Angel Cake Cafe
Angel Cake Cafe
5995 Fraser Street
Vancouver, BC
Note: cash only!
A lot of times, no matter how well plans are laid out, there are variables we might overlook and, as a result, these plans just crumble down. This is what happened a couple of Monday’s ago when I checked with some friends to visit a Filipino restaurant, Pinpin in Fraser Street. After we arrived, we found out it is not open in Monday’s… Ouch. After a quick “vote”, we went to the closest open place: Angel Cake Cafe (listed also as Angel Cafe).
For this area, I think it was quite busy. Since we were a party of four, they had to shuffle a little bit to accomodate us. In a funny way, parties of two were given the booths (which would fit 4 customers) rather than a table. Oh, well, I guess they know better.
It has been a while since I have seen such container for sugar
It took us a while to decide what to order; we were debating between sharing or order individually. In the end, despite we agreed to order individually, the dishes ordered could easily be shared. After we made our order, we decided to order some additional items as appetizers but… OK, in this type of restaurants, let’s just say funny things will happen. First, soup, which comes with most of the dishes we ordered:
Likewise, the items we ordered come with rice and, again, rather than individual bowls, we were given a container with it.
Now, as for the actual dishes:
If you say “What da…”, in a way, that was my reaction was well. Yes, that is congee – rice porridge – with slices of beef. I was wondering why this was ordered but I did not really push that issue. I did not taste it and did not ask about it either.
I don’t recall the name of the dish but they are fried slices of fish with a corn sauce (as in “corn niblets”, not creamed). It was interesting in its own way, mainly because it was sweet (obviously, due to the corn).
This is the dish I ordered, curry beef brisket. At this point I think I am starting to be predictive. Yes, a lot of times, in Chinese restaurants, I order brisket… Anyway, back to the food: if you had Indian curry previously, this will be a disappointment. It is not fiery spicy; rather, it is a bit sweet.
At this point, our appetizer arrived (!): 6 satay (3 chicken, 3 lamb). I only had a lamb satay. It was not really game-y but tasty nonetheless.
The final dish, lemon chicken, battered and fried pieces of chicken with a orange-like sauce. I had a couple of pieces and, unlike the fish above, the chicken morsels were heavily battered. In my opinion, it was OK.
After that, my companions went to the side cake shop and ordered dessert. I did not have any myself but here is what was ordered.
Taro cake
Mango cheesecake
Cheesecake
Let’s just say all of them enjoyed their dessert.
Now, couple of things I have to say about the food:
1) As mentioned above, dishes did not show up at the same time. I will assume this is because some items are prepared in advance and it is a matter of re-heating them. I mean, how else would the plate of fish came out so fast?
2) I don’t think it is really noticeable but ought to mention it: The portions are big! We all agree that instead of 4 dishes, 3 would have done. In fact, we did not finish the chicken and there was enough for a meal the following day.
Overall, the food was OK though, obviously, it could be better. After all, you should leave space for improvement. Also, it was relatively cheap. All the food above was under $60. Would I come back? Well, maybe; there are a lot of other similar restaurants I might want to visit so there is no reason for me to stick to this one only. Just give the other ones a chance.
