Five Guys Burgers and Fries
Park Royal Shopping Centre (South side)
2002 Park Royal South
West Vancouver, BC
To those who can only speak English, let me tell you: English is an odd language and can be twisted in really odd ways. From being a language where there are more exceptions than rules, to things times where spelling makes no sense (read vs read, in its present vs past tense), pronunciation isn’t straight forwards (tomato vs tomato) and where you can create words overnight, like malamanteau (and the hilarity it ensued afterwards). However, that does not mean I can’t use it in its own odd ways as well. A week or so ago, I wrote a tweet on the lines of (which I have deleted since):
“Getting messy with Five Guys”
Of course, I initially meant “Having a mess in Five Guys”, though, I knew that typing it differently would have raised a lot of eyebrows. But, then again, a lot of people don’t know/want to remember/are aware that “mess” can also refer to a meal, plus the fact that Five Guys was capitalized should have given a hint I was referring to something else, as in Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Of course, at times, being politically correct detracts from some jokes… Anyway, back to the restaurant and food theme, my visit to Five Guys Burgers and Fries…
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Chain Restaurant,
West Vancouver
Miki Japanese Ramen
5212 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
ET of Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken once asked me “How long does it take you to write a post?” Back then (almost a year ago), I told something about ~1 hour post processing pictures plus another 30 or so minutes writing the actual post. That, is of course, not counting the time it takes to decide what restaurant to go, etc. etc. That was back then… The question is, what about now? So, as a test, I asked myself, if I didn’t have a post in the queue (the original post for today was that of Pho Hong, which will be rescheduled for this coming Monday), how long would it take me write a post from scratch? Well, there are of course some things that takes time of its own, for example, where? To avoid spending some time figuring that out, I decided to go to the same restaurant Sherman visited yesterday plus the order the exact same dish(es). That restaurant was Miki Japanese Ramen.
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Japanese,
Ramen
ChongQing on Robson
1260 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Here is a random, obvious note: My user name, KimHo, is a shortened version of my full name, with “Kim” being my “generation” name. If you are not familiar with traditional Chinese names, that means that any siblings I have would also be called Kim (and, yes, my sister can also call herself “Kim Ho”; however, she never uses it so they are no arguments about it, not to mention, me being the eldest, I have first picks!). The actual given name part is the part I have “dropped” from my user name for the sake of most people: For most Western languages, the transcription of my Cantonese name is constructed in a weird grammatical way which results in > 90% not being able pronounce it correctly, to the point that most attempts to say it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard… (Sorry, English does not sound as sexy as Romance languages, though German at times sounds even worst than English!)
So, what that has to do with this post? Well, a lot of restaurants seem to have a really fancy/strange name in (a) attempt to promote its ethnic identity, which at times can backfire as it seem to distance the rest of the population (at times, that seems to happen to me with Korean restaurants), or (b) try to be too cute which can also backfire in odd ways (like some Pho places…). I mean, there is nothing wrong with odd names but please be mindful of the general market. And that brings the name of today’s restaurant, which, for a long time, I swore it was spelled Chongoing until I looked really closely and then realized it ChongQing. (You have to look really close to notice there is a red stroke on the letter that seems to be the O; the fact that trailing stroke is red on a dark background doesn’t really help).
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Tagged as:
Chinese,
Downtown,
Lunch,
Vancouver
New West Fish & Chips
413 6th Street
New Westminster, BC
Anny’s Dairy Bar
722 Sixth Street
New Westminster, BC
Ah, here I go to New Westminster again! It is as if suddenly I have that urge to visit that part of Metro Vancouver but, hey, if you think about it, if there is people in the area, there ought to be some restaurants, right? Of course, they can be good, they can be bad, it is a matter of dropping by just to find out (or, in lieu, check blogs!). In my visit to Pattaya Thai, Sherman made mention of a fish and chips place across the street. In my case, I was up for some good old fried fish, despite I knew it might not live up to the expectations of fish I had in Panama. But, Panama is hundred of miles away so I had to live with what is available locally. In this case, that place was New West Fish & Chips. (And, oh, since you can read from the header of this post, I also dropped by Anny’s Dairy Bar!).
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Tagged as:
Dessert,
Fish,
New Westminster,
Seafood
Mistral French Bistro
2585 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC
Dine Out Vancouver (DOV)… That one event once a year where people either love it or hate it. Most people in general like it because, by having a prix fixe menu, it gives them a chance to try restaurants that, under normal conditions, they won’t usually go. However, as fellow blogger Jonathan points out, it is not necessarily the best deal. As for myself, I just try to avoid these restaurants mainly because I do not want to “fight” for reservations and, at times, I am not sure if the food serve is representative of a regular dinner, what I consider is one of the most important criteria when I blog about a restaurant. However, when my friend PR asked if I wanted to go with her, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Of the options she suggested, Cobre and L’Altro Buca, I wasn’t interested in Cobre for DOV – I wanted to go for a regular dinner instead to try different Latin dishes. As for L’Altro Buca, it would end up in an odd situation: last time I was in L’Altro Buca, back then was Parkside… For DOV and with PR! So, rather than going back in full circle, I gave her another option: Mistral French Bistro, a place where, based on a regular menu, Sherman highly suggested.
So, let me rephrase it again: Dine Out Vancouver (DOV) usually does NOT reflect regular dinners but, at least, provide a glimpse of what it can offer.
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
European,
French,
Vancouver
Ciao Bella Italian Restaurant
703 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Alas, good things always seems to come to an end. After my trip to Panama, everything started to settle back to its usual routine, including lunch at work. In the past, PO has been my *cough*victim*cough*, I mean, partner in crime. However, for this lunch, I was able to gather another “recruit” – CN. With this “hobby” of visiting restaurants, there is always that element of expectation but also that element of discovery. So, with that in mind, we were settled for lunch. Then the usual question… Where? A couple of weeks prior, PO and I went to Le Bistro de Paris and mentioned the relationship with Ciao Bella Restaurant. So, we though “why not?”. And to Ciao Bella we went…
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Tagged as:
Fish,
Italian,
Vancouver
Wings Pub & Grill
6879 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
Almost a month or so ago, I wrote about House of Wings, a lounge/sports bar in the Highgate are of Burnaby, where I mentioned I don’t usually frequent sports bars. However, if food is good, hey, I am good to give it a try! Since I had given a chance to House of Wings, I thought I should give Wings Pub & Grill, which is a couple of blocks away. Similar to House of Wings, since they have Sunday specials, I decided to drop on that day but early enough to avoid any hockey crowd.
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Chicken,
Drinks
