Mama’s Fish and Chips

May 23, 2015May 24, 2015Leave a comment

On a sunny Friday, my coworkers and I decided to head down Granville St. in search of lunch. We decided to check out the food trucks, and we found Mama’s Fish and Chips parked at Granville and West 10th. Just look for the black truck with a cartoon fish painted. I’m not sure if they move around or if they’re always at this location.

Their menu is mostly fish and chips of course, but they also have salmon sandwiches and crispy prawns. Prices are quite reasonable for fish and chips. The wait is rather long though at around 15 minutes or so after you place the order. I was hoping a food truck would be a quicker option than at a sit in restaurant, but it’s not really.

2 pcs Fish and Chips

I got the 2 pcs Fish and Chips to share with S and the portion was actually quite large. It comes with a side of coleslaw, fries, and some tartar sauce. The first thing I noticed was how dark the fish was fried. It was an golden orange, which I’m not sure if that means the oil is rather old. I was expecting a lighter yellow. However, the fish was very crispy. It was moist, but I wouldn’t say this is one of the top spots for Fish and Chips. Fries were crispy, but they didn’t wow me. As for the coleslaw, this was actually quite flavourful. Overall, the fish and chips are decent, but I wouldn’t say they are the top in Vancouver.

Pros:
– Decent fish and chips
– Reasonable prices

Cons:
– The wait to get your food is rather long

Price Range: $15-20

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

Food: 3 Service: 2.5 Ambiance: N/A Parking: N/A Overall: 3

Go Fish

April 28, 2015April 28, 2015Leave a comment

It was a sunny day after work and with the extended summer hours in place, we finally got to try Go Fish. Go Fish is located just off Granville Island in a little wooden shack. It’s quite the hidden gem, since it’s not in your typical tourist area of Granville Island. I had no idea that this area even existed! They have some seating at the shack as well as some long wooden tables near the parking lot.

You order at the shack and they will call your name when your dish is ready. Service was hip and friendly.

Fish & Chips – cod

Of course we came here for what they are famous for, so we got the Fish & Chips. The best part is that the fish come in dim sum boxes! I am a sucker for these gimmicky details.They have various portions, and we chose two pieces with coleslaw and fries and added an additional piece. You can also choose from cod, salmon, or halibut. We went for cod and the fish was moist. The fish is battered with their homemade Granville Island beer batter and I found it crispy without being oily. It is served with tartar sauce, as well as a Pacific Rim coleslaw, which was seasoned very well. I normally hate coleslaw, but I found myself eating this up! As for the fries, they were crispy and I liked these much more than Pajo’s.

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with Go Fish. Prices are comparable to Pajo’s and other fish and chips spots. It may be one of my favourite fish and chips spots now! I found the fish less oily than Pajo’s. Plus, you get a beautiful view of Granville Island’s fisherman’s wharf while eating here. Definitely a hidden gem!

Pros:
– One of the best fish and chips spots in Vancouver
– Great scenery

Cons:
– Line ups when it’s sunny and closer to dinner time

Price Range: $10-15

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

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

Mon Ami Gabi – Las Vegas

February 18, 2015February 18, 2015Leave a comment

Over the long weekend, I headed to Las Vegas for a girls’ trip. On the first night, we decided to try Mon Ami Gabi, which is located in the Paris Hotel. Right next to the Eiffel Tower.

The restaurant is famous for their patio, since you can people watch, but I had made reservations online, which was only for indoor seating. That was fine with us, since the patio seating would mean long waits. We were seated right away since we had reservations, so be sure to do so if you don’t mind indoor seating.

The restaurant is dimly lit with a bar on one side. Mon Ami Gabi specializes in classic French cuisine. Our server was very friendly and made me laugh with his enthusiasm and thick French accent.

Complimentary Bread and Carrot Salad

Dinner came with complimentary bread and a carrot salad. Bread was soft and fluffy, but the carrot salad was just average. Nothing too special.

Sangria

We decided to start the night off with a pitcher of Sangria to share. A mix of red and white wine with fruits, this was tasty and great for sharing. You get at least two glasses each for three people.

Chilled Seafood Platter

For appetizers, we decided to get the Chilled Seafood Platter to share. The great thing is that it’s one set price, and you can share it with everyone. Much better than what happens in Vancouver, where you need to order a minimum of two orders and the platter is made specifically for the number of people. Anyways, the platter came with a whole Maine lobster, jumbo shrimps with cocktail sauce, market oysters with mignonette and lemon, and salmon tartare with baguette chips. My favourite were probably the oysters and salmon tartare. The tartar was mixed with avocado and went great with the chips. The platter also came with some seaweed salad, which I enjoyed, but nothing too special. Overall, the seafood were decent, but I wouldn’t say they were extremely fresh compared to what you get in Vancouver.

Caramelized Sea Scallops

For entrees, SP got the Caramelized Sea Scallops. The scallops were cooked perfectly and were very fresh. However, we found them slightly too salty. It also came with a side of butternut squash puree and brussels sprouts, which SP loved.

Mussels Mariniere

For myself and SK, we both got the Mussels Mariniere. You can get half an order, but we got the full order for double the price. It ended up being a huge plate! The mussels were rather small, but they were still decent. It came with a white wine sauce with herbs. We both found the sauce slightly salty again. It seemed like everything in the States is just on the salty side.

Signature Hand-cut Fries

The full order of mussels also came with a side of Signature Hand-cut Fries. These were extremely thin-cut and very crispy. I loved dipping it into the white wine sauce. But again, way over salted.

Overall, Mon Ami Gabi had some pretty good dishes, but we found everything too salty. Service and ambiance was also pretty good. Prices are actually pretty reasonable for Las Vegas, but it can add up with all the drinks and appetizers.

Pros:
– Good French dishes
– Great ambiance and service

Cons:
– Dishes are on the salty side
– Seafood may not be the freshest compared to what we have in Vancouver

Price Range: $40-50

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

Food: 4
Service: 4
Ambiance: 4
Parking: N/A
Overall: 4

The Sandbar – DOVF 2015

February 1, 2015February 1, 2015Leave a comment

Wok Charred Albacore Tuna

For our work’s squad lunch, we went to The Sandbar restaurant in Granville Island. It’s part of the Sequoia group of restaurants, like Seasons in the Park and they offered the $28 lunch menu during the Dine Out Vancouver Festival. Most of us started off with the Wok Charred Albacore Tuna for our appetizer. The tuna was crusted with sesame and lightly seared so the middle was still raw. Very fresh and combined with the pickled ginger, it was very refreshing. It also came with a wasabi aioli, but it lacked any wasabi flavour. The dish also came with some crispy wontons to eat with the tuna, which gave the whole dish a very Asian flare.

Seafood Hot Pot

For the entree, I chose the Seafood Hot Pot, which came with loads of seafood! It include bok choy, salmon, snapper, clams, mussels, prawns, and even a scallop. All the seafood was really fresh and it came in a red coconut curry broth. The broth was a very thin consistency soup and was very aromatic in coconut flavour. There was barely any spice, but it was perfect for dipping the complimentary bread into.

Wood Grilled Steelhead Salmon

A got the Wood Grilled Steelhead Salmon, which had a very nice char to it. It came on top of some bok choy and coconut jasmine rice, which sat above the tomato fennel broth. A said it was very delicious.

Chocolate Oatmeal Brownie

For dessert, some of them got the Chocolate Oatmeal Brownie, which came with a creme anglaise. They said this was a bit sweet though.

Lemon Cheesecake

For myself, I chose the Lemon Cheesecake, which came with a raspberry coulis and strawberry. The cheesecake was light and not too sweet. Not bad!

Overall, we were all very pleased with our lunch. I find that their Dine Out menu doesn’t showcase a lot of their best dishes, but it’s a good price at $28 to check it out. I found it interesting that most of their menu threw in some Asian ingredients as well. Service was friendly and efficient. Our food came out quickly, but at a good pace, which was perfect since we wanted a quick lunch. Ambiance is also great, especially when you get seated outside. There’s heating lamps and you get a beautiful view of Vancouver.

Pros:
– Reasonable prices for seafood dishes
– Beautiful views of Vancouver

Cons:
– Parking at Granville Island can be difficult during busy hours
– The Dine Out menu doesn’t showcase their best food

Price Range: $25-35

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

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

Merchant’s Oyster Bar – DOVF 2015

January 31, 2015February 1, 20152 Comments

It’s Dine Out Vancouver Festival time again, and this year, I suggested we try Merchant’s Oyster Bar. Located on Commercial, it’s where the rest of the hipster food spots have opened up. The restaurant is pretty dimly lit, so I’ve never even noticed it. The restaurant has a bar table, but also dining seating. It’s rather dim, but very casual at the same time.

Online, we found the Dine Out menu to be $28, with three savoury dishes. Sort of the reason why I chose this, and also because they had oysters! However, upon arriving, their menu also featured a 4 course menu for $31, which included desserts. The desserts didn’t like anything too special, so we all opted out. They also have wine and non-alcoholic pairings.

MW went for the Scandal Lager, which came in a really cute bottle. So hipster.

Tuna Ceviche (+$2)

The first dishes are “snacks.” MH went for the Tuna Ceviche, which came on top of an endive This gave it a good crunch, but we could barely taste any tuna. The ceviche was seasoned with lime, Jalapeno, cilantro, and shallots, but we all agreed that it tasted too much like the herbs. Quite disappointed with this one.

Baked Oysters (+$3)

IC went for the Baked Oysters, which again came in a set of three. They were seasoned with lemongrass coconut crema, kimchi, and topped with tempura crumbs. I didn’t try this, but she said it was very good.

Oysters

MW and I went for the Oysters. Each diner gets three oysters each, and they brought us two types. One was the kusshi, and I could nto remember the second. It came with mignonette, lemon and horseradish for seasoning. There was also Tabasco sauce to give it some spice. The oysters were tiny, but extremely sweet and fresh. Definitely satisfied my oyster craving.

Beef Tartare

For my first course, I chose the Beef Tartare. The raw beef was chopped up and seasoned with a fermented hot sauce and pickled shallots. Accompanying it were caramelized onion crackers. I was disappointed with this as the beef was rather flavourless. I could barely taste the hot sauce. Without the cracker, the beef would have been very bland. Raw beef needs lots of seasoning or else it doesn’t taste good. It also came with a side of salad with a basic vinaigrette and olive oil dressing.

Sunchoke Soup

IC got the Sunchoke Soup, which had a very thick consistency, which we all enjoyed. You could also taste a hint of truffle oil and the soup came with some Sunchoke chips.

Albacore Tuna

MH got the Albacore Tuna, which came with a daikon pear slaw, ginger ponzu and pickled red onions. I thought that the tuna would be more like a tuna tataki, where it was lightly seared but raw inside, but it was actually fully cooked. I found it to be overcooked, but the daikon pear slaw made the dish really good since it was sweet and crunchy.

Slow Braised Short Ribs (+$2)

IC got the Slow Braised Short Ribs, which came in an interesting presentation. I found the veggies to be plated quite oddly. The short ribs were very flavourful and the meat was extremely tender. It came with some parsnip puree, honey roasted carrots, and braising liquids.

Confit Pork Belly (+$1)

MH got the Confit Pork Belly, which was rather a small piece. A good proportion of fat to meat and you really didn’t need to chew much since it was so soft. It came with a side of celery root puree, clams, celery, and a walnut vinaigrette.

Pan Seared Ling Cod

For myself, I got the Pan Seared Ling Cod, which was moist in the inside and was seared until there was a crispy skin. It came with some sauteed purple potatoes, apple chorizo emulsion, and kale puree. My favourite was the apple chorizo emulsion, which are pictured as those yellow drops. The sauce was so intense with the smokey chorizo flavour and paired great with the fish.

Pros:
– Reasonable prices for the type of food you get
– Ambiance is chill and great to hang out

Cons:
– Food is good, but not nothing too memorable
– Service is average

Price Range: $30-40

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

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

Provence Marinaside

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015Leave a comment

For S’s birthday, I took her to Provence Marinaside in Yaletown. It’s located right by the water, but unfortunately we were seated near the back of the restaurant away from the view. The interior isn’t too modern nor fancy, but it gives you a comfy French countryside feel. Lunch started off with complementary bread. There were two types. One was your typical baguette which was more tough, while the second was something similar to a focaccia bread.

Fresh Oyster

We started off with some Fresh Oysters. The server said there were two types. One was the Kusshi, but I didn’t catch on to what she said the second one was. It was served with a pear vinegar mignonette and fresh lemon. Very fresh, but I didn’t really like the sauce it came with. I liked the sauces at Rodney’s a lot more. They also don’t have any deals for oysters, so it comes to $2.50 per oyster, which is quite pricey.

Panisse & Vegetables

S got the Panisse & Vegetables, which came to be a very interesting dish. Panisse is a dish from Provence and is pictured above as those rectangular fries. These were made with chick peas and seasoned with basil. They had a crispy exterior, but a very soft interior. Sort of like crispy potatoes. The dish also came with zucchini spaghetti, which S loved. A great alternative to your pasta full of carbs. Wilted leafy greens, fennel, red pepper and tomato coulis finished off the dish.

Linguini Vongole

For myself, I got the Linguine Vongole, which is one of my all time favourite Italian pasta dishes. This featured clams, tomatoes, garlic, white wine, espelette pepper, parsley, and olive oil. They didn’t cheap out on the amount of clams in the dish and they were all sweet and fresh. The pasta was cooked to al dente and I loved the sauce. It was perfect for dipping your bread.

Overall, we were quite satisfied with the food. I also thought the prices were quite reasonable for their lunch menu considering that it’s located in Yaletown and is supposed to be a fine dining restaurant. Dinner however is supposed to be much pricier. Ambiance felt a little casual for a fine dining restaurant and service was just mediocre as well. As for parking, there is metered parking and parkades very close to the restaurant or the skytrain.

Pros:
– Food is above average
– Lunch menu prices are quite reasonable

Cons:
– Ambiance indoors is just average
– Dinner menu prices are not of as good value

Price Range: $20-25

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

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

Bonjuk (Insadong) – Seoul

August 24, 2014August 23, 2014Leave a comment

Bonjuk is a chain restaurant that mainly sells Juk, which is a Korean rice porridge. Rice porridge used to only be eaten when you’re sick or if you’re a child due to its easy digestibility, but today, it is a dish that’s part of casual dining. We went to the one closest to our apartment, which was on the main tourist street of Insadong.

Seafood Combination Porridge

The juk at Bonjuk come in sets. You choose your porridge, and it comes with a few side dishes and a small drink. On the very left was kimchi. Next, shreds of marinated beef which was super delicious! We added this to our porridge. The flavour of the beef is super addicting! Next to that is a bit of chili paste which you can add to your porridge to bring some spice to it. In front of that is a cold bowl of sweet and sour water with radish in it. The tea is also really good! It’s cold and sweet. I can’t really describe the flavour, but it reminded me of plum juice at Chinese hot pots. For myself, I chose the Seafood Combination Porridge. All porridge come topped with ground sesame and seaweed. I had shrimp, oysters, octopus in my porridge. Extremely delicious and they don’t skimp on the ingredients! The bowl is also huge, so we later realized we could’ve probably shared one between the two of us.

Bulgogi Octopus Porridge

K got the Bulgogi Octopus Porridge. It looks quite similar to mine, except it has more of that bulgogi marinade flavour to it. She was extremely disappointed with the octopus though. It was way to tough and chewy! Probably not very easy to digest even after chewing. She ended up leaving most of the octopus in her bowl.

Crab Meat Porridge

C got the Crab Meat Porridge, which again, looked just like the others. However, you’ll find imitation crab meat in the porridge.

Octopus Kimchi Porridge

T got the Octopus Kimchi Porridge, which was the only one that looked slightly different. It came in a orange coloured broth. This is basically the spicy version of what K got. Again, her octopus were not tender and ended up being too chewy to eat. She loved the spice of the porridge though!

Overall, Bonjuk is a great place to try Korean rice porridge. It may not be the best, but the quality is always decent. And most of the menu items are under 10,000 won unless you choose the fancy ones that include abalone. Most of us couldn’t finish our whole bowl too. You can take out the rest and they provide you with microwavable containers. Definitely a very good deal, and service was quite good. Comfortable seats too!

Address: 155-9, Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Cheongsapo Suminine (수민이네) – Busan

August 19, 2014August 23, 20143 Comments

When in Busan, you must eat seafood since it is known for fresh seafood. Our friend suggested to try Cheongsapo Suminine (수민이네) after Spa Land. It’s located right off the Haeundae Beach, and we decided to cab there since we were too tired to metro. Our cab drivers knew exactly where it was since the restaurant is actually quite famous for their grilled eel and seafood. We went down a windy road, which we thought was a little sketch. If you’re taking the metro here, you would just need to walk down these smaller streets, since there’s no metro close to the beach. I probably wouldn’t advise to do so late at night. Finally, we arrived, and the restaurant wasn’t anything glamorous. From the outside, it looked a bit run down with tarps around since it was a bit rainy that day.

We went inside and realized we were stepping on gravel and pebbles. I would advise not to wear anything too nice or high heels here as you’ll have trouble walking here. Plastic green chairs and metal tables, but still a ton of people. This reminded me of those places in Hong Kong where you can eat fresh seafood. We got there at around 9pm, so the place was only half filled. I hear that during peak hours, you may even need to line up here!

There’s basically only a few items on the menu. 3 types of shellfish, eel, and some side dishes like instant noodle or rice to accompany your seafood. If you’re not into any of this, then this is not the place to be. However, if you love shellfish, you MUST visit this place! I would rate it the best meal I had in South Korea! Anyways, it was pretty funny because we couldn’t communicate with our server, and we weren’t exactly sure what the types of shellfish we were getting. He ended up giving one our friends a tour in the kitchen to show her exactly what it would be. No english names, but we got a gist just by the looks of the shellfish. We started off with 2 servings of the first type of shellfish- scallops. I’m a lover for scallops and I absolutely love getting them in Chinese restaurants. I was excited to see how they would be prepared in Korea! The scallops are seasoned with just a few simple ingredients – butter, onions, and green onions. It also comes with a bowl of enoki mushrooms.

In Korea, they love to wrap their food, whether if it’s seafood or meat. Korean lettuce wraps are called ssam. Here, we have lettuce on the left and shiso on the right. Shiso leaves have a bit of a minty, herby taste to it. You either like it or you don’t. For me, I preferred the good old lettuce.

This is ssamjang, which is a thick, spicy paste that you add to your wrap. It’s basically soy bean paste with gochujang (spicy chili paste). Super addicting!

For 2 servings, it’s actually quite a lot of food. I believe it was 20,000 won for 1 serving of scallops. That’s around CAD$20.

Our server began to place the first round of scallops on the grill. Another thing to note is that while you may see most modern restaurants use gas, or a hot pot type of grill, they use a traditional charcoal grill here. Literally a lump of charcoal which they bring to your table and place into this pothole. Pretty neat! After grilling these scallops on their shells for a few minutes, he then transfers them into the aluminum bowl with enoki mushrooms in it and cuts the scallop into smaller pieces.

Then he takes the shells and places it on top of the aluminum to let it cook. Super interesting and a good use of the shells!

He lifts the shell up, and here we have delicious cooked scallop. So fresh and delicious! Words can’t even describe how good it tasted with those simple ingredients! You can also dip the scallops in this soy sauce which comes with a bit of wasabi. On the side, there were also several small prawns.

He would have two ways to cook the scallop. You can either leave it on the shell, or have it cut up into pieces and cooked with the enoki mushrooms in the tin foil. He then brought us some scallops that had a spicy sauce already on it. Those were pretty delicious too!

This was our server, and pretty much our personal server of the night! He’s the owner’s son and was the only one who knew a bit of English and could communicate with us. It was pretty funny since most people were shown how to cook their food once and then were left to do it on their own, but he ended up serving us the whole night – for 2 whole hours! He would stand next to us and cook the whole time! I guess it was because we looked like we had no idea what we were doing… Much thanks to him and he definitely wins for best service in South Korea!

After our two servings, we were full, but we felt like having a bit more… I mean the two servings were for 5 of us, so we felt like we could have some more. This time, we decided to get the mix of 3 shellfish. This was what most people got anyways. This included the same scallops, but also clams and giant clams. We’ll talk more about these giant clams later on…

Here we have the clams and a spicy scallop. The clams have much more meat compared to the scallops, but are much tougher in my opinion. These clams are also larger than usual. Not the baby clams you normally get at restaurants. We all agreed that we liked the scallops the most since they were less chewy and more tender.

Then came these giant clams… I don’t think the picture shows how large these things are… The shell is the size of your hand! What in the world were these things?! We questioned that the whole time at dinner, yet our server couldn’t give us an English term. After doing some googling, we figured they were just a larger species of clams. We thought they were mussels all along because of their shells, but if you look closely at the meat, it really resembles a clam or oyster. The meat itself was quite a lot too, but we found it extremely chewy! It was too tough to chew. Not a fan of it sadly.

As you can see in the picture, there were also some appetizers that came along, however we didn’t really like them. First, they had a kimchi-like dish, but it wasn’t napa cabbage, but rather a skinny long veggie. I found it a bit odd to taste so I didn’t have anymore. It also came with the Korean green chili peppers and some garlic cloves. Then our server decides to bring us some eel, which is what Suminine is famous for. However, both K and I aren’t huge fans of eel due to the tiny bones. I’m not even sure if we were charged for the eel, but he said it was some special package or some sort. Again, lack of communication. Anyways, since he already began cooking it, it was too rude for us to say no since he had been such a good server.

The grilled eel surprisingly tasted pretty good in the lettuce wrap with the ssamjang spicy sauce. Still, I wasn’t a huge fan of all those tiny bones! I was so worried I would choke on it if I didn’t chew thoroughly.

All in all, Suminine is a must visit if you’re in the Haeundae area! Excellent service even though they lack English skills, but most of all, delicious and fresh seafood! I believe each person paid only around CAD$20 too so it’s not bad at all for the amount of seafood we got! And that was our last night in Busan. We would leave the next morning. Must sees that we missed were the Haeundae Beach and the Gwangali Beach. I hear they are both beautiful, but we had rainy weather most of the time so it wasn’t worthwhile for us to visit.

Address: 595-4, Jung2-dong, Haeundae-gu,Busan,South Korea

Every Day is a Food Day

Tag: Seafood

Mama’s Fish and Chips

Go Fish

Mon Ami Gabi – Las Vegas

The Sandbar – DOVF 2015

Merchant’s Oyster Bar – DOVF 2015

Provence Marinaside

Bonjuk (Insadong) – Seoul

Cheongsapo Suminine (수민이네) – Busan