Bon Crepe

August 19, 2013Leave a comment

After a bike ride at the Stanley Park seawall, K and I trekked down towards the Robson area and went to take a look at Bon Crepe. It is a Japanese owned convenience store with crepes, and other desserts. Inside, you will find all kinds of Japanese snacks, candies, drinks, but even some frozen foods and rice. They also have an assortment of household products and even hair dye. Then in a corner is the fast food area. They had parfaits, crepes, and soft serve ice cream. We went for the Matcha Soft Serve Ice Cream. I’m not sure if it’s because it is real matcha powder, but I found the ice cream to be quite flavourless. The cone itself was also a typical McDonald’s cone. It was okay on a sunny day, but I probably wouldn’t get that again. The ice cream was extremely smooth and for under $3, it doesn’t break your wallet. Their parfaits or crepes may be better since they have other ingredients in it as well.

Midam Rice Cake House

July 7, 2013July 9, 2013Leave a comment

Midam Rice Cake House is tucked away in a Korean mall in Coquitlam and you probably wouldn’t notice it at all. If it weren’t for all the instagram pictures, I’m pretty sure I would’ve never came here.

Inside, the place reminds me of bubble tea shops, but with a Korean touch to it. Maybe it’s the wooden furniture and decor. Oh and I guess pretty much all the diners were Korean too…

Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream

Midam is famous for their rice cakes of course, and especially for their rice cake desserts. Green tea, mochi, and ice cream are three of my favourite things, so of course I had to get the Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream! This was so delicious. The rice cake was chewy and the ice cream was hard so it melted in your mouth slowly. And of course, it was presented nicely too. A must get!

Green Tea Shaved Ice

And then there’s the Green Tea Shaved Ice. I’m not usually a big fan of shaved ice because after I few spoons, I usually get a brain freeze and start shivering. However, Midam seems to be famous for these, so I had to give it a try. It was bowl of shaved ice topped with red bean, almonds, green tea covered rice cakes, and a spoonful of green tea ice cream. We found it extremely bland, and the girl brought us something that tasted like condensed milk. Immediately after pouring it, it tasted much better. Still, I’m actually not a huge fan of red beans, unless it’s red bean paste, so this wasn’t exactly my favourite. I wish it was just all green tea rice cakes and ice cream! The rice cakes were decent, although I found the green tea to be a little bitter. A hint of sweetness would’ve made it better. It was still chewy and soft and I loved the texture of it. I also found the shaved ice to be pretty big chunks of ice. If it were finely ground, it would’ve been better. Overall, it was just okay.

Lastly, J got the dinner set, which I can’t remember the name of and I can’t find it on their website. We came during dinner time, but silly me decided to have desserts for dinner. J, on the other hand, wanted an actual meal. The lunch set included some appetizers, like salad, beans, kimchi, and miso soup. It also came with black rice and I think his main dish was squid with rice cakes. On the side, it also came with a bowl of steamed eggs.

Midam Rice Cake House seems to be quite popular for the Koreans. You could find different ages eating during dinner time, and many would order desserts too. I guess it’s similar to a Taiwanese bubble tea house, but this one is filled with Korean rice cake desserts. The rice cakes itself are delicious, but some items seem to be a hit or miss. I think I came in with high expectations for the shaved ice, so I left quite disappointed.

The Coffee Bun

June 27, 2013Leave a comment

J told me that The Coffee Bun has some really good…well coffee buns, of course. They currently only have two stores in Greater Vancouver. One in Coquitlam and the original store is in Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver. The shop definitely grabs your attention with such a large coffee bun sign.

They’re famous for their original coffee bun, but they also have variations of the bun. Some have cream inside, and even ice cream! They also offer honey bread, waffles, and an assortment of beverages, including coffee and tea.

I couldn’t help but take a few snapshots of their cake displays. I’m guessing they do special orders for the cupcakes and wedding cakes. Not sure how well they taste, but they sure look good!

Look at those cupcakes with faces on them! Extremely cute!

And these Santa Claus cupcakes are so adorable. They would make the cutest Christmas desserts to bring to a party.

Ice Cream Coffee Bun

This is the Ice Cream Coffee Bun. It is essentially a bun with an aroma of coffee cut in half and a scoop of ice cream is placed inside. The buns remind me of Chinese buns in terms of texture and taste. Definitely has the egg and butter taste to it, but it’s also got a slight hint of coffee flavour. The outer edges are also crispy which is a plus. The bun is warm and begins to melt the ice cream, so you need to eat this quickly before it all melts!

Blue Lemonade

On a second occasion, we went back to get coffee buns again. This time, J also got the Blue Lemonade. It reminded me of Mountain Dew with lemons. I thought it was a bit sour for my liking, but then again, it’s lemonade.

Ice Cream Coffee Buns

And of course, we got the Ice Cream Coffee Buns again. Maybe I should try some of their other variations next time. They also have shaved ice, which looks really good. I love how the place is a great hangout place to chat with friends. It’s similar to a coffee shop setting, but with these awesome buns!

Cold Stone Creamery

May 30, 2013Leave a comment

After dinner at Sushi Garden, SP suggested we go to Cold Stone Creamery. She said she always walks by it, but never had a chance to try it out. I didn’t even know that Metrotown had a Cold Stone Creamery! It’s teamed up with Tim Horton’s too, so it’s literally right next to each other and you order at the same cash register.

Strawberry Blonde – Strawberry Ice Cream with Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Strawberries, Caramel and Whipped Topping

SP shared the Strawberry Blonde with SK. The Strawberry Blonde is one of their signature creations, so you don’t need to think which flavours will go well with what. It reminds me of Marble Slab, since they actually mash up the ice cream on the “cold stone” and form a new flavour essentially. They got theirs in a waffle cone since it was at no extra cost. A pretty good deal since I think it came to be a little under $5 for a medium size. Much more affordable than Marble Slab, although I don’t remember how the quality was at Marble Slab. If you get a waffle cone, the guy who serves your ice cream also throws it up in the air and catches it in the cone. Pretty entertaining!

Iced Cappuccino with Gummy Bears

For myself, I didn’t want to mix and match my flavours, but I noticed that they had an Iced Cappuccino flavour! Ice Caps are already good by themselves, but as a flavour for ice cream?! I had to give this a try! I got a small cup which I believe was around $3. You could have it in a waffle cone for no extra charge as well, and also one choice of topping. I went for the gummy bears, which they would normally mix it in your ice cream, but I asked for it just on the top. The Ice Cap ice cream was literally what it was. I’m guessing they just add more cream to the ice cap and freeze it. Pretty good if you are a fan of ice caps! However, the gummy bears seemed to be old and had sat in the glass jar for too long. They were hard and difficult to chew on, so I definitely won’t be getting that next time.

Overall, ice cream at a fraction of price compared to Marble Slab, but you essentially get the same experience. I can’t quite say how the quality is compared to Marble Slab, since I haven’t had Marble Slab in a long time, but it’s good enough if you’re just craving some ice cream and you’re in the Metrotown area. Plus, you can get other Tim Horton’s goodies while you’re at it.

Mimibuloveme

May 21, 2013May 21, 2013Leave a comment

I’ve been seeing everyone posting delicious dessert pictures from Mimibuloveme so I dragged J along to go check it out. Weirdly enough, the outside of their store says Bubble House. We were sort of confused for a second, but I walked closer and saw that they sold the same things I had saw on their Facebook page. I’m guessing they haven’t switched the sign from the previous shop?

The place is fairly small, and is actually the same location where Dots Desserts used to be. Their tables reminded me of what Dots had too. They also have this awesome panda bear sitting on a chair. Totally wanted to hug him.

They also have these paintings around the shop, and they also sell greeting cards with these characters.

Matcha Crepe – red bean, matcha ice cream

I chose the Matcha Crepe to share and it was filled with red bean and a few mochi balls inside and on the top. I wish they put more mochi balls, because those things are my favourite! It was then topped with a scoop of matcha ice cream on the side. Not bad! It’s also decently priced at around $5 compared to many other crepe places which charge at least $8.

Matcha Ice Cream

Because I enjoyed the Matcha Ice Cream so much, I asked for another scoop of it for just $1.50. Not bad at all considering a scoop of ice cream is usually over $3 at most dessert shops!

Overall, Mimibuloveme is a cute little shop to grab some desserts and chat with friends. I’m guessing that it gets really busy on weekends and late nights, and therefore hard to find a seat.

La Casa Gelato

May 9, 2013Leave a comment

After dinner, I dragged J along with me to visit La Casa Gelato. I’ve heard that the place has over 200 flavours of gelato and some pretty exotic ones too, and I’ve been dying to visit the shop. To my surprise, the place is painted bright pink, and even their parking lot across the street is pink…

The place is pretty huge for a gelato shop, but it’s got to be that size to store all the flavours! Some weird flavours included wasabi, curry, and garlic. They also had more normal flavours such as vanilla and chocolate.Sorbet is also an option if you don’t want gelato.

Your gelato can be scooped in either a waffle cone or cup, which were seen all around the shop.

Before purchasing your gelato, you are welcome to try the flavours. There are many employees behind each fridge, and they were extremely friendly and helpful. I didn’t dare try the exotic tasting flavours, such as curry or garlic, but I did try one of the alcoholic ones. I believe it was called Tequila Sunrise, and they definitely put some alcohol in it! However, I felt like it was too strong, and it just didn’t taste good. After trying several flavours, I found that most of the flavours didn’t actually work. They were creative, but the it was either too strong or lacking some flavour. The recipes definitely need work!

Green Tea Gelato

In the end, I ended up with the Green Tea Gelato, which is my all time favourite ice cream flavour. However, I didn’t think it was the best gelato I’ve had. The green tea wasn’t strong enough, and the gelato wasn’t exactly smooth. They did, however, give me a pretty large scoop which I think was around $5. Overall, don’t expect any quality ice cream. It’s definitely a shop of quantity over quality. If you’re looking to try some crazy flavours, then you’re at the right place.

Old Speghetti Factory (Gastown)

May 8, 2013Leave a comment

Since it was dinner time and we were in downtown, J suggested we go to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown. I’m not a big fan of the family chain restaurant since I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with the food, but J insisted that they had some great salad, so I decided to give it another shot. The place is definitely a family restaurant, and since we went for an early dinner, we were seated immediately. The Gastown location is said to be haunted too which makes everything a little more spooky! In the middle of the restaurant is an electric trolley. It is said that a train conductor died in a crash years ago and that people have seen his ghostly figure in pictures. Kind of creepy, since we were seated right next to the trolley.

Classic Sourdough Bread with Whipped Garlic and Plain Butter

All items that you order that are under the “It’s all included” menu include some bread, soup or salad and dessert. To start off, we were given the Classic Sourdough Bread with Whipped Garlic and Plain Butter. This was decent and I especially liked the Whipped Garlic.

Crisp Green Salad with Low-Fat Sesame Dressing

J chose the Crisp Green Salad with Low-Fat Sesame Dressing, since he said the dressing was really good the last time he had it. I took a bite and it definitely was pretty good. The dressing was sort of a vinaigrette based dressing with a hint of sesame flavour.

Clam Chowder

As for myself, I chose a soup isntead of the salad. You normally get a Minestrone Soup, but I chose to add $2.25 to substitute for a Clam Chowder. It was thick and creamy, but I’ve definitely had better Clam Chowder. It was just alright.

Pot-Pourri Spaghetti with Meat, Mushroom and Clam Sauce

And onto our entrees, we got of course some spaghetti! Since I couldn’t decide which sauce to get, I ended up getting the Pot-Pourri Spaghetti, which included all three of their most popular sauces. The last time I had spaghetti here, it was just watery and disgusting. This time, it wasn’t watery, but it still wasn’t any better. The meat sauce wasn’t anything special and I swear I could just buy the sauce off the shelf. The mushroom sauce tasted pretty much like the meat sauce except with mushrooms. The only sauce that I thought was decent was the clam sauce which actually had many pieces of clams in it.

Spaghetti with Spicy Meat Sauce

As for J, he got the Spaghetti with Spicy Meat Sauce. This too, wasn’t any good. The sauce wasn’t flavourful and you could just taste the spaghetti with a hint of spice to it. Anyone could have made this dish.

Spumoni Ice Cream

For dessert, J got the Spunomi Ice Cream, which was a mixture of pistachio, chocolate and vanilla. I thought it tasted extremely weird and wasn’t a big fan of it.

Vanilla Ice Cream

For myself, I got the Vanilla Ice Cream. I’m usually a big fan of ice cream, and will literally eat any ice cream no matter how full I am, but I only took a few spoons of this. I was just dissatisfied with my meal and the ice cream wasn’t even good.

Overall, we were pretty disappointed with our meal. The food is decently priced with all the items that are included in your meal, but the quality just isn’t up to par. We left with half our dishes finished cause it was that bad.

Froshberg Gelato

March 5, 2013April 28, 2013Leave a comment

Matcha Gelato

The new Dining Terrace at Richmond Centre has been open for quite some time now, and everyone was talking about the new Froshberg Gelato. I finally decided to go try it out during my break from work, and chose the Matcha Gelato. However, I wasn’t too satisfied with the flavour. I found it really sweet and almost artificial. It didn’t have the true matcha tea leaves flavour to it. It almost felt too milky and creamy for it to be a matcha gelato.

I’ve yet to try the other flavours though, so perhaps the other flavours are much better.