From the monthly archives:

May 2010

Pho Hoa (Burnaby)

by KimHo on May 31, 2010 · 12 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Pho Hoa
Several locations in the US and Canada
5505 Kingsway (location visited)
Burnaby, BC
Pho Hoa (Burnaby) on Urbanspoon

Last week, on my Thursday post, I made reference to a post I had to reshuffle because it would have made that week too focused in one area of Metro Vancouver. One of the posts I had to do so is that of Pho Hoa, a restaurant in… Well, several places over Vancouver! While they do have several locations, I went to the one in Burnaby. That, of course, brings the question: why go to Pho Hoa? Well, the reason is similar to why I have been going to several restaurants in Kingsway in the Burnaby side: because of several errands and what not, I have been spending a lot of time in the area which translates into eating in places nearby. Hmmmm… Why suddenly I start to sound like Sherman??? :P

Pho Hoa, Burnaby, Kingsway

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Swallow Tail Super Club – “Underground Restaurant”
Somewhere in Vancouver, BC

In the last year or so, a new type of “restaurants” have hit Vancouver silently. How secret? Well, how about it not necessarily registered as a “restaurant” at all? Yes, I am talking about underground restaurants, where cooks (sometime professionals, other times, regular John Doe who are skilled cooks) open their kitchen and, for a “donation”, they will cook a meal for you. It has been feature in local printed media like The Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. While fellow food bloggers have visited and written about it, I have told them I wasn’t that interested in visiting them (more in a moment). However, in a “you can’t comment about it before you have done it” line of thought, I decided to tag along on an outing organized by Jonathan of Food and Tell. The chosen “underground” restaurant? Swallow Tail Super Club.

Swallow Tail, Super Club, Underground restaurant, wine cellar

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Nimby Burger

by KimHo on May 28, 2010 · 6 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Photo Essay

Nimby Burger
2210 Cornwall Avenue
Vancouver, BC
Nimby Burger on Urbanspoon

What? Another burger place post? Well, true, I wrote about Five Guys Burgers and Fries last week but, considering that the rest of the posts for this week would have ended up being that of Asian restaurants, I thought, nah, this might be “worth it”…

Now, Nimby Burger (as in… Not In My Back Yard?) has made some noise in the last couple of weeks, including what I believe is the best method of testing if the restaurant (as set up) works: serve their food free. I mean, why should I pay a restaurant if they are still tweaking things? Aside from that is the fact it imitates principles similar to that of a well known burger shop in the US, In-n-Out Burger. While I haven’t been to In-n-Out, at least I know how I like my burger. With that in mind, I went there the weekend after they opened.

Nimby Burger, Kitsilano, Vancouver, burgers, fries

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Deliciuos BBQ

by KimHo on May 27, 2010 · 19 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Delicious BBQ
4500 Kingsway
Crystal Mall
Burnaby, BC
Delicious BBQ (Crystal Mall) on Urbanspoon

The truth is that this week could have been Kingsway (Burnaby side) week. That’s because, originally, all posts would have been in this area and, two of them of similar cuisine, namely, Vietnamese. To avoid that burning sense, I added Akira Sushi and, to further shuffle sense, tomorrow’s post will be Nimby Burger. However, I still needed a post for today. While I have some materials in the queue, I still had to go through the post-processing process, etc. etc. So, in the end, I decided to use of of those originally scheduled posts… ^_^;;;

On Tuesday’s post, I mentioned I visited Crystal Mall and, again, in a pseudo back-to-back type visit, I went to another stand. This time, rather than noodles or burgers, I went for some straight Chinese goodness: siu mei or roasted/BBQ meats. In this case, Delicious BBQ. Considering they have some interesting competition in the form of Top King (in the market level) and another stand in the other side of the food court (which name escapes me right now), I thought it would be an interesting experience. Furthermore, there is still places in (gasp!) Richmond like HK BBQ Master! But, I was in Burnaby so Delicious BBQ it was!

Delicious BBQ, Crystal Mall, Burnaby

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Akira Sushi

by KimHo on May 26, 2010 · 5 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Akira Sushi
1069 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Akira Sushi on Urbanspoon

We have had this eternal debate of whether authenticity matters. In my case, I have started to move to the camp of “as long as it follows the principle of the cuisine and, most importantly, tastes good”. While I try to keep that in mind, there are times where old habits die hard. That’s part of the reason I have walked by hundreds of times by two sushi restaurants in Denman Street which are almost facing each other but haven’t gone back – because I knew they weren’t Japanese operated. However, after reading an article by Mia Stainsby, who writes the Word of Mouth for the Vancouver Sun, about one of these two restaurants serving “black sushi”, I thought, hey, why not! So, for lunch one day, I went to Akira Sushi.

Akira Sushi, Vancouver, West End

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Favor Eat Favor Eat World (Crystal Mall) on Urbanspoon
Beijing Restaurant Beijing Restaurant (Crystal Mall) on Urbanspoon
4500 Kingsway
Crystal Mall
Burnaby, BC

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my visit Huaxi Noodle in Crystal Mall. Being such a good eats place (or at least above average), I decided to visit yet another couple of stall in the same food court. Hey, not all food court are bad/below average! (Specially our concept of western food court).

Favor Eat, Crystal Mall, Burnaby

Beijing Restaurant, Crystal Mall, Burnaby

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Pho Hong

by KimHo on May 24, 2010 · 4 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Pho Hong
5975 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
Pho Hong on Urbanspoon

Ah, once again… Late night on Kingsway… It seems that a year or so ago, I was spending late nights in Hastings East after playing Magic the Gathering; now, I spend more time in the Kingsway side of Burnaby which leads to late night eats at times. In this case, I was looking for something “soft” for the stomach, as I had some heavy eats earlier that day. That easily took out a lot of options there and left me with something like pho…. Well, pho it is! And, among the several pho places, this time I chose to go to Pho Hong.

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