For the most part, there are almost no restaurants I am not willing to visit. From the street vendor (far too few in Vancouver, in my humble opinion) to fast food chain restaurants (I did visit McDonald’s for my Smore’s and Brulee McFlurry posts!) to “casual dining” (whatever that means) restaurants to fine dining. If it is food and I have the cash to afford it, chances are I will go. Of course, unless, that place is in the middle of nowhere (or Richmond!). And, as the name of this blog implies, I am only there for the food; the rest is something I can live with our without.
So, that begs the question, would I return to a restaurant that I have mentioned I won’t go back? Unfortunately, chances are there might be some chances. No, I am not flip-flopping on this now. The truth is that things might have change since my last visit and it can go both ways. Good restaurants might have gone south while those I did not like have improved. Furthermore, some of the restaurants I do not like, unfortunately, are places where people like to gather (mainly because their location and layout favours this type of activities). I might grumble about their selection but, between not meeting them and choosing to give them a second chance, I think I will rather meet them – after all, friends can last a lifetime while restaurants might come and go.
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Hokkaido Ramen Santouka
1690 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
“There is always space for one more”
That phrase is of course a tongue-in-cheek. In some areas of Vancouver, you see a saturation of certain restaurants, yet, it seems one more restaurant always pop out. Fish and chips in Steveston, Indian in Surrey, Izakaya in Downtown Vancouver. In the corner of Robson and Denman, also known as the ramen epicentre in Vancouver, we already have the three main ramen shops: Kintaro, Motomachi Shokudo and Benkei Ramen (and its “relative”, Benkei Ramen in Thurlow). The question is, of course, is there space for Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, the newest addition in the ramen picture in Vancouver…
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Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts – Bakery 101
1505 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC
OK, despite its odd name, no, I wasn’t in a class. Rather, this is a bakery located in the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, a local culinary school near Granville Island. So, how come I went considering I am not crazy about sweets, not to mention this one in particular, considering all the bakeries found in Vancouver? Well… Blame Yen of OMNOMics on this one, as she recently wrote a blog post about it!
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Go Fish
1505 W 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC
My next to last post associated in a way to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games! Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a blast but, alas, all good things must come to an end… 
So, how this post is related in any way to the Olympics? In two ways: first, I mentioned it in my Where to Eat post and, second, after a failed visit to Atlantic Canada House (one of the few Canada exhibits I completely failed to visit), I wanted lunch and Go Fish was the option I had in mind. So, there you go, my explanation of why Go Fish! (Let’s face it, do I *really* need an explanation of why I like to eat??? 
)
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Wally’s Burgers
4141 Dollarton Hwy (Cates Park)
2611 East 49th Avenue (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC
Last week, reader Ryan wrote a comment in my Wally’s Burger (Cates Park) post saying there was a new location in Killarney Market in the Victoria Drive/Fraserview area. While I wasn’t necessarily impressed in my visit to its North Vancouver location, I still had some willingness to give it a try but, of course, this time with lower expectations. (Of course, the fact I did not have to cross any bridge helps!).
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Nancy Wonton House
5257 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC
Once again, during the Olympic Games, after I attended the only event I got tickets for, which I got from the original lottery, it was dinner time. The problem was that… I didn’t know where to go for dinner! Driving round and round (OK, not literally), I was going through Victoria Drive when I noticed Nancy Wonton House, a place I have in my list for a while but haven’t for some reason. And one of the reasons people like this place? Its hours: it close at a relatively late (or early, depending on your perspective) time of the day.
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Sciué
800 W Pender Street (Location visited)
126 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC
Once again, it was during those hectic Winter Olympic days… Actually, they weren’t THAT bad because, thanks to arrangements from my workplace, I was able to finish work earlier which let me wander around the different houses and pavilions (and I blogged about them here). That arrangement also allowed me to go to Downtown core itself for lunch and, for today’s post, one of those places that seems to be close yet a bit too far: Sciué
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