed the hush puppies as they were not too dense.

American Feast for 2 Platter

The main platter of the American Feast for 2 is more than enough food for two. This included two Smoked Chicken Legs and Thighs which had a nice barbecue flavour to it, but the meat was a little dry. In the middle was the Pulled Pork Sandwich featuring a Portuguese bun filled with a ton of pulled pork and sauce. It was odd that only one burger came and that it wasn’t cut in half for sharing. S and I really enjoyed the burger though as it was very flavourful and the meat was moist. However, the sauce was very wet so the bun became soggy. On the far right were St. Louis Pork Ribs. The meat was extremely tender and fell right off the bone. Flavourwise, it was rather bland. It needed the help of the homemade BBQ sauce to make it right. For sides, my favourite were the Kennebec Fries. They were not the crispiest, but when dipped in their homemade ketchup, they were amazing! The ketchup had a bit of an onion flavour to it. The Navy Beans reminded me of chili as they were smokey and not your boring canned ketchup beans. Not bad, but again, they were rather dry. The Dijon Aioli Slaw was underwhelming and we didn’t end up finishing it.

Overall, we were quite happy with Buckstop. There are some hits and misses but overall we didn’t have too many complaints. Plus I really enjoyed their homemade sauces and most of their meats were tender. Nice spot on Denman to grab drinks and Southern food. Will revisit to try other items.

Pros:
– Most meats were tender
– Awesome homemade sauces!

Cons:
– Pork ribs fell short in flavour
– Seating is narrow and a bit tight

Price Range: $20-30/person

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 4 Service: 3 Ambiance: 3 Parking: 2.5 Overall: 3.5

Chatime (Surrey) – ChineseBites Media Event

January 20, 2016January 17, 2016Leave a comment

NOTE: As part of the ChineseBites media event, all beverages were free, but all opinions are based on my own personal experience.

Chatime is expanding again! For all you Surrey peeps out there, no longer do you have to make the trip to the other locations for your fix of Chatime! The newest addition is in Whalley, right next to Surrey Central in a strip mall. I was invited by ChineseBites to their soft opening and was able to try any drinks I liked.

My favourite thing about Chatime is the ability to customize. You can choose the sugar and ice level. I find that most of their drinks are on the sweeter side, so 50% or less is the best. There are also many toppings to choose from and each topping is $0.50.

I brought K along to the event since we are both fans of Chatime. Our go-to item is always the Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly, but since we were able to get our drinks comped, we decided to be adventurous and try drinks we’ve never tried. The first was the Tieguanyin Tea Latte. The drink is divided into layers when you first receive it and after shaking it, you get sort of a milk tea. It’s much thicker than their normal milk tea though. The tieguanyin tea flavour really came through and is perfect for those who enjoy the tea itself. One of our new favourites.

We were curious about what the Oriental Beauty was all about, so we gave it a try and added aloe vera. It turned out to be a tea based drink and was rather sweet due to the aloe vera. We couldn’t figure out what kind of tea it was, but it’s definitely one of those Chinese teas. Quite refreshing actually.

K really enjoyed the Oolong Tea. We added rainbow jelly in it so it was a bit odd due to the sweetness. Also, the jelly is too big to go through the straw. The tea itself is very strong though so more on the bitter side. K loves bitterness of oolong tea so it was perfect for her.

The Matcha Mousse is topped with a thick layer of cream and tastes sort of like a frappucino but without all that crushed ice. Instead, there are just ice cubes at the bottom. I thought this was average as it was quite gritty. Strong matcha flavour though.

Our last cold drink we tried was the Jasmine Green Milk Tea with Grass Jelly. This is pretty good and I would order this again to change things up. The milk tea was smooth and had a nice jasmine tea fragrance to it. It was also my first time trying their hot drinks and we got the Roasted Milk Tea with Pearls. We asked for it to be warm instead of hot so that we could drink it right away. Plus, you don’t need to worry about sucking up the pearls and burning your tongue. This was great and lived up to their cold version! I would highly recommend getting this during the winter.

Overall, Chatime at the Surrey location did not disappoint. Pearls are still on point with a nice chew and not overly sweet. Drinks come in two sizes and most start at around $4.30. This location also has a decent amount of seats for you to enjoy your drinks.

Check out my prior reviews from my visits at the Broadway location: Visit #1 and Visit #2

Singapore & Taiwan Trip (Day 15)

January 19, 2016January 17, 2016Leave a comment

On the very last day of our trip, we took it pretty chill. Actually we were taking it pretty chill the last few days since we had seen most of our “must-sees”. Our flight would be around 11pm that night so we actually had pretty much a whole day. I’m a sucker for interesting snacks from different countries, so I dragged S to the closest grocery store with me. Ximending is pretty touristy, so the closest one was actually a Carrefour 家樂福桂林店. It was a bit of a walk, but I wish we had found this earlier since the snacks and drinks here are much cheaper!

We picked up this Lychee Beer at Carrefour and enjoyed it while walking back to Ximending.

S got hungry and he couldn’t leave Taipei without his fair share of fried chicken. If you have been following my posts on this trip, you probably know that we have been eating fried chicken every day…literally… Anyways, he went to Ji Guang Fried Chicken 繼光香香雞-西門店 again. Always a line up here!

This time, we also picked up the Deep Fried Oyster Mushrooms. Pretty good! And of course the Fried Chicken was tasty!

And when I said we were taking today chill, I was serious about this because we headed to Tom’s World to shoot hoops again… S will never get sick of this place. I guess we were just trying to act like locals.

If you head down to the very end of Ximending, you will find that there are many theaters here. I think there are around 3 right next to each other. So trying to act like locals, we decided to catch a movie.

We chose the IMAX 3D theater called Vieshow Cinemas 信義威秀影城 and watched the Tightrope. Movie tickets here are around NT$430 so pretty expensive! You can however bring outside food and beverages from in.

The theater is pretty big and American movies are played in English with Chinese subtitles. The only downside is that any parts with a foreign language are subtitled with Chinese.

After the movie, we walked around and grabbed some snacks in Ximending for an early dinner. We then went back to our hotel to grab our luggage and got onto a taxi to Taipei Main Station. From there, we took the airport bus #1819. We arrived with enough time to spare and we headed back to Hi-Life convenience store to drop off our portable wi-fi. We then checked in and had our last meal at Mos Burger at the food court. Our terminal didn’t have much food for some reason…

And that was our 2 week trip to Singapore and Taiwan! I am already reminiscing the good food and times we had on our trip. Can’t wait for our next trip! Until then, back to Vancouver eats!

Details:

Carrefour: No. 1, Guilin Rd, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

Ji Guang Fried Chicken: No. 121 #1, Hanzhong St, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

Tom’s World: 5th floor of Wannian Plaza: 70 Xining South Road, Ximending, Taipei

Vieshow Cinemas: No. 20, Songshou Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110

Every Day is a Food Day

Category: Location

John 3:16 Malaysian Delights

Oyster Express

Supermarine – Dine Out Vancouver 2016

Torafuku – Dine Out Vancouver 2016

Sanpoutei Ramen

Buckstop

Chatime (Surrey) – ChineseBites Media Event

Singapore & Taiwan Trip (Day 15)