PappaRoti

August 16, 2016August 15, 2016Leave a comment

NOTE: All food and beverages were complimentary but all opinions are based on my personal experience.

PappaRoti began in Malaysia and opened their first North American store in Vancouver on Robson St. a year ago. Thanks to Sharon, a group of food bloggers were able to try a selection of their items.

The interior reminds me of a Blenz, with a variety of different drinks and quick bites. Very spacious and I saw many people on their laptops working away.

Crazy for Kaya

Of course, they are famous for their freshly baked caramel coffee buns. They are twice baked so that the outside is crisp and crunchy, and pillowy soft, buttery and rich on the inside. They feature a variety of different toppings and sides and Crazy for Kaya features kaya and honey. Reminds me of kaya toast which I have a love for!

The Works

You can also choose The Works where you are able to select your choice of any four toppings. Here, they paired strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream and bananas.

The Classic

I think my favourite was still The Classic which features nutella and banana. The two flavours are just perfect complements and paired great with the buttery bun.

Rise and Shine

Rise and Shine features Pappa cream cheese and jam on the side. Be sure to eat these fresh from the oven to best enjoy them. I tried them cold and they weren’t as good for sure.

Choco Banana Pappa Rollie

Their newest addition is the Pappa Rollie. These are made with a croissant dough but has the same sweet and crispy exterior. So flaky and I liked the chocolate filling inside with banana flavouring. They also have a Coconut Pappa Rollie

Roast Beef, Chicken Chipotle, Apple Chicken Blue Cheese, Turkey & Brie, Vegan Moroccan

I always associated PappRoti with coffee buns and had no idea they had other menu items. Well turns out you can also get sandwiches and wraps here! My favourite was the Turkey & Brie.

They also have salads including the Island Salad and Tuscan Salad, all of which make a healthy meal.

Other than their gourmet coffees, teas and smoothies, they also carry drinks from other brands, including Revel Juice.

Overall, I really enjoyed the coffee buns but was surprised that their other items were just as good. PappaRoti is the perfect spot to grab a quick snack or even a meal.

Beta5

August 10, 2016August 11, 2016Leave a comment

NOTE: All desserts provided in the media event in the first section were complimentary. All opinions are based on my own experience.

Beta5‘s 2016 summer collection, ‘livin’s easy’ launched last month and we were invited to attend their media event to try out all the new items. Beta5 is located in an industrial area which is not transit friendly, but so worth the trip!

The shop front is quite small but you can see the chefs at work in the back which is pretty cool.

Remember to come here early as these goodies run out quick. Many times, I arrived near closing and they sold out of many of the flavours I wanted.

Cherry Cola Cream Puff – botanical cola custard, Okanagan cherry jelly, whipped vanilla ganache, fizzy cherry chocolate, amarena cherry

I really enjoyed that fizz in the chocolate. It was like eating those popping candy!

Pina Colada Cream Puff – coconut ash choux, pineapple curd, whipped coconut-lime ganache, black chocolate rings

One of my favourite desserts of the night was the Pina Colada Cream Puff. Something about it was so mysterious being all black! But inside was filled with a fruit pineapple curd and was perfect for the summer!

Lime Spritzer Cream Puff – mint-lime curd, greek yogurt pannacotta, cucumber meringue, cucumber pearls

Refreshing and perfect for the summer!

Ants On a Log Eclair – milk chocolate and peanut whipped ganache, celery whipped ganache, white chocolate celery stick, peanut glaze

This was super witty as the eclair tasted just like peanut butter on celery! Perfect for those who enjoy celery.

S’More Eclair – 68% dark chocolate mousse, 46% milk chocolate mousse, toasted vanilla meringue, cinnamon graham cracker crust

This brings back memories of having s’mores in front of the campfire in the summertime. Tastes just like a S’more!

Neopolitan Eclair – vanilla cremeux, strawberry cremeux, chocolate cremeux, caramelized white chocolate crunch, neopolitan whipped ganache ice cream in a chocolate cone

Another one of my favourites and who can resist how cut this looks! Gobble it quick before the ice cream melts!

The 2016 summer collection also includes some new flavours of their delectable chocolates. The new flavours include Cinnamon S’more, Strawberry Daiquiri, Raspberry Lemonade, Cucumber Cooler, Root Beer Float, and Celery + Peanut.

The flavours are bold and bright and bring back childhood memories of summer.

Mint Chocolate Sundae

We also got to try their Mint Chocolate Sundae which is part of their ice cream social.

Beta5’s Ice Cream Social happens every Saturday from 1-5pm. They serve up sundaes, ice creams and sorbets and they have a special flavour every week.

On another occasion, separate from the media event, S and I checked out their ice cream social which featured the Raspberry Earl Grey Sundae.

Raspberry Earl Grey Sundae

This was so delicious! It came with earl grey sundae, raspberry swirl ice cream, fresh raspberry compote, raspberry-earl grey macarons and chocolate garnishes. Loved how creamy the ice cream was!

Signature Chocolate Sundae

One of the sundaes they featured in July was the Signature Chocolate Sundae. We were able to choose from a variety of sorbets and ice creams and the toppings were preset. We went with the cola sorbet and it was so refreshing! I loved the textures of the different chocolate garnishes as some had a nice crunch.

Overall, we had an amazing time at the media event as well as our own visit to Beta 5. Definitely worth checking out during the summer as you can grab some ice cream (which is only available during summer) and take a box of the summer collection goodies home! Makes a perfect gift too!

Storm Crow Alehouse

July 29, 2016July 28, 20162 Comments

Looking for a place to chill after work and have drinks (other than the typical Earls and Cactus) turned us to Storm Crow Alehouse which opened earlier this year on Broadway.

Long Island Iced Tea

What’s cool about this spot is that there is a whole wall of board games which you can borrow while enjoying your drink. They have all types of games from 2 player games to games for a large group. We started off with jenga along with some Long Island Iced Teas. They have a large selection of drinks, but I found their cocktails to be just okay. Perhaps stick to the beers.

Mount St. Nacho

Since we were quite hungry from work, StevieD and I shared the Mount St. Nacho. The nachos were topped with cheese, jalapeños, red onions, roasted corn and black beans, pico de gallo salsa and sour cream. We added pulled chicken for an extra $6 so the whole dish came to $26, which is not cheap at all. And frankly, the dish sucked. The chips were not crunchy and the chicken was dry. I expect a lot more if I pay this much, and we left disappointed. Probably some of the worst nachos I’ve had.

Hillbilly Style Chik’n & Waffles Dee-Lux

S got the Hillbilly Style Chik’n & Waffles Dee-Lux and these sucked too. This came with house-breaded chicken strips and waffles served with maple cream sauce and honey mustard. The chicken strips were so dry! And same with the waffles…

All in all, we were extremely disappointed with the food at Storm Crow. I’d suggest coming here just for the drinks and the board games, but grab dinner elsewhere. They do a treasure box thing when your receipt comes which goes along with their whole theme.

Pros:
– Fun board games
– Good place to chill with large groups

Cons:
– Skip the food
– Service isn’t too great

Price Range: $20-30

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

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

Cuchillo

July 28, 2016July 26, 2016Leave a comment

After being hungry at a beer event, J suggested we go grab some tacos at Cuchillo. I didn’t know this place existed and it is quite a hidden gem with only a skull on the outside of the restaurant!

We started off with some white wine and rose. I can’t remember the names of these but that they were rather fruity.

Baja Style Battered Rockfish

Our first taco was the Baja Style Battered Rockfish. The beautiful green coloured kale and hemp corn tortilla was topped with jicama slaw, chipotle aioli, and of course the battered rockfish. This had a good spicy kick but man this was good! The batter was light and the fish remained moist. Their tacos are quite packed for the amount of tortilla you get so it can be quite messy to eat!

Pulled Duck Y Cracklin’

The second taco we had was the Pulled Duck Y Cracklin’ which came with roasted garlic, blackberry habanero jam, pulled pork, crackling, and this all sat on top of a black bean corn tortilla. I really enjoyed the sweetness of the blackberry jam against the tender pulled pork.

Pork Belly Confit

We also tried one of their larger dishes, which was the Pork Belly Confit which came with a maple chipotle and tamarind glze, a granny smith puree and was topped with chicharon and patacones (or fried plantains). The ratio of fat to meat was right on and the meat was tender! So much fatty goodness.

This is definitely a great spot to grab some tacos and enjoy Mexican food. I like how the place feels more upscale yet it’s casual enough so you don’t need to dress up. If you’re feeling a little fancy but want tacos, then here’s the place to go. Great for a girls night out or date night.

Pros:
– Solid tacos
– Great ambiance and service

Cons:
– Not the cheapest for portions

Price Range: $25-35

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

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

Wild Sweets

July 26, 2016Leave a comment

NOTE: All food and beverages were complimentary, but all opinions are based on my own personal experience.

Thanks to Jacqueline, I was invited to Wild Sweets for a tasting of their new summer products. I live in Richmond and am always on the lookout for new restaurants, but looks like I’ve missed this one. Tucked away in the commercial offices behind Ironwood mall, Wild Sweets offers a small retail section but focuses on selling to retailers. However, they have recently launched their new summer collection: Prêt-á-Manger, which is only available at this retail location.

Mousse Chocolat Milk

We got to try their whole collection, with each container sold for $4.99. If you purchase 5, you can get 1 free. The first set were mousse based, so they were all very creamy. Each were topped with chocolate pearls. Flavours for the mousse included:

Mousse Chocolat Milk: milk chocolate mousse & passion fruit creme brulee cream
Mousse Chocolat Dark: dark chocolate creme brulee cream
Mousse Chocolat White: white chocolate lemon zest mousse & raspberry fruit creme brulee cream

Mousse Chocolat Dark

Mousse Chocolat White

My favourite was the white chocolate as I love the pairing of white chocolate and raspberry. I liked how it wasn’t too tart or sweet.

Tarte Banane

Next up, we sampled the tartes which containes housemade cookie, cream, and fruit. These are great if you want more texture as you’ll get some crunchy parts as well. The tartes come in four flavours:

Tarte Banane: banana custard cream & white chocolate
Tarte Citron: lemon custard cream & white chocolate chantilly
Tarte Chocolat: chocolate creme brulee cream & dark chocolate chantilly
Tarte Framboise: raspberry custard cream & white chocolate chantilly

Tarte Citron

This was my favourite out of the tarte collection as I loved the fresh lemon flavour without it being overly sour. It was just the right balance.

Tarte Chocolat

Tarte Framboise

Pistachio Strawberry Ice Cream

Lastly, we got to sample my favourite items, which were the ice creams! The ice creams come in 3 flavours:

Pistachio Strawberry Ice Cream: strawberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream & pistachio butter parfait
Peanut Butter & Banana Ice Cream: banana ice cream, chocolate ice cream & peanut butter parfait
Hazelnut Passion Fruit Ice Cream: passion apricot sorbet, chocolate ice cream & hazelnut butter parfait

These were all delicious but my favourite had to be the Pistachio Strawberry. The sorbet was so refreshing and I loved the nutty flavour of the pistachio.

Peanut Butter & Banana Ice Cream

Hazelnut Passion Fruit Ice Cream

I think what’s worthy to note is that the goodies at Wild Sweet go through intense research to get to where they are. The owners, Dominique and Cindy Duby, are world-acclaimed chefs, chocolate makers, and designer chocolatiers. They really know what they are doing and have even written cookbooks and won many awards.

They also use a bean to bar approach so all the chocolate is actually made in house from the start of the bean. I find that very amazing as their production facility is quite small and taking this approach can be very costly. Everything is produced in house, except for the chocolate pearls. They really pride themselves in the quality of their products.

Other than the new Prêt-á-Manger collection, you can find chocolates and fruit confits. Their fruit jams are to die for! The intensity of the fruit flavours are so strong and only contain 20% added sugar.

Their selection of chocolates and confections make great gifts for family and friends.

At the end of our tasting, we got to take home some delicious snacks, including some of their chocolate bars, the buttered caramel popcorn, and the dark chocolate bark. Everyone at home really enjoyed these and devoured them in no time!

Overall, I am extremely happy to have discovered Wild Sweets and learned a ton about chocolate from the owners. They are truly passionate about what they do and it is amazing to see how much time into perfecting each product. Currently, the retail store hours are only Saturday 10AM-4PM, but if you order online, you can arrange for pickup by appointment.

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice (Richmond)

July 21, 2016July 19, 2016Leave a comment

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice opened up their first location in Vancouver a few months ago in downtown and have since opened another in Richmond in Broadmoor Shopping Centre. Since there was a grand opening promo going on, there was a huge line up.

We ended up waiting over 30 minutes because of the long line ups. We found service to be quite unfriendly at CoCo. I know there’s a huge line and they want to get things moving, but a smile or just thanking the customers for waiting would have been appreciated.

There is some seating in this location, but most people grab take out here.

The promo during their grand opening was buy any one of their top 10 drinks and you get a free regular sized milk tea with pearls for free.

You can choose large or regular size with a difference of 50 cents.

Three Guys

I decided to try the Three Guys which is one of their most popular drinks, consisting of grass jelly, pudding, and pearls. This is quite good as you get a bit of everything but some may find that it’s too much. I actually didn’t mind the variety especially since I love all three toppings.

Milk Tea

The free Milk Tea that came with the promo is pretty good but I still prefer the Chatime roasted milk tea. However, it definitely beats the Shiny Tea one. I would say it’s pretty good compared to the other options out there, but Chatime’s roasted milk tea is still my favourite. In terms of the pearls, they were quite chewy, a little too chewy for me personally.

Taro Milk Tea with Pearls

On another occasion, I went back to take advantage of the deal, and also because I wanted to try the Taro Sago. By the time we got to the cashier, we were told there was no sago and only pearls. I was quite annoyed as I wish they had announced that earlier since I came mostly for the sago. Well, since we had waited forever in line, we got the Taro Milk Tea with Pearls instead. This was quite disappointing with the taro tasting like powder.

Overall, CoCo falls below Chatime but above Shiny Tea for me personally. Price is around the same as Chatime at $4-5. Apparently you can also customize ice and sugar level just like Chatime but the cashiers never let the customers know. Perhaps it was because they were too busy during the promo period.

Pros:
– Solid milk tea
– Customizable sugar and ice levels

Cons:
– Service is unfriendly
– Pearls are too chewy

Price Range: $5

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

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

Snowy Village

July 15, 2016July 14, 2016Leave a comment

When Snowy Village opened up their first location in Richmond, it was rage with line ups outside. I still remember trying to come here for over 3 times and leaving with take out because of the wait. Since then, they’ve opened up more locations including one on Robson so I feel like the waits aren’t as crazy. Still, the place is packed so be sure to come here at odd times to avoid the crowds.

I ended up visiting both the Richmond and Robson location, so I’m just going to combine the review into one post. The set up is similar at both locations, where you order at the front and pay first. At the Richmond location, they will bring you the food, whereas you must pick up at the counter for the Robson location.

Other than shaved ice, they are famous for their Taiyaki also known as croissants boong bread.

You can smell these upon entering the shop. A must order!

Injeolmi Shaved Ice (small)

Snowy Village is famous for their shaved ice because they brought over the famous Korean powdery ice that feels just like snow. The Injeolmi Shaved Ice was topped with red bean, peanut powder and mochi balls. We really liked this as the peanut powder was not overly sweet and I lvoed the chew of the mochi.

Mango Shaved Ice (small)

Another favourite was the Mango Shaved Ice which is topped with lots of mangoes which are ripe and sweet. The fruit ones are a favourite as the dessert is more moist, whereas the ones with powder tend to be a little dry.

Taiyaki

You can choose from a variety of fillings for the Taiyaki, including red bean, injeolmi red bean, nutella, and custard cream. I’ve tried quite a few but my favourite is still the injeolmi red bean and nutella. The custard cream is too sweet for me. I love how flaky the taiyaki is and tastes just like a croissant.

Overall, we quite enjoyed the Richmond location and I found service to be very friendly here. However, parking is horrendous here.

Oreo Shaved Ice (large)

On another occasion, we visited the Robson location. The first thing you will notice is that the Robson location uses plastic cups instead of the metal bowls. We found that the size of these appear to be much smaller than the Richmond lcoation yet we pay the same price. The Oreo Shaved Ice was surprisingly very good even though I normally find Oreos too sweet.

Mango Shaved Ice (large)

We also got the Mango Shaved Ice and again it did not disappoint. The mangoes they use are so sweet!

Injeolmi Shaved Ice (small)

As you can see, the small size here appears to be much smaller because of the cup they use. It’s also extremely easy to tilt the cup because of the narrow base. Loved the Injeolmi Shaved Ice again!

Matcha Shaved Ice (small)

The Matcha Shaved Ice was probably my lease favourite despite the fact I love matcha everything. Since it was mostly matcha powder, the shaved ice was rather dry and needed something moist like condensed milk.

Overall, I think I would prefer the Richmond location more based on the service and also sizing of the shaved ice. However, the consistency of both locations are on par for their menu items.

Pros:
– Shaved ice is so powdery smooth
– Taiyaki is really flaky

Cons:
– Long waits all the time
– Parking at Richmond location is terrible

Price Range: $10/person

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

Food:4 Service: 3 Ambiance: 2.5 Parking: 2 Overall: 3.5

Honey Doughnuts & Goodies

July 12, 2016July 12, 2016Leave a comment

Quarry Rock is a hike that I do pretty much every year just because it’s probably one of the easier hikes yet you still get an amazing view once up top. For years, people have been telling me about Honey Doughnuts & Goodies and that you must get some of their doughnuts after your hike. Well, since I came to hike, I thought it would be more wise to eat it first and then hike it all off… Anyways, when we arrived, they said they only had their honey doughnuts left, but they do normally have other doughnuts available.

Honey Doughnuts

We ended up all getting the Honey Doughnuts since there was nothing else available. Man, these are big doughnuts! The texture is more like a cake batter with the outside very crunchy. It sort of reminded me of the sweet Chinese doughnuts if you know what I’m talking about. Is it as amazing as how everyone says it is? I wouldn’t say so, but I wouldn’t mind coming here to grab it after or before a hike. I wouldn’t make a trip here just for the doughnuts though. I think these were around $2-3 but they are quite large and dense so can fill you up. Service was mediocre. They seemed very busy and in a rush to move the line.

Pros:
– Love the crunchy exterior
– Reasonable price for the size

Cons:
– Other doughnuts can sell out quickly
– Some people might not like this cake batter type of doughnut

Price Range: $2-5/person

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

Food:3.5 Service: 3 Ambiance: 2.5 Parking: 2 Overall: 3

Every Day is a Food Day

Category: Type

PappaRoti

Beta5

Storm Crow Alehouse

Cuchillo

Wild Sweets

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice (Richmond)

Snowy Village

Honey Doughnuts & Goodies