Benkei Ramen

July 5, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Shio Ramen

Miso Ramen

Shrimp Gyozas

I was craving some ramen the other day, and we were headed towards the downtown area so I quickly urbanspooned what was around, and of course the typical Kintaro and Santouka come up. I spotted Benkei Ramen, which had pretty good ratings, so I was down to try something new.

The exterior is really Japanese with the wooden decor and upon entering, we found ourselves with a bunch of Japanese customers. I always think that if you find lots of Japanese people in a Japanese restaurant, it must be good. Same goes to other cuisines. The employees were also all Japanese, and after looking at the website now, I learned that it is also owned by a Japanese man who has many restaurants in Japan.

I had the Miso Ramen, which came with bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, green onions, and Chashu. It had a seafood broth, pork base soup, and their special miso, which was very delicious. I didn’t think this was the best ramen I’ve had, but it’s honestly not bad. I also tried a Shrimp Gyoza, which was something different since I usually get pork. It definitely had a shrimp in it, but I thought it tasted quite simliar in taste to the pork ones.

Benkei is a great place to go for ramen if you’re in the downtown area, although it is quite far down the shopping area. It’s also surrounded by both Kintaro and Santouka, but those places always have huge line ups, so if you can’t wait, then Benkei is a great place to go.

Leisure Tea & Coffee

July 5, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Caramel Pudding on Shaved Ice

Honey Milk Tea?

Coffee

Combo of Taiwanese Chicken, Deep Fried Tofu, and Fishcake

Ice Cream Waffle

French Fries

We had a big group hangout before Jane left for vacation a few weeks ago at Leisure since they always have good food and drinks. Taiwanese owned and has a very nice vintage feel to it, which attracts both young and older crowds.

I didn’t try all the food above at this sitting, although I have tried many of them in the past. The Caramel Pudding on Shaved Ice is one of my favourites. The sweet caramel works well with shaved ice, although I can get a brain freeze after too many spoonfuls. It’s still a great dessert to share though. Another one of my favourites is the Ice Cream Waffle. The waffle is served warm, and accompanied with the ice cream, making a delicious dessert. I’ve also tried the French Fries which are also really good. They aren’t too oily, yet they are crispy. This time, I tried something new though. I got their Combo of Taiwanese Fried Chicken, Fried Tofu, and Fishcake. I have to say, I was a little disappointed with this dish, as it wasn’t presented too well, and was extremely oily. I’ve had their Taiwanese Fried Chicken as a separate dish before, and I thought it was really delicious. I didn’t find that tofu or fishcake to be any special, and they were way too oily. The whole dish was also spicy, which was good, but I also found it a little too salty. I would definitely recommend getting the chicken on its own though.

Overall, Leisure is always one of my favourite places to go to for late night desserts or bubble tea. They are also always extremely packed at night, especially on weekends.

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!

Marble Slab Creamery

May 13, 2012April 25, 2013Leave a comment

Stopped by at Marble Slab Creamery, hoping to get some ice cream after dinner, but my friends and I got attracted to the poster above… Ice Cream Cupcakes! Two delicious things put into one? Definitely got our attention. So yes, we ended up buying the pack of 6 instead of ice cream. We were hoping that we could just all dig in and try the different flavours, but to our surprise, the ice cream was really frozen. And we could barely even dig our plastic spoons in it, so we ended up each choosing one to indulge in. I have to say we weren’t too satisfied. I had the Raspberry Cheesecake, and I found the ice cream just way too hard. It wasn’t anything special, and just felt like frozen ice cream with a waffle cone. Definitely will go for their regular ice cream instead next time.

McDonald’s

May 11, 2012May 3, 20131 Comment

McBistro Swiss Mushroom Melt

Oreo Cookies ‘N’ Cream Pie

This is soooo long overdue! But Steph once again surprised me with food! All the menu items that I either love or wanted to try! She knows me well 😉

I saw all those ads about McDonald’s real fruit smoothies right after I tried Tim Horton’s version of it and wanted to try! I tried the Tim Horton’s Peach Mango Smoothie which was a real disappointment. The cashier asked me if I wanted yoghurt with it, so I said why not, and ended up paying around $4 for something that tasted just like pure peach yoghurt. McDonald’s Mango Pineapple Real Fruit Smoothie, however, was so delicious! It actually tasted like a smoothie and I believe it is cheaper too! They were having the $1 drink promotion too, which is a really good deal!

As for the McBistro Swiss Mushroom Melt, I had already tried it before and it is still one of my favourite McBistros! It is loaded with lots of mushrooms, and the sandwich is made with a better quality bread.

The Oreo Cookies ‘N’ Cream Pie was something that I wanted to try also because of those ads… It almost tasted like a smore! It was almost like marshmallows inside a cookie. I found it a little too sweet for me, but I think it would be perfect if I shared it with someone! I ate everything all by myself…which probably was a bad idea. Delicious though! Thanks Steph! 🙂

What8ever Cafe

April 12, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Vanilla Ice Cream Toast

Taiwanese Deep Fried Tofu

Hadn’t gone to What8ever Cafe for a while so decided to go on a weekday night. It’s almost assumed that you’ll be waiting if you go on a Friday or weekend night as the place is extremely small and everyone loves going there. What8ever Cafe is famous for their Ice Cream Toast, which is a must try if you have not tried it yet. It’s basically a loaf of bread with the center taken out and cut into french toast sticks and put back in, then layered with ice cream and all sorts of treats. This one was the Vanilla, which I believe was the first one they started with. They now have strawberry and green tea too. Would love to try the green tea next time! Also got some Taiwanese Deep Fried Tofu, but found them not up to par. They were quite deflated as you can see in the picture, and I’ve had better ones at other bubble tea shops. Overall, great place to hang out, but does get quite busy so it’s not a place where you can talk the night away.

Shang Noodle House

April 8, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

BBQ Pork with Ramen in Pork Broth

Spicy “Tan Tan” Ramen with Crushed Peanuts

Shang Noodle House has actually been open for a while, although it is still fairly new. I believe they opened around the start of this year. I remember watching all the shops underneath the Paloma apartments renovate and Shang Noodle House was one of them. I finally decided to give it a try since it was close to home. The shop has a very modern vibe and is extremely clean and service was very well. Really enjoyed the BBQ Pork with Ramen in Pork Broth, as the broth was very tasty. Overall, I was very satisfied with the food and would definitely recommend giving it a try if you’re looking for noodles. They also serve snacks that you can share, as well as bubble teas and desserts!