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.

Sweet Revenge

November 22, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

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I’ve wanted to use my gift card for Sweet Revenge for a while, but I never really go to that area of Vancouver. Finally, I decided to head over there to get some desserts for my friend and I. I read reviews that the place is always packed with people since it’s only open at night, and indeed it was. People were lining up at the doors. I ended up getting take out and ate at my friend’s instead.

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The interior of the place is really cute though. It’s quite dim inside, but the red walls give it an interesting ambiance. They put framed pictures around, and the décor is quite vintage. I only waited around 5 minutes and my take out was ready.

Chocolate Mousse Cake – semi-sweet chocolate mousse, with cream cheese & a crunchy curst & White Chocolate Cheesecake – flourless cheesecake with home-made sauce

I got the Chocolate Mousse Cake, which was surprisingly not too sweet. It was smooth and had a really nice crunch at the bottom of the cake. There were also pieces of chocolate flakes on the top, which made a nice touch to it. The second dessert I got was the White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was recommended to me by the cashier. I really enjoyed this. It came with a raspberry sauce in a container. It wasn’t too sweet, and I love white chocolate and cheesecake, so it was the perfect pairing. Too bad I couldn’t see what it would look like presented on a plate with the sauce drizzled over it. My take-out box pictures clearly did not look as nice as the ones I saw in the store. Other desserts I really wanted to try were the tiramisu, and crème brulee, which were both recommended to me by the cashier as well. However, these had a $2 deposit that needed to be paid for the cups for take-out. I don’t live near that area so I wasn’t prepared to go back to return the cups, but I didn’t feel like paying that extra $2 either. I guess I’ll just have to try those desserts next time when I actually sit in. The place looks pretty cool with a variety of drinks as well. Check it out!

Triple O’s (UBC)

November 20, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Pulled Pork Poutine – poutine smothered with pulled pork in a tangy BBQ sauce, cheese curds, gravy and drizzled with ranch

When I’m hungry at school and I’m too lazy to walk all the way to the SUB, I always end up at Triple O’s just because it’s the closest. I was about to just get a Caesar salad, but the new ad for the Pulled Pork Poutine caught my attention. That advertisement just looked too good to resist. And to be honest, I was still having a few coughs, but I had not had a poutine for months… And so of course, I ended up getting it. It was quite a large portion and had tons of ranch, BBQ sauce and gravy drizzled on top of the cheese curds. I wish the cheese curds were a little more melted, since I like the stringy cheese on my fries. I also found the sauces to be a bit too salty for my liking. The pulled pork was great though. There was just enough to accompany the fries. However, I still prefer the ones at New York Fries. Their Butter Chicken Poutine is the bomb! Still, the Triple O’s poutines are a great alternative when I’m at school.

Starbucks – Pumpkin Spice Latte

November 20, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I’m not a coffee drinker, so I really can’t judge what a good coffee is, but I love getting Starbucks’ espresso beverages. I don’t even know if they are really considered “coffee”, but I don’t drink their freshly brewed coffee for sure. I just love getting their frappuccinos, lattes, mochas and teas! And now that the holidays are here, I get super excited to try out the holiday drinks! This time, I chose to try their Pumpkin Spice Latte because I’ve been hearing really good things about it. People say even if you don’t like pumpkin or coffee, you’ll like this since it apparently doesn’t even taste like pumpkin. To be honest, I just thought it was average. It wasn’t really a taste that I absolutely loved. I don’t normally like drinks with spice, and even though the spice wasn’t strong, it was still there. It was alright, but I would probably choose another drink next time.

White Spot (Oakridge Mall)

October 14, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

After a late morning hike up the Grouse Grind, we decided it was time to grab some food. Well basically our super late lunch. We decided to head back to Vancouver since we didn’t really know where to go in North Van. And we ended up at Oakridge Mall – more specifically, White Spot. I hadn’t ate here in a while actually, other than those random days at UBC’s Triple O’s, but that’s different.

Baked Potato Inspired Poutine

Signature fries with cheese curds and gravy loaded with classic baked potato toppings – bacon, sour cream and green onion

I decided to share two dishes with K. First up, we got the Baked Potato Inspired Poutine. It was new on their menu, and it sounded like something amazing. And let me tell you, I LOVE poutine. I used to eat it almost every week during my breaks in the mall at New York Fries, but the mall’s renovating so I’ve had to resort to other food 😦 This was a large plate, but I didn’t think it was that great. It was lacking cheese curds, although I liked the bacon, and surprisingly the green onion on it (just because I typically arent’ a big fan of green onion). I would’ve rather gotten the Butter Chicken Poutine at New York Fries. Oh, how much I miss it…

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti tossed in our signature marinara sauce and topped with three house-made meatballs and Parmesan. Garlic Panini bread.

E got the Spaghetti and Meatballs. It looked pretty good, and he said it was decent. I took a bite from the Garlic Panini bread and felt it lacking flavour though.

Toasted Shrimp Sandwich

Shrimp, lettuce, mayo & our chili sauce on toasted white

And the second dish I shared with K was the Toasted Shrimp Sandwich. It came with more fries and a coleslaw. I didn’t like the salad since it came with something like flax seeds. I know those are healthy, but I just don’t like the taste of them!

Here’s a closer view of the Toasted Shrimp Sandiwch. The sandwich was actaully pretty small compared to what I had imagined, but it was filled with lots of shrimp. I really enjoyed the mayo mixture combined with the shrimp and it definitely made it a light and fresh lunch. It could have had a bit more of the mayo as I found it to be lacking a little of the sauce, but good thing the shrimp was moist so it didn’t make the sandwich too dry.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal, but I have to say the service was lacking. I’m surprised that White Spot has so many people around the 3pm time, but even so, the wait to get seated and food was too long. I saw seats available inside, but the hostess still had to take at least 5 minutes to be ready for us. And remember, we were starving by that time after the hike. Perhaps we should have just gone to the food court instead… The server also took forever to take our orders. We had sat down, read our menus and were ready in no time, and our server kept walking by us saying give me one more minute. No! It’s been like 10 minutes! And then we wanted to make use of our time, so K and I went to a shop to look for something she wanted to get, hoping that our food would arrive by the time we got back, but nope. Food took way too long to arrive, and our dishes weren’t even difficult to make. Our server pretty much only had a real conversation with us when she was waiting for us to pay. So service was definitely poor! Food-wise, it was typical White Spot food.

HML Seafood Restaurant: Lobster Feast!

October 12, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Located in central Richmond, HML Seafood Restaurant has been here for quite some time now. I’m pretty sure I’ve ate here before in the past too, but my memory of dim sum restaurants are always faint since I’m not a big fan of it. We usually make turkey every year for Thanksgiving, but we were really lazy this year. I mean, it’s literally a whole day in the kitchen preparing for that big day. So lazy of us…but we decided to go out to eat instead. And since my mother is obsessed with Chinese food, of course she chose a Chinese restaurant.

My parents had recently gone to HML Seafood Restaurant with their friends for dinner. My mother told me that their dim sum is definitely no good, and they had only tried their dinner menu for the first time last time. She was surprised that it was actually pretty good, especially at the amazing value and price. They have a few promotions, and when they ate out last time, they had the lobster meal, which included 6lbs of lobster along with 3 dishes for only $98! What a deal! They said that the portions were large and the dishes weren’t too bad, so off we went.

The restaurant was pretty packed, and literally every table had lobster. I’m guessing everyone was taking advantage of this lobster promotion since it’s probably only available for a limited time. This deal is perfect for 4 if you want to be extremely full, or for 5, which is what we did, and we were still pretty full!

Specialty Chicken (half)

We started off with our first dish of Specialty Chicken. I have to say that the dishes seemed to be a little smaller than at other restaurants, but for this deal, it’s still a pretty good value. These dishes are normally $9.99 if you get them separately which is also a promotion they are having. The chicken wasn’t too tough and it was flavourful. Not bad.

Deep Fried Squab

And then we had Deep Fried Squab. This came in 4 pieces, basically the whole squab. It was hot and the skin was fried to perfection. It was crispy and the meat was flavourful.

6lbs of Lobster!

And of course our main dish – the lobster! You can choose to add noodles underneath for an additional price, but we chose not to. It was presented nicely, and each piece was filled with meat. The sauce was also flavourful, but not too strong. I thought it was just right. There’s actually so much lobster that you get pretty filled up. And the service was actually pretty good. They changed my plate at least 3 times, as opposed to some restaurants that only do it once, so I was pretty impressed.

Deep Fried Egg Tofu Topped with 3 Kinds of Mushroom

Last but not least, we had the Deep Fried Egg Tofu Topped with 3 Kinds of Mushroom. This was one of my favourite dishes. I loved the egg tofu, since it’s extra smooth compared to normal tofu. My mom also said that it’s a difficult dish to make at home because of the amount of oil you need to deep fry these tofu. So delicious though and it was great to have some vegetables after all that lobster meat. It was perfect to pair with a bowl of white rice. Yum!

Overall, HML is not bad for dinner. I read many reviews saying that it’s not that great, and I’m pretty sure dim sum isn’t great here, since my mother repeatedly told me that. But if you catch their promotions for the lobster, I think it’s worth it to give it a try. You can’t expect to have anything magnificent here, but you definitely get what you paid for!

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt

October 9, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

People have been talking about Menchie’s for quite a while, but I still hadn’t visited this froyo shop yet. I’ve had Qoola before, but I’m still not a huge fan of frozen yogurt. There are a lot of other desserts that I rather have instead. But after our meeting, M and I spotted Menchie’s and I thought it would be the perfect chance to try it!

This is the yogurt bar. After you choose either a cup or waffle cone in a cup, you head over to the yogurt bar to choose your frozen yogurt flavours. I had no idea Menchie’s had so many flavours! It’s pretty cool how you can try all the different flavours in these little ketchup cups they give you. That way, you know beforehand if you’ll like the frozen yogurt. I tried at least half the flavours, and there was even Red Velvet Cake! Yum! It was like chocolate cake! I ended up getting the Mango flavour though, just because I wanted something that was more refreshing on this warm September night.

Then you head over to the topping section. There are loads of candy and pretty much any topping you can think of. Then there is a section with toppings that are gooey and such. There’s also syrups and sprinkles and more that you can add.

And then when you have finished decorating your frozen yogurt, you bring it to the till where you proceed to pay. The cashier will place your item(s) on the weight, and weigh it. You basically pay a base rate (which I can’t recall) and then for every pound, you also pay a rate. So everything is based on how heavy your items are. So don’t go crazy and pump as much froyo as you can, and add all that heavy candy on – well unless you’re ready to pay the ridiculous price for it. It’s actually pretty smart to make profit, since most people would just put whatever they like on it, and for those who love candy, those are probably one of the heaviest toppings you could put.

Mango Frozen Yogurt with Mango Popping Boba and Mochi

Some things I added were mochi – which were sooooo delicious! I love mochi 🙂 and I also added something called Mango Popping Boba. At first, I thought they were tapioca pearls that were mango flavoured, but no… these things actually pop in your mouth! Well more like burst. I don’t even know how to describe them, but they just pop when you apply pressure on them, and then you get a bit of a mango flavour to it. Kind of weird and I didn’t extremely like them. I enjoyed my frozen yogurt, but I’m still not a crazy fan of it. I’d much rather have some other desserts, but that’s just me. I like Menchie’s a lot more than Qoola though, just because of the wide variety of flavours and toppings.

They recently also opened a shop near UBC! So perhaps I will grab some when I crave frozen yogurt!

Copa Cafe (Cambie)

October 7, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Again, this is like one month late. I really should get all these posts up! Anyways, congrats to our Sunshine Boy, Evan! He decided to treat us for dinner and since part of his reward was a gift card to Copa Cafe, why not use it! Plus, he loves HK style Cafes! Copa Cafe is literally right across from the St. Edwards Canada Line Station, so it’s super convenient. After seeing that little chef cartoon on their signage, I realized that I always see this cafe advertised in Chinese magazines.

7 Up Coffee

This was MP’s 7 Up Coffee. I thought it was so interesting that I took a sip. I normally don’t drink coffee since I can’t take the bitterness, but this was surprisingly so good! It wasn’t too strong in coffee, but instead had more 7 up, and then had a hint of coffee flavour. I actually liked this!

Thai Fried Rice?

And this was ML’s Thai Fried Rice (I think that’s what it was…). ML is some fried rice fanatic. He literally eats fried rice everyday I swear – well at least I see him eating that every time I have school with him. He seems to also get fried rice whenever he’s at some sort of Chinese restaurant. Oh, and he also makes his own fried rice. Anyways, I asked him what he thought of his fried rice, since he’s such an expert. He said that this one had too much soy sauce and not enough chicken. He also mentioned it wasn’t as good as the one he’s had at Kingspark Steak House in Richmond. He said that he would rate it a 6/10. So serious about his fried rice…

Baked Seafood with Cheese on Rice

For myself, I got the Baked Seafood with Cheese on Rice. I always get this at HK style Cafes! I probably shouldn’t have gotten this by myself though. It was HUGE. And yes, of course I didn’t finish it. I ended up just eating the top layer or rice mixed with the cheese and toppings, since that’s the best part. I’ve definitely had better baked seafood on rice before. The rice was also extremely dry. It was just alright. Nothing amazing.

This is what E got. I’m not too sure what everyone else got to be honest. But it looks like some sort of steak paired with veggies and fries. It also came with a soup and bread.

And what the rest of the boys got. They got the same thing apparently. Some sort of steak again, but this time paired with rice. It also came with soup and bread. I heard the steak wasn’t that great though.

And this was J’s chicken I believe? I think he tried ordering fish but apparently they sold out. This came with soup and also linguine.

And the rest of the girls shared a meal of steak with veggies and crab cakes and some other items? I’m not too sure again. This picture was actually the wrong order though, as it came with sausages, which they hadn’t ordered. So the crab cakes aren’t actually shown here.

So how good was the food? Just average. Nothing special and the prices seemed to be around the same as other HK style cafes. They have quite a large variety of food on their menu though. Convenient location, although I would probably stick around Richmond with so many cafe choices available.